Chapter 455 My factory is thirsty
Demacia, Silver City.
This city and the vast countryside surrounding it have always been the hereditary territory of the Crown Guard family.
It lies on the northern edge of the Demacia Basin, close to the highlands of the Freljord Icefields.
The towering northern mountains act like a natural climate Great Wall, shielding Miyin City from the cold winds blowing from the northern ice fields. This gives this border highland city, which is only separated from the polar ice fields by a mountain, a relatively warm and humid climate, extremely fertile land, and lush greenery all over the mountains.
The surging river flowing down from the northern mountains connects Mithril City with many prosperous towns, coastal ports, and even the capital of Demacia downstream, laying the foundation for the city's prosperity.
The good management of the Mianwei family for hundreds of years has enabled Miyin City to develop rapidly.
But this development, like this ancient agricultural kingdom, fell into a long period of stagnation after reaching its peak.
Generation after generation of farmers have worked hard in the fields, generation after generation of nobles have inherited the throne, and generation after generation of soldiers have gone to war, but the city is still the same city, the land is still the same land, and there is no difference from a hundred years ago.
Everything seems to be stagnant here. Except for the name of the lord, nothing will change.
But now, with the return of the new lord, Laxana Crownguard, the Silver City has suddenly undergone changes.
And it is a revolutionary change.
"Cough cough..." Lux rubbed her delicate nose, trying to adapt to the pungent smell of alchemical exhaust in the air.
This smell is absolutely a destructive pollution to Miyin City, which has always been beautiful with clear water and green mountains and good air.
But Lux found it familiar.
"We succeeded, Sona." Looking at the tall factory building spewing alchemical smoke, Lux couldn't help but turn around excitedly and said to her comrade, best friend and assistant:
"The first alchemical fertilizer factory in Mishisilver City, also the first alchemical fertilizer factory in Demacia, has been successfully put into production!"
"From now on, even the poor and tenant farmers in Demacia will have the hope of having enough food to eat every day!"
"Yeah." Sona also rubbed her nose and answered with ease using airflow to simulate vocal cords.
She also complained: "If only it tasted better."
"If this continues, Miyin City will become like Zaun."
“I wish it could be Zaun,” Lux grinned.
The alchemy factory in front of her and the industrial park located outside the Mithril City, which had just been built with a large-scale construction, seemed to Lux like her own children.
Although these "children" were moved from Zaun intact through the Leader's second-line construction plan...
But these industrial aid projects were able to take root so quickly in Miyin City, thousands of miles away; Lux also put in a lot of effort in this process.
"Zuan's alchemical technology is just like that. There's nothing we can do about it."
"Compared to environmental issues, food is more important." Lux has found the feeling of being a mother at a young age, and she started defending her "child" as soon as she opened her mouth.
"Also, these problems are temporary."
The alchemy barons who ruled Zaun in the past didn't care about the environment of Zaun or the lives of the Zaun people at all.
The main purpose of seed benzene is to allocate resources according to the market. Those who control seed benzene do not care about the environment. Without the corresponding market demand, it is impossible to create an environmental protection industry, and there will be no scientific research team to study environmental protection technology.
This has led to the abnormal development of alchemical technology over the past two hundred years, with technological points desperately focused on increasing production and efficiency, without considering pollution treatment issues at all.
"But it's different now." Lux said confidently: "President Levi has said that Leader will continue to pursue sustainable development in the future."
"Zuan's scientists are now working overtime to research technologies to treat the three wastes and control pollution. I think this pollution problem will definitely be solved in the future."
"Yeah." Sona nodded secretly.
Lux was thinking about the future of Mithril City and even the entire Demacia: "With the help of Zaun, we have successfully built a number of small steel mills, small cement plants, small machinery plants, small fertilizer plants, small coal and iron mines, small thermal and hydroelectric power plants..."
"The next step is to fully mobilize production capacity and produce as much agricultural tools and fertilizers as possible, which are most needed by the vast majority of Demacia farmers, to promote the increase of grain production in the Mithril City area and even the entire Demacia."
"Hey." Sona interrupted her bestie's beautiful fantasy: "Lux, don't forget that the production capacity of these factories is very limited."
