Chapter 142 History has changed

Andre said, "If your factory lacks enough engineers to complete the final research and development, then we can also send a number of senior engineers to help you solve relevant technical problems, but we have a requirement that the heavy machine guns produced by your factory must be supplied to our army first and cannot be sold to Day me!"

Do you want someone to help solve technical problems? This is attractive. No matter what era, talents are the most valuable. Although Russia is not a technical power, at least it is a serious power. Now they have begun to imitate heavy machine guns. However, due to the long distance and slow production, the Russian army in the Far East can't get it from their country at all. There are too many heavy machine guns, otherwise they won't find Zhao Dongyun.

Zhao Dongyun was silent for a while. He was thinking about the gains and losses. Will this move offend him? Sure, but he has sold so much ordnance to the Russians, and Japan himself has known it for a long time, so he has already been offended.

No matter, making money is the king's way!

Thinking of Zhao Dongyun here, he nodded: "If your army has enough orders, I think the shareholders of Fuyuan Machinery Factory will be very happy to start a heavy machine gun production line!"

Andre smiled and knew before he came that Zhao Dongyun would not refuse his proposal!

Just like Zhao Dongyun knows a little about him, Andre and Zhao Dongyun have been friends for more than half a year, and they also know Zhao Dongyun. Through more than half a year of contact with Zhao Dongyun, he feels like two words: greed!

This person has no concept of country or nation. In this era, no patriotic Chinese can provide countless arms to the Russian army occupying the northeast, and even radical estimates will have to go to the northeast to help Japan's own Manchurian volunteers.

In order to make money, this man is greedy. He dares to sell fifty taels of silver for a three-inch grenade with a purchase price of only 25 taels in the international arms market. Andre even feels that there is no more greedy arms dealer than him.

And And Andre also knows that Zhao Dongyun not only does the arms business with Russia, but also does the same arms business as Japan himself, and God bless, the price of the ordnance he sold to Japan himself is higher...

In addition, this person not only wants to make money, but also continues to expand his army. Andre does not think that he expands his army in response to the Russo-Japanese War. The reason why this person expands his army is definitely to expand his personal desires. Andre knows that Zhao Dongyun's army has expanded from less than 10,000 people last year to 15,000 now. Zhao Dongyun's influence in China also increased with the increase in the number of his troops.

So it is not difficult to see that Zhao Dongyun's purpose of expanding his army is to control more power.

Zhao Dongyun's greed for money and power is enough to make Andre understand and guess Zhao Dongyun's every move!

I have to say that Andre has a relatively full understanding of Zhao Dongyun, far more than many of his subordinates who usually get along with Zhao Dongyun and Beiyang bosses such as Yuan Shikai.

Zhao Dongyun nodded and agreed to start the production line of heavy machine guns. At this time, Andre also said, "If the general has no objection, I would like to officially place an order for 100 machine guns on behalf of you, and we hope to deliver them in the next two months!"

Zhao Dongyun said, "I need to ask Fuyuan Machinery Factory one or two before I can give you a formal answer, but I don't think the problem should be big!"

Andre said, "This is natural. The general's caution is admirable. In addition, I have another request!"

Zhao Dongyun said, "Oh, please say it!"

"Can the general increase the monthly supply of shells and bullets to us? In addition, I don't know if the general can supply our army with standard bullets?" Andre asked tentatively.

Zhao Dongyun said, "I'm afraid it's difficult. The current supply is already the largest quantity I can raise. I'm afraid it will be noticed by the superiors. As for your military-style bullets, Fuyuan Machine Factory does not have a corresponding bullet production line. If a special production line for your military-type bullets is set up, I'm afraid it won't be paid. Lost!"

Zhao Dongyun now provides expendable ammunition to the Russian army, most of which comes from the Fuyuan Machinery Factory and a small part comes from the international arms market in the Far East. Because the Fuyuan Machinery Factory needs to provide ammunition supply in the whole North Sea and other northern provinces, the output that can be squeezed out is limited. It is impossible to say that the Russians If you want more, Zhao Dongyun can give more to him.

As for Russian bullets, if you want to produce Fuyuan machine factories, you have to buy another machine to get a production line. In addition, you have to hire engineers, recruit and train workers, build factories and other expenses. At least it will cost hundreds of thousands of taels of silver for a whole set. If you invest so much money, you have to recover the cost, but you have to produce it for many years. Bullet.

However, can the Russo-Japanese war last so long? At most, the Russians will not continue to place orders for a year or two. Who will the Russian bullets produced be sold to?

This is not a shell. If you change the caliber of the shell, you can change 75mm and 76.2mm. However, the bullets are very different. At that time, it is estimated that a Russian bullet production line that has been built with a lot of money will not be able to recover the cost...

Therefore, there is a lack of interest in the production of Russian bullets, whether it is Zhao Dongyun or Fuyuan Machine Factory. Anyway, all kinds of ammunition in Fuyuan Machine Factory are in short supply, and there is no need to disperse forces to make Russian bullets or rifles.

Hearing Zhao Dongyun's refusal, Andre sighed. He didn't have much hope for this matter. Today, his purpose is only a heavy machine gun. As for the others, it is best to have hope, and there is no problem if there is no hope.

The two then talked about other matters about the arms trade between the two sides. For example, Andre proposed whether the payment method can be more flexible, such as whether Russia still has a large stock of pounds, dollars, francs and even Japanese yen in the Far East. Can these be used for payment?

Zhao Dongyun responded to this: British pound, US dollar, franc, Japanese yen, as long as they want all the money. Anyway, except China, other countries are playing the gold standard these days, and all countries * are also equal to gold!

