Chapter 766 – Industrialization Department
After he sent Xiahou Dun and his group away, Ouyang Shuo welcomed the last batch of officials for the day. This batch included Administration Director Xiao He, Financial Director Fan Li, Industry and Development Planning Director Cui Yingyu, and the person in charge of the No.7 Research Institute, Liu Mo.
Amongst them, there was also an old man.
This was the most important meeting for Ouyang Shuo today, and he had purposely left it for the end.
Ouyang Shuo drank a mouthful of tea, calming his tired senses. In just a day, he had approved the West Chu coal for equipment exchange, settled Zi Luolan and the other two sisters, set up the Outreach Division, Training Division, and the Equipment Development Hub.
Using the gaps in between, he also dealt with important intel as well as matters regarding Liangshan Mercenary Group.
Such a closely packed schedule was something that Ouyang Shuo had not met with before. First, he had been away for too long, and there were many matters that he needed to personally solve; secondly, the Battle of Yunnan was imminent, so Ouyang Shuo needed to make use of the moment of peace to quickly deal with administrative matters before rushing over to Consonance City.
This meeting involves the territory industrialization.
A month ago, the No.7 Research Institute had met expectations, creating the steam engine and the sewing machine. They had completed the process of turning technical manual to real items.
What was next was to build factories and a seamless production chain to turn the item into a product.
Apart from that, No.7 Research Institute had garnered huge progress in their research on the Atlantis flying device. If everything went well, they would be able to craft the first local mimicry flying device by the 3rd month.
Along with the P1 Type Cannon, the research of the No.7 Research Institute had been really stellar. Hence, Ouyang Shuo kept his promise and transferred 500 thousand gold over to Liu Mo.
The territory industrialization had reached a crucial point, and it looked like a huge explosion was imminent.
While Ouyang Shuo was still touring Lingnan, he ordered the Administration Bureau and Financial Bureau to see how they could remove divisions related to industrialization to make a management organization that purely focused on that.
This organization would be called the Industrialization Department.
The newly established Industrialization Department would be directly managed by the Nanjiang Governor-General House and not by the four bureaus.
...
At the start of the meeting, Xiao He made a detailed report on the structure of the Industrialization Department.
At the current moment, the department in charge of industrialization was the Industry and Development Planning Department under the Financial Bureau. Apart from which, the Technology Division under the Science, Education, Culture, and Health Department was related to industrialization, so it would be moved to the Industrialization Department.
Hence, the core officials of the Industrialization Department would be from these two places.
The No.7 Research Institute would also arrange a batch of relevant experts to enter the department as technical advisors. Some of them would take on administrative roles to help the Industrialization Department run.
The research experts were not just people who focused solely on knowledge and research. Some of them were technology officials for the federation or people in charge of relevant organizations, thus their administrative experience was not lacking either.
These people were the true backbone and brains of the Industrialization Department.
The director of the department was chosen from the No.7 Research Institute; the director would be the old man - old Chen. In reality, he was in the federation scientific committee.
There would be three organizations under the Industrialization Department, including the Technology Division in charge of dealing with relevant technology, Industrialization Division in charge of planning and factory construction as well as Firearms Division in charge of firearm research and development.
The relevant warship research would also be moved under the Industrialization Department under the charge of the Industrialization Division.
One could foresee that the newly built Industrialization Department would be one of the core departments of the territory, controlling the industrialization lifeline of the territory; it would play the role of the captain of the ship.
Ouyang Shuo gave his seal of approval on the document that Xiao He passed to him, officially signaling the formation of the Industrialization Department. Ouyang Shuo directly asked, "What plans does the department have for the sewing machine and steam engine factory construction? Have you chosen the place?"
Old Chen was naturally extremely excited as he did not expect that he could still participate in core administrative matters after entering the game. As a high-level federation officer, Old Chen saw through how the game ran.
It was already obvious that the young man in front of him would plan an important role when they arrived on planet Hope. Thinking about it now, his role had a truly deep meaning.
Hence, although the industrialization in the territory now was like that of a primitive society when compared to modern times, Old Chen did not dare to treat it lightly.
Before coming, Old Chen had deeply contemplated this question and replied, "The Industrialization Department recommends to move all relevant factories to Zhenhai City."
"Oh? What's the reason?"
Ouyang Shuo was truly surprised. He thought that they would have chosen Shanhai City instead. After all, Lianzhou Prefecture had been changed to a Zhili Prefecture, which meant that there was a lot of land in the basin that could be used.
