Opening game, American Tycoon

Chapter 232 The Era of Huge Profits (Second Update, Please Subscribe)
Armored trains are land cruisers!
In a sense, it is true.

Complacent, Zhu Xianhai jumped on the armored train with great interest.

In fact, the so-called armored train is to add steel armor, artillery and machine guns to ordinary trains.To put it bluntly, this is entirely a question of philosophy.

At the beginning, Nanhua’s first hero in fighting against foreign enemies, the steam tractor, was only covered with a layer of thick wood, which could play an unexpected role. Now it is just a similar concept applied to the train. Compared with the bulky steam tractor, the armored train For the bulky, more weapons can be loaded.

In fact, armored trains have long been used in the United States. In order to protect road workers and prevent the cavalry from the Confederate Army from attacking, soldiers of the Northern Army installed artillery on the trains, thus opening the era of armored trains.

In the combat cabin, seeing the four 3-inch Albanian field guns in the carriage, which are installed on the naval gun-style revolving gun mounts, they seem to be no different from the cabins of warships, Zhu Xianhai said with a smile.

"These screw guns have been eliminated, and they can be used on armored trains. There are four cannons in one carriage, and twenty-four in six carriages. It is almost a small cruiser. On the roof, there is another The turret, the Gatling machine gun mounted on the turret... In a word, the armored train must have strong firepower, the machine guns and artillery must cover a 360-degree omni-directional field of fire, and the body should be covered with heavy armor, which is enough to adapt to fierce warfare."

Passing through a carriage, what came into view was a half-open carriage. In the half-open carriage, a huge artillery was pointed directly at the front door.

"This is……"

Eyes wide open in horror, Sun Hu said in an unbelievable tone.

"This, this is... a 180mm coastal defense gun?"

In fact, it is the 110-pound Armstrong cannon that Nanhua imitated in the early days. Now they have been replaced by the Krupp cannon with a threaded breech breech. However, because no suitable seller has been found, it will be used for armor for the time being. On the train, wait until you have a next home, and then put on the Kruppist cannon.

"Yes, but if you put it on the train, it is a train cannon. With this train cannon, the so-called fortress is vulnerable!"

Zhu Xianhai proudly patted the thigh-thick cannonball next to the side wall of the carriage. This is a 100-kilogram cannonball!
His lips were pursed proudly, and his eyes narrowed slightly. He seemed to have seen the scene where thousands of Chileans fell in front of this armored train. That’s right, when the last tunnel in the Andes Mountains was opened and the railway was built. After that, this armored train will drive to Shanxi, and then he will blast along the railroad all the way to... San Diego.

In the past few years, the Chileans have repaired the railway to the front line in order to defeat the provisional government in the south, and there are dozens of kilometers in the middle.
"It's a pity that armored trains have too many limitations. As for steam tractors..."

The coal and water carried by the steam tractor are only enough to travel tens of kilometers, which is not enough at all. If there are armored vehicles, it will be different.

Armored vehicles!

Zhu Xianhai naturally thought of the "Maxima Car" in his garage. That car was completely his personal toy, and it hadn't played any role yet.

"Otto..."

On the return journey, sitting in the carriage, Zhu Xianhai chanted the name silently.

Ross August Otto's arrival in Nanhua was completely unexpected. Zuo Zongtang's visit to Europe brought many technical personnel to Nanhua.Otto brought his gas machine.Although it is an old-fashioned vertical single-cylinder free-piston engine, the gas engine is light, its thermal efficiency is as high as about 15%, and it uses less steel, so it is still very popular in the market. As early as a few months ago, Otto Gas Machine Company's products have already been exported to countries such as Britain and France, and it uses lighting gas as fuel, and it was very popular in Britain and France as soon as it was launched.

"Four-stroke internal combustion engine, I can provide them with some information first, let them study it..."

The so-called technical materials are actually just a few books explaining the principles of internal combustion engines ordered from the system. Don’t underestimate the few books. Moreover, Otto had already invented the four-stroke gas engine, but the ignition problem had not been solved yet.

"Otherwise, how about direct imitation?"

Send the "Maximum" over... This seems to be a good choice. With an internal combustion engine, even a gasoline engine with dozens of horsepower, the changes brought about are subversive. Besides, although there are no coal mines in Nanhua, there are Oil!

Of course, more importantly, the price of oil is now cheap-in the United States, large-scale oil extraction has begun, and the purpose of their oil extraction is to extract kerosene.After extracting kerosene, a large amount of "waste oil" will be left, which contains a large amount of gasoline and diesel oil.

The reason why Zhu Xianhai understands this is because Nanhua imports a lot of "waste oil" while importing oil to extract kerosene. Those "waste oil" are real "waste oil"—it doesn't cost a penny. Just hitch bucket money and shipping.The reason why Nanhua bought "waste oil" was entirely based on military needs, and it was to extract gasoline to make incendiary bombs.

"This is millions of barrels of waste oil..."

Talking to himself, Zhu Xianhai suddenly became a little less calm. How much "waste oil" will there be left in the United States?Over two million barrels, their sole purpose is to extract kerosene fuel.Two million barrels of "waste oil" is not much, but it is indeed a lot!
"This business is going well!"

Pursing his lips, Zhu Xianhai smiled lightly.

"In this era, there are really business opportunities everywhere."

In this era, business opportunities are everywhere. Take the simplest steel as an example. The cost of producing a ton of open hearth steel in Nanhua’s steel plant is only 10 yuan, but the market price is as high as 160 yuan per ton. Now Nanhua Every ton of steel sold here can get more than ten times the huge profits.In the past few years, just relying on the export of steel, Nanhua Iron and Steel Company has made a lot of money.

The profit of crude steel is even higher than that of the independent trader. Only in this era can jade have such huge profits. Of course, it is impossible in another era.This is completely a technical monopoly advantage!

In order to maintain this monopoly, Zhu Xianhai even took the initiative to reduce the amount of "expensive steel" and imported wrought iron manufacturing machines from Britain.On the one hand, it is because it is cheap, and on the other hand, of course, it is for the sake of confidentiality. These days, who uses steel to make rails.

How expensive is steel?
Good steel must be used on the cutting edge.Export expensive steel.Import cheap wrought rails.Although the life of the rails is much lower.But even so, it is extremely cost-effective, after all, Nanhua has indeed obtained extremely rich profits through the export of steel products.

"Unfortunately, such a profitable business won't last long..."

It won't be long because Nanhua's technological monopoly is about to be broken, and soon European scientists will "invent" open-hearth steelmaking. As a result, the price of steel will naturally plummet. Of course, it will take a process...

(End of this chapter)