"The experimental results are quite good. The side walls collapsed after the fully loaded carriage was stretched like this, which is considered very good. Well, the truck carriage will be built according to this standard later."
While examining the drawing, Bolu signed his name and handed it back to Case. Case took the document board but did not leave. Instead, he showed a look that was hesitant to speak. Bolu had seen this look many times -
When there is a problem on the project, but you are too embarrassed to say it, this look is standard!
At this time, only by asking proactively can we know the true situation!
"What's wrong? Is there something wrong? Stop ink and tell me quickly!"
Case was still a little awkward, as if asking questions was a burden that required courage for him. He took a breath before speaking out the question:
"Well... it's our current carriage. Didn't you say before that in order to ensure strength, several side panels were welded shut and steel beams were added. Now the sides cannot be opened. Things can only be opened from the top.
Enter and exit from the top. This requires manpower to shovel it onto the transmission belt. I am a bit worried about the efficiency of this unloading."
"Isn't this a normal question? Why are you so hesitant? Do I look like someone who wants to kill you just because you raised a question?"
Keith rubbed the back of his head and laughed: "That's not true, but after I discovered this problem, you were never on the island and I had no time to report it, so I never said how to solve it, so I was a little worried."
"It's good. Really. I really hope you can help me find the problem. Think about it more and tell me if you have any problems. If you feel embarrassed, you can just write a report and give it to me. There is no way there will be no problems. Many of our things are.
Just make do, if you find a problem and come up with a solution, tell me directly so we can change the production line and drawings."
"Actually, we have already changed some things. After some particularly small changes are resolved, is it necessary to report them? We all remember it."
"No, it's very necessary. Remembering is one thing, modifying the drawings is another. Memory is not as reliable as drawings. Our large-scale products all have drawings, but the version is updated. Remember, all modifications must be handed in
Precision Institute, ask them to save a backup, and put a modification index on the drawing. Then draw a new version of the latest version. What if it has been forgotten for a long time, and the drawing and the product will not be consistent?
You don’t want the same problem to happen again, do you?”
"Isn't it a bit too complicated? Drawing one picture at a time would be a bit difficult for the children."
"They are not children anymore." Polu said sternly: "They are alchemy apprentices. From the moment they start as apprentices, they should demand themselves to be labeled as alchemists. How can it be troublesome for alchemists to draw pictures?
"
"It's not like I haven't seen royal alchemists before. To be honest, you are the only one who loves drawing so much, plus your teacher at most. When those alchemists came to us to create something, it was just a sketch, and they never
Don’t let us see the details clearly.”
Geao pulled back his hair and laughed like a piston.
"If you laugh at me again, I'll send you to take care of the drawings!"
After the three of them laughed together, Bolu coughed twice before saying seriously:
"There will always be times when I make omissions. I really need you to think more and ask more questions. When doing projects, you are most afraid of saving face. If you bring up problems, we can solve them together. If there are problems with your project, I will raise them.
If there are problems with our projects, you have to bring them up to me. Don’t let me know if you find problems. If there are problems with our big projects, the consequences will be quite serious."
"As for the problem of unloading, don't worry about it. I have already forwarded the drawings to solve this problem to Geola. But I guess he hasn't had time to look at it yet. We have to find time to experiment with this thing. Hey, where is Smith?"
Polu looked around, trying to call Smith over. Smith didn't see him, but he saw little Irene with a serious face, just standing silently not far away, waiting.
"What's wrong with her? Forget it, let's talk about business first and ask her later."
Bolu brought his attention back:
"Gora, how much orbital stock do we have now?"
"Recently, not much steel is used elsewhere, almost all of it is rolled into rails. Now if we just count the rails, we probably have enough and there is still a surplus."
"That's good, don't stop when it's enough, keep building it. Sooner or later it will be used, and the idle production capacity will be utilized. If you really build this thing specifically, you will think it is a steel-eating monster. Have you encountered any problems?"
Goola is the first and only recipient of ore. He has been unable to increase production capacity due to insufficient transportation capacity for a long time, so he is full of enthusiasm for this rail system to increase transportation capacity.
When Polu went to repair the carrot (mo) divination (xiang), he actually completed most of the early construction and experiments, so he should be very clear about these issues.
Geola was not polite: "Little manager, what should we do with the gravel on this track? Now we use an iron ore crusher to crush it. Just like this section of gravel on the 500-meter experimental track, we
It took me a long time to lay it. Although I didn't weigh it accurately, based on the working hours of the crusher, it weighed at least 800 tons.
