Quantum Leap Vol 8 Harris Treaty July 29, 1858

C003 Breaking Down A Few Walls

The 3rd floor was designed in such a way that it would be able to have a safe workload of 6 tonnes or more. It was decided that the main skeletal structure would be made of concrete to withstand the load just like the current governmental buildings.

Kayu-san estimated the works to be at 10-14 days and final touch up would be made to ensure the building is safe worthy.

A single-storey Dojo was planned next and it was a simple single-entry hall for both unarmed and armed combat training. This was made into a running circuit and a small deadweight area as well.

The business conference hall was a 2 storey building. The ground floor would be 3 conference halls that had movable partitions to be made into one single large conference hall with an elevated stage. Long tables and chairs would be placed inside and could easily hold 120-200 people there.

The second floor would be a resting area, with common quad bathrooms and quad toilets on each end and would be able to accommodate a 2 person and 4 person rooms with 2 kitchenettes for boiling water and no cooking at all. This is to reduce the risk of fires. Outdoor seating would be available as well for those who wish to dine, smoke or drink outside.

Once kayu-san had all the diagrams he needed. He allocated 60-90 men to embark on this project and at the meantime, he told us the approximate costs for the 3 buildings since the 24 warehouses were discounted from the original 80 gold coins each to 50 gold only.

We proposed paying the salaries for the workers and provide their meals and get further discounts on the construction of the 3 buildings. We settled for 500 gold coins for the whole 3 buildings and we agreed. The whole process would be done by 10 days.

And the work commences the following day...

=*=

The next day, the 6 Plant Managers, 4 Execom members, Hiko-sama and I were at the garden area discussing on our next course of actions. We had constantly supplied the 4 Prefecture weekly in Niigata, Aizuwakamatsu, Yonezawa and Tochigi with the supplies of Refined Steel Plates and cosmetics for the past 3 months and had reaped deposits of at least 120,000 gold coins for the STM machines and cosmetics and at least 280,000 gold coins for the Refined Steel Plates.

We had regular deposits of 1,600,000 gold coins per month and our monthly output was capped at 100,000 gold coins for float cash. Half were gone for the salaries, while another 5,000 gold coins were for the raw food materials monthly which were an average of 1 silver and 3 coopers for head per day.

The balance was pooled into the pottery pieces and the next month would be followed to withdraw another 100,000 gold coins for our operational costs. There were at least 18 pottery pieces and I had filled up 3 pottery pieces with gold coins from the balances accumulated each month.

It was our practice to distribute bonuses of an additional 2 gold pieces every 3 months to clear out the gold coins that had accumulated in the pottery pieces in the storeroom. It was a small gesture of our appreciation for the employees and with the extra bonuses, their lives continued to thrive.

After reviewing the projection for the month, the next order of business is to reach out to the rest of the Prefecture that we were currently supplying the Refined Steel Plates that accounts to at least 165,000 pieces of plates every 2 weeks. That amounts to a total of 3,300,000 gold coins and a grand gross deposits of 4,900,000 gold coins every month with a margin of 10% differences.

We summoned the Head of Messenger from the Guild to be over and bring the records of Cosmetic shops all over the Prefecture. The person came with 3 of the assistants, lugging all the record books, and we settled down in our empty 1st warehouse that was now converted to be a meeting place for local merchants.

"Thank you for coming, Head Messenger. You were summoned here with those logbooks of yours so that we can get our business done in a very timely manner. We hope that you were not being brought out from your comforts of the office to be here to discuss in our mass release of promotional letters that we intend to send."

I made the opening speech and everyone had their sketchpad open in front of them.

"Alright, it seems that you have already the records of our tracks of letters to all the Blacksmith alliances in the 11 Prefecture right? Could you let us know of the current Prefecture that had been covered so far?"

I asked the Head Messenger as to ensure that you readers had been tracking which Prefecture and towns had been covered by Fasuto Japan KabushikiGaisha so far. Hehe.

"Young Master, you had covered 15 Prefecture so far and they are Aizuwakamatsu, Niigata, Shibata and Tochigi. The recently added for last month was Miyagi, Akita, Iwate, Aomori, Ibaraki, Gunma, Saitama, Nagano, Yamanashi, Kanagawa and Chiba."

"Uncovered Prefecture are Toyoma, Shizuoka, Ishikawa, Fukui, Aichi, Nagoya, Shiga, Mae, Kyoto, Hyogo, Nara, Osaka, Hyogo, Wakayama, Okayama, Hiroshima, Shimane, Yamaguchi, Kagawa, Tokushima, Kochi, Ehime, Fukuoka, Oita, Saga, Nagasaki, Kimamoto, Miyazaki and Kagoshima."

"These are the 29 Prefecture that had not covered by Fasuto Japan. I had used these red pins here to mark out the maps and locations that had not been covered by this corporation."

Everyone noted that the left-most part of Japan had not been covered after Chiba.

