Chapter 119 Unimportant Group

The team almost forgotten by Ye Tao might not be as important as the electrical or construction teams, but their achievements were quite practical. This team was tinkering with something called pneumatic tube mail.

Pneumatic tube mail was an extremely useful system for transferring files and items within a small to medium range, and it was still in use in the twenty-first century. It was especially useful in large hospitals for sending medicines or test samples. Of course, the pneumatic tube mail of the twenty-first century was vastly different from what the Ye’s Workshop could produce now. In the twenty-first century, pneumatic tube mail had adopted many incredible advanced technologies, such as the coil information transfer technology used in mortar fuses, and it could also rely on computer control to achieve automatic relay of mail transmission over relatively long distances. However, the pneumatic tube mail that Ye’s Workshop was currently developing had only just solved the problem of how to make each mail capsule turn in the pipeline, and it had just finished testing how to fully protect the items in the mail capsule from being damaged.

The earliest version of pneumatic tube mail used a low-pressure steam boiler. After pressurization, the pressure was sufficient, but it seemed unrealistic to prepare a boiler at each mail node. Fortunately, high-pressure gas tank technology was quickly introduced, which solved this major problem at once. In Ye Tao's view, it was at most a medium-pressure gas tank now, and neither the pressure nor the service life was satisfactory, but at least the cost performance was very good. The research and development of the pneumatic tube mail system actually had another significance, which was the research of steel pipe technology. Although it seemed that the pneumatic tube mail research and development team was equipped with a strong material workshop team, this team actually reported directly to Ye Tao, and Ye Tao knew far more about the progress of this material team than the pneumatic tube mail team. The current pneumatic tube mail system had been installed in several workshops of Ye’s Workshop, and the actual use evaluation was very good. Because it was mainly point-to-point transmission, for example, if the woodworking workshop or the heavy equipment workshop wanted to get a few parts from the precision workshop, they did not need to send someone to run around, but instead send a mail back and forth. However, the pneumatic tube mail team was doing something more complicated. They were trying to build a simple mail system that could perform medium and long-distance relay transmission. Such a system would be more suitable for use in the city, connecting different departments working in different locations through the pneumatic tube mail system, greatly reducing the labor intensity of middle and lower-level officials, improving administrative efficiency, and greatly reducing administrative costs in the long run. Yunzhou had already begun to show this problem. Due to the strict budget management system and accountability system, and due to the relatively high salaries of Yunzhou officials, each department sometimes had to cut the budget from other aspects if they wanted to hire a few more people. Running errands not only occupied personnel costs, but was also not very fulfilling, which was always disliked by the heads of various departments. A pneumatic tube mail system, plus an internal logistics department, might be able to solve this problem as a whole.

To deploy pneumatic tube mail in the city, coordination with other aspects was indeed essential. Ye Tao asked everyone to go to the site for a meeting before deploying the power system, because there were too many aspects involved. Now, Gondor had completely completed the land leveling work, the water conservancy system around the city was basically completed, the sewage system inside the city was being established, the central green space of Gondor City had been completed, and the Lingyan Pavilion on the top of the fortress, which attracted the most attention, had been completed. As for the construction of the city walls and urban areas, it was in full swing. When deploying the power system, it was necessary to consider all aspects of the entire city layout, especially since Ye Tao, who was accustomed to all wires going underground in the twenty-first century, really had to consider how to better handle the current power transmission and distribution lines.

