Chapter 1 Ye Tao’s "News Blow"

The fact that Ye Tao officially announced to the Ministry of Works that Princess Zhaohua, Tan Weixin, had integrated various human, material, and financial resources, investing almost all of the inner treasury’s wealth into the renovation plan for Danyang City before its release to Zuo Changming proved to be very useful.

After Zuo Changming informed the Zuo family of the news he had gleaned from Ye Tao, they intentionally or unintentionally leaked the relevant information to those clans with whom they had good relations. Subsequently, when the official decree was promulgated, what Ye Tao had said had spread like wildfire, becoming a secret known throughout the country. Under such circumstances, large merchants and clans were divided into several distinct types. Some were very keen to interact with those who held positions as grassroots officials of the Ministry of Works but were actually stewards and senior staff of the Princess's residence, striving to form win-win agreements. Led by the Zuo family, many very powerful merchants and clans were not very interested in obtaining a limited amount of compensation and almost all chose to cash out, converting this portion of funds into shares in the entire Danyang City renovation project.

What made these merchants and clans even more satisfied was that, after choosing this approach, those from the Princess's residence were not too harsh in their assessment of the relocation costs of their properties. After all, adopting this approach was a win-win situation. The merchants and clans gained the opportunity to obtain considerable benefits from this huge project, and for the temporary coordination team composed of the Ministry of Works, the Ministry of Revenue, and Princess Zhaohua’s residence that was operating this project, there was no doubt that this approach could alleviate considerable financial pressure. Although the inner treasury funds that Tan Weixin could use should be sufficient for this project, sufficient did not mean abundant. It would be best if the funds of these partners could be used to make things more abundant.

In just two or three days, a rough framework for the Danyang Construction Supervision Office, headed by Liu Yong, the chief steward of Tan Weixin's residence, with the participation of many officials from the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of Revenue, as well as a considerable number of well-known Danyang gentry as consultants, was established. Subsequently, matters such as demolition and resettlement, the design, construction, and support of those satellite towns, as well as more detailed rules for demolition, resettlement, and compensation for ordinary households would be successively released and implemented through this office.

And Ye Tao was actually the chief designer of this unprecedented Danyang renovation plan.

Whenever he thought of this peculiar identity, Ye Tao would find it somewhat amusing. Indeed, he was a designer, an excellent industrial designer accustomed to various types of work. He had extremely rich knowledge and operating experience in products and processes. But urban planning was another matter entirely. Coming up with a theory was one thing, but turning these theories into workable project plans was another. Where exactly should the three small towns to be built as appendages to Danyang be located, how should they be organically integrated with the surrounding natural conditions, how far should they be from Danyang, and how far from Tiecheng? How should the transportation between them be resolved, and after the residents are relocated, is the logistics of various daily necessities and means of production feasible? After such a large piece of land in Danyang City has been redeemed, how should the work be carried out step by step, how should the demolition be done, how should the reconstruction be done, where will these construction teams come from to build such a vast urban area, and what are their respective technical levels and execution capabilities? … All kinds of problems piled up on Ye Tao’s desk, making him breathless.

This situation could not help but make Ye Tao, who was long accustomed to modern society and served as the head of a strong creative team, always striving to correct the tendencies of his young designers to go their own way, feel somewhat helpless. Now, he was still drawing rough sketches and then handing over the detailed design drawings, the engineering plan drawings that required multiple calculations and material research, to the officials of the Ministry of Works who were now nominally under his command to produce. However, soon after, he discovered that this back-and-forth process was more tiring than drawing all the drawings himself. However, in order to have a group of engineering technology and design talents who could be summoned and fought when needed in the future, Ye Tao had to frown and turn the design and planning work into a training session for engineering technology and architectural design in this era. His training method was very simple, that is, "frustration education." Unqualified drawings were sent to his hands, and he always listed a large number of places that needed to be modified and then sent them back for rework. There was no CAD or similar things in this era, and even the blueprinting technology had not been developed yet. Redoing an extremely complex architectural design drawing was something that could make people painfully bang their heads against the wall. However, those who were required to redo it, although many of them were far superior to Ye Tao in terms of rank. The highest-ranking one was even a fifty-year-old fourth-rank compiler, but this fourth-rank compiler withstood the request from his subordinates to report to a higher level that Ye Tao was delaying the work. Instead, he conscientiously started from the basic concepts of illustrations and scales, and carefully drew perspective views, three-view drawings, and other types of drawings that met the requirements using the fine ruling pens produced by Ye’s.

