Chapter 2748
According to the plan made by the Ministry of Construction, in addition to the offices of the Executive Committee, most of the important agencies are concentrated in the large area north of West Lake. There are more than ten office buildings to be built on the designated construction site alone. Building. Major ministries and commissions such as national defense, industry and agriculture, construction, transportation, culture and education, finance, foreign affairs, justice, and civil affairs will gradually move to this place. It can be expected that this area will be the center of power of the Haihan Empire for a long time to come.
There are currently four to five thousand craftsmen and civilians working in this area, and this number will increase significantly as follow-up projects are carried out. In order to facilitate the transportation of building materials, a two-mile-long dock was built on the bank of the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal adjacent to this place. Cargo ships continuously transport various materials here every day, many of which are shipped thousands of miles from the south. High-end goods.
Of course, as the official in charge of Haihan Industry, Bai Kesi is most concerned about the areas he is responsible for.
"Regarding the preparations for the relocation of industrial units, how is the current progress?" After listening to the introduction of the project progress in the administrative office area, Bai Kesi couldn't wait to turn the topic to industrial projects.
Shi Diwen said: "In accordance with the requirements of the Ministry of Industry, some areas have been selected in Hangzhou, Ningbo, Jiaxing, and Shaoxing as future light industry bases. As for high-end industries that have certain requirements for power systems, they will be located in Yanzhou Prefecture. The infrastructure projects and hydropower stations required for construction in Jiande County have also started.”
The Hangzhou area was selected as the future capital of the empire. Of course, it has many advantages, but its shortcomings are also obvious, that is, there is a relatively lack of energy and minerals required for the development of heavy industry. Therefore, when planning industrial relocation, we have to take into account the actual situation here. Some large-scale industrial projects that rely heavily on energy supply, such as the steel smelting plant in Changhua, Hainan, cannot be moved here in the short term.
The nearest coal mine to Hangzhou is located in Changxing County, Huzhou Prefecture, two hundred miles northwest of Hangzhou. However, only preliminary exploration work has been completed so far, and formal mining has not yet been completed. Fortunately, the coal mined locally can be transported directly to Hangzhou via inland waterway shipping, and the transportation costs are still acceptable.
Haihan has already widely promoted the use of steam engines as power in light industrial production. After the Changxing Coal Mine begins production, most of the energy needs of light industrial projects deployed in eastern Zhejiang should be met, and the gap will be solved through sea transportation. As for the power supply required by various agencies and the living areas of high-level personnel, it can also be solved through thermal power generation.
The main reason why light industries such as textiles, agricultural and sideline product processing, and consumer goods are concentrated in several coastal state capitals is to consider transportation convenience. Raw materials for most commodities can be obtained locally, and after production, they can be easily transported to coastal areas and the Yangtze River Basin through shipping, as well as to overseas markets.
And those relatively high-end manufacturing industries, such as machinery, chemical industry, etc., require more than primary energy such as coal. It is difficult to ensure stable supply only by small-scale thermal power generation, so the Ministry of Industry still chooses mature technologies. And relatively stable water and electricity. But the same problem remains: Hangzhou lacks the natural conditions required to develop hydropower.
The Ministry of Industry finally selected the Xin'an River located in Jiande County, Yanzhou Prefecture. It is connected to Qiandao Lake on the top and the Qiantang River on the bottom. It has the topography of the canyons required for the construction of hydropower stations, and the natural conditions are much better than those on Hainan Island. Several hydropower stations have been built. But the only problem is that this place is more than two hundred miles away from Hangzhou, and the power transmission and transformation engineering technology currently mastered by Haihan is not enough to transmit electricity over such a long distance, so those industrial projects that require electricity can only It can be deployed nearby in Jiande County. Of course, the benefits of building a hydropower station in the upper reaches of the Xinan River go beyond power supply. After the project is completed, it will have associated benefits for flood control, irrigation, shipping, breeding, etc. in the basin.
Bai Kesi nodded and said: "Over the Xin'an River, I will go and take a look in person in two days."
Shi Diwen ordered the two officials present to stand up and introduced to Bai Kesi. One of these two people is the former prefect of Yanzhou Prefecture who joined Haihan, and the other is the foreman in charge of the Xin'an River Hydropower Project. When Bai Kesi goes to inspect the site, it is inevitable that they will accompany him throughout the process.
Shi Diwen understood that Baikes was going to Jiande County not only to supervise the work on site, but also to inspect some of his key projects, such as the arsenal under the Haihan Ministry of Industry, most of which would be settled locally.
Haihan's ordnance production technology is currently in the process of transforming from manual processing to steam-powered equipment, and only a few high-end equipment needs to be processed and manufactured on electrical equipment. But even if it is just steam-powered processing equipment, its production efficiency has exceeded that of manual labor by dozens of times. This is one of the secrets of Haihan's ability to mass-produce standard weapons at a lower cost.
But the time travelers are very clear about what is the future direction of technological upgrades. The replacement of steam power by electricity will greatly enhance the efficiency and precision of mechanical processing. The new industrial zone located in Jiande County will receive a more abundant power supply from the Tiandu Industrial Zone, and these arsenals will also use this relocation to complete a major upgrade in production technology.
Of course, it will not only be the arsenal that will receive technological upgrades, but also the high-end manufacturing part of Haihan Industrial will benefit from this. For example, the manufacturing technology and production capacity of various power equipment currently produced, whether it is steam engines or more advanced internal combustion engines, will be improved. In particular, the internal combustion engine, which the Ministry of Industry has always wanted to vigorously promote but has been limited by high manufacturing costs, will probably usher in spring with the completion of this new industrial zone.
However, these specific project contents are not suitable to be discussed in the current meeting. First, most of the officials present do not know what industry is. Talking to them now about the benefits of developing industry is tantamount to talking to cattle. Nor did it achieve the desired effect. Second, most of these projects are confidential, and the executive committee does not want the outside world to understand the importance of the layout in Jiande County too early. Otherwise, local land prices and labor prices may skyrocket in a short period of time. This is not what the official wants. sights seen.
After the two officials named by Shi Diwen stood up, they also briefly reported to Bai Kesi some of the information they had. Jiande County has mobilized more than 2,000 people to invest in the preliminary infrastructure construction of the hydropower station. On the banks of the Xin'an River outside the county seat, nearly half of the wharf expansion project has been completed. In addition, many pieces of private land acquired locally in the name of the government have been completed and included in the construction sites to be built.
(End of chapter)