While waiting for the arrival of the British and Mimetric merchant ships, Yang Meng also began to train the 500 knife men who came to Guangzhou in the early days, and wanted to keep them in Guangzhou, but now it seems that it will not work.

But it's good to bring them back, these people are all available, just go to western Yunnan to lead the troops, it is enough to have twenty or thirty people here in Guangzhou, leave too much waste, and wait for the people and horses in western Yunnan to form an army, and let them come to Guangzhou, wouldn't it be better?

Yang Fuliang there, also sent a task, the thirteen families got the manpower is mostly the boatman's foot strength, which is also with Yang Meng's mind, this return, I am afraid of encountering water bandits on the river, water warfare is not the strength of the Yunnan New Army, in case of encountering water ghosts, being scuttled by the ship, the loss is immeasurable.

More than ten days passed, and the three merchant ships of the East India Company quietly stopped in Guangzhou under the cover of night, and these three merchant ships should have arrived more than ten days ago, but they were late because of delays on the road.

That night, Yang Meng took 500 new troops and personally went on the ship to inspect the guns, 50,000 long and short guns, all of which were brand new, 100 three-pounder guns, which were second-hand goods, and the number of swords was even more, enough to equip the men and horses of western Yunnan.

The new gun is a new gun, but the quality is really not good, except for a poodle logo near the trigger, there is no decoration on the gun, the gun is not a carbine version, but it is not much longer than the carbine version, the workmanship is very rough, and some of the barrels still have burrs.

The quality of the three-pounder guns is good, all of them are of wrought iron, and some of them are copper cannons, and the system of the gun carriage is the same. This wrought iron is the steel that Yang Meng mistook in the past, and after Ge Shiyang's teaching, Yang Meng also knew that Dao Steel was in Europe. It is also something that is in short supply. Mass production is not possible.

The goods have been inspected. But there is no bullet gunpowder, but it is a big problem, in addition to the cannonballs and the tools for maintaining the guns, there is no matching ammunition at all, which is not in line with Yang Meng's original list!

A gun with a hundred bases of ammunition, a cannon with a thousand bases, this East India Company business representative, is it wandering around himself? The cannon is good to say that there are shells. You can get some gunpowder near Guangzhou to fire, but if there are no bullets, this batch of muskets will become waste, Yang Meng also thought, equip Yang Fuliang's group with muskets!

Without waiting for Yang Meng to ask, a Qing interpreter wearing a top hat and a tuxedo walked up.

"General Yang, when I came, it coincided with the Indian rebellion, and there was a shortage of gunpowder and lead bullets in India, so there was a shortage of rifle ration ammunition in this batch of goods. But we, the East India Company, also made amends. Five thousand sets of molds for the manufacture of single-shot buckshots, 1,000 sets of 10-round buckshots, 500 sets of 30-round buckshots, and 10 sets of 100-round buckshot bullets are our compensation, and these molds are all English steel molds, and the price is much higher than the ammunition that should be rationed.

These should be enough to make up for it! There is another sentence, even if I gave it to you, we also have gunpowder in the Qing Dynasty, so you can use it! If the order is empty, you will be treated as waste paper and thrown away, and you Yang Shen of the East India Company will not be able to provoke you! ”

"Good! That's nice! We also have it in the Qing Dynasty, and I don't think I saw this order, but there is one thing I have to take away. ”

Yang Meng's words made the Qing translator breathe a sigh of relief, but as soon as his mouth opened, a bayonet was handed in.

"Your life Lao Tzu is wanted, and General Yang is also what you should call."

Ignoring the stunned English crew, Yang Meng wiped the bayonet on the black tuxedo of the interpreter and inserted it into the scabbard casually. The Yunnan New Army, which followed, also took out the short guns they had brought with them.

"Arrest all the crew, and don't let them escape."

The crews of the three merchant ships did not expect that Yang Meng would break out, and more than 300 crew members became prisoners. More than 40 English people became Yang Meng's hostages.

