Prince Su Shu stood in front of the gate of Jiangnan Shipyard. He entered the factory for inspection without disclosing his identity.
He saw an endless stream of merchants, waving their banknotes, wanting to order a 10,000-ton cargo ship.
He felt a little confused about this situation.
The economy has just recovered, and the empire has a large number of cargo ships. One cargo ship can last at least twenty years.
The current demand for imperial shipping does not have such a huge market at all.
The merger of these shipyards in Songjiang County into Jiangnan Shipyard has been planned for a long time.
But in the past, the major shipyards were very profitable, and the resistance to mergers was very high.
After the economic crisis, some shipyards' ongoing construction orders were cancelled, and the shipyards entered a cold winter.
This allowed the shipyard merger plan to be implemented smoothly.
Prince Su Shu saw several lines of people queuing up. At the end of a certain line, there was a young man of about the same age as him, who was casually reading a little book.
This person obviously came here as an escort to queue up.
His performance also shows that his alertness is extremely low and you can get some words out of him.
"Brother, your little book "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is still in color. This book is really hard to buy."
The young man flipped the book under the pavilion, looked up at Prince Su Shu, and said proudly: "The bookseller misjudged the market, making this book hard to come by.
It turns out that I also like to read short stories. Nowadays, people like to watch movies. There are fewer and fewer people with such elegant hobbies."
Prince Su Shu found that this man was willing to chat. He changed his style and asked: "Brother, I am helping my family line up to buy a big boat. Are you also helping my family line up to buy a boat?"
The young man got down to business, and he said with an impatient look: "I'm still not my dad. I sold my old boat at home and want to queue up to buy a new one.
This new boat is not easy to buy. You need to pay the boat payment first and schedule the construction.
If this process is not handled well, it will take two or three years before the economy really recovers. In these two or three years, the market will have been occupied by others."
As soon as the young man finished speaking, the fat man in front of him frowned and turned around and said, "Young man, you only know how to play with things to lose your ambition.
Staying with your father means you haven't learned any skills at all.
If I were your father, I would whip you with a belt.
A loving mother often loses her sons, but a loving father fails to support his sons.
The half-ton cargo ships of most of the empire's maritime trading companies were bought by merchants from America and Europe.
Each company only has a few medium-sized cargo ships with a capacity of 1,000 tons, so they are rushing to place urgent orders for 10,000-ton cargo ships from shipyards.”
When the young man heard this explanation, he vaguely remembered that his father had also told him relevant information.
But at that time, he didn't care at all about the news.
The young man asked in surprise: "The business environment in the empire is like this. The imperial government has done nothing to make the economy improve slightly.
The economies of those overseas vassal countries are very good. This is completely inconsistent with the news I have learned. Why can't I understand it?"
The fat uncle said in an instructive tone: "At first glance, you seem to have little knowledge. I will teach you these things.
It is precisely because the economies of these vassal countries have deteriorated that this phenomenon has occurred.
The economy of the vassal countries has deteriorated, and conventional methods can no longer save their own domestic economies.
These vassal states all adopted the method of expanding their armies.
Especially in Europe, major vassal states have begun an arms race.
The smell of gunfire between the major vassal states is getting stronger and stronger. I will not be surprised if I get the news tomorrow that a vassal state somewhere is going to war.
Freighters are different from warships. Even if a freighter is equipped with naval guns, with the current strength of the freighter, the keel will be broken after just a few shots.
But there is no problem at all in positioning freighters as logistics supply ships to shoulder the heavy responsibility of cargo transportation.
Transporting 10,000 tons of artillery shells and 10,000 tons of cotton will have basically no impact on the freighter.
Today's war is about logistics and ammunition supply.
Whichever company has smooth logistics and can transport more ammunition to the front line, whichever company will most likely win.
Many vassal states were anxious. Their domestic production capacity was limited, and they could not afford to wait for the empire's shipyards to slowly produce.
The simplest and fastest way is to buy a second-hand 10,000-ton freighter from a freight company."
When the young man heard what the fat uncle said, his mouth widened. He had not considered this situation at all before.
He did not ask such a stupid question as why he purchased a 10,000-ton freighter.
During a war, convoying would definitely be troublesome. No country would want to transport supplies that can be transported multiple times.
The most cost-effective transportation ships are large-tonnage cargo ships of 10,000 tons.
The young man still had some doubts, and he asked: "Is this true? There is a war between the vassal countries, so the war-related goods will be sold out."
The fat uncle glanced at him and said impatiently: "I was right when I said that you lose your mind by playing with things.