Seeing the progress of the project on paper was completely different from the feeling of looking at the entire huge construction site from the protruding cliff corner in front of the Lingyan Pavilion. Now, the outline of the entire city could already be seen. Guan Haishan said half-jokingly that he actually had to build two and a half cities at the same time. The circles superimposed on the mountain were one, the living area and administrative area on the ground were another, and half a city referred to Gondor's functionally rich and powerful sewage system. However, Guan Haishan was just saying that. With the progress of the project and the increasingly clear face of the city, the pride in the heart of the chief engineer was self-evident. In this world, there had never been such a magnificent and beautiful city. From an engineering technology perspective, Guan Haishan didn't feel there was much of a challenge. Building a city on a mountain was a bit difficult, but it was more of a physical job. Time and energy were all that was needed. What Guan Haishan found most difficult was how to make the city as perfect as possible in the details while shortening the construction period as much as possible. This was a city, different from any architectural work he had handled before. He could pay attention to the details of those buildings one by one, pick out all the problems, and then improve them, but this would not work in Gondor. As the chief engineer, Guan Haishan's main energy was spent on project management. He had 150,000 to 200,000 civilians working under him at any time. Only less than 10,000 of them were professionally trained construction workers from Ye’s Construction Company under Ye’s Workshop and could be completely trusted. Most of the others knew some basic masonry, stonework, carpentry, or could simply sell their strength. During the slack farming season, plus the people who came to do odd jobs, the number of civilians on the construction site could reach a maximum of 200,000. Now, all kinds of situations had occurred on the construction site, and accidents of all sizes occurred almost at any time. Fortunately, due to Guan Haishan's strict and unreasonable style regarding project safety, no major safety accidents had occurred. But that was it. It was nothing for a few workers to get injured. Now, the six medical teams on the construction site had accumulated so much experience in treating various external injuries that they didn't even need to think. The most headache was food poisoning and other problems. What was funny was that most of these problems were not caused by the logistics department of the construction site, but because the foremen and civilians often wanted to get something to improve their meals. This was, after all, a construction site, and it was impossible to strictly control these needs, but it was very headache when dozens of people suddenly fell ill.

The myriad of problems meant that Guan Haishan had not been able to personally walk every street and every construction site, and he was always uneasy about the quality of the project. But even so, he ensured that no stage progress report or safety acceptance was a formality. Guan Haishan's students were now fully capable of standing on their own. They were the ones who carried out many of the safety acceptances, and each signature represented responsibility. This was what Guan Haishan had always taught them. There were many types of architects. Not everyone had to be full of creativity and be able to build exquisite and beautiful houses, gardens, and towers, but everyone needed to be responsible for their works and for every signature. It was because Guan Haishan had this concept, and because he himself was a great architect who was proficient in all basic crafts, that his students were now able to supervise these project quality acceptance issues for their teacher.

Ye Tao's arrival this time made Guan Haishan very happy. Although Guan Haishan basically lived and ate on the construction site, he was also one of the first to know the rich effects of electricity. Using electric lights to illuminate the roads would greatly expand the city's functions and extend the city's active time. The cost might be high, but the benefits were equally considerable. Moreover, in this way, the city would become more perfect.

However, Ye Tao's concerns about future development problems were indeed enough to make people scratch their heads. After careful consideration, Guan Haishan looked at the heads of the electrical workshop and the pneumatic tube mail team, then looked at Ye Tao, and said, "Going underground is absolutely impossible!"

Ye Tao shrugged. He had expected this result. He asked, "The main reason I said to go underground is that the utility poles on the ground are really too ugly."

Guan Haishan curled his lips and said, "The cost of going all underground is too high. We can't guarantee that all the wires will run through the pipes now. The main reason is that there are no suitable materials, and there is no way to completely solve the waterproofing problem. Once it rains, there will basically be a circuit accident. To avoid accidents, the cost alone is unbearable. The problem of ugly utility poles is not a problem. At least we can ensure that there are no utility poles on both sides of the main roads in the city. We can solve this by setting up underground bridges, and the increase in this part of the cost is acceptable. Now, the progress of the entire Gondor is actually faster than planned, but spending money is slower than planned. We have saved nearly 600,000 liang of silver on the sewer project and the Lingyan Pavilion project, mainly because the initial estimate of the difficulty was very sufficient, but the actual operation was okay... Also, pneumatic tube mail is indeed very useful, but I don't recommend deploying it in such an exaggerated way throughout the city. Think about the cost of those steel pipes... There is no such need. Aren't you planning to establish an internal express delivery system? In Danyang, Shunfeng Express does a very good job. My suggestion is that we adjust the original construction plan. Originally, we were going to let the administrative agencies be close to the actual management locations. We will set up mail management offices in several locations where office space is concentrated, and transmit pneumatic tube mail within each area, and rely on internal express delivery between several locations. Pneumatic tube mail has just appeared. We don't know if it is useful, how useful it is, whether it is so useful that it needs to be popularized throughout the city, and what problems will occur in management and use."

Guan Haishan's statement was very pertinent, and everyone nodded in agreement. Although the influence of pneumatic tube mail was greatly weakened, no one had any objection. Guan Haishan's words were all to the point and could not be refuted.

Faced with everyone's compliments on his overall vision, Guan Haishan smiled and said, "Gondor, in any case, is the biggest work of my life. I can't mess it up."