Li Yongji quickly led Li Mingcheng to a board room built of color steel, which was a warehouse for storing grain.

Looking at the mountain-like grain bag, as well as the plump rice grains that flowed out after opening the mouth of the grain bag, Li Mingcheng swallowed his saliva quietly, but shook his head calmly: "We are not short of food for the time being, I just want to see the weapons." ”

"I just want to see weapons, you didn't say it earlier." After Li Yongji finished speaking, he waved his hand and asked the person in charge of the grain to go away, and then took Li Mingcheng out of here and went to another color steel plate house.

"This is the place to put the weapons."

After speaking, Li Yongji asked the person in charge of the warehouse to open the door, and then took Li Mingcheng inside.

After entering, Li Mingcheng found that the whole house was full of shelves, and the shelves were full of weapons, most of which looked like the standard rifles used by the elite army, and most of them were wrapped in oiled paper, and at first glance they were new guns that had not yet been opened.

Based on the number of these shelves and the number of guns on one shelf, Li Mingcheng speculated that there were at least more than 3,000 rifles in the warehouse, and the most outrageous were new guns. And there seem to be many more arms warehouses painted with special markings like this, at least seven or eight!

If there were so many guns in every warehouse, then ......

With a heavy heart, Li Mingcheng quietly followed Li Yongji to a long wooden box, and at this time, Li Yongji asked the two guards to open the wooden box, revealing bundles of machetes inside.

"What is this?" Li Mingcheng, who came back to his senses, asked.

"That's right, this is the machete I'm going to sell you." Li Yongji said with a smile.

After getting Li Yongji's approval, Li Mingcheng personally took out a knife from it to look at it carefully, although he didn't open the edge, he couldn't try how sharp it was, but just by the weight and feel, he knew that this was definitely a good thing, so he took a deep breath: "Good knife!" ”

"That must be a good knife." Li Yongji smiled, "These machetes are all made of stainless steel, the knives are 1.2 meters long, powerful, strong and durable, and the handle is also long, which is most suitable for two-handed chopping, even if it is a civilian who has never learned knife skills, it can be used with a little practice." In addition, this batch of knives has also been treated with anti-rust, basically will not rust, although most of them have not been opened, but just by virtue of the steel material and its own weight, it is also a big killer, if you open again, the power will increase. ”

After speaking, Li Yongji glanced at him, and saw two soldiers moving over a one-man high wooden stake.

The wood of the wooden stake was the thickness of an adult's calf, and then a burly soldier took the initiative to come over, took a machete that had been sharpened, and walked up to the stake and stood still with his knife.

"Come, Mr. Li, seeing is believing, let's take a look at the power of this knife." After Li Yongji finished speaking, he nodded to the burly sword-wielding soldier.

Seeing Li Yongji's signal, the soldier raised his head with a knife in both hands, and then shouted, and instantly slashed, cutting off the calf-thick wood with a single sword.

Seeing this, Li Mingcheng took a breath of cool air, walked over and looked at the fracture of the wood, which was very smooth and very new, not like he had done it in advance. Looking at the knife in the soldier's hand, there was no sign of a curling blade.

"Good knife, really good knife!" Li Mingcheng nodded again and again, "It's indeed made of stainless steel." ”

"I'll just say it's a good thing." Li Yongji said with a smile.

"Then I don't know how much you can offer such a knife, and what is the price?"

"You want as many knives like this." Li Yongji said, "I have 20,000 handfuls in my current inventory, and the quality is the same. If you want more, when you pay the deposit, I can order again, don't worry about the quantity, you just want 100,000 no problem. As for the price, it's very cheap, not the second price, 15 taels of silver, a big discount. ”

"15 taels of silver? It's too expensive. Li Mingcheng immediately shook his head.

"15 taels is still too expensive?" Li Yongji made a disdainful gesture, knocked on the blade of the machete and said, "Look at it, this is stainless steel!" Nowadays, a kitchen knife made of ordinary steel has to be sold for 3 taels of silver, and I have a machete made of stainless steel, and it has undergone anti-rust treatment. I'll give you 15 taels of silver now, it's definitely the price of conscience, and if you pick and choose, I'll raise the price!" ”

"That's true, but I'm not saying that this knife is bad, but we really don't have enough money to buy this kind of knife in large quantities."

