North America 1849, from Gold Rush to Warlord

Chapter 96 The Secret on Devil's Island (5,000 words, please subscribe)
Brigadier General George Phillips had close ties to the Cameron family.

He was also a classmate of David Cameron at West Point and an old friend who served together after graduation.

Throughout his long military career, David Cameron was one of the few true confidants.

Beyond being classmates and comrades-in-arms, Brigadier General George Phillips, like David Cameron, was a ruthless man.

However, Cameron was more ruthless, while George Phillips had a more fiery temper and was more straightforward and blunt in both warfare and interpersonal relationships.

Because of their relationship, the Phillips family and the Cameron family also forged a deep friendship.

Even more remarkably, George Phillips married his most beloved youngest daughter to Daniel Cameron, the youngest son of David Cameron.

Of all of David Cameron's sons, George Phillips undoubtedly liked and favored Daniel Cameron the most.

Besides being ruthless and unscrupulous like himself, Daniel also possesses wisdom that he himself lacks, making him more strategic and meticulous in both warfare and business.

In George Phillips' eyes, Daniel was definitely the one who could inherit his mantle.

Even his own sons couldn't match Daniel Cameron's abilities.

At only thirty-three years old, Daniel Cameron is already a major commanding an elite cavalry unit.

With his own attention and promotion, Daniel Cameron might be able to rise to the rank of general by the age of 45 at the latest, truly inheriting his mantle and everything in the military.

A few months ago, when the Cameron family was facing a series of misfortunes, Brigadier General George Phillips, far away in New Mexico, was unable to help.

But when Daniel Cameron, who was still in Arkansas at the time, asked him for help, Brigadier General George Phillips transferred him to his command almost without hesitation.

George Phillips knew perfectly well what Daniel was up to!
He did not stop his son-in-law; in fact, he tacitly approved of and supported everything his son-in-law wanted to do!
In the desolate and wild West, feuds between families can only be resolved through iron and blood.

Law and order are bullshit here!

Therefore, Brigadier General George Phillips handed over the elite Northern California Ranger Battalion to his son-in-law, making this elite cavalry force a sharp sword in Daniel Cameron's hands for revenge, and also the greatest reliance for reclaiming everything that once belonged to the Cameron family.

Even though two months ago, Daniel Cameron and his Ranger battalion were ambushed by those damned Indians, resulting in heavy losses, Major Daniel did not face any punishment thanks to the covert manipulation and support of his general father-in-law.

Moreover, with the support of his father-in-law, a general, the Northern California Rangers quickly replenished their ranks and replaced the large number of lost warhorses.

The Northern California Rangers have recovered their combat readiness at lightning speed!

Who could have predicted that just over two months later, his son-in-law Daniel Cameron, along with the entire Northern California Ranger Battalion, would suffer such a major upheaval?

The entire battalion, a force of over three hundred elite cavalrymen, vanished completely in such a bizarre manner.

"My little Daniel, what are you doing...?"

After dispatching an investigation team headed by a lieutenant colonel intelligence officer, George Phillips looked at the family portrait on his desk and couldn't help but mutter to himself.

In the family portrait, Daniel Cameron, standing next to his youngest daughter in military uniform, looks so dashing and spirited!
“My little Daniel, I once told you that revenge is fine, but never let hatred blind you!”

"Hatred will only cloud your judgment and make you foolish!"

"My little Daniel, please don't do anything foolish again! Jenny and little Apollo are waiting for you to come home!"

Since Daniel Cameron joined his ranks from Arkansas, in order to facilitate his revenge, Daniel entrusted his wife, Jenny Phillips, and their four-year-old son, Apollo Cameron, to George Phillips' care.

Right now, Jenny and little Apollo are at their grandfather's house, eagerly awaiting Daniel Cameron's return home.

"If, little Daniel, something really happens to you and you never come back, I think I will do everything in my power to avenge you!"

At this point, Brigadier General George Phillips slowly closed his eyes and leaned back wearily in his chair.

He pondered in his mind, "In all of California, there shouldn't be any force or individual capable of wiping out the entire Ranger battalion in one fell swoop! Even if they encountered ten times their number of Native Americans, it's impossible for not a single member of this elite cavalry to escape!"

With this in mind, Brigadier General George Phillips picked up the brief intelligence report on the table again and carefully examined it word by word, trying to find any clues in it.

"Completely disappeared...whereabouts unknown...!"

"This indicates that, at least around the military camp, no large-scale battles have taken place."

"Could it be that Daniel disappeared on his own...?"

Daniel Cameron's actions—breaking out of the military camp in small groups, then sailing to San Francisco—were incredibly well-hidden.

He not only deceived the enemy, but also his superiors.

Even the few logistics personnel left behind at the military camp had no idea where their troops had gone.

That's why Brigadier General George Phillips received such a strange intelligence report.

Although he hoped that Daniel had led his team to disappear on their own initiative and go into hiding to plan something big, Brigadier General George Phillips, a veteran of many battles, had a very bad feeling about it!

