The key to financial matters (asking for monthly votes!)

"tuberculosis!"

In the office, looking at the report sent from the hospital, Li Zicheng's heart tightened. Perhaps outsiders could not see the impact and importance of the expeditionary force on China's future political situation, but he, who understood the historical process, knew very well that this

This elite force will have a huge impact on China's future political situation.

Historically, the United States declared war on Germany on April 6, 1917. In order to gain a greater say at the negotiating table after the war, the U.S. government decided to send an expeditionary force to Europe at the request of Britain and France. Appointed by President W. Wilson

J.J. Pershing was the commander of the expeditionary force, and J.G. Hubbard was the chief of staff. In mid-June, Pershing led more than 200 headquarters personnel to France. In late June, the first batch of combat troops arrived in Saint-Nazaire, France. In early July, Pershing

Developed an organizational plan for the expeditionary force from company to group army, and called the president to request that the strength of the expeditionary force be increased to more than 1 million. Due to insufficient shipping capacity and other reasons, the U.S. military was gathering very slowly in Europe. By January 1918, the U.S. military arrived in Europe.

There are only 175,000 US troops in Europe, organized into 2 regular army divisions and 4 National Guards. Since then, with the help of the British Navy, the troop transport speed has accelerated. In March, the number of US troops arriving in France reached 300,000, and the number increased to 600,000 by the end of May.

The number of troops increased to 1 million in August. In November, the strength of the US military stationed in France reached its peak, with a total of 41 divisions of about 2.08 million people. Artillery, tanks and other equipment were mainly provided by the French and British troops.

For China, which dispatched the first batch of 150,000 troops in January 1916, within thirty-five months of the end of the war, China would need to dispatch 3 million troops, and this number would far exceed China's national military strength.

, reaching twice the national strength. The dispatch of these troops will bring an improvement to China's international status, but the domestic impact is to fundamentally withdraw the local and provincial armies on the grounds of participating in the war. Now the national army is no more than

More than one million, and by the end of next year at the latest, all the provincial armies will be mobilized. Of course, these provincial armies will be expanded and given new establishments.

In addition, it will also bring an elite, battle-hardened army to China. In terms of its weapons and equipment alone, the equipment of this expeditionary force of millions of people will be the first in Chinese history.

It reaches or even exceeds the level of European army powers, and China does not need to spend even a penny. After the war is over, what kind of impact will it have on the country when millions of troops return home?

An army that has disrupted its personnel, establishment, and sources of officers and soldiers through war will become a national army that cannot be commanded by local governments. As for China, a national army of up to three million that eliminates localization will

They must be the most powerful deterrent force. Their existence can deter any province. With the help of military deterrence, the central government can implement administrative reforms at the local level according to its own will.

The premise of all this is that the army must complete a sharp transformation from a private army to a national army!

Yuan Shikai put a lot of thought into the choice of commander. It can be said that Cai E is the best candidate, both historically and realistically. After this war, Mr.

Beiyang forces and local forces will be severely weakened in the war, but if Old Beiyang can take the opportunity to control this elite force, it will undoubtedly be a nightmare for China!

And now Cai E's body...

Even without asking other doctors, Li Zicheng knew that in this era, whether it was tuberculosis or laryngeal tuberculosis, which he had never heard of before, even if it was not a terminal disease, it was not far away from terminal disease. Without antibiotics...

antibiotic!

These three words only made Li Zicheng's eyes light up. What came to his mind was that many years ago, when he was in college, he visited a relative who had tuberculosis. At that time, the relative seemed to say something, if it weren't for the "anti-inflammatory drugs"

Tuberculosis is fatal, so aren’t anti-inflammatory drugs just antibiotics?…

What antibiotic is it?

Sulfa?

If I remember correctly, the drug sulfonamide is already in the expeditionary force’s drug list. As one of the inventors of sulfonamide, Marko also received the corresponding bonus, and he personally approved it. At the beginning, he was in

When Shanghai was "assassinated", in the final press release to the outside world, it was "sulfonamide" that saved his life, which can be said to be a vivid "living advertisement" for sulfonamide.

It should not be sulfonamide. Otherwise, Dr. Schnell would have mentioned this drug in the treatment plan. He is not a medical doctor who just came to China. Moreover, sulfonamide has now begun to be exported in batches, and orders in Europe have reached 100.

On a ton basis, the most profitable drugs for big pharmaceutical companies now are various sulfonamide drugs. Of course, although the early discovery was made by Marko, the extraction and production patents for sulfonamides are still provided by the company in the end.

Sulfa drugs were discovered by the Germans more than ten years later. They were also the most important antibiotics in Germany during World War II. Like the United States, they all used penicillin...penicillin!

