Chapter 252: Grey Society Cement

The year was drawing to a close.

Lin Qian took a Fujian junk to Jilong Harbor.

This place now had a new name — Grey Society.

Lin Qian stood on the stern deck, and from afar he could see three thick columns of white smoke rising into the sky — the exhaust from the lime kilns. Beneath the white smoke stood lime kilns nearly three zhang tall.

Surrounding the kilns were rows upon rows of factory buildings, water wheels, pozzolana silos, workshops, and roads.

On the east and west sides of the factory district, winding pitch-black paths ran between the mountains — those were the coal transport routes.

At the foot of the coal mines, more than a dozen coke furnaces blazed at full capacity, looking like giant termite mounds.

The name Grey Society was no accident.

This place was now the largest cement production base in the entire world!

The Yueting Road in Fujian, the Guang'ao Road in Guangdong, and the bastions of Patani — all the cement they used came from here.

Grey Society, together with the coal-iron complex at Foye-Halong Bay, formed the two most important industrial zones under the Nan'ao banner.

Construction at Grey Society had begun after the Spanish were driven out, with cumulative investment of over four hundred thousand taels of silver — the silver indemnity from the Manila Governor-General's palace had all been poured into this place.

Today, Lin Qian had come to inspect the fruits of that investment.

As the Fujian junk neared the docks of Jilong Harbor, one could see that a great number of trestle bridges had already been built, with more than twenty seagoing vessels moored among them.

On the dock, the crowd had formed a single line, led by the County Magistrate of Grey Society and Chu Shijiang, the head of the cement works.

The two of them had received word that Lin Qian was coming to inspect, and had been waiting here since early.

As the Fujian junk drew close, the welcoming crowd cheered and waved in unison.

Lin Qian waved back, then walked up to the two men.

"Spare me this kind of reception next time," Lin Qian said.

The County Magistrate smiled. "Helmsman, this wasn't arranged by us. When the people learned you were coming, they waited at the harbor on their own."

"Huh." Lin Qian let out a light laugh. "Come on, let's go look at the factory district."

"Right away!" the County Magistrate acknowledged, and he and Chu Shijiang led the way.

Chu Shijiang was the first person to learn the cement-making method from Lin Qian. He had been devoted to the craft ever since, making many improvements to materials, proportions, and procedures — a technical bureaucrat through and through.

This County Magistrate was named Pei Fan, promoted from a low-ranking clerk in the Nan'ao Administrative Bureau. He was an administrative bureaucrat. The two of them worked well together, keeping Grey Society governed in perfect order.

Chu Shijiang walked to the warehouse, opened a sack of cement, grabbed a handful, and explained: "Helmsman, Grey Society cement is now made by dry-mixing quicklime, pozzolana, and aggregate, with water added and stirred at the time of use."

This process differed somewhat from what Lin Qian had taught.

According to the construction reports from Yueting Road, this dry-mix cement behaved more like ancient Roman cement in history, with excellent self-healing properties. Chu Shijiang made it sound simple, but the purity of the quicklime and pozzolana materials, the fineness of the particles, and the mixing ratios all demanded extremely high standards. The current cement formula had been worked out through tens of thousands of trials, bit by bit.

Chu Shijiang set down the cement and continued: "At present, Grey Society's pozzolana is quarried from the Datun volcano by the Danshui River, shipped to Jilong Harbor, and then stored in the silos."

He pointed at the tall silos in the distance. The silos stood three zhang high, shaped like grain granaries, but in fact they were all filled with pozzolana.

The entire Grey Society factory district was paved with cement roads, perfectly flat, with various vertical lines marking different traffic zones — pedestrians walked on both sides, while oxcarts carrying goods used the middle.

Lin Qian was inspecting the workshops, so they walked along the sides.

Along the way, oxcarts frequently passed by, loaded with large burlap sacks, and fine dust kept drifting off them as they moved.

When they drew close, one could clearly feel a slight warmth radiating from the sacks.

Chu Shijiang said: "Quicklime fears moisture and cannot be stored long, and the higher its purity, the better the cement performs.

So for Grey Society cement, we ship in limestone, burn it in the lime kilns, grind it after it comes out, and dry-mix it immediately after grinding."

As he spoke, Lin Qian and his party had already reached the edge of the lime kilns.

The lime kilns were thick in the middle and narrow at top and bottom, looking like rugby balls, similar to the shaft furnaces used for iron smelting.

"Are these fired with coke?" Lin Qian asked.

"A mix of coke and charcoal," Chu Shijiang said. "Pure coke burns too hot — the kiln can't take it, and if the kiln temperature gets too high, the quicklime produced is unusable."

