The history is sparse, and it is impossible to see the origin and name of the rifle in front of him from the appearance, Wu Chaoyue can only pick up this rifle that he has never seen before and look through it to understand its structural characteristics and operation methods, but looking at it, Wu Chaoyue's hands began to tremble, and his breathing began to be short. Pen fun and pavilion www.biquge.info

Because, this rifle turned out to be a repeating rifle, with a magazine capacity of fifteen rounds, plus one pre-loaded in the chamber, it can be loaded with up to sixteen rounds, and it can be fired sixteen times in a row! The barrel is engraved with rifling, and a metal cartridge is used! (Henry Bead Gun M1860.) ）

"Oh my God! Brown, such a good rifle, you even scolded it like a piece of shit? Don't you want me to buy it?! ”

Wu Chaoyue's excited roar did not change Brown's bad impression of Henry's serial rifle, and it also made Brown shrug his shoulders and said disdainfully: "Except for the merit of bursting, this rifle is just like the boss of the company that produces this rifle in other aspects, it's a piece of shit!" ”

"Wu, we are friends, I have to be honest with you, this rifle is a very bastard, first of all, its power is too small, the penetration is insufficient, and it is not as good as the Minnie gun in terms of range and power."

"Then it's very cumbersome to reload, you have to load it from the front one by one, and you can't reload it until all the bullets in the barrel are fired."

"The third is that the barrel of this bastard rifle is particularly hot after the bullet is fired, and it must be cooled down for a period of time before it can be reloaded, and you must know very well what this means on the battlefield."

"Also, the most bastard thing about this bastard rifle is that it is too dangerous, after the hammer is opened, it is very easy to misfire when hit, and even when the hammer is not opened, the bolt will misfire if it is hit too hard! So Wu, if you don't want your soldiers to be accidentally killed by this bastard rifle, you'd better not buy this bastard rifle! ”

Brown's kind dissuasion did not change Wu Chaoyue's decision, and Wu Chaoyue, who was in urgent need of a weapon to replace the firing pin gun to maintain his firepower advantage, still insisted on buying all the Henry Lianzhu guns that Brown brought, but Brown had no choice but to say: "Wu, your weird taste for rifles has really not changed, last time it was a ** gun, this time I like this shit gun, I can't help you, whatever you want." ”

"But I have to warn you first, this bastard rifle and its bullets are not cheap, even if I don't charge you for shipping and don't make the difference in the price of this bastard rifle, it will cost forty-two dollars each, and the price of every thousand rounds is ten dollars."

"Forty-two dollars each?" Wu Chaoyue gasped - the value of the dollar in this era is twenty dollars per ounce of gold, which is equivalent to saying that the price of each Henry Repeater is more than two ounces of gold!

"That's right, that's the flat price of this rifle in the United States." Brown shrugged his shoulders again, then added, "Also, this rifle doesn't come with a harness and holster, two dollars for the strap and five dollars for the holster." ”

"Even gun holsters and harnesses are sold so expensive? Is the owner of this company Sherlock or Grande? Wu Chaoyue asked angrily.

"It's Oliver Winchester, a son of a bitch, a famous scoundrel in American business, and many American businessmen I know like you, like to put his name together with Sherlock and Grande."

Brown replied humorously, and added: "Especially Henry, the bastard who invented this rifle, has more than once scolded in front of me that his boss is a usury Jew, a devil who should be tied to the cross and burned alive." ”

Thinking that he would have to pay a high price of forty-nine dollars to buy a Henry Repeater that could be carried and used, Wu Chaoyue naturally nodded his head, hating the vampire profiteer Winchester to the bone. However, after nodding, Wu Chaoyue's heart moved again, and he hurriedly asked: "Brown, since this rifle was invented by Henry, why is the factory owner who produced this rifle Winchester?" Why didn't Henry produce it himself? ”

"Henry, that bastard is an engineer at the Volcano String Gun Company, and the owners of the Volcano Bead Gun Company were originally Smith and Wesson, and the company is underfunded so that this bastard from Winchester has to take a stake." Brown explained: "Who knew that Winchester, a son of a bitch, took advantage of the opportunity to deliberately bankrupt Volcano Strings, forced Smith and Wesson to sell all the shares to him, renamed the company New Haven Arms Company, and monopolized the entire business. ”

"Then Winchester, the son of a bitch, played tricks and registered this rifle as a patent of the New Haven Arms Company, so although Henry invented this rifle, he had no patent rights or shares, so he could only continue to work as a worker for Winchester."

