Volume 1: Laying the Foundation Chapter 26: "Black Star" Pistol
Stern was shocked by the words, his excited emotions slightly relieved, and he said with some confusion: "Can such a thing happen? Won't it? They are all people of status, how can they do such a thing?"
Chen Xiaoqi sneered, "What's the big deal about having an identity? Haven't you heard that all bankers have black hearts? For money, they wouldn't even hesitate to start a war that kills millions of people! Do you think they would care about the life of some unknown kid from China? No way. If I accepted that money, not to mention whether they would give us cash or not, my best outcome would be being forced into the DuPont family and then quietly eliminated after a few years. But now it's different. Our cooperation agreement also includes a clause where DuPont has priority in purchasing my chemical patents, and I also verbally promised Hurd that I could help them improve their chemical production equipment and processes. This way, at least for a while, they won't be able to figure out my bottom line. At the same time, they will also be uncertain whether there are other forces backing me up, so I'll still be safe for a period of time. Do you think they really believe I'm a genius? That I could come up with all this in such a short amount of time?"
Stern nodded and said: "Hmm, maybe, what you're saying might make sense, but my god, that's ten million dollars! But Chen, honestly, don't you have some powerful backing behind you?"
"Shh, this is a secret! Dear Stern, you shouldn't be thinking about such boring things right now. Look at this - it's a $1.5 million check! We should think of ways to spend it as soon as possible!"
"Spent? And so soon? Have you made a mistake? This is a large sum of money! Do you know that, Chen, you've been spending too much lately, and our account doesn't even have a balance of $1,000 anymore!" Stern became anxious again as soon as he heard about the expenditure.
Chen Xiaoqi sighed inwardly - the miserly Jew, Golan Tai! He patted Stern's shoulder and said: "Don't worry about this, these sums of money are nothing. We just need to use them more reasonably to generate even greater profits. Only then can we become billionaires faster. Stern, you need to have a broader vision. As long as I'm here, everything will be fine. Now, let's discuss how to arrange the work for these over 100 new technical personnel and engineers."
Within a week of receiving the check, Chen Xiaoqi spent the money lavishly. He sent a telegram and a long letter to Chen Shoutang in China. The telegram simply stated that he had remitted $100,000 and asked him to send someone to the United States. In the letter, he detailed his situation and progress over the past year and explained his intention of wanting someone - in a foreign land, there was no one more reliable than those from the same hometown. Those who had family and children at home would not have any other choice but to work diligently after coming out, and would absolutely not engage in swindling their fellow townspeople abroad like some people did later on. The current group of people were still relatively honest, and most importantly, they could hardly take a step forward here.
In the letter, Chen Xiaoqi clearly stated what kind of people he wanted: one type is young people who have received primary and secondary education, or even university students, to be sent to the United States for further study, or to other European countries, except Japan, England, France, America, and Germany are all acceptable, but they cannot study culture, philosophy, thought, art, and other subjects, science and engineering are best, military is also possible, these are the foundation and backing of the future!
Another type of person is locals who have practiced martial arts and have been soldiers with a certain quality. Chen Xiaoqi wants such people to come, not for anything else, but first to protect his personal safety, and second to build his own martial arts foundation, laying the groundwork for future endeavors. These people temporarily don't have an excuse to stay in the US, but Chen Xiaoqi has a way, so many people selling piglets can get in, sneaking in under the guise of studying and learning is not a difficult task!
In addition, Chen Xiaoqi also recruited Chinese students who went abroad in many European newspapers and radio stations, welcoming them to come to the United States for employment. Don't mention how many can come, at least after this stir, people studying in Europe and America don't know Chen Xiaoqi, which is enough, after all, a thousand threads must have a starting point.
The main task is to arrange those foreign technical engineers who were recruited. Chen Xiaoqi established a series of laboratories in one breath, including laboratories specializing in metallurgical technology, gun research, coal chemical research, engine research, welding technology research, chemical medicine research, bearing research, and electronic vacuum tube research, etc., etc. More than 100 people were not enough to use them up, and the equipment for these empty laboratories was also a long process. For now, they just set up the framework and do some basic research first. After the funding comes in later, high-level researchers will be recruited, laboratory equipment will be complete, and everything will become regularized.
