On the fourth day of May, King Joao IV stood in the workshop of the Fanjiazhuang state-owned bicycle factory, his eyes wide open.
"This...this is impossible!"
Surprise is no longer enough to describe the mood of John IV. If I had to find one word to describe the mood of the Portuguese king, it would be shock.
Downright terrifying.
In Europe, industrial production at this time was still at the stage of handicraft workshops. Whether it was the production of consumer goods such as glass mirrors, or the production of military products such as matchlocks and flintlock guns, all craftsmen worked in their own small workshops.
Fire after fire was burned out, and hammer after hammer was struck out.
In Europe, machines are still very simple, and machine tools are only used in a few industries. For example, watchmakers in Switzerland and cannon boring machines in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. But overall, machines are still in a very primitive state, and the most complex machines do not exceed ten
Several parts.
This level of handicraft industry has made Europeans very proud. With the support of this handicraft industry, Europeans rampaged across four oceans and six continents, enslaving all the indigenous people they encountered, and considered themselves the masters of the world.
So when João IV saw Li Zhi's bicycle factory, his entire world view was suddenly shattered.
If the various things he saw along the way had a visual impact on the Portuguese king, then when he actually stood in the bicycle factory, João IV truly understood the core strength of Tianjin Town.
However, when facing this power in person, the Portuguese realized how powerful and terrifying this power was.
The entire factory is built in a huge factory building, with a huge steam engine in the middle. The steam engine is as tall as two people, and the flames in its belly are burning. The power brought by the flames is continuously ejected from the steam engine.
, driving the flow of an assembly line in the factory.
The main body of the assembly line is a rotating and moving rail, which is as tall as a person. Driven by the steam engine, the rail moves inside a frame composed of steel shelves, bringing the semi-finished products hanging on the rail to the workers standing on both sides of the rail.
Behind the assembly line workers were placed the finished parts. When installing the parts on the bicycle rack, the workers did not need to turn around. They just stretched their hands back to grab a part.
Each worker is only responsible for his own process and is extremely skilled in the operation. It doesn't take these workers twenty seconds to screw a wheel on a bicycle rack. The movements of their hands are done in one go, which made João IV widen his eyes.
eyes.
A worker puts a chain on the axle, prying and pulling with the tool in his hand, and it only takes a few seconds to install a chain.
When the bicycle was lifted out from the east, it was just a bare frame. After he walked around the factory, it had turned into a complete bicycle.
If such a bicycle is assembled from start to finish by a skilled craftsman, it may take several hours. No matter how skilled the craftsman is, the number of operations on a single procedure is limited, and his efficiency is also very limited. The assembly line system
Individual processes are assigned to individual craftsmen, who each perform the individual processes tens of thousands of times.
After repeating a single action so many times, these craftsmen's proficiency in a single process has reached an astonishing level.
There were no factories in Europe at this time, but Fanjiazhuang not only had a factory, but the assembly line of the factory had reached the level of the early twentieth century.
This is a productivity that Europeans have never imagined.
João IV opened his mouth wide as he watched bicycles being produced one after another and placed in the finished product area at the far west of the factory. The entire factory assembly line was like a huge machine, constantly spitting out industrial products.
Cai Huaishui smiled and said: "Your Majesty, this is entirely possible. This is the most ordinary Fanjiazhuang factory."
Portuguese Foreign Minister Alves also looked horrified. He could not imagine how many weapons such an assembly line could produce in a year if it were used to produce military products.
Raphael didn't know what he thought of, and his face turned pale.
It took a long time for John IV to recover from the shock.
"Dear General Manager, are all the products in one town and nine provinces, including military products, produced in this way?"
Cai Huaishui nodded and said: "That's right, Your Highness. The reason why we can ship standard rifles to Portugal in batches and have all Portuguese men have a standard rifle in just one year is because our factories all use
Assembly lines produce weapons. Our production capacity is extremely high."
When John IV heard this, he took a breath, and then sighed again.
He shook his head and was speechless. The impact of this assembly line, which was three hundred years ahead of its time, was too strong.
Cai Huaishui smiled and said, "Let's go take a look at the machine tools in the back."
John IV followed Cai Huaishui into the second large workshop. As far as the eye could see in this large workshop, there were huge machine tools everywhere.
Those machine tools include lathes, grinders, boring machines, punch machines, and broaching machines.
Of course, these were Li Zhi’s classifications. João IV could not understand these classifications at all. João IV only saw complex machines two people high placed in the workshop, with pieces of steel ingots and steel plates being inserted into the machines.
. Then you hear a rumbling sound or a sharp friction sound, fire is flying, and various shaped steel parts are being made.
Some 8-shaped iron bars were put into the grinder by the lathe and polished. The grinding disc on the grinder rotated at high speed. As soon as the iron bars were put on, sparks like fireworks flew out. Then in just one or two breaths, the iron bars were
The burrs were removed and thrown into the display box next to it.
In a small punch machine, the worker places the polished 8-shaped round iron bars in the punch slot and arranges them one by one. Then he steps on the punch pedal, and the punch presses down with a click, pressing the chain together.
.
John IV stood aside and looked at it for a while, and found that the seemingly exquisite bicycle chain did not take the workers much time from beginning to end.
No more than five minutes.
A larger punch press is specifically responsible for producing the outer shell of the chain. A one-meter-long iron plate is put in, and with a click, a pipa-shaped iron shell comes out.
Raphael stared at the huge machine tools with his eyes wide open, as if he was seeing a devil, his eyes filled with disbelief.
Incredible!
Unable to understand!
You must know that this was in the seventeenth century, and European craftsmen were still polishing gun barrels bit by bit with hand drills.
John IV's face was also a little pale.
He stood next to a boring machine and watched for a long time, watching the originally rough iron pipe being bored extremely smooth and turned into a qualified bicycle frame.
The King of Portugal couldn't help but make a cross on his chest and said with emotion: "Lord, is this the power of the machine? It is simply more powerful than the devil."
He finally came back to his senses and asked Cai Huaishui: "Your Excellency, Chief Manager, Portugal also hopes to improve its handicraft industry. Are you willing to sell these machines to us?"
Cai Huaishui laughed loudly when he heard this.
Shaking his head, Cai Huaishui said: "Your Majesty, we sell bicycles, but we do not sell these machine tools."
King João IV sighed when he heard this. He touched the shell of the boring machine with great reluctance.
