"I haven't seen each other for a long time, Mr. Ergat..." Standing in front of the governor's yamen in the past, the main gate of the current Anhui Governor's Mansion, Yan Shao smiled after shaking hands with Ergat, and then he shook hands with several other managers of foreign firms one by one.

"yes, it's been almost half a year," Ergart looked around with a hint of a smile on his lips. It doesn't seem to be as impressive as your place in Wuhu..."

Hearing Ergart's words, the others nodded in agreement.

Although in the eyes of many people, Yan Shao is no different from an outbreak. But anyone who has been to his residence in Wuhu will be impressed by the manor. After all, the person who really designed it was not Yan Shao, but Elano and Katarina.

"I think so too..."With a helpless smile, Yan Shao continued. But there is no way, who says that the conditions do not allow it, the construction of the new residence has already begun, but it will take two or three months to make a prototype, and it is unlikely that it will take more than half a year to complete the construction..."

After speaking, he made a gesture of invitation to everyone.

Hearing Yan Shao's words, they all laughed. "Well, when it's finished, you must invite us to come and have a visit..."

After entering the main hall, Yan Shao sat on the main seat by himself, and then motioned for his subordinates to bring some coffee.

Yan Shao and Elaline don't drink coffee and tea, but because of their social relationship, they also have a lot of tea and coffee, and even various alcohol. Exclusively designed to entertain guests.

This time, Lu Ying and Otsuki Kaoru came to Anqing by boat, and they also brought a lot of things, and coffee was one of them.

I took a sip of juice to myself. Seeing that they were all satisfied with the coffee, Yan Shao said straightforwardly. "Now that everyone is here, I'll just say it. Since I have assumed the post of governor of Anhui, I should benefit the people of Anhui, but now the situation in the country is very clear to everyone, it is very chaotic, and the military government's existing force alone is obviously not enough to protect the Anhui fathers and elders. Therefore, the military government decided to expand the existing army from the current 12,000 to more than 38,000, that is, three divisions plus one regiment. ”

"Expanded words. People are easy to solve, but the problem of weapons is very troublesome, the arsenal, I also secretly built one before Anhui was recovered. But the production capacity is completely unable to meet the needs of the War Department. So I decided to buy a sufficient amount of weapons and equipment from the outside world this time, in addition to the equipment needed for the arsenal, and many other things ...

Hearing Yan Shao say this, Urgat and a few others nodded. "Then I don't know how much you need?"

The price of a rifle is close to 100 silver dollars, and 10,000 is more than a million. Judging from the current shortfall, it is obviously impossible for this figure to be less than 30,000 strokes, and if you count the reserves, 40,000 or 50,000 strokes are also possible. In addition, with the addition of weapons and equipment in various other fields, the entire purchase amount may even reach 10 million. Such a large sum of money has almost never appeared in Shanghai, and it has also made Urgat and his wife much more positive.

It's just that although Urgat and the others have thought about this business as much as possible, the figures proposed by Yan Shao still surprised them.

"100,000 6.8mm Mauser rifles, 10,000 Browning M1911 pistols, 4,000 6.8mm Madsen light machine guns, and 1,000 MG08 Maxim heavy machine guns."

"In addition, some artillery is needed, first of all, 500 75mm mountain guns and 200 105mm howitzers. Of course, if I can get a 150mm howitzer or cannon, I'm willing to get 100 of them..."

The 100,000 Mauser rifles alone are worth 10 million silver dollars, and the rest, including pistols, light and heavy machine guns, and all kinds of artillery, all add up to about 20 million or even 30 million, which is even higher than the latest battleship...

After hearing such a large amount, Urgarte was surprised at the same time, they also began to believe that Yan Shao had indeed made a lot of money from the automobile factory and the oil field, if it were not for this, at least in their opinion, Yan Shao would not have spent so much money.

30 million, which is even equivalent to the military spending of some countries in South America for a year.

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After listening to Yan Shao's words, both Urgat and the Americans began to think about how much money they could make from it, but Cecil, the manager of Jardine Matheson, stood up with some anger. "Your Excellency the Governor, if you want to buy the Germans even for heavy machine guns, then what do you want us to do?" In the direction of his head, several other people from Jardine Matheson also stood up, their faces full of indignation.

It is no wonder that they are like this, first of all, the 100,000 rifles are all Mauser, that is, made in Germany, which is obviously not accessible to the British. Then there are the pistols, the Browning M1911 is produced by the companies Colt and Springfield, both of which are American arsenals, and apparently, this is not a business that the British can get.

The rest are the Madsen light machine gun and the MG08 Maxim heavy machine gun, the former is Danish, the problem is that Denmark and Germany are very close to each other. As for Makqin's words, Yan Shao has also named the MG08 type German-made heavy machine gun, in other words, none of these 4 weapons can be taken by the British.

