I don't know if Smith studied it seriously, but Ed did.
In the castle hall, Ed was contemplating a feasibility study on paving roads with iron slag.
Based on some experience, he felt it was feasible, as it was better than the current muddy road. He just needed to break the pieces into smaller pieces and not pave the road with large, unbreakable pieces to avoid people slipping and hurting their legs.
Speaking of wrestling, it reminded him of his first trip to the village. Luckily, the road was all muddy, otherwise he would have been in real trouble.
However, if there had been some broken slag on the road, I wouldn't have slipped and fallen so easily. Something like that would definitely be better than a muddy road.
Furthermore, using slag to pave roads now will make it much easier to pave them with cement later.
Yes, that's the plan. Later, have Roderick smash all the slag from Red Iron Village and transport it over. First, pave the road from the castle to Peach Blossom Village. The road needs to be widened so that at least four oxcarts can drive side by side.
A few days later
Roderick had already crushed all the slag he had brought from Red Iron Village, not into powder—that would be useless anyway. He had simply broken it into small pebbles.
Ed stood by and watched as everyone loaded slag into the oxcarts, and then the oxcarts hauled the slag away.
"Adelaide, go outside. Everything is ready. Let's go take a look."
"Master, are these to be used to pave the road ahead?" Adelaide asked curiously, looking at the small black stones on the oxcart.
"Yes, Adelaide, do you remember when we first went to Paradise Village? I was thinking then that we should fix this road."
Adelaide remembered that the first time she visited the village, she tripped and fell like a toad. She was a little anxious then, but now she felt like laughing.
Adelaide glanced at Ed secretly, and seeing that her master wasn't looking in her direction, the corners of her mouth unconsciously curved into a smile.
"Adelaide, can you hear me? Hmm? You seem to have thought of something happy! Tell me, I want to be happy too."
Adelaide was taken aback. Did her master know what she was thinking?
"Without an owner, I'm not happy about anything. I'm just looking at that cow over there on the oxcart. It seems to be the same cow that had a problem with us last time, but it seems quite happy today." Adelaide pointed to a cow with bulging eyes.
"Really? Adelaide."
"Yes, Master."
The two arrived outside the castle, where many villagers had already begun digging the road. Ed's requirement was that four oxcarts could pass side by side, with space for people to walk on the sides. The path in front was definitely not enough, so the uneven areas on both sides needed to be leveled.
Behind the diggers were villagers tamping the soil with wooden stakes. After the road was leveled, they would take wood and tamp it down.
Then came the oxcarts, with villagers on them scattering ore particles onto the partially compacted road. Finally, stone rollers were used to flatten and level the surface.
Adelaide ran back and forth on the now-flattened road, followed by a group of children. The wind blew her hair and caressed her skirt; she opened her arms and embraced the wind.
Ed felt a surge of inexplicable relief. Now everyone didn't have to be as cautious as he had been; they could run freely. The narrow path had become a wide road, and the rugged terrain had become a smooth one.
However, the road was being repaired very slowly because it was all done by hand. In a whole day, they might only finish less than half the journey, even though the distance from the castle to Peach Blossom Village wasn't actually that far.
That's alright, as long as it's finished before the autumn harvest. The road from the castle to Red Iron Village can be repaired later. Let's focus on getting the roads to the Peace Hotel and workshops repaired first to make things easier for everyone.
Ed watched Adelaide playing with the children.
"We're going back, Adelaide."