"With such a large-scale expansion of the steel industry, is there such a large material reserve?" Wen Desi asked. This blast furnace is not a Great Leap Forward-style earthen blast furnace, but a real industrial blast furnace, although in terms of scale it is in another time and space.
It was a small blast furnace with backward production capacity that was restricted and demolished. But this thing was definitely high-tech in the 17th century.
Not counting refractory materials - this problem has been solved from the bitter brine in the salt field. Just making the cooling water jacket for the furnace requires several tons of steel - and it is a casting. Wen Desi knew that casting is mainly used to cast steel.
The most difficult thing to do is that the fluidity of steel is not high, so the difficulty of large steel castings such as cooling water jackets can be imagined.
"The technical conditions for building these equipment are fully mature, and the material conditions are also available. There is no problem in expanding to this scale." Ma Qianzhu replied, "But it will consume a lot of pig iron. The steel inventory is used to manufacture equipment, and the pig iron and steel quotas for other aspects are
Further cuts must be made..."
"What to do with the mining equipment, as well as the supporting equipment: boilers, steam engines... these things are piled up with tons of steel." Zhan Wuya questioned, "There is also the rail manufacturing arranged by the Planning Commission for Tiandu.
The gap is 40%. Even if there is no shortage of materials, additional production equipment must be added to deliver on time."
"Of course it is guaranteed." Ma Qianzhu opened his notebook, "Everyone, since August, the Planning Commission has reduced the amount of steel in all aspects, in order to break through the fatal bottleneck of steel and coal. The difficulty is
For the time being, as long as this threshold is passed, steel will no longer be a first-level controlled material - everyone knows the expected output. However, the current inventory is still tight." He immediately reported the current inventory of steel.
Pig iron, wrought iron stocks.
"It's really not much." Zhan Wuya said. "All arms production must be stopped now. Casting artillery and shells consumes a lot of pig iron."
The armament work of the Crossing Group has been carried out at a slow but uninterrupted pace. The Planning Commission allocates certain production quotas for the production of weapons, ammunition, and rations every month. As for the professional arsenal required by the army and navy - there is not yet -
Right now it's all a turnkey job with the machinery factory.
Stopping all arms production is a very sensitive issue. Because it is a five-year plan implementation work meeting, there is only one Ma Qianzhi who can be called the representative of the military. Naturally, no one will jump up to raise objections. However, once this measure is announced, the military will
One can imagine what kind of reaction there was. Especially for the young officers headed by Zhang Bolin and Wei Aiwen, artillery was their pet peeve.
The matter was of great importance. Everyone's eyes were on Ma Qianxu: his other title was the chief of general staff of the army.
"It's okay, but it's a bit uncertain." Ma Qianzhu took out another Holy Ship notebook from the briefcase with a password lock that he carried with him, with the word "Army" written on it.
"The current mini rifles have 4 bases each, the artillery training team has 1 base of shells, the coastal heavy artillery has half a base. The naval gun on 8154 has 1.5 bases, the triangular schooner patrol boat has 1 base, and other sail warships
The reserve of artillery shells is insufficient. After recruiting the remnants of Zhucai, our sailing fleet expanded rapidly. The old miscellaneous artillery and artillery shells were all dismantled and refurbished. However, there was no time to match the new cannons. The shortage was too large, not to mention the cannon shells.
I said it." Ma Qianzhu said without any hesitation.
"One battle is enough."
"As long as it is not a joint attack between the Ming army and the main force of the Zheng family, it is not necessarily possible to completely destroy the opponent, but it can definitely be defeated." Ma Qianzhu participated in several war games hosted by Xi Yazhou at the General Staff Headquarters.
Wen Desi asked: "Is there any danger of war now?"
"According to the analysis report of the intelligence department, there is currently no such thing."
"First stop the production of artillery and ammunition. Make every effort to develop planned production equipment for Tiandu."
"Can you ask Guangzhou to expand the import of pig iron?"
"It's not easy. The problem now is not only that the price of imported pig iron from Guangdong is getting more and more expensive. It's also that our import volume is too large and the inventory on the market is low - and we also encounter competitors."
"Who but us would buy so much pig iron?"
"The Ming Dynasty government." Ma Qianxu said, "The report from Guangzhou Station said that Wang Zunde, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, was casting cannons on a large scale and purchasing large amounts of pig iron. The price of iron on the market has risen sharply."
"Could the government use cash to purchase iron? Aren't they always engaging in things like 'buying' to seize virtual money and real goods?"
"That's true. But since the owner of the smelting site has suffered a loss, he has to make up for it. Besides, Ming Dynasty is also inviting investment to undertake the business, and it's not all about robbing."
"According to historical records, Wang Zunde was very skillful in casting cannons, casting two hundred cannons at a time." People from the intelligence department reported, "And the scale next year will probably be even greater. There is a wealthy businessman named Li Luoyou.
He knows the right path and has already taken over the cannon casting business in Guangdong Province."
