.Shaoguan, Guangdong.

This important town in northern Guangdong is surrounded by mountains and rivers, and has always been a key place connecting Guangdong and Hunan. Since the Zhenguo Army headed north to occupy the south of the Yangtze River and stabilized its rule twenty-five years ago, it began to plan the development of industry and commerce. In Guangdong, in addition to the more open-minded Pearl River Delta region focusing on the development of modern industrial and commercial and financial industries, heavy industrial parks in northern Guangdong centered on the Qujiang area of ​​Shaoguan and along the Beijiang coast have also gradually begun.

Today, Qujiang County, Shaoguan has a wide street. In addition to the old houses in the Ming and Qing styles, the houses on both sides are mostly combined with Chinese and Western styles, which are very full of vitality unique to this turning point. The improved antique brick-concrete buildings, known as "Xinhua Style", are more eye-catching. These multi-story buildings with floating eaves have thick and heavy tones, and use brick-concrete, gray or concrete structures. They are durable. The glass windows are very bright and exudes the atmosphere of the times in the Han style. Many of them have small national flags in front of the doors or on the eaves, waving in the wind.

At this moment, outside Qujiang County, on the flat asphalt road, a black sideboard motorcycle opened the road in front of it, followed by armored cars, followed by four brand new closed mini-buses, all with the flags of the Imperial Guards, and were galloping all the way.

In a small passenger car, Geng Xuan, who was patrolling Guangdong and Guangxi in the name of the central inspector, looked at the strange car that he had never seen. Looking at the spacious interior space and seats, he couldn't help but say, "Lieutenant Colonel Guo, what's going on with this car?"

"The latest camel minibus, with nine passengers, six-cylinder V-type diesel engine, fifty horsepower, and a maximum 10-hour speed of 80 kilometers per hour." The officer wearing an imperial guard uniform and wearing a lieutenant colonel's emblem pushed his glasses and said as he knew it, "This is a new product that has just been finalized. At present, the old line has switched to military products. The new production line is being laid. After the war, it is ready to be officially launched to fight the business passenger transport market. The main competitor is large horse-drawn carriages. Our products, whether in speed, comfort, price, or maintenance costs, have absolute advantages. However, Renault of France is also developing so-called minibuses powered by gasoline engines. Judging from the information we have, the gap between their trial products and our products is still very obvious."

Geng Xuan touched his chin and looked at the businessman in military uniform opposite him, becoming more and more anxious about what he was about to see.

Along the Beijiang River, surrounded by mountains and rivers, a large and unimaginable closed building complex rose from the ground. Geng Xuan watched the soldiers in black-clothed clothes patrolling back and forth around him, and the convoys of cars that were familiar or unfamiliar, and watched the special railways in the distance from time to time. It was said that they were trucks transporting coal, iron ore, copper ore and various resources, various semi-finished products, parts and daily necessities. Faced with such a naked and violent aesthetic of large-scale industrial industries, the emperor's close minister who had visited factories and mines many times could not help but feel a little nervous.

"The factory is responsible for defending the guards and is currently working-duty soldiers in the Imperial Guards. After retirement, they will directly join the factory and become workers." Lieutenant Colonel Guo Zhen pointed to the black-clad Sergeant who was checking the pass on the car's outpost. "The factory was built as a special confidentiality unit from the beginning. It was completely militarized. The first batch of workers were all veterans. Only these soldiers with strict organizational disciplines can be as good as fish in water in this environment."

After checking the ID, the sergeant of the Imperial Guards saluted, waved his hand, and the convoy entered in one after another.

After passing through the layers of checkouts, Guo Zhen pointed to the living area, commercial area, hospital, cinema, and public bathroom next to him. Geng Xuan looked at the neat and orderly building complex, the standardized four-story residential building as densely as matchboxes, and took a deep breath: "Lieutenant Colonel, how many people are there in the industrial park at present?"

