1855 United States Tycoon

At the welcome reception, Scrooge not only got to know the famous Lincoln of later generations, but also got acquainted with more businessmen by the way. He received a lot of compliments for "will be Van der Fast in the future", and many saw him. He had a good business and wanted to get a share of the pie. The guys asked him whether the McDonald Infantry Weapons Company needed a new joint venture. However, most of these people came back disappointed, because although Scrooge urgently needed funds to expand production capacity, he did not have much difficulty in financing. Whether it was from Morgan or the Rothkard family, he could borrow When it comes to money, although the borrowed money is required to pay interest, it is better than splitting the own company out to others.

In Scrooge's plan, the focus of the next step is to expand production capacity. In theory, this is not difficult. As long as Scrooge is willing to let the assembly line production model appear in advance, it can greatly increase without adding personnel and equipment. Production capacity, it’s just that the technology threshold of a big killer like assembly line is too low and it is too easy to be imitated by others. In gun production, it is unlikely that this will be exposed in the business of a monopoly consortium. It does not seem to be special. Cost-effective. Since the company is still profitable and can make a lot of profits, it may be better to recruit more workers and buy more machines in the traditional way.

Before the assembly line is produced, a product is often manufactured on one machine by one or several workers from start to finish. The machine is only the extension and strengthening of the workers' limbs. In this case, experienced workers are particularly important. Scrooge suddenly remembered a rumor about the Japanese Self-Defense Force he saw before he crossed.

The Japanese Self-Defense Force is a very strange organization. It is not an army. Its members are all civil servants. In this way, a common problem in the civil service system appeared in the Japanese Self-Defense Forces, that is-there are more officers than soldiers. In a small department, there is one full chief, three deputy chiefs, five assistant chiefs, and one or two staff members. This situation is definitely not news in some government departments in the 21st century. The Japanese Self-Defense Force, which was organized in accordance with the civil service method, also inherited this habit, so the spectacle that there are more lieutenants than private soldiers also appeared here.

But this spectacle frightened many people for a while. Many military commentators believed that the Japanese Self-Defense Force’s deployment of more officers and fewer soldiers had ulterior motives in order to rapidly expand the number of troops if needed. ——Because the time required to train low-level officers has been saved.Of course, with the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, the various performances of the Self-Defense Forces made everyone stunned: when they were dispatched to disaster relief, they still strictly abide by the 9 to 5 civil servants’ work and rest schedule, and resolutely resist any overtime work; what drives the disaster relief The material ran to Fukushima, halfway through, and the more I thought about it, the more I became afraid. I simply dumped the relief materials on the side of the road and drove back. Someone drove a helicopter to cool the reactor, but didn’t dare to get close to sprinkle water. Sprinkle water at a height of thousands of meters and finish the matter; if you ran to the hospital to prove that you were unwell, you would show the big bird, and ran to the street to molested the flower girl in order to be arrested by the police and avoid Fukushima During the trip, the helicopters of the TV station flew up before the tsunami to broadcast the tsunami. Half an hour later, the planes and helicopters of the Self-Defense Forces still did not fly, and they were soaked in sea water on the ground. Anyway, the Self-Defense Forces made a fool of themselves and there were no more panties left. What self-defense force personnel are capable and well-trained has become a big joke.

However, Scrooge felt that the method that was misunderstood as a preparation for rapid army expansion was very inspiring to his current situation. Three years later, war will inevitably break out. This is the first industrial era war in the world, the first overall war. In the original history, in this war, the two sides organized a 3 million army. Taking into account the damage, elimination and necessary backup of the guns, the two sides needed at least 6 million rifles in the Civil War. At present, the United States has only a federal army of about 16,000, and the Springfield Arsenal, which provides them with weapons, also has very limited production capacity. Obviously, after the outbreak of the war, whoever's production capacity grows faster will get a bigger pie. Think about it, 6 million rifles, even if you score one-tenth of them, and then earn 10 US dollars per rifle, it is a full 6 million US dollars. With this money, you can launch those who can really lay the foundation of an empire. Things out. If he can hoard more skilled workers now, he will surely be able to expand production capacity as quickly as possible after the outbreak of war in the future, so as to get the biggest piece of cake.

"Perhaps, I should shorten the working hours of technology workers in key positions from the current eight hours to six hours. Fortunately, I can accumulate more technology workers in my factory. Of course, this will further increase the cost, but , Considering the future benefits, it is still worth it."

Scrooge made up his mind to sacrifice a little immediate profit and prepare for future expansion plans. Just when he was planning to send people to the newspaper to post job advertisements, a big deal came by himself.

