Lord of Industrialization

One autumn rain and another cold. After several rains, the snowflakes that appeared in a hurry fell to the earth together with the cold ice rain.

The carriage was driving on the muddy road, much slower than usual.

After arranging the production of gas masks, Frederick went to Langner City to inspect the construction of the cement plant the next day.

He didn't manage the cement plant from the beginning. He just wrote out the schematic diagrams of the process flow and various equipment, and threw it together with a start-up capital to a group of students to work on themselves, while he was busy with other things.

Facts have proved that, under the example of their classmates who made a lot of money, the students of this era are very capable. Not only did they initially build a cement factory, they also formulated a set of rules for managers to receive dividends based on their positions.

As the carriage trudged forward in the mud, Frederick looked out the window and thought that it would not be like this if it were a cement road, but he quickly gave up this idea.

At present, animal-powered transportation is still the main method. Horses walking on hard ground will hurt their hooves. The hardening of the road surface will have to wait until various vehicles are developed in the future.

Today, Frederick arranged for Vanessa to go to Weisenberg University to observe regular work meetings in the morning, and to the canal construction site in the afternoon to inspect the wage payment situation. With a secretary, many less urgent tasks can be arranged.

Frederick also decided in his mind that next year he would expand the secretariat and hire more secretaries, which would make it easier for him.

Apart from Frederick, there was only Alfred in the carriage today, and he wanted to discuss something with the housekeeper.

Frederick said in a deep voice: "The intelligence work in our territory is not strong enough. I want you to be in charge."

Ah Fu didn't seem surprised by the sudden job offer and just replied: "Follow your will."

Frederick nodded and said, "I don't need you to send people to steal any important secrets. I just want to select some reliable people to open steam bakeries and ramen shops everywhere."

"Opening a store like this requires frequent purchases of food from the market. As long as we can collect long-term commodity prices, it is a great achievement."

"It would be best if we could go a step further and collect some local public information."

Ah Fu replied: "I understand."

Frederick felt relieved when he agreed. He had been thinking about the intelligence department for a long time and had no reliable manpower. Previously, he could only ask Franz to find some mercenaries to help find out the information.

In the end, he could only focus on this housekeeper. Among other things, the most important thing was that Ah Fu was loyal enough.

Taking the steam bakery as an entry point has also been something he has considered for a long time.

In small territories, bakeries are the property of the lord, but in large and medium-sized towns with active industry and commerce, it is different. You only need to pay money to join the bakers guild and abide by the local "Bread Law".

Such a town is the local economic center and is well-informed. You can get a lot of useful information by chatting with your neighbors.

Analysis of intelligence is the most important thing in intelligence work. Frederick still remembered an old movie he watched in his previous life. A fellow villager said that a team was sleeping in the village with the door panels removed. The leader immediately analyzed that it was an enemy team and had been captured. surrounded.

But Frederick said helplessly: "Oh, but intelligence information needs to be analyzed to be useful. We don't have such talents here."

Analyzing intelligence requires knowledge accumulation, logical thinking and keen intuition. Such talents cannot be found casually.

At this time Ah Fu said: "If you can trust me, I can ask some of my old friends to come."

Frederick replied without hesitation: "I can rest assured that you will do your job."

Ah Fu didn't show any joy, he just thanked the master for his trust calmly as usual.

In fact, Frederick knew very little about Afu's past. He only heard from Diesel that they worked together as a monster hunter and herbal gatherer for several years when they were young, and then they went their separate ways.

He only knew that his father and mother both trusted Ah Fu very much. Before his mother left, he gave Ah Fu the power to veto any decision before he became an adult.

The carriage finally arrived at Langnar City, but instead of entering the city, it drove directly to the cement factory outside the city.

The craftsmen who originally built the smelter came here and built cement-burning vertical kilns and processing plants with ease.

The inner diameter of these vertical kilns is 1.5m and the height is 6m. The interior is made of refractory bricks, the exterior is made of red bricks, and the top is a 4m-high chimney. There is a feeding port at the top and two symmetrical discharge ports at the bottom. There is a high temperature resistant and strong triangular grate next to it. When discharging, the clinker rolls towards the discharge port under the guidance of the grate. The air duct at the bottom is connected to the blower. Currently, a centrifugal fan driven by a steam engine supplies air to the two kilns.

There are currently two shaft kilns undergoing trial production here.

The limestone and clay mined nearby, the slag and coke transported from the smelting plant, and the imported gypsum and other raw materials are cleaned and dried and ground into powder in a ball mill. The raw materials except gypsum powder are mixed in proportion and then mixed in a disc pelletizing machine. Just like making glutinous rice balls, make small balls of raw material with a diameter of 5 mm. After they are slightly dry and will not stick together, they can be put into the shaft kiln.

