Chapter 3: Secret Treasure

  Back in their humble abode, the Huang brothers hid away their rifles and pistols and went to the kitchen to start cooking. It wasn't that Duan Guoxue couldn't cook, but rather he didn't know how to cook, having grown accustomed to using automated electrical appliances from his time. Even starting a fire was a bit of a hassle for him.

  After eating a simple meal and washing up, the two brothers went to sleep. Although their training intensity had decreased a lot, these two brothers obviously took the initiative to train more. With a mindset of repaying kindness, they looked at what Duan Guoxue required of them. As long as Duan Guoxue thought it was good, they would resolutely execute it and do so even more thoroughly.

  After discussing tomorrow's matters with Wang Shuilin, Duan Guoxue returned to his own room, nervously observing the movements around him. Duan Guoxue carefully took out a few blocks and assembled them together after fiddling with them for a while.

  Duan Guoxue lightly pressed a button, and with a "beep", a 15-inch screen appeared on the largest cube-shaped object.

  "Energy search, 39% remaining. Creating a scope mount, no need to refine into special steel, ordinary iron is fine. Data modified to high 62mm, width... Original material uses iron blocks, consuming 86 units of energy, occupying 0.31% of the remaining energy. OK, creating." After muttering to himself and pressing the confirm button, Duan Guoxue put a few iron blocks into an opening on top of the large block. The large block swallowed the iron blocks, and the screen began displaying the creation progress. A few minutes later, when the progress reached 100%, two iron blocks fell out from behind the large block, one was a round iron ball, and the other was surprisingly the scope mount that Duan Guoxue needed earlier on the screen.

  Put the remaining material, that is, the iron ball, aside, and Duan Guoxue carefully observed this new sighting frame.

  "MMD, it would be great if there were ready-made samples. The data could be used to produce them directly, and there's no need to waste energy repeating the production process like now. There's not much surplus energy left, and before replenishing the synthesizer with energy, using a little less each time."

  The synthesizer that Duan Guoxue mentioned was the only physical object given to him by aliens. Although he learned many things beyond Earth's technological level, most of them were materials science and electronics. At first, he wanted to use materials science to produce many world-leading technological products, such as a rope with a tensile strength of 50 tons but only 1 mm in diameter; an alloy steel that could withstand all armor-piercing projectiles at the time, but was only 10 cm thick; ordinary AA-sized batteries with a capacity of millions of milliampere-hours...

  But even if the principles and manufacturing processes are known, without a mother machine to produce these things, everything is just pie in the sky. Therefore, Duan Guoxue asked the aliens for this original synthesizer.

  This thing's greatest use is to decompose all materials, decomposing the required components and re-synthesizing them as needed. For example, if you want to make C4, put in a bunch of chemical raw materials that C4 needs, stuff it inside, let it stir-fry in its belly, and spit out a lump of C4 like dough and a pile of synthesized waste that is unknown what it is.

  The C4 that Duan Guoxue had come up with at the time had used up 6% of his energy, and now thinking about it made him feel heartbroken. At the time, he had only done it on a whim, but hadn't expected it to consume so much energy. Because he had considered that aliens' energy sources no longer used wired energy, Duan Guoxue had specially created an electric power converter from Earth as a supplement for the synthesizer. However, who would have thought that when they returned to 1915 China, at that time, China was still in a state where except for a few big cities, other places hadn't even seen what electric lights were? So how could Duan Guoxue find a way to recharge the synthesizer? That's why last time, Duan Guoxue had revealed several new technologies, just to let Xu Laoban help him find a generator set. With the generator set recharging the synthesizer, Duan Guoxue dared to take the next step in development.

  "MMD. Once I have enough energy, I'll definitely build a small fusion nuclear power plant."

  The days passed by one after another, and November arrived. Although they were secretly training, Duan Guoxue and several students' shooting levels improved step by step under the training. However, the bullets were also being consumed bit by bit. Finally, at the end of November, when Duan Guoxue was about to stop live ammunition training, Mr. Xu brought a foreigner and a machine to the county town.

  "Director Xú, long time no see! You look radiant and prosperous. I'm sure you've been making a fortune lately."

