There were many guests coming to celebrate Miss Zuo's first birthday, and the gifts they gave were each more valuable than the last.
There is only one exception.
"We are paupers, so we can only give this to you. Don't dislike it, young lady."
Jiang Wei held Zuo Xuanyan in his arms and watched the little girl enjoying himself with his gift, with a smile on his face.
The gift from Jiang Wei was a palm-sized puppy made of brass.
This thing is ordinary, but Zuo Xuanyan likes it and has been holding it in her hands for a day.
This made Jiang Wei very proud.
"You and Prime Minister Jiang both call you poor, but there are no rich people in this world."
Jiang Wei is certainly not a pauper.
As a cabinet minister and minister of industry, his salary is astonishing, not to mention the wealth he handles.
However, Jiang Wei was born into a poor scholar and has never forgotten his roots. He does not like luxury or enjoyment on weekdays, and he will never spend more money on meaningless things.
Even the puppy given to Zuo Xuanyan was made by craftsmen with his own money.
But for such a gift, I feel more sincere.
Jiang Wei didn't want to talk about his life problems, but turned to his work.
"Qin Guoshi and others have submitted a report and plan to build a steam engine factory. Since the matter is serious, I want to ask for your opinion."
When he heard that a steam engine factory was to be built, Zuo Mengeng became interested.
"Have they perfected their steam engine?"
Jiang Wei smiled bitterly and shook his head.
"How can it be that easy? It's still a little bad every three days, and a bad thing every five days, and the problems are constant."
Zuo Mengeng doesn’t understand this.
"Then why set up a factory?"
Jiang Wei's answer made him understand that there was an error in his original idea.
"Even if the steam engine has a lot of problems, it is still much faster than pumping water manually. All the mines have noticed it and have come to buy it. There are quite a lot of it."
Zuo Mengeng understood.
Although the world's first water-pumping steam engine was far from perfect and had a high failure rate, it seemed impractical, but I was afraid of comparison.
Once compared with the efficiency of manual work, this steam engine with many faults far outperforms.
Even if it takes a lot of time to repair the machine, it is still faster than manual pumping.
After all, a steam engine pumping water for half a day is equivalent to a hundred ordinary workers working for five days.
All major mining farms are not fools, and they naturally know how to choose.
"In this case, it is a good thing to establish a factory. Entering the professional production stage will help improve the process and improve their manufacturing level."
The first steam engine was built by hand bit by bit under the leadership of Qin Luo and Li Meizhi.
Because of this, each process is not rigorous enough and the materials used are not good enough, so problems continue to occur.
If a factory is established and the production of steam engines is standardized, then the production process can be used to gradually improve the technological level and promote the practical capabilities of the steam engine.
Furthermore, since there is already an order, it means there is income.
Qin Luo and others can completely use the income to invest in the research and development of steam engines, which will not only save expenses, but also generate income from sources.
This is naturally what Zuo Mengeng likes to hear.
Over the years, his personal investment in the steam engine team alone has exceeded 50,000 taels of silver.
The expenditure approved by the cabinet and the Ministry of Finance exceeded 500,000 taels.
Some people have always criticized it, thinking that investing this money in the research and development of steam engines is a pure waste.
Despite the strong support of Zuo Menggeng and the cabinet, if no results are achieved, the pressure of public opinion will become more and more intense, and may even lead to disunity.
Now establishing a steam engine factory and creating profits and benefits from external sales can effectively block criticism and further deepen the research on steam engines.
This is a good thing that kills multiple birds with one stone.
Regarding Jiang Wei's proposal, Zuo Menggeng held consultations with the cabinet. It was finally decided to build a steam engine factory on the open land east of Jinan.
Since neither Qin Luo nor Li Meizhi had much administrative ability, Jiang Wei sent an experienced official from the Ministry of Industry.
Zuo Menggen knew the importance of steam engines and specially dispatched a regiment of troops to take charge of the factory's defense.
At the end of August, the foundation stone laying of the factory began.
Zuo Menggeng and all cabinet officials attended and personally cut the ribbon for the new factory.
This alone made the outside world realize how extraordinary this new factory is.
Qin Luo and Li Meizhi were appointed as deputy general managers and chief engineers of the new factory, focusing on the manufacturing and research and development of steam engines.
"Uncle Zuo, we don't have enough manpower. Can the newly graduated students this year be assigned to us?"
The steam engine industry needs to work hard, but the most lacking thing is people.
The manpower requirements required here are quite high, and ordinary laborers are definitely not competent. They must have a certain level of knowledge.
Therefore, Li Meizhi set her sights on this year's newly graduated middle school students.
As education is being rolled out across the board in Shandong, more and more educated young people are beginning to emerge.
In particular, there are more than 50,000 middle school students graduating this year.
More than 8,000 of them have entered university schools, while the rest are all being snatched away as talents.
In this matter, two young men, Qin Luo and Li Meizhi, obviously couldn't defeat those old fritters, so they had no choice but to come to Zuo Mengeng for help.
The steam engine is very important, and it cannot develop well without the participation of talents.
Zuo Mengeng thought for a while and said: "I can only arrange for five hundred people to come over for you, which is already the limit. If it's not enough, the army has a group of veterans who are about to retire. Do you want them?"
Qin Luo and Li Meizhi were both a little disappointed when they heard that there were only 500 people.
But there was no way, even if Zuo Mengeng came forward, this would be the only way.
The new graduates have long been divided up, and the majority of the demand is from the Ministry of Education itself.
All walks of life need talents, and education itself is even more in need.
Shandong is building new schools very quickly, but its teaching staff cannot keep up.
Especially at the grassroots level, teachers are full of vacancies and are waiting for staff.
Therefore, before this class of graduates even left the campus, Xu Ruolin waved her hand and intercepted 30,000 people.
If someone else had done this, Zuo Mengeng would definitely ask.
But since she was his own mother-in-law, Commander-in-Chief Zuo had no choice but to pinch his nose and admit it for the sake of the peace of his family.
Although they only received 500 people, Qin Luo and Li Meizhi breathed a sigh of relief when they heard that retired soldiers would also be arranged to come.
Retired soldiers are not only good at fighting, they also have to learn culture in the army.
To put it bluntly, soldiers in the new army are probably better educated than junior high school graduates.
Moreover, there is no competition for retired military personnel for the time being, so Zuo Menggeng can arrange them all for the steam engine factory.
Looking up at the signboard of "First Power Machinery Manufacturing Factory", Zuo Mengeng felt that the trend was surging.
He had a premonition that he would definitely be able to see the day when steam battleships would roam the world in his lifetime.