1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 61
The executive committee has already reached a consensus on the advantages and disadvantages of Sanya as early as before the crossing. The lack of underground coal is probably one of the biggest shortcomings of this place. of industrial fuels.The Executive Committee originally thought that this drawback would not have a particularly large impact except for the inability to make large-scale steelmaking, but obviously everyone has made a big mistake in this matter.

Most of the cement brought by the crossing has been used in the hydropower station project. If the cement kiln cannot be put into operation in the short term, the subsequent factories, residences, and even the bunker fort that the Military and Police Department has been eagerly waiting for will all be destroyed. become a castle in the sky.And the series of project plan delays that will be caused by this, the Executive Committee simply dare not continue to think about it.

"In any case, the cement problem must be solved as soon as possible!" Tao Donglai set the tone at the beginning of the on-site meeting: "Everyone knows the importance of cement, so I won't emphasize it again. People who understand technology say Said, in the short term can not provide a large amount of anthracite or coke, what kind of compromise do we have now to get the cement kiln into production as soon as possible?”

"There is no other way, boss, let's put the cement on the soil!"

After a long silence, Liu Shanxia, ​​the second-in-command of the Ministry of Construction, finally spoke up.Although he is not from the Ministry of Industry, but after all, he has worked on projects for many years and encountered various problems during construction. He still has some understanding of the production technology problems of certain materials.

The so-called soil cement is a primitive version of cement that is simple and simple. The burning of this cement does not require complicated equipment and technological processes. It only needs to crush limestone and clay, and directly put it into the kiln for calcination, and the burned clinker is then ground again. Just fine to powder.Moreover, the calcination temperature of this soil cement does not need to reach 1450 degrees like Portland cement, but only 600 to 800 degrees.Considering the enhanced performance, the iron-making slag ash can also be ground and evenly mixed into the clinker.The quality of cement produced by this kind of soil method is naturally incomparable to regular Portland cement, but in the case of insufficient objective conditions, it can actually meet the needs of general construction.

It is precisely because the production method of this kind of soil cement is simple that in later generations until the 20s, there were still a large number of small cement factories in China using this technology.Tao Donglai has been working in the real estate industry for many years. Although he has never used soil cement, he has at least heard of it. Knowing the existence of this thing, he immediately made a decision: "Then hurry up and make some samples to see the effect. How, if the intensity reaches the standard, it will be put into production as soon as possible. It is now May, and the typhoon season has begun. We don’t even have a brick house yet, so we must hurry up!”

The trial-produced soil cement was soon sent to the construction site for testing, and the effect was exceptionally good. After drying, it fully met the performance requirements of building materials adhesives, but there was still a significant gap in strength compared to Portland cement.However, as far as the current application range is concerned, the performance of this soil cement has basically reached the standard. At least it can firmly bond the stones together, and can even be used to make concrete with low strength requirements.

"It's still too little coal!" The members of the executive committee who received the good news were not immediately relieved from their troubles.

Now with the rollout of industrial projects, more and more places need industrial fuel, and the production of charcoal has begun to bottleneck.Although the existing three charcoal kilns have been kept running around the clock, and the two new charcoal kilns will be put into operation soon, the growth rate of output is still not as fast as the growth rate of consumption.Especially the newly put into production iron furnace, it is simply a bottomless pit.

Due to the lack of local coal resources in Sanya, the ore mined by Tiandu Iron Mine can only be smelted by charcoal.To refine one ton of pig iron, two tons of iron ore are consumed, and about seven tons of charcoal are consumed, which is quite astonishing for the current charcoal output.Therefore, the Executive Committee intends to expand the production capacity of charcoal again, but in this case, it is bound to allocate more manpower to the logging team to cut down trees, which will put more pressure on the already tense human resources.

At this time, I am afraid that only the Ministry of Agriculture is not bothered by the production of charcoal.After the completion of spring ploughing and spring planting, the Ministry of Agriculture did not stop the pace of development, but continued to reclaim agricultural arable land in the valley area along the east bank of the Tiandu River.In view of the fact that the upstream area will become a heavily polluted area of ​​metallurgy and chemical industry in the future, the Ministry of Agriculture has taken precautions and has no plan to plant large-scale food crops in this area. is an oil crop.

Mr. Yuan, who specializes in cash crops, had already planned a planting plan for the Ministry of Agriculture when he was preparing agricultural materials before crossing.Hainan's tropical climate is very suitable for planting various cash crops, and in Mr. Yuan's plan, there are four main types of cash crops - spices, rubber, oilseeds, and sugar.

