Herald of Steel

Alexander's other workshops too received similar love as the glass workshops.

The soap workshops got themselves quite a few upgrades, with all the preparation areas getting bigger and better with even more people employed, along with many additional vats used to cook the soap or its initial ingredient in. 

Among them, three vats particularly stood out, due to their sheer size.

These were made of cement, built using this instead of metal to ensure the ingredients did not react in any way, and each of these huge cooking pots was almost two stories high, with an enormous, roaring fire going on beneath them, all of them possessing a capacity of close to fifty tons.

These were so large in fact that a special wooden paddle mechanism operated by two mules had to be designed just to stir the viscous mixture.

These vats would never be taken off the fire and were constantly added with ingredients that were either sourced through various trades or mined back home, thus making these huge pots constantly keep manufacturing the product. 

They also had many openable portholes along the walls, allowing the mixture to be periodically tapped off into huge barrels.

These barrels would then be spread on a gigantic flat cement floor to cool, cut into appropriate sizes once solidified, stamped with Alexander's logo, and lastly individually wrapped in colorful paper before being shipped out.

Following the soap workshops, came the paper manufacturing one.

The man formerly in charge of it was Azizak, but since he had sadly died, a replacement was chosen.

And under him, paper production had quadrupled, and was expected to even reach ten times by the end of next year.

This massive increase was of course initiated by a massive expansion, with all parts of the operation being enlarged by multiple folds, and even having a new branch added, called the printing branch.

By this point, this shop employed probably the most workers out of all the workshops, with an amazingly ninety percent of them being women.

This was because paper making was a unique process requiring much labor but needing very little strength, with more emphasis being placed on dexterity, making it a perfect job for women.

But where did Alexander get so many women when he was still short of labor?

Well, that was where the 20,000 people Lady Miranda had sent him this year came in.

Among them were around 8,000 females of all ages, with 6,000 eligible to work.

And Alexander made it mandatory for a significant part of them to work in his paper shop. 

While many of the men, who were these women's brothers, fathers, and sons all worked in the other workshops, as well as being employed in the sugar 'factory'.

And it was not wrong to call it a factory, as given the insatiable hunger people had expressed at this nectar from heaven, Alexander indeed was building something like a factory.

It was not complete yet, but the major pieces had already been set.

This sugar making workshop occupied the most area out of all the workshops, in fact once completed, it would cover almost a third of the total space.

And the reason for requiring such huge space was the few massive 'machinery' Alexander had designed and commissioned to be built.

The most prominent of them were the two huge waterwheels that drove a special millstone designed to crush beetroots instead of grain, thus quickly and efficiently squeezing out the juice, while at the same time separating the solid leftovers, which would be either used as animal feed or even bought in bulk by some of the more poor people to be used in cooking.

Thus once built, these two waterwheels would completely remove the tedious and very expensive process of individually cutting and boiling the vegetables in hot water to extract the juice, thus greatly reducing cost and increasing efficiency. 

Alexander also built those huge vats like he had done for the soap workshop here, with an identical mechanism, which would be used to boil the juices to extract the sugar.

But unlike just the three that Alexander needed back in the soap workshop, here Alexander needed them by the dozens, lining them up like a train of chimneys, all spewing white steam from daybreak to dusk.

Alexander was also in the midst of constructing a dedicated coke oven used to roast coal and turn it into coke, to be used in whitening the sugar.

Alexander additionally added separating sieves to his operation in order to separate the grains into more evenly sized groups, each selling at different prices, 

And lastly, Alexander was building huge warehouses to properly store the literally ten thousand tonnes of beetroots he was producing each year.

All of that needed a lot of space.

And lastly there was Gelene's shop which too saw its fair share of expansion, where the fabric output of her shop tripled, though she did complain to Alexander about the lack of skilled tailors, which caused her bottlenecks in making her lingerie.

Gelene was also not simply content with making women's underwear by now and seemed to be dipping her toes in also making traditional dresses, though those efforts were still only baby steps.

And as of right now, she was busy fulfilling a part of Alexander's order, where he wanted to make enough winter clothes to supply to his soldiers.

That was the reason behind the huge order of linen and wool from Lady Inayah and Pasha Farzah.

One workshop that many might have noticed missing in the mention was the crossbow and armor shop, and the reason for that was Alexander simply chose to merge that with the official military weapons production plant, and relocated it to the eastern military district.

And replacing in its place was Alexander's huge civilian iron tools workshop, from where he wished to meet all the everyday demands of iron for his populace.

This was a huge market and Alexander had left it largely untapped. 

For instance, Adhania had a demand of around 30,000 tons of iron annually, along with 120,000 tons of bronze and 150,000 tons of lead.

The former two were absolute necessities in making almost everything from cooking utensils such as pots and pans, to tools of all kinds like hammers, plows, knives, cleavers, etc., to construction materials such as nails, fasteners, joints, and shafts, to lastly, and the most glaring of all, as weapons and armors of every kind.

While lead was also used to make many of these, though its biggest use was in plumbing, i.e.- making water pipes out of them.

And Alexander felt he could substitute this entire 300,000 ton annual demand entirely with iron.

Because what those metals could do, iron could do better, with iron being better than bronze in every way and lead being toxic.

So even if Alexander wanted to take over only half of the market, he still could expand his business for the foreseeable future without worries, as his current annual production was only around 10,000 tons.

And this was not to even mention that the 300,000 tons demand was only domestic, and if the neighboring regions were to be taken into account, it would be multiple times that.

Hence, Alexander was really looking forward to setting up this gigantic workshop. 

The last notable point regarding trade this year was the arrival of Lord Klysar, who was the envoy Cantagena had sent previously and this time he came much more prepared, prepared to huge quantities of Zanzan's local delicacies, exchanging them for both gold as well as goods such as expensive pottery, beautiful furniture, jewelry, food, and a few thousand slaves and animals.

Alexander this time did not personally negotiate with him, but instead let Heliptos oversee it, feeling the man should get some experience.

Following Alexander's experiences of trade over the last year, came the issue of politics.

And regarding this, it was totally quiet all around, with no attempt at changes to the status quo being made by either side.

Back in Adhan and Matrak, Ptolomy and Pasha Farzah worked hard to strengthen themselves both internally by boosting their economy and rebuilding their armed forces, as well as by trying to make new allies, 

And Amenheraft's efforts exactly mirrored that.

This silent battle felt almost uncomfortable as if it was the lull before the storm.

As for Mikaya, Alexander heard bits and pieces of a suitable man being chosen for her, but it still seemed all hush hush and under wraps till now.

This was all news out of Zanzan.

As for the inside, well it was all the same too, the only major event being the opening of the council hall which he called the parliament building where Alexander and others could gather and discuss matters of the realm.

It was a huge, dome-shaped building, built right in the middle of the city, at the heart of the central district, rising out of the ground with its marbled stone structure, bound together by cement.

Alexander had modeled it after the Roman senate, with benches arranged in a tiered, semi- circular fashion, with there being two raised platforms at the front of the chamber, the one above designated for Alexander, while the one below for the presiding officials, 

The entire building was still in the midst of being furnished properly, with all kinds of luxurious and expensive decorations being installed in it, so that it could reflect its honored status.

And though the building was just open, it had already held many discussions of serious note, particularly discussions regarding the army, the economy, and Tibias.