Helen Poe, Stockholm, Sweden. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

There was a loud "boom", which once again alarmed the unfortunate residents who had settled near Helen Slope, and then they didn't have to go out to check the situation, the residents were already cursing, "Damn madman, bastard who should go to hell, here you go again!" One day, Helen Poe will be ruined at the hands of these madmen! ”

The explosion not only seriously affected the lives and work of the residents of Helen Slope again, but also scattered the wreckage of the bombed houses into the houses, causing property damage to many residents of Helen Slope. In a fit of rage, the residents of Helen Poe, fed up with fear and harassment, flocked to the site of the incident to protest against the three damned madmen they called the devil - Emmanuel Nobel, Alfred Bernhard Nobel, and Emile Nobel.

"Nobel, you crazy people, have you made enough trouble? It will explode every few days, when will it be able to take a break? ”

"The roof of my house has been smashed through, and my poor daughter is also frightened, you damned devils, hurry up and compensate for the loss of my family, or we will see you in court!"

"Devil! Get out of Helen Slope now! Otherwise, we will all be blown up by you sooner or later! ”

"Crazy people, you crazy people who only know about nitroglycerin all day long, pseudoscientists! Get out of here, don't stay with us, Helpoole doesn't welcome you family! ”

Thanks to the explosion of the laboratory, the police in Stockholm were also alarmed, and the police were present to stop them, otherwise the old Nobel and the Nobel brothers would definitely be torn apart on the spot by the angry neighbors, but even so, the door of Nobel's laboratory was smashed by the neighbors, and the police also forced the Nobel father and son to compensate the neighbors for all the losses. To make matters worse, the police also gave an ultimatum to the Nobel family - if something like this happened again, they would consider applying to the municipal authorities for the power to forcibly close the laboratory that Nobel and his son had set up at their own expense.

"You stupid fools, you don't know that my father and brother and I are researching the greatest invention in human history, and that once we succeed, we will bring countless wealth and convenience to mankind, and you are committing a crime against all mankind in ......the world by obstructing our research experiments."

The angry protest of the fourth brother Emile was stopped by his father Nobel Sr. covering his mouth with his hand, and Nobel, who was the third in the family, quickly apologized to the policeman who was already angry, and sent the policeman away. However, after closing the smashed gate, Nobel roared at the gate, "Ignorant fool, do you know how much money the world wastes when mining and building roads because the explosion of black powder and picric acid is not very powerful? Do you know how much wealth the world will create if we can tame nitroglycerin and make it safe for production?! Reptiles who abuse their power, apes that have not evolved completely! ”

"Jingle bell, ding bell."

The sudden sounding of the doorbell frightened Nobel to shut up, and said that the police heard his insults and came back to settle accounts with himself, but to the relief of the Nobel family, after the door opened, it was not a uniformed policeman who appeared in front of the door, but a middle-aged man with an English accent, and asked: "Excuse me, are those Mr. Nobel who studies nitroglycerin?" ”

"I'm Alfred Bernhard Nobel." Nobel introduced himself, his father and brother, and then asked, "May I ask who you are?" ”

"I'm the secretary of the Legation of Great Britain in Sweden, Laxton." The middle-aged man introduced himself: "Entrusted by our minister, I came to visit you three gentlemen. ”

"Commissioned by the Minister of your country?" The old Nobel whose business had gone bankrupt two years ago suddenly lit up, and immediately said: "Dear Mr. Laxton, please come in, is there an answer to my request to cooperate with your British military in the study of nitroglycerin?" ”

Looking at the Nobel Prize Laboratory, which was still smoking gunpowder, Laxton hurriedly waved his hand and declined, saying: "Dear Mr. Nobel, there is no need, I have to leave immediately if I have business, and I will leave when I am done." Mr. Nobel, I am not here for the cooperation between our military and you, but Marshal Wu of the Qing Dynasty has asked Mr. Clarlon, our special envoy for China-related issues, to bring you a letter and a sum of money, and I will send it to you on behalf of Mr. Clarlon. ”

"The transcendence of the Qing Kingdom, Marshal Wu? Write to us? Give us back a sum of money? Nobel father and son froze, puzzled, "We don't know him?" What did he do when he sent us letters and funds? ”

"Marshal Transcendence Wu is also a nitroglycerin fan, and he is also organizing people to research, produce and use nitroglycerin, and I hope to get your help."

