Chapter Ninety-Six: Taking Over the Metallurgical Yard and Designing the Hotel

Listening to Yan Boju talk about the waterway, Zhang Zhimu said: "I'm also anxious about this matter." In the past, we were afraid that we would not be able to receive food, but now that we have Li Zicheng's grain and grass, we are not in a hurry about this matter. Hundreds of thousands of stone grains can withstand a while. However, we have too much backlog of things to produce and need to be shipped out as soon as possible. Li Mao: It is estimated that they can't buy less grain, and they also need to be transported back. ”

Yan Boju said: "This year's rain is so good, it hasn't been so good in decades, it's really a good sign." This year, Shanxi's grain harvest should not be reduced. However, if we bring back a large amount of grain and the grain cannot be sold at a price, we are afraid that the grain farmers will have nothing left. ”

"Yes, it's also a big deal for the grain to hurt the peasants. Now that we have the money, we can build a few more grain depots to control grain prices. Anyway, we don't lack silver now. Farmers must be encouraged to diversify their foods. "Zhang Zhimu knew that in his previous life, it was a good way for the country to reserve grain. In this way, in a year of famine, there is no fear of food.

Zhang Zhimu and Yan Boju were about to go back after sending off the prince, when Li Dong and Liu Baoxue's carriage from the smelting field stopped beside them.

Seeing Li Dong and Liu Baoxue who got off the car, Zhang Zhimu asked: "Director Li, I said to let you withdraw, you are so slow." There are several government-run iron smelting plants, copper smelting plants, and lead and tin smelting factories in front of them, which need to be received by people. I'm waiting for you. ”

Li Dong said: "Oops! Mr. Zhang, don't criticize us yet. We're ready to go out and take over, but the smelter is too busy to get out of the way. There are so many things that we can't do without the two of us. I discussed it with Liu Baoxue, and I think Liu Baoxue should stay in the smelting field, otherwise many things will not be able to continue, and the steel and other things used in the production of our kiln will be produced here. There is no guarantee that the production here will be affected too much. ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "You can watch the arrangement for such a thing." What I mean is to set up a Ministry of Mining and Metallurgy, with you and Liu Baoxue as the chief and deputy ministers, to oversee the mining and metallurgical affairs. That's the task, how to do it, you can arrange it! ”

Li Dong said: "Liu Baoxue is still the director of the smelting field first. Production at the smelter could not be stopped for a moment. ”

Zhang Zhimu asked: "By the way, how are your rails doing?" ”

"The rails have begun to be transported to the railway, and the rails from the smelting yard to the kiln have long been finished, and half of them have been made to Niutou Mountain." Li Dong replied.

Liu Baoxue added: "Mr. Zhang is relieved. After the roadbed on the other side of Niutou Mountain is repaired, our steel rails will be produced. ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "This is not enough, my idea is to build the railway to Datong and kill Hukou." With the railway, the cost of guarding the northern frontier is not so great. There can be fewer people in front. When there is something, there is a railway, and soon our people and materials will be sent up. ”

Li Dong said: "In my opinion, if we build the railway to Niutou Mountain, the good coal there will be easily transported to our smelter, and the steel from the smelting yard will also be easily transported out." Other raw materials needed by the smelting yard can also be easily transported in, and our steel production can be increased several times. Last time, Mr. Zhang said that he wanted to build a bigger blast furnace, and Liu Baoxue and I also studied that if there is a railway to ensure the transportation of raw materials, we dare to go to a bigger blast furnace. Therefore, in the future, Mr. Zhang will not have to worry about the production of rails. ”

Zhang Zhimu led Li Dong and Liu Baoxue to sit down in the office and asked, "What do you want to do with the newly taken over smelting field?" ”

Li Dong said: "We have the experience of taking over this smelter. I think that the first thing is to improve the living and production conditions of workers, so that we can stabilize people's hearts. However, the production level of those smelters can only produce some crude iron for the time being. When we slowly finish building power generation and other facilities, we can talk about transforming them. Our main task now is to take over the smelting plant completely. ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "This time, we captured a lot of Li Zicheng's soldiers, all of whom were strong laborers. You can pick some if you need them. ”

Li Dong said: "We don't need people for the time being in the newly taken over smelting plant, but we need a large number of people to expand production in our smelting plant. Give us 10,000 first. For some positions, you need to train first. ”

Hearing that Li Dong was coming, Li Yunhe also came over to see his father. Li Dong has been busy for a while, and the father and son haven't seen each other for a long time.

