Chapter 4 Heavy Industry

  Looking at the vast factory buildings in front of him, covering hundreds of acres, the deafening roar of machines, the towering smokestacks spewing out thick black clouds that blocked out the sunlight. Huo Shan found it hard to believe that this was Taiwan, China at the end of the 19th century, but the robust workers around him, dressed simply and with a queue hanging from the back of their heads, made him realize he wasn't seeing things.

  Seeing the look of surprise on his young master's face, Fu Bo couldn't help but show a proud expression, and said with a smile: "Young Master, you see, all these factories in front of us are our Ho family's industries built in Taipei, including textile mills, flour mills, oil extraction plants and 23 other factories. This is unmatched throughout Taiwan, and even the entire Qing Dynasty!"

  Since seeing the draft of Huo Shan's promotional soap plan, Fu Bo has subconsciously treated him as an adult, and since he is also the heir to the Huo family business, Old Master did not hide these things about the Huo family.

  After listening to Fu Bo, Huo Shan nodded slowly and the excited expression on his face quickly calmed down. The richer the Huo family became and the more money they made, it meant that he had more startup capital, saving him a lot of precious time.

  Although he really wants to know about the operation of these factories now, but in this noisy environment, it's not suitable to ask.

  "Master Fu has arrived, Little Fourth greets you!" Just as the two were talking, a middle-aged man wearing a long gown, with a thin face and short whiskers under his chin, walked over quickly, bowed respectfully to the old man and said.

  "Master, this is the person in charge of our Huo family's factory, his name is Hu Dezhong, and he is the fourth child in his family!" Fu Bo said with a nod to the middle-aged man before turning to introduce him to Huo Shan.

  "Ah, it's the young master ahead, greetings to you!" The middle-aged man was very quick-witted and as soon as the old man finished speaking, he immediately bowed his hands in greeting to Huo Shan.

  Looking at the man in front of him, Huo Shan couldn't help but smile and say: "Shan has seen Uncle Hu!" Although he was the young master of the Huo family and the future heir to the Huo family's industry, these people who managed the various factories of the Huo family were the foundation of the Huo family's strength. Therefore, necessary courtesy was still needed! Sometimes, a simple courtesy can win over someone's favor!

  "I don't dare to be treated as a young master with such courtesy, I am able to have today's achievements all because of the support from Madame in the past, I should work diligently to repay her great kindness!"

  "Alright, just remember it in your heart. Have you taken care of the things I entrusted to you yesterday?" Fu Bo asked with a wave of his hand after finishing speaking.

  "It's all settled, young master and Fu Shu, I'll take you over now!"

  Fortunately, the place was not far away. The group followed Hu Dezhu, who led the way, and walked for less than ten minutes before arriving at the gate of a large courtyard. The middle-aged man, who was walking in front of everyone, quickly took out the key to open the door, revealing a narrow factory building covering an area of nearly 500 square meters in front of everyone's eyes.

  "This used to be a warehouse for our Huo family factory's damaged machinery, but since the young master needs it urgently, I temporarily cleaned up this place and made do with it. We'll start building a new factory right away, and in just half a month, I guarantee we can give the young master a new factory twice as big as this one!" The middle-aged man said with a smile, pointing to the empty room in front of him.

  After listening to him, Huo Shan couldn't help but look around. From the surrounding structure, this house should have been used for a long time, and the green bricks on the walls around it were somewhat damaged, but fortunately, the warehouse used as a warehouse was well-built, and temporarily making do with it would be fine.

  "What do you think, young master?" The old man asked.

  "The house is okay, just a bit small, but it's temporarily usable!"

  After listening to him, the old man nodded in understanding. According to the plan book made by Huo Shan to sell soap all over the world, this place was indeed too small.

  "It's fortunate that time is still pressing, and the new machines we ordered from Britain through Jardine Matheson won't arrive for at least half a year, so we can only make do with this for now!"

  After listening to Fu Bo, Huo Shan nodded in understanding. Everything has a process, and it's already quite good that we can do this much now. After all, you have to eat one mouthful at a time, and being too impatient for quick success will lead to trouble later on.

  After walking around the selected factory, Huo Shan came out. After all, facing an empty house, there was really nothing to see. Today, he didn't come out just for soap production, but more importantly, he wanted to take this opportunity to walk around his own factory and understand the current level of mechanical manufacturing in Europe from these machines, making early preparations for his future plans.

