Chapter 278 Railways, Steel Plants, and the Power of Earth Veins

After a summer rain, the sky is clear and refreshing.

However, the scene in the Railway Chamber of Commerce was still bustling with activity, and the sound of the giant mechanical arm leveling the land could be heard in the distance.

After more than a month of preparation and planning, the prototype of a modern steel plant has taken shape.

As the steam age began, a host of problems arose.

The biggest problem is how to get large quantities of cheap and practical steel.

In this world, the Mohists and Gongshujia have developed very good technology for steel forging. Due to the ancestral Qi of heaven and earth, the alloy technology here even surpasses the steam age in Zhou Tieyi's world, and in some places it cannot even compare to the electrical age.

But the only flaw is that most of these alloys are used by practitioners.

For example, the weapons produced in the Huwei Weaponry are most basically targeted at soldiers who are ninth-grade warriors. Further research is also about how to give the weapons the ability to withstand more ancestral energy of heaven and earth, and even condense a complete dragon seal to nurture spirituality.

The entire R&D process is aimed at high-end and precise research and development, rather than mass production research and development.

Although some technologies have been popularized in this process, they are small in number and even not taken seriously.

This has led to a peculiar polarization in steel production.

The iron used by ordinary people was mostly fueled by charcoal and a small amount by coke. Both the quality and quantity were greatly limited. It was better than the feudal society in the previous life, but it had not undergone qualitative changes and reached the level of industrial society.

Even if a small amount of high-quality steel is made from coke, without large-scale industrial production, the cost is extremely high and ordinary people cannot afford it. Therefore, there is no large grassroots consumer market, which in turn restricts industrial development.

On the contrary, the special alloy used by practitioners uses graphite as fuel and can quickly produce high-quality and large quantities of metal. The only problem is that the price is too high!
It is certainly impossible to use metal smelted from graphite to lay railways and build freight ships.

Although Zhou Tieyi wanted to push the Emperor of Daxia to speed up, he even wanted to pull out the brake pads of Daxia.

However, no matter how anxious His Majesty the Great Xia Emperor was, he would never agree to this method of paving the road with inkstone.

The reason why the Emperor of Daxia bestowed such a generous title and the officials did not stop him this time was because trains and ships could be put into use in large quantities by ordinary people.

So if steam engine technology is the brain of the entire steam age, then a modern steel plant is the heart of the entire steam revolution.

He didn't need to worry about the steel smelting technology himself. The technology stored by Mohist and Gongshujia over the years was enough to produce the kind of steel he required. More than a month ago, Gongshu Sheng had already experimented with a suitable steel using the steelmaking technology accumulated by Gongshujia. He asked his apprentice Sun Zhong to continue the experiment, also wanting to see if he could continue to reduce costs.

In addition to smelting technology, of course, energy utilization is an issue. With the steam engine, new power blowers were developed, which greatly improved the quality and efficiency of ordinary steel production.

In addition to energy utilization, there is the price of obtaining raw materials, among which transportation cost and transportation efficiency are a big part, which in turn requires the assistance of ships and railways, and the two complement each other.

So after receiving an initial capital of two million taels from the Railway Chamber of Commerce, they began preparing to build a new steel plant.

Since the emperor issued the decree to confer the title of marquis yesterday, Zhou Tieyi has received another imperial decree in disguise, an imperial decree to vigorously build railways.

This is what can lay the foundation for the construction of the railway. Otherwise, after the construction of the railway begins, the crime of occupying fertile farmland will be enough for the Confucianists and Zhou Tieyi to argue for several months.

At the same time, railways will begin to be built and the production capacity of new steel mills will be put into production without any waste of resources.

In the Railway Chamber of Commerce, Zhou Tieyi carefully looked at the plan that Hao Ren had worked on from yesterday to this morning.

This railway runs from Zhuque City to Kaiping County, with a total length of 80 miles. It is estimated that the investment will be between 300,000 and 350,000 taels of silver. Construction has started now and will be completed before the end of the year.

