GBP Chapter 227 Don't be too happy yet
Chapter 227 Don't be too happy yet
For no apparent reason, Wang Qiong thought of the story of "the weasel becoming a spirit and demanding an official title" that she had heard when she was a child.
Legend has it that weasels can absorb the spiritual energy of the sun and moon and the essence of heaven and earth. When they cultivate themselves into spirits, they will go down the mountain to ask someone for a title. They will stop someone and ask, "Do I look like a human or a god to you?"
Now, when Magistrate Yang asks, "Do I look like a harvester to you?" Wang Qiong immediately thought of this story.
"Not like."
Wang Qiong shook his head slightly and replied, "I think Brother Yang is a good official who serves the country and the people. He will surely be remembered in history."
Yang Shaofeng laughed in anger, looking at Wang Qiong and said, "No, I am just a mere seventh-rank official... a sixth-rank petty official. Even if I were made of iron, how many nails could I hammer? In five years, two million harvesters would require building almost a thousand harvesters every day. Do you think I can do that, Brother Wang?"
This is the Ming Dynasty, not the Industrial Cthulhu of later times with all industrial categories. The development of more than a thousand prefectures and counties is extremely uneven. Some prefectures and counties may be able to find a dozen or even more carpenters, while others may not be able to find a single carpenter.
Especially in the newly liberated northern regions, the people struggled to even eat and farm normally. Let alone building a harvester in a day, they might have had a hard time building one in ten days.
Not to mention that harvesters require blades for cutting wheat, which involves blacksmiths, and the entire north is extremely short of blacksmiths and iron smelting workshops.
What's the point of building a harvester frame if there are no blades?
As for assembly line production... the ancients may have been less knowledgeable, but that doesn't mean they were stupid. Assembly line production methods, which already existed in the Qin Dynasty, couldn't have been completely lost by the Ming Dynasty.
If the bigwigs in the imperial court are not confident that they can get two million harvesters within five years, it can only mean that too much manpower and resources are needed, and simply relying on assembly line operations cannot solve the problem.
Wang Qiong was well aware of these difficulties. Upon hearing this, he simply sighed, placed the small box he had brought with him on the table, and bowed to Magistrate Yang, saying, "Since Brother Yang cannot do it either, then I will return to the capital to report to His Majesty and His Highness the Crown Prince."
Yang Shaofeng felt slightly irritated. After pondering for a while, he suddenly said inexplicably, "Actually, the problem of two million harvesters is not that it cannot be solved, but that I cannot solve it."
Wang Qiong was overjoyed and was about to ask how to solve the problem when Yang Shaofeng continued, "To build two million harvesters in five years or less, we need the Central Secretariat, the Ministry of Revenue, the Ministry of Works, more than a dozen provincial secretariats, and more than a thousand prefectures and counties. From the imperial court to the local areas, from His Majesty to the craftsmen, the manpower and resources involved are countless."
Wang Qiong stared intently at Yang Shaofeng and asked, "Please explain in more detail, Brother Yang, so that I can reply to His Majesty and His Highness the Crown Prince."
Yang Shaofeng hummed in agreement and said, "Brother, please wait a moment. I need to think about it carefully as well."
When Makarov, the former chief designer of the Black Sea Shipyard, faced the unfinished aircraft carrier "Varyag," he famously said: "To complete it, I need the State Planning Committee, the Military-Industrial Committee, nine defense industry ministries, 600 related specialties, and 8000 supporting manufacturers."
Emperor Zhu wanted to produce two million harvesters within five years, which also required a series of collaborations from the imperial court to local authorities, from the Ministry of Works to folk artisans.
After a long silence, Yang Shaofeng finally spoke: "The first step is for His Majesty and the Secretariat to guide, with the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of Revenue taking the lead, to redefine and establish the standard measures for the bushels and dou (a unit of dry measure)."
"For example, length. One foot is ten inches, and one pound is sixteen ounces. These are things that everyone knows. But how long is one inch? And how do we determine how much one ounce is? The measurement of the bushel and the pound is not standardized, so naturally, we can't talk about the rest."
Wang Qiong nodded, and Magistrate Yang continued, "The second step is for the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of Revenue to send officials to various places to inspect and understand the local conditions. For example, Jingdezhen is famous for its porcelain, with countless porcelain workshops of all sizes. Then other places must be famous for their timber or iron. This requires the cooperation of the provincial governments and various prefectures and counties."
"The third step is for the Ministry of Works and the Craftsmen's Camp to dispatch craftsmen to disassemble the harvester into parts. All the parts are taken apart, and even a tenon or a nail must be recorded separately. Then the master craftsmen will make some standard samples and distribute these samples. Where iron nails can be made, iron nails will be made; where blades can be made, blades will be made."
“If a county can make a hundred iron nails a day, that’s three thousand a month, and thirty-six thousand a year—what if there were ten or even twenty counties? What if they could make even more a day?”
"The fourth step is to train more people. These people don't need to know how to manufacture harvesters, and it doesn't matter if they are literate or illiterate. As long as they can learn to assemble these scattered parts, that's fine."
"This step requires the most manpower. With a thousand people, we can probably assemble a thousand harvesters in a day. With ten thousand people, we can probably assemble ten thousand in a day."
"If all else fails, perhaps we could draw some soldiers from the garrison? Anyway, they don't need to learn carpentry or blacksmithing skills; it's just assembly."
"During this process, the Ministry of Works and the Craftsmen's Camp need to send craftsmen to teach them how to disassemble and assemble the machines, and at the same time, more harvesters need to be manufactured for them to practice on."
"The fifth step is for the Ministry of Works and the Artisan Camp to dispatch specialized personnel to inspect the parts produced in various places. Then, these parts are gathered together and assembled by trained personnel. For this step, it is best to choose a place that is easy to transport, or even select several prefectures and counties for assembly. For example, one assembly point can be set up in the Jiangnan area, one in the Lingnan area, one in Huaizhong, one in Shandong, and one in Shanxi. It is even possible to take into account the different population sizes and farming conditions in each place and set up more or less."
Yang Shaofeng kept explaining how to do each step, while Wang Qiong's mouth opened wider and wider, and her eyes grew brighter and brighter.
When Yang Shaofeng said, "The sixth step is to send people to inspect each assembly site. After inspection, the materials will be distributed to various prefectures and counties and then to the people," Wang Qiong was completely stunned.
No wonder, no wonder His Majesty was willing to take out two catties of Xiaolongtuan at once, no wonder His Majesty and His Highness the Crown Prince valued Brother Yang so much, even going so far as to marry two princesses to win him over. It turns out that Brother Yang truly has the ability to turn the impossible into the possible and the rotten into the miraculous!
Wang Qiong had already figured it out. The methods Yang Shaofeng was using were actually similar to those used by the Ministry of Works and the Craftsmen's Camp. The difference was that the Ministry of Works and the Craftsmen's Camp required all regions to transport raw materials to the capital for processing. Even Emperor Zhu wanted to arrange for both raw materials and manpower to be sent to Ningyang County for processing.
Yang Shaofeng, on the other hand, directly distributed all the processes to various locations, where standardized parts were produced and then assembled together, thus eliminating the need for centralized processing.
And it is precisely this difference that makes something that was originally impossible possible.
Just as Wang Qiong was overjoyed, Yang Shaofeng frowned slightly, pondered for a moment, and said, "Brother Wang, don't be too happy yet. There are still a lot of issues to be aware of."
Wang Qiong was slightly taken aback and asked, "What's the problem?"