Chapter 702 Ma Han's Three Questions (Second update, please subscribe)

The world outside the door is not only cold, but also white.

In the past two days, the heavy snow seemed to have never stopped. Only the coal piles near the railway were black, and the rest of the place was covered with a layer of white snow.

In the white snow, there were some black miners busying around. Their faces and bodies were all black, black coal, black skin, black...only the snow was white.

Standing in the corridor, Zhao Qihang smoked silently.

He shook his head and then brought his confused mind back to its senses.

“You must concentrate on your work.”

While talking to himself, he thought about how lucky he was to have this job. Although he only had a high school diploma, he still found a decent job here. The income was even higher than similar jobs in his hometown.

Of course, I am even more fortunate that my sister is here too, and...

Why are you thinking about things you shouldn’t be thinking about again!

She is your sister, how can you have such nonsense thoughts?

Cursing himself secretly in his heart, Zhao Qihang looked into the distance.

Looking at the workers in the mine who were busy like ants, an idea came to Zhao Qihang's mind.

"Although these indentured laborers seem very cheap, there should be room for further cost reduction..."

After this thought popped up in his mind, Zhao Qihang couldn't stop and a series of ideas began to emerge in his mind.

Everyone has something he is good at.

Maybe Zhao Qihang did not get into university or college, but in some aspects, such as making full use of manpower and fully exerting labor efficiency, he has extraordinary talents.

In the following days, Zhao Qihang continued to conduct management experiments at the Moyuhe Coal Mine, dividing the workers according to their physical fitness. Strong workers could get extra supplies, while the old, weak, sick and disabled could only get basic rations. Correspondingly, he also established a reward and punishment system. Workers who could complete the labor quota could get better quality food and clothes, while those who did not complete the labor quota would naturally have to reduce the food supply. In order to get more food and clothes, the workers could only work hard in exchange for more food.

The positive reminders greatly improved the production efficiency of the coal mine, so that in the following years, Moyuhe Coal Mine was the star of the Northern Mining Company, and Zhao Qihang's "scientific management" was fully utilized in many places in the northern mining areas and African colonies.

Of course, his "scientific management" will definitely not be promoted in the local area. After all... it is scientific management aimed at cheap labor such as contract laborers.

For the Ming Dynasty, the cheap labor from the colonies was extremely important for the development of mineral resources in the northern territories. Under scientific management, they mined hundreds of millions of tons of coal and other minerals in mines isolated from the outside world in the northern territories.

To a certain extent, it was they who laid the foundation for the rise of the Ming Dynasty's northern territories.

Although these laborers began to be sent back to Africa a few years later due to the influx of immigrants, they still participated in the construction of Africa. In the following decade, the railways, mines, and hydroelectric power stations built by the Ming Dynasty in Africa all left their traces.

However, these are just afterthoughts.

But at the moment, it is the coal from the North Sea that has injected sufficient impetus into the industrial development of the Ming Dynasty.

This was, after all, an age of coal and iron.

Only countries that have coal and iron have a future.

However, for the Ming Dynasty, coal and iron all came from overseas, and there was not enough coal or iron in the country. This was almost the biggest flaw of the Ming Dynasty.

The Ming Dynasty was not the only one that noticed this flaw. The Americans, who regarded the Ming Dynasty as their biggest potential enemy, also noticed it.

At least some people noticed that as a naval officer, Alfred Thayer Mahan should be grateful to the Ming Dynasty to some extent, because in the past few years, under pressure from the Ming Dynasty, the United States began their naval expansion. In just five years, they built two battleships, three armored cruisers and six iron-hulled cruisers.

It was the threat from the Ming Dynasty that made the US Navy begin their armament expansion more than ten years in advance. In the history of another world, it was not until 1883 that the US Navy built three armored cruisers. That was the first time the US Navy built warships after the end of the Civil War.

During that process, countless naval officers lost their jobs. Many officers faced unemployment after graduating from military academies. The only thing to be thankful for was that the United States had a large merchant fleet that could accommodate a large number of naval officers. At this time, the expansion of the navy allowed many naval officers to continue their military careers. Of course, this did not include Mahan, after all, he graduated from the Annapolis Naval Academy with the second-best score.

As a cruiser captain, Mahan had been serving in the Pacific Fleet for the past two years. It was during those two years that he came into contact with the Ming Dynasty's navy and merchant fleet while sailing on the sea.

The reason why he returned to Washington and came to the office of Secretary of War General Grant was because after two years of observation, he discovered a new opportunity.

"Lieutenant Colonel, you have 10 minutes!"

Grant, the former Army Master of Ceremonies who almost defeated the South in the Civil War, sat behind his desk. The outcome of the Civil War also profoundly changed his fate. Originally, in the history of another world, he should have been elected as the President of the United States for two consecutive terms because of his outstanding military achievements, but what about now?

He was just the Secretary of War. But for him personally, this was not a bad thing. After all, he was not a successful president. Even later generations generally believed that "large-scale corruption was the hallmark of Grant's presidency."

Now, he was just a war minister, doing what he was best at. Now facing this rash lieutenant colonel who came to the navy in the morning, as the war minister, he did not kick him out of his office, but gave him a chance.

"Minister, I only need a minute!"

Faced with the time given by General Grant, Mahan spoke directly.

"I only need to ask three questions. First, will we go to war with the Ming Empire? Second, do we want to win the war after the war starts? Third, how do we win this war?"

(End of this chapter)