Chapter 7 Revolution

  PS: Wow! Thank you everyone for your love and support of Jazz. Yesterday, on the 30th day since I started uploading, the number of collections broke through 10,000. This is a very good achievement among all the books on Hongxiu Tianxiang. Here, Jazz thanks everyone again for their support. Originally, I wanted to update 5,000 words today, but these days my writing time has been extremely scarce, and this week I still have to go out on business for three days, so I can only update a little less, hoping that book friends will forgive me!

  After returning to the Lingyan Pavilion from the Hu Benjun military camp, Fu Su locked himself in his room and began to reflect on his experiences over the past few days. Due to his lack of interest in attending court, Fu Su had Fu go and inform King Qin that he was taking a leave of absence for two consecutive days, which left King Qin and the other officials puzzled, thinking that Fu Su must have been exhausted from working too hard recently.

  On the third day, early in the morning, Fu Su finally appeared on the court with slightly red eyes. As usual, in recent months, except for some minor friction on the Zhao front line, the Great Qin has been mainly focused on accumulating grain and strength. After discussing on the court for half a time, solving some new problems and formulating some new policies, King Ying Zheng was about to order the dismissal of the court, when Fu Su hastily spoke out: "Your Majesty, please wait, I have something to say!"

  The King of Qin nodded and said, "Wang Er, you still look a bit tired! Why not take a few more days' rest?" Fu Su replied respectfully, "Thank you for your concern, Your Majesty. I came today to discuss with you and the ministers my thoughts on the recent inspection of our great Qin army's military preparations and systems. There may be some things that can help our unification efforts."

  "Ah," King Ying Zheng of Qin, who had been listening to this, suddenly lifted his spirits and was clearly very interested. "What suggestions do you have? Speak quickly!" Fu Su nodded and turned to the officials: "The other day, I first went to our Great Qin's Central Arsenal, where everything made me deeply admire and ponder the ingenious ideas of our ancestors, and admire the strict and advanced laws of our Great Qin. But I think there are still some areas for improvement in our Great Qin's weapon production and management regulations!"

  Firstly, let's take arrows as an example. Although the three-edged arrowheads of my Great Qin are stable in flight and have great killing power, they are still not the most perfect weapons. I have two suggestions for improvement: Firstly, equip the arrowhead with a reverse hook, so that when it enters the human body, it can cause massive bleeding and be difficult to pull out and treat; Secondly, carve a blood groove on the arrowhead, so that after the arrow is shot into the human body, it can make the wounded person bleed continuously, and if rescue is not timely, even if the vital organs are not injured, it can still cause death by bleeding.

  Secondly, long swords and spears, halberds, and other weapons can also be equipped with blood grooves at the tip of the blade to enhance their lethality against enemy troops, causing them to bleed profusely and increasing the difficulty of treatment for the enemy.

  Thirdly, I discovered that all the weapons in our Great Qin are basically made by one or two people from start to finish. Although this has the advantage of tracing quality problems after production, it inevitably leads to a problem of low productivity. After all, there are not many first-class craftsmen who can fully master a craft! However, if we divide the manufacturing of a weapon into several parts? Let's take arrow-making as an example. We can divide the manufacture of an arrow into three components: arrowhead, arrow shaft, and arrow fletching. Each component is made by a group of specialized people. After each component is completed, they are assembled into a complete arrow product by another group of people! This way, our Great Qin doesn't need a large number of first-class craftsmen who fully master the entire craft to make arrows. We only need a group of ordinary workers or even slightly trained commoners who specialize in one part of the arrow-making process to complete the task! Moreover, after classification, the craftsmen will become more skilled and efficient in their specialized tasks over time, which will also lead to a significant increase in the overall production speed of arrows. This is equivalent to our Great Qin being able to produce more and better arrows with the same investment of resources and labor within the same timeframe. I call this production method: 'Flow Production'.

  The above three points are your humble servant's foolish opinions, may Your Majesty and all the ministers point out their errors!