As the company grew, Chen Xiaoqi found himself stretched thin. He had to add several departments and hired three lawyers to form a legal consulting department to handle all internal and external disputes and negotiations. Alongside this, he began drafting the "Company Basic Law", modeled after Huawei's famous "Basic Law". Chen Xiaoqi remembered little of it, but that was something to be perfected over time. The core idea was based on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs theory, establishing a complete system from low to high and near to far for the concept of "self-realization", which had proven to be very effective.
In addition, the legal consulting department is also responsible for handling patent application and authorization negotiations for the company, which is also very busy, and the salary is not low at all.
Chen Xiaoqi introduced the "professional manager" system to the company, hiring senior personnel from top American universities to participate in the daily management work of various departments, completely liberating him and Stern from within. With the presence of shares and the attraction of the company's grand blueprint for the future, especially Chen Xiaoqi's emphasis on being an important partner of DuPont, the small company that was once looked down upon by everyone gradually gained a reputation, although it was still not much, but it looked very promising.
Chen Xiaoqi personally managed and did not allow others to intervene, only the munitions company. Now the munitions company is still in the debugging and installation phase, and it's too early to produce products. Chen Xiaoqi has already made plans for the next step, just waiting for the right time to put them into action.
Chen Xiaoqi injected a large number of young and vigorous talents into the engine department, setting up research groups for automotive diesel engines, automotive gasoline engines, and piston-type aircraft engines. They focused on researching high-efficiency engines with large power and small size, with power ranging from 12 horsepower upwards without a maximum limit. Anyway, he had no experience in this aspect, and the bigger the better, as there were also ships and warships waiting to be used!
The topics of the metallurgical laboratory are high-strength alloy steel and deep-drawing steel plate, as well as gun steel, etc. Due to the lack of test conditions for the time being, relevant personnel will first conduct data collection and argumentation work.
The mechanical laboratory also has a lot of work, temporarily divided into four major blocks. One is the bearing research group, their topic is "Hydraulic Central Rotary Joint Assembly", which is actually two blocks, one is the hydraulic central system and the other is the rotary joint. Now they are temporarily combined, but will definitely be separated in the future. The reason for combining them together now is that the current research target direction is very clear - tanks.
"Hydraulic Rotating Union" is actually very widely used, and it's indispensable on excavators and cranes. The most common ones are tank turrets and radar, which can rotate smoothly thanks to this device.
The second group's topic is to study several types of chassis. One type is the 2x4, 4x4 chassis of off-road jeeps, which will develop into 6x6 and 8x8 armored vehicles and heavy-duty transport vehicle chassis in the future. Another type is the chassis of excavators and cranes, which will develop into tank chassis in the future.
The third group's main topic is suspension systems, including off-road vehicles, car suspension systems, and even heavy transport vehicle and tank suspension systems.
The above things, about Jeep, Chen Xiaoqi can basically draw out all the parts. Those years of following car friends were not in vain. Other things can only provide a rough description and sketch, and the actual thing still needs engineers to spend a long time studying and refining, it won't come out immediately.
The welding laboratory is a very important department, and it can be said that whether major achievements can be made in the mechanical industry in the future depends on it. Chen Xiaoqi learned from the newly established American Welding Society that at this time, CO2 shielded welding, argon arc welding, and submerged arc welding, which are commonly used later, have not yet been invented, but these technologies are actually not that complicated. Anyone who has stayed in Shandong for a few years will be annoyed by the advertisements of various technical schools on Shandong TV every day, and if you report the subjects of those technical school advertisements one by one, you can basically cover most of the technical types on the market, it's hard not to remember.
Welding technology relates to the strength and quality of future industrial products, especially in military terms. In this era of giant ships and cannons, not a single warship has been manufactured using welding technology. The first welded ship has just been launched, and in the future, everything Chen Xiaoqi does in industry will rely on welding technology. The entire world will rely on welding technology. Just based on this, he can make a fortune for decades to come!
