Herald of Steel

Alexander spent some more time with Krishok ironing out the details.

“My lord, will I be provided fuel or should I get it myself?” The tanner raised another issue.

“Hmmm, how should I do this,” Alexander hummed thoughtfully for while, asking himself what fuel he would use in the kiln- firewood, charcoal, or coal and how should the logistics of these materials be.

And after a while, taking various things into account, and feeling that brick production was a critical component to the prosperity of the city, decided to give it independent fuel logistics capabilities.

“For making a million pieces of bricks a day, I will give you one hundred and fifty lumberjacks (150).” Alexander promised, reasoning, “One lumberjack, working in a team can cut one ton of firewood in an hour. So these men will be more than enough to cut and transport the 1,000 tons of firewood you will daily need.”

In this way, Alexander would be able to make 2,000 tons of bricks with only 2,200 men, which was less than half the 5,000 men used in the quarries that only produced a hundred tons (100 tons) of stone a day.

“Thank you, my lord,” Krishok bowed heavily as if weighed by the mammothness of the task, and asked to confirm, “My lord, I intend to use the clay diggers to construct the kilns initially, is that okay?”

“Yes, you can use your judgment on that.” Alexander left that up to Krishok’s discretion and then after a few more pleasantries, excused the tanner.

Or he almost did.

As he added at the last moment, “Oh just one more thing. The brick fields are being run by a boy named Jafor. Coordinate with him to build the kilns. Because although you will build the kilns, he will operate them.”

Alexander wanted to give that silk pants one chance to prove himself so that Jazum could not accuse Alexander of never giving his son a chance.

This directive surprised Krishok because he was under the impression from now on he would run the brick fields, as Jazum did.

But Alexander did not appear to give him such powers, which made Krishok a bit less enthusiastic about the work, but he kept such thoughts to himself, and only obediently bowed, “Yes, my lord.”

With this, Krishok soon trotted off to carry out his responsibilities and Alexander was left with only one last great major site inspection.

The mines.

Alexander then spent the next month and a half getting his iron production up to speed and then on one fine morning in late December, he decided to visit all the facilities.

“Greetings my lord, greetings. Please watch your step along the way,” Harun enthusiastically greeted Alexander at the foot of the mines and then gestured for him to climb the mineral-rich hills.

Alexander graciously accepted this invitations, lightly chuckling, “Haha, how are you?” as he was flanked on both sides by his bodyguards.

The two men casually chatted with each other about the various mining operations and took in the surrounding sights as Alexander climbed the large hill, taking in the scenery around him.

The many mines on these hills were one of the largest and most productive metal production in all of Zanzan and even in the whole of Adhania, and why Adhania guarded it so fiercely from Tibias ruled and worked by Pasha Muazz and his ancestors for generations and the surrounding landscape around Alexander attested to that fact.

The very first thing one would notice when one looked around was the total absence of any vegetation.

The huge hills and all the surrounding hills for that matter were stripped of any and all green, removed either to dig mines, used up as firewood for the workers and slaves or to simply clear the forest of any dangerous animals and reptiles.

This bald, barren look of the hills did not impress Alexander, who commented, ‘Hmmm, without anything to hold the topsoil, chances of a mudslide are inevitable,’ he rose up the slopes.

And so he instructed, “Harun, you are to plant trees like pine and white oar on these hills. This will prevent disasters like mudslides during heavy rainfall as the plant roots will bind the soil together.”

Alexander’s directive surprised and impressed the miner very much.

He knew from the workers such a thing usually occurred once or twice a decade and he had intended to raise this issue with Alexander later, but listening to Alexander give the answer by himself, made Harun once again marvel at Alexander’s abilities.

Harun, being an expert miner himself, had certainly seen his fair share of mudslides back in Adhan.

In fact, he was even once caught in one but had always believed it was divine punishment from Ramuh for being too greedy and digging too deep.

