Chapter 48 Five-Year Industrial Plan

Huo Xuan, you are now the minister of the Ministry of Communications and the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, tell me what are the contents of your department's five-year plan?"

"Okay, young master!"

After answering, Huo Xuan took out two plans from his briefcase!

"In order to better promote the economic development of the Nanyang islands and the areas controlled by the People's Army and the settlement of migrants, the Ministry of Communications plans to build 460,000 kilometers of highways in the domestic base areas, Taiwan, Hainan, and the Nanyang Islands in the next five years! Among them, 60,000 kilometers of first-class roads, 80,000 kilometers of second-class roads, 120,000 kilometers of third-class roads, and 200,000 kilometers of fourth-class roads. Originally, if these roads were to be built, they would have required at least 230 million taels of silver! However, after using the newly produced asphalt from our petrochemical plant as raw material, the demand for cement for road construction has been greatly reduced, and with the addition of those free indigenous labor in Nanyang! If these favorable conditions are combined, the final cost of our 460,000 kilometers of roads will be reduced to half of what it was originally! That is to say, we will only need to spend 120 million taels to repair these roads!" Huo Xuanshen was calm, and said with a hint of excitement in his tone.

In this era, there was no construction machinery to build roads, and basically relied on manual labor, so in addition to the necessary cement, sand and other materials to spend money! The labor cost of highway construction accounted for the majority, and now that there are free Nanyang indigenous laborers, the cost has of course fallen!

"Well, that's right, what about the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications?" Huo Shan continued.

"The main task of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications is to lay submarine cables from Taiwan to Fujian, Taiwan to Saipan, Taiwan to Borneo, Taiwan to Papua, Borneo to Sulawesi, and Borneo to Papua! In addition, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications will also set up telephone lines for the entire island of Taiwan and the islands of the South Seas, and build post offices in every city and town within our territory! Of course, because the cost of submarine cables is expensive, and we can't produce them ourselves, we can only rely on imports! So if these plans are to be completed, it will probably cost 40 million taels of silver!"

After closing the document in his hand and glancing at the people who were listening carefully, Huo Xuan finally said: "The above are all the construction plans of the Ministry of Communications and the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications within five years, with a total investment of 165 million taels of silver!

"Who's coming next?" Huo Shan asked with a smile.

"I'll tell you!" Hokhon replied as he stood up with a smile.

"I'm in charge of the Ministry of Ethnic Affairs and the Religious Affairs Bureau, and I don't have any construction plans, just apply for a million funds!"

"I see! But Huo Hong, ethnicity and religion have always been the most sensitive issues in every country! Especially in the southwest region and the Indochina Peninsula! Therefore, you must be cautious in dealing with these issues! In addition, you must cooperate with the local governments to do a good job in immigration work, and find ways to disperse the ethnic minorities in the southwest who are concentrated together throughout the country, especially the islands in the South Seas! When the time comes, if the land is distributed to them, as long as they are dispersed, coupled with my policy of ethnic integration, then in ten years they will become pure Han Chinese. This will also reduce ethnic contradictions within our borders and maintain peace and stability within our borders! Therefore, the smaller the number of ethnic groups and the population within the scope of our Huo Jiajun, the better!

"Understood, young master!"

"Your Ministry of Ethnic Affairs and the Religious Affairs Bureau have a heavy responsibility!" Huo Shan finally said.

"Yes, we will keep in mind the young master's orders, and there will be no slackness!" Huo Hong finally solemnly agreed.

Nodding with satisfaction, after Huo Shan waved his hand to let him sit down, he turned his head to look at the young man sitting on the sofa on the side, and asked with a smile: "Huo Tian, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce under your jurisdiction is the big one?

In the next five years, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce will establish a coal and steel complex with an annual output of one million tons in Palu, Sulawesi, and the whole plan will be completed in four phases over five years! Among them, after the completion of the first phase of the plan, the steel output is expected to reach 100,000 tons, the second phase is expected to reach 300,000 tons, the third phase is expected to reach 600,000 tons, and the total steel output after the completion of the last phase is planned to reach 1 million tons! At that time, the completed Palu steel plant will provide sufficient steel supply for the construction of the islands in the South Seas!"

"In addition, we will also build an 800,000-ton oil refinery in Kuching, Borneo! After the construction is completed, we will not only be able to produce gasoline, diesel, kerosene, lubricating oil, liquefied petroleum gas, petroleum coke, paraffin wax and asphalt! Moreover, after using the new petroleum cracking method provided by the young master, we have obtained basic chemical raw materials such as ethylene, propylene, butadiene, benzene, toluene, xylene, etc. It can be said that we have led the world in the petrochemical industry. ”

"Yes, but our progress in the petrochemical industry must be kept secret! We must not let foreigners learn our skills!" Huo Shan emphasized.

"Yes, young master!"

