Chapter 63: Major Discovery at the Factory Site

[The Host need not worry; you can spend money to delay the arrival of items you bring into the Ming Dynasty. It costs 10,000 per hour...]

Chen Lin was somewhat dumbfounded. What did delaying the arrival of carried items into the Ming Dynasty even mean?

[For example, the industrial plant the Host just purchased can be stored after returning to the Ming Dynasty, and deployed only when you select a designated location.]

Doesn't that mean having a spatial backpack? And it's 10,000 per hour!

This was definitely worth researching. For instance, could he buy an entire mountain and drop Mount Tai directly onto the battlefield?!

Now that was getting interesting...

Passing through the guardhouse, the three of them stood within the vast, abandoned factory grounds, looking around and wondering where to start.

"Let's go, let's check the warehouse to see if anything good was left behind."

Chen Lin pointed to a large brick-and-tile warehouse in the distance, which carried a strong sense of a bygone era.

Who would have thought that upon walking inside, it was completely empty!

Even the damn shelves had been dismantled, cleaned out with absolute thoroughness.

Only some broken bricks, shattered tiles, and a few discarded wooden tables remained.

"I must say, Chen Lin, aren't you taking a loss on this deal?" Zhu Yuanzhang teased.

Chen Lin scratched his head. "What do you know? What I want are those three blast furnaces."

Zhu Yuanzhang said in shock, "Blast furnaces? You're saying those three huge structures outside are blast furnaces, the kind used for smelting iron?"

"What else did you think?"

Just then, Zhu棣's voice came from outside: "Come over here quickly, you guys, I found something good."

The two of them hurried toward the voice. Zhu棣 was standing at the entrance of a workshop opposite the warehouse, pointing inside and shouting, "There's iron in here, a lot of iron!"

Chen Lin walked in and took a look. "Holy crap, there are actually milling machines left behind that weren't dismantled!"

"Aren't these things valuable?"

"This doesn't make sense!"

Zhu Yuanzhang stroked a milling machine. "The Ministry of Works has things like this too, except the ones in the Ministry are wooden structures driven by waterwheels, nowhere near this refined."

Chen Lin was shocked once more. "The Ming Dynasty has milling machines?"

Zhu Yuanzhang asked in confusion, "Is that so strange? They existed as early as the Song Dynasty."

Chen Lin took a deep breath. "Meaning there are artisans in the Ministry of Works who know how to use these?"

Zhu Yuanzhang said uncertainly, "Probably? The construction is a bit different, but after studying them, it should be fine."

What were they waiting for, then? Chen Lin hurried forward to check the current condition of the lathes and milling machines.

He didn't look closely until now, but what he saw gave him a start.

These machines actually showed traces of recent use.

The lubricating oil was still fresh, and nearby lay sharp, blue-glinting cutting tools alongside various auxiliary instruments.

Even some semi-finished iron pieces were scattered across the floor, seemingly preserving the exact scene from when the last batch of people had left.

Could the remaining workers have used these machines to machine parts on the side for extra cash?

And where were those people now?

Surely they wouldn't come back!

Chen Lin hurriedly dialed the small supervisor's phone to find out what was going on. It turned out that as recently as half a year ago, an old master craftsman had been using these machines here; half a year ago, that master fell ill, was hospitalized, and never came back.

Which meant there was still electricity in the factory compound!

After figuring out the situation, Chen Lin found the power switch, flipped it up, ran over to a milling machine, and pressed the start button. Rumble, rumble~~

"It can actually still run!"

"We've struck gold!"

Zhu Yuanzhang and his son also stared in amazement at the rumbling machine.

"Th-this, this is driven by that electricity you mentioned?"

Prompted by Zhu Yuanzhang, Chen Lin suddenly realized: without electricity, how could these electrically powered machines be operated?

An ox of fire?

A steam engine?

Holy crap, the workload for retrofitting these would be massive.

The crucial question was whether it would even work, and just how far the craftsmanship of the artisans in the Ministry of Works actually reached. It was necessary to set aside dedicated time to communicate with these master craftsmen...

"Let's go, let's check other areas to see if there are any other good things."

