Making a Move

While Victor was on his visit, the Steelworks manager Ramsay, also arrived at the scene.

Victor turned around and saw him, and greeted him happily, "Ramsay, I heard from my father that the Steelworks's production capacity has been excellent lately! Thank you for your hard work."

"Sir, welcome home. This is just my job."

Ramsay answered humbly.

"Is there anything you're having trouble with? You can tell me, and I'll see if I can help you," Victor asked, pulling Ramsay aside.

"That's right, sir."

Recently, due to the increased supply of ore, production capacity has increased too quickly, and our management has not kept up, resulting in several safety incidents.

Not only did many people die or get injured, but the production schedule was also affected; otherwise, the steel mill's capacity could have been even higher!"Ramsay said with a guilty expression.

Victor patted him on the shoulder. "Has the casualty threshold I set beforehand been exceeded?"

"No, I have always emphasized safe production and frequently educate the workers. In the past month, there have been six accidents, resulting in 3 deaths and 11 serious injuries. This is within the targets you set!"

"That's good. It shows that your management is effective. My targets are just the normal standard, and you've managed to reduce them by half, which means you've done a great job!"

After all, it's normal for a small Steelworks to have accidents, even though it has low production capacity, outdated production technology, and poor staff quality.

Even before this round of production capacity expansion, Victor had already obtained a safety production management plan from Number One, along with accident and casualty targets.

After all, in this situation, it's unacceptable to expect Ramsay and his workers to be completely error-free. As long as they don't exceed the standard, it means there's no problem with management, and the person in charge shouldn't be held responsible because of an accident.

Of course, the most crucial thing is that, given the low human rights of this era, Victor has already provided these workers with relatively good treatment, sufficient compensation, and the option to select replacements from their immediate family members. Therefore, there is no reason for any workers' families to cause trouble.

"The compensation must be fully paid, without any discounts, understand, Ramsay?"

"Sir, even if you hold a knife to my neck, I wouldn't dare touch this money that would pay with my life."

Ramsay quickly assured Victor.

Victor nodded. He trusted Ramsay's assurance. At the very least, the Intelligence Department had spies in these factories, and any unusual activity would be reported promptly.

Afterwards, Victor said goodbye to Ramsay, and the three of them went to the paper mill to check on the progress.

Although it's called a paper mill, it's only just started construction and the technology hasn't been fully researched yet.

The main problem is the availability of materials; there is very little Salt-leaf Tree on the market. Although a cooperation agreement has been reached with Viscount Ferry, it will still take time for experts to arrive.

However, Victor still praised the entire team highly on site and announced the awards.

Veronica's team is indeed very special; Victor wants to set them up as role models.

After the visit to the paper mill, it was already past 3 p. m., so Victor ended the trip and took the two of them back to Wood Fort Town.

Once seated in the car, Veronica exclaimed, "It's such a hassle to travel back and forth between Riverside Village and Wood Fort Town like this. If only we had a telegraph!"

Victor nodded. "In that case, I'll have Powell and Weber put together some money to build a telegraph line between the two places. That way, we can also discover problems in actual use."

"Oh, is it that good? It's not cheap. Just the two-kilometer line we built cost over 100 gold, including the equipment. If we were to build this official line, it would require an investment of at least 1,000 gold."

Victor patted Veronica's head. "I gained quite a bit in this defense of Golden Sunflower Territory. This money is nothing."

"Thank you, Victor! But the copper reserves in the territory are probably running low right now. We'll have to contact Alex to send some more. Speaking of which, he hasn't delivered the Salt-leaf Tree we ordered yet."

"When I get back, I'll write to him to remind him. Anyway, he'll be coming back to the Two Rivers Territory soon, so I'll have him bring him along."

Speaking of which, Viscount Ferry should have already returned to Cornwall County, Count Lloyd has probably already made his move!

Cornwall County, within the castle of the Red Raspberry Baron.

Baron Sebas Red Raspberry, clutching his wounded abdomen, slumped against the wall, glaring angrily at the men before him.

"Damn it, that old dog Lloyd, if he really dares to make a move, isn't he afraid that His Majesty the Grand Duke will confiscate his property and exterminate his entire clan!"

"Enough, Sebas. We've known each other for a long time. Leave yourself some dignity before you die. Since the Count dared to lead us into battle, isn't he afraid of that guy in Silver Maple City?"

Viscount Ferry looked at Sebas and said.

"Don't be so smug, Ferry. His Majesty the Grand Duke knew you weren't honest. We had already been warned before, but we didn't expect there to be a traitor in my family, which is why you succeeded so easily."

After speaking, Sebastian glared at a young man behind Viscount Ferry. If looks could kill, this young man would probably have been reduced to dust.

Sebas suddenly laughed triumphantly, "However, I have already sent someone to inform Governor Dansol of Cornwall County that he will lead the Coalition of Nobles to crush you to pieces."

I'll be waiting for you down there... Ah!

Viscount Ferry ignored Baron Sebas's nonsense and pierced his heart with his sword.

"Lord Ferri, I'm sorry, I couldn't stop the messenger my uncle sent." The young man apologized to Viscount Ferry with a look of panic.

Ferry patted him on the shoulder and said, "Cohen, you're a good lad. Now you just need to calm down the Red Raspberry Army, and leave the rest to us!"

"Yes! I'll go gather the troops right away and wait to join you in defending against the enemy," Cohen quickly replied.

"Just reassure the troops; you don't need to participate in the next battle."

Besides, we've already taken action; how can we possibly stop here!