Chapter 5: Shining Star In The Ships Industry
Before going to bed, Zhou Wenhua decided to visit the Zhonghua Shipyard of this era the next day, as well as its founder Yang Junsheng.
This was an expert in shipbuilding who devoted himself single-mindedly to researching ships and innovating technology, but he was also not good at operations, was kind-hearted, and lacked vigilance—an industrialist dedicated to saving the nation through industry.
He was a shining star in the Republic of China’s shipbuilding industry, and the Zhonghua Shipyard was founded by him single-handedly.
Of course, besides wanting to visit this industrialist, he also planned to see if there was an opportunity to cooperate with him in building warships and ships.
Because Zhou Wenhua was well aware of how formidable this industrial founder was.
The shipyard he personally built from the ground up had developed from its establishment in 1926, and by the 1980s, it had already built over a thousand various ships.
Moreover, it could not only manufacture various large and medium-sized surface ships, warships, and even far-sea and near-sea cargo ships of 20,000 tons and below; it could also manufacture various engineering ships, high-horsepower tugboats, dredgers, petroleum exploration platforms, and more.
Besides planning to visit the boss of this Zhonghua Shipyard,
Zhou Wenhua also planned to visit Ye Zaifu, the renowned warship designer of the Republic of China era.
This man was known in the Republic of China’s warship design industry as the Ye Zaifu era.
He served as chief engineer at the Jiangnan Shipyard from 1917 to 1937.
Moreover, his resume was also impressive.
In 1912, he was admitted to the University of Glasgow in Britain to study shipbuilding.
In 1914, he was sent to the United States to supervise the construction of Chinese warships being built there.
In 1915, he entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States to study warship design and manufacturing, and in 1917, he obtained a master’s degree in naval engineering.
After returning to China, he worked at the Jiangnan Shipyard, and from 1927 onward, he served as chief engineer and director of the shipbuilding department, ushering in a new era where production authority was controlled by Chinese people.
In 1943, he served as professor and director of the shipbuilding department at Chongqing Jiaotong University.
He personally designed over 500 ships, particularly excelling in the design of Yangtze River steamboats.
He devoted his life to ship design and the cultivation of shipbuilding technology talent, training batch after batch of elite talent for China’s shipbuilding industry.
It was also because of his excellent character that Zhou Wenhua very much wanted to meet him and learn shipbuilding technology from him.
After deciding to visit these two famous figures in the shipbuilding world,
Zhou Wenhua also did not mind visiting his father’s friend Chen Ziting at the shipyard.
Anyway, he and the Jiangnan Shipyard chief engineer Ye Zaifu were at the same shipyard, so visiting would be very convenient.
Besides these visit plans,
Zhou Wenhua also planned, as soon as day broke, to have the butler Liu Xing recruit a group of strong, obedient young men for security team training, and to inquire where weaponry was for sale.
After handling these matters,
Zhou Wenhua stopped studying and went to bed.
Soon, he fell asleep.
This was his third day after transmigrating to the Republic of China era.
In this period of the Republic of China, due to internal strife and foreign invasion, Shanghai’s shipbuilding industry—aside from the Jiangnan Shipyard jointly operated by the military and capital—had all other shipyards like Yinglian, Mole, Donghua, Qiuxin, etc., controlled by British, French, American, Japanese, and other merchants.
As for the other domestic shipyards and merchants, they could only establish small boatyards focused on dismantling and repairing, unable to compete with foreign merchants.
Even the more famous Shanghai steamboat companies like Datong, Dada, Minsheng, Sanbei, and Chongming were unable to compare with foreign shipbuilding technology.
Even domestic shipbuilding technology was inferior to that of the Japanese Army.
Because of this, before falling asleep, Zhou Wenhua hoped he could make a contribution to the Republic of China’s domestic shipbuilding industry.
Especially after the outbreak of the First Battle of Shanghai in 1932,
The Great China Shipbuilding Machine Factory had been forcibly occupied by the Japanese Army.
However, before the war, it was about to receive an order from the National Army Navy Department to build the “Yangtze” gunboat.
At this time, Yang Junsheng had just, through his relationship with Song Ziliang, the director of the Shanghai Binpu Bureau, leased a piece of wasteland on Fuxing Island, about thirty mu in size, and recruited over a hundred people to enclose and build the factory.
The shipyard was under construction, and the project had just started a few days earlier.
Because previously, his three-year contract with the leased factory in the foreign concession had expired.
He wanted to renew the lease, but was explicitly prohibited by Japan, Britain, and France from Chinese people operating shipyards in their foreign concession jurisdictions.
So Yang Junsheng could only relocate his shipyard to Shanghai’s Fuxing Island and rebuild it.
The next day, as soon as it dawned,
Zhou Wenhua first went to see his father, offered condolences,
and then began eating breakfast.
The breakfast was cooked by him personally, because he felt his cooking skills were better than those of the chef and workers hired by his family, so he cooked it himself.
As for this, his family’s chef and workers could only cook breakfast for his father’s wives and the butlers.
After eating breakfast,
Zhou Wenhua first had someone bring the current affairs newspapers published that morning for him to browse.
After understanding what had happened in the past few days,
He then had the butler Liu Xing arrange visits to the Zhonghua Shipyard founder Yang Junsheng, the Jiangnan Shipyard chief engineer Ye Zaifu, and his father’s friend Chen Ziting.
Before visiting, he had to obtain the other party’s agreement first.
Fortunately, Chen Ziting had a good and familiar relationship with the Jiangnan Shipyard chief engineer Ye Zaifu, so the butler Liu Xing quickly arranged through Chen Ziting to meet the Jiangnan Shipyard chief engineer Ye Zaifu.
As for the Zhonghua Shipyard founder Yang Junsheng, since Zhou Wenhua had the butler Liu Xing approach under the name of shipbuilding cooperation, for Yang Junsheng who lacked new orders, it was quickly scheduled for a meeting that same day.
Then, the butler Liu Xing continued, per Zhou Wenhua’s instructions, to recruit manpower for him and form a security team.
After arranging everything properly,
Zhou Wenhua, under the protection of two bodyguards, boarded his father’s black Mercedes-Benz car and headed first to Shanghai’s Fuxing Island to visit the Zhonghua Shipyard founder Yang Junsheng.
At this time, Yang Junsheng was also busy directing his workers in building the shipyard.
Extremely busy,
But after being busy for a while,
He also checked the time on his wristwatch.
Because he was curious about Zhou Wenhua’s background and whether he really intended to place an order for shipbuilding.
Actually, when he received the call from the butler Liu Xing,
He was also very surprised.
He clearly remembered that, aside from the Shanghai Binpu Bureau director Song Ziliang, a few close friends and relatives, and his own workers, no one knew the temporary phone number of his new shipyard.
So, for Zhou Wenhua being able to so easily find his new phone number and have his butler call to arrange a meeting, he could sense that the Zhou Family background behind Zhou Wenhua was not simple.
Therefore, he attached considerable importance to his first meeting with Zhou Wenhua.
“It seems that Mr. Zhou should be arriving here soon!”
“I need to entertain him well; perhaps there will be a big order for me!”
After Yang Junsheng checked the time, he muttered these two sentences.
Then, he put down the work in his hands and had the workers under him continue being busy,
While he began preparing to receive Zhou Wenhua, as well as the meals and venue for the reception.
