Horsepower

The birth of the inline-three-cylinder spiritual qi engine was fully worthy of the karmic luck it brought forth. Almost in a single instant, Wei Yuan thought of hundreds of uses for it, while Yu Zhizhuo had already prepared a document listing dozens of industries where it could be applied immediately. The power of this spiritual qi engine was tremendous. According to Qingming's newly established standards, this prototype engine had a maximum power output of fifty horsepower. In Qingming, horsepower did not refer to the physical strength of ordinary mortal horses, but rather the average maximum power output of the most ordinary early Mortal Tier Dao Foundation cultivator. Yu Zhizhuo had organized hundreds of natural cultivators and five thousand template cultivators to conduct repeated tests, subsequently filtering and optimizing the data to arrive at this fundamental unit of power: horsepower. An ordinary early Dharma Idol cultivator typically struck with a force of roughly forty to fifty horsepower. Three middle Heaven Foundation Dao Foundation disciples, measured by Sky Azure Hall's merit point standards, should normally yield twenty-four horsepower. Yet sitting inside this engine, they could output fifty horsepower—and sustain that output for an entire two hours. If operated at an economical output of twenty horsepower, it could run for a whole day. From this engine, Wei Yuan instantly saw the direction of future development: improving the efficiency of spiritual qi utilization per unit. Most cultivators possessed only vague, inconsistent notions regarding quantities of spiritual qi. Dao Foundation patriarchs across various regions often referred to it loosely in terms of a "mouthful of spiritual qi" or "two mouthfuls of spiritual qi." The Palace of Grand Beginning's utilization of spiritual qi was naturally far more sophisticated. If its formation designs were not ranked first in the cultivation world, they were solidly within the top three, and no one dared claim to be clearly superior to the Palace of Grand Beginning. Even so, the Wind Manipulation Formation handed down through the ages was utterly defeated in efficiency when set before this spiritual qi engine. The marriage of formation arrays and mechanical mechanisms was surprisingly efficient. Yu Zhizhuo shut down the engine and let Wei Yuan examine it thoroughly, inside and out. The two then walked into the workshop, where Yu Zhizhuo showed Wei Yuan the blueprints and explained the core design philosophy. That explanation took most of the day. The core mechanism of the engine was extraordinarily complex, far exceeding Wei Yuan's expectations. To stably convert spiritual qi into mechanical energy, dozens of nested formation layers and nearly a thousand mechanical components were employed. Certain parts were exceedingly delicate and intricate. Inside an assembled palm-sized control box lay four tiers of three-dimensional formation arrays and over a hundred components. Had Yu Zhizhuo not explained it, Wei Yuan feared that even if he took it apart himself, he would never be able to reassemble it. Where to deploy the spiritual qi engine next was the crux of the matter. Wei Yuan weighed the needs of various fields; the most pressing priority at hand was textile mills. Among the four necessities of life—clothing, food, shelter, and transportation—Wei Yuan had largely resolved the food issue and was already progressing toward eating well. Shelter was more than half resolved in its most fundamental form; several million people had moved into multi-story buildings, though most lived in the drafty Towers of Yuan. Clothing, however, was far from being resolved. At present, Qingming's machine brocade had swept across Jin and Zhao. The brocade-weaving industry of Ningxi's eight commanderies had been battered into utter ruin, leaving only a handful of aging artisans struggling to survive. Zhao's brocade industry had never been large to begin with, and Wei Yuan had uprooted it completely. Across more than a dozen commanderies in both nations, farmland was progressively being converted from rice paddy to mulberry fields, already totaling over ten million mu. Of this, ice mulberry accounted for nearly a million mu. Nearly all these raw materials were purchased by Qingming, transformed into machine brocade, and steadily shipped back out. Brocade was exclusive to wealthy households; what Wei Yuan intended to mass-produce this time was cotton cloth. Qingming had developed cotton textiles for several years, but the industry had never expanded on a large scale, merely meeting internal fabric demands within the domain. Textile mills were also within Yu Zhizhuo's plans, and he had already researched the subject. Using a spiritual qi engine as a power source, a single engine could drive two hundred looms, driving the processing cost of cotton cloth down to an unimaginable degree. As production scaled up and the costs of factory buildings and looms were amortized, they would become practically negligible. Yu Zhizhuo estimated that in the initial stage, the cost of a bolt of cotton cloth would be half the market price. Once scaled up to over a thousand looms, the cost would drop