‘So that’s the reason mudslides only happened in hills where there were humans,’ Harun felt his eyes open as Alexander stated the real reason behind this disaster.

“At once my lord,” Harun then quickly and humbly answered, skipping the endless hackneyed praises others always used to dole out to Alexander.

As Alexander kept up going up the slope, the next impressive structure that caught his eye laid beneath his foot- the road. 𝚍ｎ𝚘ｖ𝚕．𝚘𝚛𝚐

This sloping road they were climbing was huge, with it being wide enough to accommodate two fully loaded double horse carts side by side without any problem, and was made of very good, high-quality stone, making it very smooth.

Clearly the despot Pasha knew where the money laid and understood that it would need good roads to smoothly flow down to his greedy, awaiting palms.

And then there were the actual mines themselves, their entrances being huge holes cut into the faces of the hill.

These led to huge, twisting caverns inside the hills, which were supported by large wooden scaffoldings and were where all the precious ore veins lay.

And at last, outside the mines, over flat pieces of land, were scattered hundreds of huge shared logs houses, acting as lodging for the workers and miners, each capable of housing a hundred men.

Space was sparse in these and hygiene non-existent, as the fifty meters long, and eight meters width houses packed the men in double-decker accommodation in two rows, each row facing the other.

There were no sanitation facilities and the workers could not even take a bath at the end of a day of working in the scalding, hot mines.

“Harun, you are to slowly replace these wooden logs with large concrete buildings,” Alexander thus decided to improve the appalling conditions of the workers, and then gave Harun the dimensions of the buildings, “Build them 12m high with three stories and a three-meter foundation. And keep the length the same but increase the width three times to 24m meters.”

He further added, “These buildings should have four entrances, one each at the back and front and two in the middle, and all must have stairs that go upstairs.”

“*Nod*,” Harun kept attentively listening, as Alexander spoke,

“And last of all, I see there are no public latrines. So you are to build forty individual latrines outside these buildings. They should also double was shower facilities, with the water supply coming from the small nearby springs via aqueducts.”

“Yes, my lord,” Unlike the others, Harun did not moan and groan about Alexander’s directive like the other, because after working under this lord for close to two months, he got a general understanding of his boss’s nature.

When the Pasha wanted you to do something, he would give you all the material and manpower as requested, but you would be then expected to deliver.

Because failing to do so will mean getting sidelined by someone else at the snap of a finger.

This young lord had no patience for incompetency and generally disliked pufferies, so buttering him up usually had the opposite effect.

Harun’s docile attitude also had to do with the fact that Alexander had not set some strict deadline for Harun but told him to slowly replace the lodgings one at a time, thus giving him some breathing room.

“My lord, how many men will I get to make these houses? And what about the stone and mortal?” Harun asked about the tools he would need to accomplish his task.

“These buildings will be relatively simple. You will just need to build the outer perimeter walls and then install the door and windows. The inside will be entirely hollow,” Alexander announced.

The workers would not have any real privacy, as Alexander planned to follow the same layout currently, which was just placing double-decker bunk beds side by side with a little bit of free space between them so that the workers could place something like a trunk containing personal belongings there.

Alexander then said the maths for the building out aloud, “So including the foundation, a million pieces of bricks and 250 tons of cement will be enough, So I will give you a hundred men to do these constructions.”

“And, notwithstanding shortages of raw materials, each of these buildings, including the latrines, should not take more than two weeks.” He issued his expected speed of work.

‘Haaaaa,’ Harun struggled hard to keep his emotion in check, feeling the way about Alexander as Krishok did.

In fact, it was a running gag to refer to Alexander as the ‘Slavemaster’ between the artisans when they got together to drink.

All of them were quite satisfied with Alexander in most cases, their only sticking point with him being that Alexander liked to assign them huge amounts of work, stretching their capabilities to the utmost max.

Harun then asked his last question, “And master how many will people will each of these buildings accommodate?”

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