NEC Chapter 130: Production Corps, Iron Mine Construction Begins

As a newly emerging territory, Vast Sea Territory had development opportunities everywhere, with blank fields in every direction.

However, all previous development had been highly dependent on the lord's investment, with severely insufficient self-sustaining capabilities.

Agriculture, for instance, was a typical microcosm of the territory's development.

Food self-sufficiency was a development goal that Vast Sea Territory had marked as a red line, and it was also one of the first targets achieved through expanding cultivation areas with membrane greenhouses. But what did this earth-shattering miracle rely on?

It relied on the miraculous grain varieties brought by the lord, soil improvement agents, fertilizers, and temperature and humidity control systems supported by electricity.

Oh right, there was also the irrigation channel that the "deity" had dug.

With the continuous increase in population, the territory's food pressure would grow ever greater, thus requiring continued large-scale land reclamation, cultivation, and planting.

But the reality was that merely because the lord had launched one land reclamation operation against Blood Fortress, with altar transportation capacity allocated to weapons and equipment, and magnetic war vehicles for two consecutive months, this directly resulted in the Council's estimated food security period being cut in half.

With the lord's various material supports, membrane greenhouses could yield eight hundred kilograms per acre in seventy-five days. Without greenhouses and soil improvement agents, land could only be expected to yield three hundred kilograms per acre in half a year.

Moreover, this was still the planting result of first-generation grain seeds. If local rice ears were used as seeds for replanting, the yield would be cut in half again.

This led to one consequence: once the lord's special material supply was cut off, Vast Sea Territory would have to desperately expand its cultivation area, and the significant decline in per-capita planting efficiency would force the territory to invest more labor.

This would inevitably greatly squeeze the completion progress of other plans.

How to balance this? There was no way to balance it, it could only be decided by the lord's absolute authority.

"Limited agricultural guarantee, concentrate all efforts on the steel industry!"

Chen Mo made this decision influenced by multiple factors, and his final determination came precisely from this expedition.

Although East Xia had consistently advised that Vast Sea Territory should prioritize military matters, being in the desert with heavy troops surrounding them, plus having the huge psychological advantage of firearms over cold weapons, with the classic battle example of a three-person cavalry squad defeating hundreds of bandits.

This made it very difficult for Chen Mo to abandon the realistic benefits of the "farming development" path right before his eyes and put most of the manpower and resources into military preparations that showed no immediate results.

After all, he hadn't planned any external expansion in the short term, preferring to develop cautiously.

This ruin exploration trip, although the entire process could be considered smooth sailing, witnessing that broken wall beneath the towering peak firsthand created a real shock that was very difficult to describe in words.

Several questions kept bouncing back and forth in Chen Mo's mind.

If what had attacked that day wasn't three hundred orcs, but three thousand orcs, thirty thousand orcs, how many of his group would have survived?

Razor Fortress, such a super stronghold, Aurelio, such a powerful warrior, ultimately became nothing more than a speck of dust in history.

Hmm, Aurelio was that armored warrior bound spirit, a great swordsman who had been seventh-tier Void Breaking in life.

If Vast Sea Territory faced such a siege someday, how long could it hold out?

Even more, in exchanges with the mercenary groups and others, elemental mages had a spell specifically targeting necromancers called "Spatial Disturbance," which could delay or even interrupt a necromancer's summoning process for a period of time.

In Chen Mo's view, if not for relying on East Xia's modern industrial system's targeted equipment, then unless he used large-yield aerial bombs for carpet bombing, otherwise this ruin that could manifest iron-blood determination might remain forever sealed there, locking away Aurelio's forever incomplete dying wish.

Obviously, without East Xia's support, what would the current Vast Sea Territory amount to?

As the saying goes, people teaching people might not get through, but events teach people in one go.

Having clarified the development path for the current stage, Chen Mo tapped the table, "The direction is this direction. Let each department take a look, what are your thoughts, how do we coordinate?"

Once the lord spoke, all interest group disagreements disappeared completely. There was only one direction, one voice.

Herlan raised his hand first.

Well, now in territory meetings, speaking required either the lord's nomination or raising one's hand to request permission. Things had become increasingly orderly.

"Very early on, the lord had foresightedly pointed out that building a steel industry is one of the core steps in Vast Sea Territory's overall development!"

