Chapter 1 A Piercing Scream

"Ah!" A shrill scream shattered the tranquility surrounding the Lumière Workshop of the Ye Family Manufactory. Patroling soldiers quickly converged on the area, their sharp whistles piercing the air. The Ye Family Manufactory was a place of global importance, especially with the Yunzhou branch of the Ye Family Research Institute located there. Countless spies were desperate to infiltrate it, so any incident was a serious matter. However, the Lumière Workshop was strictly off-limits without permission. The soldiers gathered around, but Cassandra, the director of the Lumière Workshop, soon emerged to explain, "Everything's fine... someone was startled during an experiment."

The soldiers remained skeptical, but Cassandra escorted the factory's security chief into the Lumière Workshop, asking him to confirm that nothing untoward had occurred. After navigating the winding corridors to the heart of the Lumière Workshop, the most precise and mysterious place in the Ye Family Manufactory, even the security chief was taken aback. In a secluded room, a waterlogged sheet of paper hung suspended. The paper had a white border, with most of its surface covered in dark smudges. In the center, however, was a faint human face. It was indeed a face, but so indistinct that it resembled a ghostly apparition. As the security chief of the Ye Family Manufactory, he was a man of considerable rank and courage, but the sight startled him nonetheless. Upon closer inspection, he realized the face wasn't painted, but somehow formed on the paper itself.

The security chief stumbled back, pointing at the damp paper. "What... what is that?"

Cassandra had recovered from her earlier fright. It was she who had screamed, but now she was embarrassed to admit it. She calmly replied, "We're conducting experiments commissioned by Lord Ye. This is one of the results... don't ask too many questions."

The security chief nodded repeatedly, quickly excusing himself. His clearance was high, but he knew little about technical matters. He knew most of the research being conducted at the Ye Family Manufactory was beyond the understanding of anyone outside its walls. He didn't want to waste his time trying to comprehend it. Since a director-level employee had instructed him not to inquire further, it was best to remain silent.

Cassandra had been promoted to director because the research in the Lumière Workshop was related to her previous work on animation projectors. She was now responsible for the research and production of all optical products at the Ye Family Manufactory. Although her title implied oversight of production, she left that to Qian Shun and devoted herself to the projects assigned by Ye Tao, pursuing them with tireless enthusiasm.

Photography technology was advancing rapidly due to Ye Tao's direct involvement and guidance. The daguerreotype process was nearly perfected, but its high cost made it mainly a theoretical exercise to understand photochemical reactions. The extensive experiments conducted by the Lumière Workshop in collaboration with the Alchemy Workshop marked the true beginning of the research. The silver halide process... Ye Tao defined the entire research system in this way, and the more deeply they researched, the more accurate they found the name to be. During Ye Tao's western campaign, the manufactory had made significant progress. They had a preliminary understanding of lens design and how to minimize shape distortion, but they needed extensive practical testing. They had also created the first enlarger, capable of enlarging photographs from the size of the negative to the desired size—currently a square foot. A special paper-based photo paper seemed theoretically viable. However, due to inexperience, an enlargement of a perfectly good four-inch square photo was blurry. Or perhaps there was a problem with the camera or the enlarger itself.

While Cassandra experimented with great scientific rigor, gradually improving camera and enlarger designs and refining the formulas for negatives and photographic paper, a rumor began to circulate in the Ye Family Manufactory: Cassandra was a soul harvester.

Anyone brought into the Lumière Workshop by Cassandra would undergo a soul cleansing. In a blinding flash, a portion of their soul would be extracted and transferred to a black-and-white picture, which would then be sealed away. These pictures of loyal warriors would be preserved as a permanent memorial, while those who betrayed Lord Jinglü (Ye Tao) or Yunzhou and Dongping would be eternally tormented by the preserved image of their soul...

In truth, everyone thought Cassandra was a good person. Cassandra was originally the name of a famous Western prophetess and priestess. She was reclusive, obsessed with obscure technologies, and already shrouded in mystery. Now, she was portrayed as a sorceress safeguarding the purity of souls for Lord Jinglü... at least she wasn't randomly grabbing people, extracting their souls, and torturing them.

