Since the 70s of this century, rear-loading guns began to be imported into the Qianguo, mainly the British Armstrong type, the German Krupp type and the Grusen type, including land artillery (field artillery), mountain artillery (mountain artillery), fortress artillery and slipway gun (naval gun). Just this year, the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau has been able to produce imitation British Armstrong 80-pound steel-bore wrought iron hoop gun, this gun has a caliber of 149.2 mm, a gun body weight of 4.5 tons, and a range of 7,500 yards, but the output is still very small, and it is impossible to equip troops on a large scale.

In comparison, the only thing that can compete with the Satsuma Army is the Naval Corps (strictly speaking, it is not a regular army) under the Naval Navigation Division established by Lin Yizhe during his lifetime, which has been completely modernized, and the number of artillery pieces equipped far exceeds that of any Navy.

Although the Beiyang Navy Corps under Li Shaoquan, which was separated from the Ship Administration Naval Corps, is also a unit with a high degree of modernization, it is the same as the Ship Administration Navy Corps, and the number of people is not large, only a few thousand. If there is really a foreign war, if this force of less than 10,000 people is exhausted, it can only rely on the troops led by Ye Zhichao who are still capable of fighting.

And if these troops are exhausted again, the situation will be out of control!

At present, Qianguo has the name of the "million-strong division" of the army, but in fact, it does not have the capital to compete with Russia!

He also understood now why the Empress Dowager Renxi would give him a silver token and let him make his rounds around.

According to his estimates, the battalions of the cadres are scattered throughout the country, and they shoulder the heavy responsibility of the national defense force in the capacity and treatment of the militia, and the total number should be about 600,000. If you count the royal soldiers who started in the Daqian Dynasty, the "Eight Divisions" and the "Youth Brigade". The size of the national army should be more than 1.8 million people. The size of the Qianguo Army seems to be huge. In fact, the number of troops that can really be used in wartime will not exceed 100,000.

If you want to change this situation, it can be said that it is difficult to reach the sky!

"Don't worry, Lord Ye, my brother will report the truth to the court this time, and the court will find a way for Lord Ye to know the hard work below." Lin Yiqing smiled quietly and said.

"Hehe, Lord Lin is a person who can reach the heavens. I can play the newspaper at will, but I just hope that when Lord Lin plays the report, he will be merciful, don't let the court be angry, a fire will come up, and my camp system will be cut, and at that time, I will have to eat with you Lord Lin. Ye Zhichao laughed and drank another large glass of wine.

"How so? The country is eventful, and it is in need of a capable general like Lord Ye. Brother, I can only give Lord Ye the icing on the cake, and I will definitely not do anything to draw a salary from the bottom of the kettle. Lin Yiqing smiled slightly. Toast and wish, "Don't hide it from Lord Ye, my brother is here, Lord Ye treats each other very well, I get along with Lord Ye very well, but I have two empty hands, there is no gift to meet, it is really not a word, but it doesn't matter, my brother has already sent a telegram, and a ship will arrive soon, with 500 French Grasse rifles and 50,000 rounds of corresponding son medicine, all of which will be sent to Lord Ye, I hope that Lord Ye can go to the next level and train a strong army for the imperial court." ”

Hearing Lin Yiqing's words, Ye Zhichao didn't swallow a sip of wine, and squirted out.

"What? Five hundred rifles? 50,000 rounds of medicine? Ye Zhichao's face was full of surprise, his bull's eyes widened, and he looked directly at Lin Yiqing, as if he was worried that Lin Yiqing was lying to him, but Lin Yiqing smiled and nodded, and told him unmistakably that this matter was true.

"It's just 500 old guns and some medicine." Lin Yiqing raised his glass lightly and took a sip, "These guns were originally equipped by the Sa army, and now the Sa people have been protected by the Great Cadres, and it is a little inappropriate to keep so many guns. Although these guns are not new, they have already been used in the battle array, and they are still quite easy to use, and Lord Ye will know at a glance. ”

"This ...... Whatever he is, what's new, old! Good to go! Good to go! Ye Zhichao was in ecstasy, and his words were a little unpleasant, if it weren't for the distance between the two seats, he would probably pounce in front of Lin Yiqing and give him a big hug.

