Lin Fei was startled and asked hurriedly: "What happened?"
The soldier shouted: "The Spaniards in the city have begun a large-scale massacre of the Chinese!"
Lin Fei frowned and said, "Tell He Kaisheng immediately, and use the radio to tell everyone in the city that Spaniards and Filipinos are strictly prohibited from going out on the streets tonight. Those who violate the order will be killed without mercy! Then order all the troops and city guards in the city to guard all intersections. If any Spaniards and Filipinos dare to go out on the streets in violation of the order, kill them all!"
The soldier repeated the order loudly, turned and left. Lin Fei thought to himself that the Spaniards in the city were in collective rebellion, and Bruel might be among them inciting them. If I could capture Bruel alive, I might be able to quell the riot to some extent.
At this time, a soldier ran out of the warehouse and said to Lin Fei: "Your Majesty, Bruel has committed suicide."
Lin Fei's heart moved, and he asked, "Are you sure that the person who committed suicide was Bruel?"
The soldier nodded and said, "Yes, our guide has seen Bruel and has already checked with him."
Lin Fei thought that killing Bruel would be fine, and now he should return to the city government and broadcast the news to the whole city. So Lin Fei asked Niu Dalong to assemble the troops as quickly as possible and return to the city government.
As soon as we entered the city, we heard gunshots everywhere. Looking around, we saw fire and thick smoke everywhere. The loudspeakers in the city were broadcasting loudly in Spanish and Filipino: "The Emperor of the Chinese Empire has issued an edict, strictly prohibiting Spaniards and Filipinos from taking to the streets tonight. Those who violate the order will be killed without mercy..."
Lin Fei asked Niu Dalong to lead the troops to patrol the streets, and he led the sniper team back to the city government. He saw that the city government was full of Chinese people with families and panicked faces. Lin Fei asked He Kaisheng to announce the death of Bruer, and then said to the Chinese people: "Don't be afraid, the Chinese Empire Army will do its best to protect you."
When the Chinese saw Lin Fei, they immediately surrounded him. At this time, an old woman fell to her knees and cried loudly, crying and shouting: "My house was burned down by the Spanish, and all my money was taken away by the Spanish !"
When everyone heard the old woman's words, they all told about their losses. The scene was in chaos for a while. Lin Fei shouted loudly: "Please rest assured, I will let the Spaniards compensate you for your losses."
After hearing Lin Fei's assurance, everyone slowly calmed down. Lin Fei left them and came to the office to take charge of the overall situation. He was not very worried about the situation in the city. Although the Spaniards were rioting in the city, his own troops had guns and he had issued a kill order. The momentum of the Spanish rebellion would soon be quelled. After all, the Spaniards were human beings, not machines. As human beings, they were afraid of death, and they certainly would not dare to risk their lives to riot.
Lin Fei's guess was correct. Three hours later, the gunshots in the city gradually subsided. When the sky brightened, the whole city returned to peace, but corpses were left in the streets and alleys.
While Lin Fei was organizing the Chinese to clean up the bodies, he was also taking over the properties of the Spanish wealthy businessmen. These wealthy businessmen also participated in the riots last night. Their factory guards were killed when they attacked the city government. They also saw that Bruel, the most powerful among the wealthy businessmen, was eliminated by Lin Fei. They dared not resist and obediently handed over all their wealth.
The suppression of the Spanish riots last night actually played a role in redistributing wealth. Many Spaniards died in the riots, and their wealth was taken over by the government formed by Lin Fei. Since then, Lin Fei has controlled 90% of the wealth of the Spaniards in Butuan City. As for the remaining 10%, they belonged to ordinary Spanish people, and Lin Fei left it to them.
Among the wealth controlled by Lin Fei, there are many factories. None of these factories were damaged in the riots because they were owned by wealthy Spanish businessmen who certainly did not want their wealth to be destroyed.
After the riot was suppressed, the prestige of the Huaxia Empire soared, and the Chinese regarded Lin Fei as their savior. Among the Spaniards, those who dared to resist were killed by Lin Fei, and the rest were all full of fear of Lin Fei. The Filipinos were originally ruled by the Spaniards, and for them, changing a ruler was not a big deal.
The next day, on January 17, 1895, all affairs in the city gradually returned to normal, and Lin Fei then went to check the conditions of the factories in the city.
There are a total of sixty-four factories of various types in the city, thirty-six of which are engaged in the production of daily necessities such as papermaking, cigarettes, and printing. Among them, there are ten textile mills, all of which are cotton textile mills. Because there is no place to raise sheep and silkworms on Mindanao, there are no wool and silk textile mills on the island.
The cotton textile factory had a large amount of cotton in stock, enough for the production of nitrocellulose, and transporting the cotton to Samar Island was not a big problem because Butuan City was close to the sea and had a port with more than a hundred large and small transport ships. Several ship owners were killed by Lin Fei's men in the riot. Lin Fei then took these transport ships for himself and used them to send cotton back to Samar Island.
