On August 18, 19o7 (the thirty-third year of Guangxu), Lianjie Town, Weiyuan County, Sichuan.

Lianjie Town is located in Yunlian Mountain, northwest of Weiyuan County, about 37 kilometers away from the county seat. Coal, bauxite and iron ore are abundant. As early as the Warring States Period, there were many iron-smelting workshops and trading shops here. After Liu Bei entered Shu, Zhuge Liang sent smelting officials to Lianjie to set up a smelting shed, which was the earliest iron-smelting center in Sichuan.

After nearly a year and a half of construction, the main plant has been completed, and the main equipment has been put in place and commissioned.

During the Yangtze River flood last year, Wen Desi recruited more than 50,000 victims in the form of work-for-relief. Although Wen Deji saved these victims, they also played a big role in the fantastic exhibition and construction of Xingke Company. About 6 percent of them are used for the Chengdu-Chongqing railway, highway and nearby infrastructure, and another 3 percent is invested in the construction of Weigang.

At this time, China's largest Hanyang Iron Works was built for three and a half years, while Weigang took less than a year and a half. In fact, if it weren't for the poor infrastructure in Weiyuan County, this degree could have been accelerated by one-third, after all, this is only a "small steel plant".

This is no joke, Weigang's current design annual output is 70,000 tons of iron, 140,000 tons of steel, 4. 30,000 tons of special steel. It can produce more than 60,000 tons of rails, which is three times that of the Hanyang Iron Works at this time. However, in Mr. Wen's view, this kind of steel mill is still too small, even at the beginning of the 21st century, that is, the scale of a township steel plant, it is the object of forced closure.

"Woo~~~~" A train full of coal roared, and with a loud whistle, it slowly decreased, and the station driving into the coking branch stopped. The gates on the side of the carriage opened, and countless pieces of coal leaned down. This platform is specially used to unload coal, next to the railway is a large and small trapezoidal ramp, like a split funnel, the coal unloaded by the train will follow the ramp, automatically fall to the conveyor belt below, this design saves a lot of labor.

The coal was sent from the Huangjinggou coal mine, more than 2o kilometers to the southeast, and this section of the railway was the first railway built by Xingke Company, which was opened to traffic last month, but it belongs to the factory railway, which is only used for internal transportation, and is not included in the mileage of the official line.

Weiyuan's coal mine is rich in resources and of extremely high quality, with low sulfur, low phosphorus and low ash, making it the best coking coal. In Weiyuan's coal mines, Huangjinggou is the largest one, in the original time and space was opened by the British in 191o, of course, there is no matter of cattle now, and now several coal mines such as Shanwang, Xinchang, Yuexi, Longhui, and Zhenxi are all under the umbrella of Xingke Company.

On the other side of the coking plant, another train transports the coke to the blast furnace, where it is fed by a conveyor system.

At this time, the furnace is blazing, and the iron ore in the blast furnace has turned into molten iron, and dazzling sparks burst out from time to time, which are burning impurities.

Wen Desi accompanied a group of VIPs and waited on the rostrum next to the blast furnace to open the furnace.

Today is the first day of Weigang's official production, as early as half a month ago, Wen Desi notified the relevant people and invited them to visit the ribbon cutting. At this time, the distinguished guests on the rostrum are all from a lot of backgrounds, including Zhao Erfeng, the acting governor of Sichuan, the political envoy of Sichuan, Yongning Province in southern Sichuan, Shangnan Province in Jianchang, the prefect of Jiading, the prefect of Xuzhou, and the governor of Zizhou...... Not to mention the county orders of Weiyuan and several nearby counties.

There are also a lot of people from other provinces, and Xiliang in Kunming is also worried about this, there are too many things in Yungui, and he can't come by himself, so he sent a cronie master over. Zhang Zhidong in Hubei, Yuan Datou in Tianjin, Duanfang in Liangjiang, and so on, after these "pioneers of foreign affairs" learned the news, they also sent their own representatives.

Although the weather is relatively hot now, a pergola has been set up on the rostrum, and more than a dozen "earth air conditioners" composed of ice trays and electric fans have been placed around, and the VIPs do not feel uncomfortable.

"Master Wen, the equipment of your steel plant is quite advanced, and even the automatic feeding system is ......," said Li Weige, the general manager of Hanyang Iron Works. He came on behalf of Zhang Zhidong this time, and after Lao Zhang heard about the scale of Weigang, his mood was a little complicated, so he sent this expert to inquire about the truth and reality. As a result, at a glance today, Li Weige was greatly hit, Weigang not only far exceeded Hanyang's output, but also could not be compared with the first process.

