Lord of Winter: Beginning with Daily Intelligence - Chapter 551 - 333: Russell at Dawn Port
Chapter 551: Chapter 333: Russell at Dawn Port
The outline of the breakwater has already emerged.
The guiding stone blocks are lined up, securing the port entryway like a line.
Gear transporters glide along the shore, steadily delivering the heavy wooden beams to their respective bases.
The rail crane swings back and forth on an overhead gantry, with thick ropes dropping to lift and place each granite block.
The chief craftsman manages the crew over there, while someone in the middle tests the locking mechanism of the crane boom.
Russell, as the technical director of Dawn Port, stands atop a hill, arms crossed, staring at the row of freshly driven piles.
He remains still until the pile driving stops, then nods slightly.
The workers on the shore see him and greet him, “Lord Russell!”
No one feels that this title is inappropriate.
Russell doesn’t respond, just nods faintly.
Yet inside, a subtle feeling arises, this harbor, this dam, surprisingly brings a sense of involvement… even pride.
Russell was originally a port craftsman under the Calvin Family, and although counted as a chief craftsman, in the family system, a craftsman is ultimately just a craftsman.
But as a commoner, Russell was quite content, getting married, having children, and gradually earning his seniority.
He originally thought he would spend his life managing the embankments in the Southeast, and when older, send his son to Red Tide City to become a chief craftsman—such a life, though not glorious, would be successful.
Until one day, an order disrupted his plans.
The Calvin Family wanted to send someone to assist the ’Eighth Prince’ in the Northern Territory to build a port, and by misfortune, he was chosen.
On the surface, it was said to be recognition, but he knew that such a task, in the family’s eyes, was akin to exile.
Russell didn’t sleep that night, bid farewell to his wife and children, and even arranged his affairs.
He thought it was a death sentence.
Let alone what he saw on the way north: permafrost, ruins, hunger-ridden people, and endless snowstorms.
Until he reached Red Tide City, did he realize the Northern Territory was not the barbaric land he had imagined.
That city… even more orderly and prosperous than many major cities in the Southeast.
For the first time, he began to think that perhaps things wouldn’t necessarily turn for the worse.
But when he arrived at the site chosen for Dawn Port, setting foot in the muddy flats made his heart sink again.
He had worked on seven port projects in the South; stepping down he could assess how much stone would be needed to fill this area.
He knew which grounds could make a dam and which would collapse.
And this wasn’t land at all, but muck that would swallow people.
“This mud could swallow an entire port.” That was Russell’s first impression of Dawn Port.
What worried him even more was the young Lord Louis, who looked too young to be true.
Russell had seen nobles meddle with engineering projects to disastrous effects.
Sometimes just a sentence like, “I think this dam line can be moved over there,” could add half a year to a port’s construction.
Judging from the site selection, Louis clearly knew nothing about port construction.
At that time, Russell stood by the muddy water every day, seemingly silent yet already planning an escape plan in case of failure in his heart.
After all, he didn’t want to be buried in a noble’s capricious project.
Just as Russell was determined to take one step at a time, Louis surprised him.
This young lord convened a small meeting with the management staff present, skipped unnecessary pleasantries, and went straight to the core of the issues, rejecting empty talk.
He broke the massive port construction goal into phased tasks, marking each step with timeline and responsible person, even listing risk contingency plans one by one.
The negative atmosphere hanging over them due to tidal flats, fish peril, and unstable morale quickly dissolved under this clear planning, replaced by a drawn-in collaborative momentum.
And in the ensuing days, Lord Louis never overstepped his authority.
Louis continued to visit the site every day but never interfered with construction details.
Whenever there were new suggestions, he only jotted them down in a notebook for Mike and Russell to decide if they were feasible.
“You are the real experts on this.”
“If you say it can be done, then go ahead as per your plans.”
Though Louis said this calmly, it carried an inherent sense of trust.
For the first time in front of a noble, Russell felt a strange kind of respect, not staged but treating the craftsmen as a true part of the team.
Next came a surprise for Russell—the Red Tide Craftsmen Corps deploying two new tools for port construction.
A device called the rail crane could glide smoothly along pre-laid tracks, using a winch to lift entire sections of beams.
The other was a gear transporter, utilizing steam power and chain mechanism, allowing two or three people to push several hundred pounds of stone forward without extra manpower.
The first time he saw the crane lift a heavy foundation stone and place it securely on its target line, Russell stood aside, almost doubting his own eyes.
He looked closely at the counterweight and pulley setup, confirming it was neither magic nor trickery but a solid product built out of components and calculations.
For Russell, who had been a craftsman all his life, this was a miracle without magic.
“It actually works,” he whispered, feeling unable to express his assessment.
What surprised him even more was the origin of these tools.
Not from ancestral methods passed down by some master craftsman, nor private modifications by an old expert.
The craftsmen corps from Red Tide made it clear that the initial design sketches were drawn by Lord Louis.
