Source: Chongqing Historical Hall of Fame
Hu Ziang (1897-1991), also known as Heru, was a native of Ba County, Sichuan Province (now Banan District, Chongqing), a famous industrialist and social activist. He once served as the director of Chongqing Municipal Education Bureau, the manager of Huaxi Xingye Company, the general manager of Chongqing Water Supply Company, and the general manager of China Xingye Company. After the founding of New China, he successively served as a member of the Southwest Military and Political Committee, a member of the Southwest Financial and Economic Committee, a vice mayor of the Chongqing Municipal People's Government, a vice chairman of the Municipal Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and a chairman of the Chongqing Federation of Industry and Commerce.
Run "Industrial" steel smelting
In 1928, Hu Zi'ang became the director of the newly established Chuankang Border Affairs Office. In the 6 years of chuankang border affairs office, he opened copper mines, built farms, ran banks, banned opium, and lightly paid taxes, which can be described as a remarkable political achievement. However, his experience in the Chuankang Border Affairs Office made him realize that the road of "building a country with agriculture" was not feasible, and it was still necessary to set up industry to save the country.
At the beginning of 1935, Hu Ziang resigned and returned to Chongqing, determined to take the road of "industry to save the country". As soon as he got out of the car, he announced to his relatives and friends: "Zi Ang is determined to make a difference when he returns to his hometown this time." Although I dare not say that I have lost my family' property, I must also do my best to effectively run several industries that are beneficial to the country with like-minded people. ”
Together with Hu Zhongshi, Hu Shuqian, Ning Zhicun, Liu Hangchen, Pan Changyou and others, he initiated the establishment of Huaxi Xingye Company and served as deputy general manager.
Hu Ziang started an industry from a small factory.
After market research, he identified the start of the weak machine manufacturing industry in the mainland. He hooked up with Hu Weiwen, a Shanghai industrialist known as the "Friend of the Machine", introduced advanced mother machines and technologies, tried to make grinding machines, electric motors and other small machines, and played the sign of "Huaxing Machine Factory".
Hu Ziang was very diligent during his entrepreneurial period, he said: "I have learned since I was a child that if I want to get something, I must work hard for it and earn it myself. ”
In the eyes of the employees, he seems to be managing the factory by taking a rickshaw, and every day he spends a lot of time on the road running from place to place, approaching business and attracting customers.
If he didn't go out, he would draft documents in his office, dictate telegrams, and keep a few secretaries busy. Sometimes at night he would bring some reports back to read and call to inquire about the production of the night shift.
Hu Ziang is not good at machine manufacturing, but he can humbly accept the opinions and suggestions of the insiders, and give them trust and support. He said: "My method is very simple, that is, to manage more things from the management of people. ”
He believes that industrialists must tell their employees what they think, and that smart managers must not only be good at thinking themselves, but also encourage others to be creative. Therefore, he regarded both technicians and technicians as pillars and treated each other wholeheartedly. He had a small notebook at hand, and whoever mentioned the idea, whether there was any improvement, and how much profit he made. When the salary is paid, he will reward him for his merits.
Hu Ziang is also very good at sales, he can not only speak the Tao, but also changed the traditional way of waiting for customers to come to the door, abandoning many middlemen, mainly relying on salesmen to go out to lobby and promote.
In less than a year, he laid the foundation of Huaxing Machine Factory and made it develop by leaps and bounds. In mid-1936, the company employed more than 700 workers and had 100 machines, making it the largest machine factory in Chongqing before the outbreak of the All-out War of Resistance. When the board of directors held its annual meeting again, the young and powerful Hu Ziang was elected as the general manager of Huaxi Xingye Company.
The new title gives him an even tighter schedule: raising money, mastering the market, bringing in talent, arranging design projects, endless negotiations with clients, and having unpleasant conversations with officials sent by warlords to loot.
As long as there is a profitable industry and mining industry, he advocates giving investment or equity. He said: "In the past, when the old people were rich, when they had money, they would spend a lot of money and eat and drink and squander. Now that we have the money, we have to think of new investments. ”
At the beginning of the construction of the Sichuan cement factory in Chongqing, Hu Ziang believed that it had a future and urged the purchase of shares in the factory. Afterwards, he proved to be quite discerning, because soon after the outbreak of the all-out war of resistance, the price of cement soared, and dividends were very rich.
