The Heroic Age of the Late Qing Dynasty

"Who is Yu Qingao? Why is he so famous?"

"Yes, this man is known as the father of the 'Hanyang-made' weapon. He studied in the Jinling Machine Room for four years and became famous in the industry for his outstanding achievements and skills. The weapons he developed were also highly praised by foreigners."

Hearing about such a talented person, Zhang Yinghao's mouth was watering.

"Zhang Kai, can you find a way to get this person here?"

"Um... yes, but this person is currently a fifth-rank official, so it will take some time."

"Then send more people to Wuhan and bring this person back even if they have to kidnap him."

"Okay. But this guy outside also doesn't have the true teachings of Yu Qingao, and he's also someone who studied abroad."

"Oh?"

Zhang Yinghao found it strange. If he was truly so powerful, why hadn't he been heard of in later generations? Did he appear only in this lifetime, or did something unforeseen happen, and he vanished into the long river of history?

While Zhang Yinghao and Zhang Kai were talking, the guard brought someone in. He was very pleased with the person's lack of reaction when he entered. This was the quality of a high-quality, get-it-done person. Zhang Yinghao found the person standing straight and straight, and his serious expression amused him a bit.

Zhang Yinghao couldn't let him stand there, so he walked over and pulled him to a chair and said, "Sit down. It's really not easy to invite you here from a thousand miles away."

"I'm Chen Yiwei. I don't know why this person forced me to come here."

Zhang Yinghao had little experience with such highly skilled individuals in his past life, and he had no chance to do so in this life either. So when asked, Zhang Yinghao didn't hide anything: "We invited Mr. Chen here out of sincerity; otherwise, we wouldn't have brought him all the way here."

"Hehe, sincerity, indeed too sincere."

Zhang Yinghao was not embarrassed either, and continued, "Although Mr. Chen may not be able to accept our method, we have absolutely no ill intentions. We are in urgent need of talents like Mr. Chen, but we don't have talents like Mr. Chen here, so we have to resort to this last resort. I hope Mr. Chen doesn't mind. Of course, please don't blame the comrades who invited Mr. Chen. This was all my idea. If you are really angry, then I am here to apologize to Mr. Chen." After that, he stood up and bowed to him.

Zhang Yinghao knew this man hadn't been invited, but had been threatened by Zhang Kai and his men, who had threatened him by kidnapping his son. Zhang Kai had also used courtesy before force; they had approached him several times but he remained unmoved. This was the most capable man Zhang Kai and his men had contacted, so even using dishonorable tactics was useless. Zhang Yinghao didn't say anything. After all, the man was already here, and he'd said it himself: If he was talented, he'd be kidnapped and brought back to him.

Zhang Yinghao straightened up and said, "Mr. Chen is back from the United States. He must know that our country has no hope without industry, and he must also know that heavy industry is urgently needed. I think Mr. Chen must be patriotic, otherwise he would not have given up the opportunity to return to work in the United States."

"Haha, are you developing heavy industry here?"

"Haha, everything has to start somewhere! We invited Mr. Chen here so you can make guns and bullets for us. We don't have such talent here, so we can only go to Wuhan to hire someone like Mr. Chen. I hope Mr. Chen can work here. Your family has already taken you in. Although we don't have wealth here, we have no problem with food and accommodation. What do you think, Mr. Chen?"

"You...are you planning a rebellion?"

Zhang Yinghao laughed when he heard the word "rebellion," then said loudly, "Why should we rebel? Rebellion will kill people. Mr. Chen, what good will rebellion bring us?"

"Then why do you make guns?"

Zhang Yinghao laughed and said, "The guns are definitely made to protect ourselves. There are many bandits in Sichuan. You may not know that we wiped out a bandit nest a few days ago and rescued seven or eight people."

"Hehe, Sichuan is indeed full of bandits."

Chen Yiwei didn't know why, but he felt that he was not afraid of the bandit leader in front of him, and immediately said sarcastically.

"Yes, there are so many bandits, so we have no choice but to ask Mr. Chen to come and help us. We are all from the countryside and don't know how to make guns or bullets, so we have no choice but to ask Mr. Chen to come here. Of course, we will send people to learn from Mr. Chen. If our people learn, Mr. Chen can leave anytime he wants. We thank Mr. Chen, and I have prepared a thank-you gift. Come on."

At this time, a soldier came in from the door, carrying a tray. Zhang Yinghao walked over and took away the cloth on it, revealing several ingots of silver.

Zhang Yinghao said, "This is tea money for Mr. Chen first. We will still pay you according to your salary in Wuhan. If you need anyone to assist you with your work, I will ask our logistics department to hand it over to you. If you need any tools, please give a list to the logistics department. If you can make them yourself, make them yourself. If not, buy them."

