Nanyang Storm 1864

Chapter 145 Learn from the barbarians and learn skills to control the barbarians

Sitting in the study and thinking about many things, Zheng Guohui fell asleep unknowingly, making slight snoring sounds.

Captain Huo Chongshan of the personal guards heard the noise and came in to check, but was dumbfounded when he saw this situation; he didn't know how to take care of people.

The nights in Zamboanga were still quite cold. Huo Chongshan found a military blanket and covered the sleeping Marshal with it, but this action woke up Zheng Guohui.

"Oh...what happened?"

"Reporting to the Marshal, you fell asleep in the study. I was afraid you would catch a cold, so I found a blanket to cover you."

"Oh, then I'll get up and go back to sleep. It's not comfortable sleeping like this."

"Marshal, I will support you."

"No need. I'm not too old to walk. You can finish these remaining snacks and go back to rest."

"Thank you, Marshal, for your reward."

Zheng Guohui didn't say anything else. Accompanied by Huo Chongshan, he returned to the dormitory, took off his boots, lay down on the bed, and soon fell asleep.

He had no maids to serve him, and he was lucky enough if these rough-handed and clumsy soldiers could bring him three meals a day, and he couldn't expect anything else.

The night wind was as gentle as water, and he slept very soundly that night.

Early the next morning
After a simple breakfast, Zheng Guohui took his entourage and personal soldiers to the northeastern suburbs of Zamboanga, where there was a planned industrial land that was under active construction.

got here
You can see tall factory buildings standing all around, extending in rows. Many factories are busy installing steam engines and equipment, creating a bustling scene.

Many blond-haired, blue-eyed white people were guiding the installation in the factory. These were the installation and production services provided by the Wan Guo Tong Bao Trading Company, which included worker training services.

The large number of machinery and equipment ordered by Zheng Guohui have arrived in succession with several waves of fleets. The nearby factory buildings have already been built and are now in the equipment installation and debugging stage.

This industrial zone in Zamboanga is mainly based on light industry, including sugar mills, rice mills, flour mills, oil presses, lumber mills, gunpowder factories, garment factories, textile mills, weaving factories, glassware factories, etc., which can provide employment for tens of thousands of workers.

There are as many as six lumber mills, three in Zamboanga and three in the two counties below.

Zeng Guohui came to the sawmill where the equipment was being installed and debugged. The American engineers had already debugged the steam engine and used the flywheel to drive the belt, making the band saw rotate at high speed.

The steam engine made a loud "thump thump..." noise and spewed out large clouds of black smoke, which made the Chinese workers nearby look frightened and confused.

The white engineer adjusted it for a while, added some charcoal, and increased the fire.

A while
The black smoke from the steam engine gradually thinned out and turned into large clouds of white steam.

This means that the temperature and pressure have increased. Zheng Guohui stood aside and watched the white engineer grease the equipment, then pushed the handle and the band saw started to rotate at high speed.

The entire log is placed on the lathe and pushed through the band saw, and the top layer of wood is quickly sawed off the entire log.

so repeatedly
It took only more than 10 minutes to saw the logs into planks of equal thickness. Such a fast speed surprised the onlookers and they began to whisper to each other.

"Oh my God! What is so powerful?"

"This big lump of iron is quite powerful. Even if dozens of people were to pull the saw, it wouldn't be that powerful."

"How can it spin on its own? Is there a little person inside pushing it hard? This is incredible."

"Don't talk nonsense. What kind of person can get into a big iron lump? This thing is called a steam engine. If you have time, learn more about it to avoid being laughed at by others."

The workers were talking in amazement, Zheng Guohui stood by and smiled without saying a word. Even the Cao brothers, Fan Zhicheng, Kang Ning and others who were following them were extremely shocked.

This steam engine, which is far beyond imagination, has exceeded people's cognition, and it is inevitable that there will be various speculations.

Zheng Xin, who had followed the fleet to America, stood up and explained to everyone;
“Dear fellow countrymen, brothers;

Don't be surprised, this is a machine invented by foreigners, a bit similar to a waterwheel, but there are no little people inside.

This is a machine that uses the principle of steam expansion to drive the disc to rotate.

Look, the coal and water that are filled in to burn are the raw materials. If the coal is not hot enough, you need to add more coal. If the water is not hot enough, you need to add more water.

Otherwise, the machine will stop.

By using this machine to drive the band saw to rotate, wood can be sawed very quickly, which is much faster than manual labor."

The "band saw" is a circular soft steel saw fixed in a belt groove. This thing was also ordered in the United States and is very useful for sawing wood.

