Chapter 149 Fish Sauce Factory

The newly opened fish sauce factory is located just outside the village of Piril, not far from the west city of Eston.

Piril Village, nestled against a quarry and facing the main road, was once a prosperous village. However, as the quarry's resources gradually depleted and the number of bandits in the nearby mountains and forests increased significantly, the villagers resorted to various means, using their savings to move away. By the time Andrei took over the territory, the village had become deserted.

It is even a deserted village that is often used as a base by bandits.

After recruiting and eliminating the nearby bandits, Andrei took over the village with his troops, and asked the troll engineering team to build a factory here. He also built a nest for the little dragon Leodore.

——There’s no other way. Fish sauce needs to be made from seafood. There’s no sea in Wilshire, but they have dragons.

As long as there was delicious food, Leodo was easy to talk to. After all, wherever a dragon slept would become dragon crystal, so their sleeping environment didn't make much difference. Even if there was a huge difference before they went to bed, they would still be in a world covered in dragon crystal when they woke up the next morning.

This was an inconvenient lifestyle for the dragons, but a boon for Takumi and Andrei. Enticed by Takumi's delicious food, Leodo moved to the village's nest. Once the factory opened, he would simply deliver a batch of fish and shrimp to the fish sauce factory each morning, then fly to Eston West City for meals and to the shop, returning home to sleep at night.

Dragons fly extremely fast, and it only takes five minutes to commute from Piril Village to the city. For Xiaolong, this is just a small exercise to improve his appetite every day.

Thanks to an abundant supply of dragon crystal, Jiangyou's fish sauce factory also uses a large number of dragon crystal doors and windows. These dragon crystals can effectively keep out dust, germs, and insects, prevent prisoners from escaping, and regulate the indoor temperature. For a fermentation factory, it is simply the best building material.

Andrei and Jiangyou now had ample connections. They decided to bring in five veteran magic professors and have them carve corresponding spirit-purifying, spirit-removing, or spirit-nurturing magic circles in various areas of the factory, effectively creating a truly sterile workshop.

Of course, the fermentation process of the sauce still requires the participation of bacteria, but these bacteria are all beneficial bacteria cultivated by Jiangyou. With the help of the magic of purifying the spirit to remove miscellaneous bacteria and cultivate regular "bacteria", there will never be any harmful bacteria mixed in.

These magic circles do not need to be activated all the time. It is only necessary to let the employees leave at specific steps and activate the magic circle for sterilization to ensure the effect. If the sterilization magic is turned on 24 hours a day, it may kill the beneficial bacteria in the employees' bodies that maintain human health, which is unnecessary.

After the magic circle was engraved, Jiangyou and Andre invited the bird-beaked doctor Charles de Nome. After repeated tests, the three of them confirmed that this was feasible. They also discussed a set of sterilization procedures to be used during normal operation of the factory. Andre also wrote this set of procedures on the wall of the factory with magic so that the workers could see it as soon as they looked up.

Next, Jiangyou ordered large gold vats, presses, filters, and bottling machines for fermenting fish sauce, each one arranged in a specific factory building according to the production process. These pieces of equipment were custom-made by Jiangyou after a long time of demonstrations with Tukes, and they cost her a fortune.

Fortunately, Heidi and Loris both sent a batch of dividends, which barely maintained Jiangyou's cash flow.

Once these tasks were completed, the dormitory area outside the factory was successfully built, along with a cafeteria, a large bathhouse, and public toilets. The entire factory area, along with the village outside, was surrounded by a high wall, preventing the prisoners from escaping and keeping outsiders from prying.

The prisoners lived next to the factory, while the guards and other staff lived in the village.

The staff dormitory, small canteen, and bathhouse in the village, which served normal employees, were much better off than those of the prisoners and were roughly on par with the living conditions of the other employees employed by Takumi Yu. Here, they could also enjoy the delicious meals that Takumi Yu had taught the cooks.

Next, the shackled prisoners were brought in by prison vans.

They were escorted by the Kingdom's knights, their clean uniforms handed to them, to the large bathhouse for a thorough wash. After changing into their uniform gray uniforms, they were taken to the mess hall for lunch. The mess hall, managed by a plump woman, served only oatmeal, brown bread, eggs, bacon, and vegetables—enough to fill them to a full 80%.

If you want to eat more and better, there are ways. When these prisoners work in the factory, their every move is monitored and recorded by the guards.

Those who work diligently and don't cause trouble will receive bonus points, while disruptive prisoners will be stopped and have their points deducted. Bonus points can be exchanged for more plentiful and delicious food, more comfortable clothing and bedding, even daily necessities and living quarters, and can even offset prison time. If the points deducted reach a certain level, the prisoner will be punished and confined, potentially with a longer sentence or even transferred to the mines.

As for the prison guards who managed the factory, they were the least injured and strongest among the veterans Andre had recruited. They worked five days a week and had two days off. During their off-duty period, they could take the commuter carriage back to Eston West City.

Jiang You taught these veterans the process of making fish sauce, and then asked them to guide the prisoners assigned to various divisions to learn their respective responsibilities.

The process of making fish sauce is very complicated: receiving seafood, sorting fish and shrimp, removing impurities, cleaning, mixing with salt for salting, removing bacteria, and then putting it into a special fermentation tank - a large tank made of fine gold, which is salt-proof and rust-proof, and will not produce impurities and bacteria.

During the fermentation period, manual stirring and exhaust are required regularly; when fermentation is completed, the fermented mixture needs to be pressed and filtered to remove fish residue, extract the fish sauce concentrate, filter, sterilize, season, fill into bottles, print labels, and pack for transportation.

Of course, the fermentation period for fish sauce is between six months and two years, and the factory only has the first half of the work to do at the beginning. This is a good opportunity for the prison guards to select prisoners who are reliable, good-hearted, and willing to repent. After six months, these motivated people will have the opportunity to participate in the later steps first.

Jiangyou and Andre also stayed at the factory for a few days, not leaving until all processes were flawless and the factory was operating normally. The factory's costs were mainly in infrastructure and customized machinery, but the labor costs only covered the salaries of the veteran jailers and a few cooks, making it quite cost-effective.

Although the fish sauce wouldn't pay off for at least six months, the factory solved the prisoner problem in Andre's territory, allowing Andre to naturally allocate funds for the prisoners' support. Overall, it was much more cost-effective than keeping these prisoners locked up and eating their meals.