Zhang Yinghao bent down, stared into Chen Yiwei's eyes and said, "You must produce the bullets as soon as possible and finalize the production. As for copper, we don't have any copper mines. If you need it, you can go buy it or ask the logistics department to melt all the copper coins. If you are slow here and we are attacked by bandits, you must remember that your family is also here. As for your child's education, I already have a primary school here and he can go there. Your wife should consider what kind of work she can do. We believe in not working and not eating here, so I can find a job for her."

Zhang Yinghao straightened up and turned around and said, "We'll build it as quickly as possible. If there's anyone we really need and we don't have here, you can provide a list and we'll go to Wuhan to hire them. That's it. Mr. Chen, do you have anything else to say?"

Chen Yiwei was stunned. He had never seen such a person before and was speechless.

Zhang Yinghao said, "If you don't have any, go ahead and make the arrangements. Logistics will handle the handover with you. Tell them if you need anything. If you need me, you can come directly to me. That's all for today. Guard, take Mr. Chen to logistics."

After Zhang Yinghao finished handling the work for these outside talent, he suddenly felt a sense of peace of mind, no longer struggling alone. Zhang Yinghao still treated workers and farmers differently, believing the workers were much more combative than his fellow farmers. Born in the countryside himself, Zhang Yinghao understood farmers well. Rural residents rely on the weather for their livelihoods, so they focus their energy on fighting the elements. Farmers don't have the energy to fight others, and when they do, they often compromise.

Moreover, during the late Qing Dynasty, peasant comrades generally had very limited contacts and experience. They mostly stayed within nearby villages, visiting relatives and not straying far from their native land. Zhang Yinghao believed that the current situation demanded expanding the power of the working class while also vigorously transforming the more advanced peasant comrades, instilling in them an uncompromising fighting spirit and allowing them to recognize the harsh reality.

Zhang Yinghao sighed: There is still a long way to go, we lack everything, and we must continue to work hard!

After defeating Liu Youcai, Bao Shilin recruited another group of people to dig a pond in Liujiazhai, and now both projects are under construction. This has also made people in nearby villages jealous. If only their own village could build a pond and a reservoir, their lives would be better in the future.

Zhang Yinghao didn't think too much about it now. It wasn't right to pray for a savior instead of fighting. Ever since Zhang Yinghao realized he couldn't handle everything, he preferred to send people to do things instead of doing everything himself. The workload was too big to handle.

Things were going very smoothly, exceeding Zhang Yinghao's wildest expectations, so Zhang Yinghao's heart began to stir again. So during the evening meeting, Zhang Yinghao brought up the idea of ​​recruiting a new round of training.

This was easy to predict. With so many people gathered in Zhangjiagou and Liujiazhai, the Qing hadn't made any move. Zhang Yinghao certainly didn't think the Qing officials were truly incompetent. He needed to gather strength and prepare for a rainy day. He also suggested that some soldiers begin off-duty training. Half a day of training and half a day of work wouldn't achieve the desired results for the time being.

But somehow, word of the recruitment spread, and more and more people began to come to Zhang Yinghao to inquire about it. Zhang Yinghao was troubled by the fact that he had insisted on keeping the matter confidential during the meeting, but now it had spread so widely. It wasn't that Zhang Yinghao thought it was bad, but he felt that his subordinates had almost no sense of confidentiality, which was a real headache. However, if you ask a group of people who had just retired from their jobs to discuss confidentiality, the most they would say to others is, "I'm telling you this, you must keep it confidential." That's all.

The news changed completely as it was passed around. Later, no one knew how it spread, but it became: Zhang Yinghao robbed the landlord Liu Youcai of a lot of money, became addicted to robbing, and trained more people to rob more landlords.

Although this is the truth, can it be said out loud? After hearing this, Zhang Yinghao could only say: "The people have sharp eyes!" Of course, Zhang Yinghao didn't know how the landlords would react to hearing these words, otherwise they would not be so leisurely.

Now that he did have some money, the three salt wells were the goose that laid golden eggs. Regardless, Zhang Yinghao recruited another group of people to join him. Now Zhang Yinghao became the regiment commander. These new recruits worked half a day and trained half a day, while the veterans trained all day.

As the team leader, Zhang Yinghao also needs to spend more time writing teaching materials, articles, and preparing for a new round of training.

Zhang Yinghao now knew that his power was a castle built on the sand. It looked bustling, but in reality it was not. Now was the weakest time for the Qing Dynasty. After experiencing some setbacks, Cixi would see the crisis of her rule and would establish a new army, which would strengthen the ruling power of the Qing Dynasty.

