He Guiqing's face suddenly became embarrassed, and the whole scene cooled down. [].

For this news, Wang Youling had never heard of it, and he immediately asked: "Is this really the case?" ”

He Guiqing patted his thigh weakly, and then said: "The country will not be a country, where did you get this news from Xueyan?" ”

Hu Xueyan said mysteriously: "Hu naturally has his own way, I just want to ask Lord Zhongcheng, is it true?" ”

As soon as he said this, He Guiqing only felt very powerless, and he said to Wang Youling: "The center does have such an idea, northern Zhejiang and southern Jiangsu, the source of the world's income, Hangjiahu and Suchang Shanghai are lost, and the world has neither pay nor food, so it is ready to let the monk king and Shengbao join forces to lead the horse infantry team of 20,000 south." ”

Hu Xueyan nodded again and again, he paid a lot of price for obtaining this loss, but after this news was true, it was enough for him to set off countless storms in the public bond market.

It's just that the next moment He Guiqing mentioned the idiom "the country will not be the country": "The country has actually fallen to this, I, the governor of Zhejiang, have not yet received the edict from the Military Aircraft Department, but I know a lot about the old rain and the new in Beijing, and even so, it is only a letter I received this morning!" ”

Wang Youling has already understood, even He Guiqing only got the news today, but in the afternoon Hu Xueyan came to ask if the news is true, this is indeed a situation where the country will not be a country.

He said very carefully: "Xue Yan, it's better not to inform Liu Jiehu of this news for the time being, the icing on the cake in this world is not as good as sending charcoal in the snow!" ”

In his heart, he still had great hopes for the army led by the monk king and Shengbao, hoping that this army could save the situation in Zhejiang.

And Hu Xueyan replied: "This news is worth one million taels, how can I say it easily!" ”

At this time, Liu Chang was receiving Mr. An Rui, a Western arms dealer in Shanghai introduced by De Mons, and he smiled and said politely: "Mr. An Rui has come from afar, I very much welcome Your Excellency to come to us to take a look at it, we can cooperate no matter what business we are in, even including the opium we sell to you." ”

An Rui knew that the Hongjun only exported opium, but not opium, which was a normal thing.

No government with a bit of a savvy mind would allow opium to run rampant in its area, and that is, it would reduce the population of its area while continuing to flow out of silver.

If Liu Chang hadn't banned the import of opium, he might not have maintained such a large-scale arms trade now, but because of such a large market, An Rui had already decided to gamble on his future: "I came this time with good things, a thousand Mini rifles, you are interested!" ”

"A thousand!" Liu Chang was frightened by this number: "Okay, I want it all, the price is negotiable!" ”

In the past, the number of Mini rifles obtained by the Hongjun was very small, at most a hundred at a time, and only twenty or thirty rifles at a time, but the Mini rifle, as the most advanced rifle in this time and space, has indeed made revolutionary progress - although the breech gun has been around for some years, the first generation of breech guns is not reliable enough, the range is very limited, and it is ten years before they replace the breech gun. *.*.*/*

A thousand Mini rifles can make an infantry regiment all reequipped with Mini rifles, and Liu Chang suddenly became enthusiastic: "Okay! With Mr. Anrui's kindness, I have agreed to your request, and you can enter into a direct arms trade with us, and the arms you ship have the highest priority to purchase under the same conditions. ”

An Rui smiled, he told the business is not easy: "You know, these 1,000 Mini rifles are the same standard equipment as the British Army, equipped with this batch of Mini rifles, your main force is equal to the British Army, you must know that this is a controlled material strictly controlled by England and France in the Far East, I have worked hard and bribed the customs officials several times to transport them to Ningbo!" ”…,

Liu Chang said generously: "Okay! The price is negotiable, the price is negotiable! ”

Although the money is a little tight, this batch of Mini rifles was eaten at the first time, although his own troops were formed for a short time and the training was poor, but with these 1,000 Mini rifles, how could an infantry regiment equipped with Mini rifles deal with a British or French infantry battalion.

De Mons secretly complained, Mr. An Rui came out to rob the next family's business, and he could lose a lot because of this, but he was not allowed to introduce An Rui, the upper family, to Liu Chang.

