Last to offer somewhat reasonable opinions was Jian Datong. Jian Datong raised an extremely simple difficulty: from top to bottom, the Ye Family Workshop was filled with artisans. Those who became technicians or master craftsmen, and began managing factories or teams, did so because of their exceptional skills, not because they had excellent management abilities. According to Tan Weixin's plan, the technical level itself was no longer a major issue for those department heads who needed to stand alone. Of course, in the Ye Family Workshop, if your technical level wasn't up to par, you couldn't control the people under you… The conflict between these two could make one's brain ache.

If Tan Weixin's series of ideas were successfully implemented, it would be of great significance to the Ye Family Workshop. The current Ye Family Workshop was actually many times larger than those so-called capitalist embryonic silk and cotton spinning workshops that Tan Weixin and Ye Tao were taught about in history class, so large that one had to think carefully to find something the Ye Family Workshop didn't produce besides food. The current Ye Family Workshop started as a small workshop, and with Ye Tao's rising status, expanding influence, and the growth of the Ye Family's capital, the exploration of technology, and the gradual expansion of marketing channels, it has spontaneously and consciously reached its current state step by step. The lack of a set of effective overall management strategies has become a bottleneck restricting the further development of the Ye Family Workshop, and the technical invincibility has made the high-level technical personnel of the Ye Family Workshop lack external pressure and competition other than challenging the limits of their imagination.

It was precisely because they saw the significance of this series of plans, and also saw that after the implementation—or, to use a more militaristic term that Tan Weixin and Ye Tao both preferred: "deployment"—the Ye Family Workshop would transform into a more powerful economic and technological entity, that everyone was even more hesitant.

Naturally, no one wanted all the changes to happen overnight. Tan Weixin objectively estimated the entire reform process to take a year and a half to two years, and the various expenses that needed to be continuously invested to complete the entire change were also considerable.

The heated discussion only changed after Ye Laogeng returned. Because everyone had added many of their own opinions to this framework in the past few days, and had also formed a relatively rough plan, Ye Laogeng was pulled in to discuss this series of reform plans as soon as he returned from Crescent Island. After listening, Ye Laogeng just smiled憨厚地憨厚地 and said, "Everyone has a lot of ideas, so let's just start with the simple ones and move on to the difficult ones. For example, that grading system for various artisans is quite interesting, so let's start with that."

Ye Laogeng looked at Tan Weixin and said kindly, "Your Highness… Alright, don't glare at me, I'll still call you Xin'er… I let you make the decisions about business matters because I can't manage them myself. Since you have a way, just do it. But these jobs all sound difficult, can your body handle it? …Also, those shopkeepers under you, if you think they should be sent in to work, just send them, don't worry about this or that. Also, if you think those people can do the work but can't manage people, you can have someone teach them. Since they can learn such troublesome crafts, it should be fine for them to learn something else. In the beginning, no one knew anything, let's just do it and see."

Ye Laogeng's words set the tone for the overall transformation of the Ye Family Workshop. The Ye Family Workshop then announced that it would conduct technical grading assessments, which made the many masters with unique skills hidden in the Ye Family Workshop eager to try and jump for joy. Even when Qi Zhu, representing the Seven Seas Trading Company, came to discuss the installation of six light triple-cannon crossbows, he was a little overwhelmed by the atmosphere of the entire factory area ready to go.

