At the end of Qin, I became a son of the plane

Chapter 504: Overheated Steel Industry and Complaints

The group then continued to inspect the carriage factory, only to discover that the factory had opened another production line, which actually produced wooden boxes.

Yang Xiong said: "These boxes seem to be the boxes on the Chenjun transport vehicles. Does your carriage factory also produce boxes?"

Chen Lie smiled proudly and said, "This is my most proud work in this life. Don't underestimate it because it's just a box, but it is a standardized product. The dock in Chen County has limited space, and the chasm is not a lake or ocean after all. The dock has limited space for berthing, and the waterway is also extremely limited. However, the amount of goods to be transferred is increasing. In many cases, the transport ships have blocked the chasm, and it is very troublesome for merchants traveling from south to north."

"I was thinking about inventing something that can quickly transfer goods and clear the goods out of the ship. Then I thought of using boxes to pack the goods. Using boxes to pack goods is not an innovation. The real innovation is that all the boxes are standard. This box can be stuck on a carriage or a transport ship. On a cargo ship, merchants can directly put the goods into the box and use the gantry crane to quickly lift these boxes. According to the test results of my disciples in Chen County, the speed of calling goods at the terminal has increased by more than ten times after using containers. The cargo ships that used to crowd the terminal can leave quickly within half an hour."

"It is true that the truth is simple. This container of yours can at least be conferred the title of Viscount by the Emperor." Yang Xiong exclaimed.

He was a craftsman for decades. After listening to Chen Lie's words, he understood the principle of the container. There was no technical difficulty at all, but the most important thing was the standard. Just a small change could increase the efficiency by dozens of times. Moreover, the more widely this standard was implemented throughout the Han Dynasty, the higher the improvement in efficiency would be. It could solve the efficiency of cargo transfer at the Han Dynasty's docks and railway stations. That's why he gave a very high evaluation and promised Chen Lie that he would report his container technology to the emperor.

After inspecting the carriage and horse farm, Yang Xiong and his party came to the Chenjun Iron and Steel Plant.

Chenjun Iron and Steel Plant was the first steel plant in the world to build a blast furnace. Most of the Han Dynasty's initial equipment, except for those seized from the Qin Dynasty's arsenal, were made by Chenjun Iron and Steel Plant. It can be said that this was a factory with outstanding achievements.

However, after the Han Dynasty established its capital in Chang'an, the resources obtained by Chenjun Steel Plant were relatively limited. In addition, with the rise of steel centers in various places and the increase in competitors, the development of Chenjun Steel Plant lagged behind that of Bashang Steel Plant. It could not compare with Bashang Steel Plant in terms of either production capacity or output value.

Although it is still the second largest steel mill in the Han Dynasty, the craftsmen of Chenjun Steel Mill still have a sense of loss. Not being able to become the largest steel mill in the Han Dynasty again is a failure for them.

But after Chenjun became a pilot project of the imperial court, Prime Minister Zhou Bo decided to replace the wooden tracks with the original iron tracks and update the tracks. The Chenjun Iron and Steel Plant once again entered a stage of rapid development.

You should know that one mile of railway track requires millions of kilograms of steel, and the annual production capacity of Chenjun Iron and Steel Plant is only enough to lay two hundred miles.

But it is impossible for the steel mill to use all its production capacity on the rails. The arsenal needs muskets and rifles, the people need farm tools, sickles, hoes, etc., the machinery factory needs various tool steels and various mechanical parts, and the carriage factory needs iron sheets, nails, and bearings.

Factory director Chen Lei can only use a small part of the steel production capacity for railroad tracks, which is far from meeting the demand for laying railroad tracks.

Chen County is located in the Central Plains, where the terrain is not very undulating. In addition, there is already an infrastructure of wooden tracks. All one needs to do is pull the rails to the construction site to lay a section of track. The progress of laying the track is extremely fast. As long as the production capacity of the steel plant can keep up, laying several miles of track a day is not a problem at all.

The skyrocketing demand for steel has made it inevitable for Chenjun Steel Plant to expand its production capacity. Last year, Chen Lei assembled the steel plant's master craftsmen to start building a 70-jin blast furnace. At the same time, he is also conducting preliminary research on a million-jin blast furnace, hoping to regain the title of the world's number one steel plant from Bashang Steel Plant.

