Chapter 61: A Crude Lathe

Xiao Zhi was still in Jinan Prefecture.

It was the same teahouse as before; the only difference was that he was now sitting in a private room, and on the table were not sweet snacks like melon seeds and dried plums, but a full banquet personally delivered by the plump proprietor of Tongya Residence.

The proprietor of Tongya Residence never imagined that when Xiao Zhi said he would pay for his meal once he confiscated the assets of Shi Weizhi, he actually meant it, and the money had arrived as early as the next day.

The proprietor had also learned what kind of powerful figure Xiao Zhi was, which had scared him so much he almost wet his pants at the time.

Since Xiao Zhi liked the cuisine of Tongya Residence and treated him like a common waiter, the proprietor held no grievances at all, bustling about busily like a pug.

The fact that Xiao Zhi did not hold it against him for trying to chase him away earlier was already a sign that his ancestors had smoked blue smoke from their graves and accumulated immense virtue.

"My lord, this humble servant will wait just outside the door. If you have any instructions, just give a shout."

Xiao Zhi nodded, and the proprietor slowly backed out of the room.

"Eat up. What's wrong, getting tired of it?"

While eating, Xiao Zhi listened sideways as a story-teller recounted a scandalous tale involving Xiao Zhi and a widow.

At first, upon hearing a promiscuous story about a pair of mothers and daughters, he had felt a surge of anger.

Later, Xiao Zhi thought better of it, deciding to treat the protagonist as someone who simply shared his name. It was just a story, after all, and the people drinking bowls of tea downstairs were just listening for amusement; why should he get so worked up?

Over the past few days, Xiao Zhi had even heard several even more explosive segments.

For instance, one segment explained why Xiao Zhi loved confiscating properties—because he had a penchant for married women.

Some people, fearing that Xiao Zhi would confiscate their estates, would proactively send their own wives to him. Others went even further, actively seeking out the exact type of women Xiao Zhi favored, marrying them, and then presenting them to him as gifts.

In any case, the rumor went that Xiao Zhi simply disliked goods that had been handled by anyone else, making him utterly despicable.

Another example claimed that the residence Xiao Zhi lived in occupied an entire mountain, a mountain as vast as Mount Tai, densely covered with houses from top to bottom, with every single room packed with women seized during property confiscations.

From white-haired grandmothers down to toddlers in split-crotch pants, as long as it was female, Xiao Zhi had an appetite for anything, young and old alike, even including Kunlun slaves.

Every day, like an emperor, he would sleep his way through the rooms one by one.

The story-teller spoke with spittle flying everywhere, and whenever he got particularly carried away, he would stand up, bend his front knee, push off with his back leg, and strike several vigorous poses.

The audience below listened with rapt attention, breaking into thunderous applause from time to time.

At this moment, Xiao Zhi was also thoroughly entertained. He didn't miss a beat in joining the applause, and even laughed louder than anyone else.

Everyone was quite happy, except for He Qing and the proprietor of Tongya Residence.

Knowing Xiao Zhi's true identity, the proprietor really broke out in a cold sweat for the story-teller; this man was risking the lives of nine generations of his family just to earn this bit of conscience-money.

If the story-teller ever found out that the protagonist was sitting right upstairs in the private room, he might just die of fright on the spot.

As for He Qing, he was genuinely furious.

When he first heard the segment about the mother and daughter, this naive and stubborn young man had actually believed a little bit of it.

However, over the past two days, the tales had grown increasingly absurd. A whole mountain full of women? Xiao Zhi wouldn't even have time to do anything else; even if he favored ten an hour and never slept day or night, he couldn't possibly keep up.

Besides, he had been staying by Xiao Zhi's side all along, and they had even slept together, yet Xiao Zhi had never done anything of the sort to him.

The youth even began to wonder if his young master truly had a fondness for other men's wives.

"My lord, I don't like Jinan Prefecture," He Qing said listlessly.

Right now, the thing he most wanted to do was to go downstairs and tear the story-teller's mouth into eight pieces.

"Alright, we'll leave after playing around for two more days."

Still, Xiao Zhi wanted to go and take a look at Tianjinwei. He wondered if the crosstalk performance industry had already developed in Tianjin during this era.

If it had, he would stay and listen for a few more days.

The next day, Xiao Zhi slept until the sun was high in the sky.

He Qing tended to him while he washed up. After the meal, Xiao Zhi spent his time sketching and writing in his room, while Qian Tang and his men, having nothing better to do, gathered together to gamble.

