Chapter 181 Administration and Technical Breakthroughs

Having seen Han Yao off, Ye Tao breathed a sigh of relief. In the plan he and Tan Weixin had agreed upon, the Yunzhou Manufacturing Bureau was a crucial department, and it needed a reliable and capable person to manage it. Apart from being less skilled than Qian Shun in terms of technical understanding and management, Han Yao was qualified in every other aspect.

In Ye Tao and Tan Weixin's plan, they would successively establish the Yunzhou Manufacturing Bureau, the Yunzhou Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Bureau, the Yunzhou Commerce and Trade Bureau, and the Yunzhou Command Headquarters, four secondary departments to assist the Yunzhou Pacification Commissioner's Office in its operations. Among them, the Yunzhou Commerce and Trade Bureau would be mainly responsible for launching Yunzhou's various products to the outside world with a unified image and a layered brand layout, in order to maximize profits. The main task of the Yunzhou Manufacturing Bureau was to manufacture and produce various products, and to coordinate the various production resources of Yunzhou. The work of the Yunzhou Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Bureau was similar. Although these three departments were all secondary units, their operating mechanisms were different. The operation of the Commerce and Trade Bureau would be relatively flexible and outward-looking, very sensitive to studying and analyzing the market, and striving to occupy it. However, the Manufacturing Bureau and the Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Bureau were actually based on a planned economic system. Their task was to complete the requirements of the Commerce and Trade Bureau and other parties within limited costs and in a limited time.

When there was a complex production task, Han Yao could, of course, fully utilize the Manufacturing Bureau's own production capacity to complete it, but he could also outsource part or all of the work to qualified contractors. As long as the quantity, quality, and production cycle were suitable, he could have the final say in production. The Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Bureau also had this autonomy to complete tasks in a flexible manner. Naturally, this flexibility was within the scope of the Dongping laws and regulations. When the Commerce and Trade Bureau, the Manufacturing Bureau, and the Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Bureau could fully grasp the various resources in their respective fields, and could cooperate and collaborate with each other, they could fully unleash Yunzhou's various economic potentials.

The Command Headquarters was another matter. According to the imperial court's appointment, the one who held the highest military power in Yunzhou was Ye Tao himself, but due to the myriad affairs of Yunzhou, Ye Tao felt that he did not have the energy to manage the army's organization, training, and preparation. The Command Headquarters could do this. They could synthesize the opinions of all parties, and strive to make the various levels of troops in Yunzhou the strongest during the years of army building. They also had sufficient manpower to coordinate various matters with other parties, such as placing orders with the Manufacturing Bureau or the Ye Family Workshop. At the same time, the Command Headquarters also had to fully study the various situations around Yunzhou, the various possible operations, and combine them with the reality of Yunzhou to study various response plans. Once there was a war, the Command Headquarters could quickly become an efficient command organization that fully grasped the situation.

In such a layout, the heads of several departments already had candidates, but it would take some time to build the framework of each department. Although Tan Weixin herself did not want to take the position of Director of the Yunzhou Commerce and Trade Bureau, she could let Shi Wei, her most capable subordinate, do the job. The Yunzhou Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Bureau was planned to be handed over to Ge Lan, who had considerable prestige among the tribes. Although Ge Lan was not yet very familiar with administrative management, he was, after all, the leader of a large tribe, and his ability and knowledge guaranteed that he would be able to get started quickly. The Command Headquarters was naturally prepared to be handed over to Dai Yun. In fact, only Dai Yun could navigate the increasingly complex Yunzhou army and gain everyone's trust.

After envisioning such an administrative framework for Yunzhou, it might be easier to explain why Tan Weixin preferred to control things remotely rather than personally take charge of the Commerce and Trade Bureau. If she personally served as the Director of the Commerce and Trade Bureau, and Dai Yun also took charge of the Command Headquarters, then the administrative framework of Yunzhou would really be a complete family business. It would be better for all government orders to be issued from the Yunzhou Pacification Commissioner's Office, which would be simpler and clearer.