There are several advantages to choosing this place.

First, it is located in the Heluo Plain, and it is very convenient to lay railroad tracks on the flat land.

Secondly, Kaiping has a large amount of iron ore, which is the most important raw material for the steel plant built by the Railway Chamber of Commerce. Hao Ren even took the initiative to write in the plan that their Hao family is willing to use Kaiping’s two iron mines to invest in the steel plant built by the Railway Chamber of Commerce.

Third, the Heluo Plain has a large population and rich human resources.

Fourthly, this place is close to Tianjing, so His Majesty can see the results quickly.

"It will be completed in six months..."

Zhou Tieyi spoke softly, as if he was asking a question, but also as if he was thinking to himself.

All of a sudden, everyone present became tense.

Then Zhou Tieyi smiled and nodded to Hao Ren, "Not bad."

He remembered the miracle of Zhan Tianyou's railway construction, which was roughly the same 80-mile distance, but only took three to four months. However, there was complete experience in railway construction to draw on. At the same time, the steel production capacity available for laying railways was already not low, and even old rails and sleepers could be found for use.

The railway that Hao Ren wants to lay now is really built from scratch. Even whether the production capacity of cheap steel can keep up is still a problem that needs to be solved. It is reasonable to give six months.

What Zhou Tieyi didn’t know was that in his previous life, the world’s first railway, which was also an 80-mile railway, was built by the British and took three years to build.

But even if he knew, Zhou Tieyi would never let Hao Ren take three years to build a railway.

Because the resources Hao Ren now possesses far exceed those when the first railway was built in Britain, both in terms of high-end technology and manpower.

Take the most basic land survey as an example. One of the core propositions of Mohism, "Heaven's Will", emphasizes the importance of unified measurement and calculation scales, and even extends to the concept of governing the country, and ultimately to universal love. Therefore, the five-grade "scale" of Mohism can accurately measure various things, and even the consequences of a person's behavior. Of course, the more data such a measurement obtains, the fewer interference factors, and the closer the measurement time, the more accurate it is.

Zhou Tieyi looked at Hao Ren again and asked, "Can the first phase of the steel plant be completed on time and put into production?"

The Fuyao Steel Plant of the entire Railway Chamber of Commerce, which was built by Zhou Tieyi, was modeled after the Hanyang Iron and Steel Plant during the Westernization Movement, with an estimated total investment of more than five million taels of silver.

Even the current first phase investment is estimated to be between 500,000 and 600,000 taels.

Hao Ren knew the construction of the steel plant very well. With the help of Gong Shujia's large-scale organization and Zhou Tieyi's money-burning investment, the efficiency was naturally extremely high.

Hao Ren carefully calculated in his mind, and then said cautiously, "It will be ready for production in two months."

There was naturally a reason why Zhou Tieyi ordered the wrought iron factory to be built first.

Although railway rails require uniform steel, the only ones who can produce them cheaply in large quantities are the railway guilds themselves.

However, pig iron was produced in every military workshop and even in ordinary mines among the people, and pig iron was the raw material for wrought iron.

He looked at Qian Guangyun again. Qian Guangyun and his supporters had been living a life of luxury in the past half month. Now it was time for them to contribute.

Otherwise, even if you have money, it would be difficult to buy so much cheap pig iron in a short period of time.

Businessmen are indeed not producers, but they can effectively allocate resources and improve production efficiency.

"President Qian, the pig iron procurement that meets the requirements..."

Qian Guangyun nodded immediately, "Master Zhou, please rest assured. Our Southeast Chamber of Commerce has already mobilized the pig iron requested by Manager Sun from all over the country, and will deliver it to the Railway Chamber of Commerce in a steady stream to ensure that the amount of iron used for the railway construction will not be wrong."

