Herald of Steel

Alexander was oscillating between chastising Jafor or nurturing him.

Now, the reason for the latter was certainly not because he had a sudden change of heart and somehow decided to show the boy the error of his ways.

No, it was because he had taken a leaf out of Pasha Farzah and decided to emulate what that man had done with the boy named Fatrak, though it was in Alexander’s best interest to make sure Jafor did not end up like Fatrak.

Using a son that always causes trouble was a fantastic way to bind a loving father.

But this latter consideration was challenged by the fact that leaving such a vital piece of the civil sector to such an imbecile was not a good idea.

‘Well let’s try and see anyway. It’s only brick making anyway,’ Alexander felt that brick-making was a fairly simple process, one so simple that Alexander felt even if one wanted to, there was only so much way he could fuck-up.

There was also the other consideration of getting some practice with these kinds of schemes and manipulations.

“Specialization means that one man does one or a very few number of tasks. Not all the tasks like the men they are doing now,” Alexander elucidated, giving the example, “For example here, instead of a single person doing all the individual tasks, one man could have dug the earth, one man could have cleaned the clay, another could have shaped the bricks while the last man could have taken the bricks to the primary kilns.”

“But my lord, aren’t the men doing the same amount of work? The same amount of work will be done by the same number of men regardless of the processes right?” Jafor theoretically assumed.

‘Well, his head might be full of shit, but at least it’s not empty. Fortunately, he has something to work with,’ Alexander said to himself half-impressed.

Though Jafor was wrong, he did have some theoretical arguments for his claim.

And so Alexander decided to use the same example the grandfather of economics, Adam Smith had used to explain the concept of division of labor.

“No, they will not do the same amount of work,” Alexander refuted Jafor’s claim while shaking his head, saying “And let me prove it to you by an example- the example of a sewing pin.”

“Now, imagine an individual set out to create a single sewing pin.” He started.

“If he decided to make everything from scratch, he would first have to mine the iron ores by himself.”

“That means he would have to take his pickaxe and go a mine or worse, search for some iron deposits by himself.”

“Then he would have to carry these iron ores back to his place, build a furnace, cut the firewood needed to run the furnace, and finally smelt the iron ore into steel.”

“He would then have to forge that steel into a thin wire, cut that thin-shaped wire, and finally

sharpen it to a point to make a needle.”

“And after all that he will only have a sewing pin which won’t be of much use without fabric to sew.”

Alexander at last asked, “Do you see the problem?”

This produced a look of realization on the boy’s face and wordlessly nodded.

“Mmm, and that’s why we don’t do it like this,” Alexander emphasized the point, further explaining,

“Because it’s much easier and more efficient for some people to focus on mining, some people to focus on smithing and some people to run the shops that sell the sewing pins.”

“In this way, all these people can take a small profit from the value they have added to the process and use that profit to buy more sewing needles than they would have been able to produce themselves,”

“Or anything else that they want to purchase for that matter.”

And here Alexander made his point of refuting Jafor’s claim, “So it can be seen the same amount of people, each doing one specific job will make more ‘stuff’ than individuals doing all the things by themselves.”

“Understand?” Alexander at last pointedly asked. .

“…Yes I see! I see my lord! You are right,” Jafor fully agreed with Alexander as he repeated the words and then excitedly said, “Okay, from now on I will assign one man to only one task!”

“Mnnn, you are thinking in the right direction.” Alexander nodded appreciatively.

But then added, “But it’s not that simple. Remember not all steps of the job is equally hard. So equally dividing the tasks will not be efficient.”

“If you did such a thing then some people might have too much work while others would have nothing to do and sit idle.” Alexander pointed out.

“For example- in brick making, it takes a lot longer to dig up the earth than it takes to just simply take a lump of clay, throw it into the mold and produce a rectangular brick.”

“So the workers must be distributed not evenly but depending on which part of the job needs the required amount of workers,” Alexander suggested.

