Herald of Steel

Alexander was aware that with his background of being a Thesian, gaining the Adhanian's loyalty would be very hard.

And to promote it Alexander had three basic grand strategies set up.

The first strategy was to make himself a god by promoting his religion.

The second strategy was to be generous with his rewards.

This was the reason Alexander had the reputation of having a loose purse.

Because for a man with the lowly background of a slave, that was the fastest way for him to gain loyalty and respect.

Alexander knew that while in his previous life individual abilities and achievements were looked up to and honored, here, in this time period, bloodline trumped all.

And so his strategy to overcome this handicap was simple, increase the benefits of people following him and thus make it unprofitable for them to jump ship.

And the third and last strategy was tied to the second point, which was to increase his total wealth, thus enabling him to hand out better benefits.

And to do that, Alexander planned to increase trade, introduce new and unique products and establish new trade routes as a means to finance these expenditures.

Or that was the plan way.

For only time would tell of their efficacy.

After bidding farewell to Jazum and Krishok, Alexander then moved to see the warehouse where the product from the kin, called clinkers, were being stored.

The small pebble-like semi-cement would be pulled by twin horses, each carrying two tonnes of the stuff until it was deposited into the warehouse where they would be made into portland cement.

And so Alexander was interested to see its operation.

This was because the process of turning the raw clinkers to cement was something Alexander had the intention of fiercely guarding as, though he knew that he could not keep the manufacturing process of cement a secret for much time, he could easily hide the addition of 4% gypsum.

And though that 4% might sound not like a lot, it was a critical component and the only thing controlling the hardening time of the product when water was added.

Thus a sly smile broke out of Alexander as he looked forward to seeing his opponent toil away to recreate the product, only to find that the 'so called' miracle powder instantly turning to solid after adding water, making the thing pretty useless.

But for this to work, it was imperative that the secrecy regarding the addition of gypsum needed to be kept under the strictest of security.

And that's why Alexander was going there, to judge the security of the complex.

Alexander was greeted by the caretaker of the warehouse right at the gate of the enclosed structure, a short, thin man with two huge buckteeth by the name of Yemin, who was flanked by two large, muscular soldiers.

"Welcome, my lord, welcome." The man wearing a grey, worn-out oat had a wide grin pasted on his face as he bowed to Alexander.

This unassuming man, hand chosen by Camius himself, was among the select few who knew the real recipe, something not even Jazum and Krishok were privy to, and his get-up was thus very intentional, designed not to draw too much attention to himself.

And to ensure that he did not say anything to anyone, by his own permission, all his movements and conversations were strictly monitored and recorded.

The two bodyguards with him were as much his protectors from potential kidnapping as they were his jailors, making sure he kept his tongue in check.

"Yemin, how goes the product sale!" Alexander gave a gentle smile at the loyal man as he patted familiarly on the man's shoulder.

This man was once in the first phalanx and one of Camius's and by extension Alexander's best snitches.

"Haha, by the grace of my lord, well," The man with a wide smile replied, and then invited them in, "Please, Your Grace, please enter."

As Alexander entered the huge enclosed complex, the dull thudding sound from the outside had turned into an ear-splittingly loud boom, constantly and almost rhythmically hitting his ears.

This was because outside the actual huge wooden warehouse. all around the entire premises was the ear-smashing sound of hammering going on.

Alexander spun his head around as he observed the operations for himself while on his way to inspect the warehouse.

He saw workers swarming the recently arrived carts, using small shovels and even their hands to get the clinkers onto small buckets, which then they would dump into various small nearby pits, surrounding which were two to three strong men holding huge bronze sledgehammers.

Once the pit was filled, these men would get to work, lifting their huge, heavy sledgehammers high into the sky and then bringing them down with a mighty smash, progressively turning the small, innocent pebbles to dust under each merciless hit.

"How many people we got working here?" Alexander asked…no, shouted at Yemin.

"About fifteen hundred, my lord," Yemin shouted back, and then gave the breakdown,

"We have a thousand men working the two hundred and fifty pits in two-man teams, both day and night. all day long."

'Hmmm, that's fifty kilograms per shift per team. Not bad,' Alexander gave an approving nod at the speed, understanding this might be close to their maximum limit.

Yemin was still saying, "We have another fifty men crushing the gypsum. But they don't work here, my lord. They work at the mines where the gypsum is mined and we directly bring the crushed product along with our everyday supplies like food and drinks."

"And because the two powders look the same, even the mixers don't know what they are mixing. They think it is the same powder, and are told that to make the cement, the raw powders need to be thoroughly and finely mixed, like kneading a dough," Yemir had a crafty tone to his voice.

"Smart," Alexander had not ordered this and was impressed by the man's cautiousness.

"Thank you, my lord," Yemin bowed with a light smile, and afterward continued,

"And the rest are for doing all the miscellaneous work. They do everything from driving the carts to unloading the carts to filling the pits to mixing the powder to everything you can around you sire." Yemin finished by swinging his right arm wildly to draw the Pasha's attention to his surrounding.

And thus Alexander, urged by his subordinate, once again scanned his surroundings to see all the various hectic activities taking place around him.

Some workers were emptying the pits by scooping up the finely ground powder to then carry it into the warehouse, some were loading the finished Portland cement onto carts to deliver them to various places, well only two places for now, either to Diaogosis to finish his house construction or to Uzak to make his roads, and some were there for miscellaneous tasks like feeding the horses, serving meals for the men and doing other odd jobs like cleaning and various errands.

"Master here," At last at the entrance of the warehouse, Yemin gestured for Alexander to enter before him, though it was largely unnecessary.

For the previously used grain silo's huge door was fully ajar and people flowed in and out of the structure like lines of ants, all either carrying the white powder or carrying the empty bucket that used to carry the white powder.

Surprisingly Alexander's arrival did not cause too much upheaval even at the mouth of the warehouse.

This was because, one- he did not want to cause any and kept his identity secret, and two, which was the more important one- because none of the workers here really knew Alexander.

They of course knew who he was, but only by reputation, i.e- they had heard of him but never seen him.

And with their own boss having armed escorts and many people like Diaogosis coming to him for more cement, who had their own entourages, Alexander's small group of bodyguards did not attract much attention.

Alexander glanced inside the huge two-story high room and found it to have no windows, which was perfectly normal given grain used to be stored there.

But now, this supposedly dark, damp was completely transformed as its doors let in huge amounts of golden sunlight while the insides were too lit by massive torches and brasiers.

And the reason for that was at the center of the room a very curious action was going on.

He could see hundreds, if not thousands of barrels being rolled around on the ground, being kicked and shoved by what Alexander estimated to be around a hundred people.

"Just as you instructed lord Pasha, those barrels are first filled with gypsum of the appropriate amount and then a premeasured amount of the freshly ground clinkers are added. After that the barrels are sealed and rolled by hand…or feet for a few minutes, thus properly mixing the mixture." Yemin explained the entire act.

"Then the barrels are then emptied and the powders are stored there," He finished by then pointing to the huge mountains of cement near the walls of the warehouse, which were constantly being nibbled at by workers carrying large buckets and then loading them into waiting carts.

"Hmmm," Alexander formed a tiny scowl as he observed this highly labor-intensive, but very inefficient process.

Even though it was Alexander himself who had designed this process, on seeing it firsthand, he was beginning to understand that perhaps this was not the best method.

'Isn't there a better way?' He then asked himself, wanting to speed up the mixing process.

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