Just then, a kiln of limestone was being opened. The workman opened the discharge port, and a wave of heat burst out, making one's skin feel scorching even in the dead of winter. The workman used a long-handled iron shovel to scoop the lime out of the discharge port.

Each shovel held fist-sized lumps, dark red on the surface, which quickly turned gray after leaving the kiln, with cracks spreading across their surfaces.

These were lumps of quicklime.

Craftsmen with iron wheelbarrows were already waiting nearby — as soon as one was loaded full, it was hauled away.

Chu Shijiang led Lin Qian to follow the wheelbarrows. The farther they went, the louder the noise around them became.

The "shhhh" of quicklime being dumped, the "creak" of the crusher, the "hum" of the stone grinding wheels, and the "gurgle" of the flowing river all mixed into one — extremely harsh on the ears.

They had now drawn near the foot of the mountain, and from a distance one could see a great river flowing through the valley. The locals called it the Jilong River.

Along the riverbank, more than a dozen enormous water wheels had been erected, the largest of them a full two zhang tall — a magnificent sight.

The water wheels drove wooden gears, bearings, and drive belts, all groaning and creaking.

A craftsman pushed a wheelbarrow and dumped lumps of quicklime into a machine, where two iron rollers spun in opposition, crushing the lime into pieces half a finger in size.

This machine was a simplified double-roller crusher.

After crushing, the quicklime had to pass through a vibrating screen, which removed particles that were too coarse or too fine, setting them aside for other uses.

In addition, there were water-powered stone mills, used for grinding pozzolana — it had to be ground until no grains could be felt when rubbed between the fingers.

The particle requirements for the thermite were the same. When Nan'ao had made it before, it required enormous manual labor — people ground until their hands were red raw just to produce a little. Now, with water power running twenty-four hours a day without rest, it greatly saved on manpower.

Also driven by water power was a horizontal mixing drum, used to blend the quicklime and pozzolana.

The mixing drum was over one person tall, took a two-hundred-jin load per batch, and each batch was stirred for two ke.

All these machines were housed under a single rain shelter, with walls on all sides to block the wind.

Inside, dust filled the air — choking, stifling, and loud.

The creaking of belts and wooden shafts sounded like fingernails scraping a blackboard, enough to make one's scalp crawl.

But to Lin Qian's ears, this was the most beautiful sound in the world.

The machines before his eyes were the pinnacle of industry for this era — the ultimate productive force!

Of course, there was still plenty of room for improvement — for instance, once Chu Fozhi solved the problem of reliably producing gray cast iron, these machines could all be replaced with standard cast-iron components.

They could also develop more durable lubricants, water wheels better suited to mechanical principles, more precise gears, and more stable transmission devices. Lin Qian believed in the wisdom of the people of Cathay — as long as someone started the ball rolling and good governance provided support, technological progress would come very quickly.

Even now, the Gray Society cement already possessed an extremely high technological barrier.

Even if they wrote down the entire operating procedure and handed it to the Dutch and the Spanish to copy outright, they still couldn't reproduce it.

There were simply too many technical details involved.

For example, why did the quicklime have to be the size of half a finger?

That was to enhance the cement's self-healing properties.

When cracks appeared in cement structures, the cracks would preferentially propagate along the boundaries of the quicklime fragments.

The unreacted quicklime would undergo a hydration reaction with water, producing calcium hydroxide, which would then react with carbon dioxide in the air to form calcium carbonate crystals, filling the cracks.

This was the self-healing principle of ancient Roman cement.

Of course, whether it was the Romans or Stonemason Chu, they had both figured it out through trial and error.

The Romans themselves had experimented for several hundred years before getting it right.

Stonemason Chu had the correct answers handed to him directly by Lin Qian, plus an inexhaustible research budget, and it still took him five or six years of groping in the dark.

Aside from the quicklime, there were also an enormous number of other technical details.

For instance, why did the volcanic ash need to be ground fine?

Why did it need to be mixed dry?

The main component of both was silicon dioxide — why not use ground pottery shards instead of volcanic ash?

And why did the lime kiln use coke and charcoal rather than burning coal directly?

There were reasons for all of this — even a single detail off, and the quality of the finished cement would be worlds apart.

Even the selection of volcanic ash and quicklime raw materials had its own particular requirements.

The volcanic ash used in Gray Society cement was sourced from the Datun Volcano, possessing top-tier hydraulic properties — it was practically an irreplaceable material.

The limestone came from Yilan; after calcination, the quicklime produced had extremely high reactivity, making it the finest limestone available.

