America 1881: Legend of the West

Chapter 592 Roswell Science Association Regular Meeting
Rockefeller has been unhappy lately.

Logically speaking, since McKinley came to power and strongly supported the development of monopoly capital, Rockefeller and his Standard Oil Trust were invincible.

The take-off of the United States is based on the rapid development of domestic industry.

Oil is the blood of industry, and Rockefeller controlled oil.

How could his wealth not expand rapidly?
But he was still unhappy.

"These damn newspapers like to make some big news every day, set up some characters, and let the people fall into nihilistic idolatry every day."

At No. 221 New York Avenue, still in the small salon of the Freemasonry, Rockefeller was holding a newspaper in his hand and muttering in a low voice.

The headline of the newspaper published a large photo of Chen Jianqiu and Roosevelt capturing the San Juan Heights.

There are two people Rockefeller hates most right now.

One is Roosevelt and the other is Chen Jianqiu.

The former showed strong political ambitions and aversion to monopoly capitalists.

Not to mention the latter.

Now the two men actually appear in the same photo and are promoted as American war heroes.

"Chen and Roosevelt proved with their heroic performance that they are not just sitting back and talking, but are willing to sacrifice everything for this wonderful country to achieve glory."

Rockefeller read the words in the newspaper, felt irritated for no reason, and threw the newspaper aside.

He turned to Morgan who was staring at him intently with a rather playful look in his eyes:
"Tell me, why did Roosevelt turn a blind eye to his Chinese friend when he clearly had objections to monopoly trusts?"

"Strictly speaking, Chen's company is not a monopoly." Morgan's gaze turned to the ceiling. "Although he is involved in many industries, the only ones that have some degree of monopoly are arms and railways."

"But for those companies in the Gunpowder Association, he doesn't get involved in the management, and he doesn't even hold a shareholding. So if you want to accuse him of monopolizing, it's mostly about raw materials and industry standards."

"As for the railway?"

Morgan did not continue.

Because as we all know, the railways in the western United States belong to Chen Jianqiu, and the railways in the eastern United States belong to Morgan.

In addition, the improvement in railway efficiency brought by industry consolidation after the financial crisis is obvious, so discussions in this regard continue.

"Maybe he saved Roosevelt's life." Morgan thought for a moment and said.

"But do you know what he has been doing recently?" Rockefeller sat up straight and came closer. "He is recruiting soldiers who have withdrawn from the War Department and the army."

"If this continues, he will not just be a monopoly." He said with worry.

Morgan smiled.

"It doesn't seem like it's something you need to worry about. Oh, of course, it's not something I need to worry about either."

What he said next made the oil tycoon even more uncomfortable:
"Chen is a tycoon. He is now full-fledged. Like Roosevelt, he is an American hero. Although his wealth is not as good as yours, it is basically impossible for you to fundamentally shake him."

Rockefeller remained silent.

Morgan crossed his legs, spread his palms, and said sincerely:
"I'll give you a suggestion. Why don't you cooperate with him and get a piece of the pie like me?"

"You have different boundaries. There is no need to have a fight that lasts forever."

Rockefeller snorted.

Of course he understood what Morgan meant by this.

However, he disagreed with Morgan's statement.

He, Chen Jianqiu, is a tycoon, but I, Rockefeller, am an honest person?

Since they are not on good terms, there is no possibility of coexistence.

Rockefeller's philosophy is: I want it, I want it, and I want it too!

The expansion of capital is endless and has nothing to do with the field.

His bet with Morgan is still there.

Although the bet seems a bit trivial now, Rockefeller cared more about whether Chen Jianqiu would die than the bet.

This person's thinking mode seems to be different from that of himself and people like Morgan.

He vaguely felt that if he was allowed to continue like this, he would fall into his hands sooner or later.

Rockefeller thought for a long time before standing up.

After saying a brief farewell to Morgan, he put on his hat and walked out of the salon.

"Chen, you have a weakness."

In the night, the corners of Rockefeller's mouth raised slightly.

"Your weakness is that you are Chinese."

Chen Jianqiu did not know about the discussion in the Masonic Salon.

He had returned to Roswell by this time.

Firstly, it was because he had been busy leading the team to fight in Cuba a while ago and had no time to deal with business matters. Secondly, the inventors of the Roswell Science Committee had come up with some new things, and he needed to personally decide whether they were commercially viable. Value, whether to mass-produce or continue research, or give up and cut off the project.

The Roswell Chamber was packed today.

All members of the Roswell Society of Scientists attended.

Under normal circumstances, the scientists or engineers who can be recruited are somewhat arrogant.

Many people don't have much interest in this kind of administrative meeting unless it is a seminar.

Sometimes I study retreats, or I am too busy to get away from it, so I basically won’t attend.

The chairman of the association, Holmes himself, is a carefree person, and the vice chairman, Browning, is basically perfunctory.

Therefore, the usual regular meetings are basically sparse.

But whenever Boss Chen comes to attend a meeting, the old members will come out of their laboratories or workshops.

