Chapter 1 The Ye Clan Workshop

The Yicheng headquarters of the Ye Clan Workshop was no longer that small patch of land surrounded by forests. Back then, at the foot of that lush hill, Tan Weixin had first seen Ye Tao. Now, the hill was still there, but the area occupied by the Ye Clan Workshop was far more than just that. Several blocks around the hill had been gradually bought by the Ye Clan Workshop and converted into workshops. Naturally, Ye Tao wouldn't allow the workshop area to become a post-apocalyptic scene of rolling smoke and a sky-obscuring sun. Groups of workshops were arranged together according to the closeness of their connections. Spaces for apprentices and workers of all levels to rest were left in front of and behind the workshops, shaded by green trees. The channels for transporting various materials and tools were on both sides of the workshops. Although large-scale tree planting and even the embellishment of some garden views greatly increased the construction cost of the factory area, for the Ye Clan Workshop, which originally specialized in architecture and gardening, these small units were probably not even considered internship projects. And everyone working in the Ye Clan Workshop took maintaining their working environment and preserving these garden views as their due responsibility, taking care of them casually during breaks.

The original small hill was now surrounded not only by lush trees, but also by barbed wire, watchtowers, and a constant stream of guards. The top of the small hill was now where the most core research projects of the Ye Clan Workshop converged, especially many military equipment projects. And these guards, even former martial artists with considerable skills, were not paid for by the Ye Clan Workshop, but were friendly sponsorships from cooperative units including the Dongping Imperial Guards, the Ministry of War, the Blood Kirin Army, the Seven Seas Trading Company, the Yicheng Navy, and the Yicheng City Defense Army.

Due to the need to transport large materials and large military equipment up and down the small hill, the road from the foot of the hill to the top had been expanded several times. The current passage was mainly a zigzag sloping road, divided into four sections leading to the top of the hill. On both sides of the sloping passage were steps for pedestrians. Because this passage was too long, most people, if they wanted to reach the top of the hill, would take a much shorter stone staircase on the other side. But after all, this sloping passage led directly to the gate of the main research area. And on both sides of the gate, there were two huge slogan banners that made people's heads fill with black lines. One side read: Time is money. The other side, of course, read: Efficiency is life.

These two banners were actually very relevant to the research projects at the top of the hill. The side with "Time is money" concentrated all the precision machinery projects of the Ye Clan Workshop, and the core was the products and subsequent research and development of the Tiansuo Clock Shop. Although "Time is money" was a bit blunt, it was really quite appropriate. The other side mainly focused on military equipment projects and high-end civilian product projects, pursuing production efficiency per unit of time and the best combat efficiency, which had always been the most enthusiastic pursuit of workshop employees qualified to participate in these projects.

The workshops divided on both sides were tightly linked in terms of technology, and there would never be any communication gap. Today was an example. In the open space in the middle, workshop employees were testing an extremely peculiar military weapon, a very modern-looking military weapon.

It was a small ballista. The front of the ballista was slightly wider than an adult man's arm span. Standing the slide rail up, it was only as tall as a person. However, under the slide rail, there was an extremely complex and exquisite set of devices. Through this set of devices, a single person could adjust the elevation angle of the ballista from ten degrees all the way to eighty degrees, and the horizontal angle could be rotated three hundred and sixty degrees. The entire set of devices was mainly made of metal, and the suspension was supported by a thick column, with the hollow center of the column being where the longitudinal axis of the device was located. The ballista's shooter had a seat fixed on the column, with a complete set of simple shooting resolution devices and an adjustable telescope in front of the seat. The shooter's foot position was a set of cranks, and by stepping on the cranks, the elevation angle of the ballista could be adjusted. The shooter's right-hand position was a hand-cranked dial, and by turning the dial, the horizontal angle of the ballista could be adjusted. What made Ye Tao unable to resist rolling his eyes was that the shooter's seat and horizontal dial could be installed symmetrically to facilitate left-handed shooters operating... This kind of thoughtfulness might be the result of Ye Tao's perennial inculcation of ergonomics and service awareness.

