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This place is not simple. Although it is not big, it is the most powerful and largest important industrial zone in Songjiang Prefecture. It gathers the headquarters or offices and factories of many well-known large companies in the empire.

A series of important factories such as Songjiang Naval Shipyard, Shanghai Arsenal, Songjiang Iron and Steel Plant, Jiangnan Machinery Company, Lee Machine Tool Company under Lee Steel, and the Shanghai production base of Suqin Textile Company are all located here.

In addition to many large enterprises, the most important thing is that there are a large number of small and medium-sized enterprises here.

Unlike many large industrial zones in China that only have large corporate factories, several industrial zones under Songjiang Prefecture, such as Hongkou Industrial Zone, Huangpu Industrial Zone, and Huating Industrial Zone, not only have a large number of large enterprises, but also a large number of small and medium-sized enterprises.<

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Taking advantage of the convenient water transportation, various industrial raw materials and financial funds from all over the country can be gathered here. At the same time, various produced goods can be transported and sold through river transportation.

Such convenient transportation conditions gave Songjiang Prefecture a geographical advantage in the early development of the Chu Empire. Not only did official capital set up a large number of enterprises here, but private capital also invested heavily in construction projects here.

These investments have further attracted a large number of migrant workers and various professional and technical talents, thus promoting various tertiary industries.

Today, in the 27th year of Chengshun, Songjiang Prefecture has become the most economically powerful state capital in the Chu Empire, ranking first in all aspects of data.

The largest ship tonnage in the Chu Empire was produced here, and more than half of the warship tonnage in the Chu Empire was produced here.

It also produced a quarter of the cloth products in the Chu Empire and a third of the raw silk in the Chu Empire. There were also countless various industrial industries.

The total economic volume is larger than Yingtianfu and Hantianfu combined... The population is also very large. It seems to be a small place, but this poor place has a population of more than three million, which is larger than Portugal and the Netherlands.

The total population of the European colonial powers was even greater.

And the people also dominate in terms of income. According to Songjiang Prefecture's own statistical survey in the 26th year of Chengshun, the average annual income of local ordinary workers can reach 75 yuan, while the income of skilled workers is even higher, such as steel plants and shipbuilding industries.

Among the skilled workers here, their annual income can reach hundreds of Chu Yuan or even two hundred Chu Yuan.

The income level of local people, well, mainly low-income groups, is significantly ahead of other state capitals in the Great Chu Empire.

These are all due to the extremely developed local industrial and commercial economic system.

The excellent local industrial and commercial conditions are also an important reason why the Navy and the Ministry of Industry established the Naval Steam Engine Factory in the local Hongkou Industrial Zone.

If it is established locally, it will be easier to recruit various high-tech talents. At the same time, it is next to the most important supplier of the navy, namely Songjiang Naval Shipyard. After the steam engine is assembled, it can be transported and installed directly nearby, without having to travel all the way.

Toss.

At the same time, because Songjiang Prefecture is located at the middle node of the three major steam engine manufacturers, it can more conveniently accept parts and components produced by Tianjin Machinery Company, Guangzhou Machinery Company, and Dangtu Machinery Company, reducing transportation costs.

Due to various conditions, the Ministry of Navy and the Ministry of Industry established the Naval Steam Engine Factory, an assembly factory, in Songjiang Prefecture.

Of course, neither the Ministry of Industry nor the Navy can build a steam engine factory from scratch. Even if the steam engine factory is just an assembly factory and has no production capacity of parts of its own, it is still not that easy to do.

It also requires a large number of various large-scale machinery and equipment.

Don't think that assembling a steam engine is easy. In fact, it is very difficult...especially the steam engines needed by the navy. They are all large ship-based steam engines, with power ranging from several thousand or even tens of thousands of horsepower. These large steam engines are just light.

It's not easy to assemble.

Therefore, the newly established Naval Steam Engine Factory is actually the predecessor of the United Steam Engine Factory.

This joint steam engine factory was actually established in the 21st year of Chengshun and was jointly invested by Guangzhou Machinery Company and major shipyards.

At that time, because Guangzhou Shipyard relied on the priority supply contract, it directly monopolized the production capacity of Guangzhou Machinery Company's shipboard high-pressure steam engines for three years. At that time, Tianjin Machinery Company and Dangtu Machinery Company could not produce high-pressure steam engines for a while.

