When Hughes returned to the manor, he encountered Alexei, who was waiting for him.
Seeing the sowhat awkward smile on Alexei’s face, Hughes imdiately guessed his reason for coming.
"Out of money?"
"Yes." Alexei sighed. "Whether it’s recruiting personnel to explore the island or establishing a school, everything requires money. Not to ntion the renovation of the workshop."
There was no way around it. Any industry required initial investnt, and this part of the expenditure was unavoidable. Hughes was already ntally prepared for it.
"Don’t worry about the money. I’ll figure sothing out. Tell about the progress."
Alexei nodded and quickly took out his notebook.
"The mineral deposits have basically been identified. Most of this information cos from previous island surveys. We followed the records to investigate the sites and compiled the findings."
Hughes took the booklet and flipped through it casually. His eyes widened in surprise.
"You’re saying the island has iron ore, copper ore, listone, sulfur, and gypsum? And all of these have already been confird?"
"Yes. I’ve personally visited these mining areas. Aside from so uncertainty about the exact quality, everything else checks out." Alexei shrugged. "We don’t have professional surveyors, so we could only ask so blacksmiths to take a look."
"Without proper surveying, how did you find these mines?" Hughes twitched at the corner of his eye. "They wouldn’t happen to be open-pit mines, would they?"
Alexei nodded. "They are."
Hughes fell silent.
Open-pit mines might not always yield the highest-quality ore, but they would never be too poor either.
Besides, for Castel at this stage, mining more challenging ore veins was almost impossible.
Hughes hadn’t expected much, yet it turned out that all of them were open-pit mines?
"Why weren’t these mines developed before?" Hughes took a deep breath.
"My lord, this is the Storm Ocean." Alexei gave a bitter smile.
Indeed, this was the Storm Ocean. Pirates lacked the ability to slt tals; they preferred to buy finished products directly.
The northern White Raven Principality and the western Empire had no shortage of ores, so there was no reason to transport them from such a distance.
As for the south? Would anyone dare to cross the storms at the center of the Storm Ocean?
Speaking of mines, Hughes suddenly recalled what he had seen underwater, how the Siren tribe, enslaved by the fishn, was primarily engaged in mining.
So there were ore veins beneath the sea as well. They just needed to drive away the fishn.
Wait a minute. Why were the fishn mining? Could they even slt ores underwater?
Hughes narrowed his eyes.
"Let’s set that aside for now. How are the factories coming along?"
"The olive oil factory is already running smoothly. The trial production phase was a success, and now the process is stable. Output is steadily increasing, but…"
"But what?"
"The production of olives can’t quite keep up. Castel does have many olive trees, but a lot of them are on the mountains, making them hard to harvest."
Hughes nodded. He had already noticed this issue.
Olive trees were not particularly suited for tropical climates. Castel had a towering volcano, and the climate at its base differed greatly from that of the mountains. Olives mainly grew in the valleys, and the easily accessible ones were limited.
Transporting olives down from the mountains was exponentially more difficult.
Without suitable transport equipnt or even paved roads, harvesting required a massive amount of manual labor.
"Don’t forcefully harvest the mountain olives. Human resources are extrely valuable. Our goal isn’t just to produce olive oil but to train a skilled workforce."
"Skilled workers?"
Alexei was taken aback. He had no experience managing factories.
To him, these craftsn were like the logistics troops of an army, there were elite combat units, but he had never heard of elite logistics teams.
He had visited the factories before. The craftsn were doing repetitive and simple tasks. What was there to train?
Hughes chuckled. "Look, the people working in the factory now, I call them craftsn, not workers. That’s because they haven’t fully adapted to factory operations yet. Even though they work in a factory, they’re doing things similar to what they did in workshops."
"But my definition of a worker is soone who has basic professional knowledge, who knows what they should do, what they can do, what is dangerous, and what is life-threatening."
"Don’t underestimate this. Industrial processes must be learned over ti. Many dangers aren’t imdiately obvious. If people don’t learn and adapt…"
"Then it will cost lives."
Alexei was speechless. He had never considered this before.
"Just wait and see. Once the workers in the olive oil factory beco more proficient, production efficiency will improve drastically, and accidents will decrease significantly."
Hughes flipped through his notes and asked, "How’s the school coming along?"
"We’ve found a few empty buildings. Desks and furniture are easy to arrange, but it’s hard to gather enough books and paper in a short ti."
"No need to worry about that." Hughes smiled. In this era, when people thought of schools, they envisioned sothing akin to modern universities.
Basic education? Nobles hired private tutors, while commoners—
Why would commoners need to go to school?
Hughes needed to solve the problem of fundantal education, to train qualified engineers, or even lower, to train qualified workers.
"Our school doesn’t need paper and pens. Just find a wall or a large enough wooden board and paint it black." A blackboard was enough for teaching.
The territory produced gypsum and listone, making chalk incredibly easy to manufacture.
Even without chalk, one could write on a blackboard using a piece of soil.
"Education isn’t as difficult as people think. As long as there are students and a blackboard, knowledge can be passed on."
Alexei opened his mouth, wanting to say sothing but unsure how.
Although he was an orphan, he had received an elite education and understood the implications of Hughes’ actions.
Universal education? Teaching a bunch of commoners to read?
Just the idea of such a school would make Hughes a laughingstock among the nobility.
Yet Alexei felt sothing indescribable.
He had grown up in an orphanage. He had seen how the lower class toiled their entire lives in confusion.
He was not one of the high-and-mighty nobles, his feet had once trodden the muddy earth too.
In the end, he said nothing. He simply tightened his grip on the curved blade at his waist, it was the one Hughes had given him.
Lately, it had beco his habit. Whenever he held the blade, strength surged from within, supporting him.
"In any case, the school must start classes as soon as possible. I will personally select the instructors. The workshop renovations must also proceed without delay. Our ti is limited."
Alexei gave Hughes a serious look, saluted him, and left the manor.
"Why is he using military salutes again…"
User Comments
0 comments from readers