Chapter 1270: First Fertilizer Plant

"What Master says is true."

"Go back and prepare first. I may arrive somewhat late tonight. Reserve the Jasmine Room—I need to discuss business with someone."

"Understood." Chuqing nodded.

"Chief, let me help you!" Fu Bu'er, face flushed, hurried off the train and turned to support Wan Lihuang, who was visibly drunk.

"I'm fine—I can still walk!" Wan Lihuang waved him off, though he couldn't lift his drooping head no matter how he tried. At noon, several overly enthusiastic landlords had scrambled to toast him. The wine had been an easily drinkable fruit variety, which meant he'd inevitably drunk too many cups. Now he was more than just a little dizzy.

Wu Nanhai, walking behind, was secretly displeased. Though Wan Lihuang was a young man, he was still a Senator—a "Chief." Moreover, this was a workday. Drinking oneself into a stupor at noon was unsightly under any circumstances, but especially problematic with Senators from other departments attending today's ceremony. Having Agricultural Committee personnel show up drunk reflected poorly on them all.

He whispered instructions to his accompanying secretary: get Wan Lihuang to the station house immediately to rest, and ensure he did not attend the opening ceremony.

Behind them stood the sign for Ma'niao Industrial Zone Station. But this group—brains still foggy from too much strong liquor at lunch—gazed at the scenery before them, so vastly different from the Ma'niao in their memories, and could not reconcile the two. Excitement seized them.

Down the center of a straight cinder-paved road, four steel rails pierced straight toward the sea. On both sides stretched regular patches of open ground, demarcated with lime. Far off by the shore, several enormous box-like buildings loomed tall. A chimney shaped like a thick gourd towered into the clouds, spewing billowing smoke. The roar of steam engines rose and fell in continuous rhythm.

"That's said to be the Chiefs' iron factory!"

"I've heard of it too. The big furnace inside can produce hundreds of thousands of catties of iron at once!"

"Truly? No wonder people say the Chiefs possess supernatural powers!"

Animated discussion broke out immediately, the group speaking with high spirits, as if they too shared in the glory.

These people standing at the road's end, gazing at the miracle of modern industry with evident enthusiasm, consisted mostly of active Tiandihui members—apart from some agricultural Senators and naturalized agricultural technicians. Among them were new landlords experienced in large-scale intensive land management, as well as middle and rich peasants who ran impressive side businesses.

This autumn's Lingao harvest had proven quite bountiful. Tiandihui had organized an appreciation banquet; Ye Yuming treated them at the Commercial Hall Restaurant at noon, then invited the entire group here, explaining that a major project was officially commencing and suggesting everyone come witness it.

Though this group had heard of the Ma'niao Industrial Zone, ordinary people were typically barred from entering the station behind them. Only those working in the zone could move freely through.

The distant blast furnace commanded attention. By comparison, the newly built structures under the slope beside them seemed unimpressive—those thin chimneys rising over ten meters were common enough in Bairen City.

Boom! ... Boom! ... Boom! ...

Sudden explosive sounds interrupted the excitement, nearly knocking several over-lubricated landlords off their feet.

"Hehe, don't worry, everyone—no need for alarm. That's the forging hammer of the steel plant starting up. Nothing to fear." Wu Nanhai smiled and waved, leading the way toward a row of bamboo fences with several Senators in tow. Naturalized citizens responsible for reception quickly guided everyone to follow.

Today marked the opening of the Lingao First Fertilizer Plant. After three months of infrastructure construction and one month of installation and commissioning, this largest chemical project in this timeline—and also the Senators' first purely civilian chemical enterprise—was about to begin official operations.

As immigrants to Lingao increased daily, the trade department had been working diligently to import grain from off-island sources and expand reserves; market grain prices remained stable. Yet relying on imported grain was deeply uneconomical. It not only consumed vast amounts of capital but also tied up enormous shipping capacity—and Lingao's maritime transport capacity had always been stretched to its limits.

Tapping agriculture's internal potential had therefore been placed on the agenda. According to the official fish-scale registers of Hainan from the 43rd year of Wanli (1615), the island possessed 3.835 million mu of fields. Following comprehensive land measurement in northern Qiongzhou, the hidden fields there had been roughly identified. Adding the unmeasured southern Qiongzhou region, at least six million mu of developed paddy and dry fields existed across Hainan. If average yield per mu increased by just ten kilograms, that meant sixty thousand tons of additional grain—enough to feed two hundred thousand people. Even calculated solely based on the hundreds of thousands of mu under direct Agricultural Committee control, the increased production would represent no small figure.

New agricultural machinery, new seeds, new water conservancy projects, and new agricultural technologies were being gradually promoted, but chemical fertilizer remained undoubtedly the most direct and effective technical intervention. Previous small-scale projects were naturally insufficient.

Therefore, as general coordinator of this agricultural production increase plan, Wu Nanhai, with enthusiastic cooperation from Luo Duo and others at the Great Library, and after repeated consultations with the Planning Commission and the chemical industry sector, had developed this truly modern fertilizer plant proposal: the first phase comprised ten thousand tons of superphosphate and a supporting sulfuric acid plant expansion of four thousand tons.

