88th Festival Operation Ceremony

"Brother Zhan, how many reporters are coming?"

Follow Zhan Tianyou to the Hokkien Association. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

Yang Chao immediately asked.

"One hundred and twenty-three people came, thirty reporters from Tianjin, eighty-two people from Shanghai, nine people from Guangzhou, and two from Hong Kong."

Zhan Tianyou is an engineer and is always meticulous in his data.

"All settled? Where to stay? ”

"It's all in the Shunde Hotel."

Yang Chao has all covered the board, lodging and travel expenses of the reporters, and he plans to give a red envelope of fifty taels to no one, and the reporter of the big newspaper will give one hundred taels.

However, Zhan Tianyou and these engineers couldn't live anymore, so they could only be wronged to live in the Fujian Guild Hall.

"How's the ceremony going?"

"It's done. It doesn't have to be so extravagant! ”

Zhan Tianyou couldn't figure out Yang Chao's decision to hold a groundbreaking ceremony, and spent more than 200,000 taels of silver for this groundbreaking ceremony, which was completely unnecessary.

Yang Chao smiled: "You don't understand, this road is not an ordinary railway. As I said a long time ago, he is a way to fight. At a time when the great powers are bullying and the country is in ruins, we Chinese need to breathe a sigh of relief. ”

"But at the end of the day, railways are also industries, and future operations are the focus. You should be able to handle it. ”

For these superficial work, Yang Chao believes that it is very important, but the core reality is more important.

Zhan Tianyou said: "Don't worry, my lord, we have done it, and we will never let foreigners see jokes." ”

In fact, the railway was completed in June, when Zhan Tianyou divided the construction team into four teams to work at the same time, the speed was extremely fast, and it was better than the Jiaoji Railway to Jinan, it should be said that it won the Germans, but the Germans were very unconvinced, and other foreigners also expressed their opinions, questioning the quality of China's railways, questioning the operational ability of the Chinese, saying that even if it was repaired, it would not be operated and managed.

The French later revised the Tai Railway, and when they recovered all the loans, they still refused to pay back to China, on the grounds that the Chinese could not manage it. This argument of foreigners, just like later generations saying that Chinese cannot govern Hong Kong well, is a racist prejudice that goes deep into the bone marrow.

However, China's management ability is indeed very weak, Zhan Tianyou and these people actually do not have much experience in operation, they can build railways, but they can only grope for operation and management, so from June to now, half a year has been constantly recruiting workers, training, test runs, and conducting various exercises.

Now Zhan Tianyou is confident that the railway will continue to operate well.

On the 15th, in the lobby of the Shunde Hotel, there were huge banners hanging with lights, which read: Congratulations on the smooth start of operation of the Yanji Railway, good luck!

Zhan Tianyou and more than 30 other engineers wore long robes, unable to hide a kind of joy, and stood under the banner.

Opposite them were Hua Yang remembering, and the magnesium lights were constantly flashing.

"Now it's Q&A time, please take a seat, and if you have any questions, please raise your hand."

After taking the photo, Yang Chao beckoned to sit down with the engineers.

As soon as he finished speaking, one of them raised his hand.

"I would like to ask Lord Yang, I heard that many people who died during the construction were all stepped into the railway embankment on the spot, and it is rumored that an innocent soul lies under each sleeper."

This is a French note, and a female journalist, who said it in a sympathetic tone, and seemed very sad.

Yang Chao said with a smile: "This beautiful young lady, I don't need to answer this question, but I still want to say that the person who released such rumors must have ulterior motives." There were indeed casualties on the Yanji Railway, but all casualties were counted, and we also compensated the families of the workers who unfortunately died. And do everything we can to prevent the families of the deceased from having no means of livelihood. And we've built monuments and erected them at the train stations, so if you're interested, you can check them out. What I want to say is that this railway was built by the Chinese, and China's railways, we cannot let our workers have no bones. We will not treat the Chinese workers who have contributed to them with a despicable attitude, as some countries do. ”

Obviously, Yang Chao is referring to Sang scolding Huai, scolding the Americans, the most serious anti-Chinese and the most pretentious US government in China. Under the sleepers of the Pacific Railroad in the United States, the souls of countless Chinese laborers lie in exile, and their bodies cannot even be buried in their ancestral graves. What you get, indeed, is the ingratitude of the Americans.

The female reporter took a brush and wrote, nodding her head incessantly.

"Next!"

Yang Chao shouted.

"It has always been said that the Chinese cannot solve the problem of managing the railway, and I have heard that there is basically no operational experience among your managers. I don't think this is a rational attitude on your part, and I don't think it's wise to hire a foreigner manager. In the face of science, sometimes unnecessary self-esteem is not desirable. ”

A middle-aged foreigner reporter asked.

Yang Chao motioned for Zhan Tianyou to answer.

