Chapter Thirty-Four: Assassination

  The company was set up and all that's left is to go to Persia to extract oil. This task must be led by Yang Feng, as no one else knows where the oil field is. As for finding the oil field, Yang Feng doesn't have much pressure on him. He has visited several major oil fields in Iran and still remembers their general locations. All that's left is drilling, which will be handled by the exploration engineers.

  But before that, he must first solve the biggest hidden danger of promoting diesel engines.

  Outside the port of Gothenburg, a small yacht with a displacement of several tens of tons is undergoing sea trials. The shore is crowded with onlookers, who from time to time burst into exclamations of amazement, because this little boat has actually reached a speed of twenty-five knots.

  "This is absolutely unacceptable, I have invested over ￡100,000 in research for the turbine engine, and now you give me such a result? A power of nearly 2,000 horsepower propelling a small boat of less than 50 tons, yet it can only run at 25 knots? Are you insulting my intelligence?"

  "Mr. Yang, I think the problem is definitely not with the turbine, this power is enough to drive a thousand-ton battleship, it must be a problem with the ship itself." Parsons explained hastily, saying that he was also surprised by such results, knowing that many coastal defense small ironclad ships usually had only over 1,000 horsepower at that time.

  "What are you waiting for? Hurry up and find a solution, I'm not leaving today, I'll stay here and watch you work. By tomorrow, I must know why a 2,000 horsepower steam turbine can only propel a small boat at 25 knots." said Yang Feng, the big boss.

  Parsons immediately stopped the ongoing trial, drove the Turbinia into the dock, and rushed over with a group of engineers to start studying intensively. Watching their focused work, Yang Feng couldn't help but sigh.

  This man absolutely cannot stay, he still doesn't know about the propeller cavitation problem. If he finds out about this issue, then running 35 knots will be a piece of cake for this small boat. Just think about how much of an impact it would have on our diesel engine plan if this news gets out.

  Killing someone like this is without any psychological burden, at his level of identity, human life is basically just a small weight on the scale of interests, with no other significance except for the number.

  It's just a matter of how to quietly complete this task, like finding someone to do a dirty job is beneath him, in fact he has been preparing for this.

  That night, under the strict supervision of Mr. Yang, Parsons and his engineers worked until late at night but still couldn't find the problem, they were all exhausted, so Mr. Yang let them go to sleep first and deal with it after waking up.

  It's almost dawn now, and tomorrow they still have to work, so it's not necessary to go home. Even Yang, the big boss himself, is staying in a room arranged by the shipyard for one night, let alone those ordinary engineers. What nobody knows is that two hours later, when everyone has fallen asleep, Yang quietly opened his carry-on suitcase.

  This is a laptop.

  After booting up, it quickly switched to an operating interface. At the same time, in Parsons' bedroom not far away, a pair of small red eyes under the bed lit up brightly.

  A small monster crouching under the bed, its body not much larger than a fist, with six mechanical legs and a long probe at the front that resembles a mosquito's proboscis, looking ferocious.

  This is a specially customized miniature remote control spider robot, used by Boss Yang to secretly take care of some guys who are not suitable for continuing to live among humans. The probe in front is actually an injector, which contains high-concentration ***, this is a must-have medicine for Mossad, and it's impossible to be detected in this era.

  About ten meters away, Yang Feng controlled the mechanical spider, and in the pitch blackness, it crawled out silently with its night-vision capable eyes, then climbed up along the wooden bed leg.

  Poor Parsons was sleeping soundly at this time! He had no idea that his boss had already stretched out his evil claws after working for a day.

  The mechanical spider quickly crawled up to his hairy arm, the anesthetized needle lightly pierced a little at the venous position, such a pain would not be perceived by the sleeping person, and then the anesthetic began to take effect, the needle immediately pierced the vein, a tube slowly injected into Parsons' vein, and the sleeping Parsons stepped through the ghost gate.

  After finishing its work, the mechanical spider scurried down the bed quickly, then burrowed back under it, and stuck to the wooden board at the bottom of the bed like an overturned bat.

  The next morning, Mr. Parsons, the second largest shareholder of Swedish Yangshi Steam Engine Company, a famous scientist and inventor of reaction steam turbine, unfortunately died of suffocation in his throat due to an unknown disease.