Wu Chaoyue was overjoyed when he heard this, and hurriedly said, "Brown, can you help me contact Henry and ask him if he would like to come to China to work?" I'm willing to hire him for three times his current salary, and ask him to help me research the new Repeater Gun at Daye, as well as improve the current Repeater Gun? ”

"I'll give it a try for you." Brown replied casually, and then said: "But there is definitely not much hope, Henry's guy is also a bastard, not only greedy, but also wanted to get rid of Winchester and go it alone, and ask him to come to China to play for you, I guess he will not agree." ”

"Brown, my friend, please do your best to convince that Henry to agree." Wu Chaoyue, who had already made up the idea of copycating, pleaded, and said: "If that Henry really refuses to come, then please help me find a few excellent gun development technicians, and I will hire them with a high salary." ”

"That's fine, I happen to have a lot of experience in this area." Brown agreed, and then half-jokingly complained: "But Wu, don't always think about buying arms, you have to consider giving me some orders?" Due to the economic crisis, my rubber business is very difficult, and I hope you can help me. ”

"You're in the rubber business?" Wu Chaoyue hurriedly asked, "You have been selling arms before, why did you run into a rubber business?" ”

"My father-in-law ran a very small rubber factory, and my wife and I got married just in time for the outbreak of the Crimean War and the armies of European countries purchasing military tents in large quantities." "So I simply took the money to expand my father-in-law's factory and mass produce tarps into military tents and galoshes to sell to European armies, and it was doing well," Brown explains. Then there was a truce in Crimea, and there happened to be an economic crisis in the United States, and my business was not working. ”

Wu Chaoyue laughed when he heard this, put his arms around Brown's neck and said: "Brown, my best American friend, don't worry, as long as your price is fair, my orders for military tents and military shoes in the future will all belong to you alone!" Also, if you like, you can come to my site at any time to open a branch, whether it is land, taxes or loans, I can give you discounts! ”

"Wu, my friend, I will definitely give you the fairest price!" Brown was overjoyed and hugged and laughed with Wu Chaoyue.

After gritting his teeth and buying the 800 Henry Bead guns brought by Brown at a high price, Wu Chaoyue of course sent someone to Daye to hand over a batch to Rong Hong for research as soon as possible to try the possibility of imitation, and the answer given by Rong Hong also made Wu Chaoyue overjoyed - because the structure is not complicated, Daye Arsenal, which already has experience in copycat shotgun shotguns, is sure to imitate Henry Bead Guns. At the same time, the metal cartridge casing used in the Henry Bead Gun is the same as the bullet in the Smith pistol, which is an edge-firing bullet, so as long as you buy a mold or make a metal stamping mold yourself, Daye Arsenal can also make the bullets used in the Henry Bead Gun.

After confirming this news, Wu Chaoyue was overjoyed and did not dare to take it lightly, but still entrusted Brown to buy 3,000 Henry rifles and 2 million rounds of ammunition from the New Haven Arms Company, and asked Brown to help him buy more metal stamping machines and supporting molds in the United States. At the same time, when he left Hubei, Brown and a fellow Guangdong villager of Wu Chaoyue took 30 Chinese schoolchildren to study in the United States, and by the way, helped Wu Chaoyue establish the first foreign office of the Hubei Provisional Government in the United States.

After sending Brown and his party away, it was the middle of the tenth year of Xianfeng, and accepted Zhao Liewen's suggestion, Wu Chaoyue deliberately issued an announcement, announcing that the name of the next year would be set as the first year of Qixiang, and refused to recognize the year name Tongzhi ruled by the Beijing coup group to Wild Boar Pi X, indicating the attitude of drawing a clear line with the Beijing coup group, and also brazenly showing that he was still a Manchu courtier, and everything he did was to help the Qing Dynasty, so that those officials who rode the wall in the land controlled by the Qing army had steps to go down when they surrendered, so that they could surrender and buy.

At the same time, in view of the fact that the quality of iron ore in Shaoyang, Hunan Province is also very good, and when the technical reserves are sufficient, Wu Chaoyue once again deceived a sum of money from his grandfather and father, and set out to establish the Shaoyang Iron Works, the second industrial base of Wu Jun, preparing to produce wrought iron first to share the production pressure for Daye Industrial Base, and then gradually establish a gun and artillery bureau to produce weapons, so as to reduce the logistical pressure of the southern expedition to Guangxi and Guangxi in the future.

In terms of military affairs, following Wu Chaoyue's instructions, the Jiang Zhongji Department of the Hunan Wu Army and the Li Xubin Department of the Sichuan Wu Army, which entered Yunnan in two ways, have also approached Dali City, the old nest of the Yunnan thief army, with the help of the Yunnan-Guizhou Qing army. However, after hearing the news, Wu Chaoyue categorically refused, and still ordered the Wu army to attack Dali with all its strength and annihilate the main force of the Dali thief army at any cost.

In the end, on the fifth day of the first month of the first year of Qixiang, the soldiers of the Wu army finally used the siege tactics of the tunnel to blow up the city wall of Dali and invaded the city of Dali.

After the end of the Dali War, Wu Chaoyue of course dispatched the two armies of Li Xubin and Jiang Zhongji to the north as soon as possible, returned to Hunan to rest, and part-time guard the place, and rotated the main force of the Hunan Wu army to go north to Hubei, preparing to launch an attack on Shanxi, the last supply place of money and grain for the Manchu court.

