The Eight Banners in Guangzhou are invigorated, the Eight Banners in Chengdu are invigorated, the Eight Banners in Nanjing are invigorated, and the Eight Banners in Beijing are invigorated.

In April of the first year of Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty invigorated a total of eight banners in five places.

It seems that the key to the relationship with the Qin army is only the Eight Banners in Guangzhou, and the Eight Banners of Fuzhou, which worried Liu Xian and others before, are still the same. But is that really the case? See where Xi'an and Chengdu are from Hanzhong......

Maybe Liu Xian is a little nervous. But he always had a sense of being targeted!

Deliveries were scheduled for a month later, with the first batch of 5,000 rifles and corresponding artillery, grenades and ammunition delivered in mid-May, the second batch in August, then the third at the end of the year, and the fourth in April.

20,000 rifles, the Qin Army Arsenal is at full capacity, and it will take half a year. In terms of the Qin army's munitions manufacturing capacity on the bright side, it will take at least one year. When Zhang Shouyan negotiated with the Guangzhou side, he paid special attention to the cover-up of this point, and extended the delivery time to one year, without revealing the true military strength and output of the Qin army.

Liu Xian had another son in April, and so far the four women in his back house have all given birth to children. This made his angry heart happy. Especially at the end of April. The Lanfang territory reached a complete 'peace' with the Dutch, and mortars began to equip the Qin army on a large scale. The double happiness made Liu Xian's nerves completely excited.

"Mortars, heavy machine guns, rockets, rifles, grenades, pistols, and finally hand-to-hand combat. This is a map of the distribution of short- and medium-range firepower in our army's future operations. ”

"Far away is a matter of artillery, close is a matter of machine guns, rifles, rockets, pistols, bayonets. Only this medium-range, between a thousand and 500 meters in front of the position, or, more precisely, a gap in firepower between a thousand and 300 meters, whether it is our army or the armies of the European and American powers. None of them are a good solution to this problem.

Now, the mortars we have successfully developed have solved this problem very well. Perfectly filled the gap in the firepower of our army at this distance. The importance of mortars is beyond doubt. So, I hope that all of you here can really flexibly and effectively apply mortar tactics to real combat-"

In May, Qin convened a high-level meeting in Qinzhou. Taiwan, Hainan, Vietnam, the local Guangxi, and Zhang Zhongkui in Hanzhong all came here quietly.

meeting. In addition to summarizing the current strength of each department, Liu Xian found that the strength of the Qin army's descendants had easily crossed the 60,000 mark, and if Xie Jigui and Li Shien's Guangxi Green Battalion were counted, the strength of the Qin army was close to 80,000. This is a number that makes Liu Xian very excited. As long as we pay more attention to the training of new recruits, improve the combat effectiveness of the recruits, and wait until the warships purchased by Europe return to Qinzhou Bay. Let Liu Xian be sure that he can easily suppress the troubles that the Japanese may have, then he can rest assured that he can boldly raise troops.

What the? You say the shipmaster of Mawei? To solve that fleet. Is it necessary for Liu Xian to be serious? Mental calculation or unintentional is more terrible than naval artillery bombardment.

And then there's a question. Liu Xian ordered all departments to pay absolute attention to the role of mortars.

"Your Excellency. The brothers in Hanzhong stayed in their hometown until their bones were rusty. You've only lost a few people in these battles, and your brothers are worried that you've forgotten about them. ”

Zhang Zhongkui finally met with Liu Xian, and everyone became a little chattering. Of course, his words are not just about personal feelings or miscellaneous matters. Zhang Zhongkui told Liu Xian the most about the cavalry troops left behind in Hanzhong. These elite iron horsemen who were honed in Xinjiang back then have become much duller now.

How many years have it been since I came back from Xinjiang? It's been five years. No matter how elite the troops are, if the main body of troops does not fight for five years, the combat effectiveness will also decline very much. In Zhang Zhongkui's words, the combat effectiveness of the remaining troops in Hanzhong is at most passing. Compared with when he returned triumphantly, it is no longer at the same level. Especially those Tibetans and Mongolians in the cavalry, at the beginning, they were typical of one person who fed the whole family and did not go hungry, but now they are all married. With concern, there is no longer the energy to work hard back then.

Zhang Zhongkui's words made Liu Xian very embarrassed. Zhang Zhongkui didn't say anything about these situations, but Liu Xian actually knew about them. The Military Intelligence Department's defense of Hanzhong is definitely deeper than that of Guangzhou.

