Chapter 146 Something Higher

Ye Tao had originally intended to show everyone something novel, but the airship trial and demonstration quickly went awry. Ye Tao had to lay down rules on the spot: no two military-level cadres or ministerial-level cadres could be on the same airship simultaneously, and no more than two battalion-level cadres or equivalent civilian officials could be on an airship at the same time, so everyone took turns riding the airships and having their fill. Afterwards, regardless of whether the Ye Family Workshop had the capacity for mass production, everyone placed orders for their respective departments... and these people all had the authority to do so.

The Communications Bureau ordered fifty airships, seemingly planning to cover the entire Yun Province and Dongping with a communications network. According to the Ye Family Workshop, it would take at least three months to achieve mass airship production, and even then, the output would likely not exceed six per month. This order alone would keep the airship workshop busy for a year. But naturally, other departments had to consider future airship modifications, requiring greater carrying capacity to meet their needs, while for the Communications Bureau, the current airship was just right. Another department very satisfied with this size of airship was the Central Army Camp. Shi Liu, the battalion commander, wouldn't dare to order such an expensive item herself, but Dai Yun had long instructed her to order ten, mainly for battle command, observation, and calibration for the heavy equipment camp. However, whether it was the Communications Bureau or the Central Army Camp, they could only be guaranteed a few early deliveries to train personnel, with the rest postponed for further discussion.

Few people had a closer relationship with the Ye Family Workshop than Suo Zheng. Although he felt that the Logistics Camp and the Yun Province military logistics system did indeed need rapid delivery, the current airship's size and carrying capacity were far from Suo Zheng's requirements. His goal was a new type of airship that would be born a year or more later. Few people were less anxious than Suo Zheng. Suo Zheng had indeed achieved early success, taking charge of the entire Yun Province's military logistics system at a young age, becoming a general without having personally killed anyone. He understood that his value wasn't on the battlefield. Although to those who didn't understand, he was a useless general, everyone in the army relied on him. Although logistics wasn't as obvious or eye-catching as battlefield merits, as long as Suo Zheng worked diligently, he would inevitably become a big figure in the military. The problem wasn't that he was unwilling to assist in training logistics officers, but that the number trained was far from meeting the demand, and many of them looked down on this important and safe job. For a long time, no one could replace Suo Zheng. As for the airship, even if he couldn't wait a year, he could wait two years, and if two years wasn't enough, there were three years, five years, ten years...

Finally, the Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Bureau and the Commerce Bureau didn't join the fun, preventing the not-yet-officially-finalized airship from truly becoming a hot commodity. But Yun Province had a more advantageous tool from this day on.

This time, he could indeed be said to have thoroughly shown off in front of Jiang Yan. In subsequent meetings with Ye Tao, Jiang Yan's attitude became increasingly polite. Ye Tao told Jiang Yan not to spread the news that Yun Province had mastered flight technology too widely, and Jiang Yan agreed after some consideration. Yun Province had become so terrifying that such news would do little to boost morale. And now, Jiang Yan was even more determined that Chunnan should try its best not to go to war with Dongping in the future. On the one hand, they had to find ways to narrow the gap with Dongping, and on the other hand, they had to find other ways to prevent Dongping from making the decision to attack Chunnan. Although no bombing tests were conducted during the trials, just flying back and forth, the thought of an airship dropping a series of fire oil bombs sent chills down one's spine.

Ye Tao wasn't worried about the various complex matters in Yun Province now, and he wasn't particularly concerned about whether Jiang Yan would spread the word about the airships. This wasn't something that could be kept secret for long anyway; as long as someone had seen the airships, it would eventually spread. But even if they knew, what could they do? Ye Tao said that he wasn't afraid of people seeing the Ye Family Workshop's products, and he had considerable confidence in that. Not to mention anything else, just the air heating devices on the airships and balloons incorporated so many technologies and used so many materials and processes. Now, without Ye Tao having to emphasize it repeatedly, everyone was increasingly aware that every new achievement was the concentrated expression of years of continuous research and accumulation by the Ye Family Workshop, and each new achievement would make subsequent innovation easier.

