Chapter 823
Chapter 823
Shen Lang stood on the deck, gazing at the four ships. These were his seeds. After half a year in the Western world, he finally had an army of his own. Though it was a small force of only two thousand men, they were an elite army, belonging entirely to Shen Lang. Of course, this too was something he had obtained through women, but wasn't benefiting from women a kind of skill in itself? After traveling tens of thousands of miles across the Western world and bustling about for half a year, he had gained the outstanding direct forces of Black Pearl, Meng Luonan, Nan Feng, and Zhang Chunhua, along with two thousand soldiers. It was well worth the hardship. The most difficult part of building a house is laying the foundation. Now that the foundation was laid, it wouldn't be long before a skyscraper was erected.
‘I will go and build a city of my own. I must begin developing gunpowder and cannons.’
* * *
Shen Lang's fleet sailed ever eastward. During the voyage, they continuously encountered fleets of the Third Seiren Empire and numerous grain transport ships. But since Shen Lang was flying a pirate flag, they did not encroach upon each other's territory. They ran into some trouble in the Ten Thousand Mile Sea, but there was no real danger, and Black Pearl easily handled it.
From experience, the rules of pirates at sea were incredibly convenient. Only a deviant like Qiu Yao'er would wage endless war; the rest of the pirates rarely engaged in immediate combat, preferring to negotiate. What was even more baffling was that they encountered many merchant ships along the way. While the merchants avoided them, they also sent over gold coins according to the rules, signaling for them not to plunder. Even when they met larger pirate crews, they didn't initiate battle. Both sides communicated using signal flags, and Black Pearl conveyed that they were merely passing through and had no intention of infringing upon the other's maritime rights.
Shen Lang found this situation lamentable. With the Seiren Dynasty fractured, these waters had become a pirate's paradise. There were no natural enemies, no government fleets surrounding and annihilating them. As long as pirates didn't trespass on each other's territory, there were no conflicts. The other side even sent over food and fine wine.
Queen's City was over fifteen thousand miles from Shen Lang's destination, so they had to dock at a port midway to replenish supplies. Anyone else would have been finished, but Black Pearl was as familiar with every pirate supply base as she was with her own home. Each time, she smoothly replenished their supplies, getting whatever they wanted just by paying.
After a long voyage of twenty-seven days, Shen Lang finally reached his destination: the southernmost tip of the Green Tide Peninsula. This place was close enough to Saltpeter Island, and the abandoned iron mine on the peninsula made it the most suitable location for Shen Lang's base. Of course, this place was too close to Duke Dybas's Jade Gold City. But wasn't the Duke still over ten thousand miles away? She was currently ambitious, preparing to establish the Third Seiren Empire and completely destroy the Witch Empire. Thus, Shen Lang had a golden period of several months to develop his forces, during which he would face no enemies.
‘From this day forward, this peninsula belongs to me, Shen Lang.’
“Make landfall and build a city!”
At Shen Lang's command, more than two thousand people disembarked from the ships and landed on the southernmost tip of the Green Tide Peninsula. With this, Shen Lang's grand enterprise was officially underway.
And time flew by like an arrow. In the blink of an eye, fifty days had passed.
* * *
It had only been a month and a half since Shen Lang and his two thousand men landed on the Green Tide Peninsula, and everything could only be described as unusually smooth. After landing on the peninsula, they encountered no resisting forces, for the simple reason that there was no one there to begin with. Many years ago, this place had been a mine belonging to the Russo family, where they smelted iron. Now, there were many mine pits and abandoned smelting workshops.
Several years ago, Duke Dybas had suddenly abandoned this mine. Why? Because the iron ore mined here had too high a sulfur content, making the smelted iron too soft. Of course, even so, smelting iron for daily necessities from this mine could still yield enormous profits. But the Russo family had discovered a higher-quality iron mine and abandoned this one. So, Shen Lang and his two thousand men were able to easily occupy this place and build a city.
That's right, what they intended to build was a city. Typically, when building a city, how long does it take just to construct a single fortress tower? Qiu Tianwei spent over ten years building the great fortress of Raging Tide City, the Russo family's ducal castle took over twenty years, and the royal palace of Queen's City took a full twenty-seven years to complete. So how long would it take Shen Lang to build a city? Shen Lang's goal was to build a city capable of housing one hundred thousand people within half a year.
When he stated this goal, everyone was dumbfounded, thinking he was talking in his sleep. How large would a city for one hundred thousand people be? Even if built compactly, it would require about ten square kilometers of land. To build a city six *li* to a side with only two thousand people would take roughly two to three years if built with wood, and at least five years if built with stone. But half a year? That truly sounded like the ravings of a fool.