Ye Tao was not someone who could not be defied. On the contrary, when they were discussing some issues, not to mention those officials, even the lowest-level errand runners could raise their opinions to Ye Tao face-to-face as long as they had a reason. However, on many issues, Ye Tao never compromised, such as this set of drawing standards that had been accepted by many people and whose value was beginning to be understood. Starting from this set of illustrations, the era when designers drew drawings according to their own ideas and often had different understandings from others was gone forever.

And at this time, the Yizhan Lou (Chess Battle Tower) encountered a problem. The first live explanation of the Da Zhan Lue (Grand Strategy) battle went wrong. Suo Zheng explained according to the method of explaining chess games in the past, but found that in the explanation hall, although there were many Wan Jia (players), with the holding of the Xing Jun Qi (Marching Chess) Open, a large number of curious people who had never been exposed to Xing Jun Qi, let alone the most basic explanations of the Da Zhan Lue gameplay, poured into the venue. Xing Jun Qi was a game, but it was already a game with great influence and great attention. Suo Zheng tried hard to strike a balance between professional chess game explanations and popularizing Xing Jun Qi to ordinary people, attracting them to become players, but he was somewhat unsuccessful in both aspects. What was even more troublesome was that, unlike two people playing many games in a day, the Da Zhan Lue gameplay was somewhat protracted. Although according to the rules, each game lasted only one day at most, which was four shichen (hours), how to attract everyone in such a long explanation was something that Suo Zheng had never considered.

The tense mood led to the dryness of the explanation content, and the dryness of the content led to fewer and fewer people in the explanation hall from the beginning of the lecture to the end of the game. In the end, in the explanation hall that could accommodate five hundred people, only more than one hundred seats were occupied, and one-third of them were dozing off.

"Young Master… I messed up this time, please punish me." Suo Zheng, the chief referee with a lofty status in the hearts of the players, stood in front of Ye Tao with his head down, uneasy. He knew that holding this open competition, although the tickets for the explanation hall were only a means to limit the number of people and avoid causing trouble in the organization work, and not a source of income, it was responsible for promoting Xing Jun Qi, especially the Da Zhan Lue gameplay. Now, looking at the number of ticket reservations for the next few explanations, Suo Zheng’s pressure was really not small.

"Why should I punish you?" Ye Tao knew that this kind of live chess explanation was indeed a relatively new way in this era, but in modern society, even the biggest commentators might make everyone want to sleep for various reasons. How could he demand so much from Suo Zheng, who had always been conscientious?

"Young Master… this chess explanation is really a bit overwhelming. Usually, those guys play so lively, but once they get into this kind of competition, they are cautious and follow the rules everywhere. It takes a full shichen from deploying troops and building fortifications to the first battle. If everyone who comes to listen are those ordinary players, casual jokes and chats, or even jokes about the two sides, are all fine, but… what about so many people who don’t understand?"

Suo Zheng heard that Ye Tao did not blame him for messing up the explanation of the first game of the official Da Zhan Lue competition. Impulsively, he poured out all the grievances in his heart.

"Well, who is against who in the next game?" Ye Tao asked.

"It's the Jin Jun (Imperial Guard) general led by Chi Yun against that… team of Princess Xiu." Suo Zheng said somewhat embarrassedly: "Both sides are very troublesome, and I don’t dare to talk nonsense."

Ye Tao smiled and said, "Then I’ll explain this game."

Suo Zheng was stunned. Then he understood. Indeed, with his status, he did not dare to talk nonsense about the battle between these two teams, but Ye Tao was different. Ye Tao had said things that sounded very excessive to others to Princess Xiu, Tan Weishi’s team, many times, and even made Tan Weishi cry several times, and he was still fine. And Chi Yun’s team was also very convinced of Ye Tao’s strategic and tactical abilities in the Da Zhan Lue gameplay. In any case, Ye Tao, relying on his current status and Tan Weixin’s clear support and protection, would not have any problems. At the same time, Ye Tao was also teaching Suo Zheng on-site how to explain the chess.

Suo Zheng nodded and said, "Then… then what needs to be prepared?"

"The map they are fighting on should have been drawn, right? Prepare the map and let Cassandra go to the explanation hall to wait for me. By the way, ask someone to go to the Princess's residence and invite Miss Liu Xiangyuan." Ye Tao nodded and said, "Explaining chess, as long as I think I am explaining chess, I don’t care about others."

