Chapter 7: Pittsburgh

  In 1901, after Carnegie returned from Skibo Castle, he played a round of golf with Schwab at the St. Andrew's Club in New York and they walked into the library of Carnegie's mansion where Carnegie scribbled on a piece of paper: "One point five." He instructed Schwab that if Morgan would pay 1.5 times the company's value, he would sell. The deal was ultimately concluded for more than $480 million, an almost unbelievable sum at the time.

  But what was truly astonishing was that Pierpont Morgan bought Andrew Carnegie's steel company and formed the United States Steel Corporation. In order to accelerate the development of the company, Morgan on the one hand set high product prices to raise the industry threshold by squeezing out small and medium-sized steel companies; On the other hand, taking advantage of the financial difficulties of these small and medium-sized companies, continued to acquire - United States Steel Corporation swallowed up more than 700 related steel enterprises.

  After that, Morgan's United States Steel Corporation immediately began to lower prices, and this strategy was quite effective. At the time, the United States Steel Corporation produced 3/5 of the steel in the United States and could determine the fate of nearly 170,000 steel workers. The United States Steel Corporation also became the first industrial company in American history with assets exceeding $1 billion, but its capital expanded by more than three times in just ten years.

  Pittsburgh, the steel industry center of the United States, is also known as the Steel Capital of the World, producing more steel in one year than England and Germany combined.

  The car was driving on a street filled with vehicles and pedestrians, while Li Zichen sat in the back seat, his right hand subconsciously tapping on his right knee as he stared out of the window at the rain-soaked streets crisscrossed with lights.

  Here, unlike New York, the air is always filled with a faint smell of "rotten eggs", which is the smell of the coking plant. This smell is not unfamiliar to me, after all, I used to work in a steel mill too. Unlike the flashy and luxurious streets of New York, the streets here have an inexplicable smell, like... hmm! A strong, rugged smell that belongs to steelworkers. Whether it's the horse-drawn carriage drivers or the car drivers, their movements are extremely rough.

  This is a city dominated by workers, and on both sides of the street, you can see workers wearing blue denim work uniforms everywhere. They mostly have thick arms and dull eyes, with a dark complexion all over their faces. The days of American steelworkers now are far from those of their descendants 100 years later.

  This is completely a unique style.

  Late winter snow pounded against the car window, forcing the driver to creep along Pittsburgh's streets at a snail's pace. Meanwhile, Li Zichen took advantage of the slow ride to take in the sights of Pittsburgh. Two weeks ago, he had mailed a set of blueprints to Charlie Schwab, and three days ago, he received a telegram inviting him to come to Pittsburgh for a face-to-face meeting about the high furnace patent.

  Money! If returning home, one would need a lot of money. In the case of insufficient funds, what one can do is to make full use of every available resource at hand.

  In the steel drum in the basement, there were tens of thousands of copies of iron and steel patents, production equipment drawings, and production data. In 1912, the American Steel Company had the most advanced blast furnace capacity in the United States and the world, with a volume of only 500,000 cubic feet. However, it was similar to the "backward" 1,500 cubic meter blast furnace in its own drawings. The difference between the two in terms of iron production per cubic meter was significant. The American Steel Company's "large blast furnace" had an output of only 1.65 tons per cubic meter, while its own was 2.28 tons.

  "I hope I can get a lot of money for it!"

  In his heart, Li Zichen was actually rejoicing over the deal he had made. All he needed to do was put the microfilm into that special enlarger and waste a few thousand sheets of photographic paper.

  But what about the return? Maybe it's tens of millions of dollars, or even more!

  Deep down, Li Zichen was thinking to himself, his left hand patted the partial drawings of the high furnace body and accessories on the seat, a smile squeezed out on his face, what a rich reward!

  "What's made the young master so happy?"

  Ah Si, sitting in the front passenger seat, glanced at the young master sitting in the back seat through the rearview mirror. Since becoming a servant of the young master after leaving the Chinese Association Hall, the young master had been taking good care of him, and even asked him if he wanted to go home just a month ago, offering to pay for his fare if he did.