From Yang Meng's death of the interpreter to the control of the three merchant ships, in less than half an hour, the belated commercial representative of the East India Company in Guangzhou was stunned by the dramatic scene.

"General Yang, do you want the two countries to go to war?"

This general of the Qing Dynasty is a huge threat, he is too young and too ambitious. What the East India Company feared the most was the population of the Qing Kingdom, 400 million people, which was incomparable to any other country.

In the war of 1840, England fought with great fear, but fortunately, the imperial family of the Qing Kingdom was too weak and the declining empire was too rotten, which allowed England to open the door of the Qing Kingdom.

The "Wangxia Treaty" in the integration of the even, is the British means to clamp down on the Qing State, the prey in the East is too big, not a British can swallow it, with the threat of various countries, the British has left enough wounds on the Qing State, now at this time, absolutely not let the Qing State have a chance to recover.

Yang Meng's appearance is a threat, the army he trained has reached the level of ordinary European armies, if it weren't for this army, as well as the huge population of the Qing Kingdom, the formula of cloud smoke would have been in the hands of the East India Company.

The retired brown beth rifle, the three-pounder cannon that was almost eliminated, could be sold to Yang Meng, but the advanced gunpowder in England could never be given to him. The range of the guns is not enough, and even if the two armies face each other in the future, the English army will have an absolute advantage.

"At war? It's not for you to decide, and it's not for me to decide, but commercial fraud is your fault. It's not difficult for me to make a price for these three merchant ships, and you have the right to compensate for them. ”

These three merchant ships, there are also artillery, and it is a large artillery, these are the items that are in short supply in Yunnan, three merchant ships, more than 30 cannons, and some short cannons sitting on wooden piers, looking at the caliber power is definitely not small.

"Merchant ships? That's impossible! The mold for making lead bullets is compensation, and we will not accept other conditions. ”

Sell merchant ships to the Qing Kingdom, what are you kidding, these three are all armed merchant ships, and if they are slightly changed, they will be the fifth level warships of the empire, and if they are sold to the Qing Congress, I am afraid that the East India Company will be dissolved directly!

"It's okay if you don't sell boats, then sell guns! I want the guns on these three ships, and the price can be doubled. ”

These three merchant ships were all new ships, and it was reasonable that the East India Company would not sell them, so Yang Meng simply took a step back and wanted to buy the guns on the ship.

"Impossible!"

"Five!"

"I don't have that right."

"Then these wooden cannons are always good, right? I'll give you the same price five times as much. ”

"Oh...... It was a mortar, not suitable for field warfare, and could only be used in naval or siege warfare. But five times the price. Acceptable. ”

Mortars have a short firing range. It can be sold, Yunyan is very important to the East India Company, and it can only take a step back for this.

"Since there are artillery on these three ships, there must be shells and gunpowder, right? Sell these to me! ”

It would be best if he could talk, Yang Meng also tried to touch the bottom limit of the East India Company.

"Impossible!"

"Alright! But I can only pay you 80% of Yunyan, which can be regarded as a price increase! ”

"Absolutely not! We have an agreement before, you can't arbitrarily or reduce the price of cloud smoke. ”

"Huh! Agreement? Where's the gunpowder buckshot in the agreement? This time you owe me. Next time, make up the gunpowder buckshot, or I'll raise the price. Only raise the price of your East India Company, next time by fifty percent. ”

"Alright! All the shells of the mortars, a third of the gunpowder, but you have to give us 500 kilograms of cloud smoke. ”

"Deal! Let go! Unload! ”

Five hundred kilograms of cloud smoke, twenty mortar cannons, eight hundred shells, fifty barrels of gunpowder, Yang Meng paid almost ten times the price to get this batch of mortar cannons that could not be used.

The transaction is completed. Yang Meng and the business representative talked happily for a long time. It was not until the goods were finished and the East India Company's commercial representatives left that his face became gloomy as water.

