The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Epilogue Chapter 1035 - Dream of Heaven VI
As the plane began its descent, Luo Dingguo saw the golden dragon spanning the strait through the window. The Golden Gate Bridge gleamed in the afternoon sun, its two gilded towers standing like pillars at the entrance to the bay, the traffic on the bridge surface transforming into a flowing galaxy in the golden light.

“It was plated with 300 kilograms of gold.” Natalie tapped her fingertips lightly on the windowpane, her blue eyes reflecting the golden light outside. “Before the silver standard ended, the Empire’s silver production accounted for 80% of the world’s total. It was truly an era of immense wealth. To demonstrate their riches, the Imperial family plated the surface of the Golden Gate Bridge with gold—and now it’s repainted with gold leaf every year.”

Luo Dingguo couldn't help but think of the rusty red Golden Gate Bridge in another time and space. There, the US government had to be "meticulous" even with maintenance costs, while the bridge before him was practically like that.
"Like a nouveau riche's solid gold toilet?" Hong Tianjue suddenly laughed, seemingly seeing through his thoughts. The marquis gave a wry smile, "Actually, even the current Imperial Parliament thinks it's too extravagant, but the 'Golden Bridge' is already a symbol of the American Empire, just like the Victory Statue of the United States, and the price is spending 70 kilograms of gold every year to repair this 'Golden Bridge'."

"70 kilograms a year?" Luo Dingguo laughed. "That sounds alright. How much does it cost to maintain the Golden Gate Bridge each year?"

Hong Tianjue said, "It seems to be over 1500 million American silver dollars."

The "silver dollars" that Lord Hong mentioned were actually paper money, and the central bank didn't exchange them for silver at all. One tael of silver was roughly equivalent to 50-60 silver dollars in the Shanghai and San Francisco financial markets (American silver dollars and Pacific silver dollars were almost equivalent in value), while one tael of gold was equivalent to 600 silver dollars. Over 1500 million American silver dollars were equivalent to 2.5 taels of gold. Converted to US dollars in another time and space...
Luo Yaoguo pondered for a moment and realized that he couldn't figure it out in a short time, but it certainly wouldn't be cheap.

It seems that the American Empire is still very wealthy!
As the plane turned to land, Luo Dingguo noticed the array of solar panels covering the eastern hillside of the bay area. The dark blue crystalline silicon matrices, like armor draped over the mountains, refracted a metallic sheen in the sunlight.

"Isn't it spectacular?" Hong Tianjue explained, following his gaze. "The twin pillars of the Empire's power system—the Canadian uranium mines support four trillion kilowatt-hours of nuclear power; these solar panels contribute another trillion kilowatt-hours annually. Add to that some gas-fired power generation and hydroelectric power, and it's roughly six trillion kilowatt-hours a year!"

Natalie casually rattled off a set of data: "It's equivalent to one-fifth of the electricity generated by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, but the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's population exceeded 15 billion, which is seven and a half times that of the United States. So, per capita, the United States generates more electricity than the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom!"

"More than that!" Luo Dingguo thought to himself: "It seems that the United States of America at another time generates less electricity than this American Empire! I wonder how much electricity that 'United States of America' in the East generates in a year?"
"With so much electricity, can the empire possibly use it all?" Luo Dingguo asked casually.

“Of course! First and foremost, it’s electrolytic aluminum.” Hong Tianjue pointed to a glittering factory area in the distance. “Look at those buildings that look like giant combs? Each ‘comb tooth’ is an electrolytic cell, consuming two-thirds of the power generated by the Colorado Hydroelectric Power Station every day.”

Luo Dingguo recalled the Alcoa company in another time and space.
Hong Tianjue continued, "However, compared to the power consumption of supercomputers, electrolytic aluminum is nothing. The supercomputing center in Tianwang City consumes far more electricity in a year than the entire empire's electrolytic aluminum and electrolytic copper industries combined!"

Luo Dingguo nodded. He knew that the AI ​​development in this "heavenly world" was very rapid, and the power consumption of the supercomputing center must be astronomical.

"But that's nothing," Hong Tianjue laughed. "In the United States, where uranium mines are piled up like mountains, energy has never been a problem. Besides, we now have the latest solar power technology, and the solar energy conversion rate is already close to 30%!"

America still has a solid foundation! Luo Dingguo thought to himself: Even though it's broken in two, it still has such amazing potential! If it were unified, something seems off. A unified America doesn't seem to have that much electricity! And the proportion of nuclear and solar power generation isn't that high either.

The American Empire is only half a country, and its industrial strength is not even as good as that of the United States!

What's going on? Is the path of splitting America wrong?
The porthole reflected the neatly arranged stealth fighter jets at the end of the runway, their silver-gray paint gleaming coldly in the setting sun. Luo Dingguo's gaze swept over the familiar twin engines, canted vertical stabilizers, and DSI air intakes, and his heart skipped a beat—this was clearly the "heavenly world" version of the J-35!
Memories flood back: This fighter jet, designated J-140, was finalized in the 140th year of the Tianli reign and was a masterpiece of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's aviation industry. It adopted a conventional layout, but its exquisite craftsmanship was evident in every detail.