  If you leave, what will young master do? Anyway, both father and mother are dead, staying by young master's side is not bad either.

  "No matter where Young Master goes, I will definitely follow!"

  Although the young master never mentioned that matter again, Ah Si had already made his own plans. Thinking to himself, Ah Si sat silently in front, today the young master is going to negotiate with the foreigners, he must be clever, otherwise the young master will be taken advantage of...

  As president of the U.S. Steel Corporation, Charles Schwab spent little time in his own office; for most purposes, his office was a luxurious private car provided by Morgan, and the heart of U.S. Steel was in Pittsburgh but its factories and mines stretched across the United States.

  Today, Charlie Schwab, who rarely stayed in the office, formally invited a guest to the office. When he received a call from the train station, Charlie Schwab was incredulous and couldn't help but go back to the drafting board again, looking at the drawings that had been mailed with the letter. Although there were only a dozen or so drawings, they were barely enough to show the structure of the blast furnace, let alone for production. But if supplemented with some development data, it was already sufficient for expert analysis.

  "A Chinese person?"

  Looking at the blast furnace blueprints in front of him, Charles Schwab still had some doubts whether the company's experts were wrong or not. Could a Chinese person really design the most efficient large-scale iron smelting blast furnace in the world?

  "If its technology is used to renovate existing blast furnaces, production capacity can be increased by about 35%! Production costs are reduced by 12.5%"

  Experts' analysis made Charles Schwab understand what the 35% meant, meaning that after the completion of the open-hearth renovation, the iron produced by US Steel would reach this year's total pig iron output in the United States.

  "Mr. Li, welcome your arrival!"

  In front of the office building of US Steel, when Elbert was greeting Li Zichen, he selectively ignored his race and instead focused on the blueprint folder held by his entourage, which might contain the drawings of that new high-efficiency blast furnace.

  As he walked into the third-floor conference room of U.S. Steel, Li Zicheng didn't say a word, instead spreading out the papers in his hand on the round table in the middle, these were just some descriptive papers, far from being actual production-ready blueprints.

  At this time, there were 7 people present. After Li Zichen sat down, everyone gathered around in a circle and began to examine the drawings on the table. Each person looked very serious. The same blueprint was spread out before them, which somewhat disappointed some of the people, especially the company's legal advisor, who did not have the original drawing. They had no way of obtaining these drawings through "legal" means.

  "Very good design."

  As CTO of US Steel, Jason spread his hands and said to Charlie Schwab.

  "But we already have similar designs, no need to spend money to buy again."

  Li Zichen curled his lips, same design? Same design, wait until the steel technology people in the United States come up with it, at least have to wait another ten years, comfortably leaning on the sofa, sipping coffee, silent.

  But Charlie Schwab didn't say a word, he knew more about the condition of his factory than anyone else. Instead, others spoke up to discuss it. However, everyone knew that Nelson's previous words were just a strategy, a low-price strategy.

  "Is it designed by you?"

  Elbert, also a technician, curiously asked Li Zichen, who had not spoken since entering the conference room.

  "Of course."

  Li Zichen looked at him with an unpretentious gaze.

  In the early 20th century, it was quite common for one person to design an industrial product, General Electric and Ford were born in this way, now is not the era of "institutional" invention, but the era of personal genius.

  Elbert showed his appreciation with a look, and in response to his appreciation, Li Zichen simply cast his gaze out the window, looking at the smoky production area of the United States Steel Corporation, which produced as much steel as the world's three major powers combined annually, the world's first large-scale steel enterprise with an annual output of over 10 million tons.

  If one day I can establish such a steel enterprise in China...

  As Li Zichen gazed at the massive steel plant, lost in thought, several people who had just brought over a hundred detailed drawings and further development data were discussing in hushed tones. Meanwhile, Hansen, the legal advisor of the American Steel Company, walked up to Li Zichen with an air of familiarity and asked.

  "Mr. Li, have you registered for patents?"