The other shareholders of Huaxi Xingye Company are not idle people. Hu Zhongshi and Hu Shuqian went to Ding Heavy Industry, Ningzhi Village ran Chuankang Commercial Bank, Liu Hangchen was also an official and businessman, and Pan Changyou became the general manager of Chongqing Bank. By the eve of the outbreak of the All-out War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the company had developed into an enterprise group mainly engaged in industry and mining, including finance and trade, and was famous in the southwest.
Unconsciously, Hu Ziang is becoming the leader of Chongqing's industrial and commercial circles. When a rapist reporter asked him if he could manipulate the election of industrial associations and chambers of commerce and determine the candidates, he categorically denied: "I am just an industrialist, and you are exaggerating." ”
The outbreak of the all-out War of Resistance turned Chongqing into a big stage, and Hu Ziang himself will play a remarkable role.
This year, Beard Ang just turned 40 years old.
Meeting zhou Enlai in Wuhan in 1938 made Hu Ziang understand a lot of anti-Japanese principles. Back in Chongqing, he was enthusiastic and, together with Hu Zhongshi, Hu Shuqian, and others, initiated the preparation of China Industrial Company in Huaxin Street on the north bank of the Jialing River.
In order to obtain loans, Hu Zi'ang and others were forced to accept official investment. Kong Xiangxi occupied the chair of the chairman; Weng Wenhao and others served as managing directors; and Hu Ziang served as director and associate, that is, deputy general manager.
Wuhan has been lost, the Yangtze River route has been interrupted, and the material resources in the rear area are difficult, so it is not easy to build a new large steel plant. The official faction of Kong Xiangxi's system is concerned with the allocation of seats on the board of directors, and hu Zhongshi, Hu Ziang and others of the private equity faction are focused on turning the blueprint into reality.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, of the more than 100 steel mills in the rear area, only 15 could produce steel, and more than 80 were iron mills. After the establishment of the China Industrial Company in July 1939, the construction of a steel plant was immediately carried out, and the site of the plant was located in Jiangbei, Chongqing.
There is coal in eastern Sichuan, but there is a lack of iron ore, and the Qijiang iron ore has been assigned to the Dadukou Iron and Steel Plant for mining, without ZTE's share. Fuling and Pengshui have iron ore, but the Ministry of Economy holds on to it and is difficult to intervene.
The coke required for steelmaking is available in Maliuping, Jiangbei, but the quality is not good. The rest are distributed in Yongchuan, Tongliang and Beibei, and the transportation routes are long. There are also infrastructure, transportation, electricity and other issues, all of which are "roadblocks".
Bearded Ang was running around for this.
In the past, he only managed a machine factory, and there were still unfinished things, but now he wants to organize a large steel factory, and his business is even more unfinished.
In the reception room next to his office, people came and went, and the waiting clerks and merchants who came by appointment competed for every empty seat. The departments located in the building ring the telephone ring every few minutes to convey all aspects of the news.
Bearded, who has to worry about all kinds of big things, the staff knows that he is the actual head of the company, and they are used to looking for him.
Attending a dinner party with the leading figures in the industry in Dudu will delay Beard Ang for most of the day a week, but it also provides him with many opportunities to exchange information and useful relationships. There, he contacted Liu Hongsheng, Mu Rongchu, Wu Tangmei, Gu Gengyu and others and dismantled each other's positions. Hu Ziang understood very well that the bureaucracy had ill intentions, and that national industrialists and businessmen would not be eaten by them if they joined hands.
As soon as he had free time, Beard Ang went to the Jiangbei construction site to take a look. Braving the bombardment of Japanese aircraft, a large number of equipment and equipment were transported to Chongqing via Hong Kong, Haiphong and Yangon, and the construction site was busy. Seeing the blast furnaces rising from the ground, he was very happy in his heart.
In the summer of 1940, the Japanese headquarters ordered the implementation of the "No. 101 Battle Plan" and launched a large-scale air raid on Chongqing. Sometimes 200 planes were dispatched day and night, taking turns to attack, and the so-called "fatigue bombing" was carried out on Chongqing, and the whole city was often in flames, the bustling city was in ruins, and the construction site of the ZTE factory was also shot many times.
Even in such a dangerous situation, Hu Ziang also insisted on inspecting the construction site. While dodging the alarm in the bomb shelter, one could hear his coughing.
The War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression has brought development opportunities to Chongqing, and he must seize this opportunity.
Opening ceremony of China Industrial SteelMassic Plant
Strive for a place for national industry and commerce
When the ZTE Iron and Steel Plant was successfully built, a group of people in Kong Xiangxi's system did not pay attention to the directors of the private stock market and refused to accept the command of Hu Ziang. Hu Ziang felt that the situation was difficult, so he resigned, and soon after went to Chengdu to take over as the director of the Sichuan Provincial Construction Department.
