Guangzhou City is still so lively and prosperous, as the only foreign port, Guangzhou City prosperity is more than half of the establishment of foreign trade. Even the Portuguese Macao and now the British Hong Kong could not shake Guangzhou's position in South China.

Even during the war with France, merchant ships from various countries rushed to the city of Guangzhou, bringing in goods purchased from various countries, and then transporting Chinese specialties from Guangzhou. In such an environment, a British merchant ship named the Azalea docked inconspicuously at the Tianzi Wharf.

However, after the Azalea docked, it did not immediately find coolies to load and unload the goods immediately, but continued to dock in a hurry. Only in the evening, under the protection of a group of officers and soldiers, began to unload the cargo.

In this black-lit environment, a group of obviously unusual people stood aside and watched silently.

If someone you know sees this group of people, you will be surprised, because these people are extraordinary. At the top of the list is the new governor of Liangguang, Zhang Zhidong, and next to him is Howard, an Italian white-glove businessman who has recently made a name for himself in the Far East.

"Your Excellency Governor Zhang, this time our company has concealed from other countries, and spent a lot of effort to finally transport 3,000 fast guns and 27 steel cannons, which are all standard equipment of our country, and can definitely add some help to your country."

It was Howard, an Italian businessman, who spoke, and Governor Zhang nodded in response to Howard's words. "Thank you for your company's strong support, for your company's selfless help, I Zhang must show this feeling."

Although Howard has a company, who stands behind it is basically an open secret in the Far East. On more than one occasion, the French minister cursed the shamelessness of Italy in public, and almost got into a physical altercation with the Italian minister Jarlivan.

Faced with the conflict between the two foreign ministers, many people held a posture of looking at the Western scenery.

However, for Zhang Zhidong, he didn't have the heart to see such a Western scene, the main reason was that the situation in Liangguang made him restless. Before he arrived in Liangguang, he Zhang Nanpi was worried about the current war with the French, but he didn't expect that after his arrival, Pan Dingxin, the governor of Guangxi, gave him such a big surprise, which almost made him breathless. He Pan Qinxuan lost his teacher and humiliated the country, and he was destined to be joined by himself, even if he was Li Hefei's subordinate, he could not stop his determination to Zhang Nanpi.

Of course, the impeachment of Pan Qinxuan can be put aside for the time being, and the most important thing is to guard the country, and not let the French enter the two Guangzhous, otherwise he will have to eat and fall too. So during that time, he Zhang Nanpi scavenged the land, trying to replenish enough food for the front-line soldiers. During that time, there was a nursery rhyme of his Zhang Nanpi in the city, and the adults entered the city of Guangzhou, and the blue sky was three feet high.

Needless to say, this is scolding him for scraping the ground in Zhang Zhidong. But he also admitted this, as long as the French were not allowed to enter Liangguang, he would scrape three feet on the ground, and the princes of the court would be able to understand his painstaking efforts.

The food and salary are easy to solve, but the Qiuba people on the front line are shouting for foreign guns and cannons in order to resist the attack of the French.

Food and wages can still be raised locally, but there is no place to buy foreign guns and cannons now, and since the war with France, those foreigners have stopped selling guns to the imperial court. Even if they offered a high price, these foreigners who saw the money shook their heads like rattles, and said one by one that they should not sell ordnance and other materials to the imperial court according to the principle of neutrality.

Just when he was struggling with this, Howard, the white-gloved Italian man, quietly visited him and told him that Zhang Zhidong had a batch of arms to sell.

After learning the news, Zhang Zhidong was immediately overjoyed and hurriedly said that he wanted it all. Although this batch of ordnance is a little expensive, it can be bought anyway. The money in the treasury is a little out of hand, so it's simple. He invited the rich merchants in the city to a banquet, and naturally he was able to raise all the money.

This is not to receive the weapons and deliver them, but to personally look at these foreign guns and cannons.

After waiting for the unloading to be completed, Governor Zhang walked over in person. Howard is also a clever man, and directly asks people to open a case of guns and take out a Vitryy M1870 rifle from it.

