Chapter Fourteen: Stars on the Ground

For this ten-year plan, Li Qingsong first changed the current power supply model.

The existing model was that whenever a place needed electricity and the supply was insufficient, a dedicated generator would be built to provide power.

However, this approach was inefficient, difficult to coordinate, and wasteful.

Therefore, Li Qingsong reformed it from the ground up.

He produced some electrical wires, connecting all the power-consuming ends and the power supply ends.

Thus, a rudimentary version of an “electric grid” was formed.

From that moment on, generators only needed to supply power to the grid, while blast furnaces, factories, and planting bases drew power from it.

Li Qingsong only needed to monitor the grid voltage and adjust the generator output accordingly.

Another advantage of this setup was its ease of expansion; new generators and electrical devices could be connected at any time, leaving room for future growth.

He centralized the existing three generators in the energy industrial zone, so the tractor only needed to deliver oxygen and torlin ores there, eliminating unnecessary trips.

The blast furnace was relocated to the metallurgical industrial zone, where more blast furnaces would be constructed in the future to smelt more types of ores.

Ores no longer needed to be transported to multiple locations, only to the metallurgical industrial zone.

The metal processing industry was similarly consolidated; all machines were grouped together, and metals produced in the metallurgical zone were centrally transported there.

Additionally, there was the chemical industrial zone, which was still empty at this point.

There was also the newly emerging glass products industrial zone, among others.

Building this framework took Li Qingsong over a month.

Now, looking at these still crude industrial facilities, with only two or three large and small cats present, Li Qingsong felt a completely different emotion than before.

He knew that from now on, his task was to continually fill out this “skeleton.” As he kept filling it, it would grow robust and eventually undergo a qualitative transformation from quantitative changes.

In the following year, Li Qingsong manufactured the second and third tractors, built a larger model of generator, and for the first time extended his reach beyond this canyon.

At the nearest open-pit iron mine, he arranged a resident worker to continuously collect ores and load them into carts.

When tractors arrived, they simply dropped empty carts and pulled away the loaded ones.

That year, his population increased to 47.

By the second year, the number of metal processing factories under Li Qingsong had risen to sixteen, capable of producing more types of parts with higher precision.

At the same time, the first chemical factory was established, where Li Qingsong began preparing simple chemical raw materials, such as sulfuric acid and alkalis.

Of course, the equipment was rudimentary at first, production was low, and most work relied on manual labor.

But that was no problem; gradual iteration would follow.

The third, fourth, fifth years passed...

By the start of the sixth year, his population reached 87, and the second planting base was capable of full power operation for the first time.

However, at this stage, he had no intention of doing so.

Producing so much grain was unnecessary—they couldn’t consume it all, so it was better to invest the population in industrial development.

In the seventh year, the first death occurred.

A clone suffered radiation sickness and was destroyed by Li Qingsong after treatment proved futile.

Thus, his population declined for the first time, from 97 to 96.

In the same year, another clone died due to a metallurgical furnace accident, reducing the population by one more.

Afterward, the first steel-structured, fully enclosed factory appeared.

This factory produced certain chemicals, enabling Li Qingsong to manufacture special types of steel.

Time quietly flowed as the clones worked tirelessly.

Gradually, steel structures became more numerous in the canyon, and cables grew longer.

These cables were no longer exposed but properly insulated, greatly reducing accident risks.

The metallurgical industrial zone expanded from a single blast furnace to more than twenty, capable of smelting steel and other commonly used metals.

The number of tractors increased to sixteen, with more reasonable designs, finer assembly, and stronger performance.

The initial few generators were all retired and replaced by twenty high-efficiency thermal power units with a total installed capacity of 40,000 kilowatts.

Even the feeding process was mechanized, making it far more convenient.

These twenty generators required only five people for maintenance.

Time slipped by quietly.

One day, aboard the Deep Space vessel, Li Qingsong stood before the porthole, silently gazing toward the distant shining star.

That was the sun.

Earth lay in that direction as well.

Now, the ten-year mark he had set at the beginning had passed.

Fourteen years had elapsed since contact with Earth was lost.

In these fourteen years, he had never received a second message from Earth.

Limited by observational capabilities, he had no knowledge of what had happened to that distant planet.

“Perhaps they truly are gone,” Li Qingsong thought silently, feeling a tinge of sorrow.

But soon, he cast aside those feelings.

Turning his gaze downward, he looked at the enormous dark red planet beneath his feet.

On its surface was a shining spot unlike any other place, as if a star had descended onto the land.

His heart was once again filled with passion and hope.

Because he knew that light was the result of the past ten years of relentless effort, leading a total of 135 clones day and night.

A surge of emotion brought the clones’ perspective from the surface into his mind.

He saw tractor after tractor roaring across the land, wagons full of oxygen, torlin, iron, copper, and aluminum ores being transported, blast furnace after blast furnace belching black smoke, and generators running through the night.

His industrial scale was still modest—combined, it was smaller than a small factory from Earth’s era.

In terms of technology, it was even more lacking.

Until now, he had yet to realize even a trace of automation.

But it didn’t matter; the overall framework was complete, and the industrial foundations were in place.

At least for the current level of technology, the industrial base was sufficient.

What remained was continuous upgrading and refinement.

The achievements of these ten years filled Li Qingsong with genuine joy.

Yet what thrilled him even more was another fact.

He now finally possessed the ability to produce nutrient solutions for clones!