The electronics laboratory focused on tackling the production process of vacuum tubes, especially vacuum diodes and triodes. The purpose was to create a music player that could play more than three minutes of music, as Chen Xiaoqi couldn't bear a life without music. He dreamed of creating an amplifier and speaker, and also planned to make a record player with a turntable and needle. The disc surface was solvable, but the tone arm and needle required more effort. The principle of amplifiers wasn't complicated, and the structure of speakers was even simpler, but how to achieve stereophonic sound was still a problem.
For a fairly long period of time to come, before the advent of semiconductors, high-quality vacuum tubes will be widely used in telephones, telegraphs, record players, radar, radios and other fields, and even future walkie-talkies cannot do without them. So Chen Xiaoqi absolutely cannot let go of this important thing, he can't wait to get the record player out tomorrow. As for tape, it is still an impossible task for now.
The main direction of the medical laboratory has been figured out by Chen Xiaoqi, but he doesn't plan to give these patents that are clearly going to make a fortune to others. He is determined to become a genius inventor who will make people take notice.
The chemical laboratory, of course, is Chen Xiaoqi's forte. All sorts of chemical techniques and products are stored in his mind. If needed, he can even advance the existing petrochemical technology by decades. However, he has no intention of doing so. Things need to be done step by step, and meals need to be eaten mouthful by mouthful.
Coal chemical technology is a part that Xiaoqi Chen cares about deeply. In one war, Germany, which lacked crude oil, developed coal liquefaction technology, also known as "coal-to-oil". The development of this technology allowed the Germans to fight a war with great fanfare without relying on oil fields. If it weren't for internal problems, the war wouldn't have ended so smoothly and peacefully. Until World War II, Germany led the world in coal chemical technology and coal-to-oil technology. In those years of comprehensive blockade, the Germans relied on this to power their massive war machine. This technology may be useless for oil-producing giants like the United States and Britain, but it is crucial for China. Because in the next few decades, China will not have the ability to protect its own territory, and therefore cannot extract oil. Once war breaks out, the coal fields scattered across the country will become a lifeline. How to develop coal-to-oil technology to its extreme is a matter of life and death, and Xiaoqi Chen cannot help but care about it.
The establishment of this series of laboratories not only spent Chen Xiaoqi's 1.5 million yuan, but also kept him busy until the beginning of 1921 before he could catch his breath. The things that happened during this period are not detailed here, anyway, the whole University of Illinois knew that he was a freak who didn't attend classes all day, but every time he took exams and submitted papers, they were impeccable, which made the instructors love and hate him at the same time. Professor Adams didn't know what to say, if he criticized him for not being serious about his studies, he would just produce one experiment after another, but if he said he was serious, then the fact that he hardly attended classes couldn't be explained. A person's energy could accomplish so many things, it was simply like a second Leonardo da Vinci. It is said that Da Vinci rested for no more than four hours a day and achieved so much in his lifetime, did Chen Xiaoqi have this ability?
He really does!
As mentioned earlier, Chen Xiaoqi had been deceived by a Taoist from Laoshan before he traveled through time and space, but he also learned how to breathe and expel air. With the skills he accumulated over the past few years, he could basically minimize his sleep every day. Every night, he would be busy until 11:30 PM, then wash his face, brush his teeth, go to bed, and meditate until 12:30 AM before going to sleep. In the morning, he would wake up at 5:00 AM, take a cold shower, beat the heavenly drum, knock his teeth thirty-six times, get out of bed, breathe and expel air, stand on tiptoes for six postures, practice the third set of military boxing twice, eat dinner at 6:00 PM, and then start his busy day. His life was extremely regular and fulfilling, truly achieving eighteen hours of uninterrupted work a day, which was simply crazy! In this year's time, just the drawings he drew in his spare time filled up a room. Chen Xiaoqi had no doubt that if someone stole these drawings, the whole world might be changed! Because there were even structural diagrams of atomic bombs inside! However, later Chen Xiaoqi realized that this was extremely inappropriate and hastily burned some sensitive ones to feel at ease.
Another busy year has passed. In February 1921, Chen Xiaoqi's weapons company finally produced the first batch of pistols, because there is a large black five-pointed star on both sides of the grip, this pistol is called "Black Star".