Laxton explained casually, took out the letter written by Wu Chaoyue to Nobel and handed it to Nobel and his son, and took out a bank draft worth 3,000 silver dollars and handed it to Nobel and his son, and then immediately said goodbye: "Three Nobel gentlemen, my business has been done, see you next time." ”

Laxton hurriedly rode away in the carriage, and the Nobel father and son opened Wu Chaoyue's letter more eagerly to read, and the result was okay, because the letter was written in English, and the well-educated Nobel father and son could read it directly without translation. Although the Nobel father and son were very puzzled as to why Wu Chaoyue would ask someone to send money and letters to their family, when they saw that Wu Chaoyue said that he could provide all the convenience to study the content of nitroglycerin, the Nobel father and son, who were worried about the funds and the experimental site, were overjoyed together, and the straightforward Emil also cheered: "Great, father, brother, we will go to Qingguo immediately and study nitroglycerin there." ”

"Silly boy, do you want to grow flowers in the desert?" Old Nobel was more rational and reprimanded: "Haven't you heard that the distant Qing country is the most conservative and stupid country in the world, without any industrial base, and there are very few scientific and technological personnel, can you imagine that a safe nitroglycerin explosive was researched in the Qing country?" ”

Amir shut up in disappointment, but Nobel said: "Father, pay attention below, Marshal Transcendence Wu said that he listed the list of chemical industry equipment he owned for our reference, and also said that he had found a way to safely preserve nitroglycerin, but he was limited by the lack of technology for safe production of nitroglycerin, and could not be put into large-scale industrial production. ”

"Has he found a way to safely preserve nitroglycerin? How can it be? Can the technological desert of the Qing Kingdom have such advanced technology? ”

Old Nobel exclaimed, quickly read all Wu Chaoyue's letters, and carefully looked at the list of Daye experimental equipment brought by Wu Chaoyue's letter, and the old Nobel was surprised to find that Wu Chaoyue not only stated so, but also had the equipment conditions for research, development, production and development of nitroglycerin in the Daye Industrial Base introduced by Wu Chaoyue.

At the same time, what made Nobel and his son even more excited was that Wu Chaoyue also promised to bear all the funds for the research and development of nitroglycerin explosives, promised to let Nobel and his sons own half of the patent rights after success, and unconditionally bear all the funds for the establishment of nitroglycerin explosives factory.

In addition, Wu Chaoyue, of course, also offered a high salary to the Nobel father and son, and promised that as long as the Nobel father and son brought industrial technicians to China, Wu Jun would hire them with a high salary.

In the face of such generous solicitation conditions, Nobel father and son are of course more tempted and more tempted, plus Wu Chaoyue has even sent the travel expenses in advance, Nobel, who had been alone in the United States for an internship at the age of seventeen, quickly made up his mind and said: "Father, if you don't let me go to Qingguo to have a look, if Marshal Wu can really fulfill his promise, his environment there is also suitable for the study of nitroglycerin, and we can't consider moving the laboratory to Qingguo." ”

The Nobel family is very business-minded, and Amir immediately said: "Father, I heard that the Qing country is in a civil war, and it must be in great need of weapons and ammunition, if Marshal Wu is really as enlightened and welcoming to the West as the newspaper says, we will simply move your arsenal in Russia to the Qing country, anyway, your arsenal has gone bankrupt, and you may be able to resurrect it in the Qing country." ”

After looking at Wu Chaoyue's letter and thinking about it for a long time, Old Nobel nodded and said, "Alfred, you can go to Qingguo to have a look, and by the way, test Marshal Wu's attitude towards investing in our family arsenal for me." If the environment is suitable, I will immediately take Amir to Qingguo and move our family's arsenal there. ”

…………

At the same time that the Nobel family, one of the most important scientific and technological families in the nineteenth century, made this important decision, Wu Chaoyue, who was thousands of miles away, also received the news of the complete rout of the Taiping Army's Northern Expeditionary Army.

The result of the discussion was that the decision-makers of the Wu army unanimously agreed that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom would inevitably enter decline, and that it no longer had any ability to pose a fatal threat to the Wu army and the Manchu court, and at the same time, the increasingly obvious warlordization problem of the Taiping army would also break out in an all-round way, and Yang Yuanqing, whose lineage had suffered a heavy blow, would find it difficult to control the large and small warlords of the Taiping army, and it was only a matter of time before the Taiping army split and even a civil war broke out.

