Chapter Eleven: The Machine Factory

  The night passed quickly!

  Soft sunlight passes through the carved window and pours into the house, illuminating every detail of the entire room.

  He slowly opened his eyes, turned to look at the side of his body, and found it empty. He remembered Xiao Yatou's face flushing with embarrassment last night, and Huo Shan couldn't help but laugh silently. Although they didn't do anything due to their age, just sleeping on the same bed, it was still a bit out of line for this conservative era!

  Looking out, it was already bright outside. He couldn't stay in bed any longer. After putting on his clothes, he welcomed the warm sunshine and stretched his waist with a big yawn. His whole body felt refreshed and invigorated, filled with unprecedented motivation and confidence.

  Because he still had many things on his mind about the factory, after hastily having breakfast with his mother, Huo Shan couldn't wait to take out the drawings he had already prepared and rush out of the house with Lei Zi.

  Sitting in the bumpy carriage, Mr. Huo's eyebrows were tightly furrowed. Coming from the 21st century, he was used to comfortable cars and trains, and every time he rode a horse-drawn carriage, it felt like an arduous journey, with his whole body feeling like it was falling apart. The slow speed was also unbearable! However, in the past two months, he had gotten somewhat used to it.

  The current internal combustion engine power is really too low, not only the volume is too large, but also the power is very low, and it can't meet the use standard of cars at all! Huo Shan still remembers that the world's first car was manufactured by Karl Benz in Germany in 1887, and now the time is still far away!

  Thinking of this, Mr. Huo couldn't help but let out a long sigh and thought to himself: "Still need to wait!"

  The swaying carriage came out of the mountain villa and walked onto the main road leading to Taipei City, but it did not enter the city. Instead, it turned into a fork in the road that was being constantly widened. It wasn't until about half an hour later that Huo Shan and his companions stopped at a small town called "Taiping Town".

  Looking at the young man getting off the horse cart, Hu Dezhong, who had been waiting for a long time, quickly went to greet him. Through more than a month of contact, his ability in factory management had also gained the trust of Huoshan, so after the crucial machinery plant was set up here, Huoshan transferred him over.

  "Master, you've arrived! Uncle Fu is currently busy debugging machines at the factory and has arranged for me to take you there!"

  "Alright, Uncle Zhong! Let's go now!"

  "Lei Zi, take that suitcase from the car, let's go!"

  At first, considering that the factory's scale might expand in the future, so when planning the entire plant area, Huo Shan left out enough land, with over a thousand mu. Fortunately, the place where the factory was built was all barren beach, which couldn't be cultivated and wasn't worth much money, so Fu Bo didn't say anything.

  However, this hundred-acre land has only established a production workshop so far, and the land utilization rate is less than one percent. Nevertheless, many factory buildings have been built for future expansion.

  Due to its large scale, from the factory gate, entering the production workshop is still a considerable distance.

  At first, in order not to affect the factory's future production, Huo Shan had already stipulated that except for vehicles pulling goods, other factory management personnel's horse-drawn carriages were not allowed to enter the factory. The reason for formulating this seemingly somewhat inappropriate regulation was also to guarantee the factory's production efficiency, after all, the horse-drawn carriages at that time were not as fast as the cars of later generations.

  Although there were still hundreds of meters to go, fortunately the factory's road had been paved with cement beforehand, so Huo Shan and his group quickly arrived at the entrance of the workshop. Seeing the old man already waiting there with over a dozen people, he couldn't help but quicken his pace.

  "Father Fu!"

  "Hehe, young master, we've debugged the machines and the steel materials we ordered from foreign firms have arrived! We can start production in just a few more days!"

  After listening to the old man's words, Huo Shan couldn't help but frown, feeling somewhat helpless in his heart. Although his steel mill had been established, it would probably take a few more months before production could begin. For now, he could only purchase steel materials from outside to ensure production continued.

  "The road of national industry rising is long and arduous!" He Shan sighed in his heart.

  "By the way, how's the vocational school that Uncle Fu set up?" Some time ago, Huo Shan had asked Old Master to set up a vocational school in order to cultivate industrial workers needed for his own factory.

  "Following the young master's instructions, we have successively established ten technical schools in Taipei and Keelung. Each school has between 500 to 1,000 students, and the teachers are all technicians and senior skilled workers that we poached from the Qing government's various foreign affairs factories. Since implementing the new labor standards set by the young master, the students' learning attitude is very serious, and with the simplified characters and dictionaries compiled by the young master, their learning speed is also very fast. In about half a year, we can cultivate an entry-level skilled worker; in one year, we can cultivate an intermediate skilled worker. However, cultivating a senior skilled worker may require two years or even longer!"

  "Well, it's already quite good to be able to do so much now. A senior technician not only needs to have rich knowledge but also good hands-on skills, which can't be cultivated in a short time. However, the industrial assembly line production method we use will greatly reduce our demand for senior workers. With the number of workers we currently reserve, we can meet the needs of our factory at this stage!"