"Place the cargo in Lixiang Garden and prepare the fleet to leave."

Things were difficult to do, I thought about the way back, and there was only one enemy of the Elders, but I didn't expect the East India Company to be involved. The black and black business, Yang Meng has done a lot, he does not give ammunition to guns, and he knows exactly what the East India Company has in mind, it seems that the pirates are the great enemies of this trip.

After returning to Lixiangyuan, Yang Meng was thinking about a way to go back and fight against the sea bandits and water bandits on the river, which was no different from looking for death, and the Pearl River waterway was not easy to walk. The Yangtze River copper road is too far, if you want to go over, you have to take the sea route first, and fight the pirates at sea, that is, to deliver food!

Returning to Yunnan by land is the best choice, but taking the land route is too long, and the other reason is that it is related to the face of the Yang family.

Hard fighting, foot soldiers are enough, but the artillery of the new army brought this time is only more than 50 people, and the artillery is less than many people fighting on the river, if the artillery can be used, it can still have some advantages, if it can't be used, it will be a big trouble.

Naval battles, water battles, the Yang family does not have suitable manpower, it seems that they can only look at Ge Shiyang's side, if Patrick is familiar with water warfare, it will be better.

But I asked Ge Shiyang, but the result was a little frustrating, Patrick is an elite in land warfare, and naval warfare only understands a little, and belongs to the kind of person who can say it, and it depends on God what it will do.

As for Daniel, this cub says that he is proficient in naval warfare, but he is afraid that he is a soldier on paper, and when the time comes, something will go wrong, and it will add human life!

Yang Fuliang also asked, but those who have been water bandits can find out a few, but as soon as they said their tactics, they were rejected by Yang Meng and put the boat on top, if this is a naval tactic, Yang Meng himself can be a marshal.

There is really no one to use to count, so I can only use dead horses as live horse doctors, and use Patrick and his son first.

Although there is a lot of bad news, there is also good news, the twenty mortar cannons are a good object, 800 rounds of flowering shells, confirmed by Patrick and his son are all high-quality products, in the water war, the mortar cannon is definitely a big killer.

But the good news is followed by the bad news, the mortar is a big killer in the water war, but the Yang family's fleet can't do it! These mortars were obtained from merchant ships, and they were all flowering shells of twenty-four-pounder guns, and although the recoil was much smaller than that of twenty-four-pounder guns, it was not something that the Yang family's cargo ships could bear.

Yang Meng's father-in-law, in addition to being a salt official in Liangguang, also worked part-time in the military department Langzhong, specializing in supervising the construction of warships in Guangzhou, taking advantage of this convenience, it also cheapened the Yang family's fleet.

The inland river boat of the Qing Dynasty, fifty miles a day, thirty miles against the current, sit and play at this speed when you have nothing to do, and the speed that can be used to transport goods is poor, ordinary wooden sailing boats or oars, the speed of carrying less goods is slow, and it is used for long-distance transportation of goods, one is the slow speed and large cost, and the other is the reason for the Pearl River waterway itself.

The Pearl River waterway is stable in Guangdong, but it is much worse in Guangxi, the boat carries heavy goods, and it is easy to capsize in case of dangerous shoals and rapids, in order to solve the problem of returning, Pan Shicheng modified a number of small sand boats, and added oars and oars on the basis of the original sailboat.

Sand boats with sails, oars, and oars can travel more than 300 miles a day with the wind and water, and the upwind and water plus the oars are also up 150 miles, which greatly shortens the time for the round trip.

These sand boats are purchased from Jiangning, Shanghai and other places, most of them are used to carry cargo, the hull is light and not like the warships are generally used good wood, these ships carry good cargo, and the three-pounder cannon on the rack is also good to survive, but these 24-pounder mortars, such a sand ship can not bear it.

Once a mortar is fired on such a ship, the light ship will cross the river, and the slightest carelessness will end in the ship's destruction and death. (To be continued......)