Chapter 102 Overseas Programs

Two days later, after the newly formed fleet completed the formation, slowly left from Tianjin Port, Deng Shichang stood on the gunboat less than 40 meters under his command, a German dog quietly crouched at his feet, he looked at the huge and heavy 501 ship not far away, this Qin Liefeng is really an alternative in the officialdom of the Qing Dynasty, and only this kind of strange person may be able to bring his imaginary dream of a powerful navy......

Along the way, he noticed that the officers and men on the 501 ship had been carrying out various routine trainings, and the training of the soldiers on the "Chengqing" warship that followed was also in full swing. Compared with the diligence of the Nanyang Naval Division, Deng Shichang also sighed a little to himself, and the exercises on the "Zhennan" gunboat were also carried out every day, but due to military expenditure problems, the live fire of this artillery was almost difficult to carry out, and each of these guns was a large amount of silver.

And on the 501 ship, during the 7-day voyage, they saw with their own eyes that at least three live shells were fired, and it was the Qi shè of 6 heavy guns. From the almost neat, instantaneous roar, Deng Shichang was very keen to comprehend something, and the training of the Nanyang Naval Division, which was completely beyond his understanding, made him a little more curious about the Qin armor that created the glory of this originally second-rate fleet.

Along the way, Qin Kai began the compilation of his tailor-made textbook for Ding Ruchang, "Records of Ironclad Wars", which includes three parts, the first is the theory of naval warfare, including the strategic theory of the first power, England, the green water school of France, Mahan's theory of sea power, and Germany's tactical theory.

The second is the history of the wars of the ironclad fleet, including the history of the wars in Europe, the Battle of Lisa, and the Chilean Pacific War, while the third is the use of the marines in the war, which has not been realized in the Chinese Beiyang Navy.

When arriving at the port of Mawei in Fuzhou, this xiǎo booklet was sent to the printing house for printing, and a few days later, several copies of the "History of the War of the Ironclad Ship" with the fragrance of ink were sent to Deng Shichang and Liu Buchan, these two top figures in Beiyang looked at Qin Kai with a surprised eye, and said very solemnly that they must transfer one of the books to Ding Jun.

Subsequently, the patrol Xiǎo team, composed of a Beiyang Navy Division warship and a Nanyang Navy Division warship, began a routine patrol of the coastline of Fujian and Guangdong. And the latest news from Vietnam has come, Zhou Ruidong after receiving the second batch of weapons, according to Qin Kai's arrangement, embarked on a long-distance training to the hinterland of North Vietnam.

In the mountainous area of thirty miles outside Hue, Xue Chao led two battalions of Chinese battalions and 1,000 Vietnamese Guards to complete a very beautiful Xiǎo campaign to annihilate the French army, and the French advance team of 200 people stepped into the budget ambush circle without realizing it.

After the stormy assault, more than 70 people were killed, other French people were captured, and now the most difficult thing for Xue Chao is that because the French fast cruiser on the sea route drove Chinese merchant ships everywhere, and even shot and injured a cargo ship of Mawei Shipping Company, which made it much more difficult to transmit news from Guangzhi back to Mawei.

After Qin Kai returned to Mawei Shipbuilding, Wang Ruijie, who was responsible for imitating the 501 type ironclad ship, came to report the problems encountered in the imitation, and now the problem is concentrated on the components of the marine steel, the huge keel that is paved, but it cannot be laid seamlessly with the steel armor manufactured.

The steel plate of the ironclad ship is up to 200-300mm thick, and it is completely impossible to twist at will, if there is a slight error, it will not be completely coupled, for these purely technical things, Qin Kai does not know how to deal with it even if he has a light brain, he pondered for a while, he called Wang Fei and Qian Yongping from the steelmaking plant, and also brought Wang Ruijie, Liao Dechang, and Hu Changchang, the current directors of the shipyard, to the scene to discuss the matter of the ironclad ship.

