Postponed!

Although the itinerary had already been set, the date of the trip was postponed at the end of the day, and the reason was simple -- with the understanding of the situation in Korea, Tang Haoran had to postpone the date of going to the DPRK, and the reason for going to the imperial court was also very simple -- in order to recruit Chinese businessmen to Korea in Tianjin.

Of course, this is only a superficial reason, but the real reason is that the situation in the DPRK is far more complicated than Tang Haoran imagined, and there are disputes between the major party, the Kaihua party, and the conservative forces over the national affairs of the DPRK, and more importantly, under the pressure of Yuan Shikai for several years, the DPRK's desire to "turn its back on China and stand on its own feet" has become stronger and stronger, and even according to some people who know the situation in the DPRK, it has reached the point where "it cannot be maintained without the help of military force."

Sustained by military force?

Since the Sino-French War, after the transfer of 3,000 Huai troops stationed in Korea and 2,000 troops, only 1,000 Huai troops remained in Korea, and the Japanese army also had 100 troops stationed in Seoul and Incheon, which was the result of the "Renwu Mutiny", which tacitly acquiesced in the right of the Japanese army to garrison, which was actually the result of the diplomatic failure of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and the "Renwu Mutiny" was a military success and a diplomatic failure for the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

The Treaty of Tientsin, signed by the Qing and Japan after the "Renwu Mutiny," explained that the Qing state's rights and obligations toward Korea were equal to those of Japan. As a result, Korea seemed to be a country under the joint protection of China and Japan, which provided a rationality for the Qing and Japanese countries to send troops to Korea 10 years later, and also laid the groundwork for the subsequent conflict. Later, the two countries insisted on their own words and became entangled, which finally led to war. This was later recognized as a fundamental failure of Qing foreign policy.

Now, however, the price of this defeat is being borne by oneself -- Yuan Shikai's quest for governor in Korea has raised China's suzerainty to the extreme, and his control over Korea involves political, economic, and diplomatic aspects, thus effectively curbing the infiltration of Japan and Tsarist Russia into Korea. At the same time, in order to strengthen China's suzerainty, he sometimes inevitably resorted to some high-handed or drastic measures. The price of this qiē was that the king of Joseon and some of his courtiers were becoming more and more centrifugal, and the desire for independence of Korea was becoming stronger and stronger, and some people also had a rebellion against the weak Qing Dynasty, which even foreigners could see. When the foreigners who had worked in North Korea on the customs side told them about the situation in North Korea, most of them agreed: "Now they can only be controlled by force, and they want to get rid of this control at the first opportunity." ”。

"Grandma's, all the trouble is lost to Lao Tzu!"

When walking towards the Beiyang Ordnance Bureau near the East Bureau, Tang Haoran complained in his heart.

No wonder Yuan Shikai has asked for transfer several times since February this year, and now North Korea is a crater at all!

I don't know how many people are waiting to see their jokes, if this errand is not done well, maybe they really have only one way up the mountain to go.

With such a muttering in his heart, he went to the Ordnance Bureau.

"Brother Chu Bao! Little brother, I'm here to trouble you this time! ”

As soon as the front foot entered the ordnance bureau, Tang Haoran greeted Zhang Shiheng with an affectionate fist salute.

"Brother Ziran, look at what you said, what's the matter, send an attaché over, just give an order, you want to come in person, brother!"

"It's not like I haven't seen Brother Chu Bao for a few days, and I'm panicking! It's a coincidence this time, and we have done it, so we can talk about this private friendship! ”

He was intimate with Zhang Shiheng, but Tang Haoran knew that this young master was Li Hongzhang's nephew, and he had done a lot of things to damage the public and private, and since he presided over the Ordnance Bureau, he was unscrupulous in reselling arms, and even during the First Sino-Japanese War, he also resold millions worth of arms, and the buyers were even more annoying - it was the Japanese army! What makes people hate even more is that in the name of sending munitions, it turned out to be in the name of supporting the front-line military supplies, special mother, and finally all the support was given to the Japanese army.

Although he knows that this person is useless, he also understands that this person is not successful enough and has more than enough failures, and this kind of person not only cannot be offended, but also tries to make friends.

"Chenghao, then our two brothers have to talk about it well, talk about it!"

Although he seemed to be very enthusiastic when he spoke, Zhang Shiheng did not talk about business with Tang Haoran, but continued to fight with him Haha, as we all know, it is the Beiyang Navy to bring ordnance, so you have to take tea and silver, although the uncle over there has already given orders, but the order is an order, and this tea money is inevitable. Then again, you Tang Ziran is still an outsider, and if you don't take your money, you will be worthy of you, but this percent of the tea money is indispensable.

The two chatted for nearly an hour, Zhang Shiheng was not in a hurry, Tang Haoran was also not in a hurry, the two were still so affectionate, and even felt that they were getting closer and closer the more they chatted, Song Yuxin, who was sitting on the side, was also not in a hurry, he was waiting, waiting for the second pot of tea.

Finally, after a cup of tea was drunk, a servant took the tea tray and started the tea, when he poured the tea, Song Yuxin quietly put a large amount of silver ticket on the tray, the servant didn't look at it, just continued to pour the tea, and when he poured tea for Zhang Shiheng, Zhang Shiheng glanced at the silver ticket.

