Electricity to Spare
With the first batch of battery-powered transport vehicles put into use, the logistical predicament finally began to ease.
After all, no matter how high the transportation fees Su Ming paid, and no matter how much the transport guilds run by humans and goblins craved profits, their livestock and laborers were already overburdened.
Battery-powered transport vehicles have brought about a complete revolution. They can carry ten tons of goods at a time and can continuously travel at a speed of forty kilometers per hour, overwhelmingly surpassing other vehicles in terms of transportation efficiency.
When the battery runs out, find a charging station and charge it for free, and the electric transport vehicle will be fully charged again.
This revolutionary transportation capacity has greatly shocked those in the traditional transportation industry, quickly squeezing them out of the market on major transportation routes. From sudden boom to desolate slump, the transportation industry in the surrounding areas has experienced a rollercoaster ride, undergoing rapid ups and downs.
But Su Ming had no time to consider their feelings. This was the unstoppable crushing force of the industrial wheel, and the dramatic changes it produced were beyond Su Ming's control.
Thanks to the abundant and stable power supply from the Celestite Hydropower Station, Su Ming's long-awaited local artificial intelligence model was finally able to be deployed. Due to limitations in materials and transmission costs, he only installed about 100 computing cards.
The densely packed server racks quickly filled an entire wall, completely filling the room with the hum of fans running at full speed. The scorching air churned between the racks, and waves of heat were forcefully drawn outside by the blowers.
The fine LED indicator lights, like countless tiny Stars, flickered in the heat, converging into a restless electronic ocean.
Su Ming casually named this system "Electricity-Swallowing Beast".
After successfully launching the "Electricity-Swallowing Beast," Su Ming organized a group of people to systematically organize various materials on the universal language of the other world and continuously "feed" these materials to the large model, officially launching specialized training in the universal language of the other world.
Along the way, he would collect all kinds of books whenever he had the chance, and now they are finally coming in handy.
The common language of the other world is an alphabetic language, whose structure is very similar to Latin on Earth. Earth's expert team has specifically optimized the model.
The large model already incorporates Chinese-related data, and now it includes a corpus of a universal language from another world. However, it still lacks a crucial parallel corpus before it can achieve translation.
To address this, engineers devised a solution. Su Ming provided a "seed dictionary" that marked the correspondences of one thousand core words between the two languages. The large model used this as the coordinate anchor point in the semantic space and implemented the translation function through vector alignment technology.
Su Ming had no idea about the specific algorithm principles; he was only told that the expected training period would take about a week.
Compared to the massive computing power required by the initial intelligent large model, the version that Su Ming deployed is now the result of countless iterations and upgrades by his researchers, reducing computing power consumption by countless orders of magnitude.
****
At night, the Molten Iron Mountain Range " arrived at Sapphire Port.
As the world's largest and only 10,000-ton-class cargo ship, the Molten Iron Mountain Range " can only find a berth large enough to accommodate its massive size in a few ultra-large ports.
Even in Sapphire Port, no second berth of this size was planned. As a result, the Pansy, which had no loading or unloading duties, voluntarily gave up its position and moved to the anchorage in the middle of the bay.
The operation of berthing a giant cargo ship at the dock is a time-consuming process that cannot be completed in less than half an hour. Captain Hake Copperhammer of the Molten Iron Mountain Range was obviously impatient. He leaped directly from the towering side of the ship, his heavy body landing heavily on the pier with a thud.
A squad of fully armed dwarven guards followed closely behind, leaping over like dumplings being dropped into a pot and landing one after another. They were fully armed, highly vigilant, and alert to any movement around them.
On the shore, Su Ming, carrying a suitcase, stood side by side with Beianqi.
He glanced at Beianqi with some surprise and asked in a low voice, "Is this captain so... cautious?"
"No, Captain Hake isn't usually like this." Beianqi frowned slightly, surprised by this.
Soon, the two sides met formally. Magelaili, who was in charge of port affairs, stepped forward and began to go through the docking procedures with the other party's first mate.
Captain Hake, with his elite dwarf guard, stood directly in front of Su Ming.
"A total of 1,400 necromancers." Captain Hake personally handed a thick parchment roster to Su Ming.
Within the Dwarf Kingdom, a considerable number of necromancers also live. In fact, due to the Dwarf Kingdom's relatively lenient policies and the sparse religious environment of the God of Light, a significant number of necromancers have chosen to flee to the Eastern Continent.
