69novels Page 91
Page 91
In the military, the worst that can happen after a defeat is demotion or lower rank, with serious cases resulting in forced retirement. But if a state-owned enterprise loses money, the entire family has to go to a reformatory. How could a factory director dare to take such a risk?
There's only one quarter left until the end of the year. The State-owned Assets Management Department will then require all state-owned enterprises to submit their accounts. The accounts will eventually be sent to the Imperial Study. If Zhao Yan is in a bad mood after reading them, countless people will suffer.
At this critical juncture, everyone is doing their best to make the accounts look good. If you send Zhao Yan a bunch of debts and IOUs to make him look bad, he'll send your whole family to the Northeast swamp to happily build railways in no time!
Liu Ting couldn't fall asleep all night, and finally leaned against the headboard, smoking incessantly.
Before Dai Mingde sent him to Shanghai, he entrusted him with a very important task and praised Liu Ting in all sorts of ways, which made Liu Ting a little arrogant and secretly admire his superior's discerning eye.
But after arriving in Shanghai, Liu Ting discovered that the job wasn't a technical issue at all, but purely a matter of funding. As long as there was enough money, anyone could get it done; without enough money, nothing could be done.
The next day, Liu Ting walked out of the hotel with dark circles under his eyes. The coachman from the previous night had already parked the carriage and was waiting for Liu Ting.
Traveling by carriage to various offices of the Gun and Cannon Bureau, Liu Tingxian began his campaign by visiting the middle management of the arsenal, trying to build rapport with many leaders and showering them with compliments, but no one was willing to step forward.
They made empty promises and wouldn't even give a small gift, yet they wanted to discuss a deal worth millions. Nobody gave Liu Ting a friendly look.
But Liu Ting was in a dilemma. His superiors hadn't given him even a single dollar for public relations expenses. He even had to pay the extra three dollars and eighty cents for the carriage today.
He couldn't even afford a bag of apples, so he had to go to their door empty-handed to discuss things.
The arsenal wouldn't even let him freeload a meal, and they'd only make him tea with a thick layer of foam; nobody liked him.
Wanting to buy a thousand cannons for four million, including at least one hundred heavy cannons, is a huge mistake. The arsenal is already being lenient by not firing on you.
Liu Ting had contacted the Ministry of National Defense in Beijing multiple times before, and even paid out of his own pocket to send a long telegram to ask his superior, Dai Mingde, for instructions. However, the Ministry of National Defense gave a vague reply, while the Joint Logistics Department simply said that Dai Mingde had also gone to Wuhan on a business trip.
The lack of a clear response from higher-ups made Liu Ting understand that he had been given full authority to handle the matter, and how it turned out depended entirely on his own abilities.
With this much money, if you manage to get a thousand cannons, your future is bright, and your promotion to general is a sure thing.
If you can recover 70% of the expected amount, that would be a great achievement, and you'll be promoted to colonel at the end of the year.
If you bring back half of what was expected, you've done a good job. You're considered a capable and intelligent person, and your superiors will remember you for any benefits you receive.
If you manage to recover 30% of the expected amount, that's nothing special. All I can say is that you did a good job, and I'll offer a few words of encouragement.
If you manage to get back only a fraction of the value, you're definitely a mediocre person. Everyone gets what they pay for; who wouldn't do that?
Chapter 157: Funding is More Important Than Technology
Finally, in the third production workshop of the Jiangnan Gun and Cannon Manufacturing Bureau, Liu Ting met the factory director again.
The third production workshop is located in Baoshan, near the Yangtze River. It is currently the most technologically advanced production workshop in China's military industry, without exception.
Even though this wasn't Lieutenant Colonel Liu Ting's first time here, he was still awestruck by the immense power of the steel industry before him as he stepped into the sweltering, noisy factory.
The workshop is a brick and steel frame structure, with the factory building reaching over 30 meters in height. The interior space is filled with various machines and lathes, and even internal rails are laid for transporting heavy parts.
The factory has three gantry cranes, and the thick hinges hanging from the cranes are made of closed loops of steel, just like a bicycle chain magnified a hundred times.
The most eye-catching thing is the behemoth in the core area of the workshop—the 10,000-ton forging press.
"Director Liu, you're really persistent." The factory manager, with a pipe in his mouth, turned around and said loudly, "Since you're here, come and take a look with me."
The workshop was very noisy, and Liu Tingliu could not hear what the other person was saying, but when he saw the factory manager waving, he followed.
The two carefully made their way along the safety passage, passing by the workers carrying materials. The workers in the workshop were all wearing canvas overalls, their faces covered in oil and their hands were filthy.
