Chapter Eleven I Made an American Friend

  Donovan, a 30-year-old American missionary, is an honest and passionate man who values his word and keeps his promises. Although he still carries the cross in China, he has actually become a businessman, doing much better than as a preacher. He met Kang Fan because of those three Americans who were beaten up. Those three Americans were unemployed vagrants living in poverty in the United States, but since they had known Donovan since childhood, they came to China to rely on him. This time, Donovan came to the county town for a short stay due to a business deal and did not plan to stay long-term. However, he did not expect that his three useless companions would get drunk and harass female students, leading to Kang Fan's severe beating.

  Duonowan didn't come to avenge his three companions, but to apologize and make amends with the female students. Just for this reason, Kangfan immediately had a good impression of him. Moreover, both Kangfan and Duonowan were fluent in English and Chinese, so there was no problem communicating, and things were quickly resolved satisfactorily, with both sides calmly accepting each other. In their subsequent casual conversation, after learning about the difficulties Kangfan was currently facing, Duonowan voluntarily offered to act as a liaison between Kangfan and Western merchants, providing whatever help he could. Kangfan gladly agreed, and immediately gave Duonowan 10,000 taels of silver as a deposit. Duonowan stared blankly at the pile of glittering silver in front of him.

  Duonowan's participation made all the difficulties easy to solve. When those large and important equipment such as steam turbine generators, boilers, water pumps and so on finally arrived at the county town after going through thousands of hardships, Kang Fan was so excited that he almost cried!

  Mr. Donovan, you are a good American. Kong Fan grasped Mr. Donovan's hands with both of his and held on for a long time, unwilling to let go.

  Duonowan smiled and said: Since you trust me so much, how can I not do well? To be honest, your 10,000 taels of silver have bought my entire body and mind.

  Kang Fan also laughed, then this deal is really a bargain for me.

  Duonowan said: I have been in China for ten years, and I have never seen a Chinese like you. I don't know what you did before, but I know that you have a good grasp of the pulse of global technological development, and you also have your own unique analysis and judgment on the current world situation. You know, currently in your China, even the imperial palace has not yet used electricity, but this remote mountain county hospital not only uses electricity, but also uses modern water supply and heating systems, which is simply unimaginable! You are a strange person, you are vastly different from contemporary Chinese people. So I am happy to cooperate with you.

  In that case, I suggest you take down this sheep's head too. Kang Fan pointed at the cross swaying on Duonowan's chest and said, "You're more suitable for doing business than this."

  Donovan shrugged. I knew Mr. Kong had a bias against our Western religious beliefs. You're an atheist, but you shouldn't criticize others' faiths.

  Kang Fan said: I uphold human nature, and the development of society is guided by the needs of the people, and everything should be people-oriented. If it deviates from the normal needs of the people, then there can be no talk of social development. In situations where material life cannot satisfy the needs of the majority of the people, appropriate religious beliefs can bring some spiritual comfort to the people in their impoverished daily lives, adding color to life. However, fundamentally speaking, religious beliefs have no practical significance for improving the quality of people's material life, but they do provide a means for certain politicians to deceive the people.

  Duonowan was surprised by Kangfan's remarks, but after thinking for half a day, he didn't know how to refute them. He could only say: I provide services to the people who need me within my power, which should not be wrong.

  Yes. Convene agrees that you have provided us with what we need and will continue to provide the services we require going forward. Thank you.

  After Duonowan purchased all the equipment, the subsequent civil construction, installation, commissioning, operation and daily maintenance and repair of the equipment would need to be carried out in succession. These follow-up works are more complicated and time-consuming, requiring a longer period of time. With these tasks at hand, Duonowan's plan to leave soon had to be postponed.

  Kang Fan brought several electrical and mechanical students from the Fenhe River camp to work and study with Duonowan and his team of foreign technicians, in order to quickly grasp the technical essentials and replace the foreign technicians' work as soon as possible. At the same time, due to the large area of the courtyard, in addition to setting up a clinic, wards, and pharmacy, they also renovated toilets, bathrooms, canteens, warehouses, and dormitories. The many willow trees that were originally planted in the courtyard were preserved during the renovation process, these trees are over 10 years old, tall and sturdy, with dense branches and leaves, making people feel comfortable. Mei Xiang and her classmates, under the guidance of Zhong Hanqiang, also planted flowers and grasses in every corner of the hospital's remaining empty space, and dug a pond to raise lotus flowers and fish, making the hospital's scenery even more beautiful.

