At this moment, with the sudden addition of these 182 Clones, Tom, who had been so short-handed that he wished he could split a second into two and make all Clones work tirelessly day and night, finally felt his spirit relax.
The planting base, which had originally been operating at less than half capacity, immediately went into full power operation.
With a total planting area of over 20,000 square meters, or about 33 mu, due to the multi-layer planting mode, it was now entirely planted with crops such as sweet potatoes, potatoes, soybeans, wheat, and rice.
On the other side of the planting base, the chicken farm was fully activated, and under the concentrated breeding approach, a mere 200 square meters housed over 1,000 chickens.
This was also because Tom was afraid of the chickens getting sick and had intentionally controlled the breeding density.
Beyond that, the numbers of pigs, cattle, and sheep also increased significantly.
The entire planting base was packed with various crops and animals, truly beginning full-capacity production.
"Finally, I don't have to watch so much space go to waste like this," Tom mused, looking at the lush green scenery inside.
Outside the planting base, in the metallurgical industrial zone, several blast furnaces that had been idle for a long time finally welcomed their operators.
The Clones, wearing new-style space suits produced by Tom himself—which still lacked much radiation resistance and communication functions, but had greatly improved in insulation and toughness—marched valiantly to the blast furnaces and began feeding in chunks of ore.
In the metal processing industrial zone, dozens of metal processing machines clanked and clanged non-stop all day, producing various parts like a flowing stream.
In the energy industrial zone, due to the surge in electricity consumption, the original few generator sets began to be insufficient. But it didn't matter; new generators had already been built, and fuel had been stored, so with the available manpower, they could be put into operation immediately.
Not only that, but the scale of the power grid was also expanding.
A team of five Clones formed an electrician crew, specifically responsible for the maintenance and expansion of the power grid.
They took copper wires produced by the wire factory and, like spiders weaving a web, extended dense lines outwards from the existing power grid, and then, new electrical equipment was connected to the grid one by one.
The idle tractors finally waited for their drivers. The Clones drove them, shuttling back and forth between different mines and the base, transporting cartloads of urgently needed minerals back to Tom.
The Loshen Star base, which had originally been busy but still felt deserted, finally gained a bit of liveliness with the addition of more Clones.
In fact, even after Tom filled all the worker shortages for the remaining equipment, there were still over 30 Clones left idle.
"I've never fought such a well-resourced battle," Tom mused, then began a new round of construction.
He couldn't help it; he just couldn't stand seeing people idle.
At this stage, the "skeleton" of basic industry had been built, with initial classifications such as metallurgy, casting, energy, and chemical engineering, but it was still very rough and rudimentary.
For example, in the energy industry, there were only a few steam generators at most.
In the metallurgical industry, there were only about twenty simple blast furnaces, with an annual output of all metals combined of only about two thousand tons.
Further specialization and refinement were necessary. For example, steelmaking could be divided into the smelting of various types of steel, such as low-temperature steel, high-temperature resistant steel, corrosion-resistant steel, and carbon steel.
Only through subdivision could output and efficiency increase.
The same applied to metal processing, chemical engineering, and even the planting base.
These more than 30 idle Clones were immediately controlled by Tom and put into the construction of more new factories.
To this end, he formulated an ambitious plan.
"All future factories and bases must be specialized and subdivided. At least five more planting bases need to be built, three more Steel Plants, ten chemical plants, and one or two dedicated machinery production factories…"
After some calculations, Tom realized that to support his many upcoming construction plans, at least a million tons of steel would be needed.
This was only for the initial construction. After all, he would certainly have larger construction plans in the future.
However, at this stage, his total annual metal output was only about two thousand tons, and steel output was only about fifteen hundred tons!
The gap was too huge.
"Steel is the foundation of all construction; steelmaking industry must be prioritized. So… let's build a highly efficient, specialized Steel Plant first! Its annual output must be at least 100,000 tons!"
Jumping directly from fifteen hundred tons to 100,000 tons seemed like too big a step. However, Tom was not anxious.
Because he knew this was a long-term plan that couldn't be completed in a short time, and he still had time.
With this goal in mind, Tom began to wait again.
During this phase, the cultivation of Clones still did not stop. Clones continued to increase at a rate of 205 every six months, or 410 per year.
The number of Steel Plants, casting plants, and chemical plants was constantly increasing, and their production capacity was also getting higher.
However, the factories built at this time were no different from the initial ones; they were equally low-end and small, far from the specialized, large-scale factories Tom had planned.
It would be impossible to rely on such backward production capacity to supply the steel needed for his massive construction plan.
But there was no other way; at this stage, he could only accumulate initial strength by increasing the number of these small factories.
Two more years passed in this manner, two years of gradual accumulation of strength, and with the addition of a total of 800 Clones—originally there were 820, but 20 failed to cultivate—the number of Clones under Tom finally surpassed the thousand mark, reaching 1,100!
A full 1,100 brains and bodies that Tom could control without hindrance!
Furthermore, during these two years, the Clones were not just mechanically working.
During the work process, Tom would also use the Clones' brains to think.
For example, how should power lines be laid out reasonably, how should blast furnaces be operated safely, how should ore be pre-processed to save electricity, how should parts be processed more efficiently, how should materials be treated for better performance, and so on.
This detailed knowledge was not available in the knowledge base of the (Deep Space) Spaceship.
But it was in this practical work that these brains belonging to Tom gradually explored and researched, and then all became knowledge belonging to Tom.
"At this stage, I don't have the energy to specifically engage in scientific research.
But it doesn't matter; at this stage, practice is the best research.
Now, my industrial system is further perfected, steel output is further increased, and knowledge reserves are almost sufficient.
So now, the construction of a large, specialized Steel Plant should be put on the agenda."