In terms of weapons procurement, Gao Hongsheng also made purchases, the price of 45 mm light mortars was 30 pounds, he ordered 5,000 pieces, the price of 81 mm mortars was 60 pounds, and he asked for 3,000 pieces, and the 75 mm rapid-fire guns were 2,000 pounds.

The artillery is not valuable, but he has a headache with that shell, the rear end of the 45 mm light mortar shell was originally designed by Italy to use aluminum alloy, but in this era aluminum is a precious metal, Skoda changed to cast iron, and the weight has increased a lot, fortunately, the original design used 6.5 mm empty cartridges, and now Gao Hongsheng They use 92 mm empty cartridges, but it doesn't have much impact, of course, the price of shells has also dropped, four rounds a pound, the price is not expensive, But looking at the huge consumption, it was enough for him to have a headache.

During the Anti-Japanese War, the Japanese did not dare to equip mortars in large quantities because of the huge consumption of mortar shells, which made it impossible for a small country with few resources to use them.

During the First World War, more than 70,000 German 81-mm mortars of the three or four types were produced, but more than 73.9 million shells were produced, and an average of more than 1,000 shells were fired from a mortar.

However, he really didn't dare to order less, China did not have the ability to produce mortar shells at that time, in fact, the mortar body was easy to produce, but the fuse of the shell was not easy to produce, and he was not able to produce that thing at that time, so he had to make excess reserves according to the amount used by Germany.

Each gun was equipped with 1,000 rounds of ammunition, and after slashing the price of 81-millimeter mortar shells at 2 pounds per round, and 75-millimeter artillery shells at 8 pounds, plus 100,000 grenades, the total amount of the entire arms order reached 13 million pounds.

made Gao Hongsheng dumbfounded, there is no money! Millions of pounds is good, tens of millions of pounds he went there to steal, he had to cut the number of shells in half, but it also needed more than eight million pounds, fortunately, these weapons will not be available in a moment and a half, according to Skoda's current production in three or four years, it would be good, this also saved him.

But he also emptied his wallet entirely, and it was impossible to make money without thinking of a way, but fortunately, there were more things in this world that could make him money, so he had to increase the variety of goods to fill the dwindling funds.

After a thorough investigation, he set his sights on the electric lighting that had just begun to appear in the world, the incandescent light bulb, which is our common electric light bulb.

In 1906, Addison's general electrical appliances invented the method of making electric lamps with tungsten filament, and Gao Hongsheng is now in the era of 1898, when he used the bulb made of carbon filament invented by Edison, the price, hehe! You may not be able to imagine that the price of a light bulb is five dollars, a pound a piece, and the price of an incandescent light bulb in modern times is between six cents and one or two yuan in wholesale depending on the wattage.

The huge price difference between this is not the main reason for Gao Hongsheng's inverted thing, but the huge sales of incandescent bulbs.

That's a demand of tens of millions a year, of course, his incandescent bulbs can't reach such a high price, as long as they reach half or even a fifth of that price, then it can bring him tens of millions of pounds a year, and he will have money for weapons purchases.

Don't be delusional about throwing up something like a watch, that thing was a luxury at the time, the sales of a year were limited, tens of thousands of mechanical watches hit the market, the price will plummet, not in line with the sales strategy of high-end goods.

Other commodities are not easy, cotton cloth in the Qing Dynasty a little upside down is OK, more British people will not do it, to ensure that you want to find trouble, metal materials and the like are even more impossible, the technology content is too much higher than this world, to ensure to attract the attention of people with a heart.

The bicycle is not good, the tire alone exposes too much technology, and he is now using it carefully even in Shandong, for fear of attracting the attention of foreigners.

Incandescent light bulbs don't have these troubles, the early patents are outdated, Edison is just the twenty-third person who invented the electric light, his main contribution is the invention of tungsten light bulbs, so that it can produce high-quality and cheap light bulbs, but now Gao Hongsheng has become the inventor of tungsten light bulbs, the lovely Edison still forget it, he continues to engage in his direct current, Gao Hongsheng provides direct current bulbs.

The patent application is a troublesome matter, because the invention of the light bulb has been very early, Gao Hongsheng can only see if he can register the patent for tungsten wire to make filament, but even if there is no patent, he is not afraid, and they compete with the price, and the cheap products in the small factories in the south can defeat them in the future.

However, such a huge arms purchase completely angered Feng Laosi and Albert, and all their hard-earned money was purchased into arms by him, did he want to be an arms dealer?