However, if the steel plant wants to expand its production capacity, it is not enough to just build blast furnaces. Craftsmen also need to be trained in advance, and a large number of qualified master craftsmen are needed for management. In particular, the higher the level of the blast furnace, the more talents are needed. The only one who can help them solve this problem is the Shaofu.

So when Chen Lei saw Yang Xiong and his group, he said, "Master Yang, our Chenjun Steel Plant needs the support of the Shaofu. We need a large number of skilled craftsmen and master craftsmen. The future development of Chenjun Steel Plant depends entirely on your help."

Then Chen Lei brought Yang Xiong and his group to the half-built blast furnace site and said with great enthusiasm that this would become the best blast furnace in the world. He also took him to see the preliminary design drawings of the million-jin blast furnace.

Yang Xiong was a little worried and said, "Isn't it too expensive to build two new blast furnaces at once? Moreover, if these two blast furnaces are successfully developed, the production capacity of your Chenjun Steel Plant will double. Does Chenjun have such financial resources to build so many rails?"

You should know that the construction cost of one mile of railway track is over 500 million. To build 100 miles of railway track, even if Chenjun does not pay for it, it will cost more than 5 million. After the production capacity of Chenjun Iron and Steel Plant doubles according to this plan, % to % of the steel will be used for laying railway tracks. About to miles of railway tracks will be laid every year. The construction cost of railway tracks is more than billion yuan. You should know that the annual investment of the Tongzhengsi of the Han Dynasty in infrastructure is twice as high as this.

Although Chen County is rich, and can even be ranked among the top three in the Han Dynasty, from what he has seen along the way, there are many people in Chen County who rely on the government for their livelihood, and the financial pressure will be very great. How can there be so much surplus to build railways?

Chen Lei said: "After Chen County became a pilot county of the imperial court, the annual tax revenue does not need to be transferred to the imperial court for the time being. Moreover, after a large number of government-run workshops were incorporated by the imperial court, the tax revenue of Chen County increased greatly. The county governor has promised that half of Chen County's fiscal revenue will be used for laying rails within 5 years, so I can expand production capacity with confidence.

Chen County has an annual fiscal revenue of more than 30 billion, and the income of the official workshops is also more than 300 billion. After deducting the salary expenditure of the Han officials, half of it can build miles of railway every year. As long as the railway network has a prototype, those merchants who want to make a fortune will naturally follow and invest. According to the proportion of the court in previous years, the money invested by these merchants will account for about twice the amount. Even if the county governor reduces his investment later, the investment of these private merchants can completely consume the increased production capacity of the steel plant. "

Yang Xiong still shook his head and said, "Your plan to increase production is too radical. You are planning to complete the 20-year development path of the steel plant in two years. I can only agree with your new blast furnace. The one million jin blast furnace should wait a few years."

Chen Lei said unwillingly, "We already have 3 miles of tracks in our Great Han. If these tracks are converted into rails, they will be enough to keep our Great Han steel mills busy for hundreds of years. Now is the time to seize the opportunity. If we don't increase steel production, other steel mills will increase their output, and then the market will be occupied by others. If it is the steel mill of the Shaofu, it will be fine, but if the share is occupied by private steel mills, the court will suffer a great loss. The steel industry is the pillar industry of our Great Han."

Although Chen Lei spoke so urgently, as if the Shaofu Steel Factory was about to be squeezed out of business by small private steel mills, Yang Xiong remained unmoved.

"Don't be too radical in doing anything. If you double your production capacity every two or three years, you have to double the coal consumption, double the iron ore, double the number of craftsmen, double the trains for transporting materials, double the workers for mining, and all the craftsmen in your industry chain. If any step goes wrong, you will encounter huge troubles. It is better to leave some margin and increase it little by little. More haste makes waste. You should first build this tall building in front of you."

Even though Chen Lei tried to persuade him in various ways, Yang Xiong remained unmoved. A million-level blast furnace can produce more than 4000 million kilograms of iron per year, which is enough to make iron plows for every Han family and build miles of iron-clad wooden tracks.

