Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 734 Northwest Railway ([-])

The people of Tielingbao at the end of the Northwest Railway have been waiting desperately for this railway.The many enterprises, personnel, mines, and everything gathered here, because of this long-overdue railway, can only hold down their ambitions for the time being, and wait for the railway to be completed before making plans.

For example, the coal burial belt outside the city of Tieling Fort cannot be effectively developed due to the lack of a large number of heavy machinery.This coal burial zone is not small, about two kilometers long from east to west, and more than 500 meters long from north to south. The average thickness of the coal seam is 100 meters, and the buried volume is at least hundreds of millions of tons.In later generations, it may only be regarded as a small and medium-sized coal mine, but in this era, it can produce more than [-] tons of coal per day, and it is definitely not a small coal mine.

Although the quality of coal in this coal storage belt named Tieling Coal Mine is still very poor, and it is still in the mineralization period, it will not have much value in later generations, but the quality of coal is generally poor, and everyone can only make do with it This is considered a huge fortune, with extremely high mining value.

In particular, the Tieling Coal Mine has thick coal seams, shallow burial, rich gas components, and shale layers rich in shale oil, which can extract some liquid fuels that are rarely seen in China, and its economic value cannot be underestimated.Therefore, in the eyes of Ma Jia, director of the Northwest Reclamation Bureau, Tieling Coal Mine is treated on the same level as manganese ore, iron ore, and gold mines. In the future, this coal mine will provide most of the production and living coal for the entire Tieling Industrial Zone. One of the pillars of regional development.

After all, even after the Northwest Railway is completed in the future, due to the lack of double tracks and the large number of people and materials that need to be transported, its transportation capacity is bound to be extremely tight.Under such circumstances, if there is less stuff that can be transported from the outside world, especially the bulk material such as coal, if a considerable part of it can be solved locally, then the transportation pressure on the Northwest Railway will be greatly reduced.

In addition to coal mines, there are several large and small iron ore veins in the Tieling mining area.However, according to the tests performed by the technicians of the laboratory laboratory of Tieling Special Steel Plant, the iron ore grade in this area is uneven, some are higher and some are lower, but overall the grade is low, about 40%.This kind of ore is not even recognized as iron ore in many areas in this era.How to smelt this kind of lean ore is really a test for the technicians of Tieling Steel Works. The Institute of Metallurgy of the Academy of Natural Sciences has spent a lot of time and financial resources on the Changshan Iron Mine over the years, and has made a decision on the beneficiation method. Major technical improvements.That is to make the iron ore structure brittle by roasting (above 600 degrees), and then use the reduction effect of gas or carbon to magnetize the hematite ore.

This method has been introduced to the Tieling mining area. The staff of the special steel plant have successfully made the lean iron ore meet the smelting process requirements through procedures such as roasting, reduction, and sintering.This is of great significance for alleviating the transportation pressure of the Northwest Railway, saving low-grade iron ore, and reducing production costs.

Under everyone's bleak management and scientific and technological research, the coal-iron complex in the Tieling mining area has basically taken shape.According to the plan of the Northwest Reclamation Bureau, the bureau intends to fully develop this mining area in ten years, with an estimated total investment of about 650 million yuan, with an average annual investment of 65 yuan.

This figure frightened the members of the Executive Committee as soon as it was reported in January. 1 million silver dollars, what a huge investment!Even if it is divided for ten years, it will cost 650 a year, which is already worth two-thirds of the army's annual maintenance cost in 65.Just for some manganese steel, millions of dollars will be poured in for ten consecutive years. This can't help pouring cold water on a group of industrial parties who fanatically supported the country's development of special steel and non-ferrous metal smelting. Nima is engaged in heavy industry, Basic industry is so expensive!

650 million is absolutely impossible!The 11 members of the Executive Committee had a rare unanimous opinion this time. They immediately sent an investigation team led by Qi Wangping, Director of the Personnel Department of the Executive Committee, to the Tieling mining area to investigate and audit the local finances, and then bargained with the local government. , So at the end of January, a preliminary agreement was reached and reported to the executive committee: the original investment plan was invalidated, and the new plan was to invest 1 million yuan for ten years, with an average annual investment of 450 yuan.

This amount of investment is still a bit high for the Executive Committee. After all, there are many large-scale construction projects in China, such as the Northwest Railway, the expansion of Qingdao Port, the first phase of the Port of Blanca, the extension of Highway 2, and the large-scale technical transformation of Ping’an Coal Mine, etc. etc.; in addition, the war with the Spaniards has not yet ended, and considerable war expenses have to be prepared on hand. Therefore, even though the executive committee has recently received a lot of money in one go, under the thin division of so many projects, the finances are still stretched. Elbow feeling.