However, "bounty hunters" still exist; capturing a necromancer can earn a bounty of up to 1,000 gold coins at the Temple of Light.
This means that the necromancers who have hidden in the Eastern Continent still face numerous dangers. Most of them live in anonymity in remote corners, leading a life of constant anxiety and uncertainty.
Therefore, when the dwarven authorities officially stepped forward and announced the commencement of the containment operation, these exiles were all thrilled. The Dwarf Kingdom declared that the Dragon Race had publicly offered refuge to the necromancers, and they would be responsible for transporting these mages to Dragon Valley free of charge, ensuring their safety along the way, and covering all food and lodging expenses.
The dwarves certainly didn't do this out of a sudden pang of conscience. It was entirely a deal brokered by Beianqi, a transaction between Su Ming and the Dwarf Kingdom.
Su Ming handed over the briefcase. The exchange terms he proposed were simply irresistible to the Dwarf Kingdom.
Hake immediately took the box with both hands. He quickly opened the lid, and his eyes were instantly drawn to the contents inside, which made them light up: neatly arranged inside were five sets of infrared temperature measurement devices and five sets of portable VLH metal detectors.
The former is used for precise temperature control in the metallurgical industry, while the latter is used for mineral exploration.
"The instruction manual is inside," Su Ming said. "The equipment has been simplified as much as possible to make it easier for you to use."
Hake couldn't wait to start testing the equipment on site with the accompanying technical experts, while guards kept them closely protected in the center.
On the spacious deck of the Molten Iron Mountain Range," a large number of human passengers of all kinds poured out of the cabins, gazing at the unfamiliar harbor shrouded in night with intense curiosity and trepidation. The bright lights they had never seen before and the peculiar architectural style made them gasp in surprise.
Su Ming's gaze swept over the crowd on the deck, and his brows immediately furrowed—the number of people was at least three thousand.
He immediately asked Hake Copperhammer for the reason.
"Oh, many of them bring their families," Captain Hake immediately explained matter-of-factly.
****
The dwarven technical experts quickly completed the verification of the equipment. They carefully placed the instruments back into the briefcase, and then, surrounded by guards, swiftly returned to the cargo ship.
Captain Hake was all alone on the dock.
"Why aren't your guards watching over you anymore?" Su Ming asked, completely baffled.
"Why are you guarding me?" Captain Hake stroked his beard and grinned. "I'm worthless."
Magelaili also noticed the problem with the families; the number of people to be transferred far exceeded expectations.
As originally planned, this group of necromancers will make a brief stop at Sapphire Port. After identity verification and security checks, they will be integrated into the training camp to begin a period of controlled living and then devote themselves to the bustling construction work at Ruby Base.
Don't want to stay? No problem, just go back to where you came from.
But now, with twice the number of family members out of nowhere, their pre-prepared logistical support is immediately stretched thin. And the more crucial problem is—
"What should we do with these family members?" Magelaili turned to Su Ming for instructions.
After a brief consideration, Su Ming made a decision. "Treat them the same as necromancers, and enroll them all in the training camp as trainees. Younger children will attend school, while older children will become apprentices."
Magelaili nodded and immediately began making arrangements. Dozens of training camp instructors who had come with Su Ming also boarded the Molten Iron Mountain Range " and began communicating with the crew, explaining the base's containment policy and management model in detail.
With the instructors' personal accounts and reassurances, most people expressed their willingness to stay. For them, the centralized and unified management was not unacceptable compared to the past fear of hiding and uncertainty about their future.
The remaining group, still undecided, didn't explicitly refuse. Su Ming and decided to organize a site visit to the Ruby Base for them the next day.
Su Ming then handed over all the subsequent tasks to Magelaili and returned to the Ruby Base.
****
The following morning, the first nitric acid production line was officially put into operation.
The process route chosen by Su Ming is the oldest high-voltage electric arc method. Its core principle is to use high-voltage current to break down the air and generate a violent electric arc with a temperature as high as 3000-4000 degrees Celsius, thereby simulating the chemical effects of lightning in nature.
Under the terrifyingly high temperature of the electric arc, nitrogen (N) and oxygen (O) molecules in the air are instantly dissociated into highly reactive atoms. These extremely active particles collide and combine to generate nitric oxide (NO), which then undergoes a series of oxidation steps to eventually transform into nitric acid.
Su Ming suggested printing the following line on the label of the produced nitric acid products. "Millions of years of tradition, ancient method of natural nitrogen fixation!"