to ten percent of the current market price. Moreover, its texture would vastly surpass homespun cloth, its wear resistance would be double, and its smoothness and luster would not even be in the same league. Yet while Qingming's machine-woven cloth was of fine quality, the problem was that outside Qingming, a market for cotton cloth simply did not exist. Cotton cloth was inexpensive, but farming households everywhere could weave a bit of homespun cloth themselves. Furthermore, the common folk of the surrounding nations were far too impoverished—so poor that they could not even afford a bolt of cotton cloth costing a few taels of mortal silver. It was by no means uncommon for a single quilt or pair of padded trousers to be handed down through several generations. The common folk of these nations did not care whether cotton cloth was of good or bad quality; homespun cloth served just as well, and weaving it themselves cost nothing. Fortunately, over the past two years, Wei Yuan had used his title as Grand Minister of Military Strategy for the South to scour the five southwestern commanderies, practically scraping the land bare to spirit away seventeen million people. Thirty to forty percent of each commandery's population had been swept off by Wei Yuan. Once these people arrived in Qingming, they would gradually acquire money and need clothing. To tell the truth, while Yu Zhizhuo did not oppose Wei Yuan's decision, he was somewhat puzzled by it. He could not quite understand why Wei Yuan was so single-mindedly devoted to improving the quality of life for Qingming's mortals. In his eyes, the people in Qingming were already living well enough. Looking across the entire world, where else could one find a place like Qingming? There were countless areas requiring spiritual qi engines, yet engine production was severely limited. Allocating them to textile mills meant putting other industries on the back burner. Yet Wei Yuan could not explain that this move was also for the sake of human fortune. Only with human fortune would there be room to struggle and resist when facing the immortals looming overhead. Beyond internal demand, Wei Yuan also prepared to tap into a massive market: military uniforms. Qingming's military was growing ever larger; military uniforms and bedding alone created immense demand for high-quality fabric. Moreover, Wei Yuan had his sights set on Prince Ying's Northern Army—that meant 1.5 million troops, plus nine million dependents in military farming colonies. The Zhao army likewise needed military uniforms; how much could be sold would simply depend on Li Chengfeng. And there was another practically bottomless market: the Shamans. Once the textile mills were built, Wei Yuan planned to memorialize the King of Jin, proposing that part of the military stipends be disbursed in the form of military cotton cloth produced by Qingming and delivered directly into the hands of Prince Ying's Northern Army. If that happened, the Minister of War would surely be infuriated enough to curse his mother, but Wei Yuan did not fear him. If they could not win an argument in the imperial hall, they could always come to blows. Wei Yuan was no longer the youthful lad who had first entered the imperial court; nowadays, even if all the ministers of the Six Ministries were tied together, they would not be enough for Wei Yuan to beat. Still, brawling in the throne room was rather unbecoming and would inevitably leave him branded in the history books as a savage brute. Subduing the enemy without fighting was naturally the best outcome. Thus, a particular phrase involuntarily surfaced in Wei Yuan's mind: attending court wearing shoes and bearing a sword? Beyond the cotton textile industry, Wei Yuan identified another key area of application: cargo airships and heavy transport carriages. This was primarily considered for military logistical needs. When Qingming fought wars now, the required logistical supplies had reached astronomical figures. The transport volume required for various ammunition and artillery had far outstripped traditional grain and fodder. Roughly speaking, when a soldier set off on campaign, his monthly consumption of various supplies could reach as much as several hundred jin. Only with sufficient supplies could there be combat effectiveness. There was also immense demand for spiritual qi engines in metallurgy and mining. Wei Yuan and Yu Zhizhuo discussed the matter in detail, and after several days, they finally arrived at a rough agenda. Ranked first among them were large cargo airships. As long as the problem of long-distance transport of supplies could be solved, Wei Yuan could project military force abroad. Afterward, Wei Yuan wrote another letter to Li Chengfeng. Upon receiving the letter, Li Chengfeng braced himself the next day during the imperial audience, stepped forward from the ranks, and memorialized: "Presently, the Bishui domain holds a population of five hundred thousand, far removed from Great Zhao's homeland, making travel back and forth exceedingly inconvenient. Your subject and son requests the construction of an imperial highway between Bishui and the Zhao border to facilitate military movements!"