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All the way unimpeded!

For the passengers on board the St. Andrew, during their berth in Hong Kong, they were worried that the war on the Yangtze River would affect the rest of their journey. The whole Yangtze River is now in turmoil www.biquge.info Shanghai at the mouth of the river is occupied by rebel forces, the Qing government army only controls part of the city between Shanghai and Jiangning, and the west of Zhenjiang is completely occupied by rebel forces.

The situation has deteriorated even more than last year. During the berth in Hong Kong, all kinds of rumors spread on the ship, but the most worrying thing was the rest of the trip.

Whether the "St. Andrew" can smoothly sail into the destination of this trip, Wuchang, is the most concerned thing for passengers on ships above the captain, and when they were in Hong Kong, they could always hear that the Chinese stopped ships on the Yangtze River. to prevent foreigners from financing rebel forces.

When the "St. Andrew" sailed into the Yangtze River, the people on board realized that they seemed to be thinking too much - neither the government nor the rebel forces had ever tried to stop the "St. Andrew's" sailing. In fact, those soldiers on the sampan, in the face of the 4,000-ton "St. Andrew", did not have the courage to intercept it.

Under the impetus of the steam engine, it took only three days for the "St. Andrew" to sail all the way from the mouth of the river to Jiujiang, and after entering the waters of Jiujiang, the people on board finally breathed a sigh of relief, and from the navigator they knew that Jiujiang was the eastern line controlled by the governor

Entering Jiujiang is equivalent to entering Wuchang. Naturally, there is no need to worry as much as before!

After crossing the Jiujiang River, the ship did not sail directly to Wuchang, but first berthed at the iron factory wharf in Dazhi, which was not a simple trestle, but a deep-water wharf built with stone

"This is the Ironworks!"

looked at this stone wharf in surprise, this is the first time Xu Shushan has seen such a Western-style wharf after returning to China.

"Xu, look, a lot of people on the dock are greeting us!"

Seeing that the dock was full of people, Xia Saibo said in a rather excited tone, now that he has been invited to become an engineer at the Hanyang Arsenal in China, Xu as his sponsor, not only funded him to complete the development of the new rifle, but also gave him a job, and now the only work he needs to carry out is to make the new rifle. There's nothing more fortunate than this for an engineer to be able to see his own weapons become the equipment of an army.

"Yes, it's just to greet us!"

Looking at the people on the dock, Xu Shushan's unnoticed vanity was satisfied, at least the warm welcome made him feel that he was valued.

"Contemptible Xi Zhimo, the head of the Ministry of Industry of the Han Governor's Mansion, Brother Xu has worked hard all the way......"

On the dock, facing Xu Shushan, who had just returned to China, Xi Zhimo's tone was extremely respectful, the one in front of him was a real "relative", and there was no so-called "relative" in Hubei for a long time, that is, the one in front of him.

Moreover, the identity of his relatives is extremely prominent - he is the brother-in-law of his wife, although his wife's family is quite large, but there is only such a piece of his mother's relatives. But what really intrigued Xi Zhimo was probably the fact that his relative, who studied at the Ecole Supérieure des Technologies in Paris, had spent the past few months not only procuring machinery and equipment, but also employing hundreds of technicians from Britain and France.

There is no doubt that for a long time to come, this "Uncle Guo" in front of him is bound to be the most trusted expert of the Grand Governor. If necessary, Xi Zhimo understands that he must let Xian, and perhaps it would be more appropriate for him to do it.

“…… The ironworks equipment weighed more than 1,780 tons, and all the machines were now loaded on board, along with 16 British engineers, who would be responsible for guiding the installation of the ironworks......"

After a brief politeness, Xu Shushan immediately explained to the chief Xi in front of him the equipment on board, and introduced him to the entourage, the eighty-seven foreign employees on the ship were all engineers he had recruited from England, France, and the United States, including metallurgical engineers, mechanical engineers, and chemical engineers, in short, all of which were urgently needed by the Governor.

Due to the limited tonnage, in addition to the equipment of the ironworks, the ship also had more than 200 machines purchased from the United States, which were needed by the Hanyang Arsenal.

It was only last year that the British government established the Infield Arsenal using American machines, and now Prussia and France are buying the same equipment, which is why Xu Shushan will go far and far to order the production equipment needed for the Hanyang Arsenal from the United States to produce standardized, interchangeable parts of weapons. In fact, during her months-long journey, Xu studied the U.S. manufacturing system and planned to promote it across industries.

