Chapter 91: Achievements and Prospects
Guangzhou First Trade Fleet Goods Procurement List and Expense List: Hiring local pilots and personnel to liaise with the government: 10 taels Reporting water (port fees): 100 taels; Bribing tax officials: 20 taels Transfer of 5000 taels of silver to the Guangzhou Advance Station Transfer of 3000 taels of silver to the Qiwei Escort Agency as an investment (withdrawn from the accounts receivable from Gao Ju) Guangzhou self-guided tour for all personnel: 100 taels Purchase of lolis, shotas, and their parents, totaling 500 taels (including handling fees) Total: 176 people. [Note: 98 people have been transported back] Various vegetable and spice seeds, 20 catties each, totaling 10 taels Purchase of one roll of Brazilian tobacco, weighing 100 pounds, from a foreign firm for 30 Spanish dollars Total freight for various goods: 3 taels
“—And that concludes my financial report.” Xiao Zishan finished his report in the conference room, facing a group of serious-looking people. He then added, unnecessarily, “I personally guarantee that I have not embezzled a single coin!”
“Whether there are any financial problems will be known after the finance department’s audit. You don’t need to make any guarantees.” Ma Qianzhu had no trust in oaths and guarantees, which were based on personal conviction. If no one was corrupt now, it was only because there was no need for corruption at the moment.
“Now I will talk about the current progress of various departments, their requests, and the problems they face.” Ma Qianzhu took out his notebook.
As of today, November 10, 1628, the progress of the transmigrators’ various tasks since D-Day is as follows: Communications: Basically completed a wireless communication network centered on Bairen City, with a coverage of 35km…40km. A long-range radio station has been established in Guangzhou, and a 15W radio station has been set up in Saltworks Village. Next step: Complete the construction of a wired telephone network connecting Bopu Port-Bairen City, Damei Village-Bairen City, and Saltworks Village-Bairen City, and establish a central telephone exchange in Bairen City. Existing problems: Lack of sufficient electrical wires and insulating materials. After joint consultation, the industrial and communications departments believe that telephone lines can be self-produced, provided that the raw materials can be obtained: iron wire or copper wire. As for insulating equipment, glassware can be used as a substitute.
Energy: Completed a total installed power generation capacity of 630KW, including 200KW of hydropower and 420KW of thermal power (Bopu and Bairen City each have one 213KW boiler-turbine generator). Other energy sources: 10KW. Completed the power transmission and distribution network between Bopu and Bairen City. A wind power generation system has been set up in Saltworks Village. Next step: Phase II of the Bairen Beach Hydropower Station, adding one 200KW unit. Existing problems: Insufficient building materials and labor.
Construction: One 16-hole rotary kiln, one lime kiln, two combined brick and tile machines, one homemade electric grinder. Maximum annual production capacity of bricks and tiles: 30 million pieces. In addition, 1 ton of pozzolanic cement can be produced daily. One vertical cement kiln, 85% complete, which will be able to produce 55 tons of silicate cement daily upon completion. Existing problems: Lack of coal and iron ore necessary for cement production. Lack of cement and steel, making it impossible to use concrete for construction.
Transportation: Completed the construction of a simple road from Bopu to Bairen City to Lingao County Town. Next step: Build the Bairen Beach Bridge, open a simple road from Saltworks Village to Bairen City, and dredge the Bopu Port-Bairen Beach section of the Wenlan River to make it suitable for navigation. Current means of transportation: 12 four-wheel-drive farm vehicles, 2 Beijing 212 jeeps, 4 750cc motorcycles with sidecars, 10 125cc motorcycles, 200 bicycles. The industrial department has also repaired and modified 17 handcarts captured in battle and has built 10 two-wheeled carriages themselves. In addition, 2 small boats have been unloaded from the Fengcheng, serving as water transport on the Wenlan River. However, the river’s depth is limited (only 1 meter during the dry season), and the transmigrators lack suitable shallow-draft vessels, so water transport is actually on a very small scale.
Large construction machinery is showing serious wear and tear, especially the consumption of hydraulic parts. These parts cannot be repaired due to the limitations of the industrial level. At the current engineering intensity, it is estimated that various wearing parts will be consumed within 18 months. Cars and motorcycles are in better condition. However, the fuel supply prospect is worrying. The diesel reserve is still large, but the gasoline inventory is small due to its volatility and deterioration, and is about to be depleted. Alternative energy sources need to be developed as soon as possible. The lubricating oil inventory is relatively large, and the development of substitute products has been initiated by the agricultural department, with castor as the target. The manufacturing of four-wheeled carriages has been stranded due to a lack of metal materials; the steering gear and leaf springs for shock absorption cannot be manufactured.
Manufacturing and processing industry: The basic construction and equipment installation of the machinery factory have been completed. This factory was formed by adding some mechanical equipment to the foundation of Zhan Wuya’s machinery factory. However, so far, the factory is severely underutilized, in a state of “waiting for rice to cook.” The processing and manufacturing of wooden, bamboo, and rattan products are relatively prosperous. In particular, the manufacturing of safety helmets has reached mass production capacity. The wood processing and woodenware manufacturing in Bopu have formed a stable scale, with one drying kiln and one dry distillation kiln each. Not only can they produce boards, furniture, and wooden components of various sizes and specifications, but they can also produce wood tar, tannin, and charcoal. Although jute is lacking, they have successfully made quite strong ropes using locally produced flax and hemp.
