Chapter 0051 weapons and equipment in hand
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Lu Jianying came and vomited blood and returned home. He failed to frame Li Weiguo. Instead, he was fooled by Li Weiguo. The 320,000 taels of silver that Xiao Yang originally planned to respect Lu Jianying was also won by Li Weiguo's "open and upright" purchase.
In this game, Li Weiguo undoubtedly won a great victory.
However, Li Weiguo was not satisfied. He was very revenge. Lu Jianying had framed their Li family. Li Weiguo must avenge this hatred. However, the other party was the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi after all, and his identity was too sensitive. If Li Weiguo wanted to kill him, he needed to plan carefully and had to make a long-term plan.
Lu Jianying suffered a great loss and would definitely take revenge on Li Weiguo in the future, but Li Weiguo was not afraid. He knew very well that in another year the Taiping Army would capture Jinling (Nanjing). At that time, Lu Jianying, the governor of Liangjiang, and his son-in-law Jiangning (Nanjing), would be executed by the Taiping Army.
"The two rivers and three provinces are the richest places in the Qing Dynasty. Lu Jianying, the old bastard and his son-in-law Wu Liang must have plundered a large amount of people's wealth and ointment. Their family must have accumulated gold, silver and treasures. This money cannot be cheaper for the Taiping Army. You have to find a way to get it."
"It's better to take advantage of the old man Lu Jianying's life to rob his silver in front of him, and then use the Taiping Army's hands to kill him. He will take revenge and get the money again, killing two birds with one stone... Well, um... This plan is good..."
At the back house of the county government office, Li Weiguo, alone, plotted against himself to himself, Lu Jianying and Wu Liang's father-in-law and son-in-law. At this time, Zhang Xiaoliu came to report.
"Young Master, our arms have arrived in Shanghai. The British Embassy sent someone to inform us that we would bring all the funds to the British Concession to hand over."
When Li Weiguo heard the news that the arms arrived, he was very happy, but he quickly frowned and said, "Damn, I spent a lot of money to buy their arms, but they didn't deliver them to their door. This is outrageous. If you go back to them, the customer is God. Do you still need me to teach them again? Tell them to send the arms directly to Chongming County and I will hand them over at the dock."
Li Weiguo is not a good person. He has always been leading the British by the nose. How could the British turn the tables?
Faced with Li Weiguo's strength, the British side finally compromised and transported the arms directly to the Nantianmen Wharf of Chongming County.
Of course, there was nothing that the British side could do so. They only collected a deposit of 30,000 taels of silver from Li Weiguo, and the final payment of millions of silver was held in Li Weiguo's hands and did not give them. In order to complete this arms transaction, the British side transported the arms from India to Shanghai from afar, and the transportation cost was very expensive. If they could not get the final payment of Li Weiguo, they would definitely lose money.
At the Nantianmen Wharf, two British Royal Navy battleships escorted twelve British armed merchant ships to dock side by side, which once caused panic among the people on the riverside of Chongming County. Even the Qing Navy stationed at Wusongkou was alarmed and sent naval warships to inquire. When they learned that the British Navy had only stopped ships to replenish supplies, the Qing Navy breathed a sigh of relief, but they were still monitoring it from afar.
Li Weiguo brought the new soldiers to the dock to hand over the arms. When he saw John again, he had to have a cordial conversation.
Although John's attitude towards Li Weiguo is no longer as friendly as before, he has a lot of polite words in the officialdom and diplomacy. At the same time, the last time John was in charge of negotiating a joint venture with the Shen family in Jinling, Li Weiguo was ruined by Li Weiguo, which naturally had a certain impact on John's career, so John still had some hatred for Li Weiguo.
But Li Weiguo still treated John like he used to do. He was grateful to John from the bottom of his heart. After all, Li Weiguo had no power and power at the beginning. In order to rescue his wife, John helped a lot and was willing to pay for Li Weiguo to redeem his wife out of his own pocket. Li Weiguo has always remembered this kindness and dare not forget it.
