Chapter 59 Fuyuan's rifle

Based on the continued tension in Northeast China, Yuan Shikai repeatedly reported to the court that his troops were insufficient and asked the court to allocate more funds to train the new army.

Yuan Shikai cried and shouted that he was poor. In the end, although he didn't get much, he also cut a piece of meat from the court to train the new army.

In terms of taxes in Zhili Province, it is absolutely impossible to afford the military expenses required by many Beiyang New Army, so the funds required by this Beiyang New Army are not supported by Yuan Shikai as imagined by later generations, but half of them are allocated by the Household Department of the Qing Dynasty, and about 30% are supported by the southern provinces. In fact, Li only took out about 20%.

With Yuan Shi Caesar rolling to raise military expenses, it is naturally more reassuring that the Beiyang officers below will train their troops. At least they don't have to worry that the soldiers don't have money, and they don't have to worry about continuing to use the old-fashioned single-arm rifle.

Among the many new ordnances used by the Beiyang New Army, in addition to Japanese ordnances, German-made ordnances, as well as artillery and guns produced by Jiangnan and Hubei manufacturing bureaus, it is also the first time that the ordnance products on the Fuyuan Machinery Factory have appeared.

At the end of 1902, Yuan Shikai officially placed the first order with Fuyuan Machinery Factory, ordering 2,000 grenades and 200 Type 88 rifles. Although this was only a small batch of orders, it still made the Beiyang New Army's products of Fuyuan Machinery Factory appear for the first time.

Although the profit of this order is extremely limited, it has made the management of Fuyuan Machinery Factory see the future profit hope. On the one hand, it has increased investment in the improved design of the Type 88 rifle, and also invested in the research and development of mortars.

More importantly, Fuyuan Machinery Factory was not satisfied with the existing equipment scale and turned its sights on a large number of machinery and equipment in the Beiyang Machinery Manufacturing Bureau, and Zhao Chenbin and others directly approached Zhao Dongyun and asked him to find a way to buy this batch of equipment.

This requirement gave Zhao Dongyun a headache, because it was the equipment of the Beiyang Machinery Manufacturing Bureau. Although the Beiyang Machinery Manufacturing Bureau had been destroyed because of the Gengzi Incident, Yuan Shikai also planned to rebuild the Beiyang Machinery Manufacturing Bureau last year, and even planned to add hundreds of thousands of silver to purchase equipment to expand the regulations. What about the mold?

Later, because Zhao Dongyun set up a Fuyuan Machine Factory, Yuan Shikai temporarily gave up the reconstruction of Beiyang Machinery Manufacturing Bureau.

However, even if the reconstruction work is slowed down, the Beiyang Machinery Manufacturing Bureau will eventually be rebuilt. In this case, Zhao Dongyun wants to persuade Yuan Shikai to give up the reconstruction work of the Beiyang Manufacturing Bureau and sell the equipment to Fuyuan Machinery Factory, which is not very difficult.

"Fuyuan Machinery Factory has not entered mass production yet, right? Where is the money needed to purchase equipment and expand production?" Yuan Shikai did not refuse directly as Zhao Dongyun imagined, but asked about the funding of Fuyuan Machinery Factory.

In Yuan Shikai's mind, the money of Fuyuan Machinery Factory came too easily. Last summer, it didn't take a month to collect more than 800,000 taels of silver. However, more than half a year has passed, and the Fuyuan Machinery Factory has been losing money every day, but it has not generated any profit. In this case, he even wanted to buy equipment again to expand production, which made Yuan Shikai a little suspicious. Could it be that Zhao Dongyun's money fell from the sky?

Zhao Dongyun is also a little embarrassed. Although he is a major shareholder of Fuyuan Machinery Factory, others say that this Fuyuan Machinery Factory is owned by him, he is a big shopkeeper who doesn't care about anything. The specific management of Fuyuan Machinery Factory is managed by the board of directors. The real person in charge is Dong Zhao Chenbin, the president, and Dagger, the general manager, and others.

They said that the Fuyuan Machinery Factory, which has not yet received a dime, has a good prospect and urgently needs to expand the investment scale to increase production. It is hard for Zhao Dongyun to refuse directly.

can only say, "Fuyuan is ready to borrow money from several banks and ticket numbers!"

After hearing this, Yuan Shikai frowned: "If you borrow money from foreign businessmen, it is difficult to guarantee that Fuyuan will not fall into the control of outsiders!"

He frowned and said, "Now that Fuyuan's foundation is not stable, even if you borrow money from domestic ticket numbers, you need to be cautious!" As for the purchase of the machine, I will ask in detail, and I will give you an answer at that time!

However, if Beiyang's equipment is sold by Fuyuan and unable to supply ammunition, it will not be a matter of hundreds of thousands of taels of silver at that time!"

Yuan Shikai did not mind that Fuyuan bought these machines and equipment. In fact, the reconstruction of the Beiyang Machinery Manufacturing Bureau is much more difficult than in history. Historically, Yuan Shikai invested hundreds of thousands of silver to purchase new equipment and then add those old equipment to rebuild the Beiyang Machinery Manufacturing Bureau, and because of Fuyuan Machinery As a result of the emergence of the factory, he did not invest in the Beiyang Machinery Manufacturing Bureau, so it is very difficult to rebuild the old equipment alone, and it is impossible to produce new products after reconstruction.

So it is also possible to sell it to Fuyuan Machinery Factory. The problem is that Fuyuan Machinery Factory must form production, and the products produced must be supplied to the Beiyang Army.