Therefore, it is really not easy to squeeze out hundreds of thousands of investment into the Tieling mining area every year under various difficulties.If it hadn't been for the investment of 50 million yuan in the Tieling mining area in the past two years, the Executive Committee and the Government Council are now feeling a little bit stuck, and they are really unwilling to use such a huge investment in Tieling Special Steel. In an industry whose prospects are not yet clear.

Of course, the Northwest Reclamation Bureau also understands that the central government's finances are not well-off, so they didn't say anything, they could only express their obedience, and at the same time tried their best to reduce some unnecessary expenses to save money.If possible, they will also ask the army to dispatch again to capture some Indians to serve as coolies, which can save a lot of expenses.In addition, they had better be able to produce finished products as soon as possible, and at the same time promote them in the country, so as to have some hematopoietic ability, otherwise, just relying on state investment, they will have a lot of eyes from others.You must know that if you use more money, others will use less money. If you account for a huge investment of 45 yuan a year, how many other projects will be dismissed, and how many people will hate it!

From the perspective of the central government, the cut expenses of about 200 million yuan are basically out of date.For example, Tieling Special Steel Works has created various welfare systems that are too high for its existing and future employees, which are much higher than the existing standards, including employee housing (far exceeding the housing standards of general enterprise employees), large-scale employee communities Department stores (the store directly purchases goods from coastal areas and sells them at cost prices, and the resulting operating losses are subsidized by the special steel factory), employee health expenditures (for the prevention and treatment of tuberculosis, cholera and yellow fever that are raging in the Tieling area), Company funds (mainly for hospitalization and treatment expenses of employees and their families, weddings and funerals of employees, family subsidies and relief funds for poor employees, paid leave for employees, etc.).

These miscellaneous welfare expenditures require an average of more than 20 yuan a year, which is almost enough to build two more "August [-]th" class battleships for the Navy. To be honest, the Executive Committee is currently regardless of this heavy burden. No matter what, I don't want to bear it.Without him, your Tieling Special Steel Factory has provided this benefit, how can you embarrass other factories that do not provide these benefits?At that time, the public will be raging, and the executive committee will have no choice but to abolish this special welfare, because it is impossible to spread this model nationwide, and the cost it requires is too great.

What a joke!A Tieling Special Steel Factory spends 20 yuan a year on such expenditures. If dozens of factories across the country do it, wouldn't it cost several million yuan? How is this possible!Should the country continue to build?Do you want to immigrate?Do you want to do business again!In particular, your Tieling Special Steel Plant is still in the trial production stage at present, and has not produced a dime of profit, and it depends on the state's continuous investment in construction, daring to risk the world's disgrace to engage in this kind of "" Socialism" welfare, it can only be said that the director of the Northwest Reclamation Bureau, the vest, is too fucking protective of the calf.

After being cut off these untimely benefits, the employees of Tieling Special Steel Plant can only hope that the factory will make a profit soon, and then use part of the profit to subsidize everyone's life.After all, everyone here is basically responding to the call of the state (in fact, most of them are forced by the state), giving up the life in the relatively prosperous coastal areas, going deep into the barren land, and developing the big inland. Everyone has made a lot of sacrifices (Facing the torment of diseases in the wild land, the troubles of being attacked by barbarians, the decline in living standards, the problems of children's education, etc.), it is reasonable for the factory to give everyone some compensation.

At the end of last year, Tieling Special Steel's first iron-making blast furnace was officially put into trial production and successfully smelted high-quality molten iron.After that, the workers of the factory devoted themselves to the intensive research on ferromanganese smelting, and worked overtime within two to three months, successively produced more than ten kinds of ferromanganese with different proportions, and the tests were carried out by the laboratory department. Quality is above average.

At the same time, the construction of the steelmaking furnace is also in full swing.Today, the main concern for everyone is the lack of building materials. The mass of building materials from the outside world cannot be transported in large quantities due to the lack of railways. The progress of the construction has been severely delayed, and the construction staff were so anxious that their mouths were blistered and there was nothing they could do but stare blankly.

Fortunately, the railway will be built to Chengshanbao in a few months, and Chengshanbao is only a few tens of kilometers away from Tieling area. The distress of insufficient transportation capacity will be greatly alleviated, and the construction progress of the factory will gradually speed up.Especially now that a new batch of immigrants has begun to arrive on the east coast, the arrival of fresh blood means a rapid increase in the labor force, which can effectively promote the accelerated construction of the factory area.

After the establishment of Tieling Special Steel, it will include a coal coking workshop, an ironmaking workshop, and a steelmaking workshop; at the same time, the Second Machinery Factory presided over by Li Hongxing will also be moved here in batches and officially renamed as the First Heavy Machinery The factory specializes in using ferromanganese and manganese steel from the special steel plant to produce high-quality machinery, transmission and steam power equipment, so as to improve the industrial base of the east coast.

(End of this chapter)