Chapter 1086: Competition caused by construction machinery
Speaking of the current construction situation in various places, Luo Chong is actually most concerned about the construction situation in the middle and lower reaches of the Liuyang River, which is the production area of the southern coal mines, Chengkang County and Qi'an County.
The Han tribe is carrying out the industrial layout in the south, and the cornerstone of industry is steel and coal, both of which are indispensable.
Without coal, there is no way to make steel, and without steel, there is no way to produce various steel machines.
The Han tribe has a lot of steel production in the north, but it is still too difficult to transport it to the south, and even if it is transported, the cost is much higher than the cost of production.
What Luo Chong wants to do most now is to develop the coal in Qi'an County as soon as possible, and then refine coke, and then develop the hematite mine near the Baiwu tribe according to the principle of proximity, and build an ordinary steel plant nearby.
High-performance steel is not expected, but ordinary steel, such as carbon steel or steel bars for making agricultural tools, if they can be produced in the south, it will reduce a lot of transportation costs and also drive employment in the south.
This time, You Fu wrote to Luo Chong to ask for support. In fact, what he wanted was more construction machinery, such as tractors, excavators, loaders and road rollers.
After nearly half a year of continuous construction, the cities in Chengkang County and Qi'an County have now begun to take shape.
The Baiwu people who worked for the Han tribe in Qi'an County also saw it with their eyes, and were happy in their hearts, but also deeply shocked and uneasy.
What they saw was the various superb production technologies of the Han tribe. What they were happy about was that they got a lot of wages from the Han tribe, and then used these wages to buy a lot of good things, including cloth, tools, food, and even carts. The most important thing was that they learned a lot of skills from their work.
What shocked them was the huge amount of manpower and material resources invested by the Han tribe in this place, which made them astonished. Let's not talk about anything else. Just say that the workers were provided with meals. How much food would it take? ! What's more, in addition to food, they were also given a lot of wages.
There are countless other building materials and large steel tools like trains. They still can't name many of them. They only know that they were made by the leader of the Han tribe with two people from some research institute. They are all the smartest craftsmen in the Han tribe. They are all powerful. Any one of them is enough to be the leader of their Baiwu tribe.
The last thing that makes them uneasy is that the more resources the Han tribe invests here, the more it shows that the Han tribe attaches great importance to this place.
They know that the Han tribe is planning to dig the black stone here, so they want to build a settlement here to accommodate many people and then mine the ore there.
In addition, the batch of slaves transported from the north before let the Baiwu tribe know that the Han tribe is not so generous to everyone. The
Han tribe also has a fierce and strong side, and its strength is very strong, its weapons are very sophisticated and advanced, and there are tens of thousands of professional warriors. It makes people feel cold in their hearts. If it weren't for these, how did the Han tribe catch so many slaves?
The workers of the Baiwu tribe were very worried. They were worried that after they built the city that Youfu wanted, the Han tribe would capture them and turn them into slaves, and finally send them to the mines to dig black stones.
However, according to recent events, they suddenly found that their worries were unnecessary, that is, the large-scale construction machinery active in various parts of the city construction site.
Youfu deliberately let people reveal the news that the Han tribe was going to use construction machinery to mine, and the people of the Baiwu tribe immediately felt relieved.
Think about it, those steel machines are so powerful, and they don’t need to eat or rest. They only need to fill them with black stones and water, and they can continue to work tirelessly. The key is that the efficiency of those machines is much higher than that of human labor. The Han tribe would be stupid to be willing to use these people to mine coal.
How much food and meat do you need to feed a hundred workers? How much does it take to feed a machine? Coal is dug out of the ground, and there is plenty of water in the river. A machine only needs two drivers to operate it. No matter how you think about it, it is more cost-effective than feeding so many workers.
This is indeed the case.
The Han tribe did need a lot of slaves to maintain the operation of mining, but now they don't need it anymore. Because of the various engineering machinery, the mining industry of the entire Han tribe is undergoing active industrial transformation. If you can use machines, try not to use manpower.
