"It's great that you can think of that." Scrooge praised Dorothea's last words, "It shows that the training has been very effective these days. It's a good investment, but we don't have much power to fight for it. Scrooge spread his hands towards Dorothea, "Because, we don't have much money for the event." And we have a much more important investment than that. So ......"

"Do you just watch the opportunity to make money slip away from you?" Dorothea said with some dissatisfaction.

"Ah, it doesn't taste good. I totally understand. Scrooge smiled, and he walked over and sat down next to Dorothea, "Dorothea, I'll tell you a story." ”

"Okay, let's talk about it." Dorothea said. Although Dorothea felt very depressed because she had to let go of an opportunity to make money, and it was an opportunity to make money now, it was still good to listen to Scrooge's story. Most of Scrooge's stories are very revealing, and the premise, of course, is that when he is serious. Sometimes, this bad thing will also tell a bit of something that is inappropriate for a girl in a serious way, which makes people hate itchy. However, in general, Uncle Scrooge's storytelling is still very popular with the "Three Good Girls Dorothea".

"John and George go together for a race with a prize of 1,000 gold coins. As soon as the gun rang out, the two men rushed out, and they ran almost as fast. At this time, John suddenly dropped a shiny gold coin from his hand, George thought that it would be foolish not to pick up the gold coin, so he lowered the degree and stopped to pick up the gold coin, and then John got the championship prize of 1,000 gold coins. ”

"This story is not true at all," Dorothea criticized, wrinkling her little nose, "and there is no such stupid fool in the world as George...... Well, you're sarcastic about me! You bad guy! Dorothea's eyes widened......

After a burst of laughter, Dorothea was again as usual, because of the lack of "strength", she lost to the hateful fellow, and was bullied by him in his arms for a while.

"Hmph, you bad thing! Just know how to bully people. Dorothea's cheeks were crimson, leaning weakly into Scrooge's arms, "Well, by the way, you just compared the Central Pacific Railroad to that gold coin, so you tell me, where is the prize for a thousand gold coins?" ”

"Finally got it here?" Scrooge smiled.

"If you hadn't done it, you would have thought of it a long time ago!" Dorothea said.

"Alright then, I'll tell you where the prize for a thousand gold coins is." Scrooge said.

"First of all, the rise of the MacDonald family has always relied mainly on science and technology. Now, we are on the eve of a technological revolution. Do you know that for every technological revolution, what is the revolution first? ”

Dorothea shook her head, she hadn't had time to learn these things yet.

"The revolution that comes before is always the revolution of power." "In the textile industry, for example, people originally relied on manual spinning and manual weaving. Then Jenny looms are the limit of manpower. Later, people understood that water-powered spinning machines and water-powered looms, water-powered instead of manpower, and the efficiency was suddenly higher, so any textile enterprises that rely on manpower can not compete with textile enterprises that use water. However, hydro-textile mills had to be built along rivers and were difficult to operate during the dry season. After the advent of the steam engine, the textile mills powered by the steam engine got rid of the dependence on the river and the season, so they quickly eliminated the water-powered textile mills in the competition. Today, the steam engine has almost become the source of power for the industry, and without it, almost no factory would be able to function normally. However, there are already some hints of power to replace the steam engine. Dorothea, tell me, compared to this, is the Central Pacific Railroad just a small gold coin? ”

"Really? Is there anything that can replace the steam engine, and does it have a big advantage over the steam engine? ”

"It's one of the family's top secrets." Scrooge smiled, "But for you, every secret of the family is open, just like facing me." Let me tell you about it, well, remember some of the basic concepts of electromagnetism that I told you earlier when we talked about wireless telegraphy? ”

"Remember a little. But it's too complicated for me to figure out. Dorothea furrowed.

"You just have to remember that in the magnetic field there is a current of wires guò that are subjected to electromagnetic forces." Scrooge laughs and says, "Based on this principle, it is possible to develop a power source that uses electric drive, which I call an electric motor." Of course, we also need a motor to match it. The magic of electricity can be transmitted far through a thin metal wire, and the electric motor is simpler than the steam engine, and the power can be easily set. So we can change that every workshop needs a steam engine, every steam engine has a boiler to take care of, and all the machines have to be connected with a series of complex transformers with the transmission spindle that protrudes from this machine. Any adjustment to a production line is extremely difficult, complex and expensive.