Old Chen laughed and explained, "First, Zhenhai City has a natural bay like Jiaozhou Bay. This is something that Shanhai City cannot compare to. Without mentioning how Shanhai City is located inland, even Beihai Bay acts as a military harbor, which makes it really congested. Along with the voyage trading, there are too many merchant ships jamming the area up. The future Beihai Port is going to face this problem."
Ouyang Shuo nodded, agreeing with Old Chen's analysis.
Unknowingly, the increased prosperity of Shanhai City created a challenge to Beihai Port. In the past, Ouyang Shuo had tried to build all the best facilities and things at Shanhai City.
Thinking about it now, it was a bad decision.
As the territory developed, it was time to nurture new areas; they could not add too many functions to Shanhai City. As the future Capital City, Shanhai City should be the political, cultural, and military center.
As for industrial, economic, and trading centers, they could choose other cities to play such roles.
Lingnan Province's Zhenhai City was a fantastic choice. In reality, the Zhenhai City region was part of the famous Pearl River Delta economic zone.
'It seems like the time has arrived to push forward the development of Zhenhai City.' Ouyang Shuo thought to himself.
Old Chen continued, "Compared to Beihai Bay, Jiaozhou Bay is closer to Jiodong Bay in Ludong Province and Beihai Port in the north of Jingdu, reducing the time to transport coal, which is highly beneficial to developing industrialization."
"One more point, Zhenhai City is located at the end of the Zhujiang river system, and it can radiate the results of industrialization to Lingnan, Chuanbei and Yunnan Province."
Ouyang Shuo nodded and smiled, "Old Chen, you have convinced me; let's follow your plan."
"Ok." When Old Chen heard that, he was delighted.
At that moment, Fan Li suddenly spoke, "Monarch, there's one thing we have to pay attention to. The route from Jiaozhou Bay to Jiaodong Bay needs to cross the Yizhou Straits. King City's Penghu Squadron should be patrolling the area. I'm worried that a large-scale transportation of coal would be intercepted by them."
Ouyang Shuo nodded, "This is actually a problem. But you do not have to be overly worried about it. Based on the plan set by the Military Affairs Bureau, if the Battle of Yunnan goes well, this problem will be solved."
The problem Fan Li spoke of made Ouyang Shuo even more determined to take care of Yizhou Island.
"Since the Monarch has considered everything, I do not need to worry." Fan Li said.
Even though he said that Fan Li still had doubts in his heart. Not only was he a Business Saint, but he was also extremely smart about military affairs. Fan Li could not imagine how the results of the Battle of Yunnan would affect Yizhou Straits.
However, since this involved military secrets, Fan Li could not ask more. After all, he was just the Financial Director.
Seeing that Fan Li had finished speaking, Old Chen said, "Monarch, the Industrialization Department still has something that needs to Monarch to decide. It is regarding the steam engine technology. Should we share it with our allies? When to share? How do we draw the line?"
Old Chen asked a series of questions.
Luckily, Ouyang Shuo was prepared for that, "Since the steam engines and sewing machines are already made, Shanhai City already has a head start. Let's just give them the rights. However, we cannot blindly spread it. What I mean is to give it to Stone City and Fallen Phoenix City. They are both coal producing regions, so the help of the steam engine will quicken the coal digging rate."
"As for West Chu, we will not give them the technology but sell them the finished product instead. As for Gong Chengshi and Xunlong Dianxue, we will give them the sewing machine technology. The South Lords mainly focus on silkworm breeding so the sewing machine can help them improve their industries."
Ouyang Shuo's strategy was to split up the power. With that, it would not pass the five territory limit whilst also helping to raise the strength of his allies.
"As for the specifics, the Industrialization Department will look into it."
Old Chen nodded.
Just at this moment, someone objected. It was Cui Yingyu, "Monarch, I do not oppose passing the technology to Black Lion City but Xunlong City?"
Her words caused the atmosphere of the reading room to turn a little awkward.
The unhappiness between Shanhai City and Xunlong City was something all the officials knew about. Fan Li and the others could not understand what the Monarch was planning. However, they did not want to express their doubts.
Cui Yingyu boldly opened up this wound.
When Ouyang Shuo heard her question, he was not angry but simply smiled. He had obviously thought about Cui Yingyu's question and had his reasons behind it.
Xunlong City had a possibility of betraying the alliance, but Ouyang Shuo did not want to show any biasness before Xulong City actually did anything.
Especially when Lingnan had just stablished and war would start on the west. Maintaining a stable east would be much more suitable for their current strategy.
If they were biased against Xunlong City, with his petty character, who knows what chaos he would cause?