Qi Wangping spent less than a week in Daxing. During the period, in addition to listening to the work report of the government as usual, he also had a conversation with Sun Zhengyi, the current head of Sun Chunyang South Goods Store, who came here to inspect the place, and encouraged the other party very much.

Sun Chunyang South Stores, a small business that originated in Suzhou, has become different from the past after entering Ningbo and then developing on the East Coast, as evidenced by the total number of about 20 stores distributed throughout the country and overseas colonies on the East Coast. In this large syndicate company, although the Sun family's shares have been repeatedly diluted after several rounds of capital increases and share expansions, they have been stable between %-% for so many years, and the right to speak is still not small. In addition, most of the investors are state-owned department stores, East Coast companies, Taiwan banks and some enterprises founded by traversers, and they are really not very interested in actually controlling and operating Sun Chunyang's South Store, so at present, this company is still under the actual control of the Sun family, and the expansion and development strategy of the enterprise is also formulated by the Sun family.

Compared with the state-owned department stores (which have branches in almost every county), the leader of the department store industry, Sun Chunyang South Freight Store is smaller in scale and has higher financing costs, so in order to compete, with the approval of the Ministry of Communications, they set up a shipping company of their own, called Sun Chunyang Transportation Company, which currently has about the appearance of a ship, although it looks relatively old, but it is also the leader among the private owners in the ocean shipping industry, which cannot be underestimated.

Qi Wangping knew that the Sun family's ships mainly took the Pacific route, and so far there are only two shipping companies on this route, and the others are some retail captains, which are not on a large scale. As a result, even the War Department sometimes asked Sun Chunyang Transport Company's ships to piggyback on cargo, especially after the ships of the Navy's Third Fleet had already departed.

The Sun family is naturally very happy about this kind of official entrusted transportation task, this is because the freight price they give is good, and the second also shows the official recognition of their fleet. After all, the circular route in the South Pacific, which is known for its strong winds and waves, is indeed a great test of the performance of the ships and the skills of the sailors.

Qi Wangping had a conversation with Sun Zhengyi, and learned that the Sun family's fleet had established solid ties with the East Coast Korean Company, the East Coast Japanese Company, the Bank of Taiwan, and local merchants in Denglai and Ningbo, and that the fleet was engaged in super-large-scale triangular trade between Chinese mainland, Australia (including Rabaul) and the East Coast mainland. He even said with some self-deprecation that he was afraid of the extremely high wreck rate of the voyage, and that he did not even have the courage to sail to South Africa, let alone cross half the world to the Far East, so he was very appreciative of the Sun family who opened up the South Pacific route, and if they had any financing needs, he could ask the United Industrial Credit Bank or the Northwest Reclamation Bank to give them a certain degree of support.

Son was a little pleased with this, because he had planned to collect some of the accounts from the branches in various places and scrape together 100,000 yuan to order a few new ships to replace those old goods, but now it seems that things may be much simpler, because with the support of Chairman Qi Da, several state-owned banks will have to grit their teeth and lend loans even if they are nervous.

However, Qi Wangping did not help people in vain, he also asked the company to develop its business in the Caribbean, especially Huaiyuan Island, Port Mobile, and the North American Free State controlled by the East Coast, and at the same time open up fixed routes from the mainland to those places. It doesn't need more, the size of one ship a year is enough to supplement the lack of the country's maritime transportation force, and Son also responded to this, saying that he would hold a board meeting after returning to discuss the actual operation.

After "grinding his teeth" with Sun Zhengyi in Daxing Port, Qi Wangping also called his own special train to return the same way, and after arriving in the capital, he spent some time dealing with some government affairs and attending some meetings, and then took a car to the north again, and changed to an inland river transport ship in Meilin Port, entered the Lianghu Canal through Milin Lake, and then crossed the vast Duck Lake, and finally arrived in Ping'an County, an important town in the north.

