Chapter 17 Becoming a Teacher

Ye Tao increasingly wished he could split himself into two, or even more, to handle the increasingly complicated affairs. Even though he already had several senior brothers helping him block so many things, even though Sophie was becoming more and more skilled at handling many documents for him, even though Lu Dan was almost becoming the most arrogant chief steward in Danyang, smoothing over many problems that didn't require him to personally intervene, there were still so many things to do. Especially after leaving Danyang for nearly a month, and then creating the now nationally-watched Clock Tower Project in Yicheng.

Although most of the wealthy households in Danyang were based in traditional industries such as agriculture, department stores, knitting and weaving, silk weaving, jewelry and luxury goods, and block printing, or military manufacturing and supporting product industries linked to the "government procurement" of the Dongping military and government, they were not as flamboyant and outwardly aggressive as the Yicheng sea merchant groups. However, their accumulation of wealth had gone through generations, even more than a dozen generations of long time, and their foundation was so deep that it couldn't be compared with the big sea merchants who had turned from pirates like Qi Zhentao. After grandly creating the Seven Seas Chamber of Commerce in Yicheng, forming a commercial group with national-level financial resources and influence, and instantly getting the naming rights of the clock tower that would undoubtedly be the tallest building in the world once completed, the merchants in Danyang couldn't sit still.

Not two days after returning to Danyang, Ye Tao was seriously questioned at a banquet launched by several major families in Danyang about the possibility of building a taller clock tower in Danyang. And faintly, Ye Tao heard that a consortium called the "Jiuzhou Chamber of Commerce" was being prepared. Behind this consortium, whose financial resources were appalling, was vaguely the Dongping court… or perhaps the shadow of Tan Weixin, representing the inner court.

And Dai Yuege, the big boss who had been completely spoiled in the years of cooperation, and had become the most technically advanced developer, construction team, supervision company, sales company, and even property management company of this era, keenly smelled the unmistakable taste of him being the only one capable of such a magnificent project. On the one hand, he was actively training a construction team capable of handling general projects, and on the other hand, he was drawing out many old partners and elite soldiers from Dai's Construction to study Ye Tao's sketches and models, and began the preliminary technical research and technical preparation...

Under the mediation of an unknown person, the wealthy families of Danyang and the sea merchants of Yicheng reached an agreement: the clock tower in Yicheng could be lower than the one built in Danyang, but the clock tower in Yicheng must be completed more than half a year earlier than the one in Danyang.

And this agreement was reached without Ye Tao's participation. The giants of the two places, who had prepared huge amounts of construction funds, completely ignored Ye Tao's opinion this time.

Damn it, am I invisible! Ye Tao, smiling wryly, wanted to yell to the sky. For any designer or architect, being able to simultaneously undertake the landmark buildings of the two places, and continuously break the record for the tallest buildings of this era, was an irresistible opportunity. But, you should know that now, besides Dai's Construction of Dai Yuege, which had been continuously trained and armed by Ye Tao and Ye's Workshop for several years, there wasn't a single construction company in the world that could undertake such a project. And even the big boss of Dai Yuege could only concentrate his elite forces to guarantee the project in one place at most. Of course, after successively undertaking such difficult projects, Dai Yuege, which now attached great importance to technical reserves and personnel training, could cultivate a large number of talents with expertise in engineering technology and project management, but that was a long time later. Even if all the technical problems didn't exist now, the prefabricated cast iron parts and special bricks and other materials could be continuously supplied, even if the construction project started from driving piles from now on, even if human resources were as abundant as an ant sea, according to Ye Tao's estimation, the clock tower in Yicheng wouldn't be able to be initially completed in less than a year and a half. And Danyang? Don't even think about it, even if you give it another year on top of that extra half a year. A two hundred and eighty chi high tower was already quite terrifying in terms of technical difficulty, and if you want to go further, God knows how many problems will pop up.

Build it! Why not build it?! Facing the giants of the two places waving silver notes, not afraid that Ye Tao would ask for a high price, only afraid that Ye Tao would refuse to agree, Ye Tao also held back a force.

So, on the one hand, Ye Tao arranged for Dai Yuege's men to go to the workshop to carry out technical research with Guan Haishan and others. On the other hand, according to the specifications originally made in Yicheng, he also held a grand briefing session, explaining the function of the clock tower, the difficulty of construction, the budget, and the extremely critical time arrangement to the wealthy giants from all sides who were willing to invest and the local officials. After Ye Tao's explanation, it was finally determined that the Yicheng Clock Tower would start construction in a month and a half, and the Danyang Clock Tower would start construction in a year.

Aren't you letting me build Isengard and create the two towers of this era? Okay, I'll build Isengard. With such a determination, Ye Tao really came up with the approximate design drawings of the Danyang Clock Tower based on Tan Weixin's sketches. Although after modification, the appearance of the Danyang Clock Tower wasn't as sharp and arrogant as Isengard in the *Lord of the Rings* movie, it was inevitable that its brilliance would be revealed. And the most attractive thing was that there was a viewing platform at a height of more than two hundred and sixty chi in the Danyang Clock Tower. While drawing the sketches, Ye Tao's brain was thinking about the scene of Gandalf the Grey leaping off that high tower and being carried away by vultures...

Just as the matter of the two clock towers was settled, the Two Armies Review Office also officially moved to the barracks in the west of Danyang, which had been initially constructed at a speed that would astound all the construction companies of this era. The high-standard road starting from the West Gate of Danyang would be divided into three forks in front of the barracks, leading to Iron City and the two satellite towns of Danyang respectively. This barracks actually shouldered the responsibility of assisting in the defense of Danyang and providing support to the two satellite towns in the vicinity.

