On February 11, the patron steamer docked outside the Taiping-controlled Nanjing wharf, attracting a large crowd of onlookers. Even if there is a war now, there are still many people watching the excitement. The troops set up a cordon and stopped the gang at a distance.

The soldiers of the Taiping Army in the vicinity had curiosity, doubt, incomprehension, and intense vigilance in their eyes. There were many foreign devils on the ship who were on the alert nervously.

Wei Ze brought Chen Zhe, director of the Technical Department of the General Staff, Ke Gongyu, commander of the Teaching Brigade, and troops of the Teaching Brigade to receive the goods. Ke Gongyu was a little puzzled, "What are these foreign devils afraid of?" Are you afraid that we won't be able to rob them? ”

"They're just afraid we'll rob them." Weese replied. The Taiping army only killed Manchu officials, oppressed large households, and indeed never robbed the people. Ke Gongyu, who has this mentality, is difficult to understand how afraid the foreign devils who are used to robbing are.

Seeing Weser appear, Merchant Smith took a boat that was lowered from the ship to the shore, and it seems that he did not have any particular confidence in Weese.

"How do you inspect the goods?" Weeser asked.

"Let's get on board and inspect the cargo." Smith built yì road.

Wei Ze smiled: "Don't be too slow, take it down from the boat to the shore, and we will pay you the corresponding amount after the inspection." I can tell you in advance, we will test one gun at a time, and if there is a problem with the gun, you have to bring it back. ”

Smith didn't expect Weezer to be so serious, and he hesitated a little now. Finally Smith replied, "Gunpowder, I've seen it, and there's no problem." But muskets are old guns, as we said in the contract. ”

"Old guns and bad guns are two different things!" Weeser immediately refuted Smith's argument. Weeser has seen an incident that during the American Civil War, a certain consortium provided a batch of rotten guns and guns to the Northern troops, but the troops refused to accept them. So the American consortium sued the consortium, and finally the court ruled in favor of the consortium. The US 6 Army had to pay the corresponding amount.

For Smith, an arms dealer, Weser had no trust at all. He must guarantee that the weapons he buys are qualified products. The number of troops is sufficient, and the number of personnel to inspect weapons is extremely adequate. During the inspection, it was also possible to familiarize the teaching brigade with the new weapons.

In order to put pressure on Smith, Weeser beckoned to the back, and the warrior carried two large boxes over. When opened, it was filled with silver ingots. Smith looked at Bai Huahua's several large boxes of silver ingots, and couldn't help but gasp. In the end, he gave in and agreed to Wei Ze's construction.

It is true that the European flint rifle was much stronger than the arquebus of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and it was already a fairly mature product. Hundreds of years of continuous wars in Europe have constantly created a demand for military technology, and these needs have indeed promoted the progress of the military industry.

The officers and men of the Teaching Brigade now had a European rifle similar to Weeser's flint converted from an arquebus, but with thicker walls and a larger muzzle caliber. And some of these rifles even have sleeve bayonets on them. Although the bayonet was covered with rust and had many chips, it looked quite unusable. But the overall design of the rifle is much stronger than the barely modified rifle.

"Let the people on board not be afraid, we are going to test the gun!" Weeser said to Smith.

Smith reluctantly passed Weser's words to the guys on the ship. The musket ping-pong began to fight, and sure enough, as Wei Ze expected, at least one-third of the musket leaf springs had problems and could not be fired at all. Weeser gave the musket to Smith and asked him to return to the ship. Other rifles that can be fired have also been inspected, and there are no bad quality ones.

In the end, more than 2,500 rifles were selected, and barrels of gunpowder were opened to hold on. Wei Ze also had the Taiping army check whether the gunpowder was a damp tool, which was a copper double-layer casing, and the inner and outer layers were cut off along the longitudinal edge, so that the round pipe was not closed. After staggering at a certain angle, it is still a closed round tube with a small mechanism on the side that can be rotated. Insert the round tube into the bottom of the powder keg from top to bottom, first turn the small mechanism to close the bottom nozzle, and then lift it up. Turn the tube and put the two notches together to see the composition of the sampling compartment.

These tests made Smith's face harder to look at. Sure enough, a lot of gunpowder was damp and clumped. There are also some powder kegs with a lot of sand on the bottom. Wei Ze was originally a little unhappy, but he was even happy when he saw the end. It seems that this is the way the arms dealers behaved.

Seeing that he couldn't trap Wei Ze, and seeing that Wei Ze was not annoyed, Smith came over with a shy face and said, "Your Excellency, I think you can understand that I have done my best to transport so many supplies to Nanjing in such a short time. Those damaged guns, as long as they are still usable after repair, if you can count what kind of parts are needed, I can take care of delivering those parts to you. As for gunpowder, I can also give you more. ”

Wei Ze didn't want to rectify it, and it was what Wei Ze needed to expand his reputation among foreign devils. Of course, this reputation must not be the reputation of "a lot of money, a stupid person". After some bargaining between the two sides, in the end Weeser accepted all 4,000 guns, including the damaged guns, and of course, the price of the damaged guns was reduced to two taels. The parties signed contracts for various spare parts, including bayonets, leaf springs, gunpowder.

"I've never seen such a shrewd general as you!" Smith had the silver loaded onto the paddle steamer, and then said to Weser.

"I'll just think you're complimenting me." Weser laughed.

Smith didn't answer Weeser directly, he also smiled, "I'm looking forward to doing more business with you." Your Excellency, I think there may be interest in the Twelve-Pounder Cannon. ”

Wei Ze nodded, "Of course I'm interested, but I don't have much research on artillery, so everyone has to discuss this deal." ”

"You can send someone to Shanghai with me." Smith laughed.

