Chapter 1 Aftermath

After receiving the order that the Blood Kirin Army would be disbanded on the spot and report to the Danyang camp for assembly in a month, the Blood Kirin Army, which had already gathered in White Stone City, cheered as they packed their bags. Almost everyone had left within two hours. Even Dai Yun was surprised that this order could further improve the Blood Kirin Army's efficiency, but even she herself just smiled embarrassedly and went to prepare to return to Danyang. All the Blood Kirin Army's weapons and supplies were piled up in White Stone City. Later, Ye Tao used his small, theoretically powerless position in the two-army review office, which the imperial court had apparently forgotten, to sign a contract with FedEx and instructed them to send everything back to Danyang.

This must have been intentional. Everyone wanted Ye Tao to know that they would all find ways to exonerate him, and they would all go back and use their connections to make it happen. And Ye Tao, no matter what, was still their leader. And the leader was there to clean up after everyone.

Two days later, when Ye Tao saw the next squad leader of the Fire Kirin Army named Guan Yinhang in White Stone City, he couldn't help but be a little surprised. "Why are you still here? Aren't you going home?"

Ye Tao and Tan Weixin had a particularly deep impression of this squad leader because the homonym of his name was "Guan Yinhang" (管银行), which sounds like "manage bank"... Tan Weixin had somewhat mischievously wanted to recruit this guy into Deloitte Accounting Firm to see if he had the talent to do auditing. But after all, it was still necessary to respect his wishes.

Guan Yinhang said in surprise, "General, do you think so little of me? Don't you read my resume? I'm a local from White Stone City."

Guan Yinhang was indeed a local from White Stone City. In the Fire Kirin Army, he had always been able to hide to avoid being recognized by his family and dragged home away from the battlefield. And now, he was enjoying his vacation without any worries. He knew almost all the officials in White Stone City, from Pan Xiangmin to the low-ranking yamen runners. And Ye Tao only then learned that the Guan family still had some property in the local area, and Ye Tao was very familiar with the property they owned: Ningcheng Yun Kiln.

Ningcheng refers to Ning Shi City. The name Ningcheng Yun Kiln existed a long time ago, when White Stone City was just a small town attached to Ning Shi City. Yun Kiln's products first appeared in Ning Shi City, and then spread to various places through Ning Shi City. The name Ningcheng Yun Kiln had become established, so later, when White Stone Town was upgraded to White Stone City, the Guan family did not want to change the name, but instead used the already well-known name of Ningcheng Yun Kiln.

"Guan Yinhang, then why aren't you staying at home? Are you daring to disobey the confinement order?" Ye Tao asked strangely.

"Hehe, when we started tearing down brick walls to use as stone bullets on the city walls, my old man had someone tear down our house. Otherwise, why do you think so many houses of wealthy families were torn down without any resistance? We have some face in the local area, after all. Now I'm homeless. My old man and the others have temporarily gone to live in Ning Shi City. Anyway, I'm confined, so I'm staying here to let Yun Kiln resume work." Guan Yinhang was smug. This time, although the Guan family had torn down their garden, they had also become a model for many wealthy families in White Stone City. There weren't many opportunities to earn face like this.

Ningcheng Yun Kiln is recognized as the best porcelain with "jade texture and golden sound," and Yun Kiln's technology has always been something that many large businesses have wanted to master. Ye Tao was very interested in how Yun Kiln could produce such a unique quality of porcelain with the current technology. Naturally, Ye Tao's interest did not include wanting to steal Yun Kiln's technology for his own use. Ye Tao has always been very interested in porcelain. In his workshop in Ye's workshop, a part of the space is set up as a small kiln for trial production of single pieces of porcelain and pottery.

When Ye Tao cautiously suggested that he wanted to visit Yun Kiln, Guan Yinhang agreed without hesitation.

"Aren't you worried that I'll steal your skills?" Ye Tao asked strangely.

Guan Yinhang waved his hand and said, "My Guan family's Yun Kiln has 40% of the shares of Her Highness the Princess. Without Her Highness the Princess's help, Yun Kiln would have gone bankrupt long ago with its terrifyingly low yield rate. Now there is only one kiln dedicated to producing Yun Kiln, and the others are kilns for producing ordinary porcelain and high-end pottery. Doesn't Ye's Workshop also have porcelain stuff? It's all the same, just that thing."

