Chapter 491 The First Assembly Line of Ming Dynasty

Chapter 491 The First Assembly Line of Ming Dynasty

Chapter 491 The First Assembly Line in Ming Dynasty
Lu Yunyi did not go to the Governor's Mansion immediately.

Instead, he called Li Jinglong and other officials from the Governor's Office and turned to go to the ordnance workshop on Guichun Street in the north of the city.

This street is considered the industrial area of ​​Yingtian City.
Looking around, there are workshops everywhere.

There are workshops that produce weapons and armor, as well as daily necessities.

When you come here, you can clearly feel that the stuffiness in the air has increased a little, and there is a smell of pig iron in the air.

There are some simple shops on both sides of the street, the most common of which are blacksmith shops.

The bursts of beating sounds coming from the room were like dense war drums, which made people's eardrums hurt.

Hot sparks flew out from the workshop, drawing fleeting arcs in the air, like fleeting meteors in the night sky.

Lu Yunyi strolled in it and raised his hand to wipe the sweat that kept rolling down his forehead.

Looking at the blacksmiths with their upper bodies naked in the shops on both sides of the street, I felt filled with emotion.

Their skin was dark, and their muscles were well-defined in the light of the fire. The flames in the furnace ignited their eyes, and the hammers in their hands made clanging sounds.

The rhythmic beats began to entangle with each other, and soon filled Guichun Street with noise.

The appearance of the group quickly attracted the attention of many people. They only took a quick glance.
They knew that the tall and imposing people in front of them were military personnel.

"Master, do you want to repair your sword? My craftsmanship is good enough to make your long sword stronger."

A burly, bearded middle-aged craftsman was the first to spot Lu Yunyi.
He stopped what he was doing and shouted loudly.

As he spoke, he wiped the sweat from his face with the rag draped over his shoulder and smiled innocently.

Lu Yunyi looked over, smiled, and waved his hand gently:
"Thank you, no need."

The standard long swords in the army are all produced by military workshops.

Although well-made and strong enough, there are still differences between the weapons produced by different workshops.

If the long sword is made of the fine iron from Liaodong and Huguang, it will be at least 20% harder, and the same is true for armor.

This also gave rise to a new industry.
Reforge the sword and armor to make them stronger.

Old Wu in the army is an expert in this field.
Moreover, his secret method was only passed on to his son. When he was reinforcing and repairing his long sword armor, no one could get close.

Lu Yunyi didn't expect that there was such a business in Guichun Street.

Du Junliang, a clerk from the Ministry of Works who followed him, explained:
“Sir, many of the craftsmen here are mostly sons who inherited their father’s business.

Their fathers worked in workshops, and they were unable to enter the imperial court for the time being.

So he opened a shop here and brought his family to the capital, which could be considered a way to make a living.

When their fathers left the workshop,

They will take over the government offices, and their sons will take over the shops here.”

At this point, Du Junliang was afraid that Lu Yunyi would get angry, so he continued to add:

“My Lord, blacksmithing is very harmful to your health.

Few of them can live past fifty. I have been here for more than ten years, and many shops have already had two generations of people."

Chang Hui, the clerk from the Governor's Office, also realized something and stepped forward:

"Sir, what he said is true. These craftsmen are all miserable people."

Lu Yunyi glanced at the two of them and nodded slightly:

"I know how hard it is for craftsmen. If they can make a living, who would be willing to do such dirty and tiring work?"

The two of them breathed a sigh of relief, feeling fortunate that the young man in front of them could understand the craftsman's difficulties.

The group of people wandered around and soon arrived at the weapons workshop at No. 1 Guichun Street.

This is where bicycles and tricycles are manufactured.

At the door, the workshop manager and clerks were already waiting.
Most of them have dark complexions, thin bodies, and their bodies are full of efficiency and fatigue.

Seeing Lu Yunyi coming, they immediately bowed and said:
"Greetings, Lord Minister."

"Get up."

Lu Yunyi waved his hand without any formalities and walked towards the workshop.

The layout of the workshop is similar to that of an ordinary government office. It was originally a quadrangle.

But through the main hall, there are many spacious houses.
Compared to ordinary houses, these buildings appear very long, stretching from the east side of the street to the west side.

The workshop owner was in his thirties, not very tall, and walked very fast. He looked excited:
"Mr. Minister, the method you gave is very useful.

Now we have disassembled the bicycle into 131 parts.
The tricycle was disassembled into 176 parts.
Manufactured separately, assembled together.

We also followed Lord Butang's request.

Most of the parts are standardized and customized, and the parts of tricycles and bicycles can be interchangeable and replaced at will."

Lu Yunyi nodded with satisfaction and followed him into the workshop.