  "Not at all! Not at all! It's still Mr. Duan's blessing. I hope for more care from Mr. Duan in the future. Take good care of yourself."

  "Let's all get rich together! Let's all get rich together! This is..."

  "This is Mr. Ferner from Germany. Because it's really hard to find an American businessman, and even if we found one, they wouldn't be interested in Mr. Duan's map. So I can only bring Mr. Ferner here first. Mr. Ferner, this is the Mr. Duan Guoxue you wanted to meet."

  "Hello, I am Werner from Aubrey Trading Company in Germany."

  "Hello, hello, Mr Xu, may I have a word with Mr Fernald in private?"

  "Of course! Of course! You guys chat first, I'll go next door to prepare some dishes to go with the wine."

  After Mr. Xu closed the door, Fernal eagerly asked Duan Guoxue: "Mr. Duan, where did your design drawings come from?"

  What Vernall said was a design drawing of a tank sketched by Duan Guoxue, which was not an independent turret type, but the British Mark I. Why it was Mark I is because Duan Guoxue couldn't remember what other tanks looked like during World War I, and Mark I was too famous, so Duan Guoxue could remember it.

  Spitting out the tea leaves, Duan Guoxue said slowly: "Now your country and the British and French are fighting in a muddy lake, everyone is hiding in trenches, I believe your country is also worried about the huge casualties." Ah! Now it's World War I, England, France and Germany are digging mud in the trenches, anyway, tanks will appear in the Battle of the Somme next year, if not now, when?

  "Excuse me for being rude, but I need to confirm the source of Mr. Duan's drawings."

  "The source of the drawings is this." Duan Guoxue pointed to his own head and said. "Mr. Fernald must be surprised, in your eyes, we Chinese are foolish and ignorant, it's impossible for us to know or design such a technological thing. But reality is like this, Mr. Fernald, I can responsibly tell you that this thing is a new weapon being developed by the British, under some coincidence, I got part of the drawings, then used my own knowledge to design it."

  "You mean the British are also designing it."

  "Yes, Mr. Farnel is not just a simple clerk in a trading company, he should be a member of your country's intelligence agency. You can report to your country's intelligence agency that the British are developing a new weapon under the codename 'TANK'. If they continue at their current pace, by August or September next year, the British will deploy it on the battlefield. And this weapon is precisely the most advantageous one to end the current stalemate of trench warfare."

  "Mr. Duan, I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to you on behalf of my motherland for providing such crucial intelligence and advanced weapons to Germany."

  "Mr. Vernal is too kind, there is no unprovoked love or hate, as a Chinese, the British have brought too much suffering to my motherland, I express my understanding and support for the just cause your country is undertaking, at the same time, I also need your help."

  "Mr. Duan, your sentence 'There is no love without reason and no hate without cause' is really classic! I don't know how I can help you?"

  "I need a batch of materials, this is the list. I need a batch of guns for self-defense, Mr. Vernier must be very familiar with the current situation in our country. At the same time, I also need a batch of machine tool equipment and related equipment for manufacturing ammunition, and finally, I also need a small steel mill and 10 million marks as compensation. Considering that your country is at war with Britain and France, although the types of things I need are many, the quantity is not large, and I believe this amount will not have much impact on your country. At the same time, in return, this is the principle explanation and design drawing of hollow armor-piercing shells. I believe that after equipping your navy with such shells, the entire British invincible fleet can be sunk to the bottom of the sea to feed the fish."

  Hollow-charge armor-piercing projectiles, actually used during World War II, previously all anti-tank weapons had to use a substance harder than the armor material and give it sufficient kinetic energy to break through the armor and squeeze into the interior of the armored vehicle to cause damage.

  The hollow-charge anti-tank projectile utilizes the Munroe effect. The Munroe effect was discovered by American Charles E. Munroe in 1888 while experimenting with explosive lenses. He found that when a conical cavity was cut into the end of an explosive, the blast would be focused along the axis of the cone, creating a much more intense explosion at a point than if the explosive were solid. This true discovery is still not fully understood today, but it has been used in many applications.

