The air on the coast near Tianjin was damp and heavy with the smell of salt and mud. It was a flat, uninspiring landscape, a stretch of marshy ground that had for centuries been useful only to fishermen and salt collectors. But today, it was the focal point of an empire's nascent ambition. Viceroy Li Hongzhang stood on a makeshift wooden platform, the cold wind whipping at the edges of his fine silk robes, and surveyed the scene before him. This muddy plot of land was his new canvas.
Before him, dozens of laborers were already at work, driving wooden pylons into the soft earth, laying the foundations for the first building of what would become a massive industrial complex. A ship from Hamburg was anchored offshore, its crew carefully offloading heavy crates filled with German machinery, advanced schematics for a Bessemer converter, and modern machine tools that looked like instruments from another world. This was the first tangible fruit of the new regency's power, the first dividend from the silver seized from the disgraced Treasurer Ma.
Beside Li Hongzhang stood Li Fengbao, the quiet naval expert whose meteoric rise was still a source of gossip in the capital. The two men, one a powerful, pragmatic statesman and the other a quiet, focused technician, were the twin pillars of this new enterprise.
"For twenty years, I have petitioned the throne for a single modern cannon from the Krupp works," Li Hongzhang said, his voice a low rumble against the wind. He did not need to shout; his presence alone commanded attention. "I was met with endless excuses about cost, about the impropriety of using barbarian tools. And now…" He gestured to the bustling activity, a slow, grim smile on his face. "Now, they have given me a factory to build a thousand cannons of my own."
He looked at the small group of German engineers who stood nearby, their Western suits and bowler hats looking utterly alien in the landscape. They were conferring over a set of blueprints, their voices sharp and guttural. "Their ways are strange," the Viceroy mused. "Their language is a barbarian's bark. But their machines are not. Their steel is not. This, Fengbao… this is the future of China, whether the old men in their silken chairs wish to admit it or not."
Li Fengbao nodded, his eyes alight with a fire of technical passion. "It is more than just the factory, Your Excellency. This site will be a complete ecosystem. The ironworks and arsenal will be here," he said, pointing to one section of the staked-out ground. "But adjacent to it, we will build the new deep-water port, capable of servicing the ironclads we are purchasing. And next to that, on the high ground, will be the site for the Imperial Military Academy."
Their conversation highlighted the immense scope of their ambition, an ambition unleashed by Ying Zheng's political victory. They spoke of the practical challenges with the brisk efficiency of men who were finally free to act.
"The geological survey teams have already been dispatched to the north," Li Hongzhang said. "Their official mission is to search for jade, a task that pleases the conservatives in the clan courts. Their real mission is to find the best seams of coking coal and iron ore. We will need a river of both to feed these furnaces."
"And we will need a railroad to bring the coal and iron here," Li Fengbao added quietly. "The Grand Canal is too slow and shallow for the quantities we will require."
Li Hongzhang grunted in agreement. "One war at a time, my friend. We have just won the battle for the fleet. The battle for the railroads is yet to come."
The German chief engineer, a stout, bearded man named Herr Schmidt, approached them with his translator. "Viceroy Li," he said, his tone respectful but direct. "My men are ready. The machines are ready. But your men… they are not. They are strong, they work hard, but they do not understand the principles of steam, of pressure, of precision engineering. We will need to train them, from the very beginning. This will take time."
"They will learn," Li Hongzhang stated, his voice firm. "We Chinese are not fools. We built the Great Wall and the Grand Canal with our bare hands. We can learn to build a steam engine."
The conversation was a perfect microcosm of the challenge facing the empire. They had the political will. They had the money. They had the plans. But they lacked the human infrastructure, the generations of ingrained knowledge that had led to the West's industrial might. They were trying to accomplish a century of industrial revolution in a single decade.
As the day drew to a close, a symbolic ceremony was held. The German engineers, with the help of a team of Chinese laborers, guided a heavy iron rivet into place, the very first piece of the structural frame for the main foundry. Li Hongzhang himself was given the honor of striking the first blow. He took the heavy sledgehammer, his powerful frame showing no sign of his advanced age. He swung it in a clean, powerful arc.
The sound of the hammer striking the red-hot rivet was a sharp, clear CLANG that echoed across the muddy flats. It was a sound unlike any the region had ever heard before. It was not the soft chime of a temple bell or the dull thud of earth being tamped for a wall. It was the sound of industrial birth. It was the sound of steel striking steel.
That single, ringing note was the true sound of the new era. It was the physical manifestation of Ying Zheng's will, a process that had begun with a whispered lie to a terrified spy, that had toppled a corrupt treasurer, and that had now resulted in this—the first rivet of the first steel beam of the first modern factory, the beginning of an industrial revolution that he intended to use to conquer the world. The Tianjin Experiment had begun.