Beiyang Xiaoxiong

Chapter 38 Building Guns

"Sooner or later, these corrupt worms will clean them up!" Zhao Dongyun just scolded fiercely and turned the topic to another direction, because scolding others is actually equivalent to scolding himself!

"Next, the clothes and shoes needed to recruit new recruits should be prepared one by one. Now Uncle Bin of Fuyuan Yarn Factory has also come to Baoding. When you go to him, you can buy all those trivial things. In addition, you also total them with him to see if there is a reliable foreign bank in Tianjin or Shanghai to buy ordnes. It's better than the three!"

Zhao Dongping naturally said yes.

Zhao Dongyun also sighed a little when he looked at Zhao Dongping, who was already much more stable. Zhao Dongping was also honed.

When he first came to join himself last year, he was just a young man. He was still a little timid when he saw himself, but since he became a book office by his side, and later went to the machine gun battalion to take charge of logistics and other affairs. In addition, in the first half of the year, he and he went to Guangzong for several months, and now it is also It's been practiced.

If it hadn't been for him being much more stable, Zhao Dongyun would not have directly promoted him as the head of the Ordnance Division of the new machine gun battalion. He is his cousin, but more importantly, his ability is barely feasible.

This person is already a little clever and has the momentum of young people, but now he has become much more stable, which makes Zhao Dongyun trust him more.

Originally, Zhao Dongyun planned to send him to the Changmu School, which was only opened this year, but after thinking about it, it's better to stay in the school for a year or two than to work under his own hands for a year or two.

Anyway, Zhao Dongyun did not intend to let Zhao Dongping lead the army to fight, and there is no need to go to the military academy to buy ordnance to get kickbacks.

"In addition, you also go to inquire with Uncle Bin to see how much it will cost to buy those equipment if you want to build guns!" After Zhao Dongyun finished talking about those trivial things, he slightly told Zhao Dongping about the arsenal he was thinking about.

Zhao Dongping was also slightly surprised when he heard it. His first thought was, does Lord Du Xian have to reuse his third brother and let him run a factory to build guns?

But when he thinks about it, it doesn't feel right. Zhao Dongping has been in the Beiyang system for more than half a year now. He knows some of the operation rules of the Beiyang system. In the carriage of Beiyang, there are people who manage local government affairs, people who make money from foreign affairs, and people who train the new army, and these people have nothing to do. It will be mixed together.

Zhao Dongyun is a serious soldier in the Beiyang system and has no contact with local officials or foreign affairs officials. If he wants to build guns and cannons in the Beiyang system, nine out of ten is Zhou Xuexi's business, which has absolutely nothing to do with Zhao Dongyun.

But why did Zhao Dongyun ask himself about the equipment needed to make guns? Zhao Dongping couldn't understand for a moment, and immediately asked in a low voice, "Is it that Lord Jian asked you to make guns?"

Zhao Dongyun didn't care about Zhao Dongping's curious face and said, "Nothing, I just think that now my Beiyang large and small or small ordnance has been imported by foreigners, so I just want to see if this gun is really that difficult to make guns with others!"

When Zhao Dongyun saw that he still wanted to ask, he immediately interrupted him: "You don't have to think too much. Just inquire about it directly and find out the market of those machines and equipment!"

Zhao Dongyun will naturally not spend too much time explaining to Zhao Dongping why he wants to build an arsenal, and there is no need to explain to Zhao Dongyun how important it is for him to have an arsenal in Beiyang.

But Zhao Dongping was not old and had many thoughts in his heart. After he got out of Zhao Dongyun's small foreign building, he went out and went to the hotel where Zhao Chenbin stayed in an oriental car

After a while, he naturally met Zhao Chenbin. Although the age difference between the two was more than 30 years old, it was like forgetting the relationship after meeting. Although they were still called Dongping and Uncle Bin, the two sat opposite each other and obviously did not distinguish between the generations.

After drinking a sip of tea, Zhao Dongping put down the teacup in his hand and said, "I'm afraid I have to trouble Uncle Bin more this time. You know, it's okay for me to deal with those arms dealers in Baoding, but it's difficult for me to deal directly with the foreign bank in Tianjin!"

Zhao Chenbin saw this young man who was one generation shorter than himself and marveled at his modesty and said, "This matter was personally explained by the master. Dongping, you don't have to worry too much. At that time, I will call the Dogel manager of Fuyuan Yarn Factory to do it in person, so that your errands will not be delayed. "!"

It is said that Zhao Chenbin called Zhao Dongyun a master, and Zhao Dongping is Zhao Dongyun's cousin. If he is an ordinary subordinate, I'm afraid he will have to be called a young master, but Zhao Chenbin is not a subordinate of the Zhao family. He is originally a partial family of the Zhao family, but his bloodline has been far away for several generations, although he is the shopkeeper of the second room of the Zhao family and a yarn factory. But he is not a subordinate like Butler Xu.

