Chapter 53: The Royal Ironworks

Summer in Brazil passed in the blink of an eye. During this time, the Quick set sail for Germany once again, with the 20 crew members who had stayed behind at the shipyard returning to Germany on board. Learning from the experiences of Edwin and Rolf, Zhang Hainuo especially emphasized safety awareness to these crew members, instructing each of them to keep a low profile upon returning home and preferably not to mention anything about their time in Brazil to anyone outside their families.

Meanwhile, the situation in Germany had somewhat eased, but since the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, divisions and factions had emerged throughout the country, intensifying internal conflicts. The conservative faction neither accepted the treaty nor recognized the republic that approved it. Although the military was forced to accept the treaty due to defeat in war, even before the ink dried, the army had begun to circumvent the military restrictions imposed by the treaty. With only the Social Democrats remaining in Germany, the fragile republic was kept afloat with the assistance of democratic activists and members of the Catholic Center Party. They faced hatred, curses, and sometimes even bullets from their opponents, who were numerous and steadfast in their determination.

This time, Otto still did not return to Germany with the ship but instead asked the returning crew members to send a letter to his family to reassure them of his safety. Zhang Hainuo did not interfere too much in Otto's personal matters, but he consciously began to pay attention to the von Glübenkow family, the noble family from Baden, which seemed not to evoke any sense of attachment in Otto.

While Otto stayed behind, Edwin left. Despite possibly being wanted across the streets of Germany, he was determined to return. As his best friend, all Zhang Hainuo could do was advise him to go to Munich and join a society called the German Workers' Party, but never to mention U-21, U-148, the treasure, and above all, never to oppose Adolf Hitler.

Fred had initially wanted to return to Germany with Edwin, but surprisingly, Edwin persuaded him to stay behind. Zhang Hainuo wasn't sure what Edwin had said to Fred in the end, but since then, Fred had become obedient, like a loyal subordinate.

After bidding farewell to Edwin, Zhang Hainuo felt melancholic for quite some time, but his gloomy mood did not make him forget his responsibilities. Soon, he, along with two metallurgical experts sent by the Weiser Shipyard—Elton Company and Matthew Shogust, as well as Christopher Roos, an expert in shipbuilding materials made of wood, and Mr. Schneider, the business representative of Schneider Shipyard, accompanied by their translator, Florence, formed a small inspection team. The purpose of this inspection team was to find suppliers of shipbuilding materials, wood, and steel in Brazil—since the Bremen-Weiser Shipyard itself did not produce wood and steel, and importing these materials from Europe would undoubtedly be much more expensive!

With Brazil being a major forestry country, wood supply wasn't much of an issue. They quickly selected two powerful wood suppliers from several large wood factories in northern Brazil, along with a local wood factory in Corvado, bringing the total to three suppliers for Schneider Shipyard's future wood supply.

The selection of wood suppliers was completed in just two weeks, but finding steel suppliers proved to be somewhat tricky—when they first arrived in Brazil, the country was in the early stages of industrialization. Apart from traditional agriculture, forestry, fishing, and livestock industries, other industries still required a large influx of foreign capital and technology. This was the main reason why they received attention in Salvador and were given a series of preferential measures by the municipal government.

In 1909, British engineers building the Victoria-Minas Railway discovered local iron ore deposits. Perceptive American entrepreneur Percival Farquhar saw the export value of these iron ores and founded the famous Itabira Iron Ore Company in 1911. High-quality iron ores were shipped to steel companies in the United States, and in return, Brazil received much-needed high-quality coal, which significantly boosted Brazil's mining industry but somewhat hindered the development of its steel industry.

The two metallurgical experts sent by the Weiser Shipyard told Zhang Hainuo that the steel required for building various types of ships was vastly different. A small fishing boat could suffice with wooden frames, but as the tonnage and class increased, the demand for steel frames and hulls grew higher. To build a ten-thousand-ton cargo ship, ordinary steel produced by conventional steel plants could not meet the requirements. Therefore, they advised against considering small and medium-sized steel plants with fewer than 200 employees and an annual production of less than 20,000 tons of pig iron and steel, as well as those that had never forged shipbuilding steel.

