Chapter 937 – Drunken Talk
Hai Lin steadied himself and announced, "Production orders." The entire corps of naturalized citizen cadres rose as one, standing at attention for his commands.
"One: Effective immediately, the braiding, rattan, and bamboo workshops will cease all operations. All personnel will reinforce the bandsaw and drying workshops."
"Two: Effective immediately, all remaining production workshops will shift to around-the-clock operations—two twelve-hour shifts running continuously."
"Three: The production director, all workshop supervisors, and all machine repair shop personnel will remain on duty without rotation."
"Four: Safety and production management protocols will be strengthened. Bandsaw replacement intervals are cut in half. The drying workshop will intensify fire prevention measures."
When the orders concluded, the production director ventured a trembling question: "Chief, what about Kiln Number Three? The one that broke down?"
"What else? Shut it down for full overhaul!" Hai Lin snapped.
"But that leaves only two functioning kilns. We were already behind schedule—now we're losing a third of our drying capacity." The production director's reminder was meek but pointed.
"I know, I know." Of course Hai Lin understood the severity of the situation, but limping along with patchwork repairs would only invite worse problems—the kiln might end up scrapped entirely. Besides, he saw this crisis as an opportunity to apply pressure on the Executive Committee, who had long dismissed the wood products factory as low-tech and undeserving of investment.
His thoughts drifted to the steam drying kiln he had been requesting for nearly half a year. The structure was almost complete, yet it sat in limbo—the boilers, piping, and blowers needed to bring it online had never been allocated.
Superheated steam kilns were far more efficient and had substantially better pass rates than fire kilns. Hai Lin had long pushed for the technological upgrade.
Perhaps a little pressure will wake them up, he thought. Assuming a solemn expression, he declared: "If we refuse to shut down for proper repairs and an accident occurs, then what? Equipment damage is regrettable, but safety incidents are catastrophic! We must internalize the lessons of the bandsaw workshop accident! Lessons, lessons!"
The production director, surprised by the chief's anguished performance, didn't dare press further. He immediately departed to arrange the shutdown and maintenance.
Hai Lin called after him: "Send someone from machine repair to inspect Kiln Zero. See if we can get it running by tomorrow."
"Understood!"
After the meeting, Hai Lin toured the workshops. The sawmill came first. Two gang saws dominated the space—fourteen blades each—alongside four bandsaws, five circular saws, a balance crosscut saw bed, a parquet strip saw, and a file saw. Beyond these, a fleet of timber and woodworking machines filled the facility, some brought from the old timeline and others produced locally by the machinery factory. Steam engines powered everything, thunderous in their operation, their roar punctuated by the occasional shriek of blades biting into stock.
To simplify cleaning, all workers sported close-cropped buzz cuts; some had shaved their heads entirely. They wore woven rattan safety helmets and masks as protection against the workshop's severe dust problem—this was a priority zone for fire and explosion prevention. Hai Lin, well aware of the hazards posed by dust explosions, made careful note of whether proper protective measures were in place.
His inspection complete, Hai Lin checked production progress and randomly examined the quality of emerging planks. The locally produced bandsaws were gradually improving, but still couldn't match their old-timeline counterparts. When would the metallurgy department finally produce alloy steel materials?
Beyond timber processing, the wood products factory encompassed dry-distillation kilns, tanning extract workshops, rope workshops, and other supporting operations. The facility produced not only planks, furniture, and timber components of various specifications, but also wood tar, tanning extract, charcoal, and a variety of forest byproducts. When logs entered this factory, nothing went to waste—their capacity for raw material processing was extraordinary by the standards of this era.
Yet within Lingao's broader industrial system, the wood products factory's capacity remained woefully inadequate.
Current priorities consumed nearly everything: prefabricated building components, rifle stocks, standardized supply crates of various sizes, and ship materials. Every operational workshop Hai Lin visited thrummed with activity. He felt a pang of regret—without cheap, suitable adhesives, they still couldn't produce composite boards like plywood, keeping wood utilization a notch below its potential. The vast quantities of shavings and scraps generated during processing could only serve as fuel for the drying kilns, their value unrealized. The adhesive shortage also held timber processing at a relatively primitive level; both composite board and blockboard required it.
He made a special visit to the drying workshop to inspect the kilns. The three currently operational kilns were all periodic, flue-heated natural-circulation designs running on furnace gas. Their drawbacks were considerable: uneven drying, long cycle times, and low throughput. Yet their simplicity made them practical—no power or fans required. Under Lingao's "more, faster, better" industrial philosophy, they had been the first into service.