As for calling Zhao Dongyun a master, it is not because of the relationship between the slave and the head of the family, but because Zhao Dongyun is an official and a third-grade official, Zhao Chenbin will call him a master. This master is a respectful name for ordinary people to officials.

And in the face of Zhao Dongping's words, he didn't have to do this. He directly called Zhao Dongping's name by his generation.

Zhao Dongping nodded slightly: "How troublesome it is, Uncle Bin!"

Speaking of this, Zhao Dongping paused for a moment and said, "Just now, the third brother told me to ask about the market of equipment needed to make guns. Do you think this is it?"

Zhao Chenbin was also slightly stunned: "Is it a gun? But the boss gave the master the job of guns?"

Zhao Dongping shook his head: "I've never heard of it, and I've never heard that Beiyang is going to set up a factory to build guns!"

Zhao Chenbin also showed doubts: "This is a strange thing!"

While talking, Zhao Chenbin suddenly remembered what Zhao Dongyun had told him in the morning about letting him buy or run a machine factory by himself. He vaguely felt that there was a connection here and immediately said, "What do you think has to do with this?"

When Zhao Dongping heard this, he subconsciously guessed: "Is it possible that the superior didn't do the job of the gun factory for the third brother, but the third brother himself wanted to do it?"

"There is such a possibility!" Zhao Chenbin felt that this possibility was not small, because he considered this problem from the perspective of a businessman. In his opinion, he bought guns everywhere in the court. These arms business made people jealous when he saw it. If he had enough capital, why couldn't he make guns and guns and sold them to the court?

Once it can be done, I'm afraid that the profit will not be comparable to the small yarn factory.

But Zhao Dongping said directly, "This is absolutely impossible!"

Difference from Zhao Chenbin from a purely commercial perspective, Zhao Dongping considers this problem from a political perspective. Guns and cannons are military weapons. In recent decades, although the Chinese dynasty has set up many machine factories, manufacturing factories and gun factories to make weapons, these are all official enterprises without exception. I have heard that there is a private arsenal that makes weapons and sells them to the imperial court.

If you don't think you can say that a malicious hat will be taken down!

Zhao Chenbin and Zhao Dongping guessed Zhao Dongyun's idea there, but in fact, this matter is not as complicated as they thought, because at this time they forgot a very important fact that Zhao Dongyun is not a civilian, he is an official, and he is also a Beiyang New Army, which is not small. The new officers have been in the limelight and are deeply important to Yuan Shikai.

And if this kind of person wants to run an arsenal, it can't be simply regarded as a private arsenal, but something similar to an official supervision business.

Ten thousand steps back, Yuan Shikai doesn't care about the nature of your arsenal. As long as it is built in Zhili and under the land under his jurisdiction of Yuan Shikai, he will not hesitate to regard this arsenal as his own in Beiyang.

Now Yuan Shikai does not want to run an arsenal, but he really has no money to run it, and the arsenal is not something that can be done by private capital. Ordinary businessmen dare not touch it at all, because ordinary businessmen will easily be embezzled by the government after investing money.

Even if it is not embezzled, there are all kinds of official supervision. The court will never let merchants build arsenals to buy weapons everywhere, and this official inspector will have to bankrupt the factory in a few years.

Even if it is not an embezzlement or an official governor, there is still a weapon sales channel. After this arsenal is built, it is not up to you to decide who the weapons can sell. Besides, with the urine nature of the Chinese people's preference for imported goods, it may not be sold, and then you will die at a loss.

So from many aspects, there was no problem for private capital to invest in light industry in the late Qing Dynasty, and it was okay to invest in steel, coal and even railways, but they could not intervene in military industry alone.

It's just that the above problem is not a big problem for Zhao Dongyun, because he is an official himself, and to some extent, he represents the Beiyang system.

One thing he has to do is to raise funds, and the second is to convince Yuan Shikai that as long as these two items are met, nothing else is not a problem.

Zhao Dongyun's ideas were not told to others, and outsiders naturally did not know. At this time, Zhao Dongping and Zhao Chenbin thought that their third brother might have been entrusted by Yuan Shikai to run an arsenal, and the other thought that his master wanted to make a fortune in the arms business!

But no matter what they think, they began to operate these things according to Zhao Dongyun's instructions, and even carried out more than Zhao Dongyun's instructions.

According to Zhao Dongyun's vision, running an arsenal can only be regarded as a long-term ambition. In the early stage, you can get a workshop to study mortars, grenades and so on.

But he didn't expect that Zhao Dongping and Zhao Chenbin would really follow the premise of establishing a large-scale arsenal, and they found many foreign banks in Tianjin to inquire about machinery and equipment.

He didn't expect that the two people's ability to handle things was stronger than he thought. In a few days, he had an eyebrow. Then Zhao Chenbin telegraphed that he had found a set of second-hand gun-making equipment and asked Zhao Dongyun if he wanted to buy it.

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