Cassandra didn't care about the rumors. In her understanding, photography did have a similar function: commemorating heroes, providing objects for later generations to praise; recording villains, subjecting them to eternal condemnation. As for recording landscapes, Cassandra believed that was best left to painters. However, while Cassandra might not care, the rest of the Ye Family Manufactory did. The Ye Family Manufactory was one of the most intellectually vibrant places in the world, a hub for talented individuals with a strong inclination toward practical application. As the rumors spread, people began to wonder: If "Soul Harvester" Cassandra could really do these things, then shouldn't all those who considered themselves geniuses in various fields be considered heroes? Or perhaps they should all leave a soul imprint with Lord Jinglü's "Soul Harvester" to demonstrate their loyalty to him?

To Cassandra's surprise, a trend of queuing up for photographs emerged in the Lumière Workshop. She didn't mind. Although the Lumière Workshop was still in the exploratory stage of photography, improving each batch of negatives and photographic paper with different formulas, there was always a surplus. If people wanted to take pictures, let them. Although research was difficult, learning to operate a camera, even a fully manual one, wasn't too challenging for the intelligent people of the Ye Family Manufactory. As a result, the Ye Family Manufactory acquired its first group of portrait photographers with the skills to visually assess light and adjust exposure... And when the Ye Family Manufactory later introduced photo IDs, nearly all the headshots for the Yunzhou branch were already available.

Just as the rumors reached their peak and Cassandra was being increasingly deified, Ye Tao finally settled matters in Zhenzhou and returned home to visit his family, especially the two pregnant women, before heading to the Ye Family Manufactory to oversee the technological development of photography. Ye Tao was determined to accelerate the development of this technology because he wanted to record his children's growth. Nothing could capture those moments more accurately and realistically than a camera. To achieve this, while he couldn't create the 35mm camera he was familiar with from his previous life, he needed at least a medium-format camera like a Hasselblad to be able to capture those fleeting moments. To reach that point, the Lumière Workshop needed to compress decades of photographic history into a few months. Ye Tao would again present a comprehensive and mature technological system to help everyone view the world he was increasingly in love with.

Although Ye Tao had left Zhenzhou, over twenty battalions of troops remained there. The area that the fifty Yunzhou battalions had to defend seemed to have doubled in size, which made them appear stretched thin. Furthermore, although the Yunzhou side hadn't suffered devastating losses in the recent war, the final casualty count was close to 40,000. While about half of them would gradually return to their units, that still represented more than ten battalions, which was a serious matter for Yunzhou, which only had fifty battalions in total. Although Ye Tao wanted to focus on research, he flew to Thunderclap Cliff for another military council meeting as soon as this report arrived. The discussions focused on reorganizing, replenishing, and expanding the army. Ultimately, Ye Tao approved the addition of ten garrison battalions and accepted five battalions of auxiliary troops from the Veterans' Farm and Ranch System into the regular army, which would be uniformly referred to as Veterans' Battalions.

The Veterans' Battalions would receive guidance on equipment from the General Staff, but the equipment would be purchased independently by the Veterans' Farm and Ranch System at Yunzhou's regular army internal purchase prices. However, the Veterans' Battalions were required to discharge all soldiers over forty and under fifteen years of age. Soldiers over fifteen in the Veterans' Battalions would be referred to as apprentice soldiers. When Yunzhou's armies needed replacements, they would be selected from the apprentice soldiers as a priority...

Through these changes, Yunzhou's professional military system became more comprehensive. Theoretically, apprentice soldiers who wanted to become soldiers could be selected by front-line units for service in various battalions at the age of seventeen or eighteen. They could theoretically serve until the age of thirty to thirty-five, after which they could return to the Veterans' Battalions for another five years of relatively easy service before finally retiring... Of course, this was just theoretical. Although the people of Yunzhou were warlike, they weren't crazy to that extent.