Xiao Zhenlei happily took the letter of appointment written by Cai Naihuang and came out of the Daotai Yamen, he was not happy about the promotion, but Cai Naihuang agreed that he would purchase weapons and ammunition by himself, including heavy weapons and artillery, after opening this opening, he could buy heavy weapons on a large scale, and then buy other military equipment to arm all his subordinates to the teeth. ≥ ≥ ≥ Xiao ≥ said, www.

This letter of appointment was actually only appointed by Cai Naihuang himself, and was not recognized by the Qing court, Cai Naihuang's purpose was just to let him have a name and identity, if Xiao Zhenlei's two battalions were prominent in the next process of suppressing bandits, Cai Naihuang would inevitably fulfill his promise in order to envelop Xiao Zhenlei, and recommend him as the 46th standard commander of the 23rd Mixed Association of the New Army At that time, it was officially appointed, and it would also be reported to the imperial court for the record, anyway, this mixed association still lacks most of the soldiers, It is just right to fill in Xiao Zhenlei and his two battalions and recruit some people, Cai Naihuang has a good calculation, no matter what the result of this crackdown on bandits, he will not lose.

On the way back, Xiao Zhenlei remembered that he still had to buy artillery and shells, so he asked Opiyin to drive to Lihe Foreign Bank.

Bauer is very enthusiastic about Xiao Zhenlei's arrival, not that his relationship with Xiao Zhenlei is really good, nor that he really regards Xiao Zhenlei as a friend, because Xiao Zhenlei will bring him a business every time he comes to him, not to mention the size of this business, who will have a business that he will not do? Don't want any money to send to your door? That's a fool, Bauer is not.

"Xiao, why do you have time to come to me today? You're not here to talk to me, are you? Then I'm not interested, my interest is to talk to women. And not men! Bauer walked over with two glasses of wine and handed one of them to Xiao Zhenlei.

Xiao Zhenlei smiled, took a sip of wine, and said with a smile: "I knew you were like this." Well, as you wish. I've got a deal for you today! ”

Bauer immediately became interested, "What business, how many?" ”

"It depends on your sincerity!" Xiao Zhenlei smiled, took out the letter of appointment written by Cai Naihuang from his purse and handed it over: "Lord Cai of Shanghai Daotai has just appointed me as the commander of the patrol battalion, and I will buy weapons and ammunition by myself, I am not short of guns and bullets for the time being, but I am short of artillery and shells, and I want to purchase some more grenades, let's talk about it." What good goods do you have here? ”

After reading the letter of appointment, Bauer also gave it to Xiao Zhenlei, he did not have to read the letter of appointment to sell weapons, nor did he want to confirm that Xiao Zhenlei had the qualifications to purchase a large number of weapons, in fact, the reason was that the large-scale sale of weapons to someone in the Far East during this period was actually a political tendency, and the great powers thought that Yuan Shikai had a future and bet on him, so they sold him a large number of weapons, which was actually a kind of political and military double support, and the Qing court wanted to engage Yuan Shikai. You have to take into account the attitude of the great powers, and Lao Yuan is equivalent to the agent of the great powers in China.

However, small sesame officials like Xiao Zhenlei, the powers don't care at all, as long as they are official people in the Qing court, they can buy weapons from them. If the purchase quantity is too large, of course, the foreign bank does not dare to make the decision on its own, and must also consult the consulate. However, the number is not large, and it is comparable to the size of the opponent's troops. The foreign firm will directly make the decision to sell.

The sale of weapons by the great powers in China also depends on the target, and generally black market arms dealers can buy them in their hands. For example, those landlords and old fortunes want to buy a few guns to protect their families, and people in the rivers and lakes want to buy guns for self-defense, but foreign companies will not sell them, because the quantity is too small, and foreign companies are wholesalers, not retail stores, and small quantities can only be purchased by black market merchants, or from the Qing court and military.