Chen Mo waved his hand, signaling Herlan to get to the point.

He didn't know when this trend of opening with flattery toward the lord had started becoming popular in Vast Sea Territory.

"Yes, our Council and its subordinate industrial development departments have also conducted multiple assessments. Steel workshop construction has several necessary conditions: ore, fuel, equipment, and personnel!"

"Previously, Vast Sea Territory had nothing, so although we had ideas, we lacked the capability."

"Two months ago, the iron mine discovered by the exploration team in the Guli Desert area south of Vast Sea Territory offers hope for partially solving the territory's iron ore source problem."

The reason he said "partially" was because that desert area was not only a considerable distance from Vast Sea Territory, but the ore quality wasn't very high either.

As determined by Xia Country's geological department, it belonged to pseudomorphic brown iron ore, with an iron content around 35%.

Among iron ore types, this was typical low-grade ore.

Moreover, mining in the desert was obviously much more troublesome than in plains or mountainous areas. Adding transportation and a series of other factors, the comprehensive cost was only slightly cheaper than directly purchasing iron ore from the south.

The main reason was that the lord paid his people too well. If they treated miners like slaves as those southern mines did, costs could be reduced by at least one-third.

However, this was the lord's grace, and now the leaders of the emerging "Loyalty Faction" were right there in the meeting hall. Herlan certainly couldn't mention this.

"According to the Council departments' calculations, at least two thousand laborers and over two months would be needed to complete construction of the mining area and transportation roads!"

Chen Mo directly interrupted Herlan, "Send those two excavators from the territory over there. Except for necessary agricultural production and city maintenance, use all available workers. Oh, and also draw people from the Field Army and City Defense Army to speed up progress, the faster the better!"

The excavators the lord mentioned were actually East Xia's custom-made micro excavators. Although they weighed less than 800 kilograms, these things were treasures of the territory.

Not that they could dig much, realistically speaking, an entry-level warrior with an iron shovel wouldn't dig much slower. The main thing was that alloy steel blade, plus replaceable impact drill bits, which could forcibly demolish many hard rock terrains.

Combined with the ogres' ice and fire magic for thermal expansion and contraction blasting, it was equivalent to a low-grade version of explosives, greatly improving construction efficiency in complex terrain during engineering projects.

As for the excavators' power, East Xia had provided two human-powered generators, hand-cranked and foot-pedaled. Three people working in rotation could maintain the excavators' continuous operation.

This was also a new form of energy conversion.

Having solved the ore problem above, the next bigger problem came from energy.

The exploration team had already walked through the entire desert several times, digging pits and drilling holes for samples. It could be basically confirmed that no coal mines existed in this desert.

This constraint was even greater than the iron ore, because once the steel workshop started operating, fuel consumption would be extremely massive. With Vast Sea Territory's transportation conditions, buying fuel from outside would cost more than buying iron ore when calculated comprehensively.

"You don't need to worry about this problem, and the equipment problem is the same. I'll handle it!"

Chen Mo clarified the direction once more, then added, "Iron ore and iron sand, including finished iron ingots, we need to continue finding ways to buy them. Buy as much as we can!"

"I'm giving you a special privilege. For this steel factory construction project, I'm providing one hundred unrestricted citizen status quotas, and all work points for laborers can be doubled according to current standards."

"If necessary, you can come to me for additional conditions!"

"Are there any other questions?"

Then there were basically no problems left. The department heads only had the pledge of determination segment remaining.

That afternoon, new notices from the Council were posted throughout the territory, beginning comprehensive recruitment and mobilization.

If this were anywhere else, mining work would be something that only slaves unable to make their own choices or desperate hungry people would be willing to do, as the death rate was indeed too high.

However, in Vast Sea Territory, upon seeing "doubled work points" and "direct promotion to citizen status for excellent performance," this became a job that people would fight tooth and nail for.

This forced the Council to significantly raise recruitment standards, setting limits on height, age, and strength.

However, for Copperbeard, this wasn't a problem.

Standing at the recruitment station, he thumped his chest and introduced himself, "My father is a dwarf, I know iron smelting!"

The surrounding territorial citizens in line burst into laughter.

"Hey, don't think that just because you grew a tuft of beard you can call yourself a dwarf. Just look at your height!"

"That's right, that's right. If your father was a dwarf, your mother must have been a giant..."