  "It doesn't matter," Li Zichen said with a smile.

  "Of course, if you don't apply for a patent, anyone can take it away, right?"

  I myself studied law, how could I not know about applying for patents? Even to the extent that for folding the wings of a Boeing 727, I specially applied for more than ten patents for tools such as cross-shaped and plum blossom-shaped starters.

  Li Zicheng's response was unexpected by the gentlemen who were accustomed to registering every little thing as a patent since their grandfather's generation.

  After a moment of silence, and exchanging glances with others, Charlie Schwab said.

  "I don't know what price you think is suitable in your heart, didn't your lawyer come?"

  "I am a lawyer myself!"

  Li Zichen noticed that when he said he was a lawyer, everyone's face showed an expression of incredulity.

  "Under the agreements now in force between American steel men and others, I personally wish that the royalty on every ton of Bessemer steel was $1.35! The term is thirty years!"

  "This is impossible..."

  Before Charlie Schwab could finish speaking, Li Zichen interrupted him.

  "In 1875, the predecessor of US Steel, Carnegie Company, obtained a patent fee for Bessemer converters of $1.17 per ton of steel, with a patent term of thirty years, which has now passed..."

  With a smile on his face, he had done his homework before coming.

  "37 years! I thought 1.4 dollars was not too much!"

  Facing this almost open price, Charlie Schwab, who can no longer be the master, looked at the young man in front of him and said.

  "That's steel! And this is iron!"

  "That's why I quoted $1.40!"

  "Mr. Li, perhaps we need to discuss this further..."

  "Mr. Swaber."

  He downed the coffee in one gulp and stood up, saying...

  "You're certainly welcome to discuss it further, but I need to return to New York tonight."

  "This is absolutely impossible!"

  "We need to verify and also consider similar designs. Before reviewing your complete design documents, we are not clear about the extent of modifications needed for the existing blast furnace and the technical feasibility of building a new one. Similarly, we cannot accurately judge the specific performance of your design. You know, after all, it is just one person's design, and there is still much work to be done..."

  "Alright then."

  Li Zichen said somewhat impatiently.

  "I'll be back in New York tonight, I think...the place where I should make this decision is New York, not Pittsburgh!"

  As soon as Li Zichen turned his head and left the office, the room suddenly burst into noise. In almost everyone's eyes, as long as this drawing can meet 80% of the design requirements, it is worth spending money on.

  "How can we tell from the drawings whether it can meet 80% of the design requirements?"

  A single rhetorical question left Elbert speechless, despite the more detailed development data he brought today. However, it's hard to make a final decision based on just paper materials. If Mr. Li has already built... this is simply impossible, as such a blast furnace would require at least tens of millions of dollars.

  But then Charlie Schwab spoke up.

  "Just as Mr. Li said, we don't have any decision-making power at all!"

  At $1.40 per ton, over a thirty-year patent period, calculated on the production of the United States Steel Corporation alone, it is simply astronomical and far beyond his decision-making scope.

  "Let's go to New York tonight!"

  In the end Charlie Schwab made a decision and now he could only go to New York to ask his boss.

  "Master..."

  After leaving the US Steel Corporation, Ah Si got into a taxi and looked at Young Master with a hesitant expression. He had never seen anyone like Young Master who would show off in front of foreigners. As for what they were saying about $1.35, he had no idea. And in the end, Young Master didn't even negotiate with them and chose to return to New York instead - why was that?

  "What's wrong, haven't you seen a young master show his power? Didn't I tell you earlier that you're still young and need to read more books? If you read more books, you'll understand what I mean!"

  The young master's reprimand made Ah Si feel embarrassed, he should read more books, otherwise how could he help the young master in the future? The young master is a man who does great things.

  Once again casting his gaze towards the streets of Pittsburgh.

  Why go back to New York?

  Is it a score?

  That's nonsense. If the price isn't raised to a level that Charlie Schwab can't handle, how will I have the chance to meet Morgan? Only by meeting Morgan myself do I have a chance...