Chapter Thirty-two: Drilling and Planing (Seeking Bookmarks)

  Zhang Lei smiled mysteriously, but didn't say what he was going to do in the county. He just said: "You focus on studying well, I've put in so much effort to create this situation, whether it can continue to grow depends on you."

  "Really? You're giving me so much pressure, don't you worry that this pressure will crush me?" Zhang Chen said with a bitter face after hearing it.

  Zhang Lei patted his back and said seriously, "A man's backbone can hold up the sky and calm the earth. If you're scared to death by a science test, what's the point of being a man?"

  Usually Zhang Chen saw this brother was warm and close, but didn't think that he himself would say something to make him so angry, suddenly not daring to joke again, vowed: "Brother, I just said it casually, don't worry, I will definitely advance with great momentum."

  "That's good."

  The two brothers chatted for a while, then Zhang Lei entered the production workshop. The sound of sawing wood filled his ears, and several workers were working with earplugs and masks on. The treatment was pretty good, and Zhang Lei couldn't help but nod in secret approval.

  When Zhang Baosheng was found, he was inspecting the matchboxes made by workers at the gate. These matchboxes were made of very thin wooden strips after a long period of experimentation. Next to him, about twenty workers were busy applying medicine to the matchsticks. Everything seemed to be in order.

  "You're here." Zhang Baosheng said, seeing Zhang Lei, and then lowered his head to continue working.

  Zhang Lei's plan to open up the barren mountain and cultivate sesame and tomatoes was unknown to anyone in the village except himself. At first, he told Zhang Baosheng that he needed to go out for a while, and then left.

  "Hmm, how's work here?" Zhang Lei asked, looking at the bustling scene, Bai Yang's sales technique seemed to be pretty good, at least in the surrounding areas, matches had become widespread.

  Zhang Baosheng stopped the work in his hands, then pulled Zhang Lei into his own room, and only then took out a notebook, saying: "These are my statistics of daily shipments." He didn't recognize several big characters, all of which were simply marked with some numbers, but made into a table form, looking effortless.

  According to the statistics on the table, Zhang Lei was suddenly surprised by Bai Yang's business talent. No wonder he could become the richest man in this area in such a short time. This is not unreasonable at all. In the first month of operation, the output on the first day was only dozens of boxes of matches, let alone promoting them out, and the workers themselves barely got two packs each.

  By the second day, the shipment exceeded one hundred, but Bai Yang still didn't sell them and instead distributed them to the workers as usual.

  At this time, Zhang Baosheng was still selecting some workers to teach the technique of bonding drugs onto matchsticks with adhesives.

  It wasn't until five days later that the number of matches produced was considerable, but all of these matches were given away free of charge to the workers in the factory by Bai Yang.

  Then on the sixth day, because Zhang Baosheng had already taught a batch of people, the production speed was much faster than before. Zhang Baosheng said that by this day, Bai Yang had someone stick the fire sparks, which had been made long ago, onto the matchbox, and a beautiful box of matches was finally completed.

  These well-made matches began to be placed on the shelves by Bai Yang, with his network of relationships. In just one night's time, almost all the shops in the town had this kind of magical thing. Even for a period of time, due to insufficient supply, there was a phenomenon of price gouging.

  As productivity improved, prices quickly stabilized, and Bai Yang kept his promise, with the four characters "Zhangshi Technology" printed on every box of matches. It didn't take long for Zhangshi Technology to become a household name in Xujia Camp.

  After finishing looking at the account book, Zhang Lei calculated it once.

  It seemed that he could get a lot of silver, so he became happy. Just at this time, someone knocked on the door outside, and Zhang Baosheng put away his account book and went out.

  The person knocking on the door was Tang Hongzhi, who was holding an envelope. When he saw Zhang Lei come out, he stuffed the envelope into his hand and said: "I just heard that Boss Zhang is back, so our boss asked me to bring this over to you." Due to the prosperity of the match business, he also started to look at Zhang Lei with new eyes. Just because of this, Bai Yang, who had not personally taken charge for many years, was now busy again.

  "Speak of Cao Cao and Cao Cao arrives." Zhang Lei took over the envelope, glanced at it, and found that it contained a silver ticket, apparently the dividend for the past two months.

  Tang Hongzhi said: "Zhang boss is a good strategist."

  "Huh? What's going on with Tang Guan's family?" This made Zhang Lei pause, then think for a moment, but he couldn't figure out what it meant, so he asked aloud.

  "Never mind, we'll handle this matter. I've said too much already. I have other things to attend to, goodbye."

