Chapter 95: The Death Knell of the Handcraft Era, The Great Tang Trials Standardization

Xiao Sizi understood Lin Xuan's breakdown.

In the Great Tang, the royal selection of artisans followed strict rules.

Carving wood requires understanding yin-yang engraving methods; forging iron requires understanding fire colors.

A person apprenticing to learn a craft must serve tea and pour water for three years, practice basic skills for five years, before being allowed to graduate and work.

This is the artisan's pride, and also the threshold for skill inheritance.

According to this assembly line method Lin Xuan described.

An illiterate peasant woman, if she only learns to join two pieces of wood together and nail in a single nail. First published on this book, choose Tiantian Read Novels for good books, ttkks. tw is awesome, providing you with error-free chapters and non-misordered chapter reading experience.

Nailing a thousand times a day.

The items produced on the conveyor belt she is on are faster and more precise than the great masters of the Great Tang who devoted their entire lives to the craft.

"It doesn't rely on skill." Xiao Sizi raised her head and spoke softly.

"Hmm?" Lin Xuan didn't hear clearly.

"Smash the skill; each person only does one fragment."

"They don't need to understand how to build a complete object; they are also part of the machine."

A flash of surprise passed through Lin Xuan's eyes.

"Correct."

"Then... the thousand knives produced, the ten thousand boxes."

"Exactly the same, without any difference?" Xiao Sizi pressed further.

Lin Xuan turned, looking again at the area below the glass curtain wall, "Not a hair's breadth off."

"On the conveyor belt of modern industry, individuality is not allowed."

"What we want is absolute uniformity."

The mechanical arm struck down again.

A box of goods was packed and completed.

The conveyor belt rolled, sending it to the next node.

Xiao Sizi pointed at the area below through the glass.

"Even the sealing tape and the folded corners differ not a hair's breadth."

"The old masters of the Great Tang's Ministry of Works say objects must be polished by human hands to carry human spirit and vitality."

"The things produced by this machine are extremely fast."

"Cold and lifeless, lacking the warmth of human emotion."

Lin Xuan had his hands in the pockets of his Dust-proof Suit.

"The warmth of human emotion cannot stop the Turkic cavalry, nor fill the bellies of the people under heaven."

"The first step to ultimate efficiency is to eliminate personal, emotional workshops."

"Strip away human emotion, treat people as gears on an assembly line."

"Exchange the demise of a few handicrafts for the extreme abundance of supplies for millions of people."

"Everyone under heaven can wear warm clothes and use iron tools."

"This is the price of the great machine age."

The Three Kingdoms timeline, the Shu Army's main camp at Qishan.

Inside the tent, a lone lamp flickered.

Zhuge Liang collapsed onto the wooden couch.

The white feather fan, famous throughout the world, fell to the ground, covered in dust.

On the wooden table before him lay a core wooden gear of the "Wooden Ox and Flowing Horse" that had just been polished into shape.

The gear meshed tightly, condensing half a lifetime of mechanical artistry and effort.

The assembly line scene on the Sky Screen pierced his eyes.

Three hundred thousand uniform, lifeless objects crushed all his pride.

Zhuge Liang extended his hands, looking at his calloused palms; suddenly, two clear tears welled in the corners of his eyes.

"The limit of one person's wisdom ultimately cannot defeat this rigid, rule-bound flow."

He wept for the exquisite craftsmanship he had pursued for half his life, which, before these massive machines of the future, had become a trivial trick.

He wept that the Han Dynasty's accumulated weakness was because they could not find artisans capable of replicating hundreds of thousands of repeating crossbows.

After crying for three breaths, a raging fire ignited in Zhuge Liang's eyes.

"Come!"

A deputy general outside the tent lifted the curtain and rushed in.

Zhuge Liang wiped his tears dry, his tone cold and hard, "Issue an order to the Ministry of Weaponry!"

"Stop making the Wooden Ox and Flowing Horse; gather all the carpenters making crossbows."

"Disassemble the repeating crossbow's trigger mechanism, the hanging knife, and the arrow magazine into three sections."

"Divide the craftsmen into three groups, confining each group to a separate courtyard."

"In this life, they are only permitted to make one section of the component!"

"Establish length and width standards."

"Anyone whose work does not match the standards shall be executed immediately!"

The wise man of ages, at this moment, abandoned the artisan's lonely pride.

He forcibly embraced the cruel rules of the assembly line.