Ye Tao's inspection of the construction site of the Ye Family Workshop was not solely because the construction progress of the factory building was lower than expected. He had great faith in Qian Shun's management ability. Since the speed was not fast, there must be a reason for it, and he would not really urge him too much. In his opinion, coming to the construction site and designing a simple tower crane to solve the problem of hoisting steel beams was just a side task. The most important purpose of Ye Tao's visit to the construction site this time was the several technological breakthroughs that had already been born in the Yunzhou branch of the Ye Family Workshop – extremely important technological breakthroughs.

The first was the improvement of fierce fire oil and Huoxing Dan (fire star bombs). Since Ye Tao had previously decided to develop a small number of hot weapons, gunpowder, which was not difficult for him, was naturally born quickly, and black gunpowder appeared in this era directly in granular form. Cannons also had two different types of prototypes undergoing various tests.

However, Ye Tao was not satisfied with cannons that used black gunpowder as a propellant. He was not even very satisfied with simple cast cannons. Instead, he wanted to continuously try to directly push hot weapon technology to the era equivalent to the early 19th century in his own time and space. Thanks to his previous tireless efforts, the solid foundation of production technology laid by the Ye Family Workshop's advanced research and production integration mechanism over the years, and the combined efforts of Ye Tao and Tan Weixin, coupled with the cooperation of the Dongping royal family that could mobilize various production resources across the country, there was actually no problem in the development of hot weapons as long as some problems were solved. Ye Tao wanted to develop guns and artillery to a relatively mature stage before production and equipment because Dongping was now at the forefront of the cold weapon era in terms of military strength, military technology, and tactics, and there was no urgent need for military reform.

However, Ye Tao did not restrict the mad scientists in the Ye Family Workshop from fully exerting their imagination and using black gunpowder to improve various incendiary bombs. He only formulated strict production, management, and confidentiality regulations for black gunpowder, and formulated even stricter internal safety measures. The Ye Family Workshop's accident-free production record was still held by the Yicheng headquarters, reaching a terrifying one thousand and forty-four days, while the extremely dangerous ordnance department, especially the production department of Huoxing Dan and fierce fire oil, had an average accident-free production cycle of sixty-two days.

Yunzhou had a vast plain terrain, and the population was relatively sparse. Unlike the mountainous terrain near Yicheng, which could not accommodate large-scale tests, it was not like the capital of Danyang, which was an important place and densely populated. No one dared to play with fire so close to Danyang, for fear of causing trouble.

The mad scientists in the workshop came here and immediately circled a large test site near the factory area to test their various ideas. Yunzhou, with its developed animal husbandry, was able to obtain large quantities of animal oil for the Huoxing Dan at extremely low prices, almost for free. After countless tests, the workshop finally reported that their Huoxing Dan Type II was finalized.

The improvement of fierce fire oil was due to a private exchange between Ye Tao and the Gao family, with whom he did not get along very well: Ye Tao exchanged the distribution and production process of the Huoxing Dan Type I for two natural oil wells in the hills bordering Yunzhou within Dongping, with extremely limited output.

For the Gao family, they were natural oil wells, which could only rely on the natural pressure from the ground to extract oil. But for Ye Tao, it was not the same. Ye Tao had a technology that had been "restored" for a long time but had not had the opportunity to use it: the cylinder well, which was prepared for the extraction of shallow oil.

In his original time and space, when Ye Tao, as an industrial designer, first saw the introductory materials about cylinder wells, he felt a bit dumbfounded and quite amazed. It was this sense of amazement that made him intentionally collect some information in this area. What he did not expect was that in this era, cylinder wells could become a technology with considerable pioneering significance. Cylinder wells originally appeared in Shu, and were used by some mountain people to extract well salt from the underground rock formations. In order to avoid salt taxes, the diameter of the salt wells dug by cylinder wells was very small. Once a tax official came to check, one person could dismantle the device on the salt well and hide it, and the hole could be covered with anything. In the case of only rudimentary tools and materials, how deep can the cylinder well technology dig? In the information Ye Tao had obtained at the time, there was no survey result in this regard, but it was estimated that two hundred to five hundred meters was very possible... Faced with this number, no one could fail to be dumbfounded.

