The route of Hu Zhen, the emperor of the Chinese Empire, on his southern tour was not to take the train south to Guangzhou directly, because the allied fleet was still grinding in the Suez Canal at the moment, and there was still enough time, so Hu Zhen ordered to take the train to the port of Tanggu in Tianjin to board the ship and leave the Bohai Sea. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

Hu Zhen wanted to take a boat to inspect the area around Lushun, Dalian, which was the heavy industry base and shipbuilding base in the northern part of the Chinese Empire, and in case of any accident in the naval battle in the South China Sea, the area around Lushun in Dalian would be very important.

Although Hu Zhen was very confident in defeating the coalition fleet, in order to be prepared, he still decided to strengthen the construction of the Dalian Lushun area, and he had to personally inspect it once before he could rest assured.

There were already three cruisers waiting in Tanggu, namely the Qilong, the Qixing, and the Qiming, and as soon as Hu Zhen boarded the ship, he immediately set off and arrived at the Lushun Military Port after a day's walk.

When the battleship approached the wharf, he saw that the perimeter of the wharf was full of ant-like engineers who were rushing to work, Hu Zhen used a telescope to look, and saw that in addition to the migrant workers, a large part of the construction workers were prisoners of Oros, who were being escorted by the soldiers of the Huaxia Army with loaded guns and ammunition to carry out the construction, all of them were doing those hard and tiring heavy work, and some of the movements were slow, and they were immediately whipped by the supervisors.

According to the orders of the Chinese Empire, these captives must serve hard labor for more than five years before they have the opportunity to be redeemed by their families, and they do not have a penny of wages except for being fed and filled every day.

In the wars with the Netherlands, Spain, the United States, the Oros, and the Japanese States, in addition to not allowing the Japanese to take prisoners, the Chinese army captured a large number of prisoners from various countries, once reaching the order of one million.

These sturdy military captives are a very high-quality labor force, a group of labor forces that do not need wages, and if they are not used, they will be used in vain.

On the dock, almost all local officials had gathered, waiting for Hu Zhen's ship to dock.

When Hu Zhen appeared on the pier trestle, all the people on the pier knelt down and said "Long live, long live, long live.

"Alright, let's all be excused!" After becoming the emperor, Hu Zhen faced the kneeling of the ministers, and felt that the emperor's prestige was really good, but after a long time, he was also a little annoyed and a little helpless.

Hu Zhen found that Zhang Zhidong, the Minister of Industry, was in the crowd, so he beckoned him to come over: "Zhang Aiqing, when are you coming!" ”

"Your Majesty, this place is related to the safety of the northern sea frontier of the empire, the minister must come to see it to rest assured, the minister has been here for five days!"

"Okay, you lead the way, take me to see the steel mill, shipyard, arsenal, train locomotive factory, automobile factory and other key projects!"

Zhang Zhidong, of course, was very happy to lead the way, and he asked Hu Zhen to board the car to inspect the steel factory, the arsenal, the locomotive factory, and the automobile factory.

Along the way, Hu Zhen watched while Zhou Zhang Zhidong introduced the progress of the project like a few treasures:

“…… The design production capacity of the steel plant is 600,000 tons of steel per year, which is one of the largest steel plants in the Chinese Empire, the construction is completed in three phases, the first phase of production capacity is 120,000 tons, the second phase of production capacity is 180,000 tons, and the third phase of production capacity is 300,000 tons.

There is also a new renovation plan that will double the output of the Dalian steel plant to 1.2 million tons per year......

The most comforting thing is that the construction and production technicians of the Dalian Iron and Steel Plant are all Chinese trained in Nanyang, and there is not a single white ...... from Europe or the United States."

Hu Zhen knew that the steel plant founded by Zhang Zhidong in Hanyang begged his grandfather and grandmother everywhere to raise enough funds to start construction, but more than ten years later, when the Xinhai Revolution broke out, the annual pig iron output of Hanyang Iron and Steel Plant was 80,000 tons, and the steel output of Hanyang Iron and Steel Plant was only 60,000 tons, and the Dalian Iron and Steel Plant easily exceeded 120,000 tons of annual output in the first phase, and the future output can reach 1.2 million tons in five years.

And more importantly, Dalian is not the only steel plant in the Chinese Empire, there are four regions in the country, such as Chengdu, Baotou, Fanzhihua, Hanyang, etc., steel plants are being built, and the Chinese Empire has a steel industry, and the industry has a foundation for further development.

