Traveling through the sword to engage in military industry.

Chapter 147 The Shocked Expert
When Li Jixiang first arrived at the border area, he was actually a little overwhelmed.

Compared with the capital, this place seems like two different worlds. There are no tall buildings, no electric lights, no department stores or hotels.

If almost everyone here was not busy and had a hopeful smile on their face, Li Jixiang would have been unable to resist backing out.

But when he gritted his teeth and followed Hu Zi and his group who were waiting for them to arrive at the place named Dawn Research Institute by Ren Zhong, Li Jixiang was shocked.

"Comrade Li Hu, is this the location of our future Dawn Research Institute?" Li Jixiang couldn't help but feel his scalp tingling as he looked at the busy construction sites on almost every hill here.

"Yes, Professor Li, more than a hundred cave dwellings have been excavated where we live. Boss Ren has equipped each cave with a large coal-burning pit, which is very comfortable." Hu Zi introduced proudly.

"Look over there, that's our steel plant. Now the four blast furnaces are almost finished. Those blast furnaces are next to the mountain, so if you don't look carefully you can't tell them apart. But look at the piles of iron ore and coal dug out next to them. Yes, they are piles of black. The blast furnaces next to them are used to make iron and steel. We don't have time to build a shed to cover them now. When we cover them with thatched sheds, you won't be able to see anything from the outside."

Li Jixiang took off his glasses and wiped them, then looked intently at the four undulating raised areas on the mountain. There were indeed black things next to them, but they were a little far away, and he would not be able to see them at all if he was not told what they were.

"Have you found coal and iron ore here?" Li Jixiang asked.

"Yes, there wasn't any originally, but Boss Ren said there was one here, and we found it very quickly. The iron ore is nearby, but the coal is farther away and has to be transported from 60 miles away." Hu Zi had met Li Jixiang in the temporary capital and knew what he was interested in.

"We have built several such steel blast furnaces in the Taihang base. The one we built here is said by our boss to be the third generation blast furnace, which is more advanced! But it doesn't matter. Professor Li, you came at the right time today. We caught up with the completion of our first hydropower station dam. After putting down our luggage, we will go and see if we can generate electricity today. If we can, everyone will have electric lights to use at night."

"How could the hydropower station be built so quickly?" Li Jixiang was once again overwhelmed. He felt that this place was too magical. It had only been such a short time, and so many caves had been dug out in this desolate mountain area. How was it possible that electricity was available?
"Hehe, our hydropower generator is provided by Boss Ren's organization. As long as we repair the dam and install it, we can generate electricity. It's not difficult, but repairing the dam takes time." Hu Zi said with a smile.

Following Ren Zhong is a way to broaden your horizons. Seeing that even a learned man like Professor Li is now very surprised about us, Hu Zi feels as sweet as if he had eaten honey.

He knew how much hard work Ren Zhong had put in for these experts, and how much he had traveled nearly 10,000 miles! Hu Zi followed him the whole way.

"Let's go! I can't wait any longer!" Li Jixiang was so eager to hear this that he kept urging Hu Zi.

"Mr. Li, you are too impatient. Don't forget about your wife and children just because you hear about the hydropower station." Mrs. Li felt a little disappointed as she looked at this place that would soon become the place where her family would live.

But seeing Li Jixiang like this, I felt it was worth it. It seems that this is really where Li does his business.

And with so many people building and turning these barren mountains and wilderness into homes for living and working, it seems that Boss Ren is indeed an amazing person.

Mrs. Li was also an educated, well-mannered modern woman. She knew how important electricity was to a research institute. Electricity did not even exist in the border government area, but it appeared in this originally barren mountainous area. It was truly a miracle.

Li Jixiang's family of four followed the rules set by Ren Zhong for the institute, with three kilns for each family of the subject leader, ensuring an independent workroom for Li Jixiang, one for the children, one for living, and a small kitchen. Public male and female toilets were built within 200 meters to facilitate centralized biogasification treatment.

Li Jixiang took a quick look at his residence and felt that it was much better than he had imagined. Although there were few furnitures, it was neat and clean. All the facilities were not much different from those in the city, especially the public toilet and the biogas tank. Li Jixiang felt that they were much cleaner and more sanitary than digging a hole in the cave.

However, these were not Li Jixiang's main concerns. After a quick look, he couldn't wait to drag Hu Zi to see the hydropower station.

The place named Nangouhe No. 1 Power Station by Ren Zhong is not far from Li Jixiang's new residence, just around the corner of a hill.

Li Jixiang saw dozens of people carrying stone rollers and tamping an earth dam that was more than ten meters wide.

"What? You are building an earth dam?" Li Jixiang's worldview was refreshed again.

"Yes, there is a shortage of stones here. Boss Ren said an earth dam would work, so we built a dam with earth to intercept the flow, then filled it with earth manually, and then compacted it manually." Hu Zi, who followed Ren Zhong, was familiar with the situation and gave a brief introduction, "Now it's the final stage. You can see that a lot of water has been stored inside. Our turbine generator is installed under the dam. Once the gates are opened and the water is released, the turbine generator will be able to generate electricity."

"Isn't this nonsense? How can an earth dam withstand long-term pressure?" Li Jixiang blurted out.

"Professor Li, you can't say that. Boss Ren has never made a mistake in doing things. Let alone this small earth dam, just look at the earthen blast furnace over there. At first, we didn't believe that it could produce iron and steel, but what was the result? Well, we used those earthen blast furnaces to produce steel one furnace at a time, and made a lot of guns, cannons, landmines and grenades. Not to mention anything else, our independent regiment alone, with these weapons, is more powerful than the two main regiments before!" Hu Zi was not happy to hear this and immediately retorted.

"Our boss Ren has technology provided by overseas organizations. He is really amazing!"

Li Jixiang smiled bitterly, followed the road to the dam, and after a closer look he discovered something different.

The slope of the outer side of the dam is very gentle, probably less than 30 degrees. It is like a mountain that locks the Nangou River. Except for an open canal for power generation, there is a nearly 5-meter-deep depression in the middle.

"Professor Li is here. Thank you for your hard work!" Ren Zhong was directing work on the dam. When he saw Li Jixiang, he hurried over to greet him.

"It's not hard, Boss Ren. I'd like to ask you, what should we do with the earth dam you built when the floods come in the rainy season?" Li Jixiang asked.

"It's okay. We have designed a flood discharge mechanism. We asked the locals about this small river, and they said that the heaviest water flow in a year is about 3 meters above the ditch, which is less than 100 cubic meters per second. Look at the 5-meter flood discharge chute in the middle of the dam. We will just let the flood flow over. We have added some fired earth bricks to the part of the dam body below the flood discharge chute. It will not be affected much by river erosion in the short term." Ren Zhong pointed to the area below the groove, and Li Jixiang found that there was indeed a mechanism. Bricks of about 40 centimeters each were embedded in the yellow mud and looked very solid.

"Boss Ren, your creativity is amazing. Such a simple design makes full use of local materials." Li Jixiang exclaimed in admiration.

"Come on, let me see your hydropower generator." Li Jixiang no longer had any doubts about Ren Zhong and his team's earth dam.

Second update, there really is an earth dam power station. The picture shows the Maojiacun Dam, which has 643.5 million cubic meters of earth filling, 110 million cubic meters of earth excavation, 9.3 cubic meters of concrete pouring, and a total storage capacity of 5.53 million cubic meters
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(End of this chapter)