Chapter Thirty-Three: Dismantling and Repairing

  At first, because the main medical object of the detoxification pill was patients who smoked opium, Tan Yankai also made some adjustments to this formula. For strong new drugs like morphine, the effect of the detoxification pill is not ideal. After a few years, when opium was replaced by other drugs, a new generation of detoxification pills would be born again.

  Tan Yanqing was very clear in his mind that this poison was also progressing with the times. For China at present, the most important harm was opium, and there were morphine and other substances, but those who could use such high-grade goods were definitely not ordinary people, and the proportion of them compared to opium was negligible. This detoxification pill would be a long-term industry, Tan Yanqing did not want to expose all the secrets of the detoxification pill so early, and in the future, he would still have an absolute advantage in this field, especially for new-type poisons like morphine.

  If the detoxification pills for opium in the early stage were a "welfare" measure, then the detoxification pills for morphine and other strong narcotics later on were considered to be an important profit-making fundamental for the Tan family in their later years. In this regard, Tang Jiyao was very deliberate.

  "I don't have big ambitions, but that doesn't mean I'm selfless. At the core, I'm still very selfish!" Tan Yanqing thought to himself with some bitterness. He wanted to live a carefree life in the next few decades, enjoying great wealth and ensuring the prosperity of the Tan family - all of which relied on money. As for his idea of starting modern industries, it was also based on making his own wallet thicker, developing national industry and commerce, and if taken further, it would be another way to strike at China's old rival - Japan. Of course, in this era, only a few people could deeply feel the increasingly intense pressure from Japan on China, and among them, Li Hongzhang unfortunately stood in first place.

  A loud "Boom!" shook the air as a small puff of white smoke burst forth from the ground.

  Tang Bao Wen shook his head, patted his own ears, and didn't come to until half a day later after the explosion. When he finally came to his senses, he said to the attendant beside him: "Quickly go up and take a look at the effect!"

  However, the attendant next to Tang Bowen seemed even more miserable, still staring blankly ahead. Tang Bowen took one look and knew his attendant had been scared silly by the explosion. He simply walked away from the blast point himself. Before he'd taken a few steps, he felt someone following behind him. He turned around to see that it was Stuart, the British technician who had accompanied him here.

  Sartono was the British chief engineer of Tianjin Machinery Bureau. In 1887, Tianjin Machinery Bureau expanded to meet the demand for advanced ammunition from the Beiyang Fleet and its naval base forts, and with the help of German advisors, a factory producing brown prismatic powder was established that year. The machine was responsible for guiding the installation by this British chief engineer. This British engineer worked very rigorously and had strong abilities, and was one of the foreign technicians who Li Hongzhang focused on recruiting. The set of machinery introduced from Germany to produce smokeless powder provided by Tang Yankei was also supervised by him for installation.

  Tang Bohu saw Situ Nu walking towards the explosion site and smiled at him very friendly: "Mr. Situ, this time it's really troublesome for you, I didn't expect that smokeless gunpowder would be produced so quickly, just now looking at the rising smoke, it was much smaller than brown gunpowder!"

  Sartono's response was silent, not that the Briton was intentionally being coy, but Tang Bowen could only see his mouth moving, accompanied by Sartono pointing to his ears and waving his hand, he understood that both Sartono and himself had temporarily lost their hearing due to the explosion just now.

  "This is even better! The distance isn't close enough, and the effect was great just now from the explosion smoke. This ear can't hear, it's a result of the massive power of the explosion!" Tang Bowei could only give Sutono an apologetic smile, then helped him up and walked with him towards the explosion point.

  When both reached the explosion point, they could still see very clearly that the trial explosive had left a crater with a diameter of nearly three meters on the originally flat ground. The crater was still emitting wisps of smoke. Tang Bowen and Sertuno exchanged a smile.