In order to sell Daye Iron Ore to the Japanese for personal gain, he and Sheng Xuanhuai bullied Lao Zhang is layman to falsify the ore analysis results, and reported that the phosphorus content of Daye Iron Ore was too high and could not refine qualified products. As a matter of fact, Daye Iron Mine is not without good iron ore, otherwise the Japanese would not have broken their brains, how could they have bought Daye Iron Ore for decades? These two grandsons sold all the first-grade and second-class good ores, and left the high-phosphorus secondary ore for Hanyang's own use, so that they could make good steel. After Lao Zhang's death, they spread rumors and forcibly let Lao Zhang carry the black pot, and in later generations, they became a model of "laymen commanding insiders" to do bad things.

Wen Desi despised this kind of goods very much, but now was not the time to settle accounts, so he smiled and said modestly: "Hehe, Mr. Li Weige, we just have the advantage of the latter, Hanyang's equipment is more than ten years ago, and it naturally seems backward compared to now......"

Although Wen Deji has the title of Sipin Alternate Dao on his head, he is still not wearing an official uniform today, but is wearing a casual suit. To be precise, he has never touched the official uniform of the Qing court. The officials present also knew that he was an "American" and turned a blind eye to his "rude" behavior. Oh, the red envelope is quite thick, even if you look at the money, you have to pretend not to see it.

"Hahaha, now I also have an iron factory in Sichuan, and it is still the largest in the country! The credit of the scribe is the greatest!" Zhao Er's face was flushed, this old man was the happiest person today. Nima, can you not be happy when you pick up a big wallet?

The comrade master from Kunming gritted his teeth as he watched it. Bastard, this is originally the political achievement of the proprietor of my family, and it is cheap.

Not only this master, but also other guests have the same idea, this Zhao Lao'er shit luck is too good, he didn't do anything, and he picked up the largest steel plant in the country as soon as he took office.

While everyone was talking, a sharp electric bell suddenly sounded.

"Iron, iron......"

The workers hurried to their respective positions and prepared to open the furnace. The officials on the rostrum couldn't help but stand up.

The "......" gate slowly rose, and dazzling hot iron poured down from the furnace. Part of it flows into the sand mold along the pouring channel, where it condenses into iron ingots of 5o kilograms. The other part is poured into the ladle and sent to the steelmaking hearth.

After the iron ingot cooled down, a master ran over, knocked it with a hammer, and immediately looked happy, shouting: "Success!! good fine iron !!" Several inspectors also came to take a few samples and took them to the laboratory for testing.

About half an hour later, an inspector came running over and handed him several inspection reports.

The inspector said excitedly: "Mr. Wen, great!!After testing, all the indicators of the sample are qualified!!

Wen Desi took it and looked at it, and also smiled: "Everyone has worked hard......" said and handed the inspection report to the VIP beside him.

On the table of these dignitaries was a brochure describing the principles and processes of ironmaking and steelmaking in the most understandable language, and it was full of pictures and texts, so that anyone who could read could understand it. There is also a description of what qualifies as steel in the atlas, and the VIPs now look at the inspection report according to the atlas.

The prefect of Jiading said with a smile: "Oh, my lords, according to this atlas, the sulfur, phosphorus and silicon content of this furnace pig iron is far below the standard, and it is really the best fine iron!!"

"Congratulations to Master Wen......" Li Weige looked at the inspection report, and his face suddenly turned a little pale. Nima, this quality is much better than our Hanyang!

All the VIPs came forward to congratulate.

After thanking everyone, Wen Deji said, "Ladies and gentlemen, it will take four hours for steelmaking to be produced. I invite you to visit the glass factory, and when we come back, the furnace will almost be ready......"

The glass factory is less than 5 kilometers next to the steel plant, Mr. Wen took them on the factory train, this time for these VIPs, specially decorated a passenger car, which is naturally equipped with "soil air conditioning", very cool, everyone came in and breathed a sigh of relief. I don't have summer clothes in the official uniform of the Qing Dynasty, and it is uncomfortable to wrap my clothes around my body, which is one of the reasons why Wen Desi never wears official clothes.

After getting on the train, Yang Shiqi, the representative of Beiyang, looked left and right, and asked curiously: "Hey, Wendaoist, why is your train here so wider?"