After hearing Qian Guangyun's assurance, Zhou Tieyi looked at Sun Zhong again and said, "You must pay attention to the quality, and make sure that the iron you smelt is not unusable."

"I see."

Sun Zhong quickly responded.

Zhou Tieyi nodded slightly. He did not ask whether the pig iron that Qian Guangyun had mobilized was expensive. Anyway, this was only the first railway, so it didn't matter if it was a little expensive. He wondered whether more than 300,000 taels of silver were enough.

This is when his control over the wealthy merchants in Tianjing comes into play.

As long as he spread the word through the Southeast Chamber of Commerce that he wanted pig iron, and this pig iron was used to do things that benefit the country and the people, then the wealthy merchants who were "making meritorious contributions while serving their sentences" would try every possible means. As long as Da Xia still had it, they would dig deep into the ground to find suitable pig iron for themselves.

This may even be faster than reporting to the Ministry of Industry to mobilize iron and steel mines from all over the country.

As for the extra costs, they will naturally be paid by the well-fed Southeast Chamber of Commerce, and they will find ways to reduce costs themselves.

As long as they are not asked to pay for these things for a long time, everyone knows them and there is no need to say them out loud.

Once the first steam steel plant in Huweibingfang is fully built, the entire process will enter a virtuous circle, and businessmen can even profit from it.

Only by allowing everyone to obtain stable profits in the long term can the Railway Chamber of Commerce continue to operate for a long time.

Zhou Tieyi looked at the Minister of Industry, Mo Qu, and said, "I will submit this railway plan to the Ministry of Industry for review..."

Since the railway involves land expropriation, it naturally needs to go through the Ministry of Industry.

After the Mohist school obtained Zhou Tieyi's train and ship drawings, some experts had already made calculations and concluded that it was indeed a move that would benefit the country and the people.

For the Mohists, they also wanted to see how much change the mechanical technology that could be used by ordinary people could bring to the world. Especially after Zhou Tieyi completely opened up this Taoist tradition to all schools of thought, the Mohists would naturally be the biggest beneficiaries.

So when Zhou Tieyi talked about this serious matter today, Mo Qu did not hesitate much and nodded, "The Ministry of Industry will give its review opinion as soon as possible and submit it to Your Majesty."

Zhou Tieyi smiled and said, "Since this steam printing machine has been licensed to various companies, it is fine for them to manufacture it themselves. If anyone is dissatisfied, just let them come to me."

Mo Qu's lips slightly opened.

Among all the schools of thought, the only ones who got the steam engine blueprint and were able to rub the steam engine by hand, apart from Gongshujia, were naturally the Mohists. However, they were worried about the attitudes of other schools and Zhou Tieyi, so they had been waiting for the steam printing press of the Railway Chamber of Commerce. Now Zhou Tieyi seemed to imply that the Mohists could be a few steps ahead of the other newspapers, and if there was a problem, they knew how to solve it.

This is the political exchange of interests, and even the Mohists are not immune to it.

Mo Qu sighed in his heart.

Zhou Tieyi continued, "By the way, for the second phase of the steel mill, our Railway Chamber of Commerce wants to try to use the power of the earth veins to see if we can reduce costs. Minister Mo will need to take care of this matter. Of course, I will also report this to His Majesty and ask for His Majesty's approval."

The formation that can draw power from the earth veins in Tianjin has always been in the hands of the Mohist School and the royal family. Although the construction and maintenance costs of this formation are extremely high, once it is built, the energy generated is enormous and clean, just like tidal energy.

Since even a casino like Tianbao Tower could find a way to use the power of the earth veins, then Zhou Tieyi had even more reason to use the power of the earth veins now. Of course, it was up to Zhou Tieyi to decide how much of the mobilized earth vein power would be used for steelmaking and how much for his own use. He also wanted to know how much help the earth vein power of Tianjing could bring to his practice of Shintoism.

Mo Qu opened his mouth but still didn't say anything.

(End of this chapter)