  "Oh, okay then, you go ahead and be busy." Zhang Lei said with some helplessness.

  The factory gradually became formal, and Zhang Baosheng also transitioned from manual labor to specialized command. Taking advantage of the fact that the tomatoes and castor oil plants on the mountain did not need human care for the time being, Zhang Lei and Zhang Baosheng both rushed back home to prepare medicine. Although there were still many at home now, with such rapid development, it would not be able to sustain itself for much longer.

  During the day, Zhang Lei and Zhang Baosheng were at home preparing medicine, by nightfall,

  Zhang Lei locked himself in the room, obviously, with Zhou Shi's iron shop, Zhang Lei still wanted to have a foothold on the dock, he had to come up with something new to calm the situation.

  Zhou's Iron Workshop, since the production of the transmission cutting machine, the dock has been filled with noise from dawn to dusk. Due to efficiency reasons, most of the work on the dock was taken over by people found by Master Zhou. Others couldn't get any work done and received very little pay, which made everyone feel resentful.

  When the second hand-cranked cutting machine appeared on the dock, this resentment suddenly became a long-accumulated and instantly explosive force. The entire Zhou's iron shop was surrounded by workers, and for several days in a row, Master Zhou really couldn't hold it anymore, until the people pushed all the machines into the sea, which finally calmed their anger.

  "What the hell is this, I've spent so much effort and haven't even made back the interest... Zhang Lei, I'm not done with you!" Master Zhou was furious in his own room, never reflecting on how he had snatched someone else's rice bowl, but instead venting all his resentment on the inventor Zhang Lei.

  Tang Hongzhi's mention of Zhang Laoban's good strategy originated from his anger and frustration, which led him to directly enter the workshop of Bai Yang, where he saw the hand-cranked cutting machine bed that he had personally made. He then started a fight with Zhang Lei, causing trouble until Bai Yang had to intervene to suppress the situation. Tang Hongzhi initially wanted to warn Zhang Lei, but after reconsidering, he became even more suspicious that Zhou Shifu was the one who had plagiarized, so he swallowed his words.

  Of course, Zhang Lei didn't know about this matter, and Zhang Baosheng also didn't know because he wasn't in charge of wood processing. At this moment, Zhang Lei was still in the room, thinking hard about his new invention.

  In front of him, there was a one-foot-high mechanical device that he had made as a model for a drilling machine to drill holes in materials. The power transmission method was still the gear-based incremental method, which proved to be feasible after experimentation. What troubled him was not this, but what was drawn on the blueprint now.

  This is a design drawing of a planer, compared to manual tools, mechanical planers have functions such as improving efficiency and quality. As long as this thing can be made, Zhang Baosheng's woodworking has basically shifted from manual to mechanized.

  But this planer is different from milling machines and drilling machines, which can be achieved with simple gear transmission, while the working surface of the planer is parallel motion, which is completely different from the other two.

  First of all, it's about power and work surface. For now, Zhang Lei can only think of gear transmission, other things like steam engines haven't been considered yet, he hasn't even seen a steam engine in this era, let alone imagine what it looks like.

  In Zhang Lei's design sketch, the work surface can achieve arbitrary wood planing and bevel cutting within a certain width range, which requires a series of mechanical assistance, making him very headache.

  Firstly, he must design two sets of sliding gear groups as a transmission mechanism to meet various speed requirements.

  Then, the power of the sliding gear group is transmitted through the connecting rod mechanism to drive the slider to make reciprocating linear motion after a series of force changes.

  Secondly, it is the mechanism for adjusting the position of the journey. In order to maximize the automation of the machine, this must be done, and this is also the most difficult part of the entire machine. How to make the power generated by the pulley group that makes circular motion act on a plane, which made Zhang Lei rack his brains.

  More than a month has passed, and I don't know how many models I've made or how many drawings I've drawn. If it weren't for the money I earned from selling matches, Zhang Lei estimated that even the cost of buying paper would be enough to bankrupt himself.

  After countless trials, Zhang Lei finally drew out the blueprint and made a micro movable model, which was a relief.

  This was also the day when Zhang Lei's experiment was a success. He organized all his drawings, and then, except for the most complete set of drawings, he transported all the others to the courtyard to burn them. After finishing this work, he changed into new clothes, tidied himself up, hired a horse-drawn carriage, and went to where Zhang Chen was studying. Time passed quickly, and before he knew it, the first exam in Zhang Chen's life had arrived.

  Zhang Lei hired a horse-drawn carriage and came to the college, picked up Zhang Chen and headed to the examination place.

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