Zhang Yinghao thought about it seriously and decided that it would be best for him to control Sichuan within two years. Only with a province would he have strategic space and room for maneuver, and only then could he devote himself to construction and expansion, and do business with the great powers. Now, no matter how much he tried, he would not be able to achieve anything, as the temple was too small.

Therefore, formation training, physical training, and tactical training were now handed over to Zhang Feng, Ouyang Jun, and others, who were now fully capable of taking charge of these trainings. This allowed Zhang Yinghao to have the time and energy to personally focus on education and conduct cadre training.

Zhang Yinghao once heard a saying: The success or failure of a cause lies in its cadres. If cadres are willing to take responsibility and make contributions, the cause will flourish. Only by overcoming difficulties and solving problems can one achieve unstoppable success.

Pioneers are the ones who blaze trails; the masses look to their cadres. The work style, image, and mental state of cadres determine the effectiveness of their work and development. A good work style is a source of fighting spirit, cohesion, and motivation.

Considering education, Zhang Yinghao personally took the lead and established a language reform committee. He brought in several older scholars from Guang'an Prefecture. Now Zhang Yinghao didn't care whether these people were pedantic or not. He hired them to work, not to be officials. Their pedantic nature would not be accepted by his team.

Now that Zhang Yinghao had a paper mill and a printing house, he had completed the most difficult step of building them from scratch. He immediately replicated these workshops and built new factories. The method was remarkably simple: the workers were already there, and everything else was simply copied one-to-one. Previously, Zhang Yinghao had no idea how to build them and was left to fret. Now, with a template, he could simply copy them, with remarkable speed and excellent results. With paper and other tools now in plentiful supply and the material foundation for the Chinese language reform in place, Zhang Yinghao decided to get started.

Chapter 25: Making up a dictionary to buy arms

3787 words

The only secret to doing something well is to practice, practice, practice, practice, practice... - Quotes from Zhang Yinghao

Zhang Yinghao now has only one requirement for the dictionary, which is to compile it as quickly as possible, allowing for errors which can be corrected later. After compiling the dictionary, he will also compile an idiom dictionary and a lexicon.

When these pedantic scholars first came over, they were full of complaints. But when Zhang Yinghao mentioned the need for a simplified Chinese dictionary, they looked at each other in bewilderment. After all, the last time a dictionary was compiled was during the reign of Emperor Kangxi, a national sensation. In the minds of these old-fashioned scholars, reading was a sacred and lofty undertaking. How could compiling a dictionary be so sacred? Furthermore, for these pedantic scholars, the more complex their handwriting, the more evidence of their culture. Just like Kong Yiji, who had to write the Chinese character "回" four different ways, it was practically meaningless.

When Zhang Yinghao said their names would be printed at the beginning of the first page, their lips trembled with excitement. For scholars of this era, it was a book that would leave their names forever, and this was the ancestor of books, a dictionary. This was simply crazy. If that was the case, then simplified characters were acceptable as long as they could leave their names behind!

Zhang Yinghao always finds it funny when he thinks of these people's expressions. What a joke! No wonder they haven't passed any exams at such an old age.

Zhang Yinghao recalled the reforms of the Qin Dynasty, which unified the written language and the gauge of the wheels, guaranteeing the eternal blessings of the First Emperor. This single standardization of the written language alone established that the land under the same script was the emperor's domain, and all the people were his subjects. China, too, suffered from the problem of varying pronunciations within a few miles. Zhang Yinghao wanted to go one step further than Qin Shi Huang, achieving a unified script, a unified gauge of the wheels, and even a unified pronunciation, so that the people of the country could communicate in a single language.

Zhang Yinghao recalled working in a factory before his time travel, a time when the post-reform era had already begun. Because of the pandemic, he ate fast food every day, and the uncles and aunties who brought him food spoke in dialects Zhang Yinghao couldn't understand at all. Achieving homophony is a monumental and arduous undertaking, one that wouldn't have taken more than a century to accomplish. This is a century-long project, and its magnitude speaks for itself.

Zhang Yinghao wanted to create a reference book like the later Xinhua Dictionary. These old-school scholars had no problem explaining the meanings of words, but they didn't understand pinyin at all. Zhang Yinghao had to recruit a few outstanding students currently teaching to help him, including his girlfriend, Xue'er. Although Zhang Yinghao was very busy, he still needed to cultivate a relationship.

When these sour-minded scholars saw women coming to help, they all started saying things like "it's disrespectful to society, men and women shouldn't touch each other, there's a difference between men and women." Zhang Yinghao didn't care what they thought. If they could be used, he would use them. If not, he would throw them away like a rag.