Liu Chang said with a smile: "Mr. An Rui will be our reliable partner, you can trade freely in our control area, whether it is Zhejiang or Fujian, except for opium, you can bring in everything, I will give you a charter, you are my most reliable arms agent!" ”

"No!" Mr. An Rui said without scruples: "I am not the most reliable arms agent, I also sell a large amount of arms and ammunition to the government army, but your purchase volume is large, and the price is not low, so I am inclined to you, to seek special treatment, but I will not give up the effort to sell arms to the government army." ”

The government army naturally refers to the Qing army, Liu Chang couldn't help frowning, what does Mr. An Rui mean by this?

Mr. Anrui, the lovely British ** firearms dealer, continued: "As long as I can afford to pay the price, I sell arms to anyone, and the government army is my long-term partner, but they buy in small quantities, although the price is good, and they can sell some inventory that cannot be sold, but I must admit that kickbacks eat away at most of the profits, and such transactions are often hindered by certain government officials, so I am inclined to you." ”

"Again, as long as I can afford to pay the price, I will sell arms to anyone!" Mr. An Rui continued: "Whether it is the government army, or your Rainbow army, or the Taiping army, I also have a long-term cooperation with the Taiping King's troops, and a successful arms dealer sells arms to all the belligerents, just like me. ”

Liu Chang didn't answer, and Mr. An Rui got to the point: "No matter how the political situation changes, even if you are enemies of the British government, even if the government declares an arms embargo on you, as long as you can afford to pay, I will sell you arms!" ”

"A successful arms dealer will sell arms to all the belligerents, even if he is an enemy of the government, because he only needs one thing, and that is profit!"

Liu Chang sighed for Mr. An Rui's speech: "Well said, well said!" As long as you are willing to sell arms to us, you Anrui is my best partner! ”

Next to him, Demons had already regretted Mr. Anrui's speech, he shouldn't have brought this old man over today, now that this old man has snatched all the scenes, I am afraid that the next step is to rob all the business.

This old man said in front of himself what "British interests" and "the Great Powers are in the Far East", but now he has revealed his true colors, that is, whoever can afford to pay is his customer.

In fact, this is a very normal thing, in history, the Taiping Army and the Changsheng Army fought to the death, but in 1863, when the war was at its fiercest, Li Xiucheng still wrote a note to Gordon, the commander of the Changsheng Army, announcing that the war would be a war, and the purchase of arms and ammunition was another matter: "As for everyone's military uniforms and artillery, they all know each other's details, you are in profit, I will deal with it, obey trade, and there is no ban." At this time, if you have guns and foreign goods, you will still come here to trade as usual. ”

In this case, Mr. An Rui's choice is the most reasonable, but De Mons made his own choice: "My foreign firm is different from An Rui foreign company, An Rui foreign company welcomes all customers with financial resources, and my De Mons foreign company only does your business, General Liu!" ”…,

This is also an alternative way of survival, just doing the business of the rainbow army, let Liu Chang keep enough shares for him, Liu Chang smiled: "The arms you sent, as long as the quality is not too bad, I can buy them at a good price, but I must explain one thing now!" ”

"Which point?" An Rui paid close attention to the detail that Liu Chang raised: "Please speak!" ”

"I have the right to resell the purchased weapons and ammunition, as well as other industrial products, and if you encounter after-sales problems, you must also help solve them!"

"King Taiping?" An Rui keenly spotted the problem: "Are you going to resell arms to the Taiping Army in Jiangxi and Anhui?" ”

Liu Chang replied: "That's right, I didn't get your permission, just a notice from you." ”

He was telling the truth, the Taiping Army had been his partner for many years, and although the arms trade between the two sides was not large, it was a long way to win and the profits were high.

However, in a certain sense, although the export of arms and ammunition to the Taiping Army was only a very short channel from Shanghai to Nanjing, but this channel was full of Qing army reconnaissance fleets, and if you want to smuggle arms, you have to open up the relationship between Qing military camp officers along the road.

But now Liu Chang has opened another road to the Taiping Army, so Mr. An Rui first asked a question: "You are going to open up the land communication with the Taiping King's troops, so that the arms can go directly by land." ”

"That's right!" Liu Chang told them: "The Taiping army has gold and silver, and I will make a lot of profit by reselling it, but such profits will not be shared with you." ”

Liu Chang was right, this was not to obtain permission from these two arms dealers, but just a notice.

Ugly words are ahead, and you have to do it, and you have to do it if you don't do it.