"We are lucky enough to be able to take care of the supply of farm tools and fertilizers in the Silver City area, but how can we take care of the entire Demacia?"
"Hmm..." Lux quickly calmed down.
After her lofty ambitions, she can also see the reality.
The reality is that Demacia is still far from true industrialization.
Although the political power of Demacia has been secretly controlled by the Leader, the Leader, who lacks grassroots power, is not yet able to fully intervene in the situation in Demacia.
The radical social transformation experience that she and Sona had learned from their practice in Ionia could not be transferred to Demacia.
The kingdom's land resources were still in a highly concentrated form, firmly controlled by the feudal land aristocracy.
More than 95% of Demacia's population are still firmly bound to the nobles' manors and the land of small peasant economy as poor farmers, tenant farmers or even serfs.
Land resources are concentrated in the hands of the nobles, and human resources are concentrated in the hands of the nobles.
The nobles controlled most of the kingdom's social and economic resources, but they were immersed in the stable returns from land annexation and financial lending and had no intention of moving forward.
Not to mention the main force of Gana, even the main force of Ziben is difficult to develop here.
Lux hasn't actually accomplished anything great yet.
She just took advantage of the Mianwei family's absolute control over Miyin City to develop some industrial projects for "self-entertainment" on her own territory.
This cannot be called a revolution; it can only be regarded as "promoting Westernization and saving the country through industry."
But it's not meaningless.
Because whether it takes one year or two years, the Leader will eventually come to Demacia.
By then, the Silver City, which is the first to move towards industrialization, can become the spark that accelerates Demacia's industrialization process.
What Lux has to do now is to water this "seedling" as much as possible to make it stronger.
"Sona." Thinking of this, Lux couldn't help but tentatively say to Sona: "How about you help me write another report and ask Zaun to support a few more factories?"
"Demacia has a huge demand for farm tools and fertilizers. What can we do with our current production capacity?"
"Forget it." Sona curled her lips helplessly: "President Levi is almost annoyed by you."
"Zaan's capabilities are limited. It's already difficult enough to support Ionia alone, and now there's suddenly an Empire of Shurima to help."
"Even if Zaun can produce so many machines and equipment, they can't produce so many engineers and industrial workers!"
For the second-line construction, the focus of support is not only machinery and equipment, but also professional talents.
Although Demacia has no shortage of people, it is seriously lacking in qualified industrial human resources.
For example, qualified workers in a machinery factory must at least be able to read vernier calipers, mechanical drawings, and have certain process knowledge; otherwise, it will be difficult to achieve large-scale industrialization.
However, most Demacians cannot even read, and even daily information exchange is severely restricted.
It will take a lot of time to train them into qualified modern industrial workers.
Therefore, the series of factories built by Lux in Mithril City are currently fully operated by technical experts and key workers supported by Zaun.
Without the hands-on guidance of these Zaun experts, these seemingly thriving factories might shut down immediately.
"There are only so many skilled workers in Zaun, and even fewer who can be allocated to participate in the second-line construction plan. Now Ionia and Shurima are both looking for people, so you just have to wait a little longer, Lux."
The grassroots strength of the leaders has indeed been stretched to the limit, whether they are political cadres or technical talents.
The second batch of aid that Lux was counting on would definitely not appear in the short term.
"President Levi has already approved it. Let's first make some local solutions based on the situation in Demacia and do what we can do well."
"For example..." Sona recalled Levi's development suggestions: "Unlike Shurima and Ionia, whose civilizations are relatively backward, although Demacia is also a feudal agricultural country, the folk handicraft industry has already developed a certain foundation."
"We already have handicraft industries such as bamboo, wood, iron, mud, and stone crafts, as well as local spinning and weaving, ready-made clothes, oil mills, mills, and paper mills in Miyin City."
"We can't build big factories now , so we can try to integrate these small handicrafts and set up some handicraft cooperatives."
"Hmm." Lux fell into deep thought after hearing this.
She thought about it seriously. Since the means of production could not be improved for the time being, she would start with the means of management and operation.
The integrated handicraft cooperatives, coupled with the management of leading cadres, will definitely have higher production efficiency than before.
"As you mentioned before, what Demacia needs most right now are fertilizers and farm tools—" At this time, Sona said again: "They can't produce fertilizers."
