"Ah, old friend, we meet again. I have to admit that your prophecy is amazing. Long Qian warmly talked to Feng Qian, who was wearing a brown leather coat. Mr. Drodeck came to give him a hug. Jiang Yun, who was following behind the figure of "Xiong Zhuang", frowned imperceptibly.

Situ Jun was not in the headquarters, and the errand of receiving this German devil before was undertaken by Situ Jun, but fortunately, this foreign devil can speak fluent Shandong dialect, and he doesn't need Situ Jun's translation. In this regard, Jiang Yun admires Derodek's ability to learn languages, Jiang Yun started learning English two years ago, but so far his level is not flattering, his hearing is acceptable, and his speaking level is a mess.

According to the information obtained by Jiang Yun, this pot-bellied German businessman has a military background, he himself was a captain in the German Navy, he was seriously injured in a training trip to sea, and after retiring from the army, he entered the business world, and Guangxu came to China in 26 years and became one of the managers of the Rhine foreign firm. In the past two years, this person has been in charge of the sale of weapons to the Mengshan army in Germany, and he is very familiar with Long Qian, and he has been to Yizhou at least once every two months, and has enjoyed the "honor" of Long Qian's personal cooking and entertainment in his private residence. Now I'm running Jinan again......

Drodek didn't pay attention to Jiang Yun's gloomy face, his attention was all on Long Qian, "Ah, Lord Admiral, do you mean that one four months ago?" No, that's not something to be proud of, anyone can see that you'll be promoted. Mr. Drodeck sat down in the guest seat beside Long Qian, spoke a Chinese sentence with a Shandong flavor, and then rubbed his striking red face vigorously with his hand.

The last time a German businessman from the Rhine & Co. met was in Wudingfu for four Kruger mountain guns and four hundred shells. Drodek made a special trip to Wuding. Accompanied by Long Qian, he inspected the Mengshan Army troops that were fighting the flood like a general, predicting that Long Qian would get a promotion. Long Qian was only a compliment from the Germanic people. But soon after Drodek left, Long Qian received definite news of the imperial court's reorganization of the Fifth Town.

"So, my friend, what magical prophecy did you bring this time?" Long Qian knew that Droldek must have heard the news of the merger of Huayuan and the Machinery Bureau, and was worried that he would cut off the financial route of Rhine & Co.

"Dear General Long, allow me to convey Colonel Strauss's congratulations and salutes to you. This is his handwritten letter to you. The German stretched out his large, furry hand and pulled a folded letter from his jacket pocket.

Colonel Strauss was the new German command in Qingdao and had only been in office for two months. He has not yet met Long Qian.

"Colonel, thank you for the help your troops have given us in Puji Town. And invite you to visit Qingdao at your convenience. Oh, our Qingdao is such a beautiful city, and it's getting more beautiful now. ”

A month ago, Shi Dashou's 18th Standard Army, in the process of advancing east of Qingzhou, solved a mass incident of blocking roads in Puji Town, Jinan Prefecture. It shows Shi Dashou's ability in other aspects. Received praise from Long Qian. The construction of the Jiaoji Railway has reached the most advanced stage. It is impossible to prevent its opening to traffic, and objectively speaking, the success of the construction of this railway will have a huge role in promoting Shandong's economy. Long Qian clearly instructed the troops to assist in the construction of the road within the appropriate scope. This attitude. Naturally, it was appreciated by the German side. When dealing with conflicts of interest with civilians along the road, the Chinese army must have acted more effectively than the Germans themselves.

Long Qian took over the commander of the German army, but was not satisfied with the second half of Derodek's words, "Mr. Derodek, please pay attention to your words, Qingdao is not yours, but ours." So, you are absolutely wrong to use the word 'access'. ”

Chinese who want to die for face! Could it be that His Majesty the Great Kaiser would have returned Qingdao, the ideal base in the Far East, to the Manchu government? It's a dream! However, Derodek, who is familiar with the psychology of the Chinese and Long Qian's character, will not be more serious in this regard, "Ah, I'm sorry. Qingdao is, of course, your country's. It's just because I love her so much......"

"I accept your apologies. Say, old friend, isn't there anything business to do in Jinan this time? Just acting as a messenger? Long Qian raised the letter in his hand, "I don't know German, I need to wait for Situ to come back and translate it for me." ”

"As far as I know, Colonel Strauss has some advice for you." Drodeck grinned, "I like an old saying of the Chinese, called 'straight to the point', Your Excellency General, you are the most personable, knowledgeable and discerning of the Chinese I know, and this time I came to visit the general, hoping to resolve the differences in arms procurement in a package." We've heard," Drodek pondered his tone, "Huayuan Industrial Group will be fully involved in the production of army weapons after completing the merger with the Shandong Machinery Bureau, right?" ”

"There is also an old Chinese saying called 'people worry about the sky', have you ever heard of it?" Long Qian smiled slightly.

