In the next phone call, Lowell informed Arlington of the incident in detail and assured, "Dealing with a single individual is not a particularly difficult task for me."

"Thank you very much for your help. I still have something to do here. I'll leave Baekeland's affairs to you." Sheffield thanked him in a very polite tone, said a few words and hung up the phone.

Scratching his somewhat messy hair and thinking about the next thing, Sheffield frowned and thought hard, seeming to be quite troubled. Things always came one after another, and he thought he no longer had to bear the burden to move forward.

"What's wrong? Things are not going well?" Anne asked, looking at her husband's troubled face.

"It's not Baekeland's business. There are three things that need to be busy now. The first is the trans-Pacific cable. This time Morgan and I got a contract respectively. His cable is from New York to Europe, and my cable is from San Francisco.

To Tokyo, Japan, Shanghai, China, and Manila, Philippines." Sheffield talked about it and said the first thing.

"It sounds like you have suffered a loss. The profit from Asia is far less than that from Europe." Anne raised her eyebrows and directly entered the role of Arlington's hostess.

"Based on the current situation, it is like this. But this is not important, there are other things." Sheffield continued, "Haiti has experienced floods this year, and it seems that there is a trend of political instability. I want to attend the Democratic National Committee

At that time, it tried to persuade the federal government to be on alert and allow the Marine Corps to invade at any time. The last thing, before Roosevelt left office, the Navy Department formulated a plan to sign a contract with Japan. It would sign a contract with China, including naval training, shipbuilding and officer

training.”

Each of these three things is not as important as the plastic patent matter. Anne nodded while listening, "Even if there is a problem in Haiti, you can directly ask the members of the Black Gold Company to suppress it. Anyway, the Black Gold Company is here

There are bases in Haiti too.”

"How can I do this? Let my employees die for the sake of the country? The lives of Marine Corps are not valuable. Of course, the federal government helps enterprises develop." Sheffield shook his head vigorously and said, "How could you have such an idea?

?Don’t take the lives of Black Gold Company employees seriously?”

"I was wrong." Anne stuck out her tongue and said with some embarrassment, "Didn't I want to take precautions? By the time the federal government responds, the matter may have already become a big problem."

"It's also a matter of the country if it makes a big fuss. If there are losses, Haiti will just wait until the invasion is successful and let Haiti compensate." Sheffield said as if the United States has its own national conditions. "I actually knew the last thing, but I have always known it."

None of them paid attention to the matter of signing a contract with China. Rockefeller Jr. came with the news and believed that this would improve the development of the steel company, because the contract has stated that steel and technology from the United States must be used."

"Aiming for Japan?" Anne knew as soon as she heard this that this was a side effect of the Russo-Japanese War. She thought her husband was suffering from a sentimental problem and pretended not to see it because he was a Japanese woman.

"Well, smart!" Sheffield took a deep breath and said with some embarrassment, "This matter is risky."

In fact, this contract should be the Bethlehem Agreement in history. It's just that the slave owners worked hard for twelve years and at a critical node, they sent a little-known judge to become the president of the United States.

Naturally, the plan to strengthen the navy before the fall of the Qing Dynasty was renamed and fell on the vested interests of the Democratic Party. The historical Bethlehem Agreement was that after the regent Zaifeng came to power, he appointed himself the general marshal of the army and navy, and also appointed other

Di Zaixun and Navy Admiral Sa Zhenbing served as the Ministers of the Preparatory Navy and were responsible for establishing the Preparatory Naval Affairs Office.

As soon as the young and ambitious Zai Xun took office, he announced an ambitious seven-year plan for the development of the navy in the late Qing Dynasty. It planned to build eight more fearless-class ships in five years on the basis of rectifying the old warships in various oceans.

More than 20 cruisers, 10 warships of various types, and the first, second, and third fleets of water torpedo boats were organized; the Beiyang Fleet, the Nanyang Fleet, and the Fujian Province and other ocean fleets were organized; various ocean naval ports and shipyards were established;

Naval University, etc.

This year it has entered a substantial stage. It is no longer a mere flower in the mirror, so it attracted the peeping eyes of Rockefeller Jr. It just so happened that Sheffield had merged the shipbuilding industry in San Francisco before, and already had the strength to manufacture the Dreadnought class.

Young Rockefeller thought that Sheffield should have noticed the profit points long ago, but there was still no movement. He couldn't help but call and ask what the slave owners who couldn't afford to do it early thought about it.

"Then why are you hesitating? Are you afraid that the Chinese can't afford the money?" Anne felt a little strange. Her husband was not like this.