When they saw the factory manager passing by, they all quickly greeted him and then continued with their work.
There were also many foreign technicians in the workshop who guided the Chinese workers through the process of familiarizing themselves with the machines and operating procedures.
The factory manager pointed to the various machines in the workshop and shouted, "Director Liu, look at these iron lumps, not one of them wasn't bought with our hard-earned money."
All you see are dark, murky machines, but what I see is glittering gold!
The vast majority of items here are secondhand, but the Germans sold them to me at brand new prices. Besides the equipment price, there were also shipping costs, installation costs, personnel training costs—all sorts of expenses!
"Our gunnery department worked overtime, day and night, and it took nine months to build this standard factory building. After the subsequent equipment arrived, the installation and debugging took another seven months!"
"This factory consumes an unimaginable amount of money every moment, day and night, even if it doesn't produce anything!"
"Now, the army wants to buy the artillery we've worked so hard to produce at rock-bottom prices. Even if I, the factory manager, agree, my workers won't agree, and the central government will find it unacceptable!"
"Your military has a very simple mindset, thinking that the military and factories belong to the state, and that it's just a matter of transferring money from one pocket to another. But in reality, it's far from that!"
Lieutenant Colonel Liu Ting wiped the sweat from his forehead, stepped forward to approach the factory director, and began to explain.
The factory manager waved his hand: "No need to say more, just take a look at how we produce a cannon!"
"After our workshop completed testing and entered production, the first order we received was for naval coastal defense guns. Come and take a look. Perhaps after seeing it, you will change your mind."
The two continued forward and arrived near the 10,000-ton forging press, the core of the workshop. They stopped outside the safety line, which would not interfere with operations, and watched the artillery production process.
Liu Ting's eyes widened as he saw a tubular steel billet, heated to a bright red in the furnace, being lifted by the massive hinge of the gantry crane and then slowly moved towards the forging press processing table under the traction of the steam engine.
A few minutes later, the huge forging hammer of the forging press fell heavily under the action of steam and hydraulic pressure. The steel billet, like a lump of dough, was transformed from a round shape into a square, then into a polygon, and finally into a complete circle.
Dark red iron oxide shavings continuously detached from the billet, and with each heavy impact, the internal structure and strength of the billet underwent a qualitative transformation.
The factory manager led Liu Ting to the next processing step, where Liu Ting saw a steel billet that had already been forged lying quietly on a large machining lathe.
German engineers instructed Chinese workers on how to operate the machine tool to process cannon barrels. The Chinese technicians learned very diligently because these foreign technicians were paid by the hour, and no one dared to waste even a moment of their time.
The large lathe was slowly driven by the steam engine, and the heavy cannon barrel began to rotate. The cutting tool approached the rotating cannon barrel blank and continuously cut away the excess parts, making the cannon barrel more rounded and shaped.
"This is the 130mm rapid-fire barrel that the Navy has finalized. The Navy plans to use it as a coastal defense gun and a destroyer gun. In the future, it will most likely also be used as a secondary gun on capital ships."
This is the largest caliber artillery piece we've manufactured so far in the trial production phase. From the steel raw materials to the gun barrel and even the gun carriage, everything is domestically produced. Only the most sophisticated hydraulic recoil mechanism needs to be imported from Germany, but we also need to achieve self-sufficiency in that next year.
Based on a mere visual inspection, Liu Ting roughly assessed, "This is at least a cannon with a caliber of forty or more, isn't it?"
The factory manager nodded: "That's right. The 45-caliber cannon is extremely difficult to manufacture, with a success rate of only about 80%. For every five cannons manufactured, one is a defective product."
"Right now you've only seen the machined blank and the turned outer surface. There's still rifling and threading to be done, then heat treatment, and finally it goes into the final assembly workshop."
"The cost of such a cannon alone is 200,000 yuan. There are also various tests and trial firings, as well as the need to load shells and transport them. All of these processes require costs."
A 130mm cannon was delivered to the navy at a factory price of 280,000 yuan, plus 50 rounds of ammunition. This price is very reasonable.
Liu Ting fell silent after hearing this. If the army's four million yuan procurement budget were used to buy this kind of artillery, it probably wouldn't even be enough to buy twenty of them!
The factory manager sighed and patted Liu Ting on the shoulder: "Let's go outside and talk, it'll be quieter there!"
Liu Ting nodded and followed the factory manager out of the workshop. The two came to the gate and leaned against the wall, looking at the misty Yangtze River.
Rainwater dripping from the factory roof tiles above them fell in lines, weaving a beaded curtain before their eyes.
Liu Ting took out a pack of cigarettes, offered one to the factory director, lit one for himself, and smoked silently without saying a word.
