Bringing the Railway to Daming

Chapter 79: Radio Gymnastics, Staff Dormitory [Seeking Follow-up Reading]

Taiping Street, Liu Mansion.

In the master bedroom of the central courtyard, Zhu Huilan was personally arranging clothes for Liu Kuan.

"It's getting cold. My husband, please be careful when you go to Jiangbei. Don't catch a cold."

Liu Kuan smiled and said, "Don't worry. Since I came to Daming, not only have I maintained a regular sleep and rest schedule, but I also run and do gymnastics almost every day. My body is much stronger than before, and my immunity is also strong. I won't get sick easily."

"My dear lady, you are not allowed to be lazy after I leave. Just like you did a few days ago, get up early every day and do gymnastics with Xia He, Tao Yao and the others."

"If you are healthy, you will get sick less often, and your future baby will be healthier, too, understand?"

Several maids are still around.

When Zhu Huilan heard Liu Kuan mention the baby, her pretty face flushed slightly, but she didn't lower her head in shame like she did before. Instead, she responded obediently, "I know."

After hesitating for a moment, she continued, "My dear husband, I would like to teach this gymnastics to my mother and a few sisters. Is that possible?"

Liu Kuan said, "I would have forgotten if you hadn't mentioned it. This gymnastics can indeed be taught to the Empress. This is the radio gymnastics of later generations, and it is very beneficial for physical exercise."

"If the Empress is willing to keep exercising, perhaps she won't suffer from illnesses next year like she did in the past."

As the couple's relationship deepened, Liu Kuan also told Zhu Huilan some of the things he had told Old Zhu and Little Zhu.

In some aspects, Zhu Huilan even knows more.

She also knew that Empress Ma and Zhu Xiongying would both face disasters next year, which was why she came up with the idea of ​​teaching gymnastics.

She was very happy to hear Liu Kuan's agreement.

After changing into traveling clothes, Liu Kuan took his servants Xiaorong and Xiaohu, and the groom Li Xiaoer, and left the mansion under the escort of Wang Guangyue and fifty Yiluansi soldiers.

At Yifeng Gate, he joined the 500 personal soldiers led by Zhou Tao, the captain of Feixiong Guard, and headed towards Jiangbei.

The day before the Double Ninth Festival, Wang Buqun sent an official document from Jiangbei, saying that the steel plant's first coking oven, blast furnace, and converter had been built and were ready to be put into use for iron and steelmaking after the Double Ninth Festival.

Steel smelting is the focus of Liu Kuan's many industrial plans, so after the Double Ninth Festival, he went to the Liuhe Iron and Steel Plant to inspect it again...

Before noon, the team arrived at Liuhe County.

Wang Buqun and County Magistrate Liuhe still brought a group of officials to greet them at the dock.

After some pleasantries, they went to a restaurant in the city for dinner.

After dinner, Liu Kuan rested for half an hour at the post station, and then went to Liuhe Iron and Steel Plant with Wang Buqun.

Compared with more than half a month ago, Liuhe Iron and Steel Plant has changed a lot.

A small blast furnace, taller than the original ironworks' ironmaking furnace, stands not far from the river bank and is connected to a converter.

The small blast furnace is not only taller, but also equipped with a hydraulic blower, which makes its overall size even larger.

Less than a mile downstream from the small blast furnace is a coking oven of equally large size.

In addition, the sheds where the ironworks craftsmen originally lived were also renovated according to Liu Kuan's requirements.

A new foundation has been laid on the side, and a dormitory compound for steel plant staff is being built...

"Please look, Vice-Liu, this dormitory compound was built exactly as you instructed. Cement was used, so bricks and stones were used more frequently. From the overall structure of the compound to the interior layout of the houses, it is different from the houses today."

Since the staff dormitory compound was closer to the iron smelting office, Liu Kuan went to inspect the construction site first.

The clerk supervising the work here was one of the clerks brought by Wang Buqun from the Science and Technology Bureau. He was a craftsman by birth and was a clever man.

He wanted to show off, so he had done his homework early and enthusiastically introduced the matter to Liu Kuan.

When Liu Kuan left, he gave a lot of suggestions on the construction of this staff dormitory compound.

After completion, there will be rows of two-story buildings, five in each row, and each building can accommodate two employee families.

Each household has only one living room and one bedroom, with no kitchen or bathroom. However, it occupies a large area, about 50 to 60 square meters.

This kind of house would not be suitable for family living in later generations, but for the craftsmen at that time, it was an absolute beauty!

When Liu Kuan came to inspect for the first time, he learned that many craftsmen still lived in thatched huts, and the shift workers even lived in sheds when they arrived at the ironworks.

As for brick and wood houses, generally only a skilled craftsman could live in them.

Although Liu Kuan planned to provide dormitory housing for all regular employees at the Liuhe Iron and Steel Plant, this was difficult to achieve in a short period of time. Therefore, the employees would be arranged to move in in batches.