  With his own identity, under the leadership of a middle-aged man with the surname Hu, Hoshan took a lap around this nearly 100-acre self-owned factory adjacent to Taipei City.

  After comparing and recalling the mechanical knowledge he had mastered in technical school, Hoshan found that there was still a lot of room for improvement in the current mechanical equipment. However, he didn't have any industrial machine tools such as lathes, milling machines or planers, which made it impossible for him to process the parts he needed, and this made him feel somewhat distressed.

  "It seems like I can only think of a way out later!" Huo Shan thought to himself in his heart. However, these factories still gave him a huge surprise!

  "According to the data obtained from his own investigations, the monthly profit of these factories should be around 500,000 taels of silver. No wonder their home is decorated so well!" thought Huo Shan as he sat in the carriage on his way back home.

  "Uncle Fu, I was wondering if you could help me with a few things, is that okay?"

  "Hehe, young master is serious, what's the matter? Just give orders to old slave!" The old man replied with a smile.

  "Well, in that case, I'll be straightforward. When you go to Guangzhou's Changyi and Yanghang to purchase a steam engine, would you mind helping me buy some machinery at the same time?"

  "A machine?" The old man asked in a somewhat bewildered tone, looking at his young master's serious face.

  Looking at the old man's strange expression, Huo Shan himself was also scratching his head. After all, a twelve-year-old boy who didn't go to school but instead played with those foreign gadgets that even adults couldn't understand, gave people a feeling that was indeed quite bizarre! However, he had no choice, and as time drew near, Huo Shan could only bring forward his own plan.

  "Alas, a demon is just a demon after all. Time is pressing and I can't afford to think about that anymore!" Huo Shan decided in his heart.

  Having lived for most of his life and having a wide range of experiences, the old man still had great composure. The unusual expression on his face quickly returned to calmness.

  "What kind of machine does the young master need?"

  "Not many, five sets of lathes, planers, milling machines, grinding machines, drilling machines and boring machines each, a set of equipment for an iron and steel plant with an annual output of 10,000 tons of iron and 2,000 tons of steel, and one 500-ton hydraulic press. Shipbuilding equipment is not needed for now, that's all for the time being!"

  Feeling the strange atmosphere in the carriage, he was somewhat uncomfortable about giving up his shipbuilding equipment. As he looked up, Fu Bo's mouth was wide open and his face was full of shock, making him laugh involuntarily.

  "Haha, Uncle Fu has come back to his senses!"

  "Alas, young master, why are you buying so many Western machines? Not to mention how much silver they cost, even if we bring them back, we can't use them!" The old man said with a bitter face after coming to his senses.

  "I knew it would be like this, fortunately the young master had made preparations!" Huo Shan muttered to himself, taking out his own industrial development plan that he had prepared in advance and handing it over.

  "Let's take a look first, Mr. Fu!"

  Taking over the thick book from the young master's hand, the old man looked at him suspiciously and then began to examine it carefully.

  "Application of Industrial Motherboards and Their Role in Modern Industry"

  "The Status, Role and Development Plan of the Iron and Steel Industry"

  Strange name, Fubo had never heard of it before, but after flipping through the contents inside, he couldn't help but become deeply engrossed. These two volumes are far from comparable to that soap promotion draft earlier, whether it's industrial foundation equipment or steel mills, they all involve heavy industry related to national comprehensive strength, which is a complex and vast subject. Therefore, Huo Shan used over a hundred sheets of 16K paper to write these two extremely important industrial development plans.

  "Right, Mr. Fu! This time we're going to buy all the old mechanical equipment, I believe there are many small steel mills and machinery factories in Europe that we can buy out, dismantle, and ship back to Taiwan, which will save us a lot of money!" Huo Shan said with a hint of helplessness in his eyes. The reason for doing so was not that Huo Shan didn't want new equipment! A very important point is time! For heavy industry, especially the steel industry, from production to transportation back to the country, and then installation and testing before starting production, this process takes at least two to three years! Huo Shan couldn't wait that long! On the other hand, if they used old equipment, this process would be greatly shortened, maybe only taking a year, or even less time, and the steel mill Huo Shan wanted to establish could start production! Moreover, the update cycle of heavy industry equipment is generally longer, and old equipment is not necessarily much worse than new equipment!

  "I understand, young master!" After hearing his words, Fu Bo immediately took them seriously and memorized them. Now he really didn't dare to underestimate the twelve-year-old boy in front of him!