Chapter 7: The Long Journey (Part 2)

  In the development history of human beings, many significant progresses or changes in life are brought about by the advancement of science and technology.

  Watt's efficient steam engine greatly promoted the progress and development of productive forces, making large-scale production possible, leading to the Industrial Revolution in Britain and even the entire Western world. This in turn drove the progress of other industries such as metallurgy and chemistry, thereby greatly promoting the progress of Western civilization, with science and culture developing more vigorously than ever before. Thus, the First Industrial Revolution created the rise of the British Empire's dominance, marking the formal end of feudal backwardness. Once a backward country fails to actively catch up, time will quickly brew a huge gap, giving birth to strong and weak nations, and the law of the jungle where the strong prey on the weak begins to prevail in the human world.

  The arrival of the Second Industrial Revolution, ancient China was still in a deep sleep, imperialist countries were about to usher in the second takeoff, Zhang Yu-sheng and others came into this world. At first, their arrival seemed to have little impact on history, even insignificant, but as time passed, history would eventually undergo tremendous changes, just like a car driving in a straight line, at some point, the angle of deviation is very small, with increasing distance, it will eventually deviate far from the original straight line, however, in a relatively short period of time, the degree of deviation is negligible, and the big things that were supposed to happen would still happen as usual.

  When it comes to major historical events, 1911 is a year that every Chinese should remember. This was the year when the Chinese nation began to stand up and become its own master, this was the year when the winds of democracy and science started to blow, and naturally, this was also the starting point for independence and strength. All of this was due to one major event in this year - the Xinhai Revolution.

  The Xinhai Revolution was triggered by the Qing government's sale of railway construction rights, which sparked resistance from the Chinese people and led to the outbreak of the Railway Protection Movement in Sichuan and other provinces. On October 10, 1911, revolutionary groups in Wuchang, including the Literary Society and the Progressive Association, launched the Wuchang Uprising, which was followed by responses from various provinces, unleashing a great wave of democratic revolution that dealt a heavy blow to feudal forces and deeply implanted the spirit of democracy in the hearts of the people.

  In this revolution, what is well-known to later generations is not only the 72 martyrs who shed their blood at Huanghuagang, but also the bloody case of the Sichuan people's road protection movement. Various struggles emerged one after another in all parts of the country, and the corrupt Qing dynasty was finally overthrown by the unyielding democratic revolutionary groups.

  From the perspective of ideological culture, the Xinhai Revolution vigorously promoted the spread of democratic and republican ideas in China, laying a certain foundation for future democratic construction. It also played a positive role in overthrowing corrupt and feudal backward thinking. In this sense, the Xinhai Revolution was almost successful in these two aspects.

  However, from the perspective of national economy, state sovereignty, and national dignity, the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution led to the emergence of various local forces, which eventually formed a large number of warlord factions in the future. This laid the groundwork for major disasters that would shake China's national economic construction, unified state sovereignty, and the maintenance of complete sovereignty.

  In summary, the incomplete Xinhai Revolution had its successes, but also its shortcomings. The Chinese nation must complete what the Xinhai Revolution failed to accomplish and eliminate the secondary disasters it brought in order to truly become strong.

  The earth-shaking changes in China soon spread throughout the world, and people staying in the United States would naturally get this news.

  "What's your take on this massive domestic upheaval?"

  "The sky has already rained, and my mother has married someone else. What can we do now? Go back to selling cars, those domestic warlords will probably be developed into our VIP members! Don't block my light, bro, I've been working on this excavator hydraulic drive system for some days now, don't disturb me at the critical moment!" With that, Zhang Yu lowered his head again and slowly studied his drawings.

  Zhang Yusheng held a New York Times in his hand, which used a small column to inform the numerous citizens of New York that in distant China, the Xinhai Revolution had overthrown the Qing dynasty of Empress Dowager Cixi, and it was estimated that another bourgeois democratic republic would emerge in Asia. With less than 300 words, the major events in China were clearly explained.

  "Can't you see, this super earthquake in Chinese politics, what weight does it occupy in the eyes of Americans?" Zhang Yusheng said, waving a full-page English newspaper in front of Zhang Yu. "Are you so calm? Unfazed?"

  "No, brother, this is called calmness. Some people hope that the Chinese will be in a mess, and they calmly watch the various chaotic situations of the Chinese people. But we can't be in a mess, we must be calm to look at problems and solve them. Since others don't care about China's internal affairs, why bother forcing it? As long as you understand what to do, that's enough, why do you need the whole world to come and cheer for you?" Zhang Yu said, taking over the New York Times from Zhang Yu's hand, glanced at it twice before saying: "Damn, this is a bit too much. A newspaper costs so much money, but there's only this little news content. The advertisement space of the Jaguar car is even bigger than that! What kind of crap is this?"

