Liu Chang's face was anxious, and he said anxiously to the village: "The Qing Demon Soldiers have arrived in Taiping County, I can't ignore the Panshi Village, right?" ”

Saying that, Liu Chang had already urged the horse forward, and the pace of the entire army was suddenly accelerated, Yu Cun said: "There is no need to rush the inspection, it is only a day or two to return from Ruian to Panshi Village!" I'll be honest with the inspectors. ”

He lowered his voice close to Liu Chang's horse: "Brother Zhao and Hu Zuolong have already started to move, the next step is to take Taishun and Fuding!" ”

But this has nothing to do with Liu Chang, Liu Chang is still very anxious and said: "I am really powerless now, the Qing Demon will soon go to the Rock Village, you can't even let you ignore your own nest!" Besides, with the soldiers and horses in the hands of Brother Zhao and Hu Zuolong, it is not easy to take two small county towns. ”

Yu Cun said bitterly: "Take Taishun, take Fuding, even if you don't need Hu Zuolong to help, it's enough to rely on our Brother Zhao's own strength!"

Zhao Qi is usually a role like Song Jiang in time, his name is not only useful in the north and south of the Feiyun River, but also in northern Fujian to report his name, but also to mix a few meals, this time through northern Fujian, he is ready to use his old relationship, when the time comes, he can get twice the result with half the effort, but Yu Cun continued: "I just want to take all northern Fujian and enter Fuzhou, so I have to check the dragon gun battalion." ”

Although Qu Zhenhan has now purchased more than 50 foreign guns, and the foreign guns brought by Liu Changlong's gun battalion across the river this time are only 180 guns, Qu Zhenhan has a lot of money, since he has made up his mind to buy foreign guns, it is a matter of time before the foreign gun team is expanded to 100 guns, but Yu Cun always has a feeling in his heart, that is, this time to attack northern Fujian. It is the dragon spear battalion that cannot be missing Liu Chang.

He can now understand the mood of the generals of the Red Turban Army anxiously waiting for Liu Chang to cross the river before the troops entered Ruian this time, but the Red Turban Army defeated Ruian, whether it was Qu Zhenhan or others, they all thought that they had their own foreign gun team, and their combat effectiveness was not much worse than that of the Dragon Lance Battalion, and they could still win the battle without the Dragon Lance Battalion.

But Yucun saw more deeply than the people in the bureau like the Red Turban Army: "Check, there was something wrong with the 10,000 taels of silver last time." This is Yu Mou's personal responsibility, but when you go south this time, I guarantee you with my personality that the last time was 10,000 taels of silver, plus the 10,000 taels of silver allowed by Brother Zhao this time. It's all ready for you as soon as possible! If you have to take care of Panshi Village now, it will not be too late to fight off the Qing demon Niu Deshun and then go south. ”

20,000 taels of silver is a huge amount of money, but Liu Chang's subordinates also have a lot of money, not to mention anything else, just now the dragon spear battalion carries silver and gold to the north is worth as much as 50,000 taels of silver, so Liu Chang can only say sorry: "Then I have to repel the Qing demon who went south to Yueqing!"

Yu Cun was a little disappointed, and said a few more words to Liu Chang before asking Qu Jie for questions. I wanted to test his opinion.

When he left, Liu Chang glanced at the messenger who reported the news, and the messenger immediately urged the horse to post it, and the pro-soldiers next to him scattered with interest, Liu Chang asked, "What's the big deal?" Zhou Xiuying asked me to rush back immediately. ”

The messenger who reported the news lowered his voice: "De Mons has come with a boatload of weapons, but the checkpoint is not there, Sentinel Zhou does not dare to call the shots, please check the point and go back quickly." ”

Demons' weapons arrived? It's a timely rain. Liu Chang was thinking about going north, and the shipload of weapons brought by Demons could just come in handy: "How many weapons did Demons bring over?" ”

"He won't say!" The messenger told Liu Chang: "It's just that it's more than the previous two combined!"

That's good, the first two times Liu Chang bought two hundred and ten foreign guns from De Mengs, so this time there are at least two hundred foreign guns, enough to equip two sentrys: "Are there any foreign guns?" ”

He didn't say anything, only that there would definitely be unexpected surprises when the inspection arrived, and he couldn't trust us to do things below. Be sure to trade with the check!"

Even if he trusted Zhou Xiuying and them, these company-level petty officers, Zhou Xiuying did not have the authority to use the money, so Liu Chang returned to his heart like an arrow: "Let everyone step up, by the way, what's going on with that Qing Demon Chief Soldier Niu Deshun?" Really? ”

"It's from Ningbo Mansion. It is said that he brought more than 2,000 Qing demons over, and now the striker has just arrived in Taiping County. Rest assured, this group of Qing demons is coming to Panshi Village, and Chief Zhou is also confident that he will hold Panshi Village for three days!"

Zhou Xiuying said this with confidence, Panshi Village has two combat effectiveness sentry posts, as well as two platoons of foreign guns, as well as many left-behind troops and auxiliary troops, and can even mobilize hundreds of people to go to the city wall, in this case, she is absolutely confident that she will hold Panshi Village for three days.

