Chapter 607: Crawley's Fantastical Journey (Ten)

A rotary kiln five meters in diameter and forty meters long turned slowly amid billowing white steam, bellowing with the roar of wind and flame. Its immense, rumbling motion, accompanied by bursts of fire spewing from both the kiln head and tail, made it look for all the world like an earth dragon churning and breathing among the clouds — no wonder the natives fell to their knees.

Appearing in the seventeenth century, this rotary kiln was, without a doubt, cutting-edge technology. Yet before this, making that "earth dragon" emerge into the world had truly cost the Transmigrators an immense, backbreaking effort.

To later generations, a rotary kiln is a commonplace piece of engineering machinery. Though it appears massive in size and ferocious in form, it is in reality just a large steel cylinder lined with refractory brick — not particularly difficult to manufacture, and its technology content is not necessarily higher than that of an agricultural harvester.

However, in the seventeenth century, the steel plates, plate rolling, sheet metal work, welding, and other techniques and materials required for a single rotary kiln gave the Transmigrators a headache at every turn. The final product was something the Expert Group only managed to produce after using quite a few "imported" resources and tackling the problems multiple times.

There was no way around it — that is simply what a weak industrial foundation means. The Transmigrators had been in this plane for five years at most, and aside from periodically receiving a pitiful trickle of "import" goods for the industrial system, everything else had to be built from scratch.

To this day, the Transmigration Nation's industrial system can only be described as a barely cobbled-together "workshop system." The many workshops, still stuck at the cast-iron industrial tier, produce goods that, in both quantity and quality, remain at the level of later generations' sub-Saharan Africa — they simply cannot be spoken of in terms of grade.

The Transmigration Nation, which seemingly possesses twenty-first-century science and technology, has found its road to industrialization far more arduous than that of the early CCP's nation-building. After all, when the Soviet Big Brother made a move back then, it was with over a hundred factories at once — real, tangible lathes, steelmaking furnaces, and all kinds of large-scale mechanical equipment. The reason the CCP could blow a complete industrial system up from the rubble overnight was that those 156 projects, along with several thousand experts, were the core element.

Equally destitute and equally forced into premature growth, the Transmigrators had it far more miserable. Possessing only an advantage on paper, even if they held the complete blueprints for a carrier rocket, the reality was that for a single iron nail, they first had to go dig ore in the mountains, fire kilns, and build the entire metallurgical industrial system from scratch.

To make matters worse, as time passed, some of the advanced industrial equipment "imported" in that early forced-growth phase — electric furnaces, for example — had now fallen into a state of low-speed operation as spare parts were exhausted and the entire system cannibalized the import goods.

Under these circumstances, building the rotary kiln took a Herculean effort. The increasingly scarce electric furnace steel, the shortage of rolling and sheet metal equipment, and the de facto cut-off of imported welding equipment and consumables — it was all just to cobble together one Dragon Head model enterprise to put on a front and awe the natives. Otherwise, who would actually go make this thing? Wouldn't it be better to honestly just keep firing vertical kiln cement?

By comparison, transporting the large, coiled steel plate weldments from Tainan to Zengcheng Wharf, then hauling them into the factory with massive amounts of human and animal labor, and finally having the Transmigrators personally splice and weld the forty-meter-long kiln shell together — all that manual labor was not so important after all.

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"Heh heh, looks like it still works. The Guangzhou officials kneeling to welcome the Dragon Lord — not bad, that's a good meme!"

Ding Liqiu, the Mayor of the Special District, dressed in an official-style jacket and Western-style trousers, stood with his legs neither spread nor together, hands folded over his belly, a smug look in his eyes, putting on an expression that said, "All the heroes under heaven have fallen into my trap."

Not far from Ding Liqiu, attendants were helping several officials up from the ground and supporting them to a reception tent outside, serving tea and offering towels for the officials to wipe their faces and recover their senses.

This scene greatly satisfied Ding Liqiu.

As Mayor of the Special District, how to carry out "united front work" on the local gentry was an important long-term project for Ding Liqiu. How to imperceptibly shift the attitudes of all social classes toward the Crossing Faction, how to "turn enemies into friends," or at the very least "overawe" the conservative native gentry — all of this required extensive, long-term work.

A display of power was, without a doubt, a shortcut.

After these few years of development, certain Transmigrators who had long been engaged in administrative work had already realized this effective method: industrial observation tours could alter native perspectives in a short time and could be called a divine tool for brainwashing.

Power is power, and it is far more potent than insipid propaganda. The structure of the human brain dictates that a single moment of shock will permanently alter previous modes of thinking.

This was also one of the ancillary reasons the Cabinet decided to launch the rotary kiln cement plant at all costs.

Glancing sideways at Prefectural Governor Ding's smug demeanor, Zou Guoqing, who was also there to attend the inauguration ceremony, was displeased.

Zou Guoqing could be considered the highest-ranking Transmigrator bigwig present today. This gentleman was the Minister of Industry and a Cabinet Member: "Old Ding, you know about the Two Bombs, One Satellite? Well, today, this is it. To cobble together such a big pillar for you, the Industrial Department's electric furnace lifespan and all the imported welding materials are completely used up. When you drink the water, don't forget who dug the well — you'll need to show some appreciation later, or there won't be a next time!"