After the father and son greeted each other, Li Dong said: "Yunhe, when can you give us the machine tool we want over there, we are in a hurry to use it." ”

Li Yunhe said: "Oh, everywhere is rushing to ask for machine tools. We don't produce enough at all. Guaranteed to you next month. ”

Looking at the father and son, Zhang Zhimu felt very thoughtful and said, "Yunhe doesn't give Lao Tzu any face at all!" However, Yunhe, I think that your factory that produces machine tools should be opened independently, and let them specialize in machine tools, so that they can do it well. ”

Li Yunhe said: "After I moved the gun and artillery weapons factory, I separated it from the machine tool factory. ”

Seeing that Lu Bingyi came to Zhang Zhimu with Liu Bensheng and Lu Qi, Li Dong said hello to Li Yunhe and Liu Baoxue and got up and left. However, Zhang Zhimu left Li Yunhe behind.

After Lu Bingyi sat down, he first introduced: "Mr. Zhang, the section of the railway from our smelting yard to Yaogang is about to be laid. If it weren't for the delay in treating the sleepers with zinc sulfate, the track laying would have started long ago. ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "How can sleepers be delayed for so much time? ”

"The main thing is to make way for Yangchang to deal with the line pole, and their amount is too large. We can't help it, so we'll build another zinc sulfate treatment tank. But this time it's soon. Lu Bingyi explained.

Zhang Zhimu knew that Lu Bingyi, Lu Qi, and Liu Bensheng came here to find him this time, and they were still talking about the design plan of the Yaogang Hotel.

Zhang Zhimu personally checked the design of several large buildings in Yaogang. Yaogang Library and a museum, Zhang Zhimu saw the design they were engaged in, and after making a little suggestion, it was approved. That gave the zero longitude sign memorial tower, and the modification was also passed. The design of the Yaogang office building was approved after two revisions. It was this Yaogang Hotel that Zhang Zhimu completely denied the first design. The original guesthouse was designed with five floors. The hotel proposed by Zhang Zhimu is 11 floors above ground and 2 floors underground. The requirements are that the first and second floors are restaurants and conference rooms, and the third to tenth floors are guest rooms. There are rooms on each floor from three to eight floors, with twenty standard rooms and five suites. On the ninth and tenth floors, there are fifteen standard rooms and five large suites. The eleventh floor is a circular sightseeing restaurant. There are two elevators opposite the lobby and one at each end of the building. The entire building was to be made of cement for a frame structure. The steps of the building are made of white marble. The floor inside the hall is covered with polished marble slabs. The entire building has staircases and corridors with terrazzo floors. The restaurants on the first and second floors are decorated with floor-to-ceiling glass. The entrance to the hotel is a revolving glass door. In addition to the bathroom, there are also hot and cold air conditioners, electric lights, telephones, and hot and cold water 24 hours a day. These are the best conditions of this era.

Lu Bingyi was a little puzzled by Zhang Zhimu's high requirements. Zhang Zhimu said: "Mr. Lu, we are not just building a hotel, but through the hotel, our technical achievements are fully displayed. Let everyone realize that the development of science and technology is closely related to our lives, and will greatly improve our lives. These are still the beginning, and in the future, Yangchang will have their audio equipment done, and we will also play background music in the hotel. ”

Lu Bingyi didn't know what background music was, but he didn't ask, because with experience, Zhang Zhimu would soon come up with background music for him to listen to.

This time, Liu Bensheng and Lu Qi completely revised the design in accordance with Zhang Zhimu's requirements. In the past, they opposed designs that violated the construction law, but it was not easy for Zhang Zhimu to make them accept his ideas. However, Zhang Zhimu feels that some of the things they insist on may be right, such as the things they think are in line with Feng Shui, which are often very comfortable to look at. At this point, Zhang Zhimu had already learned it when they were designing the kiln gang college.

Lu Bingyi saw that Zhang Zhimu finally passed the design of the hotel, and joked: "If Mr. Zhang doesn't pass this design today, I think Liu Bensheng and Lu Qi should throw themselves into the river." ”

After everyone laughed for a while, Lu Bingyi said: "Mr. Zhang, the place you chose is on the west bank of the Xiaoling River, it is a high place, his advantage is that he can stand high and see far, but it is a dirt mountain, we dig a deep basement, and we may not be able to dig to the bottom of the stone. ”

In fact, Zhang Zhimu doesn't understand what kind of foundation is needed for this tall building. But he knew that stability was only possible at the bottom of the stone, but without the bottom of the stone, he could not afford not to build. He suddenly thought that when the building was built in the past, some of the hugs were directly driven into piles. If the building is dug out of two basement floors, the foundation will be stable if the pile is driven.