“So, how does Your Grace suggest I divide up the tasks,” Jafor lightly asked for Alexander’s expert input.

But Alexander was not going to give him a straight answer so easily.

Why would Alexander need to spoon-feed every tiny detail?

That’s why Alexander waved his hands dismissively and said, “That’s your job to find out,”

But as soon as he said it, he felt a tad bit bad about leaving the boy hung out to dry, as Jafor’s later performance had melted a bit of Alexander’s anger.

So he scattered some nugget of advice, “I will only say that you make sure none of the workers are idle. So there must be enough diggers to keep supplying the brickmaker with enough clay so that he can continuously keep making bricks.”

“You must also make sure the bricks are taken to the primary kilns for blasting as soon as possible with as few men as possible.” Alexander suggested, and then pointed out some of the other few flaws, “Also I see that the men are taking the bricks individually by hand. This is too inefficient.”

“Use something like wheelbarrows or better carts. And that goes for the dug-up clay too. Use wheelbarrows to transport them to the brickmakers.”

Alexander laid out a series of very common and easy steps to increase productivity.

“Yes, yes, my lord. All these will be done as soon as possible,” Jafor rubbed his hands together as he promised so, letting out a toady smile.

“Mmm, I will come to inspect it in a few days.” Alexander nodded and then asked, “Is your father at the cement kilns?”

“Ummm, yes. He should,” Jafor was not 100% sure.

“Okay, I will see then,” Alexander waved his goodbye.

And then just as he turned around, he sarcastically added, “Oh, I can see you have so many expensive rings on you. Would you mind lending me some? I’m too poor to buy one you see!”

“…” The boy furiously blushed as he turned his head down, furiously taking off his rings as he did so.

The sneer at which Alexander looked at him felt like being under a scalding fire.

Alexander then in a hard, harsh voice fiercely said, “You are here to work. Not to get married. Dress appropriately.”

Saying this he turned on his heels and with heavy, imperious steps marched out.

And soon met up with Jazum who was busy making the blowers in a part of the southern district.

“My lord! Good day! How are you?” Jazum immediately gave a noble’s bow as soon as he saw the pasha.

“Mmmm, I’m good. How goes the work?” Alexander then spent a little while getting to know the general progress of the new ten cement kilns.

“Jazum, a little word,” After the cheery greetings subsided, Alexander then called the stonemason to a relatively quiet and secluded part of the construction site, a place where he planned to verbally hammer the over-inflated stonemason.

“I went to visit the brick site today. Haha, I’m assuming you were too busy with the kilns and the horse armors, right?” Alexander started the discussion cordially, in fact, it was almost too cordial.

But the stonemason did not seem to pick up on Alexander’s simmering rage, and instead, almost emulating his son, or may his son was emulating him, gave a similar foolish big grin and said, “Oh, has my lord met Jafor? He’s my eldest son. How was he?”

The stonemason seemed completely unable to grasp the tone of the conversion, thinking Alexander had called him here to praise his son.

‘Not much EQ,’ Alexander updated his evaluation of Jazum.

“Yes, I did,” Alexander said in a very flat monotone voice, “I went there because Diaogosis had complained to me that he was getting only 200 bricks a day. Do you have any idea about this?”

The last sentence was asked in a very pointed tone.

“Ahhh, that,” Jazum pronounced in a slightly pitched tone, nodding and saying, “Yes, Jafor must be getting used to his new position.”

Then he brushed his hands and reassured in a breezy manner, “Don’t worry my lord. Brick production will go up soon.”

This casual and flippant attitude infuriated Alexander and the fact that such an irresponsible man had the nerve to wave his hand right in front of him made it very difficult for Alexander to keep his cool.

And this in turn made him fully re-evaluate this previously very highly regarded retainer, demoting him to not-so-reliable.

‘This son-con might be trouble,’ Alexander commented about Jazum.