He was depressed and often returned to Chongqing to chat with friends.
Once, people from the industrial and commercial circles held a forum on Baixiang Street in Downtown Chongqing and invited Zhou Enlai to give a report. Zhou Enlai taught the participants a vivid lesson, which also opened beard's eyes. Hu Ziang was determined to win a place for national industry and commerce.
In 1942, as a shareholder, Hu Ziang attended the opening ceremony of the ZTE Iron and Steel Plant.
Amid the sound of firecrackers, the blast furnace of the ZTE Iron and Steel Plant spewed out billowing smoke, declaring the bankruptcy of the Japanese blockade. In the production of steel and iron in the rear area, it accounted for 25% and 10% respectively, and together with the Yuxin Iron and Steel Plant, it became the two pillars of China's metallurgical industry during the war.
In March 1944, Fu Mubo of Kong Xiangxi's system was forced to resign. Hu Ziang made a comeback as the general manager of ZTE Iron and Steel Plant.
Soon after Hu Ziang returned to the factory, he accomplished three major tasks: he was involved in the business of manufacturing 4,000 gasoline barrels and the equipment needed for the proposed Chongqing Liangjiang Bridge; although the bridge construction plan was not realized later, he received a huge loan of 96.95 million yuan in advance; he undertook large-scale military orders and rushed out a batch of bayonets, military axes, and steel castings for bombs, mines, shells, and light machine guns, which supported the War of Resistance; sold steel at preferential prices in the civilian market and formulated a "preferential treatment method for distributing steel," which opened up an open source for the ZTE factory.
During Hu Ziang's tenure, the ZTE Iron and Steel Plant also undertook all the steel rails needed to build the Syrian-Kunming Railway, which was later shelved due to the blockade of the Yunnan Yue Road and the Yunnan Burma Road by the Japanese Kou's southward advance. In order to strengthen the traffic construction in the areas under their jurisdiction, the Baotian Railway Bureau and the Northwest Highway Bureau have signed contracts with ZTE Iron and Steel Plant for many times to purchase the required steel bars, brazes and other equipment, each time more than 200 tons. In terms of arms supply, it undertook two batches of orders from the Wartime Production Bureau, the first batch was military axes and bayonets, the company directly manufactured 800 tons, and provided Hundreds of tons of steel for Yuxin Iron and Steel Factory and China Steel Company to manufacture 300,000 military axes and bayonets. The second batch consisted of a large number of steel castings for mines, bomb casings, mortars, steel billets for cast steel shells and light machine guns, and more than 200 tons of 16-pound rails, all completed. In terms of local construction, Hu Ziang went to Chengdu to negotiate with Zhang Qun and Chen Kaisi, and signed an initial contract for the construction of the water conservancy irrigation project in Nanchong, and ZTE was responsible for supplying all the steel bars of the project, the first batch of which amounted to more than 3,000 tons, and undertook a number of water turbines. At the same time, the company also entrusted the Sichuan Machinery Company organized by the Sichuan Provincial Construction Department to recommend and sell steel products on behalf of the company and take over the production business. In Chengdu, the largest number of sales and supply are 200 tons of pig iron for each engineering unit under the Construction Department, 200 tons of pig iron for Chuankang Xingye Company, and all pig iron required for the manufacture of water pipes in Chengdu Waterworks.
In early December 1945, China Industrial Corporation developed a new type of gas tugboat, suitable for inland shipping, low cost and simple manufacturing. On the day of the trial voyage of the first gas tugboat "Yamei" in Nanjing, the company's directors and supervisors gathered at chaotianmen wharf to participate in the inaugural voyage ceremony, and Hu Ziang was also in the crowd, wearing red silk on his chest and jubilant.
At the beginning of the inaugural ceremony, he took the scissors from the hand of The Concierge and personally cut the ribbon for the "Yamei".
He also delivered a short speech: "Although all the employees of the company have gone through hardships, they have not dared to forget to serve the country for a moment. On the day of the country's celebration of victory, the 'Yamei' was completed and launched, and there were lucky demobilized materials on the voyage, and many people chatted and masturbated. ”
At this moment, the beard is full of energy. He felt that everything he had done in the past had been rewarded.
Workers at Henyep China cast steel parts
Original title: Modern Industrialists (VIII): Hu Zi Ang