Zhan Tianyou nodded: "I am Zhan Tianyou, the chief engineer of the Yanji Railway, I am responsible for building this railway, and I will also be responsible for operating her, as for the statement that I have no management experience, I admit that our team has not been independently responsible for railway operation affairs before." But I want to say that we didn't build a railway either, but we did, we didn't have operational experience, and we would certainly be able to manage and operate it. ”

Zhan Tianyou said it very well, Yang Chao nodded: "Next." ”

Next, a few people were Chinese reporters, and they were more concerned about the process of railway construction, the difficulties encountered, and so on.

The questions of the Chinese are much easier to answer, and Zhan Tianyou's professional answers also made the reporter very satisfied.

"Congratulations, you've done a miracle."

Another middle-aged reporter from a foreigner asked a question, and he first congratulated him politely, and then asked a professional and pointed question.

"I'm sorry, but as soon as your railway is put into operation, you will have to face competition from the Jiaoji Railway, and it is difficult for me to be optimistic about the future of this railway. And I have always believed that this railway itself is redundant, and Shandong does not need two railways. ”

This is a German note, from Qingdao, arrived early this morning.

Seeing that Zhan Tianyou was a little embarrassed, in fact, Zhan Tianyou himself had no confidence in this issue, the Jiaoji railway issue was indeed a dead knot, the Germans monopolized the minerals along the way, and almost monopolized the transportation of bulk goods.

Seeing that Zhan Tianyou didn't know how to answer, Yang Chao took it with a smile: "This question is very good." I don't think the Germans think so. Shandong, both in terms of population and land, is not much different from the Germans, and Germany's railways are the first in Europe, adding up to more than 10,000 kilometers. They have built so many railways and don't worry about the operation, and there are only two railways in the whole of Shandong, I think this gentleman's concerns are completely unnecessary. I think that not only do we not have to worry about the operation of the railway, but we also have to worry about the heavy load of the railway, and we are already planning the construction of the double line. ”

The reporter hurriedly wrote, and at the same time asked a question: "Is this your serious attitude towards building a double line?" ”

"Of course!"

Yang Chao replied quickly.

Then he said, "Next." ”

Although there were some unpleasant questions from reporters, such as some foreign reporters were unfriendly, very arrogant, etc., but at the drinking party held after the question, Yang Chao was still very friendly to chat with them, and finally these reporters commented that Yang Chao was different from ordinary Chinese, very confident and optimistic.

After the press conference, a large number of Chinese and foreign businessmen came to congratulate them, and they gave more than 10,000 taels of silver as gifts.

After Zhang Jian finished, he rushed back in the evening of the same day, but Yang Chao had to stay in Yantai for one more day, and he had to meet with two guests.

The proprietors of Dalong Machinery Factory and Fachang Machinery Factory in Shanghai, Yan Yutang and Fang Juzan.

Both men had no official background and were typical national capitalists, killed in the Red Sea of Shanghai.

Yan Yutang went to Shanghai at the age of 19, worked in a foreign bank, and later worked as a street runner in an iron factory, and last year co-opened a machine factory specializing in repairing textile machines.

Fang Juzan's qualifications are much older than Yan Yutang, in 1866 he co-founded the Fachang Machinery Factory in Shanghai, at first it was just an iron workshop, receiving some parts of the foreign dock, and soon began to use machine tools, ten years later he imitated a small steamer, and began to imitate machine tools, but these businesses have not been developed, the main business is still to help foreigners repair ships.

Yang Chao came to these two people in the hope that they could imitate looms, spinning machines and other machines, saying that as much as they imitated, Yang Chao would want as much, Zhang Jian's yarn factory had unlimited demand, and Yang Chao planned to persuade Zhang Jian to open up upstream, and combine spinning and weaving.

Although Yan Yutang's machine factory is small, it has experience in repairing textile machines, although Fang Juzan has not produced textile machines, but has more than 200 skilled workers, all of whom are skilled in the use of machine tools, which is the most valuable wealth.

Yang Chao believes that the machines of this era are not complicated, as long as there is a market, they can still imitate it, after all, more than 20 years ago, Fachang Machinery Factory has imitated the small steamer, indicating that their technical ability is there, but the quality of the product is not as good as that of foreigners and there is no market.

Yang Chao plans to create a market for them, train the machine manufacturing industry, and train a large number of skilled workers.

In Yang Chao's view, the biggest contribution of light industry is to solve the employment problem, the second is to accumulate industrial capital, and the third is to provide a market for heavy industry.

Therefore, Yang Chao is willing to undertake the products that are not good enough in the early stage of small factories like Fachang Machinery Factory, and provide them with an opportunity for trial and error and an environment for growth.

After talking with the two for a long time, both of them were very satisfied with Yang Chao's assurance and immediately signed the contract.

Yang Chao told them that he could provide them with preferential loans, and invited them to invest in the construction of a machinery factory near Dongying, specializing in the manufacture of textile machines and spinning machines, and promised that as long as the machines they imitated were not too far behind the foreigners' machines, they would buy them all, and they would buy them all at the prices of the foreigners.

After settling on these two deals, Yang Chao returned to Dongying the next day, rushing back before the opening ceremony of the yarn factory.