  "So I'm asking you for your views on the major domestic events of this year!" Zhang Yu-sheng directly snatched the newspaper, crumpled it up and threw it into the trash can. "I hope you can give me some advice, I know you also know history, China's traditional education system has always taught students to know a bit of history, or else the country will soon be on the road to warlordism, I just want to know if you have any ideas?"

  Zhang Yu looked at his big brother, then glanced at the newspaper thrown in the trash can, sighed and said: "What about you? You just ask me, if you really have the guts, let's go on a big shopping spree immediately. Each of us will get a rifle and a Colt pistol, and we'll also get some infantry cannons, food, medicine, etc. After returning to the country, we can recruit soldiers and buy horses. With your strong strength, you can quickly occupy a piece of land and become a warlord. But what's the use of that?"

  Zhang Yu-sheng was well aware of these facts. Due to the incomplete bourgeois democratic revolution of the 1911 Xinhai Revolution in China, it can even be said that the revolution did not promote the development of the bourgeoisie, but merely overthrew the traditional feudal bureaucratic ruling class. Those traditional local forces such as gentry and old bureaucrats not only maintained their status but also consolidated it by joining the revolution. Therefore, the 1911 Xinhai Revolution brought a liberating storm to China, but after the brief storm passed, there would be warlordism, severe land annexation, economic retrogression, and internecine warfare among warlords. To fundamentally avoid these problems, much work needs to be done.

  "If you really want to do something, then hurry up and build your own political party, military force, and develop your background power. It's useless to just ask me, a technician, I can only say that my ability is limited, the struggle in politics is much more difficult than designing and manufacturing a tractor, and it's also dangerous." Zhang Yu said, patted his brother's shoulder, then bent down again to check the drawings on the table, continuing his work. "But don't forget about me when you're fighting," Zhang Yu suddenly said, but Zhang Yusheng, who was standing aside, still had no expression.

  "You go ahead with your business, I know what to do!" Zhang Yu Sheng threw down this sentence and quickly left Zhang Yu's office to do what he had thought of earlier. As for his brother's style of doing things, Zhang Yu was already used to it, so he brought his thoughts back and carefully studied his third major task: tractors, excavators, bulldozers, road rollers, cranes, etc., while currently Zhang Yu only restricted the basic requirements for all subsequent engineering vehicles, that is, on top of the excavator.

  Track-type excavators, tanks, are all based on tractors. Bulldozers are just another version of excavators, and cranes are just a combination of cars, hydraulic systems, traction power systems, etc., so the first to develop is the tractor.

  The tractor actually appeared very early, the earliest tractors were truly designed and manufactured for farmers. They used iron wheels, clumsy bodies that are prone to getting stuck, and crushing plant roots is a common occurrence. In the 1830s, people had already thought of equipping car wheels with wooden and rubber-made "tracks" so that heavy steam cars could travel on soft ground. However, the performance and usage of early tracks were not good. It wasn't until 1901 that Lombard in the United States invented the first practical track while developing forestry tractors.

  After 1904, California engineer Holt applied Lombard's invention and designed and manufactured the "77" type steam traction engine, which was also the world's first tracked tractor. Later, many types of tractors appeared, with small ones using rubber tires and large ones using tracks. However, they all faced the same problem: low engine power, high fuel consumption, and poor economic efficiency.

  The biggest feature of the tractor is that the rear axle part forms a large enough torque, producing a large torque through an increasing and decreasing gear ratio, thereby increasing the mechanical traction force. Moreover, the entire vehicle cannot travel too fast, otherwise how can it be cultivated? However, the cumbersome tractor requires strong power output, only diesel engines can meet the demand, so Asia Motors Fuel Power Plant organized the design and production of many models of diesel engines, in addition to supplying trucks that have been officially approved for production, some are also used by tractor manufacturers.

  In 1906, Holt founded a company that would eventually become Caterpillar Inc., which made the first practical continuous tracks for tractors and tanks. The next year, Holt sold his interest in the company and moved to England.

  The research work on the heavy-duty truck was Zhang Yu's responsibility, but after submitting the drawings and materials, he was asked to do some engineering machinery-related things, so Zhang Yu did not participate in the actual production process of the heavy-duty truck at all. However, the Asia Mei Automobile R&D team and manufacturing technical personnel who had already been "tempered" did not disappoint Zhang Yu. With the detailed drawings, they quickly manufactured a prototype and began to conduct a series of tests unique to Asia Mei Automobile.

  However, Zhang Yu recently heard that sometimes when there is nothing to do, Zhang Yusheng would not care about the situation of sedan production, but instead often went to ask about the situation of heavy trucks and said things like "cars should develop in two directions, either large or small. Large ones should start from 8 tons, 12 tons, 20 tons, even 60 tons or hundreds of tons of load capacity development, while small ones should focus on being lightweight and practical, 1 to 4 tons can all be called micro-trucks, abbreviated as Weihuo."