Moreover, Datun, Gray Society, and Yilan were all located north of Dongning Island, with straight-line distances of less than a hundred kilometers between each pair.

The volcanic ash and limestone production sites were near the coast, convenient for sea transport.

Gray Society relied on Jilong Harbor, which had excellent port conditions, with the Jilong River providing power and fresh water; the area also produced coal — high-quality bituminous coal at that. The natural conditions were uniquely favorable — nowhere else in the world had all of this in one place.

Had the Spanish expeditionary force not built a fort here, drawing in Nan'ao's military survey, it would never have been discovered.

Historically, ancient Roman cement had been lost long ago and was only reconstructed in modern times.

And modern cement didn't require volcanic ash at all — its production method and product properties were completely different.

Thus, this coal-and-cement complex of Datun, Gray Society, and Yilan held no significance whatsoever for China.

But at the present moment, for the Nan'ao regime —

This was the fortune of the nation!

This was the most solid cornerstone for the Nan'ao regime to one day succeed the Great Ming and conquer the world.

Lin Qian walked through the cement workshop, inspecting each machine in turn.

After a long while, he emerged from the workshop; his multi-layered ramie face mask was now covered in a layer of dust, especially around the nostrils, which had turned into two gray spots. Lin Qian understood that this mask was nowhere near sufficient to prevent occupational diseases like silicosis.

What's more, wearing this mask was stuffy and hot, making breathing difficult — nine out of ten workers would secretly take it off and then take a deep, hearty breath of the thick air. Besides silicosis, Jilong's coal mines also required entering mine shafts for extraction, where cave-ins and gas poisoning were common occurrences.

Measures such as dust suppression and cleaning, post-shift bathing, job rotation systems, retirement systems, and regular medical examinations — Gray Society had all of these, and they were mandatory. But all these methods could only delay the onset of illness; unless one quit the job entirely, dying of disease was only a matter of time.

Moreover, the more detailed and cumbersome the safety regulations became, the more people refused to follow them.

Using people as consumables — this was the price of civilized development.

This price was unavoidable.

After walking out of the workshop, Lin Qian looked at the factory grounds before him and asked, "How many people does Gray Society have in total right now?"

County Magistrate Pei said, "Counting Datun and Yilan together, there are three thousand workers; counting their families, nearly ten thousand people in all. Additionally, there are local aborigines who come to help with the work, around two thousand or so."

Lin Qian asked again, "What's Gray Society's annual output?"

"Eight thousand tons of cement. As for byproducts that can be sold externally — two hundred tons of coke, one hundred tons of coal tar, three hundred tons of sulfur. The annual production value is nearly three hundred and eighty thousand taels."

As a new-style bureaucrat cultivated by Nan'ao Island, County Magistrate Pei understood the weight unit of tons and basic accounting knowledge, able to calculate production value through internal transfer pricing.

Eight thousand tons of cement was roughly equivalent to five or six bastions — that sounded like a lot.

But converted to road construction, using the standard of the Tingyue Road's cement section, eight thousand tons of cement was only enough to build fifty li — pitifully little.

The real world wasn't a game; productivity was constrained by numerous factors — you couldn't just spend silver and have output rise accordingly.

Even reaching the output of eight thousand tons was the result of integrating Nan'ao's previously scattered cement industry.

Lin Qian strolled through the factory grounds and asked, "What difficulties are currently limiting the increase in output?"

Stonemason Chu said, "Ox-cart transport capacity, ship transport capacity, dock throughput, workshop moisture-proofing, volcanic ash grinding, the pass rate of crushed quicklime — all of these are problems. But the biggest problem is simply not having enough manpower."

Lin Qian nodded. Most of these problems could be solved by increasing investment.

Only the manpower shortage had no solution.

There were indeed large numbers of refugees and starving people in the Min-Yue region, but correspondingly, the Nan'ao government also had its "three golds and one ox" immigration policy.

As long as common folk had land to farm, there was absolutely no way they would come to work as miners or cement workers.

In the Great Ming, who took these jobs? Desperadoes, deserters, fugitives.

All of them were trading their lives for money.

Even if the cement factory raised its benefits and treatment, the number of common folk it could attract would be limited.

More than half of Gray Society's current workers were petty criminals sent from the Min-Yue prefectural offices; only a small portion were ordinary people drawn by the high wages.

Relying on this model to develop was by no means a long-term solution.

In the afternoon, Lin Qian conducted a focused inspection of Gray Society's worker dormitories, residential areas, and commercial districts, carefully observing the workers' production and living patterns. Lin Qian said to County Magistrate Pei, "Write this down — Gray Society's future governance should proceed from these aspects."