"What is this person's background?"
"I haven't started checking yet."
"Immediately send a text message to Guangzhou to check his situation!" Wen Desi said and suddenly thought of it, "Have you figured out the background of that woman Li Huamei?"
"Not yet. She sailed for Goa in October and brought away a large amount of cargo."
"What is she planning to bring back to us?"
"Mainly opium and jute." Ma Qianxu said, "There are also sporadic goods."
"How's your sailor training going?"
"Very good. The sailors on the schooner patrol boat you designed, Mr. Wen, were all trained by her."
Xiao Zishan coughed, reminded Mr. Wen not to crook the building, and then said: "In this way, the price of pig iron will rise even more next year."
Although after the development of Tiandu is completed and the blast furnace produces iron again, Lingao's pig iron can be completely self-sufficient - and even a large number of steel products can be exported, but this will not happen until the end of next year at least.
"We have no choice but to grit our teeth and endure it for a while and continue to rely on imports." Wang Luobin said, "High prices are high prices. At least we can afford it."
"This money is just for the smelting owners to make money temporarily." Wen Desi said, "Once our steel production increases, not to mention selling the iron products back to Guangdong, just stopping the import will cause the price of iron to plummet."
"We can take the opportunity to establish a commodity exchange system and control Guangdong's railway through bulk commodity trading..."
"Stop, let's talk about the economic issues later, otherwise we will have to push it to the limit again." Xiao Zishan, the host of the meeting, stopped Yi Fan's lofty argument, "Let's talk about the coal and iron issues first."
"After obtaining a stable coal supply from the island, our next step is the Tiandu Iron Mine." Wen Desi said, "Now let's talk about the plan to develop Tiandu."
Ma Qianzhu stood up, came to the large display board, and opened the curtain above.
Behind the curtain is a large-scale map of the entire vicinity of Sanya. It has been marked with small flags of various colors.
"The Planning Commission, following the order of the Executive Committee, has completed the Tiandu Development Plan." Ma Qianxu said, "Please review it."
Developing Tiandu is not simply a matter of building a mining area locally and expanding the Yulinbao wharf. The Crossing Group is preparing to build Yulin as a new base. In the future, the Crossing Navy will go to Southeast Asia for trade and colonization. So the whole plan is very
The first and second phases of the project will be completed within the first five-year plan, and the third and fourth phases will be carried out later - this will be left to the second five-year plan.
"The first phase of the project is to develop the Tiandu mining area," Ma Qianzhu pointed at the map, "and to construct basic supporting facilities."
The first step is to build a new fort on the main peak of the Luhuitou Peninsula. At the same time, a pier, a trestle and a fort will be built on the peninsula. This will serve as a base for the naval fleet heading south to Southeast Asia in the future.
The original Yulinbao Terminal will be expanded into a dedicated material output terminal, all using mechanized loading and unloading equipment. In the future, iron ore from Tiandu, manganese ore and phosphate ore from Damao, and dried coconuts and timber from Yazhou will all be transported through this terminal.
Anyu Market opposite Yulin Fortress will be fully rebuilt in accordance with modern urban planning and equipped with complete infrastructure. At the same time, a large number of immigrants will be used to enrich it. Enterprises that process local resources will be established on the spot. We are planning to first build a wood processing plant and a coconut processing plant.
Factory and a food factory. Anyou City will become a commercial port for trade with Southeast Asia. Not only will it attract merchant ships traveling to Southeast Asia to dock here for trade, Wen Desi also plans to move the headquarters of the newly established Southeast Asia Company here.
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Tiandu Town will appear on the original site 300 years in advance, and the Tiandu Mining Bureau of the crossing country will be established here. Tiandu Mining Bureau not only manages the mining of Tiandu iron ore, but will also be responsible for the development of manganese and phosphate ores in the Damao area in the future.
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A railway will also be built between Tiandu Town and Yulinbao Pier to transport ore.
"In this way, we will gain a lot of capital in the Yulin area." Wen Desi commented.
"The cost is high and the profit is high. The development of the Yulingang area is not just a Tiandu iron mine, it is actually a new support point for us in the southern part of Hainan Island. It forms a trend that echoes the north and south of Lingao." Ma Qianzhu
explain.
This new base is basically a blank, with very few local indigenous people, and the influence of the Ming Dynasty government is far away in Yazhou, which is dozens of kilometers away. The Chuanchuan Group can plan, develop and construct this area at will, without spending a lot of effort to conquer and conquer it.
In terms of negotiation, unlike the "coexistence" system such as Lingao, the Yulingang area will become the first ruling area that truly crosses the group.
"Yulinbao will be promoted to the Sanya Special Economic Zone." Wen Desi said.
The Executive Committee immediately approved the Tiandu development plan. The entire plan would start in the spring of 1630. The complexity of this operation was no less than that of recreating D-Day. Various ministries began to plan for the deployment of materials and personnel.