The expansion of Fuyuan Machinery Factory is very fast. After obtaining Yuan Shikai's acquiescence, Fuyuan Machinery Factory invested 300,000 taels of cash to purchase the old equipment of Beiyang Machinery Manufacturing Bureau, which is still maintained in Tianjin. These old equipment are mainly used for black gunpowder, chestnut gunpowder, smokeless gunpowder, bullets, cannonballs and Production of semi-finished products.

These things mainly play a supplementary role for the newly established Fuyuan Machinery Factory, so that Fuyuan Machinery Factory can produce black gunpowder, and also expand the production of smokeless gunpowder, and at the same time expand the production of bullets and increase the production of artillery shells!

But these equipments are not so easy to hold. As soon as the Fuyuan Machinery Factory took over the equipment, Zhao Dongyun received Yuan Shikai's request to establish a 6.5mm bullet production line as soon as possible to supply the bullet consumption of Japanese rifles in the Beiyang Army.

At the same time, it is also an order for 57mm and 75mm shells for Fuyuan Machinery Factory!

Hello, everyone, if you can produce it, Yuan Shikai will be angry. With the expansion of the scale of Fuyuan Machinery Factory and the reconstruction of the Beiyang Machinery Manufacturing Bureau in Texas, Yuan Shikai has regarded Fuyuan Machinery Factory as the core arsenal in Beiyang. As for whether it is commercial or official There is no difference between him.

When Fuyuan Machinery Factory accepted the old equipment of Beiyang Machinery Manufacturing Bureau, 1903 passed!

At the beginning of the year, Yuan Shikai finally arrived at a large number of ordnance purchased from Japan at a large price, and changed the standing army of Zuozhen and Beijing Flag in batches. Looking at the piles of munitions, Zhao Dongyun could only drool.

Although his third association has also recruited more than 2,000 people, his soldiers are still using all kinds of old-fashioned rifles, and there are all kinds of guns. More than 2,000 of his men are now mainly equipped with Martini rifles and single-armed Mauser, in addition to a small number of Liyi rifle and fast rifle. It is worth mentioning that the first three are rear-mounted single-shot guns, while the rear fast-shot guns are the first new continuous-shot guns produced in China.

This gun was redesigned by Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau on the basis of Manlixia and other rifles. However, although it has the first reputation in China, its design is very bad and of poor quality, resulting in many troops preferring to use old-fashioned single-arm rifles rather than use this fast rifle.

For more than 20 years, the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau has been famous for producing garbage goods. The Lin Mingdeng rifle produced from 1884 to 1890 is not only for its high price, but also easy to go off, and no one is willing to use it after accumulating more than 10,000 pieces. Then the Liyi rifle produced from 1890 to 1892 was not very good. The subsequent production of the fast rifle was also a pit that no one would use. Finally, it was forced to stop the production of the 88 rifle and switch to the 88 rifle, but the 88 rifle gun produced was far less reliable than the products of Hubei Gun Factory, let alone It is said that it is compared with the original goods.

However, in fact, the quality of the Type 88 rifle produced by Hanyang Factory in recent years is not very good, and the historical evaluation is that the price is high quality.

And Zhao Dongyun can't do anything about it. He doesn't have a better gun in his hand. Now he can only train with these rags first.

After all, it is impossible for the Third Association to be equipped with an old gun for too long. It will definitely change into a new rifle in a year or two, and the rifles scheduled to be replaced have been determined, that is, the 88 rifle produced by Fuyuan Machinery Factory. Now it is barely enough to train new recruits with old guns.

In late February, Zhao Dongyun's Third Association finally accepted 200 Type 88 rifles produced by the first batch of Fuyuan Machinery Factory.

These 200 rifles are small-scale trial production products of Fuyuan Machine Factory. In order to ensure the normal production, everything follows the design of the original German 88 rifle, which is the style known to later generations: the old sleeve.

"Finally, I got a new gun. I'm really not used to using those old guns!" Lin Yongquan skillfully picked up a Type 88 rifle, loaded the bullets, and then fired continuously. His movements were very smooth.

How's it going? It's easy to fight!" Pei Lianying also came to try out the new gun: "I have used this 88-step gun before. Although it's hard to fight, at least it's a new gun, much better than those single-packed old guns!"

"This recoil is a little bigger, much larger than the 30-year style of Japan!" Lin Yongquan put down the gun in his hand and was still rubbing his shoulder. Obviously, he was still not satisfied with the huge recoil of the Type 88 rifle.

At this time, Chen Guangyuan, who was beside him, also came over: "Now that the Fuyuan factory has begun production, I guess it won't be long before we can all change into new guns!"

Although Chen Guangyuan and Zhao Dongyun are sworn enemy, it is also an internal contradiction of the Third Association anyway, and it is still an external contradiction provoked by Duan Qirui, Wang Yingkai and others. The current issue of gun dressing is related to the overall interests of the Third Association, and it is not surprising that he cares about it.

Chen Guangyuan said, "As far as I know, this Fuyuan factory is in charge of your factory. I don't know when it will be mass-produced?"

Zhao Dongyun has no personal disgust with Chen Guangyuan, and the factional dispute is not hanging on his face every day. He immediately said kindly, "Fuyuan Factory is still only a small-scale trial production. I'm afraid it will take next year for real mass production, but even if it is a trial production, it can produce three or four hundred guns from this month. And it's more than a month. According to the amount needed by our Third Association, it's only half a year at most!"

Zhao Dongyun's words made a group of subordinates smile on their faces!

What he didn't know was that since he learned that Fuyuan Machinery Factory began small-scale trial production, Yuan Shikai has accelerated the pace of military expansion again!