Chapter 98: Camp Supply Office and Craftsman Workshop

Of the four difficulties, Xia Hong felt the first three were still manageable.

Such a massive wooden house would certainly require a massive amount of Golden-Lin trees;

Mu Dong knew the basic mortise and tenon structure and would certainly need to craft a batch of different iron tools to cooperate;

Because the wooden house structure was too large and had so many functions distinguished, it was also necessary to use a certain amount of iron material as a supplement for key parts.

"The most difficult one is driving the foundation piles, right?"

"At a height of fifteen meters, the structural parts use whole Golden-Lin wood. The depth of the foundation piles must be at least two meters. Based on a side length of two hundred meters, that means digging a trench with a total length of eight hundred meters, three meters wide, and two meters deep."

Hearing Mu Dong's answer, Xia Hong's eyes went slightly dark.

During this period, he had been digging pits and setting animal traps to hunt. Every time, he only dug a round pit half a meter deep and one meter in diameter, and even that took over an hour.

A trench three meters wide, two meters deep, and eight hundred meters long—if he were really left to dig it alone, even without sleeping or resting, he estimated it would take a year or two.

That concept for the new wooden house was built on the basis of the iron-smelting furnace's radiation range. According to his estimation, once it was really built, it could accommodate at least eight thousand to ten thousand people. He hadn't originally thought it could be built immediately.

But several years of effort was a bit too exaggerated.

"Leader, there is a way to shorten the time for driving the foundation piles!"

"What way?"

Mu Dong pointed to the iron-smelting furnace and said: "The high temperature from burning coal stone can soften the ground. After the ground is softened, people in the Woodcutting Realm can dig it. We can place the iron-smelting furnace according to the route where the foundation piles need to be driven, move it after a period of time, and dig a portion after moving it. If the coal stone can be uninterrupted, I've calculated that it will only take about four months to dig it out."

Xia Hong realized that this was indeed the only way, and his brow immediately knit together.

It wasn't that this method wasn't good, but the problem was that this brought him another gap in coal stone. Burning the iron-smelting furnace for one day consumed 20 units of coal, which was a full 400 jin of coal stone.

In fact, if burning timber, it only needed 5 units a day, and the range radiated by the iron-smelting furnace burning timber and the temperature increase were the same as coal stone.

But the problem was that softening the ground relied on the heat emitted by the coal stone, just like melting iron ore; timber simply couldn't do it, so coal stone had to be used.

【Resources: Wood 2690, Coal 290, Iron 430, Silver 0, Gold 0】

These past few days, timber resources had accumulated quickly. He had also gone to the coal mine several times on his way out hunting. Just as he had heard before, his current strength could at most mine about 200 jin a day, and iron went without saying—the mining speed was even slower.

The method Mu Dong proposed, with a daily consumption of 400 jin of coal stone without interruption, was simply unrealistic, but it was the only way to speed up pile driving at present.

He couldn't really rely on himself alone to drive the piles!

There still had to be enough people in the Woodcutting Realm and Earth-Digging Realm.

Without strength and without resources, nothing could be done.

"Let's proceed according to this method for now. When Cheng Feng leads the logging team out to cut trees during this period, try to pick Golden-Lin trees. Mu Dong will communicate with you about how big and thick the trees need to be. I won't worry about this matter for now. Mu Dong, tell me anytime you need any iron tools, and I will find time to forge them."

"Yes, Leader!"

Mu Dong and Cheng Feng nodded and turned to leave together.

Driving the foundation piles was certainly the most difficult part; other preparatory work was still manageable. Wanting to live in a spacious big house, it certainly wouldn't be possible in a short time.

As soon as the two left, Xia Chuan and Yuan Cheng sought him out again.

"Leader, the cold beast meat has been distributed tonight. Our current reserve of cold beast meat has reached 11,300 jin, and it has all been stored in the mine cave on the south side of the valley."

In six days, plus the 1640 jin extra from the first day, the cold beast meat reserve reached over ten thousand jin, which was completely within Xia Hong's expectations.

