During the exercises in Blackwater, Takashima saw a grenade in addition to a salvo of rifles. Although the price of the grenade is slightly a bit expensive. However, Takashima was still very interested in this kind of infantry maneuver. The reason is simple, since the shogunate could not afford to buy enough artillery, grenades might be a good addition.

But now, the military version of the Mighty Pill is what Takashima is most concerned about. At Takashima's request, Blackwater offers a special experience for Takashima. First, Takashima will complete a set of training without taking the military version of the Bola pill, which consists of running two laps around the playground track in full gear, then shooting a chest target 100 meters away with a rifle, then crossing the obstacle 200 meters with arms, and then shooting another group.

"When you're done in the first set, we'll keep a record of your results, including time and hits. Then after you rest for half an hour, we'll give you the military version of the pill and let you test it again. That way you'll know how effective it is. Wang Qinian took Takashima into the locker room, put him into a set of Blackwater training clothes, and then hung him with four training grenades (the same weight and appearance as the real thing), and stuffed him with a MacDonald 1864 rifle.

"Will you use this thing?" Wang Qinian asked.

"Thank you, Wang Jun. Is it okay if I want to try a few shots first? ”

"No problem. The 100-meter target is there, you can try it yourself. ”

Takashima first crackled over there and fired more than twenty bullets in one go, and then came back and said to Wang Qinian: "Wang Jun, I think I have become a little accustomed to this rifle, and we can start." ”

"Alright, let's get started." Wang Qinian said.

"Hay!" Takashima spun around and ran.

……

"Well, Mr. Takashima, let's see how your two grades compare." Wang Qinian handed the two results records to Takashima.

In fact, without looking, Takashima knew that his results in the second round were far better than his first round. After the end of the first round, Wang Qinian gave Takashima a small blue pill, and after Takashima ate it, after only a few minutes, he felt that his whole body was full of strength. Not only strength, he felt that his eyesight and hearing had improved significantly, and as for guts, it was even more obvious, when he crossed the obstacle, there was a place where he was required to run over a suspension bridge about 20 meters high. Takashima has a bit of a fear of heights, although in order not to be laughed at by the Americans and keep the honor of the samurai, Takashima forced himself to rush over, but to be honest, after rushing over, his legs were weak and he almost sat down on the ground.

However, in the second round, not only was the running lap in front of him significantly easier than the first round, but he also felt better when shooting, and even when he ran to the damn suspension bridge, Takashima was surprised to see that he was not afraid of heights, and the rickety suspension bridge actually made Takashima feel very interesting. From this point of view, my courage has really suddenly become bigger.

"You look at the second round, you finish the whole way almost a minute faster than you did in the first round. As for the shooting score, a total of twenty shots, you have thirty more rings in the second round. On average, each shot rose by more than a ring. Wang Qinian gave him another test paper and said, "Now, I will give you another math test paper and make it in the shortest time." ”

The content of this math paper is not difficult, but there are many questions. Gao Dao lowered his head and began to solve the problem, while Wang Qinian sat on the side and waited. After a while, Takashima completed the test paper.

"The answer is all right." Wang Qinian looked at the answer, and then said to Takashima, "Takashima-kun, do you think there is a difference between the state and the state after drinking spirits?" ”

"The difference is too great." "When I was solving the problem, I felt very clear-headed, and my hand was very steady when I was shooting. This is by no means comparable to drinking spirits. This drug is amazing! This is simply an elixir! ”

"But Mr. Takashima, I want to inform you as well. After a little more than an hour, you will probably be in a period of fatigue, the duration of which varies from person to person. You just go to lunch and then go back to sleep, but sometimes, one of the signs of fatigue is insomnia. Wang Qinian said.

"Thank you for the reminder, Wangjun!" Takashima said gratefully.

……

After lunch, Wang Qinian sent Takashima into the carriage, Takashima was already a little tired when he got into the carriage, but he still saw from the window that a carriage stopped next to it, and a yellow man stepped down from the carriage.

"Isn't this Nobumasa Ando?" Takashima recognized the yellow man at once, but he was too tired to bother with that matter.

Unlike Takashima, Masanobu Ando's goal is clearer, and that is to understand the situation of Strongmaru. Of course, the military version of the Mighty Pill will definitely not disappoint him.

……

Now that Scrooge has proved that the goods in his hands are good, the next step is, of course, a negotiation on how to cooperate.

The shogunate was very keen to buy a large number of American weapons, but the shogunate could not come up with any money for a while. I had to ask Scrooge for a loan. Anyway, it's not the first time that the money from the loan has been used to buy weapons.

Of course, there is collateral for loans, and the Japanese market is much smaller than that of the Manchus, but it is not without money to make.

