Chapter 22: Critical Moment Someone Wants to Drop the Chain
In October 1890, under the efforts of local government and foreign engineers, the Changhua Iron Mine in Qiongzhou Prefecture finally opened for business. The iron ore that had been discovered was located just 50 miles east of Changhua County town, next to the Shilu River, with excellent quality and shallow burial, suitable for open-pit mining.
The population of Changhua County is not dense, mainly local stationed soldiers and some mainland immigrants. However, the surrounding areas are all Li ethnic minority settlements, with high mountains and dense forests. The local Li people make a living by hunting, fishing, and gathering, and are extremely poor. Mining here can employ local mountain people, and the wages they earn can improve their living conditions. Liu Fei initially also planned to use mechanical mining, but encountered opposition from the local government and villagers, who believed that machines were monsters that would disrupt their lives and destroy their feng shui.
Helpless, Liu Ye had to adopt manual methods, laying small iron rails, using manpower or animal power to pull ore carts, loading ships from Shilu River, flowing downstream into Changhua River, and then entering the sea from the entrance of Changhua County. Due to the original small size of Changhua Wharf, which could not berth 10,000-ton ships, Liu Ye had to build both mines and wharfs at the same time. After struggling until July 1891, formal mining began, and the wharf was able to berth 30,000-ton ocean-going vessels.
As the high-quality iron ore from Ishigaki was continuously transported to Taiwan, the steel mills in Keelung were finally able to operate at full capacity. Thanks to Zhang Zhidong's connection, the rails produced in Keelung also entered the Qing dynasty market. Liu Fei also opened up a large area of wasteland near Keelung, specifically for storing various resources, and unused coal, ore, etc. were piled up here, forming small hills.
The Guards Regiment expanded for the fourth time this year, with 2000 new recruits dispersed and mixed with old soldiers. The original training base could no longer accommodate several thousand people, so Liu Yi opened two more camps to the north and west of Keelung, surrounding the city's north, west, and south sides along with the original camp.
The Keelung Institute has developed a new semi-automatic rifle this year, with a 10-round magazine, automatic loading, firing 7.62 caliber bullets, with a range of over 800 meters and an effective range of over 300 meters. After several modifications and trials, it was finalized as the AK-01 rifle. This rifle and its ammunition are produced in small quantities at the institute's affiliated small arms factory, with a production volume of around 100 units per month, some of which have been equipped to the core members of the guard team, while ordinary guard team members still use the 1887 committee model.
Several small patrol boats built by the shipyard have been launched and are now collectively tackling torpedo boats and submarines under Liu's command.
Torpedo boat Liu Mo's idea was to use a hydrofoil structure, which can run very fast even when the power is not very strong. Liu Mo had also sat on a hydrofoil several times in his previous life, and he roughly knew what it looked like, but the shape, strength, angle and other details of the hydrofoil still needed to be tested slowly.
The progress of the submarine is not ideal, Liu's proposed double-layer pressure hull is still under testing, and there has been little progress in snorkel technology. In short, there is no hope for the submarine in the short term.
Large diesel engine units and electric motor units for ships are being replicated. With the prototype available for reference, progress is still satisfactory. The parameters of the first few unqualified products have already far exceeded those of any current same-volume engine. However, people from the research institute and the shipyard are not satisfied because the parameters are too far away from the original. If even imitation cannot be imitated, it's also too ungrateful for high salaries and benefits.
The research on torpedoes has made a breakthrough. Due to the increase in explosive power, the torpedo caliber has been reduced from 533mm to 450mm, with a lighter weight, which reduces the requirements for the engine and can improve the speed. Although there is no prototype available for study, Liu brought a book "Ship Knowledge" that introduced the basic principle of pre-WWI hot gas steam torpedoes. Researchers simulated a type of hot gas engine based on this article, allowing the torpedo to reach a speed of 35 knots, but the range was still relatively short at only 1000 meters. Additionally, there were some problems with the German-made trigger mechanism, resulting in nearly 30% of the torpedoes hitting their targets without exploding.
