The Governors' Offices of the Three Eastern Provinces have planned these 24 military reclamation and military and animal husbandry bureaus in the three provinces and the eastern part of Inner Mongolia, covering the most sparsely populated areas of the three eastern provinces in a circular shape, and playing a very key role in the large-scale development of the entire three eastern provinces, playing a leading role in modern agricultural technology, fine animal husbandry, cash crops, large-scale agriculture, military horse breeding, and the development of mountain and forest protection, and playing a stronger role in local public security and territorial protection.

After Song Biao returned to Mukden from the Hung Yen Allied Army Reclamation Bureau, he made final negotiations with the German company DWM on arms trade, military-industrial cooperation, technology transfer, and industrial loans, and finalized this huge contract, which was the most important for the Northeast New Army to enter the customs.

On October 12, 1908, Song Biao held a grand wedding in the Governor's Palace. The Vanderbilts, accompanied by the Vanderbilts, secretly traveled to San Francisco on an American passenger liner without warning and with a high degree of secrecy.

Song Biao's visit to the United States was mainly with Theodore. President Roosevelt met and used the U.S. contradiction to win further U.S. support for him (history is really full of drama), after which he would accompany Shu Xuan to his alma mater and Connecticut for his honeymoon, and sell Petroleos Mexicanos by the way. In the past six months, Petroleos Mexicanos has discovered a number of high-yield oil wells, and the Asur oil well discovered in August is as high as 23,000 tons of production, and Song Biao, who is eager to raise funds to fight the civil war, decided to sell the company in exchange for military spending to arm his 500,000 army and sweep the country in one go.

…… Connecticut is one of the most beautiful places in the United States, densely populated with people from Italy, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands, creating a special cultural atmosphere in the New England region.

After arriving in Connecticut, Song Biao lived in a small town called Wallingford in Connecticut, which was the location of Connecticut Women's College, and 20 kilometers away in New Haven, where Yale University, the holy place for Chinese students at this time, was located.

Song Biao and Shu Xuan live in Conns. One of Vanderbilt's friends was on the estate in the suburbs of Wallingford, and it just so happened that Shu Xuan had a female classmate's home nearby.

It is an old manor house built in 1858, quiet and elegant.

The sun shines in the corridor, Song Biao is sitting on the rattan chair in the corridor, enjoying the afternoon black tea and the warm and quiet time, it has been four years since he returned to this era, he has become one of the most powerful men in the world in four years, and is the most classic handsome and rich, and married a beautiful and intelligent beautiful young talented girl as a wife, it is because of this that he can savor the comfort of the newlywed at this moment.

Life is so good, for him, history has given him the luck that there are opportunities everywhere, and he and Connes Vanderbilt have invested in this great industry in the context of the discrimination of the Big Three of J.P. Morgan, John A. Rockefeller, and Andrew W. Mellon against the American auto industry.

Because of his limited funds, he invested very little capital, but at his suggestion, Connes . Vanderbilt decided to go with William. Durant cooperated to establish the largest automobile company in the United States, General Motors of the United States, Connes. Vanderbilt also invested an additional sum of money in the Ford Motor Company, buying shares in the other six original partners of the company. Ford added a $1 million stake in the construction of a larger plant and parts manufacturing plant.

The success of Petroleos Mexicanos has allowed Song Biao to receive a huge dividend of 14 million dollars in the past six months, which he holds in his hands and is figuring out where to continue to invest.

He wanted to buy the Bethlehem Iron and Steel Company, a medium-sized steel mill established in 1904 with an annual capacity of only 600,000 tons of steel, which was almost the size of the Liaoyang Iron and Steel Plant.

Don't underestimate this company, the predecessor of this company was an unsuccessful steel company, but the reading force completed the most important metal cutting experiment for the entire world machine tool industry, which gave rise to the new steel of high speed steel, with the further development of the industrial age, the large demand for machine tools and high speed steel made Bethlehem Steel Company quickly become the second largest steel company in the United States, and made huge profits in the First World War.

Song Biao decided to invest in this company, and then bought all the data from the metal cutting experiment and used it to invest in a new machine tool company.

The machine tool industry in the United States in the first fifty years of the twentieth century is almost invincible, there are the world's leading theoretical and experimental research, there are also the world's leading scientific management experience, as well as the world's largest domestic market, as well as abundant talents, huge production scale, and finally make the United States rise to become the king of the world's machine tools, except for Germany, in the 20th century before the 70s of the full 70 years, no country can challenge the hegemony of the American machine tool industry.

Capital is the king of all evil.

Sitting in the sunny corridor enjoying a quiet time, Song Biao slowly thought about the problem, the taste of the wedding is actually quite special, and it can only be experienced after getting married, and the condition is that you don't have to care too much about money.

