Chapter 1 The First Push

This meeting lasted a full two days. Although it didn't result in a complete plan, the entire framework was solidified. The General Staff Department would handle the detailed planning of the entire military operation. Related material supplies, transportation, and other support would naturally be coordinated by other departments. The Intelligence Bureau and the Third Division of the Civil Affairs Bureau would constantly supervise the entire process, including monitoring and maintaining secrecy. Yunzhou's bureaucratic system was different from that of Dongping, and the entire local governance system was different as well. Once a detailed plan was in place, the efficiency and effectiveness of its execution would be different. Everyone had their own position and, therefore, their own responsibilities. Everyone would strive to do their job well, and every department had its own responsibilities. Yunzhou's entire bureaucratic system was like a precise machine, and at this moment, the plan to attack the Zhenbei Army Command was like the machine's prime mover. The entire plan would gradually evolve from a framework into detailed goals and plans, which would all be implemented in a few months. When that time came, the accumulated power would erupt suddenly...

Yunzhou's governance system dictated that tremendous power could only be unleashed with thorough preparation. Even in dealing with disasters, Yunzhou had made extensive preparations. To avoid being unable to respond to emergencies, every region and department in Yunzhou had a chief official with temporary decision-making power in special circumstances. What constituted a special circumstance was detailed in Yunzhou's current basic laws, and the system of accountability after the fact was relatively sound. This rather sound strategy allowed Ye Tao, after making his decision, to temporarily put aside all matters and come to the Yunzhou branch of the Ye Family Workshop with his family.

Dai Yun had originally wanted to participate in the General Staff Department's detailed strategy formulation, but Ye Tao took her away. The Yunzhou General Staff Department was primarily an advisory body, but Dai Yun was a general on the battlefield. Formulating detailed strategies wasn't necessarily her forte, and understanding too many operational details could actually impair her ability to make decisions on the battlefield. On the other hand, Ye Tao felt that the General Staff Department should do something themselves. They couldn't always rely on this small family to do everything. Tan Weiran, on the other hand, was adept at strategy and planning, and was capable of effectively running the General Staff Department.

Dai Yun didn't insist much. After all, she and Ye Tao hadn't seen each other for several months. Although there were many practical considerations in marrying Ye Tao, it was undeniable that he was a gentle and considerate husband, someone worthy of her trust. The tender affection between them had indeed given rise to something akin to love in Dai Yun's heart. Also, perhaps it was because the Ye Family Workshop always had all sorts of novelties. When Ye Tao left Yunzhou for Chunnan, he arranged a pile of projects, and after a few months, many of them had yielded initial results. The Ye Family Workshop constantly came up with all sorts of fresh ideas. People from the Ye Family Workshop would report on these things once a month, seeking instructions on which projects to pursue. Tan Weixin, Dai Yun, and Sophie had to study them together for a long time before deciding. Fortunately, Sophie had helped Ye Tao with so many drawings and was still frequently traveling between the Ye Family Workshop and the construction site in Gondor City to follow up on the progress. She had some understanding of technical matters, at least enough to understand the drawings. In order to ensure the smooth progress of the Ye Family Workshop's projects, they had even tried to get Qian Shun or other old technicians to explain the various technical details to them, but only Tan Weixin could understand them with her modern mindset. Fortunately, there hadn't been any major oversights, since Qian Shun was there to keep an eye on things, and anything too outrageous would be rejected by him early on. At this point, everyone suddenly realized that only Ye Tao could explain complex technologies in language that everyone could understand, and only Ye Tao seemed to have a thorough understanding of the entire evolving technological system of the Ye Family Workshop, able to accurately grasp the various emerging projects, and able to select, analyze, and combine them, thereby making the Ye Family Workshop stronger and stronger. What kind of technological insight was this?

Ye Tao had to go to the workshop this time because Qian Shun had mentioned something in a letter a few days ago: the glass artisans from overseas had started fighting among themselves.

