Chapter 1 Work Unfolds

As Ye Tao's work gradually unfolded on Crescent Moon Island, Lu Dan and Liu Qing basically became secretaries responsible for different aspects of Ye Tao's affairs.

Having worked by Ye Tao's side for so long, Lu Dan had become an indispensable figure in Ye's various businesses. He was very clear about the progress of Ye Tao's projects, knowing the work being done in Iron City, the Danyang New District, and the Bell Tower, the Yi Battle Arena, the Tiansuo Watch Shop, and the two workshops in Danyang and Yicheng, as well as the manpower and material resources being used and the progress being made. When Ye Tao needed someone to be responsible for production or to take charge of a project, he was always able to select suitable candidates from Ye's Workshop's complex personnel system who were not occupied with important work and who could shoulder the responsibility. Although he still couldn't understand all sorts of technical problems, this didn't prevent him from becoming an excellent manager.

On Crescent Moon Island, before Ye Tao gave the order, he had already integrated the apprentices, student workers, and temporarily transferred technicians, transferred tools and equipment from the Yicheng workshop headquarters, transported materials, and transferred some manpower to establish another branch of Ye's Workshop on Crescent Moon Island. This branch focused on all the veteran ordnance production experts from the Yicheng branch of Ye's Workshop. Although production on Crescent Moon Island might increase costs somewhat, it was more conducive to maintaining the secrecy of ordnance technology. The shipyard on Crescent Moon Island, with the strong support of Ye's Workshop, saw a straight-line increase in work efficiency.

Liu Qing was responsible for another aspect of the work. Ye Tao's plans for Crescent Moon Island were conveyed through him, and Liu Qing would naturally discuss the allocation of funds and the deployment of manpower with the stewards of the Seven Seas Trading Company, so as not to let these trivial matters interfere with Ye Tao's thinking. At the same time, he was also responsible for compiling the requests of the various members of the Seven Seas Trading Company, from the improvement of the production process of some products, the construction and design of shops, garden planning and design, new product development, to minor matters such as some members needing furniture repaired in their homes. He would discuss and handle those matters that did not need to bother Ye Tao directly with Lu Dan. For problems that Ye's Workshop's existing technical reserves could solve, if they were already in the promotion and application stage, he and Lu Dan would formulate solutions together, while some applications that were temporarily shelved due to various problems would be reported to Ye Tao for instructions on whether to declassify them.

Liu Qing, who was not yet familiar with Ye's Workshop, was repeatedly thwarted by Lu Dan in the first few days of his work, and only then did he realize how strong Ye's Workshop's technical reserves were—at least, Ye's Workshop had never operated at full capacity. Maintaining a balance of learning and production, Ye's Workshop could increase the production capacity of various items threefold in a short period of time if needed.

However, the efficient work of these two people did not improve Ye Tao's temper much. Ye Tao, who had not originally planned to stay on Crescent Moon Island for long, was troubled by various affairs and could not get away.

The most important thing was the training of ballista operators. After seeing the power of the ballista, two Cangshui-class ships made a round trip to Yicheng, bringing an order for two hundred ballistae, as well as four hundred soldiers who had originally operated Shenbi Crossbows and catapults to learn how to use the ballista. The accuracy of the ballista greatly impressed Min Yue and Peng De Tian, who were even very interested in the peculiar properties of the Huoxing (Mars) Rounds. Now, at the end of the year, Min Yue was extremely busy, but still said that he would come to Crescent Moon Island in ten days to see the ballistae and the Huoxing Rounds.

This training was not simply about teaching everyone how to throw stone bullets or Huoyou (fire oil) bombs and Huoxing Rounds. In this training, Ye Tao systematically taught the escort team of the Seven Seas Trading Company, the soldiers of the Yicheng Navy, and the soldiers of the Yicheng City Guard how to use a series of range-finding and observation instruments developed by Ye's Workshop, and how to solve shooting parameters… And this involved basic mathematics and physics, which was precisely what everyone lacked. However, it was not without any gains. During the entire training, with so many precisely calibrated ballistae and so many people available for deployment, Ye Tao took the lead in compiling a quick reference manual for the shooting data of two models of ballistae. Although all the Dongping soldiers, including Ou Zhen, understood that this manual was absolutely a military secret, they could not control its dissemination.

Another extremely important thing was that some things Assad mentioned occasionally reminded him of another type of naval warfare weapon of extremely important historical significance—Greek Fire. In addition to ordering ten ballistae as the first order on behalf of the Samir family, Assad was also very interested in the Huoxing Rounds that the Seven Seas Trading Company could supply to the outside world. Assad had plenty of money, and he ordered eight hundred Huoxing Rounds without much consideration. You should know that in the previous battle against Ice Shark Island, less than three hundred rounds were consumed in total. And Assad's half-sincere and half-praising remark that the power of the Huoxing Rounds could be compared to the legendary Greek Fire once again sparked Ye Tao's imagination.