What's more crucial is that the Han Dynasty has seven major steel centers, and there are small steel mills in almost every county. Since the court decided to replace wooden tracks with iron tracks, the steel mills under the Shaofu have all planned to expand their production capacity. If these steel mills are as radical as Chen Lei, steel production will double in two or three years. After two or three years, Yang Xiong couldn't imagine how the Han Dynasty could consume so much steel production capacity.

Chen Lei could only disappointingly place Yang Xiong and his group in the guesthouse.

Chen Aimin said, "I think Director Chen's plan is very feasible. Even though I know that the steel market will increase dozens of times after using rails, there is no need to worry about sales. Why doesn't the Lord agree?"

Zhang Yang smiled and said, "As expected, you are a young man who just graduated from the academy. This is very feasible. You think that iron ore and coal mines can be dug out as you wish. But they all require human lives to dig. If the production capacity is doubled, the difficulty will increase several times, and the number of deaths will also increase several times.

Moreover, steelmaking is a technical job. The 70-jin blast furnace is still in the commissioning stage, and Director Chen is preparing to commission a 70 million-jin blast furnace. Who can guarantee that this will be successful? The blast furnace is twice as large, but the difficulty has increased by more than ten times. My big man has collapsed and cracked more than one or two blast furnaces. Every time such an accident occurs, there are heavy casualties. This is not something you can overcome. Instead, you have to accumulate experience and solve problems in the long-term operation of the blast furnace before you can continue to climb on this basis. We don’t know what problems this -jin blast furnace will encounter, but it’s normal for the Lord of the Mansion to disagree with the commissioning of a million-jin blast furnace. If something goes wrong, not only will the financial losses be huge, but the casualties of the craftsmen will also be extremely huge. Haven’t you seen the pictures of the craftsmen who died tragically because of industrialization?"

Chen Aimin said with a hint of fear: "Of course I couldn't sleep for several days after watching it."

The industrialization of the Han Dynasty was not all smooth sailing. The farmers were relatively disciplined, but they were still far from the organization and discipline required for industrialization.

Therefore, in the process of industrialization in the Han Dynasty, there were always various accidents that led to casualties. Just like when mining was first started, no one knew about gas, and the craftsmen died as soon as they entered the mine. There was no way to find the reason.

In the end, some tomb robbers thought of using mice or birds to test whether there was any poisonous gas in the mine.

There were also cases where a person's hair was caught in a steam engine while weaving and the person was killed. There was also a case where a blast furnace cracked and the molten iron directly burned a person to death. Even now, there are still dozens of safety accidents in Han Dynasty every year.

In order to warn everyone, Xu Fan learned the methods of later generations and recorded the tragic scenes at that time in paintings. He then went on annual publicity tours to help craftsmen raise their safety awareness for the sake of their own lives. At the same time, he formulated various safety regulations. Now the death rate of the Han people has been controlled to a relatively reasonable range.

"And do you know how much steel our Han can produce every year?"

Chen Aimin said: "The total production capacity of the several major steel mills in Shaofu exceeds 10 billion jin."

Zhang Yang smiled and said, "The number of private steel mills is about the same. Today, the Lord of the Palace agreed to Director Chen's request. I dare to guarantee that other directors will follow suit, and there will even be a wave of building steel mills among the people. A 20 billion jin steel mill is worth more than billion. If the production capacity really doubles in two or three years, there will be an extra billion yuan steel market in the world. How can such a large production capacity be consumed? Even if the court fills it with all its fiscal surplus, it still can't fill this pit. Our Shaofu is like the reins, and this factory director is like a steed. The Shaofu must constantly whip these steeds to lead the Han Dynasty forward, and restrict those factory directors from making rapid progress and leading the Han Dynasty into a pit."

"This is all there is to it, and there are too many restrictions. It's really not a good deal. Merchants are better. When they see an opportunity like this, they dare to bet their entire fortune."

Zhang Yang smiled and said, "I have seen merchants like you, but after two crises, most of them jumped into the Wei River to feed the carp. Making money as a merchant is not a skill. Being able to keep the family business and pass it on is a great skill. That's why there is an old saying that it is difficult to conquer the world, but it is even harder to keep it."

"This is the guesthouse of our Chenjun Iron and Steel Plant. All outsiders must leave immediately." The security guard of the guesthouse saw a group of people trying to break into the guesthouse and immediately scolded them.

"We want to see the angels, we want to file a complaint."