Originally, those artisans weren't all from the same place. Some came from the Gulf region, where the Samir family had a vast influence, and some came from more distant regions such as Florentia. The methods of making glass varied greatly in the finished product processing stage, but in the raw material stage, everyone's techniques were very similar. These artisans had all worked in the Samir family's glass workshops, and were most familiar with the Samir family's glassmaking process. The slightly different technical characteristics of their respective countries were suppressed. But when they came to Yunzhou, the situation at the Ye Family Workshop was completely different. These glass artisans weren't directly granted freedom like the various artisans and performers who had come to the Ye Family Workshop before, and their personal contracts weren't terminated, mainly because the Samir family was worried about the leakage and return of glass technology. But their other living arrangements were no worse than those of the craftsmen in other industries. And in the Ye Family Workshop Research Institute in Yunzhou, there was a relatively independent residential, production, and research unit to house these people.

The glass manufacturing system that the Ye Family Workshop had developed from scratch amazed these people, and the relaxed living and research conditions unleashed all the creativity that everyone had accumulated for a long time. These foreign artisans, together with the original artisans of the Ye Family Workshop, mainly had to solve two problems: one was how to make the glass material more clear and uniform, and the other was the diversification of glass products.

And it was because of these problems, and everyone's different research directions, that the artisans finally argued over technical schools of thought.

"What exactly is going on?" After arriving at the workshop, Ye Tao met with Qian Shun first and asked, "Even you can't decide, Senior Brother?"

Qian Shun smiled and said, "The several things they've come up with now, I think each has its own merits, and it's really hard to tell them apart. Our original group of artisans has also gotten involved. Some are improving the current formula, some are coming up with new formulas, and as for another group, they're making those variegated glasses incredibly beautiful... Everyone makes sense, so it's better for you to tell them apart. They're giving me a headache. Besides, isn't another workshop about to start construction soon? I have to keep an eye on that."

Ye Tao nodded and asked about the more detailed specifics, and Qian Shun took out various colors and styles of glass products from the safe in his office, a total of more than a dozen items.

Scanning these things, Ye Tao was secretly surprised. The topics he had assigned had actually sprouted so many branches in a short time when he couldn't manage them in real time. Qian Shun only said that the artisans had tried to make the variegated glass beautiful, but what Ye Tao saw were "liuli" (glazed glass) samples that had been consciously made. A small cube of liuli, two inches square, presented rich colors, and they were matched quite harmoniously. It could be seen that the artisans had some understanding of what metal minerals could elicit what colors.

And the glass materials that caused controversy among the artisans were even more surprising. The original glass formula of the Ye Family Workshop had already deliberately tried to remove the iron in the sand and added manganese-containing mineral sand to make the color more clear and transparent, rather than appearing light green. From the formula point of view, it was at least quite modern. However, what Ye Tao saw now were three almost completely pure and transparent glasses. Three bottles made of the three glasses, with completely identical shapes, were placed there. Only under the light could the different characteristics be seen.

One of them was naturally something that was made by constantly improving the original glass technology of the Ye Family Workshop. Somehow, the artisans improved the method of filtering out impurities in quartz sand, and the original obvious green color had faded almost invisibly, but the current glass looked more like crystal. The glass formula had obviously been changed a lot. Ye Tao immediately thought of the artisans' tricks: lead. Only when the lead content was high enough could ordinary glass present this crystal-like texture. Although the mechanical strength of the glass was slightly reduced, this visual effect was indeed very attractive.

The transparency of another glass was about the same, but the refracted light was sharper and more upright. Qian Shun explained: "This glass is a little harder than the one improved from the original formula. And, the sound it makes when you knock it is very pleasant. It's just too expensive to make. Both the calcination of the mineral sand and the preparation of the auxiliary materials are too troublesome."

Ye Tao frowned and asked, "Is it calcined with charcoal? And then add something like wood ash?"

Qian Shun was surprised and said, "How did you know? I don't remember writing it in the documents?" However, because his little junior brother had always brought too many surprises to everyone, Qian Shun didn't seem to want to ask further and said, "Forget it, it's best if you know. However, it's also because this glass is relatively hard, and those surface carving methods don't work. They always break the bottles and plates, so the group of guys who are making this stuff are working with the young men in the workshop tool department to come up with new equipment. I'm optimistic about this, because it looks like that kind of thing can also be used to process the original formula of glass."