When it came to Ye Tao, he had a complete set of tools and equipment made of the best materials, a more comprehensive understanding of pressure balance, and more cautious but more willing to try technicians and engineers. In more than two months, two oil wells that had not been dug too deep had been completed, and wind-powered low-pressure extraction and lifting equipment was installed on them. According to the old workers who originally helped the Gao family manage the oil wells, the oil output of these two small oil wells alone was worth more than 30% of the total output of all the oil wells controlled by the Gao family.

With the support of the oil wells, Ye Tao even created a simple fractionation device. He did not divide the oil into such complex products as gasoline, diesel, asphalt, etc., but simply divided it into two types: light oil and heavy oil. Light oil was used to develop a new type of fire oil bomb that could reliably cause deflagration on the battlefield, while heavy oil was used to improve the fierce fire oil. Due to the previous blueprint of the fierce fire oil and Ye Tao's information on the formula of Greek fire, the birth of the fierce fire oil Type II went through much fewer twists and turns. Compared with the fierce fire oil Type II, which could almost be regarded as genuine Greek fire, the original fierce fire oil could only be called a counterfeit.

"Sir," an old technician introduced the new type of Huoxing Dan to Ye Tao. His face was full of excitement, and this excitement obviously did not come from Ye Tao, whom he had seen countless times, but because a large number of senior military officers and even representatives of the Samir family would come to observe the demonstration of the Huoxing Dan Type II and the fierce fire oil Type II today, and these mad scientists naturally had enough things to throw out and burn. "The biggest problem with the Huoxing Dan Type I was that fish oil was too difficult to obtain, the cost was high, and the annual output was so small. Now more and more things require that kind of fish oil, and the output of the Huoxing Dan has become even more of a problem. In addition, because a large amount of animal oil is used, it is easy to condense into lumps. It is safe, but the power is not enough. Although the continuous burning time is longer than that of the fire oil bomb, the power that erupts is far different, especially the fire oil bomb often explodes and burns a large area on the battlefield, but the Huoxing Dan cannot. Now the Huoxing Dan Type II is much better in several aspects. The fuel inside is still mainly tallow, but a large number of other things have been added. We have tried all kinds of things, including vegetable oil, heavy oil, honey and so on, to mix the current fuel. There are seventeen ingredients in total. In this season, the consistency is basically the same as that of batter. The original Huoxing Dan could not explode in one piece, so we specially made this double-layered shell. The outer layer is filled with fuel, and a black gunpowder column is placed in the middle. After the black gunpowder column explodes, it ignites the fuel and scatters the fire piece by piece... The current problem, hehe, is that we still can't figure out how to control the time of the fuse of the explosive column. It often takes a while after landing before it explodes, and the effect is not good. It's okay to hit ships at sea, but in a battle between two armies, it is estimated that people will run away. The best effect is probably exploding in mid-air, that's wonderful!"

The old technician spoke with great enthusiasm. Ye Tao wiped his sweat and said, "Is the current Huoxing Dan safe? The original Huoxing Dan was more popular because it would not explode randomly during transportation."

The old technician nodded and said, "Safe, too safe. Although the current fuel is not as thick as before, like batter, we have tried it and it will not burn unless it is directly touched by fire. The black gunpowder column is usually transported separately, and it can be inserted before putting it on the crossbow frame. Although black gunpowder explodes fiercely, it is not a big problem if it does not touch fire. We are usually careful."

Ye Tao nodded. He looked at the sky and said, "People will arrive one after another in a while. Is your test site ready?"

The old technician said, "Sir, didn't you ask about the fierce fire oil Type II?"

Ye Tao smiled and said, "I was not satisfied with the original effect of the fierce fire oil. The current fierce fire oil Type II was made according to my formula. Do you think I know it or not?"

The old technician smiled awkwardly and said, "I forgot about that. Sir, don't worry, the test site is almost ready. It will be tested in the afternoon. They were just making the final preparations just now. When the time comes, they will push the crossbows to the position. So many adults are coming, everyone knows, and they will never dare to make the slightest mistake."

Seeing that the technician was a little worried, Ye Tao asked, "Is there any other problem?"

"Sir, this weather..." The old technician said worriedly, "It is estimated that the weather will change in the afternoon. Will everything be the same then?"

Ye Tao winked and said, "It's okay, water can't extinguish it, it's more effective."