Zhao Chenbin's previous guess was that Zhao Dongyun planned to build his own private arsenal, and the Zhao family had a few family backgrounds, Zhao Chenbin still knew something, and knew that his family could not afford to buy brand new equipment, which was something of millions at every turn, and he couldn't dig up so much silver even if he dug up the Zhao family's yard.

So I asked if there was anything cheap, and even said that there was no need for new goods, second-hand ones, and not too modern, the performance was average, as long as the guns could be made, and the guns made could be sold, in fact, to put it bluntly, it was not about how good the performance was, but the price was the cheapest!

For Lihe Foreign Company, new goods are also sold, second-hand goods are also sold, anyway, he is a second-hand dealer, if he can make money, he can make money, whether it is new or old, if you have good things and bad goods, I will find some tatters to sell to you after rummaging through the warehouse.

At this time, Zhao Dongping also talked to them about machine guns and ordnance equipment, although the old and the young had different ideas, but Zhao Chenbin and Zhao Dongping still had a tacit understanding to link these two things and try to unite to reduce the price.

To be honest, if it was just a business of tens of thousands of taels of silver, Lihe Foreign Bank would not be so concerned. However, the significance of Zhao Dongyun's ordnance purchase order for Lihe and Yangxing is not the sales of tens of thousands of taels of silver, for them, this is an important opportunity to open the gap in the Beiyang military weapons market, and it can be said that the significance is very heavy.

As long as the Beiyang Army is equipped with the first batch of German ordnance, then there will be a second batch and a third batch, so this batch of rifle and machine gun orders is an important opportunity for Lihe Foreign Company to enter the Beiyang ordnance market.

That's why they attach so much importance to military purchase orders that are only tens of thousands of taels of silver.

As for the equipment for making guns and cannons, the same is true, if North China wants to set up an arsenal, regardless of whether Zhao Dongyun is privately engaged or the Beiyang official is engaged in it, as long as they want to set up an arsenal, and they still want to run a successful arsenal, then they must purchase millions of orders for equipment one after another, and these future orders are the large profits that Lihe Foreign Bank expects.

For example, the Hubei Gun Factory did not invest much at the beginning, only hundreds of thousands of taels, but it didn't take a few years to put the money into it one after another, and after accumulating millions of taels of silver, it initially had the ability to mass-produce the 1888 rifle and the five-life seven mountain cannon.

Therefore, even if Zhao Dongyun had no money at the beginning and only bought cheap second-hand goods, as long as he established the arsenal, it would mean that he might expand the arsenal in the future, and it would also mean that Lihe Foreign Bank might receive subsequent equipment orders of millions of taels of silver.

Therefore, the significance of this order for Lihe is not in the present, but in the future.

In this case, the company acted quite quickly, and within a few days it took a few days to open a quotation for some machine guns, rifles, and pistols, and at the same time they also contacted Germany to find a set of depreciated equipment for the early production of Type 88 rifles and marked the price.

In this way, Zhao Dongyun received a telegram from Zhao Chenbin saying that he had found a set of second-hand gun-making equipment!

This made Zhao Dongyun speechless, he obviously just asked them to inquire about the market, when to let them go directly to the purchase, but since he said it was a second-hand bargain, he wanted to know how cheap it was, so he called back and asked him to write a letter to tell him the details.

In these years, although there was a telegraph for long-distance communication, the commercial telegram could only be used for limited information exchange due to the high cost, and Zhao Chenbin could only say that he had found a cheap gun making equipment for a day, but the specific situation could not be clearly explained, so it could only be described through traditional letters.

However, when Zhao Dongyun received Zhao Chenbin's letter, he was a little uneasy.

The letter in his hand is not long, but only a thousand words, and between the lines, Zhao Chenbin said that he came into contact with the German Lihe Foreign Company, and learned that they have a set of second-hand Type 88 rifles and bullet production line equipment, which can produce 50 Type 88 rifles per day, 25,000 smokeless round bullets, and a total of 400 large and small machines.

It doesn't matter, what matters is the price: a complete set is not 2 million, not 1 million, not even 800,000 or 600,000, as long as the broken price is 360,000 taels of silver, you can establish a complete 88 rifle production line, and the production capacity can be completely comparable to today's Hubei Gun Factory.

In addition, they also said that if you can't even produce the smokeless gunpowder needed to produce bullets, they can also sell a production line with a daily output of 300 pounds of smokeless gunpowder, which is not expensive, only 140,000 taels of silver.

Three hundred and sixty thousand taels, Zhao Dongyun was dumbfounded at this price, not because it was too expensive, but because it was too cheap!

How much did the Hubei Gun Factory spend in order to be able to produce 50 Type 88 per day? At first, it was about 400,000 taels of silver to introduce equipment, and then after it was burned to the ground, it cost more than 1 million taels of silver to import equipment, which of course also included the equipment needed to make artillery, but it was definitely more than 1 million for the Type 88 rifle alone.

