Updated: 202-02-24

After the departure of the concession negotiation team, Liu Lichuan, the chief of the Xiaodao Society, sat on the Taishi chair and pondered for a long time, he was a little worried that the three European and American countries would change their neutrality policies and help the Manchus. The Little Knife Society Rebellion has taken nearly a year from capturing six county towns in twelve days to now defending Shanghai alone. There were nearly 30,000 Qing troops outside the city, and Liu Lichuan was not afraid at all. The European and American powers support the Qing Demon, which is the only thing that worries him.

What is the way forward? Liu Lichuan was a little worried. He immediately summoned the leaders of the Knife Society in the council chamber to discuss the current situation and countermeasures. But everyone is talking to themselves, each speaking his own way.

The Little Knife Society included seven secret societies in Shanghai at that time, as well as in Fujian, Guangdong, Ningbo, Jiangxi, and other places in Shanghai. Most of the members were handicraft workers, sailors, dock porters, shop assistants, etc., and some were vagrants.

There are factional strife and contradictions within the Knife Society. Heroes from all walks of life have their own plans, the Bailong Party and the Double Money Club are all brothers of the Fujian Boat Gang, and it is impossible for them to abandon the ship and go ashore; The Ningbo Gang of Zhejiang people naturally wants to go south out of the city to Hangjiahu. Although the number of people in the money association is small, they want to go to Zhenjiang to join the Taiping Army.

Thirty-five-year-old Liu Lichuan, a native of Guangdong, was originally the leader of the Hong Kong Heaven and Earth Society, and later came to Shanghai from Guangdong. Because Liu Lichuan has strong activity and organizational skills, and has high prestige, he was promoted as the leader. Until the opinions have not been unified, Liu Lichuan is anxious, but thousands of people are divided into seven gangs, and he has nothing to do.

As a female general of the rebel army, Zhou Xiuying also sat in the conference hall to attend the meeting.

During the Qingpu Uprising, Zhou Xiuying was alone, with a knife, and split three Qing generals and more than 40 Qing soldiers in Tangqiao, and became famous in a battle, known as the big knife girl Xiuying. After the defeat of Qingpu Jiading, she broke through to Shanghai City and became the most outstanding female general under Liu Lichuan, and there were also hundreds of Qingpu peasant troops under her command.

Seeing the chaos in the council hall, Zhou Xiuying remembered Zhu Yangni's advice, she stood up directly, clasped her fists and saluted, "Generalissimo!" ”

When Zhou Xiuying stood up, Liu Lichuan suddenly became smiling, "General Zhou, sit down and talk about it!" ”

Zhou Xiuying said: "Our current strategy is two, one is to go, and the other is to guard. Whether to go or defend, the marshals and generals have their own conclusions, so I won't say more. ”

Li Shaoxi, the leader of the Jiaying Gang in Guangdong, was originally a businessman, and he said with a hippie smile, "Sister of the Zhou family, if you don't talk about going and guarding, you are going to say something!" ”

There was laughter in the chamber.

Zhou Xiuying ignored it and continued: "What I want to say is that no matter whether you leave or stay, you must make up your mind as early as possible, plan carefully, and not delay the fighter at both ends. Make up your mind early, and those who do not listen to orders will be dealt with according to the 'four beheadings'. With that, she sat down.

After the uprising of the Little Knife Society, the "four beheadings" were announced: "Those who do not obey orders will be beheaded, those who commit adultery and adultery will be beheaded, those who plunder property will be beheaded, and those who steal pigs and dogs will be beheaded." ”

Li Shaoqing has always liked to use his hands and feet on female soldiers, and his face turned red, "According to the 'four slashes', who do you want to kill?" ”

Zhou Xiuying raised her head, "'Those who don't listen to orders will be beheaded', the army pays attention to orders and prohibitions, and those who don't obey orders will be beheaded." ”

"Military orders are not child's play." Liu Lichuan praised Zhou Xiuying, "If you don't listen to the order, you should be beheaded to show the public." ”

After the encouragement debate, most people were reluctant to leave Shanghai, counting on the Taiping army to come to support. In the end, it was decided to hold on to the city.

The chief came out of the chamber and found it late evening. After Zhou Xiuying finished dinner, she brought a few intimate subordinates to discuss, these people were all cadres of the Qingpu Tiandi Society. Tan Fusheng, Lin Aming, Bao Desheng and others all saw the power of foreign guns and foreign guns, and when they heard that they also had the opportunity to use foreign guns, they were all excited.

"Change, why don't you change. The Qing demon's spear came from afar, and our big sword and spear were always weak. Bao Desheng is the vanguard of the Qingpu Peasant Army, and every time Zhou Xiuying goes to battle, he always takes the lead in rushing to the front.

"Western firearms are more powerful than Qing demons, and if you have the opportunity, of course you have to change them, but you are afraid of being deceived." Tan Fusheng is the deputy general and Zhou Xiuying's deputy.