"Another part here are Hakodate, Sapporo, Muroran, Asahikawa, Hokkaido, Wakkanai, Nayoro, Mombetsu, Kitami, Abashari, Kushiro and Nemuso."

"Another 12 more Prefecture that would be on the right-side map hereafter Aomari. It means that you would need us to send another 41 letters to all the Blacksmiths Alliance to come over here and those prefectures would likely take the sea route to reach Ibaraki and Niigata on these both ends before heading to Kitakata here, smack in the middle of Fukushima."

I like the Head Messenger right now, it was as if he was commanding Fasuto Japan KabushikiGaisha on the further Invasion of Japan itself. Hahahaha.

"Good, prepare to send a formal invitation letter to all 41 Prefecture based on the Refined Steel products with samples for the Blacksmith Alliance and 56 Prefecture inviting them to view our range of cosmetic, beauty and food products as well."

"Based on your records you had collected from the Internet, how many cosmetic shops are found in these 56 prefectures?"

The Head Messenger looked at me quizzically as I mentioned about gathering information from the Internet. He took out his tablet and turned to the information screen that shows the approximate numbers of Cosmetic shops in all the 56 Prefecture and a figure came up for such cosmetic shops that were updated in the whole of Japan.

He then hid his tablet and returned to face us with the answers as if the previous action was not exercised

"An approximate number of 580 cosmetic shops were online and running at this moment, Young Master. Would you require our service to send these letters too?"

"That's a very efficient method on information gathering you got there. But I'm sure this technology does not exist anywhere in this Edo Period right? The answer for sending to the cosmetic shops would be a definite YES!"

"For your information, sending of these letters would reach them anywhere between 3 days to 14 days. If you want anything faster, you could send them an email or w******p broadcast and everyone can buy your products online...!"

"Email your head lah better... Got online store meh to buy our products? If there was such thing here in this era, we don't need a Messenger Guild, we have our own Post Office and our goods can be sent through railway, road, airfreight and sea freight."

"Haiyoo... w******p some more... If things were simple we can modernise this Edo period to our modern times already. Do keep to the current times, Head Messenger and stick to the storyline. Don't you anyhow change the script and make the readers thought Edo Period is in the 21st Century!"

"Alright... Hahahaha. I thought its a good idea to poke fun at the readers into thinking its the future, man... Not the 19th century at all. Hahahha."

"I go prepare the letters after this and send one of your guys to come and pick it up. 2 stacks, one for the Refined Steel Plates advertising while the other would be for the cosmetics. We would be making a killing right after this...!"

Since all the necessary details had been made, and even though the operations had dropped to only 66% rate for all warehouses, we had made a lot of supplies ready so we would be able to meet the demands. Right now, what we need is to produce more Refined Steel Plates to support the demand.

The meeting is adjourned and everyone is dismissed and only Saika, Miko, Nekoyasha, Hiko-sama and I were left an idea struck me and I asked for those who can enter the Realm of Mind with me if they could assist

"Guys, since you were able to come into the Realm of Mind with me if you all were not killing Youkai during your free time, would you be able to lend a hand?"

I asked and checked if everyone would be able to chip in at least for 6 hours in the Realm of Mind.

"Sure, as you had said... Many hands make the work light. What do you have in mind, Harune? If we could assist you, we would help out."

"We need to increase the production output for the Refined Steel Plates in the Realm of Mind. Sensei and I would be able to churn out just 1 moulding tray of 10 plates every 8 seconds. Which is equivalent to about 400-420 moulding trays an hour."

"We would be in the Realm of Mind up to 6 hours to make about 2,000-2,400 moulding trays of Refined Steel Plates. If I could visualise 1 huge smelter and 5 distribution cauldron to run each line, we could make 10,000-12,000 moulding trays per 6 hours."

"Would you like to try it? We normally hit 3 times a day, after breakfast, lunch and dinner. And each day we both could churn out 6,000 plates but with the 5 of us now, we could churn out 30,000 moulding trays. We could whack one day and rest the next day. "

"What do you all think? It's pretty hard work at first but once you get used to it, it would be quite alright."

"We haven't tried out first, so we wouldn't know. But it's worth a try, if you and Hiko-sama can do it for 4 months without getting any help, we could do so, right?"

"Alright, it's settled then. Any other questions before we break for lunch? Then we head in for a solid 2 hours of real-time which is equivalent to 6 in the Realm of Mind."

"Alright... Let's go for it...!" Nekoyasha was excited because working strenuously not only gives a good workout but also strengthens one's body as well.

Right after lunch, we all gathered inside the Ops Room of the 1st warehouse where it was used as our primary location to store all the Refined Steel Plates. The employees stationed there were deployed somewhere else to avoid any leaks of secrets and avoid any disruptions.

=*=

We sat down on the ground of the Ops Room and began our meditative state and when we opened up our eyes, we had gathered on the Shrine where the Shilton no Tama was placed.

Since it was the last place we had been, I swiped the scene to the left and ended up at the Blacksmith area. I swiped again and came to the Essense extraction room and I disintegrated the heavy print set machine out from there.