New Han Dynasty 1834

While the Luzon army continued to seize land, the reports prepared by generals such as Chen Huacheng, as well as the smugglers they had captured, were sent to Jingzhao City in mid-October.

Upon seeing the report, Liu Yulong's first thought was that the first phase of the Opium War in this world had ended.

The publicly stated trigger for the war was Manila's harboring of opium traffickers wanted by the big man.

Therefore, this war can indeed be considered the Opium War.

It was estimated that it would take more than six months for specific news of the war to reach Europe.

By then, the entire Luzon Islands should be completely under the control of the Han Dynasty.

What will Spain do after receiving the news? How will the British and the Netherlands react?

However, this thought only flashed through Liu Yulong's mind for a moment before he dismissed it.

In the vicinity of the newly established Han Dynasty, any foreign power that came to cause trouble was simply asking for trouble; even if two or three came together, it wouldn't make a difference.

Unless the whole of Europe unites against the Han Dynasty, it will not pose a real threat.

However, unless Liu Yulong is delirious, he cannot possibly believe that Europe will unite.

The future expansion of the Great Han in Southeast Asia will not require much consideration of the attitudes of the so-called European powers.

The Han Dynasty was the greatest power, and other countries had no choice but to accept the Han Dynasty's decisions.

For Liu Yulong and Da Han, all they needed to do was to steadily control and expand the land in Southeast Asia according to their own plans.

Liu Yulong gave his instructions in turn on the matters submitted by the Luzon military headquarters for confirmation, as if it were a matter of course.

The spoils of war and compensation for the fallen were arranged in accordance with the practices of the Xinghan era, with the land for the compensation of fallen soldiers chosen to be in the suburbs of Manila.

Opium smugglers were handed over to the Medical Department of the Imperial Academy of Sciences for use as experimental subjects.

The foundation of modern medicine is biology and medical practice, and in a normal, traditional society, it is difficult to obtain experimental materials.

Scholars in Europe at that time would even dig up new graves and steal corpses to conduct experiments.

In the cultural atmosphere of the Han Dynasty, most people found it difficult to accept that their own and their loved ones' corpses were used for experiments.

If ordinary death row inmates were ordered to be used as experimental subjects, it would incur the emperor's resentment and criticism, making the use of live subjects even more impossible.

Then we can only use heinous criminals and foreign prisoners from overseas.

After arranging these matters, Liu Yulong began to adjust the subsequent management and development plan for the Luzon Islands.

Traditionally, newly occupied territories like Luzon are not immediately established as provinces, prefectures, or counties.

This area will be under military control for the foreseeable future, and the administrative body and district will be directly called "Luzon Army".

All immigrants in the coming years will be placed under the jurisdiction of the Luzon military command in the form of a militia command.

Only after the planned deployment of one million militiamen is completed will the establishment of provincial, prefectural, and county governments be considered.

One million militiamen, plus their wives, would amount to more than two million people.

They will be responsible for completely conquering the entire archipelago and governing the vast majority of the native inhabitants.

At that time, there should still be about two million native people on the Luzon Islands.

With two million immigrants and two million natives, the total population is four million, which is still far less than that of the core inland provinces, but has reached the level of border provinces such as Guangxi and Yunnan.

Liu Yulong made some additional separate arrangements based on this.

In the early stages of the development of the Luzon Islands, not all militia and natives were placed under the jurisdiction of the Luzon Army.

A portion of it is managed by the Geological Institute and used for mineral development in the Luzon Islands.

Liu Yulong knew that the Luzon Islands had very rich deposits of non-ferrous metals such as gold, copper, chromium, and nickel.

Gold is the most important precious metal in modern times and can be directly used as a future monetary reserve.

Copper can be used to mint small-denomination coins that are currently in circulation, but its more important role in the future will be in the production of motors and cables.

Chromium and nickel can be used to produce stainless steel, armor steel, engines, and also modern coins.

These minerals are all very useful, and developing them can also disperse military forces and expand the influence of the artisans in the Institute of Geology.

Taking these factors into consideration, Liu Yulong went directly to the Gewu Academy by horse-drawn carriage.

In the main hall of the Institute of Natural History, several senior scholars from the institute were summoned, and the task was assigned to them on the spot:

"Establish a Luzon Mining and Industrial Administration to handle this matter and get the framework up and running as soon as possible."

"It would be best to send a group of people to Luzon before the winds change direction in the spring to begin exploration under the protection of the militia."

Although Luzon is a wild and undeveloped place, the Institute of Natural Sciences has no reason to refuse this task of strengthening its foundation.

After hearing this, several Grand Secretaries, including Wang Lai and Zheng Fuguang, immediately bowed and accepted the order, and drafted the edict on the spot.

After assigning this task, Liu Yulong inquired about the progress of the main projects at the Institute of Natural History:

"How's the steel mill going? Any new developments lately?"

Zheng Fuguang, who was in charge of the steel plant, immediately said:

"Yesterday, we received news from Luanzhou Steel Plant that they have completed the trial production of four new 100-stone rotary frying furnaces."

"The time for a smelting cycle has been successfully shortened to less than one hour."

"The performance parameters of the smelted steel ingots and the performance of the directly rolled steel rails are all controlled within the predetermined thresholds."

"Next, we will formally request His Majesty's permission to begin construction of the railway from Jingzhao to Luanzhou and even Liaodong."

