[Gap North Africa trip 2, please see the official account! ] If you don't watch it, it doesn't affect the plot. 】

From October 1925 to July 1926, a total of nearly 9 months, the overall construction of North Africa is still very amazing, the dredging project of the two ports of Tripoli and Benghazi has been completed by 20%, the settlement has broken through 60,000 people in one breath, the latest batch is still under construction, it is expected to reach the standard of 80,000 people by September, plus the repair and renovation of houses in its own two ports, Libya has increased the standard of accommodating 100,000 people. Of course, not all of the projects were built by the United Group, and the army also sent engineers to carry out some repairs, but on the whole the army occupied a small proportion.

In addition to houses, more than 120 kilometers of pipelines have been laid, and the repair of railways and coastal roads is in full swing, and now the whole of Libya has become a mega construction site.

"According to the plan, by the end of this year, the construction of residential facilities and other corresponding supporting facilities for a population of 200,000 will be completed." In charge of coordinating the North Africa project was Dr. Toth, who had tanned skin in Libya and had lost a lot of weight, but he looked energetic. Contini received monthly briefings on the progress of the project, and it is said that he also formulated various management norms in Libya according to his requirements, and was in charge of civil affairs and projects, keeping him busy.

If Contini had been here a few months ago, Toth might not have been able to find time to accompany him on the expedition, but now he is much more relaxed.

"What's the difficulty? I mean, apart from the security issues, what are the other issues? ”

"There is no big problem in terms of security, the oil guards have set up defensive formations near the two ports, it is impossible to break through with the little strength of the tribal forces, and we have a large number of motorcycles and planes, and we react quickly, in order to prevent the failure of law and order caused by poor lighting at night, we have established a gas street lighting system, and where the residential areas are built, the street lights will be buried......" Toth smiled, "This set of obsolete things is actually shining in Libya again, it is incredible!" The Chinese also use this pipeline for gas use, which is also very creative. ”

"I see, you're doing a great job."

"Now the oil guards are still trying to adapt to the weather and environment in Libya...... The weather was getting hotter, and they didn't think it was appropriate to wear a black uniform. ”

Contini nodded: "They have been customized with the same earthy yellow summer military uniform as the army, and it should be on the way now, and it will arrive in 1 week at most." ”

"That's good......," said Thoth, "and now we are facing several problems, first, there are not enough transport vehicles. All our materials are imported from the outside world to the two ports to go ashore, to transport to the front line of the construction site and the place of residence requires a large number of cars, as the construction distance is getting farther and farther, the round-trip distance and time are lengthened, the single-day delivery capacity begins to decline, and the worst thing is that as the weather gets hotter, the driver also begins to have a shortage - in such a hot weather, the driver's physical exertion is very large, can only be rotated, and ......"

Contini nodded: it is impossible to bring in drivers from Italy, most of those who are willing to come to work have already come, and those who are not willing to come to Libya to see the sand are still unwilling to come even if they raise their salaries - the money should not be given too much, otherwise it will cause an imbalance in the company's salary structure.

"So, I'll give you an idea...... Contini pointed to the Chinese laborers working on the construction site outside, "there are a large number of Chinese laborers here, and you can train them to become drivers, especially young Chinese lads who have studied and have learned a few words of Italian." ”

"Your Excellency, is this really good? The driver is a technical job after all, in case ......"

Contini spread his hands: "Now we are short of such personnel, why don't we let them be on top?" You don't look down on the Chinese, the Chinese can also be drivers - there were Chinese workers in France at that time. ”

"I don't mean that, in fact I don't discriminate against the Chinese, although the Chinese are a little ignorant and a little timid, but they still work very hard - I think they work harder than the Italian workers!" I'm worried about whether they'll go back to Italy and compete for jobs when they learn this skill, because when they have the skills and they learn the Italian language, plus they have to work hard, you know, it's going to be very competitive, and I'm afraid it will have a bad impact on you – jobs are a top priority for any party. ”

"No!" "My construction cycle in North Africa will be long-term, not 3-5 years, not 7-8 years, it will probably last 20 years!" We have enough capacity to accommodate their employment without clash with the Italian mainland. ”

While saying a word, Contini suddenly thought: Why can't Chinese who know Italian be recruited to fight in North Africa in the future? Without them going to war, helping to transport military supplies can greatly relieve the pressure on the logistics troops! Yes, that's a good way to go!