Other shipyards wanted to obtain high-pressure steam engines to produce their ships. At the same time, the Guangzhou Machinery Company's own production capacity was not high at the time, and it also wanted to occupy as many markets as possible. The two parties hit it off and immediately established this joint steam engine factory.
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However, when it was established that year, although this joint company had production capabilities, its technology source was Guangzhou Machinery Company. To a certain extent, this joint steam engine factory was actually a very simple processing plant and did not have technology research and development capabilities of its own.

In the first few years of its establishment, it was pretty good, and all investors made a lot of money.

However, as Tianjin Machinery Company and Dangtu Machinery Company successively solved the technical problems of high-pressure steam engines and bypassed the patent barriers of Guangzhou Machinery Company, the high-pressure steam engine market suddenly transformed into fierce competition among the three major steam engine manufacturers.<

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At the same time, the more important point is that Guangzhou Machinery Company's own production capacity has increased, and the priority contract with Guangzhou Shipyard has also ended. Under such circumstances, it is naturally impossible for Guangzhou Machinery Company to distribute the profits of the steam engine to those shipyards.

One serving.

Under the circumstances of internal discord between various investors, fierce external competition, and the Guangzhou Machinery Company's suspension of technical support, the United Steam Engine Factory could no longer produce more advanced high-pressure steam engines, so it declined.

The ambitious Lee Iron Company took the opportunity to acquire the factory at a low price, trying to use chickens to lay eggs and enter the high-pressure steam engine market.

Lee's Steel Company previously announced its entry into the field of high-pressure steam engines, established a research and development team for research and development, and subsequently acquired the United Steam Engine Factory.

From this point of view, there is a research and development team and a production base, but in fact they are not the same...

After actually entering this market, Lee's Iron Company discovered that the technical barriers to the high-pressure steam engine industry were too high... Lee's Iron Company recruited and organized more than 500 R&D personnel to carry out technical research.

At the beginning, they were very confident, thinking that they were rich and wealthy, so they spent a lot of money on it, and a research and development team composed of more than 500 top scientific researchers was able to build a high-pressure steam engine.

However, as the R&D plans are being carried out one after another, the senior officials of Lee Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. are feeling numb as they look at the technologies that need to be developed one after another, and the massive amount of R&D experience that continues to increase every month...

They found that if they wanted to build a high-pressure steam engine, everything from the cylinder to the boiler to the transmission system and even connecting pipes had to be re-developed to avoid infringement, because now almost every part and every process in the high-pressure steam engine is

The patents of the three major steam engine manufacturers... there are thousands of technical patents that need to be bypassed.

This is still talking about the most basic high-pressure steam engine, not counting some of the core technologies recently developed by the three major steam engine manufacturers, such as multi-expansion technology, water tube boilers, etc. This means that the patent barriers that need to be overcome are still increasing.

If you want to develop a high-pressure steam engine with market competitiveness, the research and development experience required will be astronomical, and the time required will also be very long.

Because what they want to do is not actually develop high-pressure steam engines, but they need to bypass other companies' patent barriers.

As for a simple high-pressure steam engine, Guangzhou Machinery Company developed this thing many years ago. Everyone knows the principle. Machinery factories with stronger technical capabilities can directly process and produce a relatively primitive high-pressure steam engine for you.

But this is useless, because it will infringe the patent and cannot be put into the market for commercial use.

If Lee Iron Company wants to enter the high-pressure steam engine market, what it has to do is to bypass the patent barriers of the three major steam engine manufacturers and find a new set of technical routes.

To put it simply, if people use Plan A to build a steam engine, you cannot use Plan A and can only find other methods... And what needs to be bypassed is not one set of technical solutions, but three sets of technical solutions... The three major steam engine manufacturers each have their own

Respective technical solutions and patent barriers.

The most disgusting thing is that the three major steam engine manufacturers sometimes come up with some other new solutions. Some of these new solutions are used by themselves, but some are not so good. Although they don't use them themselves, they still apply for technology patents...

It means blocking the way for those who come after you.

This is disgusting...

