In November of the thirty-seventh year of Chengshun, the Songjiang Naval Shipyard in Songjiang Prefecture was the most technologically advanced and largest shipyard in the Chu Empire. It undertook one-third of the large-scale main battleship construction orders for the Chu Empire Navy. In the factory, a group of unusual people were welcomed.
It is not the warship-related officers of the Navy Military and Political Department, nor the senior executives of domestic shipping companies, but the Dachu Empire Animal Husbandry Corporation, which seems to have nothing to do with the shipping industry, and is not even very familiar to the outside world.
Just by looking at the name, you can tell that it is a policy enterprise directly under the imperial cabinet, because only large enterprises directly under the cabinet can use the country name prefix Da Chu Empire. At the same time, only policy enterprises can directly use a certain industry in the company name. The ranking is used as the company name.
Such as the Railway Corporation, the Grain Corporation, and the Salt Corporation.
Ordinary enterprises, even very large government-run enterprises, cannot use these specific terms in most cases, such as the largest government-run bank in the Dachu Empire, the financial bank directly managed by the Ministry of Finance, and the bank in the domestic savings bank. Hand in hand, in any county-level area with imperial administrative agencies, there will be a financial bank.
Even for them, they cannot use the prefix Da Chu Empire in their corporate name, and it is even less possible to directly use the corporate name of the bank and directly change it to a corporate name such as "Da Chu Empire Bank Corporation".
There are many other very large enterprises directly under the Ministry of Industry, which are similar. Although they are large in scale and have great influence, none of them uses the prefix of the Dachu Empire, nor does they directly use the industry as the company name.
However, the Dachu Empire Animal Husbandry Corporation is able to use these words. This is because this company is highly similar to the Dachu Empire Grain Corporation in terms of function and nature.
The company was established in the 12th year of Chengshun and mainly operates large-scale government-run horse farms, cattle farms and other types of pastures, livestock transportation and sales.
Ensure the supply of horses, cattle, and meat needed by the military and civilians, stabilize livestock prices, develop the livestock industry, and cultivate and breed better horses for military and civilian use.
Just by looking at this series of tasks, you can know the importance of this head office to the Dachu Empire.
It can even be said that this head office is an important guarantee for the Chu Empire's military horse administration, civilian horse farming, cattle farming, meat supply, and wool supply.
After the Chu Empire successively controlled Liaohetao, Monan, Mobei, Moxi and other areas, the Animal Husbandry Corporation also established many very large ranches above.
The three famous horse breeds, Liaoxi horse, Hexi horse and Fengzhou horse, are all cultivated and bred by various ranch branches under the Animal Husbandry Corporation.
However, this company has little reputation in the outside world. Many people in the country do not even know that such a huge animal husbandry company exists. People are more familiar with the series of ranch subsidiaries under this company.
For example, Liaohe Racecourse Company, which operates the Liaohetao government-run racecourse, and Jeju Racecourse Company, which operates the Jeju Island government-run racecourse...
But this company is a serious, third-level enterprise directly under the cabinet, and its level is even equivalent to that of the Animal Husbandry Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.
The reason why this company appeared in the Songjiang Prefecture Naval Shipyard was naturally not to play around... but to examine the strength of the Songjiang Prefecture Naval Shipyard, focusing on the refrigerated transport ships built by the shipyard for the navy.
After the group was taken to a dry dock, the supervisor of the Naval Shipyard personally explained to them:
"The supply ship No. 246 in front of us is a special refrigerated supply ship designed and built for the Navy and specially used to transport fresh meat, fruits, vegetables and other foods."
"The entire ship is made of steel, uses a high-power steam engine, and uses both sails. It can carry 2,300 tons of fresh food at one time for an ultra-long-distance ocean voyage!"
"In order to ensure that the food does not spoil during transportation, we installed a Bell Company freezer that uses compressed air refrigeration for refrigeration."
"By the way, in addition to this specialized frozen supply ship, we have also introduced this kind of freezer on the new generation of warships to provide better preservation conditions for fresh food on board!"
"This Bell freezer can be said to have solved a lot of our troubles."
In addition, a middle-aged man in business attire in the crowd also continued the conversation with a smile: "Freezers were the inspiration when we were studying air compressors. In fact, our company used to mainly make air compressors. , but after discovering that compressed air can be refrigerated, we began to turn to the research of refrigerators and officially launched the first generation of refrigerator products three years ago."
“After three years of continuous efforts, our refrigeration machines have developed into a variety of models. Marine refrigeration machines have begun to be used in batches on naval battleships and new ocean liners. At the same time, we have developed vehicle-mounted refrigeration machines specially for train transportation. The machine has also been a success, Jiangnan Railway Company has ordered the first batch of on-board refrigeration machines from us, and we are also actively developing and promoting household refrigeration machines."
