The No. 1 Machinery Factory in Xuzhou is located in the Industrial Park of Xuzhou. The branch line of the railway leads directly to the factory area of the No. 1 Machinery Factory.
This is the advantage of large state-owned enterprises, and all the country's resources will be tilted towards them.
The First Machinery Factory occupies a large space and has dozens of large and small workshops. Dong Shuheng did not visit each one one by one.
He mainly visited the lathe factory, which is the foundation of industry. Today's lathes are still driven by steam engines.
Dong Shuheng knew that an electric-driven lathe was already being tested in the electric power laboratory.
Because the motor has less vibration, less sound, and more stable speed when running, the processing accuracy is much higher than that of a lathe driven by a steam engine.
Therefore, as long as electric lathes are born, China will surpass Europe in industrial machineries.
But now this invention is still far from being put into practical use.
Thanks to the technology exchange agreement signed with Prussia, China is now basically able to produce most of its equipment by itself.
Even relatively sophisticated equipment like telegraph machines can be produced by China itself.
Things of this era, even the most complex machines, seemed crude to Dong Shuheng.
Although he doesn't know how to do it himself, he can spend money to recruit people to do it, and people in China can also imitate it.
Take the steam engine for example. The principle used is actually very simple. Elementary school students in future generations can make it in labor class using existing materials.
Of course, being able to make a small model does not mean that you can make a big one. In fact, the real problem to be solved is the material problem.
Once you have the materials, you need to forge them, and you need to forge and process the materials into different shapes to make parts.
The next thing to solve is to connect these parts together. Whether it is using screws, rivets, or welding, a certain process is required.
By introducing skilled craftsmen, China has mastered all these techniques and is still developing them.
Dong Shuheng walked into the tall train and locomotive workshop, where workers were assembling the locomotive on the production line. This was a replica of a Prussian locomotive, with a total of four driving wheels.
Dong Shuheng didn't like steam locomotives. He had only seen them in museums before. They were noisy and inefficient, and were far behind the later internal combustion engines and electric locomotives.
But now, it is it that is leading the world in the second half of the nineteenth century to develop rapidly.
If China wants to maintain a huge territory, it must build a large number of railway lines and use railways to connect these places.
Railways are like the blood vessels of a country. Only with the connection of these blood vessels can the country become an organic whole.
On the contrary, like China's current Far East, the Western Regions will gradually become alienated from the mainland because they are too far away from the center of the country.
Or it may have gradually declined due to lack of communication with the outside world.
If there is a railway connection, not only the population can communicate with each other, but also the materials in different regions can be exchanged. Only in this way can the value of the resources in each place be maximized.
Ore from the Western Region and Mobei can be transported to the eastern region for use, or it can be smelted into metal locally and transported to various places.
The value of the grassland there is not limited to sheep grazing. In fact, many rich mining areas are simply desolate Gobi Desert.
Timber from the Far East can also be transported to the south and become important industrial materials, rather than just used as fuel for local residents in winter.
The food and various commodities produced in the inland areas can also be provided to herdsmen in the Western Regions or on the grasslands, so that they will not starve due to the white disaster in winter. Various commodities can also continuously improve their lives.
quality.
This is the importance of transportation. Steam locomotives are the driving force that makes these transportation lines move.
The efficiency and cost of carriage transportation made it a luxury to transport many things by road. But with the advent of railways, this problem no longer exists.
Dong Shuheng next went to the workshop where construction machinery is manufactured.
Nowadays, most of these construction machinery are driven by steam engines. Huge boilers make them look so huge and bloated.
It seems that the development of internal combustion engines will be accelerated, Dong Shuheng complained in his heart.
He saw a road roller weighing more than ten tons. It looked very similar to those of later generations, but the smaller one had a locomotive-like body, which Dong Shuheng found quite strange.
"Director Liu, how will this be transported to the construction site?" Dong Shuheng asked.
"Well, the president mainly needs to be transported by train or ship. It can walk on its own, but the speed is very slow. It would be great if there are railways and docks near the place where the road is being built. After it comes down, it can be carried by the driver.
Drive slowly and walk to the construction site by yourself."
"However, it generally still has to be used in large-scale projects, otherwise just transporting it will be a troublesome matter."
Dong Shuheng understood clearly that for a large-scale road construction project, the roller only needs to be transported once. It will keep rolling the road anyway.
