Chapter 8

Cheng Pan, in this era, had an unparalleled forward-thinking mind. He could recite the periodic table, knew Newton's three laws, and understood how to use pulleys to save effort. However, after 20 years of study, Cheng Pan was only good at taking exams and lacked practical skills. That said, he was still very interested in mechanics, just like most Chinese children who had few opportunities to get hands-on experience. Cheng Pan had heard of machine tools but had never seen one in person.

However, Cheng Pan was a boy, and every boy has a deep love for mechanics and steampunk. Coincidentally, he lived in the internet age, and during his college years, he saw a set of mechanical motion GIFs that sparked a great interest in the internal workings of machines. He even seriously studied (though it was more like reading for leisure, as college life was quite boring) the transmission of gears and other mechanical parts, while his major in oceanic fluid dynamics required him to retake courses twice.

After arriving in this era, Cheng Pan gained a magical sixth sense. Despite having no mechanical operation experience, he was determined to turn his wild ideas into reality.

First, Cheng Pan set his sights on carpentry. Although Xiaohuang Village had carpenters, their work was rough, and the village was too poor for wooden furniture to be anything but simple. Using his sixth sense, Cheng Pan easily understood basic woodworking techniques. In Nanjing, he pretended to be a wealthy rural landowner and used silver to find and visit dozens of the most famous carpenters. (His assets in Jiangling had been increasing, and the ability to remotely manipulate objects was truly a great skill.) He visited each one, throwing down ten taels of silver, and then entered under the pretense of hiring the best carpenters in Jiangling with a large sum of money. He openly used his sixth sense to observe the carpenters showing off their skills. Yes, they were showing off, and Cheng Pan spent about ten days wandering around Jiangling. The entire city of Nanjing knew that a wealthy tycoon had come to town, and everyone wanted to be friends with him, or rather, be hired by Mr. Cheng. During these nights, Cheng Pan stayed at an inn, writing and drawing, summarizing and summarizing the various wooden structures, processing techniques, and methods for handling different types of wood he had seen during the day.

Half a month later, Cheng Pan entrusted ten children to ten carpenters, giving each one a hundred taels of silver as tuition to teach them carpentry within a month. He promised additional rewards to those who did a good job. With such generous rewards, the carpenters decided to take on this once-in-a-lifetime job, though they would still keep some of their best techniques secret, they would not teach half-heartedly.

Next, Cheng Pan began the next important step.

The Mongols did not conquer Europe solely with their advanced cavalry tactics; the superiority of their weapons was also a crucial factor. After tasting the benefits, the Mongols placed great importance on craftsmen when establishing the Yuan Dynasty. They nationalized iron and steel smelting, basically inheriting the iron and steel smelting techniques from the Song Dynasty. However, the Yuan Dynasty strictly guarded the iron and steel factories, with the government assigning households to work in various smelting fields, and each step was tightly controlled. But Cheng Pan, like a fly, found a crack. The Yuan Dynasty imposed heavy mining taxes on smelting workers, and many could not bear it and fled. Cheng Pan pretended to be a household that had already fled, and the local officials did not carefully verify, as completing their tasks was the most important thing for them. They did not think anyone would claim a labor duty. Thus, Cheng Pan infiltrated a large iron factory in southern Jiangling. Inside the factory, he bribed the supervisor with half a tael of silver (he did not dare to give more, as a fat sheep is for slaughtering). After winning the supervisor's favor, Cheng Pan gained some freedom to move around. Using his sixth sense, he understood the steel production process, how to transport ore into the blast furnace, how to make coke, how the air from the bellows moved in the blast furnace, and how coal was turned into coke. At the same time, Cheng Pan could sense things others could not. His sixth sense allowed him to clearly see how iron was formed bit by bit in the blast furnace. After several observations, he accurately grasped the best time to open the furnace and pour out the molten iron. Others relied on experience, but he could directly sense the state inside the furnace through the walls. When he had questions, he often got answers for just a steamed bun; knowledge was truly cheap.

A month later, on a dark and stormy night, Cheng Pan, after copying the most advanced production techniques of this era, easily climbed over the wooden wall of the iron factory, dodged a few arrows, and fled without looking back.

At dawn, Cheng Pan entered the city, completed his transactions with the carpenters, and left Jiangling with ten young men. Outside Jiangling, Cheng Pan looked at the tall city walls of Nanjing and secretly vowed, "When I return to this city, it will bear my name."

Since Cheng Pan and his group had come down the river, they now traveled by land to their base. Cheng Pan was generally satisfied with the journey. This time, not only did he make up for his lack of practical operational skills, but he also thoroughly mastered the most advanced production techniques of this world.

Although the process was somewhat complicated, they encountered resistance on the way. However, the crisis also brought opportunities. Cheng Pan's group successfully overcame their battlefield fear and could now be considered qualified soldiers.

It was now autumn, with clear and pleasant weather. Normally, it would be a good year. However, the number of refugees on the road was still constant.

"The taxes of the Yuan Dynasty are truly heavy," Cheng Pan couldn't help but sigh. In fact, the heavy taxes and levies of the Yuan Dynasty were not the only cause of this phenomenon. The land grants to officials and royal relatives led to the concentration of land.

In the industrial age, land concentration would benefit the state, as it would facilitate agricultural mechanization and free up a large amount of labor. However, in the Yuan Dynasty, with such low productivity, the concentration of land not only failed to free up labor but also reduced farmers' enthusiasm due to the backward tenant system, leading to a decline in agricultural efficiency.

The Yuan Dynasty granted thousands of hectares of land to officials and royal relatives, and after suppressing the peasant uprising in Jiangxi last year, they rewarded their meritorious subjects with large tracts of fertile land in the south. This is why there were so many wandering farmers this year, which was beneficial to Cheng Pan's plans. Along the way, his group grew to over a hundred people, including men and women, 15 children, and two old men who had worked as blacksmiths. With the promise of food, these people agreed to sell themselves to Mr. Cheng. They encountered two groups of bandits on the way, and after killing more than twenty people, they scared off some hungry civilians who coveted Cheng Pan's food, establishing their authority among the new recruits. Finally, the group slowly arrived at the southern bank of the Yangtze River opposite Xiaohuangzhou.

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