“In the emerging field of freezers, we have enough confidence to provide customers with the best products!”
The representatives of the Animal Husbandry Corporation on the side nodded slightly after hearing this. In fact, before they came to the shipyard for inspection, they had already visited the Bell Refrigeration Company in Beicheng District, Songjiang.
I have to say that this new gadget, which has just appeared less than three years ago, is really shocking. Although it can be seen that there are still many problems in the freezer. For example, the energy consumption problem is very serious, and it needs to be powerful and powerful. Continuous power to power the compressor.
To be honest, the requirements for the steam unit that provides power are very demanding, which means that a more excellent and more expensive steam engine is needed to provide power... You can't have a steam engine run for a few days and then malfunction and be unable to provide power. Is it going to continue cooling?
The technology of the compressor itself is more complex and has higher process requirements.
Air compressors are not a new thing. The Chu Empire had already applied them in the industrial field more than ten years ago, and later introduced air compressors to the train field, and then developed a new type of unified compressed air system for trains. dynamic system.
However, these air compressors are not required to operate continuously for a long time, and the performance requirements are not too high.
But the compressor required for refrigeration is different, and the process requirements are very strict. With the current industrial technology of the Dachu Empire, this thing is possible... but it is expensive!
This has led to the fact that the application of new technology products such as refrigerators has very large limitations. So far, it has only been applied in the field of ships, and the number of applications is actually very small.
Because this thing is too expensive, the purchase cost is expensive, and the use cost is also expensive... At the same time, it is not very stable and efficient. In order to ensure the cooling effect, two sets of freezers must be prepared for cross-replacement for maintenance. Avoid malfunctions.
Therefore, so far, only battleships and luxury passenger ships that are huge in tonnage, expensive, not short of money, and don't care about the extra cost use this new gadget.
The effect is good, and the Navy does have a very urgent need for the ocean supply of fresh food. In addition, no matter how poor the Navy is, it can’t afford hundreds of thousands, so it specially built such a frozen supply ship. Ocean fleets used to transport fresh food on missions.
But in the civilian field, only luxury ocean liners that pursue ultimate luxury without considering cost use this thing.
Today, people from Bell Refrigeration Company actually pay more attention to the inspection by representatives of the Animal Husbandry Corporation than people from Songjiang Naval Shipyard.
As long as they can convince the representatives of the Animal Husbandry Corporation and win the freezer order from the Animal Husbandry Corporation, then their Bell Refrigeration Company can truly step out of the niche and become popular.
Because people from the Renjia Animal Husbandry Corporation had already expressed their intention before coming: the Animal Husbandry Corporation needs a large number of refrigerated transport ships to transport meat back to the country from overseas.
This requires not one or two refrigerated transport ships, but at least ten ships!
Since Bell Refrigeration Company developed this freezer, in the past three years, after all its efforts, it has only sold a dozen sets of ship-based freezers!
The people at the Animal Husbandry Corporation placed orders for at least ten units at a time, and the people at Bell Refrigeration Company couldn't sit still.
Not only did they receive a delegation from the Animal Husbandry Corporation to inspect their company with high standards, but they also accompanied them to the Songjiang Naval Shipyard to inspect the frozen supply ship ordered by the navy.
Although this thing is said to be a refrigeration supply ship specially designed for the navy, it is different from ordinary civilian transport ships... At least it is impossible for civilian ships to install a total of four 55mm rapid-fire naval guns on the front, rear, left and right decks.
At the same time, there are very few civilian transport ships that come with a large hanging tower.
There are also very few civilian transport ships that will increase their speed to twelve knots... In order to keep up with the speed of the main battleships, naval supply ships must be fast enough, otherwise they cannot keep up... When ordinary naval transport ships use steam engines for daily navigation, The cruising speed is actually only about eight knots.
Although the Navy's frozen supply ship has many special features, the core point remains the same, that is, it is still just a frozen transport ship used to transport fresh food, especially fresh meat.
And this is what the Animal Husbandry Corporation is pursuing.
Ever since His Majesty personally mentioned the refrigerated transportation used by the Navy at the enlarged staff meeting in front of the imperial court in October, the staff bosses soon arranged the task.
"Build this refrigerated transport ship to transport meat from overseas areas back to the mainland!"
In the end, the specific task fell to the Animal Husbandry Corporation... After all, the refrigerated transport ship is a new thing at first sight, and new things basically have one characteristic, that is, they are expensive.
Secondly, there may be immature technology and various problems may arise, etc.
Under such circumstances, it would be more troublesome to directly let private enterprises do it. It is better for government-run enterprises to directly take the lead and set an example.