The same is true for the coal and iron mines in Qi'an County. After seeing the power of various engineering machinery, You Fu began to advocate the use of machinery for mining.
The material application sent to Luo Chong this time is for ten excavators, two road rollers, as many self-unloading dump tractors as possible, and at least four loaders, so that he can develop two mines at the same time.
In addition, You Fu also said in the letter that he had sent people to discover a large amount of limestone in the area further north. As long as they have this lime, they can build a coking plant and a cement plant here. Even the calcium carbide in the calcium carbide lamp used in the south can be produced here by themselves, without the need to transport it from the north.
Limestone is not a rare thing. This mineral is everywhere, and it is normal for You Fu to find it. Since there is coal and lime, the establishment of a coking plant is a foregone conclusion.
However, You Fu also said in the letter again that if these factories are to be built, it is better to get some supporting machinery and equipment, otherwise it may not be possible to start construction.
What cement plant, coking plant, it sounds good and is very tempting to think about, but the investment is very huge. It is a huge problem to transport all kinds of large machinery and equipment.
Fortunately, the railway from the river bank of Chengkang County to Qi'an County has been built, otherwise it would be difficult to transport.
Luo Chong naturally expressed his full support for this. If the south wants to develop, it is naturally indispensable to have industry. If there is industry, coal and steel, the two pillar industries, cannot be absent.
Now Luo Chong is still planning to move his family to the south. In the future, he is also planning to build a series of factories in the south, with a number of about hundreds. How much steel and cement are needed to build factory buildings for so many factories, how much steel is needed to produce machinery and equipment, and how much coal is needed to keep those steam engines running?
To achieve these goals, it is natural that You Fu's material application cannot be ignored, but even Luo Chong himself cannot decide this matter immediately.
He wished he could give You Fu whatever he wanted. If You Fu wanted one, he would just give him a pair. The problem is that those heavy construction machinery need workers to produce and manufacture, and Luo Chong can't just create them with just a word.
Moreover, You Zhi at the palace and Zhu Ping at the cross-sea bridge had seen the power of engineering machinery, and they stretched their necks to ask for it one by one. The problem was that the total output was limited, and it was a big problem to give it to someone and not to someone. Luo Chong himself was not in a good position to deal with it. He could only send people to find Lin Fei and Dali to urge the production while coordinating the needs of various places.
When the latest batch of engineering machinery came off the production line and left the factory, Luo Chong immediately arranged to send part of it to You Fu, and another batch to You Zhi in the capital.
Cross-sea bridge? Let's take our time, anyway, Luo Chong is not particularly anxious. Is it really as simple as building that bridge for traffic? The Han tribe has plenty of sailboats that can be responsible for transportation between the two places.
The reason why Luo Chong insisted on building that bridge was to strengthen the control of the Han tribe or the northern continent over Qiongzhou Island, so that the island would not be easily lost or rebelled.
These are all planned for a hundred years later, so what does it matter if it is completed a few years later? At present, the main goal should be to reform the industry in the south, establish the capital, and establish the emperor.
Just when Luo Chong finished dealing with these things, the guards outside reported another piece of news.
"Chief, the governor of Liuyang County in the east, She, sent someone to ask, saying that the barley on the farm is about to be harvested. Do you want to go and see it?"
"Harvested? So fast!"
Luo Chong was surprised to hear the news, but if you calculate the time, it is almost the same. Since the first season of corn was harvested in the spring, barley was planted quickly. Now it is early July, and it is indeed time to harvest.
If it is just harvesting barley, there is really nothing to pay attention to, but this time is different. This is the first time that the Han tribe has used a grain harvester to harvest wheat. The importance is self-evident. If this grain harvester can successfully harvest barley, then it can be promoted to more places for use in the future.
Because wheat, rice, corn, and millet are all considered grains, that is, the kind of plants with ears of grain growing on the top of a stalk, and they can all be harvested with this harvester.
If it can really be promoted throughout the tribe, the agricultural level of the Han tribe will be raised to a new level.
In this case, Luo Chong, as the leader of the Han tribe, naturally had to go to the scene to show his attention to agriculture.
