Although Zeng Guanlan said that there is enough copper in China today, Feng Yunshan knows that if it is really developed according to the plan model of the Chinese Empire today, the copper mines in China will definitely not be enough.

In fact, it is not that there are not enough copper ore reserves. Jiangxi Dexing, Yunnan Yunnan Mining Area, Anhui Tongling and other reserves are good, but after years of mining, especially the destructive mining during the Manchu Qing Dynasty, today's output, although the efforts of the Ministry of Public Works have increased, but compared with today's telegraph cable manufacturing, the production of copper-shelled custom bullets, these two sharply increased demand for copper, the increase in output is a drop in the bucket. If it weren't for some of the remaining copper; In addition, because of the issuance of the Holy Dollar in a unified currency, the circulation of copper coins was reduced; and the large output of the new Krupp cannon, so that the original old copper cannon can be collected and reused for use, but I am afraid that the copper in the empire has long been in an emergency.

But the key, Feng Yunshan knows that in a few decades, the world will enter the electric age from today's steam engine era, and power cables are no more in demand than telegraph cables, and cables, generators, etc. need a lot of copper. Therefore, it is crucial to seize the world's copper resources.

Moreover, Feng Yunshan knew that the copper mines in Yunnan that were heavily mined had actually been slowly depleted since the Daoguang period. In addition, although the reserves of other copper mines are large, the existing mining technology and manual mining efficiency cannot greatly increase the output, if we do not find new large ore sources, I am afraid that the empire will face the same embarrassment of copper shortage as China in later generations.

Therefore, in addition to increasing the output of existing copper mines within the empire, Luzon continued to look for new copper mines, and Feng Yunshan remembered the world's largest copper deposit, Chile in South America. Feng Yunshan remembers that when he first studied geography, he memorized some Chilean copper mines, and although he didn't remember the specific names of the copper mines, he knew that they were generally concentrated in the Antofagasta region in the north.

As for the situation in Chile, Feng Yunshan also asked people to collect a little.

Chile has developed more rapidly than other South American countries since its independence from Spanish colonial rule. Now that the Conservative Party is in power, copper mines such as Atacama and Coquimbo have been developed, and it is likely that the two large copper mines with tens of billions of tons of reserves, which will rank first and second in the future, have not yet been developed. Moreover, Chile not only has copper mines, but in fact, copper mines are often accompanied by gold mines, so gold mines are also one of the targets sought by the Chinese Empire, which lacks gold. In addition, Chile has another extremely important strategic resource, which is also the first and only one in the world, and that is saltpeter.

By this time, a lot of British and American capital had invested in saltpeter, copper mining, and the construction of railways to transport the ore. The mining capitalists slowly supported the Liberal Party in their country to grow, and it would not be long before the Liberals would replace the Conservatives, and the saltpeter districts of the Atacama Desert and the copper mines of Antofagasta would be developed. Feng Yunshan had to seize this opportunity to follow the example of the European bankers and control those important mining areas through the country's artillery and the financial resources of capital. In this way, the energy supply continued to supply the future Chinese empire with mineral resources and huge wealth returns.

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty! Wechen will report some specific situations of the cavalry division, artillery division and special division in the capture army! Moltke's words made Feng Yunshan break away from the reverie of the copper mine, and nodded.

He also wanted to know how much surprise he could bring to himself by relocating Krupp and the entire Krupp factory to the Chinese Empire, and he didn't know what happened to the equipment of those artillery divisions. This was the first time that an artillery division was directly equipped in the Chinese Empire's captive army, which used to be at most an artillery regiment, and it was only placed in an infantry division. However, as more and more guns were produced by Krupp Steel, the weight, size and power of the guns also increased, and the small artillery regiment could no longer carry the power of such large artillery. Therefore, Moltke, deputy chief of the General Staff, suggested to him that a specialized artillery division be created.

Feng Yunshan still remembered that Moltke said something that moved him: Napoleon's brilliant record of sweeping Europe shows a truth, artillery is the god of war, and the more concentrated the artillery, the more powerful it is! Therefore, Feng Yunshan immediately agreed to Moltke's suggestion to set up a separate artillery division, and each of the six field corps was equipped with an artillery division, so as to conquer fortified cities and important fortresses in large-scale corps operations.

The cavalry division was something Feng Yunshan had wanted to set up for a long time, and the General Staff Headquarters had already made successful preparations last year. Feng Yunshan also wanted to know what would happen to his cavalry divisions against the Cossack cavalry of Tsarist Russia, but since the establishment of the six cavalry divisions, they were assigned to the field corps, and they did not encounter important battles.

