Chapter 4 Industrial Construction Dazhai

Not to mention that Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang were busy arranging various matters, it was said that Zuo Ci went back to report the results of the discussion to Liu Houyu.

Liu Hou also felt helpless when he heard that he had to receive it together with the old and weak women. However, Liu Hou is not a black-hearted person, and he doesn't want to make his factory like a sweatshop like Fuxkang. It's a big deal to increase the cost and find a way to settle these old and weak women and children.

If you think about it, these old and weak women and children will not be completely useless. Women and the elderly can do some light loss work such as cooking, sewing and mending. Although children are not yet able to engage in production activities, they can learn knowledge and skills, and they can become excellent labor resources in a few years, and even some talented people can become researchers or managers.

Fortunately, the things that Liu Hou made are far ahead of this era. This means that there will be huge profits from the production of these things. Raising these people shouldn't be a problem.

Soon, Liu Bei's manpower for Liu Hou was all there, and there was really no Pang Tong inside. Although Liu Hou was very unwilling, he couldn't, how could this kind of top strategist Liu Bei give himself a minor to use.

Liu Hou thought about it, he didn't need to go to the battlefield for the time being, and in the past few years, he should have only engaged in some trivial matters such as infrastructure construction, resettlement of displaced people, organization of production, and commercial operations, and the two cadres Fei Yi and Dong Yun should be able to deal with it.

So, Liu Hou took his team: Zuo Ci's master and apprentice, Zhao Yun, Fei Yi, Dong Yun, 120 female soldiers, more than 300 workshop and Shi yàn room staff, the first batch of 1,000 temporarily recruited homeless young people and their families, and set off to the banks of the Jianjiang River.

The Chengdu Plain is the land of abundance, and the land here is basically developed. Liu Hou had already had people scout in advance and found a forest near the riverside, where Liu Hou planned to build the base so as to minimize land acquisition.

In these years, land acquisition was subject to reasonable compensation, and Liu Hou did not dare to forcibly occupy other people's land. If Liu Bei's reputation is ruined, with Liu Bei's temper, he will definitely not be able to eat and walk around. However, these things are handled by two young talents, Fei Yi and Dong Yun, and basically nothing Liu Hou has to do.

Fei Yi and Dong Yun are both in their 20s now, and the two of them, Zhuge Liang and Jiang Wan, are known as the four shows of Shu Han in later generations, and their abilities are naturally not bad.

In the original history, the two of them were also Liu Chan's princes and had been assisting Liu Chan. After Zhuge Liang died, these two people took over his class, and they really did their best, and they died.

Liu Hou asked the displaced people to cut down trees and build simple shacks, and asked the craftsmen to make soap and soap. The soap-making process is simple, and the equipment requirements are also very simple. As long as you build a shack and support a few iron pots, you can produce. Liu Hou prioritized production in the hope that it would make some money quickly.

Although Liu Bei is now supplying food for these thousands of people, Liu Hou hopes to be weaned as soon as possible and achieve self-sufficiency.

It takes a lot of oil to produce soap, but it's hard to get it these days, so the production is actually very limited. At present, the main raw materials are vegetable oil, peanut oil and other vegetable oils. Liu Hou pondered whether to raise some pigs and sheep to produce some oil, and then look for where there are grazing ethnic minorities, and buy some oil with them to use.

In addition to temporary workshops, many shacks were built as temporary dormitories for everyone. Liu Hou is no exception, he can only live in a shack first, but he doesn't have to squeeze a shack with others.

In this era, there were no pneumatic or electric tools, not even iron nails. Fortunately, there are some saws, axes, and chisels, and they all rely on manpower anyway, and the productivity is extremely low. The shack built on the first day was not large enough for everyone to live in, so the old and weak women and children had to live first. However, even if many people are crammed into one shack, it is still not enough to arrange all the old and weak women and children.

Therefore, only the weak can live, and those who are slightly better can only sleep outside. Fortunately, these homeless people are used to living a life of displacement, and sleeping on the streets is common, and now they are thankful that they can have enough to eat.

It wasn't until seven days later that there were enough shacks to squeeze all the people in, but that didn't mean the task was done. Now it's just to ensure that everyone doesn't sleep in the open, and to live a little more relaxed, at least with the family as a unit, each family can get a shack, and it will not be realized until half a month later.

Liu Hou was speechless about their production efficiency. I was even more speechless when I saw the continuous shacks in front of me. Nima, is this the legendary Dazhai? People learn Daqing in industry, and agriculture learns Dazhai, how can I build Dazhai in industry?

However, Liu Hou didn't have time to sigh more, and he began to devote himself to intense work. At present, Liu Hou's priority is to determine the plan for the entire industrial zone. Every factory is to be built there, the barracks are to be arranged there, the workers' quarters are to be set up there, and so on.

Liu Hou did not formally study urban planning, but only learned a little cross-cutting knowledge in other subjects, combined with some knowledge learned outside the classroom, and made a general plan for the entire area paradoxically.

Liu Hou set up factories that pollute water sources such as papermaking in the lower reaches of the river, and industries that pollute less or no pollution, such as hydroelectric turbines, in the middle reaches. A little upstream, Liu Hou plans to build a waterworks in the future, but there are no conditions yet, so he will pursue a higher quality of life when he is on track.

Residential and living quarters are located upwind of the perennial wind direction, while factories that cause high air pollution are located downwind of the perennial wind direction, especially the temporary cement plant, which Liu Hou simply set up on the south bank of the Jianjiang River, across the river from the industrial zone. He would rather increase the cost of transportation than drive the cement plant far away.

