NEC Chapter 103: Power Grid Installation and Slave Arrivals

"Mighty Vast Sea, with ox and horse, we citizens are no match for ox and horse!"

This was a jingle made up by those envious of the treatment of the ox and horse after "Liu Zaiyue" and "Ma Baoguo" were bestowed their names.

Chen Mo thought for a long time but couldn't determine if this was alluding to him.

However, reality had kept him so busy that he couldn't worry about such things.

Territory construction was an extremely troublesome matter. This wasn't like managing a building simulation game where you just collect gold or crystal ore, then spend it with a flourish, and everything would automatically run in an orderly fashion.

Here, hundreds of basic materials needed to be purchased and allocated, thousands of miscellaneous tasks needed to be handled, and missing even one item could trigger a chain disaster.

At this time, Herlan finally demonstrated the value of a high-end professional steward in construction, with the middle-aged executive functioning like a precision instrument, relatively reasonably handling the myriad affairs.

Under his management, Chen Mo was able to extricate himself from the quagmire of the lord's camp and personally train a centaur military engineering unit during his spare time from cultivation.

The elite centaur squad led by Kaga and Ma Baoguo could now skillfully complete a series of tasks including laying foundations, securing solar panels, connecting wires with pliers, testing circuits with electrical meters, and installing storage modules.

The most skilled among them had already learned without instruction to use their molars to bite the insulation layer of wires, pull and shake their heads, causing the wire sheath to peel off cleanly, exposing appropriately long, shining metal conductors to be accurately inserted into connection ports.

This primitive yet efficient "wire stripping" technique proved particularly practical when professional tools were quite scarce.

Not far away, another group of second-line reserve centaurs were wielding pickaxes, digging deep, long trenches in the dry earth.

Wearing simple masks, underage centaurs cleared loose sand and removed debris, while adults worked together to push coils of cables wound like giant pythons, laying them along the trenches.

The ultimate goal was to connect to the small substation located in the main city area.

Currently, this was the prerequisite for Vast Sea's great development!

Most of East Xia's technology relied heavily on energy.

With electricity, seawater purification facilities could function, providing stable fresh water for the territory. Otherwise, the limited freshwater resources currently around the territory could hardly sustain the living needs of the thousands of slaves soon to arrive.

With electricity, rapid food supply could be achieved.

East Xia's specially selected seawater rice seeds, also called salt-tolerant rice varieties, could yield over 800 kilograms per mu and mature in five months under normal conditions.

But combined with complete sets of lightweight film greenhouses supplied by East Xia's agricultural technology, they could be harvested in as little as 75 days, with up to five harvests per year possible.

If energy and fertilizer supply kept up, after just over two months, the territory could hopefully achieve a positive cycle in food production, gradually moving toward self-sufficiency.

And maintaining greenhouse environments necessarily depended on electrical equipment.

There were also the planned territory-wide radar coverage system, mineral and oil exploration system, electric-driven small engineering vehicle system, and what East Xia currently regarded as the number one priority project: the fully autonomous construction, detection, maintenance, and combat intelligent robot system.

Which of these didn't require massive electrical power support?

With basic electrical supply, it would be possible to further build thermal power and wind power equipment, establish five small industries, cultivate basic processing and production capabilities, achieve localized production of numerous basic components, and thus further snowball development.

This was precisely why East Xia was bearing enormous technical investment and manufacturing costs to provide complete sets of laboratory-grade T0 products, and why Chen Mo was willing to invest almost all transportation capacity, accumulating power generation and storage equipment set by set.

For this purpose, East Xia had even specially created a set of general education videos in Resting Moon common language, which had now become evening tutorial courses for young centaurs and sand people.

Well, after completing simple tests, passing grades earned a late-night snack supplement, so everyone was very enthusiastic.

Just as territory construction was in full swing, the first batch of slaves from the north finally arrived at the border, stumbling through the yellow sand.

Surprisingly, the Seven-Radiance Garland Trading Company, which had previously claimed "no escort included," not only dispatched a well-equipped guard unit this time, but their Northern Trading Post Deputy Executive Oren also personally came, arriving once again at Vast Sea Territory.

For Oren, although Vast Sea Territory had strictly sealed off the combat process from the outside, knowing the results was enough to be astounding.

Six hundred goblins, over seventy hobgoblins, nine ogres, plus human veteran leadership, with gnomes supplying excellent weapons, sufficient pack beasts and supplies, such force was enough to shake a medium-sized city of a regular territory.

And what did Vast Sea have?

In Oren's view, only those few slave soldiers could be considered people the lord could trust, everything else was shifting sand that would scatter with the wind.

At most, adding one somewhat mysterious former fifth-tier  grand mage.

The vastly disproportionate strength made comparison impossible. Even if Void Chanter Downs was still at fifth-tier peak, just fighting those thick-skinned, highly resistant ogres would exhaust the old man half to death.

So after collecting Vast Sea Territory's deposit, Oren hadn't planned on delivering slaves at all.

Until sand people from the northern desert sent word, "Hey, Executive Oren, all our guides sent out are gone, you Seven-Radiance Garland must compensate for this loss!"

"We sand people don't normally touch bandit gang dirty work, you were the ones who made the connection!"

Now Oren was stunned.

Having reached deputy executive level in the trading company, Oren was certainly no rookie. He clearly understood what it meant for sand people guides to be wiped out in the desert.

