The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 570: The Secretive Teng Yuzao
When Ye Zugui and Sa Zhenbing heard Li Yulin say that he wanted to build advanced submarines by himself, they were stunned. Sa Zhenbing asked.

"General Manager Li, will the submarines we build be different from those of the great powers that we purchased this time?"

"Or, has the Marshal found the blueprints of Chen Daoyuan's submarine construction?"

Seeing that Li Yulin seemed a little hesitant, Teng Yuzhao quickly took over the conversation.

"I'll tell you."

Teng Yuzao smiled and said, "You guessed it right. Although I didn't find the submarine blueprints of Chen Daoyuan, I was very lucky to have seen the blueprints drawn by Chen Daoyuan more than ten years ago. I was quite surprised at that time! I remember it very clearly."

"I have drawn up the details of my drawings that I remember and handed them over to General Manager Li."

"I have also done some research on submarines, especially their appearance and shape. This time, I also added some of my ideas into it."

"Of course, since it has been so long, some parts are a little vague and need to be verified. This is why we want to purchase the blueprints of submarines from the great powers."

"In addition to purchasing the blueprints of submarines from the great powers, General Manager Li has already purchased the blueprints of the latest submarine from Simon Lake, an American submarine company based in Sweden, for 80,000 taels of silver. This is a double-hulled submarine, and they are now organizing personnel to prepare for trial production."

After hearing Teng Yuzhao's explanation, Li Yulin couldn't help but secretly breathe a sigh of relief.

Li Yulin was not a good liar, and it was really difficult for him to make up a lie to explain it to Ye Zugui and Sa Zhenbing.

Although Teng Yuzao said so to him, Li Yulin did not believe what Teng Yuzao said. He firmly believed that this was the submarine sketch that Teng Yuzao had developed himself, and it was definitely not some submarine drawing of Chen Daoyuan, just like the sketch of the mortar that Teng Yuzao had taken out at the beginning.

As for Simon Lake's submarine company in Sweden, if Teng Yuzao hadn't told him, he would have been even less likely to know that there was a private foreign company that could build submarines.

But he really couldn't understand why Teng Yuzhao refused to admit that he designed this submarine.

Li Yulin did not believe what Teng Yuzao said, because according to the sketches Teng Yuzao provided, the Ordnance Department had already designed what Teng Yuzao called light machine guns and submachine guns.

Although these two new types of firearms, which are not even available in the great powers, look somewhat strange, they are not only lightweight and can be carried by one person while charging, but also have very fierce firepower when fired and are currently being continuously improved.

He admired Teng Yuzao's talent, but he was reluctant to praise Teng Yuzao's practice of attributing his invention to others.

After Teng Yuzao finished explaining, he smiled at Li Yulin and said.

"Qionglin, it's up to you to speak next."

Li Yulin nodded and continued, "Once these submarine blueprints arrive, we will combine the advantages of submarines from the great powers and develop the most advanced submarine based on the blueprints from Governor Chen."

"According to the Marshal's instructions, the submarine we are trying to build must be kept secret, so we have to try it out in our own dock at the Ordnance Department."

"Because the waterway in Dongjuzi is too shallow and the dock is a bit small, the trial production can only be carried out at Dagu Shipyard."

"However, it is not just the German engineers and technicians who are in Dagu Shipyard. The ordinary employees of the shipyard also do not know that the three occupied docks, Dingwu, Wuwu and Yiwu, have not only been fenced, but also guarded by the troops of the Imperial Guard Association."

"Also, we are developing a new type of torpedo. If it is successfully manufactured, it will be the most advanced in the world."

In order to avoid trouble, Li Yulin only said that he was trial-producing a new type of torpedo and did not mention any drawings.

In fact, this is also the design idea proposed by Teng Yuzao.

According to Teng Yuzhao's idea, this torpedo is not only fast, but if the distance is right, it can also chase enemy ships to a certain extent.

Although this seemed a little unbelievable to Li Yulin, several technical personnel from the Dongjuzi were amazed at Teng Yuzao's design ideas and agreed that it was absolutely feasible.

After Li Yulin finished speaking, Teng Yuzao spoke again.

"In my estimation, the underwater displacement of this submarine should be between 500 and 800 tons, the maximum diving depth should be around 50 meters, the underwater speed should be over 6 knots, and the surface speed should be over 10 knots."

"It is electrically powered, powered by a diesel generator, and is fitted with four torpedo tubes."

"Ultimately, we should have about a hundred submarines."

Teng Yuzhao’s words made Ye Zugui and Sa Zhenbing even more surprised. Five hundred to eight hundred tons, this was almost as much as a small warship, and there were about a hundred of them!

