Chapter 908 Xuzhou Station

The first stop of the tour is Chuzhou.

Because Chuzhou is close to Nanjing, it has developed fairly well.

The current main economic pillar here is agriculture, followed by the planting of medicinal materials and mining of minerals.

Wu Changqing and the others came to those large farms and watched the use of agricultural machinery.

The harvester can't be demonstrated at this time, but some other machines can.

Moreover, the harvester also has a detailed introduction to its use method and its efficiency.

When they heard that with the cooperation of five people, they could complete the harvesting task of 500 mu of land in one day, the officials in Tongtong couldn't help but nodded.

This kind of thing is definitely a weapon of the country.

Dahua is a big agricultural country, and food is the foundation.

When other foreign ambassadors saw Dahua Agriculture's farming efficiency, they all opened their mouths and were speechless.

They know that the country is reforming and catching up with Dahua.

But seeing Dahua's agricultural machinery, they knew that catching up with Dahua was a joke.

The five high-quality farmers in front of me can feed at least a thousand Dahua people in a year.

That is to say, among the 1,000 Dahua people, there are more than 900 who are not engaged in production and have a lot of time to study, research, and create.

This condition cannot be compared with other countries.

Out of a thousand of them, at least eight hundred must work in the fields to feed all of them.

Among the remaining 200 people, excluding officials, businessmen, and the army, there are basically not many left. The population base for scientific research is small, so it is naturally difficult to come up with results.

Several Western European ambassadors glanced at each other, and they all saw despair in each other's eyes.

At this moment, they want to hug each other and cry, and sing a song, they are both fallen people in the world.

In addition to agriculture, there are many rock salt and gypsum mines in Chuzhou. Rock salt can be processed into fine salt for consumption, and it is also an important chemical raw material.

These minerals have added many characteristic industries to Chuzhou.

Wu Changqing stayed in Chuzhou for a day, inspected the medicinal material processing factory, and gave important instructions.

Wu Changqing said that a country cannot only have heavy industry, other industries such as agriculture and medicinal materials are equally important. Chuzhou should give full play to its unique advantages, increase investment in the medicinal material industry, and not blindly pursue heavy industry.

Wu Changqing specifically mentioned this matter, mainly because Dahua has a heavy industry trend now, and it seems that if you want to get rich, you must engage in heavy industry.

At present, Dahua is blindly pursuing the construction of heavy industry in many places, ignoring its own development conditions.

It is not so easy to develop heavy industry.

Geographic location, traffic conditions, talent pool, government support, etc., are all indispensable.

In places where the temporary conditions are immature, attempts to develop heavy industry for the sake of political achievements often end in failure.

This is not good, it will waste manpower and material resources.

With Wu Changqing's affirmation, Liu Wei, the prefect of Chuzhou, heaved a sigh of relief.

At the beginning, some subordinates persuaded him to choose to develop heavy industry relying on the advantage of being close to Nanjing, saying that he could not make a lot of achievements, and then everyone was promoted and made a fortune together.

But Liu Wei knows that it is not so easy to develop heavy industry, and it is impossible to obtain technical support from the imperial court first.

The memorials to apply for technical support are all piled up in the scientific research department, but there are so many people in the scientific research department to support.

Technical support is not just a matter of sending a few books, but also dispatching corresponding talents.

It takes time to cultivate talents. Even though Dahua has been vigorously cultivating, it is still far behind the needs of various places.

Therefore, those cities and places with poor development conditions will naturally lose their applications.

Bengbu and Suzhou also stayed there, followed by the key city of Xuzhou.

Xuzhou's current development is very good, after all, it is one of the first ten supporting cities. In the mouths of people in other places, Xuzhou is the son of the imperial court, while in other places it is raised by stepmothers.

This kind of complaint is also justifiable. Xuzhou has good development conditions, but it can still be taken care of.

When opening a factory in Xuzhou, the imperial court will send technicians to guide them.

To set up a business in Xuzhou, the Royal Bank will provide loans.

For production in Xuzhou, the imperial court will even help find sales.

With such support, Xuzhou has now formed a complete industrial chain.

Naturally, the imperial court was not partial in doing so, and the most important thing was to pursue benefits.

Xuzhou has a large number of coal mines, and there is no shortage of energy. Setting up factories here will save a lot of energy costs compared to those places where coal is scarce.

Here 10,000 yuan can support a factory, and 15,000 yuan is needed in places where coal is scarce. The imperial court naturally chose Xuzhou.

What's more, Xuzhou has more than just coal.

Limestone, iron ore, and potassium ore are all abundant in reserves, enough to support an industry.

In addition to mineral resources, it is also the transportation center of the Central Plains. In terms of railway, the Beijing-North Line passes through Xuzhou, and it is also the starting point of Xi'an in Xuzhou.

In terms of water transport, there are also the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal and the Huaihe River.

Moreover, there have been many scholars in Xuzhou since ancient times, and it is easier to cultivate talents.

Many conditions constitute the reasons for the rapid development of Xuzhou.

The current Xuzhou has a population of 1.5 million and is the tenth most populous city in Dahua.

Wu Changqing inspected the steel plant and lime plant in Xuzhou.

However, he didn't go to see those production workshops, it wasn't necessary.

From the data presented below, Wu Changqing almost knew the development of the factory.

What he wanted to know could not be discerned just by glancing at it.

Wu Changqing randomly called a few workers and questioned them personally. "How many hours a day do you work?"

The few workers who were questioned were very nervous. They were all told in advance not to talk nonsense.

However, they don't know exactly what nonsense is, and the explanation from above is very vague.

Facing the emperor's inquiry, they dared not lie even more.

"Five and a half hours."

A worker said cautiously.

Wu Changqing sighed in his heart when he heard the words, eleven hours was a bit too long, after all this is not a garment factory, but a steel factory that consumes a lot of energy.

Working eleven hours a day is basically overdrawing your life.

"Tired?"

Wu Changqing asked.

The worker hesitated for a moment, nodded, and then said, "It's worth being a little bit tired. You can earn three or four times more money than farming at home."

"Did anyone get hurt at work?"

Wu Changqing continued to ask.

This question made Xu Aowen, the factory manager accompanying the inspection, panic for a moment, for fear that the workers would tell the truth.

The worker being questioned was very troubled at this moment. He really wanted to tell Wu Changqing the truth, but he didn't dare.

After all, the emperor will only stay here for a few days. After the emperor leaves, this place will still belong to the factory manager.

"I'm not sure. We don't have any in this group, but we just have some minor bumps and injuries occasionally."

said the worker.

He said it very implicitly, but Wu Changqing could already hear the meaning behind his words from his expression and tone.

Of course, he can guess without asking, that many workers will definitely be injured.