However, after filtering through these seemingly not too stringent conditions, only a handful of steel plants remained in Brazil—the national steel production in Brazil was less than 200,000 tons per year at that time!

The railway between major cities along the eastern coast of Brazil was relatively developed. Still, as the largest country in South America, its territory was vast—just the distance from Salvador in the northeast to Victoria in the southeast was nearly a thousand kilometers. Old locomotives pulled carriages one after another for a full day and night to reach their destination.

At first, Zhang Hainuo enjoyed the scenery along the way, but as time passed, the unchanging landscape lost its appeal. If Brazil's industry, trade, and population were not concentrated on the eastern coast, they might have spent even more time traveling.

As someone with decades of foresight, Zhang Hainuo naturally longed for airplanes at this moment—the train took 20 hours to cover the distance, while an airplane could do it in just one or two hours.

"Does Salvador have airplanes?"

This question from Zhang Hainuo was directed to Florence, who grew up in Salvador. Although Brazil's industry was not developed, they had a figure as great as the Wright brothers—Alberto Santos-Dumont, the son of a Brazilian coffee tycoon. On October 23, 1906, in a park in the suburbs of Paris, he flew his "14 Bis" into the sky, becoming the first person in human history to be recorded flying by film. Even years later, Brazilians still insisted that their Santos-Dumont was the true inventor of the airplane.

Florence thought for a moment before answering, "I remember a few years ago someone started an airline, specializing in transporting mail between Salvador and nearby cities. But I heard there was an accident, and the plane crashed, and the pilot lost his life. After that, no one in Salvador has ventured into that business again!"

"Yes, that's right!" Mr. Schneider, sitting opposite Zhang Hainuo, confirmed the incident.

"In the process of challenging nature, there will always be pioneers who sacrifice their lives!" Zhang Hainuo muttered to himself with a touch of emotion.

"Oh, by the way! I heard there's a big airline in Rio de Janeiro that owns airships and airplanes. Those airships are even larger than clouds. It seems like they make a round trip between Brazil and the United States every month, transporting passengers and mail, and it's even faster than taking a fast ship!" Florence said with excitement, obviously she hadn't seen such a thing herself.

"In the first two years of the war, Germany's powerful Zeppelin fleet terrified the British. They often flew from Germany to London for bombing raids, and the British were helpless!" Zhang Hainuo said, with not much confidence in his voice, because next, the British improved their own aircraft and weapons, and the Zeppelin airships began to suffer, bombing Britain became a losing proposition, and ultimately ended in failure.

"After the war, Britain and France didn't restrict us from building airships, but with the current economic situation, no one is spending money to build airships, and even if they did, I'm afraid not many people could afford tickets!" Matt, the younger of the two experts, sounded more pessimistic.

"No, I think as long as someone builds airships for passenger transport, there will definitely be people buying tickets to ride! In Germany, there are always wealthy people, even if the common people can't afford bread, those rich people are still living in luxury!" Elton, the older of the two experts, who is now 52 years old, seemed to have a deeper understanding of social phenomena due to his age.

Schneider added with emotion, "Yes, the rich enjoy fine wine and food every day, while the poor go hungry!"

"We used to think of Brazil as a barbaric land, but now the days here seem better than in Europe! Don't you agree?"

Zhang Hainuo began to "tempt" the two experts again with the advantages of Brazil. The construction and operation of the shipyard today and the development tomorrow require a large number of technical talents, and in Germany, although these experts have decent incomes, they are still considered working class. Once an economic crisis erupts, they are still the most direct victims.

Elton and Matt just smiled bitterly and said nothing.