Drodek shrugged, "I'd like to hear about it." ”

"You'll soon be a real China expert." Long Qian smiled, "There are not many foreigners who can use this idiom. This idiom is to say that in ancient China, there was a very small feudal state called Qiguo, and the people there were always worried that the sky would fall, and they reached the point of fear for this......"

"Haha Drodek laughed, "Lovely people, isn't it?" Maybe the naïve will fall. Dear general, you mean that our cooperation will continue, right? ”

"Don't you want to?"

"Of course. The Rheinland wanted to expand cooperation with the generals, both in terms of quantity and scope. "Drodeck rubbed his hands," especially after the general had taken command of the entire province of Shandong. Didn't the general start the reorganization of patrol battalions in various places? Don't you need to buy them weapons? ”

"Oh, dear old friend, let's settle the differences in the last business first." Long Qian picked up the teacup, "I'm really thirsty, and I don't mean to end the conversation." Ha Lu Ha. ”

Soon after the reorganization of the Fifth Town, Situ Jun suggested that, in light of the situation of the troops' equipment on duty, further reorganize weapons, complete the unification of standards, and solve the existing and increasingly serious logistical supply problems.

In fact, when the Fifth Town was not yet established, the Mengshan Army was still stationed in Lunan as the right wing of the Weisheng Army. Long Qian's order to the General Staff Office was to be ready to deal with a battle against the Mengshan Army, and the battle was set to respond to the attack of a German brigade or the attack of a division of Yuan Shikai's army, which was fully equipped with artillery units, and won the battle. To this end, the General Staff Office has to draw up an operational plan. However, the logistics service needs to be equipped with ammunition and ordnance to deal with such a campaign. The problem of Mengshan Army's miscellaneous weapons was exposed again, and Long Qian entrusted Situ Jun to take the lead in formulating a solution.

The plan has not yet been come up, and almost all the troops have been transferred to fight the flood. It was immediately reorganized by the imperial court as the fifth town of Beiyang. Situ Jun, who stayed in the old camp in Yizhou to study the combat plan and preparation issues, also completed the task assigned to him by Long Qian.

His suggestion was to move closer to the full German armament. At present, the main armament of the troops is rifles, and the number of heavy machine guns and artillery is limited. Situ Jun suggested that the commission rifles currently equipped in the main forces and the firearms of other countries should be eliminated and replaced with the Type 98 rifles currently in service with the German army. Dozens of such rifles have been purchased through different channels, and after comparing them with the 1888 model of the committee, the performance has been greatly improved, the failure rate has been greatly reduced, and after the destructive test organized by the military academy with the battalion, there has been no explosion incident. The previously hated Manlisha-style magazine has been improved. The Type 98 rifle can be reloaded with a bridge clip. It is also possible to reload in a single shot.

In fact, there is no need to compare at all, if the performance of the Mauser 98 rifle is not as good as the old one, will the German army completely reequip?

Arms dealers from all over the world gathered in Jinan for a while, hoping that the fifth town would purchase their own weapons after reorganization. The British and Japanese were the most active. The Germans are the most sure. The most calm. But they never saw Long Qian, who was deliberately hiding, and could only negotiate with Situ Jun who was standing at the front desk. And Situ Jun tended to change his German equipment in an all-round way from the beginning.

Not only because he grew up in Germany, but also because he carefully analyzed the advantages and disadvantages of the weapons of the armies of various countries. At present, the countries that can supply the Fifth Town with full-fledged army weapons are Germany, France, the United States, Great Britain, Russia, and Japan. Situ Jun, who was familiar with Long Qian's attitude, vetoed Russia and Japan from the beginning, and the rest were the four Western countries. Situ Jun believes that at present, the best army weapons should be Germany and France, Britain, the United States, and Russia are a little worse, and Japan is even worse, and they are almost imitations of French weapons. France was not active, and Germany had already cooperated extensively with itself in the procurement of weapons, so Situ Jun proposed in writing to Long Qian that the German weapons should be completely replaced.