For example, Andre also proposed that due to the current shortage of troops, whether the Russian army can move the location of the ordnance trade to the east for a distance to reduce the demand and time for the Russian army to escort troops. Zhao Dongyun said that if the Russian side can pay an additional freight, it will not be a problem to send it directly to Fengtian City!

The two talked about these bits and pieces for a long time, and it was already evening when Andrea left.

Before he left, he left a cheque of 20,000 pounds from British HSBC, which was used to pay the initial deposit for the arms trade. As for the final part, it was naturally one-hand payment and one-hand delivery.

Andre's promised engineers and preliminary funds soon arrived. In late August, seven Russian beards arrived in Tangshan. According to Andre, these seven people were all senior engineers in Russia. This time, they were urgently recruited by the military and sent to Fuyuan Machine Factory, and even Fuyuan Machinery. The factory doesn't even have to pay wages, but they won't stay long. Their purpose is very simple. As long as they help Fuyuan Machinery Factory get out the heavy machine gun production line, they will return to China after successful mass production.

Zhao Dongyun also instructed Zhao Chenbin of Fuyuan Machinery Factory, saying that the Russians have sent talents to the door. If they can't stay, it depends on your ability. Zhao Chenbin also made a decision when he looked at Zhao Dongyun's telegram. Isn't it just a few big beards? If you like money, you can throw money. If you like women, go to Shanghai or Vladivostok or something. The place received a few ocean horses to send them, but I don't believe that I can't keep them!

This August, although Japan and Russia hundreds of kilometers away are still alive and dying, Zhao Dongyun is relatively leisurely.

The arms trade is going on, and there are a lot of money every day. The giant bandits in western Liaoning now have only one relatively regular Feng Delin, and other Zhang Zuolin and Du Lisan have been wiped out in the dust of history.

The expansion of Jinzhou patrol battalion has also been carried out steadily, and there is no mistake in the training of the third town. Even during this period of Zengqi, which had been extremely noisy in the past few months, he no longer talked about Fengtian's standing army every day, but focused on relieving the victims of the Fengtian war and rectifying the original old army of Fengtian. In the face of the many refugees emerging in the Russo-Japanese War, Zhao Dongyun would naturally not take his small treasury to buy food and distribute it to those refugees like the saints, but he also took out tens of thousands of silver and bought a batch of food to transport it to Xinminfu, Fengtian and other places to relieve the war refugees emerging from all over Liaodong.

In early September, Zhao Dongyun returned to Baoding. In name, he went to pick up Fang Ruolian to Jinzhou, but in fact, he went to see Yuan Shikai to report on how many troops he had trained, how many bandits he had been suppressing, the latest trends of the Russo-Japanese war and so on.

"According to what Dongyun said, this Russian and Japan are comparable to Japan?" Yuan Shikai looked at the map on the table. This is the schematic diagram of the war between Japan and Russia brought back by Zhao Dongyun, which clearly shows the deployment of Japan and Russia.

Zhao Dongyun said: "In the short term, it is true. In the direction of Lushun, it took the Japanese army half a month to capture the Dagu Mountain and Xiaogu Mountain, the frontier positions of Lushun Fortress, and it was not taken down until the end of August, and the casualties were huge. According to estimates, the Japanese Third Army was conquering Lushun Fortress. There are no more than 15,000 casualties in the front positions. What if we officially attack the Lushun Fortress itself? I'm afraid it can't be taken down without 100,000 casualties! Moreover, Japan seems to realize that the casualties are too large, so during the period from the end of August to the beginning of September, the Japan's Third Army has stopped its large-scale offensive and is resting. If it wants to launch a formal general attack, I'm afraid it will be after October or even November. At that time, it will be more difficult for them to fight. !"

Zhao Dongyun continued to explain the current situation of the Russo-Japanese War to Yuan Shikai: "As for the direction of Liaoyang, the two sides have stopped large-scale offensive operations since August and began to build a trench defense system on the spot. In late August, the Japanese army tried to attack to the right, but was The Russian army resisted, and coupled with the frontal attack launched by the Japanese army a few days ago, both sides suffered heavy losses in the direction of Liaoyang. According to our calculation, the Japanese army has suffered at least 30,000 casualties in the direction of Liaoyang. Although the Russian army is less, it should be about the same. According to our intelligence, due to long-term confrontation, both A large number of soldiers are plagued by athlete's foot disease, scurvy and trenches, which is estimated to be more serious after winter.

Speaking of this, Zhao Dongyun said, "Now the other side of Liaoyang can't fight, and the Russians can't attack it!"

After saying that, Zhao Dongyun couldn't help but feel proud. Although he did not send a soldier, he took the machine gun to the stage in advance, causing Japan and Russia to equip heavy machine guns on a large scale, which led to the defense capabilities of both Japan and Russia now greatly strengthened, but the offensive ability is still the same. , basically whoever attacks will suffer from this fight, so now the generals of Japan and Russia are unwilling to take the initiative to attack, but hope that the other party will launch an attack, and then sweep a large area with machine guns...

In this way, history has been greatly adapted unconsciously. This Liaoyang has not lost, not to mention taking down Fengtian, and Lushun has now, not to mention taking it down. Anyway, even if Zhao Dongyun, a later person, is allowed to conquer Lushun, he found that there is no way to start, except to fill it with human life. There are other ways, so whether the Japanese army can successfully capture Lushun like history is a big question mark!

The process of this war has been out of the original track of history, which brings a question: is it difficult for Zhao Dongyun himself to predict the future development of the situation?

Will Russia win or Japan win in the future? And what attitude should China, especially the Beiyang system, maintain in this war? What attitude should I maintain?

This has become the biggest problem faced by Zhao Dongyun, Yuan Shikai and other Beiyang people!