Ch.143Origin Point (7)

“Is what I heard true?”

“Yes. This is the report from the armory.”

I widened my eyes at this.

Then I looked at the document Elunka handed me.

“…”

“I was also quite shocked when I first saw it.”

The reason Elunka and I were surprised was simple.

The production capacity of the armory had suddenly increased exponentially.

This was the medieval era.

Even with labor-intensive work, it was difficult to achieve the tremendous production capacity of modern factories.

Still, it was more efficient than conventional workshops.

So, based on the fact that a typical workshop could produce five swords per day, I had established a large armory with multiple workshops to concentrate the workforce.

With this concentration of labor, I thought the armory could produce at least 20 or 25 swords per day.

However, contrary to my expectations, the armory was boasting an incredible production capacity of 100 swords per day.

Of course, compared to modern factory production, this amount was woefully insufficient.

But considering the era, this level of production nearly surpassed that of the Song Dynasty.

This was, of course, strictly a comparison with a single armory.

So when compared to all the armories of the Song Dynasty combined, there was a huge difference in quantity.

As I’ve mentioned repeatedly, nations that surpassed the Song Dynasty’s production capacity in this era were few and far between.

In such circumstances, it was astonishing that even a single recently established armory was showing production volumes slightly exceeding those of the Song Dynasty.

“I need to see for myself what’s happening.”

I said this as I rose to my feet.

Elunka and Munglig followed behind me.

We rode horses to a village not far from Qara-Ordo.

The entire village was an artificially created collective settlement made up of artisans.

Upon arrival, Cheolreuk and Michael came out to greet me, having heard of my visit.

“We greet the Khagan.”

“We greet the Great One.”

I raised my hand in response to their greetings and dismounted.

Then I looked at Cheolreuk and asked a question.

“I heard reports that the armory’s production capacity has increased. Is this true?”

“Yes, Khagan.”

Despite Cheolreuk’s words, which contained not a hint of falsehood, I couldn’t hide my skeptical gaze.

As I’ve mentioned repeatedly, the armory had only recently been established. It didn’t make sense that such a new armory could suddenly increase its production capacity through innovation.

Therefore, I could only think of one possibility.

“I want to check the quality of the swords.”

There were various ways to increase production.

Among the methods to reduce time and cost while increasing productivity, the easiest and most convenient way was to increase the defect rate.

One might wonder what increasing defects has to do with increasing productivity.

But thinking about it intuitively, it was easy to understand. You could simply ignore defects and focus on increasing the number of swords without careful inspection.

In modern times, this would immediately make headlines.

But in the medieval era, such defects weren’t considered a major problem.

So I intended to check the quality of the swords myself.

“This way, please.”

As if reading my thoughts, Cheolreuk and Michael guided me inside.

There, swords that had been produced were laid out.

“These are swords that were just produced.”

This meant they weren’t specially selected swords prepared to deceive me.

However, I couldn’t simply take their word for it.

So I planned to examine the quality of the swords in front of me and then randomly select one from those that would soon be produced and brought here.

Such random quality checks couldn’t represent the quality of all the swords.

But I couldn’t sit here and check the quality of every single sword either.

So I had to compromise like this.

Anyway, with these thoughts in mind, I looked at the sword placed before me.

Then I spoke to Cheolreuk.

“I’ll inspect that sword at the end.”

The sword placed in front of me might have been one that Cheolreuk had prepared in advance.

So I introduced this variable.

It was like a division commander checking military supplies but choosing something other than what had been prepared in advance.

Cheolreuk immediately brought me the sword.

I examined it carefully and then handed it to Munglig.

“Cut the stone in front of the armory with this sword.”

Munglig bowed and stood in front of the rock.

Then he brought the sword down.

“Haap!”

As the sword came down like lightning from Munglig’s hand, the stone split in half.

Having confirmed its hardness, I beckoned Munglig with my hand.

Munglig returned and gave the sword back to me.

I wiped the blade with a piece of dry leather from my waist.

Only fine iron powder stuck to the leather; nothing else came off.

And to the naked eye, the blade hadn’t bent or twisted.

It was a perfect sword.

I checked several more swords afterward.

After examining them, I found only one defect among 10 swords.

When the defect was discovered, Cheolreuk and Michael bowed and apologized.

“We confess our fault to the Khagan.”

“Please punish us.”

