In the next few days, the East China Government arranged for an industrial and commercial delegation to visit the iron and steel plant, the power plant, the Sifang locomotive factory, and two factories under construction, the machinery factory and the steam engine factory.

Iron and steel plants, power plants, and Sifang locomotive factories are all the main industrial factories of the East China government at present, plus the Qingdao shipyard and arsenal, which are the five major heavy industry factories of the East China government.

Now the No. 2 blast furnace of the steel plant has been completed and put into operation, with a monthly production capacity of about 3,500 tons and an annual output of about 40,000 tons, which has reached 2/3 of the annual production capacity of the Hanyang Iron Works, and within the five-year plan, two more blast furnaces will be built, with an annual output of more than 80,000 tons of steel. In addition, a test workshop has been established in the steel industry, which is specially used to study the refining of various special steels and professional steels. Other processing plants supporting the steel plant, such as steel rolling mills and parts factories, are also under construction.

Steel is the foundation of the development of modern society, almost all modern industries are inseparable from steel, so only enough steel supply can guarantee the development of industry, so even in the era of the traverser, steel production is one of the important symbols to measure the industrial development of a country, and in this era, it is a symbol of national strength.

The current power generation capacity of the power plant is basically sufficient, because at present Qingdao is mainly used for lighting, and other electrical equipment has not yet been popularized, so Qingdao is now popularizing lighting electricity, and all main and secondary roads will be illuminated within this year, and all factories and shops will be electrified; and during the five-year plan period, all roads in the urban area will be universally illuminated, and all buildings in the urban area will be electrified for lighting, and some of them will be radiated to the suburbs. In addition, power plants in Tianjin and Jinan are also under construction, and plans for a power plant in Shanghai have been approved by the Executive Yuan, and generator sets have been ordered from Germany.

Although the industrial development of this era has not yet reached the level of electrification, but even the lighting electricity has a considerable role in promoting industrialization, first of all, it strengthens the safety of production, the production workshop of the modern factory, the area of the plant is very large, even in the daytime need to be illuminated, and although the electrical lighting also has a certain danger, but compared with the lighting, such as candles and oil lamps, it is still much safer, and it is in the textile industry, the wood industry in the factory of flammable products, electrical lighting is more than candles, Oil lamps are much safer, and in terms of brightness of lighting, they are 100 times stronger than candles and oil lamps, so they can also improve production efficiency, which can be greatly improved for night work.

In the Sifang Locomotive Factory, in addition to visiting the production workshop, the main thing is to introduce the construction of the Jiaoji Railway to the businessmen. Moreover, Zhan Tianyou also made a special trip back from the construction site of the Jiaoji Railway to tell the businessmen about the construction and planning of the railway in Shandong. Because in China in this era, Zhan Tianyou was definitely the authority on the construction of railways, and it was of course more convincing for him to introduce it to the merchants.

The project of the Jiaoji Railway is going very smoothly, now part of the section has begun to open to traffic, and is expected to be completed and opened to traffic in 1903, when the time from Qingdao to Jinan can be reached in only 10-12 hours, this is not counting other cities along the Jiaoji Railway, and the Jiaoji Railway passes through the basic areas of Shandong's coal, iron and gold mines, so once the railway is opened, it will greatly promote the economic development of Shandong Province.

In addition, Qingdao-Weihai-Yantai Qingyan line railway has entered the geological survey stage, within this year can be started, is expected to be completed in 1907, in addition to a railway in the west of Shandong is also in the planning, planned to start in 1904, completed in 1908, after the completion of these two railways, Shandong's railway mileage will reach 1100 kilometers, by that time, will be able to achieve within one day, to reach any state capital area in Shandong, Shandong's transportation, logistics, Personnel will be improved by leaps and bounds.

This news also makes many businessmen quite excited, convenient transportation is also one of the important conditions for the development of industrial and commercial economy, not only can quickly transport products out, but also can transport raw materials and fuels in, although they still do not have the understanding that "the railway is the blood vessel of modern society", but also know that "if you want to get rich, first build the road", so you can also expect that if you really invest in Shandong, then after the opening of these three railways, it will be very convenient to operate.