Winding and loading the ballista naturally could not be done by the shooter, and naturally there was no automatic loader or anything like that in this space-time. But in any case, equipping such a ballista with a strongman and a loader would be enough to form combat power. In terms of weight, this kind of ballista was not even lighter than those standard-sized ballistas mainly made of wood. Moreover, this kind of ballista could basically only be fixed in one place for use, as a city defense cannon or a ship cannon. As a city defense cannon, this small ballista had a limited range, and probably couldn't play a big role. But as a ship cannon, in situations where the enemy was trying to get close to one's own side, and where it was necessary to quickly shift targets and adjust the target at any time according to the relative position, this kind of ballista would become the enemy's nightmare.

The design of this ballista, strictly speaking, just the design of the adjustment device below, Ye Tao had long thrown to the workshop. This adjustment device was also applicable to the Shenbi Gong (Divine Arm Bow), to form a three-person shooting team for the Shenbi Gong. However, the workshop had not been able to produce qualified products for this set of devices. Qualified products not only require good performance, but also require high reliability and acceptable cost. After successfully producing a small amount of tungsten steel, the workshop once wanted to use tungsten steel to make a large number of gears and longitudinal axes in this set of devices, but in that case, although the performance and reliability were guaranteed, the cost calculation was really unbearable. But with ordinary steel, even the fine steel produced by the workshops of Liyang under the Ye Clan Workshop and the Inner Treasury, could not meet the needs of this set of devices. And now, when Wootz steel appeared in front of the people in the workshop, it was like opening a door for them, allowing them to finally produce this three-person cannon team's light and fast ballista. When the Ye Clan Workshop officially started building this set of devices, the people from the Seven Seas Trading Company's escort team had come to see it. They had originally been urging the Ye Clan Workshop to produce ballistas for equipping the Tiger Tooth Ships, and they immediately showed great interest in this thing. Although Old Man Qi hadn't witnessed this thing with his own eyes yet, he had already indicated that as long as there were conditions for equipping them, each Tiger Tooth Ship would be equipped with four to six of these things.

"Four are enough for the lead Tiger Tooth Ship. The lead ship needs to be able to show off its power. All the remaining Wootz steel will be used for tool upgrades," Ye Tao curled his lips and instructed.

"Okay... you deal with Old Man Qi." Zhao Dazhu had no objection to Ye Tao's decision. "However, Wootz steel is really good for making gears, shafts, and the like. It's much stronger than those so-called fine steels, and the difference compared to tungsten steel is also limited. ... By the way, Ye Tao, didn't they say there's good steel in Yunzhou? When can we get some to try? We can't really wait for that bunch of... uh, they're called Damascus, right? We can't wait until those Damascus blacksmiths can talk to us before we mass-produce this small ballista. Old Man Qi will be furious."

"It's okay. Old Man Qi is not willing to throw the Tiger Tooth Ships to Nanyang to fight for the time being. We can solve the previous problem in half a year to a year. Even the steel in Liyang actually has a lot of room for improvement," Ye Tao said with a smile.

"That's true, I know this without the Damascus craftsmen... They have too many leaks from mining and ore selection to production. Every time they change a place of origin for coal, the quality of the steel changes, it's too obvious, even the coal has problems... After I'm done here, I plan to go to Liyang myself and stay there. I won't come back until I figure out the problem with the steel." Zhao Dazhu was very angry. After all, the Ye Clan Workshop started as carpenters, not blacksmiths. Even if they now recruited many senior blacksmiths, they couldn't meet their increasingly complex and demanding requirements for steel quality. Weapons made of Liyang fine steel were things that money couldn't buy in Chunnan and Northern Liao, but in the Ye Clan Workshop, they had been forcibly turned into second-class citizens, without even the right to vote.

"Senior brother, then I'm counting on you. If you can really improve the quality of the steel, it will be immeasurable merit," Ye Tao said.

Zhao Dazhu was able to master technology so solidly and deeply, naturally he was not a stupid person. On the contrary, Zhao Dazhu, this kind of technology fanatic, was even more at home in the environment of the Ye Clan Workshop. Any breakthroughs in all technical projects were often concentrated in Zhao Dazhu's hands first to assess their value. The technicians and craftsmen below had no chance of being opportunistic in front of Zhao Dazhu. Because of Zhao Dazhu's comprehensiveness and excellence in technology, he could have a good idea of the difficulty of various technical projects. If you want to study every detail to discover how to improve the quality of steel produced in Liyang, then the cautious, meticulous, and incredibly patient Zhao Dazhu should be the best candidate. Although he was not born as a blacksmith, mastering the methods and systems of technology research and development was more valuable than purely mastering the technology itself.

