Extreme Cold Era: Shelter Don't Keep Waste-Chapter 513 - 483: The Energy Tower of the New Continent
"Alright then, let’s construct two large Energy Towers in New Shaker City, and use the Energy Towers as a foundation to build underground shelters." Within the Governor’s mansion office, Perfikot and a group of Engineers were discussing how to build Energy Towers in New Shaker City.
With the establishment of the Northern Territory’s industrial system, the current resource demands for constructing Energy Towers and shelters in the Northern Territory have become self-sufficient. Thus, the industrial output on the New Continent can be shifted to provide resources for the New Continent itself, allowing Energy Towers and shelters to be constructed here.
However, planning to build Energy Towers on the New Continent is challenging because these locations are within cities.
In the Northern Territory, being primarily wasteland, constructing underground shelters and Energy Towers could proceed without any concerns, but clearly, that’s not the case on the New Continent.
It’s not that in this era there are issues like land requisition; with Perfikot’s assertiveness, she has no need to consider anyone else. But she must consider the existing city’s buildings and layout, as well as the underground conditions.
In Langton, there are the church’s underground catacombs available for modification and expansion. Although building the underground shelter is somewhat troublesome, it’s not a huge problem.
The Energy Tower standing on the square outside the church happens to be suitable, and those Priests from the church have already been preaching that the warmth and light of the Energy Tower are the glory and grace of the All-Father.
Regarding such statements, Perfikot could only chuckle and let it pass. Although she didn’t particularly like the church’s propaganda strategy, she had to admit this was a very effective way to win over the grassroots populace.
After all, for the grassroots populace, such religious propaganda is very effective given the current end-of-days environment. The previously fearful and anxious grassroots residents of Langton quickly calmed down after experiencing the Energy Tower’s warmth.
Though this approach is effective on the mainland of the Empire, it’s not quite working on the New Continent.
For one, the New Continent lacks the churches that have been managed for years; even if there are churches, there aren’t underground catacombs to modify.
The Empire has only been constructing and managing the New Continent for less than a hundred years. When the first batch of colonists landed, the land was vast and fertile everywhere; they could easily set up a cemetery anywhere without needing to consider the tiny urban areas where only underground catacombs could be dug, like in the Old World.
Moreover, it’s crucial that the early colonists were those who couldn’t survive on the mainland, so-called riffraff, who cared little whether their bones would be exhumed. Unlike aristocrats, they weren’t preoccupied with building sturdy tombs for themselves, nor did they have the leisure to consider how to bury tens of generations of their family in one pit.
As a result, the cities on the New Continent don’t have the convenient renovation options available on the mainland of the Empire. They have to first carve out an underground space within the city before they can construct Energy Towers and shelters.
Thus, selecting a location became a major issue; while carving out space, one must also consider the weight of surrounding buildings. If the underground is hollowed out and the buildings collapse, it would be a disaster.
New Shaker City has undoubtedly more skyscrapers than Langton, being a new city that prides itself on industrial development stronger than the Empire’s mainland. Therefore, there are more high-rise buildings within the city than in Langton.
However, this undoubtedly brings obstacles to construction, as Perfikot does not wish to abandon the existing city districts in favor of building Energy Towers and shelters elsewhere.
Hence, she gathered the relevant engineering and technical staff, and the group spent several days discussing and planning, finally settling the issue of construction site location.
As for the specifics of construction, procurement of materials, and production of components, these were not problematic. After all, related construction has been ongoing in the Northern Territory for one to two years, and the initial projects were undertaken by companies and construction firms from the New Continent. Perfikot has sorted through the related industries more than once, and they are all experienced, so naturally, there are no big issues.
Yet, Perfikot did not solely rely on the personnel who had already become familiar with the Northern Territory’s operations.
This group of personnel comprises only a part; the entire New Continent colony involves more companies and enterprises participating in the construction of Energy Towers and shelters than just these.
So, over these days, Perfikot held numerous cocktail parties and receptions, entertaining these industry professionals from the New Continent colony, distributing the projects for building Energy Towers and shelters as if dividing a cake among them.
Of course, to avoid raising her own blood pressure and to prevent various quality issues that might make her want to resort to violence, Perfikot employed the same quality inspection and regulations used during the Northern Territory’s construction of Energy Towers and shelters on the New Continent. She also required companies that had previously collaborated with the Northern Territory to provide guidance and supervision on relevant technologies.
If any Energy Tower experiences quality issues, Perfikot would not simply target the responsible company alone but would implicate all companies and enterprises connected.
Undoubtedly, this deterred many enterprises and companies, as after all, everyone is in business, and they know their own affairs. Practices like cutting corners and using substandard materials are common in the industry; how else does a business profit?
Yet, no one dared to tell the Count of the Northern Territory that they intended to use substandard materials because those colleagues who were cemented into the walls of Energy Towers or shelters in the Northern Territory have already proven with their lives not to toy with the Count.
It’s not something you can get away with; if something goes wrong, it’s life-threatening.
Hence, although not overly eager to do business with the Count of the Northern Territory, these merchants and capitalists indeed find value in constructing Energy Towers and shelters. Consequently, under Perfikot’s half-threatening, half-enticing terms, they reluctantly engaged in the construction.
Of course, their reluctance was merely because the profits were reduced, rather than due to other factors.
As for Perfikot’s threats and enticements, she merely presented administrative orders along with the "do it poorly and you’ll be bricked into the wall" type of seemingly harmless threats.
After all, this group has some brains; they know full well that under the overarching premise of the apocalypse, if they don’t build the Energy Towers and shelters properly, they would all perish.
The Northern Territory indeed has already constructed Energy Towers and shelters, but the question is why should the Northern Territory allow people from the New Continent to dwell there?
Especially now that the Empire’s elites are starting to flood into the Northern Territory, what do these nouveau riche on the New Continent have to compete with the top aristocrats from the Empire’s mainland?
Although in the past, these nouveau riche on the New Continent always believed that the Empire’s mainland aristocrats were just a bunch of pig-like individuals relying on their ancestral shade, far inferior to the New Continent capitalists.
But when these aristocrats truly appear on the New Continent or the Northern Territory, the nouveau riche behave like hungry dogs seeing bones, continuously wagging their tails around them.