  "The power of the new explosive is tremendous! Although I am not an expert in explosives, judging from the effects of this explosion, our smokeless powder is far more powerful than the brown powder we used to produce, and the amount of smoke produced by the explosion is much less!" exclaimed Sutherland in a loud voice, as if he feared that Tang Bowen's ears might not hear him.

  Tang Bowen laughed and said loudly: "Thank you very much, Mr. Sutonu, for your hard work in assembling the machine to put it into production as soon as possible these days!"

  "Your Excellency, the new gunpowder trial explosion has been completed and the results are extremely ideal! After several trial explosions of different levels, it can be clearly seen that the smoke produced by this smokeless gunpowder is much less than the brown gunpowder we are currently using, especially when making rifle bullets with smokeless gunpowder, almost no smoke is produced. The most important point is that after the explosion of this smokeless gunpowder, very little ash is produced. If this gunpowder is used to replace the explosive in the naval ships' cannons, the firing speed of the naval artillery will also be greatly increased!" Tang Bowen excitedly reported to Li Hongzhang.

  "Good! Now, while we still have a relatively rich silver reserve in our hands, let's produce more shells needed by the Navy. The situation in Japan is getting tighter and tighter!" Li Hongzhang said with some worry.

  For two months, from the "Strong Learning Digest", Li Hongzhang's staff felt pressure from Japan, especially when they heard that the Japanese Emperor had reduced the imperial household expenses and required a reduction in salaries to purchase naval warships. The news left Li Hongzhang speechless for half a day at the window. Tang Jiong knew that no matter how hard he tried, China's defeat in the Sino-Japanese War was still huge - this gap was not in terms of strength, but could be seen from the attitude of the top leaders of the two countries.

  However, Tan Yankai still tried to make a last-ditch effort - through the "Strong Learning Digest" to increase reports on everything that happened in Japan to put pressure on the Beiyang government, making them no longer have illusions about Sino-Japanese relations. To achieve this goal, Tan Yankai spared no effort to break the convention of the "Strong Learning Digest", and unusually attached his own comments after translating foreign articles, which deliberately ignored the extravagance of the Empress Dowager and highlighted Japan's war atmosphere.

  "If a war breaks out between China and Japan, who will be the most unfortunate?" Li Hongzhang was probably the person who knew the answer best. Now the imperial court looked at him with increasing disfavor, the Manchu nobles tried every means to find trouble for him, and his political enemies were also plotting against him - Weng Tonghe's control of the Ministry of Revenue had increasingly tightened its grip on the financial spigot of the Beiyang government. Since the 18th year of Guangxu, a new naval charter stipulated that all customs offices in the country would pay 80,000 taels of silver to the Tianjin Machine Bureau each year to support its operation. However, Li Hongzhang had never been able to collect this sum with ease, and this year it was not even available - "The Empress Dowager wants to build a garden, so don't make things difficult for me, Li!" This was Weng Tonghe's explanation!

  This issue of "Qiang Xue Wen Zhai" is almost 80% about Japan's military expansion and war preparations. Li Hongzhang didn't usually read "Qiang Xue Wen Zhai", but after Tang Baowen read it, he was deeply moved and strongly recommended that Li Hongzhang take a look. He didn't expect to get hooked from just one glance - Japan's attitude is very clear to him. The situation in Korea is now extremely precarious. Yuan Shikai, wearing the hat of Governor of Zhejiang, stayed in Korea to control the situation, but from his increasingly pessimistic letters, it can be seen that this so-called "Last General Bao" who rescued King Gojong of Korea with a tough stance during the "Gapsin Coup" now feels that China's authority in Korea has reached a dead end.

  The words of "Qiang Xue Wen Zhai" pierced Li Hongzhang's heart - "Are you waiting for me to lose the war? If I lose, there will be a good reason to excuse me!"