Just when the two were surprised, Teng Yuzao suddenly said.

"Tonghou, Dingming, the development of new submarines and torpedoes, including our imitation and construction of warships, requires someone who understands technology to take the lead and assist General Manager Li in his work."

"So, I want to borrow someone from you, is that okay?"

"Ok, Ok!"

Ye Zugui and Sa Zhenbing agreed one after another, and Ye Zugui even said.

"If the Marshal doesn't mind, I can go and assist General Manager Li."

Ye Zugui's words caused many people to laugh, and Teng Yuzao also laughed.

"I don't dare to trouble you, the Minister of the Navy. I will borrow the Fleet Chief of Staff Song Wenhui."

Song Wenhui, the current Chief of Staff of the Beiyang Fleet, was a Chinese student studying in the United States and once studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was asked to return to China one year before graduation.

In China, he not only studied at the Mawei Naval Academy, but also served as a gunboat captain and deputy chief of the navy. It was really appropriate to have a person like him who had both knowledge and naval experience to lead the research and trial production of two new naval weapons, submarines and torpedoes.

This is much better than Li Yulin, who is only familiar with army weapons and combat methods.

"Song Wenhui."

Teng Yuzao said as he looked at Song Wenhui, who was sitting in the crowd of Chinese students studying in the United States, wearing a gray suit and a red tie. Song Wenhui did not wear a navy uniform today because he had been helping Li Yulin find suitable personnel among these Chinese students studying in the United States in recent days.

Now, all these former Chinese students who studied engineering in American universities have been selected, and most of them have gone to factories involved in Westernization. Some have entered factories jointly run by government and businessmen, and some have entered factories under the Aurora Industrial Development Company which offer higher salaries. The rest have either entered the Beiyang Railway Corporation or the General Administration of Ordnance headed by Li Yulin.

In order to compete for these personnel, Yang Shiqi, Zhou Xuexi and Li Yulin refused to give in to each other, and Teng Yuzhao had to step in to resolve the issue several times.

When Teng Yuzhao called his name, Song Wenhui quickly stood up.

Teng Yuzhao had already discussed this matter with Song Wenhui in person, so he did not need to ask for his opinion at this time.

Seeing Song Wenhui stand up, Teng Yuzao said with a smile, "All research and trial production work must be kept strictly confidential. You and General Manager Li are only responsible to me and you must keep it secret from anyone else. This is absolutely confidential, do you understand?"

"understand!"

Although he was not wearing a military uniform, Song Wenhui still stood up and answered loudly.

Teng Yuzao said this not only to everyone, but most importantly to Ye Zugui and Sa Zhenbing. Teng Yuzao had high hopes for these two new weapons. The technology had to be kept absolutely confidential, and he would only use them when necessary in exchange for greater benefits.

Moreover, this was only after defeating the Japanese Navy.

"Also, we must speed up the research and trial production. I very much hope that in the first half of the 29th year of the Guangxu reign, we will see these two devices being equipped to our Beiyang Navy."

The next to report the situation were brothers Lin Lianhui and Lin Liansheng.

Lin Lianhui is no longer the director of the military hospital. The positions of director and deputy director are now held by Lin Lutang and Mai Zuozhi.

In addition, the Tianjin Medical University was established, with Qu Yongqiu, the second graduate of the Beiyang Medical School, as its first president. The school not only had Western medicine disciplines, but also Chinese medicine disciplines.

In Tianjin New City, the Tianjin Hospital was also established, which also has both traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine departments.

This hospital is open to the general public. As it is difficult to change the Chinese people's mindset in a short period of time, the outpatient department and wards in the hospital are divided into two four-story buildings. The dean is Xu Qinghua, also a graduate of the second graduating class.

In addition, a "Medical Research Institute" and a pharmaceutical factory were established, and the director of the institute and the director of the pharmaceutical factory were both Mai Jianxin, who was also a graduate of the second class.

Due to the extreme shortage of medical personnel, all of the above-mentioned medical institutions are now under the management of Lin Lianhui, the Director of the Medical Services Department.

Many of the doctors, professors and researchers in schools, hospitals and the Institute of Medicine were hired from Western countries.

When Lin Lianhui reported the situation, unlike others, he complained bitterly, which made Teng Yuzhao smile bitterly, because the purpose of holding this joint military-political meeting was to cheer up all military and political personnel, that is, to encourage these people to work harder.

What Lin Lianhui said was mainly about the extreme shortage of medical personnel, whether in Western medicine or traditional Chinese medicine.