  As soon as this was said, the very intelligent and sensitive King of Qin immediately realized that these improvements in armaments and management systems would have a huge impact on the production of armaments in Qin, and he couldn't help but exclaim with joy: "You are indeed worthy of being my most beloved eldest son! You truly have vision. My dear officials, the first two points about improving armaments are quite acceptable, especially that last point called 'flowing water work' management style is particularly effective for promoting the production of armaments in Great Qin!"

  "Your Majesty, I am here!" "You are in charge of all the military manufacturing in our Qin state. What do you think of these three suggestions by Fu Su?" Wei Lü looked at Fu Su and a hint of a smile appeared on his gaunt face. He raised an eyebrow and said with admiration: "Your Majesty, these three suggestions by the young master are all very good, especially the last one. If I'm not mistaken, it could lead to a huge change in our military manufacturing industry!" The Qin king was overjoyed and said: "Good! In that case, I order you to immediately select one or two military manufacturers as test points to try out Fu Su's suggestions. If they are indeed feasible, report back to me quickly. Then we will implement them throughout the country!" "Yes, Your Majesty!"

  King Ying Zheng was in a great mood at this time, and he smiled and asked Fu Su: "Fu Su, do you have any other opinions?" Fu Su nodded and said: "There is one more thing, it's about the military of Qin. I would like to ask Your Majesty to disband all chariot troops and use the saved military expenses to build a large number of cavalry!"

  As soon as this statement came out, the civil and military officials suddenly burst into an uproar, swarming together to discuss it in a flurry of voices. Even the King of Qin furrowed his brow and shook his head. It was clear that the majority of the officials were in favor of Fusu's previous suggestions, but when it came to "reducing chariots and increasing cavalry", they were unanimously opposed. At this point, General Yang Duan stepped forward and said: "Young Master, your words are mistaken! The power of chariot troops on flat plains is boundless, far surpassing that of cavalry. Although cavalry has greater mobility, it can only be used for auxiliary battles such as short-distance raids and surprise attacks on enemy camps. How can we abandon the main force and pursue secondary ones?" It was clear that he did not agree with Fusu's words.

  Fusu smiled and looked at King Qin, saying: "Your Majesty, may I be allowed to explain the reason?" King Qin was also puzzled: Fusu had always performed well in the past and had just been quite sensible, so why did he suddenly say such ignorant words? Hearing Fusu's request, King Qin nodded and said: "Silence! You speak, Prince!"

  All the officials present fell silent, waiting to hear how Fu Su would defend himself. Fu Su turned to Yang Duanhe and smiled: "General Yang, let me ask you, what are the strengths and weaknesses of chariot troops?" Yang Duanhe, also a renowned general of Qin, replied promptly: "The strengths of chariot troops lie in their speed and unstoppable momentum on flat plains, but their weaknesses are that they are expensive to produce, difficult to train, and can only be used on flat terrain, making them unsuitable for mountain warfare!"

  Fu Su nodded and said: "Thank you, General Yang. Fu Su has learned a lot. There is another question, what are the advantages and disadvantages of cavalry compared to chariots?" Yang Duanhe was slightly surprised but still respectfully replied: "Cavalry has more prominent mobility, more flexible adaptability, and lower military expenses; however, it falls short in terms of long-distance raids compared to chariots, and its close combat power is also far inferior to that of chariots!"

  Fu Su laughed and said: "General Yang is indeed worthy of being a famous general of Qin, your explanation is thorough and accurate!" Yang Duanhe saw Fu Su's praise and couldn't help but feel proud, but politely said: "I don't dare, I don't dare, you're overpraising me!" Everyone saw that Fu Su understood clearly, but still had a calm expression, making them wonder what he was thinking. Then they heard Fu Su laugh and say: "But if I could completely change the shortcomings of cavalry, which is weak in close combat and has limited range, and establish a new type of cavalry that combines the mobility, flexibility, and affordability of existing cavalry with the long-range power of chariots, would you gentlemen still oppose abolishing chariots and increasing cavalry?"

  Everyone was shocked and argued with each other, obviously not believing Fusu's words. Fusu's face sank, and he shouted: "Gentlemen, please calm down and listen to Fusu!" For a moment, the dignified and majestic aura emanating from Fusu's stern face made the officials slightly startled, but they quickly calmed down!