Far East.

Richard, who received a telegram from home, soon met with the top government officials in the Far East and began to sell the work of the arms production line.

Richard directly found Li Hongzhang, then a scholar of Far Eastern University and the governor of Zhili, and said straight to the point: "Your Excellency Li, you just say if you want it!" ”

And Li Hongzhang is not ignorant of military affairs, and even knows a lot about it, and is very clear about what is happening in the West, he looked at the sample of the Dreiser rifle sent by Richard and said: "The workmanship is indeed excellent, but, Ambassador Richard, if I remember correctly, this Dreiser rifle does not seem to have performed very well in the war between Prussia and France, so ......"

You've picked it up! Richard was a little unconvinced, so Richard said: "That's right, what you said is the truth, the performance of the Dreiser's rifle is not perfect, but it is enough to put it in the present, especially in the Far East, and as far as I know, there are many of your top military enterprises that are still producing extremely backward front-loading rifles, our set of Dreiser rifle production line is more advanced than those rifles, which was proved in the Italian-Austrian War a few years ago, take the 1853 Enfield rifle produced by the Jinling Manufacturing Bureau as an example, It's a product that's completely behind its time. ”

"Ambassador Richard, that's true, but at the moment we don't have a need for it, or we don't have a new procurement plan."

In fact, Li Hongzhang has seen a lot of this kind of foreign country selling its own weapons to the Qing State, and the words of foreigners are generally not very credible, and besides, the imperial court really has no money now.

Richard was not in a hurry, he said: "Your Excellency Li, don't be in a hurry to make a conclusion about this matter, as long as you know the price of them, I believe you will like it, the entire Dreiser rifle production line, only 110,000 taels of silver, this price, absolutely worth the money, this is not ordinary arms, but an arms production line, I can tell you this, after getting this batch of production lines, it can fully meet the needs of your army." ”

This price is indeed not expensive, this batch of production lines can meet almost all the needs of the Far East at full capacity, after all, the scale of the East African Army was maintained at about 200,000 before the disarmament, and there are 700,000 militia and police, all of whom use East Africa's own Dreiser rifles. At this time, the standing forces in the Far East were only maintained at about 800,000, so in fact, there were more in East Africa.

Of course, the militia and the police are certainly not standing armed forces in East Africa, but their combat effectiveness cannot be underestimated, and in terms of suppressing the indigenous people, this is the absolute main force in East Africa, and the number of indigenous people is so large, coupled with the large land area, it is necessary to maintain such a large military force.

Richard's words really frightened Li Hongzhang, and he asked, "Is your country really only 110,000 taels?" ”

You must know that the Jinling Manufacturing Bureau, as the largest military factory in the Far East, has an annual expenditure of about 100,000 taels, but the production capacity of the Jinling Manufacturing Bureau is extremely limited.

Richard: "Naturally, and although this batch of production lines has been used in East Africa, we have only been in East Africa for a few years, so you can still use it for a long time, and it is definitely worth the money." ”

Li Hongzhang thought for a while and asked: "Although this is the case, we don't need so many production lines, can your country be cheaper, and we can buy less?" ”

Richard shook his head and said, "That's not going to work, we're going to sell it all or not at all." Moreover, this kind of business is originally done at a loss, and we in East Africa will also make some boat fares, so the price cannot be reduced at all. ”

It was a loss-making business, and it cost a lot of money for Ernst to buy the production lines, and it had to be shipped from Europe to East Africa, and now from East Africa to the Far East.

However, this is all necessary, Ernst attaches great importance to the development of military power in East Africa, and some things must be done even if they lose money, and when the Dreiser's rifle is lagging behind, it is inevitable that it will be replaced, even if it has not served in the Kingdom of East Africa for a long time.

Of course, Ernst only plans to sell about sixty percent this time, because the Dreiser weapons production line is integrated and integrated, and it can still be used to produce Mauser rifles. The Mauser rifle was originally the product of the Mauser brothers' upcycling based on the Dreiser, so there was no problem in producing the Mauser rifle after the change, but many parts had to be re-produced.

Li Hongzhang had no choice but to give up when he heard Richard say this, and what people said was that the price was so low, so some requirements were inevitable.

However, he still has to make sure that this East African kingdom is not making fun of himself, after all, the Far East Army is currently the nominally largest army in the world, and you, a small German colony, really have the strength to meet the needs of the Far East Army without shame?

So Li Hongzhang said tentatively: "Your country really has the ability to provide so many machines and equipment, if it is Prussia or Austria, then there should be no problem, after all, the scale of their two armies is indeed huge, as for East Africa, ......"

As the exchanges between the Far East and East Africa deepened, the Far East actually had a more "profound" understanding of East Africa, that is, East Africa was understood as a colony like India.

At first, the Kingdom of East Africa really frightened the Far East, because at that time East Africa was playing the German card, Prussia, and Austria-Hungary, as if they were representatives of the two countries, and these two countries were not inferior to Britain, France and Russia.

In fact, it was true at that time, and the kingdom of Heixingen was not part of Prussia! At that time, East Africa was still the territory of the Heshingen royal family, so there was nothing wrong with East Africa saying that it was Prussia, and after East Africa became independent, East Africa no longer put Prussia and Austria-Hungary on its lips at any time, but called itself more by the general concept of East Africa or Germany.

As for why Germany is general, it is because Germany is too broad, Germany can say that it is Germany, Austria can say the same, even Luxembourg can say the same, Liechtenstein can also say the same, East Africa can naturally say the same, you can say whether these countries are German countries or not!

Of course, East Africa is culturally German, and there is a lot of water mixed in ethnically, but this does not prevent East Africa from claiming to be a German state.

Perhaps some people in Germany, such as the extreme nationalists like Adolf, would not be able to recognize the German identity of the East African kingdom if they had a deep understanding of the situation in East Africa and knew how the East African kingdom was constituted.

This can't change anything, East Africa insists that it is Germany, that is, Germany, at least Germany and Austria are officially sure to recognize it, excluding the Heshinggen royal factor, and then the two countries will have to seek East Africa for their own interests.

Richard said: "Hehe, you can rest assured that we have the strength in East Africa, in fact, you can directly ask your country's ambassador in East Africa, Mr. Li Ge, there is a saying in the Far East called the whole picture of the leopard in the tube." Mr. Lige should be able to be the one who peeps at the leopard. ”

Rieger! If it weren't for Richard saying this, Li Hongzhang would have forgotten that the Qing Dynasty still had such a person in East Africa, and he sent Li Ge to supervise the East Africa Assistance Mission, but Li Ge never returned, and a few months later, he was sent a letter by the East African king Constantine, recommending Li Ge as the ambassador of the Far East to East Africa. Nor is there a hapless man who wants to go to East Africa to ask what is going on, what if he is detained like Rieger!

In fact, Li Hongzhang questioned that there was no problem at all, and it was impossible for the whole world in East Africa to shout that it actually had a million troops, except for Cape Town and Mozambique, which knew that the Kingdom of East Africa had at least tens of thousands of troops, other countries, including Germany, believed that East Africa was at most an ordinary colonial level, or an extremely ordinary colonial country.

(End of chapter)