In modern Earth technology, this process has long been completely replaced by ammonia oxidation, for a simple reason: its energy consumption is staggeringly high.
Fixing one ton of nitrogen using the high-voltage electric arc method requires 194,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity!
Fortunately, the Celestite Hydropower Station's current power generation capacity has increased to about 20% of its installed capacity, producing 5 million kilowatt-hours of electricity per day. With this substantial power capital, Su Ming was able to afford the astonishing consumption resulting from this simple and crude process.
In comparison, the preparation of hydrochloric acid and sodium hydroxide is extremely "easy" and "economical." The core process is simply the basic electrolysis of brine.
Reaction equation: 2NaCl + 2H₂O → 2NaOH + Cl⁺ + H⁺
A single process can simultaneously produce strong alkali (sodium hydroxide), chlorine (used to synthesize hydrochloric acid), and byproduct hydrogen. Even more remarkably, producing one ton of soda ash and its corresponding hydrochloric acid product consumes less than 3,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity. Compared to the production of nitric acid, it's practically a matter of life and death.
Basic alchemy was quite widespread in this other world, and these mages had a fundamental understanding of the transformation of matter. Therefore, everyone learned and mastered the operations on a single production line very quickly, and production progressed steadily at a visible pace.
****
Around noon, the port manager, Magelaili, called.
"Why didn't you bring a team to visit the base?" Su Ming asked, somewhat puzzled.
"President, it's not necessary," Magelaili explained. "After daybreak, when those people saw the port's modern facilities and the ' Pansy ' anchored outside, most of them immediately expressed their willingness to stay. As for the few stubborn ones, I've already arranged for ships to send them back."
Su Ming nodded. These few people weren't worth his time. As the only and most powerful necromancer faction, they should be begging to join.
"Well done," Su Ming praised. "From now on, we should adopt a more assertive attitude accordingly."
"Yes, sir!" Magelaili replied. "The identification and security screening of these individuals has begun. Next comes the indoctrination and adaptive training." She continued, "We plan to send them to the base in batches starting tomorrow evening."
"Okay." Su Ming agreed to her plan.
He then immediately arranged for the administrative staff at the Ruby Base to make preparations for receiving and settling these new members.
****
Dragon Court Dragon Valley, office of the "Chairman of the General Council".
Zijin began setting up a population management system for the alien races in Dragon Valley.
Currently, in the vast territory of the Dragon Race, there lives a large group of alien races, mainly humans, goblins, and dwarves. Previously, their administrative authority belonged to the private territories of the dragons who lived there.
However, most dragons did not actually manage the non-human inhabitants under their jurisdiction effectively, leaving them to their own devices.
The problem is that this "freedom" is not true freedom. The fate of ordinary migrant workers is in the hands of various "Labor Chamber of Commerce." Their entry and exit from Dragon Valley and their work for a living all require reporting to their respective "Labor Chamber of Commerce" and are forced to pay high "membership fees."
In addition, the Dragon Race's territory is rife with various social ills such as lawlessness and rampant vigilante justice.
The core of Zijin's plan is to dismantle this old model of ownership that is dependent on private territories and chambers of commerce, and to directly bring the management authority over the alien population under the unified control of the Dragon Court. This will crack down on the "Labor Chamber of Commerce" and its control and exploitation of the alien population beyond purely employment relationships.
However, the basic laborers in this other world generally have low levels of education, and coupled with primitive and backward transportation conditions, these people do rely on the "Labor Chamber of Commerce" to provide basic services such as information, transportation organization, job placement, and dispute mediation.
Therefore, drawing on the methods commonly used by other races in the other world, Zijin established an official "Public Employment Association" led by the Dragon Court to provide inexpensive public services, in order to compete in an orderly manner with the existing chaotic system, gradually sort out and establish standardized order, and at the same time forcibly implement information registration and management covering all alien populations.
Once this management system is fully operational, reasonable taxes and fees can be levied directly on these people, which will completely change the Dragon Race's past fiscal revenue structure that relied solely on minerals and tributes.
Of course, this process will inevitably be gradual. Zijin is assisting the Council of Elders building the entire system framework and has begun pilot operations in selected areas.
Often, she plays the role of a "teacher," instructing the Dragon Race administrators, who are accustomed to the supremacy of power, on how to learn from the relatively mature management systems of other races and operate complex public affairs.
In conclusion, the advancement of these efforts will provide a sufficient pool of self-employed individuals with basic labor skills for the future development of Su Ming.
