After all, Tao Chengzhang did not study medicine, and he has been far away in Nanyang recently, so he does not know the scale of the plague, and he does not know how much panic the plague brought to people, especially to Westerners, and because of this plague, the first war between Chinese and foreigners began.

The first place where the plague appeared was actually in the Russian Far East, but in China, the first plague disease did not appear in the Northeast, but in Shanghai!

In early October, the plague was discovered in the Shanghai Public Concession and quickly began to spread, in fact, the source of the plague was brought by the Russians, but the Westerners did not think so, they believed that the frightening plague was brought by the "unhygienic" Chinese, and the "unhygienic" Chinese were also regarded as a hotbed for the spread of the disease. For this reason, the foreign municipal authorities adopted quarantine measures with obvious bias, isolating Chinese and foreigners from each other, and the relationship between China and the foreign was suddenly strained, triggering a number of street riots among the lower classes of Chinese.

In order to prevent the situation from deteriorating further, the Chinese elite put forward the idea of self-quarantine, coordinated and negotiated with foreigners, refused to impose quarantine protection measures on Chinese people by foreigners, and tried to persuade ordinary people to resist peacefully. Because of the fear of the plague, the foreigners finally had to make concessions and agreed to let the Chinese self-quarantine, but the Chinese-foreign quarantine still existed.

After that, the outbreak of plague began to continue, and at this time, although there were many cases of plague in the Chinese area, because the Chinese elite, mainly Chen Bingqian, a native of Xiangshan, strictly implemented quarantine measures and used low-cost special drugs specially supported by Li Zhigao in a timely manner, the mortality rate was very low, and the scale of the plague was quickly controlled. On the contrary, foreigners, because they have never believed in Li Zhigao's special drugs, so even if many isolation measures have been taken, the morbidity and mortality rate are still increasing.

At this moment, those foreigners finally recognized the reality, and under the threat of disease, they began to compromise with the Chinese, hoping to get Li Zhigao's special Chinese medicine, even if it was at a high price.

Not to mention, some seriously ill patients used Li Zhigao's sulfonamides, and their condition was quickly controlled, and the effect was obvious and effective, which made foreigners realize the facts, and under the threat of death, they were even more scrambling to buy Li Zhigao's special drugs, and the Chinese also relied on these special drugs, not only raised their eyebrows, but also wanted to regain a lot of autonomy.

During this period, although the plague in Shanghai began to be controlled, because the health situation in China was really bad at this time, and there was not much research on plague, the plague still inevitably spread, from the northeast to the south, the black shadow of plague began to appear one after another, especially in the northeast, there were more and more cases of plague, and it has shown a trend of flooding.

Historically, without the appearance of Li Zhigao, without Li Zhigao's medicine and timely warning, it is said that the plague should have taken away more than 60,000 lives, but now because of Li Zhigao's medicine, and after the initial outbreak of the meeting, it was prevented in time, and the concept of "pneumonic plague" was put forward in advance, and the relevant knowledge of plague was popularized in advance, such as how to spread and how to prevent it, so this plague was quickly controlled at least in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

As for the foreigners, because of this plague, the foreigners faced up to the reality and recognized the efficacy of Li Zhigao's special drugs, and while using them in large quantities, many authoritative doctors of the foreigners also found that Li Zhigao's drugs could not only treat the plague, but also be useful for other infections, such as common diseases such as pneumonia with a high mortality rate, especially wound inflammation and infection.

At this moment, it immediately caused a sensation, and the Western medical community began to pay attention to Li Zhigao's medicine, and also began to pay attention to the clinical information provided by the Holy Love Church before, and they all exclaimed the oriental miracle medicine, and began to send people to contact Li Zhigao.

Of course, there is no good person in the Western powers, they are all pragmatists, and it is impossible to say that they don't want to take advantage of it, but the problem is that none of these drugs have been registered for patents, and they don't know anything about the formula of the drug, that is to say, to get the drug, the only way to get it is to go to Li Zhigao.

At the beginning, many powers sent people over to intimidate, and carried out joint pressure tests, for example, the British and the French were the first to carry out joint intimidation, and directly asked Li Zhigao to hand over the complete drug formula and production technology, otherwise he would be punished, but unfortunately Li Zhigao ignored it, and in the face of the British consul's threat of war, Li Zhigao just smiled slightly, and then simply brought the consuls of Britain, France, Germany and the United States to participate in several bandit eradication wars.

Specifically, one regiment is dispatched one regiment at a time, and then the battalion is used as a unit to carry out a dragnet to eliminate the bandits in the Taiping Prefecture area, which can not only temper the troops, but also create a safer environment for the Taiping Province.

The whole operation started from the intelligence station, and the Security Bureau sent a large number of agents to find out the distribution of bandits in the surrounding area, and then Li Zhigao would send a main force regiment to suppress the bandits with the strength of a regiment.

Originally, this operation was done well, not to mention a regiment or even a battalion, even if it was only a company, it could wipe out a group of bandits with thousands of people, but this time, in order to deter, Li Zhigao deliberately dispatched a division to encircle and suppress a few bandits with only a few hundred, or at most only a thousand people.

The consuls of Britain, France, Germany, and the United States were also very interested in observing Li Zhigao's military strength at close range, and although the consuls of Russia and the United States, who were left aside, were furious, they were helpless and felt that they could not be tricked, and in fact they did not know that the reason why Li Zhigao did not bring this to Russia was not to provoke, but that he did not want to give them medicine at all, nor did he want them to learn more about the reality of his army.

