“This is top-grade linen cloth, triple-layered too. One set of clothes can be taken apart to make three sets. The workshop issues two sets a year, so that takes care of the whole family’s clothing needs. My rough hands won’t ruin it easily—just leaves an impression at most.”
The burly man’s words left Yun Ye stunned for quite a while. Perhaps since arriving in the Great Tang, he had already grown accustomed to a life of wealth and privilege, becoming estranged from the lives of these common people at the bottom of society. He had long since betrayed his original class, becoming an evil landlord, a bloodsucking capitalist, plus the shameful identity of a bureaucrat—he was practically ready to be buried in the ground as fertilizer without any processing needed.
Once upon a time, his father had also altered his work uniform to make it smaller for his young son to wear. As long as it was new clothing, it didn’t matter what it originally was. As for his father, Yun Ye could no longer remember clearly the image of him bustling about the factory in clothes so worn they couldn’t be more worn. The only thing he could recall was that beautiful little turndown-collar suit made from the work uniform.
Everything before his eyes made Yun Ye feel as though he had returned to that distant era—the sky was gray, the factory buildings were gray, and the people were gray too. Perhaps in that era, even hearts were probably gray as well.
“Work uniforms and shoes—issue one extra set each year. As for these masks, issue two per month. From now on, there must be inspections before work begins. Those improperly dressed shall not be permitted to enter.” Yun Ye turned to instruct the steel mill’s supervisor.
One set of clothes wasn’t worth much money. The most valuable assets of the entire factory were actually these craftsmen. They were all skilled masters recruited from the artisan households, considered elite craftsmen within the Great Tang. If the furnace collapsed, it could be rebuilt, but if something happened to the people, finding another such group would be far too difficult. Many of them had been old acquaintances since Yun Ye first modified the steel-smelting furnaces. Seven years had passed—Yun Ye had already become the noble Marquis Chuanming, yet they still labored day after day in the pitch-black workshops.
There wasn’t much room left for improvement in steel smelting. What remained required accumulation. Only when quantitative change induced qualitative change could another leap forward occur. The words Yun Ye had used to deceive Zhangsun Wuji back then weren’t quite right—any matter in the world that wished to progress couldn’t do without accumulation. Steel smelting had advanced because of Yun Ye’s presence, making it a special case that couldn’t be replicated. Now, even this special case was gradually reaching its end. Only when the Great Tang’s physics, chemistry, and various natural sciences flourished could they in turn propel the development of all industries. This was a chicken-and-egg relationship.
When leadership visited the grassroots, a morale-boosting meal at the cafeteria was naturally unavoidable. Yun Ye had originally thought that Great Tang officials would disdain dining with these lowly craftsmen, but once again he discovered he was wrong. According to the supervisor, as long as officials came to the steel mill—whether princes, dukes, or marquises—dining in the cafeteria with their bowls alongside the craftsmen had become a tradition. Even His Majesty, when inspecting the steel mill, had eaten in the cafeteria—though that day’s meal had been more sumptuous.
The minor tactic of officials being close to the people seemed even more humane in the Great Tang. The dignified marquis, holding his tray and standing in line, chatted and laughed merrily with old acquaintances beside him, occasionally recounting amusing incidents from the past, including stories of how the marquis himself had been blackened by coal dust until he looked like Zhang Fei—even such things could be mentioned.
When he pushed his plate forward, it came back piled full with fatty meat covering the entire plate. This wouldn’t do—the craftsmen’s plates were all filled with lean meat, yet his own plate was entirely covered with fatty slabs. This was too much bullying! No, this needed to be changed. The marquis was pampered and couldn’t eat fatty meat. He shoved the fatty meat at an old craftsman and took the old man’s plate of vegetables and lean meat instead, refusing all protests.
He ate the large plateful of food completely clean. In the end, he rinsed the plate with vegetable soup and drank it all down. The plate was so clean it looked licked by a dog—no need to wash it, it could be used again right away.
Though he was on the verge of vomiting, he still forced a grin to praise the pig-brained chef. That bastard had really struck it lucky—Chang’an City’s famous gourmet, Marquis Yun, had praised the chef’s cooking, and the man’s value immediately skyrocketed.
Such a huge plateful of food was far more than the refined and eloquent marquis could digest. Bloated and groaning constantly, to avoid developing stomach problems, he forced himself to continue strolling around the steel mill with the supervisor as his guide.
Only upon entering the warehouse did he realize to what degree the Great Tang had prospered. No wonder Li Er was willing to feed pandas with superior hundred-times-folded steel! In the towering factory building, steel ingots were stacked all the way to the ceiling. Yun Ye, holding a small hammer, continuously tapped at the steel ingots he passed, making clanging sounds. The four Military Commissioners of the Five Li didn’t understand what this was about, but seeing Yun Ye’s solemn expression as he pricked up his ears to listen to the crisp ringing of the steel ingots, and seeing the supervisor also listening, and Master Zhou closing his eyes to listen as well, they knew there must be profound significance in this.
“Marquis, what do you think of this batch of steel ingots?” The supervisor, having heard not a single dull thud and noting that the crisp sounds were very consistent, all carrying lingering resonance, proudly showed off to Yun Ye.
“Excellent, excellent! The steel quality is superb. The consistent sound indicates their composition is similar—this should be good steel. So, do you have confidence in reaching one million jin this year? You know that the Great Tang can never have enough steel and iron. No matter how much you smelt, it’s never enough.”
