Looking at the envoy of the Zhenhu Army in front of him wearing a black Western-style dress, Lin Zhe felt a little weird.

This Lin Chengting is also an interesting person, after he rebelled against the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, he completely embarked on the road of plagiarism and imitation, looking at Lin Chengting's governance in Jiangxi, Yunnan and now in Burma, in fact, they are all referring to many policies of the Chinese Empire, the only different people have temporarily learned the unique clothing of the Chinese Empire, but still maintain the traditional Hanfu.

Now after running to Burma, not far from the opposite side is the British-controlled Burma, and the British and other foreigners have been in contact, he simply came to a complete Westernization, Lin Chengting himself took the lead by shaving off his hair, and then put on a suit, when this envoy met Lin Zhe, he performed Western-style bowing etiquette.

After Lin Chengting occupied Lashio, he changed his title from 'Generalissimo of Zhenhu and Thieves' to 'King Ning', the reason why he didn't use titles such as King of Zhennan, King of Burma, King of Burma, etc., was because Lin Chengting felt that even if he was temporarily settled in Myanmar, he was still aiming at Kyushu, how could he show his ambition for the world in just Myanmar.

Moreover, in these years, the Chinese, including Lin Chengting, still despise those barbarians, although Lin Chengting has fallen to Burma, but if you want him to think that he is a Burmese or something, he has to be anxious with you.

Therefore, he still used the title of 'King Ning' with a strong Central Plains atmosphere, which came from the Yunnan name 'Ningzhou' in the Western Jin Dynasty, although Lin Chengting's department has been driven out of the hinterland of Yunnan, but it is still entrenched in some places on the border of Yunnan, so it is related to Yunnan. It is barely reasonable to say that he occupies the land of Ningzhou in the west, as for Myanmar. It is directly counted in Ningzhou.

Well, in fact, these are Lin Chengting's self-deception!

But no matter what. After Lin Chengting called the king of Lashio and founded the country, it can be regarded as barely opening a country, which is called 'Ning' in traditional Chinese terms, and the popular name can be called Ning Dynasty or Ning Guo or something like that.

Originally, some of Lin Chengting's subordinates were ready to persuade Lin Chengting to directly claim the emperor, but unfortunately Lin Chengting still had a sense of shame, and now it is too much to call the king in this state of lingering, and the words of directly calling the emperor must not make the world laugh.

And the key point is that since ancient times, China has been quite concerned about the matter of symmetry of emperors. If you Lin Chengting are king, Lin Zhexing may be able to bear it, but if you Lin Chengting dare to be the emperor, Lin Zhe will have to send troops to kill him without saying a word.

Moreover, the reason why Lin Chengting only called the king and not the emperor was another consideration, he was not stupid, he knew very well that after he entered Burma, he had no direct conflict of interest with the Chinese army in a short period of time, and he had contact with the British. It also made Lin Chengting open his eyes to the world, and let him know that the Chinese Empire and Britain are now in a quarrel over the suzerainty of Burma, and in this case, Lin Chengting felt the need to give it a try.

Let's see if we can get some support from the Chinese army with some ordnance and ammunition!

At first, the British were able to support him in fighting the Chinese army. Lin Chengting also believes that the Chinese army will support him to fight the British!

Now that they have entered Burma, the British have completely cut off the arms trade with him, and the French are also under pressure from the British. Large-scale transactions could not be carried out, and some ordnance could only be smuggled in. These simply could not replenish his combat attrition.

So Lin Chengting paid attention to his old opponent, the Chinese Army!

Although they fought to the death in the front, Lin Chengting was not an old and stubborn person. This was not an unacceptable thing to pray for the enemy, so he directly sent an envoy back to China to find the Chinese army and ask the Chinese army to provide support in terms of ordnance.

"It's easy to support you, it's just a matter of guns, but what can you give?" Lin Zhe didn't waste time talking nonsense with this envoy, he was not a diplomatic official like Song Guanqian, and dragging time was not his strong point.

The messenger was a man of about forty years old, and when he looked at his figure and the thick calloused in his palm, he knew that this person had been a military general for many years, and his voice was also very loud.

"If Your Majesty allows us to purchase ordnance, food, and other supplies, and if necessary, allows us to return to China to recruit troops, then we can pay tribute to the Empire!"

Lin Zhe shook his head: "I don't like these vanities!" ”

Maybe the rulers of other dynasties like to pay tribute to all countries or something, but Lin Zhe is not interested in these superficial tributes, he wants practical benefits!

And since Lin Zhe intends to intervene in the situation in Burma, and at the same time has to avoid war with the British, then he can't give the British too many excuses, if he accepts Lin Chengting's vassal, then this so-called Ning State is part of the Chinese Empire, and Lin Chengting's dispatch of troops to Burma is similar to that of the Chinese Empire's dispatch of troops to Burma.

