For this ten-year plan, Tom first changed the current power supply mode.
The current power supply mode is to build a generator specifically for power supply wherever electricity is needed and there is not enough electricity.
However, this mode is very inefficient, difficult to coordinate, and wasteful.
So Tom reformed it from the ground up.
He produced some wires, connecting all the power-consuming and power-supplying ends.
Thus, an initial, rudimentary version of a 'power grid' was formed.
From this moment on, generators only needed to supply power to the power grid, and blast furnaces, factories, and cultivation bases only needed to draw power from the power grid.
And Tom only needed to monitor the power grid voltage and adjust the generator's output up or down at any time based on its changes.
Another benefit of doing this was that it could be expanded very conveniently; new generators could be connected at any time, and new power-consuming equipment could also be connected at any time, thus leaving room for future expansion.
He concentrated all three existing generators in the energy industrial zone; from then on, that tractor only needed to transport oxygen ore and thorin ore here, without having to run back and forth.
The blast furnace was moved to the metallurgical industrial zone. In the future, more blast furnaces will be built here, capable of smelting more types of minerals.
Minerals no longer needed to be transported separately; they only needed to be transported to the metallurgical industrial zone.
The same applied to the metal processing industry. All those machines were concentrated together, and the metals produced in the metallurgical industrial zone could also be transported here in bulk.
In addition, there was also a chemical industrial zone, though at this moment, it was still empty.
And the glass products industrial zone, which had just begun to take shape, and so on.
It took Tom more than a month to build this framework.
At this moment, looking at these industrial facilities, which were still rudimentary and only had a few scattered machines, Tom felt a completely different sensation than before.
Because he knew that all he needed to do next was to continuously fill this 'skeleton.' As long as he kept filling it, it would eventually become full, leading to a qualitative change from a quantitative one.
Over the next year, Tom 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, Tom for the first time arranged for a permanent resident to stay there, collecting minerals and loading them into the cart.
When the tractor arrived, he could simply drop off the empty cart and take away the full one.
In this year, the number of people under his command also increased to 47.
In the second year, the number of metal processing factories under Tom increased to 16, capable of producing more types of parts with higher precision.
At the same time, the first chemical factory was born. Here, Tom began to prepare some simple chemical raw materials, such as the three acids and two alkalis.
Of course, at first, the equipment was rudimentary, the output was very low, and most of it relied on manual labor.
But it didn't matter; it would be iterated upon slowly later.
The third year, the fourth year, the fifth year...
By the beginning of the sixth year, Tom's population had increased to 87, and the second cultivation base for the first time had the ability to operate at full power.
However, he certainly wouldn't do that at this stage.
Why produce so much food when it couldn't be consumed? It was better to invest the population in industrial development.
In the seventh year, the first death case occurred.
A Clone suffered from radiation sickness; after treatment failed, he was destroyed by Tom. Thus, his population experienced its first decline, from 97 people to 96 people.
In the same year, another Clone unfortunately died due to a metallurgical furnace malfunction, and the population decreased by one again.
After that, the first steel-structured, fully enclosed factory building appeared.
This factory building was used to produce certain chemicals. With these chemicals, Tom could finally produce some special types of steel.
Time gradually passed amidst the constant busyness of the Clones.
Slowly, within this canyon, more and more steel creations appeared, and cables grew longer and longer.
And these cables were no longer exposed but had undergone necessary insulation treatment, significantly reducing the probability of accidents.
In the metallurgical industrial zone, the initial single blast furnace had increased to more than 20 at this point; in addition to smelting steel, it also had the capability to smelt other common metals.
The number of tractors increased to 16, and their structure was more reasonable, assembly more precise, and performance more powerful.
The initial few generators were all retired and replaced by a total of 20 more efficient thermal power generator units, with a total installed capacity of 40,000 kilowatts.
Even the feeding method became somewhat mechanized, much more convenient than before. These 20 generators now only required 5 people to look after them.
Time quietly flowed by.
On this day, inside the Shenkong (Deep Space) Spaceship, Tom's main body stood before the porthole, gazing silently for a long time in the direction of that shining star in the distance.
That was the Sun.
Earth was also in that direction.
As of today, the ten-year period he had initially set had passed. Approximately fourteen years had also passed since he lost contact with Earth.
In fourteen years, he had never received a second message from Earth.
Limited by his observation capabilities, he had also never been able to know what exactly happened on that distant planet.
"Perhaps they really are gone," Tom thought silently, a touch of sadness in his heart.
But soon, this emotion was cast aside.
He turned his head and looked at the large, dark red planet beneath his feet.
On the surface of that planet was a shining speck of light, completely different from anywhere else, like a star appearing on the ground.
His heart was once again filled with passion and anticipation.
Because he knew that that speck of light was what he, leading a total of 135 Clones, had worked day and night to create over the past ten years.
With a thought, the vision from the surface Clones appeared in his mind.
He saw tractor after tractor rumbling across the land, saw cart after cart of oxygen ore, tolin ore, iron ore, copper ore, and aluminum ore being transported in, saw blast furnace after blast furnace spewing black smoke, and saw generator after generator operating through the night.
His overall industrial scale was still very small; even all combined, it couldn't compare to a small factory from the Earth era.
In terms of technological level, it was even further behind, almost nonexistent.
Until now, he still hadn't achieved even a little automation.
But it didn't matter; the overall framework had been built, and various industrial foundations were already complete.
At least for the current technological level, the industrial foundation was complete.
What needed to be done in the future was simply continuous upgrading, renovation, and improvement.
The achievements of these ten years filled Tom with genuine joy.
But what brought him even greater joy was another matter.
He finally had the ability to produce Clone nutrient solution!