I want to be emperor

Chapter 261 Hantian Arsenal

However, after sending people to select the site, they found that the Hanyang area on the north bank was relatively low-lying, and Wuchang was not suitable.

If an arsenal and a series of factories such as iron factories and machinery factories are built here, then flood control measures must be taken, such as raising the ground and building flood prevention lifts.

At the same time, someone suggested that the Daye iron smelting plant had already been built, and most of the current iron, copper and other raw materials of the Great Chu Empire were directly supplied from Daye.

If it transports iron materials to Hanyang for production, it is better to choose a coastal location in Daye County near the Yangtze River and directly build a series of supporting factories such as an arsenal.

In this way, even the transportation of iron materials is exempted!

As for the coal used for ironmaking, I'm sorry, but now the Great Chu Empire does not use coal for ironmaking, but charcoal.

Technology backwardness is so awesome!
As for charcoal, it needs to be purchased from the private sector on a large scale and then transferred to the ironworks, so as long as the transportation is convenient, the cost of charcoal will not be greatly affected...

After all, they are all equally expensive!

This is also the reason why the Ministry of Industry directly set up ironworks in Daye instead of choosing to set up ironworks elsewhere.

The current arsenal and machinery factory can be built around the established Daye Iron Works to reduce transportation costs.

After getting the report, Luo Zhixue was still a little strange. After all, he remembered that Hanyang in the original time and space had a bunch of factories built by Zhang Zhidong, including the famous Hanyang Arsenal.

However, after careful comparison, Luo Zhixue still agreed to the plan of the Ministry of Industry to set up a series of supporting factories such as an arsenal and a machinery factory in Daye.

The reason is simple, there are no railways passing by in Hanyang now, and at the same time, there are not a lot of supporting factories in Hanyang first. Putting the arsenal in Hanyang now is completely worth the candle.

Anyway, the current bulk transportation still relies on water transportation for the time being. As long as the arsenal is built along the Yangtze River, the problem will not be too big.

After approving the construction plan of the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Industry quickly came up with detailed construction plans for many supporting factories such as arsenals and machinery factories.

The arsenal established in Daye was named Hantian arsenal, just like the Xiangyang arsenal, named directly after the name of the prefecture.

The supporting machinery factory is also called Hantian Machinery Factory.

Therefore, there will be many supporting factories around the arsenal.

Including Hantian Machinery Factory, Daye Ironworks, Daye Metallurgical Plant, Daye Mining, Hantian Precision Machinery, and Hantian Carriage Works, which are independently operated factories.

At the same time, Hantian Armory will also set up more than ten branch factories including artillery branch factory, musket branch factory, forging branch factory, wood branch factory, armor branch factory, sword branch factory, gunpowder branch factory, artillery shell branch factory and bullet branch factory.

The establishment of an arsenal in Daye was not a single workshop for casting guns, but an entire industrial system.

But this kind of thing seems to be very high-end. When you hear the names of these factories, you seem to think that these are high-tech factories, but in fact it is just like that...

Don't look at the large scale and many workers, but the technical level is the same.

In essence, the industrial technology of the Great Chu Empire has no advantage over the Ming Dynasty, the Eastern captivity, or the Westerners.

From the most basic materials to processing, in fact, the technical level is still at the relatively primitive stage of manual work.

But, the Great Chu Empire is willing to spend money!

Therefore, the scale of the factory is large and there are many workers, so the output is large.

Coupled with a relatively strict management system and preliminary assembly line production, the quality can be better controlled.

In addition, it is very important that the factories of the Great Chu Empire began to widely adopt various types of machinery and equipment.

There are all kinds of small manpower grinding machines, drilling machines, all kinds of power storage machines, and finally large hydraulic machines, and there are many of them.

The use of these primitive machines has greatly improved the production efficiency of the factories of the Great Chu Empire.

Whether or not to reduce costs is secondary, the key is to be able to greatly increase production.

The above-mentioned measures are all to ensure the supply of weapons and ammunition needed by the Rural Protection Army to expand its army and fight.

Approved a series of construction plans of the Ministry of Industry, and instructed the Ministry of Finance to allocate money and food in a timely manner for factory construction, except for worker training.

For the time being, Luo Zhixue also put down the defense industry affairs. Anyway, it is impossible for the Daye industrial base to produce weapons and equipment in a short period of time.

Even with the current wartime construction and production speed, it is conservatively estimated that it will take three months to enter the relatively large-scale production stage, and that will be next year.

Naturally, Luo Zhixue couldn't stare at these things every day.

He has a lot to do.

On November [-], Luo Zhixue summoned Cheng Wende, Yin of Han Tianfu, to discuss the establishment of a textile factory in Hanyang.

Cheng Wende said: "Your Majesty, I, Han Tianfu, requested to set up a textile factory. The main purpose is to replace labor with work, and to resettle refugees who were affected by wars and natural disasters."

"At the same time, it also provides clothes, quilts, tents and other materials for soldiers, patrolmen, tax policemen, and factory workers."

"If it is done well, then we can also consider pushing the produced cloth and other materials to the private market."

