this day

Wu Sanzhu finally waited for the people who had traveled thousands of miles from the empire mainland, they were the deputy general managers and engineers of the construction of the "Fu Guang Kee" cement group company, responsible for the construction of a large cement factory with an annual output of 1.2 million barrels of cement in the Salt Lake City area, and also responsible for the construction of the earl's manor, and easily built Sir Wu's mansion together.

Of course, Sir Wu Sanzhu's hitchhike costs money.

Earl Wu Baoli was born in a wealthy family, and his father, Wu Zhengguang, was the chairman of the "Fu Guang Ji" cement group company, which is a large listed enterprise in the building materials industry, and the family has more than 20 cement factories, wharves, automobile transportation companies and hundreds of shops, which can be called wealthy.

With the pace of imperial expansion, "Fu Guang Kee" cement group company will also extend its development tentacles to North America, is building a large cement plant in Seattle, Salt Lake City is the second, and will continue to invest in San Francisco, Los Angeles and other big cities, and is expected to build 10 to 12 cement plants of various sizes within 10 years.

This is only an insignificant silhouette in the field of imperial industry, only in the field of building materials, there are several companies that have made greater investments than the "Fu Guang Kee" cement company, and there are the shadows of the big nobles above the earl behind them, which is the basis for cross-domain expansion.

"Has the earl's fiefdom been demarcated, and where is it?" The person who asked was an old man in his 50s with gray hair, named Ni Kun, director and deputy general manager of the group, and the right-hand man of Master Wu Zhengguang.

In front of him, Wu Sanzhu's attitude was much more humble, and he replied politely;

"Director Ni, these days I have been here, I have already met with the chief of the logistics department of the expeditionary force, according to the personal wishes of the earl and the arrangement of the imperial noble house, it has been determined that the earl's fiefdom is located in a region more than 50 kilometers south of Salt Lake City, a little closer to the southern city of Proo, with a total area of about 1,600 square kilometers.

The fiefdom is located at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, there are more than a dozen rivers meandering through the area, the average annual precipitation is between 500~800 mm, due to the proximity to the Nevada desert The climate is hotter, the lowest temperature in winter is minus 5~10 degrees, and the highest temperature in summer is 32 degrees.

The rivers in the area are all seasonal rivers with varying amounts of water.

According to the relevant parties;

The area is very suitable for the development of agriculture and animal husbandry, and there are conditions to build reservoirs and power stations, and build dams to hold back water in the spring when the ice and snow melt every year, so as to ensure that there is still an abundant water source in autumn and winter.

It's also easily accessible, with good highways, a rail line south from Salt Lake City to Los Angeles that passes through the territory, and a slow train stop.

The only downside is that it's sparsely populated, which is pretty much the biggest feature of Utah, and there is a shortage of people everywhere. ”

"Is this it?" Ni Kun asked, pointing to a location on the map.

Wu Sanzhu turned his head to take a look, and then nodded to a position below with his hand and said; "Here, a little closer to Proo, according to the instructions of the earl, this place will be named Wujiabao in the future, and the town of Wujiabao will be built next to the fiefdom railway station, because there is a lake and forest about 3.5 kilometers away from here, and the water area is more than 10 square kilometers, which is the largest water source in the fief."

"Well, yes, the cement factory is built on a fiefdom and the transportation is also convenient, just build a railway branch line." Ni Kun nodded approvingly.

So-called; Every miller draws water to his own mill.

A large cement company with an annual output of 1.2 million barrels and employing more than 1,000 people means that it can support more than 1,000 families, which can greatly prosper the economy of Wujiapu Town and make this county town prosper rapidly.

There are also many advantages for enterprises.

The high limestone content of the local Rocky Mountains, the almost endless rocks, clay soils, and the surrounding coal mines, are excellent and high-quality resources for building cement plants.

The cement plant is built on its own fiefdom with low cost, and the tax, water and electricity, and safety are guaranteed, so there is no need to worry about being artificially harassed, and exploitation, which is conducive to further expanding the scale and feeding back the fiefdom economy, which is also an important consideration on the one hand.

The area is conveniently located by road and rail, not far from Salt Lake City and the southern Los Angeles metropolis.

For cement basic building materials enterprises, operating and transportation costs are an important expense, which is between Los Angeles and San Francisco 300~400 kilometers, and the cost of rail transportation can be controlled.

In terms of preferential taxation, the disadvantage of high transportation costs will be filled, and it can compete with local cement companies on a horizontal line.

Based on past experience;

To build an enterprise with an annual output of 1.5 million barrels of cement, the direct investment is about 1.1 million to 1.2 million gold oceans, but it will cost about 20 ~ 300,000 gold oceans to go through various procedures and open up various joints to obtain construction permits.

If you include the time cost and money of negotiating cooperation with power companies and coal mines, then you have to add 10% of the cost.

Nowadays, there is no need for a coal-fired power plant in the county, which can not only provide the power needs of the cement plant, but also meet the power needs of the town, and the coal mines are also self-sufficient, and the limestone mines are even more hands-off, and they do not even need a mining license.

In this way, the cost can be saved by a large piece.

Ni Kun and several of his engineers summed it up, and they were even more satisfied with the location of this earl's fiefdom, and couldn't help but praise Wu Sanzhu for his ability, as worthy of being the earl's right-hand man.