Zhao Dazhu didn't even think much about whether there was any merit involved. He wasn't interested in those things. Although everyone knew that Zhao Dazhu was Ye Tao's senior brother, the Ministry of Industry and other families in Dongping who started with technology, craftsmen, etc., or intended to do so, had also tried to poach or encourage Zhao Dazhu to become independent. The difference was that the Ministry of Industry asked Ye Tao for his opinion beforehand, and Ye Tao indifferently let them go ask Zhao Dazhu, while other families, etc., whether they encouraged him or ridiculed him, were a bit unscrupulous. But Zhao Dazhu couldn't tolerate any sand in his eyes, and quite a few people had been thrown out of the door by him directly.

Those who came to poach him seemed to only see that Zhao Dazhu traveled between Yicheng and Danyang all year round, staying in the workshop almost all the time. In Danyang, he lived in Zhengyuan, and in Yicheng, he lived in the small courtyard in Qingquan Village. He dressed simply and didn't pay attention to carriages and horses. His wife and children at home didn't pay much attention to eating, drinking, and having fun. And in recent years, Zhao Dazhu's two sons had been following Old Man Qi's flagship, running all over the world... This kind of life was not comparable to Guan Haishan as the chief of several extremely important projects, famous all over the world; it was not comparable to Suo Yong presiding over the business of Yizhan Lou (Chess Battle Pavilion) in the capital. Those children of aristocratic families who wanted to enter the Blood Kirin Army, even if they knew that Suo Yong would not say good things for them, were still polite to him, fearing that he would say something bad, and Suo Yong's younger brother, Suo Zheng, was already a general; even Qian Shun, who was now going to Yunzhou, held a large amount of construction funds in his hands to spread out factory construction.

Everyone felt that Zhao Dazhu seemed to be the one who was wronged. But Zhao Dazhu himself knew that his own wife was of that simple nature, paying attention to practicality rather than ostentation in eating and wearing, and although his two children followed the ships, just like his own specialization in various crafts, it was also out of interest. The various gifts and souvenirs that the two children brought back home last year alone were worth a lot. In the Ye Clan Workshop, those technicians and craftsmen who made outstanding contributions were able to share the benefits in their respective projects at a certain percentage. How could he, as one of the directors of the Ye Clan Workshop, Ye Tao's senior brother, and deeply connected with the establishment and development of the Ye Clan Workshop, be ignored? In the past year alone, the amount of dividends Zhao Dazhu received from the Ye Clan Workshop was so large that he could almost build a fleet for his sons.

And in recent years, even Zhao Dazhu, who didn't like to deal with people very much, had to deal with all kinds of people. A large part of them had quite a background that he couldn't afford to offend. But Ye Tao and the Ye Clan Workshop had always been his strongest backing, and Ye Tao had even explicitly told him that he would never allow outsiders to guide insiders, and that he could make decisions that he thought were correct. Times had changed, and the arguments that were made back then had now turned into the fact that in manufacturing technology, architecture, etc., whatever they, the senior brothers, said was what it was, and anyone else had to consider the tone of their voice when making suggestions or suggestions to them, even if they sometimes made mistakes. Zhao Dazhu understood that he could not get greater and more reliable support than here in any other place.

"Liyang... the iron factory doesn't seem to be ours. Should I say hello to my sister-in-law? It would be very boring if no one paid attention to me there." Zhao Dazhu suddenly remembered that although the Liyang iron factory had Ye's shares, indirectly speaking, he was also a shareholder, but the majority was still the Inner Treasury's. Tan Weixin was now Ye Tao's wife, and their senior brothers all knew that Ye Laogeng had been happy for a long time because he could finally throw all the increasingly complex, so complex that everyone who saw it had a headache, accounting work of the Ye Clan Workshop and related enterprises to what was now undoubtedly the best financial team in the world: the Zhaohua Princess's Financial Office. But they did not really think of the Inner Treasury's industry as too distant because they could enjoy the same treatment as the Inner Treasury and had a closer relationship.

"Don't worry, Weixin will say something. How many people have our workshop sent before and after these years, and haven't they all cooperated fully? What's more, you, the director, are personally dispatched. Senior brother, just go and show off your skills as soon as possible. Otherwise, when the materials from Yunzhou arrive, testing the properties and deciding on suitable products, and various tests and trials of Wootz steel and Damascus steel, there will be too many things to arrange," Ye Tao replied with a smile.

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... Sorry, went out to play and came back late