"Boss, a Mr. Ferrari sent someone a business card, saying that he wanted to visit you early tomorrow morning to discuss a deal with you. The messenger is still waiting for a reply. How can I reply to him? "Scrooge's assistant Roland walked in.

Scrooge looked down at the card. Robert Ferrari, an Italian businessman. "What does an Italian come to do with himself? Does his own rifle have an international influence so quickly?" Scrooge was a little surprised.

"Well, Mr. Roland, I don't seem to have any important activities tomorrow, right?" Scrooge said.

"Yes, boss, a representative of the Federal Army will visit the factory tomorrow afternoon. Do you need to prepare for this tomorrow morning?"

Although it is unlikely that MacDonald 1857 will be sold to the Union army now-a Democrat, how could a pro-Southern government strengthen the Union army now? Isn't that the birthday star hangs himself-doesn't he think he has a long life? However, the basic posture is still to be done. The government has also issued an announcement to purchase a batch of new guns for the Army to replace those obsolete scraps (the purchase quantity is pitifully small); and Shi Gaozhi also He participated in the government bidding with ulterior motives. In the future, if someone accused him of having a large number of McDonald’s 1857 in the hands of the Southerners, he could deduce that he had participated in the government bidding, but the government did not purchase him. For the rifle, the Democratic Party’s federal government should be responsible.

Since the so-called bidding and inspection are actually just a formality, it would be uneconomical to interfere with normal business. So Scrooge bluntly replied: "For the Army's bid for less than a hundred guns? Unless they are interested in purchasing the MacDonald 1857 precision shooting version, I don't think there is any need to prepare. Go. Tell the courier, at eight o'clock tomorrow morning, I will be waiting for the driver at the company."

Early the next morning, Scrooge was waiting in the company. At a little over 7:40, Scrooge saw from the office window that a carriage was parked not far from the company, a short man. Get off the carriage, waved to the carriage, and the carriage moved on.

The short man sorted his own clothes, then took out a pocket watch from his pocket and looked at it, then stood there again and looked at the gate of the McDonald Infantry Weapons Company. After a few minutes, he took it out again. The pocket watch looked at it, then put it in his arms and walked towards the McDonald Infantry Weapons Company. When the door of Scrooge's office was knocked, the self-ringing bell in the office rang exactly at eight o'clock. Bells.

"When did the Italians become so punctual? This is not Italian style." Scrooge remembers, at least in the era before his journey, Italians weren't like this. Well, if you date an Italian and make an appointment at 8 o’clock in the morning, then you can go to bed until you wake up at 8 o’clock, then spend an hour bathing and eating breakfast, and then spend another half an hour slowly to the date place, and then be patient. Wait for half an hour, um, then you can see the Italian slowly appearing in front of you, and he was surprised to say to you: "**, I didn't expect you to come so early."

"Please come in." Scrooge said.

The door was pushed open, and Roland walked in with the short man.

The short man took off his top hat, bowed to Scrooge, and then said to Scrooge in non-standard English: "I am Robert Ferrari. I hope my presumptuous visit will not disturb you. Scrooge felt that the Italian taste in this English was not a lot. On the contrary, the pronunciation of some words seemed to have an Irish accent.

"How come? A friend is willing to come to visit me, I am too late." Scrooge also spent two or three months of his spare time learning Italian for a manual before crossing, so he also Just made this answer directly in Italian.

Hearing Scrooge’s answer, the man was surprised to look at Scrooge with his eyes wide open, and then replied in Italian: "Mr. Scrooge, I didn’t expect you to be so young. learned."

"You praised." Scrooge smiled slightly, and Mr. Ferrari's Italian accent was not orthodox.

"I can say a few greetings in Italian, so let's talk in English. You came to North America a long distance away, what kind of business do you want to make with me?" Scrooge asked .

"I'm from the Kingdom of Sardinia. You know, just a few years ago, our country suffered a huge loss in the war with the Austrian invaders for the independence and freedom of Italy. But we never forgot the notorious liberation of Italy. Destiny, we are always waiting for the opportunity for revenge. The Austrians did not relax their vigilance, and, to be honest, Austria’s military power is far above us. Not long ago, when I was doing cotton trading in North America, I saw your The company’s rifle. This is really an epoch-making weapon. If our Sardinian army can be equipped with this rifle, we will definitely defeat the Austrians. Therefore, I hope to be able to order a large number of McDonald’s 1857 rifles from you." The short man who claimed to be Italian replied.

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