Chapter 318 - 139: Preparations
August 6th, after tidying up the astronomical telescope and dealing with the wooden and stone wall on the beach, Chen Zhou returned to the cave and began focusing his energy on addressing the matter of the indigenous people.
The cocoa paste in the kitchen was being heated.
The room was brightly lit; Chen Zhou sat at his desk, pen in hand, quietly looking at a book, contemplating the potential situations that might arise during the process of rescuing the indigenous captives, and how to handle them.
He believed the optimal scenario would be if, during the cannibal feast in December, the number of indigenous people landing on the island was relatively small, preferably around ten, making them manageable.
Moreover, the number of captives brought to the island was few, maybe just two or three.
Fewer people would mean the situation being clearer, simpler, and less risky.
However, ideal situations do not always occur, hence he needed to consider more difficult situations and even extreme ones.
For example, if the total number of indigenous people landing reached 30, or even 50.
Such a disparity in numbers would be enough to obscure the technological backwardness; forget about wearing Vine Armor or even Plate Armor, in such open terrain, fighting one against fifty is impossible.
These indigenous people wouldn’t even need to injure him; just rushing to overwhelm him and pinning him down would be enough to crush him to death.
Chen Zhou had already decided that if he found that the number of indigenous people who landed exceeded his capacity to handle, he would decisively abandon the plan to rescue the captives.
Even if it meant waiting another couple of years, he couldn’t take that kind of risk.
Of course, the probability of extreme situations is very low; under normal circumstances, the rescue operation would definitely proceed smoothly.
During the process, he also had to consider another question—whom to rescue?
...
From the descriptions in the original text, each time the indigenous people landed on the island, they brought more than one captive.
Among them, the unluckiest might have their throats slit shortly after landing, leaving the remaining ones bound hand and foot, swaying along with the Canoe, completely powerless to resist.
Cases like Friday’s, where one escapes to live another day, are exceptions.
He couldn’t rely on a low-probability event, hoping for a captive to self-release and voluntarily run up the mountain.
To successfully accomplish this task, he had to actively make a move; if he delayed even slightly, the living captives might become corpses.
During the process, he had to seize the right moment, while early observing clearly how many captives were brought ashore, roughly what they looked like, and how old they were.
In Chen Zhou’s mind, the ideal candidates for rescue were young indigenous captives aged eighteen to twenty-one or twenty-two.
Indigenous captives at this age had not yet solidified in their thinking, had some receptivity to new things, and were physically strong, capable of serving as excellent labor to help him with heavy yet low-skilled physical work.
If no young indigenous captives were available, he hoped to rescue a teenage captive aged fourteen to seventeen.
In Chen Zhou’s understanding, indigenous adolescents should have a relatively pure personality, strong learning ability, although their physical strength might not suffice, they could be groomed gradually.
Compared to young indigenous people, adolescent indigenous had higher potential for growth.
...
If observed early on the mountain that there were youth among the captives brought ashore, especially if they were in the most dangerous first or second position, Chen Zhou would certainly save one of the indigenous captives, given he could protect himself.
If there were no youths among the captives, only middle-aged or old individuals, he might reconsider his actions.
Middle-aged indigenous people who grew up in primitive tribes and participated in the tribal conflicts, having experienced the cannibalistic fervor and fallen into being preyed upon, might have their mindset completely distorted.
Furthermore, middle-aged indigenous people already knew many survival skills in the wild; bringing one home would pose a challenge to guard if they intended to escape.
The shortcomings of elderly indigenous people were even more apparent.
Lacking sufficient labor capacity was their greatest flaw.
Being deeply influenced by primitive tribes, they had stubborn thoughts, poor receptiveness to new things, and poor learning ability, making it practically impossible to learn a new language quickly.
However, elderly people also had their advantages; at least they deeply understood the primitive tribe. If able to learn Chinese for communication,
Chen Zhou could completely comprehend the customs within the primitive tribe through the elderly indigenous and "address the issue accordingly."
...
After planning out the rescue priority, Chen Zhou still had to consider where to place the captive after rescue.
Before confirming the indigenous people had developed a sense of awe towards him and were loyal, he wouldn’t let them step into the cave, not even into the yard.
This was his private territory; once the indigenous people intruded, he had every reason to suspect they harbored ill intentions.
If the element of awe was missing in this unfamiliar master-servant relationship, he would definitely take the initiative to eliminate the potential threat.
After all, matters concerning life and safety demanded heightened attention.
After much thought, he decided to build a small wooden house independently in front of the wall’s watchtower, beside the fields.
The interior of this wooden house would only accommodate a small stove and a bed. The bed would be positioned directly opposite the watchtower, where a large window needed to be opened to observe the wooden house’s interior fully from the tower, thereby keeping track of the indigenous captives’ actions.
As for whether the indigenous people might sneak away while he slept, Chen Zhou didn’t have a particularly appropriate solution to restrain them.
Certainly, he couldn’t chain them up with a lock, freeing them for work and then locking them back up after.