In view of the fact that Mengshanjun would not be able to establish a complete arms production and research and development system of its own within a year or two, Long Qian agreed with Situ Jun's suggestion. However, we must take the opportunity to put forward other demands to the German side, such as the introduction of a production line for bullets and shells and a production line for the Mauser Type 98 rifle, and we must gradually get rid of the passive situation of arms procurement, and basically solve the problem of ammunition production at least this year.

Situ Jun believes that the German army has just completed the refitting of rifles, and will definitely not sell its production line, and will not even agree to sell our 98 rifles. However, from the standpoint of the Germans, if we fully control the production of ammunition, the Rheinland, which has a military background, will lose a lot of profits.

"So you don't cut off contact with the British and the Americans."

"Understood." Situ Jun knew that Long Qian was playing his trick again.

Of course, Drodeck, who was in charge of contacting the Mengshan Army, would not let go, and after several setbacks, the Rhein & Co. agreed to sell Type 98 rifles to Fifth Town, but it had to purchase all German weapons on other ordnance, such as Maxim heavy machine guns, 57mm and 75mm mountain artillery.

Situ Jun agreed.

The principles were largely settled, but there were disagreements on prices and payment methods. On the grounds that the purchase volume was huge, Stuart demanded that the German side sell the equipment at the price of domestic equipment plus freight, and adopted a new payment method, that is, to pay for the first batch after the arrival of the second batch of ordnance. Frankly admitted that the reason was because the imperial court could not pay the military expenses in full.

The German side did not agree to the Chinese side's request, and the business with a total amount of 1.1 million ~ 1.3 million taels of silver was put on hold.

According to Long Qian's instructions, Situ Jun turned to the Americans to talk about the procurement of weapons and the introduction of production lines. Huayuan and ZTE already have a very close cooperative relationship with the United States, from steel to pharmaceuticals, all from the technology of the United States, and there is also investment from the United States. What's more, Long Qian is from the United States, which is no secret to the Germans.

All of a sudden, news was flying all over the world that Fifth Town had been negotiating with the US side on arms procurement. Drodeck, who was guarding Qingdao but was paying close attention to the situation, could not sit still, and was entrusted by the Rhine Foreign Company and the military to come to Jinan to meet with Long Qian, the head of the Mengshan Army, hoping to solve the problem of arms procurement in a package.

With the rise of the Fifth Town in Shandong, the German side noticed a problem, and that was the problem of relations with the Fifth Town. The military believed that the existence of a pro-German Fifth Town was extremely beneficial to the German Empire, and that it was in line with the fundamental interests of the Reich in the Far East. Therefore, the purchase of German armaments by the Fifth Town was not only a question of weapons, but in the long run, it marked the stability of Shantung, the most desirable colony of the German Empire in the Far East, and the victory of the competition with Britain in the Far East. Therefore, domestic instructions must be made to draw the fifth town into the arms of Germany, and to do so at all costs.

"Old friend, on the issue of arms procurement, I have given full authority to Chief of Staff Situ Jun. I'm not specifically involved in this. However, old friend, I still want to recommend an ancient Chinese saying, called 'the scenery should be long-term and look at the quantity', which means that friends in business should have a more long-term vision and see the future, rather than sticking to a little profit in front of them. In view of the good cooperative relationship that we already have, Fifth Town originally intended to purchase German weapons, but I gave Chief of Staff Situ a few principles, that is, the introduction of firearms and ammunition production lines. As compensation for the interests of the German side, I have here a small technical invention that can be transferred to your country. Please believe me as a person, I'm not kidding. ”

Drrodek looked at Long Qian suspiciously, could it be that this young warlord who had returned from the United States (Droldek thought it was) really had the skills that the empire needed? He understood that Long Qian's request was nothing more than a sky-high asking price, and the empire would never transfer all the skills of rifle production that had just been installed in the army to the Chinese. But ammunition can be discussed, after all, the machine bureau already has a good foundation, and these techniques can be obtained from the United States.

"What kind of technique is it? Military? "Derodek thought that Long Qian had gotten something from the Americans to deceive himself. But it occurred to me that the American industry was indeed strong, but their level of weapons development was far inferior to that of the Empire.

"Military, of course. Including suggestions for improvements to the Mauser rifle that you have just equipped your active troops, and the invention of a light machine gun that bridges the gap between the Maxim and the rifle fire that can follow the infantry charge, no, don't look at me like that. Dear old friend, you and I have known each other for more than two years, when have you ever been deceived by me? Long Qian smiled.

"Oh my God, General Long, is this true? Did I hear me right? Drodeck stood up in surprise. (To be continued......)