Reciting these three words, Li Zicheng felt excited in his heart. Yes, it was penicillin. That stuff was worth as much as gold. If I remember correctly, I was "seriously injured" at the beginning of the year. After learning about "sulfa"

, I thought of penicillin at that time. Before mass production, one bottle of penicillin cost several taels of gold. However, when the United States solved the problem of mass production during World War II, one bottle still cost twenty dollars. On the black market in other countries,

One still requires one or two ounces of gold.

At that time, I even went to the technology center to check the information in person. Penicillin was invented by the British Alexander Fleming, but there was little progress in its research. It was not until 1939 that the German biochemist Qian and the Australian physician who were working in Oxford

Physicist Flory continued Fleming's research. Two years later, the first batch of penicillin was produced. The first patient to use the drug was a policeman. His head, face, and lungs suffered from serious bacterial infections. He received

After only 5 days of treatment, the condition improved greatly, and the speed of recovery was amazing. Unfortunately, because there was not enough penicillin to continue treatment, he finally died a month later. World War II prompted the mass production of penicillin. In 1943, the United States successfully

The problem of mass production of penicillin was solved; in 1950, the output could meet the world's demand.

But during World War II, Germany was also conducting the same research. After all, this new drug was very effective in controlling wound infections, and German soldiers were not iron men. They were also injured and needed this drug. July 1944

On the 20th, a case that shocked the world occurred in Nazi Germany: an anti-Hitler military officer organization attempted to assassinate Hitler. The leader of the organization, Stauffenberg, killed a man in the "Wolf's Lair" conference room of Hitler's headquarters on the eastern battlefield.

The leather bag containing the time bomb was placed under the conference table. The time bomb exploded, and Hitler was covered in blood and seriously injured. Historians have always believed that Hitler used the time bomb made in Germany or the Czech Republic.

He received emergency treatment with penicillin and survived.

During World War II, not only Germany conducted research on the mass production of penicillin, but the Soviet Union also conducted penicillin research. A research team led by Z.F. Yelmayeva, a famous bacteriologist at the Gorky Institute of Experimental Medicine, successfully developed penicillin in small batches.

Production, widely used in the front and rear, saved the lives of a large number of sick and wounded. However, in the end, the Soviet Union’s real solution to the industrial production of penicillin was after the end of World War II, with the help of German technicians, the industrial production of penicillin was realized.

Germany had theoretically achieved industrialized mass production at the end of the war, but it only stopped when the batch testing was completed because of the end of the war...

In the database of the Patent Technology Center, Li Zicheng spent three days to find the technical information of penicillin. Then the big pharmaceutical companies began to conduct penicillin research. I don’t know what the current progress is... Thinking about the ongoing research, Li Zichen

Cheng picked up the pen on the table and wrote a dozen words on the telegraph newspaper, and then pressed the bell on the table.

"Send this telegram to the company! Is there anyone you want to see?"

When handing the telegram to the secretary, Li Zicheng asked the secretary after putting Cai E's inspection report in the drawer because he had previously told others not to disturb him for the time being.

"Prime Minister, Liu Huacheng, Chief of the Technical Supervision Section of the Central Mint of the Ministry of Finance, wants to see you!"

"Invite him in!"

The Central Mint of the Ministry of Finance is renovated and expanded on the basis of the Tianjin Mint in order to implement the "abolition of the two yuan reforms" next year. When the provinces acquire copper yuan bureaus and silver round factories, their machines are inspected. If they are newly minted in recent years

New machines that could be used were shipped to Tianjin or Shanghai. The Central Mint was established in Tianjin and the Shanghai Branch of the Central Mint was established in Shanghai. In the future, only these two factories in China will have the right to mint coins.

The Chief of Technical Supervision is an extremely important position in the Central Mint, and this Liu Huacheng was the technician who helped the company design "fake copper coins" when he was in Lianyungang. He studied at the Nagasaki Higher Engineering School to specialize in making coins.

It can be said that there are few minting professionals in China, but people like him were ostracized in the mint in the past, and finally had to leave Lianyungang.

"Prime Minister!"

Liu Huacheng, who entered the Prime Minister's Office for the first time, took a look at the Prime Minister's Office. Except for the crystal chandelier, which looked very luxurious, the other interiors were very simple. Only the two rows of bookcases looked very conspicuous.

"Sit down, Zhentao!"

Li Zicheng stood up and walked to the sofa, pointing at the sofa in front of him, and said with a smile.

"I haven't seen Zhentao for almost two years. How have the past two years been?"

"Prime Minister, if it weren't for your care, Zhentao wouldn't be where he is today!"

Seeing the Prime Minister's question, Liu Huacheng quickly expressed his loyalty. Maybe he was not suitable for officialdom, but he knew that without the support of the Prime Minister who was ten years younger than him, he would probably be nothing more than a technician in a small factory.

He will be the technical section chief of the Central Mint and the minting counselor of the Ministry of Finance.

"Zhentao, don't follow their example. You are not a flatterer, and I am not a listener. I admire you not for anything else but because of your care in doing things!"