"If I have the chance, I'll send someone." Weese replied.

As an arms merchant, Smith certainly knew that Weese, who was at war, would not send someone. At least the type of his troops that was completely different from the Manchu Qing would immediately be seen by the Qing army in Shanghai. He agreed with Weeser to make another deal in about two months, and Smith returned to the paddle steamer in a small boat. The ship immediately turned around and headed down the river for Shanghai.

"Order the troops to change their outfits, give the newly arrived foreign guns to the teaching brigade, and other flint guns also hurry to the troops." Weeser gave the order.

"Will the fighters have time to train?" Ke Gongyu was very skeptical about this. The first division originally had 1,000 flint guns, and when Wei Ze led the troops eastward this time, he brought all the flint guns of the second brigade of the first division. With the newly acquired weapons, Wei Ze's entire army can have one flint gun in his hands, but this training may not be able to keep up.

Wei Ze replied: "Then take turns to fight, part of training, part of fighting." We have few troops, and Nanjing is not so easy to fight. ”

"What's so bad about Nanjing? We've all occupied a section of the wall. Ke Gongyu was very puzzled by Wei Ze's thoughts.

Wei Ze wanted to tell the truth to Ke Gongyu, but he couldn't tell the truth. Earlier, Wei Ze had actually begun to reflect, and after Luo Xuan was suddenly willing to be under Wei Ze, Wei Ze felt that something was not right. After breaking a section of the wall, Weezer was excited for more than ten minutes, and finally realized that he had done it. In state-owned enterprises, this truth was not particularly difficult for Wei Ze.

From a military point of view, there was no special practical use for breaking this section of the wall, and according to the map provided by the surveying and mapping department, Wei Ze showed that this section of the city wall was of limited significance. Jubaomen is the largest gate in Nanjing, much larger than the Beijing gate that Wei Ze had seen during his travels. Moreover, the structure of Jubaomen is an urn city, even if a section of the city wall is broken, it is meaningless.

Politically speaking, this section of the city wall is not a help to Wei Ze at all, but a burden. He broke a section of the city wall, and others would naturally accuse Wei Ze of why he couldn't control the entire Jubaomen? After fighting for such a long time, Wei Ze already understood that his forces were not enough to solve Nanjing. From the perspective of political struggle, if Wei Ze took shit luck and really took Nanjing by mistake, it would be the end of the master. What will Hong Xiuquan and Yang Xiuqing think of Wei Ze? And all the generals of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom are waiting to fight Nanjing and make great contributions, what will they think of Wei Ze?

Wei Ze went out of Wuchang and fought all the way to Nanjing along the Yangtze River, and was carried away by the victory. At this point, after encountering some resistance, he went back to think about it. Only then did I realize that I had done something very wrong. And the deal with the foreign devils is not bad, Wei Ze just found a reason to withdraw the troops.

The generals did not dare to disobey Weizer's orders, and Weeser led the troops to begin to shift from offense to defense. And the Qing army was also quite powerful, except for the Nanjing Qing army quickly blocked the small hole on the city wall near Jubaomen, the other Qing troops got the news, and also began to struggle to assemble in the direction of Nanjing.

All kinds of news came one after another, and Wei Ze just had a good excuse. By 14 February, the main force of the first advance army had arrived in Nanjing. It was a troop of more than 8,000 people led by Lin Fengxiang and Li Kaifang. They brought hearsay that a Jiangxi Qing army was trying to attack Chizhou.

Wei Ze immediately handed over the task of attacking Nanjing to Lin Fengxiang and Li Kaifang. Although this method of making amends was too blunt, Wei Ze had no other choice. He led his troops westward to "rush to the aid of Chizhou".

It is impossible to go with the wind and water when you are on a boat, and it is impossible to swim against the current. Wei Ze could only take the troops to walk 6 routes, hurrying slowly, and the vanguard finally arrived in Chizhou on February 19. Rumors are always a bit of a rumor, and there is really a Jiangxi Qing army near Chizhou. However, it was not a Qing army that specifically attacked Chizhou, but a small group of Qing troops that were scattered. They didn't know where to go, so they patrolled around Chizhou. I want to see if there is a chance to enter Chizhou. Wei Ze's troops were tired enough after a long journey, and the cavalry team tried their last bit of strength to finally annihilate this Qing army of more than 200 people.

Chizhou and Anqing were not far away at all, and Wei Ze immediately contacted Wei Changrong, who was guarding Anqing. Knowing that they were still guarding here, Wei Ze's heart was completely relaxed.

Regardless of the fact that all the troops behind had not yet arrived in Chizhou, Wei Ze led the troops that could still move around and continued to move westward, and on the 21st, Wei Ze finally entered Anqing breathlessly. After such a toss, after Wei Ze saw Wei Changrong, he startled Wei Changrong, "Fourth uncle, why do you look like this?" ”

Of course, Wei Ze can't say that he made a mistake, and he only made up for his mistake by working hard. He could only say tiredly, "I heard that there are Qing demons preparing to attack Anqing, so I'll rush back!" ”

"Fourth uncle, you are so well-informed!" Wei Changrong praised.

Looking at Wei Changrong's sincere expression, Wei Ze wanted to explain the truth, but he couldn't help it. There are some things that cannot be explained, and everything Wei Ze has done has to be tested. If Yang Xiuqing, the king of the East, didn't believe it, then Wei Ze's efforts would be tantamount to failure. This is something that does not need to be discussed.

Thinking of this, Wei Ze said: "Let's quickly send out a reconnaissance unit and inquire about the situation clearly." ”

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