Therefore, Lin Zhe did not intend to give the British too many excuses, even if they wanted to intervene in Burma, they had to come secretly.

The envoy was also slightly stunned when he heard this, this title of tribute can be said to be something they put forward after repeated consideration, and even made great determination, once this is called a tribute, it means that it has lost its righteous name, which is difficult for traditional monarchs to accept, especially for people like Lin Chengting.

Immediately, the messenger said, "What does Your Majesty mean?" ”

Lin Zhe said: "First of all, these ordnance and other materials should be purchased according to the price, well, the recruitment of soldiers will be exempted!" "The population of Yunnan is only a few million, if you are allowed to come and recruit troops casually, then the border areas are not the families of the soldiers of your Zhenhu army.

Hearing Lin Zhe say that he could buy ordnance and weapons at the price, this made the envoy's face extremely excited!

However, Lin Zhe's words continued: "In addition, the tribute will be exempted, if the follow-up your army can fight all the way to Lower Burma, then I also need a port, and I also need to build a coastal port railway in Yunnan, as well as the right to garrison troops along the railway!" ”

The envoy who was able to be sent by Lin Chengting as an envoy naturally had some knowledge, he knew about the railway, but he had only heard of it but had never seen it.

Also, what does this Lin Zhe want to do in the port?

However, although he didn't know what Lin Zhe wanted the railway and port to do for the time being, he knew the powerful relationship between the right to garrison troops along the line!

Once the Chinese army can be stationed along the line, then the Chinese army will not be allowed to come and go in the future?

But what if you don't give it?

Although Lin Chengting is fighting in Burma now, there is no follow-up ordnance supplement, and the guns and artillery in his hands will always run out, and it will be hellish if he can stop the British when the time comes.

Although this envoy knew that once he agreed, it would be very troublesome in the future, but this kind of trouble was based on the premise that Lin Chengting could really defeat the Gongbang Dynasty, and even defeat the British and occupy Burma

In this regard, even though he knew that Lin Zhe's proposal was a double poison, he decided to drink it, and it was much better to die in the future than to die now.

Before coming, Lin Chengting had already given him full authorization, as long as he could get enough ordnance and ammunition from the Chinese Empire, then except for the condition of tying Lin Chengting to Nanjing to kill him, other conditions could be agreed in principle, even if Lin Zhe proposed to cede half of Burma to the empire in the future, it is estimated that this envoy would agree.

Moreover, everyone has no concept of international law these days, and they don't care about any treaties, so what if they agree now, when Lin Chengting occupies Myanmar in the future, if he really wants to regret it, what can you Lin Zhe do?

If you send troops to fight, I don't know who will win and who will lose, besides, if you can't fight at that time, it's a big deal that Lin Chengting will turn around and hug the thighs of the British, and the British will really see the hell if they can ignore the Chinese Empire sending troops to Burma.

Even if Burma is no longer under their control, but Burma is on the border of India, entrenched in Myanmar is the Gongbang Dynasty or Lin Chengting's Ning State, in fact, it is difficult for the British to threaten the security of India, but if the Chinese army appears in Burma, with the national strength of the Chinese Empire, the British will not have to worry every day that China will send troops to India, so even if it is a full-scale war, the British will prevent the Chinese army from sending troops to Burma or even occupy Burma.

This is a matter of India's strategic security, and no British ruler will remain indifferent.

This is also the reason why the British reacted so strongly to the situation in Burma some time ago, they did not care about the life or death of the Burmese, they cared about the safety of India.

Now the transaction between Lin Chengting and Lin Zhe cannot be maintained by treaty, the reason why Lin Zhe chose to support Lin Chengting is not because of any railways or ports or anything, these are just incidental, if Lin Chengting really does not agree to Lin Zhe, he will not force it, but the ordnance for sale still has to be sold.

Because of supporting Lin Chengting to make trouble in Burma and avoid the complete annexation of Burma by the British, it is also to obtain some diplomatic bargaining chips in exchange for some interests in the Far East.

In this case, Lin Chengting's messenger quickly got what he wanted!

After some preliminary negotiations, the imperial side will provide Ning Guo with more than 5,000 1856 Mini rifles, originally the envoy wanted the rear loading rifle of the Chinese army, that is, the 1858 Linde rifle, but this rifle is the biggest military weapon of the empire for the time being, how can it be sold to Lin Chengting, a person who is half enemy and half friend. What's more, the empire is in a period of large-scale refitting and expansion, and the 1858 rear-loading rifles needed in the next three years will be at least 300,000 units, and there is no surplus production for export.

And those reloaded Mini rifles are not easy to deal with if they are not exported, the military has decided to fully replace the rear rifles, then the garrison should also be replaced with rear rifles, and the front loading Mini rifles are replaced and stored in the warehouse, it is better to sell them directly. (To be continued.) )