Chapter 361: Expansion
Translator: Meh/TransN Editor: - -
According to the records of Stall Literature, temperature control was the key in large-scale production of nitrifying glycerol because the excessive heat of exothermic reactions was extremely prone to cause the sensitive dynamites to explode. As long as the temperature of the large reaction vessel could be kept constant, the nitrating glycerin could be safely manufactured in batches.
However, the ice-water mixture had limited performance in heat absorption, especially when a large amount of heat was released. Its cooling rate was slow while the consumption of itself was fast. Besides,it was very troublesome to produce ice cubes. In light of these, ice cubes were suitable for laboratory tests, but not for the mass production. As the Frozen Coffin of Agatha could easily produce low temperatures, such as nearly 100 below zero, it was undoubtedly a great way to cool down the container.
Roland did not know whether the news was reliable or not, but it didn't stop him from trying one by one. Even in the event of an accident, Nana could always save her life.
Back in his office, he wrote a reference letter and gave it to his guard, who brought Agatha to the chemical laboratory and sent the letter to Kyle Sichi.
Besides introducing Agatha's abilities, he also made up an upper-class identity for her in the letter to mellow the alchemist so that he would take good care of the witch who might bring great help to the chemistry experiments. Roland was still worried after the guard left. He knew Keymor was straightforward while Agatha was arrogant and hoped they would not get into a big fight with each other.
Scroll pushed the door open and walked into the room while he was pondering whether he should go to the lab to take a look.
"Your Highness, here are the results for the second batch educational examination." She smiled with a curve at the corner of her eye and continued, "This time, 762 students have passed the exam and half of them are adults."
"So many?" Roland was pleased. Compared with the first group of more than 50 kids from Karl College, half of the adults graduated this time proved that night school training did work. At the same time, it verified the feasibility of a series of training programs formulated by the Ministry of Education based on different training schedules and durations.
"Yes, you've been implementing universal education for almost six months now, and these students are generally under 25 years old, it's not too difficult for them to master the basic reading and writing skills."
It probably has something to do with the characters themselves. It would never be as fast if it was Chinese instead." Roland thought to himself, although he always felt that these earthworm-like characters were awkward.
During the initial implementation of universal education, he had no idea how far it would go. After all it was utterly new to the Kingdom of Graycastle. In accordance with the principle of encouragement and subsidy, he had been discussing with Scroll for a long time to formulate a set of educational programs for minors and night classes for the workers and make a series of incentives to tempt the workers to study. The result appeared to be really good as of now.
Of course, all of these were attributed to the executor Scroll for she really did a good job in management.
"Thanks for your hard work." Roland nodded.
"It's my pleasure to be at your service, Your Highness." She bowed.
As she was the eldest witch in the Union, it was hard for Roland to compare her with the young girls like Anna and Lightning. Scroll always gave him a feeling of remaining stable and well-organized. When discussing things, she would both silently listen to his thoughts and brutally point out his mistakes. Sometimes, he even felt like a junior in front of Scroll.
Probably... she was born to be a teacher.
Roland smiled and shook his head, putting these thoughts aside.
Anyway, the long-standing factories could finally be put into use with the new productive forces.
"Please invite over Barov," he said with great excitement.
...
The City Hall Director rushed to the castle quickly. As his workload had been increasing since he started building the city, he seemed older now with balder head and more wrinkles on the forehead. But there was not any fatigue on his face, he seemed increasingly energetic instead.
"Your Highness, are you want to see me for the recruitment matter?"
He probably had also received the news of the new group of graduates in town and took the initiative to ask.
"Exactly," Roland nodded, "since the Months of Demons this year came earlier, Timothy won't be able to disturb the Western Region. I'd like to scale up the army of Border Town in order to deal with the war next year and increase the number of factory workers at the same time."
"And, the City Hall as well." Barov added. "After the town is expanded into a city, your territory will be five to six times bigger. The City Hall will need more officers to manage such a vast land."
"No worries," the prince smiled and said, "you're not forgotten." He drew out a piece of paper and said while writing, "For the new group of 700 graduates, the City Hall will provide 20% of the graduates' jobs, and the acid plant 40%. The rest will be recruited by the steam engine plant and the bicycle plant, with at least 100 allocated to the latter. You may set the salary based on the previous standards, but that for acid factory workers can be a little bit higher. Try to fill all the vacancies quickly."
As for the soap and perfume plant, the main tasks were completed by the witches, and the ordinary people will only need to repeat a few simple operations. The workers there don't need to be literate, so there is no need to recruit graduates for them.
Roland believed that education could not only improve one's knowledge and vision, but also improve his sense of responsibility and sociality, which were exactly the significance of enlightenment. That was why advanced factories required large numbers of elementary educators, who knew their social attributes and the importance of cooperation, altruism and self-discipline better than the illiterate. This was critical to the fine work featuring many complex procedures.
"Yes, Your Highness." Barov replied. "How many people does the army need?"
"At least 1,000. Start recruiting from the newly promoted civilians and the refugees from the Eastern Region." Roland commanded. "As in the past, the City Hall issues the notices and the First Army is responsible for the reviewing and hiring."
"1,000... headcounts?" Barov startled and said, "This is equivalent to the amount of the current headcount of the first army, Your Highness. If they're equipped with the resources and weapons in accordance with the specifications of the First Army, the cost won't be low. "
"I have taken these into consideration. Just do it."
Knowing the danger of the demon's invasion, he naturally could not be planning as slow as before. Besides ruling the entire Western Region, the first task in the spring of the coming year was to completely defeat Timothy. As long as he wiped out the regime against him, the new town of the Western Region would become the veritable King's City even if the other areas were not seized. By then, both the expansion of population and the promotion of trade would be allowed, rather than be limited as it was currently.
However, the prince did not think Barov had to know the plan since all the latter needed to do was to arrange financial and material distribution.
After the City Hall Director left, the guards brought a new message.
Margaret's caravan had arrived.