Whether the news that Ye Tao was going to explain chess spread overnight or the supporters of these two teams with a lot of background were more numerous, the lineup of people who came to listen to the explanation on-site was so luxurious that those ordinary people and players who bought tickets early did not dare to easily step into the explanation hall later. Sitting in the first row was the first family of Dongping, the King Tan Xiaopei and the Queen Zhuo Xiu, as well as the Crown Prince Tan Weiming, Princess Zhaohua Tan Weixin, and the King’s second son Tan Weipeng actually all arrived. Officials who came to watch the game or just listen to Ye Tao’s explanation, both civil and military, were present, and the lineup was so complete that it seemed as if they were preparing to hold a morning court in the explanation hall. The arrival of General Zhuo Mang was something that everyone had never expected. He was Tan Weishi’s uncle, but also a great general who strongly supported young generals, the "Commander-in-Chief of the Dongping Armed Forces." His arrival further showed everyone’s high evaluation and importance of the simulation of the Da Zhan Lue gameplay.

Judging from the time, it was very likely that the King and those ministers who arrived came directly after the morning court, and their court clothes seemed to corroborate this. Those dandies of Danyang City who had good relations with Tan Weishi or Chi Yun, or the people in both teams, were almost all present, and they were still the most inconspicuous people in the audience. With many parents present, they could only obediently hide in the corners.

Ye Tao paid his respects to the King, met the princes and princesses whom he usually played with in a very casual manner, met the ministers, and after exchanging greetings and joking with the dandies, he calmly stepped onto the stage. Suo Zheng was sweating profusely behind the curtain next to the explanation stage. He was grateful that Ye Tao had taken over the work of explaining this game, otherwise, even if half of these people were present, no, as long as one-third of them appeared, he estimated that he would not even be able to speak. And Ye Tao did not even have a hint of nervousness on his face.

As per the agreed procedure, a soft music sound indicated the start of the game, and at the same time, this commentary led by Ye Tao also began.

Something was different. It was not the ordinary, popular silk and bamboo ensemble of yesterday, but a horse-head fiddle with a strong prairie flavor. And when the audience in the explanation hall quieted down while listening to this melodious music, Ye Tao’s commentary also began. Similarly, without simply introducing the map drawn by both sides and the lineups of the two sides, Ye Tao began his exposition in an extremely alternative way:

"This is, the grassland given to herdsmen by the gods
This is, the workshop where creation tempers life
This is, our home…
One day, a rainstorm flooded this land into an ocean
Cracked gravel turned into mud
Hibernating insects and grass seeds began to sprout
Birds began to sing happily in the clumps of new shoots
Here will be the herdsmen’s lambs
Softly chewing with a full heart of joy
This blue sky is our curtain
The horizontal rainbow is our roof beam
Water and grass are all our hope
Rich enough to make people forget all restraint
Here, we only remember, singing, singing
There is never a permanent paradise
When the lamb falls to the ground, we will pack our luggage
The scorching sun we are in awe of
Will bake this land hot
The eagles on top of the acacia trees will soar elsewhere
Groundhogs look around behind the team
Picking up some sorghum left along the way
Only a few ponds will remain on this land
All the weak can only pray
Hoping that the strong will leave a few mouthfuls of muddy soup after drinking their fill
The children look back frequently
The adults will say, there is honey here, there is milk, there are chirping insects, there are colorful leopards, but also, wolves!
We must fatten the cattle and sheep
Don’t expect good days to last too long
We must work hard to live
The dead are not worthy of respect
Here, life and hope continue to grow
Here, suffering and blood never leave
Here, is our home"

Accompanied by the music, Ye Tao, in a slightly sad tone, slowly spoke out the characteristics of this map as if chanting an epic. This was a map of extreme change, the transition between the rainy season and the dry season almost making it a completely different world. Basically, this map was a combination of desert and grassland, a piece of land that could only be fought on in theory. In reality, perhaps no general could guarantee that he could survive on this land with his troops, let alone continue to win. This was also a map that was theoretically very suitable for various cavalry tactics, except for a few hills, most of the area was plains and savanna. Ironically, both Tan Weishi and Chi Yun secretly smiled for a while after drawing this map, feeling that they had a sense of victory in their grasp.

And Ye Tao used this narrative method to explain this land. He turned the explanation into a performance, and even set a slow and sad tone for this simulated battle in a short period of time.