Unleash Their Full Potential

Since future mineral extraction needed to be scaled up and standardized, it would not do to continue as they were now, with only two or three workers at each mining site and not even proper dormitories.

The six hundred clones drove tractors loaded with vast quantities of materials and tools as they charged aggressively toward the three mining sites.

They first erected temporary dormitories and built temporary kitchens. Then the specialized cement shipped from the Main Base arrived.

Before long, a building spanning more than three hundred square meters was completed. It could house two hundred people and included water treatment facilities, electric kitchen facilities, and dormitory quarters.

From then on, the clones involved in construction no longer had to live in temporary dormitories.

Inside the proper dormitories, they could rest, eat, and drink in comfort and convenience.

After that, large quantities of machinery were assembled.

Crushers, hot cutting tools, mining cars, excavating buckets, cranes, hoisting machines, rail connections, and more were all put in place.

At this Oxygen Ore mining site, Li Qingsong left behind one hundred and eighty clones. Ten handled logistics, while the remaining one hundred and seventy all became miners.

Unlike the previous rough mining methods, these miners now followed a standardized, streamlined extraction process.

Specialized miners used hot cutting machines to extract large chunks of Solid Oxygen. Dedicated transport workers then hoisted them into trailers and hauled them to the preliminary sorting workshop, where larger impurities were removed. Next came the primary processing workshop, where they were processed into suitable sizes. Finally, hoisting machines loaded the packaged material onto trains for transport.

With this entire standardized process in place, Oxygen Ore extraction efficiency immediately increased by more than tenfold, greatly boosting output.

The other two Branch Bases, the Iron Mine Base and the Tholin Mine Base, operated the same way.

Once the railway was finally completed, all three Branch Bases began operating at the same time.

At the same time, a new power plant in the Energy Industrial Zone of the Main Base was also completed.

This power plant used more advanced generation technology. Compared to before, it required over five percent less fuel to generate one kilowatt-hour of electricity and operated more reliably.

For this power plant, Li Qingsong combined his previous experience and technology in manufacturing generators to specially develop six large generators, each with an installed capacity of two thousand kilowatts.

At full power, this plant could generate twelve thousand kilowatt-hours of electricity per hour, or two hundred and eighty-eight thousand kilowatt-hours per day!

A total installed capacity of merely twelve thousand kilowatts would be utterly insignificant on Earth, even considered outdated capacity due for elimination.

After all, at this stage, individual generators at Earth's power plants commonly had capacities exceeding one million kilowatts.

That meant a single generator could produce one million kilowatt-hours in an hour, several times more than these six generators could produce in an entire day.

But for Li Qingsong, this power plant was already immensely satisfying.

Aside from the Steel Factory's electricity needs, it could even support the entire power demand of all four bases he currently possessed!

Whether it was the lighting lamps at the Planting Base, the water pumps at the Animal Husbandry Base, the electric trains on the railway, or the kitchen electricity at the Branch Bases, all of it could be supplied by this power plant.

Three of the six generators were dedicated to the Steel Factory, two were dedicated to the other factories and daily needs, while Li Qingsong reserved the last one as flexible power to adjust as circumstances required.

Now, the railway had been laid, the Branch Bases had been completed, and the power plant was finished.

Li Qingsong's heart brimmed with joy. The Steel Factory can finally operate at full capacity...

Thus, centered around the Main Base, all four bases became scenes of feverish activity.

Train after train raced back and forth along the rails, continuously hauling massive quantities of ore back to the Main Base.

At the Branch Bases, rested clones donned spacesuits, left the dormitory area, drove fully charged vehicles from the charging area, and headed for the mining sites.

Miners who had worked for more than ten hours drove their vehicles back to the charging area, plugged them in, and returned to the dormitories. After a quick wash, steaming hot food was served.

After eating their fill, they moved around and rested briefly before returning to the dormitories to sleep.

At the "dock," dozens of clones operated various machines, hoisting carts of partially processed minerals onto the train one carriage at a time. Once all thirty carriages were filled, accompanied by a surge of power and the faint trembling of the ground, the Heavy-Load Train, with a total mass exceeding one thousand tons, howled toward the darkness in the distance.

When it reached the valley where the Main Base was located, another complete set of mechanized equipment at the dock unloaded the supplies.

Iron ore and the various materials needed for steelmaking were transported to the Steel Factory, while Oxygen Ore and Tholin Mine were delivered to the power plant.

The six generators rumbled dully as they produced vast amounts of electricity. At the Steel Factory, the workshops worked together in orderly coordination, turning huge quantities of ore into steel ingots and steel plates that were transported to warehouses for temporary storage.

Vehicles from elsewhere converged there like ants, carrying away ingot after ingot and coil after coil of steel plate, depositing them like nourishment at the construction sites of other factories. The other factories then began springing up like mushrooms after rain.

With an ample supply of steel, Li Qingsong could finally unleash his full potential.

The first factory built was the Battery Factory Li Qingsong had long been yearning for.

With the powerful support of the chemical industry, this Battery Factory, also built according to standardized procedures, could produce an average of ten high-capacity battery packs per day and supply them to the machinery factory.

The machinery factory had not yet been divided into specialized operations. At this stage, everything from tractors and mining cars to bulldozers and excavators was produced there.

With enough steel, it too began operating at full capacity, producing an average of ten mechanical vehicles per day.

After that came the Planting Base, the breeding bases, and more.

As the population steadily increased and food demand continued to rise, Li Qingsong also adopted a more specialized approach to agricultural facilities.

He built a total of ten agricultural centers. One center specialized in growing wheat, another in corn, followed by soybeans, vegetables, and so on.

In addition, there was a Poultry Center specializing in raising chickens, ducks, and geese, producing both meat and eggs; a livestock center raising pigs, cattle, sheep, and the like; and an Aquatic Center specializing in fish farming.

But none of these factories was what Li Qingsong valued most.

What he valued most was a factory located at the very core of the base.

The Clone Cultivation Factory!