At the wharf of Tianjin Port, a large number of people gathered at this moment, including Manchu officials, Westerners, and of course, Manchu officers and soldiers to maintain order. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

When I walked in, I was surprised to find that the Manchu officials took the lead in the Beiyang minister Li Hongzhang, who was deeply trusted by the Empress Dowager Cixi, and the one who talked and laughed with Li Hongzhang was Sir Pashali, the British minister in the Qing Dynasty.

Airplanes!

"The ship is coming!"

I saw three ships flying the British flag slowly approaching the pier.

These three steamers were not ordinary, because their trip was specifically to transport arms to the Beiyang New Army, so Li Hongzhang personally came to the scene to inspect and accept the arms.

After the ship docked, a long box was moved to Li Hongzhang and opened.

Li Hongzhang took out a brand-new M1879 Li rifle from the box, fiddled with it a few times and said, "Good gun." ”

"Of course it's a good gun, and our British Empire also plans to equip it with this rifle, but I didn't expect the Qing Dynasty to be ahead of our British Empire." The British Minister, Sir Pashali, said to Li Hongzhang with a smile.

What Pashali said is not right or wrong, the rifle currently equipped by the British is a little behind the M1879 Lee rifle, in 81 years, the British military considered replacing the rifle, had inspected the M1879 Lee rifle, some people suggested using the M1879 Lee rifle, but there was no clear decision.

"A good gun is a good gun, it's just too expensive." Li Hongzhang shook his head and replied.

Pa Xiali didn't answer Li Hongzhang's words, thinking in his heart: Hehe, if you don't sell it a little more expensive, how can you make money from you barbarians?

After a while, Pashali took a document and said to Li Hongzhang: "Lord Li, a total of 12,000 M1879 Li rifles, 20 Grimm machine guns (made in the United States, British middlemen), 30 Armstrong guns (of various calibers), 3 million rounds of ammunition, 5,000 rounds of shells, please accept." ”

"Excuse me, Your Excellency." Li Hongzhang replied.

"No trouble, no trouble." Pashali said with a smile, as for what he was thinking, only he knew.

The three steamers only brought the first batch of arms from the Beiyang New Army, and there were still a large number of arms to be shipped in five batches, and you must know that Li Hongzhang had to train 100,000 new troops.

In fact, the Beiyang New Army would be divided into ten towns, one town including 748 officials and secretaries, 10,436 Benmu soldiers, 1,328 husbands, and a total of 12,503 people, ten towns were 125,000 people, and more than 110,000 people were left after being kicked out of the service.

There are so many people in the Beiyang New Army, Li Hongzhang alone has 120,000 rifles, an M1879 Li rifle costs 65 taels of silver (the cost is only 20 taels of silver), 120,000 is 7.8 million taels of silver, plus heavy machine guns, cannons and bullets and shells, the Beiyang New Army armed with ten towns costs at least 15 million taels of silver (5 million pounds), which is higher than Li Hongzhang's previous investment in the Beiyang Naval Division.

However, Li Hongzhang now has money in his hands, and the wealthy businessmen of the Manchu Qing Dynasty are rushing to send money to Li Hongzhang, hoping that Li Hongzhang can exterminate the "short-haired thief". If the Manchu Qing Dynasty was overthrown by the "short-haired thieves", they who funded Zuo Zongtang at the beginning would end up with only a dead end, or flee overseas.

Although he felt a pain in his flesh, when he saw the various "advanced" weapons introduced by the British, Li Hongzhang waved his hand: "Buy!" ”。

In order to defeat the "short-haired thief", Li Hongzhang also fought hard, plus the salary of the Beiyang New Army, it was like running water.

It's just that two questions arise here: why did the British sell "advanced" weapons that they were not equipped with or had a small amount of equipment to Li Hongzhang? And why did the British fully support Li Hongzhang in establishing a new army?

Well, these two questions are actually one question.

At the beginning, Li Hongzhang found various ministers, hoping that they would help him train the new army, but France and Tsarist Russia directly rejected the idea of the Manchu territory, while Germany and Italy, which had few interests in the Manchu Dynasty, still needed to consider, and finally the British who had huge interests in the Manchu Qing Dynasty stood up and helped Li Hongzhang train the new army.

However, the British were not good people, and they only wanted to "casually" train a new army with some combat effectiveness to defeat the "short-haired thieves", so as to maintain the rule of the Manchus over the Han Chinese, and also make the British make a lot of money.

The British didn't want the Manchus to become strong, after all, the British had always regarded the Manchus as their own back garden, and if the Manchus became strong, the British's income would be greatly reduced, but the chaos in the back garden was not good for the British, so the British were ready to help the Manchus.

However, after that, the British had a new understanding of the "short-haired thief", and the information obtained from the four provinces showed that the combat effectiveness of the "short-haired thief" with advanced equipment could reach seventy percent of the British Imperial Army (the British arrogantly said), so that even if there were 100,000 people in the Beiyang New Army, they could not defeat the "short-haired thief", after all, the "short-haired thief" was also expanding, and it doubled to 40,000 at once.

The British looked at it, and they still had to go on like this? The "short-haired thieves" are obviously not friendly to them Westerners, and if the Westerners in Siqi Province commit a crime, they will also be punished by the "short-haired thieves", and if the "short-haired thieves" overthrow the Manchu Qing Dynasty and unify the whole country, what will be the result?

Therefore, the British decided to seriously help the Manchus train a relatively powerful army to exterminate the "short-haired thieves", and the requirements for Li Hongzhang also greatly increased, such as the establishment of military academies, the purchase of advanced weapons, and so on.

Li Hongzhang can also see that the British have become serious from the beginning of their "carelessness" to the present, although they spend money like running water, but as long as they can train a powerful new army, Li Hongzhang is willing to pay for it, anyway, it is the money sent by those businessmen, and it will be spent when it is spent.

Of course, the British will not hand over all their housekeeping skills to the Beiyang New Army, and try their best to make the combat effectiveness of the Beiyang New Army reach the level of "short-haired thieves", and when the time comes, the two sides will go to war, the "short-haired thieves" will be exterminated, and the Beiyang New Army will suffer heavy losses, which is the result that the British want to see the most.

With this goal in mind, the British "strived" to help the Manchus train a new army, and by the way, they earned a lot of money from the Manchus.

In fact, there is one more thing that the British do not understand, that is, how the "short-haired thief" is equipped with so many weapons that may be very advanced, and the British are not sure how advanced the weapons of the "short-haired thief" are, and they have not seen it with their own eyes, but they only judge according to the statements of the Manchu Qing and some foreigners who escaped from Siqi Province.

Although the "short-haired thieves" are suspected to have a certain degree of industry, and the "short-haired thieves" are currently setting up factories everywhere in the province, the British do not believe that those advanced weapons will be produced by the "short-haired thieves" themselves, but they suspect which country is behind the "short-haired thieves".

Whether there is a country behind the "short-haired thief" who wants to obtain British interests in China, or the "short-haired thief" who produces it himself, the British will not care, there is the world's first navy, and the British are not afraid of any challenge!

[Recommend a friend's book "The Great Writer of Martial Arts": Martial arts are like gods, literary talents are all over the sky, and they are bound to reshape this Lang Lang Qiankun. 】