At these words, Magistrate Pei immediately had his subordinates bring over paper, brushes, and a wooden writing board.

The government clerks and craftsmen following behind also all took out paper and brushes to record, and for a moment the road was filled with the rustling sound of pages turning.

Seeing Magistrate Pei was ready, Lin Qian said: "First, improve the living and housing conditions of the craftsmen. Add basic infrastructure, such as free schools, pharmacies, ancestral temples, canteens, and markets.

Second, develop supporting industries. Such as bamboo weaving, cart workshops, ready-made clothing, foodstuffs, bookshops, taverns, and so on.

Third, enhance the functions of the county yamen. Coordinate with the Criminal Justice Bureau and the Patrol Inspection Bureau to put sufficient effort into judicial and public security matters, ensuring fairness and stability in the urban area. Fourth, encourage women's employment. In principle, adopt piece-rate wages with equal pay for equal work, safeguarding the economic and political rights of working women. Fifth, guide the refinement of social division of labor. Sewing clothes, cooking, weaving cloth, and raising children—these matters all need low-cost professional institutions to handle them. Qualified laborers, regardless of gender, must devote their energy to their main occupations.

Sixth, promote ethnic integration. Encourage the surrounding Pingpu tribespeople to participate in labor, encourage Han commoners to intermarry with the Pingpu people, and carry out civilizing education toward them. Seventh, grade cement products by quality. There must be high-quality cement made from quicklime mixed with volcanic ash, and there must also be ordinary cement mixed with calcined clay—cement should also be used for ordinary buildings; not every project needs to be a high-quality engineering feat."

As Lin Qian finished speaking, the sound of rapid writing filled the air around him; everyone recorded his instructions meticulously, not missing a single point.

After finishing writing, Magistrate Pei looked up: "Helmsman, is there anything else?"

"In short, one sentence: treat people as people, not as consumable supplies, and only then can the Ash Society develop for the long term."

Lin Qian spoke with deep sincerity: "The Ash Society, the Buddha Smeltery, and the University—these three are the key protected targets of Nan'ao's central budget. Whatever silver they need, they'll get, so you don't need to worry.

Cement is a strategic material; there will never be a day when you have too much of it to use up.

So, even though the Ash Society is now just a dusty shantytown district, one day it will become a great city on par with Guangzhou and Nanjing.

And that day will come very quickly.

Work hard, and everyone will have a bright future."

"Yes!" All the officials and craftsmen wore excited expressions.

Afterwards, Magistrate Pei and Master Stonemason Chu invited Lin Qian to stay the night in the Ash Society, but he declined.

The crowd saw him off to the dock where he boarded the ship. Just before stepping aboard, Lin Qian said to the two men: "Next year, I await the good news of your increased production."

Amid their solemn assurances, the Fujian junk set sail, leaving Jilong Harbor and returning to Nan'ao.

On the deck of the command tower, Lin Qian gazed thoughtfully at the gradually shrinking peat-cement complex.

Within the Nan'ao regime, rooted in the three territories of Fujian, Guangdong, and Dongning—

The bulk strategic materials tied to price stability included: grain, salt, building materials, fuel, ship timber, iron and steel, copper, lead, saltpeter, and sulfur.

Among these, the grain price was the benchmark price; if grain prices were unstable, then the prices of all goods would soar.

Under Great Ming rule, Fujian and Guangdong were both provinces that could not be self-sufficient in grain, relying entirely on shipments from other provinces.

Fujian was due to insufficient arable land, while Guangzhou was due to dense population and cash crops encroaching on farmland.

Moreover, both suffered frequent natural disasters during the Little Ice Age, causing grain harvests to decline.

So Lin Qian established ever-normal granaries, opened up two major grain-producing regions in Dongning and Water Chenla, and also promoted sweet potato cultivation, raised draft oxen, issued small agricultural loans, and surveyed and registered land—all measures to encourage increased production in Fujian and Guangdong.

At the same time, he vigorously developed the shipbuilding industry. Official and private maritime shipping flourished, importing large quantities of grain from Jiaozhi, Siam, Luzon, and Java. Through multiple simultaneous approaches, the grain shortfall in Fujian and Guangdong was barely filled.

From the perspective of grain, Lin Qian's occupation of Fujian and Guangdong actually saved the Great Ming a headache—the grain of Huguang and Zhejiang could now support the north without any qualms.

Of course, whether it was supporting the border troops in the north or the powerful nobles in the north remained to be seen.

As for salt, all three provinces produced it, and in large quantities—there was absolutely no shortage, so no worry there.