"Your Excellency the Governor, this is our standard rifle from our country, the Vitryi Quick Gun, this gun can fire rapidly, a skilled soldier can fire 12 rounds a minute, and the effective range reaches 600 meters......"

Howard gushed about the rifle in his hand, and Governor Zhang listened with relish without a trace of impatience.

Howard had been teaching Qing officials for so long, and of course he knew what they were interested in, so after a brief introduction to Vitry's rifle, he led the crowd to a door with a tarpaulin covered cannon.

After lifting the canvas to reveal a cannon with a steel atmosphere, Zhang Zhidong and the others immediately showed great interest.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is an 85mm fast gun manufactured by the Turin Arsenal in my country, with a maximum range of 4,200 meters and a maximum rate of fire of 4 rounds per minute, which is the best fast gun that our company can come up with at present."

"Yes, yes."

Looking at the fast cannon in front of him and listening to the data introduced by Howard, Governor Zhang nodded and praised.

Don't think that Governor Zhang doesn't know about the performance of weapons, you must know that this is a great change unseen in 3,000 years, and the strength of foreigners' ships and guns is engraved in everyone's hearts. As an aspiring man, how could Governor Zhang not understand this, not to mention that as the Governor of Liangguang, his army was still at war with the French, and he needed to understand the performance of weapons.

"By the way, what kind of cannon is this?"

Governor Zhang asked, pointing to the figure that was also covered with canvas, but was too petite.

"Your Excellency the Governor, please let me introduce this to my company's newly developed secret weapon, the Maxim Race Electric Cannon."

That's right, it's the historical Maxim heavy machine gun, but this black powder version. Its caliber is 10.4 mm (the same as the rifle caliber), the rate of fire is 600 rounds / min, the effective range is 800 meters, and the total weight reaches 94 kg (including the gun mount and shield).

As for why Howard called it the Race Cannon, don't blame him for the name, because this thing is the same price as the artillery, and even more expensive than the average artillery. In addition, from the outside, it also looks a little bit of artillery. This time, in order to increase the bargaining chips for the Qing people, Carlo pushed the newly developed Makqin machine gun to the battlefield.

"Race cannon?"

Listening to Howard's introduction, Governor Zhang suddenly became interested. "Open it and let me see."

With Governor Zhang's words, the Makqin machine gun appeared in front of everyone for the first time.

However, the first appearance was not very good, because its small size did not have the image of the martial arts of the artillery at all.

Governor Zhang also has this kind of thought, and he even thinks in his heart, this Italian person should not be bragging. Of course, Governor Zhang would not say this, and even praised a few good words.

Howard is a businessman, and observing words and expressions is the most basic ability, and he immediately knew that the Qing people did not pay attention to this weapon, and he immediately had an idea.

"Your Excellency, it's getting late now, or we'll go to the shooting range tomorrow to try it out."

"It's okay, I'll go see it tomorrow."

Needless to say, Governor Zhang has to try this batch of weapons. Just handed it over directly to the front-line soldiers, he didn't feel at ease.

After one night, the group appeared at the shooting range again, but this time Makqin's performance opened the eyes of the Qing Guoyi and others, in order to have a more intuitive withdrawal, Howard bought a batch of pigs and sheep overnight as experimental subjects. So when the pigs and sheep fell in pieces in front of the muzzle of Makqin's gun, the expressions of Governor Zhang and others can be imagined.

Of course, the Italians have good other weapons, the artillery is very sharp, and the rifle is also good, but the reload is a little less.

After the demonstration, Governor Zhang immediately decided to transfer all the 3,000 fast guns, and after leaving four fast guns, they were also allocated to the lower heads, as for the Makqin Sai electric cannon, it was a little special, because no one had ever operated this thing. But fortunately, the Italian people took this into account and deliberately equipped dozens of gunners.

In the end, Governor Zhang thought about it and decided that after leaving the four racing cannons and personnel, the other eight racing cannons were all dialed down. Among them, as a key point to resist the French attack, Zhennan Pass received most of the ordnance, of which six Maxims were sent here.