Zhang Zhimu said to Li Yunhe: "Yunhe, I'll give you another task." You build a pile driver, after the foundation of our building is dug, you can use the pile driver to lay more piles in the ground, so that the top is poured with cement, and the foundation is much more stable. ”

Then, Zhang Zhimu introduced them to prefabricated cement piles and pile drivers made of reinforced cement. The pile driver is composed of a pile hammer, a pile frame and ancillary equipment. The pile hammer is attached to the two parallel vertical guide rods in front of the pile frame, also called the gantry, and is hoisted with a lifting hook. The pile frame is a steel structure tower, and a winch is provided at its rear to lift the pile and the pile hammer. There is a guide frame composed of two guide rods in front of the pile frame to control the direction of piling. Zhang Zhimu asked Li Yunhe to make a simple heavy hammer pile driver first. The pile hammer of this pile driver is a steel weight, which is lifted by the winch with a hook, and after being unhooked, it falls freely along the guide frame and drives the pile.

After listening to this, Li Yunhe said: "It's like nailing a big nail." ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "You are right, that is, set a big nail. But the nail is not made of iron, but cement. This is the simplest pile driver. In the future, you will also have to study the hammer pile driver. That is, transplant the steam hammer from your workshop to the pile driver. ”

After listening to Zhang Zhimu's introduction, Liu Bensheng said: "Mr. Zhang, if this pile driver is built, it will be great." In some places, bridges are repaired, such as bridges on small river ditches, and a few cement piles on both sides of the bank are enough to make the bridge foundation, so there is no need to excavate the earthwork and pour it with cement. ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "In the future, we can still build a larger pile driver, use steel pipes to make piles in the middle of the river, and pour cement in the middle of the steel pipes to make bridge piers." ”

"It seems that I have to divide a few people to build a pile driver again, and this pile driver will never be finished." Li Yunhe said.

Zhang Zhimu said: "Yunhe, you don't have to divide it so carefully now. You can separate some people and specialize in construction machinery and all kinds of tools. ”

Zhang Zhimu finally passed the design of the hotel, and Lu Bingyi happily took Liu Bensheng and Lu Qi away.

Zhang Zhimu said to Li Yunhe: "Let's go, follow me to see how Yangchang and their busy work is recently." ”

On the way, Li Yunhe said: "Li Wei, this guy, as soon as he heard that there was a battle, he didn't care about anything. Before the firing table of our infantry guns was finished, he went to the ship with the guns. ”

"You don't have to worry about setting up the watch. The production is the production. When Li Wei finishes the shooting table for you, you can just hand over the cannon to the troops. Didn't Fan Chengkun send someone to learn direct-fire infantry artillery? What about their people? Zhang Zhimu asked.

"Hey! Don't say it, they all followed Li Wei and they left. Li Yunhe said.

"Good! Let them exercise in real combat! Better than studying here. Zhang Zhimu said.

Quickly entering the Yangchang laboratory, Li Yunhe stopped and said to Zhang Zhimu: "Mr. Zhang, we have made a kind of thing, and we feel scary when we try it!" ”

Zhang Zhimu was stunned, he didn't know what Li Yunhe was talking about, which could make Li Yunhe so mysterious, and asked, "What else can you scare me?" ”

Li Yunhe said: "Last time, you asked me to make a semi-automatic strideball rifle made with an extended heavy machine gun barrel. What do you say? ”

"Tell me about it!" Zhang Zhimu looked at Li Yunhe's somewhat smug face and said.

"We used special bullets, paired with Sun Liang's specially improved scope. Hit a humanoid target at a distance of 1,000 meters, and hit every shot. Do you think it's scary? The so-called gun kings we picked out before are simply not worth mentioning. Li Yunhe said.

Zhang Zhimu said: "You must keep this kind of gun secret first. Did you guys get it? ”

"I'm working on it, but it's not very good. Let's change it again. Li Yunhe said.

Zhang Zhimu said: "Your kind of sniper rifle must be easy to disassemble and carry. In the future, we can send people deep behind enemy lines to carry out the task of killing the enemy from a distance. Your gunners also have to get all kinds of wind speed corrections. In the future, I will select some shooters for training. With this kind of gun, a good shooter still has to shoot accurately. ”

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The Song and Yuan armies went to war in Japan. The Mongols annexed Western Europe and moved on to Africa. --Progress of "Memories of the Southern Song Dynasty".