Herald of Steel

Alexander stood for a while, watching the men furiously work the bellow, perspiration running down their large, strong bodies like small streams.

Though it was the middle of winter, these men's upper bodies were bare, evidence of the heat being generated by the hard work.

In fact, it was such strenuous work that these workers would regularly switch places with others in their team who were waiting to take over the helm, while these exhausted men would drink some water from their waterskins and sit down a while to rest their aching arm muscles.

Clearly 'as easy as blowing air' was not always the case, especially when blowing such large amounts of air.

"I assume Jazum, you did the scaffoldings?" Alexander then remembered to ask about the 'grand architecture' surrounding the kiln, something he had forgotten about.

"We both did my lord." The stonemason chirped up while gesturing to his colleague, and saying, "I drew the designs, while Krishok made them. He is a great carpenter, you know, my lord."

The stonemason's frank praise caused the latter to blush.

"Oh? That's good. I will call you for some more projects then," Alexander said with a light smile, not finding the twin mastery of tanning and carpentry too surprising.

There was a reason artisans were called artisans and usually not specifically blacksmiths, stonemasons, carpenters, etc.

Because though most would specialize in just one job, they would often have a decent grasp of a second or even third art.

This was because usually most products could not be made using just one skill, necessitating familiarity with a few adjacent ones.

Alexander then at last asked about the real issue.

"So how much are we making per day?"

He knew that a rough estimate was one cubic meter volume of capacity produced one tonne of cement per day.

For example, the very early kilns in his previous life were 1.5m in diameter and 15m in length and could make around 20 tonnes per day.

Thus Alexander calculated that the twelve-meter conical kiln with an internal radius of two meters could make around fifty tonnes a day.

And this was easily possible as it would mean a feeding rate of only around 35 kg of slurry per minute.

Something the workers that were climbing up and down the stairs in rows and rows, each carrying a twenty kg load, almost like ants, would be easily able to achieve.

"A lot any lord! A lot!" Jazum gleefully cheered, "Almost twenty-five tonnes a day!"

'So small!'

Contrary to Jazum's ecstatic reply, Alexander's feeling was much gloomier and he could help but lampooned, finding the only fifty percent efficiency damning.

And this too gave him another concrete proof that rotary kilns were explicitly better than his jerry-rigged one.

But why was Alexander so peeved about such a large amount?

Because though twenty-five tonnes a day might sound like a lot, it was a drop in the bucket when compared to Alexander's insatiable demand.

To give a context of how little this was, a room made of five walls, each 4m long, 4m high, and 15cm thick would need close to one and a make tons of cement, along with around four and a half tons of sand.

So, using a whole day's worth of production, Alexander would be able to produce, just around thirty rooms of 35 square meters in area.

Now, twenty-five tonnes was not bad in any way.

For example, this amount of cement could be used to lay about one hundred thousand (100,000) bricks.

And though this might sound like a lot, this amount of bricks could only be used to make just only 2 four-walled perimeter walls and two roofs of the buildings Alexander designed for the residence.

Nowhere near enough to satisfy his current demand.

But it seemed the other two artisans were, rightfully too engrossed celebrating to notice Alexander's tiny scowl.

"It's true my lord. I have never seen so much of something being produced so quickly." Krishok said with much alacrity, his face flushed with pride and excitement.

But his more attentive partner soon did notice Alexander's slightly sour mood and asked in a fearful, almost 'going to the slaughter-house lamb' voice, "Is something the matter, my lord?"

'Damn. I shouldn't be disappointed. These guys did an amazing job,' This sound instantly made Alexander remove his slight scowl and he then immediately turned to give a big grin to the two men, "Hahaha, no, no, you did a great job, great job. Well done, well done."

This made the two men breathe a sigh of relief, wiping the sweat off their brows as they were reassured to find that Alexander was not looking to pit-pick at them.

"Is the kiln working also through the night?" Alexander wanted to confirm.

