1855 United States Tycoon

Chapter 216 The Canal and the Sick Man in East Asia

In the black water drill, Takashima saw a rifle volley and a grenade performance. Although the price of grenades is a bit expensive. But Takashima is still very interested in this kind of infantry side artillery. The reason is simple. Since the shogunate is unable to purchase enough artillery, grenades may be a good supplement.

But now, the military version of Daliwan is what Takashima is most concerned about. At Takashima’s request, Black Water provided Takashima with a special experience. First, Takashima will complete a set of training without taking the military version of Dali pills. The content of the training is to run two laps around the playground track in full gear, and then use a rifle to shoot ten rounds at a chest target 100 meters away. Then they were armed to cross the obstacle two hundred meters, and then another group of shooting.

“After you complete the first set, we will record your results, including time and hits. Then after you rest for half an hour, we will give you the military version of Dali pills and let you do it again. Test. So you know how the effect is.” Wang Qinian took Takashima into the locker room, asked him to change into a black water training suit, and then hung him four training grenades (weight and shape). Same as the real one), and gave him a MacDonald 1864 rifle.

“Will you use this thing?” Wang Qinian asked.

“Wang Jun, thank you. Can I try a few shots first?”

“No problem. The 100-meter target is there. Try it yourself.”

Takashima first crackled and fired more than 20 bullets over there, and then came back and said to Wang Qinian: “Wang Jun, I think I have adapted to this rifle a little bit, we can start.”

“Well, let’s start.” Wang Qinian said.

“Hay!” Takashima turned around and ran away.

“How about, Mr. Takashima, let’s see the comparison of your two results.” Wang Qinian handed the two results records to Takashima.

In fact, you don’t need to look at it, Takashima knows that his performance in the second round far surpasses own in the first round. After the first round, Wang Qinian gave Takashima a small blue pill. After Takashima took it, within a few minutes, he felt that his whole body was full of strength. Not only strength, but he felt that his own vision and hearing have improved significantly. As for courage, it was even more obvious. When the obstacle was over, there was a requirement to run over a suspension bridge about 20 meters high. Takashima is a little bit afraid of heights. Although Takashima forced himself to rush over in order not to be laughed at by the United States and preserve the honor of the samurai, but to be honest, after rushing over, his legs became weak and he almost sat down on the ground. .

However, in the second round, not only was the front lap obviously easier than the first round, but it also felt better when shooting. Even when he ran to the damn suspension bridge, Takashima was surprised to find that he was not. Fear of heights, the rickety suspension bridge actually made Takashima very interesting. From this point of view, own guts really suddenly become bigger.

“Look at the second round, you completed the whole process nearly a minute faster than the first round. As for the shooting results, a total of 20 shots, you have 30 more rings in the second round. On average, each shot ascending is more than one ring.” Wang Qinian He gave him another test paper and said, “Now, I will give you another math test paper and make it in the shortest time.”

The content of this math paper is not difficult, but there are many questions. Takashima lowered his head and began to solve the problem, while Wang Qinian sat aside and waited. However, after a while, Takashima completed the test paper.

“The answer is all right.” Wang Qinian looked at the answer, and then said to Takashima, “Takashima-kun, do you think it is different from the state after drinking strong alcohol?”

“The difference is too big.” Takashima said, “When I solved the problem, I felt very clear-headed and my hands were steady when shooting. This is by no means comparable to drinking hard liquor. This drug is really amazing! This It’s an elixir!”

“But Mr. Takashima, I also want to tell you. After more than an hour, it is estimated that you will enter a period of fatigue. The duration varies from person to person. You happened to have lunch first and then go back to sleep, but there is At times, one of the manifestations of fatigue is insomnia.” Wang Qinian said.

“Thank you for your reminder, Wang Jun!” Takashima said gratefully.

After lunch, Wang Qinian sent Takashima to the carriage. When Takashima got on the carriage, he felt a little tired, but he still saw from the window of the carriage that a carriage was parked next to it, and a yellow man walked from the carriage. Down.

“Isn’t this Ando Shinmasa?” Takashima recognized the yellow man at once, but he was too tired and couldn’t lift the energy to take care of that stall.

Unlike Takashima, Masanobu Ando’s goal is clearer, and that is to understand the situation of Dalimaru. Of course, the military version of Daliwan will never let him down.

Now that it has been proved that the goods in Scrooge’s hands are good things, the following is of course the negotiation on how to cooperate.

The shogunate very much hoped to be able to purchase a large number of weapons from United States, but the shogunate could not spend any money at all for a while. Had to ask Scrooge for a loan. It’s not the first time to use loan money to buy weapons anyway.Of course, loans must have collateral. Compared with the Qing Dynasty, the Japanese market is much smaller, but it is not without money.