Li Mingcheng knew that it was not good to talk nonsense on this issue, after all, what Li Yongji said was the truth, stainless steel products were very expensive in China at this time, and even the waist knives commonly used by the Qing army at this time were mostly cast iron, and it would be good to use some stainless steel on the blade.

In fact, the kind of kitchen knife with 3 taels of silver is just a little steel added to the blade, not all steel, if that's the case, it will be a loss, Li Yongji's machete with all stainless steel, the asking price of 15 taels of silver is not expensive at all, and it is cheap. Of course, in Li Mingcheng's view, this kind of all-steel knife is completely unnecessary, and it is enough to make some similar steel on the blade.

But Li Mingcheng didn't know that this kind of large-scale industrial goods were inherently cheap, and Li Yongji's request for 15 taels of silver was purely a trick for him. The ex-factory price of this kind of knife is only 200 yuan in modern society, according to the algorithm of 3.3 yuan a gram of silver, one tael of silver and 37 grams, the cost of a knife is less than 2 taels of silver, and Li Yongji sells it here for 15 taels, which is 7 times the price. In fact, this kind of knife is expensive in labor, electricity and transportation logistics, etc., if you just get modern steel ingots and equipment here to make it, do not pursue the appearance, the price is at least half cheaper.

"If you think this knife is too expensive, you can also buy a gun head first." Li Yongji took out a thirty-centimeter-long spear head, "This is a long spear head made of stainless steel, thirty centimeters long, with a blood groove on each side, and a stainless steel spear head costs you 5 taels of silver, which is only the price of a kitchen knife." You go back and get a wooden pole to put on it, and you can turn it into a spear in no time. Well, this is always okay, right? ”

"That's good." Li Mingcheng nodded, "How much does this stainless steel gun head cost?" ”

"That's right, you have as many as you want." Li Yongji nodded, "But I don't have much stock of this thing, there are currently two thousand gun heads, if you want to buy more, you have to pay a deposit first, and then I will find someone to customize." ”

"Okay, I'll show my lord when I go back, and I will definitely buy a large amount." Li Mingcheng said, "By the way, Lord Li, didn't you say that there are still foreign guns to sell?" Can I look at the guns? ”

"Foreign guns, no problem." Li Yongji snapped his fingers, and immediately someone carried a long wooden box.

When the box is opened, it reveals strips of muskets inside.

Taking out a gun from it, Li Yongji said to Li Mingcheng: "This gun is called Charville 1777 smoothbore gun, French goods, and it is the favorite of the French Emperor Napoleon I. In short, this rifle is a flintlock pistol, without arquebus, it was the main rifle when France dominated Europe, and the British who once beat cried and cried for their mothers. The total weight of this gun is 4.5 kilograms, that is, 9 kilograms, the caliber is 18 mm, and the total length is 1.53 meters.

The use of flintlock guns, flint ignition, the use of ** with lead bullets, reliable performance, easy to maintain, 30 meters within the lethality is amazing, 50 meters also have a good head, although more than 50 meters there is no head, but there is a certain lethality within 100 meters, if you hit the gun, the effect is still very good.

In short, this is a standard French gun, and when the British came to fight for the first thing, the gun used was also at this level.

Maybe you have to ask, how much does such a good gun cost? It's very cheap, it's only 30 taels of silver, is there a super low price! Also, in terms of ammunition, the first time you buy a gun, you will be given 30 rounds of ammunition, and if you want it later, you will have to spend money to buy it, 1 tael of silver and 30 rounds of ammunition set, which is not expensive at all. Of course, you can also make your own ammunition, anyway, it's all ** and lead bullet, it shouldn't be difficult, at most it's not as powerful as the ammunition I provide. ”

"Can you test it?" Li Mingcheng suddenly asked.

"Absolutely." After Li Yongji finished speaking, he asked a soldier to take out a gun casually, and then everyone walked out of the warehouse together and came to a small shooting range at the back.

At first glance, the soldier had been rehearsed in advance, reloaded and shot very smoothly, and accurately hit the target within 50 meters.

When Li Mingcheng shoots himself, he will not be able to hit the target within 50 meters, but if he gets close to 20 meters, he, who has not touched the gun much, can also shoot and hit.

Li Mingcheng also personally looked at the power and found that even if the shot was fired at a distance of 50 meters, the lead bullet could penetrate deep into the target, and the power was quite amazing.