When Qi Zhu saw the display of future artisan qualification certificates being carried out, he understood somewhat. The lowest-level apprentice certificate was just a stiff card, with a graphic decoration of branches and vines on the outer circle, and some simple instructions printed in the middle, such as the name of the qualification certificate, level, type of work, date of issue, and the signature of the examiner who approved it, etc… But the journeyman-level certificate was immediately different. It was silver-plated cloud-patterned paper, the kind of paper used to print extremely exaggerated state secret-level books, with similar content written on it. The cloud-patterned paper would be rolled up and placed in a wooden box. The craftsman's qualification certificate was similar to the journeyman's, but more exquisite. The certificate was made of parchment, with a shiny copper ring attached to fix the thickness of the parchment roll. And the box had a silk lining inside, and the buckle on the outside was also made of copper, with plant-shaped decorations, formed at once by the Ye Family Workshop's unique stamping machine. The master craftsman's qualification certificate could be called gorgeous. It was a parchment book, with a brown calfskin cover with the Ye Family Workshop's copper coat of arms stamped on it, and the words "Master Craftsman Certificate" in gold lettering. Opening the booklet, in addition to the fixed certification content, there was also a brief text evaluating and describing the master craftsman. Finally, there were the signatures and seals of at least two directors of the Ye Family Workshop, and the signatures and seals of officials from the Dongping Ministry of Works at the rank of vice director or higher… The artisans of the Ye Family Workshop had long passed the stage of worrying about food, clothing, housing, and transportation, and such a certificate might be the highest honor that some of them could obtain. Some would value the recognition of contemporary top artisans, some would value the recognition of the Ministry of Works, and without a doubt, those who were qualified to obtain this certificate, whether in the Ye Family Workshop or not, would have enviable income.

The artisan grading started with the carpentry category first. After all, the Ye Family Workshop started with carpentry skills, and the earliest garden buildings were mostly won with skilled and exquisite carpentry work. And since the Ye Family Workshop's earliest apprentice and journeyman system started with carpentry, there were also relatively uniform technical grading standards. What aroused everyone's interest was that the absolute high-level of the Ye Family Workshop, led by Ye Tao, would all participate in the assessment.

Those earliest apprentices and journeymen of the Ye Family Workshop who were still working in the Ye Family Workshop were now at least at the craftsman or master craftsman level. Those guys chuckled and told the apprentices who had recently entered the Ye Family Workshop in recent years how these fellow apprentices had led everyone to complete one project after another that might seem insignificant now, such as Jiao'ao Villa, Xunfeng Pavilion, Zhan Garden, etc… Some of the young apprentices had never even seen Ye Tao and did not know what this living legend of the craftsman industry, now one of the country's leading ministers and the驸马爷, looked like. And now, this was a good opportunity, not only to let these founders of the Ye Family Workshop show off their increasingly rare skills, but also a good opportunity to enhance the internal cohesion of the Ye Family Workshop.

"Ye Family Workshop Artisan Technical Grading Assessment, Carpentry Category, First Session. Examinee: Ye Tao. Carpentry Technical Certificate Number: One…"

As an apprentice stood beside Ye Laogeng and read this aloud from the book, the exam began. For these guys who came to show off their skills, everyone would obviously not rigidly require them to perform basic techniques such as sawing, planing, drilling, chiseling, etc. Everyone was eager for the performance of such craftsmen. Yes, it was indeed a performance. And the assessment level of this group of people was directly master craftsman, which was a height that some of them could not reach in their entire lives in the eyes of ordinary apprentices. Experts know if there is any as soon as they make a move. Craftsmen at this level often show their level in the most ordinary technical details, and craftsmen close to that level can see the clues from these details at a glance. But for ordinary apprentices, this kind of too profound thing is far less than the performance of showing off skills.

Ye Tao's exam work was the shell of a grandfather clock. The entire shell would be carved entirely from extremely precious Zitan wood. Except for Ye Tao and a few others, no craftsman dared to cut this extremely expensive material. But Ye Tao only spent some time studying the texture of the wood, and then quickly came up with a design plan, which stunned the audience. Ye Tao was actually going to directly carve an Yicheng Seven Seas Pagoda to use the shape of the clock tower as the shell of this unique grandfather clock. This grandfather clock would even have a base in the future, and this base would be made to imitate the small square under the Seven Seas Pagoda, with the surrounding buildings slightly added. The middle part of the base would be divided into several rings, with small sculptures of various carriages, horses, and figures on it. When the grandfather clock rang, these rings on the base would rotate clockwise or counterclockwise, creating a scene of busy traffic under the Seven Seas Pagoda… Naturally, this work did not need to be completed by Ye Tao today. His performance item today was only the shape of the clock tower itself.