"Lord Lin, don't thank you for your kindness, in the future, you will have a place to get a brother, please just open your mouth, don't meet me Ye Da nerd!" Ye Zhichao jumped up from his seat, ran to Lin Yiqing, personally poured a glass of wine for Lin Yiqing, and said loudly.

"Lord Ye is polite, it's just to serve the imperial court, and in the future, I will rely on Lord Ye a lot for this military training." Lin Yiqing said, raised his glass and touched Ye Zhichao, and the two drank all the wine in the cup, looked at each other and laughed.

At this time, he hurried back to the camp, and Wang Shizhen, who was planning to eavesdrop outside the tent, happened to hear Lin Yiqing and Ye Zhichao's answer, knowing that Lin Yiqing did not come to Shanhaiguan to recruit and suppress the mountain people, but to improve the armament of his army, and at the same time, he couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, and secretly felt a little ashamed of what he had just thought.

But what did Su Yue hurry back to the mountain for?

The outskirts of the city, the mountain road, the Blue Bird Inn.

True to its name: the ebony walls jutted out to the sky, with a crumbling attic, not only in a dilapidated appearance, but also thousands of wild birds nesting on it, and every morning or evening the birds flew black and oppressively, like the black feathers of the head of a crouching ebony monster.

The road here is treacherous and inaccessible, and no matter the road ahead or back, you can only see a narrow line of mountain roads, like a flying dragon passing through the dazzling river valley cliffs. On the two smooth black stone cliffs, there was a clearing washed out by the flood, and the Blue Bird Inn was like a twisted little tree, squeezed here stubbornly.

Its tops were obscured by dark bushes, and when there was sun, the thick bodies cast huge silhouettes across the valley, hundreds of feet wide, and how tall they were, was not known to the average traveler, who was too short-sighted to see through the dense foliage hundreds of feet high. Their hidden secrets have never been broken - all traces of human activity are limited to a narrow line on the mountain path.

During the monsoon season, the sight of this part of the road is even more thrilling. The wind and rain were so fierce that half of the Blue Bird Inn was exposed. The wind blew loudly. It seems to roll down at any moment.

The shopkeeper, Lao Zheng, also had his hair unkempt like a crow's nest. It's as if you've just survived a great storm. He sat behind the shiny counter, and his sad gaze turned to the watery patio, the creaking doors and windows, the chaff-like pillars, the shaking beams, and the crumbling bars outside, and the crumbling cellar doors. "It's getting harder and harder to do business." He muttered to himself.

Lao Zheng muttered like this, not complaining that there were few people, there were more than ten people crowded in the store at the moment. The table was almost full, and the business was so good that it was better than usual, but Lao Zheng's brows were wrinkled deeper and deeper.

The first person to come to the shop that day was a female customer, with only an old servant with her, and two porters carrying the burden. She wore a green hat obliquely and a tarpaulin poncho, elegant and tranquil, probably a small official in a certain place.

Lao Zheng saw that the woman was very young, and when he sent hot tea, he couldn't help but look twice, only to see that she had bangs. The long hair is combed back into a bunch, and the appearance is not extremely beautiful. But the eyebrows are delicate and look amiable. Such a gloomy weather made her skin whiter and more tender. She took the cup, took a shallow sip, and looked out at the rain and groaned.

The follow-up passers-by came strangely. The five men had fierce faces, swords hidden under their clothes, and although they entered the shop one after another, they squeezed their eyebrows at each other, and their eyes slipped straight at the woman and the old servant on the other side, and the porter who was squatting in the corner to drink and warm up. Lao Zheng saw a chill in his heart, thinking that it was probably because this official family member had exposed his wealth somewhere in front, just like a fragrant bait luring a group of sharks, but he didn't realize it.