The three of them strolled aimlessly through the factory grounds and eventually discovered a pile of unknown mineral powder. Chen Lin guessed it must be some kind of iron ore, probably weighing five or six hundred tons.

They also found some iron lumps solidified inside ladles; things so tough that even a demolition air cannon couldn't break them down, which was why they were left behind.

Finally, they arrived beneath the blast furnace. The auxiliary equipment of the blast furnace had been more or less dismantled, even the overhead crane had been stripped away, leaving only the main body of the blast furnace. Because firebricks, molten iron, and slag had fused and solidified into a massive chunk inside, making disassembly utterly impossible, it had been left behind.

"This is a bit tricky to handle!"

Trying to restore the blast furnace to working order would probably be difficult.

Simply clearing out the hardened, solidified lump inside the blast furnace was a nightmare in itself, unless they used explosives.

Whether the force of an explosion would damage the main structure of the blast furnace was another question entirely...

Zhu Yuanzhang and his son stood beneath the blast furnace, heads tilted back, mouths agape, watching in fascination.

"It's so huge!"

"Stop staring, let's go buy things!"

Only then did the father and son pull their chins back in. Zhu Yuanzhang hurried to keep up. "What are we buying this time?"

"Buying cutting tools. The Ming Dynasty has lathes, but the cutting tools definitely aren't up to par. Just in case those machines we found earlier can't be used, having these cutting tools alone will boost the efficiency of the Ming Dynasty's lathes."

"Oh, oh, oh! Then let's go!"

The three drove to a hardware and electrical market. As an old hand at this, Chen Lin knew the ropes like the back of his hand. In less than half an hour, he bought a pickup truck's worth of various lathe cutting tools, directly wiping out the entire market's inventory.

He also bought a large batch of various hardware tools and accessories—whether they would be useful or not, he bought them first and figured it out later.

They loaded three whole semi-trailers, all of which were dispatched to the abandoned steel plant.

"These cutting tools are really expensive!" Zhu Yuanzhang said, looking at the boxes of tools packed in the bed of the pickup truck.

"Nonsense, these are all high-strength alloy tungsten steel, and they even contain titanium and nickel. How could they be cheap?"

Zhu Yuanzhang didn't understand, but he nodded as if he did.

"I see. So what are we doing next?"

Chen Lin checked the time; it was already past 6:00 PM. The items they purchased would take another two hours or so to reach the abandoned steel plant.

If the delivery trucks arrived first, they would just have to wait.

What he needed to do right now was treat Zhu Yuanzhang and his son to a meal, show them a high-rolling time, and leave a deep impression on them so they would be easy to manipulate later. Heh heh...

"Let's go, time for a grand feast!"

Chen Lin led the two of them to a seafood buffet restaurant. It cost 680 per person, eat all you want.

Looking at the brightly lit restaurant bustling with people, Zhu Yuanzhang and his son were shocked once again.

"Let's move, what are you standing around for?"

"Just for one hour, eat as much as you want within the hour. I've already paid."

"Oh, oh, oh..."

The two quickly followed, learning from Chen Lin as they grabbed small buckets, loaded up on lobsters, king crabs, and mantis shrimp—picking whatever was most expensive.

Beep, beep~~

Chen Lin helped the two of them ignite their small hot pots, then operated the grilling plate in the middle of the table himself.

"Serve yourselves, eat whatever you want, eat your fill, and try to get our money's worth."

What were they waiting for?

After crossing over, both father and son were at the peak of physical condition, and having eaten only pan-fried buns in the morning and nothing at all for lunch, their stomachs were truly rumbling!

So they dug in with gusto.

"This is so fresh!"

Zhu Yuanzhang ate until his mouth was glistening with oil, and pointing at the neighboring table's beer, asked, "What is that? Can we have some too?"

Chen Lin peeled the shell of a tiger prawn. "Go get it yourself. I'm driving, so I can't drink."

"That's alcohol!?"

"Yes, yes, yes, go get it yourself, grab whatever catches your eye."

"Oh, oh, oh..."

By the end of the seafood buffet feast—which took less than the allotted two hours, just one solid hour—the three of them had stuffed their bellies to the brim.

Chen Lin had eaten a stomach full of seafood, while Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu棣 had quenched their thirst with beer, but both felt immensely satisfied...