Therefore, we are ready to invest 10 million taels of silver in Taipei to form a large-scale coal chemical industry with an annual output of 500,000 coke, 50,000 tons of methanol, 30,000 tons of dimethyl ether and other chemical basic materials within five years. In addition, we will also build a chemical plant with an annual output of 50,000 tons of soda ash and 80,000 tons of sulfuric acid! I believe that after these chemical enterprises are completed and put into operation, they will certainly consolidate our foundation in the modern chemical industry and promote China's industrial development. In addition, we will continue to expand Keelung's steel mills and shipyards so that they will form a super-large heavy industry group with an annual output of 500,000 tons of steel and an annual shipbuilding capacity of 250,000 tons! At the same time, we will also expand the Hainan Iron and Steel Plant to reach 600,000 tons of steel production capacity, plus we are preparing to expand to 200,000 tons per year of Kaohsiung Shipyard! Generally speaking, after the completion of the first five-year plan of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, our People's Army will achieve an annual output of 1.5 million tons of iron, 600,000 tons of steel, 12 million tons of coal, 200,000 tons of copper, 1 million tons of oil, 550,000 tons of coke, and 200,000 tons of chemical fertilizer! Of course, most of these equipment cannot be produced by ourselves, or the output is very small, so most of it needs to be purchased from abroad! Therefore, we need to invest 80 million taels of silver to realize these plans!"

After listening to this, Huo Shan nodded clearly and said: "The establishment of a complete primary industrial system is extremely important to the improvement of the comprehensive strength of our People's Army! It is understandable that a large amount of investment is required! However, as one of the most important departments of the People's Army, you should also pay attention to proceeding from the overall situation and incorporate the development of light industry into the development plan of the People's Army!" Of course, investment in light industry is scattered and closely linked with the people's livelihood, and the Ministry of Industry and Commerce can provide favorable policies, make full use of the abundant non-governmental capital, and let the landless landlords invest in light industry, and can also pull in the Zhōngyāng Bank to provide loans to small businessmen, so that they can expand the scale of production! The Ministry of Industry and Commerce should correctly guide and plan to promote the development of light industry within our People's Army, so that the light and weight are rational and the development is coordinated, so that our industry can be a sustainable and healthy industrial system! In addition, while developing various industries, it is also necessary to carry out regular inspections and spot checks on all enterprises, strictly crack down on shoddy products, speculation, and other criminal activities of enterprises, and protect the safety of our commodity market!

"Yes, young master, I remember!" Huo Tianshen said solemnly.

"You are now also the minister of environmental protection, do you have any plans in this regard?" Huo Shan asked rhetorically.

Hearing this, Huo Tian couldn't help but blush and shook his head, to be honest, he didn't even know too much about what this department was doing!

Looking at his appearance, Huo Shan couldn't help frowning, and sighed secretly in his heart, in this era when there is no concept of environmental protection, it is indeed a bit difficult for them to put forward any clever environmental protection policies!

"It's not surprising that you don't know, after all, there are not many people who have this kind of advanced concept now! But the goal of our People's Army is to overthrow the Qing Dynasty and eventually establish a complete country! Therefore, the Ministry of Environmental Protection, as a national decision-making department, must predict the development of the country in 10, 20, 50, or even 100 years! Therefore, we must not only look at the present, but also see the distant future! Only by taking this into account will we not make unforgivable mistakes and cause harm to future generations when formulating national policies!"

Speaking of this, Huo Shan slowly exhaled. Everyone in the study couldn't help but be attracted by his words, these remarks were really unheard of, so they couldn't help but be uninterested!

"Everyone is Chinese, the descendants of the Han and Tang Dynasties, and they should all know that in the most powerful era in China, these two countries were built as the capital of Chang'an! At that time, the most prosperous place in the country was Guanzhong, which is now Shaanxi! But now! Shaanxi has become synonymous with poverty, and Guanzhong has long been ruined! The Yellow River, which was supposed to be the mother river, has become a yellow angry dragon, flooding almost every year, and the economic losses caused by it alone every year have reached tens of millions of taels of silver! Why did the Central Plains, which was originally the birthplace of China's Han and Tang civilizations, become what it is now?"

After a pause, Huo Shanshen solemnly glanced at the people around him who were listening carefully, and continued: "It's very simple! Because the Yellow River, which was originally densely covered with forest vegetation and beautiful mountains and rivers, has been turned into a bare loess slope due to man-made logging! The annual rain brings away the rich nutrients of the land by the sediment, which not only makes the land in Shaanxi more and more barren and unsuitable for farming, but also makes the Yellow River an above-ground river! This is the greatest environmental damage caused by China for thousands of years, and this is the result of not paying attention to environmental protection!"

Huo Shan's deafening words echoed in the spacious study! For a moment, everyone fell into thought! His novel remarks were unique in this era!

"Alas, Bai has lived for decades, but he is not as far as a child!" Huang Kuan touched his gray hair and said with a wry smile.

"Hehe, I'm not like this, I'm this little guy's teacher! But I've only been teaching him for a month, and he's become my teacher! Hehe, I've been beaten to it!" Huang Sheng looked at his old friend's face with some emotion, and couldn't help but say with relief.

Hearing his words, everyone nodded hurriedly, they were no better than Huang Kuan, who had just joined this collective, they had already been hit many times by Huo Shan's erudition and novel remarks, and they had seen it many times!

"Hehe, everyone is older than me, you don't have to be like this!" Huo Shan said with a smile.

"Your level of evil is already superhuman!" Huang Sheng said after glancing at him angrily.