Regarding Wu Chaoyue's decision to transfer Wu troops from Yunnan and Guizhou to the north, Wu Zhenji, the governor of Yunnan and Guizhou, Sang Chunrong, the governor of Yunnan, and Liu Yuanhao, the governor of Guizhou, all sent letters expressing strong opposition, all of which were worried that this would lead to the resurgence of thieves. And Wu Chaoyue, who had long been dragged by the Yungui battlefield and was full of anger, didn't listen to it at all, and the reply to Wu Zhenji and others also clearly said: "If there is a resurgence of the thief army, you will clean it up first, it doesn't matter if you can't clean it up, when I have defeated the capital and pacified the chaotic party, I will come back to help you!" ”

In addition, Wu Chaoyue made major adjustments to the personnel appointments in Yungui, except for not moving one governor and two fussiers, Wu Chaoyue, the other people who could be replaced, all of them were replaced by his own people, and he also took the opportunity to transfer Wu Zhenji and others' henchmen and cronies out of Yungui, and set aside one governor and two fussiers appointed by the Manchu court in advance, making it more difficult for them to rebel.

Things have come to this point, Wu Zhenji, Sang Chunrong and Liu Yuanhao also understood that Wu Chaoyue had never trusted them, but there was no way, Yungui's financial income doomed them to have no way to create a threat against Wu Chaoyue, and at the same time, they were restrained by the domestic thief army, making it difficult for them to enter the sky even if they wanted to be independent. So when there was nothing to be done, Wu Zhenji and others had no choice but to swallow their anger and continue to work hard for Wu Chaoyue, making preparations - if the Manchu court could turn over, it would surrender anyway, and if Wu Chaoyue really had the life to be the emperor, he would really give Wu Chaoyue a loyal subject and obey the people.

When Wu Chaoyue's army deployment adjustment was about to be completed and put in place, Hong Renji also appeared in front of Wu Chaoyue again, and on behalf of Yang Xiuqing, he put forward a request to Wu Chaoyue to join forces with the Northern Expedition, asking Wu Chaoyue to send troops north from Xuzhou, which had been taken by the Wu army, to take Kaifeng first and then cross the Yellow River, and to enter the territory of Zhili, to help the Taiping Army share the pressure of the Northern Expedition, and also to give Wu Chaoyue the opportunity to take the opportunity to go straight to the capital.

As soon as Hong Renji finished speaking, Wu Chaoyue already knew that Yang Xiuqing was already going to make a move, and he was going to take advantage of the gradually blowing south wind to go straight to the capital by sea. In this regard, Wu Chaoyue did not refuse, but said to Hong Renji: "Go back and tell the East King three things, first, if he really conquers the capital, I will keep my promise to pay tribute to him, but I will not surrender, just become a vassal state of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom." ”

"Of course, this is what we have agreed before." Hong Renji said very sincerely: "Please rest assured that Wu Dashuai, although our East King Long Live has not read any books, and there are some stupid nonsense in our Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, but Long Live East King knows that overthrowing the Qing Demon Court is the top priority now, not only did he not listen to the stupid words of those rats, but he also directly slaughtered a chicken and set an example for monkeys." So don't worry, as long live our East King, we will never do stupid things that drag each other back! ”

"This is also what I admire most about Yang Xiuqing." Wu Chaoyue nodded, and then said: "The second thing, if you decide to go north by sea, you must be careful of the Russian Far East Fleet!" In order to support the Qing Demon Court to seize the land of China, it is very likely that they will go south from Heilongjiang to help the Qing Demon Court deal with you! ”

"The Russians will help the Qing Demon Court like this?" Hong Renji was a little skeptical.

"Definitely." Wu Chaoyue replied: "The Russians are different from foreigners from other countries, they prefer the weak and bullying Qing Demon Court, and they hate you and me who refuse to resist them, for the sake of their interests in the Far East, they will definitely not sit idly by and watch the Qing Demon Court fall directly." ”

Hong Renji was still a little skeptical, but he also promised that he would definitely tell Yang Xiuqing, and when asked what Wu Chaoyue's third thing was, Wu Chaoyue replied: "The third is to tell Yang Xiuqing that I will launch the Northern Expedition in two ways, all the way to Shanxi, and all the way to open the seal, so that your pressure will be even less." ”

Speaking of this, Wu Chaoyue smiled slightly again and said, "And I will send troops earlier than you, so that you can see the sincerity of me and you to join hands to resist the Qing Dynasty." ”

When Hong Renji heard the great joy, he immediately thanked Wu Chaoyue again and again, Wu Chaoyue waved his hand and said that he didn't have to, and told Hong Renji a few words to remind Yang Xiuqing to be careful, and then sent Hong Renji away. After Hong Renji left, Wu Chaoyue thought about it for a long time, and it was rare to personally pick up the pen and write a letter to his eldest niece Cixi......