The steelmaking mill is now busy with new blast furnaces and increasing production, the production of this steel armor, even if the processing technology is mastered, it still requires too much manual intervention, and the most important thing is the shortage of workers in the steel industry, the output has not been able to go up, and the most important thing is the process of the product, 300mm steel armor, which is definitely a big iron stone, is the most advanced 1,000-ton hydraulic press produced by Xu Guofang There is also very difficult to process.

It has also been used in the interior transformation of the 501 ship before, but at that time, almost every piece of steel armor was tailor-made, and it was relatively easy to modify the inside of the ship. And now the process requirements for airtight armor for ship hulls are clearly to increase by several levels. ,

After discussion, the two directors of the steelmaking plant first produced 70-150mm high-carbon steel armor or composite steel armor, which can be mass-produced through the improved steel rolling process, and for the industrial processing of ultra-thick armor, it was required to improve the cutting process of steel armor to meet the needs of iron-hulled warships.

The current process can produce 300mm code CT31 nickel steel armor and with CT32 Harvey steel armor is still maintaining the current output, these can be on the important parts of the ship, such as the command room, bomb warehouse, boiler room, turret position to reinforce, internal reinforcement, now the process of steel armor is fully competent, the only trouble is the output.

Soon, Qin Kai brought in the senior workers of the shipyard and the senior workers of the steel mill, and asked the ship engineer Andrew to gather all the German ship and steel engineers who came to Mawei Shipyard. There were nearly 100 technical workers on the ship's side, and there were more than 40 engineers on the German side, Qin Kai announced some projects of the shipmaster's technical research on ships, and proposed a reward of up to 10,000 taels of silver, but the premise is that these processes will contribute to the completion of the first ironclad ship, and after launching, these bonuses will be issued at a time.

Obviously, the high incentive fee immediately re-ignited everyone's enthusiasm, and a part of the German engineers and Chinese skilled workers spontaneously formed the process xiǎo group and began to improve the Mawei shipyard and the equipment for steelmaking and rolling, hoping to complete these announced projects through the improvement of equipment and the improvement of processing technology.

Qin Kai as a mén foreigner, obviously even if he participated, it would not help the improvement of the process, he pondered for a long time, only to find two modern basic books on shipbuilding from the light brain, "Fundamentals of Shipbuilding" and "Principles of Ship Mechanics", he carefully studied the table of contents, excerpted those that he thought was in line with the technical level of this era, and compiled a book of "Fundamentals of Horsetail Ships".

A week later, Wang Ruijie, Liao Dechang, and Hu Changchang were called to Qin Kai, and the books that had just been printed were given to the three of them by the solemn jiāo, and Qin Kai made it very clear that the content of these books was limited to the use of the key xiǎo group that they directly controlled, and each book had to be numbered and not allowed to be leaked.

The three of them are all veterans of the shipyard, and after getting the book, they were immediately attracted by the various theoretical concepts mentioned in it, combined with their practical experience, they soon realized the amazing value of the book, and turned around and left with the book, they now have only one idea, go back and study it carefully, and then introduce this knowledge into the research and development group.

Qin Kai is not sure about the effect of this, after all, there are still many disconnects between these books and the current industry, but, whatever, if they can produce results, it will be the best, if not, it is better to master new concepts than to know nothing......

However, there is still good news on the shipyard's side, Hu Changchang is responsible for the manufacture of the thousand-tonnage ironclad cruiser has made a breakthrough in the progress of xìng, due to the use of 30mm steel plates, for the processing of this thin steel plate, with hydraulic presses, air hammers and stamping equipment, the steelmaking plant is completely competent, the first steel keel, teak inner shell, 30mm steel armor surgical battleship hull laying is very smooth.

Hu Changchang's estimate is that the hull laying and the division of the internal cabins will be completed within two months, and the outfitting weapon system will be launched after the year, which is undoubtedly a stimulant for Qin Kai, so that Xu Guofang must ensure that the manpower of this first ironclad cruiser will be completed as much as possible!