I raised the two of them up.

And instead, I praised them.

“You’ve accomplished something incredible. Why would I punish artisans who have achieved such outstanding results?”

One defect out of 10 was a good defect rate considering the era.

Of course, to know this probability in detail, it would be appropriate to examine about 100 samples.

I didn’t have the luxury of sitting here and testing 100 swords.

So I checked 10, and since one was defective, I could simply consider it a 10 percent defect rate.

When a skilled artisan made five swords, two or three of them would be defective.

Of course, these were minor defects that could be overlooked, but considering such defects, 10 percent was quite a low figure.

Simply put, if 100 swords were made in a day, 10 would be defective.

This meant that in about 50 days, 4,500 non-defective swords would be produced.

With 4,500 swords, four Mingan units and five Jagun units could be armed.

A Mongol cavalry of 4,500 men armed in this way would be more than sufficient to annex the small nations remaining in Tibet.

In any case, the key point was this:

The Ulus now had an armory on par with the Song Dynasty.

So there was no reason to punish Cheolreuk and Michael.

Rather, they should be rewarded to encourage them to continue their good work.

“I will reward you and your artisans.”

“Thank you, Khagan.”

“We are grateful for the Khagan’s boundless grace.”

In modern terms, it was as if the chairman of a group had appeared.

It was like the chairman checking the performance and giving bonuses to encourage it.

So it was only natural that Cheolreuk, Michael, and the artisans were pleased.

I was truly happy to see the joyful faces of these two men.

Moreover, this money wasn’t coming from the Ulus or from my own pocket.

It was money extorted from the Jin Dynasty.

That made me even happier.

* * *

As vast sums of money flowed into the armory, people naturally began to gather around.

This was because the artisans earned a lot of money but couldn’t leave the village due to their work.

Therefore, merchants from all over the Ulus settled on the outskirts of the artisan village to make it easier for them to spend their money.

“Selling cheap! Rare items brought from the Song Dynasty!”

“Precious clothes from the Western Regions!”

“We also have perfumes and myrrh!”

As merchants brought goods, the women who managed the households on behalf of the artisans began to spend money.

They had the mindset that money could always be earned again.

The artisans’ spending habits were quite extraordinary.

Thanks to this, commerce developed around the artisan village.

As commerce developed, people naturally gathered.

“I heard there’s a department in the armory that makes unusual items.”

“Where did you hear that?”

“My relative is an artisan at the armory. And didn’t you see the technical competition last time?”

“Technical competition… Ah! That’s right. There were categories for close combat weapons, throwing weapons, and free subjects.”

The competition hosted by Gurkhan had three categories.

Since all the artisans who participated in this competition were at the armory, naturally those who won in the free subject category also lived in the artisan village.

“I saw that the Hui technician who made the pulley is making something unusual this time.”

“Something unusual… Could it be something like the still that Song Dynasty merchants are so eager to learn about?”

In trade between the Ulus and the Song Dynasty, the Ulus’s main trade item was none other than distilled liquor.

Since the Song Dynasty was a country where rice was abundant, the price of rice wine was also cheap.

However, the Ulus didn’t grow grains well.

So they were buying cheap rice wine from the Song Dynasty, processing it, and selling it back to the Song Dynasty for profit.

As a result, Song Dynasty merchants wanted to learn the Ulus’s distillation techniques.

However, this distillation technology was protected by the Ulus.

So the technology had not yet leaked to the Song Dynasty.

Of course, over time, the technology would inevitably leak.

But since this technology was created by the Hui people, whom the Han people looked down upon, it would take time for this technology to settle in the Song Dynasty.

Anyway, the Ulus had distillation technology that the Song Dynasty didn’t possess.

Since a Hui technician had such technology, people thought that this Hui technician would create a new item this time as well.

“It must be something profitable?”

“Of course it will be. Wasn’t he the winner of the technical competition last time?”

Thus, men were expecting the new technology to be profitable.

This expectation was a kind of desire.

In the medieval era, desire was condemned regardless of whether it was in the East or the West.

But in present-day Mongolia, that wasn’t the case.

There were more people who weren’t afraid of new things and rather tried to notice them first to gain an advantage.

The Ulus was full of people with the desire to seek opportunities.

A society with many such people would inevitably move faster due to the influence of its members.

That change was making the Ulus stronger.