The Duke of Newcastle not only disagreed with Xiao Letian's pollution argument, but even implicitly accused the Northern Industrial Zone of being a nonsense. The key point of attack was the multiple standards of the industrial zone.
To be honest, this is really a source of confusion in the Tanggu Special Administrative Region, because in the early days of human industrial development, there was a long period of beggar-thy-neighbor behavior, and various countries had different industrial standards for various purposes.
Every country keeps its own technology secret. During the design and production process, the same parts have different names and standards, and even the rail spacing is deviated. The most famous one is Tsarist Russia. The Tsar actually used two sections of his beard. The distance between them is used as the standard for rail spacing.
Not to mention steel casting and machinery manufacturing, which were the lifeline industries of the country at the time and were directly linked to the military industry. Military factories in various countries were highly secretive places, and any words that could leak secrets were carefully guarded. Camouflaged.
This era is not like after World War II, when the industries of various countries began to cooperate and divide labor. Each country developed its national industry according to its own situation, and then learned from each other's strengths through trade. Only in that era could global industrial unification and standardization be carried out.
But that’s not the case in today’s world. What countries believe in is the law of the jungle. They are all hungry wolves with red eyes, desperately trying to tear off the flesh from each other’s bodies to fatten themselves. At this time, what countries are pursuing is big industry. system, because only a large industrial system can ensure national security and will not be controlled by others.
To put it bluntly, all strategic material resources must be safe, and the industrial processing products produced using these resources must also be made by oneself. Only in this way will they not be choked by others when war comes.
This kind of strategic thinking is difficult for people in the 21st century to understand, because in Xiao Letian's previous life, there were a large number of young people who had never seen war and truly believed in world unity and human peace.
The international society before World War II was completely different. Almost all the great powers were preparing for war. Even if they did not want to provoke a war, they had to be prepared to passively engage in war. That sense of crisis not only existed in the hearts of politicians, but also deeply imprinted on the hearts of ordinary people.
Another example is the current severe Franco-Prussian relationship. Xiao Letian is an undisclosed ally of Prussia, so he can get some highly confidential information.
Among those top-secret intelligence, Xiao Letian knew that the Krupp Arsenal's artillery technology had made a great breakthrough, and that the God of War had thrown his luck into Prussia, but France knew nothing about it.
When Napoleon swept across Europe, French artillery played a key role. Napoleon himself was an artillery commander, and his use of the God of War can be said to be superb.
At that time, France's cannon casting technology was definitely the first in Europe.
Unfortunately, things changed. When the Krupp Company received the support of the Kaiser, technology began to develop rapidly. At this time, the French had no idea that Prussia had begun to equip a large number of Krupp artillery with long range, high accuracy and powerful power.
The balance of war has already tilted!
In a word, in this era, the industrial development of various countries, under the premise of the same basic principles, has taken divergent routes.
Everyone is holding back their energy to develop their own unique industrial system. They all hope that their country will be more efficient, more economical and more technological, and that in the end, others will not be able to steal it.
This has caused great confusion in the industrial standards of various countries around the world. If engineers from different countries want to adapt to other people's systems, they have to go through a period of learning.
Just like when humans want to learn a foreign language, the industrial standards of various countries at that time were the languages used in industrial production. If you want to understand it, you need to learn it first. Of course, the premise is that the other party is willing to teach you.
The standards of various countries are extremely confusing, and the Northern Industrial Zone created by Xiao Letian is even more confusing. He did not completely copy the standards of one country, such as the United States and Prussia.
On the contrary, there are many companies from different European countries in the Tanggu Special Zone. Some of those factories are joint ventures with Americans, and some are joint ventures with Prussia, Britain, Italy and other countries.
Of course, the United States and Prussia had the largest number of factories.
This is a point that many European engineers are very dissatisfied with. It is very difficult to cooperate between factories with different standards, and it is also difficult to train Chinese workers.
Chaos, chaos everywhere. A British engineer once wrote to Mr. Fan Jian, "If the Northern Industrial Zone completely uses British standards and systems, the efficiency will be at least doubled!"
The industrialization process of the Qing Dynasty was naturally the focus of European powers. It was not only related to national security, but also related to huge financial resources.
All the advantages and disadvantages of the SAR cannot escape the British intelligence network. As a high-ranking British nobleman, the Duke of Newcastle is naturally familiar with them.
Today, when he heard that Xiao Letian had questioned the pollution in Britain, the Duke, who was unwilling to suffer any loss, immediately began to fight back. On the one hand, he criticized the weaknesses of the Tanggu Special Administrative Region, and on the other hand, he planted a seed in Emperor Tongzhi's heart. seed.
It is better to use British standards. Look at how developed our British industry is, number one in the world! If you don’t learn from No. 1, how can you learn from Xiao Letian’s Wanguo Pai? This is not what a wise man does.
Hidden under the beautiful diplomatic vocabulary is the stark competition of interests between countries. Xiao Letian understood that the Duke of Newcastle was trying to exalt Britain's value by belittling himself.
National competition is not all about the military, the business field is also a battlefield! In the future, the industrialization of mainland China is destined to be a huge cake worth hundreds of billions of silver dollars. The UK can no longer sit still and wants to grab the cake.
After thinking about all this, Xiao Letian smiled faintly, "IWC brand? The standards are confusing? I don't think so. On the contrary, I hope that all the special zones in the Qing Dynasty will use this IWC standard..."
"Without him, it's just a matter of a century-old plan!"
"A century-old plan?" Zaichun and the Duke asked in surprise.
Xiao Letian looked deeply at the British land, looking at the gray color and said sadly, "Yes, we can't just look at the present when doing things, we must have a century-old plan!"
"On the surface, what the Qing Dynasty lacks are steel plants, coking plants, textile factories, and chemical plants... But the root cause is actually technology. It is the lack of technology that prevents the Qing Dynasty from manufacturing the latest machinery!"
"And what does technology rely on? It relies on people to create, so cultivating talents is the most important thing!"
"Why should I adopt IWC standards and why should I buy different models of equipment from all over the world? The purpose is to allow our Chinese technicians to have more and more exposure to the technologies of different countries and understand different design styles!"
"Only by reading a lot of books can you make breakthroughs! Isn't it similar to cultivating industrial talents?"