"If you stop us, we will sue you too."

"What's going on?" Chen Aimin and others looked puzzled.

But the noisy noise outside still made them come out to check the situation.

Yang Xiong asked, "What do you want to do?"

"Are you an angel?"

"I am Yang Xiong, currently serving as the Minister of the Imperial Household of the Han Dynasty."

When they heard that the old man in front of them was the Grand Master of the Han Dynasty, they immediately cried out in grief, "Please, Lord, save us law-abiding merchants. The county is trying to make us die."

"If we don't agree to the government-private partnership, we won't be able to survive here. The county wants to kill us all." For a while, the scene was filled with crying, and merchants everywhere said they couldn't survive.

Yang Xiong asked, "What is the whole story? Please tell me in detail."

Then these merchants began to talk about the difficulties they encountered. Since last year, Chen County began to integrate government and private enterprises. Of course, except for those workshops that really could not survive, few merchants dared to take out their own businesses and do business with the court.

Therefore, the number of government-private joint-venture workshops in Chen County barely exceeded a thousand at the beginning.

But soon those workshop owners who did not cooperate found that their business was difficult. When selling cloth, the court's workshops charged 10% lower price than theirs. When purchasing raw materials such as cotton and silk, the court's price was 10% higher than theirs. It was obvious that the court wanted to engage in a price war with them.

The officials' workshops controlled the entire industry chain from top to bottom, and the silk and linen raw materials collected by the county government as taxes were sold to these official workshops at low prices.

Let me first talk about the taxation system of the Han Dynasty. Commercial taxes are basically based on money, while land taxes are mainly based on physical objects. If you plant 100 mu of rice, you will be charged 30 dan of rice. If you raise three loads of silkworms, you will be charged one load of silk. If you plant sugarcane, you will be charged sugarcane. The advantage of this taxation method is that farmers do not have to experience secondary exploitation, and there will be no such thing as low grain prices hurting farmers. The disadvantage is that the Han Dynasty has to spend huge manpower, material resources and financial resources to build warehouses and sell these raw materials at low prices. So to some extent, the Han Dynasty court is the largest supplier of raw materials in the world.

As the number of state-owned enterprises increased, the Han officials of Chen County discovered that the various raw materials that had previously given them a headache were difficult to obtain despite costing a lot of manpower, material resources and financial resources. But now it was enough to sell them to their own workshops. This could save a lot of depreciation costs, warehousing costs, and management personnel costs. Therefore, even if they were sold to state-owned workshops at prices lower than the market price, Chen County still made a profit.

At the same time, those state-run workshops, after obtaining this batch of low-priced raw materials, can produce goods at a lower cost. In addition, after being state-run, these workshops belong to one economic entity, and Chenjun regulates and distributes the profits of each link in the middle. This large-scale economic entity can be said to be invincible in market competition, and those small and medium-sized workshop owners are defeated and wailing.

Those merchants who could not compete either took the initiative to surrender to Chen Jun and become one of the court's lackeys, or left their hometown to continue their business elsewhere. Finally, some of the remaining ones had to hold on, but they could not hold on for two years.

At this time, they heard that the angels of the imperial court had come to Chenjun for inspection, so they planned to file a complaint with the angels with the idea of ​​fighting to the death.

After listening to this, Yang Xiong shook his head and said, "I am the Minister of the Imperial Household, not the Imperial Censor or the Imperial Court Judge. The things you are talking about are not my responsibility. Moreover, even if you report this to the Imperial Censor's Office, it will be useless. This is normal business competition."

"How can this be considered normal business competition? The county is using thousands of workshops to suppress us. The county has lowered prices at every stage, so their product prices are lower than ours. How can a single workshop like us possibly beat thousands of workshops?"

Yang Xiong said: "I sympathize with the problems you are facing, but commercial competition is so cruel. Not to mention your private workshops, even if the court's workshops can't make money, they will be closed. The difficulties you are facing now must be solved by yourselves."

"You are not an angel?" These merchants were very disappointed. They mustered up the courage to come and complain, but found that Yang Xiong was useless.

Yang Xiong said: "I am the Minister of the Imperial Household. I am not here to tour on behalf of the Emperor. I am only here to inspect the factories of the Imperial Household."

These merchants could only return disappointed.

(End of this chapter)