Chapter 169: Drunken Words

Hai Lin calmed down and said, “Production orders.” All the naturalized citizen cadres stood up in unison, waiting for Hai Lin to give the order.

1. Effective immediately, the straw weaving, rattan ware, and bamboo ware workshops will cease production. All personnel will be transferred to the band saw and drying workshops.
2. Effective immediately, except for the closed workshops, all production workshops will work overtime, divided into two shifts. Each shift’s working hours will be extended to twelve hours, for twenty-four-hour production.
3. The production manager, all workshop directors, and all workers in the machine repair workshop will be on duty twenty-four hours a day.
4. Strengthen safety management and production management. The replacement time for band saws will be halved, and the drying workshop will strengthen fire hazard management.

After the announcement, the production manager asked tremblingly:

“Chief, what about kiln number three, which has malfunctioned?”

“What else can be done? Shut it down for a major overhaul!” he said impatiently.

“But that leaves only two drying kilns. The production schedule was already behind, and now we’ve lost one-third of our drying capacity,” the production manager reminded him.

“I know, I know.” Hai Lin certainly knew the terrible situation he was facing, but letting kiln number three undergo a minor repair and continue to operate would only make the problem worse—it might even be scrapped. Besides, he felt that he should put some pressure on the Executive Committee this time, so they wouldn’t always think that the woodworking factory had low technical content and be unwilling to invest.

He thought of the steam drying kiln he had been applying for for almost half a year. The kiln body was almost finished, but because the required supporting boilers, pipes, and blowers were not allocated, it had been in a semi-shutdown state.

The efficiency and qualified product rate of a superheated steam drying kiln were much better than those of a fire kiln. Hai Lin had long wanted to upgrade the technology.

A little pressure would make them a little more clear-headed, Hai Lin thought. He put on a righteous and resolute expression and said:

“If we don’t stop the fire and repair it, what if an accident happens? Damaging production capacity is a small matter, but production safety is a big problem! We must learn from the accident in the band saw workshop! A lesson, a lesson.”

Seeing the chief’s solemn expression, the production manager was a little surprised, but he didn’t dare to say anything more and immediately went to arrange for the shutdown and maintenance.

Hai Lin called the production manager back. “Send someone from the machine repair workshop to inspect kiln number zero. Try to get it back in use tomorrow.”

“Understood!”

After the meeting, Hai Lin went to inspect the various workshops. The first was the sawing workshop. The large sawing workshop was equipped with two gang saws—each with fourteen saw blades—four band saws, five circular saws, one balancing crosscut saw, one parquet flooring strip saw, and one saw filer. In addition, the entire sawing factory was equipped with many wood and woodworking processing equipment, some brought from the old timeline, and some produced by the machinery factory itself. All the machinery was driven by steam engines, which made a rumbling roar, occasionally mixed with the sharp screech of cutting materials.

For ease of cleaning, the workers in the workshop all had the shortest buzz cuts. Some were even bald. They all wore rattan safety helmets and masks on their faces—the dust in the workshop was very serious, so it was a key unit for fire and explosion prevention. Hai Lin certainly knew the danger of dust explosions, so as soon as he entered the workshop, he checked whether the protective measures were in place.

After checking, Hai Lin inspected the work progress and randomly checked the quality of the boards produced. The performance of the self-produced band saws was gradually improving, but it was still no match for the products of the old timeline. He wondered when the metallurgy department would be able to produce alloy steel materials.

In addition to this wood processing and manufacturing equipment, the woodworking factory also had wood dry distillation kilns, tannin workshops, rope workshops, and other supporting workshops. It could not only produce boards, furniture, and wooden components of various sizes and specifications, but also wood tar, tannin, charcoal, and various other forest products. A tree brought into the factory basically produced no waste. Its production and processing capacity for raw materials was very powerful in this timeline.

But in the context of the entire Lingao industrial system, the processing capacity of the woodworking factory was still too small.

The woodworking factory was now concentrating all its efforts on manufacturing prefabricated building components, gunstocks, standard supply boxes of various sizes, and materials for ships. Every workshop Hai Lin saw was in full swing. He felt a little regretful—because of the lack of cheap and suitable adhesives, they still couldn’t produce composite boards like plywood, which was a step down in wood utilization. In particular, a large amount of wood shavings and wood fragments produced during processing could only be used as fuel for the drying kilns for the time being and could not be fully utilized. The lack of adhesives also kept the processing and utilization of wood at a relatively low level. Both composite boards and blockboards required adhesives.

He specifically went to check the drying kilns in the drying workshop. The three drying kilns currently used by the woodworking factory were all periodic flue gas heating natural circulation drying kilns, which used furnace gas for heating. This type of kiln had the disadvantages of uneven wood drying, long drying cycles, and small production volume. But its advantage was its simple structure, simple equipment, and no need for power machines and fans. So it was the first to be used in the Lingao industrial system, which advocated “more, faster, and more economical.”

