Chapter 1: The Five-Year Plan (Part 1)

In the industrial zone across the Wenlan River, chimneys were belching thick smoke. As industry developed, the number of chimneys also increased, spewing black smoke into the blue sky, heralding the progress of the transmigrators’ industrialization.

But this industrialization was still very primitive, Ma Qianzhu thought.

After D-Day, they had fought, built, and conducted diplomacy all at the same time, finally establishing a firm foothold. Although the Executive Committee’s insistence on providing a better living environment for the transmigrators from the very beginning was ridiculed as “tourism” before the transmigration, their ability to persevere in this unfamiliar environment for the past few months without any major emotional fluctuations was entirely due to their high standard of living. If nothing else, Ma Qianzhu himself felt that if he had to live in a tent, drink smelly water, defecate in the bushes, and bathe in the river after a day’s work at the Executive Committee, with a group of ferocious natives brandishing swords and spears outside, ready to chop off their heads at any moment, he would most likely have a mental breakdown as well.

The so-called primitive wilderness survival was just a way for the petty bourgeoisie to show off their full set of professional equipment after dinner, expressing appropriate indignation towards industrial civilization to show their love for nature… But if you asked them to live for three days in a place without flush toilets and hot showers, they would cry and shit their pants…

But the transmigrator group’s industrial civilization was too fragile. All the modern life items they enjoyed, the machinery and weapons that terrified the natives of this time and space and made them worship them as gods, were all built on the basis of items brought from another time and space. As time went by, they were gradually losing these reserves. Wen Desi had clearly pointed out at an Executive Committee meeting that the prosperous situation of the transmigrator regime was false, because the reality was: “We are slowly bleeding.”

What they were losing was the blood of modern industrial civilization. The scrapped parts, the burned gasoline, the elapsed vehicle and motorcycle hours, the mechanical lifespan, the aging rubber and plastic parts… Every time Ma Qianzhu saw the report from the Planning Committee, he felt a sense of urgency.

If they could not build a self-sufficient system before the lifespan of these equipment was exhausted, the transmigrators’ plan to control East Asia and colonize Australia within a generation would be completely bankrupt.

The key was that even the most knowledgeable among them about the industrial system could not know which material, when exhausted, would cause the transmigrator group’s industrial upgrading to fall into a bottleneck. Therefore, the industrialization process must be started while various materials and equipment were still abundant.

The modern industrial system, the biggest weapon of the transmigration, how should it be planned?

He pondered for a long time, took out a leather-bound notebook from the drawer of his “Holy Ship” brand white wooden desk, and opened it. This was a notebook of his thoughts and plans on how to build an industrial system.

What the transmigrators had to do was to rebuild a complete industrial system. In his opinion, this system must:

Occupy as little land as possible and be as concentrated as possible. The fewer the number of main industrial zones, the better. But the number of pure mining points and ore dressing points was not limited.

Provide all the industrial products that the 19th-century industrial society could produce, from machine guns to condoms, and then to cars. Of course, it was not limited to being exactly the same, as long as the performance and operating mechanism were similar.

Be self-sufficient, able to support itself, update its equipment, and maintain its operation without any external input of parts or knowledge. It must be able to develop, continuously improve its scale and processing accuracy, and even change its direction. For example, after a few generations, it could switch from fossil fuels to nuclear fusion energy.

There should be a large seaport or a large inland river port relying on a major river as a logistics center, connecting mining points around the world. A water conservancy hub of the Three Gorges level, taking into account both irrigation, flood control, and clean energy. A processing and R&D center, and a highly developed agricultural area with sufficient surplus.

Next to the logistics center would be the petrochemical industrial zone. The location of the hydropower hub and the main iron ore area should be comprehensively considered to determine the self-flow irrigation area and the processing center, especially the metal smelting industry. And, since the whole world was at their disposal, they should use pipeline transportation as much as possible. Coal transportation by rail should be minimized, and the problem should be solved with coal slurry pipelines or mine-mouth power plants.

If the terrain was not limited, it would be best to arrange it in a star-shaped pattern with multiple ring zones on a plain. Different functions such as research, life, production, entertainment, and raw materials would be divided into several small cross-ring zones connected according to the needs of raw materials and products of different industrial categories (environmental protection should also be considered). The living, entertainment, and science and education zones would form a tripod in the center of the entire large ring. Raw materials should be connected as much as possible through underground pipelines and heavy-duty railway lines (similar to the level of the Daqin Railway), and personnel transportation would be realized through an elevated light rail system. The industrial and production zones should be close to the deep-water ice-free port of ten-thousand-ton class and the railway hub area connected to the open sea. Several small Langdi-level hydropower stations should be distributed in a dotted pattern at a sufficient distance from the entire city, serving as flood control, irrigation water for agricultural areas, and domestic water for the city (a backup seawater desalination plant must also be considered). A few experimental small reactors could be installed in the research area as appropriate.

