Chapter 61: Low-key Actions

  Chen An was stimulated by another piece of news from a thousand miles away.

  In the autumn of the first year of Xuantong, Wang Chi, a prominent figure in Yunnan's business circle known as the "King of Money", secretly allowed his son Wang Xiao to collaborate with 19 other businessmen to develop and construct the Shilongba Hydroelectric Power Station. Li Jingxi, the Governor-General of Yunnan and Guizhou, happily announced to the outside world that China's first hydroelectric power station had officially started construction, and also approved, "From now on, no foreigners are allowed to set up electricity in Yunnan for 25 years."

  "With an investment of only 3.5 million yuan, even if the expansion is fully completed, it will be less than 3000 kilowatts of installed capacity, and it won't officially generate electricity until two and a half years later. How dare they claim to be China's first?" Chen An looked at the message in his hand with great dissatisfaction.

  In Chen An's hands, there were only steam turbine generators with a total capacity of nearly 2,000 kilowatts. Moreover, there were four sets of hydroelectric generators with a capacity of 24,000 kilowatts. However, the North Industrial Company was too low-key and didn't want to attract attention from the public, not even when the railway opened.

  With a satisfied Chen An, he immediately sent a telegram to Nissenberg, asking him to purchase two more large-capacity generator sets and prepare to divert water from the Bailong River for power generation. According to the evaluation of several foreign experts, the hydropower reserves of the Baishui River and Bailong River are at least 20 million kilowatts, but now not even one-tenth of that is being utilized.

  "Nissenbaum replied, 'Do you still want to purchase the additional locomotives? The original order of three 15-ton flatcars is out of stock, but we do have 40-ton flatcars available. Do you need to modify your order?'"

  Motorcycles are naturally wanted.

  The original line from Chenjiazhuang to Biku was not a freight terminal, so Chen An thought there wouldn't be much traffic and only purchased one locomotive. As a result, the people of Jiezhou flocked to ride on this "big iron cow" that made a loud noise, even if it meant waiting in line for a long time to buy tickets.

  The old freight road from Biku to Jiezhou is directly north along the Bailong River and does not need to detour northwest via Chenjiazhuang. Later, it will be impossible, when the Chenjiazhuang-Jiezhou line is opened to traffic, you can't avoid taking a detour even if you want to.

  A two-hundred- wen ticket is not a luxury for the people of Jiezhou nowadays. However, the iron cow that runs faster than a horse is unheard of. From Chenjiazhuang to Biku, which is less than 200 li away, merchant teams need four days, horse teams need two days, while trains only take four hours, it's really too convenient.

  This was of course in line with Zhan Tianyou's decision to use heavy rail, and the standard gauge was a heavy rail, so the locomotive easily reached a speed of fifty miles per hour, while Zhan Tianyou estimated that it could run at least eighty miles per hour, because the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway using light rail could reach an average speed of thirty or forty miles per hour.

  Of course this was bought with a huge amount of money.

  The final settlement of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway was 12,000 taels per mile, with a total expenditure of approximately 50 million taels of silver, saving about one-fifth of the budget. In contrast, the Lanzhou-Nanchang Railway from Chenjiazhuang to Biku reached 17,000 taels per mile, without any savings on the budget.

  Even so, due to the comprehensive construction that increased a large amount of expenses, Zhan Tianyou and Xu Shirong both estimated that for the next 800-li line from Chenjiaying to Yangguan, at least an additional 5,000 taels would be needed per li.

  Chen An, who had just easily earned over 2 million yuan, didn't even bat an eye and no longer considered these additional costs to be a big deal. Anyway, he could just make another large transaction and it would be covered.

  Faced with the constant stream of tourists, they can only be called tourists. They buy tickets to Bikuai or Chenjiazhuang and then immediately buy tickets again to return, purely for the sake of experiencing the train. Chen An immediately ordered the purchase of three locomotives in advance.

  He was a bit greedy, Chen An calculated stupidly that if he maintained this momentum of tourists pouring in, without cargo transport, just passenger transport alone could recover two-tenths of the investment in one year. He didn't consider that the vast majority of people were just taking a ride for fun.

  However, after the opening of the Jiexiu line, the number of passengers will increase, especially for freight from Biku to Jiexiu, which will be fully utilized by rail. Lin Yue'er's financial department did not raise any objections.

  The flat furnace equipment is also gone, and a larger flat furnace device can be used. Why must a small one be used?

  Upon receiving Chen An's telegram, Nissenbaum immediately sent a confirming telegram to the United States.

  It wasn't until six years later that the Shanghai Xinghe Machinery Factory sent out orders to foreign countries, purchasing and introducing two 40-ton open-hearth furnaces for the first time, adopting updated steel-making technology, achieving an annual output of 30,000 tons of steel.

  Chen An's Northern Industrial Company, as early as the second year of Xuantong, relied on two sets of 15-ton open-hearth furnaces and two sets of 40-ton open-hearth furnaces to quietly reach an annual steel production scale of over 26,000 tons.

  At this time, Chen An finally got more information, mainly about the two major events of the revolutionary party people before and after the Lantern Festival.

  Member of the Restoration Society, Xiong Chengji, the organizer of the Anqing New Army Uprising, was captured in Northeast China because his accomplice Zang Guansan betrayed him for a reward. At that time, Xiong Chengji was planning to assassinate Admiral Zaiyuan and Navy Commander Sa Zhenbing. Before his execution, Xiong Chengji said, "My life is over now. I die, wishing China's prosperity to progress day by day, so that I can close my eyes in peace."

