The large iron doors of the factory were ajar and half-closed, and from time to time there were bursts of engine roars and the screeching sound of sudden braking.

At this time, the workers of the iron factory of the industrial company stood curiously outside the factory, looking at the thing that could run without a horse-drawn carriage.

It's just a black, big-wheeled, chassis that's more than two feet above the ground, and it doesn't even have a windshield, and in a way, it's not even as good as the black carriage parked in the factory.

But that's what a car!

The first car in China, the first car built by the Chinese.

Driving the car back and forth in the factory compound, sometimes accelerating, sometimes braking, Chen Moran inspected the car that he designed and even built by himself over and over again.

From the point of view of posterity, this car is even inferior to a tractor, well! At most, it is similar to the small tractor in the countryside in later generations, but the tires of the small tractor are more advanced than him, and the tires of this car are just small steel carriage wheels, but from the perspective of this era, this car is a veritable car.

"This kind of car is like a coffin on four wheels, will anyone buy him?"

Looking at the car and the boss who was proudly trying the car, several technicians involved in the development of the car at the Li Xifa Iron Works compared them with the cars bought by the company, and these almost unsightly cars made them can't help but mutter.

As soon as he stepped on the brakes, Chen Moran shouted at the workers next to the gate!

"Open the door of the factory, I'm going out for a ride!"

As soon as the factory door opened, the black, even ugly-looking car rushed out of the gate, driving on the rammed earth street after the rain in Pudong, although the roar of the "multi-fuel" engine was a little harsh, but it would listen to Chen Moran's ears, but it was like the most beautiful music.

The hard wheels rolled the mud in the rammed earth, and occasionally when passing through the muddy puddle, the car jerked violently, splashing muddy water and rushing out of the mud puddle.

In order to test the car's passing surname Neng, seeing the construction site on the side of the road that was soaked in rain and pressed by people like a quagmire, Chen Moran almost without thinking about hitting the steering wheel, the car turned into the construction site, the original speed of more than 20 kilometers was instantaneous, the speed slowed down, and even the body was slammed to the bottom, some mud even splashed into the car, but the car was still driving there hard, adjusting the steering wheel left and right, and the black car was like the loach in the mud puddle more than a foot deepThe speed of the car is not fast, but at least it is still driving there.

The workers on the construction site who were desperately rushing to rush the progress of the project couldn't help but cast curious glances at the strange-looking mud truck, and even the captains who supervised the progress of the project forgot their duties and watched the boss drive the car slowly in the mud with a whip in their hands.

The car was driving desperately in the mud, and suddenly the body slammed into it, and the front wheels seemed to sink into a deeper mud pit.

"Tom......"

The roar of the "multi-fuel" engine echoed at the construction site, Chen Moran did not know that this was a soil pit, the car drove into it slowly, the sticky yellow mud even overflowed the wheels, entered the front of the car, and entered the car along the closed and not tightly closed door, the exhaust pipe tightened up along the rear of the car was still spewing tail smoke, and the four-cylinder multi-fuel engine was still roaring.

Li Xifa, who drove the carriage out, looked nervously at the car that was almost covered in mud in the mud puddle, his hands clenched his fists nervously, worried about the car at the same time, and worried about the safety of the boss, but the boss was very familiar with the driving of this car, although this was the first time he drove this car, maybe in the past in the boss's mind, he had driven this car countless times.

Just when Chen Moran was sweating on his forehead, the front of the car began to rise, and the front wheels, which originally seemed to be weak, were loaded on the ground, and after a while, the speed of the car increased again. This scene made the nervous Li Xifa breathe a sigh of relief, and at the same time wiped the sweat from being too nervous with his hands.

"This car...... It's time to catch up with the tractor! ”

Finally broke through the mud pit, Chen Moran grinned but laughed, and saw the broken bricks and stones piled up in front of him like a hill ready to break the roadbed, and his eyes lit up, and as soon as he hit the steering wheel, the car rushed towards the hill-like brick and stone pile.

"Be careful......

As soon as the voice was shouted, the speed of the mud-covered car decreased, and the car slowly climbed the gravel to the top, and the sight below made everyone's eyes widen, and the car drove like the mule in the rubble.

"It's definitely better than a tractor, and it should be able to catch up with the Model T!"

Driving this car, Chen Moran raised his own level a little, putting it on the same level as the Model T, although the design idea of this car is to some extent a reference to the Model T, but deliberately enhances his ability to pass in poor road conditions.

The carriage was driving in a mud puddle between the construction sites, and Chen Moran, who was driving the mud-stained car, would patrol the boundaries of Pudong along the road paved with broken masonry and cinders like a king inspecting his own territory.

This is a busy construction site, the construction site of 13 industrial companies, 136 construction sites of other companies renting land to build buildings, and the car soon drove to the construction site of the Industrial Bank Building, the most eye-catching landmark building in Lujiazui, perhaps the land of Pudong, where several steam pumping machines roaring with smoke from the chimneys continuously pumped muddy water from the foundation pit.

