Chapter 166 Double Happiness
If he only bought a reactor and a centrifuge, he would save a lot of budget funds. For safety reasons, Xu Qiang chose a reactor and a centrifuge produced by two well-established manufacturers in Shanghai. The total price added up to 9,600 yuan!
Some time ago, Xu Qiang bought nearly ten tons of fertilizer. He had exactly ten thousand yuan in cash on hand, which was just enough to pay for the goods.

"I'll take a day off tomorrow morning. You and I will go to the county town together and we'll contact the manufacturer by phone. If they have the goods, we'll place an order directly!" Xu Qiang said.

"So fast, uncle, don't you want to go to the factory to take a look?" Erhu said in surprise.

"I won't go. You can go. The two manufacturers I plan to order from are both in Shanghai. When you go, contact the manufacturers and sign the order contracts on behalf of our factory. Then I will remit the money to the manufacturers tomorrow." Xu Qiang thought for a moment and then said, "Then you can ask the manufacturers to help ship the products to our county. I will find a car to bring the goods back."

It was impossible for Xu Qiang to go to Shanghai with so much cash. After all, the public security was not so good these days. So he let Erhu go to Shanghai to sign the contract first, and then Xu Qiang contacted the manufacturer directly through a long-distance call to discuss the payment and remitted the money directly to Shanghai.

As for how the machines are transported to the peat field, generally speaking, freight is transported by rail. After the manufacturer ships the products to the county town, there are special trucks for transporting goods. Xu Qiang only needs to spend money to hire a car to transport the goods directly to the village.

This is also the safest and most feasible method at present.

"Okay, then I'll go to Shanghai tomorrow." Erhu said.

"Thank you for your hard work this time. I originally wanted to let you rest for two days... But it doesn't matter. I will give you more bonuses this month." Xu Qiang said with a smile.

"That's great!" Erhu was delighted when he heard that and said quickly.

For Erhu, even if being a salesman requires traveling all over the country to sell land, it is better than working in the peat field. He has now adapted to this kind of life, and the train is basically half of his home.

Besides, as long as I can make more money, I can afford to work harder.

After explaining everything, Xu Qiang and Erhu went to the big house to have dinner together.

The next morning, Erhu, who had stayed in the peat field for a whole night, set out again and headed for the factory in Shanghai.

As soon as the equipment is in place, Xu Qiang can immediately start producing industrial dyes on a small scale.

This time, Xu Qiang really started to make a lot of money...

……

After a ten-day public announcement period at the factory, Xu Qiang was officially identified as this year's model worker of Shengli Machinery Factory.

As a result, with the help of Liu Biao, Xu Qiang also got the quota for agricultural-to-non-agricultural status.

That morning, with the help of the personnel staff, Xu Qiang went to the county personnel bureau to handle the relevant procedures. He would have to wait for about ten days for the review before he could finally get a city hukou.

With a city hukou, Xu Qiang's job conversion became a sure thing, which made Xu Qiang somewhat emotional.

At first, his father worked diligently in the factory for more than ten years, but his job was never changed until he died. However, this time, Xu Qiang solved the problem of changing from an agricultural worker to a non-agricultural worker in just over a month.

When she learned that her son had obtained a city hukou and was about to get a permanent job, his mother Zhang Fenglan was so excited that she burst into tears. That evening, she prepared a large table of sumptuous meals and invited several neighbors in the village who had a good relationship with her. This was the first time that the mother, who had always been frugal, had hosted such a generous dinner.

This matter spread throughout the entire village, and along with it, various people came to propose marriage. Some even brought the girl directly to Xu Qiang's mother and never mentioned the issue of bride price from beginning to end!

Zhang Fenglan has been overwhelmed by the choices these days. Even when she sleeps, she has a smile on her face. This is the happiest day for her since her husband passed away.

But no matter what his mother said, Xu Qiang just refused to go on a blind date. No matter how good the other party's conditions were or how beautiful the girl was, Xu Qiang had no interest in this at all. He still went to work as usual and worked in the peat field after get off work.

Two days later, news finally came from Erhu that he had contacted the manufacturer and signed the order contract.

Immediately, Xu Qiang got on a tractor and brought his bodyguard, Da Hei Niu, to the county town.

After making a phone call and transferring the money to the manufacturer, all that was left was to wait for Erhu to handle the subsequent product delivery matters. In a blink of an eye, Xu Qiang had spent the 10,000 yuan in cash on hand and only a small amount of more than 1,000 yuan was left.

It is estimated that it will take one or two weeks at most for these equipment to be delivered from Shanghai. By then, Xu Qiang can start mass production of indigo powder and begin to enter the domestic industrial dye market.

……

Time passed day by day, and in the blink of an eye, it was already the end of September.

On this day, Xu Qiang had double happiness.