As a latecomer, Lee's Iron and Steel Company needs to bypass not one set of technical solutions, but dozens of them. In terms of individual details, there are even dozens of technical solutions that need to be bypassed... The three major steam engine manufacturers have

The roads are blocked.

Faced with such strict patent barriers, although Lee Iron & Steel Company invested heavily in the field of high-pressure steam engines, it has not been able to achieve major technological breakthroughs.

When Guangzhou Machinery Company's patent authorization for high-pressure steam engines expired, although they had factories, they could not even produce and sell backward high-pressure steam engines...

After self-research failed and it was difficult to obtain patent authorization from the three major steam engine manufacturers, Lee Iron Company completely lost the confidence to enter the field of high-pressure steam engines...

The field of high-pressure steam engines is an industry with the highest technical threshold and the most serious patent barriers in the Chu Empire. If Li Iron Company wants to get in, this is not even something that can be done with money.

Lee's Iron Company began to sell this factory half a year ago. Although it has no technology, it does have a factory building, a large number of machinery and equipment, and a large number of skilled workers. It is worth some money.

In the end, this factory was valued by the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of the Navy... and was acquired as a steam engine assembly factory exclusively for the Navy.

Anyway, the Navy Steam Engine Factory has technology authorization and does not intend to develop it on its own. It only needs the production and assembly capabilities of large steam engines. Therefore, the United Steam Engine Factory is of little use to Lee Steel, but as a factory that previously mainly produced civilian shipboard steam engines

, but it is enough for the navy.

When the acquisition was confirmed and the senior executives of Lee's Steel Company evacuated the United Steam Engine Factory, their faces were full of reluctance and helplessness.

Lee's Iron and Steel Company, which has been developing smoothly for more than 20 years, suffered a setback for the first time, and it was a huge one.

Over the past six or seven years, more than one million dollars have been invested in the field of high-pressure steam engines, but not a single cent has been made.

Although such a major investment failure will not cause serious damage to the Lee Iron and Steel Company, which has a large business, it will have to wait for several years.

After calming down and thinking about it, Lee's Steel Company made up its mind to stop following others and play in its own areas of advantage.

For example, shipbuilding, machine tools, and general mechanical equipment are still their forte. They plan to continue to grow bigger and stronger in these fields, especially the currently very prosperous shipbuilding industry. They plan to invest heavily in preparing to build the first 10,000-ton dry ship in the country.

Dockyard.

The defeat of Lee's Steel in the field of high-pressure steam engines has not affected the development of the domestic high-pressure steam engine field. After all, the fierce competition among the three major domestic steam engine manufacturers is itself the best driving force for the development of high-pressure steam engines.

In order to seize the market, each of them has invested heavily in research and development and production.

These research and development results can eventually be transferred to the Naval Steam Engine Factory.

According to the agreement between the Navy and the three major steam engine manufacturers, the Navy is able to order their latest and various patented products and then assemble them into shipboard steam engines exclusively for use by naval warships.

After the establishment of the Naval Steam Engine Factory, the first project was to integrate the existing exclusive patented products of the three major steam engines to create a large-scale military shipboard steam engine, which was planned to be used on the second ship of the Hantian-class battleship under construction.

, that is, on board Yingtian.

However, the Yingtian's design has been changed. From the guns to the power and even the hull design, it is actually completely different from the Hantian. Therefore, it is not appropriate to continue to be classified as a Hantian-class battleship. It is already a new type of battleship.

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In addition to providing power for subsequent new battleships, it is also planned to provide power for other new warships, such as the follow-up ship of the Toyoju-class cruiser, or to be precise, the improved Jinzhou-class cruiser of the Pusan ​​cruiser.

The Jinzhou-class cruiser is an improvement based on the Pusan ​​cruiser. Although the Pusan ​​cruiser is also equipped with front-mounted rifled guns, when this warship was previously designed, it was only planned to be equipped with smoothbore guns.

The specific use and combat of rifled guns are quite different from smoothbore guns.

Therefore, the Navy improved the design of the Jinzhou-class cruiser based on the changes in this situation, coupled with advances in power and other hull technologies.

Its tonnage has been further expanded to 2,800 tons. It is planned to be equipped with multiple 150mm front-loading rifled guns as the main gun and multiple 75mm naval guns as the secondary battery.
To be continued...