Lao Zheng was rolling his eyes and thinking about something, when suddenly there was a bang, and the two store doors were almost slammed away by a strong force. I saw a huge black horse break into the shop like a whirlwind, and immediately a knight was wrapped in a wide black cloak, with a black hat covering his forehead, and the remaining half of his face was covered by a black veil, and only a pair of sharp eyes that cut people's hearts were peeking out from under the brim of his hat.

The black-robed knight had four sword hilts exposed on his shoulders, which were stuck side by side behind his back from left to right. The black knight's hat was shaky, trembling by the strong wind, and the murderous aura coming out of the hilt of his sword was like lush grass and trees.

The tea drinkers in the shop were immobilized for a moment by the pouring rain that swept in from outside the open door.

"Guest officer," Lao Zheng greeted him and waved his hands around, "Horses can't enter the store." ”

The black-robed knight ignored him, but turned away in the narrow shop, the heavy hooves of the black sideburns stepped on the empty floor, and the smell of animals wet by the rain spread in all directions, and the customers who entered the shop first dodged in all directions, and the black horse whirled around in the narrow shop, and the hooves as big as a sea bowl trampled over a square stool, only to hear a heavy sound, and the stool shattered to the ground.

The knight flipped his hand and picked the woman's hat with his whip. Lao Zheng saw that the woman's expression was as usual, and he glanced at the knight lightly, and the corners of the robe exposed under the poncho could be embroidered with a faint watermark curly grass pattern, and in such a strong wind, he could still smell a faint fragrance.

The knight's rough face fell like a mountain, and he looked at the woman's face, and with another movement of his hand, threw the hat on the ground back into the woman's arms, and then straightened up and shouted, "One in the upper room." ”

A gleaming object arced down the counter, and the Black Knight led his horse up the stairs—the rotten stair treads creaked as if they were about to break—and vanished into the second-floor hallway like a phantom.

Lao Zheng's eyes were quick, and he caught the thing, but it was a heavy golden melon seed. He turned his sorrow into laughter, took the golden melon seeds into his arms, and was about to close the door, only to find that the birds on the roof, which were constantly noisy, were silent.

He poked his head out hesitantly, only to see a huge eagle with its wings outstretched, hovering in the sky. The eagle's huge wings were twelve feet wide, brown at the top and white at the bottom.

The giant eagle flew away with its wings, but another guest came on the mountain path.

The guest was a bald man, dressed in rain and walking into the store, like a bird's egg on the bald head of the rain flowing, the hooked nose was as long and protruding as a bird's beak, the dark eye sockets were blackened, and the black pupils were rolling like ghost fire, the guest stretched out a thick hand, knocked on the counter, and said in a deep voice: "An upper room." ”

Lao Zheng saw a fine tattoo on the back of his hand, as if it was a pattern of mountains, rivers, sun and moon, and couldn't help but be shocked.

Lao Zheng smelled a strong stench. Look down. Only then did he find behind the bald guest. They also silently followed the long-haired beasts that looked like calves. The beast, with its grayish-brown hair, raised its head and exposed its snow-white fangs, turned out to be a giant wolf.

"Guest officer, the shop is not allowed to bring ...... Birds and beasts enter the ......"

A thin silver chain came out from under the bald sleeve and flew up like lightning, strangled him around his neck, and wound him around the pillar.

"Help......" Lao Zheng squeezed out from his throat.

Unimpressed, the bald man continued: "Send a pot of wine, a bucket of hot water. Twenty pounds of raw meat went into the room. ”

The pressure in his throat suddenly disappeared, and Lao Zheng slipped to the ground, and he touched his neck to sit up, and found that the bald man had disappeared, only to hear the thick robe dragging on the stairs and the sound of the giant wolf tiptoeing.

Before the sound of this sound died down, there were two clanging sounds in the air, and a skinny and skeletal pianist walked in, holding a scorched tail guqin in his right hand, and a long bamboo pole tuk tuk in his hand pointed to the ground. But he is a blind man, and he looks like a troubadour who sells and sings. Except that the qin looked more precious, there was nothing special, but Lao Zheng still looked behind the violinist with distrust, the floor was smooth, and there were indeed no other strange beasts.

