It was the 4th year of Shaoping in the Ming Dynasty, the Victorian era in Rome. The Qing Dynasty did not exist, Napoleon did not exist, and the British Empire did not exist.
Daming and Rome, two ancient empires, united in the distant past and ruled the world unstoppably. For the people, this is a peaceful and prosperous age of "having fun with Yan and being drunk and full". As far as the country is concerned, this is a peaceful world where there is no military in the country and all sides are in harmony.
In the old world, the two sides have the Great Wall that runs through the mainland as the hard boundary. But in the New World, the dividing line between the two sides is not so clear.
Between the San Francisco Bay Area of Daming and the Great Lakes Area of Rome, there is a long neutral zone, sometimes called the "Great Plains". There are many deserts and marshes, with different periods of rain and heat, irregular floods and droughts, and often a cold current sweeping across the mainland.
This kind of agricultural hell was not taken seriously in the pre industrial era in the past, and only in recent years has the "Las Vegas" such a large gathering area with a "special" role been created.
San Francisco, San Francisco, is the easternmost metropolis of the Ming Empire.
This land is called "Yangzhou" because it is the first place to bathe in sunshine - according to the Roman rule, it is Americana.
The red bridge flies over the dark blue harbor, where Maya, Mexica and Tawantinsuyuu worship the "Great Pyramid of Dragon God" that is bright day and night. The "Golden Gate Building" with a height of 41 floors and 187 meters in the San Francisco Acropolis is the highlight of the pyramid.
This building, covered with red bricks and topped with blue glazed tiles, is the highest skyscraper in the whole New World and the residence of the Governor's Office of Yangzhou.
At the gate of the Acropolis, the Shang's clock shop. Shangluo sits behind his desk.
The early summer sun shines through the French windows on the golden brass clock in the shop. The golden light diffused on the shell of a clock, making the shop warm yellow. The air is filled with the smell of wood incense and gear oil, which is professional and reassuring.
After soaking a cup of orange peel water, Shangluo is checking today's work schedule. In addition to tangerine peel, the young man has soaked five pieces of Chinese wolfberry, and even plans to soak some more pieces of Yangzhou ginseng.
"Ah, it's another day of peace."
Looking back on his 16 years of life as a craftsman so far, he was very satisfied. Compared with the previous generation, there is no need to work overtime, stay up late, check on work attendance and perform well here. As long as you finish the work assigned by the Imperial Court on time, you can get a stable salary.
The most important thing is that the imperial court is very rich. The imperial court pays very much. Even with the allowance for business trip in Yangzhou, there is a considerable income of 52 liang per month, so you can buy a car.
He was not dissatisfied with anything except that he had to go to Yangzhou with his father, Lao Shang, a few years ago.
Shangluo doesn't actually need to work. Craftsman households are calculated according to the household registration. One person from each household is OK. Moreover, it is not the turn of 16 year old minors to do business. At least 20 year old minors are considered adults - 52 liang a month is not available to everyone, which is the price of old businessmen.
Two months ago, Lao Shang suddenly received a phone call and took the latest military plane to leave, leaving Shangluo alone. Now the main work of Shangluo is to look at the store and do some routine maintenance work.
As an outstanding dropout of the Wutai Mountain Institute in Nanjing, his craftsmanship is quite good. If he did not come to Yangzhou for business trip in the past four years, but continued to study in the teaching institute and the children of other craftsman families until he graduated at the age of 16, most of his craftsmanship could be directly employed as a supervisor by the royal craftsman, and the craftsmanship register of the old merchant was also hung there.
"They are going to graduate soon." Shangluo looked at the ceiling, where the light was still on. It was a precision bulb made by Nanjing Liulichang, and it had never broken down for four years.
The teaching institute is a place for cultivating craftsman families who can produce precision light bulbs. It is also a public school specially set up for the children of craftsman families - correspondingly, there are also teaching institutes in the military families. This is very important, because the identities of the military and craftsman families are only limited to themselves and cannot be passed on to their children, who also have to be tested separately to become new military and craftsman families.
The Wutai Mountain School in Shangluo is more special. It trains military craftsmen there, and the Wutai Mountain School next door, which trains the Forbidden Army, is a fraternal school. Shangluo's father also graduated from there, and now he is sent to the San Francisco Sanitary Station on business. This clock shop, which earns extra money on weekdays, also opens at the gate of the Acropolis.
The shops that earn extra money can only be opened at the gate of the Acropolis. Because the San Francisco Acropolis can only be entered by people from "Gyeonei", that is, two capitals and thirteen provinces. There is no way to do business inside, otherwise he would have to apply for a temporary number plate for each customer who made an appointment.
"Well, I'm almost drunk." He glanced at the work log and arranged for himself to remove and clean the clock. He started work at 12 o'clock in the afternoon and closed the door at 6 o'clock in the afternoon.
This is the way he works. Somehow, since he went to Wutai Mountain Institute, he always felt that he had an unusual "inspiration" when manipulating mechanical parts. As long as he is familiar with each part, the structure of the whole machine will be completely understood, and it seems that the principle of operation from the table to the inside can be exhausted.