After all, the peripheral industries of "Final Bone Mad Machines" will eventually need to bring in local laborers to expand their scale.
****
After finishing processing the official forms, Zijin felt a sudden pang of longing. She put down the documents, drew her staff, and decided to fly back to the Ruby Base.
The distance wasn't short, but having mastered the power of "Elemental Resonance," Zijin's ordinary elemental abilities had improved significantly. She conjured two pairs of broad, transparent magical wings on her back, and swiftly and lightly pierced the night sky, flying straight towards the Red Ridge Mountains.
After flying for about two and a half hours, a prosperous scene came into Zijin's view—a small town more dazzling than the stars in the sky. Large buildings stood in rows, and steady, bright lights were everywhere, extending in all directions along the roads.
The Zijin hovered slowly in the night sky. After some time apart, Su Ming and his team's progress once again brought about earth-shattering changes.
In the central plaza of the base, a crowd had gathered, and the sounds of heated discussion could be faintly heard, filling the air with a passionate atmosphere.
[Zijin.] Su Ming's Mind Synchronization.
Following her senses, Zijin looked up and saw Su Ming waving at her in the night from a secluded hill in the distance. She immediately folded her magical wings, landed lightly beside Su Ming, and then dispersed.
This small hill is some distance from the core area of the base, not covered by bright lights, and hidden in a gentle darkness.
"Bay Owl!" another familiar voice rang out; it was Ruixiuli greeting her.
"I'm back. You can go and rest now," Zijin said to Ruixiuli.
The latter wisely left.
"What are you doing here slacking off?" Zijin turned to Su Ming, her voice slightly teasing.
"No, I just finished some important business," Su Ming replied.
He hesitated for a moment, but decided to tell the truth, "Well... there was a slight problem."
Originally, the members of the Final Bone Mad Machines gave an extremely warm welcome to the arrival of the third batch of trainees. However, seeing that most of the new trainees brought their families with them quickly stirred up feelings of longing and worry for their own loved ones among the regular members.
Sensing this emotional surge, Su Ming acted decisively, gathering everyone for a speech. He declared emphatically that within about six months, he would launch a counterattack against the Divine Covenant Faction, completely clearing the necromancers of their unjust accusations and allowing them to freely reunite with their families.
"Half a year?" Zijin asked, her tone tinged with doubt.
"Of course not," Su Ming explained, "This timing is for the enemy to hear."
****
The speech was one aspect, but it also required ongoing guidance on the mental state of these members. Unfortunately, Su Ming had to constantly recruit new members. Seeing others with family by their side created a sense of loss that was difficult to overcome.
Zijin's gaze softened, and she asked softly, "So, you're... homesick?"
"A little," Su Ming readily admitted. What affected those members also affected him.
He stretched out his arms and lay down on his back on the soft grassy hillside.
Springtime has completely enveloped the land, the hillsides are covered with soft green grass, dotted with unnamed wildflowers, whose gentle touch can be felt even at night.
As he lay down, the scent of grass and the slightly earthy smell immediately filled Su Ming's nostrils.
"I heard from Stacy that you've been particularly busy lately?" Zijin sat down on the ground beside him.
"Yes." Su Ming gazed at the starry sky and sighed.
There were endless tasks to handle every day, and the base was expanding day by day. Moreover, during this period, the burden of core decision-making had almost entirely fallen on his shoulders. Unconsciously, a sense of loneliness quietly grew.
"You're too tired." Zijin lowered her head. "Perhaps you should adjust your pace a bit and relax a little?"
Su Ming looked up, the sky filled with twinkling stars. In the hazy night, the girl's eyes reflected the lights of the distant base, appearing exceptionally bright.
"How about... you come back and help me?" Su Ming suddenly said, making a somewhat willful request.
Zijin looked at Su Ming with some surprise, then a smile suddenly appeared on her lips, "Okay!"
"Uh--I was just kidding," Su Ming quickly said, knowing full well that Zijin's work was equally important.
During this period, several attempts by local chambers of commerce or organizations to disrupt the Ruby Base's supply chain occurred. Without exception, all of these attempts were promptly thwarted by Zijin, who also swiftly and severely punished the instigators.
Similarly, promoting reforms within the Dragon Race also consolidates the cooperative relationship between the two sides.
"No, I'm serious." Zijin's smile faded, and she said earnestly, "I'm considering relocating the entire administrative center of the Dragon Court to this area. That way, I can manage affairs on both sides."