Wen Desi explained with a smile: "Hehe, our railway uses a broad gauge of 25oooo mm (mm), which is much wider than most gauges, and the train is naturally much wider......"

"May I ask the scribe, why do you use such a wide gauge?" Yan Fu next to him asked puzzled. This guy is here as a representative of Liangjiang this time, he is one of the people who know the West best (except for Xingke), although he is a navy, he is no stranger to railways and steelmaking, and Wen Desi has to admit that this candidate from Duanfang is very suitable.

"Well, it's ......very simple," Wen Desi thought for a while, and said: "The waste of narrow-gauge capacity is too strict, according to the calculations of our experts, under the same conditions, the broad-gauge carriage can more than double the volume of the car, and the passenger volume can be increased by about three times." China has few railways and a large population, so it is more necessary to make full use of railways, so broad gauge is more suitable for China's national conditions......"

Mr. Wen thought to himself: Will I tell you that this size is the best gauge recognized by many railway experts in the 23rd century? Lao Tzu will follow this standard now, lest it be the size of two horses' buttocks when he gets it, and it will be difficult to change it after it is difficult to return, so he has to do it on the colonial planet.

Anyway, in this era, all countries have not standardized the track gauge, and there are all sizes, and even each railway company has its own standards. Not only did I have seven or eight gauges in the Qing Dynasty, but the European and American powers were also about the same, and the gauge in the United States was more than that in the Qing Dynasty. Another 25oo mm gauge is not a problem at all.

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Weiyuan's quartz sand and limestone deposits are very rich, and the quality is also quite good, and it is close to the coal mine iron ore, so when Wen Desi was building a steel plant, he also built a glass factory, and the factory name was "Starlight".

In this era, China really lacks everything, even glass factories. At present, in addition to the Starlight Glass Factory, which was put into operation in May, there is only one glass factory in the country, which was Boshan Glass Company, which was put into operation in November last year, but this factory is considered to have declined to grandma's house, and it is about to close down this year.

"Hey, such a large piece of flat glass, and it's so horizontal, it's really rare......"

The VIPs were amazed when they looked at the three-meter-long and two-meter-wide plate glass. In this era, the flat plates were produced by the roll method, and it was difficult to make full-flat large-format glass, while the Starlight Glass Factory used the float process, and the glass made was large and flat, and the degree was very fast.

Because the float process is completely a problem of thinking, it is too easy to imitate, so I found a "dangerous" excuse and did not let these VIPs visit the production workshop. Starlight's glass products only started to be sold last month, and the previous products were all digested internally except for some delivered to various related households.

Starlight Glass Factory not only produces flat glass, but also all kinds of daily glassware, bottles and cans for packaging, in addition to providing raw materials for the light bulb factory, and finally some glass crafts, decorative ornaments and so on. As for optical glass, medical glass, special glass, and glass for modulation tanks, etc., they are still being tested, and it will take about a few months to get them.

Now the dignitaries were given a set of glass souvenirs, an inkstone, a pen holder and a paperweight, which were exquisitely made and looked very pleasing.

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In the afternoon, after Wen Desi and others took the train back to Weigang, the molten steel was officially baked. The red molten steel is poured into the iron mold and condensed into pieces of steel ingots.

"The sulfur and phosphorus content are lower than O. o35%, which ...... Is this true......" Li Weige held the test report in his hand, his whole body was trembling, and he only felt bitter in his mouth.

The two Hanyang technicians looked at each other, and said helplessly: "General manager, we have also tested it ourselves, and the number is accurate...... "They were all brought by Li Weige, the purpose is to inspect the technical level of Weigang, originally they were a little arrogant, ready to swing the spectrum of their predecessors in Weigang, but they were slapped in the face by the cold facts, and now they are like defeated roosters.

The other officials are laymen, just watching the excitement, at most they feel more excited. But he is a different expert, he knows very well how difficult it is to improve the quality of steel, and the more difficult it is to go to the back. The most shocking thing is that Weigang is just a new factory, and it can actually make such high-quality steel, and the most advanced equipment is used, which is too subversive of common sense. This quality of steel, even in the European and American powers, only a few manufacturers can be smelted at one time, and other manufacturers need to smelt repeatedly many times to reach this level.

"Now the Chengdu-Chongqing railway can finally be fully laid......" Wen Desi couldn't help but laugh as he listened to the roar of the rail workshop. The rails used in front are all used goods from the United States to take advantage of the economic downturn, although these things are very cheap, but it is too troublesome to transport them from the United States to Sichuan.

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