After sending off Yu Lao and Qi Lin, Huang Xing thought silently, is the rebel army on the other side of the estuary so powerful? At the beginning of the year, I was just defeated, I heard that it had been disabled, and only a few hundred people escaped, how could it be that in just a few months, a new army of 5,000 people of the Qing court could be disabled, why was the strength suddenly so strong?

Then he secretly looked forward to it: "You must control this army in your own hands, and I hope that Yu Guosheng Qi Lin and them can succeed." ”

July 15, 1908, the small arsenal of the estuary.

At this time, Huang Zhongting was checking the production situation in the small arsenal in Hekou County.

After a period of leisure, there was basically no major event, and he went everywhere every day to look around, and there were some things he knew he couldn't hurry.

During this time, the new barracks were also constantly recruiting new recruits, and the one he valued most at the moment was the small arsenal, and the other was the new barracks.

On the side of the small arsenal, in addition to maintaining the normal production of bullets during this time, some home-made radium and deceptive medicine bags were also made.

As for those professionals who can steal technology, although Huang Zhongting also told Cai Yi, who is the chief of staff, to recruit more, he has thought of various methods, but because Hekou County is sparsely populated, he really can't find a few talents in this area, so he finally recruited three or four, and they are all some second-rate ordinary technicians.

Huang Zhongting didn't blame him, knowing that the reality was like this.

As for those earthen radium and deception medicine bags, they were all made by local blacksmiths, and for this, Cai Ye also asked the family to bring over all the household belongings that usually make iron, and temporarily set up a small iron-making workshop in the small arsenal.

No way, processing sub da

There are machines, there are molds, and this does not need to be done by hand.

But this thing can't be used for radium on the ground, this thing needs to make an empty iron ball first, then fill it with huo medicine, and connect a fuse to activate the radium on the ground.

Huang Zhongting has always wanted the arsenal to make the kind of ground radium that the enemy can explode when he steps on it, but he has no technology or materials.

At present, some earth-made radium has been made, but there has been no experimentation yet.

At this moment, under the witness of Huang Zhongting, the first radium produced by the small arsenal in the estuary was about to explode.

A ground radium that looked as big as a pumpkin was placed two hundred meters away from the trench where Huang Zhongting was, and a long fuse extended to the edge of the trench.

At this time, Sidley, Huang Zhongyuan, Cai Ye and others all followed Huang Zhongting and climbed on the edge of the trench. A worker from a small arsenal carefully lit the nearly 200-meter-long fuse with a torch.

Everyone at the scene was quietly waiting, and half a minute later, the last cluster of sparks followed the fuse into the radium.

A loud bang followed, Huang Zhongting was nervously holding the telescope at the moment to stare at the effect of the explosion, and looked at it, but only a small crater was blown up at the scene, Huang Zhongting said secretly with a dark face: "I was blind with such a loud explosion, and the explosion effect was so much better than the small steel cannon I played in my previous life, and it only blew up a small crater." ”

At this time, everyone at the scene saw that the effect was not good, except for the louder explosion, there was no expected lethality.

Sidley was a little embarrassed and said: "Maybe the iron sheet on the outer layer of the ground radium is too thick, and it can't blow up the iron sheet, so let's experiment with a few more." ”

Subsequently, more than a dozen explosions were tested one after another, and on the whole, the effect only reached half of what Huang Zhongting expected in his heart, and half of the explosion effect was very good, which could blow up a large crater half a meter deep, and the effect of checking the fragments was also very good, and the degree of iron fragmentation was also very high.

But there are many problems with the other half of the explosion effect is not ideal, some only blow the iron ball in half, some of the fuse extinguished itself halfway, and the ground radium was not detonated, and some did not know if it was a gas leak, so they only put a firework in the same place, and it did not explode at all.

After that, I tried to detonate a few fraudulent medicine packets, and the overall effect was much better than that of the earthen radium, because it was easier to make a fraudulent medicine pack, only needed to be filled with sufficient charges, and the bandaging was stable, which basically had a strong power.

In addition, the lethality of the pill pack is different from that of radium, which relies on the fragments produced by the explosion to kill and injure the enemy, and the pill pack that kills the enemy by the violent shock and air wave generated by the explosion. Comparatively speaking, radium requires a certain technical content, and the fraud package is much simpler, as long as the amount of fraud is sufficient.

Although Huang Zhongting was a little dissatisfied with the earthen radium, he did not show dissatisfaction, and he knew that it would be very good to rely on a few blacksmiths to make this effect, even if it was not lethal, it could scare the enemy by the sound of explosions, and what could be pulled out was a good plaster.

After the test explosion, Huang Zhongting explained that Sidley should try to improve its technology as much as possible, and then some can be made in batches, and some are better than nothing.

Huang Zhongting also instructed the General Staff to give each of the French technicians Sidley another 50 silver dollars, regardless of whether they were sincere in helping themselves, but they always had to express that Huang Zhongting also hoped that Sidley and these people could develop the kind of throwing hand sulfur bombs and ground radium that he mentioned earlier.

