Chapter 152: The Morning Meeting

Lin Hanlong walked along the road of Bairen New City. The dawn was faint, and the smell of trees and wild grass filled the dewy morning air. The gas street lamps had been extinguished. Sanitation workers, dressed in blue gowns, wearing masks and hats, and with bamboo identity tags hanging on their chests, were sweeping the stone-paved roads. If it weren’t for the gas street lamps here, Lin Hanlong would have thought he was walking on the road of an old new village built in the 1960s.

He didn’t encounter many Yuanen on the road—most Yuanen were either not up yet or were sleeping directly in their workshops and offices. However, the maids had already gone out in droves. They carried baskets and straw bags, walking in groups of three or five towards the model farm. Since the arrival of the maids, many people had started cooking at home. Therefore, the General Office had also adapted with the times and started issuing food subsidies and special supply cards for meat, eggs, and milk to individuals, no longer providing free meals in the cafeteria.

Lin Hanlong returned to his newly moved-in Yuanen apartment—he was in the second batch to receive a house. Being a bachelor, he was assigned a small 40-square-meter unit according to policy. The house was small, but it was enough to accommodate himself and his maid.

He had sent his maid home to sleep in the middle of the night—there were no security problems in Bairen City. Even in the bustling industrial zone, people without passes could not move around. It was the safest green zone, even for the Yuanen.

After returning home, his maid would get up at five o’clock, so that when he arrived home, his bathwater and breakfast would be ready.

“Take a bath first or eat first?” the maid asked.

“A bath. I’ll take a nap after my bath.” Lin Hanlong was very tired, but not hungry. And he had a meeting at eight, so he had to catch a quick nap to recover.

The room, decorated by Zhen Qian, was very simple, with clean and bright colors. The furniture was all in the IKEA style. Lin Hanlong did not like the so-called “classical” style. He took a quick bath, put on his pajamas, and lay down on the cloth sofa with a wooden frame and thick kapok cushions. He fell asleep immediately. He woke up punctually at 7:30. His maid had already heated up his breakfast: two Minnan-style steamed meat dumplings. She was from Minnan and made excellent steamed meat dumplings. Beside it was a glass bottle sealed with cardboard, sterilized paper, cotton thread, and sealing wax, containing pasteurized milk—delivered fresh from the farm that morning.

The maid had prepared a toothbrush and washing water. The toothpaste had long run out. It was difficult to produce toothpaste that fully met the standards of the old world, and the chemical industry department lacked sufficient raw materials and interest. Mo Xiaoan had come up with a substitute himself: bamboo salt.

The so-called bamboo salt was made by filling a bamboo tube with salt and then baking it at a high temperature. After removing the charred bamboo tube, the salt had solidified into a block. Grinding it into a fine powder produced the so-called “bamboo salt.” It was then packed into finely polished thin bamboo tubes, becoming a product of the Ministry of Light Industry, sold to Yuanen, naturalized citizens, and natives alike. It was said to sell quite well in Guangzhou.

Whether this thing was as magical as it was touted in the old world was not a concern for the Yuanen. At least, the Chinese had been using salt to brush their teeth and rinse their mouths since ancient times, so it was at least beneficial for dental and oral hygiene.

Lin Hanlong drank the milk and had his maid peel the dumplings for him. He slung his old computer bag over his shoulder, put on his sun hat, and walked out of the house, eating as he went.

Just as he left the apartment building, he saw Hai Lin from the woodworking factory walking on the road, looking sleepy. He knew that Hai Lin was also a frequent overtime worker and had probably just come off the night shift—the work at the woodworking factory was no less demanding than in other departments, and the resource allocation had always been low. The forestry department had a lot of complaints.

Hai Lin didn’t see Lin Hanlong and walked past on his own. Lin Hanlong knew he was also heading to the Industrial and Energy Committee compound.

The Industrial and Energy Committee held a regular meeting for Yuanen every morning at eight o’clock to summarize the previous day’s production status and arrange the specific work for the day. Because the number of Yuanen serving in the Industrial and Energy Committee was the largest, the meeting room was also extra-large, capable of accommodating one hundred and fifty people. The large windows let in enough sunlight, and the specially designed walls allowed the speakers to be heard clearly by everyone present without using a microphone.

To save space and materials, the seats were all long-backed wooden benches fixed to the floor, simple and sturdy. The back of the front seat had a protruding long wooden board for attendees to take notes and read.

The “Yuanen senior engineers” serving in the Industrial and Energy Committee had already arrived one after another. They were divided into many small circles, talking in low voices, like a beehive. From time to time, someone would excitedly shout out words like “bullshit” or “idiot.”