If your business is passed down to you, your family fortune will be ruined sooner or later.
You have almost no sense of business, and the steel, sugar, and urea outside have become so high.
The rapid recovery of the empire’s economy also relied to a certain extent on the arms race among the vassal states.”
The young man seemed to have lost his guard, and he immediately started arguing with the fat uncle.
When Prince Su Shu saw this scene, he chose to leave silently.
The reason for the booming business of Jiangnan Shipyard was found.
He had never thought before that the major vassal congresses would choose to purchase old freighters for the transportation of supplies.
The outbreak of war between vassal states has become a consensus among the top leaders of each country.
Without the economic crisis, the war might have been postponed.
The arrival of the economic crisis directly accelerated the process of war preparations in various countries.
Prince Su Shu was even more happy for war to break out between vassal states.
He had the ability to prevent the empire from exporting strategic materials, but he allowed customs to release these materials on the grounds of economic recovery.
10,000-ton cargo ships can be used as logistics supply ships.
The development of industry has resulted in most commodities having more than one label.
White sugar is an essential raw material for the production of food and medicine. It is also an enduring condiment.
But in the military field, it is one of the formulas of many high-explosives, and it is the main component of rocket propellant.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Even if it is just a sugary drink, this is the most popular food for frontline soldiers.
Statistics from the Imperial Army show that between sugary drinks and cigarettes, more than 70% of soldiers choose sugary drinks.
The importance of sugar during the war was far from being as simple as people thought.
Urea is the only fertilizer that can be produced industrially on a large scale.
Imperial Steel's alloy technology made a breakthrough, and a high-pressure-resistant reactor was built, which can continuously produce synthetic ammonia.
With sufficient synthetic ammonia, both the production of gunpowder and the production of fertilizers such as urea need not be limited to the production of saltpeter.
Urea contains a large amount of nitrogen, and it only needs simple processing to convert urea into gunpowder.
As an efficient nitrogen fertilizer, urea has extremely abundant reserves. As solid particles, its transportation method is also extremely simple.
The most critical point is that the imperial court made nitrogen fertilizer affordable for most people and kept the price of urea under control.
This kind of raw material, which is large in quantity, cheap, easy to transport, and can produce gunpowder, will definitely be purchased in large quantities before the war approaches.
Prince Su Shu has more information, and he can easily judge that there will be an arms race between the vassal states.
Now, just an ordinary businessman among the people can judge that the vassal countries are engaging in an arms race through their actions.
This shows that the arms race among the vassal states has reached its final moments.
When any country cannot hold on any longer, that's when war breaks out.
Prince Su Shu entered the factory building of Jiangnan Shipyard.
He was curious as to why Jiangnan Shipyard dared to undertake so many 10,000-ton cargo ships.
Prince Su Shu didn't count carefully just now. How many people have ordered 10,000-ton cargo ships?
But a rough observation showed that the number of people exceeded a hundred.
According to the previous speed before the merger, the major shipyards could build more than 30 10,000-ton cargo ships every year, which was already their limit.
Now after the merger of Jiangnan Shipyard, the speed has increased by more than three times.
Prince Su Shu really couldn't believe that such efficiency could be achieved by just merging several shipyards.
He also hopes that Jiangnan Shipyard has developed new shipbuilding technology.
If his guess comes true, the New Deal's credit record will be greatly enhanced.
Prince Su Shu walked deep into the Jiangnan Shipyard and was about to see the slipway along the coast.
Their group was stopped by guards from Jiangnan Shipyard.
Prince Su Shu could only reveal his identity.
Under the slightly panicked eyes of the guard, he walked into the core slipway of Jiangnan Shipyard.
Prince Su Shu took out his telescope and looked towards the slipway on the seaside.
He was directly shocked by the processing method of Jiangnan Shipyard.
In his impression, the processing method of connecting the keel and hull of large ships is riveting.
Using a machine or manually, put the hot rivets into the holes prepared in advance and tap them with great force.
The rivets tightly fasten the two steel structures together due to deformation.
The weight of rivets used on a large warship can reach several tons.
He now saw that the processing method on the slipway was not a riveting process at all.
He didn't even see the rivets.
Prince Su Shu looked through the telescope and clearly saw a worker holding an iron clip with a wire behind it.
The front end of the iron clamp holds a small iron rod.
This small iron rod came into contact with the steel plates aligned at both ends, and a violent electric spark flashed. Molten iron appeared between the two steel plates and solidified quickly.
This molten iron directly bonded the two steel plates together.