Ye Tao's toolbox unfolded layer by layer and was placed on the small table next to him. Although these tools were all made of tungsten steel and had been tested repeatedly, with impeccable precision, they were nothing special. But in Ye Tao's hands, the fourteen carving knives, from the smallest to the largest, seemed to have life. In the short time that everyone was still sighing, Ye Tao had already made the rough shape of the clock tower. The vertical decorative lines of the clock tower were directly chiseled out by Ye Tao, without using any plumb bobs or rulers as a reference… This hand alone made many people present open their mouths and unable to speak… At this time, Ye Tao had already begun to carve the details from the decorative pillars on all sides. The decorative pillars of the Seven Seas Pagoda were very meaningful. From bottom to top, different but interconnected animal shapes showed a strong sense of enterprising and a desire for continuous transformation and sublimation. And in Ye Tao's hands, this desire was even more vivid. Ye Tao's technique was too fast. Even the people in the innermost circle, some of them didn't understand Ye Tao's technique at all. A lifelike wren had already squatted on the eave of the bottom floor of the clock tower. Calculating from this moment, it took only a little more than a quarter of an hour until Ye Tao completed the phoenix spreading its wings under the dial of the grandfather clock, combing its feathers while overlooking the sentient beings below. Throughout the entire process, Ye Tao did not look at the Seven Seas Pagoda design drawings piled up on the side, or even look up at the Seven Seas Pagoda itself not too far away. He just carved extremely quickly, letting one shape after another jump into the audience's sight. The entire Seven Seas Pagoda seemed to be completely in his chest, with every detail in it.

Ordinary people can only hear the various tones and different rhythms of the sounds made with each contact between the carving knife and the wood, but those who have received some carving training or have expertise in this area are even more uncomfortable because they know how difficult this is. The carving knife seemed to have become an extension of Ye Tao's arm. Ye Tao casually inserted the carving knife into the coarse canvas work apron on his body, as every craftsman would do, but every time he changed carving knives of different sizes, his movements were so short, and every time he put the replaced knife in the position of the knife he started using. Many craftsmen would do this, because doing so doesn't require thinking, but every time they change knives, they have to see if what they are holding is what they need, because although this kind of knife change is efficient, the order of the carving knives will be completely messed up after a while. But Ye Tao didn't even look, and didn't need to check at all, but he never took the wrong knife. Some people need to use a hammer and chisel to make a slightly deeper cut, but Ye Tao always just uses the carving knife directly, and the large swinging arm movements surprised everyone, thinking about how such a large movement could ensure the accuracy of the cut… But Ye Tao's cutting position was always exceptionally accurate.

And one of Ye Tao's trademark-like unique movements gave the veterans and newcomers completely different feelings. Every time Ye Tao retracted the knife, his wrist would turn very expressively, and the wood chips and small pieces caused by that knife were also brought out by the carving knife with this movement. Even the small wood thorns in the place where the knife was cut were crushed, and these debris fell on the ground, but the carving itself was clean, and there was no need to find a duster to do the dust removal afterwards. Those veterans were shocked by this hand… What kind of technology is needed for Ye Tao to do this, and what kind of technology have they thought of but can't do, or haven't even thought of? Ye Tao, who doesn't need to be too picky about efficiency, is almost synonymous with efficiency in every knife. But what the newcomers saw was another point: Ye Tao's wrist-shaking movement was too gorgeous. They also noticed one thing. Although Ye Tao was doing such fine carving and created so many extremely fine wood chips, there was not a single bit of wood chips on his head. Unlike them, these newcomers, who get wood chips all over their heads and are in a mess after doing something… And these apprentices have a deeper understanding of the realm of carving. They have goals in their hearts, some goals are physical, such as Ye Tao, and some goals are virtual, such as: You can cut off my head, but you can't mess up my hairstyle!