"The entire industrial zone is divided into four divisions, all of which are about 60,000 people." Guo Zhen's words made Geng Xuan amazed, "basically covering the complete automobile industry chain: metallurgy, machine tool manufacturing, automobiles, train locomotives. The northern part of Guangdong is rich in resources, and it is densely forested and has developed hydraulic power. In addition to thermal power generation, the factory area has built a hydropower station on the Beijiang River. Now it is electrified and power is powered in all places."

The convoy parked in front of a six-story building. The front guard jumped out of the car and opened the door. As soon as Geng Xuan walked out, he felt that the air was a little muddy, as if there were more things that could not be explained. He looked up at the huge chimneys in the factory and spitted black smoke or white steam. Thinking of some smells that he smelled when he opened the car windows along the Beijiang River, he couldn't help but remember some of the words that the former emperor Zheng Ying had said: Large industries also need to consider the environmental carrying capacity. He used to feel inexplicable, but now looking at all this, he seems to understand a little more.

In front of the office building, a group of men and women wearing military uniforms of the Imperial Guards or dark blue uniforms were waiting. The first one was dark in his skin and came up enthusiastically. He spoke, and the standard words passed by the Empire carried a typical Annan-style rhyme: "Inspector Geng worked hard all the way. Chen Dongping, below, is the director of the Industrial Zone Management Committee. Fortunately, the meeting is fortunate."

Geng Xuan looked at the general star on his shoulder and smiled, saying that he didn't dare.

Chen Dongping introduced everyone around him, and after a brief greeting, he entered the building. Geng Xuan looked at this civilian general who looked a little sophisticated and mature, feeling the style of the soldiers inside, and the ability and calmness of the people around him, and he felt more and more that he seemed to be actually a redesigned army, not a businessman.

When we arrived at the conference room, only a dozen people were left.

Chen Dongping smiled at the moment with no beginning and looked solemn: "Inspector Geng, the Secretariat has said hello before. You are the representative of Your Majesty to investigate the work of the industrial zone and provide support for the decision-making of the national war. We are all from the Imperial Guards' own family, so I won't say much. Everything I want to say below and everything you want to see belong to top-secret information."

Geng Xuan's heart was stern and nodded solemnly.

With Guo Zhen's explanation, Geng Xuan had some general understanding of one of the main heavy industrial areas of the empire that had always been famous but always had a mysterious color.

The planning of Qujiang Industrial Zone was already considered before Zhenguojun went north in 1880. It officially started construction in 1882, from scratch, from small to large, and gradually developed to this day.

Since this heavy industrial zone was directly targeted for military purposes from the beginning, it had extremely high requirements for confidentiality and management, and Zheng Ying always paid out of his own pocket and managed it in a militarized manner. At present, there are more than 60 industrial enterprises in the entire park, all of which are royally controlled, and can be roughly divided into the aforementioned industrial chains.

In terms of management, a combination of militarized management and commercial incentives is adopted. In addition to process and result inspection, enterprises are independently accounted for, and material and spiritual rewards are implemented based on economic benefits. Because the environment in the district is relatively closed, they look down and look up, and they attach great importance to their reputation. Even if they do not consider performance wages and bonuses that exceed more than twice the basic salary, the sense of shame brought by losing honors and being ridiculed and despised is enough to stimulate enterprises with poor performance to work hard from top to bottom.

The park is equipped with complete living facilities, and the workers' families are basically arranged to work in service auxiliary facilities, such as hospitals, schools, shops, sanitation and other places. Some of them are also working in the light industry department. Because the salary is more than twice as high as that of the outside factories on average, there is a shuttle bus to organize workers to make a turn around every weekend. There is an annual turnover system, and travel is organized. The welfare arrangement is also very thoughtful. Basically, workers start from defense soldiers and then to workers. After that, there is a cruel rotation and elimination system within the industrial zone and enterprises. With the team as the minimum unit, there will be evaluations at each level at the upper section. Each enterprise has a fixed rotation and elimination indicator. The teams at the end will have to be transferred to mail-offs in the next year and can only get the lowest salary. The production line in the workshop is only three months each year, and the rest of the time will be replaced by the best candidates in the preparatory team who previously served as mail-offs.

