Chapter 28: Suitcase Upgrade

  "Didn't you say we could generate electricity with water power?" Chen An asked Kovar with red eyes and gritted teeth.

  Koval was frightened and hid aside, repeatedly asking the foreign technician. The four foreigners conferred with each other for a while, and Koval hastily explained the reason to Chen An.

  The equipment was originally brought from the United States by Nissenberg, but it had been unsold for a long time. No one was willing to invest in building a dedicated power plant, after all, they would have to continue investing in the construction of matching transformers and power lines. This time, he happened to run into Chen An, who was eager to buy, so Nissenberg quickly sold it to him and made a handsome profit. As for the other set of hydroelectric equipment that had been promised, Nissenberg wouldn't be able to procure it until he returned to the United States, so he simply swapped it with this one, taking advantage of Chen An's ignorance.

  Chen Anshu reluctantly accepted this set of steam-powered generating equipment that used coal, which wasn't a bad deal after all. Originally intended as backup equipment, it would now have to be used as the main device instead. He was just indignant and felt cheated by the foreigners.

  As for coal, northern Shaanxi is full of coal, and the Wugou Mountain in Lanzhou is a famous coal-producing area in Gansu Province, as long as you have money.

  After muttering to himself for a while, Chen An suddenly asked Koval, "Has no one in China ever bought this kind of steam-powered generating equipment before? In that case, my set of equipment would be the first example in the country?"

  Kowal was taken aback, and hastily turned back to ask the foreign technician again before answering, "If it's a simple waterwheel or hand-cranked generator, we've had those domestically for some time. But as for a steam turbine generator set specifically designed for power output, this should be the first one - I haven't heard of any other place building one."

  Chen An slapped his forehead, it's settled then. Those foreigners have been using electric lights for a long time, didn't I see them at Jinjiu Fortress? And telegraphs also use electricity, don't they? How silly of me! But what does that steam turbine generator set mean?

  Chen An was afraid of being laughed at by the foreign technicians, so he simply didn't ask and just instructed them to find a location in the back mountain to build the power plant.

  Chen An, no longer entangled in this issue, handed it over to Liu Shi and reminded him to purchase coal from various places. He himself went to inspect the terrain with Kowal and prepare for laying electric wires.

  According to the foreign technician's opinion, it would be enough to lay a single power transmission line. However, Chen insisted that a single line was not safe, and eventually came up with a plan for two power transmission lines that formed a ring around the middle of the mountain. A series of tall wooden poles stood on the mountain slope, with a horizontal beam nailed to the top of each pole, forming a triangular structure for reinforcement. The beams supported the power lines, while the bottom part was used for telephone lines.

  As early as the summer of Guangxu 8, the British set up a telephone company in the Shanghai concession, equipped with magnetic telephones, using batteries, and manual cranking was required to make calls, with a charge of 36 cents per call.

  Chen An felt that the most pressing issue during the Russo-Japanese War was communication, and after gaining experience in Shanghai, he naturally included hand-cranked telephones in his procurement plan. Although the communication distance was severely limited, it was sufficient for small areas, especially places like Chenjiazhuang. As for long-distance communication, official permission was still required to connect to the telegraph lines.

  As soon as he became the governor of Jiangzhou, Chen An thought about it and bought a lot of hand-cranked telephones, preparing to use them in several key areas internally, such as the Northern Industrial Company in the future, and the internal barracks of his patrol camps.

  As soon as the telephone line debugging was completed, Liu Shi successfully called from the back mountain to Chen An's house in front of the mountain, and the first sentence he said was, "It's really troublesome, I have to shake it up for so long, with great effort, I can just shout at you on the top of the mountain?"

  Chen An was furious and scolded loudly over the phone.

  Finally, Chen An said to Liu Shi, "Now it's only two or three miles away, you can still hear others shouting, what if it's ten miles around?"

  Liu Shi on the other end of the phone, as well as Hu Zi and Yu Shan beside Chen An, fell into deep thought. Yes, with a communication line, commanding battles within a ten-mile radius is like extending an arm to point.

  Ten days later, in a simple earth house, the foreign technician installed the steam generator set on time for that high salary. Next to the earth house were several rows of wooden houses, which were filled with coal that Liu Shi had searched hard from all over, and even almost emptied the inventory of the county town and Biku. Merchants from Lanzhou are rushing to replenish their stocks here.

  Liu Shi acquired a large amount of grain from Hanzhong, while revealing business opportunities that required a lot of coal to the big merchants in Shaanxi, and also put down a lot of deposits. From now on, not only will there be many ships bringing golden rice, but also a large number of black coal will be transported.

  In the spring of 1905, the American-made steam-powered generator set purchased by Chenjiazhuang at a high price was officially put into operation. The unit had a capacity of 800 kilowatts and low-pressure steam parameters.

  Two years later, in the 33rd year of Guangxu, Shanghai built a new central power station and put into operation an 800-kilowatt steam turbine generator purchased from abroad.

  The time of operation was specially chosen by Chen An after the dark had fallen but before it was completely black.

  The honor of closing the switch was given to Old Man Chen, who beamed with pride.

  In an instant, dozens of lanterns lit up simultaneously on the patrol road surrounding the foot of the nameless small mountain, as well as the two main roads in front of the Chen residence, like a string of bright pearls suddenly embedded in the nameless small mountain, coincidentally just like the stars falling from the sky to the mortal world.

  The whole Chenjiazhuang was instantly boiling.