However, when Shen Lang, like a magician, began producing one new thing after another, everyone was left staring in amazement. First, he abandoned the two traditional building materials: wood and stone. While both were excellent for building cities, construction with them took far too long. The first thing he produced was cement. Some might say: Doesn't building with cement take even longer? It has to be baked, dried, and ground into powder—isn't that a labor-intensive industry?
The explanation doesn't end there. For as luck would have it, Shen Lang had found a truly auspicious land.
Not far from here was an island called Fiery Island. The island had an active volcano that erupted every few years. So, what was most abundant on that volcanic island? Volcanic ash. When mixed with lime, volcanic ash becomes volcanic ash cement. It might sound very primitive, but this type of cement was actually quite sturdy, and the materials could be supplied simply by having ships continuously transport the volcanic ash. And the lime? The Green Tide Peninsula, where Shen Lang was, had several limestone deposits. Therefore, from the very beginning, cement production could be extremely high, limited only by his fleet's ability to transport the volcanic ash.
The second item Shen Lang produced was not something rare, but bricks. He mobilized a thousand men to fire bricks and built several kilns. As soon as the bricks were fired, they were immediately used to build houses, all of which were two stories high. Since they had no steel reinforcement bars yet, they could only build up to two stories with just bricks and cement. Later, Shen Lang even found this pace of construction too slow and began mass-producing large blocks out of cement, which made building houses even faster.
Thus, the Green Tide Peninsula developed anew each day, with houses springing up one after another like mushrooms after rain.
* * *
Only a month and a half had passed, yet a medium-sized town had already taken shape. Furthermore, Shen Lang's followers, initially only two thousand strong, had now grown to five thousand. The additional three thousand were all slaves he had purchased. Naturally, after buying them, he granted them all the status of free people. Despite this, the slaves did not seem particularly joyous and remained sullen. But when they were given new houses to live in, they could no longer contain their joy.
Most slaves lived in places like pigsties; even the slaves of nobles lived with dozens crammed into a single room. But here, every two people shared a room, with twelve people to a house. They were so happy they could have cried. To the slaves, these square, two-story brick houses were like palaces.
The only drawback was that the slaves' work efficiency was much lower than that of the soldiers. It wasn't that they weren't trying, but that they were too dull-witted. The vast majority of slaves could only perform the simplest repetitive tasks. For example, firing bricks, burning lime, and mixing cement according to a fixed ratio. So, after these slaves were brought in, the two thousand soldiers under Shen Lang could finally be freed from tedious labor and focus on more advanced tasks.
* * *
Shen Lang opened the box left by Jiang Li. In fact, he could have opened it long ago. Because when moonlight shone on the box, a series of Roman numerals and Latin letters appeared on its surface. It was a box that required a password. When he discovered this, Shen Lang was quite surprised. This was undoubtedly another product of an ancient civilization, and it must contain a Nightmare Stone inside to serve as a power source.
So, what was the password to this box? In any case, it was a long, nineteen-digit number. Anyone else would have been unable to open this box, but Shen Lang knew the password the moment he saw it. The password was exceedingly obvious. There was a circle on the surface of the box, so the password was undoubtedly pi.
As soon as Shen Lang entered 3.141592653589793 using the Latin letters, the box immediately opened. Inside were five vials of medicinal pills, five ancient texts, and various materials recorded by Jiang Li, totaling over several hundred thousand characters. After reading them, Shen Lang couldn't help but be amazed. This was nothing short of a great treasure. In particular, the materials recorded by Jiang Li contained many important secrets of the Western world.
The awkward part was that Jiang Li had not originally intended to leave this box for Shen Lang, but for Princess Helene. Just as Shen Lang doted on his own daughter, Jiang Li was no exception. However, not long after Princess Helene was born, Jiang Li left the New Continent and returned to the Great Yan Dynasty. That was why he had left the most precious things for his daughter.
Over the past month and a half, Shen Lang had spent most of his time studying the treasures left by Jiang Li. The contents were so important that they were like a guiding light for Shen Lang to navigate the future situation.
To give a few examples: In the materials, Jiang Li told Helene where a large fire-oil mine was located. This so-called fire-oil was, of course, petroleum. He also recorded the locations of large gold mines and top-quality iron mines. These things were not the most amazing; what was more important was that he had marked the locations of two buried ancient ruins and recorded the history, taboos, and many secrets of the Amazon warrior tribe. In any case, this box left by His Highness Jiang Li was like an immense treasure to Shen Lang, and he studied its contents so intently that he forgot to eat and sleep.