"We're not that easy to deceive." Zhou Xiuying raised her handsome face and said very confidently, "If you really meet a liar, they must be unlucky." ”

After the discussion, Zhou Xiuying went directly to Liu Lichuan. Seeing Liu Lichuan, Zhou Xiuying was moved, she was not busy selling arms at first, but turned a corner and said: "Generalissimo, the situation is more critical now." ”

Seeing Liu Lichuan staring at her with a serious expression, Zhou Xiuying sold Zhu Yangni's words to her, "We have been fighting with the Qing Demon for nearly a year, and according to the news, the cotton textiles transported to Shanghai by Westerners cannot be sold, so they can only sleep in the warehouse; The raw silk and tea they bought could not be shipped out. Westerners are very greedy for money, and it is absolutely impossible for them to remain neutral for a long time. If we are strong, they will not dare to bully. If our strength is weak, they will choose to support the Qing Demon, because the Qing Demon is a soft bone and can give them more benefits. ”

"yes, that's what I thought." Liu Lichuan was very happy. In the afternoon, he admired Zhou Xiuying's firmness and determination. What he said just now made Liu Lichuan more and more impressed with Zhou Xiuying, he thought that Zhou Xiuying was just brave, but he didn't expect to be brave and knowledgeable.

"Since we want to hold on to Shanghai City, we must prepare sufficient grain, grass, gunpowder, and weapons, and we can't run out of ammunition and food because of the siege of the Qing Demon in the end."

Liu Lichuan shook his head again and again, he was worried about this matter, if he wanted to defend the city of Shanghai, he would have to buy a large amount of grain and weapons, but the European and American powers claimed to be strictly neutral, and refused to sell both grain and guns.

Zhou Xiuying smiled, "Don't be afraid, as long as you have silver, you can buy these." ”

A few days later, late one night, a small steamer flying the American flag quietly left the barge in the middle of the Huangpu River Bund and docked at the Xiaodongmen Wharf outside Shanghai.

Outside the small east gate, there were seven forts built by the Little Knife Society, and Zhou Xiuying came down from the forts with more than fifty brothers from the Little Knife Society. On the dock, Fu Baichen looked like he was dancing with teeth and claws, "2,000 loads of grain are here, where is the silver?" ”

Zhou Xiuying didn't speak, and Tan Fusheng beside her smiled faintly, "Naturally, the silver will not be less of you, after all, we have to do long-term business." ”

"We're in no hurry." Lin Shenye pulled Fu Baichen away, "I'll take you to the gun test later." ”

More than 50 men raced against time to carry the grain, and in less than half a day, the grain was completely unloaded.

After unloading the grain, Zhou Xiuying and these brothers, all dressed up as ordinary people, carried the silver onto the small steamer, which carried them downstream.

About half an hour later, the small steamer slowly approached a wharf on the east bank of the Pujiang River, which was the wharf of the machinery factory of Far Eastern Huafu Foreign Company. By this time it was already dark.

At present, Mingxing Island, Shanghai, Dunan Island, as well as Baltimore on the east coast of the United States and San Francisco on the west coast are all equipped with 00W shortwave radios, and several pairs of AB20-25 three-wire antennas are also erected. The main means of communication between Baltimore and San Francisco on the West Coast was telegraph, supplemented by telegraph. San Francisco and the coast of Chinese mainland can communicate directly every day, and at least one hour of effective communication time can be guaranteed a day.

It is of great significance to establish global communication in different time and space. Information can be communicated in a timely and effective manner, and the space-time box can rush to the place where it is needed to provide assistance to personnel everywhere, although this kind of assistance often requires waiting for two or three days, but it is much better than nothing.

Relying on global communications, and with the help of Methodist connections, the North American rudder business grew from strength to strength. Its company, Huafu, has become a star in the American business world and has acquired the rights to mine iron ore in the Mexican state of Colima. The iron ore in the state of Collima is rich in iron ore with a content of more than 200 million tons. Liu Gang also recruited more than 500 Chinese workers in California and went to Colima, Mexico. The North American rudder plans to build a steel plant on site to smelt iron ore into steel. The IPOs of mines and steel mills on the East Coast of the United States are going well.

The North American division formed a Huafu consortium and established an Oriental laboratory in Baltimore under the name of the consortium. Zhou Weisen, the North American rudder, is a doctor of biology, and relying on the information in the notebook, the laboratory responsible for this time and space is more than enough. The Oriental Laboratory plans to publish one or two theoretical articles on spectroscopy, electricity, silicate, metal materials, etc., in many scientific journals in Europe and the United States every few months, which will attract the attention of the European and American scientific circles. Zhou Weisen is going to gradually release some patents, which are about to be invented by other people in this time and space, and Zhou Weisen's laboratory will preemptively register them before them. The laboratory also plans to recruit some European and American scientists, such as Robert? William? Bunsen et al.