Spread the raw meal pellets evenly into the vertical kiln from the feeding port, and a 70-80cm thick preheated drying layer will be formed on the top. At this time, there will be no sparks but steam rising; below it is a 2-4m thick layer The burning high-temperature layer is where the pulverized coal is burned after the raw meal is dried, and various chemical reactions occur at high temperatures; the bottom is the cooling layer formed after the combustion is completed, and the air blown in by the blower takes away their heat and heats itself. .

As the bottom discharge port regularly discharges the cooled clinker and the top feeding port regularly adds material, the thickness and position of each layer are maintained within a certain range, allowing continuous production.

Frederick watched the vertical kiln for a while, told the supervisor here to pay attention to safety, and then went to the laboratory with Afu.

After being crushed and winnowed, the cement clinker is put into waterproof sacks soaked in slime glue, attached with serial number tags, and part of it is sent to the laboratory for analysis.

There are many tests to detect the characteristics of cement, such as standard viscosity, setting time, stability, etc. The most important one is the strength test.

Frederick was the most familiar with this kind of test. He could produce standard test blocks and curing boxes in minutes.

But the conditions are limited. The compressive strength test relies on pressing heavy objects on the test block, and the tensile strength test also relies on hanging heavy objects.

Frederick asked for data and sat in an office in the laboratory to study it carefully. Although there was no 28-day data yet, judging from the 3-day and 7-day data, the cement grade was not low.

Frederick raised his head and said to Afu, "Inform the Masons' Guild and the Carpenters' Guild to find a group of the best construction workers. After the war is over next year, I will teach them a new way of eating."

Ah Fu just walked around in a circle, and now his head is full of questions. He keeps wondering why this "stone flour" can be added with water, then "risen" to harden, and then steamed for many days (steam curing) , it will become as hard as stone.

But I have a mission, so I’d better finish my errands first.

Then he asked: "Sir, do you want to use this powder to build a house?"

"Yes." Frederick nodded, "In the future, everyone can live in a sturdy house."

"When the war is over next year, we will first use it to build an industrial park, and then we will promote sturdy masonry houses in the village."

“In the future, our cathedrals and great libraries will also be built with this!”

After he finished speaking, Afu reminded: "Master, there will be a war next year, why not use it to build a fortress first."

Frederick nodded and immediately shook his head. The workload of the project was too large and there was not enough time.

At the same time, he also found that he was missing one thing - a vibrator. If he didn't have this thing, he would have to find an old man to give him a pack of cigarettes and let him smooth out the honeycomb pockmarks at night.

There is also rebar, and just the specialized production machines will take a lot of time to produce. The factory in Weisenling is currently working hard to produce weapons, and we have to wait until next year.

Don't even think about bamboo reinforced concrete. Bamboo doesn't grow here.

Moreover, it takes more time to train qualified construction workers. Thinking of some of the strange things on the construction site in his previous life, his blood pressure suddenly rose.

When he thought of scaffolding, formwork, mixers, dump trucks, cranes, construction ladders, safety nets, hard hats, work gloves, safety belts... Frederick's blood pressure became even higher.

"It's difficult!" He leaned back in his chair and sighed. The labor protection supplies alone were enough to give him a headache, let alone the construction machinery.

When thinking about the future Germain Cathedral's spire of more than 160 meters, just how to build the scaffolding requires a special plan and an expert demonstration meeting.

The road still has to be walked step by step. He feels that in the next few years, he will not have to do anything else except his old job. The grandfather of this world's Gray Fighter cannot escape.

"Let's go." Frederick stood up, "Let's go back."

When we returned to Weissenburg, the road became even muddier, and the carriage almost got stuck in the mud.

"We can lay a railway." Frederick squinted slightly and said to himself. Now that steam engines are available, low-standard railways are not impossible.

Afu asked: "Is it the kind of railway in the mine?"

Frederick made it clear that he didn't know. He hadn't been to the mines yet, so he didn't know what it was like.

Ah Fu explained: "The track in the mine tunnel is made of strong wood, and a layer of iron bars is laid on it. Walking on it with iron wheels will save a lot of effort."

Frederick did not reply immediately. He looked out the car window for a long time and then said: "Absolutely, but I want to use the whole steel to make a track, with Oak City in the middle of the canal as the center, connecting various cities in the territory. The transportation of goods will be It’s getting cheap very quickly.”

The cities he was thinking of were not the ones in the current territory, but some of the cities planned to be annexed after the war next year.

Water transportation is inconvenient in some places, but with railways, transportation will be convenient. It will not only speed up economic development, but also quickly mobilize the army.

But I can only think about this now, and we have to wait until the war is over next year.

Apart from anything else, the bogies of train carriages needed a long time to study. Anyway, he couldn't figure out how some trains traveling through the same train could turn without such a thing.