Chapter 98

In the summer of Baotou, the night falls very late. At five or six in the evening, a time when night would have already fallen in winter, the sun was only just beginning to set. After a busy day, Yang Yuanzhao had just finished his work when Xiaohan told him that the Yang family's convoy had arrived.

The Yang family's convoy came several times a year, especially after Yang Yuanzhao's development in Baotou, the frequency of their visits increased. Before the brick factory was officially put into operation, the bricks for the cement factory were mostly supplied by the Yang family's merchant team from various places. This time, however, they were not just there to collect and deliver goods, but to deliver people.

150 workers were brought in with great effort by the Yang and Wei families, and they had always been a key focus for Yang Yuanzhao, as they were crucial to the smooth construction of the cement factory. In this era, he did not know how many industrial workers there were, but in the cement industry, there were probably only a few hundred at most. The largest was the Qixin Cement Factory, along with some other cement factories in the concessions, which had low production. Recruiting 150 workers, even if they were just初级工 (初级工 means "初级 workers" or "初级 laborers"), would have a significant impact on the construction of the entire cement factory. No matter how powerful Yang Yuanzhao was, he was just one person. One person leading over a thousand illiterate farmers, even with a complete set of machinery, could not run such a large factory without the help of a group of experienced old workers. Without their help, it would all be like flowers in a mirror or the moon in water.

After instructing Qian Hu to continue working hard, he took Dahán and Xiaohan and headed for Baotou. As they approached the Baokeng Company, they saw Liu Quan running out. Seeing Yang Yuanzhao, he said joyfully, "Young Master Yang, my young master sent me to find you!"

"Are all the people here? Have they been settled in?" Yang Yuanzhao asked casually.

"Yes, my young master has settled them in nearby residences!"

"Good, settle them in first. Remember to ask them what they need!"

"Yes, Young Master Yang. My young master has already given these instructions and is waiting for you!"

Yang Yuanzhao knew more or less why Liu Shu would come to find him. Indeed, when he met Liu Shu, Liu Shu presented a list, a detailed list of the 150 workers.

During this period, Yang Yuanzhao had always emphasized various records and archives. The worker list of the Baokeng Company had gradually been improved. Because of this, the Yang and Wei families also applied it in their recruitment of workers. Although it took more effort, they found that personnel management seemed much easier. The Yang and Wei families seemed to have decided to improve this archival system in their own chambers of commerce.

Yang Yuanzhao did not care how the Yang and Wei families would proceed; he was concerned about this batch of workers. Each worker had a sheet of paper, with several hundred to a dozen words detailing each worker's name, basic information, family situation, and more. Normally, Yang Yuanzhao would read through these to better understand the workers, which would be very helpful for his management. However, at this moment, the construction of the cement factory was at a critical stage, so he skipped over this part and looked at the back.

After the basic information, there were each person's specialties and qualifications. The chamber of commerce of the Yang and Wei families was indeed powerful. This time, they recruited only 150 people, which might not seem like many, but each one was crucial to the cement factory. Among the 150 people, at least 120 were from the cement industry, including 40 front-line workers directly recruited from Qixin and other cement factories, who could form a work team.

In addition to the 40 workers recruited from Qixin, there were 30 more recruited from other factories, mostly from cement factories. Qixin was indeed the largest cement factory in China, but in the concessions, there were many cement factories built by foreigners. The prosperity of the Shanghai International Settlement was partly due to the use of cement and electricity. Building with cement was quick and sturdy, which was one of the key factors in Shanghai's prosperity.

From the crushing and grinding of raw materials to the controlled shaping of cement, most of the key personnel were present. Among them, there were even 10 workers called "master craftsmen" by the factories, who could be considered the pillars of the factory.

In the old Chinese factories, there were no such things as technicians or engineers, but master craftsmen were considered skilled workers or technicians, and their important role in the factory was evident. A factory could almost be destroyed if it lost a few master craftsmen, even if the machinery remained unchanged.