"As far as I know, the Japanese market is small and there is little capital. Even if you were able to fully open up the market to us, how much money would we be able to make in Japan? Scrooge said to Takahashi, "Moreover, if the shogunate used customs duties or some small island as collateral, it would definitely be called a 'traitor' again." I have heard that there is a group of crazy people in Japan who are holding broken knives all day long, shouting everywhere that they want to 'destroy the country' and carry out terrorist attacks against the Japanese all day long. I also don't want Mr. Takashima to be called the target of these people because of our business. Moreover, the dumping of goods by colonialism will only hurt Japan in the long run. This is inconsistent with our MacDonald family's philosophy of pursuing a win-win situation. ”

"Mr. MacDonald, do you have a better way?" Takashima was a little excited, and it would be perfect to be able to get a loan without signing an agreement on mortgage tariffs or something.

"Japan is small, has limited resources, and has a backward economy. If you want to build a big industry like the United States, there is no future. "But the Japanese people are industrious, and it's okay to do things that require a lot of labor." I bought a large piece of land on the Isthmus of Panama with the intention of digging a canal there. This plan is very important for the United States. I have convinced most of the members of Congress that there is no doubt that this plan will be supported by the United States, and the only problem now is that the conditions in that place are difficult and that it will be very expensive to use American workers to dig the canal. And what Japan has is a hard-working people......" Scrooge said.

"Mr. MacDonald, you mean that you plan to hire a large number of Japanese to dig the canal." Takashima asked. Digging a canal or something often kills people, and Takashima, who is familiar with Sinology, knows about this. In China, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty led the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people in order to dig the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal, and finally led the world to chaos and put the entire Sui Dynasty into it. And now Scrooge plans to use the Japanese to dig the canal, in addition to the reason for the cost of wages, the bigger reason is probably that the Japanese are not distressed.

"Yes, the Isthmus of Panama is a rainforest landscape with very difficult conditions. Only a strong and courageous nation like the Japanese nation can accomplish such a task. "And I can assure the shogunate that I will be kind to the Japanese workers." Treat them as if they were American workers. (More than 100,000 people died in the construction of the Panama Canal, and the main problem was falciparum malaria.) It's a parasitic disease, and sulfonamides and anything else are useless. As for quinine, the limited production is simply not enough to treat so many people, and in a tropical rainforest climate, it is very difficult to eradicate the mosquitoes that transmit malaria. So, even if they were treated like American workers, the mortality rate would never be low. I thought of it this way, we went to the guò bank, gave the shogunate a loan, and the shogunate got the money and immediately ordered the goods from us. At the same time, the shogunate should come forward to organize a labor company of its own and organize workers to dig canals in Panama. We have signed a contract with your labor department to pay you the money for the hired workers, and you can give some of this money to the workers, and the other part of the shogunate can use it to repay our loans. As far as I know, in Japan, there are no food, and there are many poor people who have never eaten a single rice ball in their lives, and who are on the verge of starvation. They would also give the shogunate a lot of problems. Now, they come to me as workers, and at least they have no problem eating. There will also be some income, and you can have a little savings. And the shogunate's financial difficulties were solved, and I also made money. And Japan's sovereignty is respected. Don't you think it's a win-win situation where everyone gets what they want and is happy? ”

"Anyway, those poor ghosts, who stayed in Japan, either starved to death, or were hacked to death when they were engaged in rice riots. Letting them go to the Panama Canal to exhaust themselves is actually not too bad for them. At least before they die, the Americans should still be able to give them a full meal. Takashima thought so, and immediately felt that it seemed like a very humane thing to throw those poor Japanese people to build canals. So he immediately replied, "Mr. MacDonald, your wisdom is truly admirable. It's just not known how much you can pay a Japanese worker. ”

"I'm going to make money too." Scrooge replied, "Why should I use Japanese if I am paid the same salary as the Americans?" And it doesn't make sense, because I know that you Japanese are not as good as the Americans, what do the British say? 'The sick man of East Asia' (this term was really used by the British to mock the Japanese at the beginning, and then after Japan was exhibited, it was re-exported to the Republic of China) or something, right? We will examine the workers you have sent us, and we will ask you to bring back the unqualified 'sick man of East Asia'. We pay for the freight of qualified workers again. With all of this in mind, we can only give each qualified worker who has passed our audit equivalent to half the salary of a U.S. worker. Of course, this is for your labor service company, and as for how many of those workers you are willing to give, that's a matter for the shogunate. What do you think of this arrangement? ”

Takashima thought for a moment and said to Scrooge: "Your request is completely reasonable, and I approve of such a deal in principle. ”

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