Once the steel plant starts production, these products will be no problem.

After a profound and easy-to-understand explanation, the onlookers were amazed, including scholars like the Cao brothers.

Then they sawed the second, third, and fourth pieces of wood. Although the Chinese workers were curious at first, they quickly got the hang of sawing wood and got into the role very naturally.

Zheng Guohui didn't say much. The equipment in this sawmill is very simple, and you will understand it after seeing it many times.

With this sawing equipment, hundreds of logs can be processed a day, producing a large number of wooden boards, wooden squares, and wooden strips needed for urban housing construction, which are supplied to furniture factories to make furniture, doors and windows, tables and chairs, etc., and are the main building materials in the local area.

According to the current situation
The six lumber mills in Zamboanga Province are definitely not enough. 16 would be more appropriate because the amount of wood needed for various purposes is too large, especially for house construction, which mainly uses wood.

However, due to financial constraints, we cannot start importing equipment, so we can only use it for now.

The most important industrial project now is the commissioning of the steel plant.

The steel plant is located in Jinsha County, Davao Province, where there is a high-quality aluminum and iron mine and several coal mines about ten kilometers away. The water transportation conditions are quite good.

In Jinsha County
More than one hundred experienced engineers and veteran workers from the United States are directing thousands of local Chinese workers to install steel plant equipment, which is scheduled to start production in a few months.

The latest reports on the progress of the arrival and installation of relevant equipment are submitted every few days.

Zheng Guohui has not yet visited Jinsha County. He is just one person and cannot be divided into several parts.

At the current stage, we must first sort out important tasks such as the reorganization of the local army in Zamboanga, the installation and commissioning of factory equipment, the construction of fortress projects, and the deployment of personnel in the new county government.

Accompanying Zheng Guohui were the Zamboanga prefect Dong Qingnian, the Cao brothers and a group of scholars, all of whom were administrative officials or county officials who were about to take up important positions.

There were no soldiers like Qian Jiang and Zhou Laonian. They were all in various camps supervising the reorganization and training of the Chu army.

Zamboanga Governor Dong Qingnian was a typical pragmatist. During Zheng Guohui's absence, he arranged the resettlement of immigrants and land reclamation here in an orderly manner, which was highly praised by the Marshal.

From then on, he secured his position as the governor of Zamboanga.

Most of the equipment imported from America used steam engines to drive specially designed machines. Sawmills, sugar mills, oil mills, rice mills, and flour mills were similar.

The sugar and oil mills use rollers, the rice mills use high-speed rice mills, and the flour mills use grinders. The principles are essentially the same. Zheng Xin's insightful and accessible explanation was eye-opening, as if a whole new world had opened up before them.

Fan Zhicheng said with emotion;

"General, colleagues, seeing you today is more beneficial than reading 10 years of books.

I didn't expect that a mere steam engine could be used so well by white people and used in various livelihood projects, with production efficiency far beyond human capabilities.

This kind of development idea is simply unheard of.

As far as I know

Steam engines can also be used on iron ships, pushing the ship forward through paddles, greatly reducing manpower consumption.

With two such rice mills, the rice produced can be clean and quick, enough to supply tens of thousands of people in a city. What a great power!

Western things are not limited to fancy tricks, they can also greatly promote production, create more wealth, and give society a new look.

In this era of change, scholars like us can no longer be frogs in a well, but should open our eyes to the world and learn from foreigners and use their strengths for our own benefit. This is the right path!

"Brother Zhicheng is right. Since following the Marshal to Southeast Asia, what I have seen has been truly astonishing. China is experiencing tremendous changes unseen in thousands of years. We feel a deep sense of responsibility and cannot afford to slack off for even a moment."

"Brothers, this is my sincere advice. We should study hard and ponder carefully, and we must not fall behind the foreigners."

"Great kindness, as he said."

Zheng Guohui couldn't help laughing when he saw this group of scholars hanging around with their book bags. He said with a slight smile on his face:
"Gentlemen, the steam engine was first invented by the English in Europe and then widely applied to all aspects of society. This is known as the Steam Engine Revolution.

The steam engine revolution was epoch-making, especially in its application to industry. You have all witnessed with your own eyes the power of machines, which can increase production capacity by dozens or even hundreds of times.

Now in the West

Some inventors mounted a steam engine on two rails, which could pull cargo weighing hundreds of thousands of pounds. This was a groundbreaking invention that had the potential to change the face of society and had far-reaching significance.

