"Boss, is this a sniper rifle made in the arsenal?"

Looking at the Mauser rifle placed in front of Yan Guang's table, Wang Yaowu and the others said with some curiosity.

"That's right." As he spoke, Yan Guang threw the rifle into Wang Yaowu's arms. "Take a closer look."

Not to mention anything else for the time being, in fact, there is nothing to mention, but the scope installed on the sniper rifle amazed Wang Yaowu and others.

In fact, the sniper rifle was used by some Southern soldiers as early as the Civil War, when the Southern soldiers used the British Weiworth rifle equipped with a 3x scope, and also set a record of 700 meters of long-distance sniping.

Wang Yaowu and others are also trained in the German system, and Sunil once explained sniper rifles to them.

However, at that time, only Britain was officially equipped with sniper rifles (the lessons of the Boer War), and although other countries also recognized the value of sniper rifles, it was not until the stalemate of trench warfare in World War I that countries discovered the true value of sniper rifles.

So although Sunil has also explained to Wang Yaowu what a sniper rifle is, just as they may not have seen a pig run after eating pork, Wang Yaowu and they have only heard of his name, but they have never seen the real thing, so they are a little curious about this sniper rifle...

"As Sunil said, even if it's just a lightly trained soldier, you can get good results with this kind of gun..."After glancing out the window with a 6x scope, Wang Yaowu nodded, and then handed the rifle to the others.

The others had also heard of its name for a long time and had not seen it, so they also played carefully one by one.

Ignoring the few generals who were still scrambling behind him, Wang Yaowu looked at Yan Guangdao.

"But boss, how should this rifle be used?"

Anyway, he is also the Minister of Military Affairs, and he still knows the output of the arsenal at the moment, how many rifles a day, and when he is lucky, he can have a dozen? If you want to equip this kind of production on a large scale, I'm afraid you won't be able to wait until the Year of the Monkey.

"Pedar Spirit!"

“？” Wang Yaowu didn't understand what Yan Guang meant.

"I plan to equip each squad with a sniper, and at the same time add a sniper platoon directly under each regiment, so that a division only needs less than 600 snipers..."

And if each squad has a sniper, it will also be of great help to Yan Guang's assault group tactics...

"600," Wang Yaowu nodded and shook his head. It's a pity that this rifle has too high requirements for the barrel, otherwise with the current output of the arsenal, it would be no problem to equip two divisions of snipers a month. ”

Hearing Wang Yaowu say this, Yan Guang also smiled bitterly.

There is no way, who called the scale of the Sichuan Arsenal so big, 50 Mauser rifles per day is already the limit, and the requirements for sniper rifles are much higher than ordinary Mauser rifles, and it is already very good to be able to produce 5 sniper rifles per day...

"Fortunately, the Yucheng Arsenal can be completed within half a year, and we don't need to wait too long."

Hearing Yan Guang say this, Wang Yaowu also nodded.

"That's right, the 100,000 committee rifles ordered by the governor will still be available for some time, and when we are busy with the expansion of the army, the Qijiang Iron Works and the Yucheng Arsenal are estimated to be completed..." Anyway, boss, after expanding these 50,000 people, you don't want to expand it once, do you..."

If you just expand the army, of course, it is not a big problem, but if you have to expand the army by 50,000 people every time, it is no longer a big problem, but a fatal problem...

"How so." Hearing Wang Yaowu ask, Yan Guang said with a smile. "I still understand such a simple truth, so 100,000 people is the ultimate goal, and then we only need to turn them all into elites." In fact, it's not that Yan Guang doesn't want to continue to expand, after all, he is rich enough to rival the country in terms of financial resources, and there are 60 million people in Sichuan and Guizhou provinces, but...

"I can't turn into so many officers..."Looking at Wang Yaowu, who was relieved, Yan Guang sighed in his heart.

At present, although the army school is on the right track, it is not so easy to train officers or anything after all. Even if Sunil and the others trained a group in an emergency and accelerated way, counting the armament department and the accelerated department, they could barely get together enough officers needed for 5 divisions, and it would take at least more than a year to get enough officers needed for the other 5 divisions, more than a year? At that time, it was estimated that he had already been pushed to Yanjing.

――――――――――

"Mr. Chengcheng, it's been hard all the way!"

Half a month later, looking at Zhan Tianyou, who was in the dust, Yan Guang, who was standing at the door of the Governor's Mansion to greet him in person, greeted him with a smile.

Since being hired by Yan Guang, Zhan Tianyou has been carrying out exploration work between Qijiang and Yucheng, and it was not until a few days ago that he took a telegram back from Yucheng, claiming that he had completed the preliminary exploration work.

After receiving this news, Yan Guang, who was handling government affairs in the Governor's Mansion, was naturally overjoyed, and hurriedly took a telegram to ask Zhan Tianyou to come back and report on the exploration process. So after two days of boat and car, Zhan Tianyou returned to Chengdu from Yucheng.

"But, Mr. Cheng, can the exploration be completed so quickly?"

Although he trusted Zhan Tianyou very much, after introducing him to the Governor's Mansion, Yan Guang was still a little worried, after all, Zhan Tianyou's exploration work in the Qijiang area only took more than a month and less than two months...