And the special division was specially ordered by Feng Yunshan to be established. Originally, four years ago, the infantry division of the captive army set up a special regiment or special battalion to specially draw elite soldiers with strong individual combat ability from the officers and men of the division, and many of them were strong in martial arts. Not only that, but there are also people of various crafts and skills, and the heroes of the so-called chickens and dogs, all of whom are absorbed. The officers and men in the special division are all strong and capable, and they have been training to the fullest in peacetime, constantly feeding them with meat, not only are they well-trained in a variety of cold weapons, but they are also trained in rifle shooting with a large number of bullets, and there are even a small number of snipers among them, who not only bring their individual combat capabilities into full play, but also can cooperate with each other in group combat.

Therefore, after Feng Yunshan ordered the establishment of a special forces division, the General Staff Headquarters quickly selected sturdy soldiers from among the officers and men of the entire army, and also selected soldiers with good physical fitness from among the local garrisons and even the militia.

For these three special arms divisions, Feng Yunshan naturally wanted to know the details very much.

"Your Majesty, each of the six field regiments of the captive army is equipped with an artillery division and a special division, and except for the sixth field regiment, the rest are equipped with a cavalry division. Moltke began to report to the special division: "Wechen should report separately." ”

"Unlike the 11,500 men of the infantry divisions, each artillery division has only 9,000 men. The artillery division has 6 field artillery regiments, 2 howitzer regiments, and 1 separate heavy artillery battalion. This is the main firepower of the artillery division, and the specific distribution is as follows: each field artillery regiment is full of 800 people, equipped with 48 Krupp 75mm field guns and 4 Krupp 105mm field guns, the Krupp 75mm field guns are front-loading rifled guns, and the Krupp 105mm field guns are rear-loading rifled guns, each field gun has an effective firing range of more than 4000 meters, and the gun is equipped with ammunition vehicles, which can be loaded with 24 shells, which are basically single-layer flowering shells, as well as a small number of submunitions and group bullets;

Each howitzer regiment is also 800 people, equipped with 20 Krupp 115mm howitzers and 4 Krupp 150mm howitzers, all of which are front-loading rifled guns, with an effective range of nearly 2000 meters, and 20 grenades per gun, which is very lethal and an excellent weapon for attacking infantry;

The separately established heavy artillery battalion is a standard battalion of 400 people, equipped with 8 Krupp 150mm heavy field guns, all of which are front-loading rifled guns.

In addition to these main artillery forces, each artillery division also has 1 cavalry battalion, 1 engineer battalion, 1 communications battalion, 1 field medical company, 1 field logistics battalion and 1 guard reconnaissance battalion to ensure transportation and basic infantry combat self-defense, and is also equipped with nearly 2,000 mules and horses to haul and transport artillery and ammunition.

Each artillery division has a total of 368 artillery pieces, with an average of 9,000 people, 6 horses and 24 people per gun.

Your Majesty, in this way, there is still a surplus of personnel and horses, and in fact, nearly 100 75mm field guns can be added. However, such a number of artillery pieces were enough to break through any fortified city in the world, and to destroy all defensive positions in a field battle; Second, because the artillery produced by Krupp Steel was already very large, it still could not meet the needs of the artillery divisions, so for the time being, each artillery division was equipped with 368 guns. After half a year or a year, some Krupp artillery will be accumulated, and then replenished, and it will happen that the soldiers will train for a while longer, and the use of artillery will be more effective. ”

Moltke finished talking about the details of the artillery division in one breath. It seems that among these three special divisions, he attaches the most importance to the artillery division, and it is no wonder that everyone knows that the most powerful and the most capable of killing and destroying the enemy on the battlefield is undoubtedly artillery.

After listening to Mao Qi's report on the artillery division, Feng Yunshan was greatly relieved. This is probably the army that attaches the most importance to artillery besides the army led by Napoleon himself.

It seems that Krupp did not disappoint himself. To be able to create such a large number of Krupp rifled guns in such a few years is already a remarkable achievement. And Moltke's strategic thinking is even more reassuring. No one knows better than himself the importance of artillery to the victory or defeat of future wars, dominating the battlefield. It can be said that with the artillery unit with concentrated firepower, the subsequent war has completely changed the way of war and the entire tactics, whether it is a frontal field battle, or a siege war or positional warfare, with an artillery division, plus the power and range of today's Krupp rifled guns, far exceeding the artillery performance of other countries in the world, it is enough to easily crush all land forces.

