Chapter 69                  

Ye Tao's encouragement did not stop those who could not bear the suffering from withdrawing from these two experimental armies, but it could make many confused people firm. During the ten days after Ye Tao ordered the renovation of Yicheng, the trainee officers went to the grassroots level to learn about various military common sense from veterans and old officers, establish a closer relationship with the soldiers under his command, and send some vanguard troops to prepare for their respective return journeys. Also stationed in the Yicheng City Defense Force or the Yicheng Navy barracks, everyone could feel the atmosphere of other teams that were both colleagues and opponents sharpening their knives and striving to win. This atmosphere made everyone's preparations work harder and more solid. A unit that had truly formed an army for less than a month actually showed a steady and solid temperament in this special environment.

Before the return journey of the Huoqi Army and the Fierce Blood Army set off, Ye Tao's series of resolutions and disposal methods were passed back to Danyang. Decisions on camp site selection, barrack construction, etc. will naturally be implemented through Princess Zhaohua's Mansion, through Guan Haishan and others, but Ye Tao's various words and deeds along the way were noticed by some interested people in the court.

In the study in Gao Mansion, Gao Zhen threw a stack of documents on the desk and stared blankly at the clock placed in a corner of the desk.

With the high status of the Gao family in the field of Dongping craftsmen and its huge and complex technical system, we can only sigh in terms of clocks. We can only buy four clocks from the Tissot watch shop and place them in different rooms in Gao Mansion.

The one placed in the inner study is the highest-end type of the series of clocks launched by Tissot Watch House. The silver painted landscape patterns revealed under the water of the mirror-like paint look so calm and composed. Behind the black pointer is a transparent dial made of crystal. Through the dial, you can see the precise gear sets that keep running inside the clock, especially for people like Gao Zhen who knows some techniques to explore what can make this clock run so accurately and accurately. The gilded pendulum always swings with such rhythm. From no stop. Every hour, the melancholy sound of the bell will not suddenly break through the people immersed in thinking, but it seems that they can gently tease the heartstrings and remind the passing of time. There is really not much time to spend on imagination.

The door of the study was opened, Gao Zhen's son Gao Zhuo walked in and brought the door casually.

"Father, what are you thinking?" Gao Zhuo asked softly.

"Have you read this report?" Seeing Gao Zhuo nodding, Gao Zhen sneered and said, "I really didn't expect that Ye Tao had such a scheming and was just a sloppy and said those meaningless words. Even if he controlled the two armies of these 6,000 people."

Gao Zhuo frowned and said, "Father, what's going on with the Ye family? Could it be that they came for our Gao family?"

Gao Zhen shook his head and said, "That wouldn't be that the Ye family really made a fortune, that is, after Princess Zhaohua left Yicheng. The princess discovered the Ye family, perhaps unexpectedly. Otherwise, with the accumulation of the Ye family, even if the situation is today, it will be ten or twenty years later, and it will be without us interfering. What I can't understand is why the princess, who has always been indifferent, actually has such a relationship with Ye Tao. Although there is no resolution or any statement, it seems that it is a foregone conclusion that the princess is marrying Ye Tao."

After hearing what his father said, Gao Zhuo snorted, a little angry.

"Why? You are not young anymore. There are many beauties around you. Could it be that your highness who cannot give birth to a princess?" Gao Zhen mocked.

"Father, that's not what I said. It's one thing that I really like His Highness the Princess, but it turns out that my wife was snatched from love with great hope, that's another thing." Gao Zhuo said helplessly, "Didn't you say at the beginning that if I could marry His Highness the Princess as a wife, even if the princess couldn't give birth, would it still be of great benefit to my Gao family? His Highness the Princess is in charge of the management of the inner palace, whether it's talent or authority, and its influence on the king and the prince, are unparalleled."

"That's true, but our Gao family has almost monopolized the production of military weapons in Dongping over the years. If our Gao family's authority is expanded, the court will probably be a little uneasy. For the sake of the present, we are considering how to prevent the Ye family from stealing too much of our business. Our Gao family started out as craftsmen, and it is quite rare to reach this level in just a few generations. It may be a good thing to have a competitor." Gao Zhen said, and he paused and said, "Even if he was deliberately suppressed, as long as he was not really beaten to death, it may not be a good thing."

Gao Zhuo snorted coldly: "Father, you just have too much intentions. You regard the Ye family as a competitor, but according to me, the Ye family does not take us seriously at all."

Gao Zhen asked quickly: "How do you say this?"

