Industry began in 1937

Iron materials from Shanxi, especially the "spoils of war" from the railway, began to flow steadily and continuously into Gouzi Village.

In Chen Yuan's hands, this steel, bearing the marks of battle, was transformed into sharp bayonets and sturdy grenade casings. Some of it, according to the original plan, was turned into hoes, sickles, and iron pots, which were very popular at the river mouth market.

The booming sales of civilian ironware not only spread the reputation of Gouzi Village's "Gongyi Blacksmith Shop" among the villages in the western mountainous areas of Xingtai, but also brought tangible benefits.

Next to the village granary at the entrance, a sturdy adobe house was indeed built, filled with grain, mountain products, homespun cloth, and even some rare tung oil, hemp rope, and animal hides that had been traded for ironware.

Because of these small exchanges, the economic lifeline of the base area seemed to flow a little more smoothly.

Wen Shizhou and Third Master smiled more often, and the villagers felt more at ease seeing the warehouse gradually filling with grain.

Chen Yuan's approach of "using industry to support war and improve people's livelihoods" has begun to show results.

However, beneath the surface of prosperity, Chen Yuan felt increasing pressure. This pressure did not come from raw materials or sales channels, but from something invisible and intangible, yet it truly constrained everything—electricity.

Five carefully disguised human-powered foot-operated generators were running day and night by shifts of able-bodied young men. Inside the workshop, the furnaces glowed red-hot, hammers clanged, grinding wheels spun, and drills roared—all to conceal the silent yet highly efficient core production of the "Flint" platform.

However, Chen Yuan knew that the power output of these five generators was approaching or even occasionally exceeding the basic maintenance power required for the "Flint" platform under the current production load.

The "Flint" platform's "unpicky" nature regarding raw materials has, ironically, become a sweet burden.

Whether it's high-quality rail steel, ordinary pig iron, or even theoretically, if you throw in a piece of iron ore, it can output a pre-set qualified product through its unknown internal decomposition, purification, and reconstruction processes.

However, the energy consumption is vastly different. The amount of electricity consumed in producing bayonet blanks directly from iron ore is probably ten or even dozens of times that of using ready-made steel.

Currently, the platform mainly uses railway steel, which has greatly saved energy consumption. However, the ever-increasing demand—repairing more firearms, producing more bayonets and grenade casings, picks, iron hoes, and other ironware for production and daily life, as well as the newly emerging steel saw blades—is making the platform's "appetite" grow bigger and bigger.

"Flint, retrieve the recent energy consumption and output logs, assess the sustainability of the current energy supply, and predict the peak energy required to reach full production capacity while maintaining the current raw material input levels and product types/quality." In the dead of night, deep in the mine, Chen Yuan issued the command to the platform.

A pale blue light flowed, displaying a series of charts and data.

The conclusion is clear and stark: the current human-powered power generation system is nearing full capacity, with extremely low energy supply elasticity. Any slight increase in demand could cause the platform to enter low-power operation or standby mode, impacting output.

However, the electricity required to achieve larger-scale production has become a bottleneck restricting development.

"We must increase power generation capacity." Chen Yuan rubbed his temples.

But problems arose one after another: How to increase it? What to increase? How to explain and cover it up?

Should we continue to add more human-powered foot-operated generators? This seems like the most direct approach, but the risks are increasing.

The five machines can be explained as "Master Chen is skilled and salvaged old goods to provide exercise for everyone, and incidentally, to run the machines."

If there are too many, it will be too conspicuous and easily lead to unnecessary speculation.

Moreover, human resources are ultimately limited, and the physical strength of the villagers and soldiers is also a precious resource that cannot be endlessly consumed by pedaling.

This is by no means a long-term solution.

Wind power? Water power? These are more stable and powerful sources of natural energy, and this is the direction Chen Yuan had considered long ago.

In particular, the mountain stream that flows down from the back of the mountain, with its water volume varying with the seasons but never ceasing, is an excellent source of power.

A well-designed small water turbine can provide a continuous power output far exceeding that of human power.

Water and wind.

That's the answer.

After much deliberation, he decided to build a "mill," a mill that could combine water and wind power to bring "convenience" to the entire mountain village, while also silently injecting surging energy into the secret heart of the mine.

Moreover, during this period, the amount of iron and copper materials accumulated by the blacksmith shop has been increasing. After inquiring with the platform, it was found that there was more than enough material to increase the amount needed for the generator.

He found Wen Shizhou, Third Master, and Old Man Han, but didn't mention generating electricity; he only talked about "production" and "life."

"Secretary Wen, Third Master, Uncle Han," Chen Yuan pointed to the flowing stream and the roaring mountain beams outside the window, "our situation is a bit better now, but manpower is always limited. With more and more iron materials available, there are more and more things to be made. Relying solely on people swinging sledgehammers and pedaling wheels is not a long-term solution."

Moreover, the villagers still rely on manpower or livestock to grind flour and rice, which is time-consuming and laborious. I was thinking, could we... utilize this existing river?

"A river?" Third Master squinted. "Master Chen means... a watermill? That's a good thing. The older generation had skilled craftsmen who could make them, but it's labor-intensive and uses a lot of materials. Our mountain stream is sometimes strong and sometimes weak. Will it work?"