The wife doesn't have any conditions, the only request is just to go to Connecticut for her honeymoon, to see the campus where she was studying, and to get together with the female classmates of the college days, if there is no money, I am afraid that even this little wish will not be satisfied.

Shu Xuan chatted happily in the living room with two college classmates, accompanied by Mrs. Vanderbilt, Connes. Vanderbilt came out of the living room and brought Song Biao a bottle of whiskey and a box of cigars.

While the women were talking about those funny things, Connes. Vanderbilt and Song Biao could only bask in the sun in the hallway, enjoying the late autumn time in Connecticut.

The two of them each lit a cigar from Brazil and sat on opposite sides of the coffee table, talking about business and marriage. Vanderbilt was a very experienced man, because he had already been married twice, the first time was terrible, and the second time was not happy.

They are already very good friends, and there has been a lot of business cooperation in the past two years. Vanderbilt was still some way from recovering the Vanderbilt family's glory, and he was very happy that the financial business in the three eastern provinces and Asia was well developed.

Americans are very good at business, Connes. Vanderbilt was certainly not a master of business, and even lacked that sharp and alert character, but he was at least not too bad, and after the Bank of America went public in New York, it relied on its operations in Asia and the western United States to achieve a high market capitalization, which allowed him to invest more capital in credit in the three eastern provinces.

The Vanderbilt family's massive investment in the auto industry, though ridiculed by the Big Three and Wall Street, still seems to have a good yield, and with the sudden success of Song's Petroleos Mexicanos, he now wants to invest a lot of money in the oil industry as well.

He talked about ambitious big plans, but Song Biao didn't have much interest, because Song Biao just wanted to sell Petroleos Mexicanos for as good a price as possible, nothing more.

Song Biao seemed to be listening very carefully, but his heart was like an iceberg under the sea, his mind was so active, but it was so quiet.

With the development of shipping and railroads, the world has begun to get smaller, and the distance from the three eastern provinces to Connecticut is only 15 days, and it will be even smaller in the future.

At this time, Song Biao felt that it was necessary for him to invest in the aviation field, establish an aircraft factory in China, and slowly cultivate and develop, and there would always be benefits in the future.

Historical information gives him not the opportunity for short-term investment like Petroleos Mexicanos, but a variety of long-term investments, as long as he persists, he will eventually reap the rewards of following the wheel of historical development.

Mussolini had advised Chiang to reduce his investment in the navy and increase his investment in the air force, because the aircraft industry wanted to improve much faster than the warship industry, at least before World War II.

It is really too late for the three eastern provinces and China to continue to develop the navy, but it is still very early to develop the air force.

…… In October 1908, two great business opportunities appeared in Europe and the United States capitalists and Wall Street, the first was the well-known General Motors Company of the United States, and the second was the Mexican Oil Company, the former was ridiculed by all the capitalist giants, and the car of that year was also degraded as a road killer by the wealthy horse-drawn carriage sellers in the United States, and the latter was simply regarded as the best investment opportunity.

Those who are even a little familiar with history know that investing in the former is definitely one of the best deals of all time, while investing in the latter will be the most damaging deal of all time.

After a brief week-long honeymoon in Wallingford, Connecticut, Song Biao couldn't wait to visit the Winchester Arms Company in New Haven, which he almost routed with a Winchester shotgun during the Russo-Russian War.

The reason why Song Biao came to Winchester at this time was precisely because the company was facing a serious economic crisis in peacetime, although it received a large number of orders during the First World War and had a special period of prosperity, but after the First World War, the Winchester Company still entered an unlimitedly recession.

In addition, Song Biao also made an appointment with John. Moses. Browning met in New Haven at the time of John. Moses. Browning is still in Belgium and is estimated to arrive in New Haven in three days, which means that Song Biao will spend three days in New Haven looking for something.

This is not the first time Song Biao has contacted John. Moses. Browning, who had promised a lot of conditions in order to invite the talented designer to join him, was ultimately unable to get what he wanted.

New Haven is a classic gun city in the United States, almost one-third of the city's industry is related to the military industry, and it is also home to Yale University.

Although the United States is in the midst of a new wave of industry, what Song Biao sees in New Haven is still too traditional traces of the old era, and the city's industry is gradually falling behind the big era, and gradually withdrawing from the sequence of American industrial cities.

In and John. Moses. After the Browning partnership ended, Winchester found a new young designer, Thomas Brown. Johnson was in charge of the firearms design and production business, because Song Biao was an important customer of Winchester, and in fact the only major customer, Thomas Brown, who was already the company's chief designer. Johnson was personally responsible for receiving Song Biao.

This is an Irish-born mechanical expert, at the age of twenty-seven he succeeded the famous J.M. Browning as the designer of Winchester Company, and in the past six years, he has introduced the M1903\M1905\M1907 self-loading rifle for Winchester, which is a series of automatic rifles that have been continuously improved.