Calculated at thirty kilograms per mu for grain cultivation, Hainan's six million mu would require a total of one hundred eighty thousand tons. This ten thousand tons of output was merely a modest trial.

The Planning Commission and chemical industry sector supported the fertilizer project enthusiastically, though they had originally leaned toward expanding synthetic ammonia or ammonium bicarbonate nitrogen fertilizer production capacity. Besides agricultural applications, these products held significant value for chemical industry and military explosives.

The chemical sector had already expanded synthetic ammonia capacity to two thousand tons annually by copying and improving equipment from the original eight-hundred-ton project.

However, shortcomings in Lingao's equipment manufacturing and materials made further expansion of synthetic ammonia capacity a daunting goal. The industry required various alloy steels currently difficult to supply reliably—both in quantity and quality. A considerable portion of alloy steel production depended on nickel and chromium ore mining and smelting. The small quantities of alloy steel, specialty steel, and non-ferrous metals currently in use came largely from the inventory brought by the Holy Ship at the outset, apart from a few types producible locally. This stockpile was extremely limited, and every gram had to be used with utmost caution.

The Planning Commission held multiple discussions with senior technical Senators from the machinery and chemical sectors, finally concluding that launching a larger-scale synthetic ammonia project could not be supported by Lingao's current industrial system and supply chain.

Ultimately, the Commission confirmed the technological route proposed by the Agricultural Committee: "promoting nitrogen with phosphorus"—beginning with a phosphate fertilizer plant.

Phosphate fertilizer was the earliest industrially applied fertilizer in history. Phosphorus serves as a critical soil element; phosphate fertilizer increases yields not only for ordinary forage grasses but also produces excellent results with leguminous forage crops like milk vetch. Planting leguminous green manure in winter enriches soil organic matter and fertility—legumes fix atmospheric nitrogen, functioning as natural nitrogen fertilizer application. This approach constituted the "promoting nitrogen with phosphorus" strategy.

Leguminous crops yielded oil as well, but found wider use as fodder. The Senate attached great importance to the livestock breeding industry and required massive quantities of feed. Extensively planting leguminous green manure in winter accomplished multiple objectives simultaneously.

Southern China's fields generally lacked phosphorus, and Lingao was no exception. To increase phosphate fertilizer supplies, the Agricultural Committee applied phosphorus-containing slag and made extensive use of processed seafood byproducts. But these fertilizers were mere drops in the bucket for the vast expanse of fields—far from sufficient. As for the guano mined from Pratas Island, direct field application took effect very slowly; it could serve only as base fertilizer.

The First Fertilizer Plant's phosphate fertilizer production line used guano as raw material, treated with sulfuric acid to produce ordinary superphosphate, whose main active ingredient was calcium dihydrogen phosphate—Ca(H₂PO₄)₂. Superphosphate was a quick-acting phosphate fertilizer, convenient to apply and compatible with modern agricultural techniques. Once the phosphate fertilizer plant commenced operations, yield increases would be immediate.

According to modern fertilizer technical materials, calculated at a twenty-five percent utilization rate, every kilogram of phosphate fertilizer could increase grain production by four to eight kilograms. These ten thousand tons of phosphate fertilizer would be equivalent to forty to eighty thousand tons of additional grain—and this required occupying merely a few hundred workers.

"This is the magic of industrialized agriculture." Wu Nanhai looked up and smiled at the gate of Lingao First Fertilizer Plant. Compared to the simple bamboo fence walls, the factory gate appeared quite grand: a stone archway. Originally commissioned by a local landlord who had hired stonemasons to carve it for his ancestral grave, the archway had changed hands when the landlord "colluded with bandits," forcing his entire family to flee to the mainland. His confiscated property became Planning Commission assets. The plaque inscription was the work of Liu Dalin. Though this Jinshi—a successful candidate in the highest imperial examinations—knew nothing of what chemical fertilizer was, let alone phosphate fertilizer, he understood the matter of increasing production.

Since it could increase grain yields, it represented a great benevolent policy. Jinshi Liu did not decline the request and wrote the large characters with his brush.

"Jinshi Liu's calligraphy is indeed excellent. Hmm... like dragons soaring and phoenixes dancing..." Wu Nanhai felt quite proud—he had personally requested the inscription. Though he knew essentially nothing about calligraphy.

Inside the factory grounds, heads bobbed everywhere, colorful flags fluttered; everything stood ready, awaiting only their arrival.

A group of Senators led by Ma Qianzhu already stood before the ceremony platform. Ji Tuisie, however, was smoking beneath the rostrum, watching with an amused smile as the increasingly broad Wu Nanhai approached. He waved indifferently at Wu Nanhai's repeated apologies for his tardiness.

"Old Wu, you look well." Ji Tuisie clapped Wu Nanhai on the shoulder.

"Not bad, not bad." Wu Nanhai knew Ji Tuisie had contributed significantly to the fertilizer plant's realization. The plant and its supporting sulfuric acid project were, in essence, chemical sector enterprises; helping him was also helping himself. But the favor remained substantial. He clasped his hands repeatedly and said, half-jokingly, "Great kindness needs no words of thanks."

"Not at all, not at all." Ji Tuisie was in high spirits—continuous new projects in the chemical sector had put wind in his sails. "We help each other. There will be even better cooperation ahead."

(End of Chapter)