If one were to read only one historical novel in a lifetime, it might be "The Sickly and Weak Xiao Sizi Knocks on the Door, I Became the God of Ten Thousand Dynasties".

The Ming Dynasty timeline.

Song Yingxing, author of "Tiangong Kaiwu", sat inside his study.

On the desk, drafts recording the crafts of a hundred trades across the land were piled high.

He looked at the Sky Screen, his whole body trembling.

He had spent a lifetime recording the skills of master craftsmen.

How to fire porcelain until it was translucent, how to weave cloud patterns into silk.

"Wrong! Completely wrong!" Song Yingxing grabbed the wine pot on the table and took a huge gulp.

He threw down the wine pot, grabbed a brush, and dipped it fully in thick ink.

On a scrap of paper filled with "Secret Methods for a Single Person to Fire Top-Grade Porcelain", he drew a heavy, large cross.

"The supreme skill of one man cannot save the Ming Dynasty."

"What the Ming Dynasty needs is not one or two Lu Bans; the Ming Dynasty needs rigid rules."

"It needs rigid rules to bind a group of illiterate farmers to a single rope, producing tens of thousands of firearms!"

Great Tang, Chang'an.

The grand court assembly had dispersed.

Li Shimin grabbed the sleeve of Duan Lun, Minister of Works, and rushed straight to the Imperial Armory outside the city.

Iron furnaces spat tongues of orange fire.

The heat waves distorted the air.

Beside over a hundred anvils, bare-chested blacksmiths were swinging iron hammers, beating red-hot iron blocks.

Li Shimin strode into the workshop.

The sound of hammering on iron stopped abruptly.

Everyone knelt and prostrated themselves.

Li Shimin kicked aside a piece of scrap iron at his feet and stopped before Lao Xing, the Chief Master of the Imperial Armory.

"How long does it take you to forge a standard-issue horizontal blade?"

"Replying to Your Majesty: selecting iron, folding, forging, quenching, and sharpening the edge."

"If this old man does it personally, it takes seven days."

Lao Xing answered, his tone carrying the confidence of a top-tier craftsman of the Great Tang.

"Too slow." Li Shimin spat out two words.

He looked at Duan Lun, Minister of Works.

"The First Bureau handles only selecting and melting the iron, forging it into iron bars."

"The Second Bureau handles only swinging the hammer to forge and stretch it."

"The Third Bureau is solely responsible for quenching."

"The Fourth Bureau grinds and sharpens the blade."

"The Fifth Bureau assembles the handle."

Master Lao Xing's face was filled with shock.

"Your Majesty, this cannot be done!"

"Forging iron requires completing the process in one continuous breath."

"The heat and the force are both in the craftsman's heart."

"This is called 'hand feel'."

"If people are changed midway, not knowing the previous person's heat, the blade forged will break upon first clash on the battlefield!"

The blacksmiths around him immediately agreed.

This was the craft heritage they relied on for survival.

If an apprentice didn't endure ten years, he wasn't even worthy of swinging a hammer.

Now to split the work apart was equivalent to smashing their rice bowls.

Li Shimin swept a cold gaze over the entire scene, his face as calm as water.

"Rules are made by people."

"Don't know the heat? Then set the heat rigidly!"

Li Shimin approached Duan Lun, pointing at the red-hot iron furnace.

"Use water clocks to time it! When the water has drained three times, the iron bar must be taken out for forging."

"Not one extra breath allowed, not one breath less permitted!"

Li Shimin grabbed Duan Lun's collar and issued a death order.

"Go make iron rulers for the Emperor! Make wooden molds!"

"The forged blade strips must fit into the wooden molds."

"If too wide, return it for re-hammering."

"If too narrow, throw it back into the furnace to be remade."

"The mortise hole in the blade handle must match the iron ruler to the exact fraction."

"A difference of one hair's breadth, and the entire batch is scrapped!"

Li Shimin stood amidst the firelight, the oppressive pressure sweeping over the entire workshop.

"I do not care what 'hand feel' heritage is in your hearts."

"I only want you to be obedient mechanisms, just like the iron arms in the Sky Screen!"

"Whoever dares to disobey will be treated as delaying military affairs and executed immediately without pardon!"

Killing intent flooded out in all directions.

The blacksmiths were silent as cicadas in winter, not even daring to draw a breath.

Strongly recommend *The Sickly Xiao Sizi Knocks on the Door, and I Became a God of Myriad Dynasties*! Click to go straight to the story world.