Knock, knock, knock—
"My Lord, my proposal is ready."
Arthur, who was sleeping, heard someone knocking and calling him. After crawling out of bed, he was surprised to find 'Shorty' Weiss entering.
"Where have you been these past two days?" Arthur rubbed his sleepy eyes and glanced at the dim sky outside the window. "I haven't seen a shadow of you."
"Following your orders, I went to think about the proposal for the 100,000 Gold Dragons." Weiss waved the papers in his hand, a rare look of pride on his wooden face.
"Am I still dreaming?"
Arthur muttered subconsciously. With Weiss's help, he got up, dressed, and washed.
"Really? You wrote this proposal?" While waiting for the servants to prepare breakfast, Arthur scanned the content on the paper, his face full of astonishment.
"Impressive, Weiss. A scholar who has been away for three days must be looked at with new eyes. I didn't expect you to think of so much."
Weiss's plan was related to the ranking system he had created for the Peach-mark and Black Mamba swordsmen.
Weiss intended to go a step further and create a Black Mamba Swordsman Guild.
Establish a swordsmanship ranking assessment to determine a swordsman's strength and charge fees for the assessment.
Organize Black Mamba swordsmen within the guild to teach sword techniques, taking a commission from the students' tuition.
Assign various tasks to registered swordsmen, taking a commission from the rewards.
Host swordsmanship tournaments to expand the guild's influence and boost its reputation.
"I came up with this after discussing it with Zaren and Pate." Weiss scratched his head, a bit embarrassed.
"Most of the ideas are theirs."
"Being able to humbly accept excellent suggestions from others is a talent in itself." Arthur patted Weiss on the shoulder approvingly.
"In layman's terms: listen to advice, eat a full meal."
From a certain perspective, Weiss's unthinking, absolute execution was indeed terrifying.
Over the next two days, Kojja Mo, Victar, and Pate also submitted their proposals and suggestions.
"I mentioned my idea to you before. I want to establish a blacksmith district. This would save a lot of trouble."
Kojja Mo followed Arthur, who was inspecting the new smithy, counting the benefits of a blacksmith district on his fingers:
"No need to deal with noise complaints from hammering. We can arrange forging times more freely.
"Smiths can exchange experience, raw material transport is more convenient, and it's more attractive to customers looking to buy..."
Arthur listened while observing the work of the smiths and apprentices. He hadn't visited the new smithy in a long time. He had only given general instructions on developing standardized production and left the management to Kojja Mo.
Listening to Kojja Mo's suggestions, Arthur passed through the smithy to the inner courtyard. Compared to the ceaseless hammering inside, it was quieter here.
There were two rows of shelves in the courtyard, stocked with a full range of items: slender and sharp Black Mamba swords, Peach-mark swords, ornately decorated Captain's swords, Apprentice Captain's swords.
Chainmail, various helmets, protective gear, all kinds of iron tools, farming implements, even small items like horseshoes, spurs, and nails were categorized and displayed.
"These are the display samples of various iron goods you ordered."
"The smiths will forge standardized items according to these samples. Customers can get a more intuitive understanding of the smithy's products based on the samples, making purchasing easier."
Kojja Mo pointed to three people working beside the shelves. "Products from the smithy undergo quality inspection by these experienced master smiths before being stored or delivered."
Arthur nodded to the three inspectors verifying the goods, then was drawn to a familiar item on the shelf. "Is this... the vernier caliper I told you about? You made it already?"
Kojja Mo said with praise, "It's not complex, but very useful. With it, we can measure more accurately. It's a huge help."
Besides the vernier caliper, there were various other measuring tools on the shelf: soft tape measures, iron rulers with marked scales, compasses, and measuring cups of different sizes.
"You said we needed standardized forging and unified weights and measures for the smithy. These measuring tools are indispensable."
"I didn't expect you to actually make them all." Arthur clicked his tongue, looking at the familiar yet strange items on the shelf.
Kojja Mo smiled proudly. "Not just these. Follow me."
Arthur followed Kojja Mo to a side room. Kojja pushed the door open.
Inside sat a young boy, carefully drawing on parchment with a ruler.
"Is this... a three-view drawing with dimensions and a process flow chart?"
Arthur scanned the three-view drawing of a suit of armor on the table, along with the manufacturing process and steps described below.
Memories long sealed away were awakened, and Arthur couldn't hold back. "You even came up with this? Are... are you working on your graduation thesis?"
"Graduation thesis... what is that?" Kojja Mo was confused, then said:
"Isn't this the standardized forging you talked about?"
"Later, we can train apprentices based on these drawings. However, most of them are illiterate, so the drawings aren't very useful yet. Implementation is a bit difficult."
"You've done well enough!"
Arthur patted Kojja Mo's shoulder in admiration. If he had managed to implement even this fully...
Arthur would have suspected the Summer Islander had a system like him.
Kojja Mo handed the prepared budget proposal to Arthur and asked expectantly, "So about establishing the blacksmith district?"
"It's doable. After I collect everyone else's proposals, I'll consolidate them." Arthur flipped through the proposal.
" regarding the location, still close to a river for easy access to raw materials as you said before?"
Kojja Mo: "Yes. I told you the reason."
Arthur knew Kojja Mo wanted the district near a river to build a device he called a trip hammer.
The trip hammer could be driven by a water wheel. A simple rotating cam would lift the hammer and then let it fall naturally at a steady rhythm.
It was similar to a hydraulic drop hammer. If it worked as Kojja Mo described, it would save immense manpower and shorten forging time.
That evening, Arthur summarized Kojja Mo's proposals and suggestions.
Besides iron goods, the blacksmith district could expand into other avenues, such as crafting gold and silver crafts, jewelry, cutlery, cups, etc.
Other trades like carpentry, stonemasonry, leatherworking, and shipbuilding could also be centralized and developed according to this standardized production model.
As for the location of the blacksmith district, Arthur already had an idea in mind: the seat of House Dayne, Starfall, where he was heading soon.
Starfall was located on an island in the Torentine river mouth, where it flowed into the Summer Sea, west of the Red Mountains in Dorne.
Arthur didn't know if the Red Mountains were rich in minerals, but rumors said silver mines had been found there.
Since the Red Mountains bordered the Reach, deep forests and old woods meant timber shouldn't be scarce either.