Without exaggeration, sand people were born for the desert. If only one person from a desert team could escape, it would definitely be a sand person.

Oren immediately requested instructions from the chief executive of Seven-Radiance Garland's Northern Trading Post, overnight mobilized a batch of good-quality slaves from the slave market, and personally led the escort to Vast Sea Territory.

The one who came to receive him was still steward Herlan, now Administrator Herlan.

After just over a month, Herlan appeared somewhat thinner, with faint shadows under his eyes, but those eyes were surprisingly bright, as if flames burned within them.

An indescribable, spirited energy radiated from his slightly weary body, the entire person carrying an irrepressible uplifting aura.

From his reception manner, Oren also sensed significant differences.

Last time's Herlan had been meticulously dressed, with every wrinkle and ornament positioned as precisely as if measured with a ruler.

Facing his identity as a trading executive, plus being in a position of asking for help, Herlan had appeared respectful and courteous toward Oren, with perfectly appropriate smiles, always slightly bowing when speaking, allowing Oren to feel a sense of superiority from his status.

Very respectful, but not overly servile.

Now, Herlan still wore the same unchanging plain scholar's robe, but the wrinkled corners showed no signs of pressing, appearing somewhat disheveled, with a small patch of dust on his sleeves, and his ornaments had completely disappeared.

Compared to last time, it was like the difference between a male peacock and a female peacock.

After mutual courtesies, Executive Oren first joked, "I can see that desert life has been somewhat trying, Master Herlan's elegant demeanor seems a bit worn."

Herlan laughed heartily.

"My lord has always been informal, as the executive saw last time. We servants, following the lord for so long, naturally must adapt to the lord's habits."

"As subjects, receiving guidance from our superior, we've also gained some understanding. Taking time spent on ceremonial manipulation to do more practical work is also sharing the lord's worries and fulfilling responsibility to the territory."

"Executive, you've traveled far and must be tired. Please rest first while I go inspect this batch of slaves."

Watching the other party's dusty, hurried appearance, Oren slightly narrowed his eyes.

It seemed his future dealings with Vast Sea Territory would be very interesting indeed.

Just ten-plus minutes later, Oren once again overturned his own thoughts. This was no longer merely interesting, but very stimulating.

He saw the outline of a giant city.

That's right, although Vast Sea Territory's current Vast Sea City didn't even have a rudimentary form, with only some flags planted and scattered goblin slaves doing earthwork construction, barely outlining some building contours.

But Oren could see at a glance that this framework being built was definitely for a massive city.

The trade official beside him had also traveled north and south extensively. After careful observation, he gave a definitive answer: "No smaller than White Mist City!"

White Mist City was a major town in the southern Mistmoon Divine Court, a large city with both length and width exceeding five kilometers, housing no fewer than 600,000 people in that single city, surpassing most baronies and not inferior to some geographically remote earldoms.

"This fellow must be crazy..."

Oren thought for a long time but truly couldn't figure out the meaning of such a massive city's existence.

Whether population, food, drinking water, or living supplies would all have to be transported over long distances from outside the desert, which seemed impossible no matter how you looked at it.

Never mind hundreds of thousands of people, even these few thousand slaves now would be hard enough to sustain.

"However, the larger the scale built here, the more slaves and supplies they'll need us to procure, so what's bad about that for us? Haha!"

As expected, after finishing the slave inventory, Herlan hurried over and placed another batch of slave orders on behalf of Vast Sea Territory.

At the same time, from clothing and shoes to bedding, from heating stoves to cooking utensils, from digging tools to carrying baskets, from various pack beasts to medical supplies... the procurement list covered over a dozen sheets of parchment.

In short, however many people you bring next time, bring enough living and production supplies for that many people.

Encountering such a big deal, Oren naturally seized every moment. After his offer to buy back the ogres was rejected, the trading executive directly departed by cart to prepare the next transaction.

Before leaving, Oren looked back once more at that professional steward who had once paced with steady composure but now rushed about like the wind.

"Really... what a marvelous lord, able to change even such an old-school steward's bone-deep habits!"

"That's because you, Executive, were born in good times and have seen few wars!" The trade official beside him was not young and had more experience, explaining in a low voice, "I see this Vast Sea Territory as extremely similar to the style of first-generation pioneering knights!"

"Oh, how so?"

"Those complicated and elaborate noble etiquettes nowadays were mostly concocted by second and third-generation young masters and lords, like judging wine by appearance, wearing specific badges and collar buttons, silk scarves of southern golden spider silk, boots of northern short-haired sheep wool..."

"Exactly, exactly, that's the flavor!" Oren clapped his hands emphatically, "Ninety percent of luxury goods in my business, I don't even know why they're so expensive, yet they keep getting more and more expensive!"

The old trade official stroked his beard, "Right, they need to make things complicated and raise the threshold so latecomers can't reach it, otherwise how would they show their noble status and distinction?"

"First-generation pioneering knights were different!"

"Those who fought with real blades and emerged from mountains of corpses and seas of blood were either fighting or preparing to fight, where was the time for etiquette?"

"So there's a folk saying: first generation wields swords, second generation wears robes, third generation watches opera, fourth generation plays with birds!"

"By the eighth or tenth generation, just staying alive is good enough!"

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