This made Li Mingcheng quite satisfied, and felt that this was worthy of a foreign gun, whether it was the rate of fire, accuracy or power, although it could not be compared with the guy used by the soldiers of the Jingwu Army, but it was much stronger than the bulky lifting gun.

Although the power of lifting the gun is better than this foreign gun, it is too cumbersome to carry the gun, it needs two people, and within 50 meters, the accuracy cannot be compared with this kind of gun, so on the whole, this French foreign gun is better to use.

Seriously, although this foreign gun is very expensive, Li Mingcheng still thinks it is worth the money. This is no better than a machete, it is a real battlefield weapon, and it is also a real commodity that money can't buy.

"How much is it going to be?" Li Mingcheng's eyes narrowed.

"Pretty much." Li Yongji nodded, and didn't say anything to death, "This is a trial product you use, it is more troublesome to supply it in large quantities, you have to say the number first, and then pay the deposit, and then I will find someone to order, of course, in terms of supply, it is impossible to be as fast as a machete, it is estimated that it will take a while." But as the saying goes, good goods are not afraid of being late, and when the time comes, I will give you the Western-style operation of using this gun, and I guarantee that you will do your best to form combat effectiveness. ”

Li Yongji is not wrong, this Charville 1777 smoothbore gun is originally a modern imitation, although it is made of cast iron, but because there is no specific mold for making zuò, it is all handmade, the number is very small, and the price is not cheap. Zhang Xinda specially produced it to ask Li Yongji to be a sample of the foreign trade version of the munitions. If you want to make a large number of molds in the future, in order to reduce costs, you must make molds first, which will take time.

The Charville 1777 smoothbore gun was chosen because it was indeed the most famous French-made weapon during the reign of Napoleon I, and France had a large inventory, and at its peak, the total number of units produced exceeded five million! Even in the current Napoleon III period, France has at least more than a million rifles of this type, and many militias and other irregular armies are also using them, and they have not been completely eliminated, in short, they have a large number of them.

The key is to confuse the public to the greatest extent possible, so that others mistakenly think that the French are meddling in the affairs of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, after all, selling arms in large quantities is not something that one or two ordinary businessmen can do, and the government has to come forward.

In terms of power, although this gun is an imitation, it is just a cast iron product, not even steel, but because the modern cast iron performance is very good, coupled with the use of modern equipment and craftsmanship, the quality is better than many original Charville 1777, which can be comparable to the fine rifles in it. To put it simply, it is not easy to blow up, and the number of shots is more, which is much better than lifting the gun. But no matter how good it is, it can't be compared with the Sharps rifle currently used by the Jingwu Army, which is several generations behind, not to mention, Li Yongji plans to change to a new rifle in the future.

In other words, Li Yongji was not afraid that the Taiping army would be equipped with a large number of such smoothbore guns, and if they bought this thing in large quantities, they could only deal with the Qing army. Not to mention that the performance of the Sharps rifle is far superior to the other party in all aspects, the key is that they do not have a powerful cannon, if they can't deal with their own artillery, then their guns are useless no matter how powerful they are.

For example, in the previous battle of Suzhou, only a few people were actually killed and wounded by Sharps' rifles, and even fewer people were later slashed with sabers or stabbed to death with bayonets. Most of the casualties of the Taiping army were caused in pursuit battles, and most of the casualties in frontal battles were killed and wounded by mortar guns and grenadiers. In short, in that battle, it was not that the common shooting kills in this era were greater than the artillery kills, but that the artillery kills were greater than the gun kills, and the main reason was that the two weapons of mortars and grenadiers were too powerful and the generation difference was too great.

Also, if you buy this gun, you have to buy ammunition from Li Yongji, this smoothbore gun must use granular**, and the power of ordinary powder** is greatly reduced, not to mention maintenance. Therefore, if the Taiping army bought this kind of weapon, it would have to rely on Li Yongji in the future.

What's worse is that the accuracy of this weapon is too poor, the effective shooting distance is too short, and it must be matched with a dense line infantry formation to fight a row of guns, this kind of formation of lining up to shoot is no problem to fight the Qing army, but when encountering the artillery and even machine guns of the elite army, that is the rhythm of pure death, a certain Cheng dù said that it is easier to deal with such a force than to deal with a cold weapon charge.

"I already understand my lord's intentions." Li Mingcheng put down this smoothbore rifle in admiration, "Don't worry, I will definitely show my lord when I go back, and I will definitely persuade him to cooperate with you, I just hope that you will not lose your trust in talent." ”