Gao Zhuo sat down, glanced at the beautiful clock, and sighed: "Ye Tao is so smart. He is too honest. After all, I am an employee of the Ministry of Works. The Ye Family Workshop received a batch of orders of 20,000 arrows, but it was delivered in less than five days. I asked the old man of the Ye family to review the arrow-making facilities in the workshop. Guess what I saw?... In the Ye Family Workshop, the most troublesome arrow shaft was not cut by human hands at all, no wonder it was too fast. They set up a water wheel drive by the river, used a roller-planing mechanism to process the arrow shaft, saw the wood into strips, placed it on the feed port, rolled into the roller-planing mechanism one by one, and when the wood rolled out from below, it had already grown wooden strips with almost no difference in thickness. Then, they set up a wheel drive by the river, saw the wood into strips, placed it on the feed port, rolled into the roller-planing mechanism one by one, and when the wood rolled out from below, it had almost no difference in thickness.

Just cut it into a suitable length. It is countless times faster than the time it takes for apprentices to cut arrow shafts in our workshop, and the materials are much faster. Not to mention the new catapult carts, you know, these things were not created by Ye Tao in order to invite spoils, but they were all asked by the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of War to try to make them. So, if the Ministry of War decides to use the catapult carts of Ye, then our catapult cart workshop can be closed directly. Do you know what the old man Ye Laogeng said? He said that the schedule of the weapon workshop is already full and cannot be arranged. He actually took out the drawings from Ye Tao's workshop and handed them to the Ministry of War... Today, the Ministry of War summoned me to ask if the Gao family was willing to produce these catapult carts. It was a great humiliation."

"Did you agree?" Gao Zhen asked hurriedly.

"...I didn't agree or refuse, and said I would come back to see the progress of the workshop." Gao Zhuo said.

"That's good, don't be able to get over money. If you go back tomorrow, I will say that my Gao family will take over this batch of orders. In addition, if you go to Ye Laogeng, it is best to ask the Ye Family Workshop to send some experienced military equipment workshop technicians to guide our craftsmen. Don't make things out of specifications, that would be a shame." Gao Zhen ordered.

Seeing that Gao Zhuo was almost about to go wild, Gao Zhen smiled understandingly and said, "I know that once the Ye family craftsmen are asked to guide the people under our command, this face is indeed very bad... But if you want to overwhelm the Ye family, first of all, you can't let them beware of us all the time. It's not harmful to lower their figure. Learn what you can learn. The Ye family is no longer purely the way to become a craftsman. Ye Tao makes military chess and brings up the mentality of young children from Dongping to join the army and support the army. This contribution is more important. You can naturally know why. But no matter what, the foundation of the Ye family is still in the workshop, and the skills of the Ye family are no better than us. Can you still worry based on your ability to be an official and the foundation of my Gao family for many years? Even if the princess marry Ye Tao, Ye Tao is just a idle prince consort, and what about you? You can't expect to become an official in your forty years of your twenties. Don't worry."

After pausing, Gao Zhen said again: "You must also remember to suppress Ye Tao, or just suppress it to the end. There is no luck. Although Ye Tao himself is on the air and refuses to enter the government, it is only a matter of time before he can become an official. However, the two armies have visited the mansion, which really gives Ye Tao too many opportunities to make friends with children from various families and establish relationships with each family. Once the attack is missed, when Ye Tao's relationships start to take effect and start counterattacking, it will be no fun. You understand more about this officialdom than me. Just remember it."

Gao Zhen's reminder made Gao Zhuo understand the key point immediately. He nodded immediately and fell into deep thought.

However, what the Gao family and his son did not expect was that the Ye family, who they regarded as powerful enemies, had actually put a condom on them.

For Gao's family, although the workshops scattered all over the country bring great profits, the expenses are also very huge. They have no room for picking their business, unlike Ye's workshop. Now they focus on operating the business. Whether it is Yi Zhan Building, Tissot Watch House or IKEA Home Furnishing, they are actually high-tech products and concept products of this era. The profit margin is extremely high. For Ye, they do not need to build catapults as an opportunity to build a good military, nor do they take the business of more than 2,000 catapults in the country seriously.

Unlike the Gao family, the Gao family, which has been operating in Dongping for several generations, has military equipment workshops that can supply the military nearby all over the country. Compared with the Ye family, which now has only two core workshops, Yicheng and Danyang, the cost of logistics and post-maintenance and training is lower than that of the Ye family. The Ye family has not yet planned to open its own workshops all over the country, and may not have such plans in the future. Compared with the Ye family's current profitable businesses, the profit margin of the military's large-scale military ordnance orders is really not high, and it is not worth the Ye family's huge investment to build such a network.

In addition, that is Ye's usual self-confidence. Although it is the same map, after Ye's thinking up and down, everyone agreed that even if the drawing is obtained, the Gao family would definitely not be able to produce something that can be compared with accuracy and range. In this regard, Ye's technology is not only the design of a catapult, but also a whole technical system. The Ye's workshop produces a catapult, the first thing to do is to calculate the density of the wood, and then through precise adjustments, ensure that the center of gravity of the catapult is in the middle, and the weight of the gravity pendulum is appropriate. The wood used to make the catapult is soaked by Ye's special formula to enhance the toughness of the wood while making the catapult.
Chapter completed!