Andrei said: "If your factory lacks enough engineers to complete the final research and development, then we can also send a number of senior engineers to help you solve the relevant technical problems, but we have a requirement that the heavy machine guns produced by your factory must be supplied to our army first, and must not be sold to the Japanese themselves!" ”

Someone to help with a technical problem? This is attractive, no matter what era is the most valuable talent, although Russia is not a strong country in technology, but it is a serious power, and now people have begun to imitate heavy machine guns, but due to the distance and slow production, the Russian army in the Far East simply cannot get too many heavy machine guns from their country, otherwise they will not find Zhao Dongyun's head.

Zhao Dongyun was silent for a while, he was thinking about the gains and losses, would this move offend Ri' himself? Definitely, but he had already sold so many ordnance to the Russians in advance, and the Japanese himself had known about it for a long time, so he would have already offended if he wanted to offend.

Whatever, making money is king!

Thinking of this, Zhao Dongyun nodded: "If your army has enough orders, I think the shareholders of Fuyuan Machinery Factory are very happy to start a heavy machine gun production line!" ”

Andre smiled, he knew before he came that Zhao Dongyun would not refuse his suggestion!

Just like Zhao Dongyun knows a little about him, Andre and Zhao Dongyun have been friends for more than half a year, and they also know a little about Zhao Dongyun.

This person has no concept of the state and the nation, and it is impossible for any patriotic Chinese in this era to supply countless arms to the Russian army occupying the northeast, and even the more radical estimates have to run to the northeast to help the Manchurian volunteers who participated in the Japanese themselves.

This man was so greedy for money that he dared to sell a three-inch grenade on the international arms market for fifty-five taels of silver, and Andrei even felt that there was no more greedy arms dealer than him.

Moreover, Andrei also knew that this Zhao Dongyun was not only in the arms business with Russia, but also in the same arms business as the Japanese himself, and God forbid, the ordnance he sold to the Japanese himself was more expensive......

In addition, this person not only wants to make money, but also continues to expand the army, Andrei does not think that he is expanding the army in response to the Russo-Japanese War, the reason why this person is expanding the army is definitely to expand his personal desires, Andrei knows that Zhao Dongyun's army has expanded from less than 10,000 last year to 15,000 now, and the same Zhao Dongyun's influence in China has also increased with the number of his army.

Therefore, it is not difficult to see that the purpose of Zhao Dongyun's army expansion is to control more power.

Zhao Dongyun's greed for money and power is enough for Andre to understand and guess Zhao Dongyun's every move!

I have to say that Andre's understanding of Zhao Dongyun is still relatively sufficient, far exceeding the understanding of many subordinates who get along with Zhao Dongyun on weekdays and Beiyang bigwigs such as Yuan Shikai.

Zhao Dongyun nodded and agreed to open the production line of heavy machine guns, and at this time Andre also said: "If the general has no opinion, I would like to officially place an order for a hundred machine guns on behalf of His Excellency, and we hope to be able to deliver it in the next two months!" ”

Zhao Dongyun said: "I need to ask the Fuyuan Machine Qì Factory for one or two, and then I can give you a formal answer, but I think the problem should not be big!" ”

Andrei said: "This is natural, the general's prudence is admirable, and besides, I have a request!" ”

Zhao Dongyun said: "Oh, please say! ”

"Can the general increase our monthly supply of shells and bullets, and besides, I wonder if the general can supply our army's standard ammunition?" Andrei asked tentatively.

Zhao Dongyun said: "I'm afraid it's difficult, the current supply is already the largest amount I can raise, and I'm afraid that the top will be aware of it, as for your army's standard bullets, there is no corresponding bullet production line in Fuyuan Machine's factory, if you set up a special production line for your army's standard bullets, I'm afraid the gains outweigh the losses!" ”

Most of the consumable ammunition that Zhao Dongyun now provides to the Russian army comes from the Fuyuan Machinery Factory, and a small part comes from the international arms market in the Far East.

As for Russian-style bullets, if you want to produce Fuyuan machines, you have to buy a special machine to build a production line, plus the costs of hiring engineers, recruiting and training workers, and building factories, a complete set of hundreds of thousands of taels of silver, so much money to invest to recover the cost, but to produce bullets for many years.

However, can the Russo-Japanese War last that long? At most, for a year or two, the Russians will definitely not continue to place orders, and who will sell the Russian-style bullets produced at that time?

This is not an artillery shell, if the caliber of the artillery shell is changed, it can change 75 mm and 76.2 mm, but the bullet is very different, and it is estimated that a Russian-style bullet production line that has spent a lot of money to build will not even be able to recover the cost......

Therefore, for the production of Russian-style bullets, whether it is Zhao Dongyun or the Fuyuan Machinery Factory, there is a lack of interest, anyway, the Fuyuan Machinery Factory's various ammunition is in short supply now, and there is no need to disperse forces to engage in any Russian-style bullets or rifles.

Hearing Zhao Dongyun's refusal, Andre sighed, he didn't have much hope for this matter, today his purpose is just a heavy machine gun, as for the rest, it's best to have hope, and there is no problem if there is no hope.

The two then talked about other matters related to the arms trade between the two sides, such as Andrei's suggestion that the payment method could be more flexible, such as whether Russia still has a large stock of pounds, dollars, francs and even yen banknotes in the Far East, and whether these can be used to pay?

Zhao Dongyun responded to this: British pounds, US dollars, francs, yen, as long as it is money, anyway, except for China, other countries are playing the gold standard, and the paper money of various countries is also equal to gold!

For another example, Andrei also proposed that due to the current shortage of troops in the Russian army, can the location of the arms trade be moved to the east for a certain distance to reduce the demand and time for the Russian army to escort troops, Zhao Dongyun said that if the Russian side can pay an additional freight, it will not be a problem to send it directly to Fengtian City!