Finding their noise annoying, Xiao Zhi had Qian Tang distribute some silver to each of them so they could go visit the brothels.

"My lord, what are you drawing?"

He Qing had seen Xiao Zhi draw various comic strips or sketches so many times that he was no longer surprised.

This time, however, Xiao Zhi was drawing a strange-looking contraption.

"This thing is called a lathe, and I've been pondering over it for quite a long time."

Without an internal combustion engine, let alone electricity, building such a lathe meant abandoning any hope of high precision.

And what Xiao Zhi wanted wasn't high precision right away.

To process high-precision items, one needed high-precision parts. The only current method was to use an existing lathe to gradually machine and upgrade its own components piece by piece.

The reason he had pondered over it for so long was that Xiao Zhi had designed a power system for this lathe.

The power source would be human or animal labor.

A donkey turning a millstone would rotate a shaft, which, through gear transmission, would drive the machining operations.

Simple to say, but constructing such a lathe was exceedingly difficult.

According to his design, it would require several donkeys pulling together, which showed just how massive the lathe would be.

Didn't Xiao Zhi know the structure of a miniature lathe? Of course he did, but he couldn't build one; the smaller the object, the higher the precision required.

Fortunately, Xiao Zhi's requirements weren't high at the moment—as long as it worked, it would do.

He wondered if Geng Wenshi had put craftsmen to work on researching and manufacturing metal tubes. If smooth metal tubes could be produced, flintlock firearms could finally be manufactured.

This trip to Shandong had given Xiao Zhi a close-range experience of life-and-death armed clashes. Although this scale could hardly be called a war, it left a deep impression on him.

During the attack on Wei Family Fortress, several people were wounded by bows and arrows.

Fortunately, bows and arrows were difficult to make, and powerful crossbows were not permitted among the common people, meaning the Wei Family Fortress was only lightly equipped with them; otherwise, taking the stronghold might truly have been impossible.

Therefore, Xiao Zhi resolved to produce relatively accurate long-range weapons as soon as possible.

Why didn't the Imperial City Directorate personnel carry bows and arrows?

In fact, Xiao Zhi had considered this. This trip to Shandong was meant to be carried out in secret; could everyone go around with a bow and arrow strapped to their backs?

With such overt and blatant weapons, what undercover identity could they possibly maintain?

Upon returning to the capital, Xiao Zhi intended to build this kind of machine tool so he could process some rough components.

If possible, Xiao Zhi even wanted to skip flintlock muskets and go straight to shotguns.

The working principle of a flintlock was loading gunpowder, inserting a wad, and placing a lead ball on top of the wad. The burning black powder would then propel the ball forward.

Shotguns were more advanced because they used pre-made cartridges and added a primer mechanism.

Early primers used mercury fulminate, which was later replaced by lead azide.

Mercury fulminate had been invented in the eighteenth century; as long as there was enough time to refine the raw material system, the manufacturing difficulty was not too high.

For the shotgun propellant, ordinary black powder would suffice. Smokeless powder required nitrocellulose, which, given current conditions, Xiao Zhi genuinely could not produce, and he estimated it would be difficult to make a breakthrough for a long time to come.

During these days, Xiao Zhi prepared numerous design drafts and sketches. Once back in the capital, he would begin turning these concepts into reality step by step.

He had originally planned to set off in a day or two, but unexpectedly, by the evening of that very day, just as the proprietor of Tongya Residence had delivered Xiao Zhi's dinner to the inn, a troop of government soldiers arrived outside.

The arrival of a squad of imperial guards came as a complete surprise to Xiao Zhi; he hadn't expected that taking his time on the journey would lead to this outcome.

Leading the squad was a second-class imperial guard named Xue Yuan.

Despite being second-class, he held a fourth-rank military title.

After paying his respects to Xiao Zhi, Xue Yuan ushered two imperial physicians into the room.

The two physicians were not martial artists; after galloping on horseback all the way here, their bones felt like they were falling apart, yet the first thing they had to do upon arrival was take Xiao Zhi's pulse, leaving them looking utterly exhausted.

"Are you going to stand watch here?" Xiao Zhi asked, looking at Xue Yuan.

Xue Yuan was acting under an imperial edict, so logically he was supposed to keep watch. However, he also knew that Xiao Zhi was not someone to be offended, so he cupped his fists and stepped outside anyway.

Xiao Zhi turned to the physicians and asked, "Have I caught a chill?"

"Lord Xiao's health..."