And this is all to say small, on the one hand, bureaucratic corruption, withholding deductions, etc., in addition, it is also related to the introduction of the Type 88 rifle too early, it was in the 88 type rifle just a few years after the purchase of equipment and technology to make its own, and at that time the Type 88 rifle was the latest type of rifle, and the Germans were naturally desperately trying to increase the price.

However, now the Type 88 rifle is outdated, and the Germans are no longer producing it, and China already has the technology of the Type 88 rifle that can be produced by itself, so from a technical point of view, the German's Type 88 rifle is not sold at any price, plus this set of equipment is still second-hand, and the Germans can also return funds to replace the new equipment after dealing with this batch of old equipment to produce newer rifles and artillery.

So many factors add up, and this price is naturally not much expensive.

In addition, there is a very important reason that the company has made follow-up orders, in this order did not inflate the price too high, but the profit was kept at a normal level, not that they were not black enough, but they hoped to get more follow-up orders, as long as Zhao Dongyun dared to accept this batch of second-hand equipment, they were sure to establish a long-term cooperative relationship with Zhao Dongyun, and in the future, if this arsenal wants to operate normally, it will have to replace parts, replace depreciation equipment, and more importantly, want to expand production and purchase equipment, That's all money.

Zhao Dongyun couldn't understand the many joints in it for a while, but even a layman knew when he saw this price that this price was definitely cheap.

Compared with the cheap price of this second-hand rifle and bullet manufacturing equipment, the production equipment of smokeless powder is the normal price, mainly because smokeless gunpowder was not outdated in 1902, and this equipment is not second-hand equipment, but brand new, and it is normal for this set of smokeless gunpowder production equipment with a daily output of 300 pounds to sell for 140,000 taels of silver.

If the two are combined, then only 500,000 taels of silver, this is a complete rifle production line, from guns to bullets to gunpowder.

But now it's 1902, even if you want to introduce a rifle production line, you have to introduce a more advanced Mauser 1898 rifle, and introduce a backward 88 rifle, I don't know if it's cost-effective at that time.

The Germans have developed a number of models of Mauser rifles, and Germany is now equipped with the Mauser 1898 type, but the Germans have just been equipped with this kind of gun for a few years, and now they want to introduce this kind of rifle that is considered the most advanced in the world, and it is definitely not hundreds of thousands of taels of silver that can be done.

However, Zhao Dongyun thought about it, what he was thinking was still too far, let alone millions of taels of silver, he couldn't even take out the 500,000 now!

You must know that what Zhao Dongyun envisioned at the beginning was to integrate a part of the funds from his family, and then use corruption and the like to get 10,000 or 20,000, and then borrow tens of thousands from Zhou Xuexi, the God of Wealth, and then make up more than 200,000 It is estimated that it is not a big problem, but 200,000 and 500,000 are more than twice as different, you let Zhao Dongyun go there to raise money!

But it is unwilling to give up like this, bargains are not always available, if you can buy this batch of equipment, then it means that the Beiyang system has the ability to produce Type 88 rifles, which is of unusual significance.

At present, among China's several major arsenals, only the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau and the Hubei Gun Factory can mass-produce new guns, but these two factories are in the south, and Yuan Shikai is difficult to control, simply put, it has nothing to do with today's Beiyang.

Although many other bureaus and factories also have a certain production capacity, they are scarce in number, and most of them are old-style guns that are not worth mentioning.

After thinking about it for a long time, Zhao Dongyun did not rashly decide anything, but sent a telegram to Zhao Chenbin, instructing him to continue to negotiate with the Germans, and if he could lower the price, he would lower the price, and if he couldn't suppress it, he would continue to drag it out, and he would buy him time!

Whether it is to raise funds or to persuade Yuan Shikai to let himself run an arsenal privately, it will take time, it definitely does not mean that he Zhao Dongyun can come up with hundreds of thousands of taels of silver with a wave of his hand, let alone that he Zhao Dongyun can build an arsenal if he has money.

Guns are a sharp weapon of the state, and I have always heard of state-run factories producing them, but I have never seen private factories make guns.

So there are still a lot of uncertainties that need to be addressed.

After letting Zhao Chenbin stabilize the Germans, Zhao Dongyun asked Zhao Dongping to send a telegram to his hometown to write a letter, asking them to prepare money, saying that he would take them to do a big business, on the other hand, he also contacted Zhou Xuexi, of course, he didn't directly say that I took a fancy to a batch of gun-making equipment and wanted to buy, but I secretly inquired about the silver pine on the side of Tianjin Guanyin through the loan of Fuyuan Yarn Factory, if the silver root is loose, he will find a way to get a batch of loans from Zhou Xuexi, if people have no money, they will naturally not waste their expressions.

Of course, the above are secondary, and the most important thing is that Zhao Dongyun has to go to see Yuan Shikai!

As long as Yuan Shikai nodded, everything else was easy to say, if he didn't nod, not to mention that Zhao Dongyun didn't have any money, even if he had money, he wouldn't be able to get it.

Zhao Dongyun, who came to the Governor's Mansion, took a deep breath, and then bought into the Governor's Mansion in a big way, and today he wants to persuade Yuan Shikai to let him run an arsenal!