Its performance parameters automatically came to mind: maximum speed: Mach 2.2; combat radius: 1500 km; stealth performance: frontal RCS 0.001 square meters;
Ordnance load: 8 tons.
In comparison, while the German Typhoon MK6 boasts excellent maneuverability, its stealth performance is only 0.005 square meters in RCS, which is still somewhat lacking. Although the United States' F-23 is said to have an RCS of 0.001 square meters, it was developed 23 years later than the J-140.
As for the British Empire's "Tempest" and the Russian-French "Su-47" (French name: Zvezda-47), although they are also considered "stealth aircraft," their frontal stealth performance is less than 0.05 square meters. As for other performance characteristics, they are also much worse than the "Typhoon MK6" and the F-23.
罗定国不禁想起另一个时空的苏-57、“阵风”和“台风”战斗机，“暴风”和“苏-47”（红星-47）至少比它们强出不止一个档次！而且“暴风”和“苏-47”（红星-47）可都是正儿八经的量产机，都有一年上百的产量（英、法、俄都有这个数）——仿佛这个“天国世界”里的大英、大俄、红法比起另一个时空的“日不过”、“菜俄”和法兰西也强出不止一个段位啊！

As for that "Federal fat otaku," where would he find a fifth-generation fighter jet?

As the car pulled away from the airport, Luo Dingguo noticed the city's astonishingly wide roads—the twelve-lane main thoroughfare was paved with matte black asphalt, and the median strips between the lanes were lined with neatly arranged cherry blossom trees. "This is Empire Boulevard, leading straight to downtown San Francisco," Hong Tianjue said, leaning back in his leather seat and tapping his fingers lightly on the car window. "There are sixteen such main roads throughout the city. The Empire's infrastructure is no less impressive than Heaven's!"

Luo Dingguo looked out the window and saw new energy vehicles gliding silently through the traffic, with a few old-fashioned gasoline cars occasionally passing by—most of them were antique luxury cars like the Tesla they were riding in, their chrome trim gleaming in the sunlight.

“Those are ‘nostalgia cars,’” Natalie laughed. “Only nobles and wealthy businessmen can afford them; they don’t burn gasoline, they burn money.”

As the car drove over an overpass, Luo Dingguo looked up and saw a silver-white high-speed train rushing past overhead, so fast that it almost left a blur on his retina.

“The Pacific High-Speed ​​Railway, with a speed of 500 kilometers per hour,” Hong Tianjue explained, following his gaze. “It only takes six hours to get from San Francisco to New Edo, faster than an airplane.”

Luo Dingguo recalled the high-speed rail plan in another timeline—the "California High-Speed ​​Rail," forever confined to a PowerPoint presentation, which claimed to connect Los Angeles and San Francisco, but after countless years, not even a hundred kilometers had been completed. Meanwhile, here, the high-speed rail network of the American Empire already covered the entire West Coast and even extended into Central America.

Meanwhile, Luo Dingguo of the United States of America, on the other side, thought about it carefully and realized that he also had a high-speed rail network that was no less than that of the empire!

That's true. If we have an empire, how can we not have a United States? How could the Führer possibly agree to that?

As the car entered the city, Luo Dingguo noticed that the architecture was both modern and orderly—most of the buildings on both sides of the street were seven or eight-story "low-rise" buildings, with uniform light gray stone and glass curtain walls, and balconies and terraces filled with greenery. There was a subway station every few blocks, and the station entrances were bustling with people, but orderly.

“Because the entire state of California is located on an earthquake zone, California’s urban planning laws stipulate that the floor area ratio of residential areas in California cannot exceed 3.0 and the green space ratio cannot be less than 30%,” Hong Tianjue, a “landlord”, explained. “So you don’t see skyscraper clusters like those in Tianjing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, but every community has parks and commercial centers.”

Luo Dingguo looked towards a shopping center by the roadside. Under the glass dome were a dazzling array of shops, and dozens of shared electric scooters were parked at the entrance. Several students in school uniforms—including Asians, whites, blacks, and even two reds—were smiling as they came out of a convenience store, holding ice cream in their hands.

Luo Dingguo also noticed two policemen standing on the street corner. They were not armed, and only had a baton and a small stun gun hanging from their waists. They were chatting leisurely with a hot dog vendor.

"Is San Francisco very safe?" Luo Dingguo asked.

Hong Tianjue proudly said, "Of course, San Francisco is much safer than New York. New York's crime rate is twice as high as San Francisco's! New York City has at least 50 murders every year, with a murder rate of 2.5 per million people. New York police officers are even required to carry guns when they go out on the streets!"

Natalie nodded in agreement, saying, "That was really dangerous!"

Luo Dingguo, however, seemed somewhat stunned—did these two have some peculiar understanding of "danger"? Furthermore, what did it mean that New York police officers were even required to carry guns on the streets? Had the leaders of the United States made American security a little too good?
While Luo Dingguo was in a daze, Hong Tianjue suddenly changed the subject and asked, "Dingguo, I heard that you have done a lot of research on the 'descent' of King Luo Wuwu? Do you also believe that there is a world parallel to ours?"

(End of this chapter)