As for kiln number zero, it was an even older smoke-drying kiln. It used the smoke produced by smoldering sawdust to directly heat the wood. Not only was the structure simpler, but it was also simple and easy to implement. The first drying kiln built by the woodworking factory was of this type. Because it was difficult to control the temperature of a smoke-drying kiln and it was prone to fire, it had been decommissioned a year ago.

Back in the office, his life secretary brought him a bowl of iced mung bean porridge. Listening to the life secretary’s soft voice reporting the menu for tonight’s banquet for Wu Kuangming, he used the common dishes of the old timeline: pickled fish, spicy diced chicken, mapo tofu…

Hai Lin felt that the money spent on this A-class life secretary was well worth it—of course, his luck in the lottery was also good. Many Elders only bought C-class life secretaries, for no other reason than that there would be plenty of opportunities in the future, and the education of maids would get better and better, so there was no need to spend money on an experimental product. But Hai Lin didn’t see it that way. As a former senior member of the “Lust Party,” Hai Lin was very picky about maids. There was no need to be frugal with the woman who slept with him. The highest level of maids this time was A-class. If there were S-class, Hai Lin would not hesitate to spend the money.

This rather pretty maid served him food and drink during the day and obeyed his commands in bed at night. Hai Lin couldn’t help but feel a wave of heat. He had been working late these past few days and getting up before dawn to work. He was really tired and hadn’t “visited” his maid for several days. If it weren’t for the fact that his office was too simple, he would really want to have an office “session.”

Hai Lin worked until dark before returning to his dormitory. The life secretary had already prepared the food and wine. He called Wu Kuangming, who said he was at the door.

As the People’s Commissar for Forestry, Wu Kuangming had also been very busy these days. The forestry department had a heavy task. In the early days, the Executive Committee was short-sighted and thought that wood was just a transitional product. Now they discovered that the use of wood was not just for construction and furniture. More importantly, there were also military products. The production of rifles had always used wood for the stock before the advent of engineering plastics, and even today in the 21st century, ammunition boxes were still mainly made of wood. The large number of military needs had greatly increased the pressure on the forestry department.

“Hai Lin, at the meeting today, someone suggested that I transfer your factory to the military industry system, under the management of Lin Shenhe. I rejected it,” Wu Kuangming raised his wine glass and said this before drinking.

“What were they doing before? A few days ago, Lin Shenhe went through the military affairs director to find Director Zhan, saying that the woodworking factory is now responsible for a large number of military products and should be considered a military enterprise and managed by the military industry department. Director Zhan rejected it,” Hai Lin clinked his glass with Wu Kuangming and took a sip of rum.

“The woodworking factory is now a major concern for the military industry department. If the gunstocks don’t come out, no matter how many gun barrels they make, it’s useless. The rifle production can’t keep up, and Lin Shenhe is anxious. The military affairs director has repeatedly proposed military control of the woodworking factory at the Executive Committee meetings,” Wu Kuangming couldn’t help but look worried. The largest department in the forestry department was now the woodworking factory. If it was transferred to the military industry department, then he, the Minister of Forestry, would have nothing to do except for planting trees, registering and managing state-owned forests, and issuing hunting licenses.

“Don’t worry. Those guys in the military industry department only know how to play with iron. What do they know about wood? Take this gunstock, for example. In China, the best material is of course the Manchurian walnut from the northeast. The next best are birch and red birch. Now that we don’t have this kind of wood in Hainan, wasn’t it the two of us who experimented day and night to find the green nanmu that we use as a substitute now?” Hai Lin said carelessly. In fact, Zhan Wuya also knew the role of the woodworking factory, but it was just that Ma Qianzhu was in charge of this area before, so he had no say.

“If it weren’t for us finding ironwood, how could these steamships sail!” Wu Kuangming said. “They said they were going to make Babbitt alloy, but there’s still no sign of it. They still have to rely on wood!”

“Babbitt alloy! They can’t even make the alloy steel for a saw blade,” Hai Lin also got excited.

“Damn it! At the last meeting of the manufacturing directorate, I said that the current situation of the woodworking factory is also caused by the Executive Committee. They have never paid attention to it, thinking that wood can be used to make guns as soon as it’s cut down. From the log entering the factory, to the boards, then drying, turning, clamping, milling, planing, and grinding, you can’t expect a product in less than forty-five days.” The forestry department, led by Wu Kuangming, had always been deeply dissatisfied with Ma Qianzhu, because the Executive Committee did not attach importance to forestry.

“Hehe, in fact, wood has always been a strategic material for the country. In the early days of the founding of the country, walnut wood was not allowed to be exported, because it was used to make guns. Even after the advent of engineering plastics, many types of wood were still not allowed to be exported. What do these guys who play with ‘multi-riveted steam steel’ know? They even let us make a lot of straw hats for them to earn silver. I reminded them of the importance of wood early on. Now they regret it, but it’s too late,” Hai Lin took a bite of the dish. Not bad, this A-class secretary was good-looking, and the spicy diced chicken was also well-made.