With the successful signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1778, Chu Bai also returned to his embassy in Philadelphia, at this time the capital of the United States of America was still in Philadelphia. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

The Wencheng Princess cruise ship did not stop in the United States, after leaving France, it took a short break in the Bahamas, and then rounded Cape Horn in the Strait of Magellan and returned to the port of Long Beach in Los Angeles after a two-month voyage. There was also a French mission on board the Princess Wencheng, whose mission was to promote friendly relations between France and Tang, as well as to go to the Tang Dynasty to observe, and the arms business, which was crucial to maintaining France's military superiority over Britain.

It's just that the French have thrown it out, and Datang lacks the ability to refuse this business, and the SC-2 musket is willing to order 10,000 at a time in order to obtain a production license and a full set of technology transfer. Although Chu Bai did not personally return to China to participate in the arms negotiations, he used means to set up a total budget of 7 million livres for the French to go to Datang for military procurement, and these were only used to purchase army weapons, that is, rifles, cannons and related ammunition.

"It seems that France, which did not participate in the North American war and basically did not spend money, is still very rich, and it is so arrogant that it takes out a large amount of money for arms procurement, it seems that Louis XVI and his French nobles are still angry about the defeat of the Seven Years' War, and now Britain has lost a lot of strength. The French are a little nervous. According to Chu Bai's intelligence. The French want not only to buy a lot of weapons from us. Moreover, they had already contacted the Americans in advance, the war in the United States was basically over, and there were still nearly 10,000 Tang-made muskets and hundreds of cannons, and the Continental Army had almost disbanded at this time. After all, the Americans are not financially well-off and cannot maintain a large-scale standing army, and in fact, Washington has made great efforts to retain a regimental standing army directly under the Union, with only a little more than a thousand men. And a large number of weapons were idle, and the French came up with the idea, and I saw that the French might want to get their hands on the muskets as soon as possible, and then wage a war against England and get some advantage. Paik Nam analyzed in a cabinet military meeting.

Although he has now stepped down from the post of General Counselor, and can be regarded as completely relinquishing his public office to perform his military duties, he still has a great deal of weight in domestic military-related affairs. In principle, all actions and resources of Datang are inclined to the Cuckoo Plan. And he was the director of the strategy office in charge of the program, which actually kept Paik still in a lot of power. Get involved in all sorts of things.

It is also worth mentioning that after Bai Nan stepped down from public office, the rank of major general has been mentioned, and he is also the youngest major general in the country. This is because Datang commands an expeditionary force to fight, and the minimum military rank also needs to be a general, so the rank of Bai Nan has not been moved much has been raised.

Zhao Daling asked: "Where do you think the French will go, Quebec, the British military in Canada has been weakened to the limit, and the French have the best colonial foundation there." ”

Foreign Minister Zheng He shook his head and expressed his opinion: "I don't think it will be Quebec, the United States has begun to release British prisoners of war, many of them will be sent to Canada, they will be armed locally, and their strength cannot be underestimated, a large number of royalists and the original residents of Canada can become militias, and the French residents of Quebec will not necessarily shed blood for Louis XVI." ”

Bai Nan also nodded: "The minister Gravier, who has a relatively large influence on Louis XVI, does not seem to be very interested in recovering Quebec, but he is very concerned about developing the business of the French East India Company, the British have fought a war with the Kingdom of Mysore in India before, although they signed a peace treaty and an offensive and defensive alliance, but the British did not fulfill the treaty, and Mysore, as a green sultanate, is very unfriendly with the surrounding Maratha Alliance, these Hindu forces, and the French have taken advantage of this situation, Now they had only a small scattered Indian colony, and it was clear that by supporting Mysore's war against the British East India Company and the Maratha princes, they would be able to restore French power there. ”

Zhao Daling said with a smile: "The French want to start a war with Britain in India, and we welcome it with both hands." Since they want weapons, we will sell them to them, don't those people in the North Industries Group make those foreign trade rifles day and night, and the stock is enough to satisfy the French? ”

A representative of NORINCO was also present, and he hurriedly replied: "Now our company's SC-2 rifle is quite popular, and the Spaniards purchased another batch a few years ago, it should be that their own imitation is not smooth, and the production is insufficient." We have exported a batch to the Borneo Overseas Territory, and to the Kingdom of Siam, and there are still about 5,000 in stock, which are pre-produced and ready for immediate transfer to the French. ”

Zhao Daling said with a smile: "A rifle of 100 yuan, sell it, the French buy 10,000 rifles is a business of 1 million, this is a big order." ”

The representative of NORINCO hurriedly followed: "The French still want to buy our artillery, we have basically completed the development of the rifled 76mm infantry support gun, which is finalized as the SC-1776, I don't know if this time we will continue to sell the old smoothbore gun, or sell the new artillery?" ”

Arms exports are all political issues, and the cabinet has the final say in what arms companies sell, and how many arms companies sell.

Zhao Daling thought for a while and said: "Your seven or six small cannons, I have seen the general situation, the accuracy has been quite improved compared to the smoothbore cannon, but the firing range is still two or three thousand yards, and the cylindrical shells using black powder are still used, although they are also a little advanced, but they are not advanced anywhere, if the French want it, it doesn't hurt to sell it to them." ”

The person in charge asked again: "What about the production license?" ”

"An order of at least two hundred guns, and not allowed to be exported, as with the SC-2 rifles, threatens to stop any subsequent cooperation in the arms trade if we find that the French are in default."

The person in charge of NORINCO hurriedly recorded it.

There is no doubt that the Tang Dynasty has gradually prepared to dump the arms in its hands that are an era behind, obviously this will quickly change the balance of power and the level of military development of the European powers, but it will still not pose any threat to the Tang army. (To be continued.) )