Chapter 36

Continuing forward, after a period of rest, Yang Shixun also recovered his energy. This time, they were to go from this side to the other end of the Hanyang Ironworks, forming a U-shape, circling the entire factory, and then leaving directly. Rather than going out later, it was better to go out now.

They bypassed an open area ahead, where several giant chimneys could be seen from a distance, emitting thick black smoke that soared into the sky.

Yang Yuanzhao looked at the chimneys ahead, which were emitting thick smoke, and casually asked, "Wu San, is the blast furnace ahead still in operation?"

"Master Yang, yes, that is one of the three blast furnaces currently in operation at the steel plant. I heard they are planning to upgrade it soon, which will significantly increase production!" Wu San glanced and respectfully replied.

"Upgrade, should we go and take a look?" Without saying much, Yang Yuanzhao walked forward. The 10-ton blast furnace was not large, only about ten meters high. Compared to the towering blast furnaces of later times, it was much simpler. A large number of laborers were sweating profusely in the high-temperature environment, and most of the work was done by hand, which required a significant number of people. This was the root cause of the backwardness of steelmaking in this era. For a 15-ton blast furnace, using a crane or automated machinery, the loading process might take just a few minutes, at most a dozen minutes, and would be more uniform. However, relying on human labor, even with dozens of people, it would take one to two hours, and further leveling and mixing would be required, involving heavy physical labor and harsh conditions. To some extent, this was the most arduous part of the steel plant.

At this moment, the furnace was blazing, and the iron at the bottom was beginning to melt, while more was being continuously added. Looking at the laborers whose faces were reddened by the furnace fire, Yang Yuanzhao sighed. In his design, the future Baotou steel plant would basically achieve automation in front of the blast furnaces. Conveyors and cranes, which might be high-tech for this era, were already very common in later times. Sometimes, even large trucks would use conveyors, which were simply driven by a stable motor and a belt. With a bit of attention, this could be solved. This would not only significantly reduce the need for human labor but also reduce danger. He was not a heartless boss of this era; the life of a skilled worker could not be replaced by a little more surplus value.

The laborers were working hard, sweating profusely. Behind them, a few blond, blue-eyed foreigners were being flattered by a group of Chinese officials, pointing and discussing the blast furnace.

Glancing around, this blast furnace was newer than the ones he had seen before but had no unique equipment. Besides, since it was in operation, going there would be futile. The foreigners were speaking loudly, and he casually asked, "Who is that foreigner?" Yang Yuanzhao pointed to the foreigner at the center of the group, who was discussing blueprints and was the most prominent.

Wu San knew that Yang Yuanzhao was not particularly familiar with the Hanyang Ironworks and quickly said, "Master Yang, he is Mr. Robert, the general manager of the Hanyang Ironworks. The people around him are officials from the Hanyang Ironworks."

A factory producing 80,000 tons of iron and 40,000 tons of steel annually, even if it operated at a loss, was still a significant fortune. As a model of the Self-Strengthening Movement, personally established by Zhang Zhidong, it had a high status. As the general manager, Sheng Huaiyan was probably a fourth or fifth-rank official, equivalent to a provincial-level official in later times. The remaining officials were mostly sixth or seventh-rank, which, in feudal society, were small officials but still held significant power, managing a county. Sixth and seventh-rank officials were considered quite good, with high ranks and lucrative positions.

Yang Yuanzhao was not familiar with the Qing dynasty's rank system. Looking at a series of officials, he could not tell their ranks from their appearance. He sighed, the Hanyang Ironworks, from its inception, had been inherently weak. Supported by Zhang Zhidong, it had struggled for 20 years. After Zhang Zhidong's retirement, during the late Qing and early Republic of China, the Hanyang Ironworks was taken over by the Sheng family and continued to operate, generating some profit. However, the Japanese infiltration of the Hanyang Ironworks eventually led to its gradual shutdown, though that was several decades later.

The current Japan was far less powerful than in later times, without the war profits of World War I or the exploitation of the Chinese market. After World War I, Japan took advantage of China's turmoil to plunder resources, and the Hanyang Ironworks was just one of the resources plundered. This allowed Japan to transform from a poor island nation into a world power, even beginning to covet the mainland and launching the invasion of China.

Suppressing his emotions, Yang Yuanzhao looked at the blast furnace still emitting thick black smoke and suddenly said, "Fifth Uncle, can you help me with something?"

Yang Shixun did not expect Yang Yuanzhao to suddenly ask him a question and hesitated for a moment before saying, "What is it? As long as it's within my capabilities, just say it!"

"Can you provide me with information on the skilled workers at the Hanyang Ironworks and these foreign engineers, and investigate their general situations?"

This was easy. As the manager directly controlling the Yang family's business in Wuhan, which was a major city in old China with convenient railway and Yangtze River transportation, Wuhan had always been an important strategic point in China. As the overall person in charge of Wuhan, Yang Shixun was responsible for selling resources from Shanxi and acquiring resources from outside. In his view, this was not a big deal; he just needed to instruct his subordinates to search for the information.

Yang Shixun nodded in agreement. With his response, Yang Yuanzhao smiled. In the eyes of people of this era, these workers were probably just a group of not very useful people, and it would not be difficult to recruit new ones. After all, finding a three-legged toad was hard, but finding a two-legged person was easy. This view persisted until the liberation. However, Yang Yuanzhao, coming from the future, was very clear about the importance of an excellent team of workers to a factory. In the future, China had introduced advanced technology from abroad, but machines that ran normally elsewhere often had problems here. Initially, everyone thought the foreigners had held back, but later, as they became more familiar, they realized that many issues were due to human error. When skilled workers operated the machines correctly, the entire system could run smoothly. The more advanced the machine, the higher the skill level required, and this could not be imported; it had to be learned gradually.

Previously, in Baotou, Yang Yuanzhao had considered how to establish a technical training school. Now, he further refined this idea. The heavy industrial base he was building would be a world-leading heavy industrial base. Only in this way could he gradually catch up with the advanced countries. The more advanced the machine, the higher the skill level required. To establish a large industrial base in China, he wanted to recreate Germany's Ruhr. This was not just about large investments and a large number of heavy industries; without the people to operate these machines, everything would be in vain. Even if he had 21st-century heavy industrial machinery, without the people to use it, it would be just a pile of scrap metal. The more high-tech and advanced the machine, the more this was true.

Yang Yuanzhao sighed and said, "Wu San, is there anything else we should see? Let's go take a look!"

"Master Yang, the rail workshop is ahead. Let's go see it!"

The rail workshop immediately piqued Yang Yuanzhao's interest. Most of his steel production was for strengthening the country, and the largest consumption of steel, besides infrastructure, was transportation. In this impoverished and backward old China, he could not develop real estate or promote infrastructure, so railways were his inevitable choice. From Baotou, the journey had taken several days, and the appearance of railways had, to some extent, changed China's transportation situation, though it was still incomplete. The faster the transportation improved, the greater its impact on the local economy. The rails he wanted to develop were not the light rails of the present but true heavy rails. He believed that the section of rail he brought from the future could significantly improve the performance of the rails.

The rail was not from the high-speed trains of the future but was from the 2000s, after the speed increase, with a maximum speed of over 200 kilometers per hour, which was a world apart from the 30 kilometers per hour of this era.

Following Wu San, they continued forward. The foreigners on the opposite side noticed them, and one of the officials stepped forward, blocking their path and shouting, "Who are you, and what are you doing here?"

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