Anyway, there is still plenty of time ahead, and Zhang Hainuo is not in a hurry to make them make a decision. At the moment, he is more concerned about aviation matters - with the end of the war, each country will have a large number of retired military aircraft, and Britain, the United States, and France are among the largest. Hiring retired pilots from Germany after the war is not difficult, and he has already started planning to buy one or two aircraft when he next goes to New York, and then let Fred serve as a flight instructor to train crew members interested in aviation. Learning to fly a plane, the basic conditions for a small airline will be basically met!

The train heading south carried Zhang Hainuo and his party to Vitória, the largest iron ore export port in southeastern Brazil. Here, there is a railway directly to the Itabira iron mine in the Brazilian hinterland, and it is also Brazil's largest coal import port - Brazil's coal reserves are average and mostly low-quality coal, suitable for ordinary boilers, but unable to meet the temperature requirements of steelmaking furnaces. Therefore, most of Brazil's iron and steel plants use coal imported from the United States, which is also an important reason limiting the development of Brazil's steel industry.

Considering the strong strength of American steel companies and the relatively short distance from Brazil, the initial suggestion of the experts was for the Schneider Shipyard to directly import steel from the United States. However, Zhang Hainuo had another idea - importing steel from the United States not only increases transportation costs, but also is susceptible to restrictions from the other party in case of changes in the situation. Moreover, he also had a concern, that is, it might not be possible to import high-quality steel used to build warships and submarines from the United States. Given that the large shipyard of Schneider is still two or three years away from production, he felt he had plenty of time to find a suitable local steel mill in Brazil as a partner and then use German steelmaking technology to enhance its strength, ultimately meeting the demand for steel by the Schneider Shipyard.

However, as the largest iron ore export port in Brazil, the local steel companies in Vitória were not as developed as Zhang Hainuo had imagined. Most of them are medium and small steel companies producing less than ten thousand tons of iron per year and only capable of producing crude steel. Without substantial investment and the introduction of advanced smelting technology from Europe, talk of improvement was just empty talk until the 1920s when some European steel companies began to enter the Brazilian steel industry one after another, but that was a story for later.

After staying in Vitória for two days, Zhang Hainuo and his party set off for Rio de Janeiro with a sense of disappointment. In 1920, this seaside city was not only the capital of Brazil, but also an economic, political, and industrial center. There were factories everywhere, and the wide harbor was filled with numerous merchant ships from various countries. The main streets were straight and spacious, and although the tall buildings were not as magnificent as those in New York, they already showed the important factors that a industrialized metropolis needed - vitality.

What interested Zhang Hainuo and his party the most was the old industrial enterprise here - the Royal Ironworks.

Although Brazil's monarchy was overthrown in 1889, and the Brazilian Republic had been established for 31 years, this large factory, which started out making firearms, still retained the name "Royal." However, this was not because it had any connection with the royal family, but because this factory was almost born with the Brazilian Empire, and now it has been nearly a hundred years.

Arriving at this factory, Zhang Hainuo's first impression was that it was huge! Standing at a high point and looking around, it was almost like a large dockyard. Countless factories radiated from the center like a spider's web, with iron tracks crisscrossing everywhere, and tall chimneys were belching out billowing black smoke. The smell of burning coal was so pungent that there were few seabirds flying near the factory.

Many years ago, this place forged guns, cannons, and various ammunition for the army by importing raw materials such as pig iron, coal, and saltpeter. In the relatively weak industrial Brazil at that time, it was definitely one of the top industrial giants!

All this was learned by Zhang Hainuo from Sir von Barn, a German businessman who had been in Brazil for more than twenty years and had a fairly rich understanding of the customs and practices of Brazil.

After learning about the purpose of Zhang Hainuo's visit, the person in charge of the Brazilian Royal Ironworks warmly dispatched a commissioner to accompany them to visit the production facilities here. Like most salesmen, this commissioner was full of praise for the history and strength of his factory. He could recite which railway used their iron tracks, which bridges used their steel bars and rivets, and which shipyards ordered steel frames and other equipment from them. He could recall all of these in great detail.

