Endless Winter: My Camp Upgrades Infinitely Chapter 1853: Huajin Paint, A Twist of Fate

The earliest Xia Palace was actually just a three-story main building of the camp.

Later on, they successively added the Alchemy, Artifact Refining, and Martial Arts Pavilions, the Eight Ministries Hall of Great Xia, the Star-picking Hall built on the hanging wall of the valley, and the deepest Sect Temple.

This March, the expansion project of the Xia Palace, in which Craftsmanship Department Director Mu Dong fully participated and guided, showed exceptionally noticeable results.

Firstly, considering that there were too many staff in the Eight Departments, with complicated affairs, and the frequent dense flow of outsiders was not conducive to maintaining the solemnity and privacy of the Xia Palace, the Eight Ministries Hall was relocated to the outside of the palace city;

Secondly, for the same reasons, the three pavilions of Martial Arts, Alchemy, and Artifact Refining were also relocated outside. Since the medicinal fields were located on the south side of the valley, the Alchemy Pavilion was sited outside the east wall of the Xia Palace; the Martial Arts and Artifact Refining Pavilions, not taking up much area, were sited on the west side of the Xia Palace.

With these two huge sections of a dozen buildings relocated, the space within the Xia Palace immediately became much more ample. With sufficient space, Mu Dong naturally went all out, using the highest standards to deploy over a decade of accumulated craftsmanship from the Craftsmanship Department into this project.

Firstly, the Lord’s Hall, during earlier reconstructions, had all its main materials replaced with Ten-forged Iron; this time, Mu Dong directly upgraded the main building materials to Hundred Forged Iron, using even Thousand Forged for some key areas, and boldly employing silver in parts like the palace doors, windows, corridors, and interior walls.

If the main building materials are like this, there’s even more to say about the exterior decorations.

The paint was a technique developed by the Craftsmanship Department in its early years, effectively preventing metal corrosion. Some are so precious they can even enhance the toughness and sharpness of the metal, most widely applied to weapons, war armor, and the outer coating of various metal products.

But as the resources of Great Xia grew increasingly rich, the types of paint became more diverse, production increased, and with the Xia people’s aesthetic continuously improving, the decorative demand for paint soon emerged, extending its use to aesthetic needs like furniture materials.

Where there’s demand, there’s a market. With the explosive growth of the Great Xia population, any demand could create a vast market. The Craftsmanship Department, seeing this, naturally paid more attention to paint development.

Although various new types of paint emerged in an endless stream, the most precious paints that could be widely applied to building materials are three kinds: Huajin, Purple Vermilion, and Brown Jade. It’s explicitly specified that only Nobles have the right to use and purchase these, with fixed purchase quotas every year according to noble rank, and strict requirements on usage routes. Therefore, the prices of these three paints are predictably the highest.

Among them, the production of Huajin paint is the lowest. Its main manufacturing materials are two kinds: silver and Golden Frost Tree Powder, which are put into a furnace together for prolonged high-temperature smelting, then over thirty auxiliary materials are added in strict sequence. The entire process must have the precise temperature, water volume, and air humidity, lacking any link, the final product cannot be obtained.

Not to mention that the raw materials include silver, just such a cumbersome process destined its price couldn’t be low. And indeed, its price reached an astonishing 1300 liang per jin, and because of the need for silver and the overly cumbersome firing process, the woodworking workshop under the Craftsmanship Department produces at most about ten thousand jin per year.

Generally speaking, one jin of paint could coat about one square meter, so ten thousand jin sounds like a lot, but if used for construction, it could only coat a square wall with a hundred-meter side.

Compared to a few years ago, Great Xia’s resources are extremely abundant now, especially since the opening of Hongmen in the seventh year of Great Xia, secured by advanced productivity, and trading with the Southern Slope towns bringing immense wealth to Great Xia. The benefit for the Xia people, in the end, is more varieties of resources and lower prices.

Then, at the beginning of this year, Great Xia destroyed the Northern Five Towns, incorporating the entire Southern Slope Territory into its domain, greatly expanding its resource lands. Following three wars with Cai Qiu, and establishing trade relations with the Feudal Towns, Great Xia’s resources saw an explosive development feast, further spiced up by the Camp Supply Department’s timely promotion of silver monetization.

By June this year, the Camp Supply Department roughly calculated, that a regular three-member family in Xia City, without considering any special factors, living normally and ensuring the most basic Cultivation Resources supply, would need about 50 to 60 liang of silver monthly.

And the Huajin paint, priced at 1300 liang per jin, is enough to let a three-member family do nothing and live carefree for two years. With such a comparison, one can see how exorbitant its price is.

“Gulp… The buildings in the Xia Palace, their exteriors are all dyed with Huajin paint, this…”

Su Xing’er, entering the Xia Palace for the first time, was instantly stunned by everything before her. The unease and tension in her mind suddenly dispersed, leaving only shock and bewilderment on her face, disbelief filling her pupils.

Lead by Luo Cheng at the beginning of the year, Su Xing’er and her three brothers smoothly settled down in the Xia Capital. To date, it’s been nearly half a year since she has lived in Xia City.

From initial confusion and disorientation, to gradually being attracted by the various novel resources of Great Xia, to being moved by the fair environment unbound by the Six-class System, thereafter experiencing the astonishingly low prices of Great Xia, understanding the many laws and rules of Great Xia, learning about the protections provided for vulnerable groups…