Building materials were supported by cement; with Nan'ao's massive construction boom, there wouldn't be excessive competition with the private sector for resources, so that could also be set at ease.

As for fuel, the Dongning charcoal factory could already produce over ten thousand tons of charcoal annually; the Ha Long Bay coal mine produced nearly twenty thousand tons of coal per year.

Most of this fuel was burned locally in the kilns and furnaces of the Buddha Smeltery and the Ash Society, with a small portion entering the civilian market, slightly lowering fuel prices across the three provinces.

Iron and steel were supported by the Buddha Smeltery, with production steadily rising.

Lead ore could be produced domestically in northern Guangdong and southern Fujian.

Most copper ore was imported from Hirado—Japan was a copper-rich country, so this resource was also stably supplied.

Saltpeter and sulfur were both components of black powder; the former came from production in Bengal, while the latter came from imports through Hirado and output from the Datun Volcano—both were currently stable. As for ship timber, it remained perpetually in short supply, since all the aforementioned resources were built upon low-cost maritime shipping.

A maritime power's demand for timber and ships was nearly limitless.

After the invention of the whale ship, the number of Fujian junks built by private citizens didn't decrease—it actually increased substantially. That was proof.

In short, under Lin Qian's painstakingly crafted layout, the three provinces of Fujian, Guangdong, and Dongning basically achieved adequate supply.

But as for how much surplus or reserve there was—there wasn't much. Life was still lived tight.

But this tightness wasn't the kind the Great Ming court experienced—where the front lines were hard-pressed while the rear feasted.

Rather, it was the tightness of all resources being rapidly allocated, rapidly circulated, and society developing at high speed.

To use a real-time strategy game as an analogy, only noobs hoard a pile of money.

Experts build troops, buildings, and peasants, turning every single coin into tangible national strength.

The current Nan'ao regime was exactly like this—one place short here, another place lacking there, while national strength rose rapidly, beating the enemy senseless, and then continuing to cry poverty.

After inspecting the Ash Society, in Lin Qian's mind, the final piece of the Nan'ao regime's material puzzle had been fitted into place.

It was time to expand investment a bit more—give the Ash Society and the Buddha Smeltery more silver.

Lin Qian's initial plan was three hundred thousand taels of silver, though it would still need to be decided through deliberation by the Engineering and Construction Department.

One could also consider continuing to expand the military.

Additionally, and most importantly, was to annex a bit more territory.

In the future, to contend for hegemony against regional powers like Aceh, Siam, Toungoo, and the Dutch, the current national strength of two provinces was clearly insufficient. The provinces currently bordering Fujian and Guangdong were Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Huguang, and Guangxi.

The new territory would have to be one of these four provinces.

As for which one to choose, that would still need to be decided through deliberation by the General Staff Department.

Year-end was approaching, and the Nan'ao Government Affairs Hall and the General Staff Department were busy with annual summaries—all sorts of matters were complicated, leaving no time to discuss such grand strategy. Lin Qian decided to put this matter off until after the new year.

After returning to Nan'ao, Lin Qian first received and consoled Ning Zhi, the envoy who had been sent to Siam.

According to the director of the Foreign Affairs Department, this man had not only completed his diplomatic mission flawlessly—after being thrown into prison and facing death threats, he hadn't spoken a single soft word, preserving the envoy's integrity.

Most commendably, this man had recorded in meticulous detail everything he had seen and heard along the journey.

Including river hydrology conditions, the weaponry levels of the guards, population figures, farmland cropping systems, major crops, and the common people's and soldiers' views of their king. The records were extremely thorough, almost enough to form a book on their own. Even if some memories contained errors or omissions, it was still extremely rare and valuable—in the future, when attacking Siam, this would be firsthand intelligence.

According to his own account, most of this was recorded on the road to Siam. While in prison, afraid he might forget, he silently recited it every day, and only after leaving Siam did he dare find a brush to write it all down.

Lin Qian greatly admired this and compared him to Su Wu of the present age.

Ning Zhi was flattered and overwhelmed, repeatedly protesting his unworthiness, saying, "Were it not for the Nan'ao army sweeping through Pattani like a splitting bamboo and cowing the petty villains, this humble official would never have had any chance of survival."

Lin Qian smiled and encouraged him a few more words, then shifted the topic and said, "Now, tell me from beginning to end exactly what grievances you suffered in Siam—not a single word omitted."

"Ah?" Ning Zhi was dumbfounded.

Behind him, Ran Qiu had already deftly picked up brush and paper, ready to take notes.

Yahei

Fenyuan

Pen