The First National Preceptor of the Tang Dynasty

Chapter 37

After arriving at the construction site, the two looked around.

"Young Master Xu, I didn't get much information before I came. I wonder how many furnaces you plan to build here?" Military Advisor Tang asked as he came over.

"How much does an iron furnace cost?"

"Since it was ordered from above, they naturally won't set prices arbitrarily; everything has to be handed over."

However, iron smelting furnaces are no simple matter. Materials and supplies need to be transported from elsewhere. Including labor and training, a rough estimate suggests that a single furnace would cost exactly one hundred strings of cash. This is how Official Tang explained it.

He then added, "But I see that you have a lot of space here, enough to easily accommodate several buildings. If you build more, you can get a discount."

There are also discounts available. "How much would those two seats cost?"

"A discount of 20 guan can be offered, making it 180 guan in total."

“Okay, let’s build two,” Xu Tian decided.

Even if it's expensive, it must be built. Two are fine too; if one breaks down, the other can still be used.

"Yes, the day after tomorrow is an auspicious day, so we can start work immediately. Make sure the money is ready, and someone will come to collect it. After work begins, the construction work here will be handled by Engineer Yu. If there is anything, you can contact him," said Master Tang, pointing to the elderly man who had come with him.

The day after tomorrow, construction will begin, which naturally meets Xu Tian's expectations. He couldn't wait to start as soon as possible.

Two days later, under Engineer Yu's leadership, people began to deliver truckloads of various raw materials to the construction site, including clay, wood planks, molds, wood, charcoal, and so on. It felt like the 180 strings of cash were indeed well spent.

If you let him do it himself, he has no idea where to start.

The construction site is currently the most important thing, as it concerns the long-term development. Xu Tian and Wang Anping are focusing all their energy on it. They even declined Mr. Cui's invitation to go on a spring outing one day.

Besides Mr. Cui's invitation, Xu Tian has also received invitations from other people during this period, such as Cai Ze, a teaching assistant at the state school, and Zhou Mingzhan, among others.

Some people invited him to banquets, while others invited him to entertainment venues or other gatherings. However, he politely declined all of these invitations. Of course, if gifts were required, he would certainly accept them.

The woodworking workshop has started operations in the past few days. At the beginning, many aspects are not yet fully sorted out, and it is in a period of adjustment.

Let's start with simple and common chairs and benches. The factory needs these things anyway, so we won't have to buy them from outside. We can also practice and train a few new people.

This also involved buying timber, processing tools, and so on. Wang Anping was in charge of all these things. Although he didn't know much about it at first, with the help of Zhang Laozhong and Yang Qi's nephew Zhang Donglai, he gradually became familiar with it.

Xu Tian focused his energy primarily on building the iron furnace, which was a crucial task. This opportunity was extremely rare; once it was missed, it would be gone forever. He had to personally learn and master the iron furnace technology.

In order to learn the essence of it, we naturally had to treat all the workers well, preparing fish, meat, hot soup and cold tea every day.

Since he was so generous, the workers, including Old Yu, naturally understood after experiencing it. They didn't deliberately hide their skills from him, allowing him to observe freely and offering a few casual pointers, which greatly benefited him.

In Xu Tian's eyes, it wasn't that the technology of this iron furnace was so advanced, but rather that the actual engineering experience was truly rare; after all, he didn't have the ability to gain a comprehensive understanding from a high vantage point.