In order to solve the problem of the company's survival, for the past three years, Winchester has been supplying 8mm Mauser rifle cartridges, 7.62R rifle cartridges, 75mm shells and three-inch shells to the Northeast New Army at low prices, according to the needs of the Northeast New Army, Winchester Company has developed the m1894.mk repeating shotgun based on the M1894 repeating shotgun, which is a special shotgun specially designed for trench warfare, with a shorter barrel and a design with a perforated steel plate heat shield and bayonet mount.

With the official large-scale entry of the Madsen machine gun into the Northeast New Army, as well as the reorganization of the Far East Ordnance Company and the increase in the production capacity of its subordinate factories, the orders received by Winchester Company from the Northeast New Army in 1908 were gradually decreasing.

Thomas. Johnson decided to take advantage of Song Biao's personal visit to Winchester to recommend the new M1907 self-loading rifle to Song Biao in order to reverse the current situation of Winchester.

After a visit to the Winchester Company, Song Biao already knew that this company would not last long, when the Far East Ordnance Company and the Benxi Arsenal, a joint venture established by Germany, were trying to adopt streamlined operations, and completely adopted the latest German equipment to improve production efficiency and quality on a large scale, this old weapons company was still at the level of the late 19th century, although it was only a ten-year gap, but it was enough to kill.

In this noisy and roaring workshop, Song Biao was lucky to see every step of the M1907 self-loading rifle in the production process, although it has not really been used, but he believes that this is a good semi-automatic rifle, but its defects are obvious, first of all, the bolt has not kept up with the current development trend, and secondly, the loading process can only be directly inserted into the magazine, and at the same time, it needs to be loaded into the magazine one by one before it can be used.

Although it was the first time to meet Song Biao, Thomas. Johnson was still very enthusiastic and recommended to him: "Your Excellency, this is the most advanced rifle in the world, it can fire 20 rounds in a row, and it is all self-loading, no manual reloading, the rate of fire is very fast, it can completely help you defeat all enemies." ”

Song Biao quietly continued to watch the workers in front of him process the gun chamber on the lathe. Johnson made any reply.

This made everyone present look a little embarrassed, and J.W. Grent, the general manager of Winchester, couldn't wait to continue to look at his designer, hoping that Thomas Johnson would say something more valuable.

Song Biao's Northeast New Army is a real big buyer, and it is said that he has just signed a huge contract worth millions of pounds with Germany, and if such a contract can be divided into 1/5 to Winchester, it will greatly help Winchester to tide over the current difficulties.

Thomas. Johnson thought for a moment and asked Song Biao: "There is a shooting range near the factory, do you want to try out this world's most advanced rifle for yourself?" ”

Song Biao was a little interested in this proposal, nodded, took an M1907 self-loading rifle from Grent's hand, and tried to make it, the special thing about this rifle is that it is not based on the Springfield rifle, Mauser rifle, Mosin Nagant rifle and other mature modern rifles, but based on the Winchester traditional lever rifle.

Song Biao deliberately unloaded this ammunition and reloaded it, and sure enough, as he had known before, he could only use a magazine when loading bullets, which was similar to modern automatic rifles.

As a semi-automatic rifle of the founding surname, the M1907 self-loading rifle boldly uses a cassette magazine, a bolt reentry spring and a safety mechanism, all of which are currently innovative, and most of these are from Thomas. Johnson's design.

Song Biao, accompanied by others, walked to the experimental area outside the Winchester company, which was located on the outskirts of New Haven, with a large forest meadow and a ready-made experimental site, where he fired six rounds of ammunition at a fixed target.

The rate of fire is certainly good, and the drawbacks of the lever-based rifle's traditional bolt are reversed in this new improvement, but it still suffers from the fatal flaw of inaccuracy compared to the rotary pull-back bolt.

Winchester Company used .30 and .40 two of the most common ammunition in the United States, round-nosed bullets, the bullet has a large capacity in the powder chamber, relying on a huge gunpowder thrust to automatically pull the recoiling spring device, but its range can only be tragically reduced, and the shooting accuracy can not be compared with modern rifles such as Mauser and Mosin Nagant rifles.

After a few shots, Song Biao handed the rifle to Zhang Futian, who was accompanying him, and let him experience it. Johnson asked, "What does the U.S. military say?" ”

Glenter immediately replied with confidence: "The army is conducting intensive testing, and there is a lot of interest in it, and it should be officially installed in the army soon, and it will be a huge contract, and with our excellent design and perfect reputation, there will be no doubt about it." When the United States [***] queue is equipped with this world's most advanced rifle, other countries will be eager to negotiate with us and so on! Your Excellency, we have a very deep relationship with you, and I recommend that you buy it as soon as possible. ”

Song Biao took out a pack of British American Tobacco cigarettes from his trouser pocket, and Grent immediately struck a match for him.

