The Royal Northern Rail Line was the largest project ever conceived in the kingdom: two hundred miles of standardized, crushed-stone roadbed and iron rail, stretching across rivers and through forests. The construction required moving thousands of tons of steel and stone, coordinating hundreds of newly hired laborers, and managing the supply chain across vast, hostile distances.
Alex realized his Efficiency Carts and localized management style wouldn't scale. He needed a way to manage complexity and predict bottlenecks before they halted the entire operation. He needed Project Management.
"We are building a machine, Hemlock, but this time, the machine is the construction process itself," Alex stated, unrolling a twenty-foot-long parchment that snaked across the study floor.
On it, he had charted the entire railway build, broken down into hundreds of discrete tasks: Quarry Stone, Forge Rail Section, Transport Sleeper, Lay Roadbed, Grade Final. Arrows connected the tasks, showing which step must be completed before the next could begin.
"This is called a Critical Path Analysis," Alex explained. "Any delay on this line of tasks delays the entire project. Our priority is to find and eliminate bottlenecks on the Critical Path."
Hemlock, now a master of numerical data, stared at the flow chart, intimidated not by the numbers, but by the lines. "My Lord, it looks like a dragon's intestines."
"It's the blueprint for efficiency, Hemlock. The dragon's intestines are prone to blockages. We must prevent them."
Alex couldn't be everywhere, so he had to replicate his systems-analyst brain across the entire line. He relied on his newly created Foremen—now elevated to Section Managers—and armed them with the tools of decentralized control.
* Standardized Forms: Every section manager received a daily report form (simple, numbered fields) detailing material usage, labor hours, and progress toward the next milestone. This eliminated narrative reports and provided quantifiable, comparable data.
* The Code-and-Return System: The semaphore line was extended along the construction route. Every hour, each section manager sent a simple three-digit code: Section ID + Status Code (e.g., 501 = On Schedule; 505 = Material Shortage; 510 = Labor Dispute). This provided real-time risk assessment to Alex at the manor.
The most crucial, yet simplest, innovation was the "Grading Kit" given to every section manager: two wooden stakes, a measured length of rope, and a water level. This allowed the Foremen to accurately grade the earth and lay the roadbed to the required flatness and camber without relying on inaccurate sight lines or spiritual guidance.
One Foreman, named Thomas, initially mistook the water level for a ceremonial cup. "My Lord, do we drink this before laying stone for luck?"
Alex, barely suppressing a sigh, explained the physics of gravity and flat surfaces. "You are not looking for luck, Thomas. You are looking for zero gradient deviation. Gravity is your most reliable foreman."
***
The system worked with astonishing precision. Alex could see a material shortage in Section 8 (505) on the semaphore within minutes and immediately divert a supply wagon from the non-critical Section 12, maintaining the Critical Path. The railroad construction proceeded at a pace that baffled local tradition.
However, the predictability of the Syndicate's operation began to attract a new kind of threat: organized bandits.
In the past, bandits relied on ambush and chaos. Now, they could observe the fixed schedule of the Arren supply trains—always following the Critical Path, always arriving with predictable loads.
A week into the major build, the semaphore flashed a new, alarming code from Section 3: 255 (Large Bandit Attack - Severe Loss of Materials).
The attack resulted in the loss of several Efficiency Carts, a substantial amount of pig iron, and a three-day delay on the Critical Path—the first major failure of the system.
Alex, pacing the study, ripped up his meticulous flow chart. He had optimized for inefficiency and bureaucracy, but he had failed to optimize for external, predictable criminality.
"The problem is not the supply chain; the problem is the security protocol," Alex declared, his eyes flashing with renewed purpose. "We cannot rely on the Duke's guards. We must build our own security force, one that operates with the same logic as our railway."
Next priority: The need for a private, organized security detail capable of defending assets across a wide geographic area. It's time to invent the private security contractor and standardized firearms to solve the bandit problem.