These six days, the hunting team could bring back two to three pieces of prey every night, while the consumption was only six or seven hundred jin, so the overflow was normal.

In an extreme cold environment, long-term storage of cold beast meat was naturally not a problem.

However, thinking about the future, when the cold beast meat reserve would constantly increase, Xia Hong pondered for a moment, looked up at the two, and said: "The camp's timber, cold beast meat, coal, iron, as well as tools and weapons, all need to be managed by dedicated personnel from now on. I plan to set up a Camp Supply Office institution. Currently, only the positions of chief and deputy camp supply officers are needed. Can you two handle it?"

Xia Chuan and Yuan Cheng looked at each other, a trace of excitement flashing across their faces, and they nodded in unison at Xia Hong.

Xia Hong didn't stand on ceremony either, directly calling everyone over and announcing the positions of the two camp supply officers, with Xia Chuan as chief and Yuan Cheng as deputy.

For such key matters as managing all the essential supplies of the camp, Xia Hong naturally had to hand them over to the people he trusted most. Xia Chuan and Yuan Cheng were the only candidates.

Seven consecutive nights of cold beast meat distribution had thoroughly established Xia Hong's prestige. Not to mention the ordinary people in the camp, even Luo Yuan, Hong Gang, Huang Yong, and others had no objections on their faces when they heard his appointment.

"In addition, apart from the Camp Supply Office, an additional institution, the Craftsman Workshop, will be set up, with Mu Dong serving as the workshop master, responsible for all construction affairs in the camp. In addition to the treatment of the hunting team and logging team, you three can also enjoy a job treatment: thirty jin of cold beast meat per month."

Originally, hearing the appointment, everyone hadn't had much reaction, but when Xia Hong said the final job treatment, everyone's eyes immediately lit up.

"Leader, can we people enter the Camp Supply Office and Craftsman Workshop?"

Xia Hong turned his head and saw that it was a young reservist who asked. He shook his head and said: "You must be a member of the logging team to apply to enter these two institutions. Whether you can enter specifically, firstly, it needs to be confirmed by the institution's chief, and secondly, it must obtain my approval. The conditions for the Craftsman Workshop can be relaxed; if you have special manufacturing talents, you can also enter, after Mu Dong reviews it and reports it to me for approval."

With the current material reserves of Great Xia, Xia Chuan and Yuan Cheng were already enough for the Camp Supply Office, so naturally, there was no need to add more people;

The Craftsman Workshop didn't matter. Even without the cultivation of the Woodcutting Realm, as long as they had iron tools in hand, they could still make some wooden utensils.

Hearing the conditions for the Craftsman Workshop, many ordinary people in the camp immediately became active in their minds. They couldn't break through to the Woodcutting Realm in a short time, but if they could find another way to enter the Craftsman Workshop and get a little more cold beast meat every month to increase their cultivation speed, that was also a good thing.

Special manufacturing talents.

Everyone began to rack their brains.

Seeing that everyone had fallen into thought, Xia Hong also felt some expectation in his heart.

The current iron tools in the camp were only saws and iron knives. The wooden utensils that could be made were actually already quite a few, but the camp had recently merged, and the blow suffered some time ago was too severe, so timber was not yet too sufficient.

Therefore, aside from some small daily necessities, such as wooden buckets and wooden spoons, nothing else was made. Even wooden beds were only available to the hunting team and logging team.

But as the logging team constantly went out and brought back more and more timber, and with this Craftsman Workshop system, he believed that more and more wooden products would certainly emerge.

"The ten saws are now being used by the logging team, and the three iron knives are basically used to cut cold beasts. It seems I still have to help forge a batch of iron woodworking tools. Let me think, what woodworking tools were there in my past life? Measuring tools, small hand saws, woodworking planes, files, hand chisels..."

Although Xia Hong wasn't a woodworker, based on his memory, it wasn't a big problem to think of some tools used for woodworking and then use a grinding stone to make them by following the pattern.

For these things, he only needed to make a start.

With these tools, with so many people in the camp, they would naturally constantly innovate.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 99 =====