Humanity is missing, luckily I have billions of clones.

Chapter 16: Thousands of People
At this moment, with the sudden addition of these 182 clones, Li Qingsong's spirit of working all day without rest or sleep due to the shortage of manpower finally relaxed.

The planting base, which had originally been less than half operational, immediately entered full-power operation.

Because the multi-layer planting model has a total planting area of more than 33 square meters, about acres, at this moment it is all planted with sweet potatoes, potatoes, soybeans, wheat, rice and other crops.

On the other side of the planting base, the chicken farm is fully operational, also using centralized breeding methods. More than 1000 chickens are raised in a small area of only square meters.

This is because Li Qingsong was afraid that the chickens would get sick, so he intentionally controlled the breeding density.

In addition, the number of pigs, cattle and sheep has also increased significantly.

The entire planting base is filled with various crops and animals, and full production has truly begun.

"Finally, I don't have to watch so much space go to waste."

Looking at the lush scenery inside, Li Qingsong was filled with emotion.

Outside the planting base, in the metallurgical industrial zone, several blast furnaces that had been idle for a long time finally welcomed operators.

The clones wore the new type of space suits produced by Li Qingsong himself - they also did not have much radiation resistance and communication functions, but their heat preservation and toughness were greatly improved. They came to the blast furnace in a heroic and confident manner and began to put pieces of ore into it.

In the metal processing industrial zone, dozens of metal processing equipment are clanging all day long, and all kinds of parts are flowing out like water.

In the energy industrial zone, due to a surge in electricity demand, the existing generators were no longer sufficient. However, no problem; new generators had already been built and fuel was stockpiled, and with the help of manpower, they could be put into operation immediately.

Not only that, the scale of the power grid is also expanding.

There is a team of five clones who form an electrician team, responsible for the maintenance and expansion of the power grid.

They took the copper wires produced by the wire factory and extended the dense lines from the original power grid like a spider weaving a web. Then, new electrical equipment was connected to the power grid.

The idle tractors finally found drivers. The clones drove them back and forth between the different mines and bases, bringing back truckloads of minerals that Li Qingsong desperately needed.

The Luoshen base, which was originally busy but still seemed deserted overall, finally became a little lively with the addition of more clones.

Even if Li Qingsong filled all the worker gaps in the other equipment, there would still be more than 30 clones left idle.

"I've never fought such a rich war."

Li Qingsong's heart was filled with emotion, and he began a new round of construction.

There's no way he can't stand seeing people idle.

At this stage, the "skeleton" of basic industries has been completed, with preliminary classifications such as metallurgy, casting, energy, and chemical industry, but it is still very rough and simple.

Just like in the energy industry, there are only a few steam generators at most.

In the metallurgical industry, there are only about twenty simple blast furnaces, and the annual output of various metals combined is only about two thousand tons.

Further specialization and refinement are necessary. For example, steelmaking can be divided into the smelting of various types of steel, such as low-temperature steel, high-temperature resistant steel, corrosion-resistant steel, carbon steel, etc.

Only through segmentation can output and efficiency be increased.

The same is true for metal processing, chemical industry, and even planting bases.

Li Qingsong immediately put the 30 or so free clones into the construction of more new factories. To this end, he formulated an ambitious plan.

"In the future, all factories and bases will need to be specialized and segmented. We'll need to build five or more planting bases, three more steel mills, ten more chemical plants, and one or two dedicated machinery production plants..."

After some calculations, Li Qingsong discovered that to support his many upcoming construction plans, he would need at least one million tons of steel.

This is just the initial stage of construction. After all, I will definitely have plans for larger-scale construction in the future.

At this stage, the annual output of all metals is only about 2,000 tons, and the steel output is only about 1,500 tons!

This gap is too big.

"Steel is the foundation of all construction, so the development of the steel industry must be prioritized. So... first, build a highly efficient, specialized steel plant! Annual production must be at least 100,000 tons!"

Jumping directly from 1,500 tons to 100,000 tons seemed a bit too big a step. But Li Qingsong was not in a hurry.

Because he knew that this was a long-term plan and could not be completed in a short period of time, and he still had time.

According to this goal, Li Qingsong began to wait again.

During this period, the cultivation of clones continued unabated, with the number of clones still increasing at a rate of 205 every six months and 410 per year.

The number of steel mills, foundries and chemical plants is increasing, and their production capacity is getting higher and higher.

But the factories being built now are no different from the initial ones. They are equally low-end and small, far from the specialized and large-scale factories planned by Li Qingsong.

It is simply impossible to rely on this backward production capacity to supply the steel needed for its huge construction plan.

But there is no other way. At this stage, I can only accumulate initial strength by increasing the number of such small factories.

He waited like this for another two years, and slowly accumulated strength for two years. With the addition of a total of 800 clones - there were originally 820, but 20 of them failed to be cultivated - the number of clones under Li Qingsong finally broke through the 1100 mark and reached !
A total of 1100 brains and bodies are available for Li Qingsong to drive without any hindrance!

Moreover, during these two years, the clones did not just work like machines.

During the work process, Li Qingsong also uses the clone's brain to think.

For example, how should the electrical wires be laid out reasonably, how should a steel-making blast furnace be operated safely, how should the ore be processed in the early stages to save more electricity, how should parts be processed more efficiently, how should materials be processed to achieve better performance, and so on.

These detailed knowledge are not available in the knowledge base of the Deep Space spacecraft.

But in this actual work, these ideas belonging to Li Qingsong were gradually explored and researched, and then all became the knowledge belonging to Li Qingsong.

“At this stage, I don’t have the energy to devote myself to scientific research.

But it doesn’t matter. At this stage, practice is the best scientific research.

Today, my industrial system has been further improved, steel production has been further increased, and my knowledge reserves are almost sufficient.

Now, it’s time to put the construction of a large-scale professional steel plant on the agenda.”

(End of this chapter)