Herald of Steel

Alexander’s special seesaw was made all the more special as it was not in any way restricted to just papermaking.

And in fact could be used to grind a variety of other substances, which given how expensive and location dependent the ball milling machines were, as it was required to be built near a water source or necessitated the construction of aqueducts to bring the water source near it, was a heaven send substitute.

Additionally. with its paddle-like mechanism, one could use their much stronger feet muscles to do the work, which was much faster and safer, as the toes were literally 10 feet away from the mallet.

Hence with this device lowering the physical requirement for the job of grinding, even women would be employed, thus freeing up the more precious resource, i.e- men for far more labor-intensive work.

Alexander’s eyes lingered on this contraption of his for a while as he fondly ruminated on it, after finally which he moved on to observe the next step, the boiling of the mashed wooden fibers. ．

This he saw was being done in giant vats of boiling water, which were being constantly stirred by strong, muscular men, and would have to be done so for several hours.

Alexander observed that these men profusely sweating as they performed this physically demanding task, which was natural given they were moving what Alexander conservatively estimated to be a few hundred kilograms of water and pulp, all while being steamed by the large amount of water vapor being given off.

After this mixture was cooked for enough time, the pulps would be taken out of the vats and laid out in large open mats to cool in the open.

After which, as Takfiz led Alexander and his entourage inside a large new shed to see, the long dry fibers would be shredded using large, industrial scissors by a large team of womenfolk.

Alexander observed these women expertly bundling the fibers into small stacks and placing their cuts in such a way that the maximum number of small fibers would be produced using the least number of snaps, as they worked with such speed and precision that Alexander felt would put any barber to shame.

He hence could not help but marvel at how quickly these women were able to turn the long, windy strips of fibers presented to them into short, clean stacks, which they would pile up next to them, that then would be collected in use buckets and carried to the next workshop by specific workers present inside.

Alexander followed one of these workers into the next shed, which he could see had been lined with rows and rows of tables, atop of which was a series of water-filled shallow wooden rectangular buckets, next to which stood a team of workers 2m apart from each other.

All of them were seen hard at work, as they placed a sieve into this bucket, shook it, and then brought it up again, this time with a layer of wood pulp on it, which they would flip to deposit on a piece of linen and let it dry to form a sheet of paper.

Alexander had always found this last step of scooping the plate up filled with wet pulp very similar to the scene about the gold rush seen on TV, where prospectors would take a sieve or just a metal plate and shift through river water to look for that elusive yellow metal.

As these workers used up the wood pulp in the water to produce this wet, white thin sheet of not as valuable as gold, paper, the worker carrying the dry wooden pulp would regularly go past these tables, grabbing a fist full of his pile of very short wooden fibers and dumping some of it into the many of the rectangular buckets, thus replenishing their supplies.

“My lord, welcome. I didn’t know you were coming,” This was in this Azijak, the head of the papermaking workshop and who was currently supervising the most technical part of the papermaking procedure.

And he greeted Alexander with much alacrity, as he ran up to him and bowed, presenting a wide grin to Alexander.

He had genuinely pleased to see Alexander, as after the pasha had put him in charge of the papermaking process, his status around here had had a monumental change, changing him from a basic nobody, to among the elites in Zanzan, with even the ability to directly converse with the ruler himself.

And he had never forgotten the truth that it was all thanks to Alexander who appreciated his abilities and gave him the chance to shine.

‘Well it would not be a surprise visit if you knew, now would it?’ Alexander internally mused about Azijak’s greeting, while outwardly, he chuckled, “Azijak, it seems things have changed a lot here. So many people and it’s so busy,”

“Haha, indeed my lord, for the demand for paper has shot up the roof, all by the grace of my lord” Azijak replied with a light joke.

“Hahaha,” This managed to get a small chuckle from Alexander.

The case was indeed like Azijak said, as in the past month and a half, Alexander’s appetite for this thin, dried wood pulp had increased to a ravenous degree.

Just the creation of twenty or so roosters was quite a large order, and this was compounded by the fact that many of Alexander’s reforms in the civil and administrative sector demanded far more paperwork and written records now, all of which had to be met by this sole paper plant here.

As Alexander chuckled, his eyes darted to the iron-plated ID card swinging by Azijak’s neck which hung by a string, and as he observed it closely, the plate contained all the usual information along with his security clearance- GM-P-A3-1.

This meant that Azijak was a GM which stood for General Manager which was the highest designation for any worker in a particular workshop, P- to designate he worked in papermaking, A3 because he had access to all available information, and 1, which meant that he was allowed to enter and exit all level 1 workshop.

A fine point to note here would be that someone with level 2 clearance did not mean he was in any way superior to someone with a level 1 man.

The individual 1-5 clearances only meant that person could access that clearance-specific workshop.

For example, Azijak could only access the level -1 paper-making shops, Gajopk, who had level-5 clearance would only access the glass-making shops, and like that, all the other GMs could only access their own shops, with only people with level 6 clearance, like Alexander and Takfiz having the ability to access all the workshops.

So it could be seen that the only real difference between the different clearance levels was how much Alexander evaluated each workshop, as the security around all of them was equally strict, with none of the heads of the individual workshops being able to access any other workshop in the district..

And even in one’s own workshop, a worker’s ability to obtain more information was determined by his A clearance, which ranged from A1 which meant regular info to A2 which meant in-depth expertise, and lastly to A3 which meant all the information.

Of course, there were people who had no ID card, and they were mainly the slaves and manual laborers, and that placed them with A0 clearance, hence restricting them to only the general parts of the workshop district.

All these thoughts ran like lightning inside Alexander’s head, after which Alexander turned his eyes from Azijak’s ID with only a split-second delay, as he then quickly asked, “How are you coping with the demand? Can you keep up?”

And the papermaker hastily reassured, “It’s all right now, milord, thank you for your concern. Though we were a bit overwhelmed in the first new weeks, with having to recruit new people, expand our workstations, and build new houses, all at the same time, now that has all been settled.”

“That’s good, that’s good,” Alexander nodded pleased, further asking, “How are the new recruits? Having any problems?”

“No, no problem sire.” Azijak shook his head, saying, “These refugees are pretty docile now that they have a full belly and a job.”

Alexander’s dreaded refugee crisis had come at around the start of December, numbering close to fifty thousand (50,000) which was pretty close to his original estimate of sixty thousand (60,000), but due to early planning and preparing, in addition to Alexander’s voracious appetite for more manpower, the shock of absorbing so many people was quite mild indeed, with all of them being snatched by him and his retainers into various sectors with a few days.

“That’s good,” Alexander breathed an invincible sigh of relief, and he then decided to move on to his next tour shop, he patted the papermaker’s shoulder and said, “Well, Azijak, I’m pleased with the shop’s condition. Keep up the good work.”

But as he was about to leave the shed, Alexander was stopped by Azijak’s voice, who proposed, “My lord, we have built another new shed. Why don’t you come visit it with me? It’s the bookbinding shop!”

Alexander turned to see Azijak was very enthusiastic would showing this new shop, and with himself being interested too, Alexander agreed, as he nodded and said, “Sure, lead the way.”

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