The supervisor laughed with great pride, slapping his chest: “Rest assured, Marquis! Our steel mill is the largest in the Great Tang. Duke Zhao’s household mill can’t compare with ours. I estimate theirs will reach at most five hundred thousand jin this year. In just the first two months, we’ve already smelted two hundred eighty thousand jin. Look here—what’s piled up here is last year’s and this year’s output. His Majesty has strictly ordered that our steel mill must not let a single jin of steel flow outside, so it’s all here.”
Yun Ye knew Li Er was stockpiling steel. These things were all strategic materials—the more stored, the better. He didn’t know who this was meant to guard against, but Yun Ye figured Zhangsun Wuji was the most likely candidate. After all, the Zhangsun family was the Great Tang’s largest private steel and iron merchant. Anyone who could break through the salt and iron monopoly indeed needed to be carefully guarded against.
Old Zhou interjected from the side: “This is precisely why the Zhangsun family won’t invest heavily. They clearly have superior techniques, yet they insist on purchasing those labor-intensive and material-wasting processes. Managing five hundred thousand jin this year already means the Zhangsun family is working themselves to death.”
This was the problem with technical people—they had foul mouths. Yun Ye said irritably: “When you speak, just speak properly. Don’t bring emotions into it. They’ve already spent six thousand silver coins to purchase the Academy’s innovations. Why do you still mock them? If you’re angry, just raise the price of new technologies next time.”
“Excellent insight, Marquis! This old man admires it. Next time, shall this old fellow raise the price by thirty percent—what do you think?” Seeing Old Zhou climbing up the pole, Yun Ye shrugged noncommittally. How they set prices was their laboratory’s own business.
Transporting ore was such a hassle! Hauling it cart by cart with oxen—when would they ever finish? Looking at the ant-like procession of ox carts, Yun Ye suddenly thought of simple rail tracks. He casually picked up a wooden stick and drew the appearance of light rail on the ground, asking the supervisor: “Since we don’t lack steel and iron, let’s report less to the court this year and use the surplus ourselves. Look here—as long as we cast long rails like this and nail them onto wood, two running parallel, laying them all the way to the mine at the mountain’s foot, when the mine digs out ore, they can directly dump it into iron carts like this. The four wheels of the iron cart would fit perfectly onto the two rails. I believe transporting ore this way would definitely be more than ten times faster.”
The supervisor and Old Zhou squatted on the ground studying it for a long time before Old Zhou slapped his thigh: “The Marquis is brilliant! This truly is an excellent method! We can make the gantry crane travel on tracks—why can’t we make iron carts run on tracks? It’s just rather wasteful of steel and iron. Once this road is completed, we won’t be doing anything else with two years’ worth of production.”
Yun Ye tossed away the twig and sighed deeply with lamentation. He very much wanted to see iron carts running back and forth on tracks up at the mine—this way he’d have one more thing that was extremely familiar to him. But this damned steel and iron production volume had already firmly limited the development of rail tracks. It sounded impressive—an annual output of one million jin—this was the entire nation’s annual output during the Former Sui! Converting it, that was actually just five hundred tons. Even backyard blast furnaces using indigenous steel-smelting methods in later times produced far more than this. What a pity! This steel mill was already the most formidable factory on this planet.
A full three thousand craftsmen! They sustained this steel production line with an annual output of less than one thousand tons. From ore selection to crushing, and finally to smelting—three thousand people toiling day and night to achieve such results.
Yun Ye felt bitter, yet everyone in the Great Tang from the Emperor down to the craftsmen admired this factory. The Emperor even regarded this place as one of the empire’s lifelines. A thousand garrison soldiers were permanently stationed nearby. If anything happened to the steel mill, these soldiers’ first priority would be to protect the factory.
One of the Military Commissioners with a red helmet plume said: “Why must Marquis Yun feel melancholy? Having seen this workshop today, we are already astonished beyond words. The steel for the weapons wielded by our Great Tang’s battle-hardened warriors must depend on supplies from here. This old man is fifty-three years old and has never seen so much steel and iron, let alone all good steel. Even if there are minor regrets, it’s nothing serious. The Marquis is still young—the future stretches long before you. After our Great Tang’s mighty armies have eliminated all threats in the world, when Marquis Yun wishes to use steel and iron for other purposes, it will surely be possible. This old man also wants to see what carts running on iron rails would look like.”
Yun Ye squinted at the old fellow. This guy showed not the slightest respect for him, a Duke. He was very likely another of Li Er’s confidants. These people were all very mysterious. If judged solely on merit, earning a marquisate wouldn’t be surprising at all. Old Niu had mentioned before that talented individuals emerged endlessly from the Emperor’s inner circle, though most belonged to the military.
“The nation is not yet at peace, so naturally we must implement a military-first policy. Livelihood projects inevitably come second. Sometimes even if we have money, we have no way to fulfill our dreams. Primarily because the world doesn’t approve. However, it’s not a major problem. When this marquis does things, as long as His Majesty approves, what do other people matter!”
The old fellow struck his armor once and loudly declared: “Marquis Yun is mighty!”
They were all crafty old foxes. That Military Commissioner probably hadn’t taken Yun Ye’s nonsense to heart at all. Speaking a complimentary phrase cost nothing—why not? Seeing how tactful and perceptive this Military Commissioner was, Yun Ye’s originally gloomy mood immediately improved considerably.