"Where...... Where...... Mr. Ni praised it. Wu Sanzhu happily bowed his hand, not to mention how proud he was.

The headquarters of the expeditionary force provided three counties with different locations to choose from, and Wu Sanzhu sent a telegram to the division commander for instructions, and also attached his own personal opinion, preferring to choose the southern Utah territory.

Wu Baoli's family and Wu Sanzhu are all from Qingyuan, Guangdong, and they are not interested in the colder Oregon and Snow Mountain States (formerly Washington State), which belongs to the high-latitude cold region, which is equivalent to the three northeastern provinces of China.

Utah is located in the southernmost part of the four states of the Northern Union, the latitude is about the same as the Jiaodong Peninsula, the climate is much milder, and the natural environment is more friendly to Chinese immigrants from the south, and there is no need to endure the torture of the cold.

Now that the general direction has been determined, all that remains is the tedious and meticulous specific construction work, first of all, it is necessary to recruit manpower, only the dozens of people brought by Wu Sanzhu from his hometown are definitely not enough, most of those manpower are also recruited by the Earl's Palace, and the expensive ship fare is also the expenses of the Earl's Palace.

"Sir Wu, I'm afraid I'm going to trouble you a lot about this matter, our people will leave for Salt Lake City today, select a site to survey the factory and the Earl's Mansion, prepare engineering materials, and the men who recruit people can only be handed over to you to do."

"No problem, Director Ni, I am responsible for this matter."

"According to our calculations, the entire project should be at least 600 ~ 800 people, recruit 50 people to send a batch to us, please call in advance to report the number of trains, I will arrange someone to pick up people at the railway station in Wujiapu Town."

"Don't worry, Director Ni, I won't delay your project construction, I estimate that when you arrive, you will be able to take over the first batch of labor."

Wu Sanzhu was not in vain in Salt Lake City during this time, he had already arranged for his eldest son and a few well-spoken villagers to stay on the dock every day with a big recruitment sign, just like they had just arrived and waited for the rabbit.

As an important hub port in the north of the West Coast, the Port of Seattle has 3~4 migrant ships arriving every week, and most of these immigrants arrive penniless and urgently need a job to gain a foothold.

So, this stupid method works well.

For more than three years

With the influx of a large number of Chinese immigrants and the influx of a large amount of imperial capital, Seattle has expanded rapidly and with high-rise buildings and construction sites, it has become more and more prosperous.

Rough estimates;

Seattle, which originally had a population of more than 300,000 and grew at a rate of nearly 100,000 a year, has now reached a population of more than 600,000, and there is a tendency to become "New York on the West Coast".

The same is true of the coastal cities of Newport, Salem, Portland, and Salt Lake City, Utah, which have also taken over hundreds to hundreds of rebuilt factories and are thriving on the back of population and capital.

The important cities along the west coast of the entire Northern Union have benefited from the convenient transportation and formed a series of industrialized urban agglomerations, while the vast hinterland is dominated by agriculture and animal husbandry, forming a rational economic structure.

Among a series of exotic cities, Salt Lake City is undoubtedly a maverick city, this city burned down in the fire everything from scratch, the whole city construction is rich Chinese style, an oriental fantasy in the mountains.

After several years of large-scale reconstruction, this oriental-style city built according to the standards of a first-class city has shown a charming style and charm.

The city is full of palaces and pavilions, flying eaves and arches, green trees and red walls, the streets full of Ming and Qing architectural styles are straight and spacious, and the green and neat street trees separate the motorway and the sidewalk, and the environment is clean and orderly.

Salt Lake City is the city with the highest proportion of Chinese population in the entire Northern Federation, with more than 470,000 people in the city and more than 9 percent of them are Chinese.

Utah's vast territory is home to nearly 200 fiefs of military aristocrats, large and small, and tens of thousands of retired military meritorious fields, all of which are basically in the early stages of large-scale construction.

Why does the city have such a large population?

A closer look at the population structure shows that 170,000 of the 260,000 troops stationed in the Northern Confederacy were located in and around Salt Lake City, which was fortified, heavily defended, and had many secret military bases in the depths of the Rocky Mountains.

The Pacific Railroad line, which winds through the more than 270 kilometers of mountainous area, can often see the cannon ports of the black holes in the high mountain ridges, forming a fire coverage for the passage below, which can cut off traffic at any time.

There are 272 factories in Salt Lake City, including 7 thermal power plants that rely on local coal resources, which brings a large number of labor needs, with a population of 100,000, and there are still many labor demand gaps.

The third major item of population composition is urban infrastructure, after the initial rebuilding of factories in different places has been put into operation, the focus of construction has shifted to urban infrastructure, municipal roads, buildings, halls, residences, manors and villas are all to be built, and the demand for labor is not small.

The fourth largest part of the city's population is retired soldiers and their families, and in Salt Lake City and its surrounding towns, a total of 87,700 retired soldiers and their military merits have been arranged, which is tens of thousands of plantations large and small.

It can be as small as a family cultivating wasteland on their own (the veterans' association will provide help, and will use machinery to cultivate the land for a fee), grow crops, and several or even dozens of people have joined forces to form small and medium-sized farms and develop together.

With the support of the government's preferential loan policy, the booming development is in the ascendant.