Chapter 7, Observation, Learning by Stealth

Initially, Cheng Pan aimed at carpenters. Although there were carpenters in Xiaohuang Village, their work was crude due to the village's poverty, and wooden furniture was generally very simple. Cheng Pan easily grasped basic wood processing techniques through his heightened senses. Upon arriving in Nanjing, Cheng Pan disguised himself as a wealthy landowner from the countryside and used his money to inquire about the most renowned carpenters, discovering dozens of them. (Someone's assets in Jiangling City had been steadily increasing; remote observation was indeed a valuable skill.) He then visited each carpenter, throwing down ten taels of silver upfront, and entered under the pretext of seeking the best carpenters in Jiangling, openly using his heightened senses to observe the carpenters showcasing their skills. Indeed, they were showing off. Cheng Pan spent about ten days wandering in Jiangling. The carpenters throughout Nanjing became aware that a spendthrift tycoon had arrived in the city, and everyone wanted to befriend him. Ahem, I misspoke; everyone wanted to be recruited by the esteemed Mr. Cheng for work. During the nights over the past few days, Cheng Pan had been busy writing and sketching in his inn. He compiled and summarized various wooden structures, inlays, processing techniques, and how different types of wood were handled with tools based on what he observed during the day.

Although the process was somewhat complex, there were obstacles encountered along the way. Crisis is also filled with opportunities, and Cheng Pan's team successfully overcame battlefield anxiety, essentially qualifying as competent soldiers

Subsequently, Cheng Pan began to undertake the next important step

During the Yuan Dynasty, the lands granted to ministers and royal relatives amounted to over a thousand hectares, indeed hectares, not acres. Last year, following the suppression of the peasant uprising in Jiangxi, the Yuan Dynasty lavishly rewarded its meritorious officials, with the granted lands primarily sourced from the fertile fields of the Jiangnan region. This is why wandering peasants have become so common this year. This situation is advantageous for Cheng Pan in terms of his plans for development. Along the journey, Cheng Pan's group grew to over one hundred people, including both men and women, with fifteen children and two elderly men who had worked as blacksmiths. Under Cheng Pan's promise of food, these individuals agreed to sell their services to the esteemed official Cheng. Along the way, they encountered two waves of attempted robbery; after killing over twenty individuals, they frightened off some famished people who coveted Cheng Pan's provisions, thereby establishing Cheng Pan and his companions' authority among the newly recruited group. Ultimately, the group slowly arrived at the southern bank of the river opposite to Xiaohuangzhou.

As Cheng Pan and his team traveled downstream, Cheng Pan led the group overland to their base camp. He felt generally satisfied with the journey. In this operation, Cheng Pan not only filled the gaps in his practical operational skills, but he also began to thoroughly master the most advanced production technology in the world.

However, Cheng Pan is a boy, and every boy has a profound love for mechanics and steampunk. Coincidentally, he lives in the era of the internet, and during his university years, he came across a series of mechanical motion GIFs that sparked a great interest in the internal movements of machines, and he earnestly studied them (in fact, he read them as leisure material, as playing games in university was quite boring). He researched the transmission of gears and other mechanical components, while his original major in ocean fluid dynamics had to be retaken twice.

Half a month later, Cheng Pan entrusted ten children to ten carpenters, offering each a tuition fee of one hundred taels of silver to teach them woodworking within a month. He promised additional generous rewards for those who taught well. Under such substantial incentives, the carpenters decided to take on this significant order, which had not been seen in decades. Although they would still keep a few of their proprietary skills to themselves, they would definitely not adopt a passive approach to teaching.

It is now autumn, with clear skies and refreshing air. This year should be a good harvest. However, the number of people fleeing on the roads continues to be unceasing, "The taxes of the Yuan Dynasty are indeed heavy," Cheng Pan could not help but exclaim. In fact, the phenomenon of such a situation occurring even in a bountiful year is not solely due to the harsh taxes of the Yuan Dynasty. The rewards of the Yuan Dynasty have led to a significant concentration of land.

In the industrial era, the concentration of land was beneficial to the state, as it facilitated the mechanization of agriculture and large-scale production, thereby liberating a significant amount of social labor. However, during the Yuan Dynasty, a period characterized by extremely low productivity, the extensive concentration of land not only failed to alleviate the labor force but also, due to the backward tenant system, diminished the enthusiasm of farmers for production, resulting in an inability to improve agricultural production efficiency. During this period of extremely low productivity in the Yuan Dynasty, the extensive concentration of land not only failed to alleviate the labor force but also, due to the backward tenant system, diminished the enthusiasm of farmers for production, resulting in an inability to improve agricultural production efficiency

Although Cheng Pan possesses unparalleled foresight in this era, being well-versed in the periodic table and knowledgeable about Newton's three laws, as well as understanding how to use pulleys to reduce effort, after 20 years of study, he has only become an examination talent with inadequate practical skills. However, it would be inaccurate to say he lacks interest in machinery; like most Chinese children, he simply has not had the opportunity to engage hands-on. Cheng Pan has heard of machine tools but has never encountered the actual objects.

As soon as dawn broke, Cheng Pan entered the city. After completing the transaction with the carpenters, he left Jiangling with 10 young men. Outside the city of Jiangling, Cheng Pan gazed at the tall city walls of Nanjing and silently vowed that when he next arrived in this city, it would bear the surname Cheng.

One month later, on a dark and windy night, Cheng Pan, after copying the most advanced production technology of this era, easily scaled the wooden wall of the iron factory, dodged several arrows, and fled without looking back

After arriving in this era, Cheng Pan acquired a miraculous super-sense. With no experience in mechanical operations, he is ready to turn the wild fantasies in his mind into reality