Greek Fire was a liquid incendiary that could burn on water, used by the Byzantine Empire, mainly in naval battles. "Greek Fire" or "Roman Fire" was just the Arab name for this terrifying weapon. The Byzantines themselves called it "Wildfire", "Sea Fire", "Liquid Fire", "Fluid Flame", "Man-made Fire" and "Defense Fire" and so on. According to historical records, Greek Fire made considerable contributions to the Byzantine Empire's military victories on many occasions. Some scholars and historians believe that it was one of the reasons why the Byzantine Empire lasted for a thousand years. The recipe for Greek Fire has been lost, and its composition remains a mystery to this day. According to the Crusaders who were injured by Greek Fire at the time: "Whenever the enemy attacks us with Greek Fire, all we can do is kneel down and pray for God's salvation." That quote is enough to illustrate the power of Greek Fire.

Little is known in later generations about the recipe and production methods of Greek Fire, due to the strict confidentiality measures of the Byzantine royal family. The research and production of Greek Fire in Byzantium were carried out in the depths of the palace, and the Galinikos family, who were personally authorized and firmly controlled, controlled the entire operation system. Modern chemists and historians have made the following speculations about the composition of Greek Fire: naphtha, saltpeter, sulfur, crude oil, quicklime, sulfur, phosphorus, and saltpeter.

The ingredients of Greek Fire were heated in a large pot and then sprayed out from siphons on the ship. It could also be placed in pottery and thrown by hand, like a modern grenade. The principle was to put the different components of Greek Fire in pottery jars, and when the pottery jars were broken, the ingredients inside would mix together, resulting in the effect of a general jet-type Greek Fire.

In Ye Tao's view, if the ingredients of Greek Fire speculated by modern scientists are relatively reliable, then the current technical conditions are actually fully capable of effectively producing and applying this terrifying weapon. Ye Tao had done some research on Huoyou bombs. His guess was that Huoyou bombs were made from petroleum after primitive fractionation, mixed with some other flammable materials. The reason why the Gao family had been able to preserve the unique nature of Huoyou bombs was certainly because the petroleum fractionation process was indeed considered to be advanced technology in this era. On the other hand, it was also because they controlled some relatively easy-to-mine oil wells. As long as there was petroleum in this era, as long as there was still the possibility of mining it, since others could do it, then Ye Tao felt that he had no reason not to be able to do it.

Greek Fire was used like a modern flamethrower, and the core of the firing mechanism was a pump. Low-pressure steam boilers could be used, but before rubber was found and the sealing problem was solved, the pressure provided by this thing was too limited. Instead, using mechanical principles and large rawhide air bags was relatively more reliable and safe. Although the range was likely to be less than one hundred meters, which was about three hundred chi (a Chinese unit of length), it was almost enough for naval warfare or city defense.

Ye Tao wrote to Tan Weixin, asking Tan Weixin to mobilize the members of the Jiuzhou Trading Company, which had a large influence on the ground, to look for petroleum. It was very easy to talk about these topics with Tan Weixin. He didn't even have to explain what petroleum was or what its characteristics were. As an excellent economic analyst, Tan Weixin must be very familiar with this source of power and war in modern society. As for the Seven Seas Trading Company, let's forget about it on this issue. No matter how much energy the sea merchants united had, they couldn't let Ye Tao build a petroleum drilling platform, which was a pity.

Ye Tao didn't have enough time every day. The progress of each task required detailed drawings to guide the work. When Sophie was not around and there was no one who could turn his sketches into standard drawings, he spent most of his time drawing every day. This situation naturally made him feel tired and annoyed. And his annoyance was bound to be reflected in his mood and attitude, which he could not always notice.

Lu Dan understood that once Ye Tao entered this workaholic state, he would definitely be scolded if he didn't arrange something properly. Ye Tao would not take into account his identity as the young master of the Lu family at this time. But Liu Qing had not had such an experience, but he suddenly realized that the requirements that Ye Tao would never make under normal circumstances implicitly showed that Ye Tao was accustomed to working in an extremely powerful team. Reports on project progress, project budget estimates, material consumption, transfer, and storage, the progress of partial migration from Ye's Workshop in Yicheng, and even the summary and classification of various requests first made by members of the Seven Seas Trading Company… And most of the work reports required detailed figures. Even Liu Qing, who had been working in a business that already paid attention to digital management, had never encountered someone who cared so much about specific figures. And he was bound to have oversights in the management of so many things. In desperation, Liu Qing asked Qi Zhentao for instructions and then transferred a dozen intermediate-level assistants from within the Seven Seas Trading Company who could write, calculate, and had some experience in handling business and dealing with people to form an organization similar to a secretariat.

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The second chapter scheduled for update today