The spice trade in East Asia in the 17th century was also very famous in later generations. The Dutch East India Company made its fortune by monopolizing the trade of several spices such as nutmeg, cloves and pepper in Southeast Asia.In the European market, these spices from the East are as popular as Chinese silk and porcelain, and the gross profit of spice trafficking between Asia and Europe is even close to twenty times.For this reason, Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, the maritime powers at that time, launched a long-term struggle in East Asia, and the important position occupied by spices in the trade between countries can be seen from this.

Against this historical background, the Executive Committee will naturally not let go of the spice trade, which is a highly profitable and marketable business.In addition to these more popular spices, the Ministry of Agriculture has also planted turmeric, the main ingredient of curry, galangal, the main ingredient of five-spice powder, coriander, which is essential for Tom Yum Kung soup, as well as Thai pepper, basil, and Mao Weng on a small scale. and other famous spices produced in Southeast Asia.If the spice trade goes smoothly in the future, the Executive Committee even intends to promote the cultivation of these high value-added spice crops on a large scale in the mountainous areas controlled by the Li people, and gradually make the Li people have a serious dependence on the cross population for food supply. The purpose of controlling the Li people.

As for the importance of rubber to modern industry, it is self-evident. If nothing else, just the two applications of rubber tires and seals are enough to raise the level of industrialization across the public to a higher level.The Ministry of Agriculture has planted [-] mu of rubber tree saplings on the vacant land cut down by the logging team. These trees need to wait five or six years before being tapped for rubber.However, the Executive Committee is not in a hurry. After the foreign trade business is opened, it may be possible to import rubber from other parts of Southeast Asia on a small scale within a year or two. It is more for the long-term to start planting rubber trees. consider.

In the selection of oil crops, Mr. Yuan finally settled on oil palm.The oil content of this oil crop is more than 50%. One oil palm can produce 30 to 40 kilograms of palm oil per year, and the production capacity per mu can reach about 600 kilograms, which is two to three times that of coconut and seven to eight times that of peanut. The price-performance ratio among crops is very high.Not only can palm oil be used for food, but it can also be used to make soaps, industrial lubricants, and more.

Most importantly, the Ministry of Chemical Industry has long proposed a biodiesel manufacturing plan, and palm oil is a very ideal material.Even if only a limited amount of diesel can be produced on a small scale, in the opinion of the Executive Committee, the time and energy spent on this project will be well worth it.Of course, before crossing the public, we have to wait patiently for three years for these oil palms to grow up slowly.

In the selection of sugar crops, sugarcane is of course the first choice.In the late Ming Dynasty, the main producing area of ​​sucrose was in Leizhou, Guangxi, and Zhanjiang was still the largest sugar production base in China in later generations.The executive committee hopes to develop a sugarcane planting base in the southern part of Hainan Island that can rival that of Leizhou, and use the advanced technology in its hands to beat the mainland sugar merchants in terms of production costs.

The Executive Committee agreed that the Ministry of Agriculture chose sugarcane as one of the main commercial crops for promotion and cultivation, not only because of the prospects of this product in foreign trade, but also because sugarcane is very suitable for winemaking.The famous rum in later generations is made from sugarcane. This kind of sugarcane shochu invented by Native Americans was highly praised after it was introduced to Europe in the 18th century. However, since it has come to this time and space, the invention of this wine is very Obviously have to change hands in advance.

As a commodity, wine has always been a marketable existence.However, the current situation of Chuanzhong is that there is a lack of a large and stable supply of grain, and grain wine will not be produced as a commodity in the short term, and rum production obviously does not have this concern.As one of the six major distilled spirits in later generations, the Executive Committee believes that this shochu made from sugar cane will surely open up the European market in the process of foreign trade, and is a very worthy commodity.Planting sugarcane can simultaneously produce two products that can open up the eastern and western markets. It is no wonder that the executive committee passed the plan of Mr. Yuan without hesitation.

Although the economic crop plan of the Ministry of Agriculture is good, it will take time to realize it slowly. The sugarcane that can be put into production as soon as possible will take about a year from now.But the people at the Department of Agriculture didn't plan to sit idle, and now there are agricultural projects underway that will pay off faster.

The Ministry of Agriculture started stocking grass carp fry in the paddy fields more than ten days after the rice transplanting was completed.According to the plan of the Ministry of Agriculture, more than [-] fish fry should be placed in each mu of paddy fields. However, due to the rush of time, the fry breeding could not keep up. The final placement density was only about [-] fish per mu. fry.

This technique of raising fish in rice fields is a relatively common practice in later generations. It can not only increase rice production, but also take care of raising fish. However, when the local Ming people in the farm commune saw it, they were all dumbfounded—what the hell are these Haihan people? There are some who like to eat fish, but the fish in the sea are not enough, and even the rice fields have to raise fish!

(End of this chapter)