When allocating housing, the first thing to look at is the job level. The higher the job level, the earlier the housing will be allocated. The second thing to look at is whether the worker has a house locally. If two craftsmen of the same job level have a house locally, the one who has a house locally will be the last to be allocated a house.

In addition, the dormitory compound is the asset of the steel plant and is not distributed to employees for free.

Employees can choose to buy it out - the purchase can be paid in installments and there is no interest.

If you rent a house, it is two-thirds cheaper than the rent in Liuhe County, which is quite attractive.

Finally, the dormitory compound is equipped with public toilets, public bathrooms, and public kitchens.

At present, only the foundation of the dormitory compound has been laid, and nothing else can be seen, so Liu Kuan took a look at the construction site, listened to the introduction of the supervising clerk, gave a few words of encouragement, and then left.

In later generations, large steel mills had tens of thousands of employees. If their families were included, the entire group could even reach more than 100,000 people!

Therefore, there are not only many staff dormitories, but also supporting facilities such as schools, hospitals, supermarkets, etc.

Although Liuhe Iron and Steel Plant is the first steel plant in the Ming Dynasty and is relatively large compared to other ironworks, it currently has only more than a thousand employees, and only a few thousand people including their families.

Therefore, although the supporting schools and health institutions were also included in Liu Kuan's plan, they were ranked very far behind.

After leaving the dormitory compound construction site, Liu Kuan, accompanied by officials such as Wang Buqun and Gong Zheng, learned in detail about the preparations for blast furnace ironmaking and steelmaking.

Although Wang Buqun and Gong Zheng had checked it many times before, Liu Kuan still felt relieved after checking it out in person.

Seeing that there was indeed no problem, Liu Kuan ordered the furnace to start smelting iron.

Not only is the temperature high near the blast furnace, but it is also somewhat dangerous, so officials like Liu Kuan would not stand nearby.

But he was not too far away, just watching from a slope a hundred steps away.

Seeing the craftsmen busy around the blast furnace, Wang Buqun said excitedly, "If nothing unexpected happens, this blast furnace can produce over 3,000 kilograms of pig iron at a time, which is three times the output of the ironworks' original furnaces!"

"If the converter steelmaking can achieve a conversion rate of 70% to 80% as the deputy general said, we can obtain 2,700 to 2,800 kilograms of steel along the way!"

Liu Kuan was actually quite nervous at this time, after all, he was a layman in the smelting industry before.

However, he remained calm at this moment. He said, "The blast furnace can produce 3,000 kilograms of pig iron at a time. This is indeed a significant improvement compared to the previous ironmaking furnaces, but it is definitely not the limit of blast furnace ironmaking."

"If this method succeeds, steel mills can try to gradually build blast furnaces with larger capacities in the future."

"Also, this converter steelmaking process will initially focus on producing low-carbon steel. However, when we have more converters, we can build several test furnaces to try to produce high-carbon steel and special steel."

Liu Kuan was able to explain the concepts of various steel materials when he came to inspect for the first time, so Wang Buqun, Gong Zheng and others could understand them at this time.

Wang Buqun understood what Liu Kuan meant - the Liuhe Iron and Steel Plant still had a lot of room for improvement in production, and similarly, the careers of these steel plant officials still had a lot of room for advancement.

Whether and when it will rise depends on their performance in the steel mills.

After watching for about half an hour and seeing that the craftsmen were working in an orderly manner and without making any mistakes, Liu Kuan and others left - it takes several hours to smelt iron in a blast furnace, and they cannot stay here all the time.

After returning to the iron smelting office, Liu Kuan learned about the personnel, financial and other aspects of the steel plant through conversations, checking documents and accounts.

At sunset, I had dinner in the cafeteria again and checked the situation in all aspects of the cafeteria.

Then he returned to the iron smelting office and waited until the end of the night of Xu. Then a clerk who was responsible for watching the scene ran in excitedly and shouted, "Iron has been produced!"

Upon hearing the news, Liu Kuan, Wang Buqun, Gong Zheng and others immediately rushed to the blast furnace.

Before arriving at the destination, we saw the red molten iron lighting up the night sky.

When we got to the small hill, we saw many craftsmen working shirtless around the blast furnace and converter.

Molten iron is still flowing out of the blast furnace, the converter has been started, and steelmaking has begun!
Another clerk, who was watching the scene, greeted Liu Kuan and the others, then excitedly said, "Master Tang said that this batch of molten iron will yield about 3,000 kilograms of iron, just as expected!"

Upon hearing this, Liu Kuan couldn't help but look at Wang Buqun, Gong Zheng and others, and they all smiled at each other.

Because, what Master Tang said shows that so far, there are no problems with the important process of blast furnace ironmaking.

Next, it depends on how the converter steelmaking process goes.

The time required for steelmaking is shorter and it is also related to the final result of smelting, so Liu Kuan simply waited on the spot.

Seeing this, Gong Zheng and other officials could not leave, so they waited patiently...
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(End of this chapter)