When he saw the word “reactor,” Ma Qianzhu realized how far-fetched and idealistic his considerations were. Although there was a senior technician from the No. 405 Nuclear Company among the transmigrators, they should not expect this thing for two or three generations—provided that they could pass on their knowledge, experience, and ideas to the next generation…

In the conference room of the Executive Committee building, a meeting on the next development plan was being held. This was an expanded meeting of the Executive Committee, and the participants included not only the members of the Executive Committee, but also the main leaders of the various departments under it.

The theme of the meeting was the future development plan. The leaders of these departments, most of whom had been promoted in the recent institutional adjustment, were all full of ambition and eager to show off their skills. Each department proposed its own construction plan.

“Our current top priority is to complete the second phase of the Bairen Beach Hydropower Station,” said Chang Kaishen, the general manager and chief engineer of the Lingao Power Company.

“The reason why this project has been delayed for so long is largely due to our lack of labor. Now that we have so many laborers, and there is no shortage of cement, bricks, and bamboo-reinforced concrete, we should complete it as soon as possible.”

“Can the safety of building a dam with bamboo-reinforced concrete be guaranteed?”

“The Japanese used bamboo-reinforced concrete to build water conservancy facilities during World War II. According to their experience, it is more reliable to use bamboo-reinforced concrete for this than for building precast components,” Mei Wan said. “If we really want to pursue reliability, our current small vertical kiln cement itself is not up to standard.”

“It’s just that the structural strength is a bit poor and the lifespan is a bit short. Besides, the rolling dam of the Bairen Beach Hydropower Station in the 20th century was also mainly made of stone. We can imitate it. If that doesn’t work, a turf and earth dam can also make do.”

Zhan Wuya nodded repeatedly. “I agree to expand the power facilities as soon as possible. With the current power supply level, the operating rate of the mechanical department is too low.” Many of the machine tools in the machinery factory had not yet been unsealed—the humidity in Hainan was high, and the maintenance work after unsealing was heavy. The transmigrators also lacked sufficient lubricants.

“The chemical department also has this opinion!” Ji Situi said. “If it weren’t for the lack of electricity, our makeshift electrolytic cells could have started working long ago. Caustic soda, bleaching powder, and so on, could be mass-produced immediately—these things are too useful.”

“Can the problem of power transmission and distribution be solved?” Ma Qianzhu asked.

“It can be solved,” Chang Kaishen said confidently. “We have a full set of equipment and can set up a 110 kV line from Bairen to Bopu—this will reduce power transmission losses. Since the Executive Committee has designated the banks of the Wenlan River as the main base, the equipment brought from the original time and space should be mainly used here. I believe that we will be able to mass-produce simple power transmission and distribution equipment in the future.”

“If we decide to build the second phase of the Bairen Hydropower Station, then it is not just a matter of a hydropower station, but a project of the comprehensive management of the Wenlan River basin,” Ma Qianzhu said.

He then unfolded his conceptual drawing. This was a rather complex project. In addition to expanding the Bairen Hydropower Station, it also included building a sluice gate downstream of Bopu, repairing the revetments, and dredging the river channel to regulate the water level of the Wenlan River and ensure that there was enough water during the dry season.

Ma Qianzhu said, “Ensuring the water level of the Wenlan River has two main benefits.”

First, it is beneficial to inland river shipping. Although the Wenlan River is the largest river in Lingao, the water level difference between the rainy and dry seasons is too large, so that inland river shipping can only be at the level of small boats. In the driest season, some sections of the river expose a large number of riverbed stones. Although there is no interruption of flow, shipping is already impossible. With the sluice gate at Bopu, the water level of the river channel can be maintained at a basic depth.

Ma Qianzhu was a person who was very interested in canals. In his spare time in the past, he had made a large number of canal plans. The most magnificent one was naturally the inland shipping line of the Song-Liao Canal - Luan-Hai Canal - Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal that he had dreamed of. Of course, before the transmigrators conquered all of China, this plan could only stay in his notebook, but it was feasible to turn the Wenlan River into a canal.

Second, it is beneficial to adjust the water storage capacity, which is conducive to industrial and agricultural production. At present, the irrigation benefits of the Wenlan River are far from being fully utilized. The large fields along the river basically have no canals built, and irrigation relies on manpower and waterwheels, which is extremely inefficient. The modern agriculture and industry that the transmigrators are about to promote will consume a large amount of water. With the sluice gate, the industrial and agricultural water use in the dry season can be guaranteed.

The people at the meeting were all moved by the beautiful prospect painted by Ma Qianzhu. Wu Nanhai saw a network of crisscrossing irrigation channels; Wen Desi saw a fleet of barges on the canal; Zhan Wuya saw countless water turbines and power stations; Xiao Zishan saw transmigrator families boating on the river on weekends…