Ding Liqiu sucked at his teeth. He was no simpleton ignorant of industry, and as a high-ranking Transmigrator, he knew just as much of the inside information as anyone.

At the General Assembly to be held in the second half of the year, some of the Transmigration Nation's national policies would be proposed for change, and this would very likely involve revising the industrial development route: sinking down to solidify the foundation and taking the Steam Rivet Route.

That being the case, those previously imported welding equipment and materials would certainly be cut off — in fact, they had already been cut off for a long time, and the remaining materials were a one-shot deal; where else would they be used if not here?

"I mean, it's just an iron cylinder — how, how is it Two Bombs, One Satellite? Guoqing, don't go making wild comparisons for no reason!"

Zou Guoqing let out a "Heh" at that and assumed the posture of a chat: "Old Ding, you don't work in industry, so there are some things you don't understand. The truth is, both Two Bombs, One Satellite and this iron cylinder of ours were hammered out by hand."

"That's right — both were the highest technology of their respective eras, both were made bit by bit, by hand, by advanced workers."

Seeing Zou Guoqing so certain, Ding Liqiu said helplessly, "Even if they're both 'cutting-edge' technology, this thing can't fly into the sky, and it can't blow people up — how do you use it as an atomic bomb?"

Zou Guoqing slapped his thigh: "A spiritual atomic bomb! Weren't those retired officials you specially roped in scared pissless? I could see you were about to laugh your molars out. Don't think I don't know what you people are usually up to — I'm a Cabinet Member, after all. Hmph, isn't it just instigating defections?"

Hearing the words "Cabinet Member," Ding Liqiu's expression shifted slightly before he finally piled on a smile — a Cabinet Elder's face must be given: "You can see for yourself — the brothers have been busy for so long, Old Ding here has seen it all. If there's anything later, just say the word!"

Seeing that the Prefectural Governor was "tactful," Zou Guoqing's face finally broke into a smile: "Old Ding, how about this — later, I'll have someone add a few more sound and light effects to this thing, the kind on a steam locomotive, chuff-chuff-chuff — guaranteed to scare the piss out of every single one who comes. How about it?"

"What exactly do you want? Just say it straight, don't mess around with that unreliable stuff."

"Heh heh, well, the General Assembly is coming up, and when the time comes, I'll have a few proposals on my side. If you think they look about right, just help raise your hand and shout a bit of support."

"Hmm... that... I'll have to study it."

While the bigwigs were making plans around the "earth dragon," the natives were each harboring their own thoughts.

"Native" is a neutral term. The natives here included not only the officials who came from Guangzhou City, but also Bai Shenming and a group of progressive gentry. In addition, the natives naturally also included Crawley and those other foreign merchants.

Unlike the Ming nation natives, in the cultural totems of these foreign devils like Crawley, the creature known as a "dragon" is not a long serpentine form, but a large lizard form. Therefore, no foreigner had just now associated the steel kiln with a dragon.

Yet this did nothing to reduce the shock of the foreign merchants.

When they saw the iron pillar roaring and churning on the enormous steel platform, some likewise collapsed to the ground, while others, gripped by panic, pulled out the crosses on their chests and bellowed: "Lord, grant me the strength to fight this evil!"

The good thing was, perhaps owing to the blessing of education, Crawley had determined from the very start that the giant object before him was merely a wondrous steel machine, so he maintained his composure amid the chaos, standing out like a crane among chickens, still looking very elegant, very aristocratic.

What Crawley did not know was that just moments ago, in some inconspicuous corner, an inconspicuous attendant who looked very much like an attendant had recorded his every reaction in a notebook.

The final item in the inauguration ceremony was the inspection of the finished product.

From raw material proportioning to successful calcination, after a little over five hours, the guests present today saw, from carts being wheeled over one after another, the standard cement — still carrying residual warmth, fine, smooth, and silky.

At this moment, rubbing the gray powder between their fingers, Bai Shenming and the other progressive gentry who had persisted for several years and poured the greater part of their fortunes into the cement plant were all overcome with emotion. During this time, many lost their composure on the spot — some cried out loudly, and some wept in silence.

That day's inauguration ceremony for the Model Cement Plant produced different effects on different native groups.

For those groups of old-fashioned gentry who had never encountered industrialization, the impact was, without a doubt, the strongest.

This method, completely detached from the traditional sense of "united front work," left everyone present utterly shocked, and they pondered it deeply in the aftermath.

This was precisely what the Transmigrators hoped to see: you could become more extreme, more "reactionary" after witnessing this power, but you could not remain indifferent — you had to think, you had to change.

Facts proved that most people were still realistic; the iron-headed fools who would oppose such overwhelming power were, after all, a minority.

The inauguration ceremony had one more consequence.

After that, a rumor rapidly spread through Guangzhou City: that a certain "Cao-surnamed official" was actually the reincarnation of the Western Descending Dragon Arhat. Not long ago, the arhat who had descended to the mortal world first chained an evil earth dragon that had committed many misdeeds in Zengcheng, then summoned over a thousand laborers to feed that earth dragon an entire mountain every day. The dung excreted by the earth dragon after devouring the mountain was the cement being sold on the market!

That's right — cement is earth dragon dung!