After hearing this, Lin Zhe immediately said, "Oh? I want to hear about it! ”

Huang Zonghan immediately said: "As we all know, your Yu Sheng has sharp weapons, and the artillery you have is far better than the artillery of the domestic monarchs, and the foreign guns can shoot three hundred paces from a distance. And before that, he and the minister repeatedly asked the court to ask for foreign guns and foreign cannons, but they couldn't do it, if Lord Lin was willing to cut some foreign guns and cannons, he wanted to be happy to exchange some of the war horses with the minister! ”

When Lin Zhe heard this, his heart sank, and he wanted to change his guns and cannons?

The reason why Yu Shengjun was able to sweep through southern Jiangsu and northern Zhejiang was that in addition to relying on the modern military system, a considerable part of Cheng Dù relied on Mini rifles and a large number of artillery.

In the past two years, in order to raise these rifles and artillery in his hands, the price he has spent is unimaginable, and he and Chun want to exchange their war horses for their own Mini rifles and artillery, which is simply impossible.

In addition to the value of the two, it is also related to Lin Zhe's reluctance to spread the capable Mini rifle and foreign cannons, especially the Mini rifle, which is a big killer weapon, which is now Yu Shengjun's killer weapon, and will definitely not be spread out because of a little profit.

As for artillery, it is also Yu Shengjun's unique advantage in China, although Yu Shengjun's artillery is not too advanced, it is still a front-loading smoothbore gun, not much better than the foreigner's artillery, or even slightly inferior.

But the problem is that they are not facing foreign armies, but domestic armies, and now whether it is the Taiping army or the Qing army, in fact, it is difficult for them to buy these arms from foreigners on a large scale.

As for the Taiping Army, the Western countries were still very interested in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's Divine Religion at first, but soon they learned that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's Divine Religion was not the same thing as their Christianity, except for a few foreigners who had illusions about the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, in fact, most of the foreigners, especially the foreigners with real power in China, such as the consuls of various countries and those merchants of the Great Ocean Company, they did not have a good impression of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

Moreover, if a large number of arms were sold to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, it would affect the relationship with Lin Zhe.

Don't look at Lin Zhe as just a political envoy from Jiangsu. However, Lin Zhe was the supervisor of the trade zone, and was fully responsible for the trade, diplomacy and other matters between the Shanghai area and the foreigners. There are certain obstacles to earning more profits.

Therefore, these foreigners are more cautious about selling to Taiping Tian** fire, although they are not completely banned, but they only sell some old-style smoothbore guns, and they rarely buy artillery or anything.

As for the Qing court, two years ago, fortunately, when the imperial court ran a new army, it was able to buy foreign guns and cannons from foreigners. However, with the failure of Britain, France and the United States to revise the treaty, the relationship between the Qing court and Britain, France and the United States has declined rapidly.

Britain and France are preparing to launch the Second Opium War, and when their brains are burned out, they will sell arms to the Qing court on a large scale.

Since the beginning of this year, the number of foreign guns and cannons purchased by the Qing court from foreigners has dropped rapidly, and it is not enough to equip the Jianghuai New Army and the Eight Banners New Army.

It is not uncommon for Lin Zhe to have a Linde Machinery Factory in the business area that can produce ordnance in large quantities, but it has always been exclusively for Yu Shengjun, and it is not sold to the outside world at all, as for directly sending Lin Zhe an official document or ordering him to pull out how many guns and artillery, Lin Zhe will not dump you at all!

The Qing army wanted guns. I have the war horse I want, do you want to make a deal?

After thinking for a moment, Lin Zhe spoke: "Huang Futai should know that this gun is the foundation of my Yu Shengjun's foothold, and the production of Lin Deji Qì Factory is limited, so it cannot be sold at all. ”

Huang Zonghan did not speak, but continued to wait for Lin Zhe to continue.

"Those new guns are not enough for our Yu Shengjun's own equipment, so there is no way to sell them, but if it is an ordinary foreign gun with a relatively simple process, it will be much easier!"

It is no secret that the rifle equipped by Yu Shengjun has a long effective range, it has been more than three years, and even if the news is backward, everyone knows what they should know, so Lin Zhe said very simply and directly that this new foreign gun will definitely not be sold. Don't count on it.

Hearing this, Huang Zonghan really showed a look of disappointment, he is also a person who has led troops to fight for several years, and he has a partial understanding of today's ordnance. At present, the most used by the Qing army and the Taiping army in China is shotguns. The range and power of this shotgun are relatively low, and more importantly, the rate of fire is quite slow, only about one shot a minute.

In the past two years, the foreign guns purchased by the Taiping Army and the Qing Army by various means were all smoothbore guns, although they were much stronger than bird guns and had a much faster rate of fire. However, in terms of range and accuracy, it cannot be compared with Yu Shengjun's Linde rifle.

Now seeing that Lin Zhe really didn't mean to sell the Linde rifle, he was naturally quite disappointed.

However, when Lin Zhe saw his face, he didn't care: "However, these new foreign guns are limited and cannot be taken out, but those ordinary foreign guns can be used, if you and adults are willing to exchange them for war horses, I can let Lin Deji Factory rush to make a batch of them!" ”

"Ordinary foreign guns?" Although Huang Zonghan was a little disappointed, he also knew that now was not the time to refuse, you must know that the Qing army could not buy even ordinary foreign guns now, and Britain and France were ready to go to war with the Qing court, and they would export a lot of arms there.

