America 1881: They Call Me Legend

Chapter 592 Roswell Science Society Regular Meeting
Rockefeller has been a little unhappy recently.

It stands to reason that since McKinley came to power, he has strongly supported the development of monopoly capital, and Rockefeller and his Standard Oil Trust can be said to be invincible.

The take-off of the United States is based on the rapid development of domestic industry.

And oil is the blood of industry, and Rockefeller controlled it.

How could his wealth not expand rapidly?
But he is still not happy.

"These damned newspapers like to make some big news every day, set up some characters, and let the people fall into nihilistic idol worship every day"

At 221 New York Avenue, still in the small salon of the Masonic Society, Rockefeller held a newspaper in his hand and whispered in his mouth.

A large photo was published on the headline of the newspaper, which was a group photo of Chen Jianqiu and Roosevelt capturing San Juan Heights.

Rockefeller now hates two people the most.

One is Roosevelt, and the other is Chen Jianqiu.

The former showed strong political ambitions and a distaste for monopoly capitalists.

Not to mention the latter.

Now the two actually appear in the same photo, and are promoted as American war heroes.

"Chen and Roosevelt have proved with their heroic performance that they are not cowards, nor are they just talking, but are willing to give everything for the glory of this beautiful country."

Rockefeller read the words in the newspaper, felt irritated for no reason, and threw the newspaper aside.

He turned to Morgan, who was staring at him intently, with playful eyes:
"Tell me, why did Roosevelt obviously have a problem with the Monopoly Trust, but why did he turn a blind eye to his Chinese friend?"

"Strictly speaking, Chen's company is not a monopoly." Morgan's gaze turned to the ceiling. "Although he has been involved in many industries, the only ones that touch the edge of monopoly are arms and railways."

"But for those companies in the Gunpowder Association, he doesn't get involved in the management, and he doesn't even take up the equity, so you have to accuse him of monopolizing, at most, the raw materials and industry standards."

"As for the railway?"

Morgan didn't go on.

Because we all know that the railway in the western part of the United States belongs to Chen Jianqiu, and the railway in the eastern part of the United States belongs to Morgan.

In addition, after the financial crisis, the industry integration has obviously improved the efficiency of railways, so discussions on this aspect have continued.

"Maybe he saved Roosevelt's life." Morgan said after thinking for a while.

"But do you know what he's been doing recently?" Rockefeller sat up straight and leaned over, "He's recruiting those soldiers who have withdrawn from the War Department and the army."

"If this continues, he won't just be a monopoly." He said with concern.

Morgan laughed.

"It doesn't seem to be something you need to worry about, oh, of course, it's not something I need to worry about either."

What he said next made the oil tycoon even more uncomfortable:
"Chen is a hero. He is now full-fledged. Like Roosevelt, he is a hero of the United States. Although his wealth is not as good as yours, it is basically impossible for you to shake him fundamentally."

Rockefeller was silent.

Morgan raised his legs, spread his palms, and said sincerely:
"Let me give you a suggestion, why not be like me and cooperate with him to get a share of the pie."

"Your respective borders are different, so there's no need to fight endlessly."

Rockefeller snorted coldly.

Of course he understood what Morgan meant by saying this.

However, he did not agree with Morgan's statement.

He Chen Jianqiu is a hero, and I, Rockefeller, am an honest person?

Since none of them are good stubble, there is no possibility of coexistence.

Rockefeller's philosophy is: I want, I want, I want!

The expansion of capital is endless and has nothing to do with the field.

His bet with Morgan is still there.

Although the bet seems insignificant now, Rockefeller cared more about whether Chen Jianqiu would be finished than the bet.

This person's thinking mode seems to be different from that of himself and people like Morgan.

He faintly felt that if he continued like this, sooner or later he would fall into his hands.

Rockefeller pondered for a long time before standing up.

After saying goodbye to Morgan briefly, he put on his hat and walked out of the salon.

"Chen, you have weaknesses."

In the night, the corners of Rockefeller's mouth raised slightly.

"Your weakness is that you are a Chinese."

Chen Jianqiu didn't know about the discussion in the Freemasonry Salon.

He had returned to Roswell by this time.

Firstly, it was because he was busy leading the team to fight in Cuba a while ago, and he had no time to deal with business matters. Secondly, the inventors of the Roswell Science Committee came up with some new things, and he needed to personally decide whether they were commercially viable. Value, whether to carry out mass production or continue research, or give up and cut off the project.

Today's Roswell Chamber is full of seats.

Members of the Roswell Society of Scientists, every one of them attended.

Under normal circumstances, scientists or engineers who can be recruited are somewhat arrogant.

Unless it is a seminar, many people are not very interested in this kind of administrative meeting.

Sometimes I study retreats, or I am too busy to get away, so I basically don’t attend.

The chairman of the association, Holmes himself, is an idler, and the vice-chairman, Browning, is basically perfunctory.

Therefore, the usual regular meetings are basically sparse.

But whenever Boss Chen wants to attend the meeting, the old members will come out of their laboratories or workshops.

