novelhk Chapter 100 Misunderstandings about Impoverished Areas
Chapter 100 Misunderstandings about Impoverished Areas
Beining City, Tiangong Workshop.
Zhao Luoying was excitedly playing with the latest repeating crossbow. With the sound of the mechanism, arrows burst out in an instant, piercing the bullseye and penetrating deep into the wood.
"Your Highness, this newly improved repeating crossbow is truly ingenious; it can even be used with one hand."
Zhao Luoying looked at the crossbow in her hand as if it were a precious treasure, wishing she could hug it and kiss it a few times.
Qin Xuan had already examined it carefully, and this handheld repeating crossbow was indeed a qualitative breakthrough.
Previously, crossbows simply increased range and power, but still required two hands to use.
However, with the tireless research and forging by the artisans of the Tiangong Workshop, coupled with Qin Xuan's ideas and the promotion of his concepts, these artisans fully demonstrated their craftsmanship and actually created a handheld repeating crossbow.
It's important to know that before the advent of firearms, the handheld crossbow was the true king of cold weapons.
However, the current handheld crossbow can only fire two arrows at a time, while Qin Xuan wants three to five.
"Your Highness, the new crossbow has a range of over 300 meters, and its accuracy is stable with no reduction in penetrating power."
"As for this handheld crossbow, as Your Highness said, there is indeed room for improvement. I will have the craftsmen further develop the arrow box and mechanism."
Today, Kaohsiung is the head of Tiangong Workshop. He has not only moved his entire family into the workshop, but his sons and grandsons have also taken up the trade.
"We don't need to set our goals too high. Let's take it one step at a time. Three crossbow bolts are enough to meet the soldiers' current needs."
Qin Xuan smiled and nodded, then asked, "When will the glass workshop be able to start mass production? Beining College is about to be completed, and all the windows will be replaced with glass at that time."
"Glass research and development has long been mature. The only problem is the lack of skilled workers. Given the current situation, the completion of Beining College will definitely not be delayed."
"As for mass production in the future, we will need to recruit more artisans."
Kaohsiung replied.
"Yes, you can use the assembly line production method I taught you before. This will reduce the skill requirements for workers."
Qin Xuan reminded him.
The biggest advantage of assembly line production, besides improving production efficiency, is that it can lower the skill standards for each job.
Beining City has no shortage of low-level craftsmen, but if you want everyone to be a master craftsman, it would be impossible to achieve even in ten years.
Therefore, only by promoting assembly line production can we expand the number of workers and better maintain secrecy.
After all, the core of an assembly line is that each worker is only responsible for a certain step of the production process, and the workers do not know each other's skills, which greatly eliminates the possibility of counterfeiting.
"Let's go, Luo Ying, come with me to the Northern Wilderness again."
Qin Xuan got up and left, leading Zhao Luoying slowly towards the Northern Wilderness.
In the past few days, spring planting has been completed in the Northern Wilderness area, but in order to further increase grain production, Qin Xuan has taken the time to revive another soil fertilization method.
This method of soil fertilization is mainly for increasing production, so it mainly uses organic fertilizers, such as livestock manure, especially from cattle and sheep.
"Your Highness, are we going to the experimental fields?"
Zhao Luoying was still immersed in the excitement of holding the crossbow, her face flushed and she was quite charming.
"Yes, I recently heard from Mr. Qiu that quite a few overseas merchants have come to my Beining City, so I asked him to order his men to keep an eye out for some overseas crops. If we can find them, we can completely solve the people's food problem."
The amount of reclaimed wasteland in the northern wilderness area is increasing dramatically every day; it was 5,000 mu before, and now it has exceeded 10,000 mu.
Although the amount of arable land has increased, the yields of many crops in this era cannot be improved due to genetic issues, so Qin Xuan thought of setting up experimental fields.
The first step in this experimental field is to carry out grafting and hybridization, such as rice cultivation, while the second step is to introduce overseas crops, such as potatoes and sweet potatoes.
In fact, according to Qin Xuan's historical knowledge, potatoes had already appeared in coastal cities as early as the Ming Dynasty.
It wasn't taken seriously at the time, so it wasn't promoted.
Now that he is in the special era of the Great Qi Dynasty, and with overseas merchants gathering there, it should not be difficult for him to discover this.
The two chatted along the way and soon arrived at the Northern Wilderness.
Compared to its initial desolation, the entire Northern Wilderness area is now bustling with activity.
The villagers, busy in the fields, move between the ridges of the fields.
Craftsmen carrying cement and wood are rapidly building the tenement building while shouting work chants.
Not far ahead, three or four tenement buildings have been completed, and many residents have moved in one after another.
"Your Majesty, you are here!"
"Greetings, Your Highness!"
"This humble servant greets Your Highness and Your Highness's Consort!"
"Your Highness, Your Highness, these are homemade baked cakes, please try them!"
"I have some freshly picked wild fruits here, they're very crisp and fresh. Your Highness and Your Highness, please try them."
As soon as we entered the Northern Wilderness area, the locals rushed over to us with great enthusiasm.
Qin Xuan had no choice but to dismount first, and then exchanged a few pleasantries with each of them.
Once the crowd dispersed, Qin Xuan and Zhao Luoying's hands, arms, and even their horse were stuffed full of all kinds of food and fruit.
"Your Highness, it seems you'll have to disguise yourself next time you come."
Zhao Luoying chuckled, picked up the wild fruit the people had given her earlier, and took a bite. It was indeed crisp, fresh, sweet, and juicy.
"Mmm, it's so sweet, Your Highness, you should try some too."
As she spoke, she offered Qin Xuan a half-eaten wild fruit: "Is it sweet?"
Qin Xuan nodded, about to speak, when he was suddenly interrupted by a shout: "Qin Xuan! King of Chu!"
Turning around, he saw Yelü Huanxi and Yelü Dongze walking over with several people.
The young girl's face showed a hint of grievance and anger, her black pearl-like eyes fixed on Zhao Luoying, looking extremely jealous.
"What kind of jealousy is this? This is my queen!"
Qin Xuan was both amused and exasperated, but Yelü Huanxi's status was special, and she was a guest from afar, so he forced a smile and said, "Miss Huanxi, I didn't expect we would meet so soon."
"It's really haunting."
At this moment, Zhao Luoying also saw Yelü Huanxi. Her expression changed instantly, and she glared at Qin Xuan with annoyance.
"Let me introduce you. This is my royal uncle, Yelü Dongze. He is here on behalf of the Goryeo royal family to discuss business with you."
Yelü Huanxi quickly explained, her smile returning: "We were truly astonished on our journey here. I never imagined that Beining City would be like this."
"Did you all enjoy yourselves? If not, I'll personally show you around."
Qin Xuan only intended to be polite, but Yelü Huanxi agreed immediately.
Although Yelü Dongze was somewhat dissatisfied with her unusual behavior, he thought that it would be better for Qin Xuan, the lord of Beining City, to introduce Beining City than for him to wander around aimlessly.
He had only wanted to see the poverty in Beining City, but after asking around, he ended up in the Northern Wilderness.
When he saw tens of thousands of people working at the same time, he almost wondered if he was hallucinating.
When he actually entered the northern wilderness area and saw the tenement buildings under construction and the real application of cement, he was completely stunned.
Is this what you people from Beining City call the impoverished area?
Do you have some kind of misunderstanding about the word "poverty"?