Also, the foreign bank will not and dare not blatantly sell weapons to the revolutionary party, the sale of weapons to the revolutionary party shows that the country is on the side of the revolutionary party, but after all, the Qing court still occupies a dominant position during this period, firmly ruling the land of China, if a certain country blatantly supports the revolutionary party, then the Qing court will inevitably turn its face, and the unequal treaty signed before will be abolished by the Qing court, this practice is obviously not in line with the interests of the great powers in China, no country will be stupid enough to sell weapons to the revolutionary party, Foreign banks can only sell some secretly, and the amount will not be very large, and besides, the revolutionary party can't buy weapons in large quantities, because there is no money, and the funds for the activities are all raised by overseas Chinese, where is there too much money to buy weapons and ammunition? The revolutionary party's consistent practice was to plot rebellion within the Qing army. This practice does have great lethality, but the people in the Qing court are not fools, after many times in recent years by the revolutionary party to rebel against many troops to carry out uprisings, the Qing court has also learned, that is, usually do not distribute ammunition to the soldiers of the new army, so that the soldiers of the new army only have guns and no bullets, and they can't fight if they want to rebel, and the new army of the revolutionary party has failed many uprisings because of the lack of bullets. Why didn't the Qing court just dispense bullets to the new army? Why didn't even the old armies such as the patrol battalion and the green battalion not fire bullets? Because many of the officers and soldiers in the New Army are literate and have a higher ideological consciousness than the patrol battalion and the Green Battalion Qing soldiers, the revolutionaries have seen this point and generally develop only among the officers and soldiers of the New Army, and they use their incorruptible tongue to oppose these people. On the contrary, the vast majority of the soldiers of the old army who were uneducated were dead brains, admitting death, and wanted them to sell their lives to come up with real money, but the revolutionaries had no money, and it was not easy to rebel against them just by spitting on empty lips and white teeth.

Without further ado, let's get back to business. Bauer took out a list from the drawer of his desk and handed it to Xiao Zhenlei and said, "All the stock models in the warehouse of our Lihe Foreign Bank are here, you can choose for yourself!" ”

Xiao Zhenlei took the list and looked at it, there are not many models of artillery on the list, but they are all made in Germany, both mountain artillery and field artillery, and the number of large-caliber guns exceeding 105 mm is small. However, he was not ready to buy large-caliber guns, which, although powerful, also weighed. The transportation is extremely inconvenient, and I think twice. He decided to buy two Krupp 75-mm mountain guns, which were much lighter than field guns. It is more convenient to carry in this area of Jiangnan, and he doesn't want to buy more, the price of artillery is extremely expensive, and he doesn't want to be slaughtered by the Germans, now he has a mechanical manufacturing plant, there are skilled workers, and he can manufacture production line equipment for the production of artillery, the trouble is that there are no drawings of artillery production line equipment, or buy a set of second-hand artillery production line equipment. Then make it as it is, or buy equipment drawings to figure out the production by yourself, but it is more troublesome to only have drawings and no physical objects. But this is difficult for the Chinese.

Bauer was extremely disappointed that Xiao Zhenlei only bought two cannons, but they came and brought business, although the number was a little less, but no matter how small the mosquitoes were, there was meat, and Bauer still agreed to sell them to Xiao Zhenlei. Of course, it is impossible to make too many concessions on the price, but it is not too ruthless to ask for the price, Xiao Zhenlei still understands the price comparison of the market, and of course he will not be fooled.

After paying the money. Xiao Zhenlei asked Bauer to send people to send the artillery and supporting shells directly to the escort training camp next to Zhenhua Company, and someone would naturally receive the goods at that time.

When I returned to Zhenhua Company, it was already noon. I had lunch in the cafeteria, and I was just about to squint for a while. Song Shijie came over, and he told Xiao Zhenlei about the situation of the new Baoshan County Ling Zhonglin. Xiao Zhenlei thought about it for a few minutes after learning about Zhong Lin's situation. Let him Song Shijie prepare some gifts, and find Fan Zhiyong and take some silver tickets from his private account.

At about two o'clock in the afternoon, Song Shijie delivered the gifts, and Xiao Zhenlei asked Opiyin to carry the gifts out of Zhenhua Company and drive to Baoshan County.

It was easy to see the new Baoshan County Ling Zhong Lin, this benevolent brother was diametrically opposed to his predecessor in terms of body, Ge Shihong was tall and thin, while Zhong Lin was short and fat, short and fat, the whole person looked like a full ball of meat, and the fat on his face saw that his eyes were squeezed so that there was only one slit left.

"Oh, it turned out that Brother Xiao had arrived, please forgive Zhong for missing the distance, hahaha!" Zhong Lin squinted his eyes and "rolled" down the steps and said, this guy is also used to pulling relationships, seeing that Xiao Zhenlei is only ten years younger than him, he immediately called him a brother.

Xiao Zhenlei also smiled and said: "It is really abrupt to come to visit, please Brother Zhong don't blame it, the little brother brings some small consciousness here, it is not a respect, and please Brother Zhong must not dislike it!" ”

"Oh, don't dislike it, don't dislike it, Brother Xiao has a heart, you are refreshing, don't pretentious, I like it, come, let's talk in the county ya!" Without saying a word, Zhong Lin pulled Xiao Zhenlei into the county office, and Opiyin followed behind.

