Chapter 479 - 25: Factory (Part 2)
The large wide planks on the island all came from spacetime cutting, all being luxurious solid wood materials.
These precious hardwoods, which in modern times would be used to support tea tables or in the solid wood furniture, solid wood flooring of wealthy homes, were here by Chen Zhou simply used as forms to contain concrete and would be chopped up for firewood once used.
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Compared with binding steel bars, the difficulty of installing wood molds was significantly reduced.
It didn’t take long for the indigenous people to layer by layer install the wood molds, then under Chen Zhou’s command, they divided into groups to pour the foundation concrete.
In the process, they also needed to compact the concrete to prevent honeycombing and rough surfaces.
After completing the foundational work, the indigenous people, while learning structural installation from Chen Zhou, also transported various components like steel columns, steel beams, roof frames to the side of the construction site for easy use during construction.
Additionally, they needed to maintain the concrete foundation after pouring, removing the forms and compacting soil backfill after a full week of moisture maintenance.
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One task followed another.
As soon as the soil was compacted, the indigenous people began the next phase of construction.
Chen Zhou planned to first carry out column foundation construction to support the factory, then build other structures and finally assemble the components.
The construction of column foundations was similar in method to foundational base construction, allowing the increasingly skilled indigenous people to complete the work competently without Chen Zhou’s excessive oversight.
However, the component assembly process was comparatively more complex.
Chen Zhou had to figure out how to hoist the steel columns to the top of the factory, correct the angle, fix it with steel wedges, and finally pour the concrete.
As for the construction of the beams and roof frames, it was even more troublesome. He had to accurately place the beams and roof frames in the correct positions and weld them at height.
Fortunately, the photovoltaic panels and storage batteries could function normally, solving the problem of using a welder; otherwise, Chen Zhou would have had to use homemade metal parts to fix the beams and roof frames, and the roof would not have been as solid as welding.
Anyone who can achieve better quality, who would want to compromise?
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Aside from assembling the framework, in the process of building the reinforced concrete factory, Chen Zhou also had to keep an eye on reserving pipes.
When setting up the foundation, he had pre-emptively reserved drainage pipes for wastewater discharge.
During the construction of the upper structure, even more pipes needed to be reserved.
Considering that steam engines might be used as a power source in the future, Chen Zhou reserved space beforehand for the installation of hot water pipes.
Photovoltaic panels and storage batteries couldn’t all be placed outside; Chen Zhou planned to set aside a separate room on the second floor where two photovoltaic panels would be laid on the roof, and the panel lines would pass through reserved wiring passages into the room to connect with the storage batteries.
This arrangement would ensure the photovoltaic panels captured sunlight while the storage batteries were protected.
Once the storage batteries are fully charged, they could be directly swapped inside the room.
The factory required electricity in many areas, and with such a room available, simply transporting storage batteries can meet the electricity demands of various zones, making it extremely convenient.
Moreover, Chen Zhou foresaw that with the mysterious rewards arriving one after another, there would definitely be more than just these two photovoltaic panels generating electricity, and more than four storage batteries, hence while reserving hot water pipes, he also reserved wiring pipes in the wall designs.
Pipes running through every part of the factory were like highways.
Now, they only awaited the influx of vehicles to lead Chen Zhou and the indigenous people into a more beautiful, advanced era.
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Starting is always the hardest.
From bewildered, punished with lost meals to gaining familiarity and gradually understanding the methods of constructing reinforced concrete buildings, to helping the Leader in construction adjustments, the indigenous people’s progress was astonishingly fast.
With steel bar bindings, wood mold installations, and cement pouring, a gray, square, and rectangular factory slowly took shape.
Sixty sunrises and sunsets, the stars shifting, witnessed the growth of its steel skeleton and the filling of solid flesh.
When Chen Zhou and the indigenous people used a self-made simple crane to hoist heavy steel beams and roof frames to the nearly 10m high roof, everyone realized that this long, vast project finally neared its end.
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The first dry season each year on the island was especially lengthy.
From mid-April to mid-August, this nearly half-year period provided Chen Zhou with enough construction time.
Mysterious rewards acted as small milestones in the process of challenges, leading him step by step to maturity and decline.
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Double strands of wire rope hung with the roof frame, Chen Zhou, wearing protective gear, marked each joint of the roof frame with a welder in the dim sight.
The indigenous people wore rattan safety hats, some looked up from the second floor towards the Leader, others assisted on the rooftop.
The sizzling sound of the welder, its dazzling light, and the Leader silhouetted against the rising sun always left them feeling dazed.
As Chen Zhou speculated before —
Technology ahead by a hundred years invites envy, technology three hundred years ahead inspires awe and even worship.
From the Stone Age to the Iron Age was just enhanced metal application; in wars, it was still cold weapons clashing, which was something visible and tangible.
From the Iron Age to the Electric Age, that was a qualitative leap.
Understanding the fundamental rules of world operations allowed humans to gain from forces invisible to the naked eye or untouchable by man.
Light, electricity, gas — these things visible, intangible, or even both invisible and intangible were completely unknown to the indigenous people.
Someone who can kill with an iron knife, they saw as a Warrior.
Someone who can emit light or generate intense energy to melt metal out of thin air, this ability, they simply could not comprehend or figure out regardless of thought.
This confusion, akin to their inability to understand how the solid-as-a-rock "Divine Hall" beneath their feet was formed, even though they participated in its entire construction process.
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Chen Zhou, this "Leader," was unlike anyone the indigenous people had ever seen.
He had a particularly unusual trait — the more they learned, the less they understood.
The indigenous people could, through interaction, discern their original Leader’s temperament, grasp the old Priest’s methods of impressment, or stealthily learn techniques from skilled Canoe makers.
Even those who arrived before them on the island, Saturday and Sunday, they could guess mostly their essence.
Only Chen Zhou.
The more they tried to understand him, the more they found him to be a conundrum, like an amalgamation of countless arcane knowledge.
In the textbooks he wrote for the indigenous people, he gathered a vast amount of knowledge.
For instance, the thousand-character text the indigenous people recently had to memorize; its first sentence already overturned their worldview.
"The heavens and earth are mysterious and yellow, the universe is vast and desolate, the sun and moon wax and wane, the constellations align."
What is heaven and earth? What is chaos? What are stars? What is time and space?
These were knowledge the indigenous people never contemplated, now being poured into their minds by Chen Zhou, threatening to burst their brains open.
Sometimes, after learning new knowledge, the suffering indigenous people would think it would be nice to have a God capable of explaining everything like in their tribe.
The rules governing the world were truly complex.
There was so much unknown knowledge, they would rather be the "fools" or "idiots" as the Leader said, living happily.
Moreover, the knowledge entwined with the Leader was far from just this.
There was even more complex and enormous knowledge —
Mathematics, physics, chemistry.
These types of knowledge were completely incomprehensible to the indigenous people.
The strange little symbols, jargons difficult to pronounce, intricate symbols, formulas like heavenly scripts, and various names — mastering these would be more burdensome than death itself for them.
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Under the "education plan" devised by Chen Zhou, the indigenous gradually transferred their fear and reverence for knowledge to the Leader himself.
Fortunately, the indigenous harbored endless respect and goodwill towards this Leader who brought them a better life.
Otherwise, Chen Zhou, combining all sorts of "indescribable" knowledge, would possibly become the 17th century’s first terrifying God-like figure possessing Lovecraftian qualities.
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In summary, draped in the afterglow of sunset, welding the roof frame at the highest point, the Leader, in the eyes of the indigenous people, even if not a God was the closest being to a deity in the world —
This was what all of them believed.