Speaking of his thoughts, Li Zicheng still remembered that when he was making counterfeit coins, the coinage expert who had finally found him strongly opposed it and even wanted to report it to the government. Then he was persuaded to make "counterfeit coins" just like "making durable real coins".

Of course, I only heard about his appearance from Mu Ouchu at that time, and it was not until a year later that I saw him for the first time. The man in front of me was the kind of person who was good at doing things, but not good at words.

"Prime Minister……"

With a simple smile, Liu Huacheng quickly took out a wooden box from his briefcase. The wooden box was made of oak and inlaid with copper buckles. The copper chain looked very exquisitely made. When he opened the wooden box, he said.

"Prime Minister, according to your instructions, we have successfully developed a new type of auxiliary currency!"

While speaking, he turned the wooden box to the Prime Minister and looked at the few coins on the red velvet cushion in the wooden box. Li Zicheng's eyes suddenly lit up. At the same time, he took out a coin and observed it carefully. The coin was not made of a single material. The diameter of the coin was

About three centimeters, the outer layer is a circle of about 5 millimeters of brass, and the inner layer is made of nickel... No, it should be stainless steel, obviously to increase the difficulty of manufacturing.

"Prime Minister, this is a 1-cent coin. It uses a steel core and a brass ring. The purpose of using this dual material is to increase the difficulty of manufacturing. In the past, copper coins were widely used in our country. They only need to be pressed with copper cakes. This is a technical improvement.

The requirements are not high, but this kind of dual-material coin has greatly increased the difficulty of manufacturing..."...

When explaining the new auxiliary coins, Liu Huacheng, who was usually taciturn and taciturn, immediately became eloquent. However, behind these seemingly simple coins, there were months of sweat from him and other mint staff.

With great efforts, the new silver dollar requested by the Prime Minister is very simple. The silver dollar still uses Yuan Shikai's portrait, but adds three easy-to-use small silver coins: five-cent bank, two-cent silver dollar, and one-cent silver dollar. These silver coins, as early as the late Qing Dynasty, the mint was

There are manufacturing plans.

For the mint, the real challenge comes from copper auxiliary coins. The Prime Minister’s requirements for copper auxiliary coins seem to be very simple. First, the cost of the auxiliary coins does not exceed the currency value cost, preferably the pre-war cost. After all, for the central government, the central government needs

By issuing new auxiliary coins, huge profits can be obtained for national industrial investment. Secondly, the difficulty of manufacturing needs to be taken into consideration. For copper auxiliary coins, the difficulty of manufacturing is the most important anti-counterfeiting measure.

In order to meet these two requirements, Liu Huacheng has tested more than a dozen materials in the past month and a half to ensure that the cost of making copper coins does not exceed the currency value. However, no matter what kind of raw materials are used, the cost is either too high or too high.

In the end, in the end, he still used steel core copper plating to solve the cost problem like he did in Lianyungang. However, steel core copper plating cannot solve the anti-counterfeiting problem. To solve the anti-counterfeiting problem, we need to start from the design of the coin. At the beginning, the plan proposed by everyone

It is very simple to solve the anti-counterfeiting problem through complicated coin pattern design and edge embossing, but in the end, these were rejected because those technical means could not solve the anti-counterfeiting problem.

"...The use of dual materials can prevent small factory manufacturing to the greatest extent. Small factory manufacturing needs to add multiple pieces of equipment. If it cannot form an assembly line production, it will be difficult to form a scale. If it forms an assembly line production, the equipment investment alone will cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

After 10,000 yuan, the material uses a combination of soft and hard materials. Brass is a soft material and stainless steel is a hard material. There are also certain technical difficulties when pressing coin patterns. Compared with the direct pressing technology used in the past copper coins

, not to mention that the technical difficulties have increased several times, the loss of stainless steel materials to molds is also far greater than that of copper materials. In the past, the molds used by domestic copper coin bureaus were imported from other countries! However, various countries have not yet adopted steel materials to make coins. Therefore, even if others try

Counterfeiting new auxiliary coins also requires funding from foreign companies to solve the problem of coin embossing molds. Otherwise, the old dies will not be able to print the auxiliary coin patterns clearly, and the lifespan of the mold will not exceed a hundred coins. It can be said that the gain outweighs the loss..."

When mentioning the technical difficulties, Liu Huacheng felt proud. At present, apart from the Central Mint, only Liuhe Company in China has the manufacturing capacity to produce embossing molds for new coins. It can solve currency problems through technology.

Anti-counterfeiting has undoubtedly opened up a new world for Liu Huacheng. After completing the design of the copper auxiliary coins, he has begun to work with the mint's technicians to create new banknotes.

Playing with the copper and silver coins in his hands, it can be seen from the surface of the coin that the copper ring and steel core are inlaid perfectly. There is no gap at all, just like a whole. Then pick up the two
To be continued...