It’s 15 kilometers from the pier to here, and we don’t even know how to spread and transport tens of thousands of tons of gravel. Where can we dig so much stone on this island?”
"There is also the issue of sleepers. What should we do about this part? What we are preparing now is a heavy-loaded ore track. According to our experimental results, if we want the rail to not deform, a sleeper must be installed every half meter. For such a long distance, four sleepers must be installed.
Ten thousand trees, how many trees have to be cut down, I think I should be bald before I cut down the trees on the bald island."
"The issues you are thinking about are very practical and necessary."
Bolu couldn't help but raise his head and look at his thinning hair, and admired from the bottom of his heart:
"I find that you are becoming more and more like an alchemist of the engineering school. I am preparing a solution to the problem of sleepers and gravel. You can go to the laboratory with me later to have a look."
"In fact, we are already working on solving the problem you are worried about this time. I am still to blame for this matter. I have been a little busy recently. I am not on the island. The project is not organized. We don't know what others are doing. Let's go.
The Precision Institute has been busy for several days."
After getting in the car, little Irene still looked worried, looking out the window without saying a word. This really made Polu a little curious: "Little Irene, what's wrong with you?"
"fine."
"It looks like something is wrong."
"Leave me alone."
"Tell me, what troubles you so much. The three of us, let's see if we can discuss and solve it."
"Then what I said?"
She sat upright suddenly, turned her gaze back to the window, and stared directly at Bolu. She continued without even waiting for Bolu to answer the question that sounded like asking for advice, but was actually a question about charging up her ultimate move.
Go down:
"Do you know how anxious I am! Tens of thousands of people have to eat, drink and clothe themselves every day! The flour in the granary is gradually decreasing. Now I have to take stock every day to calculate how much has been reduced and how long I can continue to eat!
Although it should be able to last until the autumn harvest season, such a large amount of food is simply not available on the market! We are still on the island and there is no way to replenish it. If there is any fluctuation outside and we can't buy flour, can you eat iron?
Is the mine alive?
You just let go of all these things. Okay, then I'll discuss it with Xingdao - they only consume our food for three months a year, so how can the mages have workers to eat it! There is no inventory at all! I'll send someone to talk to Nuo
We place orders at Scarp's store, but they charge money! Is there any money in our warehouse? Yes!? We take out things every day, why don't we bring them in? The only thing that has been brought back to the island recently is what you brought
That pile of broken pieces that came back!”
Polu couldn't help but remind her: "That pile of fragments can bring one-tenth of the processing fee income. High-grade magic materials can be sold for a lot of money! By the way, didn't you bring back copper last time?
?It’s all about money. Even for tough guys like us, we can get a lot of money if we sell any of them.”
"Then you sell it! You hold it all in your hand like a treasure. Do you want copper? You are a copper, can copper be eaten or worn? We need daily necessities! Food! Drink! Clothes! You know how to do heavy work?
Do the workers need to pay more for their clothes? Now that they are frayed, ask me for a piece of cloth to patch them, but I don’t even have them!”
"If everyone hadn't had a house to live in, had heating, and even though the food was monotonous, it would still be better than eating outside. I'm afraid some people would have wanted to leave here a long time ago!"
Little Eileen ended her speech angrily. She crossed her arms and clearly conveyed a meaning in her eyes: "Aren't you going to ask? I said, if you don't give me a solution today, don't even think about it.
!Eating is also a serious matter! It is still a top priority!”
Bolu opened his mouth, feeling that he really had no way to refute - he had indeed given up logistics to little Irene, and focused all his energy on heavy industry.
It can be seen from the roar of little Irene that the problem of all resources being tilted towards heavy industry and not being very operational has been exposed: Although Ta Island has built a bunch of big iron lumps that look good, great and powerful, in fact the island has
In terms of clothing and food, there is no difference between them and the indigenous people - maybe not as good as the citizens living in the city.
Calm down and think about it carefully: "It's terrible, I thought I could be sober, but in the end I ended up on the dead end of light and heavy industry. I left the allocation of materials and climbed the science and technology tree every day, and I didn't even think about it.
Being yelled at for these basic things can be considered a wake-up call.
Every time I said I wanted to do something to make money, something happened, and then I forgot about it. Okay, it seems I have to get serious about making some retail products. Or should we just ensure self-sufficiency in food first?"
