Wuchang Qixiang Machinery Factory was established very early and can be regarded as one of the earliest machinery factories in Wuchang Prefecture more than 20 years ago.
It was not the Li family industry at first, but was founded by an engineer from Jiangnan Arms Company at that time. In the early days, it specialized in taking orders for high-precision customized spare parts. The quantity was small, but the unit price was high, and the profits were very lucrative at one time.
However, technology is developing very fast. The level of high-precision machining in industry is getting higher and higher, and the equipment that can perform high-precision processing is becoming more and more expensive. At the same time, more importantly, Qixiang Machinery Factory has never been able to achieve a certain goal.
It is well-known in this field and does not have any main products, which makes it difficult for such a small-scale machinery factory to develop.
Finally, the factory was acquired by the Li family six years ago.
When it was acquired by the Li family, the technical level of Qixiang Machinery Factory was actually lagging behind that of its peers. The Li family had no intention of investing huge sums of money in upgrading its technology. The original purpose of acquiring the factory was just to improve other industries of the Li family.
Just a matching set.
But soon, Li's Automobile Company reached a strategic cooperation with Hanyang Machinery Company, and the acquired Qixiang Machinery Factory had no use.
Therefore, Qixiang Machinery Factory has remained the same in recent years, relying on accepting orders for processing spare parts with low technical content.
It’s hard to say whether it’s close to bankruptcy, but it’s impossible to achieve much development.
The development of Qixiang Machinery Factory is actually a common phenomenon in the development of many early small-scale machinery companies.
In the early years, due to the huge demand from industry and very few people who knew mechanics, just setting up a machinery factory, even a small workshop, could make money, and a lot of it.
However, as time goes by, the industrial system gradually improves, and technology improves higher and higher. If many small-scale machinery factories do not have the courage to continue to carry out technological upgrades in the early days, they will slowly fall behind and eventually become
Low-end supporting manufacturers.
Today's manufacturing industry in Datang is developing towards large-scale and specialization.
Some well-developed machinery companies are either large-scale machinery companies with strong technology research and development capabilities, strong production capabilities, large and comprehensive enterprises that can effectively integrate various resources to reduce costs, or they have outstanding people in a certain field.
A small but sophisticated enterprise with technology.
Among the two, the typical representative of the former is Zhaoqing Machinery Company. The business departments of Zhaoqing Machinery Company cover almost all machinery manufacturing fields. The core industries are various types of machine tools, steam engines, etc.
The representative of the latter is Zhenjiang Precision Equipment Company. The name of Zhenjiang Precision Equipment Company may make you think it is very high-end, but it only produces one product, and it is a product that can be seen everywhere: screws!
However, what they produce is not ordinary standard screws, but high-strength, high-precision screws, mainly used in various precision instruments or special industries.
Even though the screws they produce are inconspicuous, not to mention that Zhenjiang Precision Equipment Company only produces screws, and even though the entire company only has a few dozen employees, its annual sales are not low, and its technical content is the highest in the entire empire.
It's top-notch.
The price of their screws is extremely high. Sometimes a screw sells for dozens or even hundreds of yuan. The special screws they produce are widely used in many high-precision equipment in the empire.
Big and comprehensive, small and sophisticated, these are two characteristics of the current industrial manufacturing field of Datang.
Qixiang Machinery Factory is not big and its technology is not sophisticated, so it has become like this and has become one of the countless small and inconspicuous machinery factories in the empire.
Li Yubo naturally knew what was going on with the Qixiang Machinery Factory that had just come under his name.
After accepting the factory, he did not change the existing spare parts processing business in the machinery factory. Although these businesses did not make much money, they could still maintain the operation of the machinery factory.
There are dozens of employees in Qixiang Machinery Factory, many of whom are veteran employees who have worked in the factory for many years.
The current social atmosphere in Datang does not encourage the behavior of job-hopping, and considers this behavior to be a sign of lack of loyalty.
And loyalty is a very important quality for a feudal empire.
However, companies are not encouraged to fire employees because they think this is a manifestation of a lack of social responsibility. They especially despise those company bosses who fire employees indiscriminately. It is difficult for such people to survive in the upper class because everyone will look at them differently.
Go to see you.
I think you are a self-interested person and lack a sense of responsibility.
Therefore, once many employees join a company, they will not change jobs unless they have to. Many people retire in a company.
In contrast, companies will not fire employees unless absolutely necessary. At the same time, companies often take on more responsibilities, such as providing other benefits to employees, etc.
Datang society has a generally recognized requirement for enterprises, or more accurately for upper-class people, and that is: social responsibility.
This sentence from the Holy Emperor has become a common code of conduct among the upper class of the Tang Dynasty.
Although Li Yubo plans to develop gasoline bicycles, he will not directly cut off the existing business of Qixiang Machinery Factory because the existing employees need this job to support their families.
He plans to set up a separate department to develop gasoline bicycles. After the gasoline bicycles are developed, he will transform the entire machinery factory.
If the study fails, at least the current business can be maintained, allowing employees to keep their jobs.
He is not a special case. Many children from upper-class backgrounds are similar. The traditional education he received since childhood taught him what a sense of responsibility is. Don't let employees lose their jobs unless it is absolutely necessary.
If he screws up the factory and makes so many people lose their jobs, his reputation will basically be over, and he can't expect to survive in the upper class.