Since the industrial zone has only been more than 20 years, the first batch of workers have become business backbone or entered the management level, which is still far from retirement, and the scale of the industrial park is still expanding rapidly, and the entire industrial zone is in a state of vitality.

In terms of metallurgy, with the empire's expansion and preparation for war in recent years, especially the wartime economic transition, the current steel output in the industrial zone has reached 400,000 tons, and the converter method is adopted, and various alloys have been produced, including marine Krupp armored steel and various supporting ship plates. In addition to other enterprises in the industrial park, the products are made into rails, locomotives, machine tools, and various types of automobiles, and a large number of steel bars and structural parts are also provided to the construction market in Guangdong, as well as other large steel manufacturers in Guangzhou, such as arbor, agricultural tool factories.

Chen Dongping talked and took Geng Xuan to the workshop.

The war was still tight. But after entering the huge workshop, Geng Xuan felt what was worthwhile.

This is an assembly workshop of the Second Automobile Company, with a capacity of 6,000 to 7,000 square meters.

The integrally cast car chassis stand slowly advances on the electric conveyor belt. Workers on both sides of the assembly line take off the hanging parts from the closed-loop conveyor belt above their heads, or pick up the bags of screws included on the assembly line and install the parts one by one on the chassis.

Geng Xuan pointed to the bodies of electric lifting in the air, and Guo Zhen smiled: "This is a rolled thin steel plate body. The assembly line workers can directly pull the hand rope to lift it on the ground for screws to tighten and weld it. The first all-metal car body of the empire was launched eight years ago, five years earlier than the United States."

"... Empire is the first country in the world to use curved glass on the windshield, two years earlier than Porsche in Germany, and a year earlier than Germany. Empire is also the first country to adopt an aluminum car license plate, install spring bumper, and develop a V-engine configuration. Rear-wheel drive, engine front, hydraulic transmission, friction shock absorber, battery electric ignition... These patents were either developed by Empire, or Empire acquired patents, and registered in major industrial countries. Now many European and American car manufacturers have to obtain patent authorization from us. In the field of automobiles, Empire is absolutely the world leader in both technology and scale. Last year, Empire's automobile production reached 80,000 vehicles, exceeding the total of other countries (the global production in the same period of history is 540,000 vehicles, but when Ford's assembly line was put into production in 1913, the United States produced 500,000 vehicles per year, and this year it may reach 180,000 vehicles."

"The imperial automobile industry is mainly driven by government procurement, and most of it is the need for agricultural machinery, transportation, public transportation, etc. for military, commercial, state-owned farms and royal family Farms. However, after the founding of the People's Republic of China, with the popularization of automobiles, the accumulation of national wealth, the low oil prices, the demand for automobiles in the new rich class of the Empire, and the middle and upper classes of European and American society has increased dramatically. After the war, many military products had to be converted to civilians, and there would be a big explosion at that time."

Geng Xuan looked at the shiny black car bodies being steadily landed on the car ground by the workers, picked up the screws from the conveyor belt, tightened them skillfully and welded them, and asked softly: "How did such complex technologies in the car be developed?"

"The Royal Industrial Fund has been doing this for more than 20 years." Guo Zhen smiled. "The old rules set by the late emperor. If the laboratories or experimental groups are supported by royal funds, as long as the products made are adopted by the company, the authorization fee must be paid at the price. Every product sold within 20 years must be paid. In addition, the scientific research awards in the empire are in full swing, and the competition between each other is very fierce. For enterprises, everyone's treatment and future are linked to economic returns, and the order evaluations of various government departments are very cruel. Everyone is a royal industry or state-owned enterprise. Most of the light industry are consortium enterprises, with deep background and transparent selection. It is basically based on strength, so they are very careful in considering all new technologies, new products and new processes."

"The competition within the royal industry is very cruel. Over the years, many royal factories have fallen behind due to management and other issues and finally fall apart. Many small factories have also risen step by step and become important forces. Everyone is fighting fiercely internally. When the industrial management committee coordinates prices and unify the enemy, it has gained a firm foothold in recent years."

