The expeditionary force began to dominate Southeast Asia by recruiting defeated soldiers

Chapter 287 Nanyang’s Industrial Dream

While the front lines were making rapid progress, the atmosphere of active production was also in full swing at the "Xin Shunfu Textile Factory" in Myitkyina in the rear.

In the neat and clean production workshop, countless female textile workers wearing masks and the same work uniforms stand side by side in front of the rumbling machines, busy and nervous.

With the mad rotation of countless machines and the hard sweat of countless female workers, the huge assembly line workshop is like an ancient monster, constantly swallowing baskets of raw cotton and then spewing out large sheets of white cotton cloth.

Soon, the produced cotton cloth was packed in large boxes, and workers drove small vehicles similar to Bobcat cars, pulling these heavy cotton cloths to the printing and dyeing workshop next door.

Although the world war was still going on, with the Allied forces pressing forward, the sea transport lines, especially the one from White Eagle to Sindhu, and then from Sindhu to Myitkyina via railways and the Stevenson Road, had actually become completely open.

So one by one, the latest model of White Eagle textile machinery was bought by Huan Borong, the owner of Xinshunfu Textile Factory. After being shipped to Myitkyina, they were successfully put into operation after some debugging.

After the Japanese occupied Bago, they implemented a policy of destroying farmland and converting it into cotton fields, which made life miserable for the people. However, after the pain, it also turned some areas of Bago into the real cotton producing area.

After solving the basic problem of food and clothing through pesticides and good seeds, Zhang Chi naturally did not bother to turn the cotton fields back into farmland. Instead, he encouraged local Nanyang businessmen like Huan Borong to build cotton mills to solve the clothing problem for everyone in Nanyang.

In Zhang Chi's opinion, even if it is very hot in Nanyang, as civilized people, everyone should dress properly. Not to mention a three-piece suit, at least shorts and a top should be worn properly.

Yes, I am talking about some natives who are accustomed to not wearing clothes.

As for why Zhang Chi didn’t invest his own money in the lucrative cotton spinning business?

He could only say: "My funds are important. I need to put them into heavy industry."

In his view, Nanhua Group of Companies is the national policy group responsible for carrying the entire country forward.

Therefore, he must use all his funds in important industries such as automobile factories, machine tool factories, steel mills, power stations, and shipyards.

As for the lucrative light industries such as cotton textile mills, garment factories, canning factories, and furniture factories, they must be established with the capital of local wealthy people in Nanyang. Zhang Chi is only responsible for helping them introduce White Eagle's new technologies and equipment, and providing certain assistance in sales.

After all, there are hundreds of millions of people in Nanyang, and hundreds of millions of people in neighboring Sindhu. With such a huge consumer market, the profits will definitely not be low.

You ask why no Nanyang people made a lot of money from this in the past?

That’s because when the white colonists from Europe were here, they used force to turn this place into their dumping market.

The referees and athletes are all white people. How can ordinary Qianren businessmen compete with them?

But now Zhang Chi has hundreds of thousands of guns, hundreds of fighter planes, and thousands of tanks under his command. He is a real "country of a thousand chariots" and he even drove away the Japanese.

If Nanyang is still a dumping market for white people, then wouldn’t Zhang Chi’s trip be in vain?

With Zhang Chi's help, countless businesses like the Xinshunfu Textile Factory sprang up overnight in Pegu. Many Qian people from other parts of Southeast Asia even fled to Pegu with their families, fleeing capture by the Japanese, taking their meager possessions with them, just to try their luck.

Generally speaking, the Qian people in the Nanyang region are very adventurous. After all, those who are not adventurous have stayed in the country, and those who dare to go to Nanyang have a bit of a gambler complex.

Zhang Chi did not reject these compatriots who were willing to risk their lives to start businesses. However, whether it was for them or for wealthy businessmen like Huan Borong who had been tied to him for a long time, Zhang Chi had only one requirement - to be obedient.

I'm not planning on using the chaebols as cash machines like Park Kaka and Jeon Young-joong in South Korea did. (Fun fact: although both were military dictators, South Korea's economy took off during their reigns.)

But Zhang Chi would never allow these rich people to mess around and disrupt his plans.

