Great Wall at Sea

Chapter Two: The Spanish

Li Guang wandered around the empty courtyard for over an hour without encountering a single person. Judging from the structure and facilities of the buildings, it was either a shipyard or a repair shop.

The building has a European-style structure, but the facilities are outdated and it's hard to tell what era it's from. The only thing that feels somewhat modern is that there are electric lights in the factory.

The factory had clearly been idle for a long time. There were two open-air docks overlooking the Río de la Plata, one of which was a dry dock with rusted steel rails at the bottom, indicating it hadn't been used in ages. The cranes above the docks, though steel structures, were actually just a few hand-operated hoists. Li Guang found this quite strange; shipbuilding was a true heavy industry, could it really be done with hand-operated hoists?

Even at this point, Li Guang still couldn't figure out what era he was in. The location, however, was undoubtedly Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, and the large river outside the dock was clearly the River de la Plata.

After a long while, Li Guang finally met his savior. He was a European, unshaven, unkempt, and dressed in tattered, greasy work clothes, looking quite destitute.

Sergio Ramo, 51 years old, is a Spaniard. During World War I, his family's merchant ship was sunk by unrestricted German submarine warfare, but Sergio Ramo survived. After the war, he took his share of the family fortune to Uruguay and opened this shipyard.

However, Sergio Ramo is clearly not a good businessman, and things have gone downhill ever since. Now the factory is no longer sustainable. Sergio Ramo is already planning to sell the business and return to Spain.

This was a situation that Li Guang had only managed to figure out after many days of effort. Unfortunately, Li Guang didn't understand Spanish, and like most Chinese university graduates, he only knew some English. Lamo, on the other hand, only knew a little English, making communication extremely difficult.

However, despite being destitute, Lamo did not drive Li Guang away, and Li Guang, who had no relatives or friends, stayed there.

Li Guang couldn't stay any longer; he didn't even have a single US dollar. And there were no ships or planes from Uruguay bound for China.

To get from Uruguay to China, one usually goes to the United States or Europe first, and then takes a ship to Shanghai, China.

For someone as penniless as Li Guang, undertaking such a long journey was simply impossible. His immediate priority was to obtain some money.

Uruguay is known as the Switzerland of South America, with exceptionally beautiful scenery and climate. However, once Li Guang understood the era he lived in, he could no longer feel at ease.

It was January 1937, just before the outbreak of the War of Resistance against Japan. Back in that era, Li Guang would find it difficult to remain at peace if he couldn't contribute to the country and the nation.

Li Guang was also a bit of a hothead; he even took to the streets to boycott Japanese goods during the Diaoyu Islands dispute. He also fantasized about defeating the Japanese and trampling Tokyo. Basically, he had all the fantasies that most young people have.

But now Li Guang was trapped in this small South American country, a veritable tiger fallen into a pit. Getting free meals from Lamo was troublesome enough; asking Lamo to pay for his travel expenses was something Li Guang couldn't bring himself to do. In his spare time, Li Guang began to voluntarily help Lamo with chores.

A few days later, Li Guang finally understood why Lamo was about to go bankrupt. Lamo was obsessed with the idea of German submarines sinking his merchant ships with torpedoes, while he was developing torpedoes. For the past one or two decades, Lamo had devoted almost all his energy and money to developing torpedoes.

Li Guang had only heard of torpedoes, but had never seen one. After the two became somewhat acquainted, Lamo saw that Li Guang was quite skilled in both mechanical and electrical engineering, and gradually began to open up to him, inviting him to visit his storage depot and small workshop.

Li Guang was stunned by the warehouse. He had never imagined that next to the simple workshop, a storeroom would contain hundreds of torpedoes, including old-fashioned steam torpedoes, new-style electric torpedoes, and fuel-fired torpedoes. The smaller ones were only a little over a meter long, while the larger ones were four or five meters long.

According to Lamo's own boasting, he had all kinds of torpedoes, and all of them were designed by him. Li Guang was very skeptical; he had never heard of Spain having such a skilled arms dealer.

Later, Li Guang learned that Lamo was indeed a torpedo expert, although not an outstanding one, but still very skilled in torpedo research. Gradually, Li Guang also learned of Lamo's predicament.

To be fair, Ramo's family certainly came from a wealthy past. Anyone with even a basic understanding of Spanish history knows where wealth comes from; during the Age of Exploration, tiny Spain plundered half the world's riches. While Ramo's family wasn't originally pirates, their connections were close. He boasted that his ancestors even sold cannons to the Qing Dynasty.

The arms trade during the Age of Exploration enabled the Lamo family to accumulate enormous wealth. However, their good fortune ended with World War I. Due to a lack of attention to research and development, the Lamo family's arms business failed to generate any profit during the war. Furthermore, the family's fortunes plummeted after their merchant ships were hit by German torpedoes.

However, Lamo saw a business opportunity in the bombing of the merchant ship. He astutely foresaw that torpedoes would be a highly effective weapon on the ocean in the future. So he focused his efforts and began to develop torpedoes using the limited funds he had.

More than a decade of research and development has exhausted Lamo's last remaining assets. And with a decade or two of world peace (actually, not peace, just the absence of naval warfare), Lamo's products couldn't be sold, leaving the company impoverished and owing nearly $100,000 in bank loans.

Now, Ramos saw a business opportunity. His homeland, Spain, had entered a civil war. For a maritime nation like Spain, straddling the Strait of Gibraltar, it would be strange if there weren't naval battles during a major conflict. Ramos saw this as a business opportunity and, without any hesitation, decided to profit from the nation's misfortune.

A problem loomed before Lamo: money. If he couldn't repay the $100,000 to the bank on time, not only would his factory be liquidated, but he also wouldn't be able to sell the hundreds of torpedoes in his inventory. According to Lamo's assessment, these torpedoes alone were worth over $500,000.

But this stuff can't be turned into money anytime soon, and if it can't be turned into money, Lamo can't leave Uruguay (the court prohibits Lamo from leaving Uruguay), and if he can't leave Uruguay, this stuff can't be turned into money even more. It's a vicious cycle.

Li Guang now had a basic understanding: money was indeed very valuable in this era. The Lamo factory covered a full 300 acres, and it even owned a small island dozens of nautical miles away. Yet, all of this was only worth two hundred thousand US dollars.

In short, Lamo is now planning to sell its assets and take the torpedoes back to Spain. However, it seems there aren't many businessmen willing to take over the shipyard.

Upon learning all this, Li Guang's mind began to work rapidly. Having just arrived in this era, he also needed a foundation to establish himself. And this shipyard was a perfect opportunity.