The two of them talked about these bits and pieces for a long time, and by the time Andre left, it was already evening.

Before he left, he left a cheque for 20,000 pounds from the British HSBC Bank, which was used to pay the advance deposit for the arms trade, and the final payment was naturally paid in one hand and delivered in the other.

Andrei's promised engineers and upfront funds soon arrived, in late August, seven Russian bearded men arrived in Tangshan, these seven people according to Andrei, that are all senior engineers in Russia, this time they were urgently recruited by the military and sent to the Fuyuan Machinery Factory, and even the Fuyuan Machinery Factory does not even have to pay salaries, but people will not stay for too long, the purpose of their coming is very simple, as long as they help the Fuyuan Machinery Factory to get the heavy machine gun production line out, After successful mass production, they will return to China.

Zhao Dongyun also instructed Zhao Chenbin of the Fuyuan Machinery Factory, saying that the Russians have sent talents to the door, and it depends on your ability to keep them or not, Zhao Chenbin looked at Zhao Dongyun's telegram and also made a decision, isn't it just a few beards, if you like money, you can take the money to smash it, and if you like women, go to Shanghai or Vladivostok and other places to collect a few Yanmar and send them over, Lao Tzu doesn't believe that he can't keep them!

This August, although Japan and Russia, hundreds of kilometers away, were still fighting for life and death, Zhao Dongyun was living a relatively leisurely life.

The arms trade is going on, and there is a lot of money every day, and the giant bandits in western Liaoning are now only one of the more regular Feng Delin, and the others Zhang Zuolin and Du Lisan have all been wiped out in the dust of history.

The expansion of the Jinzhou patrol battalion has also been carried out steadily, and the training in the third town is not bad, even Zengqi, who has been making a lot of noise in the past few months, no longer says anything about the Fengtian Standing Army every day, but focuses on relieving the victims of the Mukden War and rectifying the original old army in Mukden, in the face of the many refugees who emerged in the Russo-Japanese War, Zhao Dongyun naturally would not take his small treasury to buy food and distribute it to those refugees like the saint, but he also took out tens of thousands of silver, A batch of grain was purchased and transported to Xinminfu, Fengtian and other places to help the war refugees who emerged from all over Liaodong.

At the beginning of September, Zhao Dongyun returned to Baoding, nominally to pick up Fang Ruolian to Jinzhou, but in fact he went to see Yuan Shikai to report on his work, that is, to report how many troops had been trained, how many bandits had been suppressed, and the latest trends in the Russo-Japanese War.

"According to Shigumo, what you say, this Russian is on par with the Japanese himself?" Yuan Shikai looked at the map on the table, this is a schematic map of the war between Japan and Russia brought back by Zhao Dongyun, which clearly shows the deployment of Japan and Russia.

Zhao Dongyun said: "In the short term, this is indeed the case, in the direction of Lushun, the Japanese army spent more than half a month just to conquer the forward positions of the Lushun Fortress, Dagushan and Xiaogushan, until the end of August, and the casualties were extremely large, according to calculations, the Japanese Third Army has suffered no more than 15,000 casualties in the forward position of conquering the Lushun Fortress, what if this is a formal attack on the Lushun Fortress itself?" I am afraid that this cannot be taken without 100,000 casualties! Moreover, the Japanese side also seems to have realized that the casualties were too large, so in the period from the end of August to the beginning of September, the Japanese Third Army has stopped its large-scale offensive and is resting, and if it wants to launch a formal general offensive, I am afraid that it will not be until October or even November later, when the weather will be even more difficult for them to fight! ”

Zhao Dongyun continued to explain to Yuan Shikai the current situation of the Russo-Japanese War: "As for the direction of Liaoyang, since August, the two sides have stopped large-scale offensive operations, and began to build a trench defense system on the spot, in late August, the Japanese army tried to attack to the right, but was resisted by the Russian army, coupled with the frontal attack launched by the Japanese army a few days ago, both sides suffered heavy losses in the direction of Liaoyang, according to our calculations, the Japanese army has suffered at least 30,000 casualties in the direction of Liaoyang, although the Russian army is less, but it should be about the same, Moreover, according to our information, due to the prolonged confrontation, a large number of soldiers on both sides have suffered from beriberi, scurvy, and trench foot, and this situation is expected to become stricter after the onset of winter. ”

Speaking of this, Zhao Dongyun said: "Now Liaoyang is the day, and I can't beat it, and the Russians can't attack it!" ”

After speaking, Zhao Dongyun couldn't help but feel proud in his heart, although he didn't send a single soldier, but he took the machine gun to the stage in advance, causing Japan and Russia to be equipped with heavy machine guns on a large scale, and then the Japanese and Russian sides are now greatly strengthened in defense, but the offensive ability is still the same, basically whoever attacks in this fight is who suffers, so now the generals of both Japan and Russia are unwilling to play the initiative to attack, but hope that the other side will attack, and then use machine guns to sweep a large area......

In this way, history has been greatly adapted unconsciously, this Liaoyang is not lost, Japan's not to mention taking Mukden, and Lushun is now not to mention taking it, anyway, even if Zhao Dongyun, a descendant, is allowed to conquer Lushun, he found that there is no way to start, and there is no other way than to fill it with human lives, so whether the Japanese army can successfully take Lushun like history is a big question mark!

The course of this war has deviated from the original track of history, which raises a question: Zhao Dongyun himself is also difficult to predict the future development of the situation?

Will Russia win or Japan will win? And what attitude should China, especially the Beiyang system, maintain in this war? What attitude should you maintain?

This has become the biggest problem faced by Zhao Dongyun and other Beiyang people such as Yuan Shikai!