So in Cecil's opinion, Yan Shao called them here and didn't give them any business was undoubtedly a kind of teasing.

Seeing the indignant looks of several Britons from Jardine Matheson, the Germans showed a playful expression, but Yan Shao touched his nose and signaled them to be calm. "I'm not done yet, what are you anxious about?"

After speaking, Yan Shao continued to speak. "In addition to army equipment, I also need a naval army to guarantee the interests of the junta in the Yangtze River basin, so I also need 10 river gunboats with some ocean-going capabilities..."

In fact, regarding warships, Yan Shao is also more in favor of the German system. It's just that in a few years it will be the First World War, and it will be very troublesome to get something from Germany at that time. Especially naval equipment, the army's is also counted. Even if the equipment is different, as long as there are drawings and molds, it can still be manufactured, even if there are none, as long as there are physical objects for dismantling and research, it can be imitated after being thoroughly explored, but there will be some problems in quality and efficiency.

But in the case of warships, both power and others are different. Even the way to use it is different. Moreover, the British Navy was still recognized as the world's No. 1 navy at least in this era, and China also joined the Entente camp as scheduled after the First World War, so it would be easier to learn naval experience from the British. The Germans, on the other hand, will become very troublesome...

So after a lot of consideration, Yan Shao still decided to buy gunboats in the Yangtze River from the British.

"Warship—" Hearing that it did have its own benefits, Cecil's face showed a hint of pride. Truly. At least in the Navy. Our country is definitely the first in the world..."

Urgart, who was on the side, pouted, but didn't say anything.

If Cecil said that British warships were the first, then he would definitely stand up and refute it, but Cecil said that he was the first in the naval world, which even the Germans would not deny.

According to Yan Shao's requirements, the new gunboat must have a certain ocean-going capability, so the displacement must be larger than that of ordinary gunboats, and may even be similar to some destroyers with a smaller displacement. So according to the calculations of the British. The price of these gunboats will also reach at least 5 million yuan.

5 million, the profit of naval equipment is much greater than that of army equipment. So although Cecil only got a share of 5 million yuan from the 30 million yuan in the arms trade, he was not discouraged at all.

It's just that when Cecil was still secretly happy there, Yan Shao on the side put forward his own request.

"Of course, there is no problem with naval equipment, but you also have to promise me a condition..."After speaking, Yan Shao continued. That is, I have to help send a few people to the naval school in England, and of course, all the costs will be borne by me..."

"Naval school?" Cecil looked down and pondered for a moment, then spoke after a while. As the largest British foreign company in China, Jardine Matheson also has its own way, so it is not a big problem for Cecil to send a few students to the naval academy, not to mention that Yan Shao also said that he will bear all the costs.

Urgart, who was on the side, heard Yan Shao say that he was going to send people to the British Naval Academy, and after his eyes rolled slightly, he also came up and pretended to be concerned. "Your Excellency the Governor, do you need me to help you send some people to our army school, our navy may be worse than the British, but the army's words are definitely the strongest in the world..."

Hearing Ergarth's words, Cecil reacted the same as Ergart just now, also pouting but did not refute. Because the strength of Britain has never been the army, if the French were at this time, they might be able to debate with the Germans, but the British's words...... Forget it.

"You don't need this..."Yan Shao smiled and said. It's mine...... Well, my girlfriend's father was a lieutenant general on the French side, so I had actually sent people to France for military training a long time ago, so I didn't need to have any additional military training from Germany..."

In fact, compared with France, Yan Shao still prefers Germany. After all, the German Army is notoriously strong in history, whether it is World War I or World War II—————— although it lost both wars.

But since Yan Shao had already sent many people to France for training, there was no need to send people to Germany again. What's more, the gap between the French Army and the German Army at this time is not as big as it was a few decades later, and when it comes to a few decades later, if Yan Shao can achieve his goal, then the Chinese army should already be able to stand on its own, and there is no need to learn from other countries at all...

They still knew Eleno's identity Ergarte, so after shrugging his shoulders, Ergarte didn't say anything more.

Even if Urgart was confident that the German Army was stronger than the French Army, he could not guarantee that the people he sent would be better trained than those in France. After all, the old man has now been promoted to lieutenant general, and he is also a very influential figure in France, and he is not comparable to a businessman at all...

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A business worth 30 million is obviously not something that can be negotiated in a day. There must be many details to be worked out in detail. So after talking to each other for a while, Yan Shao asked his subordinates to take them to the office of Yushi Company in Anqing to rest, and wait for tomorrow to continue talking.

"In that case. Then we'll take our leave first..."Looking at the sky outside, it was indeed starting to darken a little, Urgart smiled and said to Yan Shao.