Needless to say, as for Western medicine, most of the personnel have to be hired from Europe and the United States, but hospitals, schools, and research institutes are in urgent need of these people, so it is naturally difficult to meet the demand.

Due to the lack of drugs, Western medicine is unable to treat many diseases that can be cured by traditional Chinese medicine. However, when it comes to treating trauma, especially surgical operations, traditional Chinese medicine still has many shortcomings.

Traditional Chinese medicine is also short of personnel. According to Lin Lianhui, it is difficult to hire famous doctors even with high salaries, which inevitably has an impact on the teaching of traditional Chinese medicine.

In hospitals, both military hospitals and the open Tianjin Hospital have the same problem. Most patients see traditional Chinese medicine, but almost no patients see Western medicine outpatients. Especially few are willing to be hospitalized for treatment. The number of patients in the wards is so low that it is hard to describe them as deserted.

The only good news is that the "Medical Research Institute" has produced several Chinese patent medicines according to the method mentioned by Teng Yuzhao and several prescriptions given by Teng Yuzhao, using the extraction technology commonly used in Western medicine, and they are selling very well in the market.

In fact, based on the recommendations of European and American doctors hired to Tianjin, European and American powers are now placing orders with pharmaceutical factories, especially hemostatic kits and hemostatic bandages, which are in hot demand.

This was done according to Teng Yuzhao's idea. The hemostatic drugs were not sold separately, but made into hemostatic bags and hemostatic bandages for sale. This not only sold the drugs, but also sold a large amount of gauze.

The Chinese patent medicines that Teng Yuzao gave to Lin Lianhui included four types of Chinese patent medicines for treating colds: quick-acting cold granules, heat-clearing and detoxifying tablets, epidemic prevention granules, and stomachache granules.

The quick-acting cold granules are actually the granules in the quick-acting cold capsules of later generations.
Qingrejiedu Tablets are the Yinqiaojiedu Tablets of later generations;

The epidemic prevention granules are the Lianhua Qingwen oral liquid of later generations. It is made into granules because the process and cost of making oral liquid are more complicated and higher. The only disadvantage is that it tastes bitter.
Stomachache granules are the stomachache granules caused by qi stagnation in later generations.

Although Teng Yuzhao was not clear about the ingredients of these common Chinese patent medicines in later generations, he knew which Chinese herbal medicines were in these medicines. Fortunately, there were many Chinese medicine practitioners in the research institute, and their repeated deductions and research basically solved the problem.

It is not difficult to make Chinese patent medicine using Western medicine extraction technology.

Since the prescriptions of these Chinese patent medicines have long been proven, there are absolutely no problems with their efficacy and safety. Moreover, there are no restrictions on clinical trials of drugs at this time, so they can be promoted almost immediately after they are produced.

These Chinese patent medicines have been widely publicized by the Ta Kung Pao, which had moved its headquarters from Tianjin, and actively promoted in major cities by Huang Chujiu's Aurora Minsheng Company, and have begun to be accepted by the domestic public.

These Chinese patent medicines have even begun to be accepted by the domestic public, and even more so by the European and American powers that are short of medicines, so that the demand is growing, and most of them are exported again.

Since these Chinese patent medicines were a huge success and sold well, bringing huge profits to the pharmaceutical companies, at the instruction of Teng Yuzhao, Lin Lianhui also applied for patents in Europe and the United States in the name of the Medical Research Institute.

In order to ensure the supply of these increasingly popular Chinese patent medicines, Lin Lianhui not only sent personnel to various provinces to purchase herbs, but is also working on establishing a Chinese medicine garden of hundreds of acres.

After Lin Lianhui reported the situation, Teng Yuzao just gave a few words of encouragement and then turned to Lin Liansheng.

The situation reported by Director Lin Liansheng of Tongxu Bureau immediately cleared the haze in Teng Yuzao's heart.

Because Lin Liansheng said in the notice that the Communications Research Institute under the Communications Administration was making extremely smooth progress in developing a radio transmitter based on the patent license for radio transmitters exchanged from the British Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company.

Marconi, the Italian radio engineer and founder of practical wireless telegraph communications, had already established his own wireless telegraph company in London.

The related devices for wireless transmission and reception have gradually matured, such as detectors, which enabled radio waves to cross the Atlantic Ocean between Port Hugh in Cornwall and St. John's in Newfoundland for the first time, a distance of 3381 km, and wireless telegraphy has become practical.

This time, Teng Yuzao applied for the magnetic detector before Marconi did, and exchanged patents with Marconi's company. Now Lin Liansheng's research institute can use all of Marconi's patents, and Marconi can also use the patent of the magnetic detector free of charge.
(End of this chapter)