Xiao Yiming returned to Ya'an, finished discussing with the Germans, and said goodbye to Mr. Wang and Qi Luo, the head of the heavy camp early the next morning, and rushed to Dayi that night, and had a dinner together under the warm invitation of the local county lord and the two families of Shi and Liu.

Due to too much information, there was no time to calculate and summarize in detail, Xiao Yiming humbly adopted the opinions of the German engineers and immediately decided to return to Chengdu as a whole.

Counting on the fingers, from leaving Chengdu to returning smoothly, it took 26 days before and after, and the dedicated German engineer said that it was a pity that many places did not have the opportunity to see, but Xiao Yiming was very satisfied, because according to the series of figures obtained so far, it fully met his requirements.

Dayi and the surrounding counties of sulfur, miscanthus, rock salt, phosphate rock and other existing main raw materials, enough to ensure the construction and production of chemical plants, Dayi Shijia and Liu family have decided to participate, so that Xiao Yiming's business cooperation Shijia not only invested in the chemical plant, but also took out 300,000 yuan to start a foreign ash factory; The Liu family took a stake in the chemical plant with their own coal mine and asked for a joint venture with Xiao Yiming to build a thermal power plant as a strong guarantee for the production and construction of the chemical plant.

Ya'an, which is positioned as an ammunition production base, also has a surprise, thanks to Ya'an's status as a transportation hub and the advantages of a thousand-year-old commercial town, the news of the opening of a foundry and a hardware factory spread quickly, and many businessmen rushed to Ya'an from southern Sichuan, northern Yunnan and the Kang-Tibet region, trying to meet the old man Wang and the two big apprentices in charge of the preparatory work, and vigorously promoted copper ingots, tin ingots, pig iron and even silver and other metal raw materials.

In this way, there is an important supplementary channel for the production of metal materials for ammunition, and if we are lucky, we may be able to become self-sufficient without imports in a few years.

After returning home to wash and change clothes, Xiao Yiming rushed to the governor's palace overnight with a report on the repair of the military camp and the city wall, and reported in detail the situation and preliminary conclusions of the trip to Ya'an.

Zhao Erxun nodded frequently, but his mind was obviously not on Xiao Yiming's trip to Ya'an, Xiao Yiming ended the report in a few words when he saw this, and quietly waited for Zhao Erxun to read his report.

Zhao Erxun read the report on the repair of the military camp and the city wall three times in a row, and then pondered for more than ten minutes, and when he raised his head, his face still showed embarrassment:

"Yi Ming, the financial solution you came up with is indeed novel, and the old man also believes that according to what you say, it can solve the current problems of all the military camps and military schools in Chengdu, but the scope involved is too large, not to mention whether the new army is willing to move to the east gate to station, just the relocation of the provincial legislative and political school and the higher normal school is difficult to do, those old masters who will admit death are not so easy to speak, not to mention that you also moved the salt railway Yamen military camp, the city defense military camp and the patrol road military camp and other seven small military camps, even if the old man supports, I'm afraid the resistance is not ordinarily small! ”

Xiao Yiming nodded, hesitated for a moment and said:

"Uncle Shi, if you don't solve the problem like this, don't the yamen and the new army push all the problems to you? You can't follow the example of Hubei, Hunan, Anhui and Jiangsu, and make a hard surname apportionment that is boiling with public resentment, right? But if the 500,000 yuan construction money is distributed to the heads of each yamen, the little nephew feels that the yamen are more willing to accept this plan.

"As for the two provincial schools, the little nephew thinks that it is not a problem, as long as it costs 50,000 yuan to renovate the spacious old camp area with a good scenery to the west of the east school field, the two already crowded schools can happily move to the new campus several times larger, and the difficulty is in the new army."

Zhao Erxun waved his hand: "It's not difficult for the new army to relocate, in the past half a month, they have been in a hurry to recruit troops one by one, as long as the old man does not agree to buy weapons and equipment for a day, they will have to be strangely obedient, and they dare not speak out if they have complaints, won't they move outside the east gate?" It's not a hundred miles away from home, or a new military camp, what can you say?

"In this way, you are tired after a day of traveling, go home and rest for the time being, the old man will consider one or two more, and immediately convene a meeting of the officials of the yamen, and take out this plan for them to discuss for themselves, if there is no result, it is no wonder that the old man is not sympathetic."

"Uncle Shi, regarding the repair of the city wall, it seems that there is still some pressure on the Chengdu Mansion and the yamen of the two counties, which is what they should be responsible for......," Xiao Yiming said without saying anything.