Prince Su Shu was very excited, this must be the emergence of new technology.
Jiangnan Shipyard can use this technology to process 10,000-ton cargo ships, which proves the feasibility of this technology and has passed the review.
The price of a 10,000-ton cargo ship is as high as hundreds of thousands taels of silver coins.
If an error occurs due to technical problems, Jiangnan Shipyard will need to pay a large amount of compensation.
This will destroy the jobs of everyone at Jiangnan Shipyard. Even if this technology is slightly flawed, it will not be approved.
Prince Su Shu had just approached the slipway when a fat middle-aged man wearing silk and white riding a motorcycle came from a distance.
A middle-aged man who looked like a scholar, wearing a safety helmet, walked down from the slipway.
The fat middle-aged man parked his car and immediately ran towards Prince Su Shu.
The guard protecting Prince Su Shu wanted to stop him, but Prince Su Shu waved his hand and asked the fat, white middle-aged man to come over.
He was wearing short sleeves and couldn't hide his weapons.
He also wears a medal awarded by his father on his chest.
The identity of this man has been revealed. He is Zhang Brai, general manager of Jiangnan Shipyard.
Prince Su Shu only knew Zhang Bulei's name and had not had any contact with him.
But Zhang Bulei was able to stand out from many candidates during the merger of Jiangnan Shipyard. This person's ability is definitely not bad.
Zhang Bulei walked to Prince Su Shu, and he bowed respectfully.
"Zhang Builei, general manager of Jiangnan Shipyard, has met His Royal Highness the Prince."
Prince Su Shu said pleasantly: "Mr. Zhang, please get up. I came to Jiangnan Shipyard for inspection. Unexpectedly, I saw a big surprise as soon as I arrived here."
Of course Zhang Bulei knew what surprise Prince Su Shu was talking about?
He introduced the man next to him who looked like a scholar wearing a hard hat.
"This is Mr. Shao Benyi, a teacher at Huaxia University, deputy chief engineer of Jiangnan Shipyard, and inventor of the electric welding process."
Prince Su Shu looked at Shao Benyi, who was standing aside with a slightly reserved expression.
It was this teacher from Huaxia University who didn't look outstanding, who invented a new process.
Uncle Prince has not yet understood the specifics of this process, but it can speed up the efficiency of ship manufacturing.
Shao Benyi's invention made a great contribution to the empire's industry.
Prince Su Shu asked with a smile: "Teacher Shao, please introduce the welding process.
This is the first time I have heard of the electric welding process, and I am very unfamiliar with this process."
When Shao Benyi heard Prince Su Shu's question, he immediately straightened his back and introduced the welding process in a fluent tone.
"Your Royal Highness, I went to solve a certain problem on the railway the year before last.
Saw railway workers using thermite to repair broken rails.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! This scene immediately triggered my inspiration.
The high temperature of thermite can melt steel.
Steel in the molten state forms a whole.
It's like a lump of dispersed paraffin, which is melted again and cooled to form a complete paraffin block.
Steel cannot be completely melted, but the joint after melting is much more balanced than the rough method of riveting.
I immediately thought of using this process to replace the common riveting process for connecting steel structures.
I started trying to use thermite, but thermite couldn't control the temperature.
If the temperature is too low, the steel will not melt. If the temperature is too high, the surrounding steel plates will also melt.
This situation must not be allowed, and some steel structures must not be damaged.
After my continuous experiments, I finally found that the temperature of the high-resistance steel can be controlled by using a large current to melt it.
In this way, the target steel can be melted and formed into a welding flux.
The remaining part of the steel has a small resistance, so its heat generation is very small, and the low temperature will not damage the material.
When I made a breakthrough in my experiment, I encountered an economic crisis and funding for scientific research was cut off.
Fortunately, a turning point came. The military wanted to produce submarines with higher airtightness, so I was invited to Jiangnan Shipyard to continue studying electric welding technology.
After the success of electric welding technology, Manager Zhang made great efforts to overcome public opinion and apply the electric welding technology to the manufacturing process of large ships."
Prince Su Shu listened to Shao Benyi's narration and already had a preliminary understanding of electric welding technology.
The electric welding process uses electric current to melt steel, allowing the molten steel to form an adhesive to stick the two pieces of steel together.
The principle of this technology is not difficult to understand, but if you want to develop practical results, you need to put in extremely hard work and a little bit of luck.
Prince Su Shu made a request, and he wanted to see the effect of the welding process.
Zhang Brai, general manager of Jiangnan Shipyard, showed no resistance to Prince Su Shu's request and readily agreed.