"But farm tools, hoes, sickles, shovels, plows... these things can be made in a blacksmith shop."
"Now that our steel mill has been put into production, steel production has increased a thousandfold. Even if we take away the production consumption of the small machinery factory and the needs of infrastructure construction, there is still a large amount of surplus production capacity."
Steel is the foundation of industry and can be used everywhere. Therefore, the steel plant assisted by Zaun has reserved a large amount of excess capacity for the future industrial development of Debang.
"Although these high-quality steels are hard currency in Demacia, we can make money by selling them directly. But..."
Sona thought about it seriously and then made a suggestion:
"I think we can first gather all the blacksmiths in the Secret Silver City and set up a large-scale hand-made farm tool factory to help us digest the excess steel production capacity and provide more cheap and high-quality iron farm tools for the farmers of Demacia."
“That’s the way that will benefit the most people.”
Lux frowned after hearing this: "This is a good suggestion."
"But the problem is... there aren't that many blacksmiths in Mishiyin City."
The blacksmiths in Miyin City were prepared for the agricultural society of the past. A city with dozens of blacksmiths was almost enough.
Now you let these dozens of people use manual production to consume the excess production capacity of a modern steel plant?
"I can only say that it can have some effect..." Lux muttered.
The output of dozens of people is also output. If we can make one more cheap iron farm tool that farmers can afford, we will make an additional contribution.
“No, Lux,” Sona reminded her. “We have more than a few dozen blacksmiths.”
"Have you forgotten? There are at least several hundred Freljordians crossing the mountains to join us these days."
"There are at least a hundred qualified blacksmiths among them, and they are technical talents that we can use!"
"Oh?" Lux's eyes lit up.
"You mean... those furnace owners?"
Because of the craftsman heritage passed down by Ornn, although the Freljord civilization is backward, its metallurgical casting technology is unexpectedly advanced.
Therefore, almost every relatively weak mortal from the Freljord is a qualified blacksmith.
Yes, almost every one of them.
Because unlike the Iceborn who are naturally fearless of wind and snow, ordinary people in the Freljord are born without the ability to make a living independently. They can only rely on those powerful warriors as followers or even slaves.
Metallurgical casting is one of the skills they must master in order to survive, which can make the strong feel that they are useful and thus be willing to leave an extra "mouth to feed".
Moreover, in a furnace-keeping tribe on the ice field, there cannot be only a few full-time blacksmiths from generation to generation like in the human villages in the south.
Because people on the ice field may die at any time and the tribe may be destroyed at any time.
Mortals must ensure that they can leave the tribe alone and have a livelihood skill that is respected by others, so that they can survive the difficult winters.
If a tribe only has a few people who know how to forge iron, it won't be long before this skill is lost on the ice field.
Therefore, almost every mortal who cannot become a powerful warrior must hone various livelihood skills, including metallurgy and forging, gathering, hunting, farming, and nomadism.
Each of them is a qualified blacksmith and can serve as a handicraft service provider for the strong in the tribe at any time.
"Great!" Lux applauded Sona's suggestion.
She originally simply settled the ice people who surrendered, but she didn't expect that there were a large number of "technical talents" among them.
The mines and steel mills built with the assistance of the Leaders have provided Miyin City with a large amount of cheap, high-quality steel.
What we need now is a large number of blacksmiths to cast this steel into high-quality and low-cost iron farm tools.
This kind of iron farm tool, which is made of solid materials and is shockingly cheap, is a dimensionality reduction blow to the Demacian farmers who have never seen the power of industrialized production in the past and treat even an iron pot as a family heirloom.
Looking across the vast countryside of Demacia, the demand for these cheap and durable iron farm tools is almost unlimited.
Therefore, no matter how many Freljord furnace owners come, and no matter how high the production capacity of agricultural tools is raised, the Demacia market can absorb it.
There are enough raw materials and markets, and the equipment and site requirements are not high.
Then all that’s missing is talent.
"But..." Lux suddenly felt a little embarrassed: "Freljord is so big, and those ice tribes generally live a nomadic hunting life."
“Where are we supposed to recruit so many people?”
"We can't just wait here for them to come to us, right?"
