The journey starts from the Titanic

As early as before the Xinhai, the Japanese acquired shares in Hanyang Iron Works.During the First World War, it became a godsend opportunity for Japan to expand in China. The dead Yuan Datou and the Beiyang government who inherited his mantle were unable to maintain it.

In this case, despite the brief glories of World War I, Hanyang Iron Works, which once set a record of 190,000 tons of pig iron and 6,000 tons of steel, fell into the Japanese conspiracy after a flash in the pan and was eaten to death by the Japanese. of.

The current Hanyang Iron Works has completely played the role of the Japanese steel industry. Apart from producing pig iron and supplying iron ore, there is no spare capacity to upgrade the technology. In other words, the Hanyang Iron Works cannot produce steel and has to pay for its own martial arts.

The steel backbone that the Chinese used to be proud of has become a ban on the Japanese more than since.

This is a pity!

Well, the Japanese acquired most of the shares in Hanyang Iron Works, and they also used contracts to restrict the development of Hanyang Iron Works. Every year, most of the pig iron and iron ore produced by Hanyang Iron Works are shipped out of Japan and become raw materials for Yawata Iron Works. Become the steel produced by the Japanese!

Machines and weapons made of steel by the Japanese were sold to China after being sold in and out, and the profit was tenfold and one hundredfold.

Through the industrial scissors, they continue to plunder China's resources and seize the Chinese market, relying on stepping on China's corpses.With the rapid development of Japanese heavy industry after World War I, the exploitation and plunder of China will gradually deepen.

After occupying the Northeast market, Japan is competing with British capital in North China, and then step by step to the south, across the Yangtze River to divide the Chinese market with British and American capital.

Great powers are not good things, and Situ Nan thinks that he is not too good, but he knows that only the Japanese cannot succeed.

The Hanyang Iron Works Situ Nan felt that the Japanese should not be cheap, but he couldn't think of a good way for a while.

I heard that there are still some Chinese shareholders in Hanyang Iron Factory who are still fighting. Situ Nan plans to send someone to secretly contact the Chinese shareholders and try to buy back some shares of Hanyang Iron Factory from them.

I just don’t know if it works by controlling the barbarian?

Well, if Meihua does not appear as a barbarian, it is estimated that she will not be able to match the Japanese.

As for the debts owed by the Hanyang Iron Works to the Japanese, it is not difficult to deal with.As long as Meihua can be the master, Situ Nan doesn't mind paying a price to let the Japanese get out, and by the way clean up the Japanese lackeys.

"Yimin, pay attention to this after I leave! Try to get the iron factory back!" Situ Nan told Lin Yimin.

"Master, isn't it necessary? We also have our own steel plant. Manila has enough steel, so why bother to fight for a rotten shell?"

Lin Yimin was a little unhappy when he heard Situ Nan's idea of ​​hitting Hanyang Iron Works.

In his opinion, the Hanyang Iron Plant is backward in technology and equipment, and it is not worth the hard work. It is better to invest in a new plant.

"It's not worth it. But I just think the devils are not pleasing to the eye! Then if the abandoned factory falls into our hands, we can at least do some technological upgrades. It may not make much money, but it can leave a little industry for this country in the future. industry.

If you let Japan continue to toss, it won't take a few years, I think the factory will not even have scrap iron.If you look at this country, there is no decent iron and steel industry, so it's just a bit of blood, and it's worth spending some money to keep it.Situ Nan said with emotion and looked at Lin Yimin firmly.

Although Hanyang made garbage, it is not as big as 38. Although Situ Nan is not optimistic that it can be beaten by hundreds of thousands of aircraft cannons made by Hanyang, at least the number of Hanyang made is still sufficient.

"Okay! I won't let the Japanese succeed." Lin Yimin said.

I thought: Hubei is the territory of the direct line, and the direct line of warlords have close relations with British and American capital. If they are willing to lose money to take over the Hanyang Iron Factory, it is estimated that the direct line of warlords plus American forces are also somewhat certain to take back the Hanyang Iron Factory from the Japanese. .

In fact, don’t the Japanese just want to get raw materials from iron factories?This is definitely not missing from Meihua.

Whether from America or Australia, or even Nanyang where iron ore resources are relatively sparse, Meihua Company can obtain a large amount of high-quality iron ore, and has also developed a certain degree of steel industry.

Long before He Wenxiu and other armed forces entered Nanyang, Situ Nan invested in a steel plant in Manila, the Philippines under the name of Meihua Company.

This steel plant is called the Manila Iron and Steel Plant, which is wholly owned by Meihua Company. After fertilizing in the First World War, its annual output reached 100,000 tons, including 10,000 tons of steel.