  Just as everyone was raising their glasses to congratulate each other, Chen An brought Hu Zi quietly to the armory.

  The arsenal was divided into three spaces, one large and two small. The larger space held the military equipment, now empty, but instead had a lot of tungsten iron blocks and walnut wood. The smaller spaces, one was a treasury, and the other was a secret room that only Chen An could enter. Thick iron doors sealed off the outer and inner two small spaces, with many places reinforced with foreign ash purchased from Shanghai.

  The backyard was heavily guarded by the Liu Shi faction, and only Chen An could enter the innermost secret room. Even Old Man Chen couldn't get in because there was only one key.

  The tiger cub sat at the entrance of the secret room, staring intently at the door of the arsenal.

  Inside the secret room, with the help of clever ventilation design, the air is still quite fresh. It's not daytime now, if it were daytime, the ventilation openings would be inlaid with mirrors, enough to reflect a few beams of sunlight into the cave, and even without lighting oil lamps like an arsenal. Chen An almost racked his brains for this design, fortunately, there was the original design draft of Dashiqiao Bridge as the basis.

  Of course, now the kerosene lamps in the arsenal are just placed high up for standby, and the bright electric lights are spreading enough light.

  The room also has wiring installed, one route is for lighting lamps, and the other route is an empty electrical interface.

  Staring at the suitcase in the middle of the secret room for half a day, Chen An still couldn't find the external power device. In a fit of rage, Chen An kicked hard at the various strange and disorderly raw materials placed on one side.

  Chen An directly connected two wires to the suitcase and then retreated to a corner, neatly flipping the power switch.

  A faint sound emerged, and Chen An was suddenly frightened into a cold sweat, wondering if it had burned out.

  After a long time, except for a few words appearing on the screen, there was no movement. Chen An cautiously approached the suitcase.

  He picked up a small wooden stick and didn't dare to touch the suitcase, which was repeatedly emphasized by the foreign technician in the past few days. He said that directly touching the live wire with his hands would kill him. Chen An had not lived long enough, so he listened very obediently.

  Chen An suddenly froze, and after a while, he was overjoyed. The screen displayed a prompt: "External energy source detected. Connect? Yes, No."

  Chen An's hand trembled slightly as he used a small wooden stick to tick the "yes" box.

  With a sudden "crack", Chen An almost dropped the wooden stick, how did these frightening sounds keep emerging? The suitcase suddenly opened a small gap on one side and extended two metal wires.

  Suppressing his excitement, Chen An ran to the corner, quickly pulled down the circuit breaker, and then returned to the suitcase, carefully wrapping the wires with the technique taught by the foreign technician.

  Finally managed to get it done, although I'm still very dissatisfied with my clumsy technique, but at least it's connected now. Chen An let out a long sigh of relief.

  Chen An sat quietly for a moment, clasped his hands together, prayed to the gods in heaven, stood up, and resolutely turned off the power switch.

  Another drop sounded, and Chen An, who had already been prepared, still felt a wave of tension.

  "External energy source connected. Calculations indicate that at least three days are required to complete the upgrade. Proceed with upgrade?"

  Extremely excited Chen An wildly arranged many poses in the secret room before calming down, picking up the wooden stick that had fallen to the ground and nodding "yes".

  The suitcase didn't react at all this time.

  Dazed for half a moment, Chen An threw away the wooden stick, took a deep breath, and pointed his middle finger upwards.

  The suitcase's screen flickered and changed, "Authorization confirmed. Please provide at least 2000 kilograms of steel and at least 200 cubic meters of space to complete the upgrade."

  Chen An quickly withdrew his hand, not getting electrocuted, thank goodness. It seemed the suitcase had a function to prevent electric shock. Chen An remembered the foreign technician's experiment with a yellow dog getting electrocuted, the terrible scene scared everyone away. Of course, there were also people who reacted differently, Tiger's first reaction was to install the electrical wires on the outside of the wall enclosure, so that no one could climb up.

  A beam of red light suddenly scanned the entire arsenal, and then a new line of content appeared on the screen: "Requirements met. Start upgrade? Warning: No personnel allowed to enter or exit during upgrade."

  Chen An was stunned, there were several thousand kilograms of iron blocks piled up outside, and the space also had an area of nearly one-third of an acre, which should be enough. After multiple uses, Chen An already knew that the catty set by the imperial court and the kilogram mentioned in the suitcase were not the same, but ten catties were equivalent to about six kilograms.

  This time it was very quick, Chen An immediately pointed his finger at the "yes" box.

  The suitcase beeped again, and the words "Upgrading" appeared on the screen. Chen An knew that he could no longer intervene at this point, so he stood up and left cleanly.

  As soon as he walked out of the secret room, he saw Hu Zi standing tensely outside the secret room, fully alert.

  "Hu Zi, what's wrong?" Chen An asked strangely while closing the secret room door.

  The young master looked like he had been frightened, the fearless and daring person was trembling as he said, "Young master, didn't you feel it just now? A thread of red light swept across my body, cold and terrifying."

  Red line? Suddenly understood that it was the light emitted by the suitcase, Chen An hurriedly comforted Hu Zi and pulled him out of the armory.

  Out of the arsenal, Chen An gave a strict order that before he entered and exited the arsenal again, even Old Man Chen and Liu Shi were not allowed to enter. The guards responded in unison, but Chen An was still uneasy, so he left Hu Zi at the door to guard it strictly.