The 10-meter-deep lake-like pit is crowded with workers working on anti-seepage works, and the 30 steam piling rig towers with a height of more than 10 meters are the most eye-catching.

The geology of Shanghai is different from other places, the Yangtze River has been impacted into a soft foundation, which has limited the number of building floors in Shanghai, and even along the Bund, some buildings are too soft because of the foundation, and the subsidence problem occurs, and it is precisely because of this that Fang Jingyuan, who is the chief designer of Pudong architecture, will cite the experience of driving short piles on the ancient soft soil foundation of the building on the soft soil foundation of Shanghai, and the ancient high-rise tower brake is made of hardwood, and the hardwood is waterproof, and it can not rot for hundreds of years after soaking tung oil.

Fang Jingyuan chose pine according to the western method, because pine is rich in pine resin, which can well prevent the corrosion of groundwater and bacteria, and the price is relatively cheap, in Pudong ordinary pine short pile has become more than 30 meters deep, such as the Industrial Bank Building is nearly 100 meters deep, the pine wood used as a pile is soaked in tung oil for three months according to the traditional process, and finally soaked in asphalt.

The Industrial Bank Building uses five groups of 100-meter-deep piles, as many as more than 100 groups, and is also supplemented by the newly invented and unverified nearly 100 groups of reinforced concrete in-situ piles, which may be the most time-consuming and basic project in the Industrial Bank Building project.

But even so, Shanghai's soft foundation allowed Chinese and foreign architects involved in the architectural design of Pudong to develop a new system of thin steel plate tower pits, so as to avoid the problem of subsidence after the completion of the building.

Standing in the car, he first glanced at the construction site of the Industrial Bank Building, and then glanced at the Huangpu Bridge that had already started, and looked at the workers who were as small as ants desperately rushing to catch up with the progress of the project.

"This is my city, and I am the king here!"

I am the kingdom here!

Although he thought so in his heart, standing on this simple car, Chen Moran knew that his real kingdom might not be the land of Pudong, but ...... With a flick of his lips, he restarted the car, reversed, and drove in the other direction.

Originally, it took half an hour to reach the place by horse-drawn carriage, but now it only takes ten minutes to drive along the rammed earth and gravel road, and this car has a speed of only 24 horsepower, and according to Chen Moran's estimate, it can reach a speed of at least 60 kilometers per hour. The car stopped in front of the same construction site, this is Chen Moran's real kingdom, if the Industrial Bank Building will be the heart and brain of this kingdom in the future, then this is the real torso.

"It's just here to replenish calcium!"

Saying this, Chen Moran was happy. The place in front of us, which covers an area of 1,200 acres along the Huangpu River, is the future automobile city, China, no! It is the first large-scale automobile city in the whole of the world.

In order to build this automobile city, he didn't even use Fang Jingyuan, the "royal architect", but invited the famous industrial architect Albert from the United States? Cohen, who was responsible for the design of the automotive company's plant. Cohen used the most advanced reinforced concrete building technology in the design of the new plant, and at the same time used a large amount of glass to increase the lighting of the whole building, so as to reduce the cost of lighting, although the plant was designed by Albert, but the whole design is based on a basic principle, that is, the production line designed by Chen Moran, although the production line is still being conceived and perfected, but the basic design of the plant must cooperate with the operation of the assembly line.

Looking at the factory that had not even shown its embryonic form, Chen Moran couldn't help but shake his head and sigh lightly after being proud.

"It's a pity that if the light steel structure workshop is used, maybe the plant will be built faster!"

Although the plant will not be completed until a year later, it will become the cradle of automobiles, and Chen believes that by then, it will probably become a place of reverence and admiration for Chinese and even the world, and it will replace Ford's position in the automobile industry.

Half an hour later, Chen Moran returned to the warehouse of the former Swire & Co. in the riverside, which used to be the old factory of the industrial company's machine factory, but now it is the industrial company's iron factory, and to some extent, he is Chen Moran's first car factory, and there are twelve such iron factories in Pudong that will supply auto parts here in the next month, and this is a single car assembly plant.

As soon as the mud-stained car drove into the factory yard, the technicians and workers with happy faces surrounded them, and before they could speak, Chen Moran stood on the seat of the car and shouted loudly.

"Big guy, hurry up! From now on, we want to produce a steady stream of these cars, and we want them to conquer all roads in China and even in the world, and we want to make them affordable to everyone. ”

At the end of his rhetoric, Chen Moran did not forget the best way to motivate these people, all workers were given a bonus of five yuan, and technicians were given a bonus of 50 to 100 yuan each. The material reward was real, and cheers rang out in the future car assembly plant.