  A group of researchers who were misled and started to instigate themselves when to take out the design drawings of Weihuo. They knew that cars needed to be driven to have a harvest, driving required power, and the power coefficient of the engine per unit vehicle weight was used to measure a car. The best car could reach 6-8.9kw/t, so they also proposed that the engine did not need to worry about Zhang Yu, and they had a way to come up with an engine suitable for various types of trucks. Therefore, sometimes Zhang Yu still had to "do some part-time work" before going to bed at night, and he wanted to use 28 hours out of the 24 hours in a day. He did not want to destroy his image as an 'Oriental genius' in the eyes of foreign engineering technicians.

  Zhang Yu's affairs always follow a set pattern, while Zhang Yusheng's life can be described as full of endless changes.

  "This shipment is extremely important, must be used with caution! The task of expanding the European car market depends on you!" Zhang Yusheng held a document paper with a big red seal and said solemnly to an employee in front of him: "After you go there, you can first find our clothing direct sales store for help. All hardware facilities are already prepared, just waiting for you to come up with practical marketing plans. Opening the European sales route for Asia-Mei cars is the top priority, profit is secondary. Also, don't forget that important matter, seize the opportunity and never let go! Go!"

  "Chairman, rest assured that I, Wen, will not return until the European car market is opened up." With that, Wen Zhenhua handed Zhang Yu his letter of appointment and patted the document sewn into his suit. He bowed deeply to Zhang Yu before quickly leaving the Asia Mei Group headquarters building and rushing to the port, where a fleet of cargo ships loaded with cars was waiting to set sail across the Atlantic Ocean.

  Also rushing to open up the European market are several key members of Yema Auto's sales department, who have rich experience in product marketing. They were summoned together to explore a broader profit market in Europe. Their main products are 125 "Huari" and 213 "Yazhi" vehicles transported by ship, but they did not bring the Beetle to Europe in order to establish the Yema Auto brand.

  "The ultimate state of marketing is to create demand, and the best state of corporate profit is to make a fortune without any investment." Facing the salty sea breeze blowing from the Atlantic, dozens of Asian Beauty Group's marketing talents gathered at the bow of the ship, thinking about the various reminders of the group's chairman and recalling the group's profitable model. Using bank money as operating costs, using cheap labor and materials as much as possible, smoothing out government relations, building a chain of interests, maintaining technical and talent advantages, etc. Zhang Yu-sheng taught these people how to take root in Europe with a complete set of Asian Beauty Group's successful development templates, striving to also be able to grow and thrive on this land like the Asian Beauty Group in Europe.

  The fleet to Europe had just set off, and Zhang Yu-sheng arranged for the second group of people to travel in Asia. They were tasked with conducting a thorough investigation upon their return home, without any intention of opening up domestic markets for cars, clothing, and machinery. Then, Zhang Yu drove alone to New York's famous university, each time hoping to find a Chinese overseas student there, but the reality was really disappointing.

  There are Chinese students studying in the United States. Zhang Yu-sheng clearly remembers that the Qing government had sent two batches of people, and the last batch was stranded in China due to the Xinhai Revolution. The first batch of students studying in the US was during the Westernization Movement in 1872. There were only thirty people in the first batch, and when they were recalled, only Zhan Tianyou and Ouyang Geng graduated from Yale University, while the others either dropped out or were still in middle school. The second batch was similar to the first batch, with only a few people completing their studies, while the rest were almost all stopped due to various reasons and then recalled. The last batch ended prematurely as the Qing government was overthrown before they even left the country. Zhang Yu-sheng, who had big ambitions, had to rely on people who had received higher education, but in reality, it was a different story.

  The current higher education in the United States can also be considered second or third in the world, and Germany's higher education is naturally not comparable. However, compared to China, it has already become a heaven and earth difference. But Zhang Yusheng searched through all the major schools in the United States, including private schools like Harvard, MIT, and NYU, as well as public universities, but couldn't find any familiar long braids, yellow skin, or black eyes anywhere. Despite his efforts, the result was still not optimistic.

  So, Chang Yu-sheng was very organized and meticulous in arranging business trips. If the execution team followed the plan flexibly, commercial success would be inevitable. However, when it came to gathering talent, he really had no way out. It's really a case of one person encountering different things and having a multitude of changing attitudes, making it difficult to bear such an embarrassing situation, how can it not make people anxious?

  "A hundred years of grand plan, education is the foundation." A country and a nation can lack natural resources, can have no vast living environment, and even can have no long history of national glory, but absolutely cannot be without education. The high or low quality of citizens directly determines the level of social civilization, industrial development prospects, and the future fate of the country, as well as the reputation of the nation. When a citizen walks out of the country, if they spit anywhere like at home, speak with foul language, and have no sense of shame, even if he and his country are rich and wealthy, nobody will look up to this country or this nation.

  Changing the fate of a nation does not lie in quickly freeing it from the control of foreign enemies, economic decline, political corruption and so on. It lies in starting with national education, improving the level of national education, and changing bad habits and enlightening ideas. And this is still a long way to go for China, for the great cause of reviving the Chinese nation!!