It's inevitable. The army is a knife, the battlefield is a whetstone, without sharpening, no matter how well it is protected, the sharp weapons of the gods will become ordinary after a few years.

"Sue the sù brothers, at most two years, I will let them all move!"

……

July 1875 in the Western calendar.

Hamburg, Germany.

Angela A. Merkel's home is hosting a party for the people. There were many people who came, in addition to his Chinese friends, there were also many of his former colleagues and friends.

As an engineer with real talents, Angela Merkel was already one of the best senior technical talents in Lihe before resigning from Lihe Foreign Bank. So his friends, the social status is not much lower.

Do people gather by like, and things by groups?

Merkel's friends did not find it difficult to understand the Chinese who appeared at the banquet. They all know that the reason why Merkel resigned from Lihe and foreign companies and quit that lucrative job was because he wanted to do business in partnership with Chinese.

Everyone enjoyed a hearty lunch together in Merkel's restaurant, and then played cards, chatted and chatted, and spent boring time. It wasn't until four o'clock in the afternoon that Angela Merkel finally unveiled the ultimate purpose of today's banquet, "Gentlemen and ladies, please come to the garden, where an unexpected surprise will be waiting for you." ”

One big and one small, two bikes appeared on the lawn of the garden!

This is the factory that Merkel cooperated with Qin Jun to produce - Feige brand bicycles.

An industrial product that spanned the ages and came to 1875. Except for the difference in materials, this bicycle is almost exactly the same as the bike Liu Xian rode when he was a child. The only difference is that the bicycle of this time and space will no longer be called a 'foreign car' by the Chinese people, and it has a pure Chinese name that can no longer be pure - Flying Pigeon.

When the delivery workers carefully unloaded the two bicycles from the wagon and placed them in the garden behind the Huntelaar house, everyone cheered around.

Bicycles are not uncommon in Germany. But the bicycle of this era has a completely strange shape in the eyes of later generations. The front wheels are large and the rear wheels are small. It was even last year that Luo Song 'ingenious' put chains and sprockets on the bicycle, giving it the prototype of a later generation of bicycles. It's just that these can be thrown into the dust of history compared with the flying pigeon brand men's and women's bicycles in front of them.

"Is this your newly designed bike? Merkel! ”

Except for the Chinese, except for Angela A Merkel, everyone present had a curious glint in their glasses, staring at the bicycle carefully.

Merkel's good friend Clark is no exception. As a mechanical engineer, he couldn't believe that the bicycle in front of him was designed by Merkel, a railway engineer, and maybe Merkel also has a deep foundation in mechanical design? But why don't you know?

It's a perfect design. Clark was amazed by this.

"No, no. My friend, I don't have the same mechanical design skills as you, I'm just a business partner. This is the design of the Chinese, and I am just their partner in Europe. You know, I've been to China and have a certain friendship with Marquis Liu. ”

"Ladies and gentlemen, let's rehearse their speed and dexterity!" Merkel glanced at a few Chinese on the side, and two Chinese guys who were only sixteen or seventeen years old walked out.

"Friends, this is the pigeon bike. Speed, dexterity and convenience. In the city, in the countryside, in Germany, in Europe, all over the world, they all have great prospects. ”

Merkel's garden is four or five hundred square meters, enough for bicycles to ride in. Two Chinese teenagers stepped forward to hold the two handlebars of the bicycle, loosened the bracket of the bicycle, and then put their left foot on top of the left pedal, pushed forward with both hands and left foot, and the bicycle immediately slid forward with their right leg on the ground......

Ringing, braking, turning, U-turning......

The bikes that were ahead of their time completely conquered everyone present. Everyone knows that this is a good business with a bright future.

Men's bikes have a beam and are modeled after the permanent plates of the eighties and nineties. The stocky bracket and rear seat support can not only carry people, but also carry one or two hundred pounds of goods. Women's bikes are really feminine, and compared to men's models, slender is used to describe women.

Merkel's show is not over. He pulled out a picture album with photos of a tricycle, rickshaw and a children's carriage in addition to the two bicycles in front of him......

"Our Hou Ye really has a unique vision, find a foreigner to partner with, start a business, there are too many good ones, and there are patent applications."

"A lot of silver was given to this foreigner, if there is no use for this, why should the Hou Ye look for him?"

"Haha, that's right!" (To be continued......)