"Shopkeeper Gao, you have to give us an explanation, these arms can simply arm a country, your small army can't use so many arms, your arms purchase price is not low, it is impossible to sell them in large quantities, don't tell us that you want to make money by selling arms." Albert asked anxiously.

"Yes! Shopkeeper, we can have tens of thousands of people at most, but why did you order so many guys, especially artillery, the Manchu Qing Army did not have as many artillery as you ordered, what do we want so many things for? Feng Laosi also asked suspiciously.

"Is it much? It's not much at all, you don't understand, the best deal in this world is the arms business, whether it's Skoda, Mauser, they all make their money on arms, don't look at the price given to us, you look at it very high, believe it or not, in a year or two, we can sell these arms at sky-high prices, and we must settle the account with gold, and the rest is not to be discussed. Gao Hongsheng crossed Erlang's legs and said triumphantly.

"Shopkeeper, can you tell us about it? What the hell is going on? Hong Jincai asked without any doubt.

Albert and Feng Laosi couldn't help but look at Gao Hongsheng with inquiring eyes, they didn't dare to question his statement, time had already proved that he had never told a lie.

Looking at the room full of people, Gao Hongsheng smiled triumphantly: "None of them are outsiders, I will give you a thorough explanation, and it will save you from worrying about it, but the ugly words are ahead, this matter is a matter of losing your head, if you want high profits, you must take risks, how high the risk is, how big the profit is, confidentiality is the first article, if anyone leaks the news, we will have no money to make, and we may throw the capital in, can we keep it secret?" ”

The room full of people have played with package tickets, they have already boarded Gao Hongsheng's thief ship, everyone's current money and status are all given by him, leaving Gao Hongsheng not to mention the loss of money, they are nothing in terms of social status, that there is now a status of the dignitaries and nobles everywhere, this qiē is based on the huge profits of those life-saving drugs and distributors he provides.

"Everybody knows the Boers, and South Africa, a country rich in gold." Gao Hongsheng asked.

In addition to those in the Great Qing Kingdom shaking their heads, Albert and they nodded one after another, can they not know about the Boers and South African Albert? They also know that there is a lot of gold in that place, but it's a pity that those who don't have the power and power don't want to mix it in, they are also greedy.

"South Africa is good! This place is rich in gold, and now all European countries are implementing the gold standard, especially the United Kingdom, how much gold they have in their national banks, how much paper money can be issued, and there is no way to issue more paper money without gold, which is the gold standard. ”

Gao Hongsheng explained to everyone the essence of the gold standard system, otherwise everyone may be suspicious of his subsequent actions.

"Now Britain needs a large amount of gold reserves to increase the issuance of paper money, but gold will not fly out of thin air, it needs to be dug out of the ground, and the country with the highest gold production in the world is South Africa, although the British control a large number of gold minerals there, but the South African government levies a high mineral tax, and at the same time, the British Empire cannot hand over the lifeblood of the national economy to another country to control, so Britain will sooner or later do something to South Africa, if nothing else, for gold."

Seeing that everyone nodded their heads at their opinions, he continued: "So when will Britain do something to South Africa!" According to my estimates, the British will probably find an excuse to attack South Africa next year, and the specific time depends on the Britain's preparedness and the state of negotiations between the two sides, but no later than October, when the two countries will inevitably fight. ”

Seeing that everyone was suspicious, Gao Hongsheng did not explain, and continued: "The Boers in South Africa have money, and their government also has money, but they only have light weapons in their hands, mainly pistols and rifles, and at the same time, the models are relatively backward, at this time our business comes, rifles, light machine guns, grenades, 45mm light mortars, 75mm rapid-fire guns are our products, as long as we transport these arms in advance before the British blockade of South Africa, once the war starts, The British blockaded the coastline of South Africa, so only our family could supply arms to the Boers, so we still had to make an offer? Don't worry that the Boers will run out of money, the better the arms we provide them, the more minerals they will occupy on LinkedIn, and the more they will seize, what does South Africa have? There are yellow gold and sparkling diamonds, and the gold and diamonds mined by the English will be our payment. Gentlemen, isn't this worth the risk? ”

When Gao Hongsheng said this, these people still don't understand that it is not profitable to do arms trade in war? But who goes to South Africa has become a big problem, and now everyone is a turnip and a pit, and it is really a trouble to draw people to South Africa in advance.