In fact, it is not necessarily the case that there are many Europeans who have made a fortune here, and there are also a group of people who have relied on their connections to slowly accumulate wealth, but there is no shortage of unlucky people and poor business who have become poor.

Li Donglai has now jumped from the xiǎo seller a year ago to a big comprador in the cotton cloth, cotton yarn, and silk trading in Shanghai, and even the big boss Hu of the largest Fukang silk factory in Shanghai has to call him a brother when he sees him, because these big bosses know the huge strength behind him.

However, this rising comprador star is surprisingly still maintaining this low-key style, and even his company only rented a small room next to the Fukang Yinhao.

"Du Ping, how did you find these people?" Li Donglai was dressed in a foreign costume and was sitting on a thick sofa at this moment, holding a large pile of information in his hand, and was asking another xiǎo salesman.

This Du Ping was originally working in a British foreign firm, and after seeing Li Donglai's strength, he was very keen to jump ship and follow him, "Brother Li, these are all from the compradors familiar with various foreign banks, and I have tried them one by one, and they fully meet the conditions you said!" ”,

Very good, let's go to these people to talk one by one, Li Donglai jumped up, the prosperity of the family made him feel a huge sense of achievement, although he is only the nephew of the He family, but now he is already the spokesperson of the He family in Shanghai, although nominally he is only responsible for the coordination of the textile association, but who knows, this textile association can control the huge cake of printing and dyeing huā cloth, and the big cloth merchants in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai who see him are not polite.

This time, Supervisor Qin specially Jiāo took the task on his behalf, he naturally knew the importance of this Lord Qin to the entire family, which was also an important factor in the prosperity of the He family, for this task, he felt very strange, but soon he collected his curiosity and looked for a suitable object according to the requirements of Qin Kai's assignment.

In a modest three-story building on Sichuan Road in Shanghai, Jefferson was contemplating today's itinerary in his Xiǎo house, an ordinary businessman from Houston, Texas, who came to the East to pan for gold, he said goodbye to his father and siblings, and boarded a ship to the East with a batch of locally purchased goods.

After the first batch of American industrial iron products made him make a fortune, he purchased a batch of goods from the Chinese side from the foreign bank and shipped them back to China, starting a cargo transshipment business between the two places. The cargo ship accidentally sank in the storm, which not only caused him to lose all his capital, but also owed a large amount of money in advance.

The foreign bank he owed money naturally did not let go of this free labor, so he became one of the lowest-level foreign compradors in Shanghai overnight, only getting 10 silver dollars a month to get by, and the rest of the salary was withheld by the central bank to pay off the debt, and it took more than ten years to pay off the payment, which made him almost collapse.

Now, for the sake of money, he has the idea of killing! It's a pity, who would pay him for such a foreigner, the last thing lacking in this huge land is labor and people!

Dodo, the fan that was not so strong than the wooden mén unexpectedly sounded, Jefferson raised his eyes and looked at the wooden mén godlessly, who came back to find himself, this month's rent is still owed, it must be the annoying Chinese pigtail man, thinking of the disdainful expression on the face of this charter man, he has an urge to beat people, but it is obvious that this pigtail man is much more powerful than himself in this land......

Opening Mén, it was not the pigtailed man standing outside, but another personable Chinese comprador in his thirties in a dress, he was very sure that he had never seen this person, and after a pause, Jefferson asked in English, "Sir, who are you?" We don't seem to know each other! ”

That person was naturally Li Donglai, he looked at this coaxing American man with coaxing hair, he was really a sloppy man, "My name is Li Donglai, I am here to talk to you about an opportunity!" ”

"A chance?" Jefferson was obviously baffled, "Can you make money?" ”

It's too direct, I like this kind of person, Li Donglai laughed, if everything is measured by money, such a relationship is very easy to maintain, and it is easy to control, "Mr. Jefferson, this is a lot of money!" Why don't you invite me to come in and sit down? ”

Jefferson's eyes were red with gold coins at that time, could it really be that God began to favor him, but how could he send a Chinese to deliver the gospel?! "Of course, of course, Mr. Li, please come in!"