Among the many government-run enterprises, the most suitable ones are actually several large government-run ocean shipping companies, such as Pacific Shipping Company, Jiangnan Shipping Company, Indo-Pacific Shipping Company, and Yangtze River Shipping Company.
However, these government-run shipping companies are said to be government-run enterprises, but in fact they are all local government-run shipping companies. Pacific Shipping looks very famous, but in fact it was invested and established by the Finance Department under the governor of Jiangbei. Jiangnan Shipping The company is not even a provincial enterprise, but a subsidiary of Songjiang Prefecture...just a government enterprise.
Indo-Pacific Shipping Company seems to have something to do with India, but in fact this company is under the control of the governor of Guangdong.
The Yangtze River Shipping Company is more complicated. It has changed hands several times, and now the ownership is actually under the hands of the Yingtianfu Finance Department.
In the shipping industry, because local governments were more active in the early years, the Ministry of Industry was lazy in the early years, leading to the current situation. There is no shipping company directly under the Ministry of Industry, and other large government-run shipping companies. They are all local enterprises...
Because the shipping industry is relatively open and there are no official restrictions, local government-run shipping companies not only face fierce competition from private enterprises, but also the competition between each other is very cruel and fierce...
Under such circumstances, if you ask them to spend tens of thousands to invest in a refrigerated transport ship to complete the tasks assigned by the superiors, there is no problem, but if you ask them to spend more than ten or two hundred thousand to invest in a refrigerated transport ship, the technical risk is very high, and The shipping market is also unstable for new ship types, and one ship is not enough. What others want is at least ten ships to form a preliminary frozen import maritime transportation system.
To be honest, they are not very willing...of course, and more importantly, they cannot afford it.
This means spending at least one million or even two million yuan in a short period of time. Even though their shipping companies are quite large, they will not be able to come up with so much cash for a while.
If you spend one or two million to enter the refrigerated transportation industry, those competitors will be able to rob you of the conventional freight market and the passenger transport market.
Therefore, the large local shipping companies are not willing to pay for this... Even if His Majesty personally said that he wants to engage in refrigerated transportation, they are already walking on thin ice in the competition in the shipping market, and their lives are very difficult... With this intention He doesn't have the strength either.
The higher authorities have also tried to coordinate with the banking industry, trying to get banks to provide loans... but they still found the financial banks of policy banks.
But a big boss at Renren Financial Bank said it was a good idea...but within a few days he turned his back, saying that his risk control staff said that refrigerated transportation technology was too risky and the refrigerated transportation market was unclear.
The most important thing is that the entities that applied for loans, that is, the local shipping companies, all owe a lot of debt, and basically all the mortgages that should be mortgaged have been mortgaged... Now the loan of two million is given out. , they couldn’t provide any collateral.
Lending money to them now is equivalent to an unsecured or low-interest loan... Once these shipping companies have some setbacks in the next few years, they will directly go bankrupt for you... Then someone from the financial bank will jump off the building. , the level of the person who jumped off the building must not be too low, otherwise the big hole of two million Chu Yuan will not be filled...
When the big bosses of the financial bank learned about this situation, they immediately fell out!
Loans are possible, but not to those shipping companies that are leaking everywhere... other companies must be allowed, and they must have sufficient collateral.
Otherwise, if something goes wrong, what should we do with the two million hole? Are you asking me to jump off the building?
Risking one's own political future or even one's own life to earn political capital for others, the senior executives of other financial banks are not that stupid.
It's okay to ask for money, but you have to find another way. At least someone who can afford the money must apply for a loan... Otherwise, you can't even think about the two million.
This has become a good thing for you and me. Hello everyone, you can have a refrigerated transport ship and earn political capital on the big topic of food supply. Our financial bank can also get some credit: actively provide loans for food supply. , vigorously support domestic food supply.
If it doesn't work out in the end and you get into trouble...you have to pay back the money, and the interest will not be less. Our finance bank will treat it as an ordinary mortgage low-interest loan business, which can be regarded as making some hard money.
In the end, things were gradually reported back to the higher authorities. In the end, Xie Zhengde, the Minister of Agriculture and Forestry and the co-minister in charge of agriculture and animal husbandry, personally made the decision: No more loans, just ask the Animal Husbandry Corporation to pay for the ordering of ships, and then lease them to those shipping companies. Operations, and then let the shipping company take over the transportation orders from the Animal Husbandry Corporation!
Anyway, there is actually only one major customer for refrigerated transportation in the short term, and that is the Dachu Empire Animal Husbandry Corporation... No one has ever done this business of refrigerated transportation of meat. They have to take the lead in setting a demonstration first, and then add overseas meat. The supply is not guaranteed to be available. If you want to supply a large amount of overseas meat, you have to carry out large-scale breeding in overseas areas.
