20 Breakthrough (1/2)

Shortly after General Shi had departed, Cui Yingyu entered Ouyang Shuo’s office. Ouyang Shuo smiled and asked her to sit down, laughing and saying, “You seem to have come with a purpose?”

He said that for a reason. It turned out that Yingyu was a workaholic. As this was not a modern society where woman in such positions were common, she had to be a very strong woman to take on a role like this.

“Big brother, even you are making fun of me. I am working so hard, all for the sake of big brother’s territory.” Yingyu’s face turned red as she pouted at his teasing.

Ouyang Shuo quickly apologized, and hurriedly said in a coaxing manner to avoid her embarrassment, “Ok,ok. Don’t be angry. What’s the progress on the basic mining field over there?”

He had to be careful of the atmosphere. Yingyu was effectively his little sister, and trusted him implicitly, the most out of all his staff. Being the target of his teasing was very embarrassing. She had come here to report on her work, and now it had become so awkward that she didn't know where to start. Seeing that Ouyang Shuo started to talk about business, she sighed with relief.

She collected herself, calmly reporting, “3 days ago, I found the blacksmith, Master Li, and asked him to take people to start looking for mining areas. Yesterday, they finally reported back that in the southwest of the territory, at the foot of the mountain, they found an open iron ore field. It is not only large in area, but it also has rich amounts of ore, and should be very easy to collect. Some of the ore is directly exposed to the air, and can simply be lifted out of the ground to collect it.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded happily at this information. “This is good news. Although the demand for iron in the territory is not great as of yet, as soon as we start making weapons, the demand will surge. With a good open field mine, we will not have to worry about iron ore for a long time. Have you managed to find any talents familiar with mining?”

“The main reason I came here today is to tell Big Brother that among the new immigrants there is an experienced intermediate miner called Yuan Shaoping. I suggest that he be put in charge of the operations for the new basic mining field.”

Ouyang Shuo replied without the slightest hesitation, “Yes! Bring him along, no problem, then appoint him as the manager of the field, assigned under your Material Reserve Division.”

Touched by his trust, Yingyu smiled, “Thank you for your trust, brother, hee hee!”

Ouyang Shuo waved his hand, smiled and said, “You are my little sister, I trust your ability and vision, just do not be too hard on yourself.”

Yingyu replied softly, between the two of them, they became a lot closer.

Waiting until Yingyu had left, Ouyang Shuo didn’t want to stay in the office. It was time, he thought, to take a look at the carpenter’s workshop.

ince the <South-pointing Chariot Technical manual> had been given to the carpenter Lu Guangzhi, Ouyang Shuo had no idea if he had studied it, or if there had been progress. The pointer chariot could be very useful in the first war, which was happening soon, so he wanted to get it into production quickly!

The carpenter’s workshop was built on the central street of the commercial area, next to the blacksmith shop. Ouyang Shuo walked into the woodshop. Master Lu was working with two apprentices, working around a wooden carriage.

Ouyang Shuo was surprised for a moment. Understanding the manual was not easy and he had actually made the pointer carriage so quickly? This was too much! One must know that this was a difficult technology to get working.

The ancient south-pointing chariots made use of differential gears in comparison to modern day compasses, which made use of geomagnetic forces. The carriage used a gear transmission system according to the rotation of the wheels to indicate the direction of the car. No matter where the car turned, the wooden hand always pointed to the south, so it was easy to use to determine the direction the carriage should go in.

One of the apprentices looked up and saw Ouyang Shuo. He quickly alerted his master who was staring fixedly at the carriage.

Lu Guangzhi recovered, hastily bowed in salute, and fearfully said, “I was too focused and have neglected my lord, and will accept his punishment!”

Ouyang Shuo smiled, and simply said, “Master Lu is fanatic about his work, truly worthy of the admiration of everyone as someone to learn from! What is wrong with that?”

Carpenter Master Lu smiled embarrassingly, and said, “My lord has seen an embarrassing situation!”

Ouyang Shuo did not want to get tangled up with modest manners, and pointed directly to the wooden carriage. “If I am not guessing wrong, this should be the pointer carriage described in the technical manual? I did not expect that in just a few days Master Lu would make such incredible progress!”

Listening to Ouyang Shuo’s praise, the man’s dark face instantly reddened even further. Sounding quite shameful, he said, “I am ashamed, and not worthy of the Lord’s praise. We have worked these last days in accordance with the book records, trying to make the pointer carriage. It is a pity that this carriage does not truly point south like the directions in the book say it should.”

Ouyang Shuo abruptly realized that this was just a test product, which made it much more realistic. “It is not necessary for you to be ashamed, Master Lu. As far as I know, this pointer carriage is a very sophisticated instrument, and even with a technical manual to reference, it will not take just a short time to grasp how it is made. Anyway, there is still time, and you do not have to be depressed, ashamed, or anxious at all. Master Lu, study this slowly, and perhaps you can use this opportunity to upgrade your carpenter level.”