After sending Wei Wuya off, Jin Feng, led by Jin Peng, toured around Black Wind Ridge once more.
The current Black Wind Ridge was no longer a barren wasteland, because Jin Feng had built a transit station here, and more and more travelling merchants passing through Black Water Ridge would stop to rest their feet or simply sleep in the sheds outside the transit station.
Tang Xiaobei saw this as a business opportunity, so he decided to build an inn here, which was estimated to be completed in another half month.
The transit station had also developed from the previous few tents into five large tiled houses, categorised and filled with various supplies such as hemp thread, grain, iron ore, and so on.
Coal was placed by Jin Peng in a cave on the mountain, and every time coal was transported, it would be moved out together with the ore mined by Jin Peng and his team.
That small cave had been dug for so long that its volume had expanded by more than half.
Overall, Jin Feng was very satisfied with the changes to Black Wind Ridge, encouraged Jin Peng for a while, then returned to West River Bay via the suspension bridge and plunged straight into the laboratory.
As West River Bay developed faster and faster, Jin Feng needed to manufacture more and more things.
Now with tungsten, various drill bits and cutting heads could be made.
With drill bits and cutting heads, various basic foot-pedal machine tools could be produced, such as lathes, milling machines, planers, drilling machines, grinding machines, and so on.
These machine tools were the foundation of precision machining, and with them, more precise tools could be processed, then using these tools to manufacture even more stable machine tools, thus entering a virtuous cycle.
In fact, lathes had appeared as early as the Qin Dynasty in his previous life, but without finding the right path, development was very slow, later the West discovered this virtuous cycle first, triggering the Industrial Revolution, with various machine tools appearing one after another, producing steam engines.
The emergence of the steam engine, in turn, provided more stable and powerful power for machine tools, equivalent to installing a strong heart for industry, ultimately achieving the takeoff of industry.
Jin Feng had the complete development history and manufacturing methods of machine tools in his mind, and as long as he was given time, he was fully confident in producing internal combustion engine trains and ironclad warships.
However, starting everything from scratch, the workload was enormous, and how many resources and time it would take, even Jin Feng himself could not say.
Fortunately, he had Tang Xiaobei, this little money-making expert, who could continuously provide him with funds, so he rarely worried about money.
Man Cang had basically graduated, learned how to read blueprints, and for many things, as long as Jin Feng gave him the blueprints, he could lead a group of female apprentices to make them, greatly reducing Jin Feng’s workload.
In the following days, Jin Feng ate and slept in the laboratory and the iron smelting workshop, leading Man Cang and his group of female apprentices, fighting day and night for several days and nights, and finally the first lathe in Da Kang was completed.
Although it was still very primitive, Jin Feng was very happy.
With this lathe, it meant having the foundation for sustained development.
“Everyone has worked hard these days, Man Cang, reward each person with five taels of silver!”
These days, Man Cang and the female apprentices also ate and slept in the iron smelting workshop, a group of young girls all got dirty, many with iron rust and oil stains in their hair.
“Thank you, sir! Thank you, sir!”
The female apprentices all cheered.
Many of them had been sold together with their families, they were lucky to be bought by Jin Feng, but there were still family members suffering in the tooth shop, or sold to others by the tooth shop.
With money, they could find ways to redeem their family members.
As for themselves, they had no such thoughts at all.
Because they knew very well that what Man Cang taught them was too much, and it was impossible to allow them to redeem themselves and take away what they had learned.
Moreover, they were very satisfied with their current life.
Except for not being able to leave the village at will, there was no restriction on them in the village at all.
They had full meals every day, wages to take, and no one dared to bully them.
It was many times better than their previous days.
Now, even if Man Cang drove them away, probably no one would be willing to leave.
“Sir, the lathe is too useful, with this thing, in at most five days, I can make a weaving machine!”
Man Cang experimented a few times and was somewhat reluctant to let go.
“In the future, when there are more lathes, we can carry out assembly line work, then it won’t take five days, we can produce several weaving machines in one day!” Jin Feng said with a smile.
“What is assembly line work?” Man Cang asked curiously.
“It means each machine specialises in making one or two parts, then these parts are sent to the next room, assembled into a weaving machine by dedicated people.”
Jin Feng explained.
“This method is great!” As soon as Man Cang heard it, his eyes lit up: “Everyone only does a part, so even if this person betrays, he can only make one or two parts, and cannot make the entire weaving machine!”
“Yes,” Jin Feng nodded: “And everyone only doing one or two parts will become more and more skilled, and the things made will be better and better.”
“Right, right!” Man Cang nodded repeatedly.
Jin Feng taught Man Cang some basic uses of the lathe, and only went home when it was almost dark.
“Oh my, my dear, how did you get like this?”
Guan Xiaorou’s heart ached so much that tears were about to come out when she saw Jin Feng’s appearance: “Run Niang, quickly go to the bathhouse and burn some hot water for my dear to bathe!”
Machinery was originally a dirty job, and Jin Feng had not bathed or changed clothes for several consecutive days, he was dirtier than Man Cang’s female apprentices, and had several cuts scraped by tools, when Guan Xiaorou first saw him, she thought a beggar had come to the house.
Run Niang poked her head out from the kitchen, saw Jin Feng’s appearance and laughed: “Madam Xiaobei had hot water burned just now, and it hasn’t been used yet.”
“Never mind her!”
Guan Xiaorou pulled Jin Feng straight into the bathroom.
When the two came out of the bathroom, Qing Muluan, Tang Xiaobei and others were already sitting at the dinner table.
“Huh, Sister Xiaorou, wasn’t it my husband who went to bathe, why is your hair wet too?”
Tang Xiaobei blinked her big eyes and asked deliberately.
“Eat your food!”
Guan Xiaorou rolled her eyes at Tang Xiaobei, her face still red as she secretly pinched her.
Tang Xiaobei was not afraid at all, moved closer to the side, and gave Qing Muluan a wink.
Usually Qing Muluan also liked to tease Jin Feng and Guan Xiaorou, but today she was indifferent to Tang Xiaobei’s wink, as if she hadn’t seen it, her face full of worry.
“Muluan, what’s wrong, do you have something on your mind?”
Jin Feng also noticed something wrong with Qing Muluan.
“Brother Qin Shi from the county city sent a letter today, saying that the court’s tax document has been transmitted, and it should be announced tomorrow or the day after.”
Qing Muluan sighed: “The tax increase by ten percent is already unchangeable!”
“That group of lords in the court really want to force the people to death!”
Jin Feng also lost his appetite for eating, put the bowl on the table: “Don’t they fear that the people will rebel?”
“Rebel?!”
In the feudal era, rebellion was a very terrifying and heavy topic, everyone in the room was frightened by Jin Feng’s words.
“Sir, it shouldn’t come to that, right?”
Qing Muluan frowned and asked.