After all, economic development requires comprehensive consideration. Asia is already a disadvantaged group compared to the West. Zhang Chi is very clear that if they continue to engage in full competition and infighting under such circumstances, they will never be able to make a breakthrough.

Hayek's invisible hand definitely doesn't work for Zhang Chi. Like General Luo, Zhang Chi believes in Keynes' visible hand.

The first requirement Zhang Chi put forward for these chaebol reserve forces was that female employees must be recruited, especially in industries such as textiles, and the number of female workers must account for a considerable proportion of the total number.

At this time, a large number of female workers in the textile workshop found jobs in the factory under the influence of this policy.

Quan Cuirong, who is operating a textile machine, is such a female worker.

Originally from Henan Province, she was the victim of the White Party's digging of the Yellow River embankment, and her only fate was to starve to death.

You have to know that in times of famine, the first to die are the elderly, followed by young women and children. Only strong men have a slim chance of survival.

However, Zhang Chi's request saved countless women like Quan Cuirong. If you want to set up a factory here with Zhang Chi and buy Baiying's advanced machinery and equipment through Zhang Chi, you have to hire a large number of women.

As a result, thousands of disaster-affected women, including Quan Cuirong, found jobs in factories in Bago and were able to support themselves and survive.

The daily wage is 35 cents. If the products are of good quality and there are no defective products, the entire production team will receive an additional bonus. At the end of the month, Quan Cuirong can get a salary of about 10 to 13 dollars.

Although Quan Cuirong was from Henan Province and usually only dealt with copper coins and occasionally ocean dollars, she didn't know what the Eagle Dollar was at first, but she was soon shocked by Dao Le's purchasing power.

Don't underestimate the purchasing power of $10. Even including the transportation costs, 1 kg of White Eagle refined flour is only worth 15 to 20 Eagle cents after being shipped to Bago, while the second-grade flour produced locally in Bago is only worth 9 Eagle cents.

In addition, Zhang Chi obtained white-feather chickens and feed formulas from Baiying, and the price of chicken in Bago was also reduced to 30 Eagle points per kg.

This means that if she doesn't consider supporting her family, Quan Cuirong's salary alone is enough for her to have enough food to eat every day.

Of course, due to the limitations of technology, in this era without large-scale cold chain transportation and large-scale cold storage, fresh tropical fruits are still expensive light luxury goods even in their place of origin, Bago.

But at least there are a wide variety of canned fruits on the shelves, and Quan Cuirong can still afford to buy a few cans to try after receiving her weekly salary.

Quan Cuirong didn't know that if the exchange rate was calculated alone, his salary was even higher than that of ordinary workers in the Japanese capital.

Of course, Quan Cuirong's monthly salary of $10 cannot be compared with the monthly salary of more than $100 for White Eagle workers, but in Asia alone, this is already a top-notch salary.

Logically speaking, a businessman like Huan Borong would never offer such a high salary. Even Quan Cuirong was afraid of the abnormally high salary she received, fearing that everything would disappear when she woke up, and that this was just a dying fantasy of a starving peasant girl.

But who made Huan Borong so nervous?

Apart from anything else, as long as Zhang Chi gives the order, the Anmin Army's "six sticks in one second" will hit Huan Borong's butt.

Zhang Chike also hopes that these companies will recruit a large number of female workers and immigrate women of working age from other parts of Southeast Asia and various regions in the country to Pegu.

After all, in the previous large-scale immigrations, in order to expand the Security Army, Zhang Chi recruited mostly male bachelors, resulting in an abnormally high proportion of men among the people of Bago now.

Although Zhang Chi also encourages single men to marry local women through some incentive policies to contribute to population assimilation, there are still only a few men willing to marry foreign women.

Therefore, Zhang Chi could only try to immigrate more women to ensure that the local gender ratio in Bago remained at a healthy level.

But this time he will not do it himself, but will use the carrot and stick method to force wealthy Nanyang businessmen like Huan Borong who have close ties with the country to help immigrate.

Due to the war and famine, no one knows how many victims have been displaced in the Yellow River flood area and other areas.

It just so happened that what Pegu lacked most were Chinese people who shared the same language and culture, so Zhang Chi used the carrot of setting up a factory to lure Huan Borong and others into working for him.