Although the quantity is small, the technology comes from Bethlehem Steel Company. Through this steel plant, Meihua Company has mastered a lot of steel technology.

Some outstanding talents are selected from the Manila Iron and Steel Plant, and then sent to the United States, Germany, France and other steel companies that have business with Meihua for further training in order to reserve talents for the future.

Meihua is currently working on large-scale civil engineering in Sumatra, building ports, opening oil fields, shipyards, tin mining, rubber planting, logging, etc., all require a large amount of iron products.

Wastewater does not flow to outsiders' fields. Except for some special high-quality steel products that need to be imported from the United States, the steel products under the US-China Consortium also preferentially purchase from Manila Steel Plant.

The trouble is that the output of the Manila Iron and Steel Plant cannot provide so many iron products, so Meihua had to increase the investment in the Manila Iron and Steel Plant.

Taking advantage of the upgrading of the US steel industry after the war, Meihua bought a 200,000-ton steel production line from Bethlehem.

At the same time, they secretly bought a special steel production line from Germany, trying to absorb German technology to produce some key parts of machinery and equipment.

For example, the submarine base in the Outer Harbor of Medan requires the Manila Steel Plant to generate some rarely used parts.

Although Situ Nan is in Guangzhou, he knows everything about the William Consortium in the United States or the Nanyang Zhi Gong Party.

According to his plan, the Manila Steel Plant strives to expand its production capacity to 300,000 tons within three years.

For the sake of confidentiality, the Manila Iron and Steel Plant has not disclosed its steel output. Some figures released to the outside world also judge the output of the Manila Iron and Steel Plant to be about 40,000 to 50,000 tons.

This is completely negligible for the huge steel production in the United States.Moreover, in the American colonies, Meihua Company and the Philippine Government House are closely related, so there is no fear of foreign interference.

Due to the self-consumption of the products, the Manila Iron and Steel Plant hardly made any money. Instead, it absorbed a large amount of funds from Meihua every year. Therefore, Lin Yimin believed that Situ Nan's intervention in the Hanyang Iron Plant was not worth the loss.

At the same time, in order to turn steel into various machine components, Meihua invested in a Meihua Metal Company in Medan, which specializes in machinery manufacturing, and tried to produce some relatively heavy and large mining machinery and ship parts.

The technical equipment of Meihua Metal Company is undoubtedly all imported from the United States.In order to strengthen armaments, Meihua Metal Company secretly established an arsenal to produce rifles, bullets, and mortars.

"Master, this gun was sent by a Nanyang messenger! It is said that Medan has been successful." Lin Yimin happily handed a violin box to Situ Nan.

This is a rifle produced by the secret arsenal of Medan Meihua Metal Company under the guidance of a German technician. He Wenxiu knew that Situ Nan liked to collect this rifle, so he sent someone to Guangzhou secretly.

"Oh? Let me try!" Situ Nan quickly walked the result box, opened it, and it was full of parts.

Situ Nan assembled those parts quantitatively, and it immediately became a brand new rifle.

"Mauser 98! Looks good!" Situ Nan stroked the roasted blue barrel, feeling a little like it, and shook the trigger to make an aim.

Then I put a 2.5x sight on it, tried it, and I could almost see the street one kilometer away from the window.

"This Zeiss lens is also pretty good. I guess it was made by a German technician? I didn't expect Nanyang to really get a lot of good things from the Germans." Situ Nan praised.

Medan is a bit rough, so it is not as good as the original German products, but it is better than Hanyang, which was tossed by the Japanese.

"It is said that the performance has reached half of that of German products, and it can be increased to about 80% of German products." Lin Yimin said.

"80%?" Situ Nan frowned slightly.

"Yes! I heard that the main problem is steel. The quality of the barrels produced by our steel plant in Manila is not stable. 8 is a good result!" Lin Yimin explained.

It's a great achievement that a product can be more authentic.

The technology of Meihua's steel plant in Manila is much better than that of the Hanyang plant, so Lin Yimin looks down on Hanyang.

"Okay! Eighty percent! This guy Hans really contributed a lot. Next time I see him, I have to thank him."

Situ Nan nodded.And Lin Yimin continued to discuss the topic of Guangzhou real estate project.

Chapter 84 Investment in Building Materials and Electricity

"The steel used in Guangzhou can be imported from the Philippines, but should we also have our own raw materials for other building materials such as sand, gravel, cement, etc.? Is it not cost-effective to import or purchase Qixin cement from the north?" Lin Yimin asked again .