In the Eastern Depot courtyard, Fang Er sat at the head of the table, listening to Lai Yifa report on the recent situation.
In the adjacent intelligence room, the beeping of the telegraph was quite busy.
Soon, a scout arrived with a telegram.
“My Lord, the inventory of copper coins at all branch offices has been checked.”
“Dengzhou inventory, one million seven hundred thousand guan.”
“Yangzhou inventory, three million five thousand guan.”
“Kaifeng inventory, four million six hundred thousand guan.”
“Chang’an inventory, seven million one hundred ninety thousand guan.”
“Shenyang inventory, three million two hundred thousand guan.”
“A total of nineteen million seven hundred forty thousand guan.”
Fang Er frowned slightly; he was very dissatisfied with this number.
The five branch offices, with all the copper coins in their treasuries combined, were less than twenty million guan. Even if all of this were to be transferred to America, it would be a mere drop in the ocean compared to the at least three hundred million people.
After thinking for a long time, he looked up and said to Lai Yifa, “Have Tan Zong, Zhao Gang, and Mo Ming come over.”
“Yes, My Lord!”
Lai Yifa nodded, then relayed the order via walkie-talkie.
In less than half an hour, the three arrived.
“Greetings, My Lord!”
Seeing Fang Er in the courtyard, they quickly stepped forward to pay their respects.
Fang Er nodded at them, then pointed to the chairs beside him and said, “Sit and talk.”
After they had all taken their seats, he turned to Tan Zong and asked.
“You have been responsible for the alloy matters all along. Now, we need an aluminum alloy that is similar in color to silver.”
“Do you have any suitable formulas on your end?”
Tan Zong did not answer immediately but took out a small notebook from his怀 and began to search.
The notebook was filled with densely packed data, representing the properties of alloys formulated by mixing metals.
A moment later, he looked up at Fang Er with a joyful expression and replied.
“My Lord, there really is!”
“Look at this, Alloy No. 1532. Its density is 7.2 grams per cubic centimeter, hardness is 6, its color is indistinguishable from silver, and it will not corrode.”
Fang Er was overjoyed. A hardness of 6 was sufficient for his requirements, and the fact that it would not corrode was an unexpected bonus.
This was stainless steel!
He took the notebook and found the data to be exactly as Tan Zong had described.
Furthermore, the composition showed that it indeed contained chromium and nickel!
Flipping further, he saw that the last alloy number had reached a staggering 3622!
Each number corresponded to a different alloy composition, meaning he had already made over three thousand attempts!
He nodded at Tan Zong with satisfaction and handed the notebook back.
“Well done. Go back and send a sample of Alloy No. 1532 to the workshop.”
“Thank you for your praise, My Lord. I will go and get it now.”
Seeing that his efforts had finally been recognized, Tan Zong’s face lit up with a smile. He bowed and walked out of the courtyard.
After Tan Zong left, Fang Er went to the workshop with Zhao Gang and Mo Ming.
The workshop on the estate was now solely responsible for the production and maintenance of machine tools. To facilitate access, a side door for vehicles had been added to the outer wall.
Zhao Gang was to oversee the overall picture, and this responsibility had been transferred to the master craftsman Liu Eryang.
Upon seeing Fang Er arrive, Liu Eryang quickly stepped forward with a smile to greet him.
“My Lord, I heard you had returned, and I thought someone was joking with me, but I didn’t expect it to be true.”
Fang Er greeted him with a smile, chatted casually for a few moments, and then called over the craftsmen who were still working nearby.
He had someone bring paper and brush and began to draw.
As he drew, he said, “This is a set of molds for casting silver coins.”
“The diameter is 30 millimeters, and the thickness is 1.8 millimeters.”
“The obverse will feature the Emperor’s portrait and the denomination ‘One Yuan,’ and the reverse will feature a map of the Earth.”
“In addition, there will be a line of small curved text on both the obverse and reverse: ‘Great Tang Royal Bank, Zhenguan Era, Year Five.’”
Listening to his description, the craftsmen present were all invigorated.
Coin minting, this was a significant undertaking!
They watched intently as the design on the paper was refined.
After a long time, Fang Er casually tossed the brush into the pen holder on the table, pushed the drawing to the craftsmen, and then stood up and stretched.
“Tan Zong will be sending samples of the coin material shortly. You can examine the drawings and ponder them for now.”
The craftsmen immediately gathered around. They had already formed an impression of the design as Fang Er drew it; the main concern was how to handle the finer details during processing. If this had been two years ago, Fang Er would have had to do this himself, but with the current skill level of these craftsmen, a set of molds was something they could handle completely.
Tan Zong did not keep the craftsmen waiting long, and soon brought over three alloy ingots.
Besides No. 1532, there were also alloys numbered 1944, 1475, and 2257.
He pointed to the alloys and explained, “My Lord, the performance of 1944, 2257, and 1532 are all similar. Please try them and see which one is suitable.”
“I do not know what you intend to use them for, but if you need stamping dies for these three alloys, 2257 can be used.”
Fang Er was taken aback; he had indeed forgotten about the mold material!
He stepped forward and patted Tan Zong on the shoulder, smiling with satisfaction.
“Hahahaha, excellent! You are all capable of thinking ahead!”
“It is all thanks to your cultivation, My Lord.” Tan Zong bowed his head in extreme humility, his old face showing a rare flush of color.
With the materials at hand, the craftsmen started the lathes and began processing according to the drawing requirements.
The stamping dies were made from Alloy No. 2257 ingots, from which appropriately sized blanks were cut, and then the patterns were carved onto them.
The alloys 1944, 1532, and 1475 were heated and then hammered into thin sheets under the stamping machine.
Watching these craftsmen work with such reasonable division of labor and orderliness, Fang Er displayed a look of gratified smiles.
After spending a little more time in the workshop, he called Zhao Gang to his side to assign him other tasks.
“Have Hu Lian prepare ten diesel generators and the matching transformers.”
“Also, send twenty stamping presses and one hundred sufficiently skilled craftsmen from the workshops.”
“These people will be accompanying me on a long trip, and they may not be able to return for one or two years.”
“For those willing to go, inform them that their monthly wages will be doubled.”
Zhao Gang listened and made notes in his notebook. This seemingly ordinary action was a habit that every craftsman from Fangjiazhuang was required to cultivate.
After finishing these instructions, Fang Er left the workshop and headed towards the rear courtyard.