"Relying solely on water might not be stable," Chen Yuan had already prepared his plan. "So I was thinking, could we create a 'wind and water linkage' system? When the water flow is stable and there's enough water, we can mainly rely on the waterwheel. During the dry season or when the water level drops, we can erect a large windmill nearby to utilize the wind from the mountain ridge. With the combined power of water and wind, we can get the millstone and grinding wheel turning, saving manpower for our work shed and also grinding grain for the whole village. I've read some miscellaneous books; there are some clever tricks in them that we can try."

"Feng Shui in sync?" Wen Shizhou's eyes lit up. "That's a great idea! We can use water power and supplement it with wind power, so we don't have to worry about droughts or floods. But we don't know how to do it!"

"I can do it; I'll provide the blueprints."

"Master Chen, are you really confident? This will require a lot of wood and stone, as well as a lot of iron for the shafts and key parts," Third Master asked.

"I also plan to use this mill to generate electricity to power the blacksmith's shop in the mine."

"It can also generate electricity?" Wen Shizhou perked up at the question.

"Sure, we can just install a generator under the millstone, run an electric wire to the mine, and the army is sending us a lot of copper and wire right now."

"You can make this too?"

"Yes. I wouldn't say I'm 100% sure, but I'd say I'm 70-80% sure," Chen Yuan said modestly.

"We have other timber and stone materials in the mountains. As for iron, we're more well-off now, aren't we? Among the iron materials provided by Shanxi, there are some small pieces, scraps, and scrap iron we've accumulated before, which should be enough to make quite a bit. The key components, such as the water turbine shaft, the wind turbine shaft, and the bearings, will probably require good quality iron. I'll slowly figure out how to forge them. This is a matter of slow and meticulous work, so we're not in a hurry. We'll produce while taking our time. I've also prepared the materials for making the generator."

Old Han slapped his thigh: "I think it'll work! Master Chen is a capable man. He can even come up with a solution to something as difficult as fighting the Japanese. This waterwheel and windmill will definitely work too! Our village may not have much else, but we have plenty of strength! Just tell us what you need, Master Chen!"

Wen Shizhou thought about it more deeply: "Master Chen, your idea is excellent. It not only solves the problem of our blacksmith shop's power supply but also benefits the entire village, and even our Third District. This is what you meant before, 'improving production and living conditions.' I support it! The village and the district can coordinate the wood, stone, and manpower. Just go ahead and think about it; whatever we need, we'll figure it out together!"

With support secured, Chen Yuan felt reassured.

In the days that followed, in addition to arranging daily military and civilian production, he devoted most of his energy to the planning and preparation of the "mill".

He frequently appeared by the stream, using simple tools he made himself to measure the water level, flow rate, and drop.

The villagers saw these actions as a sign that Master Chen was taking his work seriously and was carefully selecting and designing the site for the "Feng Shui-Linked Mill".

Tell the platform the data and let the platform design a complete construction plan for him.

Although the flint platform is an industrial manufacturing plant, it is not a specialized hydraulic design intelligence.

However, the generators it produces are designed based on the flow rate of the water.

Moreover, Chen Yuan wasn't completely ignorant. Although he hadn't studied it professionally, he had seen watermills and hydroelectric power stations at tourist attractions and in videos.

If you figure it out yourself, you can roughly generate a solution with the help of the platform.

As for wind power, that's entirely up to the platform.

In this way, the plan was completed in less than 10 days.

Deep inside the mine, as his hand touched the cold rock wall and a dark blue light curtain unfolded in his consciousness, he was "measuring" and "designing" on another dimension.

"Based on the following natural conditions and limitations, we will conduct a comprehensive energy harvesting scheme simulation and core component manufacturing plan."

He input detailed hydrological data of mountain streams, wind power data of mountain ridges, and the most important constraint into the platform—it must rely entirely on renewable energy.

The platform needs to design a system that can efficiently and stably capture these two types of natural energy and convert them into a stable current.

The external form of this system must completely conform to the structure of a "traditional improved feng shui power mill", but at its core, there will be a high-efficiency generator made by the platform.

"Key component manufacturing list and cover scheme being generated..." The light screen scrolled, and a detailed list appeared. Many of the terms and parameters were outdated, but the platform would automatically "translate" them into versions that Chen Yuan could understand and barely explain using materials and language from this era.

Silicon steel sheet: It is synthesized and prepared inside the platform using collected quartz and iron materials. After being made into a thin strip, it can be aged.

Enameled copper wire: Collect folk copperware, copper coins, and bullet casings, purify them and draw them into wires. The insulating varnish can be applied by hand using raw lacquer mixed with tung oil and other natural materials obtained from previous exchanges. The performance is sufficient.

High-performance magnets: Some are needed. Solution: The platform can be made using iron and trace amounts of rare elements.

Bearing: The plan is to use high-hardness steel balls manufactured on the platform, combined with a handcrafted copper cage and cast iron outer casing, to create the simplest ball bearing.

Chen Yuan started instructing Shuanzhu, Tiedan, and the village children to collect milky-white, translucent hard stones from the stream and mountains, which would yield a small piece of maltose.

According to the platform design, the required quantity and specifications of wood and stone were also given to Secretary Wen.

Under the organization of Wen Shizhou and the village office, the first batch of timber needed to build the mill has begun to be purchased from various villages.

The work of leveling the foundation was also taken over by several old stonemasons in the village, who led the younger generation.

Inside the workshop, the furnace still burned, the hammers clanged, and bayonets and farm tools were being produced continuously.

Third Master began leading the villagers, young and old, to dig the foundation according to the blueprints by the stream chosen by Chen Yuan.