Against Common Sense
Developing industry is a very heavy task, Zul'ra was not just saying that casually. Even setting aside heavy industry, the Horde's task in light industry alone is extremely challenging.
Take, for example, the latest information Zul'ra has gathered. Excluding the Sin'dorei and the Forsaken, the Horde needs to provide textiles for at least 200,000 people. This requires a lot of factories, machines, and workers. The Horde doesn't have a massive population base like the Great Celestial Empire, although its own needs are smaller.
The textile industry is not yet a necessary Horde to develop as a light industry, since the climate of this world is not yet enough to harm the health of the Horde's people. However, defensive fortifications are a must, something Zul'ra only thought of when she returned from Thunder Bluff.
Apart from Orgrimmar, the Horde doesn't have any decent fortifications in Kalimdor. Thunder Bluff is just a relatively rugged area. The tents and arrow towers in the various Orcs settlements are simply not enough to provide effective defense against attacks. They will definitely suffer losses if they face a large-scale attack from the Alliance.
To ensure the Horde's safety in Kalimdor, it is necessary to build an appropriate number and size of fortifications along the Durotar coast and the edges of Horde territory to defend against attacks launched by the Alliance at any time. Not to mention the labor and engineers required, just the specialized quarries or brick kilns alone would be a headache!
The pressure of industrialization in the Horde is immense, but only Zul'ra knows the extent of this pressure. However, he cannot tell Cairne Bloodhoof and the others about it for the time being, because there are some areas where he still needs to conduct further investigations, and he cannot even give them a rough estimate.
After giving Cairne Bloodhoof and his men a heads-up, Zul'ra quickly ended the meeting and threw himself back into the investigation. He knew he couldn't handle the task alone, so he recruited some professional Sin'dorei, Goblins, and Amani'lai to help with the exploration and calculations, such as drawing a map, constructing a railway connecting Durotar and Mulgore, building a fortress somewhere, and managing the resources and manpower needed to build the fortress.
After conducting an investigation, Zul'ra put the Horde's industrialization needs into concrete figures in a document and handed it to Cairne Bloodhoof, which aroused Cairne Bloodhoof's unease.
"Are you crazy? Three hundred thousand tons of all kinds of steel, do you want to wrap every one of us in steel? Besides steel, you also need coal, you must provide 10,000 tons of coal and 1,000 tons of oil every month, and you also want to build a railway connecting the Horde's Horde in Kalimdor, and, what are we building these roads for?" Cairne Bloodhoof exclaimed in shock before he finished reading the document.
"Ahem, these are just figures, they may be too many or too few, but we can only tolerate a lot, not a little." Zul'ra coughed slightly. He had given these numbers an inflated figure, since no professional had made any estimates for him.
"But, but what are we going to do with building railway tracks?" Cairne Bloodhoof couldn't understand the blueprint that Zul'ra had drawn up in her mind.
"Of course, it's for convenience, Cairne Bloodhoof. Do you see those steam engines I brought? Imagine them as power sources that can pull a train along the tracks, from Orgrimmar to Darkspear Islands, from Angerfang Pass to Thunder Bluff. Its power lies not in its grandeur, but in its transport capacity."
"Think about how much manpower and animal power it would take to transport thousands of kilograms of supplies from Mulgore to Orgrimmar. But with this railway, we only need to load the goods onto the train, and then unload them once the train arrives at its destination," Zul'ra described the railway's function to Cairne Bloodhoof.
"Then why do you need so much steel? You know, building a railway doesn't require this much steel; it also requires so much coal and oil. We simply can't provide that much steel and coal." Cairne Bloodhoof thought about the scenario Zul'ra had described. It might be very convenient, but the cost would be too high.
"If you can't come up with enough reasons, you won't be able to convince everyone to approve your plan," Cairne Bloodhoof repeated the importance of reasons.
"No, there may be a lot of steel, but if we can successfully build the steel mill and related facilities, then producing that much steel will be easy. Besides, I don't need it immediately; there's room for delay. And not all of this steel will be used for trains; there's also the need to build ironclad warships and for other things," Zul'ra explained to Cairne Bloodhoof.
"Iron, ironclad ships?" Cairne Bloodhoof listened to Zul'ra's words and couldn't help but lower his head to flip through the documents. Sure enough, he saw that there was a requirement for shipbuilding steel, and that ships were to be built with iron.
"Dude, are you crazy? Steel sinks in water." Cairne Bloodhoof was completely dumbfounded; he seriously suspected that Zul'ra Jin had lost his mind.
"No, of course I'm not crazy. I don't intend to build those full-fledged ironclad warships right away. Steel can float on water as long as the conditions are met. I just want to coat the Horde's warships with a layer of defensive steel. To be honest, our current naval strength makes me feel very uneasy." Zul'ra tried her best to explain to Cairne Bloodhoof.
"How could steel possibly float? Attaching steel to a ship would only increase its weight. If we built a ship like that, we'd probably have to enlarge the sails many times over. That's ridiculous, buddy, listen to me..." Cairne Bloodhoof tried to stop himself from thinking about Zul'ra's mental problems and persuade him not to be foolish anymore, even though he spoke with conviction, it still defied some conventional forces.
"What would you do if I made steel float?" Zul'ra looked at Cairne Bloodhoof, who seemed to be trying hard to convince her, and decided to stop arguing. She herself wasn't very knowledgeable about science, and with someone like Cairne Bloodhoof who had never been exposed to science, it was better to let the facts speak for themselves!
"How is this possible, Zul'ra..." Cairne Bloodhoof rolled his eyes at the serious Trolls, about to continue speaking, but was instead met with a rebuttal.
"Just tell me, what would you do if I could make steel float in water?" Zul'ra refuted Cairne Bloodhoof's question and directly threw out a bet.
"Are you serious?" Cairne Bloodhoof looked at the guy who didn't seem to have lost his mind, but had lost his common sense, and asked solemnly.
"I swear in the name of our ancestors." Zul'ra nodded solemnly.
"I'm going to talk to the Warchief about this." Cairne Bloodhoof rejected Zul'ra's bet and turned away, believing it was necessary to speak with Thrall about it.
"Hey... wait a minute, Cairne Bloodhoof, just make a bet with me, don't rush to find Thrall!" Zul'ra was getting impatient as Cairne Bloodhoof was heading to find Thrall. Don't do this!
There's nothing left at night.