  "I can't retreat anymore!" Li Hongzhang clenched his fist tightly, and he was very clear that there were people in the imperial court who were eager for a battle between China and Japan. If they won, they could teach that "insignificant small country" a lesson and weaken the power of the Huai Army at the same time, making it easier to seize power later on. And if they lost, they could use it as an excuse to remove this founder of the once glorious Huai Army from office - the Beiyang government was getting richer by the day, and how many people were eyeing this position that laid golden eggs?!

  "Now, there are less than 100,000 taels of silver left in the East Bureau's gunpowder factory. These funds would be sufficient for producing smokeless powder, but Tang Zu'an has only ordered four sets of equipment from Germany. Hubei Zhang Nanpi seems to have three sets, which arrived two months ago. Even if Zhang Nanpi is willing to give us the smokeless powder they produce, there will still be a large gap. Moreover, not all of this smokeless powder is used for making naval shells; the new German 93-style rifle is also a good choice, but its bullets also require smokeless powder. Calculating this way, it seems that the production of smokeless powder may fall short..." Tang Bowei said.

  Tang Bao Wen's "East Bureau" refers to the main factory of Tianjin Machinery Bureau in Jiajia Gou Dao, where over a thousand people work. The branch factory located at Hai Guang Temple has around three hundred people. Originally, according to Li Hong Zhang's plan, a series of expansions starting from the 13th year of Guangxu would have made Tianjin Machinery Bureau possess a world-class gunpowder production factory. However, the operating expenses of Tianjin Machinery Bureau conflicted with Empress Dowager Cixi's plan to renovate Yiheyuan, resulting in unstable funding. As a result, the "world-class gunpowder factory" was stillborn and only recently began producing small quantities of brown gunpowder, while mostly producing black gunpowder. The most ironic thing is that Tianjin Machinery Bureau's most important task is to provide giant long-range cannonballs for the naval base and fortifications in Dalian and Lushun. The steel cannonball production equipment has been built, and even the sixteen additional sets of equipment for the matching steel factory have started to be used. However, the planned brown gunpowder production factory remains in its infancy.

  For Li Hongzhang, Tan Yankai's smokeless gunpowder production equipment came at a very timely moment. Although the number of devices was smaller than expected, the factory originally established for producing brown gunpowder was already available and could be directly installed to start production. What Li Hongzhang lacked was gunpowder production equipment, and Tan Yankai's gift was exactly what he needed. This can be considered as Tan Yankai hitting the nail on the head.

  Although these four sets of smokeless gunpowder production equipment still cannot meet the needs of the shell factory, they have alleviated Li Hongzhang's urgent need. The shell factory can now operate, and with the better quality smokeless gunpowder, the shells produced will be more powerful. The only thing that has been bothering Li Hongzhang is that Tan Yankai had mentioned in his letter that Japan has already used smokeless gunpowder in its naval artillery shells, while his Beiyang was far behind Japan!

  Li Hongzhang did not want to send someone to Japan to verify whether the Japanese Navy was using smokeless powder or not, but the Japanese side guarded their navy very strictly. Li Hongzhang gave up on this idea after making a little effort without success. As for Tang Jiyao, he had only heard about this matter in his previous life, but he did not know when Japan specifically adopted smokeless powder cannonballs. In fact, Japan's smokeless powder was not yet mass-produced at that time, and its application to naval cannonballs was still two months away.

  Unlike China, Japan's smokeless powder was developed and manufactured by itself. The performance and production process are absolutely not as mature as German equipment. Now that the Tianjin Machinery Bureau has installed these four sets of smokeless powder production equipment, it is even more advanced than Japan at the starting point. In comparison, Li Hongzhang and Tang Shaoyi were both alarmed for nothing. Japan's efforts in smokeless powder were not known to Tang Shaoyi until more than 20 years later, by which time Li Hongzhang had already passed away...

  "Ji Meng, how much does the production equipment for smokeless gunpowder cost on the German side?" Li Hongzhang asked.

  "I've already inquired about it, and the German merchant's asking price is very high, one set requires 40,000 taels of silver..."

