As several boxes of goods were opened one after another, Zheng Bao's eyes widened instantly!

He never imagined that at the end of his rope, someone would give him a weapon for nothing.

All bundles of BEN-1888 breeched rifles, all of which are more than 50% new, can not be grabbed by others when they are put outside!

The Siamese prince, who was puzzled, looked up at the stranger in front of him, and said in a low voice, "Mr. Kun, why do you want to help me?" ”

Kunsai glanced at the obsolete weapons on the ground and said with a smile.

"Your Royal Highness the Prince, don't be confused, these weapons are all materials given to you by our country to help Your Highness restore the country."

Hearing this, Zheng Bao's expression became gloomy, and after being silent for a while, he said, "Restore the country? How easy it is to say......"

"There is nothing difficult in the world, only those who are afraid of it," Quintsay said in a calm tone as he looked at the foreign prince in front of him, "Our country is also deeply sympathetic to the situation in Siam, and is willing to do our part for this." ”

Zheng Bao's eyes lit up when he heard this, and he raised his head and asked, "Is your government willing to intervene?" ”

"On the surface, our country can't directly send troops to intervene for the time being," Quintsay coughed, changed the subject, and said, "But our government is willing to provide you with some help within its ability, such as weapons, financial ......"

When Zheng Bao heard what he said, his heart suddenly felt like a roller coaster, but fortunately, the final result was not too bad.

"Thank you for the kindness of your government, if Siam can really be restored, the royal family will definitely double the reward for the friends who helped us today."

Quintsay nodded and asked the Siamese prince in front of him, "How many followers does the prince have now?" ”

"Probably a few thousand......" Zheng Bao said after hesitating for a while.

Kunsai smiled, "Hehe, I really help the Siamese royal family, and I ask the prince to tell the truth." ”

"I didn't lie to Mr.," Zheng Bao said embarrassedly, "Most of the rebel army is now lurking in the country, and there are really not many people who have fled with me, in addition to the dozens of people in front of me, there are also some hidden in several markets along the river......"

Quintsay nodded, lit himself a cigarette, and thought about it.

The situation is similar to what he expected, Siam has no choice in a short period of time, the Siamese prince in front of him is not telling the truth, according to his judgment, Siam will have to change in the future I am afraid that it will have to be placed on other local forces.

……

Just when Kunsai and others were meeting the Siamese in southern Xinjiang, the docks of the port of Tianjin, far north of the republic, also welcomed several special guests.

On January 13, 1899, the Ottoman envoy Sheikh Suleiman led a delegation to Seris, and Chen Zeyu, then the head of the Republic, personally received these distant guests, and in the following days took the Ottoman delegation to visit the Shenyang Arsenal in the northeast and the avalanche shipbuilding enterprises in the South Seas.

Two weeks later, Sheikh Suleiman, who was authorized by the Sultan of China, signed a huge arms order agreement with the Seris government in Beijing, with a total of 4.72 million pounds of arms orders, including two Ryukyu-class battleships and six army divisions (Western divisions) of weapons and equipment. British journalists even published a sour article in their own Times newspaper saying that it was the Orientals who stole the orders that belonged to their own country.

"At this time, I know that I regret it!"

Chen Zeyu was quite unimpressed by the jealousy of the British at this time.

In fact, as early as last year, the Ottoman government had sent people to Britain to discuss the purchase of arms, but the funny thing is that when the Ottoman envoys came to negotiate, they were actually making trouble in other people's homes. In October 1898, the British first united with the local Arab powers to coerce the Ottoman authorities to cede a large amount of land on the eastern shore of the Red Sea, and at the end of the following year, they raised a rebel army in North Africa, openly raising the banner of Egyptian independence. Under these circumstances, it would be strange if the Ottoman Sultan also bought arms from the British.

Looking back, Chen Zeyu also began to pay attention to this Muslim country in the Middle East, the Ottoman Empire, which once dominated Europe more than 200 years ago, has now only left the territory of its birthplace in Asia Minor, and the rest of its territory in Europe, North Africa, Persia, the Caucasus and other places has almost been lost, and even the territory of the Arabian Peninsula that still belongs to it can basically only maintain formal rule.

"It seems that the Ottomans are being bullied and scared...... Chen Zeyu can still understand the Ottomans' desire to buy arms ruthlessly, and the government of the Republic where he belongs has always tried its best to accept this near Middle East force far from its homeland.