Ye Tao could only sigh that Tan Weixin's business tentacles were a bit too far-reaching. But he could also speculate that Tan Weixin's help to the Guan family to keep Yun Kiln may have been simply because she liked Yun Kiln's products.

But when he arrived at the kiln area built by the Guan family in the city, Ye Tao was still taken aback. Although many ordinary workers and some veteran craftsmen were only preparing materials and tidying up the site, and it would still take a considerable amount of time before they could start firing the kiln again, the scale already allowed Ye Tao to roughly imagine the grand occasion when so many different forms of kilns were operating at the same time.

There were six kilns in the Guan family's kiln area, and the only Yun Kiln was somewhat different in structure. The other kilns used the method of direct contact between adobe and firepower, while the Yun Kiln used a heat conduction chamber structure.

The heat generated by the coal-fired central hot chamber was evenly sent into three hot chambers by convection combined with forced air. The space in each hot chamber was very limited, and only a small number of adobe bricks could be placed. The kiln chamber with a heat-conducting structure was much better than ordinary kilns in terms of heat balance, and the use of coal to generate heat could ensure that there was still enough temperature after the loss of heat conduction.

Another important factor that allows Yun Kiln porcelain to produce its unique quality is the material. The clay used by Yun Kiln can only be obtained near White Stone City and must undergo a fairly complex sorting and washing process. The glaze used by Yun Kiln has only one origin. The Guan family has tried to use glazes of different colors and properties, but although the products produced have their own characteristics, they are not the pure Yun Kiln with a jade-like texture, and at best are just some special products. Ye Tao still has some understanding of materials, but without sophisticated scientific instruments, Ye Tao can only roughly judge that the materials used by Yun Kiln make the porcelain produced by Yun Kiln not actually traditional clay ceramics, but rather something similar to rare earth ceramics.

After chatting with Guan Yinhang, Ye Tao also understood why Yun Kiln's yield rate was so terribly low. Now, even if all the veteran craftsmen plus the senior kiln workers were all on the job, Yun Kiln's yield rate would be less than 10%. Occasionally, when accepting customization and making larger items, this probability might be even more terrible. Moreover, regardless of whether the Princess invested in it or not, Yun Kiln's requirements for quality are extremely harsh, and those products with slight defects are all destroyed. In fact, some products can be taken out to sell and can still have a good price. But perhaps it is this uncompromising attitude towards quality that makes the people who now yearn for Yun Kiln's porcelain both slander the price of Yun Kiln's porcelain and Yun Kiln's yield rate, and praise these things at the same time.

Yun Kiln's kiln chamber design is not very scientific. Even more deadly is that Yun Kiln's forced air design for heat conduction is actually a side-opening air duct design. Although there are wind deflectors, the air duct will still be affected by external temperature and pressure, resulting in inconsistent air supply, and the air supplied has a greater impact on the temperature of the hot chamber. And uneven temperature is quite critical and quite fatal for Yun Kiln.

Looking at Ye Tao's thoughtful expression, Guan Yinhang half-jokingly said, "Omnipotent General, do you have a way to improve Yun Kiln? If there can be some improvement, I'll give you 10% of Yun Kiln, how about it?"

Ye Tao shook his head and said, "I'll get you Guan family a garden, or help you improve Yun Kiln, which one do you choose?"

Guan Yinhang was overjoyed and said with a smile, "Our family is used to living in a doghouse. Kiln workers, no matter how rich they are, are still kiln workers. They don't know how to appreciate a garden. Of course, it's to improve Yun Kiln. Does General Ye really have a way?"

Ye Tao led Guan Yinhang to the residence where he was currently settled, took out his toolbox, took out his drawing board, and quickly made a few sketches. Guan Yinhang looked at it carefully, and then shook his head frankly and said, "I don't understand."