George Phillips was eager to find out the whereabouts of Daniel and the Rangers, but the journey from New Mexico to California was long and would take almost a month round trip.

This does not include the time required for the investigation during the period.

With this in mind, George Phillips began to eagerly hope for the early opening of wired telegraph and railroads!

These two devices, which have been gradually rolled out in major eastern cities, undoubtedly save a great deal of time.
-
Back in San Francisco.

It's already December 20th, and Christmas is just a few days away.

Even in a burgeoning western city like San Francisco, the Christmas atmosphere is growing stronger every day.

Especially in the tumultuous year of 1849, at least all white people hoped that Christmas would sweep away the gloom of the entire year.

The city was expanding at an alarming rate, with rapidly deteriorating public security and sanitation, soaring prices, and the citywide catastrophe that occurred in September!
Even with a constant influx of gold into the city, it could not completely wash away the gloom in the hearts of the white people.

Just a few days ago, Mr. Burnett, the interim governor who had been completely excluded from the core of power, resigned from his position as interim governor because he could not bear the humiliation.

The person who replaced the interim governor was none other than the interim Senate President, Mr. Pearson Brosnan.

The vacant position of interim Senate president was filled by Edgar Allan Poe, the president of the San Francisco City Council.

Serving as speaker of both the state legislature and the city council simultaneously is a feat rarely seen throughout history, except perhaps by Edgar Allan Poe.

The interim president of the Senate does not need to be elected; he only needs the consent of a majority of state senators.

Especially in states like California, where a temporary state government and state legislature have just been established, the laws are still extremely imperfect and there is no explicit provision that city councilors and state legislators cannot serve concurrently.

And so, Mr. Edgar Allan Poe took office in a perfectly legitimate manner.

The reason Edgar Allan Poe was elevated to a higher position was simply because, under Azu's leadership, Poe was the only candidate with political acumen.

Including Vic, Jason, and others, they all still need experience to be able to fulfill their respective roles.

Especially for Vic, being the mayor of San Francisco was actually a reluctant position, a case of being forced into it. There were many things Mayor Vic couldn't decide on his own, and he needed Azu to constantly step in and help him.

Just like that night at sea, when Vic asked, "What about the others?", Azu felt that Mayor Vic still lacked a bit of awareness and responsibility.

When it comes to taking the blame, you naturally need to step forward and take the blame for the boss. Do you even need to ask?
Edgar Allan Poe, on the other hand, drew his gun and fired immediately, taking the blame for his boss and shouldering the pressure.

Therefore, it's hard to say whether Edgar Allan Poe can hold onto the position of Speaker of the State Senate, or whether he can promote someone else to the position.

His future father-in-law, Dr. Parker Parker, a medical doctor who later served as the American Minister Plenipotentiary to China, definitely had the ability and qualifications.

But right now, my future father-in-law is full of enthusiasm and has plunged headlong into the construction of the pharmaceutical factory and the production of penicillin. He simply doesn't have the time to become an official.

The machinery equipment that arrived at the port more than a month ago has begun trial production after a period of installation and debugging.

The equipment for the pharmaceutical factory will arrive by the end of this year or early next year.

Once these two core factories are fully built, Azu and Huamei Industrial Company will finally have their own flagship products.

Jeans, prefabricated houses, and the like were all desperate measures taken in the early stages. They had no technical content, were easily imitated, and were quite difficult to export.

Jason has already used up his stock of canvas for his jeans and has switched to French indigo twill fabric.

Jeans made from this indigo twill fabric are slightly less durable than canvas, but their comfort and appearance far surpass them.

This is the complete version of jeans from later generations, with only slight differences in style and size.

Because indigo twill fabric is significantly more expensive than canvas, the price of the new jeans has also risen to $1.50.

But after experiencing the comfort and style of the new jeans, the more expensive new jeans became more popular and had a wider audience than the old-fashioned canvas jeans.

These days, the streets of San Francisco and California are filled with people strolling around in jeans.

It's not just men; many women, especially those who need to work, have also started to wear this new style of jeans.

Wearing jeans to work is so much more convenient than wearing multiple layers of petticoats!
With the support of a fleet of dozens of coastal and inland river merchant ships, jeans and prefabricated houses have been exported to Canada and Mexico, bringing a steady stream of funds to the normal operation of Huamei Company.

But jeans and prefabricated houses were never Ah Zu's goals or focus.

After reaching a preliminary agreement with the state government and state legislature, the political situation began to stabilize, and Azu devoted his main energy to the machine factory.

During this period, Azu buried himself in the design of the compound impulse turbine steam engine, transmission system, and marine propeller system in his study at the shipyard.

The compound impulse turbine steam engine is the core of this marine equipment. Its thermal efficiency is 30-50% higher than that of the traditional piston reciprocating steam engine. It has a more compact structure and more stable power output, making it the best choice for ocean-going high-speed steamships.

Unlike single-stage and multi-stage impulse turbine steam engines, the compound speed is adjustable and can be applied to various scenarios.

Besides marine applications, compound impulse turbine steam engines can be widely used in textiles, metallurgy, mining, railways, power generation, and many other fields!
The core challenge of compound impulse turbine steam engines is the need for high-pressure steam, which in turn requires high-strength steel.