"I am indeed afraid of losses. If the federal government can take into account the international situation and give me a thorough explanation, this can be done. I am not afraid of losses because I am not afraid that the Chinese will default on their debts, but because I think something may happen." Xie

Field has scratched out a bunch of dandruff and is obviously still thinking about it.

Sheffield is not afraid of being cheated on this business related to our Qing Dynasty, but the days of the Qing Dynasty are numbered. Even if he works overtime to manufacture it and then completes the transaction, the warships manufactured will be

It may not necessarily be useful. Who knows that this batch of warships will eventually belong to a certain province.

There is no such thing as default. Sheffield remembers reading statistics in his previous life. Since 1840, the military expenditure of the Qing Dynasty has always been around 40% of tax revenue. This is an agricultural country. What is this ratio?

The Third Empire was at this level. From the Qing Dynasty until its collapse, military spending accounted for nearly half of its expenditures.

More than sixty years of continuous investment in strengthening the army have yielded some results, and indeed they have. The Six Beiyang Towns are the results, mainly in the army.

But now, history has placed the choice of naval results in front of Sheffield, but he has begun to hesitate.

Anne finally felt that she understood her husband's thoughts, "You are afraid that if you give them a battleship, they will not be able to contain it."

"That's right and wrong!" Sheffield hesitated to speak. He couldn't tell Anne, mainly because time didn't allow it.

During the Sino-Japanese War of 1888-1894, the Japanese Combined Fleet was already stronger than the Beiyang Fleet. The defeat of the Beiyang Fleet was not unjust. The real loss was that the army could not defeat the opponent. Now, after years of strengthening the army, can the six towns of Beiyang defeat the Japanese army?

, Sheffield is not predictable.

But judging from the early military leaders of the Beiyang government, these military leaders were not particularly afraid of Japan. The ones who were really afraid of Japan were the artillery party. When it comes to the navy, it is absolutely reasonable to have strong ships and powerful artillery. The Spanish Navy

The navy has a glorious tradition, and the quality of naval soldiers is sufficient. It was almost defeated by the federal navy with zero casualties.

In terms of the navy, the long glorious tradition cannot make up for the tonnage. In the Sino-Japanese War of 1894, both navies can be said to have performed normally. Imperial Russia in the Russo-Japanese War and Spain in the Spanish-American War were the standard ones.

"Let's also talk about this issue with other members of the Democratic Committee. If the federal government can give me a guarantee, I can take certain risks for the country." Sheffield finally thought about the result. It is okay not to make money, but it is definitely not okay to lose money.

.

Packing their bags, the slave owners left their nest again. The upcoming Democratic National Committee meeting was used to discuss the mid-term elections. Sheffield wanted to invade Haiti again to nip it in the bud. It also wanted to let the federal government take care of itself.

I really don’t know what other committees think about the company’s decision.

This time the Democratic Party meeting was unexpectedly chosen in New York. The slave owner originally thought it would be in Chicago. It was still early before the meeting time, so he went to the Rockefeller Manor to stay temporarily.

Inevitably, Rockefeller Jr. began to play the drum again, and Sheffield must seize the opportunity to expand international trade.

"Don't you have very good relations with many Chinese people? I thought you had done this a long time ago." Young Rockefeller asked very puzzledly, "You can make money and contain Japan, which is beneficial to the United States. How can you

Why not do it, because of that Japanese woman?"

"What do you know? The situation in China is unstable now." Sheffield put his hands on his hips. Could it be that he is going to Hawaii now to tell those people in the Alliance that you wait two more years and I will successfully deliver the Dreadnought class so that the Qing Dynasty can fight with Japan?

, are you making a revolution?

In the end, Rockefeller Jr. was so annoyed that Sheffield nodded and said, "The risk is too great. I have to get the federal government to make a guarantee that it will not affect normal operations before taking formal action."

"Then you have to hurry up. I have met with the Chinese ambassador several times." Young Rockefeller said proudly, "This time I am ahead of you. Didn't you expect that?"

Sheffield squinted his eyes and backed away tactically. If the deal was lost, it would be attributed to Rockefeller's decision-making mistakes and had nothing to do with him.

"Then I'll deal with the Democratic Party's mid-term election issue first, and I'll see you after it's over." Sheffield frowned and nodded. The oil king didn't care. What did he care about? Even if he lost money, he would still lose money.

Personal matters.

There are less than 200 members of the Democratic National Committee in the country, and only more than 50 senior voters came to attend the meeting, where they formulated a plan for this midterm election and the difficulties that may arise.

What caught Sheffield's attention was that Wilson in New Jersey was running for governor as the Democratic candidate. In New York, Alice Roosevelt's cousin, Franklin Roosevelt, was running for the New York Senate. The southern states occupied very little space, and the hard-core deep blue states were nothing.
Chapter completed!