Smoking a cigarette, Song Biao thought about it silently, and then said to Grent: "If you are telling the truth, at least half of it is the truth, I don't think the United States will be equipped with this kind of rifle, even if it is only tried now, we consider the problem from the perspective of the army, then it can only be said that this is a very good civilian rifle, which is a pity." ”

"Well, did you prematurely judge such a special thing?"

Grent looked a little embarrassed, because the U.S. Army had rejected this new rifle more than once, for one reason - the same bullet, lower range, lower power, lower accuracy, and finally the soldier would squander a lot of ammunition, and the price would be even more outrageous.

The comment "outrageous price" is definitely a bit excessive, because the bolt and magazine structure of the M1907 self-loading rifle is very simple, and it only needs very ordinary equipment to produce, and the cost is not high.

In addition, the U.S. military's evaluation of other things is simply very appropriate.

Song Biao thinks that the problem should be viewed from two angles, for example, the cavalry has a better effect on the use of this rifle, so for the western cowboys, the sales of this rifle are still good, but it is far from the extent of solving the crisis of the Winchester Company.

As for the crisis of Winchester, it is actually very simple, because there are simply too many small gun companies in the United States, the market is saturated, the labor cost is high, and the price of firearms is so low that the company lacks sufficient profits, and the old company retains too many problems about production efficiency, so it is difficult to continue to develop.

Song Biao smoked half a cigarette, and then continued to reply to Grent: "I think you should know better than me, it should be said that this may be a good rifle, but it is a little unsuitable for the army, if you want to occupy the military market, you must change to a new type of bolt." If you can, you can send 200 M1907s to my unit for experimentation, and if I am sure I need to buy a batch and verify that it can adapt to a variety of complex environments, I will need you to change the bullets. I had to use a 7.62mm R-round that could use the new pointed round, because I didn't have to buy another rifle cartridge for that. ”

His answer was to Grent and Thomas. Johnson was the best news, and both of them had expressions of thanks, thanking Song Biao for giving them such an opportunity, because since the M1903 self-loading rifle was approved as unqualified in the U.S. Army's verification, the subsequent two improved models did not even have a chance to be verified.

Song Biao said: "Although its range is a problem, its power is a problem, and even its accuracy is a problem, but weapons are always flexible, and an excellent army should have a way to use different weapons to achieve different effects." Considering that your company has provided me with a lot of cheap ammunition in the past, and I have heard that your recent situation has not been very good, it is necessary for me to give you some help in the best way I can, but I regret to say that the shortcomings of this weapon are obvious, and even if I do buy a batch, it can only be used as a special weapon, not as a full-scale large-scale installation of the troops. Moreover, if you don't abandon the tradition of lever-loaded rifles, the arms market will have to abandon the Winchester tradition, and you need to move forward with the times, you need innovation and better inspiration, my friends, and you should never be without money. ”

George. "Yes, you're right, but the board of directors won't approve of our idea," Grent exclaimed. ”

Song Biao said: "Then change the board of directors, if they don't want to go bankrupt, I am interested in investing in this company." ”

"Is that so?"

George W. Grant seemed to sense a new smell, spreading in the air, making him feel slightly surprised, although it is always unpleasant to change the boss, it is inevitable that there will be new managers, and some old employees will be fired, but for an old company, this is a new opportunity.

George. Glent cautiously invited Song Biao to inspect other parts of the factory, and after being far away from some other employees, only Thomas. When Johnson and other Song Biao's subordinates were accompanied, he asked more cautiously and tentatively with Song Biao: "Regarding the fact that you want to invest in Winchester, how much are you willing to invest, or at what price are you willing to buy it?" ”

Song Biao has no serious plans to buy the company, saying: "It's hard to say, although I have plans in this regard, even if I want to take action, I will discuss it with my partners in the United States first." For Winchester, it's a company with a long history, and for me, it's just a business, history is meant to be passed on and changed, and only such a process is the progress of humanity, isn't it? What a pitiful fact that some companies will be eliminated, my friends. ”

George. Grent still insisted, "Can you give me an approximate price?" ”

Only then did Song Biao realize that the shareholders of the Winchester Company were indeed interested in selling the company, and there was no doubt that in the United States at this time, investing in arms companies was definitely an industry with the lowest return on investment.

He thought for a moment and replied simply, "In addition to the price of the equipment and the venue, given its special history, I might charge it a million dollars." ”

George. Grent couldn't help but say, "This won't work. ”

Song Biao sneered indifferently and said, "Yes, the problem now is that those who want to sell want to sell want a higher price, and those who want to buy always feel that it is not worth it." In short, this is something that I am afraid will never be able to talk about. ”

(To be continued)