Not only that, they also bring a big bag or sack.

When Boss Chen walked into the Roswell Assembly Hall wearing a cloth robe, he was followed by several followers.

Each of them was holding a large box. Chen Jianqiu strode to his seat at the top of the long table and sat down.

This chair has been there for almost ten years, and Chen Jianqiu has been sitting on it for ten years.

Usually when he is away, whether it is a meeting in Roswell Town or a scientific association meeting, the chair will basically be left empty.

A ceramic tea bowl was delivered to Chen Jianqiu, along with an iron ashtray.

A bowl of tea, a cigarette, and a half-day meeting.

In Chen Jianqiu's self-deprecating words, this is one of the manifestations of his entering middle age.

Fortunately, the hair is still there and getting longer and stronger.

Chen Jianqiu picked up the tea bowl and took a sip. After putting it down, he was about to take out his cigar when he suddenly realized that the people sitting at the table were staring at him.

He waved his hand at the followers:
"What are you doing standing there? Open the box."

When the servants heard the boss' order, they quickly opened the box and poured the US dollars inside into bundles onto the table.

These green US dollars soon piled up into a mountain on the table in front of Chen Jianqiu.

The people attending the meeting at the table had different reactions.

The newcomers were stunned and didn't know what to say; while the old people had already started taking sacks from under the table.

"The patent fees and salaries have been deposited into your personal accounts. Here is the bonus. Let the lawyer divide it among you later." Chen Jianqiu said.

He suddenly remembered something and hooked his finger at Aniu beside him.

Aniu bent down and put his head close.

Chen Jianqiu said something in his ear.

Aniu understood what he meant and picked up a small box from under the table.

He opened the box directly, and inside were pieces of glittering gold.

"This is a special award for the 'Mortar' research and development team. What they developed within a limited time performed very well on this battlefield," said Chen Jianqiu.

The members of the R&D team sitting on the right immediately smiled happily.

Even the coolest German gun mechanic couldn't help but glance at the gold.

Money is not everything, but for your employees, nothing is more real than money.

We can talk about ideals, but we can’t just talk about ideals; we can talk about feelings, but they must complement material things.

To do otherwise would be hooliganism.

The meeting after the money was divided was very enjoyable.

Everyone introduced their research results to the people present in an orderly manner.

Browning is improving subsequent models of the bar to address its awkward positioning;

Tesla was researching and improving radio communications. He originally wanted to spend more energy on researching wireless power transmission technology, but was persuaded to stop by Chen Jianqiu.

Chen Jianqiu first affirmed Tesla's idea.

He told Tesla that it was possible, but it would require solving a number of technical problems.

But before that, he hoped that Tesla could first implement the radio telegraph technology.

In return, he would build Tesla a "big toy" in Roswell for him to study wireless power transmission.

Chen Jianqiu did not tell Tesla that things might not be as simple as he imagined.

Many difficulties of this technology were not overcome until a hundred years later, and Tesla might not have been able to solve this problem during his lifetime.

But Chen Jianqiu still wants to express his respect for Tesla.

Don't look down on those idealists. Every path you take is paved by them.

Agriculturists and people from the fertilizer factory are studying whether they can continue to improve the soil around Roswell to see if they can build a larger oasis.

However, judging from the current results, there is still a long way to go.

The rest are lackluster.

In addition, there are two other things that made Chen Jianqiu's eyes light up.

One is that Ford fulfilled his wish and built a car that used an internal combustion engine.

The flaw of this car is that it is still based on the thinking of a horse-drawn carriage. The only difference is that the power comes from an internal combustion engine instead of horses.

Chen Jianqiu briefly put forward some suggestions and agreed to invest in Ford as a major shareholder to establish his own company.

This also applies to other engineers and inventors.

They can choose to start their own business, or they can stay stable and work for Chen Jianqiu to enjoy high patents and bonuses.

Another thing that interested Chen Jianqiu was that a mechanic from Germany had modified the tractor that was operating in the fields in Roswell.

He replaced the tractor's wheels with tracks, allowing it to move more smoothly across the fields and adapt to more terrain.

At the same time, he improved the internal combustion engine used, adopting compression ignition, improving the heat conversion efficiency and bringing its power to over 100 horsepower.

This was considered quite excellent data at the time.

After the meeting, the engineer named Diesel took Chen Jianqiu to visit the prototype.

This prototype was running very fast in the field without any load, after a series of "thump thump" sounds.

Chen Jianqiu stared at the tracked vehicle for a long time and suddenly became a little dazed.

The German engineer standing by felt a little nervous when he saw his boss's expression.

He suddenly felt that his invention did not seem to have much significance in the fields. At most, it could only process a few more acres of land.

"Mr. Chen, do you think the performance of this machine is not outstanding enough?" Diesel asked cautiously.

Chen Jianqiu's eyes were still on the tractor.

"What I mean is, if we surround this tractor with protective iron plates and equip it with machine guns and cannons, can we run rampant on the plains?"

(End of this chapter)