Chapter 127: Industrial District Expansion

The map spread across the secondary table showed the city in a way no walk through it ever had.

Beorn knew Ashmark by movement and repetition. He knew which corners had garrison positions, which passages linked which roads, where the crowding shifted when one district became another. That knowledge worked on the ground.

From above, the city behaved differently. What disappeared inside familiarity became obvious once the whole grid was visible.

He started in the north, talking more to himself than anyone to organize his thoughts.

"The citadel and its administrative buildings is on the north-center block."

He traced the boundary line with one finger. "It’s bigger than it feels from the street. The whole citadel and the auxiliary wings are roughly the size of a small district."

He moved east, following the inked divisions. "The residential district, east and west of center. It’s a dense stack of buildings inhabited by mid-income families. The food distribution routes run through it, and most of the refugee influx ended up here or in the slums."

His finger shifted east, and then north. "The workers’ district is east of residential, stretching out toward the wall while the miners’ quarter inside it is on the northeastern stretch to the wall itself. The workers cycle through there between mine rotations."

Heinrich glanced up from the desk but did not speak.

Beorn marked the map and continued south. His finger crossed the center of the map. "The high quarter, south-center. It’s built on elevated ground, surrounded by the residential district from every side and separated by a wall. Currently, one army company is holding the position."

He did not stop there and continued south. The whole section was more important to the current problem.

"The slums, entire southern section, east wall to west wall."

He moved northwest. "The garrison quarter. It currently has the army barracks, training ground and the intelligence department building."

Then west again, closer to the wall. "The commercial district historically, albeit too underdeveloped to be called a district currently. The previous administration and city conflict has stopped any significant commerce in the city."

"The commercial district has the lowest building quality outside the slums," Heinrich added.

He turned a page with one finger.

"There is also a possibility it is turning into a smaller slums due the refugee influx."

Beorn nodded once, marking the issues.

He let his finger trace the wall that outlined the city in a rough deformed square, "The main gate at the east wall and the primary route to Dunvarre and everything beyond. Then a secondary gate south, and another one west."

He stepped back from the table.

The city existed as a complete structure instead of scattered entries across a ledger.

"Where is Cerdic’s guild work at?"

Heinrich shifted a record book aside and opened one already marked. "The wall repair contracts submitted a progress notation last week. The northeastern section has entered the final stage, with the foundation course complete. The estimate is that the work on the two breach sections should close within the month if weather conditions stays the same."

He turned the page. "The miners’ quarter cobblestone paving is approximately halfway complete by the guild’s estimate. Thereafter, the slums district paving is the next assigned phase, scheduled roughly a week after the miners’ quarter finishes."

"Very well," Beorn nodded.

His attention remained on the map, specifically the north districts of the city. Before, it had been only the warehouse district, but now he had converted a part of it into the industrial district.

The infrastructure only worked if it supported the economy. The paved streets that reached the industrial district would need to meet the layout cleanly. "Wherever the miners’ quarter meets the industrial and warehouse districts, have Cedric understand the streets must be wider to support the future traffic flow. "

"I’ll include it in the guild coordination correspondence," Heinrich nodded.

He wrote the notation without looking up.

Beorn continued to stare at the northern districts.

The converted foundry buildings sat there. Their new work had changed the district’s function, but not exhausted its capacity.

"The industrial district has room for expansion."

Beorn started to explain. "And we need more foundry capacity. The army demand is already ahead of production, and the future industrialization will push harder. I want additional foundry buildings established there."

Heinrich set down his quill. The term ’industrialization’ was foreign to him, but he understood the issue by context.

"There is still a considerably number of empty buildings in the district."

He looked briefly toward the map. "Besides those, it is possible to build new foundry complexes on empty plots. It will be considerably more expensive than reutilizing a previous foundation, but the investment would pay in long term due the differences in production efficiency."

"Start with the empty buildings," Beorn replied, he preferred the fastest path to production.

He turned to the gunpowder issue.

At previous scale, the supply volume had remained manageable. The Sceotan and army expansion changed the equation. More powder was necessary per shot, more shots per company, more companies than squads.

The repurposed powder mill currently handling production had never been intended for this output.

"I also want a separate building for black powder production in the industrial district."

He stared at Heinrich once.

"For large scale production. Arrange the biggest building available."

Heinrich treated the statement as a design constraint, not a debate. "A dedicated structure with proper distance from the main foundry buildings. I’ll identify available plots by separation and size range when the full building list is prepared."

Beorn kept studying the industrial section.

Expanding the foundry was obvious. The harder problem sat inside the equipment. More buildings using the current tolerances would increase output, but only to the existing quality ceiling. That ceiling was already visible in the Sceotan barrel failure rate.

Aestrith and Tam had been compensating for the problem through precision correction. That worked at one-foundry scale. It would fail at two foundries, then three. They could not supervise multiple production cycles simultaneously.

The bottleneck was in the tools available.

More cutting tools. More boring machines. Enough precision equipment that the expanded system could maintain quality without requiring Aestrith and Tam standing over every run.

The fragment of a memory surfaced on his mind as he worked the problem through his thoughts.

A hammer driven by steam instead of muscle.

The engine’s stroke applied directly to metalworking. Higher force. Higher repetition.

He had been working the outline of the concept for days. The engine could do it. The problem was the design, and the right schematics still sat just beyond reliable recall.

He let the thought settle and moved on.

"We will require more workers to support the expansion." He brought up the next topic.

Henrich nodded, "The preliminary census suggests the workers’ district contains population not currently in formal employment. We can build an employment pathway from that district into the expanded foundry operation."

He adjusted the ledger slightly closer to himself. "I can draft the recruitment process once the construction operations are confirmed, provided the labor requirements."

"Do that," Beorn simply confirmed.

He remained by the map.

His gaze had moved north to south, east to west, and arrived exactly where he had expected it eventually would, the high quarter.

He studied it for dozens of seconds.

The high quarter sat there on the map, with no purpose after he purged the city oligarchy.

Beorn wanted to change that.