Ye Tao has two improvements to Yun Kiln. One is to use bimetallic strips to make a simple thermometer, and use a catheter to lead out the furnace kiln, and use a pointer outside the furnace kiln to display the height of the temperature inside the furnace kiln. The other improvement is the blower duct. Ye Tao completely abandoned the side-opening blower duct and instead used a blower system inside the channel. Ye Tao plans to use ceramic frames and blower blades and place them in the original heat conduction channel. Power is transmitted through a gear set wrapped in a ceramic insulation layer outside. Originally, Yun Kiln's blower power used a mixture of wind energy and manpower, but now, in addition to improving the windmill to make the windmill's energy transmission more scientific and efficient, Ye Tao also completely improved the system of direct connection between the power and the blower mechanism, but instead adopted a five-speed constant force conical wheel mechanism that can be switched during operation. As long as the input power is sufficient, no matter how large the input energy is, it can be converted into stable blade rotation. Although the structure is a bit more complicated, the reliability has increased exponentially. The five-speed adjustable constant force wheel combined with the bimetallic strip thermometer allows the operator to increase his control over Yun Kiln by more than one level.

When Ye Tao explained the functions of these designs in detail, Guan Yinhang, who immediately understood how much change it could bring to Yun Kiln, was very excited. Such improvements will definitely improve the quality and yield rate of Yun Kiln by one level.

Immediately, Ye Tao began to enter the detailed design stage and began to preside over the transformation of Yun Kiln. Ye Tao didn't want to gain anything, just boredom. The enterprises under Ye's name can now operate well without him worrying about it. Before the imperial court decides how to deal with him, he can only stay in White Stone City. He really wanted to participate in the restoration and reconstruction of the city walls, but that kind of work, in addition to being relatively large, really didn't have much technical content. In comparison, there is no doubt that transforming Yun Kiln is much more fun.

While transforming Yun Kiln, he accidentally discovered a very special warehouse in the corner of the kiln area when he entered the Guan family's kiln area again and again. When Ye Tao obtained the consent of the general manager of the kiln area to enter that warehouse, he found that this warehouse was piled with the remains of those failed Yun Kiln works after they were smashed, and there were also quite a lot of semi-finished products and fragments of Yun Kiln porcelain using other kinds of glazes. The general manager of the kiln area sighed that every furnace of Yun Kiln was made with great effort, and they were really reluctant to throw things away. They had stored these useless fragments in three warehouses.

The warehouse storing ceramic fragments does not adopt a completely sealed warehouse structure. The two-zhang-high wall is all wooden strip grille structure above one and a half zhang. The sunlight passed through these grilles, was combed into beams of flowing light, shone on piles of conical fragments, and reflected bright lights of various colors. This colorful and gorgeous scene moved Ye Tao's heart. An idea came to his mind, an idea that could make these useless and wasteful ceramic fragments be reused.

Without much effort, Ye Tao obtained the consent of the general manager of the kiln area and took two large baskets of Yun Kiln fragments of various colors away. Ye Tao took out the diamond carving knife and steel ruler that he rarely used from his toolbox, cut the fragments into squares of one inch on each side, and then he asked people to take various materials and formulated a simple recipe of quick-drying cement, and used these small squares to piece together various patterns on the courtyard wall of the garden where he now lives.

Mosaic... What a great invention this is. This extremely simple construction process has developed with the development of architecture and design. In the modern era, in the digital era, with the rise of pixel-level painting styles, cartoon-style shapes and mosaic technology are combined, becoming one of the simple, powerful, and low-cost means for many architects and designers to play with techniques.

After using up two large baskets of porcelain pieces, Ye Tao only decorated a piece of wall. This is only a small part of the huge mural he wants to use mosaic to piece together. So, Ye Tao sent a few more people to ask for porcelain pieces again, and then there were several more times. The very puzzled general manager of the kiln area notified Guan Yinhang. When Guan Yinhang came to Ye Tao's small yard, Ye Tao, who had been busy all day, had already pasted mosaics on half of the wall separating the garden and the inner courtyard patio paved with bluestone slabs.

Ye Tao posted a picture of pine waves and clouds. Ye Tao originally didn't want to make such "main theme" content, but most of the Yun Kiln porcelain fragments are moon white or some lighter white, and white porcelain pieces account for the vast majority. The rest are mostly cyan and green porcelain pieces, and there are also a small number of orange and red porcelain pieces. When only these colors can be used, probably only this kind of content can be played with.

When Guan Yinhang saw this mural that was nearly half completed, his eyes almost popped out. In his eyes, the mural reflecting the sparkling light was so magnificent and so moving.