The factory manager then spoke up: "What you see is all built up by the Republic exhausting its national strength."
"Take that 10,000-ton forging press for example. To be fair, the Germans didn't ask for an exorbitant price. It's already a great deal to be able to buy a second-hand one for just over three million."
However, with the addition of shipping, installation, and personnel training costs, it took us a total of 7.5 million yuan to get that machine from Europe to Shanghai and put it into operation.
"Those foreigners are too shrewd. Do you know how much it would cost us to bring a German technician from Europe?"
"The travel expenses alone cost 500 yuan, plus a settling-in allowance, and we also have to pay three months' salary in advance. The starting salary for each month is 200 yuan, so each foreign technician needs to spend an average of 400 yuan per month."
This is for ordinary technicians; senior engineers and experts earn at least a thousand yuan a month, and foreign technical experts at the chief engineer level require an expenditure of four thousand yuan per month!
"In many counties, their annual education expenditure is less than the monthly salary of these experts!"
"But this money is all money we have to spend. I'm even glad that we finally have a leader who can see clearly what we really need!"
"The head of state did not use the money to repair palaces and imperial gardens, but instead used it to build the steel backbone of us Chinese people."
"Therefore, no one can steal a single bone from this budding steel backbone! Not even the military!"
"Factory needs to make a profit, and the country needs to recoup its investment. It's all a cycle. Your army can no longer act like it used to, selling off its own land without a care in the world."
Liu Ting took a deep drag and slowly exhaled the smoke: "I know all this. I came back from studying in the United States, and I understand the need for capital for industrial development."
"But the stable development of China's industry depends primarily on peace. Without the military, everything is just empty talk. You also need to understand the difficulties faced by the military."
"Currently, more than 60 percent of the army's artillery units are in a state of being awaited construction and understaffed. Artillery units can be put together, but there is really no way to think of artillery.
Many troops are still making do with old-fashioned mountain cannons from the Qing Dynasty. An army without artillery is like a child without a mother!
The factory manager threw away his cigarette butt and said helplessly, "But your army's requirements are too outrageous. Two hundred heavy artillery pieces with a caliber of 100 mm or more, five hundred 75 mm field guns and howitzers, and three hundred new mortars, each of which must be equipped with a basic load of ammunition before leaving the factory."
In the end, they only gave us a paltry four million Han Yuan. This wasn't an order; it was a blatant IOU. If this deal went through, the Gun and Cannon Bureau would be bankrupt and liquidated by the end of the year!
"For our arsenal, technology is not the problem; funding is the most critical issue!"
During the pre-war preparations and the five-year post-war plan, Zhao Yan was spending a lot of money to import technology and equipment from Europe and America, and he did not stop these actions even during wartime.
The Republic owed a debt of nearly two billion Han Yuan, equivalent to four years' worth of the nation's total fiscal revenue. Not only was it used for war, but a significant portion was also spent on industrial development.
The Republic's industrial capacity certainly cannot compare with those of the powerful countries, but it is importing the necessary technologies. To say that it can build dreadnoughts now would be an exaggeration, but building some basic guns and cannons is not a big problem. Compared to the Qing Dynasty when even cannon barrels had to be imported, this is already a huge improvement.
After hesitating for a long time, Liu Ting finally gritted his teeth and said, "How about this, I'll lower some performance requirements, cut off those unrealistic ideas, and the military has a lot of properties and land in reserve, I'll go and get some of them."
"Why don't you both make some concessions and come up with a practical and feasible procurement plan?"
The factory manager nodded: "That's no problem. I can make the decision to reduce the profit margin to less than 10%, and I'll accept real estate and land as compensation. But it must be real estate and land in Shanghai. We won't accept anything too far away!"
Liu Ting hesitated for a moment, but finally agreed: "Okay, give me two days. I'll come to your office in two days!"
The factory manager smiled and said, "Then I'll welcome you with open arms!"
After receiving a positive reply, Liu Ting didn't linger and immediately left, walking out of the factory area alone in the rain.
The carriage was still waiting outside the gate. When the coachman saw Liu Ting walking out alone in the rain, he quickly went forward to greet him with an umbrella.
Back in the carriage, Liu Ting saw a steaming cup of ginger tea on the small table, which warmed his heart. The driver was expensive, but the service he provided was quite good.
"Old Wang, I'll be hiring your car long-term for the next while, so give me a good price."
"Don't let my official position fool you, I'm strapped for cash. How about a discount? I'll only be using your car for a while, how about that?"
Liu Ting is now worried about both big and small amounts of money, since even small amounts have to come out of his pocket. The order for several hundred cannons will definitely not be completed in three to five days, but will take at least half a month. Every little bit saved is a bit more.