  He said, Huo Shan stopped in front of a lathe and touched the cold steel, turning his head to face a man in his 40s who was following behind him, "Master Gao, how are these machines?"

  Forty-six-year-old Gao Youde is one of the twenty-four people who were rated as technicians after the implementation of the new labor standard in Huoshan. He used to work at Jiangnan Machine Bureau for more than 20 years and was also tempted by Hu Dajie's high salary of 50 taels of silver per month, so he moved his family to Taiwan and is now the person in charge of this production workshop.

  Although the young master's tone was a bit strange, Gao Youde still replied quickly: "In response to your question, these machine tools are not new, but their performance is good! There is no problem with processing accuracy!"

  After listening to his words, Huo Shan nodded in understanding. Due to the machine's forceful rejection, the new machine was actually not as good as the old one! He turned around and took the suitcase that Lei Zi was holding in his hand, put it on the machine, opened it, and handed over the drawings he had drawn himself to the middle-aged man behind him!

  "How's it going? Are you confident?"

  Gao Youde took the papers with a suspicious look on his face, quickly flipped through them, and then said with his head down: "The mechanical parts drawn by the young master, such as bearings, gears, round rods, axle sleeves, axle pads, nuts, etc., are all very standard, and the data is also very detailed. With our current conditions, we can produce them, but the alloy steel material used here still needs the young master to think of a way."

  "Hmm, I see. If we start working on it now, how long will it take to produce these mechanical parts?" Ho Shan asked further.

  "It'll probably take about half a month!" The middle-aged man replied affirmatively after some calculation.

  "Alright, I'll give you half a month's time. Half a month later, I want to see results. If you can complete the task on time, I won't be stingy with silver either. Each person will be rewarded with five taels of silver, and I will not go back on my word!" Huo Shan said loudly in front of all the workers.

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  Listening to the roar of machinery and the enthusiastic cheers of workers behind him, Mr. Huo walked out of the sweltering factory with satisfaction, bringing Fu Bo along, and boarded the horse carriage back to the mountain villa!

  "Fu Bo, how many workers do we have now?"

  "Not counting apprentices, we have 2,578 primary technicians, 860 intermediate technicians, 198 senior technicians, and 24 engineers! Among them, there are less than 100 foreign workers, the rest are all workers recruited from within our Qing dynasty!"

  After listening to the old man, Huo Shan nodded in understanding. At this time, the Qing Dynasty's position in the world was that unless someone couldn't make a living in their own country, who would come to a land filled with opium and queues in the eyes of Europeans? It's likely that even these fewer than 100 foreign workers were mostly primary and intermediate technicians, basically all coming to the East to seek fortune but failing and losing their way back home. However, now his industrial scale was still very small, and for now, these workers, plus those he had been cultivating himself, were basically enough.

  "Wait until two years later, when the thirteenth economic crisis comes, hehe, Young Master will make them behave!" Huo Shan said with a cold smile in his heart.

  "Now, the workers within the Qing court who can be recruited by us have basically all arrived in Taiwan over this past month. The remaining ones may require some effort!" Fu Bo looked at Young Master's contemplative expression and continued after a pause.

  "Ah, don't stop recruiting workers, as long as they have real talent and skills, it's worth spending some money! This will save us a lot of trouble in the future! Don't be stingy about this!"

  "Got it, young master!"

  After finishing speaking, the two of them thought about their own things, and the train carriage became quiet for a while.

  "Fu Bo, what about those industrial equipment we ordered for the second time?" Huo Shan's low voice broke the silence in the car.

  "Half a month ago, I've already sent Huo Yu and Huo Zhou to Europe to keep watch. As soon as there's any news, I'll notify Young Master immediately!"

  "Mr. Fu, we now have so many workers. Even if all the machines ordered from Britain are installed, there will still be a surplus of workers. Moreover, with our new production methods, the same scale factory will require relatively fewer workers. And after spending so much money, we can't just keep them idle, so I think we should buy more machines!"

  Although Mr. Ho is now in charge of the family's finances, he has great respect for this old man who has been loyal to the family and worked hard for them for most of his life. Moreover, having just spent nearly 10 million taels of silver, it would be embarrassing to spend more money again within a month, even if Mr. Ho is confident. After all, the old master also made significant contributions to the Ho family's vast business!

  Looking at the young master's cautious expression, the old man not only lost his smile, if it were a month ago, the young master would have said these words, he would definitely not allow spending this money, but now he no longer cares about these things.

  Looking back on the past few months, everything that has happened feels like a dream to the old man! The 12-year-old boy in front of him is becoming more and more unfathomable. Not to mention his profound knowledge of industry and the elite troops trained in the mountains, just those simplified characters and dictionaries that others may not be able to invent in their lifetime have made him deeply understand that the young master has changed.