In the next few days, the East China government arranged for the industrial and commercial group to visit the steel plant, power plant, Sifang Locomotive Factory, and two factories under construction, machinery manufacturing plant and steam engine manufacturing plant.

Steel plants, power plants, and Sifang Locomotive Factory are all the main industrial factories of the East China government. In addition to Qingdao Shipyard and Arsenal, they are the five major heavy industrial factories of the East China government. Except for the secrets involved in the arsenal, it is impossible for the industrial and commercial regiment to visit. The other four must naturally be arranged in the visit, showing the East China government's industrial strength and determination to develop industry.

Now the No. 2 blast furnace of the steel plant has been completed and put into production. The monthly production capacity can reach about 3,500 tons, and the annual output is about 40,000 tons. This number has reached 2/3 of the annual production capacity of the Hanyang Iron Plant. In addition, two more blast furnaces will be built within the five-year plan, with an annual steel production of more than 80,000 tons. In addition, a test workshop has been established in the steel industry, which is specially used to study and refine various special steels and professional steels. Other processing factories that are equipped with steel plants, such as steel rolling mills, accessories factories, etc., are also under construction.

Steel is the foundation of the development of modern society. Almost all modern industries cannot do without steel. Therefore, only sufficient steel supply can ensure the development of industry. Therefore, even in the era of time travelers, steel output was one of the important symbols for measuring a country's industrial development, and in this era, it represents a symbol of national strength.

The current power generation capacity of power plants is basically enough, because Qingdao currently uses electricity mainly for lighting, while other electrical equipment has not been popularized. Therefore, Qingdao is now popularizing lighting electricity, and all main and secondary roads will be illuminated this year, and all factories and shops will be powered on; and during the five-year plan, all roads in the urban area will be widely used for lighting, all buildings in the urban area will be powered on, and some of them will be radiated to the suburbs of the urban area. In addition, the power plants in Tianjin and Jinan are also under construction, and the Shanghai power plant plan has also been approved by the Executive Yuan, and generator set equipment has been ordered from Germany.

Although the industrial development of this era has not yet reached the level of electrical appliances, even lighting electricity plays a considerable role in promoting industrialization. First of all, it has strengthened safety production. The production workshops of modern factories have a large surface area, and lighting is needed even during the day. Although electrical lighting is also dangerous, it is much safer than lighting such as candles and oil lamps. In the textile industry and wood industry, electrical lighting is much safer than candles and oil lamps; in terms of lighting brightness, it is a hundred times stronger than candles and oil lamps, so production efficiency can also be improved. Because for night work, production efficiency can be greatly improved.

At Sifang Locomotive Factory, in addition to visiting the production workshop, it mainly introduced the construction of the Jiaoji Railway to merchants. Moreover, Zhan Tianyou also made a special trip back from the construction site of the Jiaoji Railway to tell the merchants about the railway construction and planning situation in Shandong. Because in this era, Zhan Tianyou was definitely the authority in railway construction, and he introduced it to the merchants, of course, the persuasiveness should be stronger.

The Jiaoji Railway project went smoothly. Now some sections have begun trial openings, and are expected to be completed and opened to traffic in 1903. By then, it will only take 10-12 hours to get from Qingdao to Jinan. This is not considered other cities along the Jiaoji Railway. Moreover, the Jiaoji Railway basically passes through the areas of Shandong's coal-iron and gold mine base. Therefore, once this railway is opened, it will greatly promote the economic development of Shandong Province.

In addition, the Qingyan Line Railway from Qingdao-Weihai-Yantai has entered the geological survey stage and can be started within this year. It is expected to be completed in 1907. There is also another railway that is in the east and west of Shandong. It is also planned to start construction in 1904 and complete in 1908. After both railways are completed, the mileage of Shandong's railway will reach 1,100 kilometers. By that time, it will be able to reach any prefecture area in Shandong within one day. The transportation, logistics and personnel in Shandong will be improved leaps and bounds.

This news also made many businessmen quite excited. Convenient transportation is also one of the important conditions for the development of the industrial and commercial economy. It can not only transport products quickly, but also transport raw materials and fuel in. Although they do not yet have the understanding of "railways are the blood vessels of modern society", they also know the principle of "If you want to be rich, build roads first". Therefore, it can also be expected that if you really invest in Shandong, then after all these three railways are opened, it will be extremely convenient to operate.