Yang Yuanzhao carefully read through the introductions of these master craftsmen, who were the cream of the 150 workers. Each master craftsman had unique skills. Some, in Yang Yuanzhao's view, were not particularly noteworthy, being merely experience and skills accumulated from production, which could be solved or avoided with machinery. These master craftsmen were useful in the initial stages, but once the factory's machinery was perfected and running smoothly, they would just be skilled workers. However, some of their skills amazed him. For example, the one he was currently reading about, who mainly operated the blast furnace, could judge the approximate temperature from the shape of the cement inside the furnace, ensuring the efficiency of the cement production. The cement produced under his supervision was generally of better quality than usual.

Whether it was cement or steel, temperature was key. Without reaching a certain temperature, many impurities could not be refined, which would affect the quality of the cement or steel. The temperature control in industrial production was always a critical issue. The technology of this era was far less advanced than in later times, and precise temperature measurement at high temperatures was a difficult problem to solve. By this time, thermometers for temperatures below 100 degrees Celsius had already been invented, but there were no thermometers for temperatures above 400 degrees Celsius. This was partly due to the lack of materials that could withstand such high temperatures, which only saw significant development after World War II. Additionally, most researchers were still in the early stages of studying high-temperature reactions and temperature measurement.

Yang Yuanzhao did not have such industrial high-temperature thermometers, nor did he have any leads. The appearance of this master craftsman almost put his mind at ease regarding temperature control in cement production, no longer worrying about large-scale waste due to temperature control issues at the beginning.

With such temperature control experience, if this knowledge could be widely applied, and the temperature could be gauged based on the shape and structure of the cement without a high-temperature thermometer, the quality and yield of the cement would significantly improve. Even if it was not high-grade cement, it would have higher quality, which would be a catalyst for the large demand for cement in Baotou.

Yang Yuanzhao tapped the document lightly with his hand. The incident at the brick factory, which he had resolved with a large sum of money, still had its hidden dangers. If he had not used a mixer to precisely mix the materials, replacing the master craftsmen's manual mixing, the formula would have been unstable, and the fixed formula and machinery would have greatly reduced the dependence on the master craftsmen, thus solving the problem. Otherwise, it would have caused chaos.

The mixing formula for the brick factory was a minor issue. Even if the master craftsmen did not agree, it would only be a matter of finding other master craftsmen, and a reward of 500 yuan would likely find someone. Even if no one could be found, it would only waste a bit of time. However, cement was different. Raw materials were a critical aspect, and if a batch was ruined, the labor and material costs would be very high. If a problem occurred, the consequences would be beyond what Yang Yuanzhao could bear. Most importantly, among the 150 workers, only one had this capability, and he was the most important.

One, meaning that even if Yang Yuanzhao was unwilling, he would have to be constrained by this master craftsman. Otherwise, the production of the cement factory would be greatly affected, and a large amount of waste would be produced, impacting the factory's efficiency.

Feeling very uncomfortable, Yang Yuanzhao found it very difficult to accept this. However, investing a lot of effort into researching a high-temperature thermometer was not something he was willing to do. For one, this field was very unfamiliar to him, and he had never encountered it in school or work. Additionally, the difficulty was very high. Thermometers generally required materials with a relatively uniform thermal expansion coefficient, such as the mercury in a mercury thermometer, which expanded uniformly with temperature changes, making it a commonly used thermometer.

Unfortunately, mercury thermometers were only suitable for low-temperature environments and were useless in industrial high-temperature fields of 500 to 3000 degrees Celsius. Yang Yuanzhao was unlikely to invest a huge amount of effort into finding suitable alloy materials.

Feeling troubled, Yang Yuanzhao's brows furrowed. No matter what, before finding a replacement, he could only use Li Mingsheng. However, a backup was necessary. After some thought, he asked Liu Shu, "Brother Zelun, how much do you know about this Li Mingsheng?"