In 1909, the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway was opened to traffic, and then the construction of the Zhangjiakou-Suiyuan section was started. The Governor of Shaanxi and Gansui Chang Geng wrote to the Qing court and submitted a letter to the Qing court, requesting the construction of the Northwest Railway, extending the Zhangsui Railway to Baotou Town, and building a railway between Lanzhou and Baotou. The southern line from Lanzhou to Lingzhou, and the northern line from Lingzhou to Baotou, connecting to the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway. However, due to the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution, the plan to build the Baoning Railway was also terminated.

In the winter of 1916, the Ministry of Transport of the Beiyang Government sent senior engineer Lin Jing to the four provinces of Suiyuan, Ningxia, Gansu and Xinjiang to survey the routes of the north and south three routes into the Xinjiang region with the Beijing-Sui Road as the route. In 1918, the Beiyang Government sent railway expert Shao Shanlu to survey the four provinces of Suiyang, Gansu, with a total length of 2,600 kilometers and a survey map was drawn.

In 1920, the Beiyang government signed a loan agreement with the German and Austrian government. After the first batch of 500 million marks of loans were obtained, Duan Qirui, who had not been too rich in finance, finally had a much better life. According to the agreement, at least 70% of the payment was to be used to develop infrastructure such as transportation, industry and mining, and electricity. Suiyuan-Baotou, Suiyuan-Kulun, Baotou-Lanzhou and the subsequent construction of Longhai Railway were first started as the first batch of railway construction projects.

In 1927, during the railway construction process, the Sino-German-Austrian joint inspection team also began to conduct geological scientific inspections along the railway. The Northwest scientific inspection team set off from Beijing along the Pingsui Railway to the then Suiyuan Province. The next day, the delegation and his delegation arrived at Baotou, the departure point of the inspection. They set up a headquarters here.

On July 2, 1927, the North Line Expedition Team arrived at the foot of Baiyun Ebo Mountain. Under the reflection of the sunset, the unique blue-black peak of Baiyun Ebo attracted the attention of Ding Daoheng, who had just graduated from the Department of Geology of Peking University. The peak seemed to have some mysterious force calling him.

The next morning, Ding Daoheng left the station and marched to Baiyun Obo alone. In a small river sludge washed by floods at the foot of the mountain, he saw a large amount of ore sand. After careful identification, many of them were rich in iron ore. Later, when he described this experience, he wrote, "The ore was intensive to the foot of the mountain, and the more mineral the more it became, the purer the mineral." After climbing to the top of the mountain, he saw a large area of ​​iron ore outcrops, and the main mining area of ​​Baiyun Obo was discovered. Ding Daoheng immediately wrote a letter to notify the headquarters of this major discovery.

At that time, some people predicted that "this place will become a large source of rich minerals in China." In the next few days, Ding Daoheng conducted some preliminary investigations on the main mining area of ​​Baiyun Obo and finally determined that it was a large iron ore deposit. He then wrote the "Suiyuan Baiyun Obo Iron Mine Report", which estimated that the reserves of Baiyun Obo Iron Mine were about 30 million tons. He also proposed: "If you can build steel enterprises near Baotou, it should have a deep relationship with northwest transportation, and its importance is not only in terms of economy."

Ding Daoheng's report immediately attracted the attention of Xu Shuzheng, who was in Suiyuan and served as the "Northwest Border Defense Supervisor". At his request, Ding Wenjiang, director of the Beiyang Government Geology Research Institute, personally led a team and organized a special geological team to conduct a careful investigation of the minerals in Baiyun Obo again. Finally, it was confirmed that the iron ore reserves in this area were about 100 million tons. In addition, other mineral resources were also accompanied by "is the largest iron ore discovered in China so far."

This discovery immediately attracted the attention of the senior political and business groups of the Beiyang government. The Beiyang Consortium headed by Duan Qirui raised more than 12 million yuan, and after negotiations, it borrowed 15 million yuan from Austria. A large steel joint enterprise with an annual output of 250,000 tons, the Northwest Steel Company was established and started construction in 1929.