Chemical industry: Controlled Lingao’s main saltworks—Ma Niao Saltworks. Using traditional production methods, it can produce 1 ton of salt per day. The short-term goal is to improve and expand the scale, striving for an average daily output of 5 tons of unrefined crude salt and 1 ton of table salt. A set of 800-ton synthetic ammonia and combined soda ash production systems and a set of coal coking chemical systems are being installed. These complete sets of equipment are heavy, have many components, and numerous pipelines, making installation very complex and slow. Fortunately, the transmigrators are currently unable to supply coal on a large scale. The chemical department plans to build another homemade electrolytic salt factory in Bopu to produce salt, caustic soda, and bleaching powder. For this, they have applied for an expansion of the generator capacity in Bopu. Since the synthetic ammonia industry has not yet been put into production, the chemical group can only focus on utilizing existing materials for gunpowder and explosives. They have successfully used the stocked ammonium nitrate to produce ammonwood explosives and are currently concentrating on granulating the gunpowder confiscated from the Gou family. They are also using the brought-in finished nitric acid to trial-produce nitrocellulose and mercury fulminate. Due to the high risk, they have applied to find another safer location for an explosives factory.
Mining and metallurgy department: Mastered one quarry for construction use. Mineral resources that can be fully supplied include: clay, limestone, quartz sand, and lignite. Four small converters and supporting steel processing equipment such as forging machines, rolling mills, and cold drawing machines have been installed. If pig iron can be fully supplied, 10-15 tons of crude steel can be produced daily. However, at present, only one 1-ton converter is intermittently operated, with raw materials being the iron cannons, weapons, and iron shot captured in various battles, as well as some damaged steel tools. The fuel used is charcoal, which is consumed in large quantities, and can only be used to manufacture urgently needed hardware and tools. The construction of a blast furnace requires a large amount of iron ore, coke, and limestone, and once ignited, it is not advisable to stop the furnace. Construction is temporarily suspended as the supply of raw materials cannot be guaranteed.
Civilian sector: One homemade paper workshop has been put into production, using rags, waste cotton, and straw to produce coarse paper for daily use. There are plans to recruit some papermaking masters from the mainland to improve the paper. In addition, after the mass production of acid and alkali products, a modern paper mill will be built, which can not only fully supply the transmigrators’ own office and daily paper needs, but also be exported on a large scale to the mainland and overseas. Already in production or about to be in production are: textile factory, clothing factory, food factory, ceramics factory. Temporarily unable to go into production due to raw material problems are: glass factory, sugar refinery, cigarette factory. The raw material problems are being solved.
…
“In general, our industrialization is mainly stuck on three important issues: electricity, coal, and iron,” Ma Qianzhu summarized in his speech. Building an industrial system—even if they were aiming for a 19th-century industrial system—was still fraught with difficulties when they started to implement it.
The problem of pig iron, if the channel to obtain pig iron from Guangdong can be opened, will provide a stable supply of pig iron for a relatively long time. As for coal, the Executive Committee has decided to send people to Vietnam to buy coal as soon as possible. He suggested that it would be a good idea to send a barge to buy coal, and simply buy 1000 tons at once. As a major chemical raw material, it is not an exaggeration to consume some diesel for coal.
“With sufficient coal and steel, the industrial department can replicate steam engines. With sufficient prime movers, industrial capacity can immediately be raised to a new level,” Ma Qianzhu explained. Steam engines are not very efficient, but their advantage lies in their simple structure and ease of manufacture, which is very suitable for the transmigrators’ current situation. In addition to driving generators, they can also directly drive the operation of some machinery. The Executive Committee also plans to use it as future ship power.
In addition to steam engines, the industrial department also needs to mass-produce various hardware and tools. These products are in great demand during the current infrastructure boom, and are almost in short supply.
Next, Wu De, as the head of the labor department, gave a report. “Labor is still relatively tight. As of 0:00 this morning, the directly controlled human resources are as follows—” Transmigrators: 478 people Bairen Production Team One: 141 people Bairen Production Team Two: 605 people (transferred from the former Gou Family Village) Prisoners: 153 people (Gou family’s servants, retainers, family members, etc.) Servants: 176 people (purchased in Guangzhou, 98 have been transported back) Human resources indirectly controlled by the transmigrators are: Saltworks Village: 200 households, about 800 people Damei Village: 50 households, about 250 people
From the perspective of population structure, there are many young and middle-aged people among the indigenous labor force, but the sex ratio is imbalanced, especially in the two production teams. The male-to-female ratio in team one is as high as 9:1; in team two, it is also 5:1. In the two villages, except for Saltworks Village where the sex ratio is relatively normal, Damei Village has the same problem.
The reason for this is that Lingao originally had a large floating population from outside. It has always been a major destination for migrants from the mainland. There are many single farmers from other places who come here to reclaim wasteland and work as long-term or short-term laborers, mainly from Guangdong and Fujian. However, after investigation, it was found that some came from as far as Jiangxi, the two Hu provinces, and even North Zhili and Shandong.
Such a population structure is very favorable in the short term. After all, young and middle-aged men are the main force of construction. But in the long run, in a place where there is a shortage of women, men will not settle down and start a family there. Therefore, in the future, when introducing foreign immigrants, it is necessary to focus on controlling the sex ratio.