Extreme Cold Era: Shelter Don't Keep Waste
Chapter 57 Covered Trench

Chapter 57: Chapter 57 Covered Trench

After reminding the captain to be cautious of icebergs and instructing him to have someone continuously monitor the sea surface to avoid collisions, Perfikot once again buried herself in piles of old documents, poring over the extensive data provided by the Empire Exploration Company.

Due to orders from the Royal Family and Perfikot’s comprehensive authority, the Empire Exploration Company had provided her with extremely detailed and comprehensive information.

This even included military maps and survey data from the Empire’s initial colonization of the New Continent.

With these materials, it’s entirely possible to organize a developmental timeline of the Empire in the New Continent area, and gain a thorough understanding of the geographic and resource distribution issues in the New Continent region.

However, for Perfikot, she doesn’t have the time to conduct these analyses, or rather, the sheer volume of information greatly hampers her work efficiency.

Fortunately, after a few initial days of confusion and chaos, Perfikot quickly clarified her thoughts and recruited several geographically knowledgeable team members to help organize these vast amounts of data.

The first thing Perfikot selected was naturally the latest batch of mineral resource survey reports, with coal and steel being the first marked, praised as the blood and bones of industry.

From any perspective, coal and steel are indispensable significant resources for industrial production in this era.

No matter how Perfikot wants to build the shelter, these two are irreplaceable.

Especially coal, steel can still be considered for replacement with the abundant timber resources from the New Continent, but coal has no substitute.

And it’s a necessary condition for heating in cold climates.

As for burning wood? It’s not impossible, but the temperature and heat generated by wood are inferior to coal, so burning wood offers little relief for the extreme cold Perfikot needs to face.

Moreover, this means burning a massive quantity of wood, and once the extreme cold sets in, both felling and regenerative growth of trees become very problematic.

In contrast, coal is much easier to handle because the ground layer itself retains some heat. In cold conditions, it’s often warmer underground than on the surface, thus the temperature deep in the mine isn’t too low, making coal mining relatively simpler.

As for tree-felling? Facing the harsh howling wind at minus dozens of degrees, then picking up a frozen axe to chop trees harder than steel?

Trust me, those workers would rather venture into a mine tens or even hundreds of meters underground, using their hands to scrape out the coal.

After an initial screening, Perfikot also needed to consider the issue of water sources.

Although the extreme cold conditions of minus dozens of degrees can freeze all surface bodies of water, underground water is difficult to freeze.

Whether it’s the insulating effect of the ground layer or simply the presence of geothermal resources underground can ensure the normal flow of underground water.

Thus, selecting a location with underground water or a place with a hot spring is one of the essential conditions of the best plan in Perfikot’s mind.

Finding a gorge or valley would be even better, not only for utilizing the mountain terrain to block snow and wind when constructing the shelter but also considering hollowing out the mountain to directly use the existing mountain body to build the shelter.

However, this is merely Perfikot’s concept. With the Empire’s current industrial capabilities, hollowing out a mountain isn’t impossible, but the scale of the project would be considerably large.

Just as Perfikot hasn’t considered constructing the shelter in the form of an underground city, the most secure form, due to the production capacity of the first industrial revolution era, building an underground city is highly unrealistic.

Yet Perfikot was unwilling to abandon this idea because, compared to constructing houses on ice, digging underground shelters is undoubtedly more effective in resisting snow and wind.

But how to use the limited conditions of the first industrial revolution era to dig out an underground city capable of housing at least several thousand people?

Perfikot feels she is about to rack her brains.

Feeling helpless, she pushed the documents forward with her hand and lay down on the desk, venting to the old butler beside her: "Grandfather Fu, do you know how to build an underground city that can accommodate thousands of people?"

"Underground city? Miss, what are you talking about?" Although Foster was knowledgeable, he was, after all, only an old-school Knight who had always worked as a butler, and he couldn’t quite comprehend Perfikot’s wild ideas.

"Underground city means excavating passageways underground, allowing people to hide inside. When it’s long enough and large enough to accommodate many people, it can be called an underground city," Perfikot explained to the old butler, though she didn’t expect him to provide a useful answer or advice; she was merely venting her emotions.

Nonetheless, after thinking for a moment, the old butler spoke: "I don’t understand underground cities, but if it’s just passageways, I remember when I followed my master in battles, they would also dig passageways when encountering cities that were difficult to besiege.

The method was to first dig trenches and then top the trenches to construct a passageway with enough secrecy and defense. I’m not sure if this helps you, miss..."

"First dig trenches then top them?" Perfikot instantly turned her head, looking at the old butler, her different-colored eyes sparkling with brilliance: "For these trenches constructed this way, how thick can the top be? How deep can the trenches be dug?"

"Uh, I’m not a professional engineer, but I remember back then they dug at least five meters deep trenches, and after building a roof on the top, they piled at least two meters of soil on top to withstand cannon attacks." The old butler recalled and then provided an answer.

Upon hearing this, Perfikot was overjoyed, her face breaking into a joyful smile: "If that’s the case, then I have a way to build the underground city! But we still need to consider the problem of permafrost... fortunately, this can be solved..."

While talking, Perfikot pushed aside the documents on the table, unfurled a blueprint, and began to draft her ideas onto the paper.

Seeing Perfikot busy again, Foster said nothing, simply started tidying up the documents pushed to the floor, organizing them in order for Perfikot to consult when needed.

Serving this lady wasn’t easy, especially when she’s working.

Whether disturbing her work or cleaning in a way that removed important items could severely disrupt Perfikot’s focus and inspiration, causing her to lose her temper.

Though Perfikot wouldn’t lose her temper at Foster, he certainly didn’t want Perfikot to have an outburst.