Just like a cook can follow the natural law, he doesn't have a complete cow in his eyes, only the bones and muscles of the cow. Just like the oil seller can pour a gourd of oil from the copper coin hole without wetting the copper coin - nothing else, but his hands are familiar.
But he seems to be very familiar with his hands. It seems that the reason why these clock mechanisms work is already in his mind, and he can be familiar with them once he starts. This is why Shangluo was considered to be a craftsman's supervisor at that time. He was really a genius.
After coming to Yangzhou, Shangluo did not continue to teach in the school. But somehow, he could feel that his craftsmanship was getting better, and even vaguely felt that there was something It seems that what can be called "qi" flows between gears.
This may be a grid item, although it is not a grid bamboo. Compared with the dryness of the grid bamboo, the grid alarm clock is quite fun.
At 12 o'clock, the clock in the watch shop chimed in. The mechanical gear, cycloid wheel, oscillator, and the brass movement run in the brass case. The simple and harmonious movement of the mechanical parts plays Beethoven's Ode to Joy.
He put the orange peel water aside and prepared to turn on the desk lamp to fill the light. The warm yellow light in the room is a little dim, so I have to improve the brightness when I work.
Shangluo put his hand on the switch of the desk lamp.
Shangluo toggled the switch.
With a bang, the desk lamp broke, and the overhead light bulb burst. The Seiko bulb, which hasn't broken for 4 years, is now a powder, and the glass residue falls into the teacup.
"Boy... what magic skill have I refined?" He looked at his hands in disbelief. For a long time, he thought that his "inspiration" might be a sense of qi, and he could feel Reiki.
"If it is Reiki, then there should be Reiki root? What kind of Reiki root am I? Lei Linggen is the one who blew the bulb?"
Suddenly, the phone rang. Shangluo, who was planning to repair the thunder method, heard the phone and had to get up to answer it.
Ten seconds later, he put down the phone.
"What's the matter? I thought I could repair immortals. It was the power plant that had an accident. I wondered why the civil power grid was used so quickly, less than 10 years after the invention of the generator. Fortunately, it's free. Otherwise, I won't pay the electricity bill if there is no power supply in two or three days."
This outage is more outrageous than the previous ones. A few times ago, the light went out suddenly. This time, even the bulb burst. Who knows what will be fried next time.
But the call was not an apology. The call was for him to go back to the rescue site - which is why the store was not too far away from the Acropolis. If there is an urgent matter like this, the old businessman can rush there immediately. Although the old merchant was not there, they said they would come and invite people anyway. Shangluo was ready to find another reason to prevaricate when they met.
After a while, an off-road military vehicle stopped at the door.
"Is Mr. Shang there?"
"He's out." Shangluo poked his head out of the inner room. He was far away from the workbench for fear that someone might see him working.
"You are... Ah, you are Mr. Xiao Shang, aren't you? It's said that you have seven skills and an exquisite heart, which is very famous in Wutai Mountain Military Craftsman Training Institute?"
"Well, someone said so."
That was when I was young.
Shangluo remembered that he was sometimes distracted by "natural things", and he was jokingly told by his teacher that he was a "little bikan", because a bikan with "seven skills and exquisite heart" can also communicate with all things in the world.
If there was an alarm clock in Bigan at that time, he could be a level-8 fitter at least if he had a good relationship with the alarm clock by virtue of his talent of "seven skills and exquisite heart".
"Just in time, come with me. If you can fix it, you can make a good record in your resume. We don't know how it works, nor do the old military craftsmen in the guard house. The generator is a new thing, which only came into existence in recent years."
Shangluo wanted to push him away, but the guard soldiers came in and dragged him to the car: "It's OK! Go and have a look! It's OK to blame you!"
With these words, he pushed Shangluo to the back seat. When the off-road vehicle had lost its head, it drove back to the Acropolis and all the way to the power plant in the craftsman's area.
All the way was clear, and the car came to the gate of the computer room. The door was open, and the roar of these machines made his eardrums ache. The steam engine is in normal operation, but the lights in the plant are also off.
It is a tower type high-speed steam engine that has just been invented for two years. It can output strong power at a high speed of 450 rpm. Each cylinder and piston is meticulously built by professionals, even in the whole empire, there are less than 200. The boiler installed in the factory next door is also a high-grade product.
This power plant is the first batch of power plants built in the world in the true sense - electric lights have been widely used before. But like the steam engines in the factory, the buildings using electric lights will also have a small steam engine with a generator to generate electricity.
The power plant here in San Francisco is experimental because it is experimenting with two new technologies: "power grid" and "long-distance transmission". With the power grid, the power supply can be centralized in the power plant, and there is no need for self provided generators in the places where electricity is used. This is a revolutionary new technology, and new technology will naturally cause new problems.
"So the problem is that big guy?"
"No, it's small." The guard pointed to a much smaller machine beside the connecting rod of the steam engine. The red and blue cables are connected from the top to the outside. That is the generator. At this time, the generator is forbidden to move, and a yellow paper charm is pasted on it.
Three old fitters were standing in front of the generator with their backs to the gate and their hands together. On the red bench in front of me were three tins of green cans of Wangzai milk and three cigarettes. The three men bowed to the red bench while reading something.