  Li Hongzhang remained silent for a moment before asking: "How much silver did Tan Zu'an spend when he originally ordered from the Germans?"

  "This is not very clear, but according to the German engineer who came with the equipment this time, Tan Zu'an invented the Type 93 rifle and sold it to Mauser, a German arms manufacturer. The smokeless powder and production equipment for the Type 93 rifle were completely purchased using the patent fees he received in Germany, and I think the price will be very favorable. Minister, why don't we find Tan Zu'an again and ask him to help us order two more sets of such equipment from Germany? As long as the price is favorable enough, it's worth giving Tan Zu'an some benefits!"

  Li Hongzhang nodded and said: "Zhang Nanpi had a grudge against me ten years ago, I'm afraid he wouldn't let me off even if the machine was placed there to be damaged... So you first send a telegram to Fuzhou to ask where Tan Zu'an is now. Some time ago, the imperial court issued an edict, and Tan Wenqing was appointed as the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi. Isn't Tan Zu'an known as 'Little Governor'? Maybe he has already set off for Guangzhou to prepare for Tan Wenqing's arrival. After inquiring about his specific whereabouts, you go south personally to see him and see if we can purchase four more sets of equipment from him. If we can fix the price of this device at 30,000 taels, we can give him a benefit of 4,000 taels!"

  "Zhōng Táng..." Tang Bó Wén said with some hesitation: "But where does the funding come from?!"

  "You don't have to worry about this, there are still tens of millions of taels of silver at the Yantai Customs, and it can be used to fill this hole. As for the Empress Dowager's side, isn't the luxurious yacht that Dong Bureau is building almost completed? Speed up the production a bit, take it out to please the old Buddha first, and then temporarily cover up the hole on the Yantai side. The cannonballs are the most important thing now!" Li Hongzhang said.

  The main factory of Jiangnan Shipyard was built with great care by Li Hongzhang, but because he had been transferred to the post of Governor of Zhili, although he could still command the arsenals in Nanjing and Shanghai, they were still nominally under the control of the Southern Minister. The Southern and Northern Ministers originally stood on an equal footing, but due to the Sino-French War, the Southern Navy was all but destroyed, taking with it the prestige of the Southern Minister. Now, just as the Northern Minister was concurrently serving as Governor of Zhili, the Southern Minister was also concurrently held by Liu Kunyi, the Governor of Jiangsu and Jiangxi provinces.

  When Tang Bowen heard Li Hongzhang mention the luxury cruise ship, he felt a surge of bitterness in his mouth. Two years ago, Dong Bureau started planning to build ships, but the initial motivation for this plan was because Cixi's Yiheyuan needed it. Now, a total of three small steamships and two tugboats have been built. This luxury cruise ship will be completed and delivered to Yiheyuan in another month or two. Not only that, but also a scenic pier will be built in Yiheyuan, electric lights will be installed in the gardens on the west side of Yiheyuan, railways will be laid, and fire trucks will be purchased... The Navy Department has spent tens of millions of silver dollars on this alone!

  "Tan Wenqing is currently in the favor of the old Buddha, this person is not like me, nor is he like Zhang Nanpi, purely a crystal ball, with extensive connections in the court, and good relations with all parties. When he was the governor-general of Shaanxi and Gansu, his eyes were blind, but the old Buddha personally sent a imperial physician to treat him, after curing his eye disease, he didn't even consider Tan Wenqing's resignation letter and still wanted him to be the Minister of War, later appointed as the governor-general of Fujian and Zhejiang. Although this official rank was demoted by half a level, everyone with discerning eyes knew that the old Buddha would promote him again! This time you go south, it's best to see Tan Wenqing, we still have many industries in Guangdong and Guangxi, after all, need to build good relations, but I think seeing Tan Wenqing is no different from seeing his son, you young people can talk more easily...I heard that this 'little governor-general' has recently passed the imperial examination, get closer to him!" Li Hongzhang said with a profound meaning.