In metallurgy, Zhang Hainuo was completely ignorant, so he wisely chose to listen and learn more along the way. Elton and Matt were the authorities in this field. After a few steel mills, Zhang Hainuo found that they seemed to be using the same methods as Chinese medicine - observing, listening, asking, and cutting. Observing meant looking at the equipment of this steel mill; Listening was not listening to the sound of the steel mill machines casting steel, but tapping steel plate samples with a small hammer to listen to their internal sounds; Asking was to inquire about the professional situation of the steel mill staff; Cutting was to look at the cross-section of the cast steel.

After going through this process, the two experts could basically tell Zhang Hainuo whether the steel here met the requirements.

This was the seventh steel mill they had visited from north to south. Although the previous six also had experience in casting iron rails, bridge components, and steel for shipbuilding, none of them passed the test of Elton and Matt. According to the assessment of the two German experts, the cast steel components they produced for medium-sized ships were acceptable, but they were far from being able to build ten-thousand-ton ships! If low-quality steel was forcibly used to build ten-thousand-ton ships, even if they were completed, they would not withstand the buffeting of the wind and waves.

If it was steel for building warships, then the products of these steel mills were even further from the standard!

After such an explanation by the two experts, Zhang Hainuo had a deeper understanding of why shipyards in Brazil did not build medium and large military vessels - shipbuilding was not an independent industry, and it could not exist independently without the cooperation of industries such as metallurgy, casting, and mechanical instruments.

At this point, he couldn't help but think of the First Sino-Japanese War, and remembered the Beiyang Fleet at that time. Simply purchasing ships from abroad without striving to develop domestic industry, even if the First Sino-Japanese War had not been defeated, how would the Second Sino-Japanese War and subsequent wars be fought?

Even in the Anti-Japanese War several years later, the Japanese Army, with second-rate weapons and equipment, could gain a firepower advantage against the Chinese army, but when they encountered well-equipped Americans, they were beaten so badly that they couldn't find north. Industry was too important for a country's defense!

Thinking of these things, Zhang Hainuo's mood also became heavy. Unfortunately, at this time, the situation in China was not better than in Germany. Warlord conflicts, encirclement and suppression, and anti-encirclement, as well as the upcoming Anti-Japanese War, the national industry had never had a good opportunity for development amidst internal and external troubles.

Now, as a "missing" former naval submarine commander, Zhang Hainuo felt his power was insignificant - if he went to the East at this time, not only would U148 be difficult to continue, but whether he could keep this secret in a place where foreign forces were rampant was also a big unknown. Moreover, the stable situation in Brazil in the next twenty years was crucial for their development.

Zhang Hainuo was thinking about these things that would happen sooner or later. The two metallurgical experts had already gone through their old routine of "observation, listening, asking, and cutting". They exchanged a few words in a low voice, and then Elton, who was a few years older, reported their conclusion to Zhang Hainuo:

"Sir, if this is indeed the best steel company in Brazil, then we can only say that Brazil's metallurgical technology is far behind Europe! Even if their steel is the best quality here, it can only build ships of 4000 tons at most. For ships over ten thousand tons, they are far from meeting the requirements! If high-quality steel is produced, we will only order from your shipyard at Schneider at contract prices!"

"This...," the manager's face showed some embarrassment. He hesitated for a while before finally made up his mind and said, "Mr. Link, I will convey your suggestion to the board of directors as soon as possible, but I can't say for sure what the final result will be right now! If possible, please wait a few more days. As soon as there is a result, I will send someone to inform you immediately!"

"Alright! We'll await your good news!" Zhang Hainuo also knew that this kind of decision was not something this person in front of him could make. Since they were in Rio de Janeiro and hadn't visited around yet, it was better to take a break and relieve the fatigue of the past few days.