The Animal Husbandry Corporation is the most professional breeding enterprise in the Da Chu Empire. Shortly after the Imperial Grain Expansion Participation Meeting ended, they had already decided to build multiple large-scale ranches in the two major regions of North America and Australia. , producing meat for local supply.
With production, it naturally also requires transportation... The Animal Husbandry Corporation needs refrigerated transport ships to transport overseas meat.
It's just that my family is engaged in breeding, and they don't know how to sail a boat... Even if they have money to order a boat, they don't know how to operate it.
Whether it is a passenger ship or a cargo ship, the operation of ocean-going ships is a very professional and complex matter.
It’s not just about finding a captain and a few sailors and sailing out to sea.
The shipping company wants to do this business and is professional in ship operation, but they have no money and are not even qualified for a mortgage loan... Each of them looks like a big business, but in fact they all have nothing in their pockets and still owe a debt. Ass debt role.
At the end of the day, a roundabout way emerged: the Animal Husbandry Corporation paid for the ship, then rented the ship to several shipping companies, and then the shipping companies took over the frozen meat transportation orders from the Animal Husbandry Corporation.
It was a twist and turn, but it was finally resolved.
Only then did a delegation from the Animal Husbandry Corporation come to Songjiang Naval Shipyard for inspection.
This inspection also went very smoothly. With the Navy's refrigerated supply ship at the forefront, Bell Refrigeration Company also proposed a complete refrigeration equipment solution. Songjiang Naval Shipyard even stated that this kind of refrigerated transport ship has nothing to do with it. For technical issues, just make some slight changes on the Navy's cryogenic supply ship, reduce the speed, reduce the construction process to civilian standards, and remove the naval guns... and then the cost will come down.
Subsequently, delegations from the initially planned cooperative shipping companies, Pacific Shipping Company and Jiangnan Shipping Company, also participated and put forward many suggestions.
After all, although the ship was purchased by the Animal Husbandry Corporation, the actual operation and use still depend on these two shipping companies.
Therefore, many design and performance indicators also need to refer to their opinions.
In the end, after many rounds of talks, the parties finally finalized the cooperation plan and decided to order a total of twelve refrigerated transport ships with a full load displacement of 4,500 tons and a capacity of transporting 2,000 tons of refrigerated cargo at a time.
The first two ships are expected to be delivered in December next year, and will be delivered to Pacific Shipping Company and Jiangnan Shipping Company respectively for operation.
By then, after one year of preparation, the National Animal Husbandry Corporation will have prepared relevant meat supplies in North America.
The most optimistic estimate is that probably in the early spring of the year after next, the first batch of commercially operated frozen meat will set sail from Jinshan Port and finally arrive at Songjiang Port.
During this period, the Navy will use their only frozen supply ship that is already in service to carry out multi-faceted and multi-level large-scale refrigerated transportation missions, and conduct various experiments...
If everything goes well, starting from the year after next, the empire will officially import frozen meat and even fresh fruits and other foods that are not easy to transport and preserve from overseas on a large scale, increasing the supply of meat, fruits, etc. to the empire.
And the scale of transportation will gradually increase. In five years, the empire's senior officials hope to establish a complete refrigerated transportation system throughout the Americas, Europe, Africa, India, Australia and many other regions to import large amounts of frozen meat and fresh fruits to the empire. food.
Make due contributions to the empire’s food supply and help the empire achieve its five-year strategic goal of 400 kilograms of food per capita!
However, although the supply of meat is also very important, importing meat from overseas by refrigerated transport ships... to some extent is just the icing on the cake.
After all, it is estimated that 500 million people from the mainland will be gone in five years... and after five years, dozens of refrigerated transport ships will be destroyed, and they will not be able to provide food for 500 million people!
To solve the food problem, we mainly need to rely on expanding domestic production of local food and large-scale imports of wheat, rice and other food from overseas.
Needless to say, we need to expand domestic grain production.
And if you import food from overseas, the scale can easily increase, and transportation is more convenient and cheaper than meat!
Because goods such as wheat and rice are transported by sea, there is no need for special refrigerated transport ships, ordinary cargo ships will do.
Not to mention specialized cargo ships, many ocean-going passenger ships currently heading overseas do not have many passengers when they return, so they often serve as temporary cargo ships when they return... and fill the bottom warehouses with various agricultural products. and the return of industrial raw materials to China.
Wheat, rice and other grains are also among them.
What the empire needs to do in the future is to further expand overseas food supply... and also find ways to reduce the transportation cost of food.
(End of chapter)