  After the water supply, heating and power systems were completed, the hospital formed a perfect place that integrated work and life, becoming another camp with better conditions. Kang Fan arranged all the female students here, under the leadership of those medical professional students, learning while doing. Later, Kang Fan publicly recruited doctors, nurses and miscellaneous workers through Yu Hao, posting notices everywhere. He selected qualified personnel from the applicants and employed them, paying relatively generous salaries every month, perfecting the hospital's establishment.

  On the day of the hospital's opening, He family brothers brought their families, Yu Hao led the people from the government office, Zhong Hanqiang and students came to congratulate, gongs and drums shook the sky, firecrackers sounded in unison, the whole county was boiling.

  He Shui Kuan walked over, with a mysterious face, and pulled Kang Fan out of the yard. Outside the yard, two saddled horses were tied to the tree trunks on the street. Kang Fan recognized them as the two Japanese military messenger horses he had killed in Shandong. Although the Japanese cavalrymen were short in stature, their warhorses were all bred from imported European or Arabian fine breeds and were high-headed big horses that surpassed China's Mongolian horses in terms of running speed and strength. Since the tasks undertaken by the messengers were extremely important, the warhorses assigned to them were also exceptionally good. Therefore, without a doubt, these two warhorses were absolutely exceptional steeds, one in a hundred.

  To avoid unnecessary trouble, the war horses, weapons and equipment, and supplies that were brought back from Shandong were secretly stored at Shui Zhang's place, it's very safe. He Guo Kuan said.

  Kong Fan thanked him and chose the red-brown war horse as his own mount, giving it a shocking name: Chi Tu. The gray one was left to Zhong Hanqiang.

  While building the county hospital, Kang Fan also launched a larger-scale construction project in the surrounding areas of Ma Fang Township. This construction plan had been discussed with everyone for a long time, and it was planned to build an industrial park, with the first phase of the project preparing to establish a pharmaceutical factory, a daily chemical plant, and a metal machinery processing plant, used for trial production of various drugs, daily chemicals, and research and development of various metal machinery. He Jia highly praised this plan and donated a piece of land at the foot of the mountain in Ma Fang Township for the construction of the industrial park, becoming Kang Fan's first partner. Duonowan was indeed a person with great connections, as long as he had money, he could get all sorts of chemical raw materials, machinery equipment, metal materials, tools and other things needed for the industrial park, or help sell the products produced by the industrial park to foreign merchants, playing a crucial role. Thus, he naturally became the second partner, and his plan to leave the county town was put on hold indefinitely.

  Everyone has long been looking forward to making their own medicines and daily chemicals, because those precious daily necessities and medicines that were brought from that era have been sold or used up and have become memories. Now they finally see the hope of self-manufacturing, and everyone can't wait to turn hope into reality with their own brains and hands overnight. Therefore, all students are working hard day and night, and the scene is really moving Kang Fan and Zhong Hanqiang.

  Donovan took the list of purchases from the students, along with his three American partners, loaded with the pile of gold and silver that Confan had given him, and disappeared in his own gaudily decorated carriage. Meanwhile, during this time, the large number of artisans hired by He Shuichang were working diligently under the guidance of the students to complete various projects within the industrial park. As long as Donovan returned with the necessary items, everything would be ready before winter.

  Kang Fan and He Jia jointly formed a team of two hundred people, mainly to provide armed escort for the He Jia merchant team. In addition, they worked together with the local garrison to resist the bandits' raids on the surrounding villages outside the county town, protecting the lives and property of the local people. This move was approved by the commander-in-chief of Datong Town, and it was naturally negotiated by the officials of the He Jia family in the imperial court. It was a legitimate civilian armed force, with personnel strictly limited to two hundred people.

  Kang Fan was preparing to use the more than 200 sets of Japanese cavalry equipment he had seized to form an elite cavalry unit, so he had very high requirements for the quality of the recruits. The young men from his hometown who were sent by He Shui Chang were mostly illiterate or semi-illiterate and had no military experience at all, which was far from Kang Fan's requirements. After selecting and rejecting many candidates, Kang Fan only kept a dozen or so literate hunters, including the two hunters he had met for the first time since coming to this era. Later, Yu Hao supported Kang Fan in organizing the militia, allowing him to select qualified soldiers from the Ningwu Prefecture garrison to join the militia with a semi-public and semi-private identity. This meant that these soldiers still belonged to the Ningwu Prefecture garrison, were led by Kang Fan in peacetime, received extra pay and benefits from Kang Fan, and returned to their original units during wartime to perform defense duties for the prefecture.

  Kang Fanle almost fainted, and under the accompaniment of Yu Hao, he conducted collective training and selection with more than 1,000 soldiers who came to respond voluntarily before reporting for duty, along with those hunters who were selected in advance. After a week of strict review, they finally selected 200 qualified personnel and completed the formation of the team.