The Manchu Qing Dynasty has been in a state of semi-paralysis in recent years, and many official roads have fallen into disrepair.
Now that China has just been established, the first thing to do is to open up pipelines in various places. Where conditions permit, the ground must be hardened into cement roads.
The petrochemical industry has just started now, otherwise Dong Shuheng would really want to restore asphalt roads everywhere.
However, the threshold for cement factories is not high, and cement factories and kilns are now popping up all over China.
After leaving the First Machinery Factory, Dong Shuheng took the train from Xuzhou to Haizhou to check out the port construction there.
Dong Shuheng also made a special trip to the Naval Officer School in Haizhou. The school was originally located here because it was the only natural harbor in the Huai Navy-controlled area.
There are still many British instructors in the school. Although these people may become enemies in the future, they are very dedicated in China.
Dong Shuheng watched their teaching. These people were very dedicated in teaching and had nothing to hide.
It's just that the British are very confident in their own navy and always belittle the navies of other countries intentionally or unintentionally.
Also, most of the naval warfare ideas they talked about were from the era of sailing battleships.
But these are not important. Dong Shuheng just wants these naval cadets to learn more navigation knowledge. The tactics in naval battles are only a small aspect. When they have their own ironclads in the future, these people will understand how to use them.
Because Dong Shuheng personally told Du Hang and others about the tactical thinking of the ironclad ship. They, the first batch of naval officers to board the ironclad ship, will slowly study the tactics of the ironclad ship.
When these military school students enter the navy in the future, they will only need to use the old method of bringing in the new. These newcomers who have mastered basic navigation knowledge and naval warfare theory will quickly be able to adapt to the new warships.
Haizhou's port is very large, relying on Xuzhou's heavy industry base. Heavy steam-driven cranes can be seen in the port here, although they are not as good as gantry cranes. There are not many ports in the world equipped with such cranes.
The design of Haizhou Port actually exceeds the current usage requirements.
So why did the Chinese government design Haizhou Port to be so big despite the waste?
This is because a railway across China from east to west will start from Haizhou, pass through Xuzhou and connect Kaifeng Prefecture, Henan Prefecture, and Xi'an to the west, then pass through Gansu, cross the Hexi Corridor into the Western Regions, and then enter Central Asia from Alashankou, and then
Coming down, it will go south along the west shore of Lake Balkash and reach the Fergana Basin.
In the future, this railway will also connect the three Central Asian countries, enter Persia, and then enter Turkey from Persia, becoming a road link between China and the West.
With the capabilities of Tsarist Russia, it was able to build a Trans-Siberian Railway, and Dong Shuheng believed that he could also open up this road.
This railway is an important condition for Dong Shuheng's diplomatic strategy in the next few decades.
Because the sea passage is destined to be turbulent.
Dong Shuheng was still confident that China wanted to dominate the Pacific Ocean, but in the Indian Ocean, Europeans had been operating for a long time. Dong Shuheng did not have the slightest confidence that he would be able to control it.
Dong Shuheng hopes that this large railway leading to the west can be repaired within ten years. Compared with the Siberian Railway, this railway in China is relatively easier to build.
Now this railway has been extended westward from Xuzhou, and construction started almost simultaneously with the railway connecting Xinjing and Xuzhou. This is the "one vertical and one horizontal" project in Dong Shuheng's first three-year plan. Of course, this "horizontal"
Currently it is only connected to Lanzhou, Gansu.
In Xuzhou City, Zheng Huigong returned home. His family lived in Xuzhou City. The house was not big, it was a small courtyard with two entrances.
Nowadays, Xuzhou is booming in industry, and many people have flocked to the city. Ordinary workers in the factory usually still live in dormitories around the factory.
The Chinese government will build some dormitory houses near concentrated industrial areas. In order to save land, these houses are usually two or three-story small buildings, arranged in long rows, commonly known as "row houses".
Usually, the houses assigned to each household are very small, and if the population is large, the living space will be very crowded.
Zheng Huigong doesn't need to live in a resettlement house no matter how much she saves.
He has his own room in the factory, and sometimes he will live in the factory when he is too busy.
But today the president arrived at his factory. He still had to go home and share such an exciting event with his family.
Zheng Huigong's family had a wife and a concubine. The wife helped him raise the concubine. The main reason was that the Zheng family was small, so his wife helped him give birth to a son, the eldest son.