Feng Yunshan's only regret is that the Krupp artillery still uses black powder, although the gunpowder particles have been improved, and the power of black powder has been brought into full play, but black powder is black powder, and if you want to have a longer power and range, you must replace it with a new type of gunpowder. Now nitrocellulose gunpowder has appeared and applied, but the limitations are too great, the imperial army does not dare to use it on a large scale, Feng Yunshan has asked the Mauser Arsenal of the Shengjing Machine Manufacturing Bureau and the Imperial Krupp Iron and Steel Company in Shaozhou Prefecture to develop TNT gunpowder into 3 nitrotoluene at the same time, but it has not been successful.

Not long ago, Feng Yunshan asked the Guangzhou Machinery Manufacturing Bureau and the Shanghai Machinery Manufacturing Bureau to study new gunpowder nitroglycerin. He remembered that five years later, the famous Nobel in Sweden used diatomaceous earth to absorb nitroglycerin, and invented this new type of explosive called Dana explosive, which was extremely powerful.

With such a two-pronged approach, or even a four-pronged approach, Feng Yunshan believes that it will not be long before a new type of explosive that can be produced on a large scale will appear, and then a new shell will be made from black powder for the use of the Krupp cannon, but he is afraid that the whole world will tremble. Even Britain, the world's leading power, has to shy away from the empire.

Thinking of this, Feng Yunshan turned to Zeng Guanlan and Zuo Zongtang and asked, "The four General Bureaus of Machine Manufacturing and the Imperial Krupp Iron and Steel Company have not been able to crack and develop a new type of gunpowder?" ”

Zeng Guanlan nodded and shook his head, and said: "Your Majesty, the new type of gunpowder developed by the gunpowder factory of the Guangzhou Machinery Manufacturing Bureau has some eyebrows, and it has successfully absorbed nitroglycerin with diatomaceous earth, but it has not found a suitable way in mass production, treating glycerin with nitric acid and sulfuric acid, and the amount produced is limited, and the explosives after absorbing nitroglycerin with diatomaceous earth have been tested, and the power of pure nitroglycerin is less than three percent, only about twice as powerful as black powder, the effect is okay, but not strong enough." The most important thing is that this nitroglycerin doped with diatomaceous earth is too stable, making it quite difficult to explode, and it is necessary to have a special detonation gunpowder, which is a bit troublesome. The others have no clue about the gunpowder of the 3 nitrotoluene. ”

Zuo Zongtang also said: "Your Majesty, Weichen has learned recently, and there is no major breakthrough in the new gunpowder. In the short term, there is no hope that black powder can only be used. ”

Fan Ruzeng, the director of the secret service department next to him, suddenly said: "Your Majesty, Weichen has a report, I don't know if it will have a role?" ”

Feng Yunshan said: "What does Fan Aiqing have to start?" I agreed. ”

"Your Majesty, Wechen once heard Your Majesty say that a Swede named Nobel seems to be very knowledgeable about explosives. Half a year ago, news came from the London Intelligence Station of the Secret Service Division, saying that he had found a trace of this person in London, and was running around in London to raise funds to repay his debts for his bankrupt father. It seems that a few days ago, there were already some eyebrows, it seems that the detonation problem that Lord Zeng just talked about, this Nobel will make a self-made detonator, and successfully explode nitroglycerin mixed with diatomaceous earth, which is very stable. Fan Ruzeng was a little apprehensive, he imitated the emperor to go to Europe to kidnap people to China privately, although he knew that the emperor would not blame him, but he didn't report it after all, which was not very appropriate, so he continued with some trepidation: "Weichen made an unauthorized claim, please punish Your Majesty." ”

"Hmm...... Hahaha, you Fan Ruzeng! Feng Yunshan laughed and said, "Fan Aiqing's move has taught me a lot from what I did back then!" Not only will I not condemn Aiqing, but I will reward you! This Nobel is a dynamite maniac, and with him, the gunpowder of the empire is no longer a problem. Guanlan, you quickly send someone to invite the entire Mr. Nobel to Shengjing, preside over the development of gunpowder under the General Bureau of Machinery Manufacturing in Shengjing, and hand over all the gunpowder factories under the General Administration to him to take care of. ”

Zeng Guanlan hurriedly agreed. Fan Ruzeng thanked him.

After listening to the artillery division, Feng Yunshan continued to listen to the situation of the cavalry division and the special division.

Although Zuo Zongtang was the chief of the General Staff, he also made the overall control of the appointment of generals in each division, and the rest was arranged by Mao Qi as a whole, so Feng Yunshan still asked Mao Qi to report.