In addition to the "standardization" as the core, the American manufacturing system makes its machine parts can be replaced, compared with the manufacturing of Britain and France, it is more suitable for China. Uneducated workers are best suited to the new way of mass production, because they do not have the traditional baggage, and more importantly, in standardized production, the training of workers is greatly simplified, they only need to learn to make a few parts, hundreds of workers produce standard parts, and finally assemble by the workers in charge of assembly, unlike in Europe, where one or several people complete the manufacture of parts to assembly, and the training of workers is much easier. This is undoubtedly more appropriate for the reality that there is no industrial tradition in the country.

It is precisely because of his intention to promote this proposition that Xu Shushan has no interest in the director of the Ministry of Engineering at all, even in the first meeting with Xi Zhimo, he is more businesslike, just introducing him to the dozen or so engineers needed by the iron factory. Compared with the iron factory, he is more concerned about the Hanyang Arsenal, in his opinion the arsenal will be his first department to implement standardization, where after the completion of this attempt, through the arsenal radiated to other enterprises, and one of the most important reasons for his choice of the arsenal is that the arsenal has the most and most advanced machinery and equipment in China in this era, after all, these equipment are ordered by him. 14 steam engines, more than 1,200 machines with different functions, and even two Lequoso hammers, which are extremely advanced even in Europe, in addition to a ton of 5-ton steam hammer, there is also a 20-ton lecoso steam hammer that is not common in Europe, of course, this steam hammer is for the iron factory, used to make iron.

It is precisely because he understands the importance of the Hanyang Arsenal that Xu Shushan has long regarded the factory as a "prison" and will never allow others to touch it, and of course, more importantly, he also believes that no one is more suitable to manage the factory except himself. In contrast, it was naturally difficult for this Daye Iron Works to fall into his eyes.

After a simple politeness, Xu Shushan expressed his thoughts in relatively euphemistic words at the right time, he had no intention of meddling in the affairs of the iron factory, but in the same way, he also hoped that he could be in charge of the arsenal.

“…… When I was in France, whenever I visited the foreigners' arsenals, I always wondered when we would have the same factories, so my personal interest was more in the factories than in anything else. Besides, there are other things that Shushan is not good at! ”

Although he knew that it would be his brother-in-law who made the final decision, Xu Shushan also understood that his biggest competitor was the director of the Ministry of Industry in front of him, and he had a chance to take charge of the arsenal if he "solved".

"Brother Zhizhi, I don't know, the Metropolitan Governor has been waiting for you in the past few months, I just hope that you will arrive in Wuchang as soon as possible, now this arsenal has been built, only the machine is missing, and now Brother Zhizhi is here, not only to bring the machine, but also to put the factory on the right track, is not exactly what the Metropolitan Governor wants!"

Although he did not mention himself, but the other party's request somewhat made Xi Zhimo breathe a sigh of relief, as the head of the Ministry of Industry, his current situation can be described as "dangerous", there was a Chen Duan inside who tried his best to show himself in front of the Metropolitan Governor, and what he sought was the position of the Ministry of Industry.

Now that there is such an "uncle of the country", how can he not make him anxious, the original thing he was most worried about was whether the other party would use the iron plant, from the exploration of iron ore to the site selection and construction of the iron plant, Xi Zhimo, who was in charge of it, naturally did not want to give up the iron factory, but if Xu Shushan did this, he had no other choice.

After all, the person in front of him is a relative of the emperor, and he is also specialized in machines. He naturally doesn't have any advantage over it. But on the other hand, Xi Zhimo knew that he needed a "political achievement", and the iron factory was his "political achievement". Only by seizing this achievement can it be possible to keep his position as the head of the Ministry of Works.

Now Xu Shushan took the initiative to let go, so that Xi Zhimo hurriedly said intimately while breathing a sigh of relief.

"When the younger brother came to Daye, Mrs. specially instructed the younger brother to let you rest for a few days in Daye, and you don't have to rush to Wuchang! After all the equipment of the iron plant here is disembarked, it is not too late to go to Wuchang! ”

To a certain extent, Xi Zhimo is considered to be his wife's "cronie", and because of this, even at the beginning, Xi Zhimo had already thought that if Xu Shushan was staring at the iron factory, he would ask his wife to come forward, but now there is obviously no need for this. But if Madame asked him to bring it, he had to bring it.

"Don't go to Wuchang for the time being?"

Xu Shushan's brows furrowed slightly, but he was a little confused, but he still nodded and said.

"Well, of course, after all, it will take a few days for these foreign engineers to get used to the environment here, and I wonder if we can arrange a place for me to stay?"

When Xi Zhimo walked everywhere, although he was talking and laughing with those foreign experts, there was a faint melancholy between his eyebrows, why did the little sister let herself go a few days late?

Could something have changed? (To be continued.) )