Because he knows that the cement plant is very polluting to the surrounding environment. In later life, he once went to a small town with a cement factory, and when he saw that it was gray everywhere, and even the leaves and grass on the roadside were covered with a layer of gray dust, he was shocked and inexplicable, and he was glad that he did not live here.

Imagine, the cement plants in later generations have such a great impact on the surrounding environment, in this era, without any air purification measures, once the cement plant starts, what kind of scene will it be? Liu Hou couldn't imagine it, so he planned to set up a temporary cement factory here, and then relocate or remove it after the base here was built and the city walls were reinforced.

Liu Hou's ideal cement plant should be located in Laojun Mountain, the source of limestone. It's a mountainous area, sparsely populated, and no environmentalists jump out to protest.

However, limestone has not yet been able to form a production capacity. Liu Hou asked some of the workers to go over to build a kiln for calcining cement first, and only wait for the limestone collected on Laojun Mountain to arrive and open the kiln to smelt cement.

As for the setting of the barracks, Liu Hou was a layman, so he simply handed it over to Zhao Yun, who had rich military experience. Wouldn't it be a waste to have this famous general in the world who doesn't need it. Poor Zhao Yun, who followed Liu Hou all the way, didn't go to the battlefield a few times, and confirmed his identity as a super nanny.

Three months later, all the factories started one after another, and of course they were all still working in the shacks. The first batch of limestone was also shipped, not in large quantities, but enough for the cement plant to try production.

Liu Hou is only in charge of production here, and he doesn't have to worry about the sales of products at all, think about what his uncle Mi Zhu does? Mi Zhu was one of the few big businessmen in the late Han Dynasty, with rich business experience and a wide sales network beyond Liu Hou's imagination.

Liu Hou entrusted Mi Zhu to sell all the products, anyway, his products are unique, he has a monopoly position, and he has the right to set prices. He only needs to set the ex-factory price and protect his profits, as for how to sell Mizhu and how much it costs, he can't care.

Of course, the profits from the sale of that piece went into Liu Bei's small treasury, and it had nothing to do with Liu Hou. Therefore, in fact, the person in charge of the implementation of the "trade war" is Mi Zhu, and Liu Bei can only rest assured that such an important matter will be handed over to his brother-in-law.

For three months, almost all the upper class in Yizhou used soap and straw paper. Liu Hou's income can already afford to support these thousands of people. This surprised Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang, and they went to see how they did it.

Middle-income families are also gradually being exposed to these two artifacts. It is believed that it will not be very long before it reaches the middle class. Liu Hou knew from the economic theories of later generations that the middle class was the backbone of consumption, and I don't know if this theory was also correct in ancient times. If correct, there will also be a phase of skyrocketing income.

As for the poor and the homeless, there is no need to count on it. They don't have enough food or clothing, and even if your straw paper and soap are cheap, they won't buy them without food.

Of course, the displaced people recruited by Liu Hou were an exception, but now they are no longer refugees, they have a new identity: the working class.

They still don't have any wages to pay, but Liu Hou set up a large canteen to ensure that every worker and their family can have enough to eat in the canteen. Implement a real big pot rice system. In addition to having enough to eat, they also have access to soap and straw paper, which makes them happy and feel superior.

After three months of eating, these homeless people who were originally skinny and depressed have undergone great changes, and now they have become energetic and in much better physical condition. They are very energetic in their work, and even their old and weak women and children and their families can move out to help with some light work such as washing, scrubbing, sewing and mending, cooking and burning fires.

Liu Hou even arranged for some sturdy women to enter the factory to do some weight loss work. Women can hold up half the sky, Liu Hou from later generations knew that many factories in later generations recruited a large number of female workers. Some of the female workers even do a better job than the male workers.

Taking stock, Liu Hou has now opened: a lime calcination factory (on the south bank of the Jianjiang River like the cement factory), a cement factory, a paper factory, a printing factory, a soap factory, a secret factory of gunpowder and firearms, a textile workshop, a printing and dyeing workshop, a garment processing workshop, and a straw shoe workshop.

The difference between a factory and a workshop is the size of the scale, the last four are workshops because they are small, mainly some women are working, and the processed products are mainly for internal use, and there is no surplus to sell.

And the so-called secret factories are factories that practice strict military control. Neither the workers nor their families could have any contact with the outside world, forming a small kingdom of their own. The workers here are strictly screened and inspected, which is stricter than the political examination of later generations.

First of all, it is necessary to ensure their loyalty, and secondly, it is generally the husband and wife who are selected to enter the secret factory area together and live in it together for many years. The woman can arrange to do some weight loss work. Such couples are generally young and preferably have no other family members. If there are other family members such as the elderly at home, they can also be brought into the factory, but once they enter the factory, they can't go out again.

If these family members are reluctant to enter the factory, Liu Hou promises that they will also be well cared for outside, so as to relieve the workers of their worries. It's just that it's very difficult for them to meet their families, and it often takes years to reunite once and they have to go through a lot of approvals.

However, what Liu Hou values most and the core part of this industrial base is not these factories and workshops, but various "research institutes". In the areas of various research institutes, the guards are strict, especially the research institutes that develop military technologies such as gunpowder and firearms, which are even more three-step, one-post, five-step, and one-sentry, and the strict guards are comparable to the imperial palace.