Chapter 94: Stepping Into a Modern Factory

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Two yellow long-distance buses drove along the elevated highway leading to the city suburbs.

The cabin was filled with the noise of first-grade students. Boys ran back and forth in the aisle, while girls shared snacks from their backpacks.

Lin Xuan sat in a two-person seat near the back.

His fingers swiped the Mobile Phone screen, replying to client emails.

Xiao Sizi sat in the window seat.

She pressed her forehead against the Glass, watching the tall buildings rush past outside.

"How many people does the Tang Dynasty's Ministry of Works need to build a carriage? How long does it take?" Lin Xuan locked his Mobile Phone and turned to ask.

Xiao Sizi withdrew her gaze and counted on her fingers.

"Carpenters fell trees and saw planks, blacksmiths fire up the furnace to forge nails, tanners cure leather for harnesses, and lacquerers apply raw lacquer."

"Six skilled artisans, and it still takes at least half a month at best."

Hand-polishing and intricate carving; this was the peak of ancient handicrafts.

Lin Xuan took a bottle of mineral water.

He unscrewed the cap and handed it over.

"The place I'm taking you to today has no skilled artisans, only iron lumps."

"In half a day, the objects they spit out could fill the square of your Tang Dynasty's Taiji Palace."

Xiao Sizi took the water bottle and took a sip, a hint of confusion in her eyes.

No artisans, yet the iron lumps spit out objects themselves?

Half an hour later.

The bus drove into the Tianhai Light Industry United Manufacturing Plant area.

The sound of air leaking from valves rang out as the bus doors pushed open outward.

Lin Xuan held Xiao Sizi's hand and got off the bus.

They followed behind the homeroom teacher's group.

The plant area was extremely vast.

Rows of blue steel-structure workshops stood neatly in a continuous line.

The road was so clean not a single fallen leaf was visible.

The team leader staff guided the group around the office building and stopped at the side door of Workshop No. 1.

They pushed the door open and entered the changing area.

In front of rows of metal lockers, staff distributed clothing.

"Family members and students, please take off your outer coats and change into these suits," the staff instructed with a megaphone.

Lin Xuan shook out the white one-piece suit in his hand.

The material was extremely dense, feeling slightly slippery and rough to the touch.

He helped Xiao Sizi take off her outer coat, pulled the one-piece suit's pant legs on, and pulled up the front of the garment.

The zipper ran from the crotch all the way up to the chin.

The hood was fastened over her head, the elastic edge tightening against her cheeks.

Finally, he took out a pair of blue non-woven shoe covers, stretched the elastic band, and covered her sneaker soles.

Xiao Sizi looked down at herself, then looked up at the surrounding classmates and Lin Xuan.

Everyone was tightly wrapped from head to toe in pure white fabric, with only a pair of eyes exposed, just like a Space Suit.

In the Tang Dynasty, for the emperor to sacrifice to Heaven, he needed to fast and bathe.

That was to express reverence for the Heavenly Gods.

But here, dressing so complicatedly was merely to step into the place of creation.

Lin Xuan put on a mask, his voice becoming somewhat muffled:

"The clothes we are wearing now are called Dust-proof Suits."

"They prevent hair and skin flakes from the human body from falling into the products."

"The first rule of industry is sterility and cleanliness."

Once dressed, the group formed a single file line.

Embedded in the wall directly ahead was a heavy stainless steel airtight door.

The green light above the door frame lit up, and the metal door slid open smoothly to both sides.

The passage was extremely narrow.

It could accommodate only three people at a time.

Lin Xuan held Xiao Sizi's hand and stepped into the passage.

The metal door behind them closed.

Whoosh—!

Dozens of nozzles on the ceiling and side walls instantly blasted out powerful high-pressure air currents.

Wild winds swirled within the enclosed space.

They slapped against the Dust-proof Suits, the fabric billowing out and emitting dense "pa-pa" sounds.

Xiao Sizi was blown so hard she couldn't open her eyes; her hands instinctively clutched Lin Xuan's arm.

After a dozen seconds, the airflow stopped.

The Air Shower dust removal was finished.

The second workshop door directly ahead unlocked.

It was in this very instant.

A gust of air mixed with the smell of machine oil and plastic rushed to their faces.

Accompanying it was an extremely terrifying physical noise.

Boom!

The great doors swung fully open.

What followed was a cacophony of sounds.