  After looking at the detailed list provided by Duan Guoxue and the design drawings of the new shells, Ferner wiped away tears from the corner of his eyes and said to Duan Guoxue: "Mr. Duan, on behalf of my country, I would like to thank you again for providing such good weapons to our country. You said that the things we need are as you said, although there are many types, but not in large quantities, I believe you can get them soon. As for the 1 million mark reward, I need to go back and report before I can give you a reply, but I believe that this 1 million mark reward will definitely be received by you."

  "It's settled!" Duan Guoxue thought happily as he hugged the excited Fernal. But settling one thing means there's another, and more money is always better, after finishing the wine party hosted by Old Xu, Duan Guoxue was going to make some money from the countrymen.

  "Thanks to Mr. Duan's good fortune, my current soap and match factory, although not making much profit at the moment, has a steady stream of orders, with production already scheduled until next year's second half. Now I'm preparing to expand production, I wonder what surprise Mr. Duan will bring me this time?"

  "It's not surprising, Mr. Xue's foreign soap and fire are selling like hotcakes, I'd be happy to add some icing on the cake for Mr. Xue's business." After finishing speaking, Duan Guoxue took out a small bottle of fine ***, opened the cap and handed it over to Mr. Xue.

  "This is... perfume?" Mr. Xu said after smelling it.

  "No, this is a diluted fragrance. If it were high-concentration fragrance, it would actually smell bad. Mr. Xu, think about it, if you add this fragrance to soap and make the soap full of fragrance, women love beauty, ordinary women can't afford expensive perfume, but they can afford this ordinary soap. Think about it, your cash register will be filled up by crazy women soon."

  "Mr. Duan is really too brilliant!" Mr. Xu's reaction now was the same as Fernal's earlier, except that Fernal's eyes were filled with fervor, while Mr. Xu's eyes were filled with money.

  After making another fortune, Duan Guoxue asked some other things. Because Duan Guoxue was not familiar with Guangxi, until now Duan Guoxue still didn't understand which direction he was in. Xu Laoban did business in the two Guangs and was more familiar with geography than himself.

  In the dead of night, Duan Guoxue sat at his desk staring at the rough map that he and Old Xu had proofread together. Pingguo, Guangxi's Pingguo County, Duan Guoxue finally knew where he was. Although he had almost no knowledge of Pingguo County, what he did know was Pingguo Aluminum, this large aluminum mine that would become very famous in the future and was the only impression left in his mind. There was also Baose, a hundred miles to the west, the Baose Uprising being something that schoolchildren in the future would have to study.

  Puffing on a hand-rolled cigarette, the thick smoke choked Du Guoxue, causing his nose and eyes to flow with tears. He pinched out the cigarette and thought with a worried expression:

  How to move forward in the future, this era's China has the 20th century's greatest figure Chairman Mao, China's most revered and perfect Premier Zhou Enlai, and those ten marshals with great reputations. These people are now growing up on this land, struggling, their emergence will bring what kind of influence to China's future? For survival, they have already flapped the butterfly's wings, what kind of storm will it bring to the future? If one wants to step onto China's big stage, with what reasoning? With what thought? With what system...... my head is spinning!!!!!!!

  Duan Guoxue, who had been suffering from a headache, couldn't help but start scolding the irresponsible aliens again. If only it were several decades earlier, he wouldn't be so troubled now. Not only could he have overthrown the corrupt Qing dynasty, but he could also have trampled on the face of that old slut Cixi with ten thousand feet.

  Forget it, the other party has already left for countless light-years of distance. Think about the future, when the German equipment and money arrive, I will start to develop vigorously. First, invest in building a cigarette factory, which can not only make profits but also solve my own smoking problem. At the same time, build a small hydropower station, Guangxi's hydropower resources are quite rich, especially in Baise area, the installed capacity of Longtan Hydropower Station is second only to Three Gorges Hydropower Station. Then, I can establish my own armed forces under the name of running a factory. The bravery of Guangxi people is famous, and the harsh living environment has created a fierce and fighting folk culture. In the future, the Guangxi warlords will make the old light head and the Japanese people suffer a lot...

  That night, Duan Guoxue, Fernald and Mr. Xu all lay awake...