Rick. After getting off the ship from Tianjin, Heinz came to the capital directly in a carriage, although the road was bumpy, but he did not arrive much tired, on the contrary, he became quite interested in the vibrant Qing Dynasty

Just as the carriage entered the capital, Rick. Heinz suddenly wanted to get to know the ancient Oriental capital up close and comprehensively

"Don't be in a hurry to go to the airship manufacturing factory and go around the capital," Rick said. Heinz said, sitting down

"Yes, sir," the driver agreed softly

The carriage and Heinz wandered aimlessly around the capital, and because this time it was with the German business cooperation group, it was extremely hidden, and all the officials of the Qing Dynasty did not know that Germany had sent a cabinet minister to surprise the progress of the airship's manufacturing

After the carriage entered the western suburbs of the capital, Heinze saw a strange sight from the window of the car, a group of pigtailed Qing people surrounding two foreigners, not knowing what they were discussing, and behind them was parked a behemoth, this unknown material made of something very much like an eagle flying in the sky, and like the very popular bicycle nowadays, it has three wheels, and there is a place in the middle that can accommodate a person to sit

"Stop, what are they doing?" Heinze called out loudly

"Your Excellency," the coachman skillfully controlled the carriage and came to a steady stop

Before the carriage could stop, Heinze couldn't wait to jump down, but before he could get close to them, two Qing ** men in navy blue military uniforms took Heinze down

"Stop, what are you doing," a soldier said to Heinze, holding a Hanyang-made rifle made by the Qing Dynasty

Heinze raised his hands and said helplessly in German: "Oh, don't...... Don't do that, I'm just passing by, I want to go in and see what they're doing? ”

The two soldiers, who did not understand German, looked at each other for a moment, and continued to warn loudly: "Hurry up, military land, idlers do not enter"

At this time, the driver and interpreter hurriedly stopped between Heinze and the two soldiers, and said in standard Chinese: "Don't get me wrong, this is a businessman from Germany, Mr. Heinze, he happened to be passing by here, and he was very interested in the big bird of the machine parked there, and just wanted to know about it."

A soldier saw a foreigner who could speak Chinese, and heard that the other party was a German, and immediately put down the rifle he was holding At this time, Daqing and Germany are very strong allies, so the soldier's tone suddenly became polite

"Tell this Mr. Heinze that this is a military stronghold, and you can't let anyone in, please leave immediately."

When the interpreter told Heinze about this, he frowned deeply, trying to explain anything more, but never spoke

After a long time, he said to the coachman, "Ask them, who are those two foreigners?" ”

"Mr. Heinze asked, "Are those two men also German?" Can you talk to them? The coachman said to the soldier

One soldier smiled and said, "No, it's the Americans, you don't have a common language, hurry up, otherwise it won't be easy for our commanders to see it."

"Okay, let's go," Heinze said coldly after getting the coachman's translation, and then turned to leave

American? Heinze, who returned to the carriage, recalled the words of the Qing soldiers, when did the Qing people invite American technicians to the capital? What are they developing there? Could it be that Qing Guo sold our German airship technology to the United States? Or did the Americans provide what kind of technical support to develop what kind of weapons for the Qing State?

A series of unexplained questions left Heinze unable to continue his visit to the ancient capital of the East

"Go straight to the airship factory," Heinze said to the driver

"Yes, your Excellency," replied the coachman, riding the carriage

It didn't take long for Heinze to arrive at the Sino-German airship factory

After the visit, Heinze had to sigh that the abundant human resources of the Qing Dynasty were too much in the Qing labor, and there were more than 10,000 Qing workers in an airship manufacturing factory, although they only received a salary of ten silver dollars a month, but for them this was already a very big fortune

You must know that only ten years ago, the per capita annual income of the Qing Dynasty was only one tael of silver, which is ten silver dollars today, and now, an ordinary worker can receive ten silver dollars a month

According to the price of food at that time, one pound of rice only needed two cents and one penny to buy five catties of rice, one silver dollar could buy fifty catties of rice, and ten silver dollars could buy five hundred catties of rice

The price of pork is only two catties a catty, one silver dollar can buy five catties of pork, and ten silver dollars can buy no ten catties of pork

Therefore, at that time, the living standards of many urban people with heavy industry manufacturing factories on the southeast coast and in the capital have undergone earth-shaking changes in the past ten years, and there will be no more famine and other situations without worrying about food and clothing

Only a few poor provinces in the northwest have not yet solved the problem of food and clothing, and abundant human resources have ensured the vigorous development of the manufacturing industry in the Qing Dynasty, while the capital and technology are guaranteed, the productivity is almost three times that of Germany

From the establishment of the airship manufacturing plant to the present, in just a few months, nearly 100 airships have been manufactured, and at this time, a large number of airship prospective pilots in the Qing Kingdom have not passed the training, and the airships are just neatly parked in the empty base, and no test flights have been carried out, but from the appearance, we know that the quality of these airships is very high

"Mr. Heinze? What a surprise, why did you get here? It's amazing to see you here," said German Manhami, technical director of the airship factory, who gave Heinze an excited hug

"Haha, yes, I was instructed by His Majesty to come here to see the progress of the airship manufacturing" Heinze blinked and continued: "I didn't inform Qing Guo when I came this time, so please keep my identity secret, Your Majesty doesn't want Qing people to know that I came here"

"Oh, I see, but Your Majesty is still too worried, you can see, the Qing people here are really very diligent in their work, and they are not inferior to us Germans, and they are very capable of learning," Manhami said happily

"Your Excellency, do you know that there is a large research base in the western suburbs of the capital that is similar to this one, and they are researching a type of weapon, and there are a large number of soldiers and two American technicians leading a group of Qing people like here, do you know about this?" Heinze said with a frown

"I've seen it, but I don't know if it's the Americans, and I don't know what they're working on, but it doesn't seem to have much to do with our airship," Manhami made no secret of his distraction

Heinze was a little angry at Manhami's reaction, and said coldly, "We should know more about our allies, and we can't wait until they have made advanced weapons like grenades, grenades, and mortars before buying from them."

"Your Excellency has overthought that the Qing people only have some technical ability in light weapons, and the others can be ignored, but you are right, since there are two American technicians who are helping the Qing country develop it, then I believe that the US government must know about this matter, and we can put pressure on the US government to participate in the development together," Manhami proposed

After hearing this, Heinze's eyes lit up, and he secretly said in his heart: Yes, you can put pressure on the United States to let Germany also participate in the development, which is much more direct than proposing to Qing Guo

They all firmly believe that the Qing Dynasty did not have the ability or technology to develop large-scale offensive weapons, and that the United States must be behind it

That night, Heinze told Wilhelm II, who was far away in Berlin, everything he had seen in the Qing capital, and he probably didn't think that the U.S. government had no idea that any technicians had come to the Qing country, and that they didn't know what weapons were being developed with the Qing country

The relationship between Germany and the United States may change subtly because of what the Wright brothers did in the Qing Kingdom......