The scene in the workshop made Lu Yunyi stunned. Not only him, but also people from the Governor's Office and the Ministry of Industry were the same.

In front of us, a huge conveyor belt was arranged at a height of a person.

There are two people at the head and tail of the conveyor belt turning the rollers to make the conveyor belt move at a constant speed.

There were about a hundred people standing on both sides, with a large basket of spare parts placed behind them.

And above the conveyor belt, there are fallen bicycles hanging.

Initially there was only one wheel.
The first person installs the rims, then the spokes, hubs, tires, etc.

Lu Yunyi looked at them one by one and found that by the time of the eighth person, the bicycle tire had been assembled.

Then there are the brake handles, brake cables, brake calipers, brake pads, and when there are 30 people,

The front half of the bike is complete, even the handlebars are already attached.

By the time the 60th person arrived, the frame, seat tube, headset, headset gasket, stem, and stem cap had been installed.

The remaining thirty people installed the rear wheel and transmission structure, pedals, cranks, middle shaft, sprocket, chain, flywheel, etc.
Stepping off the conveyor belt from front to back, the prototype of a bicycle appears.

The officials who followed him were so shocked that they were speechless.
Even if you have never seen such an object,

But they can see that this is smooth from beginning to end.

It is countless times faster than assembling them one by one.

They can even see the craftsmen walking leisurely and looking relaxed.
He didn't look at all listless and hurried as usual.

Li Jinglong was a top dignitary and was well-informed.
But he had never seen such a novel object before.
At this moment, he was following a bicycle from beginning to end, watching a wheel turn into a car.

Lu Yunyi looked at the workshop manager in surprise, looked him up and down, and asked:

"What's your name?"

The workshop owner was excited and immediately bowed and clasped his fists:

"Reporting to the Minister, I am Li Wenhao, a native of Nanzhili, and have been working in this workshop for ten years."

"Yes, I will remember you. You did better than I thought."

Li Wenhao felt his whole body trembling and he was so excited that he couldn't control himself!

"Thank you, sir. This is what I should do."

Although Lu Yunyi has developed an assembly line plan for bicycles and tricycles.

But due to energy constraints, he could not cover everything, so he only gave a rough framework.

Just want to save some time when assembling and manufacturing,
Make the bicycles and tricycles as soon as possible so that people from the Governor's Office can go to various villages.

But now, although this assembly line is simple, it already has complete production capacity.

And all this was completed in just two days!
This kind of equipment and personnel deployment capability is rare even in the military.

Lu Yunyi wanted to give some reward money, but this was a military practice and it was inappropriate to use it in a workshop. After pondering for a moment, Lu Yunyi turned around and put these concerns behind him, and said in a deep voice:
"As the workshop manager, it is only natural for you to work for the court.

But since the work was done well, it was only natural that the court would reward him.

In this way, the reward of 200 taels of silver will be given to you by the Japanese government tomorrow.

One hundred taels of silver is yours, and the rest can be shared among your colleagues who are jointly handling this matter. If it is not enough, feel free to ask for more."

Li Wenhao raised his head in confusion, and then immediately lowered it.

Most of the workshop rewards are distributed at the end of the year.

As the person in charge, he could also pay out several dozen taels of silver every year.

Such scenes of immediate distribution are very rare nowadays.

However, Li Wenhao immediately became excited and bowed:

"Thank you, my Lord. I will do my best and devote myself to your service."

“Don’t say these things, just get things done.

As craftsmen, you are no different from the soldiers under my command.
If you do things for the country, you will be rewarded, and if you do things well, you will be rewarded greatly.”

Lu Yunyi waved his hand, moved closer to look at the slowly rotating conveyor belt in front of him, and asked:
“Is the speed of the assembly line limited to this?”

As soon as these words came out, Lu Yunyi felt that many eyes were looking at him.
It stabbed him hard, but he remained calm.

Li Wenhao was stunned, feeling a little unnatural:
"Sir, if it's any faster, there might be flaws."

Lu Yunyi looked at Li Wenhao with a half-smile.
His expression looked a little unnatural, just when Li Wenhao wanted to say something.

Lu Yunyi interrupted:
"Then go slower, slower enough for everyone to see clearly.
Everyone has enough time to install the parts, and quality is the priority."

Li Wenhao was stunned. For the first time, he felt
The soldiers who used to be ferocious are now so amiable.

"Yes, Minister!"

At this time, Li Jinglong heard the noise here, looked back and walked over:
"Yun Yi, the craftsmen are all idle, so we can speed up the process a lot."

An awkward atmosphere filled the air. Li Wenhao tapped the ground with his toes, thinking carefully in his mind how to explain it.

Lu Yunyi's expression became serious:

"Duke Cao, slow work produces fine results. We are not afraid of slow work, but we are afraid of poor quality.

