Humanity is missing, luckily I have billions of clones.

Chapter 11 Steel
After completing the transportation of this truckload of fuel, the tractor set off again without stopping. It took more than an hour to arrive at an open-pit iron mine that had been explored in advance.

There is a large area of iron ore here, but Li Qingsong obviously does not have the ability to mine on a large scale at the moment.

He couldn't even crush the larger iron ore. At this moment, he could only pick up some small pieces of iron ore from the surface and take them away.

But even if they specifically picked up small pieces of iron ore from the surface, the truck bed was still filled up in a short time, with about ten tons. At the current consumption rate, it was enough for the blast furnace to use for more than a month.

The tractor roared as it dragged the iron ore, which had a total mass of ten tons, back.

Fortunately, the gravity on Luoshen is relatively low. This ten-ton iron ore, weighing only about 800 kilograms, can be pulled by this simple steam tractor.

If it were on Earth, I'm afraid even if the boiler exploded, I wouldn't be able to move it at all.

When this transport finally returned, Li Qingsong was filled with excitement.

The first step of industrialization is finally about to begin!

Although metal smelting had been carried out before using smelting and processing equipment brought from Earth, it was obviously Earth technology, not technology developed by themselves.

Now, this set of smelting equipment, whether it is the generator, the blast furnace, or the transportation machinery, are all made by ourselves!

This means that this system can be replicated and expanded on a large scale, which is incomparable to the machines brought from Earth.

The huge steam generator with a total installed capacity of 130 kilowatts began to ignite, and the boiler vibrated and roared silently.

The heavy rotor began to rotate, and as it continuously cut the magnetic lines of force, electric current was continuously generated, and then extended along the line to the blast furnace next to it.

The first batch of iron ore placed in, with a total mass of 300 kilograms, was gradually heated.

Some of the frozen gas inside rises due to the heat, and when the pressure reaches a certain level, it is discharged from the exhaust port. When the gas is gone, only the minerals are left inside.

Various elements are continuously separated, and then a portion of other elements, such as chromium and nickel, are added according to the formula. After a series of processes, finally, a steady stream of long steel plates with a width of only one decimeter, a thickness of only 3 centimeters, and a length of 50 centimeters slide out from the outlet.

This size is exactly what can be processed by multifunctional metal processing equipment.

Looking at the first batch of steel he produced, Li Qingsong felt sincere joy in his heart.

After having the initial steel production capacity, the previous multifunctional metal smelting equipment no longer smelted steel, but instead began to customize the production of those minerals that Li Qingsong was temporarily unable to produce but were indispensable.

For example, nickel ore, chromium ore, etc.

Steel production was temporarily back on track, and Li Qingsong once again focused his energy on another aspect.

Metal processing capabilities.

At this stage, Li Qingsong's metalworking capabilities all come from that multifunctional processing equipment. However, this highly sophisticated and advanced equipment was originally designed for high-precision processing of special metals. Using it to process crude benzene steel is a waste.

It has a more important use, and productivity cannot be wasted on steel. Li Qingsong must have his own metal processing capabilities.

Therefore, using it as the mother machine and steel from the self-built blast furnace, a large number of parts were produced again, and with the help of the clones, they were assembled into metal processing equipment.

Metal processing machines such as cutting, stretching, grinding, bending, stamping, and drilling were displayed in front of Li Qingsong one by one.

By the time all seven types of metalworking equipment were completed, more than half a year had passed. The Deep Spacecraft's knowledge base lacked the manufacturing knowledge for these metalworking machines. But that didn't matter; the basic principles were enough.

During the past six months, Li Qingsong has been studying non-stop while manipulating these clones on Luoshen Star to test and experiment through trial and error. After many setbacks, he finally built all these machines.

At this moment, Li Qingsong already had a total of 27 bodies under his command. Another five clones were incubating and would take approximately four months to be born.

Looking at the seven metal processing equipment placed in the open air, which also used the power of the large steam generator, Li Qingsong felt very relieved.

"I finally have my own metal processing skills. From now on, I can process some simpler metal parts that don't require high precision myself."

At this point, Li Qingsong finally saw a glimmer of hope for the thing he had been looking forward to.

This thing is to rely on its own industrial capabilities to create a larger planting base.

At this stage, the fluorescent lamps, planting racks, special films, etc. from the deep space spacecraft have basically been used up.

If you want to build a planting base again, you can only rely on yourself.

At the same time, the number of clones under his command will soon rise to 32, and will increase to 37 in another six months.

Thirty-seven clones is the limit of what Planting Base No. 37 can support. Any more than that, and we won't be able to support them.

"Where is the talent level? It's totally insufficient.

The food supply problem must be solved once and for all.”

Li Qingsong secretly made up his mind: "I can't say it's a permanent solution, but at least we won't have to worry about food for the next ten years."

However, it is easy to find a site to build a planting base. There is a cave nearby with an area of more than 10,000 square meters, which is more than enough.

The planting rack is easy to make, as I already have the capacity to produce steel.

Cables and electricity are also easy to solve. There are copper mines on Luoshen, so we can make copper wire ourselves.

Although the insulation problem is difficult to solve, distance isolation can be used as a temporary solution at this stage. As for electricity, we can just build a few more generators.

There was only one problem that troubled Li Qingsong.

fluorescent lamp.

Planting on Luoshen requires fluorescent lamps. But fluorescent lamps are different from steel parts; they require a certain level of technology.

"To make fluorescent lamps, you first have to master the technology for forming glass tubes, manufacturing electrodes, ballasts, and starters. You also need phosphorus powder, mercury, and rare gases."

Li Qingsong pondered silently: "I understand the basic principles of these things, but mechanized manufacturing is difficult."

After a long deliberation, Li Qingsong gritted his teeth and said, "I should be able to make the glass tube mechanically. As for the other three components, the electrodes, ballast, and starter, if that's not possible, I'll have to customize them by hand."

(End of this chapter)