At the same time, the Yangtze River Bureau has also accelerated the pace of work. First of all, they transferred Xiao Bailang's mechanical group to Shanghai, built a technical school on the east bank of the Pujiang River, and recruited a large number of literate boys and girls as students from Shanghai and church schools in Hong Kong, Xiamen, Ningbo, and other places. On this basis, Shanghai Huafu Yangxing's machinery factory, soda ash factory, raw silk factory, textile factory and monosodium glutamate factory were built. The MSG factory is actually a supporting tool for the textile factory, and the scraps of the textile factory are used as raw materials for the MSG factory. Some of the technologies and processes that can be disclosed by Far Eastern Huafu Ocean Company, and the North American rudder have all applied for patents in European and American countries.

The machinery factory covers an area of about 1,000 acres along the east bank of the Pujiang River, all surrounded by walls. It was originally a machinery factory invested by a British businessman, covering an area of only a few hundred acres, but it could not be operated for various reasons, and was finally taken over by Huafu Foreign Bank.

After Huafu took over the machinery factory, it immediately expanded the area of the factory to prepare for the planned Huafu shipyard; Adjust and transform the personnel and equipment of the machinery factory, and launch the workshop for the production of steam engines in a high-profile manner; At the same time, the military workshop for the production of bullets and muskets was secretly launched, and the core secret area was a 50kw photovoltaic power station.

The first job of the machine factory's secret workshop was to produce a large number of bullets for the crossing team. The bullet mold is made by yourself. A series of special equipment such as horizontal extension machine, closing machine, incision machine, bottom punching machine, eye-punching machine, marking machine, flat mouth machine, bottom twisting machine, and burner required for the manufacture of bullet shells are all purchased from modern times.

While producing bullets, Xiao Bailang did not forget his old job. The assembly line of the Minne rifle has long been assembled, and the materials, components, and structures of this type of Minne rifle have been collectively discussed by the military industry, and the 200 Minne rifles produced on a trial basis are of first-class quality using fixed ammunition and fire caps.

The mechanical group specially designed and manufactured a machine for stamping fire caps, and made a mold, which is driven by electricity and can press 0 fire caps at a time. The mercury on the fire cap is provided by the chemical group. The Migne rifle cartridge is a paper-loaded bullet; The so-called paper-loaded bullet is wrapped in paper or linen soaked in potassium nitrate for the warhead and propellant.

After getting on the dock and walking past rows of tall factories, the group came to an open area, which was the temporary shooting range.

Invite everyone to take a short rest, the sky is already dawning. Fu Baichen, Lin Shenye and others took everyone to the shooting area, and he skillfully picked up a Mine gun, "This is the latest and most powerful musket of foreigners, and the guns and ammunition are all prepared in advance." ”

As he spoke, Fu Baichen took out a Minne's fixed bullet, bit the bottom of the paper bullet case with his teeth, poured gunpowder from the muzzle into the barrel, stabbed the bullet into the compaction with a strip, pressed the hammer, placed a fire cap on the fire door, and took advantage of the morning light to aim at a porcelain bottle a hundred meters away from him and pull the trigger. A faint smoke of gunpowder slowly emanated from the muzzle of the gun, and the porcelain vase in the distance became shattered at once.

"Good gun, good marksmanship!" The more than 20 brothers of the Little Knife Society suddenly exclaimed, "One more shot, one more shot!" ”

Someone ran to 00 meters and put a target. Fu Baichen fired ten shots in a row at the target, and the movements were like flowing water, leaving Zhou Xiuying and the others stunned, they had never seen such a smooth shooting action. There are also a lot of muskets in the Knife Society, which are dull and cumbersome to use, and the speed is extremely slow, and they can't hit a bullet in the middle of the fire, and they can't be headed.

The target was retrieved, and all ten rounds hit the very center of the target. Zhou Xiuying suddenly became competitive, she glanced at Lin Shenye, and Lin Shenye said: "You can also have a shot!" As he spoke, Fu Baichen handed over the gun.

Zhou Xiuying picked up the Mine gun and followed Fu Baichen's steps just now, with a loud "bang", the gun body rushed back violently, hitting his shoulders with pain. A hundred meters away at the target, the bullet had just hit the target.

Zhou Xiuying fired another shot, this time the result was slightly better, not far from the bull's-eye.

Lin Shenye said with a smile, "If you practice a lot, you will definitely be a sharpshooter." ”

Zhou Xiuying put down the gun and sighed, "It's still a powerful gun, much more powerful than a big knife." The big knife she used to use was outdated, and she was a little sad.

Lin Shenye advised, "These are all transported from foreigners, and one shot is missing." ”

"One shot and one shot less?" Zhou Xiuying frowned, "Is it possible that without this bullet, the gun can't be fired?" ”

"Unless you can make such a bullet yourself."

Tan Fusheng's face was a little difficult, "Just 40,000 rounds of ammunition, each gun only has 200 bullets, which is too little." ”

"I'm sorry, if you want to have more guns and ammunition, you can only wait for the clippers to be transported from the foreign devils."