Ye Tao said with a smile: "Different properties of glass have different functions. At most, we'll just do everything. There's no need for disputes between the two factions. These things are really surprising. I didn't expect such good things to be made in such a short time." Ye Tao naturally knew a little about the nature of this kind of glass. Isn't this the "forest glass" that was popular in Europe for many centuries? Also known as "Bohemian crystal glass," this thing is representative of lead-free glass, popular in Europe for many centuries. Later, some Czech artisans added various metal elements to the glass solution and came up with multicolored "crystal enamel." Although the manufacture of this glass has just been developed, it is bound to be expensive, but its future development is still very promising.

Qian Shun raised his eyebrows, as if he had expected Ye Tao to say this. He pointed to the third glass bottle and said, "Then take a look at this. I asked the guys who made this thing to make a bottle, but they were very reluctant, saying it was a waste of resources."

"Oh, I have to take a look at this," Ye Tao took the bottle in his hand and rotated it little by little against the sunlight outside the window, and his expression became serious. "What material is this made of?" Ye Tao asked.

"I don't know what that thing is called. Those people said they needed to find more minerals and stuff, so I asked people to get them. At the beginning, a workshop apprentice brought some minerals, saying that there were plenty of them in the mountains behind their place. Then they hauled back almost four carts of minerals for the artisans to try to make." Seeing Ye Tao's expression, Qian Shun said, "Little Junior Brother, don't worry, I bought that whole mountain. Now, our Ye Family Workshop is the only one with this kind of mineral."

Ye Tao breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Senior Brother, it's normal for those artisans to be unwilling to make bottles. The light transmission, uniformity, and refractive index of this glass are completely different from the first two types of glass. In terms of optical properties, it's even better than some natural crystals. This is very suitable for making lenses, to completely replace the lenses in those telescopes and crossbow sights. The artisans must have realized this, and they had a lot of opinions about making it into bottles."

Qian Shun smiled disapprovingly and said, "I'm only in charge of letting them produce samples. Everyone has the same samples for comparison. After you say this, changing the way we treat them is another matter."

Ye Tao nodded. Now Qian Shun had a set of management experience. He was very good at letting artisans work within the workshop system and allowing everyone to have the extra energy to innovate outside of work. Although Qian Shun's words were simple, they were worth pondering.

"Senior Brother, what do you think should be done now?" Ye Tao asked.

"Aren't they fighting among themselves? Naturally, I'll take care of that, but as the big boss of the workshop, you always have to show up to encourage them. Since you said that the first two types of glass each have their own merits, then it's simple. The two groups are called Glass Group A and Glass Group B respectively. Take out all kinds of useful things for everyone to see. See how much the cost can be controlled, how much the level of technology can be developed, and also, how many people are willing to buy these things. I guess there won't be few, right? I've already taken some things to lure some people, and the prices they're willing to pay make people drool. However, we naturally won't sell them so expensively, which can also be regarded as a small surprise for everyone. Since you said that this third type of glass is suitable for making lenses, then it's simple. Now the grinding of natural crystal lenses is almost all concentrated in Danyang. We'll set up another set of grinding equipment and put it in Yunzhou, specializing in the production and manufacture of various telescopes and sights made of this glass lens in Yunzhou. Although the cost of this glass is very high, plus it will take a lot of money and time to figure out how to grind it, it's still much cheaper than natural crystal lenses. The main thing is that natural crystal lenses can't guarantee the raw materials, but this thing can. However, Junior Brother, once this thing goes on sale, isn't it not good to sell telescopes and the like in Bosch Tool Shop? I guess we have to set up a new business name, right? ... But what are you going to do with those colorful things?"

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ps: I was moved to take my second hot bath with the right water temperature during the writers' class... and then I found out I almost forgot to update. Sorry everyone.