Taking the elevator from one hundred meters underground to the surface, Li Dong gazed at the thousands of various engineering machines operating before his eyes, his ears filled with the roaring sounds of machinery at work.
The entire scene looked extraordinarily grand, far more spectacular than any big-budget movie.
Busy engineers, industrious workers, and transport vehicles carrying supplies moved in and out of the construction site frequently.
Various massive engineering machines carried out their tasks in an orderly manner.
Countless enormous concrete mixers were producing super high-strength concrete, which was immediately hauled away by workers in truckloads or directly used for pouring.
The excavated soil and rocks from underground piled up like small mountains at the edges of the site.
The underground Shelter Base consisted of three levels.
However, each level was incredibly spacious, with a height of ten meters per floor. Any less height would make it difficult to accommodate large machine tools and other heavy equipment.
This also made the excavation work extremely challenging.
Each level of the Shelter required hollowing out 40 million cubic meters of soil.
For three levels, that meant removing 1.2 billion cubic meters of soil.
Moreover, the underground wasn't just soil—there were also various types of hard stones and rocks.
The thousands of large excavators on-site had barely stopped working since the project began.
They operated in three shifts.
Assuming each large excavator worked only eight hours a day, excavating six to seven thousand cubic meters of soil daily.
With thousands of large excavators, tens of millions of cubic meters of soil could be excavated in a single day.
That was the theoretical calculation.
In practice, however, such efficiency was unattainable.
Due to technical limitations, most excavators couldn't operate at depths of one hundred meters underground. Excavating soil at such depths also risked cave-ins and other hazards.
This required extreme caution.
If necessary, Li Dong would instruct the construction team to completely hollow out the entire underground area.
Once the underground Shelter Base was completed, they would backfill and reinforce it layer by layer.
A cube covering four square kilometers with a height of one hundred meters would only amount to 400 million cubic meters of soil.
With thousands of large excavators working, it wouldn't take long.
Operating in three shifts, they could excavate tens of millions of cubic meters of soil daily.
At that rate, 400 million cubic meters would take no more than a month or two.
This was precisely how the Shelter construction team operated.
They used various engineering machines to first hollow out sections of the underground, allowing more machinery and excavators to descend and dig deeper.
Gradually, they expanded outward, pouring load-bearing pillars and walls during construction to reinforce the structure and prevent cave-ins.
At certain times, if viewed from above, the entire site resembled an inverted truncated cone, with its center appearing bottomless.
"These engineering machines burn through fuel like crazy," Li Dong muttered as he observed the thousands of machines before him.
These machines were highly efficient and effective, but their fuel consumption was staggering—each one burned hundreds of liters daily.
And the entire site had nearly ten thousand such machines.
Each large piece of machinery consumes hundreds of liters of fuel. Added together, that amounts to millions of liters—three to four thousand tons of fuel, with each ton costing seven to eight thousand yuan.
A simple calculation shows that they were burning through over thirty million yuan worth of fuel every single day.
If it weren't for the fact that Li Dong and his brother could continuously pull money from the stock market to subsidize this, who the hell could afford such extravagance?
Even the most reckless spenders wouldn't burn money like this.
It got to the point where Li Dong had to collaborate with a local state-backed oil company.
He arranged for the oil company to lay down a simple fuel pipeline directly to the construction site to make refueling the machinery easier.
And the oil company, seeing Great Qin Heavy Industries Technology Company's massive fuel demands, was absolutely thrilled. Thirty million yuan flowing into their accounts daily meant over a billion in revenue every month.
The oil company's executives couldn't stop grinning every time they saw such staggering figures on their balance sheets.
They were literally counting money until their hands cramped.
Similarly, the local power company was delighted because the Shelter Base was also a massive electricity consumer.
At the moment, the Shelter construction site was burning through funds at a rate of hundreds of millions daily.
Workers who earned money would spend it, attracting vendors and stimulating the local economy.
Consumer activity quickly surged.
At the very least, the surrounding area looked far more prosperous than before, no longer as desolate as it once was.
Seeing this boom, local government officials were pleased, convinced that their efforts to attract Great Qin Heavy Industries Technology Company's investment had been the right move.
They had offered all kinds of tax exemptions and favorable policies—the most generous incentives possible.
Because the company was investing real money, pouring billions into the project without any shady dealings.
Tens of thousands of people were directly or indirectly employed by Great Qin Heavy Industries Technology Company, and even struggling local industries were revitalized.
It was a win-win situation. If the company wanted some tax breaks and incentives, the government was happy to oblige.
After all, wouldn't tax revenues rise as a result?
So the local government went all out to give Great Qin Heavy Industries Technology Company the green light, fast-tracking many of its projects.
It was mutual benefit at its finest.
The locals didn't fully understand why the company was dumping so much money into this, but since the demands weren't unreasonable, they supported it.
Who cared? As long as everyone was winning.
After inspecting the Shelter construction site and getting a general idea of the progress on most projects, Li Dong finally left.
Business-wise, he still had a lot to handle.
For the next month, his schedule was packed—endless meetings, banquets, and social events.
And the people he was dealing with were increasingly high-profile, which gave him a headache.
The Lin family, Lin Yu's backing, was also subtly exerting its influence, leaving Li Dong somewhat flustered. Fortunately, they were helping him, not obstructing him—otherwise, he'd be in real trouble.
Buzz—
Just as Li Dong got into his car, his phone rang.
"Hello, this is Li Dong."
"Oh. Mhm. Okay, got it."
The call ended quickly.
It was from a security department supervisor at Great Qin Heavy Industries Technology Company.
Li Dong currently also holds the position of Security Director at Great Qin Heavy Industries Technology Company.
This position was specifically established for the security team.
The person in charge informed Li Dong over the phone about certain matters—namely, that the 500 individuals who had passed the multi-layered screening process had all cleared their medical examinations without any health issues and were ready to proceed with the next phase of training.
Li Dong was asked to return to oversee the subsequent training.
It's worth mentioning that among those selected, 209 were Li Dong's clansmen—a number slightly higher than expected.