Not only that, but they will also bring a big bag or sack.

When Boss Chen walked into the Roswell Chamber wearing a cloth robe, he was followed by a few attendants.

Each of them held a big box in their hands.

Chen Jianqiu strode to his seat at the top of the long table and sat down.

This chair has been there for almost ten years, and Chen Jianqiu has also been sitting there for ten years.

Usually when he was not around, whether it was a meeting in Roswell Town or a meeting of the Science Association, he would basically leave that chair empty.

A ceramic tea bowl was delivered to Chen Jianqiu, and at the same time, an iron ashtray was also handed over.

A bowl of tea, a cigarette, and a meeting for half a day.

In Chen Jianqiu's self-deprecating words, this is one of the manifestations of his entering middle age.

Fortunately, the hair is still there, and the longer it grows, the harder it is.

Chen Jianqiu picked up the tea bowl and took a sip. After putting it down, he was about to take out his cigar when he suddenly found that everyone sitting at the table was staring at him.

He waved his hands at those followers:
"What are you doing in a daze? Open the box."

Seeing that the boss had sent a message, the attendants quickly opened the box and dumped the dollar bills inside bundles on the table.

These green dollars quickly piled up on the table in front of Chen Jianqiu.

The people around the table reacted differently.

The newcomers were stunned and didn't know what to say; while the old people had already started to dig sacks from under the table.

"The patent fee and salary have already been charged to your personal accounts. Here is the bonus, and the lawyer will distribute it to you later." Chen Jianqiu said.

He suddenly remembered something again, and hooked his fingers at A Niu beside him.

Ah Niu bent down and put his head close.

Chen Jianqiu whispered something in his ear.

Ah Niu understood, and brought up a small box from under the table.

He opened the box directly, and inside were pieces of gleaming gold.

"This is a special award for the 'mortar' research and development team. The things they created within a limited time period performed very well in this battlefield." Chen Jianqiu said.

The members of the R&D team sitting on the right all burst into smiles.

Even the coldest German gun mechanic couldn't help but glance at the gold.

Money is not everything, but for your employees, nothing is more real than money.

Ideals can be discussed, but not only ideals; feelings can also be discussed, but they must complement each other.

Otherwise, it is hooliganism.

After the money was distributed, the meeting was very enjoyable.

Everyone introduced their research results to the people present in an orderly manner.

Browning is improving the follow-up model of the bar to solve its awkward positioning problem;

Tesla is researching and improving radio communication. He originally wanted to spend more energy on researching wireless power transmission technology, but was persuaded to stop by Chen Jianqiu.

Chen Jianqiu first affirmed Tesla's idea.

He told Tesla that it was possible, but that there were quite a few technical issues to be resolved.

But before that, he hopes that Tesla can first land the wireless telegraph technology.

In return, he would build Tesla a "big toy" in Roswell for him to study radio transmission.

Chen Jianqiu did not tell Tesla that things might not be as simple as he imagined.

Many difficulties in this technology were not overcome until 100 years later, and Tesla may not be able to solve this problem in his lifetime.

But Chen Jianqiu still wants to express his respect to Tesla.

Don't look down on those idealists, every road under your feet is stepped on by them.

The agronomists and the people in the fertilizer factory are studying to continue to improve the soil around Roswell to see if a larger oasis can be built.

However, judging from the current results, there is a long way to go.

Everything else was lackluster.

In addition, there are two other things that Chen Jianqiu's eyes can shine.

One is that Ford fulfilled his wish and made a car with an internal combustion engine.

The flaw of this car is that it still stays in the thinking of a carriage. The only difference is that the power comes from the internal combustion engine instead of horses.

Chen Jianqiu briefly put forward some opinions, and agreed to invest in Ford to establish his own company as a major shareholder.

This is true for other engineers and inventors as well.

They can choose to start their own business, or they can be more stable and stay with Chen Jianqiu to enjoy high patents and bonuses.

Another thing that interested Chen Jianqiu was that a mechanic from Germany improved the tractor that was working in the fields of Roswell.

He replaced the tractor's wheels with tracks, allowing it to travel more smoothly in the field and adapt to more terrain.

At the same time, he improved the internal combustion engine used, adopted the compression ignition method, improved the heat conversion efficiency, and made the power reach more than 100 horsepower.

At the time, this was already considered a pretty good statistic.

After the meeting, the engineer named Diesel took Chen Jianqiu to visit the prototype.

This prototype machine ran fast in the field after a "chug" sound without any load.

Chen Jianqiu stared at the tracked vehicle for a long time, suddenly lost in thought.

Seeing the boss's expression, the German engineer on the side felt a little uneasy for a while.

He suddenly felt that this invention of his didn't seem to have much significance in the field, at most it was just processing a few acres of land.

"Mr. Chen, do you think the performance of this machine is not outstanding enough?" Diesel asked carefully from the side.

Chen Jianqiu's eyes were still on the tractor.

"I mean, if this tractor is surrounded by protective iron plates, and then equipped with machine guns and cannons, can it be rampant on the plains?"

(End of this chapter)