Chapter 354: Large-scale Island Development |
"Can't we use pure ghost gold either?"
"We could, but the cost would be too high, just like using gold to forge weapons. The cost is too high, it's not cost-effective," Li Yue said. "If the entire arrow is made of ghost gold, it's fine if we can recover it, but if we can't, it becomes a single-use item."
"It's fine, forge two first. We don't need to use them normally, but we must have them for critical moments."
Li Yue seemed to understand. "I'll have someone forge two arrows made of pure ghost gold later."
Li Yue and the other craftsmen pushed the crossbow carriage back into the Armory Department. On the way back, he turned his head and saw three fish-man craftsmen following behind Li Tieshan on an empty patch of land nearby.
"Brother Yue, should we also get a few fish-men? I heard these fish-man craftsmen are quite skilled with their hands."
Li Yue was somewhat tempted, but after careful consideration, he still shook his head.
"Forget it, it's unnecessary. Besides, we don't understand the fish-man language and can't communicate."
"We can hire externally! Recruit someone who understands the fish-man language. I know one person who learned the fish-man language quite quickly. He can almost communicate with fish-men now. Should we bring him in?" a craftsman with a round face and a crew cut suggested.
The craftsman gave an awkward laugh. "Nothing."
Li Yue reprimanded him sternly. "I've always emphasized that we don't do backdoor deals or nurture personal connections here. Don't forget the rules!"
Upon hearing this, the craftsman's face instantly turned pale. He felt somewhat resentful. Being scolded so harshly in public by someone so much younger than him, he instinctively retorted, "How is this considered a backdoor deal? The fish-man craftsmen are quite capable. Bringing them in would improve everyone's work efficiency. That's what everyone thinks too."
"You all think so?" Li Yue looked at the others around him.
The surroundings immediately fell silent.
The other craftsmen all lowered their heads, pretending to be busy.
Li Yue swept his gaze around the circle, finally resting his eyes back on Wang Hao. "Engineer Wang, it just so happens there's an exchange slot available over at the Armor Section. Pack your things and report there tomorrow."
Wang Hao's legs went weak, and he nearly lost his balance. He clearly hadn't expected Li Yue to be so unforgiving. The treatment at the Armor Section was slightly worse than at the Special Machinery Section. Most importantly, the work intensity at the Armor Section was greater. He hurriedly pleaded for mercy. "Brother Yue, I really didn't mean anything else. I just thought having more helpers..."
Li Yue couldn't be bothered to listen to his explanation. "Do you think we can't handle the work ourselves? So eager to bring in fish-men? They've lived in the sea since childhood and have never even seen a crossbow carriage."
Seeing that Li Yue was determined to make him leave, Wang Hao became frantic. "Li Yue! I've worked here for so long after all. What right do you have to make me leave with just one sentence? This is fucking dictatorship! I'm going to report you to the Guild Leader!"
Li Yue glanced at him and ignored him.
Wang Hao stood rigid for a few seconds, glared back fiercely, and finally stomped his foot, turned around, and left in a huff.
Silence immediately fell all around.
Everyone had heard that Li Yue had followed the Guild Leader very early on. Wang Hao would probably just have to swallow this bitter pill in silence.
Li Yue remained silent for a long while before speaking again. "How I've treated everyone on a daily basis, you all know in your hearts. The treatment for the Special Machinery Section was something I fought hard to obtain. Whether to recruit more people or expand is a decision only the Guild Leader can make. No one should try to scheme in this direction. Doing our current work well is the top priority."
.......
In the blink of an eye, several days passed.
The residential complex's development of the surrounding islands gradually entered a stable phase.
Every day, large quantities of seafood were transported back to the island via ships.
At the same time, two new large ships were launched into the sea one after another.
As the number of ships increased, the flow of personnel and transportation of supplies between the surrounding islands became increasingly frequent.
On the sea surface, ships sailed like brushes, sketching strokes on the sea called shipping routes.
Besides the large ships, many small boats also appeared on the nearby sea surface.
Most of these small boats had a crew of about three people. The number wasn't large, but it was just right for sailing in the near-shore waters. Someone would row, someone would fish, cooperating with each other.
"Guild Leader, after deducting losses and paying wages, today's net income is twelve tons of seafood."
"Hmm, seafood spoils easily if not processed. Everyone, work some overtime to process today's seafood. Is there enough salt?"
Jia Liangcai said, "The salt output from Home is struggling to keep up."
Upon hearing this, Qin Ziwen couldn't help but feel annoyed. Damn it, the residential complex already had four salt wells! His own salt well had even reached level 3, yet the salt output still wasn't enough!
"It's fine. This is the sea. We can extract salt from the seawater."
Jia Liangcai thought for a moment, then said, "Using salt evaporation ponds for boiling is quite time-consuming and labor-intensive. It won't yield results in the short term. To get salt quickly, we can only use the boiling method, but that consumes a lot of fuel."
"There are plenty of trees on the island. Go chop some down."
Jia Liangcai sent people to spread the word, explaining the method of boiling seawater to make salt in detail, and promised to exchange grain or supplies for the finished sea salt.
Once the news spread, the quiet residential complex, like a water surface disturbed by a thrown stone, gradually became lively.
Soon, the residents of the residential complex began to take action.
Some used old bedsheets and boiled fine sand as filters, repeatedly filtering the seawater several times before pouring it into pots. Soup pots, stew pots, and iron pots from their homes were all put to use.
They boiled it over medium-high heat continuously, constantly stirring with a spoon during the process to prevent sticking and burning at the bottom.
After a while, a ring of turbid salt frost condensed on the inner rim of the pot, and fine crystalline grains floated on the water surface.
They carefully scraped off that layer of moist crystals with a spatula and spread them onto baking trays, iron plates, or even clean tiles.
After air-drying, or placing them near a fire to evaporate the last bit of moisture with residual heat, the coarse sea salt was finished.
It might be a bit bitter for consumption, but it was just right for preserving seafood.
"So this is how they preserve food," Luoen squatted on the empty ground nearby, carefully observing the workers wearing gloves and preserving seafood with coarse salt.
When it lived underwater, the prey caught by the fish-men race could only be kept for up to five days. Beyond that time, the meat would turn smelly and rotten, emitting a strong odor of decay.
The human method of preserving food opened Luoen's eyes.
They extracted the essence of the ocean from the sea, and then used that ocean essence to store food. According to what it heard, salted fish preserved this way could be stored for one or two years.
If the fish-men race could also master this method of storing food, perhaps they would no longer be troubled by food shortages.
The longer Luoen interacted with humans, the more it felt their civilization contained something that fascinated it.
"Will this make it taste better?" a young fish-man beside it pointed at the salted fish and asked curiously.
"No, but this way it can be stored for much longer," Luoen shook its head.
It thought for a moment, stood up, walked over to Liu San who was busy working, and slowly said in clumsy Chinese:
"I... can help?"
Liu San, who was in the middle of salting fish, looked up and revealed a simple, honest smile. "Of course you can."
Comments 1