"A giant wouldn't work, how would his father reach?"

The guys from the bottom slave camps didn't understand what it meant not to hit people where it hurt. Everyone had come from broken families and homes, joking crudely with each other like this. This made Copperbeard somewhat angry, yet he could only take it as normal.

He bent down, lifted his little brother over his head, and put him on his shoulders. Then the little guy who obviously had dwarf bloodlines shouted at the top of his lungs, "My father is a dwarf, my brother knows iron smelting! I'm from the Youth Corps. Lord above, I don't lie!"

The recruitment officials conferred in low voices, "Alright then, count yourself in. Pack your things, leave when the next bell rings!"

Having successfully obtained the "Mining Team Work Permit," Copperbeard carried his brother back triumphantly, chattering as he walked, "If I can earn citizen status, plus these doubled work points, if I save up a bit, I can earn your citizen status too!"

"Then we brothers will both be old Vast Sea citizens!"

"Brother, you should marry your girlfriend first. Don't let too much time pass and have her run off with someone else! We Youth Corps members become citizens upon graduation. We don't care about these one or two years!"

"Look, she's watching you from over there."

This massive recruitment took away nearly half of the territory's strong laborers, as well as two-thirds of the professional soldiers. Large numbers of pack animals carried tents, food, tools, and supply materials, setting up temporary camps at the edge of the Guli Desert area.

Bright slogans hung everywhere on the simple fencing.

"Steel is the backbone of the territory, we are the territory's vanguard!"

"Follow the lord's wise command, strive forward with united hearts!"

"Work hard for thirty days, Vast Sea Territory will produce steel!"

"Production Corps, united as one!"

Hmm, the lord had given this force a resounding name: Vast Sea Production Corps!

Following these banners outward, red flags fluttered everywhere in the wind. These banners meandered along the dunes and slopes, outlining a large mining area.

Those were the boundaries and markers laid out by the exploration personnel.

After resting for half a day, the entire mining team threw themselves fully into work.

Copperbeard suddenly discovered that the bits and pieces about mining he'd heard from his old man were completely useless.

The team's first task was sand clearing, removing all floating sand from the surface of the designated mining area.

To prevent sand movement, the Production Corps also had to perform sand-fixing actions around the perimeter, which meant digging thirty-centimeter-high sand barriers along the mining area's outer edge, and digging grids in the adjacent ground, laying thorngrass seeds, striving to firmly block sand particles outside the mining area.

The commanding captain held papers in his hands, repeatedly shouting loud reminders, "Everyone pay attention, block that sand tight for me. Whoever's area gets flowing sand in it, I'll use military law to cut off heads!"

The sand clearing and sand-fixing work took a full five days. During this period, following the sand people's guidance and actual measurements from exploration instruments, the engineering team's machines roared day and night, drilling the first well on the western side of the mining area.

This alone could save the Production Corps several hundred pack animal transport capacity per week.

Next came digging mine shafts.

The entry-level warriors from the City Defense Army stripped off their shirts, enduring the blazing sun's exposure, working like human excavators, cutting exploration trenches, sinking exploration shafts, digging mine tunnels, while auxiliary technicians installed lighting and opened ventilation.

Copperbeard, as "technical personnel who might have some mining experience," was assigned to the inspection team, walking back and forth many times through the arched exploration tunnels.

The compacted tunnel walls on all sides, sturdy support pillars, appropriately spaced lighting, compared to these mine tunnels, Copperbeard felt that the mine tunnels he'd walked through with his father in the north could only be called rat holes.

Just when Copperbeard thought they could start mining along the tunnels, he learned these were only passages. From several points in the tunnels where brown iron ore was relatively concentrated, extending outward, they still needed to build foundation pits and excavate mining chambers.

The tunnel floors needed grooves cut so that two-wheeled carts could achieve rapid transport under the pull of traction ropes.

Each newly excavated area required reinforcement, support, and inspection.

There were even temporary emergency shelters to prevent collapse, drainage channels to prevent water influx...

After a full thirty-two days of construction, the first batch of officially mass-produced iron ore from deep within the mining chambers was piled onto a long transport convoy and pulled out of the mine tunnels by traction ropes.

Little Kaga, now tanned black as a horse, raised his arms and cheered.

"Report to the Lord, Guli Iron Mine is officially in production!!!"

[NEXT CHAPTER]