Chapter Twenty: The General Machinery Plant

The General Machinery Plant of the Manufacturing Directorate was located in the Bairen Industrial Zone. Although the Manufacturing Directorate had many manufacturing enterprises under its command, the core was still this machinery plant. Most of the various mechanical equipment brought from the old world, except for those reserved for the STC, were installed here. There were specialized workshops for machining, assembly, metalworking, riveting and welding, forging, heat treatment, casting, electroplating, woodworking, standard parts, bearings, chains, and measuring tools… a series of professional workshops. It not only manufactured various mechanical equipment but also mass-produced various standardized parts, tools, and measuring instruments commonly used in the industrial field, forming the core of the Transmigration Group’s industry.

In addition to this work, another important task of the machinery plant was the self-replication of industrial equipment, with the ultimate goal of enabling the entire industrial system to self-replicate and self-upgrade without relying on equipment from the old world.

In the past, the General Machinery Plant was nothing more than a large shed with bamboo poles on brick pillars and a roof of straw mats. As the Lin’gao regime continued to strengthen, the factory’s conditions also improved significantly. Like the arsenal in Bopu, it had gradually become a heavily guarded fortress. On a one-meter-high reinforced concrete wall foundation stood a five-meter-high plain red brick wall, topped with dense crenellations and watchtowers. The factory walls themselves were also workshops, warehouses, and offices. Two red brick circular towers flanked a deep and tall gate. On the reinforced concrete arched lintel was inlaid the line “Bairen General Machinery Plant Directly Under the Manufacturing Directorate,” pieced together with red broken glass. From the walls of the towers on either side of the gate extended two cast-iron arms with clenched fists and bulging muscles, holding cast-iron torches. At night, the flames of coal gas burned brightly on the torches, illuminating the entire gatehouse.

The roar of machinery in the General Machinery Plant never ceased, day or night, with black smoke and white steam rising continuously. The naturalized citizens who held special passes and were allowed to work and study here would see a circular square as soon as they entered the main gate. In the center of the square was a modern sculpture symbolizing industrial power—though ten out of ten natives couldn’t understand it.

Around the square were three-story small buildings used for administration and offices. From the square, a cinder road wide enough for four heavily loaded horse-drawn carts to pass side by side led forward. On the east and west sides of the road were high-bay workshops with wrought iron truss structures and red brick exterior walls, built one after another. Truss workshops were fast to build and had a light structure, making them the mainstream of modern factory buildings. Light rails were laid on the concrete roadbed between the workshops.

There was a power workshop on both the east and west sides of the road. The powerful output of the steam engines was transmitted to the ceilings of each workshop through overhead shafts, and then to each machine tool through numerous belts and gearboxes. Although the workshop’s power was transmitted by overhead shafts, there was still electricity supply—each machine tool had a separate work lamp for illumination, for the workers to use during operation. On the workshop walls, day and night, the blue flames of the gas lamps burned behind explosion-proof lampshades, emitting a bright light. Cast iron water pipes were fixed to the walls, continuously supplying water to the machine tools that needed water cooling.

The workshop was filled with the smell of water vapor, coal smoke, machine oil, and heated steel, the roar of running machinery, the sharp screech of parts being processed, and the impact of loading and unloading materials. The natives who came here for the first time were all shocked by this scene, and then subdued by the “divine power” of industry. And the fact that the Senators could control such power at will made the natives feel awe and reverence.

The naturalized citizens who worked here were the elite among the naturalized citizens. In a traditional agricultural society, there were not many people suitable to be modern machine workers. Those who could stay and work in the machinery plant, even as laborers, were all nimble-fingered and quick-witted natives. They were almost all young people under the age of 20, with strong learning abilities.

The working environment of the pre-industrial society was very harsh. The exhaust gas, noise, vibration, and mentally concentrated labor made the workers’ labor intensity extremely high. To ensure the health of the painstakingly cultivated industrial workers so that they could serve the transmigration cause for a long time, not only were the industrial workers given preferential treatment, but also a canteen, public bathhouse, clinic, and temporary dormitory were set up in the factory area. They also did their best to supply labor protection equipment. Lin’gao-produced cotton yarn gloves, work clothes, masks, and even safety glasses and earmuffs were all available.

At the end of the road was another high wall, with a guarded gate flanked by watchtowers. Pedestrians only used the small side gate. The main gate would only be opened when horse-drawn carts or railcars carrying large items arrived. At such times, the sentinels on duty would stand guard with loaded guns, not allowing any unauthorized personnel to enter.