The consuls of Britain, France, Germany, and the United States naturally could not visit at will in the army, but when the 130-mm cannon was to be shown to them, of course, they could only see the cannons covered with cloth, and after hearing that these cannons had a range of 30 kilometers, everyone's first choice was not to believe it.

As a result, facts speak louder than words, and when these consuls witnessed the firing of these guns from a distance, and witnessed the power of the artillery, and after examining the distance of the shelling themselves, they found that it could indeed reach 30 kilometers, and the caliber was actually 130 mm, they all stopped talking.

What else can I say? Their main artillery at this time, even if it is a 150 mm caliber naval gun, cannot hit 15 kilometers, even if the main guns of the Dreadnought-class battleships just equipped by the British are only 30 kilometers at a maximum distance, but the actual effective firing distance is about 15 kilometers.

However, this is Taiping Mansion, and even if those battleships come all the way over, they can't drive into the Yangtze River, and none of the gunboats that can drive into the Yangtze River can have a range of more than fifteen kilometers!

Of course, if it's just a long maximum range, that's it, what's worse is that Li Zhigao's mysterious artillery is actually surprisingly accurate! Because Li Zhigao once asked them to find a target 25 kilometers away at random, and after finding it, Li Zhigao began to shell, and in the end they basically hit near the target.

This result means that if Li Zhigao uses these guns as shore defense guns, not to mention anything else, those gunboats that enter the Yangtze River will all suffer, because the firing range cannot be compared, the rate of fire cannot be compared, and the shooting accuracy cannot be compared, so how can they be hit?

It's just that these mysterious cannons, which can only be seen from a distance and cannot be approached up close, have already surprised them, and then, they witnessed a regimental and battalion-level assault scene, which once again made them speechless.

The whole tactical action is nothing special, basically covering the sky with overwhelming artillery fire first, and then the infantry will launch a battalion and company level charge. During the charge, the artillery bombardment will not stop, but it will extend backwards, and all the soldiers will follow their own artillery fire to charge, without a little flinch and hesitation, not afraid of being injured by their own artillery at all, and staged a standard infantry artillery coordination for everyone.

It is precisely because they can communicate with the front-line assault troops in a timely manner, coupled with advanced artillery and artillery observation and sighting systems, that the fire support in the rear can control the explosion point within less than 200 meters in front of the assault troops.

Of course, there is another important reason that although this battle is to suppress bandits, it is a drill show that has been prepared for a long time, and there have been many similar drill shows in advance, and everyone is very experienced and familiar with their respective action essentials, which can play so smoothly.

But these foreigners don't understand, they haven't personally experienced the power of the Chinese show in the future, thinking that this is really the real combat effectiveness of the troops. That is to say, through this battle, they all found that Li Zhigao's soldiers had advanced weapons, standardized tactical movements, and most importantly, the soldiers had a strong sense of combat. Coupled with the heavy artillery bombardment they had seen before, after they looked at each other for a while, they immediately lowered their posture and stopped playing arrogant.

After the battle, these consuls test-fired the medium-formal rifle of Li Zhigao's unit at close range, as well as the Type 10 light machine gun (Bren machine gun), and watched and test-fired the firing scene of the 92 infantry gun and the 90-mm mortar at close range, and asked for some parameter data.

After this pass, all the consuls understood what Li Zhigao meant, that is, he had a strong armed force, and these weapons were actually self-produced, so they were not afraid that the logistics would not be able to keep up.

As for the number of people, Li Zhigao also exaggerated, saying that he has three main divisions, a main force of more than 40,000 people, and at the same time, if necessary, he can pull up a reserve force of 300,000 at any time, and at least one shot per person!

For Li Zhigao's statement, these consuls can only be noncommittal, after all, once the number exceeds 10,000, it is boundless, and it is impossible to tell how many people there are, and in order to scare these Westerners, Li Zhigao deliberately brought the whole army after the battle, plus the soldiers of the reserves, to make a sea of soldiers, and at the same time cheered for victory.

At this moment, there is no need for Li Zhigao to say anything, these people also understand what he means, that is, you have to think that it is useful to send troops, just come, and Li Zhigao also said that even if he can't withstand your attack in the end and fails, he will not hand over the formula, and when the time comes, you can only lose more than you gain.

I have to say that Li Zhigao's words are actually giving them a step, because the consuls of these four countries are not stupid, let alone military idiots, they know very well that judging from the armed forces that Li Zhigao is currently showing, the Eight-Nation Coalition will not be able to defeat it again, and will only suffer heavy losses, not to mention the difficulty of reorganizing the Eight-Nation Alliance.

Westerners have always been pragmatic, and after discovering that the threat was useless, they immediately began to conduct substantive negotiations, honestly buying medicine according to Li Zhigao's asking price.

Of course, after visiting so many good things, they are also very interested in Li Zhigao's weapons, but unfortunately Li Zhigao refuses to sell heavy artillery, and only sells official rifles, Type 10 light machine guns, 92 infantry guns, and 90-mm mortars (called Type 97 90-mm mortars).

The reason why this is so is because Li Zhigao already has a lot of skilled workers in the arsenal at this time, and he is becoming more and more proficient in the use of equipment, and his own steel production has gradually increased, and after adding an electric arc furnace, the quality of steel is getting better and better, and it can produce military steel.

At the same time, Li Zhigao also discovered many problems in the course of the troops' operations, especially in the field of weaponry, and in addition his own industrial capacity became stronger and stronger, he planned to reequip his main forces in the future.

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