Li Donglai sat on the only chair in the room, and Du Ping, who was accompanying him, didn't let him in, he looked at Jefferson, who was still standing, and pointed to the wooden chuáng opposite, "Mr. Jefferson, sit!" ”

Jefferson immediately sat down and asked with some impatience, "Mr. Li, how can I make money?" ”

"It's very simple, the consortium I represent needs an agent to open up the market in the United States, and you now have the opportunity to get this position, the initial salary is 400 taels of silver per month, if you do a good job, after a year, you will get 2% of the company's equity, and after 5 years, the equity can be directly jiāoyi! Of course, I thought an idiot would throw this equity...... Because at least estimated, this 2% equity can bring you 10,000 taels of silver income per year! ”

Jefferson's eyes were already straight, he swallowed, and his voice changed a little because of nervousness, "Dear Mr. Li, what do I need to do?" ”

"It's very simple, register a company in your name, and then ......" Li Donglai took out a piece of paper and glanced at it, "in Houston...... You're a resident of Houston, right? ”,

"Yes, where is my family!" Jefferson was already in a state of complete rampage, 400 taels a month plus at least 10,000 taels of silver a year after a year, which was an astonishing fortune when converted into US dollars, and he had been in China for more than half a year, and he couldn't earn a salary of a month or two, and he had to get it anyway.

"Very well, then in Houston, we will have a group of consortium people following you, you have to get a name for them, this is the time to show your ability! Of course, if you're too poor, I guess you're not going to be able to do the job, right? Li Donglai looked at the American lukewarmly.

"Mr. Li, there is absolutely no problem with this, my father is a retired sheriff in Houston, there is no problem at all to get this thing done, I will definitely make you feel that hiring me is worth it!" Jefferson seemed to have changed completely in an instant, and his whole body was full of power, ah! Lord Almighty, you have finally sent my messenger of the gospel.

"Excellent! I'm just reminding you that in this city that never sleeps in the East, we can always find more than 10 qualified people to replace you for this job, and I hope you can do enough to make my boss satisfied! ”

"Mr. Li, you can definitely rest assured that I only earn my share of salary, and the rest of the things are handled by the people you appointed, I don't think it's wrong to think so!"

Li Donglai laughed, "I read you right, Mr. Jefferson, you are such an interesting and intelligent American!" You have been preparing recently, and in a week, you will go to Fuzhou with me, where you will be transferred to Guangzhou and back to the United States! ”

Ten minutes after Li Donglai left, Jefferson had not even woken up from this gospel from heaven, he mō mō brain mén, and after praying sincerely, he opened the xiǎo box left by Mr. Li Donglai, which contained several neatly bandaged Mexican silver dollars, which were given to him for his travel expenses and the money to pay off his debts, so that he could return to the United States with a clean slate.

In the past few days, Li Donglai has been running to various foreign companies in Shanghai, and through his hands, he has found six suitable candidates, including two Americans, two British, and two Germans, and two people in each country, so that they can contain each other, and if necessary, they will be replaced, and of course these two people will never know each other's existence.

A few days later, the group was taken to Mawei, and after the contract was signed, the two students personally selected by Qin Kai on the right, a bookkeeper, and four soldiers followed them aboard the British passenger liner and began their journey to a foreign country.

And at the end of this year, the Danish Great Northern Telegraph Company and the British China Submarine Telegraph Company successfully laid the submarine cable to Fuzhou, and Qin Kai, who was thinking about communication problems all day long, finally breathed a long sigh of relief, although it was a foreign company with huā money, but ...... Finally, there is still some modern taste! The world has changed