Zhang Yinghao gave them a chance. If they couldn't keep up and were eliminated, Zhang Yinghao had no responsibility or obligation to help them. These losses would have an impact on himself, but it would only benefit his future career.

Zhang Yinghao's dictionary compilation was also very simple. He began by using the simplified characters from the Three Character Classic, Hundred Family Surnames, and Thousand Character Classic that he had previously copied to create the new dictionary. This was the simplest and best method Zhang Yinghao could think of. Once the dictionary was completed, he immediately began printing it in large quantities. There was already a huge demand for dictionaries within his base. Zhang Yinghao didn't plan to make much money from this kind of reference book; as long as he didn't lose money, he was happy.

On this day, a piece of great news came: the gun was made. Upon hearing this news, Zhang Yinghao dropped his work and immediately ran to the place where the gun was made.

Zhang Yinghao was excited. Taizu once said that political power comes from the barrel of a gun. In the past, they were unable to manufacture guns, so they were not strong enough and were afraid of this and that. But now, as long as they can manufacture guns by themselves, they can quickly expand the army and form combat effectiveness.

"Hurry, hurry, show me the gun."

Zhang Yinghao was already shouting before he even entered the workshop, which shows how excited he was.

Zhang Yinghao ran into the workshop and saw Chen Yiwei assembling a rifle. Zhang Yinghao waited patiently, watching Chen Yiwei put the rifle together, pull the bolt, and pull the trigger. There was a sound of thimbles colliding inside.

"Come on, let me see."

Upon hearing this, Chen Yiwei handed the gun to Zhang Yinghao. Zhang Yinghao took it and examined it carefully. Chen Yiwei then explained: "The gun's caliber is 7.92mm, its total length is 955mm, and its total weight without the bayonet is 3.166kg... Muzzle velocity is 639.78 m/sec."

"Okay, okay, okay, okay."

Zhang Yinghao was reluctant to put it down, and Chen Yiwei couldn't help but smile when he saw it. After all, he was still a young man in his teens.

"Captain Zhang, shall we go test-fire?"

"Yes, yes, yes, let's go to the shooting range."

So a group of people went to the shooting range to conduct test firing.

Zhang Yinghao picked up a bullet, loaded it, aimed at the target in the distance and pulled the trigger.

"boom!"

Hearing the familiar gunshot, Zhang Yinghao felt that the gun was pretty good.

"I have two questions. See if you can solve them. The first is that China lacks copper ore, so we can't use all-copper bullets. Can you see if you can make steel-core copper-clad bullets? That way, we can save a lot of copper. The second is standard production, that is, all the parts inside should be universal, so that maintenance and repair of the gun are simple and convenient. Oh, and by the way, after how many rounds of ammunition will the accuracy be greatly reduced?"

"The quality of steel these days is not good. The rifling of this gun will be worn flat after a few uses. Probably only two or three hundred rounds."

"It's a bit low. We need to step up our research. What is our current production?"

Chen Yiwei replied, "Right now we rely entirely on manual production, and the workers are not very skilled. If we hire more people, we can produce about 200 guns a year. Once they become more skilled, we can probably produce around 300."

Zhang Yinghao was furious. "How many? Only 200? They can't even produce one gun a day?"

Chen Yiwei retorted, "The Hubei Gun Factory can only produce 20 to 30 guns a day now."

Zhang Yinghao stopped talking immediately and said, "Yes, the industry is backward, what can you do?"

"Look at what machines we need, give us a list, and we'll buy them from foreign companies. We have to increase production."

"Okay, I'll write out the list of machine tools and equipment later."

Zhang Yinghao walked around a few more times and asked, "How did you give birth?"

Hearing this question, Chen Yiwei was stunned: "How can we produce it? Now we have to rely on the master craftsman to complete all the processes independently."

Zhang Yinghao thought, this is nonsense! The gun must be disassembled, the parts produced separately, and then assembled.

Zhang Yinghao asked again, "How many bullets are produced per day?"

The answers received were not satisfactory, with only a thousand rounds of ammunition produced per day.

After Zhang Yinghao understood the problem, he immediately announced, "From now on, this ammunition factory will be under military control. The military will be responsible for security, and all personnel entering and leaving will be strictly managed and registered."