And this huge barracks, which could actually accommodate about ten thousand people, took into account the ubiquitous competition between the Mengxue Army (Fierce Blood Army) and the Huoqi Army (Fire Kirin Army) from the very beginning of its construction. Whether it was the soldiers' barracks, officers' dormitories, canteens, training grounds, stables, or armories, there were two of everything, but any facilities with the same function must have a sufficient distance. Far enough so that the two armies with different styles could carry out their daily affairs without being affected by each other, but close enough so that both sides could definitely see each other's detailed actions, so as to judge whether their side was doing well or not.

In the very center of the camp with such a delicate arrangement, there was a building used to carry out war chess deduction on a real map. The building referred to the design of the Yi Zhan Lou (War Chess Tower), but considering that there might be three or even more parties involved in the deduction, there were five independent game rooms, an extremely large work room for the staff who handled the chess game information, a public lecture hall, and an expert research hall. Since the war chess deduction carried out here would inevitably occur between professional and semi-professional personnel, there was no need to consider the stage effect, but the most intuitive presentation of the battle situation was required. The public lecture hall here was designed as a circular hall, with a huge table in the middle for placing sand tables or maps, and the surrounding area was a stepped seat. When Ye Tao saw this lecture hall, what came to his mind wasn't the image of a conference hall or theater that he had originally expected, but he felt that it was a bit like an Eastern-style ancient Roman Senate. Especially the position setting of the lecturer and the chief referee, it was clearly the consul and the tribune... However, when he asked Guan Haishan, the eldest brother in charge of building the barracks, he found that there was actually no instigation from Tan Weixin behind this, but it was actually a few old men in the army and a group of young officers who formed a rough idea based on their understanding of the strategic gameplay of marching chess and the needs of the two armies' deduction, and then asked Guan Haishan to design and build it.

This world... is really talented. Ye Tao could almost imagine how Tan Weixin would laugh and thump her chest, and how she would make herself wander on the edge of life and death when she knew such a design...

The two armies had already moved into the barracks where the paint smell hadn't completely dissipated. Of course, the problem of formaldehyde concentration didn't exist in this era, and all the paints were pure natural materials, which didn't affect health much. Daily training had already been carried out successively under the guidance of Dai Yun, Qiu Haohui, and many supervisors and adjutants, and under the leadership of the trainee officers.

Now, the Mengxue Army and the Huoqi Army were implementing a strategy of training and learning in parallel. Every morning, there was a routine one shichen (approximately two hours) of queue and physical training, followed by one shichen of special subject training. The afternoon time was handed over to the trainee officers to control. They could give the soldiers leave to rest, or organize training, organize internal competitions, and organize sports and chess games. And the officers and trainee officers who had nothing to do were arranged to have a lecture every two days.

These lectures were carefully selected. Some were to invite veteran generals who were currently serving or retired from the army to explain battle examples and battle history, and some were to find officers and soldiers with expertise in various fields to explain various basic knowledge related to the military, marching organization, camp construction, topographic surveying, military geography, and military meteorology. Although there was no detailed subject system to support this in this era, there had already been preliminary division of labor and specialized talents, especially those officers in the army who were proficient in topographic surveying. They were usually hidden away for fear of accidents or being assassinated by enemy countries. It took a lot of effort from the Ministry of War and General Zhuo Mang and others to be able to let them give lessons to these rookie officers in this occasion. In addition to professional knowledge in the military field, there was also content related to war chess, such as basic mathematics. Although those guys in Yi Zhan Lou didn't have a deep research in mathematics, they could still be competent if they only talked about the chess-related parts, like Suo Zheng and others.

At the beginning, everyone was a little dismissive of this arrangement that was a bit similar to reading. But after the lectures were held a few times, not only the trainee officers who were required to attend the lectures would definitely be there unless something major happened, but also the officers and non-commissioned officers who were not required to attend the lectures also asked to be able to attend the lectures. Although these people had retired from the army, their desire for knowledge in the military field was no less than those trainee officers who were full of enthusiasm. Their yearning for victory and their emotions for the battlefield were even stronger. When the lecture was held for the tenth and eleventh times, the ratio of trainee officers to retired officers participating in the lecture had reached six to four, and even many Imperial Guards, city defense forces, and foreign officers who were temporarily stationed in Danyang according to Dongping's principle of inter-provincial mutual defense tried every means to attend the lecture, so that the seats for the lecture became a reward for soldiers who performed well in the army... And everyone's requirements for the content of the lecture became higher and higher.

"Ye Tao? Let him give a lecture!" Someone from an unknown source first came up with this idea, and then everyone responded. As the creator of marching chess and Yi Zhan Lou, as the actual manager of the Two Armies Review Office, and as the actual supreme commander of the Mengxue Army and Huoqi Army, Ye Tao had absolutely no reason to refuse or retreat.

After two days of hard thinking and five days of careful preparation, Ye Tao finally stood on the podium. Facing the dark crowd, Ye Tao had no fear. He smiled and said, "What I'm going to talk about for you is called Group Learning..."

ps: Wasting some words to continue asking for monthly tickets. Students, I really need everyone's monthly ticket support. Although I don't seem to have thought that my slow-paced and slow-handed author could enjoy such high rewards in the first and second place, the current ranking is also difficult to satisfy.