"We can run a training course and select hundreds of young Chinese people to learn to drive, free of charge, and double their salaries after graduation!" Contini smiled, "Other ideas are also the same, those basic technical positions that are easy to learn and have gaps can train Chinese to the top - after all, the conditions in Libya are too poor, and there are too few people willing to work here, so I don't want to hide from you, I also plan to hire a group of Chinese to be oil field workers in the future." As for going to Italy to compete for jobs? This kind of thing cannot happen, we are a fascist country, we will carry out serious management, who dares not to obey the command to hire Chinese in the country, President Ben will punish him for bankruptcy! Not to mention ordinary enterprises, even if Fiat dares to do this, you are not welcome, I will not agree to the first one! Besides, these workers had signed a supplementary clause with the United Group that they could not work for companies outside the United Group, otherwise they would be compensated $1,000 each! I can't win all the lawsuits! ”

Toth gave a thumbs up: The president is famous for his love of lawsuits!

The problem of people is solved, the problem of cars is easy to handle, although the Italian United General Motors has not been officially put into production, but a large number of parts have been shipped in assembly, Contini has a big stroke of the pen, mobilizing 500 vehicles, not stable enough to buy Germany or the United States - he doesn't care about the cost, he just needs the progress.

"The second problem is material consumption. Libya has nothing but sand and oil, and it is difficult to get even water, all the grain, meat, and water have to be transported, and transportation is a little difficult, especially in remote areas, where there are no pipelines, and it is a hassle to transport water. ”

"Doctor, I have good news for you! The joint lab has innovated three plastics, one of which we used as a bucket – lightweight, impermeable and reusable, and we used it to make standard buckets of 5 and 20 liters that can be reused. ”

The so-called three plastic innovations in Contini's mouth are actually two knockoffs: the first is phenolic plastic, which was invented in the United States 20 years ago, and this year, just as the patent protection expired, United Plastics began mass production, the most typical is the shell of the United Radio; The second is aniline formaldehyde plastic, the invention was 6 years ago, although it is still in the patent protection period, but this is difficult for the president, he let the experts add a little messy material to become a new product, now mainly used in cables, insulation performance is very good; The third is PVC plastic, as early as 1912, the German chemist Colette has invented PVC and applied for a patent, but until the patent expired in 1925, Colette failed to figure out what to use for PVC, but in the joint laboratory, chemists from all walks of life use high boiling point solvents and trimethylphenol phosphate to heat and mix with PVC, which can be processed into soft PVC products, which is not a cottage but an improvement, Contini called it white plastic.

White plastic was soon used in United Properties, where they used PVC pipes in large quantities – plumbing, sewers, all white. Because the PVC pipe is easy to bend, the connection is also convenient, and there will be no rust water residue in the pipe, it is promoted by United Real Estate as a high-end product like aluminum alloy doors and windows. Now there are three criteria to distinguish high-end communities: first, whether the doors and windows are bright or not - aluminum alloy is very bright; Second, the water pipes are not white - the white ones are high-end goods like PVC, and the black ones are backward goods like cast iron pipes or galvanized pipes; Third, is there a telephone line in the unit?

United Film Company also created momentum for this kind of plot: whenever there is a high-end community in the shot, these prominent places must be filmed, so the movies of that time often saw the heroine to close the shiny aluminum alloy window, or must run out to answer the phone, this routine is taught by the president himself - called product placement soft advertising. That's what the little bourgeois of Italy eat!

What's more, the United Group also refused to sell these materials separately under the pretext of insufficient supply, which is only available in the community and the leader new village developed by United Real Estate itself, which makes everyone who buys a house have a sense of pride and is willing to contribute a premium to United Real Estate's residences - the president's fashionable phrase is called brand premium.

These routines were later the classic views of Italian management and marketing textbooks, and every footnote and example was a joint group, and it was not unfounded for later generations to tout Contini as a master of management and marketing. How did they know that His Excellency the President had stolen all this bit of goods from the afterlife, and what they didn't expect was that the President would actually introduce a large number of this high-grade white plastic water transportation in North Africa, where birds don't.

Of course, the use of plastic to transport water is not only to solve the current supply difficulties, Contini also has factors to consider for the future desert war: how to quickly form standardized, storable, impermeable, non-spoiled, small packaging, light and low-cost water tank materials, he has been trying to figure out for a long time, and now he is finally willing to take them out and use them.

If it is used well, he is also going to promote the packaged mineral water in small bottles, and if the advertising is a little better, it can be sold as a high-end product - is the person who buys it drinking water? People drink that mood and different feelings! Of course, the opaque PVC grade is not enough, and other transparent and safer new colors are needed, so the joint laboratory has to work at full capacity!

Besides, if you don't engage in so much plastic, who will sell the president's oil?