After that, Zhang Yinghao took Chen Yiwei to his office and explained the assembly line production model to him in detail. Finally, he said, "You must make immediate adjustments. If the parts are easy to produce, assign fewer people to produce them. If the work is difficult and time-consuming, assign more people to produce them. All responsibilities must be assigned to individuals. The inspection pass rate of gun parts must be improved. As for bullets, you must start researching copper-clad steel core bullets now. We don't have that much copper, so you will also need to reload bullets and have the troops bring in shell casings to exchange for bullets. You must also start researching smokeless gunpowder. We can't use granular black powder now. I know that one of the ingredients of smokeless gunpowder is nitrocellulose. You should conduct research in this direction and form a dedicated research team. The experimental data must be recorded and properly stored."

After discussing the production of guns, Chen Yiwei took Zhang Yinghao to visit the gunpowder factory. When Zhang Yinghao visited the gunpowder factory, he immediately discovered a serious safety hazard because he saw workers shoveling the gunpowder with shovels.

Zhang Yinghao immediately broke out in a cold sweat on his forehead. If it were in his previous life, he would have been scared to death.

"Stop, stop, stop. Stop shoveling."

After saying that, Zhang Yinghao turned around and stared at Chen Yiwei and said loudly: "Can gunpowder be handled with iron? Do you know that friction produces sparks? Do you know what the consequences will be if it explodes? This is playing with human lives..."

Zhang Yinghao was so furious that he pointed at Chen Yiwei and started to scold him. Zhang Yinghao knew that time was short, operating standards had not been finalized, and the staff's quality was too low. There was nothing he could do, but it was wrong to ignore these basic things.

Zhang Yinghao changed the subject and said, "Yiwei, we don't have talented people. These workers have limited knowledge and low quality. This is an objective condition. But safety awareness must be put first. You will personally walk around all the workstations and write down all the points to pay attention to. Then we will conduct centralized training and rectification. Those who fail the training will not be allowed to work. Do you understand? With so much gunpowder piled together, do you know the consequences of it exploding?"

At this time, Chen Yiwei was also sweating profusely. He wiped the sweat off his face before replying, "I understand, Captain."

Zhang Yinghao was unwilling to stay here any longer as it was too dangerous, so he said, "There's nothing we can do about the poor quality of the gun steel. We can only improve it slowly, but we'll first solve the problem of whether it exists or not. As for whether it's good or not, that's a matter for the future. We must pay attention to the safety of this gunpowder. All procedures must be clearly written and must be strictly followed. The same goes for researching gunpowder. If it's not necessary, don't have multiple people researching this explosive substance together. Safety is the first priority. If something unexpected happens, we can't afford the loss!"

Okay, I'm going back. Some of our young soldiers have very good learning abilities. When the time comes, you can go to a few classes. If you find a student you like, please write an application and I will approve it. Soldiers are easy to find, but talent is hard to come by. We must be good at discovering talent. This is the only way to cultivate it now. Things will gradually get better in the future. With that, I'm leaving."

Zhang Yinghao was working in his office when Bao Shilin came to report. After saluting Zhang Yinghao, he said, "Captain, we're running out of food. Too many people have come from other places, and we don't have enough food to eat. Should we stop those people from coming here?"

Zhang Yinghao got a little angry when he heard this. He also knew the reason. He had been used to a simple life recently, and suddenly there were more places to spend money, and food was consumed rapidly. Anyone would feel reluctant to spend money.

But Zhang Yinghao came from a later era. When he was in college, his school had many more people than it does today. Similarly, Zhang Yinghao had worked in a factory. Without a strong workforce, nothing could be accomplished. The current situation isn't one of overstaffing; on the contrary, it's one of understaffing.

Zhang Yinghao bluntly rejected Bao Shilin's proposal and said, "Shilin, let's not talk about how you're going to stop those people fleeing here. These people who are able to escape to our side are all strong laborers. We can't welcome them enough. Don't worry about the food problem. I'll take care of it. You just wait to receive the food. Also, how many guns did Comrade Liu Xinsheng buy? Have they arrived yet?"

"I bought twenty guns, each with two hundred rounds of ammunition."

Zhang Yinghao frowned after hearing this and asked, "Can't you buy more?"

"Captain, the foreigners have an arms embargo against the Qing Dynasty, and Liu Xinsheng is still trying to figure out a solution."

"Well, let's talk to Liu Xinsheng and have him contact the Germans, that is, the German Empire, and buy their Mauser pistols. Pistols are not included in the arms embargo. If we buy more, we must also provide a pistol repair shop and a bullet production plant."

After Bao Shilin finished recording, he put down his pen and said, "Okay, I'll send someone to notify him right away."

"Haha, Comrade Shilin, you've also developed this good habit of bringing a notebook to record things."

"I can't help it. There are so many things to do that sometimes I forget. A good memory is no match for a bad pen!"

Chapter 26: Fight the Landlord Again and Hold a Meeting