What made Sheng Xuanhuai sigh was Zhan Tianyou's attitude. Although he and Zhan Tianyou were not close friends, they could also be considered ordinary friends. Moreover, Sheng Xuanhuai was one of the few people in the Qing court who could recognize Zhan Tianyou's true value and planned to entrust Zhan Tianyou with important tasks. However, Zhan Tianyou finally chose overseas Chinese. Seeing Zhan Tianyou's appearance when he explained to the merchants, his excitement was overwhelming. It was obvious that he was quite comfortable with overseas Chinese. After listening to the railway planning of the East China government, Sheng Xuanhuai couldn't help but sigh inwardly. Of course, he knew that the total railway mileage of the Qing court was only more than 600 kilometers, and even in 1908, the railway mileage built would not exceed 1,000 kilometers. The courage and resolute actions of overseas Chinese were indeed far above the Qing court. And Zhan Tianyou's choice was not unreasonable.

The machinery manufacturing plant and the steam engine manufacturing plant are under construction, and the merchants are just walking around the construction site, mainly listening to the details of the two projects introduced by the East China government.

In fact, these two factories are also one of the five-year projects of the East China government. The machinery and equipment used by the factories and enterprises in the East China government are basically imported from abroad. Of course, it is normal to be in the early stage of industrialization. And to a certain extent, this can make full use of mature foreign technology and equipment to accelerate its own industrialization process. But in the long run, this is of course not conducive to the industrial development of the East China government. First, it requires a high cost to purchase foreign machinery and equipment; second, technology is subject to others, and once foreign countries cut off the supply of machinery and equipment, it will cause serious losses to the industrial development of the East China government; third, it is truly high-end and sophisticated technology, and foreign countries will not buy it to the East China government, so what the East China government can get is always second-rate equipment.

Of course, the East China government has mastered a large number of advanced theoretical technologies, so through technology exchange or joint cooperation, we have obtained a lot of first-class machinery and equipment from Germany, but this is limited to a few factories such as arsenals, shipyards, power plants, steel plants, etc., and most factories purchase machinery and equipment second-rate, and the East China government also has a considerable number of machinery and equipment purchased from the United States, and time travelers have never exchanged technology with the United States.

But despite this, this is just a temporary measure. In the end, the East China government still needs to realize the self-production of machinery and equipment to ensure that the core technology of industrialization is in its own hands. Moreover, steel plants now have a certain production capacity because building machines requires a large amount of steel. Machinery manufacturers and steam engine manufacturers are the first step towards self-production of machinery and equipment.

Of course, mechanical manufacturing is a big concept. The most important feature of industrial production in modern society is that the social division of labor is becoming increasingly refined. Even in this era when modernization is not very high, a machinery manufacturing factory cannot produce all the machinery and equipment needed for industrial production. According to the plan, machinery manufacturing factories will currently focus on producing textile equipment, such as spinning machines, looms, combing machines, silk suppression machines, bleaching machines, finishing and dyeing machines, etc.

This is mainly because the technical level of textile machinery and equipment is relatively low, suitable for manufacturing machines to start, and can be compared in a short period of time. More importantly, the East China government has a great demand for textile machinery and equipment. Since the textile industry is the industry with the greatest impact on people's livelihood, in addition to grain and salt, the peak period of the textile industry has passed around the world, for countries like China with a huge population base and extremely weak industry, the textile industry still has great room for development. Even Japan's current industry is mainly textile industry, and most of textile products are bought in China. Therefore, actively developing the textile industry can not only improve people's lives, but also curb the expansion of Japanese products in China.

However, the strength of the East China government's textile industry is still far from comparable to that of Japan, but it is developing very fast. The number of machines in Tianjin Yu* Textile Factory has reached more than 6,000, and it is still being expanded. Within the five-year plan, the production machines will reach 20,000. In addition, Qingdao, Jinan, Qingzhou and other places have plans to set up textile factories, and some private merchants also plan to set up textile factories. Therefore, it is expected that in the next 10 years, the East China government's demand for textile machines will be at least 50,000 units, which will far exceed other machines. For such a huge cake, the East China government will certainly not let foreign countries swallow them all, and they will get a piece of it.

The technology of steam engines is much higher than that of textile machines, but steam engines are the main source of power in this era. In the next 30-50 years, although they will be impacted by electricity and internal combustion engines, they will dominate the power of trains and ships. Therefore, steam engine technology must be mastered in any case.
Chapter completed!