  Chen An clenched his fist and sighed, another good man from the Guangfu Society was separated from the world. With a surge of anger in his heart that could not be vented, Chen An simply sent a secret telegram to Zhang Fucheng in Northeast China, asking him to find a way to get rid of Zang Guansan.

  Before long, Zhang Fucheng sent a telegram to Chen An, telling him that he had heard an interesting story in the Northeast. Someone got drunk and fell into a cesspit and drowned. He also said ambiguously, "Big brother knows about Xu's affair, whether little brother is tied to him by a bond of gold and jade?"

  Chen An burst out laughing, and the traitor ultimately had no good ending. As for the words afterwards, it was natural to ask Chen An if he was also a member of the Guangfu Society. Chen An, who didn't want to get involved, quickly sent a telegram, "Thanks, but not me."

  Just after sending the telegram, Chen An suddenly thought that Zhang Yuting had been promoted to the commander of the front road of Fengtian Patrol Camp due to his meritorious service in suppressing bandits and was deeply trusted by Xu Shichang, the governor of the three eastern provinces. He was in charge of seven battalions of cavalry and infantry. It is not known whether his troops need a large amount of ammunition and weapons. Instead of buying them at a high price from others, it would be better to purchase them at a low price from me. Chen An turned around and sent another secret telegram.

  At the same time, he received two telegrams. Zhang Fucheng was also stunned for a while. What is this kid Chen An doing? Can't he finish one telegram at a time?

  But when he saw the contents of the second telegram, Zhang Fucheng's eyes lit up instantly. At the beginning, when attending Chen An's wedding in Jiezhou, he had seen that the equipment of the northern army was extremely fine, and Zhang Fucheng, who was experienced in military affairs, could see at a glance that all soldiers carried more than 50 rounds of ammunition, because the packs they carried were obviously thick and bulging.

  Several days later, Zhang Fucheng finally sent a reply telegram to inquire about the transaction and the required firearms and ammunition must be in Japanese style. However, the procurement quantity was significantly lower than the military supplies needed by the troops under the jurisdiction of the Front Route Patrol Battalion. At the end of the telegram, Zhang Fucheng briefly explained that the background of the Front Route Patrol Battalion was the Japanese, if they suddenly stopped purchasing, it would inevitably arouse the suspicion of the Japanese boss, so after discussing for several days, they finally decided to leave half of the order to the Japanese.

  Chen An didn't mind, the northeast had fewer procurement points, he could lose some profit, and the price for the northeast was 10% off, this one house, no other branches. Of course, giving away the military equipment for free couldn't be considered a successful transaction.

  Another major event was the failure of the new army uprising organized by the Alliance in Guangzhou.

  The Guangzhou New Army, which was originally scheduled to launch an uprising around the Lantern Festival, was forced to decide on an early uprising due to an unexpected clash between new army soldiers and police. However, in order to prevent the military-police conflict from escalating, the Guangdong authorities secretly arranged for most of the new army's guns and ammunition to be collected, but this unintentional move unexpectedly caused a shortage of artillery for the insurgent new army.

  The members of the Alliance did not even prepare for the premature uprising, and the new army in Guangzhou had already spontaneously started rioting. The leader was also killed on the spot because he believed his fellow countryman. Everything was chaotic. That night, with less than seven bullets per person and a shortage of three thousand guns, the ammunition of the insurgent new army was exhausted, and they finally dispersed and were suppressed by government troops.

  The secret military supplies of the Alliance stored in Shanghai were still being loaded onto ships when news arrived from the south that the New Army uprising had failed, and they could only be unloaded and transported back.

  Looking back at the successive failures of revolutionary parties such as the Guangfu Hui and Tongmenghui, Chen An sighed that they were all due to a lack of military discipline. The participants were free and disorderly, frequently causing trouble, and ultimately failing due to leaks, which was not necessarily a problem with their weapons.

  Nilsen Bohm urgently ordered a set of hydroelectric generators and forty tons of flat furnace equipment, even locomotives, which were soon delivered to Chenjiazhuang. Now the waterway is unobstructed, from Biku to Shanghai, it's only 6,200 miles away, except for the section from Zhaohua to Biku where both up and down streams need to slow down, and can only be navigated during the day, other sections of the river can be passed through day and night, downstream half a month is enough, upstream also takes only twenty-one or two days to arrive.

  The most exciting news is that after the power expansion, the arsenal has been upgraded again. The production workshop, which has entered the sixth level of authority, still prompts energy shortage, but it will increase the daily production to around 5 tons, compressing the predicted production days of Russian artillery shells.

  Chen An wired Nissenbaum at once: "Accept any orders, as many as you can get, all in silver."

  Nissenbaum unhesitatingly accepted the orders of the British, Russians and French, and didn't care whether they were delivered on time or not.

  This time it was a total of 500,000 rifles and 50 million rounds of ammunition. Even if the production rights of the arsenal were doubled, it would still take at least ten months to produce them, but the profit was only 2 million taels of silver, the same as that big cannon business.

  It seems that producing rifles and bullets is the least profitable business, no wonder Britain and France refused to give Nissenberg the artillery orders, while Russia had no choice but to procure artillery orders as well. Chen An saw that with almost double production, he could only get similar profits, and he was muttering in his heart.

  At the same time, Chen An envied another weapon that Russia had brought out, but firmly refused the request for mass production. This weapon was also bought by the Russians, but they did not obtain authorization to produce it. Chen An didn't want to cause trouble. Of course, if he used it himself, there would be no problem.