So he asked the guards, "Did they tell you the specific time of harvesting?"
"To reply to the leader, the man said that it will be these few days, depending on the weather conditions, and we will start harvesting on a sunny day." The guards clasped their fists and answered.
"Okay, then you go and ask for the specific date, and then come back and tell me, just say that I will definitely go, anyway, it's not far, and you can get there in an hour by riding a horse." Luo Chong nodded and agreed to this matter casually.
"Yes!"
The guards took the order and left, and Luo Chong continued to stay in the study to deal with documents. After a while, Xiaodie came in again with the child in her arms.
"Husband, if we go to the south, should we take mother with us? And who will be responsible for the management of the newly built slave garment factory on the lake island in the future?"
Luo Chong thought for a moment and said, "What does mother mean? Does she want to go? If she wants to go, we must take her with us. If she doesn't want to go, I will arrange it for her here.
"As for the garment factory, can't we just find someone to arrange it? Do you need to manage such a garment factory yourself? If you have a suitable candidate, you can also tell me."
Xiaodie nodded when she heard it, handed little Luo Ji to Luo Chong's arms and said, "Then you take my son first, I'll go ask mother if she will go with us." After that, she turned and left, leaving Luo Chong and little Luo Ji, who was over one year old and still couldn't speak, staring at each other.
Luo Chong: "What are you looking at? "
Little Luo Ji: "Wow————"
The fourth child burst into tears, and Luo Chong was so anxious that he
had no idea what to do. He hurriedly carried the child out, found Zhan Ying who was taking the third child to eat grapes, threw the child behind him, and then ran away to coax the child. It didn't exist.jpgThe
guards quickly asked about the specific date of the barley harvest, and temporarily set it for the day after tomorrow, because looking at the weather today, it was unusually hot and humid. If it didn't rain today, it would definitely rain tomorrow, so they decided to harvest after it cleared up.
Luo Chong nodded to show that he knew about this.
Sure enough, it rained heavily that night, and then turned into moderate rain, dripping until noon the next day, and then it finally cleared up.
Liuyang Over at the farm in the county, dozens of staff members quickly went down to the field with tools, dug canals to drain the water, and hoped to dry it as soon as possible to facilitate the use of machines.
The threshing floor on the farm was also busy making preparations. As long as the accumulated water could be swept away from the cement threshing floor, it would be no problem to dry it in an afternoon, so as not to delay the drying of the newly harvested wheat tomorrow.
In the farm warehouse, someone was also doing a general cleaning, and at the same time, they sprinkled quicklime and realgar in the corners to drive away all kinds of snakes, insects, rats and ants.
Of course, this batch of wheat will not be stored here for long. After the brewery’s own warehouse is built, this batch of barley will be transported. go, because this batch of barley was originally prepared for the production of beer.
When the weather cleared up that afternoon, Luo Chong immediately took a group of guards on horseback to the farm in Liuyang County. Because it had just rained, the road was not easy to walk on, so Luo Chong did not take Xiaodie and the others with him.
While walking on the road, Luo Chong was still thinking whether he should wait for a while, after the output of the cement plant increased, and after the cement plant in the south was built, and then repair the main roads in the counties and prefectures, preferably into cement roads.
However, after thinking about it, Luo Chong hesitated again. The main means of transportation for the Han tribe is still riding horses or carriages with wooden wheels, and horses cannot run on hardened paved roads, or they will be nailed with Horseshoes will soon wear out the hooves.
Hardened cement or asphalt roads can be built, but only after bicycles and tricycles are popularized, so that people can ride on official roads.
As for horses? In the future, we can slowly eliminate
the need for people to ride horses on dirt roads, kicking up bits of mud. On the south side of the official road, there is a large mechanized farming area on the farm.
The barley in it had just been rained on, and when it was exposed to the sun, it looked like a golden ocean shining with golden light from a distance. The moist air with the fragrance of soil gently blew over the wheat fields, as if stirring up layers of waves.
Against the backdrop of such beautiful scenery, Luo Chong finally brought the guards to the farm's office area.
(End of this chapter)
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