"That's good!" Liu Chang immediately said: "You go back and report to De Mons, let him wait a few hours, and I will cross the river to trade with him as soon as possible!"

Because of this accident of De Mons, the speed of the march increased a lot, but dragged down by the artillery team, and finally it took a day and a half to reach the edge of the Ou River, there were already clippers waiting there, Liu Chang took him over the river as soon as he arrived at the river, and the entire dragon spear battalion began to cross the river under the leadership of Qu Jie.

Liu Chang didn't even go back to Panshi Village, he could only take a glance at Panshi Village, Zhou Xiuying and the others seemed to be doing a good job, the entire Panshi Camp seemed to be full of vitality, people came and went, and he was secretly happy.

The wind on the river gently blows through Liu Chang's face, the river waves beat Liu Chang's light boat very rhythmically, there is a poetic rhythm, although there has been a war, but the ships in the mouth of the Oujiang River have not decreased at all, from time to time you can see one after another Chinese sailing ships sailing outward, the soldiers next to him told Liu Chang: "The new tea is about to go on the market, and there will be more ships when the time comes." ”

In previous years, tea could only be exported from the port of Fucheng, but this year's war has caused a slight change in this pattern, and any port under the control of the Red Turban Army is free to export tea, bamboo, timber and other profitable goods.

Soon Liu Chang saw Demons's sailboat, a beautiful Western-style sailing ship, with simple and beautiful sails, ropes and masts forming a beautiful landscape.

But De Mons couldn't wait, he had been waiting for Liu Chang to come back from the front line for nearly seventy-two hours, so Liu Chang was strongly embraced by him when he stepped on the deck: "Dear General Liu, I heard that your troops have conquered Ruian County?" Is it true? ”

"It's true!" Liu Chang shook hands with him warmly: "My troops were the first to enter Ruian County, captured thousands of Qing soldiers, and many officials, and now our yellow flag is flying in the entire Wenzhou Mansion. ”

“ok!ok!” De Mons praised: "This is the best news I have ever heard, and I congratulate you on your great victory. ”

It's just that Liu Chang changed his words: "I need a lot of Western-style artillery, and in this battle, I can only use some old-style Chinese artillery, which is of poor quality, so I have to cast some bronze artillery, but that is a great waste of resources." ”

De Mons had a smile on his face: "Your Excellency, I brought something better than Western-style artillery this time, you will definitely like it." ”

"In other words?" Liu Chang's face became serious: "You didn't bring the Western artillery I needed the most this time." ”

"Due to the continued impact of the Knife Society incident, the board of directors of the concession has refused to export or trade any artillery for a short period of time!" De Mons had sincerity on his face: "No matter who it is, no matter who it is, can't buy artillery in the Shanghai Concession now." ”

"What a pity!" Liu Chang decided not to pursue this issue for the time being: "If there is no artillery, I must reconsider your qualifications as an arms agent." ”

"I brought something better than artillery." De Mons said enthusiastically, "You'll love it!"

Liu Chang glanced at Demons and said directly: "Then let's start trading!"

De Mons held the silver candlestick and walked cautiously in front of Liu Chang, while telling his efforts: "You should know that although you can make a little profit from selling arms, it is very risky, and the year before last, there was a senior American diplomat, a senior manager of Qichang Bank, who was going to sell a ship and the weapons on board to the Taiping Army, but was discovered by his opponent, and everything was ruined. ”

He was talking about Jin Nengheng, the U.S. vice consul in Shanghai, who sold a steamer and a large amount of guns and ammunition to the Taiping army, only to be detected by the Qing army, causing an uproar in the Shanghai concession.

Liu Chang glanced at the candlestick in Demons's hand and asked, "If I purchase a ship, do you have a way to do it?" ”

"Ships?" De Mons reacted: "You mean the steamship?" General: Do you want to form a navy? ”

"Yes, the price is not a problem, is there a way?"

De Mons told Liu Chang a disheartening answer: "I think it would be more realistic for you to form a fleet of armed sailing ships, as far as I know, Zhejiang does not produce coal mines, and if you buy a steam ship, then you must ensure that you can import enough boiler coal at any time." ”

No matter which time and space, coal mines have always been a bottleneck in Zhejiang's development, after the founding of the People's Republic of China, Anhui's Changguang Coal Mine was deliberately assigned to Zhejiang, and Liu Chang also had a headache for this problem.

In this era when the steam engine is the main source of power, how to solve the problem of the source of coal is one of the most important problems in front of Liu Chang, and De Mons also told Liu Chang another bad news: "Your Excellency, your suggestion to build an armed fleet is correct, when we passed near Zhoushan, we were intercepted by the sailors, fortunately we flew the British flag, and ran five knots faster than them, so we were lucky to deliver the weapons you need." ”

The good days of being able to import weapons, ammunition and other military supplies directly and smoothly were coming to an end, and the dragon gun battalion had to be prepared to face the naval blockade of the Qing army's naval divisions, but Liu Chang decided to ignore this issue for now.

"That's good!" Liu Chang checked the flintlock pistol that Demons brought: "How many weapons did you send me this time?" ”

"First of all, three hundred flintlock pistols."

It was a real bonus.

ps: The third update asks for a monthly pass, and there is a fourth update later (to be continued)