It must be mentioned here that the excavation of a waterway suitable for large sea ships (with a draft of more than rice) in the Duck Lake has been an important task of the East Coast government for many years. For this reason, the Ministry of Communications has sent more than one steam dredger to the lake to desilt the bottom of the lake all year round, which is expensive. It's a pity that their efforts have not yet fully borne fruit, and the deep-water channel on the east side of the lake (Duck Lake is shallow in the west and deep in the east) has not yet been fully opened.

Therefore, Qi Wangping and others still arrived at Ping'an Port on an inland river vessel with a shallow draft this time. Here, they just chatted with the local officials for a while, and then went directly to the Institute of Chemistry of the Academy of Natural Sciences in the suburbs, and next door to the Institute of Chemistry is the famous North Chemical Plant, a chemical trust enterprise that has been developed for more than ten years by the merger of the former First Chemical Industry and North Alkali Production.

The street car of the Ping'an Street Car Company sent them to the Institute of Chemistry of the Academy of Natural Sciences, but because the person they were looking for was not there, they went to the North Chemical Factory next door and found Liu Xuefei and Weng Guangan, the directors and deputy directors of the factory. It is said that since the death of the old factory director, traverser Song Qiang, Wu Jun and others one after another, it has now become increasingly revealing that the giant northern chemical plant is led by two young people.

In addition to being responsible for the day-to-day management of workers, the two also focus on the division of labor. Among them, Liu Xuefei is mainly responsible for the plant's new industry - or more accurately the future industry - that is, the original version of the chlor-alkali chemical industry on the east coast, while Weng Guangan is responsible for the operation and management of the old production line (mainly three acids and two alkalis), and of course he will occasionally do some research himself.

Located in the western suburbs of Ping'an County, the North Chemical Plant has its own exclusive wharf and small railway, and the transportation is relatively convenient. In fact, if it was placed 20 years ago, the factory was not as beautiful as it is now, but now it has begun to be transferred, and the reason is that in the past ten years, they have produced more than 350,000 yuan in turnover including bleaching powder, liquid bleach, chlorine (used to bleach cotton cloth and paper, which is in great demand), chlorate (dye factory is in great demand, used as a strong oxidant), and calcium chlorate has a huge market demand, bringing back more than 350,000 yuan of turnover every year, which is very amazing.

What's even more amazing is that these things are made from the by-products of their alkali production line. For example, a large amount of hydrochloric acid, a by-product of the alkali production process in Lüblan, used to be used for a narrow purpose on the east coast, and was once used to flush public toilets, but now no one spoils things so much, because the northern chemical factory brought a large amount of pyromanganese ore from Tieling County, and then reacted with hydrochloric acid to produce chlorine, chlorine water, bleaching powder and other things, so that almost all textile mills, paper mills and water supply companies became their customers.

In addition, calcium chlorate has also become one of the main production raw materials of Yazihu Match Factory; Waste residue calcium sulfide has also been fully utilized, and the people of the East Coast have tried their best to design a new production line, turning calcium sulfide into hydrogen sulfide through a series of reactions, and then oxidizing to obtain solid sulfur, which produces tens of thousands of yuan of benefits every year.

These gains, combined with the benefits of traditional sulfuric acid, hydrochloric acid, soda ash, caustic soda, and nitric acid (the latter two are in small demand, and the production scale is mainly semi-laboratory and semi-factory production), has made the northern chemical plant a large enterprise in the country. The annual turnover and profit in the industrial field almost directly catch up with Ping An Iron and Steel Plant, Tieling Special Steel Plant, Southern Vehicle Factory, Ping An Weaving Factory, Machine Textile Factory and two arsenals, and the first heavy machinery factory, the second heavy machinery factory, Tieling boiler factory, several shipyards, dye factories and other backbone enterprises are left behind, the development speed can be described as jaw-dropping.

As the president of the country, Qi Wangping is also very concerned about the development of chemical plants in the north, knowing the whole process of their rocket-like rise in the past ten years, it is still a blessing for the leapfrog development of the chemical industry. It can be said that without the explosive market demand for chemical products in the East Coast Republic, the northern chemical plant would not have been able to get to where it is today. And this also proves from the side that the next century is the century of the chemical industry, the country has focused on the machinery and metal materials industry investment for many years seems to be biased (in recent years has improved a lot, the chemical industry has received a sharp increase in investment), although everything must be market-oriented, but the government should have a stronger forward-looking, especially the long-term stable system on the east coast, the government should not blindly follow the market demand, but to jump to a higher height, in advance to invest in some industries that seem to be unprofitable, Of course, the premise of all this is to master the goodness.