First, his urban hukou was finally approved, and the factory's personnel department issued him a regular employment contract on the same day. In addition, the factory's accounting department also re-determined his salary, from an apprentice to a first-level worker, with a monthly salary increase of 6.3 yuan, but in terms of job title, he was still a porter. In fact, the salary of front-line workers is higher than that of government employees these days, and the porters in the chemical workshop also have a monthly benefit of one pound of meat, so Xu Qiang actually got the upper hand.

Although the salary paid by the factory is not worth mentioning to Xu Qiang now, getting a regular job has always been his goal. With the status of a formal worker, it will be much more convenient for him to do things in the factory in the future.

In addition to the regularization of his job, another good news is that the reactor and centrifuge that Xu Qiang ordered from Shanghai have also arrived. After the truck picked up the goods from the train station, it went directly to Shangzhuang Village where Xu Qiang was. Then Liu Jun drove a tractor and took five or six people to bring the two devices directly to the peat field.

As the saying goes, there is strength in numbers. At present, there are more than ten workers at the peat field. In addition, Xu Qiang also recruited an electrician. After working for a whole afternoon, the two machines were finally placed in the brick house that had been built long ago. After power-on testing, the machines operated normally.

The workers at the peat field all live in mud houses, but for these two machines, Xu Qiang specially built a brick house of more than 100 square meters with asbestos tiles on the ceiling, which shows how much importance he attaches to these two machines.

"Uncle, these two machines are really too expensive. When can we make back our investment?" Erhu said with a frown, looking at the stainless steel reactor and centrifuge that had been installed and debugged successfully.

Erhu went through the entire process of purchasing the two machines, so he naturally knew that these were things that Xu Qiang had spent all his money to buy. However, the price of more than 10,000 yuan seemed too expensive to him, and it might take a long time to recoup the money.

"It's hard to say, but it will definitely be quick." Xu Qiang stepped forward and touched the reactor with his hand, then turned to Erhu and said, "You and I, go to my laboratory, bring all the barrels of raw materials here."

"Uncle, what are you doing..."

"I will produce the first batch of dye tonight," said Xu Qiang.

Seeing the familiar machines from his previous life, Xu Qiang was very excited at this moment. He couldn't wait to produce the first batch of indigo powder dye.

"Okay, I'll get it right away." Seeing this, Erhu immediately ran to the next house.

A moment later, more than a dozen plastic barrels filled with various chemical raw materials were placed next to the machine.

Some of these raw materials were purchased by Xu Qiang, and some included several organic substances including aniline. All of them were extracted from peat by Xu Qiang through a series of processes some time ago.

The process of making indigo powder is relatively complicated, and its chemical process mainly includes condensation reaction, hydrolysis reaction and alkali fusion oxidation reaction.

First, aniline and hydroxyacetonitrile are placed in a reactor at a molar ratio of 1:0.9-1:1.2, and reacted at 60-105 degrees Celsius. The reaction is completed after 2-8 hours. Potassium hydroxide is then placed in a hydrolysis reactor at the same molar ratio as aniline, and a hydrolysis reaction is carried out under boiling and reflux, and the ammonia gas discharged from the reaction is absorbed by acid until no ammonia gas is discharged in the hydrolysis reactor.

Finally, the reaction materials are concentrated by centrifuge and dried to obtain white, slightly yellow powder or flakes of potassium phenylglycinate, which are then subjected to alkali fusion oxidation reaction with sodium hydroxide, potassium hydroxide and sodium amide to finally obtain an indigo powder solution, which is dried and crushed to obtain the finished indigo powder.

This process takes more than twelve hours. It is now 6:30 in the afternoon, which means that this batch of products will not be produced until before Xu Qiang goes to work tomorrow morning.

Not sleeping for a night will definitely affect Xu Qiang's work tomorrow, but right now Xu Qiang can't wait to use the new machine to make the first batch of dye products.

Xu Qiang first weighed the required raw materials, then poured them into the reactor. After pressing the start switch of the machine, a buzzing sound filled the entire room.

Liu Jun, Erhu and Da Hei Niu stood behind Xu Qiang, watching his operations silently and ready to help at any time.

One hour, two hours, three hours...

It was getting darker and darker, and Liu Jun and the other two could hardly hold on any longer. After all, they had been busy all day, and it was already past bedtime. So Xu Qiang let them rest while he stayed in front of the machine alone.

By the second half of the night, Xu Qiang was still in an excited state. He had been observing and recording the operation of the machine, and strictly carrying out each step of the operation according to the process flow he remembered from his previous life.

The sky outside the window gradually turned pale, and the synthesis of the dye had reached the final step.

As the red light on the separator came on, Xu Qiang took out the finished indigo powder that had completed solid-liquid separation from the machine.

"Uncle, what is this?"

At this time, Liu Jun and Erhu, who had gotten up early, came behind Xu Qiang, saw the blue mud blocks he put into the plastic bucket, and asked Xu Qiang.

“It’s gold!”

Xu Qiang turned around and said with a smile...

(End of this chapter)