"I have only one answer, it's impossible!"

A voice suddenly rang in the room. Paul Radford, who was sitting on the sofa, said in an almost decisive voice. Then he laid out several tables, which were their construction progress schedules in the past few days.

.

"This is the progress chart we made! This one is the progress chart for railway construction! Mr. Siltis"

After unfolding the tables, Paul Radford looked up at Siltis who had drawn up this railway construction schedule.

"Are you sure it will take us a year and eight months to repair those railways?"

"certainly!"

Nodding, Sirtis continued.

"One year and eight months is already the fastest speed, and taking into account various favorable factors, according to the information we have obtained on the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway, I believe that if the actual construction is carried out, it may even take two years or more.

!”

When answering, Sirtis seemed a little helpless. He also hoped to repair the railway in the shortest time. After all, Li Zicheng had promised that in order to speed up the construction progress, he could even provide rewards for every day completed ahead of schedule.

Five thousand dollars.

But what about the reality?

Impossible, it was impossible to build that railway in one year and six months, and one year and eight months, this time, was the optimal construction carried out after he made full calculations based on the terrain data and put aside all factors

The timetable he had just arrived at, but in fact, he understood that even one year and eight months was impossible. Taking into account various other factors, it might even take three years, which was obviously impossible for Mr. Li in front of him.

satisfy.

"According to the terrain data we have obtained, it is estimated that we will need to dig more than 10 kilometers of railway tunnels and go through mountains and ridges along the way. Mr. Li, it can be said that building a railway there is not complicated, but he wants to build it within one year and six months.

It is simply impossible to build a railway!"

After listening to Sirtis' words, Li Zicheng frowned and took a closer look at the preliminary construction plan. He had indeed oversimplified many issues.

"According to the plan you formulated, the construction projects of the first phase of the project include: building an iron-making blast furnace with an annual output of 1.2 million tons, two 100-ton steel-making open-hearth furnaces, a large sintering machine, two 50-hole large-volume coke ovens, and an initial

A set of rolling and steel cup continuous rolling mill, a set of rail continuous rolling mill, a set of 200 mm seamless steel pipe rolling mill, a 4500 mm two-roll plate rolling mill, as well as iron ore, raw material field, power plant, coal mine, energy center, lime roasting

, road and railway transportation, water sources and other blast furnace, sintering, coking and corresponding auxiliary supporting projects. According to preliminary estimates, only the first phase of the project has been completed. The total equipment of the steel plant weighs 185,000 tons, the iron ore 25,000 tons, and the coal mine 32,000 tons.

, a total of nearly 240,000 tons of equipment, of which the total weight of early transportation equipment is 156,000 tons. Mr. Li, this cannot be transported by dirt roads. Similarly, the transportation of large equipment cannot be satisfied by road transportation!"

Looking through the information in his hand, Taylor, who is responsible for the management of the entire company, asked his own question from the perspective of factory equipment, his voice a little deeper.

"70% of the equipment transportation can only rely on railways. Without railways, the actual construction of factories and mines would be impossible to start. If we stick to the original plan and take into account the railway construction factors, the first phase of the steel plant project is expected to be completed in 1916, that is, in the Fourth

It will be completed in the next year, and..."

Glancing at Sirtis, Taylor handed over the remaining questions to him.

"Based on our field investigation, we found that when China built the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway, it chose a route that had relatively low investment but affected transportation capacity!"

Sirtis opened the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway map on the table.

"The railway between Beijing and Zhangjiakou is built on a large ramp line in the Badaling section, so the transportation capacity is limited due to the load of the train. This is also an insurmountable flaw. The current maximum annual transportation capacity is 1.5 million tons. For example, in the first phase

After the completion of the project, the company will export up to 1.2 million tons of steel products annually. At this time, the transportation capacity of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway will become a bottleneck restricting the company's development!"

Another new question!

Listening to Sirtis' report, Li Zicheng frowned again. Today seemed to be a problem summary meeting, and they kept telling themselves one problem after another.

"...The original plan was to use Yellow River water as cooling water, but according to the analysis of the cement and sand content of the Yellow River, if the Yellow River water is used, a large sedimentation reservoir will need to be built..."

"From the information currently available, it appears that Mongolian banditry also poses a threat to future inspections and exploration..."

For several hours, one question after another continued to come out of the mouths of the foreign experts. Occasionally, there would be arguments due to some differences, but in the end, all the questions were focused on one issue.

"railway……"

After the meeting, with a long sigh, Li Zicheng leaned on the sofa with his head held high, a look of helplessness on his face. All the problems were on the railway. In fact, they were transportation problems.

Transportation restricts the construction of the factory. If the railway is not repaired, large equipment cannot be transported into Baotou. If large equipment cannot be transported in, the normal construction of the factory will be impossible. Even if all difficulties are overcome and the factory is put into operation, if the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway is not reconstructed, the transportation capacity will be reduced.

Unable to meet the export demand of the factory's products.

In the final analysis, transportation problem is the most fundamental problem.

"Zhiyuan, the railway can be repaired slowly, and the factory can be built slowly. If the railway problem is not solved, everything will be empty talk..."

Seeing the sad look on Li Zicheng's face, Mu Xiangyue quickly tried to persuade him, as a businessman, he naturally hoped that the factory would be put into production as soon as possible and achieve results as soon as possible, but that was just an idea.

Repair slowly?

Hearing this, Li Zicheng smiled and shook his head.

Why take two and a half years to bring the steel plant online?

It’s not that I don’t want to miss the “golden period” of World War I. Nowadays, one million tons of steel is produced a year, and the profit is probably only a few million yuan. However, after the outbreak of World War I, the profit for a year was as high as hundreds of millions of dollars. The war brought about

Huge profits can support the expansion of the factory, and the profits made in just a few years may even exceed the profits in the next few decades.

But if I can't seize this opportunity, I'm afraid that after the end of World War I, the factory will be unable to support operations due to the "cold winter period" of the steel industry, and everything may be in vain by then!

"if……"

Feeling that she couldn't convince her boss about the construction cycle, Mu Xiangyue hesitated to make a suggestion.

"If there is really no other way, can we consider finding another place to build the factory? For example, in Beijing! In this way, the railway construction of the steel plant can be started at the same time."

Building a steel plant in Beijing?

Frowning his brows, Li Zicheng shook his head. The capital was by no means a good place. Even if political and future factors were not considered, water resources alone would not be able to meet the needs of future steel plants.

"It's hard to do anything under the emperor's feet!"

Looking for an excuse to reply to Mu Xiangyue's suggestion, Li Zicheng's face was full of helplessness. If there was really no other way, maybe he should consider changing places.

"If you really have no choice, you can change the location to look for minerals!"

Well, maybe you should think about it. Since you have to face so many constraints now, maybe you should look for iron ore in a different location and set up a factory in a different location.

(Haha, I think everyone should understand now that Baotou is only the initial choice. In fact, there are other choices, haha. I will add an update today. I hope you can encourage me with your recommendation votes! Thank you! Please add it to your collection and recommend it.
Chapter completed!