At last came a normal person, he looked at the blind man's white dead fish eyes, and couldn't help but sigh.

The violinist walked out of breath, and as soon as he sat down on the table and chair, he took out a round of pots and helmets as big as a hat from the package behind his back, and ate them with satisfaction. When his hand was raised, Lao Zheng saw a thin silver chain on his wrist, and a lotus-shaped pendant that seemed to be surrounded by six bent crescent moons swayed on it, constantly rippling outwards with golden light lines.

Lao Zheng has been mixing in the road for a long time, and he can't help but think of a strange name. Naturally, he didn't dare to say anything, so he could only pretend not to see it, just licked his tongue and said softly: "The small shop can't bring its own food...... but his voice is too soft, even a blind person with sensitive hearing may not be able to hear it.

"Sit down and have a bite to eat." The blind luthier said suddenly. His voice was loud, almost bluffing Lao Zheng with him, and when he understood that this was not talking to himself, he couldn't help but be taken aback, and looked out of the store with his head in a hurry, and sure enough, there was a person standing outside the door without saying a word, and he was drenched in the rain.

I saw that the man had an ugly face, with a back on his back, his head and neck like knots on a dead tree, leaning forward unnaturally, and the joints of his hands and feet were thick and large, and at first glance he looked like a peasant doing hard work, but his face was as pale as lime.

The hunchbacked peasant stiffened his movements and took two steps forward, entered the door of the shop, straightened up, and with a thud, a heavy object slipped to the ground. Lao Zheng opened his mouth wide and found that there was a deputy coffin on his hunchback.

"God, the coffin can't be ......" Lao Zheng bumped into the camel farmer's dead-like gaze and face, and couldn't help swallowing the word "enter the store" into his stomach.

The blind violinist pulled off half of the bread with a loud sound, handed it to the peasant, and said simply, "Eat." ”

"The moon is about to rise, isn't it?" He was answered by an urn, a lifeless sound that seemed to come from the belly of a peasant. He slowly pulled out a bowl made of a skull from his bosom, and caught some rain on the patio, and the bowl was soon full, and the hunchbacked peasant drank it.

No matter. Lao Zheng muttered in despair in his heart, I didn't see anything. All he wanted now was to go down the stairs to sleep, pour himself two glasses of liquor, and then cover his head under the quilt and fall asleep.

And in the storehouse, the robbers' buttocks are writhing more and more on the stools, and they spend a lot of time mingling in the streets, and it is obvious that there is something wrong with these strange-looking customers. They looked at each other, complained silently about their own people, and finally decided to talk nonsense. The leader of the robbers was a quick-moving man, and since he had made a decision, he did not delay his work at all, and in the blink of an eye, he ran away with four henchmen, and stole a few pairs of chopsticks on the wine table before leaving.

At this time, there was no trace of the store, it turned out that Lao Zheng was under the counter at that time, rummaging in a large pile of dusty things. Sure enough, he found a dozen yellowed papers, muttered at them for a long time, sighed twice, hid them again, and came out in disgrace.

The violinist finished eating the cake slowly, wiped his mouth, and said, "An upper room." ”

"Go to the room, go to the room," Lao Zheng angrily wiped the slippery counter in front of him over and over again, "The upper room is full." ”

"One in the upper room." The peasant with the coffin on his back also turned around and buzzed from his stomach.

As soon as he heard this eerie voice that seemed to be bones rubbing against each other, Lao Zheng's foul words were blocked in his throat, and he squeezed out a bitter face, and said: "There are really only two middle rooms, the two guest officers might as well go a little further, and they can rush to the mountain city in front without getting completely dark, and many guests would rather travel more and stay in a big place." The large smooth and fluffy bed, and the hot water for bathing. ”

"Oh?" The blind luthier visibly hesitated. It's just that it's raining so heavily outside, and it's uncertain whether to continue to march.

Just then, there was another knock on the door. Lao Zheng muttered unpleasant words and went to open the door, but as soon as the door opened, he saw the five escaped robbers standing in front of him in a queue. (To be continued......)

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