Seeing Yan Guang's concern, Zhan Tianyou explained with a smile after sitting down.

"Of course, it takes a long time to explore the railway, but the Qijiang railway is a bit special because the distance between the Qijiang River and Yucheng is less than 80 kilometers long, which can be completed even if you walk on your feet for two days. Moreover, the governor built the Chengqing Highway at the beginning, and also built a highway between Yucheng and Qijiang. Of course, there is a difference between roads and railways, but many sections of railways can be repaired along with roads, so it saves me a lot of time in exploration..."

Listening to Zhan Tianyou's explanation, Yan Guang also remembered that many railways in later generations were indeed accompanied by highways...

Of course, the distance between the road and the railway must be very large, after all, we have to consider the problem of train derailment, and the southwest is just mountainous, and many places can accommodate a road, but may not be able to accommodate a railway, which is probably why Zhan Tianyou will say a lot, but not all of the reasons...

"In that case, Mr. Zhan, do you have anything else I need to prepare?"

The railway is a matter of great importance, and after the completion of the Qijiang Iron Works in the future, the steel produced by the iron works will be transported to Yucheng by this railway, and then processed into various weapons by the Yucheng Arsenal, so he must not be in a hurry, and if he can, he even hopes that the railway and the Yucheng Arsenal will be completed together.

Of course, this is absolutely an impossible thing, although in the past the construction of the Pacific Railway Chinese workers set a world record of 16.41 kilometers of railway in 12 hours to lay tracks, but Sichuan is not like the United States, many places are flat, and the mountains are more dangerous is the characteristic of Sichuan.

And after listening to Yan Guang's words, Zhan Tianyou thought about it and spoke.

"The equipment for building the railway has been prepared, so there is no need to worry, but I don't know the tracks..."

Railways always need rails, otherwise wouldn't they become roads?

After being in Qijiang for so long, Zhan Tianyou also knows that it will take half a year for Qijiang Iron Works to be put into operation, so...

Where should the railroad tracks come from during this period? Outsourced?

Hearing Zhan Tianyou ask, Yan Guang also smiled bitterly. Because there is only one way in front of him, and he is free to accept the education of walking on two legs, but he really doesn't want to do such a thing, but unfortunately, the reality crushes people...

"Regarding the railroad tracks, I will send someone to Shanghai to order them, so please don't worry about Mr. Zhan." Although Hanyang also produces railroad rails, Hanyang is now fully engaged in the production of firearms and equipment, and it is estimated that there is no spare time to produce rails that Yanguang needs. And to be honest, although I support domestic products, I am a little worried about the quality of the rails produced in Hanyang, and this railway is what I am most concerned about, so in the end, purchasing foreign rails is obviously the only way out...

"In addition to the railroad tracks, I also need an upfront fund of 2 million silver dollars..."After speaking, Zhan Tianyou glanced at Yan Guang.

The railway is very expensive, the 200-kilometer-long Beijing-Zhangjiakou railway cost 8.6 million silver dollars, an average of 43,000 silver dollars per kilometer. The Qijiang Railway is only less than 80 kilometers long, so it doesn't take so much money, but 3, 4 million is still necessary...

However, as the country's leading dog household, as long as it is a problem that can be solved with money, it is not a problem for Yan Guang. So after hearing the figure of 2 million, Yan Guang just whispered a few words to Yue Chang, and then said to Zhan Tianyou. "No problem."

It didn't take long for a group of soldiers to walk in front of Yan Guang and Zhan Tianyou carrying a large pile of wooden boxes.

"Governor, 2 million has already moved over." After speaking, Yue Chang stood behind Yan Guang again.

As soon as Yue Chang's words fell, the soldiers who walked in with silver dollars opened the wooden box one by one, and in the wooden box it was naturally the "Yan Datou" who had now circulated in Sichuan and Guizhou provinces and even the surrounding provinces.

Looking at the silver dollars in the wooden box that were enough to dazzle people's eyes, Yan Guang said to Zhan Tianyou, who was already dumbfounded.

"How, Mr. Chengcheng, do you want to take stock first?"

Although it was completely unnecessary to carry the cash in front of Zhan Tianyou, Yan Guang was somewhat impatient with Zhan Tianyou's behavior of always beating around the bush to find out his ability to pay, so it was like taking this opportunity to let Zhan Tianyou see what a big dog is.

"When Zhang Lan asked for funds, he asked for 1 million and I gave 5 million with a shake of his hand, and now this mere 2 million still wants to test me? Anyway, add another 0! Looking at Zhan Tianyou's stunned expression, Yan Guang said with both disdain and arrogance in his heart.

As for Zhan Tianyou?

Although when the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway was built, all the funds were more than 8 million, but it was all allocated little by little by the Manchu government in four years. Like now, 2 million silver dollars are thrown directly in front of him, but Zhan Tianyou has never experienced it.

Then, looking at the silver dollars filled in the wooden box in front of him, Zhan Tianyou finally understood why there were so many people in the back who called Yan Guang a "big dog"...

(To be continued)