The development of sea mines has been smooth sailing, starting from the imitation of German anchor mines, gradually replacing the explosive system, electric ignition system and triggering system, making the new type of anchor mine smaller than the original one, more powerful and more accurate. Now it has started mass production of this new type of anchor mine named "Sea Urchin" by Liu Mo, with an annual output of about 5,000.
The water patrol team finally had a ship for training, and the few near-shore small boats produced by themselves were not well-armed, but barely enough for training. In order to quickly let these water soldiers grow up, Liu Ye divided them into batches and put them on the ships of the "Helen" shipping company, not only running to Qingzhou Prefecture to pull ore, but also sailing to ports on the west coast of the United States such as San Francisco, and transporting various materials for Keelung Port.
The remaining patrol team members took turns to conduct submerged navigation training with 3 US Holland-class submarines, although the time was still relatively short, they were already able to safely navigate out of the harbor and simulate torpedo attacks on target ships.
At the end of 1891, a sudden bad news scared Liu Rong: his father Liu Bingzhang had a stroke. Originally, Liu Rong thought that everything was on the right track and that he could take care of himself in another two years, but who would have thought that he didn't calculate his father's health into account. This year, Liu Bingzhang is only 55 years old, which is not considered old in later generations, but it is already considered advanced age in the Qing dynasty.
Dropping all his work, Liu Fei hurried back to Taipei to see his old father. Lying in bed, the right half of Liu Mingchuan's body was no longer very agile, and his speech was somewhat unclear, but his mind was still clear. Seeing Liu Fei arrive, he asked the maid to help him sit up with half his body leaning against the pillow. Liu Fei sat on a stool at the head of the bed, holding a cup of tea in front of his father.
Liu Mingchuan took the tea with his left hand, but didn't drink it. He stared straight at Liu Fei and after a while, spoke vaguely: "Old Three, Father's body is not well, I'm preparing to go up to the capital to beg for his remains."
"Dad, your illness is nothing serious, I'll go and invite a foreign doctor to take a look at you, it's guaranteed to be fine..." Liu Yi heard that Liu Mingchuan was planning to retire and his heart skipped a beat, he quickly spoke out to comfort him, but Liu Mingchuan raised his hand to interrupt Liu Yi's words.
"Your two elder brothers are in the capital, and they both hold official positions. Your younger brother is still studying. Only you are engaged in business. However, your dealings have become too large, and you're isolated overseas. If I were to pass away, I'm afraid you'll get into trouble. Those foreigners around you, others may not be able to tolerate them. I want to discuss with you how to handle the Taiwan business."
"Dispose of? Are you planning on selling these industries?" Liu Ye was somewhat surprised after hearing Liu Ming's words.
"You can slowly pass it on to others, or scatter and move back to our old home. Without me watching, I don't feel at ease with you being alone here." Liu Mingchuan explained slowly.
"Dad, how have I been doing these few years?" Liu Yi knew that Liu Mingchuan was kind-hearted, but his old father was worried that the next governor would not tolerate him. No wonder, Liu Yi had made it too big, with nearly a thousand foreigners and several tens of thousands of workers. The entire Keelung harbor had already formed a large city of over a million people, several times larger than Taipei City. He didn't know what his annual income was, but his annual expenditure was in the hundreds of millions. Except for his own father, anyone else would not dare to let him do such things.
"If you were a few years older and had tempered yourself in officialdom for a few more years, you would not be inferior to Li He in the slightest. Unfortunately, your father's health cannot help you." Liu Mingchuan said with great regret.
"Which of these industries do you think can be taken over? Who can do a good job next?" Liu Ye asked again.
"This can be discussed slowly, after I leave, you also cannot immediately leave here, and must make arrangements before feeling at ease." Liu Ming didn't catch the meaning of Liu Ye's words.