Su Ming was about to say that such a major adjustment shouldn't be made just because of a half-joking remark, but he stopped himself. After thinking about it again, he realized that there was indeed some merit to it.
The Dragon Court is currently located too far north, in order to be closer to the Land of Ancestral Spirits.
The Ruby Base is located in the central region of Dragon Valley. With a series of major reforms about to be implemented, relocating the administrative center here will greatly improve administrative efficiency and response speed.
Furthermore, it is foreseeable that the area surrounding the Ruby Base and the Celestite Hydropower Station will inevitably become the future economic center of Dragon Valley and the core of Longkou.
In Su Ming's long-term plan, he originally intended to establish the first city of the Dragon Race in this vicinity. At that time, the dragons living here would mainly work in various forms, and all their living needs would be transported and supplied from elsewhere through the logistics network.
"If that were possible, that would be wonderful." Su Ming's mood suddenly improved considerably.
"Oh, right." Zijin seemed to suddenly remember something, and winked mischievously, "What exactly was your speech about? When I came over, I saw all those people in the square discussing it with great enthusiasm."
Su Ming turned his face away slightly embarrassed. "... It was just some morale-boosting talk, plus that empty promise stuff."
"Come on, say it to me again," Zijin persisted. "Otherwise, I'll go and check the base's surveillance footage!"
"..."
****
The first rail line connecting Ruby Base and Sapphire Port has finally been opened. Although the tracks are rather primitive, using a mixed structure of stone and cast iron.
However, under heavy load conditions, electric locomotives powered by the power grid were able to reach speeds of up to 70 kilometers per hour, which completely overturned the understanding of many base members.
The journey between the rubies and sapphires can now be completed in just over an hour one way.
At this point, the livestock transport teams that used to shuttle between the port and the base completely disappeared. All kinds of supplies were transported from the port to the base with unprecedented efficiency.
This completes another piece of Su Ming's blueprint.
In the afternoon, the agreed-upon schedule with Earth arrived: the photon information transmission experiment.
The high-brightness light source prepared by Sangzi's team is ready. According to her description, this experiment will test photonic information transmission under conditions of a wider frequency range and higher brightness difference.
When Su Ming's consciousness switched to Earth's perspective, he found Ms. Sangzi and Little Spiky Head inside a helicopter.
The helicopter was approaching its destination. Although Su Ming didn't know the exact location, he was greatly surprised when he saw the huge circular factory building with a diameter of nearly 300 meters below. "Your research center is really impressive!"
"We've been waiting for the equipment here to complete its final debugging during this time," Sangzi said with a rare hint of relief. "And I must thank you. If it were any other ordinary experiment, following the normal procedure, my project would have been scheduled for at least six months later—but now, we've become the project that's been blessed here!"
Her voice was filled with the joy of successfully cutting in line, "A whole bunch of people are green with envy! But their secrecy level isn't high enough, they can't figure out how we got this 'jackpot'!"
As she spoke, Sangzi even hummed a little tune in a cheerful mood.
Su Ming was quite surprised by Sangzi's appearance. Of all the people in charge he had dealt with, she was the most old-fashioned.
"Why do I feel like you're acting like a little kid who just got a limited-edition toy and is all smug and overjoyed?" he couldn't help but complain.
"Hmm, your description is absolutely right!" Sangzi replied.
****
The helicopter landed quickly. The research center was clearly newly built, with many surrounding facilities still under construction and building materials piled up everywhere.
The further Su Ming went inside, the more he realized something was wrong. He had initially thought it was a factory divided into many areas, but it turned out to be a huge, unified space with only one massive main unit installed inside.
He finally recognized what it was: a large circular accelerator! And considering the purpose of today's experiment—
"A synchrotron radiation source!" Su Ming's voice was filled with shock, "You can do it!"
No wonder Sangzi values this new light source so much; it's on a completely different level from laser equipment.
The main structure of a synchrotron radiation source is a giant ring-shaped electron accelerator that accelerates electron beams to the gigaelectron volt level and then deflects them under the influence of a strong magnetic field. During this process, the electrons release synchrotron radiation.
The energy of a single photon it produces can easily exceed 20 kiloelectron volts (Kev), which is more than two hundred times the energy level of photons used in extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machines!
In terms of absolute brightness, it far surpasses ordinary laser sources!
This type of light source has a wavelength much smaller than that of atoms, so it is often used to analyze the microstructure of matter.
"Otherwise," Sangzi smiled, "I wouldn't bother with the ranking of ordinary experimental equipment!"