Zhao Erxun smiled knowingly: "They pushed it to me, I can only push it to you, haha!" However, once you have decided, you should be careful not to let people grab any of them. ”

Xiao Yiming said solemnly: "Uncle Shi, if this plan can be implemented, the little nephew will take out more than a dozen large and small courtyards vacated for public auction, and the little nephew will publicize every income and every expenditure to the world through the announcement of the governor's yamen and major newspapers, and accept the supervision of the yamen and people from all walks of life in Chengdu throughout the process!" ”

Zhao Erxun was surprised, and after thinking about it, he high-fived and sighed: "Good way!" In this way, I want to see who dares to say nothing, and the old man at tomorrow's meeting will be more confident! Go back to sleep, boy, and get a few days of rest, recuperate, and get ready to show off your skills. ”

"Uncle Xie, the little nephew has taken his leave."

When Xiao Yiming returned home, the two-meter-high floor pendulum clock in the corner of the main hall rang nine times, and Xiao Yue and Xiao Xue, who ran from the west courtyard, hugged Xiao Yiming for a while, chattered for a while, and were rushed back to sleep by Sister Yi, who brought tea.

Sister Yi sat down and couldn't say a few words to Xiao Yiming, Luo Laosi and Xiaofei hurriedly came, and happily put the two flat wooden boxes on the table of the Eight Immortals between Sister Yi and Xiao Yiming:

"Little brother, open the ...... Oops, you open it! ”

"What babe makes you so anxious to show off?"

Xiao Yiming teased Luo Laosi, raised his hand to open the flat wooden box that still exuded the fragrance of pine wood, saw that it was two shiny pistols, and lost his mood, closed the box casually, and asked: "Zhuang Sen's movements are quite fast, and there is one more revolver, how much is the quantity of this batch?" ”

Luo Laosi was so anxious that he stomped his feet, Xiao Fei couldn't see it, opened the box, took out two pistols and handed them to Xiao Yiming: "Little brother, take a look again, you have to look carefully!" ”

Xiao Yiming frowned, took the gun and glanced at it disappreciably, then suddenly jumped up, took turns to check the craftsmanship and handle comfort of the two pistols, and then quickly disassembled, put the parts of the two guns neatly on the table, stared at it for more than ten minutes, raised his head and looked at Luo Laosi excitedly:

"Don't tell me I made ...... yourself"

Luo Laosi laughed, extremely happy and proud, if it weren't for Sister Yi laughing and scolding him a few words, this kid probably wouldn't be able to take it, he walked further and said with great admiration:

"Little brother, those seven Germans are terrible! After you led the team away, the seven Germans immediately entered our factory, and in only 12 days, they installed more than 40 machines that had been bought back from England and had just arrived from Germany, and then connected the wires, installed switches, and distributed electricity, and then asked me to take out a batch of round steel, square steel, and several springs, saying that they were for debugging the machines.

"In the evening I feasted them as a thank-you table, and at the end of the drink, the two senior technicians named Max and Jeremes took out these two guns and gave them to me, and the others laughed when they saw that I was dazed, and the German technicians laughed and said that the machines were completely normal and could be put into production, and that they had made them out of the machines and materials in the factory, and made me jump on the spot...... Little brother, we sent it! No longer have to be exploited by foreign companies in Shanghai! ”

Xiao Yiming was overjoyed, shook Luo Laosi's shoulders, quickly loaded the two guns, grabbed the imitation Colt M1903 pistol with exquisite workmanship and no inscription, and asked, "Have you tried it?" ”

"I've tried, yesterday at noon, the second brother and I went to the shooting range in the western suburbs, this Colt 1903 and this revolver have fired more than 200 rounds of ammunition, after the second brother likes it anymore, he told me that after the official production, I must leave him a revolver." Luo Laosi was proud.

Xiao Yiming calmed down happily, and motioned for Luo Laosi to sit down and speak: "Not so fast, if you want to produce in large quantities, you have to add a Moore-style electric furnace, a ferrosilicon furnace, and at least two steel rolling mills and more than two tons of steam hammer machines and other supporting equipment, which can not be done in a year and a half, although most of the parts of guns can be produced now, but key parts such as springs, shell hooks and firing pins have to be imported from abroad. The cost is also higher than that of imports, where to make money? ”

Luo Laosi was stunned: "Little brother, do you have to wait for that?" ”

Xiao Yiming said with a smile: "I don't have to wait long, tomorrow I will discuss the next purchase contract with the two heads of the Mauser factory and the Rhine company, and the Germans will leave Chengdu in a few days, and they will quickly send the equipment we need when they arrive in Germany, and wait for another six months at most."