There were the clashing of metal, the hum of motors, the hiss of air valves...

Xiao Sizi stood dazed at the doorway.

Before her eyes lay a vast workshop with a ceiling soaring over ten meters high, stretching endlessly into the distance.

Conveyor belts hundreds of meters long.

The belts rolled at high speed, like a surging river of steel.

On the assembly line, countless cardboard boxes and plastic cans, pressed tightly against one another, slid forward at a speed the naked eye could barely catch.

Flanking the river stood rows of sturdy metal robotic arms.

Sparks flashed as the bases of the arms rotated.

Several metal claws opened, gripping the edges of the cardboard boxes on the conveyor belt.

Then they spun, placing the boxes into packing crates on another track.

Hiss—

The air valves released gas.

The robotic arms instantly returned to their positions, repeating the previous motion.

It was only a moment of dazed staring.

On a single assembly line, more than a dozen robotic arms rose and fell; dozens of products were sealed and packaged.

The children in the group covered their ears, mouths agape. The chatter of the parents was completely swallowed and shattered by the roar of the machines; they could only communicate via gestures.

Immediately after, Lin Xuan pulled Xiao Sizi up the iron stairs, stopping at the viewing corridor on the second floor.

The steel walkway beneath their feet transmitted extremely faint vibrations.

Their gaze crossed the wide glass curtain wall, looking down upon the entire scene.

The belts spun furiously; hundreds of yellow cardboard boxes printed with logos formed a line, sliding rapidly to the right.

An orange-red multi-axis robotic arm stretched across the air.

The base rotated.

The metal joints folded, then slammed down with a sudden force.

A vacuum suction cup touched the surface of the cardboard box and sucked out the air.

The robotic arm swung to the left, spanning the conveyor belt.

The mechanism released, and the box fell steadily onto a pallet stack on another track.

The next cardboard box advanced, and the robotic arm folded and slammed down again.

The movements were so fast they left afterimages.

Xiao Sizi pressed against the glass, her hands gripping the stainless steel railing, standing on her tiptoes.

Her eyes followed the orange-red robotic arm, swinging back and forth.

Xiao Sizi blinked her stinging eyes hard.

"I can't see clearly; it's too fast."

"When the craftsmen of the Ministry of Works swing hammers to strike iron, there is always a pause between lifting and falling; this one never stops."

"Because it does not know fatigue."

"It drinks no water, it pants for no breath."

"Once powered on, as long as the gears are not worn smooth, it can work until it is scrapped."

Lin Xuan drew a large circle on the glass surface.

Encircling the complete production line below, stretching a hundred meters long.

"This conveyor belt can operate for twenty hours without rest."

"In one day, it can spit out three hundred thousand sealed goods."

Xiao Sizi turned her head sharply.

Three hundred thousand.

Even if hundreds of weaving households in the Jiangnan Circuit of the Great Tang worked day and night, the silk they produced in a year would barely reach this number.

This one iron house accomplished it all in a single day.

"This is not even the main point."

"The length, size, and weight of these three hundred thousand goods, even the seam where the sealing tape is applied, are all exactly the same."

Xiao Sizi furrowed her brows.

She found it somewhat difficult to understand such absolute uniformity.

"Exactly the same?"

"Yes, this is called Standardization."

"In the Great Tang, when forging weapons, it is the old blacksmith striking the iron while the apprentice pulls the bellows."

"How many times the steel is folded and hammered, how long the quenching lasts—all depend on the blacksmith's feel and eye."

"One hundred blacksmiths forge one hundred swords of varying lengths."

"Once broken, they cannot be repaired, correct?" Lin Xuan asked.

Xiao Sizi nodded.

Weapons in the Great Tang army, once broken, could only be thrown into the furnace to be recast.

The knife handles varied in length, making them impossible to interchange.

"Modern industry relies not on feel, but on rigid rules."

"Fix the dimensions, draw the blueprints."

"Break the work of making one item into dozens of extremely simple actions."

"This is called Assembly Line Division of Labor."

Lin Xuan tossed out the core concept of industry: "Creation does not require an all-powerful master, only dozens of people standing beside the conveyor belt."

"The first person only tightens the screw on the left, the second person only applies a coat of paint, the third person only sticks on a label."

"Repeat one action ten thousand times, and you won't make a mistake even with your eyes closed."

"Just like a screw, it is known to the world as the Screw Spirit."