And if you only rely on some smuggling foreign merchants, you can only buy a few hundred thousand sticks, which is not at all useful for the hundreds of thousands of troops of the Qing court.

Immediately, he said, "I'll discuss it with the adults and I'll answer you later." Also, I don't know what this artillery says? ”

Lin Zhe told the truth this time: "We don't have enough new guns to cast, and it is naturally impossible to sell them outside, but we have captured a lot of artillery over the years, if you are interested, we can give you a batch!" ”

The artillery is more sensitive than the Mini rifle, and Lin Zhe's head will be burned out before he sells his own few new foreign cannons to the Qing army, which is not to make him uncomfortable when he rebels in the future.

As for the captured domestic artillery, it doesn't matter, the poor quality is going to die, and a few cannons will have to be blown up, so that Yu Shengjun now except for a few 800-pound old artillery, most of the other captured domestic artillery has been withdrawn, some have been returned to the furnace, and some are waiting to be returned.

If the Qing army was willing to pay a high price, he would not mind reselling these old guns that were ready to be returned to the Qing army.

Although the sale of guns and artillery will have a certain negative impact on Yu Shengjun's future interests, the Qing army is not stupid, if they don't give them some practical benefits, they won't exchange their precious war horses for it!

Besides, it wouldn't be a big problem if you just sold some smoothbore guns and old guns. Today, Yu Shengjun is using a modified Mini rifle, while the small-caliber Mini rifle at the Linde Machinery Qì factory has been finalized a month ago and is currently being tested and produced on a small scale.

It is expected that in a few months, Yu Shengjun will be able to be equipped with the first batch of small-caliber Mini rifles.

This small-caliber rifle, known as the 'Linde Model 1856', bears a striking resemblance to the Enfield 1853, which had only been in the British Army for a few years. To say that it is realistic is a copycat version of the gun.

If Yu Shengjun is equipped with the 1856 Linde rifle, the infantry firepower will be improved to a certain extent, bringing Yu Shengjun a greater firepower advantage.

In this case, the sale of some smoothbore guns did not have much impact on Yu Shengjun.

After He Chun learned from Huang Zonghan that Lin Zhe planned to exchange ordinary foreign guns and some old artillery for his war horses. Although he also felt sorry for his war horse, he gritted his teeth and agreed.

There is no shortage of war horses in the Qing army, and the Mongolian steppe in the north can provide many excellent Mongolian horses, but there is no way to ask for foreign guns, even ordinary foreign guns cannot be bought.

In the end, the two sides reached a temporary exchange intention, and the people below both sides had to fight for it.

In the afternoon of the same day, He Chun sent Zhang Guoliang's troops to launch a tentative attack on Changzhou City, and with the strong artillery support of Yu Shengjun, Zhang Guoliang's men and horses crossed a distance of several hundred meters. Appeared less than two hundred meters away from the Changzhou city wall.

But after they continued to advance for dozens of meters, suddenly a large number of Taiping soldiers appeared in the trenches under the city wall, most of them were armed with foreign guns, and there were also many arquebuses.

I saw that after they came out, they opened fire on the Qing army that was rushing over, and in an instant, many soldiers of the Qing army's green battalion who were charging down fell.

Honestly speaking, the hit rate of these foreign guns and arquebuses at a distance of 100 meters was quite low, and although tens of thousands of people opened fire at once, the number of people who fell from the Qing army was only a few hundred at most. However, tens of thousands of Qing troops all ran backwards in a swarm.

Watching the army retreat, this made the rear spectators of the battle scold the mother!

Lin Zhe also frowned when he saw it. These Taiping troops are not easy to deal with!

Hide and wait until the enemy is 100 meters before shooting, so that the long-range infantry firepower that you are proud of will not work!

This Lin Chengting is getting more and more cunning!

Shi Qingxuan on the side also frowned and said, "It looks like it's not easy to fight!" Then he turned his head and asked Lin Zhe: "Dashuai, what should we do later?" ”

Lin Zhe was also very depressed. How else can you fight, continue to consume, is it difficult to take the initiative to go up and die!

Now Lin Zhe's hope is no longer on being able to conquer Changzhou, although he has the confidence to take Changzhou, but the casualties he needs to pay are unbearable, and Yu Sheng's army is only more than 13,000 people when he is full. Among them, only more than 11,000 are army troops, and if they want to fight a Changzhou, they will suffer thousands of casualties, and then it will be a big loss!

Now he has put his hope on the second mixed group!

Although the strength of the Second Mixed Regiment is not much, but the rear of the Taiping Army is empty and there are not many elite troops, with the combat effectiveness of the Second Mixed Regiment is enough to stir up the entire Zhenjiang River, he does not believe that the Taiping Army in Changzhou City can sit still, as soon as the main Taiping Army leaves the city, then he will be sure to change the entire battle situation.

Where is the second mixed group, which Lin Zhe had high hopes for, now?

At this time, Xu Yanqing rode a tall horse, leading his soldiers into Jintan City, at this time the smoke in Jintan City has not stopped, the city is full of Taiping corpses, and gunshots are still coming from time to time.

However, Xu Yanqing had already set his sights on the north: "Rest for one night, tomorrow we will send troops to Danyang, and we will fight all the way to Zhenjiang!" (To be continued.) )