Just now, little Eileen mentioned that it was impossible to buy such a large amount of grain, and he remembered another very real problem: in the primitive small-scale peasant economy stage, it was actually very difficult to obtain a large amount of grain - the problem of primitive agriculture.
There is only so much grain output. If you want to collect enough grain and distribute it layer by layer, farmers at the bottom may face a ratio of five out of ten, six out of ten or even seven out of ten.
Without strong enough violence, this kind of seizure of rations would be impossible. Therefore, it is almost impossible for such a large amount of food to be freely bought and sold on the market.
Food is the lifeblood. He couldn't help but smile bitterly in his heart.
"To be honest, I really can't do this job without giving up my conscience. Thinking about it this way, I feel embarrassed to eat more of these buns."
Solving this problem is both easy and difficult.
To put it simply, bugbears and their mining tools are enough to sweep out all the food on the ground.
However, Polu believed that although his integrity value was relatively low, he had not yet become such a true moral vacuum that he could not ignore the suffering he had caused as nothing. So there was only one way left: food self-sufficiency.
He turned back and looked at Geola and Keith who were hunching their necks and pretending they didn't exist without saying a word:
"Have you two ever farmed? We have so much wasteland on the island, can we use it to grow food?"
Geola reluctantly replied: "It's okay to plant a small amount."
“Then do I want to make it difficult for the island to achieve food self-sufficiency?”
"I don't think it's realistic... Although there is a lot of wasteland, there is not enough water for irrigation. Growing food is very water-intensive. Although our island is not small, in fact, there is not enough fresh water. Mineral washing takes up a large part.
, you can’t use sea water yet. So it’s already tight now, and it’s definitely not enough to grow food. Besides, the temperature on our island should be enough for one season.”
"Not enough water? Then you have to desalinize seawater first? Distillation still depends on..."
Polu was talking to himself again and again, and was about to fall into deep thought again, when he suddenly heard little Irene coughing twice in his ear, and his desire to survive suddenly made him wake up.
"At least we can sell magnesium as a by-product of seawater desalination... If there really is magnesium. No, it's salt! Salt can be exchanged with farmers for food! Isn't this another way of life? What do you think, little Eileen?
?”
"Well, you can still get some food in exchange for salt. What else?"
"besides?"
Polu was dumbfounded.
"Weaving for personal use? No, no, how can I use this thing without raw materials? Crystal glassware? Damn, this market has been occupied by those people from the Alchemy Association, right? Besides, I will probably use this thing the most in the future. Porcelain? Take it down.
I haven’t even seen kaolin clay, so I might as well make molded glassware. High-strength wine is even more nonsense. What’s lacking now is food.”
He couldn't think of anything that he needed to sell to make money at this stage of society. There were too many things in his head, but not many people could adapt to the market. He had to use his eyes to ask for help from Ge Ao, who was hiding behind and pretending not to hear anything.
pull.
Geora lowered her head and pretended that she was not there.
"Gora! Think about it, there is something we can start building right now, something that can be exchanged for food!"
Seeing that he couldn't escape, Geola could only come up with an idea: "Little manager, now is the spring plowing season, and farm tools consume a lot of money. How about we make some farm tools and sell them. Iron farm tools are worth a lot of money."
"
Not creative at all, but a very practical idea. But you have to grab a life-saving straw.
"Okay! Let's make some more farm tools! This should also be able to exchange for some grain from farmers, right?"
The desire to survive drove Polu's brain to run wildly: "That's right! Natswa recently said that all weapons and armors will be collected, and the trading supplies are optional! When the railway is repaired, we will replace the first batch of weapons shipped out.
Food is back!"
"It's them again? The last time we went there, we sank a boat and you're still going?"
"This time it's different."
After Polu explained to little Irene the content of the letter she received this time, although she still looked suspicious, at least she was no longer so anxious.
"It would be great if the elves were still here. I can only grow some onions and garlic, but I have never been able to serve this food. I always feel that this relationship is in vain. It's a pity that they are nervous about their temples and have refused to come here recently.
Come on, why don't you go back and ask the mage."
"Don't think about it, I've already asked about it. There is relatively little grain requisition in Esodu. Farmers' lives are not so tight. They still have grain on hand, but it is scattered in various villages and towns and not centralized. Hurry up and put the salt you are talking about
and farm tools, and think of a way to exchange for a batch of grain! Now I can only feel better when I see the grain coming into the warehouse!"