Chapter 199 Chemical Plant Completed

"Come on, how is the construction of the chemical plant going? Have you been lazy while the master was away?" Wang An asked.

Ergou grinned and said, "Everything has been built according to your design. Even a lot of lard has been boiled out. It smells delicious!"

Wang An curled his lips and said, "I use it to make soap. What's the point of it smelling good..."

Ergou smiled and said nothing more. He turned to look at the veterans behind Wang An, leaned close to Wang An and whispered, "Boss, what are these people following you for? They look scary!"

Wang An suddenly said, "Oh, right, let's quickly find another piece of land next to the chemical plant and build a row of barracks. It should be enough for at least 800 people to live in!"

Er Gou was shocked when he heard this and asked, "Why build such a large barracks? Are you planning to rebel, boss?"

Wang An waved his hand and slapped him, saying with a look of regret and fear: "You fool, can you just say such things casually?"

Ergou touched the back of his head with some fear, stuck out his tongue and didn't mention it again.

Wang An explained: "These brothers behind me are all veterans under General Man Guiman of Datong Prefecture. Because they were injured on the battlefield and can no longer serve, I brought them back. From now on, they will work in our chemical plant and coal warehouse."

"The row of barracks I asked you to build is for these brothers to live in."

Ergou glanced at the missing limbs in the crowd again, looked at Wang An in surprise and said, "Boss, this is not the way to go about it. These people are all missing limbs. Wouldn't it be a waste of food to bring them back?"

However, Ergou's words earned him another slap in the face. Wang Annu said, "Who told you that you can't work if you're missing limbs? You're so short-sighted!"

"Anyway, stop talking nonsense and just do whatever I tell you to do!"

Ergou nodded like a pug, not daring to raise any more questions.

But he rolled his eyes and said with some difficulty: "But it will take more than one or two days to build the barracks. During this period of time, where will these brothers live?"

Wang An was also a little confused, but when he saw the row of tall factory buildings from the corner of his eye, he immediately had an idea in his mind. He turned to the brothers behind him and said in embarrassment:

"Brothers, I, Wang, brought you back on a whim, so I don't know where to put you right now. But don't worry, I've asked someone to find a place to build barracks, and I believe it will be completed in no time."

"But during this period, I may have to trouble you brothers to stay in my factory for a while."

Tian Erlangzi quickly took the lead and said, "What are you talking about, Boss? For us, it's good enough to have a roof over our heads!"

"If you ask me, there's no need to build barracks. We can just live in the factory!"

The others also echoed, "Yes, yes, it's good enough to fill our stomachs and get paid, how can we dare to be too demanding?"

"Boss, don't treat us as ungrateful people. Don't worry about where we live!"

Wang An waved his hands and said righteously, "How can that be possible? When I was in Datong Prefecture, I, Wang, boasted that I would build big houses for everyone so that everyone could bring their families over. But now there is no place to settle down. Isn't that a breach of promise?"

Wang Anzhi's words put the old soldiers who had just arrived in Beijing and were feeling anxious because they were unfamiliar with the place at ease. They felt that following Wang Anzhi was indeed the right choice.

Wang An immediately took the veterans into the chemical plant. First, he settled the veterans and checked whether the construction of the Twenty-Four Tea Chemical Plant was in accordance with his design. The entire chemical plant was divided into four workshops and two small buildings.

The two small buildings are an office building and a dormitory building. They were originally designed to be used as residences for factory guards. Now they are of perfect use, but not many people can live in them.

As for the four workshops, they are large warehouses used to store purchased meat and wood ash.

As well as oil boiling, saponification and final shaping workshops.

The three workshops are isolated from each other, connected only by a small door to transport the output of each workshop to the next process.

Moreover, according to Wang An's regulations, the person who transports the finished product to the next process must be a trustworthy person who will not disclose the work content of other processes.

But it is of little use at the moment, because with these veterans from Datong Prefecture, the trust issue with employees has been basically resolved.

At this time, the factory was still empty, exuding the fresh fragrance of new wood.

It was already May of the first year of Chongzhen. Although the weather was colder than in previous years, it was still summer after all. Most of the veterans brought bedding rolls with them, so it was acceptable for them to just sleep on the floor for now.

Since the factory building is quite large, it can easily accommodate 700 people.

Moreover, there is already a well in the factory building, so Wang An only needs to temporarily eat a few meals from the big pot on the construction site to solve the veterans' food problem.

As soon as he settled the old soldiers here temporarily, Wang An started to arrange to hire people to build barracks.

Unexpectedly, when Tian Erlangzi heard it, he immediately volunteered.

"Boss, with us old brothers here, why would we need to spend money to hire more people? Besides, these barracks are built for us to live in, so of course we should build them ourselves!"

Wang An thought it made sense. There were more than 700 unused employees, and it would be a bit painful to spend money to recruit more people.

But after thinking about it, these veterans are all physically disabled or too old and weak. They can do light work, but it might be difficult for them to do these civil engineering projects.

Seeing Wang An's hesitation, Tian Erlangzi patted his chest and assured him, "When we were in Ningyuan before, we dug trenches and built fortresses a lot. A row of simple barracks won't be a problem for us!"

The other veterans also gathered around and patted their chests to assure Wang An that they would complete the task quickly and well.

There were hope in the eyes of the old soldiers, eyes that were extremely eager to be recognized. Wang An couldn't bear to refuse, so he nodded and agreed.

Even if some people were assigned to follow Ergou to purchase the materials needed to build the barracks in the early stage.

With Ergou and Tian Erlangzi hosting the event, Wang An felt relieved and planned to go back to his house in the city to have a good rest for the night.

The long journey through grasslands and deserts during this period made him exhausted.

He took out some more silver and gave it to Ergou and Tian Erlangzi, asking them to buy some wine and meat, which would be today's welcoming banquet.

(End of this chapter)