Chapter 293: Chapter 289: Development of the Northern Territory
Currently, the settlement construction in the Northern Territory is not limited to just Fjord Town and Shay’s settlement; several settlements are simultaneously under construction.
One of them is run by a businessman who successfully bid for the Pioneer Knight documents at an auction. After Perfikot clarified the Pioneer Knight’s mission, he straightforwardly invested in the Northern Territory and appointed his representative to oversee the construction of his domain.
Perfikot allows this situation, as long as those with Pioneer Knight documents establish settlements in the Northern Territory, develop it according to her plan, and execute her orders thoroughly, she doesn’t mind if these people reside long-term in the Northern Territory or if the one in charge isn’t the Pioneer Knight themselves.
Thus, although there are quite a number of Pioneer Knights in the Northern Territory and Perfikot has issued several Pioneer Knight documents, most of the territories are managed by appointed representatives.
These representatives, strictly speaking, do not have much authority; they are just representatives for the Pioneer Knights. However, they receive backing from their forces back in the Empire, so money and resources are not an issue for them.
Those who can afford to buy Pioneer Knight documents or have the influence to acquire them from Perfikot are certainly not ordinary individuals. The social and material resources they can mobilize are, in a sense, even greater than those of Perfikot, the Count of the Northern Territory.
Because of this, the construction of each settlement is prospering, much like bamboo shoots after a spring rain.
Someone like Shay, an isolated individual without external support, is not non-existent but definitely a rare exception.
Of course, another important premise and factor here is that there aren’t many people in the Northern Territory currently.
This lack of people is in comparison with the Empire’s heartland; if disregarded, the Northern Territory’s total population, comprising several tens of thousands scattered across various settlements, is not insignificant in number.
Perfikot isn’t swayed by these seemingly optimistic numbers and continues with her petroleum distillation experiments in the laboratory.
She clearly understands that tens of thousands of people are insignificant for the entire Northern Territory, more so for the Empire.
Therefore, she needs to leverage these wealthy individuals who can bid on Pioneer Knight documents, using their networks to bring more people into the Northern Territory.
Otherwise, relying solely on Robert’s recruitment in Langton might mean waiting ten years for a sufficient population.
In this regard, those young people from noble families have considerable experience; even their appointed representatives quickly grasped the situation and began attracting more immigrants, with some directly setting up recruitment stalls in Langton to draw people willing to come to the Northern Territory.
This has allowed many settlements to gain a substantial population right from the beginning.
However, correspondingly, with more people comes greater food consumption. These people they recruited themselves have undeniably increased the grain consumption rate of these newly established settlements.
Grain that could have lasted until the harvest season is being consumed rapidly, forcing them to spend more money and resources to purchase food for their territories.
Overall, the construction progress of these settlements exceeds expectations, and food supply can be supplemented by sea routes, so this aspect is not a significant issue.
At least for now, there haven’t been any unexpected events.
Based on the statistics from the Flying Airships, some settlements have already completed house construction and are beginning to strengthen and expand the settlements further.
Even those with the slowest progress have basically completed the necessary construction tasks, making their settlements quite presentable.
However, Perfikot doesn’t concern herself with this. She focuses more on the various aspects of the Northern Territory plans.
After adjustments by the alchemists, White Steel met Perfikot’s requirements, offering decent metallic performance in extreme cold environments at a relatively low cost.
However, even so, White Steel hasn’t yet been mass-produced.
On one hand, White Steel is still a laboratory product; to produce it on a large scale, there needs to be large-scale steel smelting equipment and Alchemy Workshop to manufacture additives.
Conveniently, Perfikot lacks neither of these.
There are more than one Alchemy Workshops in the Northern Territory.
Aside from her own Alchemy Workshop, still in a scattered state, Oliver also reestablished the Alchemy Workshop he moved from Langton to Fjord Town, currently providing inexpensive alchemical products to pioneers landing in Fjord Town.
After all, constructing settlements in the Northern Territory is no easy task, and there is indeed a demand for some alchemical products.
Perfikot has not operated her Alchemy Workshop; instead, she has tasked Oliver with producing the additives needed for White Steel, allowing him to play to his strengths.
Once these additives were produced, Perfikot had them shipped by Flying Airship to Andrew’s Steel Company, indicating to him to start production according to the White Steel formula, providing the Northern Territory with a batch of this cold-resistant steel.
However, Perfikot isn’t particularly enthusiastic about White Steel. In her opinion, besides replacing ordinary steel in construction, it could also be used to make Steam Knight armor for better adaptation to the Northern Territory’s environment.
Perfikot is cautious in this regard, preferring to develop a new metal formula herself rather than directly applying White Steel to Steam Knight armor production.
It’s not a matter of distrusting the work results of the alchemists, but since replacing the primary material involves the overall design of the Steam Knight armor, Perfikot must handle it prudently.
As for Andrew selling this special material all over the Northern Territory after White Steel production, Perfikot didn’t intervene much.
Andrew’s ability to sell it to every settlement is his skill, which Perfikot appreciates about this iron merchant, as he truly has the capability and is indeed bold and vigorous.
This newly verified material is indeed useful during settlement construction since these cold-resistant materials are better suited to the Northern Territory’s environment than ordinary steel.
Moreover, it’s better to use White Steel from the beginning rather than replacing ordinary steel with it after winter arrives or an apocalyptic winter descends.