But this did not stump Azu, who later studied mechanical engineering.

Two months ago, among the properties acquired was a small steel smelter that produced only one or two thousand tons of steel per year, and the quality of the steel was quite poor.

Azu started by working on the smelter, transforming the old converter into a Bessem converter.

This new type of converter originally appeared a few years later in 1856, and because of its simple structure and high efficiency, it quickly became popular in Europe and North America.

Traditional converter steelmaking requires workers to manually and continuously stir the molten iron with heavy stirring rods weighing tens of kilograms to remove carbon and impurities through oxidation reactions. This process takes at least several hours.

The core of the Besemer converter is the use of a high-pressure blower to continuously inject hot air into the converter from the bottom, which automates the process, greatly improves production efficiency, and reduces labor intensity.

It was precisely because of the widespread adoption of the Bessemer converter that the United States, in just two or three decades, leaped from producing hundreds of thousands of tons of steel annually to tens of millions of tons.

The small steel smelter, after being modified by Azu, could theoretically easily produce tens of thousands of tons of steel a year.

Moreover, Azu also has iron mines, although they are only a few small ones, but they are certainly enough for the time being.

With the upgraded steel smelter, steel production can be sustained in the short term.

Based on the experience of mechanical research in later generations, the most suitable choice to meet the needs of high-pressure steam pipelines is chromium-containing steel.

However, at that time, chromium was only used in laboratories, and it was not until the end of the nineteenth century that it was applied to the industrial field.

Therefore, the only option is high-carbon steel!
High-carbon steel has poor brittleness and corrosion resistance, but there is currently no other choice.

In the machine shop, the compound impulse turbine steam engine, which was trial-produced according to Azu's drawings, failed the first few tests, mainly due to problems such as steam leakage and pipe rupture.

After numerous trials and errors, the compound impulse turbine steam engine that was successfully produced finally reached a level that was barely usable.

There are quite a few problems and many minor issues, but it's basically sufficient.

For example, steam cranes!

Cranes are an essential requirement for building steamships.

There was originally a simpler option for steam cranes: simply manufacture or purchase an old-fashioned reciprocating piston steam engine.

However, in order to continuously test the new compound impulse turbine steam engine, Azu still designed and produced a steam crane based on this.

Then, they set about building ships, specifically iron-hulled steam propeller ships!
Ah Zu personally designed the entire ship, starting with the simple and gradually moving to the complex, beginning with a 300-ton near-shore inland river merchant ship.

A completely new steel hull structure, a completely new compound impulse turbine steam engine, a completely new transmission system, and a completely new propeller drive mechanism!
This is undoubtedly a huge challenge for the entire Huamei Industrial Company!

But once this hurdle is overcome, Huamei Industrial Company will become a true giant in the region!

In addition to the new steam engine and the new ship, Azu also designed new firearms!

Skipping the Minié rifle stage, and using the classic Mauser 98K as a template and the more classic 7.62mm caliber as the barrel, Azu designed the first gun belonging to Huamei Industrial – the HM49!
The caliber was adjusted to the classic 7.62mm, with four helical rifling grooves, a double-stack five-round magazine capacity, a rotating bolt action, a downward-curved bolt handle, a V-notch rear sight and an inverted V-shaped front sight, and a sight scale from 100 to 2000 meters, with an effective range of 500 meters. It almost perfectly replicated the technical features of the Mauser 98K.

The ammunition uses a smokeless propellant mixture of nitroglycerin and nitrocellulose, and the primer is mercuric fulminate.

In this era, the HM49 was decades ahead of its time!
To maintain secrecy, Azu built a small arms factory on Alcatraz Island, a well-known island in the Bay Area that was already on his list.

All the factories and equipment needed for the arsenal were concentrated on Devil's Island. All the employees of the arsenal were carefully selected and trained Chinese laborers.

Except for Sundays, all the employees of the arsenal lived and worked on the island, and all supplies were transported by dedicated personnel and ships.

Azu entrusted the daily management of the arsenal to his clan uncle, Ninth Uncle!
Before entering the arsenal, all the Chinese laborers underwent more than two months of training. They worked on an assembly line, with each person responsible for only their own part of the work, one radish per pit.

Those who can produce bolts can't produce barrels; those who can produce barrels can't produce receivers; those who can produce receivers can't produce ammunition; those who can produce ammunition can't produce guns...!
Each person only knows a portion, thus minimizing the risk of leaks.

The arsenal is not large, with only a little over a hundred people. Its monthly output is only about 500 HM49 rifles, and the production of bullets is limited to about 30,000 rounds.

Such a low output is not enough to equip an army, but it is enough to equip Azu's militia!
At the same time, Azu also completely improved the previous simple hand grenades into real hand grenades with safety mechanisms and delayed fuses, and put them into production in the arsenal, with a monthly output of about three thousand.

All of this has just started production. It will take several months for them to arm their militia regiments before they will have the confidence to truly compete with the regular army!
(End of this chapter)