Behind the heavily guarded gate were two of the Senate’s only four combined machining centers, installed in a carefully constructed special workshop. Another set was installed in a secret workshop in the Gaoshanling area, and one set was sealed up. The high processing precision that the combined machining centers could achieve was something that all of Lin’gao’s current equipment combined could not match. They were specially used to manufacture many molds and special parts that required high-precision processing. Using the combined machining centers required the signatures of both Zhan Wuya and the Planning Institute’s Wu De.

In the heavily protected machining center compound, there was also a warehouse directly under the Planning Institute. For the convenience of the manufacturing department, the Planning Institute had set up a controlled goods warehouse here, specially storing materials brought from the old world: various grades of special steel, non-ferrous metals, standard parts, and tools and measuring instruments.

Turning left from the gate of the combined machining center and passing a row of factory warehouses, one would reach a large open space. This was a testing ground and a storage area for coarse raw materials, specially used for assembling and testing large equipment. At the foot of the wall of the open space stood a simple earthen gantry crane, next to which were piled many steel plates, steel materials, and several machine tool bases, which had become rusty from being exposed to the wind and rain.

To facilitate the testing of certain large engineering equipment, a set of reinforced concrete pillars was built in the open space to support the equipment. Now, on these pillars was mounted the newly manufactured chain bucket elevator. A Lin’gao-produced locomobile temporarily served as the power source for the equipment.

Tracks were laid on the artificially constructed slope, and the bucket railcar was parked on the slope. The principle of the bucket loader was very simple. Through the rotation of the chain, many buckets were continuously lifted to a high position and then automatically overturned, dumping the ore into the cargo hold. The buckets descended, and when they reached the ground section, they were continuously filled with ore by manual labor. The chain and the buckets hanging on it moved in a continuous cycle. Although the feeding was still done manually, it achieved continuous loading and unloading of goods. The labor efficiency was countless times higher than that of dock workers carrying large baskets.

Although the principle was very simple, the chain was a huge technical problem. It was a high-strength round link chain. With 34 buckets on the chain, and each bucket carrying several tons of iron ore, the load on the chain was very high, involving materials, heat treatment, and machining.

Now, all the wooden test buckets had been hung up and loaded with sandbags and iron ingots to their working load. Zhan Wuya and some of the core Senators from the machinery plant were all looking on eagerly.

Zhan Wuya, seeing that almost everyone had arrived, waved to the workers and said, “Everyone, step back. We’re about to start!”

Hearing Zhan Wuya’s order, the workers immediately turned on the transmission switch. The locomobile output power through the gearbox, and then the winch began to turn. The chain was tightened, and the row of buckets began to move with a wobble, rumbling upwards, getting higher and higher, and in an instant, they reached two-thirds of the height.

Zhan Wuya, Jiang Hongjun, Liang Xin, Sun Li, and other Senators from the mechanical department, as well as all the workers present, watched in fascination. The higher the buckets rose, the happier they felt. Although the chain was small, it was a necessity in the field of industrial equipment. The currently produced chains in Lin’gao were very insufficient in terms of load capacity and durability. This time, both the materials and the processing methods had been greatly improved. If it could be successfully manufactured, it would solve a major problem in industrialization.

As everyone watched, there was a sudden “crack,” and the chain broke.

“Damn it!” everyone had just shouted when there was a loud crash. All the buckets fell to the ground, and smoke and dust rose everywhere, smashing them to pieces.

Sun Li touched the safety helmet on his head. “The load capacity is still insufficient.”

“We need to do a metallographic analysis,” Zhan Wuya said, “to see if it’s a material problem or a processing problem.”

Everyone carried the chain back and placed it in the forging workshop. The forging workshop of the General Machinery Plant was comparable in scale to the arsenal. Of course, the large steam forging hammer was self-made after D-Day.

“Let’s do some analysis tonight,” Zhan Wuya said to the disappointed Senators from the mechanical department. “Is anyone planning to have sex with their maid tonight? If you have such plans, you don’t have to come.”

A few people laughed. Sun Li said, “The maids are always there. You can have them whenever you want, sooner or later, it’s all the same. I’ll definitely come.”

The others also said they would come. The machinery plant was the most densely populated place for Senators. Many of the operators on the machine tools were Senators themselves, especially on the lathes, in the fitter’s workshop, and at the combined machining centers. The main force was still the Senators who were skilled workers. They not only had to operate the equipment themselves but also had to teach apprentices. Their work was very busy. Many of them had lived in the factory since it was first built, and now many still slept in their offices. For many, work was their entertainment.

Zhan Wuya also lived in the factory. He had a particularly deep affection for the General Machinery Plant—the earliest foundation of this plant was the small machine processing factory he had opened in the suburbs of Guangzhou. He usually slept in a dormitory in the factory—just like when he was a small boss.