“As far as I know, the Japanese market is small and funds are scarce. Even if you can fully open the market to us, how much money can we earn in Japan?” Scrooge said to Takahashi, “Also, if the shogunate uses it again Tariffs or a small island or something as a mortgage will definitely be scolded as’traitors’. I heard that there are a bunch of madmen in Japan who hold ripped knives all day, clamoring for’busting barbarians’ all day long. The Japanese are launching terrorist attacks. I don’t want Mr. Takashima to be targeted by these people because of our business. And the dumping of colonial goods will only cause harm to Japan in the long run. This is the same as McDonald’s. The family’s pursuit of a win-win concept is inconsistent.”

“Mr. MacDonald, do you have a better way?” Takashima was a little excited. It would be perfect if he could get a loan without signing an agreement such as mortgage tariffs.

“Japan is small, limited in resources, and economically backward. There is no future if you want to engage in large-scale industries like the United States,” Scrooge said. “But the Japanese people are hardworking, and it’s okay to do things that require a lot of labor. . I bought a large piece of land on the Isthmus of Panama and plan to dig a canal there. This plan is very important to the United States. I have convinced most members of Congress that this plan will undoubtedly be supported by the United States. Now The only problem is that the conditions in that place are difficult. If you use United States workers to dig the canal, the cost will be very high. And Japan has hard-working people…” said Scouch.

“Mr. MacDonald, you mean that you plan to hire a large number of Japanese to dig the canal.” Takashima asked. People often die when digging a canal. Takashima, who is familiar with sinology, knows this. In China, Emperor Yang of Sui caused the death of hundreds of thousands of people in order to excavate the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal, and eventually led to the chaos of the world, taking the entire Sui Dynasty into it. But now that Scrooge intends to use the Japanese to dig the canal, in addition to the salary cost, the bigger reason is probably that the Japanese do not feel distressed.

“Yes, the Isthmus of Panama is a tropical rainforest landform, and the conditions are very difficult. Only a strong and brave nation like the Japanese can complete such a task.” Scrooge said quietly, “Also, I can assure the shogunate that I Will treat those Japanese workers kindly. Treat them like United States workers. (More than 100,000 people died during the construction of the Panama Canal. The main problem is falciparum malaria. This is a parasitic disease, and sulfa is a little bit of something. There is no use. As for quinine (cinchona frost), its limited production is not enough to save so many people. In the tropical rain forest climate, it is very difficult to eliminate the mosquitoes that transmit malaria. So, even if it is true Treat them like workers in the United States, and the death rate will never be low.) I think so, we use banks to lend money to the shogunate, and the shogunate will order goods from us as soon as it gets the money. At the same time, the shogunate should come forward and organize itself. A labor service company organizes workers to dig a canal in Panama. We sign a contract with your labor department and pay you the money you hire for the workers. You can give part of the money to the workers, and the other part of the shogunate can use it to repay it. Our loans. As far as I know, in Japan, I can’t eat rice balls. I have never eaten a dry rice ball in my life. There are also many poor people who are on the verge of starvation. They also lend a lot of problems to the Shogunate. Now, they are here. I’m here as a worker, at least it’s okay to eat. There will be some income and a little savings. The financial difficulties of the shogunate have also been solved, and I have also made money. And the sovereignty of Japan has also been respected. You see Isn’t this a win-win situation that everyone got what they wanted and was happy?”

“Anyway, those poor ghosts who stayed in Japan either starved to death or were hacked to death during the rice commotion. It is not a bad thing for them to let them go to Panama to build the canal to death. At least before they die. , The people of United States should be able to feed them a full meal.” Takashima thought so, so he immediately felt that throwing the poor Japanese people to repair the canal seemed a very humane good thing in time. So he immediately replied: “Mr. MacDonald, your wisdom is really admirable. I just don’t know how much you can pay Japanese workers.”

“I also want to make money.” Scrooge replied, “Why should I use a Japanese if I pay the same salary as a United States person? And it doesn’t make sense, because I know that the physical fitness of you Japanese is What do the British say? “Sick man in East Asia” (this term was really used by the British to laugh at the Japanese at first, but later Japan developed and re-exported it to the Republic of China) or What is it? We have to review the workers you sent to us, and the unqualified “Sick Man of East Asia” will also ask you to take it back. We will pay the freight for qualified workers. Taking these into consideration, we can only pass each one. Our qualified workers are equivalent to half the wages of United States workers. Of course, this is for your labor service company. As for how many workers you are willing to give, that is a matter for the shogunate. What do you think of this arrangement?”

Takashima thought for a while, and said to Scrooge: “Your request is completely reasonable. I agree with such a deal in principle.”