  This was a tragic accident, confirmed by his relatives and lawyers who were hastily summoned from the UK to Sweden, as well as the Gothenburg police department. There were no injuries on the deceased's body, nor any signs of strangulation around his neck. According to Mr. Larsson, who first discovered the death, when he came to wake up Parsons, the door was still locked. He woke up Yang and together they broke in to find him dead. Then Yang asked him to go out and find a doctor while trying to take emergency measures himself.

  "I just can't believe that the friend I was working with till late last night is gone, actually Charles's body had already turned cold at that time, unless God performs a miracle, no one would have been able to save him, if only I knew, I wouldn't have let him work overtime. This period of time, for the development of the steam engine, Charles has been working too tightly." Yang Da boss said to the police at the Gothenburg police station with full self-blame.

  It was a very unexpected tragedy, nothing more. Even if an autopsy was performed at the request of his family, it could only prove that Mr. Parsons died of natural causes and there is no possibility of murder. Since it was a natural death, there's nothing to say about it. His shares in Yang's Steam Engine Company will be inherited by his family members, and the unfinished business he left behind will be taken over by his deputy, Mr. Laval.

  However, this blow was still very severe for Yang Da Boss. His turbine development work almost came to an end. In the absence of finding the problem with the Transylvania, the reaction turbine was actually shelved. The main research direction of Yang's Turbine Company began to shift to LaVal's impulse turbine, but progress was slow. Of course, this was only a small setback for Yang Feng, and his diesel engine made very rapid progress. Yang's Power Systems Company soon delivered the first large-scale marine diesel engine with a total power of 7,000 horsepower to Armstrong Shipyard, and the trial run was in good condition.

  This news was wildly proclaimed by all the major newspapers in Europe, and everyone understood what a 7,000-horsepower diesel engine meant. The two large ironclad warships that Germany sold to China had steam engines with an output of no more than this, but this machine, which did not need a boiler, did not need a huge coal bunker, and did not need a gigantic smokestack dozens of meters high, was almost enough to say that it had brought the power of ships into a whole new era. The eyes of all Europe were once again focused on that Chinese man who had brought them surprise after surprise.

  But at this time, Yang Da Boss had already set off for Persia.

  He had nothing to worry about on the diesel engine, although the diesel engine delivered to Armstrong's shipyard was claimed to be produced by a Swedish factory, but in fact 70% of it was produced by Meifu. He could guarantee its performance with confidence.

  The Parrot Shell, carrying nearly a hundred employees of the Imperial Oil Company, sped across the Mediterranean at twenty-eight knots, passing through the Suez Canal and into the Red Sea. At this time, the Middle East was still under the territory of the Ottoman Turkish Empire, although this once powerful empire that had threatened Vienna, like its difficult brother in the East, was already declining, but it still maintained a shell painted with tiger skin, and even had a fleet no weaker than the Northern Navy.

  As for her neighbor, Yang Feng's destination on this trip was Persia, or what would later become Iran. Now even the tiger skin is gone, and this ancient country is still under the rule of the Qajar dynasty. To the south lies Britain, to the north Russia, and under the pressure of these two great powers, various treaties have been signed in droves, ceding territory and paying indemnities, again and again, basically being carved up and devoured by fate.

  Fortunately, no oil was discovered. If the Middle East had been found to have vast oil fields, these two countries would have been carved up in no time, because they had no exploitable value. To this day, the desert of the Arabian Peninsula has not been coveted by anyone.

  So much oil is left underground, it's simply a crime, we must get them all out and let the world know that this vast desert is an endless treasure trove. Looking at the coastline of the Arabian Peninsula on his left, Boss Yang smiled with extra slyness.

  Crossing the Red Sea and rounding the Arabian Peninsula to enter the Strait of Hormuz, after arriving at Abbas Port, Holland, the general manager of Imperial Oil Company, who had arrived earlier, was already waiting at the port. He is the person found by Rothschild, and it is said that he has been doing business in Iran before and has some connections with the Iranian royal family.

  "How's the talk going?" Yang Feng asked as soon as he got on the boat.

  He was referring to negotiations with Iranian King Naser al-Din Shah about the monopoly on oil exploration and extraction rights in Iran.

  "The king's price is too high, he wants thirty percent of the shares," Holland said with a shrug.

  "What a joke, thirty percent? What's left for us then? Or should we put some pressure on him, to make him understand that what he's given is charity, and the weak don't have the right to make demands." Yang Feng said with a cold smile.