However, Lao Zhang has his own views on this industrial construction plan that has been formulated, he said: "Your Majesty, according to the ministers, the location of this steel plant in Dalian Lushun is not the best!" ”

"Ahh Why is that? ”

"It is better to build a steel plant in Anshan or a nearby place where iron ore needs to be transported from Anshan or beyond, which increases a lot of costs, so it is better to build a steel plant directly in Anshan or a place near the iron ore, and this place is easily bombarded by enemy naval fire, which is very unsafe and not the best address. Another factor, such as building industry in more regions, can promote economic development in more regions. ”

In another time and space, when Lao Zhang was building the Hanyang Iron and Steel Plant, he had no choice but to build the steel plant in his jurisdiction, but in this time and space, he was the Minister of Industry in charge of industry in the country, of course, he did not have this kind of thinking and helplessness, and everything was based on the pros and cons of industrial construction, so even the actions were different.

Hu Zhen nodded with great satisfaction: "At that time, the factory was built in Dalian Lushun, considering that there were no good railway or shipping conditions in other places, to undertake the industrial equipment transported from Nanyang, but also worried about the interference of European powers, so the industry was built in the area near the wharf as quickly as possible.

Your suggestion is very good, please conduct a detailed investigation with colleagues from the Ministry of Industry, and start from a comprehensive comparison of pros and cons to re-carry out the national industrial planning! ”

"Yes, the emperor, the minister must do a good job in industrial construction planning!" After Zhang Zhidong received the authorization, he was very happy.

Next, Zhang Zhidong took Hu Zhen to inspect the arsenal, which has been fully put into production, and is now able to produce a series of weapons and ammunition such as rifles, light and heavy machine guns, submachine guns, small and medium-caliber artillery, bullets, and artillery shells, which can meet the ammunition needs of 100,000 combat troops, and if the second phase of the project is completed, it can meet the combat needs of 300,000 troops.

Hu Zhen walked to the production line of the workshop, carefully looked at the production situation, and personally checked the data of the weapons and ammunition produced to confirm that there were no falsehoods, and then expressed his great satisfaction with the construction progress of the arsenal.

But the next thing to do is to inspect the locomotive factory, automobile factory and other factories, and the groundbreaking ceremony has just been held, and even the construction of the factory building has begun.

Hu Zhen thought of Zhang Zhidong's suggestion just now, so he said to Zhang Zhidong: "These two factories are not urgently needed for national security now, so let's take advantage of the fact that the construction has not yet begun, and according to the new national industrial construction plan that your Ministry of Industry is about to formulate, move to Shenyang or Changchun or other cities, don't crowd them all in Dalian!" ”

"Good! The minister must obey the order! ”

The last thing to inspect was the shipyard that Hu Zhen valued the most, and when he arrived at the place, he saw that ten docks had been completed, and two of the docks had already formed two warships.

Zhang Zhidong took the lead as Hu Zhen's commentator: "Your Majesty, ten docks of Lushun Shipyard have been completed, of which four are below 5,000 tons, four are 5,000 to 10,000 tons, two are 10,000 to 20,000 tons, and now there are six large docks under construction. ”

Seeing Hu Zhen engrossed in watching the prototype of the two battleships on the dock, Zhang Zhidong continued: "Those two battleships are our armored cruisers, with a full load displacement of 7,500 tons and three 210-mm main guns. ”

In fact, there is no need for Zhang Zhidong to explain, Hu Zhen is very clear about the data of the cruisers produced by Lushun Shipyard, and he is very happy to hear Zhang Zhidong's explanation at this moment: "Okay, I look forward to the battleships produced by Lushun being put into service as soon as possible!" ”

"Your Majesty, after the Lushun Shipyard plans for fifteen, it will place keels for two 20,000-ton battleships, with this world-leading super battleship, the Chinese Empire is no longer afraid of any European combined fleet!

Can the emperor wait a few more days to personally preside over the keel placement ceremony of the super battleship? ”

Hu Zhen shook his head: "There is no time left, I have gone all the way south, although the European United Fleet is still wandering in the Red Sea, and I am not in a hurry yet, but there are many places I want to inspect, this super battleship keel placement ceremony, you will do it on my behalf!" (To be continued.) )