After they left the Governor's Mansion in a car, Yan Shao returned to the main hall and looked at a list that was sitting on the table. This list is a list of weapons that Yan Shao has ordered from major foreign banks.

As a person from later generations, Yan Shao is well aware of the importance of firepower.

The most important thing about an army is morale, training, logistics and equipment. For the army, equipment is the least important, but at the same time the most important. Good equipment fell into the hands of garbage. It can only be made as a 'transport captain', but the equipment of Hao Lu falls into the hands of Hao Lu's army, but it can play a tiger like a wing.

According to the configuration in Yan Shao's thinking, each of the 100,000 rifles was equipped with one infantryman. The rest is used as a backup. Or it will be used in the future when it is expanded to five divisions.

Pistols are mainly equipped with officers at all levels, as well as squad leaders, deputy squad leaders and machine gunners of infantry squads—————— latter is inconvenient to carry a machine gun, and they can't always resist one more rifle, so in Yan Shao's thinking, pistols have become the standard equipment of machine gunners.

As for the light machine guns, just like the original patrol team, there was one for each squad, and there were a total of 432 light machine guns in the whole division.

Heavy machine gun words. Each squad was armed with two heavy machine guns, and each regiment was armed with a heavy machine gun company. That is, a total of 18 heavy machine guns. In addition, each brigade was equipped with a heavy machine-gun battalion with a total of 72 machine guns. All in all, each division is equipped with 144 heavy machine guns, and the total number of light and heavy machine guns in the division is 576, which is a little higher than the average of the great powers in the First World War, but it is still much worse than the main participating countries, and the gap is mainly in light machine guns.

As for artillery, the armies of the great powers in this era mainly used 3 companies and 4 guns, that is, 4 guns per company, 12 guns per battalion, and 34 guns per regiment.

At this time, the new army at the end of the Qing Dynasty adopted a system of 3 companies and 6 gates, that is, 6 guns per company, 18 guns per battalion, and 54 guns per regiment.

Today, China's infrastructure is very backward, and with the exception of Wuhu and Dangtu, most of the roads are ordinary dirt roads. Therefore, most of the artillery equipped with artillery units are 75mm mountain guns, only a small part is 105mm light howitzers, as for 150mm caliber heavy guns, it is best to get them, if you can't get them, you can't get them...

In Yan Shao's opinion, 150mm heavy artillery is the standard firepower of the artillery division, but now that even the three infantry divisions have not been able to figure it out, it doesn't matter if the problem of the artillery division is put on hold for a while.

Yan Shaozhi is not worried about the mobility of the artillery unit, and now the research on trucks at the automobile factory is almost done. As soon as the truck goes off the production line, the artillery unit can use the truck to tow the artillery.

Heavy artillery may be unlikely on dirt roads, but small-caliber artillery is still fine, after all, 75mm and 105mm caliber guns are not very heavy. In particular, the 75mm caliber mountain artillery is only more than 500 kilograms in total, and the 105mm caliber howitzer is only more than 1,200 kilograms.

"If it can really be done according to this configuration, under the same training conditions, one division can fight at least three divisions in Beiyang, and if the other side takes the initiative to attack, it is not impossible to fight five divisions..."

In the Battle of the Somme that year, the Germans used more than 400 Maxim machine guns to cause the Allies to pay more than 57,000 casualties in one day, which was almost equivalent to the strength of five divisions.

There was no way, the Allies at that time were still using the Xu Jin barrage as a cover, and the infantry marched in a horizontal line (line tactics). On the battlefield, there really was no more conspicuous target for the Germans.

Similarly, if it is equipped according to this configuration, Yan Shao only needs one division, and he can basically hold Anhui. With three divisions, there is no need to worry about any external attack. Five divisions, steady expansion stage, ten divisions, Yan Shao can consider the issue of fighting directly from Anhui to Beijing.

Of course, the premise is that the troops must undergo rigorous military training, otherwise, he will become a 'transport captain'...

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After taking the car for about ten minutes, Ergart and the others finally arrived at the accommodation arranged for them by Yan Shao.

After entering his room, Urgart quickly took out a pen and paper from his briefcase, and then calculated in detail on the paper how much benefit the foreign firm and himself would be able to gain from this business if the deal was negotiated.

The final calculation result is only two words, huge...

As long as this business can be negotiated, Urgart will no longer need any work, but with dividends, he will be able to spend the next life without worry, even if he buys himself a yacht to travel around the world.

"Thank you Chinese, thank you for this damn revolution..." fiercely kissed the numbers calculated on the paper, and Urgat said happily.

And in the next few rooms, both the British and the Americans showed irrepressible emotions after calculating the required figures.

There's really nothing more pleasant for them than having more money in their wallets. (To be continued......)