"Yes, lord." Jazum nodded, while Krishok delineated, "As you ordered my lord, we have formed two teams, working alternatively, thus making the cement 24/7."

He then pointed to one of the many large braisers and said, "And we light those during the night! And when all of them are lit, it almost becomes as bright as day."

"Mmm, that's good then." Alexander flatly commented as he already knew about it and only wanted to confirm it, and then asked, "So, what are the challenges you faced when making the kiln?"

"My lords, other the blowers, everything else was not too hard. It's all because of the cement!" Jazum claimed, quickly adding, "With this magical glue, we can make anything we want as long as we have enough stones."

This was followed by Krishok's statement.

"The blowers were not too hard either. We had a little bit of trouble designing the thing because it was all new to us," He admitted, "But once we figured that out, the problem was just getting the leather tanned large enough and making the metal hinges strong enough to hold the wood planks together.

"Haha, I see, "Alexander gently chuckled, and then in a mysterious tone asked, "I remember that this kiln needed around two weeks to build, am I right?"

"Yes, my lord," Jazum nodded, though his heart uncharacteristically skipped a beat hearing Alexander's tone.

And his instinct proved to be correct, for Alexander declared, "Good! Given that you have gained much experience building the kiln, then the next ones should be easy."

'Darn,' Jazum's and Krishok's heart's leaped up to their throats, as Alexander's gentle, but to them, devilish voice entered their ears.

"So, I want ten new kilns within three months!" Alexander dropped the bombshell, proving the two men's instinct right.

"Tha…that…" Jazum was lost for words, while Krishok literally jumped back a bit.

Alexander had directly dropped the average allocated time from around 14 days to 9 days, literally a 35% drop.

But Alexander was unfazed by this subconscious display of unwillingness.

"You two should be aware of the infrastructure projects going on. And you of all people know the best just how much cement is used up just how quickly," Alexander said, reminding, "Remember, this one relatively small kiln took you four tons of cement and twelve tons of sand."

"...We will work hard, my lord," Jazum could barely hold back sighing in front of his lord and breaking etiquette as he replied in a deflated tone.

'Welp, and here I was thinking of celebrating the new year with the kids,' He lampooned.

But he decided to suck it anyway, for Alexander's reminder made him and also Krishok, understand just how much cement would be needed for the close to a thousand huge four-storied buildings, the aqueducts, the sewage, the roads, and the many other kinds of projects waiting to be made.

'We might be making cement kilns for the rest of our lives,' The two men in unison lampooned.

"Mmm, I look forward to it," Alexander legally nodded.

But then hearing how anemic the reply was and knowing that the men were likely saying yes because denying his request was not really an option for the two men. he still decided to sweeten the spartan deal for the two.

"If you can meet the deadline, I will make both of you Shordars (Baron)," Alexander did promise them peerage for great achievements and decided to fulfill them.

This produced the expected excitement and jubilation as the man gave the standard reply of bowing and kneeling and swearing the oath, "We swear to serve you loyalty and wholeheartedly for all eternity."

"Hahaha, work hard," Alexander was always impressed by how fatigue, pain, and unwillingness could be wiped away through the application of enough rewards.

Some might feel that offering land and an inheritable title to be overly generous for what was basically them making something that Alexander designed.

But Alexander had decided to give them it anyway.

This was because these two were already in the council seats and there was little point in haggling over something that was inevitable.

It was not like they would remain civilians for their whole life.

And besides, he will have grander projects in the future, projects which will need its higher-ups to be tight-lipped about them so as not to attract prying eyes, and for that, in addition to competence, loyalty was paramount.

There were many competent people under Alexander.

And there were also many loyal people under him.

But finding a man sharing both qualities was like fishing for one rare shiny pocket monster.

A very hard and elusive search indeed.

So how to search for or in case develop such loyalty among subordinates towards oneself?

Alexander's answer was- To try and buy it of course.

He planned to throw money, land, and benefits at the problem and hopefully ensnare them to his boat.