It is an eternal truth that long-distance and close attacks are unchanging, just like the Ryukyu-class warships that Seris made an exception to sell to foreign countries this time, which had never appeared in the list of foreign arms sales before this. Even the German Navy, which had shown the image of buying earlier, Chen Zeyu's republic only gave part of the technical assistance to help it develop the Wechelsbach class, and it has to be said that he really looked at the Ottomans differently. Although the arms ordered by the other side are still sold to the outside world, the technical content of these equipment is still not to be underestimated, including the Ottoman naval personnel, who are now on the way to study at the Eastern Naval Academy in accordance with the previous agreement between the two sides.

The navy is a bottomless pit, but in the nineteenth century, an era of great powers, it was inevitable that a country would have to defend its sovereignty and swear its national strength. Whether a country in this era, especially a country bordering the sea, has a strong navy also largely determines its own status among the countries of the world. This is especially true of an empire like the Ottomans that is in decline, not to mention that most of its territory is still close to the ocean, and the Dardanelles Strait that it controls is always in the north-south situation of Tsarist Russia and Britain and France.

Compared with the construction cost of the army, it is undoubtedly very expensive for a country to build a navy, compared to the early eighties, the price of a main Saxony-class ironclad ship in the international warship market was around 500,000 pounds, which is equivalent to about 1.7 million taels of silver at that time, and by the end of the nineteenth century, the cost of a naval capital ship of various countries has soared to the level of 1.4 million to 1.9 million pounds. In addition to the high investment required to build warships, the annual cost of warship maintenance, personnel training, and even supporting industrial construction for each country's navy is an astronomical amount that cannot be ignored, and not very rich countries are basically unable to build a decent navy.

Judging from the Ottoman mission's plan to purchase ships, they are still very determined to build their own navy. At that time, the Avalanche shipyard recommended to them the early Luzon-class battleships of the Republic Navy, and the Ottomans were indeed very satisfied with the warships of this class, and both sides had already entered the stage of substantial bargaining, but when they accidentally saw the towering hull of the Ryukyu-class No. 3 ship "Nantong" that was being outfitted by the shipyard at that time, they suddenly changed their attention.

Compared with the cost of 5.5 million yuan per Luzon-class battleship, the price of the Ryukyu-class battleships is indeed expensive, and the price of a single ship is 14 million, which is equivalent to three times that of the former, but the Ottomans accepted it without hesitation, and the order is two, plus the cost of helping them train naval personnel, the cost of the two naval warships accounts for the vast majority of the entire military purchase agreement.

In fact, even if the price is expensive, compared with the price offered by the British, the warships of the Republic are absolutely inexpensive, compared to the Ottomans when they went to Portsmouth last year to negotiate the purchase of ships, the British offered them 1.65 million pounds for each Sovereign-class battleship, which is equivalent to 16.5 million Chinese dollars, which is 250,000 pounds more than the price of the Republic, nearly 1/6 of the difference. And the products provided by the two are also not comparable, the British monarch class has a total displacement of 14,150 tons, and Seris's Ryukyu class has 16,980 tons, the former is equipped with 4 343mm main guns mixed with a large number of small and medium-caliber naval guns, at most it belongs to the old pre-dreadnought-class battleships, while the Ryukyu class is equipped with four rows of triple 11-inch main guns, although the caliber is slightly smaller, but it is a real dreadnought-class capital ship, At the same time, it is also the world's first all-heavy artillery design main combat ship that has changed the way the navies of various countries operate. Comparing the two, the old and spicy Ottomans naturally made what they thought was a shrewd choice.

With this huge investment, when the Ottomans acquired the two Ryukyu-class battleships two years later, the Ottoman Navy would become the unrivaled maritime hegemon in the Aegean Sea.

At the same time, relying on this warship order, Seris's shipbuilding industry has once again opened up the arms market of Western countries. You must know that for a long time, the large-tonnage capital ship arms sales are completely in the hands of Britain, France, Italy and a few other European countries, even the later Germany, in order to compete with the British for the orders of the Qing Beiyang Fleet, had to lower the price, at a low price of 1.7 million taels of silver, equivalent to 520,000 pounds sterling to sell their signature product Saxony-class battleships, you must know that this price at that time was only equivalent to the British Navy ship of the same class "Infleczebau" 2/ 3. It can be said that the Germans really vomited blood and gave a friendly price in order to break into the international naval market at that time. In comparison, Seris has been relatively smooth in this regard, counting the earlier arms sales contract with the Spanish government for second-class battleships, the shipbuilding industry of the Republic has gradually established its own product reputation in the world, coupled with the effect of this Ryukyu-class order, the Republic has really obtained a ticket to the club of shipbuilding countries.

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