In addition to the office in the office building of the industrial company on the Bund, there is also an office of Chen Moran in the iron factory, but to be precise, this should be a small warehouse, this is his design office, and it is here that he completed the design of the car.

It was also here that a few workers dismantled the cars bought from the United States and Europe, and the technicians carefully noted down the specifications and designs of each part of the car, of course, not for the purpose of reverse imitation, but to learn from their technology, and at the same time to figure out which part of the foreign car inventors went.

After Chen Moran returned to the design room, he began to ponder what the prototype still had shortcomings and needed to be improved, when there was a knock on the door.

"Come in!"

Liu Zhongxia smiled and entered the door, and then gently closed the door. He is an unlicensed expert engaged in engine research that the company dug back from France, and has not yet graduated from engineering school, but this person does have research on internal combustion engines, and when Chen Moran studied the "multi-fuel" engine, he drummed up a 100-horsepower diesel engine, although it is a bit big and cumbersome, but it is really good to use it as a "traffic boat" for navigation in the Huangpu River, and after he tinkered with the diesel engine, Chen Moran ordered two 60-ton iron-hulled ships to the Jiangnan Shipyard for the connection between the island and Ma'anshan.

Looking at Liu Zhongxia like this, Chen Moran guessed that he must have something to tell him, so he politely invited him to sit down, he has always respected people with great ability, this may be the embodiment of the advantages of engineering students in him, and respect people with real talents.

Liu Zhongxia sat down at the table opposite him, leaning forward as much as he could, if he had been in France for a long time, he would also have some foreigner habits.

"Chairman, just now I followed the carriage and watched you drive that car to run, that car is really a god, huh! It's like Tang Seng's white dragon horse in the play! ”

Liu Zhongxia said this, paused for a moment, and looked at the chairman with a meaningful smile.

And this Chen Moran didn't hear what he meant, did he mean that he wanted to give this car a name, it was indeed a name, and he couldn't make counterfeit banknotes like he used to make, or because he was proud, he even named the first letter of the rmb serial number MR, using his own name.

Thinking of this, Chen Moran just smiled and waited for Liu Zhongxia to continue.

"Chairman, it is an honor and a blessing for Midsummer to work with a master of automobile inventors like you, especially the car you designed, in Midsummer's opinion, I am afraid that there is no better car in the world than him, especially that he can drive on such a bad road."

Liu Zhongxia laughed for a while before he opened his mouth to say what he meant to come here.

His praise only made Chen Moran smile, although he was a little proud in his heart, but his face was full of sincerity.

"Okay, don't pat me on the back, the diesel engine you invented is good, it runs continuously for 400 hours without any problems, it's stronger than the foreign devil's."

The chairman's praise made Liu Zhongxia humble, but he looked at the chairman in front of him.

"I don't know if in the chairman's opinion, we will really build thousands of cars in the future, and sell them there!"

Liu Zhongxia asked but didn't say anything, and Chen Moran had to pretend to be confused and said vaguely.

"What do you think?"

The chairman pretended to be confused and just made Liu Zhongxia smile.

"In the view of midsummer, I am afraid that in the next few years in China, two thousand can be sold, has reached the sky, one is that the Chinese people do not understand the machinery, the second is the road, the third is that the car is not better than the carriage, the requirements for the driver are very high, so in the view of midsummer, I am afraid that the ambition of the chairman is in Europe and the United States and not in China! Especially in the United States, even European cars are sold to the United States, and Americans are the most enthusiastic about cars in the world. ”

Looking at Liu Zhongxia, who was still smiling, Chen Moran nodded, and did not deny his thoughts, the market for automobiles is abroad rather than domestic.

"That's true!"

As soon as he heard the chairman's answer, Liu Zhongxia immediately laughed and patted the car, and the whole person looked very excited.

"That's great, chairman, I don't know how you're going to make our car famous!"

"Advertisement! Advertising and marketing! ”

Chen Moran didn't hide his thoughts, in addition to the reserve price, I'm afraid it's an advertisement, borrowing the advertising that later generations are used to to promoting his car, it's nothing more than spending more money, with Mexico's oil fields as a foundation, are you still afraid of spending money?

"Chairman, Midsummer has an idea I don't know if to say or not!"

Liu Zhongxia smiled a little mysteriously again, and at the same time took out a book from his pocket, Chen Moran looked at the book cover, the cover of the book was painted with the earth, which should be a map in French.

"Let's hear it, Mingxi, you know me, as long as the idea is good, I will definitely adopt it! And there will be a fund! ”

"Chairman, I don't want a bonus, I just want ......"

As he spoke, he opened the book in his hand, and Liu Zhongxia, who had already stood up and walked to the desk, looked at the director with a very serious expression.

"If the chairman decides to take my suggestion, then let me be a driver and drive that car, I only have one request! Chairman, look at this, I think we can do this......"

(To be continued)