Guo Zhen looked at Geng Xuan and looked at the worker's bee-like movements and said softly: "This is the semi-automated assembly line of Junka. The machinery and equipment are all produced by us, and are all driven by electric motors. The Empire now has more than 20 machine tool companies, drilling machines, boring machines, grinding machines, and milling machines. We can already produce and use them by ourselves. And now we have developed a combination lathe. I will take you to the lathe factory in the industrial zone to take a look."

Geng Xuan nodded and followed Guo Zhen forward along the production line.

"The first industrial assembly line of the empire was launched eight years ago in the sewing machine workshop in Annan. The assembly line and the process time were scientifically analyzed. It mainly used continuous cameras to shoot, decompose the movements of workers in each process, and then re-develop standardized manual movements to improve efficiency. At the same time, a combined salary system was adopted. As long as the basic production tasks were completed, you could get the basic salary, accounting for one-third, while the excess piece-based quality bonus accounted for two-thirds, and it was measured in unit of teams. This system has always been a secret of the royal industry, and only the recent consortiums learned a lot. Within the royal enterprise, each of them competed strongly on this. Each one was stealing his skills, exploring his thoughts, and jointly developed with the research institute. The Eight Immortals Cross the Sea..."

"Imperial Military Industry adopts the road of mass production of large-scale industries. The production line of fixed products uses many special combination lathes, and the parts are also as versatile as possible. Therefore, the cost is greatly reduced and production efficiency is improved. For example, the Nanfeng Sanjun Card produced on this line is finally finalized and expanded at the beginning of last year. Because this is a dual-purpose fixed product for military and civilians, the scheduled output is large, it uses general parts and a large number of special combination machine tools have been developed."

"...Nanfeng 3 Truck engine adopts a Diesel-type 60-horsepower inline four-cylinder diesel engine with the same type of armored automobile. It is a common type of mechanical fuel injection, electric ignition, transmission box gear and iron horse armored automobile. It adopts integrated cutting of a combined multi-cut machine tool, and automatic polishing of a special grinder. This combined machine tool is the first in the empire and the latest product. Its processing efficiency is dozens of times higher than that of a single-uniform machine tool, but the disadvantage is also obvious. Once the product is modified, it can only be rebuilt."

"...The automobile wheel hub is made of steel, and the technical level of the tires is absolutely top internationally. Most of the tires used in this type of Nanfeng Sanjun Card are products of Guangzhou Third Tire Company. At present, the military tires of the Empire uniformly use the detachable inner and outer tires designed by Guangzhou Royal Michelin. The materials are made of carbon black and light calcium reinforcement technology developed by Royal Nanyang Pegasus rubber. The inside is woven with five layers of cotton and multi-layer glue, and the warp and weft structure is woven and strong, and durable..."

"Now the entire transition is completed, the production line is converted into military products, the workers work in three shifts, and the machinery and equipment have been filled up. It only takes four hours for a new Nanfeng three-type truck to enter the workshop and take off the line. The two automobile companies in the industrial park can remove 1,200 military cards every month. We supply the military, and the net profit cannot exceed five percentage points according to wartime control. Now the price of each car has been reduced to 2,000 Huayuan. In addition, we have several lines that specialize in armored cars, motorcycles and artillery tractors. Most of the parts of these large cars can be universal, all of them are in assembly lines. The most wasteful manual links are specially developed for special combination lathes, which minimize costs and shorten working hours."

"...For workers who come up with ways to improve production efficiency, not only enterprises have awards, but royal industry has annual awards. The process of Nanfeng 3 was improved on the basis of Nanfeng 2. At that time, a squad leader on Nanfeng 2 proposed a new production line configuration plan. After the demonstration and trial, he was awarded 500 Huayuan, and directly promoted the workshop chief engineer. Then by the end of the year, the royal industry awarded another 1,000 Huayuan."...
Chapter completed!