Chapter 1547: Building a New Cement Factory

With Slaves to share some of the miscellaneous and heavy labor, the people of the Western Development Group could also have the time and energy to do other things; of course, it was not as simple as just having children.

Ce had made a very great effort so that the Western Development Group could become a real city in the future, rather than what it was now.

Because he already understood that relying solely on herding would not be enough to herd a city into existence; if the population could not be concentrated, how could it become a city? There had to be other pillar industries.

However, in the surrounding area, there was not a single grain of copper ore or Iron Ore; they truly had not found any.

But on the territory of other Nobles, limestone was discovered, which was the main raw material used to make Cement. As long as the Western Development Group could also establish a Cement factory, then everything would have a different situation; he could carry out large-scale renovations on these places, and for housing construction, he could also carry out larger and better building.

The limestone mine did not belong to the territory under his own jurisdiction, so this matter required Baifeng's approval. Under Baifeng's organization, Ce held discussions with Changxu, the owner of that land. Finally, it was decided that the limestone mine on his territory would be mined by the Western Development Group. For these few years, it would be mined for free, but once the Western Development Group's Cement generated revenue, they would have to share forty percent of the proceeds with him, which was the payment for the raw materials.

Ce had no objections, because he knew that the meeting between the two parties was Baifeng's intention; what kind of plan to adopt and how the final profits were distributed were actually all decided by Baifeng. Baifeng doing this was just to give Changxu a little respect, and also just to go through the motions.

Now Baifeng could do this, but the future King of Huaxia might not necessarily have the ability to do as Baifeng did, so such a necessary process was something that future monarchs would have to learn.

As for the mine, it was indeed allocated, but everyone did not know where this so-called profit should come from. No matter how one thought about the Western Development Group's location, the Cement they produced should only be for their own use.

When the cart reaches the mountain, there will be a road; he would not worry about the rest. Anyway, he just arranged it like that for now. Changxu agreed, and after spring, Ce immediately arranged for Slaves to go to Changxu's territory to mine limestone, and after crushing it, transport it to the Western Development Group via oxen and carts.

Actually, it would be better to build the factory directly on Changxu's territory, but in the current situation, who would be willing to go to such a far place to reclaim land? Moreover, after the factory was built, they would be Workers who had to live there all the time and could no longer return to their own homes, so no one was willing to go.

In desperation, Ce had no choice but to choose the site for the Cement factory far away from their residences, so it would not affect their daily work, but the pollution produced would also not cause them serious harm.

The people of the Western Development Group, after all, were not from Huaxia; they did not understand how much damage that Cement could do to people. They only knew that houses built with Cement were sturdy and the walls were solid, and they did not care about the risks at all.

For the smelting of Cement, Ce also used the latest and best production techniques of Huaxia. When calcining, one could not just use limestone; one also had to add clay and Iron Ore.

The Western Development Group did not have good Iron Ore; what they had was the kind that had absolutely no refining value, almost equivalent to ordinary stones, but it could still be used for burning Cement.

After high-temperature calcination, it was necessary to perform rapid cooling, rather than waiting for it to cool down slowly on its own; it had to be cooled rapidly to ensure the quality of the Cement.

In this step, people had to be used to shovel out the Cement ash, which was still at a high temperature in the furnace, and then toss it lightly to achieve the purpose of rapid cooling. This process was more suitable to be done in Winter because the cooling was faster; the effect in summer was not as good. Now, without those large machines, they could only rely on human labor and Nature.

And such a production process brought about huge damage to the human body, especially the high-temperature Cement powder; after being inhaled into the lungs, the damage was even stronger and higher.

Huaxia had done the highest level of protection that could be done in this era, but it was still difficult to avoid the appearance of pneumoconiosis. Huaxia strove for everyone to have a long life, but in reality, after working in a Cement factory for one year, one's lifespan would be shortened by twenty years, and in the end, one would still be suffocated to death, unable to catch one's breath.

If this kind of work could be done by Slaves, it should not be done by Huaxia's Workers. Fortunately, the demand for Cement in Huaxia was not too high now. Huaxia had already passed that era of rapid expansion, and no matter how high the demand was, the current production capacity could keep up. Plus, during that Winter when the construction sites rested, the factory's output was more than enough.

When there were no Slaves, if Workers did it, the compensation given was extremely high, so a large number of tenant farmers who were not afraid of death appeared, willing to take the risk. They only needed to work for one year to transform themselves from a tenant farmer with nothing into a person with fixed grain fields and a house. After working for another year, they could rank among those with upper-middle income.

By the third year, even if they wanted to work, Huaxia would not let them. If they worked for a few more years, their lives would be gone. In a certain era, many miners appeared, especially Coal Mine workers, doing things that traded their lives for money—extremely dangerous and extremely exhausting work, but they could obtain unimaginable income.

Even in that era where college students were everywhere, as long as you could go down into the mine and could endure hardship, then the money would be plentiful; your income would definitely not let down your labor.

The source of Slaves in Huaxia had always been relatively small, and the quantity was also small. In the future, of course, the problem of Cement factory Workers had to be considered. However, now there was such a source of Slaves: the Wulenge Tribe, which had a huge population, and since the basic policy had been set, they would always be Lowly Slaves and naturally could only do such work.

Ce's idea was to temporarily build a small kiln and a small factory to burn some of the Cement and Bricks and Tiles needed at present. Wait until this year, or next year, or even the year after, when Huaxia attacked and conquered the Wulenge Tribe and seized enough Slaves, then they would mine and build a factory on Changxu's territory. They would build the factory directly there; transporting raw materials would be easy, and they could also make use of Changxu's land.

Adding in the wind direction, water flow, and location, it was very reasonable in every aspect. The pollution would only stay on Changxu's territory and would not cause pollution to the important Pasture. There was no need to worry about the problem of the natural environment, as long as Slaves could be caught.

Moreover, Slaves beget Slaves; there would be more Slaves than could be used, and there would always be Slaves to use in the future.