Okay!

Ten thousand taels!

This guy eats a lot!

Babbling in his heart, Zhang Shiheng finally turned to the topic.

"A few days ago, Lord Zhongtang commanded, Brother Ziran's guard is related to the face of the country, so the weapons of this guard must not be sloppy, no, as soon as I return to the bureau over there, I will order the following to take the booklet, Brother Ziran, I am in this bureau, but you can choose if the door is open!"

Is 10,000 taels of silver worth or not?

It must be worth it, more than an hour later, in the Ordnance Bureau's warehouse covering an area of dozens of acres, Tang Haoran's interest was completely attracted by this huge arsenal, how many arms were stored in hundreds of warehouses, he naturally did not know, but at least from the scale of this warehouse, he could guess a thing or two -- the amount of arms stored in this warehouse was far beyond his imagination.

When Tang Haoran was walking around the spacious warehouse room accompanied by the warehouse clerk, Song Yuxin was chatting with the warehouse owner at the door.

"Lord Tang, in addition to some old guns in this library, the most commonly used in the national dynasty are the French Chasepo and the German Mauser, this Mauser has a 71 type, and there are eight 84 shots, but these bullets are all Mauser bullets in eleven miles,......"

Ding Yu looked at Song Yuxin in front of him, and when he saw that there was no one around, he suppressed his voice slightly.

"Brother, little brother has a sentence, I don't know if to say it or not!"

The clerk whispered, which made Song Yuxin stunned, could it be that there was something else that could not be done? This silver ticket has also been stuffed, a small 1,000 taels of silver tickets, this silver is not less.

"Brother, you see in this Ordnance Bureau, every year to buy hundreds of hundreds of thousands of taels of foreign guns and cannons, now this warehouse has accumulated seventy or eighty thousand French-made Chasepo, all of which were purchased in the early years, although compared to the German single-shot Mauser is not bad, but our Huaijun does not recognize this brand, this gun is almost all brand new, this is not now pressed in the library......

Ding Yu took out the outbound voucher and gestured his finger at the voucher.

"No, let's put it this way, if the adults want this French gun, this list can be filled with you, there are 8,000 of them, you just have to pull it, but if it is Mauser, then we can only follow the rules, two battalions of soldiers, at most four battalions of weapons. ……”

Ding Yu had a smile on his face, as Zhang Ziheng's cronies, although there were orders from the adult's side, but the rules and regulations were ordered, and some things still had to be done according to the rules.

"Yo, this ...... We don't understand this, I have to discuss this matter with adults! ”

"Shasebo rifle?"

Song Yuxin's words made Tang Haoran stunned, as far as he knew, Xia Sebo was indeed no worse than Mauser 71, and even Mauser 71 was developed with reference to Xia Sebo, this Xia Sebo also had a joke that ridiculed the lack of morality of the French, "French rifles, brand new, never used, only thrown to the ground once", at the end of the Franco-Prussian War, the Prussian army seized a mountain of materials, including more than 60 "brand-new" Chasebo rifles. Perhaps, the Chasebo rifle in the Ordnance Bureau was a "brand-new" rifle that the Germans later sold.

After thinking about it for a while, Tang Haoran, who originally thought that he would only get one or two thousand rifles, had thought that he could take out ten thousand guns, thinking that Xia Saibo was no worse than Lao Mauser, and he would refuse after thinking about it like this. After agreeing to take this batch of firearms, when Ding Yu was about to draw a sign on the booklet he was holding, Tang Haoran was shocked by the complexity of the weapons in the inventory of the Beiyang Ordnance Bureau, and there were as many as five or six kinds of guns received by each battalion on this page alone.

In the above line, Yi Jun returned the gun, but Tang Haoran's eyes lit up, "Return 300 British-made Lee's .303-inch rifles", which ...... Isn't this the British Lee's rifle? How this library

Mauser, Lee, Mossinagan, these are the three famous guns!

"Director Ding, this, Li's rifle, do you still have it in Curry?"

Seeing the adult pointing to the column, Ding Yu's face suddenly became ugly.

"My lord, this gun is not a good gun......"

This gun is indeed not a good gun, for this matter, Lord Zhang was reprimanded by Lord Zhongtang.

"Although this gun can be loaded with eight bullets, but the muzzle is too small, this gun last year foreign businessmen came to the Ordnance Bureau to say that it is the latest British rifle, the bureau is thinking that it is a small mouth of the new gun, so I bought 4,000 trials, sent down some, the result is almost all returned, this bullet mouth is small, the power is also small, if it is Xia Saibo, as long as a shot hits, people will be beaten down, but this next back words, this gun has to hit three or four rounds, no, most of them have been returned, it is estimated that in the future, it can only be pressed in this library......"

Hearing him say this, Tang Haoran's eyes were shining, it was difficult to make it happen, there were still a lot of them in this deposit.

"How many of these guns are in this arsenal? If so, I'll ask for them all......"

"My lord, do you really want to?"

Ding Yu looked at Tang Haoran in surprise, his face was full of confusion, he looked at this gun like Remington's needle turning gun, it was all rags, at most, it was a little bit of a good look.

"Yes, but you'll have to get enough bullets!"