Lin Hanlong saw Ji Tui Si talking animatedly: “…Viagra? Does Emperor Zhao dare to say that? I’m just waiting for him to get me people to fill the chemical factory! He has to give me at least twenty thousand people. You know, the synthesis process alone can fill a blackboard! Not to mention the molecular formula. With our pathetic village-level chemical industry, we won’t be able to make it in another fifty years…”

Someone on the side was still jeering about Indian God Oil, Spanish Fly, and so on. There were also people preparing to sell ecstasy and methamphetamine to the Manchus. There were strange plans everywhere. Lin Hanlong found it interesting. At this moment, someone shouted, “Meeting’s starting, meeting’s starting, no more talking!”

The meeting room gradually quieted down, and everyone returned to their seats.

Zhan Wuya walked in hastily with a few naturalized citizen secretaries. As the former owner of a small machinery factory, he was a jack-of-all-trades and thus had almost no rest time. Lin Hanlong saw his work clothes, which were blackened and had some scorch marks, and guessed that he had probably just been in the heat treatment workshop.

The Industrial and Energy Committee’s regular meeting had no nonsense, no platitudes, and not even an opening remark. Zhan Wuya briefly explained the statistical summary compiled at five in the morning, then talked about today’s tasks and key points, especially the problems and requests raised by various departments. Any solutions and replies had to be explained at the meeting.

As a rule, there was no discussion at the morning meeting. Because there were too many Yuanen present, a back-and-forth would take up a lot of time. The entire morning meeting was always kept within thirty minutes.

Before the meeting ended, Zhan Wuya instructed that documents be distributed to the department heads. He then coughed.

“According to the instructions in the document, everyone should make an estimate of the human resources and skills your department needs to add and submit it to the Planning Office before June 30—”

A buzz went through the room. The lack of manpower had always been a bottleneck for expanding production in various departments. Every time they submitted a report, it was always pushed back and forth. Why the sudden change of heart? Could it be that Operation Engine had officially begun? Even if it had started now, it would be a while before people were transported back.

“The Planning Office intends to carry out pre-classification and training for the population gathered in Operation Engine. They will try to arrange some basic vocational training in the quarantine camps, so that they can immediately enter apprenticeships after being transported back to Lin’gao. So, I hope everyone will report the approximate number of people and skills your department needs,” Zhan Wuya said. “The Planning Office will implement a personnel training plan based on the plans you submit. Note that the total number of needs reported must match the total quota plan in the document—exceeding by 5-10% is acceptable, but not too much.”

Finally, Zhan Wuya announced the recent major safety accident with a serious expression—the boiler explosion, the biggest killer in the Yuanen Senate’s industrial system, had recently ceded its throne to the steel plant: a few days ago, the steel plant had just vaporized five naturalized citizen workers. The molten iron that spilled from the burst ladle had solidified on the ground, leaving no trace of the people. Adding to the previous several accidents, the death rate at the steel plant had already surpassed that of boiler explosions—since the steel plant was able to produce steel of stable quality, the condition of the boilers had greatly improved.

“Comrades, everyone must learn from this!” Zhan Wuya looked at the various Yuanen sitting below in all sorts of postures, wondering if his earnest words would be of any use.

“And then there’s fire prevention and typhoon prevention in the summer,” Zhan Wuya said. “I won’t say much about fire prevention. Typhoon prevention is a big deal—we have dozens of times more chimneys than before, and we’ve also built many new factories with high-truss structures. Typhoons will become active after we enter July.”

For the sake of production safety, the Planning Office was already preparing to carry out a major safety inspection, checking the equipment in the industrial zone to eliminate hidden dangers—especially the early-made equipment and facilities, which were inevitably crude due to limited conditions at the time.

Everyone whispered to each other for a while. Zhan Wuya then arranged for the general machinery factory to produce screw presses.

“For making propellant grains for the arsenal,” Zhan Wuya specially explained. “The force doesn’t need to be too great, but it requires a stable and slow output of pressure—too much force will cause it to explode directly. Propellant grains of different shapes and uses can be made by changing the molds and adjusting the pressure. Not only can it be used for demolition charges, but rocket propellant can also be made with it: propellant grains of consistent shape and density are an important guarantee for the consistency of rocket trajectories, which is of great significance.”

Lin Hanlong’s optics factory also received a formal production order for telescopes—both the army and navy had large orders. The army’s order, besides simple officer’s telescopes, also included more advanced artillery telescopes. Lin Hanlong thought it wasn’t a big problem, but he wondered if he could get some more manpower and equipment. Another issue was the awkward power problem. The optics factory did not have its own power workshop and used the power output from the Ministry of Science and Technology’s power workshop. This power output was not very stable, which was a hidden danger for the optics factory, which needed a stable power output to operate grinding machines and other equipment.

He would have to discuss these problems with Zhan Wuya later and come up with a plan, Lin Hanlong thought.