At present, Sidley and other French technicians in the small arsenal are still very cooperative, and a small research institute has been set up in the factory, and the production of bullets has been handed over to the newly recruited local workers to be responsible for the production.

As for the issue of some of the materials needed for the study, Huang Zhongting also told the Logistics Department of the General Staff that as long as they could be purchased, they would purchase them; now because the estuary and the interior are in a state of blockade, and because some of the materials with relatively high technical content cannot be purchased in the mainland, they have entrusted Firmman's French foreign trade company to procure them.

Because the National Revolutionary Army gradually became larger and needed more and more materials, Firmman set up an office on the estuary side to connect with the procurement of materials for the National Revolutionary Army at the mouth of the river.

Some business families in Hekou County have also opened up with the border, and gradually started foreign trade, there are still some local specialties in Hekou, because of the geographical location, there are a lot of wild medicinal materials, plus some salt wells controlled by several big families here, can produce some edible salt, or can be sold to Vietnam.

Huang Zhongting also wanted to take some industries under his own name, especially important resources like the salt industry, all dynasties and generations were not allowed to sell salt privately, but in recent years, the Qing court's dominance has gradually declined, and the control is not as strong as before, especially in places like Hekou, where the emperor is far away, the control of this aspect is not too strict, and some businessmen dare to sell salt privately.

But Huang Zhongting thought about it for a long time and decided to ignore them for the time being, even if it was to sell tobacco and soil, as long as it was not sold to his own country and obediently paid taxes, Huang Zhongting would turn a blind eye.

If you have the ability to sell big cigarettes abroad, people abroad will be willing to smoke it, and we can't control it.

In the afternoon, Huang Zhongyuan went to the new barracks to check again.

At present, due to the expansion of the Protector Army in front, a large number of recruits have been filled into the three regiments of the First Division of the Protector Army, but during this period of continuous recruitment, more than 1,000 people have joined.

At this time, Huang Zhongting was standing on the edge of the training ground with some joy, staring at the listless group of more than 20 people on the field, and at this moment, he was being scolded by an instructor under the scorching sun.

"Are you pigs? I only ran five miles just now, that's it, I can't stand well in the military posture? Don't want to eat dinner anymore? That's why I'm still a soldier......"

Huang Zhongting was happy, turned around and shook his head with a smile and asked, "You guys, which one got them to the new barracks?" I remember I said I wouldn't hold them accountable. ”

The more than 20 people who are being scolded are Xu Lin and others who beat Huang Zhongting and his party some time ago, and they are all about the same age as Huang Zhongting, and I don't know who got them to the new barracks at this time.

Chen Guosheng, who was behind him, immediately laughed dryly, scratched his head embarrassedly and said: "Young commander, it's me, my subordinates were beaten by them, and they didn't get out of bed for three or four days. ”

Huang Zhongting shook his head a little helplessly, and pointed at Xu Lin and the others: "Forget it, seeing that they have already suffered almost, go, tell them that they can leave at any time if they want to." ”

They are all sons and brothers in the family, they have been pampered since they were children, how can they endure this kind of hardship, and if they are allowed to go to the battlefield, they will have to pee their pants even more, and they can only add to the chaos.

"Yes," Chen Guosheng immediately ran over.

As a result, I waited for a long time, but I didn't see any of them and ran away directly. Huang Zhongting was a little puzzled, was he stupid?

As a result, after Chen Guosheng came back and explained the reason, Huang Zhongting couldn't cry or laugh even more.

They are afraid that if they run away, they will still be held accountable, and even if they are not pursued here, the family will still be afraid that they will still be driven back, so no one is leaving now.

Huang Zhongting sighed and said: "Forget it, just stay, it's not bad for them to eat, but don't deliberately target them, just train normally." ”

Anyway, their families have money, as long as they pay taxes normally, and they are completely willing to help them raise their sons. Huang Zhongting said to himself.

Huang Zhongting no longer paid attention to them, he came here this time mainly to see the main training situation of the new barracks, two days ago he spent a lot of money to hire several German instructors through Firmman, and now these German instructors have already started the training work on the new barracks.

Although there are great contradictions between Germany and France in the international community, it is still no problem for Firmman to find a few German instructors, and the contradictions in the country have little conflict with them to make money, and these German instructors do not belong to Firmman's trading company, they are mercenaries in Vietnam after retiring from the German army, and Firmman easily found these people, anyway, he doesn't have to pay for it himself.

The treatment of these people is also in charge of Huang Zhongting, who has nothing to do with Firmman, and unlike the Sidley technicians in the small arsenal, they are considered Huang Zhongting's own people from the time they joined.

Huang Zhongting observed it silently and was very satisfied. Not to mention, people just have this ability, they have served in the German army, and they have been mercenaries licking blood on the tip of the knife, and the troop training system has been gradually built with their help, unlike the previous training methods of Li Shaoyang and Gu Haiqiang, who are half-baked and braised in a cauldron, physical fitness, fighting, shooting, etc. are very clear, and the training objectives are more clear, and the effect is naturally not bad, which is the same as the effect Huang Zhongting expects.