How should I put it, you can mess around, but you can’t let the employees who follow you lose their jobs and be unable to support their families!
Anyone who destroys employees' jobs is definitely not a decent Tang Dynasty gentleman.
People of the Tang Dynasty pay attention to interests, but they pay more attention to dignity!
What is decency? It is nothing more than face!
Therefore, many down-and-out aristocratic families, even if they continue to sell off their properties, will try their best not to fire employees who have worked for them for many years. Unless they really cannot survive, they will fire employees on a large scale. But once they do this, they will basically
It announced the complete decline of this family.
People in the upper class will consciously exclude this family completely!
Therefore, Li Yubo chose to keep the original machinery factory unchanged, but set up a separate laboratory under the machinery factory and began to recruit manpower to continue his research on gasoline bicycles.
After recruiting several assistants, he directly built a gasoline engine. As for direct purchase, he couldn't afford it, and no one would sell it to him.
He even hasn't even been able to obtain the patent authorization for the gasoline engine!
However, even if there is no patent authorization, it is just that the gasoline engine cannot be commercialized, but there is no problem in doing research by yourself.
Today's gasoline engine theoretical technology is relatively mature. Li Yubo has also been working with gas engines for several years, and is still very proficient in internal combustion engine technology. In fact, the Royal Institute of Technology does not strictly keep gasoline engine technology confidential. Many theories can be
Seen in professional journals.
Based on these theories and his own research accumulation on gas engines, Li Yubo quickly completed the design of a small gasoline engine that could be used in gasoline bicycles.
But after the design was completed, he found that he could not even build a prototype of this small gasoline engine because his machine shop did not have the processing technology to do this.
At first, he thought about importing more advanced equipment to do it himself, but found that it was not possible. These equipments were all expensive, and even if he spent all his wealth on it, he probably wouldn't be able to build a production line.
He also thought about asking other machinery factories to help him process the spare parts and then assemble them himself, but he still found that this was not possible.
Because there are only five companies capable of processing these spare parts in the entire empire, namely the three major weapons companies, Zhaoqing Machinery Company, and Hangzhou Power Machinery Company.
Although these large enterprises have such high-precision processing capabilities, they would definitely not accept Li Yubo's small order to produce a few spare parts.
In the end, Li Yubo tragically discovered that even if he found a way to realize a gasoline bicycle, he even designed a small two-cylinder gasoline engine specifically for gasoline bicycles, but he couldn't even build a prototype!
However, Li Yubo did not give up. He could not afford to build a production line, and it was impossible to find other companies for processing. He just set his sights on his alma mater, Huguang University.
When it comes to the current top level of production and processing in the Tang Empire, it is actually not the major companies, but the Royal Institute of Technology.
Of course, this does not refer to mass production capabilities, but to laboratory processing capabilities.
In addition to the Royal Institute of Technology, in fact, other universities, especially those that prefer science and engineering, have top-notch laboratory processing capabilities.
For example, the two universities of science and technology, Jinling Institute of Technology and Shanghai Institute of Technology, are second only to the Royal Institute of Technology in the field of science and engineering, and are better than everyone else.
For example, the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Jinling Institute of Technology and the Department of Chemistry at Shanghai Institute of Technology are both good.
Huguang University is a little worse in terms of science and engineering. After all, it is a comprehensive university. However, this difference is only compared with the Royal Institute of Technology, Shanghai Institute of Technology, and Jinling Institute of Technology.
They are among the top ten in the entire empire. Their strength in the optical field and the latest electromagnetic field is pretty good, second only to the Royal Institute of Technology.
Although Li Yubo was dropped out of school because he was absent from class, he was still a person who attended Huguang University. In addition, someone who could do such a thing as not going to school because of research and eventually being dropped out would have a great reputation in the school.
After searching around and asking several senior brothers and tutors, he finally got a tutor to agree to help him process some high-precision spare parts using some of the high-precision equipment at Huguang University. Of course, this required money, and also
not cheap.
After spending a lot of money and owing a lot of favors, Li Yubo finally came up with the small two-cylinder gasoline engine he designed.
Huguang University's equipment is of the highest quality and uses special materials. The quality of the processed parts is extremely high. After successful assembly, it has been tested many times and there are no problems.
At this time, he couldn't wait to install the gasoline engine on his specially designed bicycle.
After the assembly was completed, Li Yubo drove it himself for testing!
When Li Yubo drove this gasoline two-wheeler up Wuchang Street with a beeping sound, countless people's jaws dropped!
This is the third gasoline vehicle to appear after the Imperial gasoline engine was put into practical use.
Well, it was also the first two-wheeled vehicle!
However, what Li Yubo did not expect was that while his gasoline bicycle would attract the attention of the local public, it would also attract the attention of the military.
After Li Yubo rode the vehicle for testing on the street, within just three days, Army Major General Yao Liang, director of the Chariot Department of the Ordnance Department of the Jinling Privy Council, saw reports about the vehicle.
When Yao Liang saw the report, it said that the gasoline engine of the gasoline two-wheeled vehicle was very small, but its top speed could reach 25 kilometers per hour, and because the vehicle was very light and had only two wheels,
It is extremely compact and flexible, so like those pedal bicycles, it can be used smoothly even on some country dirt roads.
He stood up directly, picked up the report and strode out!