After seeing Jiang Yan off, Ye Tao immediately organized a meeting of Yun Province's top officials. With the funds raised from the Gondor City pre-sale in Danyang, the Yun Province Administration's accounts immediately looked much better. The various expenses previously incurred in the site selection, exploration, and design of Gondor City were finally compensated, making it easier to carry out various preparations. Various tasks that had been delayed due to funding problems were quickly and comprehensively launched, and in a very short period of time, Yun Province's bureaucratic system seemed to be as lively as the warming weather. As for Ye Tao, after arranging the work, he ran to Ningyuan and found a thick book of blueprints hidden in the corner of a bookshelf in a villa in the suburbs, making some notes on a certain page. Another idea was completed, and after putting the booklet back on the bookshelf, he thought to himself, with a surge of heartfelt pride.

"What's the next target?" Tan Weixin lay in a corner of the study. Since their study was on the top of a mountain, the light was very good during the day, so the study had become a public office. Anyway, their family was in charge of the Yun Province Administration, and holding high-level meetings at any time and place had become a common occurrence. In this state, everyone tried to make the room as comfortable as possible. Tan Weixin was basically half-lying on a soft chair, looking at the documents and making annotations. After all, Tan Weixin's eyesight was a bit poor, and without enough light, she had to read accounts or documents in dim light at times, at night. Now her vision was almost the same as in her original time. Compared to the expensive resin lenses with a refractive index of 1.74, the handmade natural fluorite lenses were indeed a bit heavier, but the world seen through these lenses was still clear and transparent.

Tan Weixin knew very well about this book of blueprints hidden in Ye Tao's study. Now, Dai Yun, Tan Weishi, and Dai Qiuyan also knew about it. As for Sophie? She had copied many of the drawings in the booklet. Each page was Ye Tao's idea, a memory, and also a fantasy for this era. Now, another item in this fantasy had been realized.

"I don't know," Ye Tao said with a smile. "I didn't expect airships to be so easy. Indeed, the accumulation of technology has reached a certain level, and many things are much easier to handle. The most troublesome pipes and nozzles on the heater, I didn't even explain, and the technicians figured them out easily, and the quality is very good. The pre-set goal for the next one may be a bit higher."

"It's just that you completed this goal too easily," Tan Weixin said with a smile. She took off her glasses from the bridge of her nose and pinched her nose. "What difficulty is an airship from *The Mummy* for you? That was just made by a poor and down-on-his-luck guy. You? Although the materials aren't extravagant, when it comes to the design and workmanship of these things, there's really no place more extravagant than the Ye Family Workshop. Is that even the Ye Family Workshop anymore? It's practically the Chinese Academy of Sciences."

Ye Tao smiled. The current airship was indeed made according to that model. It seemed that although the acceleration was not as obvious as that in the movie, the stability, maneuverability, and safety of the flight should be much stronger than that. At least that fuel heater was a very interesting design. So far, none of the heaters manufactured seemed to have had any accidents or quality problems.

"The Alchemy Workshop is doing well, but I still think we should make batteries and lamps. This way, we can turn those windmills into wind power arrays, although... I don't really understand these things, and the efficiency might not be very high. But who cares? As long as it works, low efficiency doesn't matter. Mainly, with electricity, there are so many things we can do. Now I feel it myself, it's really hard to come up with anything new with just mechanics and chemistry. And even with mechanics and chemistry, without the assistance of electricity, a series of processing methods can't be done... electroplating, electrolysis... how many things can we do?" The more Ye Tao spoke, the more excited he became. He was always like this when he thought about the various technological prospects. Tan Weixin looked at Ye Tao, smiling, this was the most essential side of Ye Tao that was so fascinating.

"What about silver halide photography?" Tan Weixin asked with a smile, "You have glass plates, you have precision control mechanisms, and now the Alchemy Workshop has even produced silver bromide?"

"Yes! And photography!" Ye Tao said, waving his fist, "And photography. Think about it, now there are natural fluorite lenses. We have to try and see if we can really make them. If we have a camera, we'll have more reason to travel around."

Tan Weixin chuckled and said, "Won't let you miss the fifteen-year agreement with your father, right? Those are all time-consuming jobs."

Ye Tao was stunned and asked, "Xin'er, you've turned bad. Why are you bringing this up now? I was just getting happy."

"Hehe, it's to make you even happier. Look at this?" Tan Weixin pushed a document in front of Ye Tao.

Looking at the document in the black cardstock folder, Ye Tao looked at Tan Weixin strangely and said, "Why is this? Is there something more fun?"

"Plagiarism, don't always focus on those designed products, okay? We have a lot of fun things to do," Tan Weixin smiled extremely lightly. This reminder made Ye Tao suddenly realize. "Okay, it's indeed very fun."