Cheng Wende, Yin of Hantianfu, continued: "Our Hantianfu is located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. If you go east, you can go to the middle and lower reaches of Nanzhili, and if you go west, you can reach Jingzhoufu and other places, and you can also enter Sichuan.

There is also the Han River that can go northward, pass through the Yangtze River and then enter the Dongting Lake-Xiangjiang water system, and even enter the Poyang Lake-Ganjiang water system eastward in the future. "

"This place is well-developed in all directions, and it is most suitable for setting up factories and businesses."

Luo Zhixue flipped through the plan in his hand while listening, and said after finishing reading, "It is feasible to build a textile factory in Hanyang!"

"The textile industry is a big industry. We have tried it in Nanyang and Xiangyang before, and the effect is good. It can provide a large number of employed workers with work relief, solve the problem of clothing for our army, and supply cheaper clothes to the people. cloth to benefit the people."

"Since we want to do it, let's make it bigger. The spinning mills, cloth factories, dyeing factories, and sewing factories in this textile factory are all promising businesses!"

"Go back and discuss with the Ministry of Industry and the Finance Department, and come up with a detailed plan."

"Besides, your Hantian Prefecture cannot directly run this factory, let the Ministry of Industry run it."

"Professional things should be done by professional people!"

"Your local government can support and encourage business, but you must not directly participate in it!"

Luo Zhixue didn't want local governments to directly set up factories. This had nothing to do with monopoly or official intervention. If the Ministry of Industry invested in building factories, it was also a monopoly and official intervention.

It is purely that the local government is not professional enough to run factories.

And professional things should be done by professional people. If you want to set up government-run factories, you can just let the Ministry of Industry do it.

Except for the officials of the Ministry of Industry, most of the other officials, especially the local officials, know nothing about industrial and commercial affairs such as running factories. If local governments are allowed to run factories on a large scale, they will not suffer.

As he said that, he also said to an attendant of the Hanlin Academy next to him: "Remember, let the Court of Justice, the Ministry of Industry and other departments issue a detailed charter for government-run factories."

"In principle, let professional people do professional things."

"Except for the Ministry of Industry, other government offices, including the military, are strictly prohibited from investing, operating, and managing foreign-operating enterprises!"

"Let the Ministry of Industry set up directly-controlled industrial bureaus in each prefecture to coordinate and manage the government-run industrial and commercial affairs in each prefecture."

Therefore, regarding the Hanyang Textile Factory, Luo Zhixue also planned to take this opportunity to finalize the matter of the government-run enterprise thoroughly, and formulate various rules in the future.

After all, the Great Chu Empire did not have corresponding laws and regulations on this aspect before, and now it is finalized directly, so as to avoid problems that will become too large and difficult to deal with in the future.

Therefore, we simply temporarily strictly restrict and implement a one-size-fits-all policy, and the Ministry of Industry is directly responsible for the affairs of all government-run enterprises.

Hearing this, Yin Tianfu of Hantian was a little disappointed. He had hoped that Hantianfu would directly fund and set up a factory, and then earn some money to subsidize the finances...

You must know that Han Tianfu is financially poor now!

Regardless of the fact that the Great Chu Empire seized a large amount of gold and silver during a series of conquests, the money basically has nothing to do with local finances. They were all confiscated and sent directly to the treasury, that is, the Ministry of Finance.

Today, the source of local fiscal revenue in various prefectures and counties mainly depends on the sharing of taxes and fees.

Needless to say, taxes, after the tax department collects taxes, a certain percentage will be left to the local government as local administrative funds.

In terms of fees, it is some administrative expenses, such as various fines and administrative income, which are also shared.

The local finance has a fixed proportion of taxes and fees, but it also bears various administrative expenses such as local officials' salaries and infrastructure construction.

At the same time, in order to maintain the war, it is also for better overall planning and utilization of funds. In the current tax and fee sharing system of the Great Chu Empire, the taxes and fees that local finance can get are still relatively small, and most of them are turned over to the state treasury.

This has also led to the fact that under the rule of the Great Chu Empire, local government offices at all levels are all poor... Some counties with poor economies often cannot even pay the salaries of officials, and need subsidies from the higher-level finances .

Of course, the Ministry of Finance of the Great Chu Empire will not ignore the life and death of local government offices, and the financial subsidies of some poor counties will not miss them.

Local governance cannot be paralyzed just because officials cannot pay salaries.

And Han Tianfu, as the capital, is a big mansion that merged two prefectures and two counties. In fact, they are not poor, but they also spend a lot of money.

After all, it is the capital and has a lot of expenses.

This official salary is a lot of money.

At the same time, it is necessary to heal the damage caused by the war, carry out various infrastructure constructions, and provide relief to a large number of victims.

Everything costs money.

Cheng Wende, Yin of Han Tianfu, has been in a state of desperation for the past few months because of money matters.

He was trying to set up a factory to make money and subsidize the finances. In the end, His Majesty allowed the factory to be set up, but only the Ministry of Industry was allowed to do it.

In this way, the profit of this factory will not be able to enter the financial pocket of Han Tianfu!

(End of this chapter)