Chapter 468: A New Heavenly Tome
Li Daoxuan withdrew his co-sensing from the Titanic Heavenly Lord. Just then, his delivery person arrived with his lunch: cumin-spiced hand-torn ribs.
Grabbing a rib with his left hand, his right tapped on the diorama box, casually switching views as he surveyed "his territory."
His territory was growing larger, indeed!
Xing Honglang's Gudu Ferry continued to sell grain and acquire salt, causing the Heavenly Lord's "grace" to radiate outwards, saving an increasing number of people. At the same time, Imperial Censor Wu Shen was frantically sending more refugees to Gao Family Village...
In recent days, the Salvation Index had risen rapidly.
His field of view had extended by another few dozen miles.
Baishui County was almost entirely within his sight, he could also see more than half of Dali County, and over half of Huanglong Mountain to the north had entered his expanded view.
The rapid expansion of his field of view led Li Daoxuan to issue several successive divine edicts to San Shier, instructing him to start transporting grain and "Dao Xuan Tian Zun's Demon-Slaying Chronicles" to Baishui County and Dali County, thereby beginning to build up his divine influence in those two areas.
Daoist Master Ma and Mrs. San also set out together, one heading to Baishui County and the other to Dali County, to spread the doctrines of the Heavenly Lord...
The porters were moving grain all day long, they simply couldn't stop.
Li Daoxuan gnawed on his ribs, his gaze sweeping over the long grain transport teams emerging from Gao Family Village. He mused inwardly, "The number of porters is clearly less than before."
Indeed!
Gao Family Village's manual laborers were decreasing day by day.
A large number of ordinary people had begun to transform into skilled workers, unwilling to continue with monotonous manual labor. This dealt a further blow to Gao Family Village's "logistics system."
The pressure was mounting!
Just then, Li Daoxuan suddenly heard a clamor coming from the Craftsman Well. The small figures were arguing, their voices too faint, a jumble he couldn't make out. He quickly shifted his attention into the Craftsman Well.
The moment he switched over, he heard Li Da indignantly yelling, "Are you serious? Xu Dafu and I worked tirelessly to finally produce the Chassepot breech-loading rifle, but you've all pulled away the blacksmiths! Now there aren't many left to forge firearms. If things continue like this, how can we quickly equip everyone with new firearms?"
Young Master Bai was also in the Craftsman Well, a look of displeasure on his face. "I need to build huge locomotive engines here," he said, "and forge railway tracks. That requires a massive number of blacksmiths. What have you done with them all? I’m seriously short-staffed!"
Gao Yiyi interjected, "Everyone, calm down, calm down! I don't have enough blacksmiths either! We need to build cannons, and forge choppers, sickles, iron pots, hoes for the common folk... iron arrowheads, spearheads... Argh... I'm the one who's truly short-staffed, alright?"
Li Da retorted, "I don't care! My Chassepot rifles were divinely decreed by the Heavenly Lord in the seventh year of Tianqi, with a command for mass production. What the Heavenly Lord says takes precedence! You must prioritize allocating blacksmiths to me!"
Young Master Bai countered, "My great locomotive engines are also a divine edict from the Heavenly Lord, meant to travel through every city. You figure it out yourselves. It's a divine edict, mind you!"
Gao Yiyi roared, "My cannons here, their barrels were *bestowed* by the Heavenly Lord! If that's not a divine edict, what is it? Don't think you're the only ones who are important!"
"The Heavenly Lord is on *my* side!"
"The Heavenly Lord clearly speaks for *me*!"
"Hey, mine was personally directed by the Heavenly Lord!"
The group argued incessantly.
Li Daoxuan could only watch in silence.
What in the world!
It's a manpower shortage, still a manpower shortage!
This was not surprising. Europe had faced similar manpower shortages in the past, and for a region like Europe, which was already sparsely populated, this problem had been completely insoluble—unlike Gao Family Village, which could still absorb refugees from other areas.
To solve this problem, Europeans had also found a solution: "increasing manufacturing efficiency."
In 1798, Americans applied the principle of interchangeability in the weapons industry to mass-produce rifle parts, significantly increasing work efficiency.
This was a concept he could draw upon!
Li Daoxuan wasted no more time. He immediately searched online for several articles explaining "standardization" and "mass production," converted them to traditional Chinese with a single click, printed them out, and tossed them onto the rooftop of Gao Family Village School.
Song Yingxing was currently on the rooftop, pondering over a jumble of machines whose purpose he couldn't quite decipher, when he suddenly saw a gigantic book descend from the heavens, thick with many pages.
He knew at once that the Heavenly Lord was bestowing another Heavenly Book!
A Heavenly Book, of course, had to be read immediately. He quickly climbed onto the giant book and, with all his might, flipped open the first page...
"Oh? So that’s how it is..." he murmured. "If every part is standardized, and molds are created for uniform casting and mass production, then a single firearm doesn't need to be forged by one blacksmith from start to finish. Instead, one blacksmith can forge just one part, and then someone else can assemble them in the end. This way, the speed will surely increase significantly... It can be done like this?"
Song Yingxing was overjoyed. "This is incredible!" he exclaimed. "A Heavenly Book truly is a Heavenly Book!"
Li Daoxuan saw that Song Yingxing was already engrossed in studying the Heavenly Book, so he didn't need to worry about this area for now. The concept of "standardization" sounded simple but was difficult to implement; Song Yingxing would surely need several more days before he could even begin to try applying it.
Before that, there was another, equally crucial step.
That was the issue of "training blacksmiths."
The Craftsman Well had always trained new blacksmiths through the "old master teaching apprentice" method, but with the advent of industrialization, this method of training new recruits was clearly no longer sufficient, not at all.
It was time to introduce another new method for cultivating talent.
He thought of the modern vocational schools, renowned for specialized technical training.
Previously, Gao Family Village only had a Women's Vocational School, teaching skills like weaving and cooking, but now it was time to establish an industrial vocational school.
"Oh, right," he mused, "there was one more very important thing I'd almost forgotten."
A military academy!
A bald head flashed quickly through Li Daoxuan's mind. There was no helping it; whenever he thought of military academies, it was hard not to think of that particular bald head. He quickly shook his head, dispelling the image from his mind.
His thoughts returned to Gao Family Village.
Currently, there was no suitable person in the village to be the headmaster of a military academy. Gao Family Village's few legitimate military commanders were all "too minor." Cheng Xu, Fang Wushang, Lao Nanfeng—their former official ranks were not high. They couldn't even manage large-scale battles themselves, so systematically teaching others the knowledge of campaigning and warfare would likely be beyond their capabilities.
If he could find a man from a military family, thoroughly versed in military treatises and possessing extensive battlefield knowledge, to serve as the military academy's headmaster, that would be ideal.
Unfortunately, where could such a person be found?
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