In fact, Zhong Lin just came and learned that the biggest rich man in the county is Xiao Zhenlei, who owns the cornucopia of Zhenhua Company, he has been waiting for Xiao Zhenlei to come to the door, after all, before today, Xiao Zhenlei was just a general, and the general grade was too low, several levels lower than the county order, of course, Xiao Zhenlei wanted to visit him, but now Xiao Zhenlei has changed and become a standard commander, and the standard is equivalent to the head of the regiment, this is a military attache who can sit on an equal footing with the county order, although it was only appointed by Cai Naihuang and did not report to the imperial court, but this is equivalent to having Cai Naihuang's support, Zhong Lin knew that his idea of slaughtering Xiao Zhenlei this time was unrealistic, not to mention that Xiao Zhenlei's official position was already equivalent to him, just saying that Xiao Zhenlei still had 500 men under him made him dare not be distracted.

Last time, Xiao Zhenlei, Opiyin, and Eagle were here to kill, and the entire county government was full of blood, and there were craters and grenade explosions everywhere, and they were so dilapidated that they were not in shape, but now it has only been more than a month, and the county government has been repaired as new as new, and it is estimated that this was arranged by the officials of the original county government in order to please the new county commander Zhong Lin, who is still on the road.

After entering the inner hall, the two sat down separately, and after the maid served tea, Zhong Lin invited Xiao Zhenlei to drink tea, and after a few sips, Zhong Lin smiled and said: "Brother Xiao, I want to congratulate you on your promotion, from a general manager directly to the standard, this is several levels in a row, it is really envious of others!" ”

Xiao Zhenlei waved his hand: "Hey, junior brother, my standard commander was only temporarily appointed by Lord Cai, in order to suppress the bandits, it is just convenient to lead his subordinates, as far as I know, the new army is marked with 2,000 people, but my subordinates are only 800 people, which is more than half!" My standard system is not worthy of the name, I think that when the bandits are introduced, my standard system will be removed! ”

"No, no, no!" Zhong Lin said: "As long as you don't make any big mistakes, the top will generally not let the people below be demoted, as long as our Daqing official is promoted, he will generally not be demoted, unless he is looking for death, hey, let's talk about this, come on, drink tea and drink tea."

Then the two started chatting, and Xiao Zhenlei asked, "Brother Zhong came to take office alone this time or did he bring his family with him?" ”

Zhong Lin said: "My hometown is in Xichuan, the mountains are high and the road is far away, I have never come out with my mother-in-law, I am worried that she can't stand this bump and don't let him, besides, my mother-in-law is a little powerful, if I bring her over, how can I play?" Hey! By the way, is there something about my brother coming to me today? ”

"It's okay, it's okay, Brother Zhong has just arrived here, why don't I have to come over to pay a visit, little brother? From now on, Brother Zhong will be the parent official here, and the younger brother will have to rely on Brother Zhong to take care of him in the future, especially my Zhenhua company, which is usually inevitably blackmailed by those scoundrels and ruffians, and I will have to ask Brother Zhong to take care of it more in the future! ”

After Xiao Zhenlei finished speaking, he took out two thousand taels of silver tickets from his pocket and put them on the table and pushed them over and said with a smile: "This is a little bit of a little meaning from the little brother, don't be too little to Brother Zhong!" ”

Zhong Lin looked at the silver tickets, a smile immediately appeared on his face, his eyes narrowed even more, and he hurriedly put away the silver tickets, and laughed: "It's easy to say, it's easy to say!" With my care, I see who dares to beat your autumn wind, Brother Xiao, you can rest assured, hahaha?? By the way, Brother Xiao is familiar with this big Shanghai, can you take me to go shopping? I heard that the women here are all very beautiful! ”

Xiao Zhenlei saw that this guy wanted to go to Shanghai Beach to play with women just a few days after he arrived here, and it was really the same as the news that Song Shijie heard, he smiled: "Oh, it turns out that Zhong is a fellow believer, this is not simple, now it is about three o'clock in the afternoon, little brother I have a car outside, let's go now, it is almost four o'clock when we get to Shanghai Beach, after arriving, the little brother takes Brother Zhong to walk around the public concession and the French concession first, look at the high-rise buildings in the concession and the ocean ships on the Huangpu beach, and at night I will find a larger Qinglou to call a table, Ask a few beauties to accompany Brother Zhong to have a few drinks, and after eating and drinking, let's go to the song and dance hall of Huizhong Hotel to call a few foreign dance ladies to play! ”

"Foreign woman? I love this! Zhong Lin's originally narrowed eyes instantly widened. (To be continued......) R527