You can imagine

If the cargo is replaced by fully armed soldiers, then this steam engine can transport thousands of soldiers and reach hundreds of miles in just one or two days. How amazing is that?
If used in mines, large amounts of coal and iron ore can be transported without having to be pulled or carried on shoulders, saving tens of thousands of laborers.

And all this requires is just a steam engine.

There are still many areas of application of steam engines that need to be further explored.

In this regard
The Chinese people should not lag behind the world, but should be brave enough to explore and be good at learning from the West. This is what is meant by "learning from the barbarians to defeat them."

Zheng Guohui's words plunged everyone into deep thought. They nodded thoughtfully, saying, "Of course it should be so," "The power of the steam engine is terrifying," and "It seems we have only scratched the surface."

It's still early
Zheng Guohui simply called everyone over and said, "Let's go to the flour mill. The equipment there is almost installed."

"That's right, let's go together."

After visiting so many novel mechanical equipment, the spirits of the people accompanying them became high and they talked non-stop along the way about the various novel uses of the machines.

Once this line of thought came to mind, it immediately came like a spring.

When we arrived at the flour mill, various machines and equipment were being installed in the factory, and it had not yet reached the trial operation stage.

But everyone was still very interested and kept asking questions about the function of the machine, how it worked, etc., like curious babies.

This made a rude white engineer extremely impatient, and he cursed, "Fuck, bah...you disgusting cockroaches, get out of here! Go back to your dirty caves, this is not the place for you."

The followers did not understand English, but from the angry expression of the white man, they knew that it was not a good thing, and their expressions became gloomy.

It's outrageous that white people are so rude!
Zheng Guohui originally stood aside without saying anything, but when he saw the white guy yelling and cursing rudely, he felt amused.

But I finally found the opportunity to get angry. Isn’t this a coincidence?

these days
The Chinese interpreters and workers generally responded that these white foreigners were extremely rude and arrogant. Sometimes, when they couldn't stand what they saw, they would just push the Chinese workers down, kick them, and hit them. They were extremely rude and unreasonable.

He never answered any questions, always leaving the Chinese workers guessing and unable to learn any skills from them.

Zheng Guohui has always wanted to lose his temper and teach these hired Americans a lesson, and now he finally has the chance.

His face darkened, and he turned his head halfway and ordered, "This man is talking nonsense. Take him away from me."

The personal guard following closely beside him immediately rushed out, kicked the white man down, handcuffed his hands behind his back and pressed him to the ground.

The white man screamed like a pig being slaughtered and cursed loudly, using all kinds of dirty words.

Zheng Guohui ordered his men to pull him up and said, "Slap him in the face."

Zheng Shan walked out with a grim smile, and in front of the white man's terrified eyes, he stretched out his palm as big as a palm fan and slapped him hard.

There was only a dull "bang" sound, and the big slap hit the white man's head so hard that it suddenly tilted back. Blood mixed with teeth flew out, and the whole person was knocked unconscious.

Seeing Zheng Shan about to slap him back, Zheng Guohui quickly stopped him, "That's enough, come down. If you give me a few more slaps, I'll kill him."

He turned to Zamboanga Governor Dong Qingnian and said, "Gather the people. Order all the white and white people to stop and gather in the open space outside the flour mill. Also, all our Chinese workers, come here. I want to give them a lecture."

"We will follow the commander's orders!" Dong Qingnian immediately took a few capable officials with him and went to convey the commander's orders.

It won't take long

Thousands of people gathered in the open space outside the flour mill, including more than seventy white engineers and workers, all of whom were technicians who installed equipment in other factories.

There were also two managers of the Wan Guo Tong Bao Trading Company. The leader was called Flecken-Green, a German-American with a very rigorous work attitude.

Flecken-Green hurried to Zheng Guohui. He glanced at the white man whose face was bruised and swollen, and said in a tone of suppressed anger;
"Respected Marshal, I don't know why Raya offended you, but he is an employee of our Wan Guo Tong Bao Foreign Company. He came here to help with construction, not to be mistreated."

"Mr. Green, are you questioning me?"

"No, I don't dare question you, but as the manager assigned here, I have the responsibility to ensure the personal safety of my employees. This is my duty."

"Then stand aside and remember your identity. When you need to know, you will know everything, OK?" Zheng Guohui suddenly looked stern.

His powerful aura pressed down on him, almost suffocating him, and he felt the pressure of fear running down his spine.

Flecken-Green silently glanced at the group of ferocious personal soldiers around Zheng Guohui, then retreated to the side without saying a word, wisely shutting up and pretending to be dumb.

(End of this chapter)