And what made Sheng Xuanhuai sigh was Zhan Tianyou's attitude. Although he and Zhan Tianyou are not acquaintances, they can also be regarded as ordinary friends, and Sheng Xuanhuai is one of the few people in the Qing court who can recognize the true value of Zhan Tianyou, and he also intends to entrust Zhan Tianyou with important tasks, but Zhan Tianyou finally chose overseas Chinese, and looking at Zhan Tianyou's appearance when he explained to the businessmen, the excitement was overflowing, obviously it was quite comfortable for overseas Chinese, and after listening to the railway planning of the East China government, Sheng Xuanhuai couldn't help but sigh secretly, of course he knew that the total railway mileage of the Qing court was only more than 600 kilometers, and even in 1908, the railway mileage built would not exceed 1000 kilometers。 The courage and resoluteness of the overseas Chinese are indeed far above that of the Qing court. And Zhan Tianyou's choice at the beginning was not unreasonable.

The machine building plant and the steam engine factory were under construction, and the businessmen only walked around the construction site, mainly listening to the details of the two projects introduced by the East China government.

In fact, these two factories are also one of the projects of the East China Government's five-year plan, and the machinery and equipment used by the factories and enterprises of the East China Government are basically imported from abroad, of course, in the initial stage of the development of industrialization, this is also a very normal thing, and to a certain extent, this can make full use of foreign mature technology and equipment, and accelerate its own industrialization process. However, in the long run, this is of course not conducive to the industrial development of the East China Government, because first, it requires high costs to purchase foreign machinery and equipment; second, the technology is subject to others, and once foreign countries cut off the supply of machinery and equipment, it will cause serious losses to the industrial development of the East China Government; third, it is really high-end, sophisticated technology, and foreign countries will not buy it to the East China Government, so what the East China Government can get will always be second-rate equipment.

Of course, because the East China government has a large number of advanced theoretical technology, so through technology exchange, or joint cooperation, a lot of first-class machinery and equipment from Germany have been obtained, but this is only limited to a few factories such as arsenals, shipyards, power plants, and iron and steel plants, and most of the machinery and equipment purchased by the factories are second-rate, and a considerable part of the machinery and equipment purchased by the East China government is purchased from the United States, and the traveler has not exchanged technology with the United States.

But despite this, this is only a stopgap measure, and in the end, the East China government still has to realize the self-production of machinery and equipment to ensure that the core technology of industrialization is in its own hands. And now the steel mill has a certain capacity, because a lot of steel is used to build the machine. Machine building plants and steam engine factories are the first step towards the production of machinery and equipment.

Of course, machinery manufacturing is a big concept, the most important feature of industrial production in modern society is that the social division of labor is increasingly refined, even in the current era of modernization is not high, a machinery manufacturing plant can not produce all the machinery and equipment required for industrial production. According to the plan, the machinery manufacturing plant will currently focus on the production of textile equipment, such as spinning machines, looms, carding machines, silk cutting machines, bleaching machines, dyeing machines, etc.

This is mainly because the technical level of textile machinery and equipment is relatively low, suitable for the start of manufacturing machines, which can be compared with the results in a short period of time, and more importantly, the East China government has a great demand for textile machinery and equipment. Because the textile industry is in addition to grain and salt, the industry has the greatest impact on people's livelihood, although in terms of the world, the peak of the textile industry has passed, but for China such a large population base, and the industry is extremely weak country, the textile industry still has great room for development. Even Japan's current industry is dominated by the textile industry, and most of the textile products are bought in China, so the active development of the textile industry can not only improve the lives of the people, but also curb the expansion of Japanese products in China.

However, now the strength of the textile industry of the East China government is far from being compared with Japan, but the development speed is extremely fast, now the number of machines in Tianjin Yu * textile factory has reached more than 6,000 units, and is still expanding, in the five-year plan, the production of machines to reach 20,000, and Qingdao, Jinan, Qingzhou and other places, there are plans to set up textile factories, and some private businessmen also plan to set up textile factories, so it is expected that in the next 10 years, the East China government's demand for textile machinery is at least more than 50,000 units. Far more than any other machine. And such a huge piece of cake, of course, the East China government will not let foreign countries swallow it all, no matter what, it will have to get a piece.

The technology of the steam engine is much higher than that of the textile machine, but the steam engine is the main source of power in this era, and in the next 30-50 years, although it will be affected by electricity and internal combustion engines, it will occupy a dominant position in the power of trains and ships, so the steam engine technology must be mastered anyway.

What's more, the East China government has been in the joint development of steam turbines with Germany, it is expected to take 4-5 years of research and development cycle, if the steam turbine research and development is successful, and the East China government does not have the production capacity, it will be very passive, after all, the East China government can not always rely on technology for equipment, and now the establishment of a steam engine manufacturing plant is mainly to accumulate technology and prepare for the production of steam turbines in the future.