Chapter 225
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Chapter 225: Bronze Age
Upon completion of the trade, Ye Qingxuan considerately sent over the cultivation experience for the vegetables and fruits, along with the breeding experience for the chickens and ducks, saving Luo Ji a lot of trouble.
After some deliberation, Luo Ji decided not to separate crop cultivation and poultry farming.
Just as the Armament Department was divided into three different sub-departments: Research, Forging, and Production.
Luo Ji, with a stroke of his pen, directly renamed the Agronomy Department to the Agriculture Department, and further divided the Agriculture Department internally into Crop Cultivation and Animal Husbandry, making the division of labor and meaning quite clear.
This wasn’t a major reorganization, it basically just involved reallocating personnel.
The entire reorganization was completed within a day.
As for the newly acquired medicinal herbs, they were, without a doubt, all precious resources, enough to keep the research fanatics in the Medicinal Research Department busy for quite some time.
Incidentally, as medicine was an important industry within the civilization, the medical department was also quite large.
It was generally divided into the Medical Research Department responsible for studying illnesses and the properties of medicinal materials, the Hospital responsible for diagnosis and dispensing medicine, and the Medicinal Garden responsible for cultivating medicinal herbs.
Each department was equipped with professional talent.
For example, the people responsible for cultivating medicinal herbs in the Medicinal Garden were all professional herbalists familiar with the properties of various herbs, and ordinary farmers wouldn’t suffice.
It truly was fortunate that he had previously annexed the civilizations of two players.
Although no particularly top-tier talents were discovered, there were quite a few excellent ones.
After quickly issuing these orders, the Armament Forging Department officially began its work.
The blacksmiths in the Forging Department were already very familiar with the techniques of smelting and refining metal ores.
The most important thing now was probably grasping the correct proportions of ‘copper’ and ‘tin’ ores.
Luo Ji directly told the blacksmiths the optimal ratio.
With such thorough preparation, there was simply no possibility of failure!
Then, with the completion of the first bronze battle axe, a system notification sounded in Luo Ji’s mind…
[System notification: Congratulations to player ‘Luo Ji’ for successfully advancing their civilization to the ‘Bronze Age.’]
[System notification: Since your points have not met the requirements for tier advancement, but your civilization has officially entered the ‘Bronze Age’, you will be allowed to remain in this tier for a maximum of one month based on neutral territory time. After one month, you will be forcibly promoted to the ‘Bronze Tier.’ Please prepare yourself mentally in advance.]
The expected system notification sounded in his mind.
Although this was entirely within his expectations, Luo Ji still took a deep breath.
Then he spoke.
“From today onwards, all blacksmiths in the Forging Department will fully dedicate themselves to producing bronze weapons.”
“The blacksmith who ultimately forges the most bronze weapons of the best quality will be rewarded with 100 copper coins.”
“The second place will receive 80 copper coins, and the third place will receive 60 copper coins, and so on!”
“However, if a final inspection reveals anyone daring to cut corners, they will be expelled from the Forging Department and never rehired!”
Many people might think that the emergence of currency would make an entire society complex, bring about selfish desires, and even lead to scheming for profit.
However, in reality, this was inevitable.
Once everyone was well-fed and clothed, you still had to give them some motivation to work hard.
Money was clearly that motivation.
The harder you worked, the more money you earned.
If you earned more money, you could upgrade from having salted vegetables and steamed buns for three meals a day to eating meat every meal.
You could also move from your dilapidated tent to a cool and comfortable wooden house.
Therefore, as the supreme ruler of a civilization, Luo Ji didn’t care at all if his subordinates had selfish desires.
There’s a good saying, “Water that is too clear has no fish, and a man too discerning has no followers.”
If past emperors had truly investigated every single official under them thoroughly, probably half of them would have to be executed.
In other words, as long as you are loyal to me and have sufficiently outstanding work ability, handling everything I entrust to you perfectly and beautifully!
If you meet my requirements, and then you embezzle a dozen copper coins from a thousand copper coins of funds or profit, would I care?
There’s no need to care at all.
What if I turn a blind eye to you?
And how did those corrupt officials who had their homes confiscated throughout history come about?
Their mistake was not understanding the proper limits.
Rulers and emperors, they are the bosses, and the officials below are the employees.
It’s fine for the boss to eat meat and the employee to drink some broth.
But if it’s reversed, if you chew the meat yourself and then serve the boss a bowl of clear soup, then you’re asking for death.
Luo Ji’s words clearly gave the blacksmiths of the Armament Forging Department a powerful shot in the arm.
Each of them was excited, as if they had been injected with adrenaline.
As blacksmiths who forged military equipment, they were considered high-income earners in the tribe, but 100 copper coins was still worth several months of their salary!
How could they not be excited?
Returning to his office, Luo Ji didn’t idle either.
He needed to adjust the time flow rate to gain more time for himself!
The default time flow rate in his world was 1:10.
After this, whether he sped it up or slowed it down, it would cost corresponding civilization points.
Luo Ji didn’t dare to adjust it too drastically, or he would go bankrupt in minutes.
There were many places where civilization points were needed, such as military expenses for expeditions.
If he brought his triple-bow bed crossbows, a single expedition could burn tens of thousands of civilization points in military expenses.
Therefore, he had to manage this balance carefully.
If he accidentally messed up and found himself without military funds for an expedition when he needed to launch a counterattack, that would be truly tragic.
After careful calculation, Luo Ji adjusted the time flow rate to 1:20.
One day in the neutral territory would mean twenty days in his world.
This was the limit he could currently afford.
Luo Ji then decisively plunged himself into the development of his civilization.
The advent of bronze was undoubtedly a huge boon to the military.
All weapons and equipment underwent a comprehensive upgrade.
Among them, the biggest change was probably for Liu Zheng.
For others, the weapon upgrade was simply from brass weapons to bronze weapons, but for Liu Zheng, Luo Ji directly gave him a different weapon.
Luo Ji had actually wanted to replace the halberd that Liu Zheng had always used for a long time.
Even though he had a halberd mastery skill, it didn’t matter, skills could be re-trained.
Throughout the entire cold weapon era, the halberd was not a particularly outstanding weapon.
The main reason was that among similar weapons, there were too many better ones, such as the long poleaxe, or even the Spring and Autumn Greatblade, named after the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods!
Previously, when the brass long poleaxe was made, Luo Ji had Liu Zheng try using the brass long poleaxe, but Liu Zheng found it too light and the side blade too narrow, making it very awkward for him to use.
This was because his fighting style relied more on ‘chopping’ rather than ‘stabbing’, with ‘stabbing’ only being a supplementary method.
Thus, the Spring and Autumn Greatblade was clearly his best choice!