"Otherwise, how about we pick the persimmons next and pinch them softly? Destroy Changmao first, seize the rich land on the southeast coast, accumulate enough strength, and then crusade against the rebellious party in the capital? ”

Of course, the agenda of taking advantage of the fire to rob was also put in front of Wu Chaoyue, although it was too shameless and despicable to do so, but as long as he found a way to provoke an incident and create a famous excuse for the division to start a war, coupled with the Taiping Army's various unpopular policies, Wu Jun's infamy for fighting the Taiping Army first was not too great.

If other warlords in troubled times sat in Wu Chaoyue's position, the Taiping army would definitely be unlucky-because whether it was from the perspective of strength or geography, it was indeed the most beneficial for the Wu army to fight the Taiping army first. However, fortunately, Wu Chaoyue is a person with a very strong sense of national righteousness, so he rejected this proposal without any consideration, and said: "The next step is not to fight Changmao first, not to mention that it is too immoral to do so, at this time, it will only be a cheap Beijing chaos party to attack Changmao, we can only give priority to dealing with the Beijing chaos party, and then we will not be too late to turn around and deal with Changmao." ”

"But it's inconvenient for us to send troops from Hubei to crusade against the rebellious party in the capital?" Dai Wenjie said cautiously: "Sending troops from Henan to Shandong Zhili has to pass through the Yellow Flood Area for thousands of miles, and the supply route is easy to be attacked and disturbed by the cavalry of the chaotic party, which is far less convenient and labor-saving than Changmao sending troops from the Huai River Valley. ”

"As long as Shanxi is successfully won, the grain and grass problem can be easily handled, so that Shanxi can supply the front line of Zhili." Wu Chaoyue replied: "We only need to worry about the transportation of ammunition and weapons, these things are not lost on the road, our logistics pressure is small, there is no need to send troops from the Huai River Valley." ”

After that, Wu Chaoyue frowned again and said: "What I'm most worried about now is Yang Xiuqing's next move, with his temper, he will definitely be angry with others after suffering such a big loss, in addition to finding a scapegoat within him, maybe he will also spread his anger on our heads, blaming us for not supporting him enough, and there are not many chaotic party troops to help him contain." We don't need to be afraid of him, but once this bastard's head gets into the water and blocks the Yangtze River channel, we will have to go to war with him. ”

"You have to stabilize Yang Xiuqing first, and you can't let him do anything stupid when he is angry." Zhao Liewen also thought so, and said: "We have to find a way to feed him a reassuring pill, so that he doesn't pull our hind legs, and the chaotic party in the capital that urgently needs time to recover in vain." ”

Wu Chaoyue nodded, and after thinking for a moment, Wu Chaoyue instructed: "Huifu, write a letter to Yang Xiuqing for me, telling him that the agreement that we will first break the capital will be the king is canceled, and after eliminating the chaotic party in the capital, I am willing to divide the world with him and be a brotherly country forever." ”

"Yang Xiuqing is afraid that he will not be fooled, right?" Zhao Liewen asked with a wry smile: "Can he understand that after we break through the chaos in the capital, the next target must be him?" ”

"Tell him his attitude first, and then see how he reacts." Wu Chaoyue frowned and replied, and said: "Fortunately, Yang Xiuqing has no strength to directly threaten us now, if he really goes too far, we can only prepare for a war on two fronts." ”

It's easy to say, but what kind of outcome will be when the two fronts start a war, Wu Chaoyue knows better than anyone else in his heart. Therefore, Wu Chaoyue had to ponder such a possibility in his heart, whether it could further weaken Yang Xiuqing's ability to control the major warlords of the Taiping Army? Accelerating the outbreak of the civil war of the Taiping Army, Yang Xiuqing could only give priority to solving internal problems, and did not dare to make a fuss about the only issue of the Yangtze River waterway that could threaten him?

"It is convenient to support and encourage a warlord to take the initiative to fight a civil war with Yang Xiuqing, and I am not afraid of the Manchu court taking the opportunity to reap the benefits of the situation, but unfortunately this is destined to completely anger Yang Xiuqing."

"It would be nice if some warlord jumped out to fight a civil war with Yang Xiuqing by himself, but it's a pity that it is difficult to have such a good thing in the world...... hey, wait, since I can't support or encourage the warlords of the Taiping Army to deal with my good brother Yang Xiuqing, then why can't I turn around and find a way to encourage my good brother Yang Xiuqing to fight a civil war with those warlords of the Taiping Army?"