As for Kiln Zero, it was an even more primitive smoke-fumigation design, heating wood directly with smoldering sawdust. Simpler still in construction and straightforward to operate, it had been the factory's original kiln. But the difficulty of temperature control and the fire hazard it posed had led to its decommissioning a year ago.
Back in his office, his life secretary brought him a bowl of iced mung bean porridge while reporting in dulcet tones the menu for that evening's dinner with Wu Kuangming: familiar dishes from the old timeline—sauerkraut fish, chili chicken, mapo tofu...
Hai Lin considered the money spent on this A-grade life secretary well invested—and his lottery luck had been good, too. Many transmigrators had settled for C-grade secretaries, reasoning that opportunities would come later and maid education would only improve; why pay for an experimental product? But Hai Lin saw things differently. As a former senior member of the "fap squad," he was particular about his maids: one should never economize on the woman sharing one's bed. A-grade had been the highest available—if there had been an S-grade option, Hai Lin would have paid without hesitation.
His reasonably pretty maid attended to his needs by day and accepted his commands by night. Hai Lin felt a familiar heat stir within him—days of working late and rising before dawn had left him exhausted, and he hadn't "blessed" his maid for several nights running. If only his office weren't so shabby, he might be tempted to try some office training.
Hai Lin worked until dark before returning to his quarters, where his life secretary had prepared food and drinks. He summoned Wu Kuangming, who reported he was already at the door.
As People's Commissar for Forestry, Wu Kuangming was equally swamped these days. The Forestry Department's burden had grown immense. The Executive Committee had been shortsighted in the early days, dismissing timber as merely a transitional product. Now they discovered its applications extended far beyond construction and furniture—military needs were paramount. Before engineering plastics, rifles invariably required wooden stocks. Even in the twenty-first century, ammunition crates were still predominantly wood. The sudden surge of military demand had heaped unprecedented pressure on the Forestry Department.
"Hai Lin, at today's meeting someone proposed transferring your factory to the military industry system under Lin Shenhe's management. I shot it down." Wu Kuangming raised his wine cup but delivered this news before drinking.
"Where the hell were they earlier? Just days ago, Lin Shenhe went through the Military Affairs Bureau to reach Director Zhan, arguing that since the wood products factory handles so much military production, it should be designated a military enterprise and fall under the Military Industry Department. Director Zhan killed that idea too." Hai Lin clinked glasses with Wu Kuangming and took a sip of rum.
"Now the wood products factory is a thorn in the Military Industry Department's side. Without stocks, it doesn't matter how many barrels they produce—they're useless. Rifle production is stalled. Lin Shenhe is running around in a panic. The Military Affairs Bureau has raised the idea of placing the wood products factory under military control at Executive Committee meetings multiple times." Wu Kuangming's expression betrayed his worry. The Forestry Department's largest division was the wood products factory. Losing it to the Military Industry Department would leave him with nothing to oversee but tree planting, forest registration, and issuing hunting permits.
"Don't worry. Those military industry types only know how to work with iron. What do they understand about wood? Take rifle stocks—the best material in China is Manchurian catalpa, walnut wood. Second best is white and red birch. Hainan has none of these. Wasn't it the two of us working day and night who found the current substitute, green phoebe?" Hai Lin spoke with casual confidence. He knew that Zhan Wuya recognized the wood products factory's importance—it was simply that Ma Qianzhu had previously controlled that domain.
"If we hadn't found ironwood, those steamships wouldn't be running!" Wu Kuangming added. "They talk about making Babbitt alloy, but nothing's materialized. They still rely on wood!"
"Babbitt alloy? They can't even produce alloy steel for saw blades!" Hai Lin's voice rose with indignation.
"Damn it. At the last Manufacturing Supervision meeting, I told them the wood products factory's current predicament is the Executive Committee's own doing. They never paid attention—thought timber could be cut down and immediately made into rifles. The reality is, from raw logs entering the factory through planking, drying, turning, fitting, milling, planing, and polishing—without forty-five days, don't expect any finished product." The Forestry Department under Wu Kuangming had long harbored deep resentment toward Ma Qianzhu over the Executive Committee's neglect.
"Heh heh, timber has always been a strategic national resource. In the early years of the PRC, walnut wood couldn't be exported because it was used for gun stocks. Even after engineering plastics emerged, many wood species remained export-restricted. What do those 'multi-rivet steam-steel' enthusiasts understand? They had us churning out straw hats in bulk to earn their silver, even though we warned them long ago about timber's importance. Now they regret it. Too late." Hai Lin took a bite of food—his A-grade secretary really wasn't bad looking, and her chili chicken was excellent too.