There are 28 heavy industrial factories in Butuan City. Lin Fei is most interested in the electroplating plant and the copper smelting plant. The electroplating plant can produce many high-quality materials for the Huaxia Empire. The raw materials of the copper smelting plant come from the copper mines in the nearby mountains. It can provide the Huaxia Empire with rich copper ore and solve the problem of copper ore shortage in the Huaxia Empire.
Lin Fei was looking at those factories when suddenly one caught his attention. He hurriedly called Gao Manlu over and pointed to the factory on the list and asked, "Are you familiar with this factory?"
Gao Manlu said: "Baslow Paint Factory? I'm quite familiar with it. They produce pigments and the colors are very beautiful."
Lin Fei said: "Take my team to the pigment factory, find the factory's technicians and bring me the technical information."
Gao Manlu's eyes were full of doubts, and he asked, "Your Majesty, what do you want the technicians and technical information from the pigment factory for?"
Lin Fei smiled and said, "Go quickly. You won't understand if I tell you too much."
Gao Manlu agreed twice and left with Lin Fei's men. He brought back the factory's technicians. The technician was a Chinese man in his fifties with gray hair and wrinkles all over his face. Gao Manlu said, "Your Majesty, this is the technician of the Baslow Paint Factory, Master Yuan Zhengxiong."
Lin Fei greeted him politely, but Yuan Zhengxiong knelt down with a look of panic on his face. Lin Fei reached out and helped him up, saying with a smile, "Old sir, you don't have to be like this. Please sit down. I have something important to ask you."
Yuan Zhengxiong said hurriedly: "Your Majesty, please speak."
Lin Fei reached out and picked up the information about the Baslow Paint Factory that he had found from the city government, handed it to Yuan Zhengxiong, pointed at the several types of paint on it and asked, "What are these paints made of?"
Yuan Zhengxiong looked at it and said, "There are many kinds of things in it. What do you want to know?"
Lin Fei asked with a smile: "Is there something called 'lead' in it?"
Yuan Zhengxiong's eyes lit up and he said, "You are really an expert! How did you know that?"
Lin Fei said: "I know that this color of pigment needs to be mixed with lead. I want to ask you, where does the lead for mixing these pigments come from?"
Yuan Zhengxiong said: "We have several lead smelting furnaces in our pigment factory, and we use traditional methods to smelt lead. I heard that the British lead smelting furnaces are very advanced..."
Seeing that Yuan Zhengxiong was about to go off topic, Lin Fei hurriedly said, "Let's talk about the lead smelting method later. Let me ask you first, where did you get your lead ore from?"
Yuan Zhengxiong said: "It was shipped from Cotabato."
Lin Fei was shocked and said, "Cotabato? It's more than 200 kilometers away from here. The freight is too high."
Yuan Zhengxiong said: "Although the freight is higher, their selling price is cheap. Cotabato does not refine lead from lead ore, they refine silver from it. Lead ore contains silver. After they refine the silver, the remaining lead ore is sold as paving stone, which is very cheap. Cotabato is close to the sea, so it doesn't cost too much to ship by sea."
Lin Fei nodded and said, "Okay, when I conquer Cotabato, you have to refine more lead for me."
Yuan Zhengxiong frowned and said, "Your Majesty, please forgive me for being so nosy, but this lead is used to make pigments. Pigments are a luxury, so you can't use too much!"
Lin Fei smiled and said, "Don't worry, I don't need lead to make pigments."
Yuan Zhengxiong was shocked and asked, "If lead can't be used to make pigments, what else can it be used to make?"
Lin Fei smiled and said, "You will know what to build later."
Lin Fei's real purpose in getting lead is to make batteries! Metallic lead and acidic solution can be used to make storage batteries. Batteries can greatly improve the performance of weapons and equipment. For example, torpedoes of this era do not have gyroscopes to stabilize their course, so their range is extremely short and their hit rate is extremely low. If a gyroscope is installed in a torpedo, its accuracy and range will be greatly enhanced, and the gyroscope requires electricity to drive it.
Lead-acid batteries were invented in 1859. They were not new to this era. Yuan Zhengxiong might have heard of them, but Lin Fei didn't want to explain much, so he just said this.
Lin Fei had found another very important ore and was very happy. Yuan Zhengxiong bowed and said, "Your Majesty, have you ever been to Cotabato?"
Lin Fei shook his head and said, "I have never been there. Why are you asking?"
Yuan Zhengxiong's expression darkened, and he said hesitantly: "I heard you say that you want to attack Cotabato, is that true?"
Seeing Yuan Zhengxiong's evasive expression and hesitant words, Lin Fei knew that he must have something inconvenient to say, so he smiled and said, "Master Yuan, if you have something to say, you might as well say it directly. You and I are both Chinese, there is no need to be shy when talking."
Yuan Zhengxiong nodded and said, "Then I'll just say it directly."