"Although I have to wait, I still have to praise you, the fourth child, you are becoming more and more capable, you have achieved great results, with your efforts, we can make guns, and the guns made are so delicate and beautiful, from the appearance of the American goods, although the materials used are imported, but they are finally made, we have come out of a great step."

Luo Laosi was praised by the eldest brother, he was very comfortable, and he was stupidly happy for a while, then suddenly put away his smile and said nervously: "Little brother, don't keep those seven German engineers and technicians!" These people are all treasures, we dug from the arsenal of more than 20 masters and more than 100 newly recruited workers admired it, every day around the seven Germans did not want to leave, all want to follow the Germans to learn skills, if these seven masters will also go, but there is no way to do it. ”

Xiao Yiming laughed: "Don't worry, these seven engineers and senior technicians from the Mauser Factory and the Rhein Company were originally recruited for the arsenal, and now the arsenal has no money to expand investment, so they will naturally stay with us, tomorrow I will personally go to them, mobilize them to bring their wives and children, and pay five times higher wages than Germany, and build a bungalow for each of them on the reserved homestead on the east side of my yard, I don't believe that they are not tempted, not only the seven of them, wait for the full set of equipment to be shipped, We also have to recruit a few more mechanical designers and a dozen senior technicians from Germany, and strive to do it in two years. ”

"Then we haven't made guns in the past two years?" Luo Laosi is most concerned about the present.

"Why don't you make it? Not only must we build it, but we must use all our strength to build it, otherwise what would I do with more than 200 tons of various materials from the Rheinland Company? In addition to the production of Hanyang-style rifle accessories for the arsenal, we will make every effort to imitate the Mauser barge gun and the Colt M1903 pistol, and the plenipotentiary representative of the Mauser factory finally agreed, as long as we can buy 5,000 Mauser M1898 long rifles, 5,000 Mauser C96 barge guns, plus 50,000 marks to buy the production license in China, the Mauser factory will give us formal legal authorization, send a full set of design drawings and testing molds, and send experts to assist us in large-scale production. Xiao Yiming told Luo Laosi about his implementation today.

Luo Laosi was slightly surprised: "They ask for such a high price?" ”

"Why don't I feel distressed? But if you want to cooperate with the Germans for a long time, you have to abide by the rules, and you can't do things that make others disgusted because of the small profits of tens of thousands of oceans, and take a step back and say, technology is originally a kind of property rights, and it is not easy for people to develop a weapon, and they also have to invest a lot of money in research and experiments, so I think that although the conditions offered by the Mauser factory are a little high, they are also within a reasonable range, if it were not for the German Army and most of the European countries to look down on the Mauser shell gun, it is estimated that we will spend more costs, I also can't get drawings and production licenses. Fourth, our career is getting bigger and bigger, you have to learn to look farther. Xiao Yiming patiently enlightened his fourth brother.

Luo Laosi nodded: "Since this is the case, I won't think about it much, it's just that it's a little difficult to buy so many guns at once, I'm talking about the difficulty of sales, five thousand shell guns are not a problem, they will be sold out within two months, but five thousand hair-colored spears are a problem, this thing is too conspicuous, it's not easy to sell!" ”

Xiao Yiming smiled: "Don't worry, isn't the new army short of weapons and equipment?" The number of soldiers has increased threefold at once, but the guns and ammunition are still at least half missing, every day I see the soldiers under my command dangling in the barracks empty-handed, and the commanders of the various associations are so anxious that they go to the governor's yamen to kowtow almost every day, my uncle is angry with them because of the repair of the barracks and the city wall, and still does not agree to give them funds to buy guns, haha!

"Let's do this business, in the near future, with my relationship, is there a problem with selling thousands of spears to Brother Zhong? Tomorrow I will sign a contract with Bauer to buy all of them, and they will be shipped to Chengdu within a month, so that we can not only complete the purchase quantity specified in the licensing contract, but also make a big profit. ”

"How much can I earn?" This is what made Luo Laosi nervous.

Xiao Yiming calculated for a moment: "Eight thousand Mauser M1898 spears, plus five million rounds of ammunition, can at least earn 150,000 oceans, right?" This number is still for me to give Brother Zhong face, and if he is replaced by someone else, the profit is not 300,000 yuan, and Lao Tzu will not bird him! ”

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