"I heard that Xue Fei, you are not very interested in the chlor-alkali industry that you have perfected now, and most of your energy is invested in the dye industry. If you do this, I'm afraid you won't be scolded by the people in the factory for not doing your job. Sitting in the luxuriously decorated factory director's office, Qi Wangping said with a smile while drinking the yerba mate tea brewed by Liu Xuefei himself.

"Who of them dares!" Liu Xuefei, who is known as the director of the strong woman factory, directly widened her eyes when she heard this, and said with a full personality: "Chairman, don't talk nonsense about him." Although I can't say that I built this factory, but I have no credit and hard work for so many years, and the by-product pollution of the chlor-alkali industry, which was originally caused by the anger of the people, is what I solved and created benefits with one hand, who dares to grin in front of me, I will directly spat him in the face. Besides, I still have the position of deputy director of the Institute of Chemistry of the Academy of Natural Sciences, isn't it my job to study dye chemicals, and dyes are so profitable, the market is not even smaller than the few existing fist products in the factory, what else is there to say? ”

Liu Xuefei is the daughter of former President Liu Weimin, everyone knows each other very well, Qi Wangping hugged her when she was a child, so the two spoke more easily and casually. I only heard Qi Wangping continue to ask with a smile: "But I also heard that you handed over the industrial preparation of some important dyes to your subordinates for research, and you are doing what diazotization reaction and sulfonation reaction are you doing, is there such a thing?" Didn't you focus on the application of industrial technology in the past, and you were determined to build an aniline production line? ”

"It's not because we haven't received scientific research funding that we can't do half of the experiment. The old director of the antique director of the Institute of Chemistry approved a pitiful amount of funds, but asked me to focus on what sulfonation reaction to study, and what dyes with bactericidal effect, isn't it whimsical? Or, Chairman Qi and Uncle Qi, you can help me remove the old and confused director of the Institute of Chemistry and let me be the director? If it really doesn't work, it's not bad to let Weng Guangan be it, although I don't think he can do it very well. Liu Xuefei said in a helpless tone, and he was quite dissatisfied with the collapse of his "Dye Queen" career in the middle of his words.

"That's why." Qi Wangping groaned a little when he heard this, but he seemed to think it through quickly, only to hear him straighten his face, and said to Liu Xuefei: "Xuefei, after hearing you say this, I want to support your old director." In fact, he did the right thing, the study of sulfonation reactions is a very serious subject, worthy of the highest level of scientific funding, so you should stop complaining about anything, but continue to devote yourself to this work with full enthusiasm, even if it seems clueless and looking for a needle in a haystack. Don't ask why, in fact, I don't know much about these technical things, I only know that there are indeed some dyes that have bactericidal effects, whether it is madder, indigo, safflower and other native plant dyes in nature or some dyes artificially created in our industrial production, all of which have an inhibitory effect on bacteria. Since your director has determined that the dye prepared by sulfonation reaction has a strong bactericidal ability, then you have to implement it to the letter, and don't be emotional, because this is also a decision made by your superiors, do you understand? ”

"Although I don't see how valuable the sulfonation reaction is in medical and health research, but since this is a decision of the superiors, I think I will abide by it. Taking 10,000 steps back, sulfonation reaction is also an important way to prepare dyes, and I have also discovered a lot of interesting new dyes in recent years, of course, I have not found any good bactericidal effect for the time being, which is what the liaison officer of the Ministry of Health told me. Liu Xuefei spread his hands and said helplessly, and obviously not completely relieved between the words.

"Keep intensifying your research and don't let up. In this matter, I will say hello and let the Ministry of Science and Technology give you more funds and personnel, anyway, to create the best working conditions for you, and hope to produce results, but I don't think I will see it in my lifetime. Qi Wangping finally said.