Industrial Cthulhu, starting from the island lord

Chapter 33 Ore and School

When he returned to the manor, Hughes met Alexi who was waiting for him.

When he saw his somewhat awkward smile, Xius guessed his intention.

".No money?"

"Yes," Alexei sighed, "whether it's recruiting people to explore the island or building a school, it costs money, not to mention renovating the workshop."

There is no way around it. Any industry requires upfront investment, and this part of the money cannot be saved. Hughes is already mentally prepared for this.

"Don't worry about the money. I'll find a way. Tell me about the progress."

Alexei nodded and quickly took out his notebook.

"The mineral deposits have been basically explored. This part is mainly based on previous exploration of the island. We went to the site to explore according to the data and compiled it."

Xius took the booklet and flipped through it casually, only to have his eyes widen.

"You mean, there are iron ore, copper ore, limestone, sulfur, and gypsum on the island? Have these been discovered?"

"Yes, I've personally visited these mines. Aside from the quality, which I'm unsure about, everything else is fine." Alexei shrugged. "We don't have anyone specializing in prospecting here, so we can only ask some blacksmiths to take a look."

"How did you find these mines without exploration?" Hughes's eyes twitched. "Could they be open-pit mines?"

Alexei nodded: "Both"

Hughes was silent.

The quality of ore from open-pit mines may not be the highest, but it is definitely not low.

What's more, for Castel now, any vein with a slightly higher mining difficulty can only be given up. Xius didn't have much hope at first, but it turns out that there are only open-pit mines here?

"Why haven't so many mineral veins been mined before?" Xiu Si took a breath.

"Sir, this is the Storm Ocean." Alexei smiled bitterly.

Indeed, this is the Storm Ocean, and the pirates have no smelting capabilities. They prefer to buy finished products directly.

The White Crow Duchy in the north and the Empire in the west are not short of minerals, so there is no need to transport them over thousands of miles.

As for the south? Do we have to cross the storm in the center of the Ocean of Storms?

Speaking of mines, Zeus suddenly remembered that when he was at the bottom of the sea, the Banshees were enslaved by the murlocs, and their main job was mining.

There are also mineral veins on the seabed, but you need to drive away the fishmen in the mines.

Wait, why do murlocs mine? Can they smelt ore underwater?

Hughes narrowed his eyes.

"Let's not talk about that for now. How is the factory doing now?"

"The olive oil factory is on track. The trial production period was very successful. Now the process is very stable and the production capacity is constantly increasing.

"Just what?"

"The olive production is a bit slow right now. Castres does have a lot of olives, but many are in the mountains and not easy to pick."

Hughes nodded, noticing this.

Olives aren't particularly well-suited to tropical cultivation. Castres, a region nestled in a towering volcano, has a completely different climate at the foothills than in the mountains. Olives are more likely to grow in the valleys, making them less easily accessible. Transporting olives from the mountains is exponentially more difficult.

In the absence of suitable transportation equipment or even paved roads, this kind of picking requires a lot of manpower.

“Don’t just forcibly pick olives from the mountains. Human resources are a very precious resource. Our goal is not just to produce olive oil, but to train qualified and skilled workers.”

"Skilled worker?"

Alexei was stunned. He had no experience in managing a factory. In his opinion, these craftsmen were like the logistics troops during a battle. There were elite combat troops, but he had never heard of elite logistics.

He had also visited those factories and saw that the craftsmen were doing repetitive and simple work. What was there to be skilled at?
Xius smiled and said, "Look, I call these people in the factory now craftsmen instead of workers. This is because they haven't fully adapted to the factory's operations. Even in the factory, they're still doing work similar to what we used to do in workshops."

"My definition of a worker is someone who has the most basic qualities—knowing what they should and can do, and what is dangerous and what is fatal."

"Don't underestimate this. Industrial processes require learning to gradually understand. Many dangers are not immediately apparent. If you don't learn and adapt, you will face many challenges."

"Then we have to pay with human lives."

Alexei was choked, he really hadn't expected this.

"You can see that once the craftsmen in these olive oil factories have acquired basic proficiency, there will be a huge change in production efficiency and the probability of accidents."

Xius flipped through the notes in his hand and asked again:
"How's school going?"

"I've already found a few empty houses. Tables and chairs are easy to find, but it's hard to get enough books and paper right now."

"No need to go through so much trouble." Hughes laughed. When people of this era mentioned school, they were actually more like the modern concept of "university".

As for basic education? The nobles all hired private tutors, but the common people?
Why should ordinary people go to school?

What Hughes needs to address now is basic education, to train qualified engineers—or even lower, to train qualified workers.

"Our school doesn't need paper and pen. All we need is a wall or a large enough wooden board and paint it black." Teaching can be done with a blackboard. The territory produces gypsum and lime, so making chalk requires no technical skills. We don't even need chalk. We can write on the blackboard with clods of earth.

“Education is not such an inconvenient thing. As long as there are students and blackboards, knowledge can be spread.”

Alexi opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but didn't know where to start.

Although he was an orphan, he received an elite education and he knew the consequences of Hughes' actions.

Universal education? Teaching a bunch of peasants to read and write? If word of such a school got out, Hughes would become a laughing stock among the aristocracy.

But Alexei had an indescribable feeling.

He grew up in an orphanage and had seen the hard-working and confused lives of the lower class. He was not one of those high-ranking nobles, and his feet had also stepped on muddy ground.

In the end, he said nothing, but just gripped the scimitar at his waist tightly, which was given to him by Hughes.

This has been Alexei's recent habit. Whenever he holds the knife, strength surges from his heart and supports him.

".In short, the school must open as soon as possible. I will personally select the instructors. The renovation of the workshop cannot be delayed either. We don't have much time."

Alexei looked at Hughes seriously, bowed to him, and left the manor.

"Why is he using this military etiquette again?"

(End of this chapter)