Working in a workshop is like marching to war, and many details need to be taken into consideration. If we rush, there will inevitably be omissions. "

"That's right. Lord Minister is absolutely right."

After these two interruptions, Li Wenhao was sure that the minister had already noticed that they were deliberately slowing down the assembly line.

Lu Yunyi smiled, looked at Li Jinglong, and reminded:

“The two types of handcarts have left many porters without a livelihood.

The court originally planned to arrange for them to work in workshops in various places.
But some people in the yamen said that they were illiterate and could not do such delicate work.

Now, I have broken down the delicate work into tasks that anyone can do, let's see what excuses they can make."

Li Jinglong's eyes suddenly widened and he realized the importance of this thing.

Moreover, the good life in Beijing almost made him forget the tragic events that happened in Yuezhou.
He quickly figured it out and nodded repeatedly:
"Right, right, right. We can't do it any faster. If we do, people will start to make irresponsible remarks."

Li Jinglong looked at the assembly line in front of him and was deeply moved:

"Yun Yi, you are so smart.

At the celebration banquet yesterday, His Majesty and His Royal Highness the Crown Prince were still worried about Li Fu's livelihood.

This job is easy. There are so many tools to be made in the Ming Dynasty. There are countless workshops that can use this method.
In this way, wouldn't all the people be able to participate?
I will go to the palace later and tell Your Majesty and the Crown Prince what I saw today."

Lu Yunyi also looked at the assembly line in front of him and shook his head slowly:
“This thing has just appeared, so it looks easy, but when more people get involved, it won’t be easy anymore.

But compared to digging for food in the fields, it is already very good to be hungry one day and full the next.”

Li Wenhao on the side nodded in agreement:

"Your Excellency is a man of foresight, and I admire you.

I have been hanging around in the workshop for many years, but only recently did I begin to realize something.

No matter whether a new object is good or not, just make it.
As for how to improve it in the future, it is better to study it in practice than to do nothing at all.”

Li Jinglong fell into deep thought.

Everyone present looked at the assembly line for producing tricycles.
This assembly line is even more spectacular, with at least one hundred and fifty people working on it.

Everyone assembled their own parts step by step and watched a tricycle being built from scratch.

An indescribable strange emotion emerged in everyone's heart.

They felt a kind of order that shouldn't exist in a workshop.

In their impression, workshops everywhere should be messy.
It was as busy as a market, with craftsmen covered in oil, walking back and forth in the house, shouting loudly.

But now, the workshop is clean and tidy, and the craftsmen are working quietly.

There was only the squeaking of the tracks and the crisp sound of parts snapping into place.

The group just stood there, watching the tricycles land and be pushed out one after another.

An hour later, everyone walked out of the workshop with a look of aftertaste on their faces.

"Yun Yi, this is a masterpiece, a masterpiece!!"

Li Jinglong decided to enter the palace now.

He turned to look at Lu Yunyi:
"Yun Yi, I'm going to the palace first. If you have something to do, hurry up and leave."

Lu Yunyi looked a little confused: "Why?"

"I plan to invite His Majesty and His Royal Highness the Crown Prince to see this good thing that benefits the country and the people. If you stay here, you will waste a lot of time and energy."

"Uh"

Lu Yunyi was a little hesitant. Although the emergence of the assembly line has promoted the improvement of production efficiency, the reduction of production costs, and the stabilization of production quality, it has not changed the essence of production after all.

It's just breaking up the original whole work into small pieces.
Although many craftsmen are now doing assembly line work here and are paid quite a lot.

But under the premise that the total production volume remains unchanged, as more and more people participate, wages will decrease.

If you have too high expectations now, you may be disappointed later.

However, after thinking it over, Lu Yunyi decided not to stop it.

Because this is a job opportunity that is matched with the workshop.
The company solved the problem that all roads led to Yingtian, but people from the surrounding areas were reluctant to enter the city.

The workshop solves the problem of how people can stay here.

Although the money they earned might not be enough for them to settle down in Yingtian, there was always hope.

Moreover, once bicycles become popular, it will be a great opportunity to return home during the holidays.

As a result, not only could a huge amount of money be generated, but the imperial court could also gain more control over the local areas.

After figuring this out, Lu Yunyi smiled and nodded:

"Okay, then go ahead. I'm going to the Governor's Mansion."

"okay."

Li Jinglong laughed, then remembered something and reminded:
"Yun Yi, don't forget to attend the family banquet in the palace tomorrow. The matters of the two yamen must be arranged early."

Lu Yunyi was stunned and blinked in confusion.

This was something his father-in-law told him yesterday, and he really had forgotten about it.

"Okay, I've written it down."

(End of this chapter)