Later, when Zheng Huigong got some money from his business, his first wife helped him find a concubine. She was average-looking, but when she arrived at the Zheng family, she helped Zheng Huigong give birth to a son and a daughter.
The eldest son has grown up this year, but he is still studying in Xuzhou Academy. He is not studying Confucianism, but the newly established School of Business Administration of the academy.
I heard that this program teaches people how to do business. Zheng Huigong hopes that his eldest son can inherit his family business. As for his second son and daughter, they are still young.
Zheng Huigong returned home, and his wife and concubine went to the door to greet him as usual.
"The head of the house is back? Is there anything happy about you today? I think you are in a good mood?" the wife asked. When she opened the door just now, she saw her husband's face full of excitement.
The concubine followed the wife. Usually, she didn't talk much when the wife was around.
"That's natural. Today, your husband and I met a noble man, a very noble man." The couple is actually very affectionate, and they usually talk more casually.
"Could it be that I saw the mayor?" the wife guessed.
"They say you women have long hair and short knowledge. How can you make me, my husband, so happy when you meet the mayor?"
With that said, the couple had returned to the room.
"Think bigger."
"You mean the one at the top?" The wife pointed to the sky and whispered.
"Well, you finally guessed it right."
The people of China still think that the great president is the emperor. I heard that it was because the new emperor drank too much foreign ink, so the title of emperor was changed to president.
Some of them said that some foreign emperors are called presidents.
At this time, a young man of seventeen or eighteen years old came over. This young man was wearing a cyan student uniform, a hat, and a pair of glasses on the bridge of his nose.
Seeing Zheng Huigong, the young man hurriedly came over to greet him.
"Father is well!"
"Why did Guan'er come back today?" Zheng Huigong was very happy to see his son back. Since his son went to the academy to study, the two of them had met very rarely.
Zheng Huigong's eldest son has been smart since he was a child. Zheng Huigong didn't have much money at first, but he still lived frugally and sent him to a private school.
Although he didn't get any honors, after the Xuzhou Academy was established the year before last, his son still managed to get in.
It happened that my son also came back, and the family sat down to eat together.
Zheng Huigong just happened to tell her family about her meeting with the president today. When they heard Zheng Huigong speaking in front of the president, her family members were full of admiration. Zheng Huigong was also very helpful.
Then, the family ate together. At the table, the son hesitated to speak.
As a father, Zheng Huigong still has some discernment.
"Guan'er, what do you have to say?" Zheng Huigong asked proactively.
Zheng Guan hesitated for a moment, then plucked up the courage and said: "Father, Xinjing Academy has been established. I heard that there are first-class teachers and laboratories there, and my son wants to sign up and transfer to another school. Now because Xinjing Academy has just been established, there is such a policy.
Xinjing Academy allocates certain transfer quotas to each academy. Moreover, after transferring, you can also reselect your major."
Zheng Guan was a little nervous and his words were a little disorganized.
Zheng Guan saw that there was no displeasure on his father's face, so he continued: "Father, my son wants to transfer to physics and dynamics."
The son wants to move to Xinjing. Although the house is far away from home, it is the capital. In the eyes of ordinary people, the capital is better than the local area. After all, it is under the emperor's feet!
But what kind of physics and dynamics room did his son want to learn? Zheng Huigong was puzzled and asked directly.
"Father, this physics is a big subject. The dynamics I want to learn, in layman's terms, is like the First Machinery Factory that uses dynamics to build a steam locomotive."
"Oh, father understands. He is researching and manufacturing things that can provide power." Zheng Huigong has always wanted his son to inherit the family business. He was also afraid that if his son studied an unrelated major, the business would be ruined.
But now that my son is talking about it, it seems that it has something to do with his machinery factory.
"What? Father, do you agree?" Zheng Guan actually likes to do things with his hands. He has been exposed to many books in the academy. He envies those great inventors. Those people are the ones who really change the world, just like Watt improved the steam engine.
.
However, he was worried that if he wanted to engage in technology, his father might not agree, because his father asked him to study management, and he hoped that he would learn how to relate to the family industry.
"Why don't you agree? If you learn this technology, you can come back and help me in the future. Let's also build a locomotive. That thing is valuable."
"Besides, my father also met Director Liu of the First Machinery Factory today. He also has a technical background. Who said that technical people can't manage a factory? The president also said today that as a factory director, you must understand
Technology, otherwise it will be easy to give blind orders."
Seeing that his father could say this, Zheng Guanti finally let go of his worries.