My Apprenticeship to Uncle Jiu: I Was a Warlord in the Republic of China

After tasting it, William also said that it tasted good. Jiang Li took the opportunity to ask him for help and buy a few more production lines.

By then, we can develop a few more flavors so that William won’t have to return empty-handed when he comes next time.

William's eyes lit up when he heard this, and he agreed readily.

After their boat sailed away, Jiang Li took his men to the Qinghe Dam to see the progress of the generator installation.

He is now looking forward to the hydroelectric generator starting to work. Once there is electricity, his gun factory can go into production.

The canning plant can also operate at full speed, and tripling the production capacity will not be a problem at that time.

Along the way, he looked at the power transmission and transformer devices along the way and found that they had all been installed. He nodded with satisfaction.

When we arrived at the dam, we saw workers using pulleys to lower the water turbine into the reserved position below.

But suddenly, a pulley got stuck for some reason, and the turbine immediately tilted. The workers immediately used all their strength to pull it up.

However, it was easy to lower the rope due to the pulley system, but it was difficult to pull it up. The workers spent half a day trying to straighten it but failed.

Seeing this, Jiang Li quickly asked the Taoist soldiers to go and help. After a while of hard work, the turbine impeller was successfully installed.

Then William sent in the professionals who were responsible for installing and repairing the hydroelectric generators, and they started working hard and checking repeatedly.

After seeking Jiang Li's opinion, they finally started releasing water to generate electricity.

Since the water has been stored for more than two months, there is already a considerable amount of water in the Qinghe Reservoir.

As the gate opens, a large stream of water flows out of the valve port along the channel, and when it passes through the turbine, it naturally drives it along.

As the turbine began to rotate, various indicator lights in the control room lit up, and then the current passed through the transformer, and the street lights on the dam lit up one after another.

Seeing this scene, Jiang Li and the professionals responsible for installing the generator sets were fine, but the other workers and soldiers who had never seen electric lights widened their eyes and opened their mouths so wide that a goose egg could fit directly in it.

They had lived for half of their lives, but had never seen such a magical thing, not to mention that they had installed this thing themselves. So they whispered to each other and discussed this new thing.

Seeing that the generator was working normally, Jiang Li immediately shouted to everyone, "You all have worked hard today. Everyone will be rewarded later. Now everyone go back first. Remember to go down the dam in an orderly manner and don't crowd to avoid falling into the water!"

Although everyone was very curious about the hydroelectric generator, when they heard that there was a reward, they did not stay any longer and slowly walked down the dam.

After getting off the dam, Jiang Li told Ah San, "Go and gather two companies of soldiers to guard both ends of the dam. Except for the people guarding the generator, don't let anyone else up there!"

Seeing Ah San was about to leave, he added, "Especially those fishermen!"

Ah San scratched his head when he heard that. Seeing that Jiang Li had no other instructions, he turned around and left to mobilize the troops.

Now that there was electricity, Jiang Li immediately rushed to the arsenal and ordered them to start production. After the machines started, he gave orders to the cannery.

The workers were summoned and given two options, one of which was to work in three shifts of eight hours each.

The other is a two-shift system with twelve hours of work per day.

The only difference is the salary, which is half more for two shifts than for three shifts.

After discussion, the workers finally expressed their willingness to work in two shifts to earn more money.

Jiang Li agreed to their request without any reluctance. Before leaving, he instructed the canteen to increase the daily food expenses of the workers a little bit, which could be considered a little benefit for these workers.

After finishing his work at the cannery, he returned to the arsenal. Due to the short time, although the basic parts had been produced, the specific assembly could not be completed immediately.

He had no choice but to leave first. After all, he couldn't just sit there and wait. He just ordered, "Assemble the finished product and show it to me immediately."

Then he took his people away and returned to Tengteng Town. He found people who were learning to use the telegraph machine, greeted them, and checked their learning progress.

When I learned that it would take a long time, I turned around and left.

After wandering around like this, he finally got the first batch of three Lee Enfield rifles produced by his own arsenal two days later.

After testing by Asan, he found that except for the rough surface, the gun met the standards in terms of firing rate, accuracy and range.

So he ordered people to add a polishing process, and then required the arsenal to start production day and night, and sent a battalion of soldiers to patrol the surroundings to ensure that it could produce safely and not be disturbed.

He speculated that if the workers became more skilled and worked day and night, it might be possible to produce twenty rifles a day.

In this way, he could steadily increase the number of British-equipped infantry by two battalions per month, which was already a pretty good speed.

It’s a pity that 7.7mm bullets cannot be produced domestically yet, which makes him very unhappy, but there is no other way. He can only wait for Han Yong to come back to solve this problem.

Just when he finished testing the gun and was about to go to Nanxi County to check on the progress of the transfer station, Jiang Youchi suddenly came in a hurry to report.

"Master, Chen Xueming has sent someone to wait outside the county!"

Jiang Li frowned when he heard this, "Don't worry, he's probably trying to test our attitude."

"First, tell me what you have found out in the past two days. Who is Cheng Xueming fighting with? What specific grievances and conflicts do they have?"

Jiang Youchi immediately explained, "Master, you know that two days is too short. We didn't find out much."

"I just know that Chen Xueming is fighting with a warlord named Ma Baoguo. They..."

"Ma Baoguo?"

"But is it the martial arts grandmaster Ma Baoguo?"

Jiang Li exclaimed immediately upon hearing this.

Jiang Youchi was very confused when he saw his reaction, "I haven't heard that the guy surnamed Ma has any achievements in martial arts!"

"Perhaps someone with the same name?"

Jiang Youchi guessed tentatively.

Jiang Li laughed and did not continue the topic, but continued to ask, "Maybe!"

"Forget about it. We should be able to find out what grudges they have and how many troops they have, right?"

Jiang Youchi scratched his head awkwardly when he heard this, "I heard that Ma Baoguo's father died at the hands of Chen Xueming. He has been fighting with Cheng Xueming on and off over the years!"

As for how many troops they have, I haven't found out clearly because the time is too short, but based on the information I have so far, Ma Baoguo's territory is smaller and his strength should be slightly weaker than Chen Xueming's!"

When Jiang Li heard this, he immediately understood what was going on. So he smiled and asked Jiang Youchi to bring the man in. "I'd like to hear what he has to say!"