The 100-stone converter mentioned by the Gewuyuan is a converter capable of smelting 100 shi of steel at a time, which is 6.4 tons.

The steelmaking furnace cannot be shut down. It operates for one hour and can smelt 24 furnaces a day, which is 56,000 tons a year.

As long as twenty identical production lines are continuously built, an annual steel production of one million tons can be achieved.

After listening, Liu Yulong immediately cheered:

"Everyone has done a great job. Quickly organize these reports, write them down, and submit them to me. I will approve them."

Zheng Fuguang immediately cupped his hands and said:

"Your Majesty, we obey your decree. However, we dare not take credit for this. It is all thanks to Your Majesty's great fortune."

"With Your Majesty's guidance, we have been able to develop such steelmaking methods."

"With His Majesty's support, the steel mill's furnaces can be upgraded every month."

"It is also thanks to the ample manpower allocated by His Majesty from the Governor's Office that we have achieved such results so quickly."

Liu Yulong had been keeping a close eye on the problems at the steel plant and noticed many issues that he hadn't been aware of before.

The Luanzhou Iron and Steel Plant, which uses alkaline converter steelmaking technology, was "built" in just three months.

Steel production started in May of this year, and five months have passed since then.

However, this steel plant was not the same concept as the steel plant he had imagined.

The steel mill in the 21st century is a very mature industrial sector.

Every material, every process, and every department's purpose and function is clearly defined.

Although the requirements are numerous and the construction period is quite long.

However, once the factory is built, workers only need to familiarize themselves with the production process to achieve stable and continuous production.

Aside from expansion, there are usually no further significant changes.

However, in the mid-19th century, when the modern steel industry was still in its infancy and pioneering stage, the situation was completely reversed.

At this time, the structure of the steel plant was very simple; it was an upgraded and enhanced version of the traditional steelmaking workshop.

Once the necessary blast furnace and supporting converter are built, and there is a continuous supply of coke and iron ore, the factory can begin production.

The entire preparation process does indeed only take two or three months, and if there is an existing house, construction can begin in less than a month.

There are no modern requirements and restrictions such as environmental assessment, water and electricity fire protection, and occupational safety.

However, there are no clear production process principles or product quality standards, nor are there any safety protection regulations or personnel management methods.

The key issue is that there's nowhere to refer to or learn from.

From a modern perspective, the entire industry was a complete shoddy operation from start to finish.

Once the factory starts operating, it's only considered to be running smoothly; various unexpected events and problems will continue to arise.

The performance and output of the smelted steel are also difficult to keep stable.

After understanding these circumstances, Liu Yulong personally compiled a method for iterative upgrading and improvement of the cyclical system.

In his previous life, Liu Yulong's profession was not as a worker in a manufacturing company, but as a technical support staff member for enterprise management software.

In other words, they are responsible for building "systems" for various factories and enterprises and guiding them to achieve informatization.

In the process of implementing informatization, it is necessary to conduct research in each department of the enterprise to first understand what their existing processes are, and then implement these processes on the network and software.

If a company needs to improve its management through information technology, Liu Yulong will also participate in the discussion and design of new management processes.

Therefore, Liu Yulong knows the general processes of various modern enterprises, such as procurement, research and development, production, warehousing, sales, logistics, cashier, accounting, reporting, auditing, and form circulation and approval, and knows the logic behind these processes.

They also know how to develop new business processes, establish various forms and standards, and revise processes based on feedback.

Liu Yulong himself did not participate in the informatization construction of the steel industry, but he has participated in the informatization construction of industries such as real estate, textiles and clothing, aluminum alloys, titanium alloys, hazardous chemicals, organic chemicals, white goods, import and export trade, and industrial tool supply chain.

Therefore, although Liu Yulong was not clear about the specific technological and management processes of the steel industry, he knew how to plan and formulate these processes, and could even roughly judge the efficiency level of the processes and whether they needed to be adjusted and improved.

This would allow craftsmen to explore and practice, and establish their own set of technical standards and management systems.

Over the past five months, with the strong support of Liu Yulong's imperial power and the unlimited supply of personnel from the militia system,

The Gewu Institute simultaneously launched four lines, rapidly upgrading and iterating across three levels.

The first level is in terms of scale.

Build larger blast furnaces, cast larger converters, produce more steel, produce larger steam engines, expand coal and iron mines and coking plants, build freight railways in industrial and mining areas, transport more iron ore and coke at faster speeds, and continue to build larger blast furnaces and produce larger converters.

The second aspect is technical.

The production, construction, and continuous use of new blast furnaces and converters are carried out. During the production, construction, and use, engineering and technical problems are discovered. After solving the problems, the experience gained is summarized, new process performance parameter standards and targets are established, and new blast furnaces and converters are redesigned, produced, and constructed.

The third level is in terms of management and safeguards.

Recruit and train more workers, operate existing steel smelting facilities, identify various hazards in the operation process, formulate new restrictions and requirements, and retrain workers based on these restrictions and requirements.

A complete iteration is carried out every month, directly producing and putting into operation new blast furnaces and converters, while the original old equipment is scrapped or used as experimental equipment.

After five months of intensive upgrades, Luanzhou Steel Plant now has a basic framework in place and can barely produce steel that meets basic standards.

In the eyes of Liu Yulong, an IT professional, these things are still very rudimentary, but they are already very advanced for this era.

Such efficiency improvements would have been considered phenomenal in the mid-19th century.