Austro-Hungary Carlson Steel Group undertakes the design and technical support of Northwest Steel Company and most of the equipment manufacturing. Coal washing, coking, factory transportation, electric repair, telecommunications, and refractory materials and other projects that are suitable for ironmaking and steelmaking processes have also been started one after another. At the same time, the construction of Baiyun Obo Iron Mine has also begun.

After more than three years of construction, Northwest Steel Company began to start production while the Suixin Railway was opened. With the construction of Northwest Steel Company, Baotou currently has nearly 300,000 people. It replaced Guisui and became the largest city in Suiyuan.

As the Spring Festival approaches, Baotou Railway Station appears even more busy, and the entire waiting room is gathered in the waiting room from northwest Gansu, Mongolia and Xinjiang to go home. These small businessmen from Shanxi, Zhili and Beijing who have been traveling outside for a year have begun to prepare to go home for the New Year and reunite with their relatives.

In January 1935, before the Spring Festival, the first phase of Northwest Steel Company was successfully completed, and the largest special steel production workshop in China has also begun to be put into production. The products of the special steel workshop are mainly used for military purposes. As the general manager of the army, Xu Shuzheng made a special trip to Baotou to participate in the commissioning ceremony of the 30-ton steel furnace of the special steel workshop of Northwest Steel Company. The special steel smelting workshop introduced the advanced electric furnace steelmaking technology of the Hunglinz Steel Group, equipped with a 30-ton and a 15-ton steelmaking converter, which can produce most of the high-quality alloy steel in the world, which is enough to support the current domestic military production.

"Mr. Craun, how long does it take to make such a furnace of steel?" Xu Shuzheng wore a pair of sunglasses and stood on a high platform watching the beating fire. He asked the chief engineer of Northwest Steel Company that the main equipment of Northwest Steel Company came from two major steel groups in Austria-Hungary, and Craun was the chief engineer sent by Austria.

"Including the preliminary preparations, it takes about 2 hours for each furnace of steel to be refined." Ecked replied: "This kind of electric furnace can produce 210 tons of high-quality steel every day, with an annual output of about 60,000 tons. General, after the entire special steel production workshop is put into production, it will become the second largest special steel manufacturer in Asia after Japan's Hachiman ironmaking."

"Can this steel be used to make guns?"

"There is no problem. As long as you strictly follow the production process and raw material ratio, you can create a gun barrel as excellent as Skoda."

"Brother Zhongcai, what is the maximum caliber of the artillery that can be manufactured in the Baotou Arsenal under construction?" Xu Shuzheng turned around and asked Jiang Tingzi, the director of the Arsenal Department behind him.

"105 mm, but Hanyang Arsenal and Fuzhou Naval Arsenal can make 150 mm cannons." Jiang Tingzi said, who is an ordnance expert, and he is responsible for the relocation of the Dexian Arsenal and the expansion of the Baotou Arsenal.

Xu Shuzheng does have a sense of urgency. Although the visit of the Austro-Hungarian emperor temporarily suppressed the arrogance of the Japanese army and the Soviet Union, intelligence shows that the Japanese side is currently in contact with the Soviet Union and may want to join forces to attack China.

According to the arms plan formulated by the Austro-Hungarian advisory group, the Beiyang government decided to invest 1.5 billion yuan in five years to strengthen military preparations, mainly to expand the production scale of raw materials related to the military industry such as steel, metallurgy, fuel, chemical, etc. in the west, and to establish a number of automobiles, aircraft, radio, machinery and arsenal factories in the west, and to relocate the Fuzhou naval base to Qinzhou.

In this era, the output of steel represents the strength of the country. Although domestic steel production has developed rapidly in the past decade and has reached 2.5 million tons per year, there is still a big gap compared with Japan, especially the Soviet Union and Russia.

According to the plan, the newly added steel plants in the west are mainly Chongqing and Hunan Zhuzhou Iron and Steel Plants, and the production scale of Wuchang Iron and Steel Plants, Taiyuan Iron and Steel Plants and Baotou Iron and Steel Plants. (A good activity of falling pies from the sky, cool mobile phones are waiting for you! Follow Qidian/Chinese website official account (add friends on WeChat - add official account - enter qdread) and participate immediately! Everyone has a prize, now follow qdread WeChat official account now!) (To be continued) r466
Chapter completed!