Upon hearing this, the driver, Old Wang, put on a fawning smile and said, "What are you saying, sir? Would we dare to cheat you out of your money?"
"Sir, if you can do me a small favor, I'll pay you for everything, not just the travel expenses!"
Sitting inside the carriage, Liu Ting looked at the humble-looking driver, Old Wang, and immediately became wary: "What help? Explain yourself!"
Old Wang was startled and quickly explained, "Sir, please don't misunderstand. I'm not a spy. I just want to ask you to arrange a job for my son. I've noticed you've been going to the arsenal a lot these past few days. I feel like you're quite familiar with the officials there. Could you please arrange for my eldest son to get a government job?"
After saying that, Old Wang quickly took out an oil paper package from his pocket, opened it layer by layer, and handed it into the carriage: "This is the 120 yuan I have scraped together recently. Please help me, sir!"
Liu Ting refused the money, pushing it back to him, and instead asked, "Has your son been to school? Can he read? What kind of person is he? What age is he? Tell me all of that!"
Old Wang quickly replied that his son, Wang Xiaoman, was twenty-two years old this year. He had attended a private school for two years and could barely read. He was honest and upright, but not very clever.
Old Wang felt that if his son were to deal with those shrewd people in Shanghai in the future, he would eventually be devoured without a trace. He needed to have a stable job.
Working in a state-owned factory was a pretty good job, even though the wages were shockingly low, only three yuan and fifty cents a month, which Old Wang could earn in two days.
But all state-owned enterprise workers are civil servants; once they join, they're at the ninth-level clerk position. Salary isn't important; what matters is the status of being paid by the government.
Unfortunately, Wang Xiaoman didn't participate in this year's national civil service exam because he was too timid, missing the opportunity to cheat. Otherwise, he could have even copied the answers during the exam!
If we wait until next year, who knows what the situation will be? Old Wang feels that we should hurry up and get it done, but he just doesn't have any connections. Right now, the person he has the most contact with is Lieutenant Colonel Liu Ting.
For those at the bottom to climb up, the most important thing is to seize opportunities and dare to speak up at crucial moments.
After hearing this, Liu Ting felt relieved. He had thought the coachman was a foreign spy, but it turned out he was just a worried old father. That meant everything was alright.
"Is that all? That's easy. No need to go to the arsenal. I'm short of an orderly. Just have him come to me. If he's honest and willing to learn, I can recommend him to a military academy in the future!"
"As for money, you don't need to give me anything. Just let me stay at your house for a while, provide me with food and lodging, and help me drive you around. That's all!"
Liu Ting managed to get a service soldier position with just a few words, and even managed to stay at Old Wang's house for a while without paying for food or lodging. It was a good deal; at least he didn't have to pay his own salary this month, and he even made a small profit.
In the early days of the Republic, very few officials, both civil and military, dared to embezzle. One reason was that Zhao Yan's knife was too terrifying; that bloody New Year's Eve had shocked everyone.
On the other hand, there's no money to embezzle! Whether it's the government or the military, even basic salaries are often delayed, and various project grants require you to use one dollar to do ten dollars' worth of work. Under these circumstances, it's common for military personnel and civil servants to advance money for official business. How can you still want to embezzle?
Take the current artillery procurement plan as an example. The higher-ups directly want to do something worth 40 million with only 4 million. In the end, the higher-ups only care about the results. They are all shrewd people. They can tell at a glance whether you have skimmed any profits or not.
If you do things well, it doesn't matter if you make a little money; if you don't do things well, even if you don't take a single penny, the higher-ups will still come after you!
Since Zhao Yan couldn't afford the money, he could only appease his subordinates with some benefits in other areas, such as a disguised system of patronage. Civil servants at the seventh level or above could write a letter of recommendation every year, allowing someone to be exempted from the written test and directly enter the interview process to be recruited as a civil servant. The higher the level, the more letters of recommendation could be written.
Military officers of the rank of major and above are entitled to one self-recruited military service position each year, which is basically for service personnel. Lieutenant colonels and above recommend one soldier to participate in military academy selection. Major generals and above can directly interview and send one person to military academy for further study each year.
This is a tacitly approved benefit; how the subordinates use it is none of the management's business.
Civil servants are very disdainful of this benefit. With the national civil service examination standards that Zhao Yan himself created, why would there be any need for a recommendation letter system? Besides, which son of a high-ranking official would want your monthly salary of three and a half yuan?
Only military officers have slightly better benefits. The number of military service slots and military academy training slots are quite substantial, and military benefits are generally a level higher than those of civilian officials.
Chapter 158 Zhu Jing's Favor