In contrast, as long as the motor and motor have been broken through, a factory, or even many factories in a city, only need a motor driven by water or a large steam engine, and then a steady stream of power can be transported along the metal wire to every large and small motor in each factory, so that the cost of producing and maintaining the entire production line, the difficulty and cost of adjusting and changing the production line, and the number of workers that need to be hired will have a huge reduction. As soon as such an enterprise appears, any factory that does not use electric motors will be crushed by it in the competition. Now, in our big real yàn room, this kind of research is being carried out in a smooth way. For this reason, a large amount of money has been invested in this. In addition, as you know, the tower project also consumes a lot of our money. However, once successful, they will become an inexhaustible gold mine for a long time.

And what about the Central Pacific Railroad? Scrooge smiled, "It's too difficult to build this road over the Rocky Mountains. If we hadn't intervened, well, Mr. Stanford might have been able to rely on the bones of a Chinese slave and use his life to pile him up, but now, we can't do such a shameless thing. Therefore, the progress will be very slow, and the benefits will be much smaller. What's more, in this operation, we are not the party that contributed the most, so we don't have much benefit, so the Central Pacific Railroad, compared to our big plan, is completely just a small gold coin. Let them pick up the coins, Dorothea, and we'll run while they pick them up. ”

"In addition, there is a project that will consume a lot of our funds." Scrooge added, "Have you ever heard of Alaska? ”

Dorothea shook her head. This is normal, this wild land near the North Pole, at the time, few people even noticed. Tsarist Russia's Bering expedition surveyed the land, which gave Russia territorial sovereignty over an area of 1.52 million square kilometers of Alaska. But the Russian government sees Alaska as a territory for offshore resources and for the leather trade. It's vast, but it's not really useful.

In 1859, at the urging of Senator Seward, the U.S. government offered Russia a $5oo offer to buy Alaska, which the Russians decided after research that it was a good price. They thought it would be a good deal to sell such a useless piece of land for $5oo. So he began to bargain seriously with the U.S. government.

By 1861, Senator Seward had become Lincoln's secretary of state (U.S. foreign minister), and the convenience of his position naturally made the deal more likely to succeed. However, at this time, the Civil War broke out, and the entire power of the Lincoln government was thrown into the war, and there was really no money to sell the land. As a result, trading was suspended.

After the end of the war, the deal should have continued immediately, but in the original history, there was the assassination of Lincoln and Seward, Lincoln died, Seward was stabbed several times, fortunately he did not die, but then the change of government, and a series of other messy things, as a result, it was not until 1867 that the two sides formally reached an agreement, and the United States paid $720,000 to get Alaska, which is equivalent to 4 dollars per square kilometer 74 cents. The largest land sale in the world's modern history was completed, and the territory of the United States increased by 2o, and the United States became a rightful Arctic country. Despite the cheapness, Seward was slammed for the business, and the common people simply called Alaska Seward's big refrigerator, saying that he had spent so much taxpayer money on a useless piece of land.

But Scrooge, who had traveled from later generations, knew how good the deal was. In Alaska there are abundant oil reserves, the largest oil field in the entire United States, and even a God-given treasure mine, which is extremely shallow and rich in gold reserves. In fact, in the original history, since 1874, large and small gold mines have been constantly discovered, and new gold rushes have also appeared. London, all of them once left their pen and ink and went to Alaska to pan for gold. At its peak, the gold that those gold diggers found in a year alone was enough to buy several Alaskas.

Of course, Scrooge was not willing to let go of such an opportunity. In order to facilitate the deal, Blackwater prevented the assassination of Lincoln and Seward in the history of the country. Faced with the government's lack of money, Scrooge even said that he was willing to provide the government with a long-term loan of at least $2 million at a very low interest rate as long as the government bought the land. Of course, this was by no means unconditional, on the condition that the government hand over to him ownership of some of the land that Scrooge had a crush on. He is willing to buy these areas for three times the average land price.

This zealous help of course quickly pushed the negotiations, and now Seward has basically reached an agreement with the Russians to buy all of Alaska for $6oo. All that's left is for Congress to approve the government's signature. And once the deal goes into effect, Alaska's largest oil field and largest gold mine will immediately fall into the hands of the MacDonald family.

Tips: The new domain name "biquge.info" has been launched by Biquge, and the original domain name is about to be discontinued. Please tell each other, thank you!