John was still angry, so after he got polite with Li Weiguo in the officialdom, he started to do a good job.
British soldiers unloaded boxes of arms from the ship and moved them to the dock. Li Weiguo's subordinates came forward to take charge of the count.
"The muskets are 250 boxes, each box of 20 muskets, a total of 4,800 p1842 firing front-mounted smoothbore guns, and 200 p1851 firing front-mounted rifle guns... The inventory is completed!"
"10 16-pound cannons, 6 24-pound cannons, 4 32-pound cannons, 4 68-pound cannons... The inventory is completed!"
"Four hundred boxes of guns and bullets, fifty lead strips, six thousand boxes of gun medicine, fifty kilograms per box... The inventory is completed!"
"500 boxes of 16 pound shells, 200 boxes of live ammunition, 200 boxes of shotgun, 100 boxes of flower shells..."
"24 pound shells..."
...
The arms piled up on the dock, but Li Weiguo brought all 4,000 new troops here, so there was enough manpower. After counting one batch, one batch was sent away immediately, so everything was in order.
On the deck of a British warship, British Lieutenant General Pushkin Dera was watching the new soldiers on the dock with a monocular telescope, looking surprised because these soldiers were different from any Qing soldiers he had seen before.
"The grass-green military uniform looks fresh and the military cap looks very imposing, but I prefer their military leather boots, which look domineering. Our military leather shoes are so petty."
While admiring Li Weiguo's new army, Pushkin was also making a secret comparison. Especially in his military boots, the military boots designed by Li Weiguo are more in line with the beauty of modern ergonomics. They are not only durable and comfortable enough to ensure the soldiers' various needs in harsh combat environments, but also look very majestic, domineering and beautiful, which can reflect the military's authority and enhance morale.
On the other hand, the military boots of British soldiers should be called military shoes, which look more like the leather shoes worn by female civil servants in the 21st century. They have high heels, but not very tall. The soldiers' ankles are exposed outside, and they are worn together with the British soldiers' red jacket, white pants and white socks. In modern terms, they are very fake and have no momentum.
Hearing Lieutenant General Pushkin's words, John next to him replied: "Li Weiguo is a man who is incomprehensible. He always does something unexpected, but it is reasonable. He is very ambitious. For China, they are indeed a new army. From the appearance, they are no longer very different from European and American armies. Now they are equipped with advanced weapons and equipment from the British Empire. Once this army forms a military force, it is probably a new civil war."
Pushkin smiled and said, "Isn't the Chinese civil war better for us! The more intense they fight, the greater the benefits we can get from it."
Pushkin's idea was actually the British side's idea. They would not easily sell a large amount of arms to Li Weiguo because it involves a country's political decisions. The arms trading rules in the modern world are the same. For example, the United States will not sell its arms to hostile countries or threatening countries, and China will not sell weapons to India and Vietnam. The current relationship between the British Empire and the Qing Empire is not yet enough to easily sell arms to them. What's more, Li Weiguo is just a small county magistrate. According to normal ideas, there is no possibility that the British side would sell such a huge arms to Li Weiguo, let alone bypassing the Qing government's Military Affairs Office and directly trade with Li Weiguo.
But the British side eventually sold this huge amount of arms to Li Weiguo. They saw Li Weiguo's ambitions, and even saw through the previous incident of Li Weiguo selling a batch of arms to Su Sanlang to support the Taiping Army that Li Weiguo is likely to rebel with the Taiping Army. The British side hopes that China will have a civil war, so they make an exception to sell a large number of weapons and equipment to Li Weiguo.
"Not necessarily! Maybe this Li Weiguo will become a strong enemy of our British Empire in the future!" John frowned and said. He now had an inexplicable fear of Li Weiguo. He did not think that Li Weiguo would easily rebel. He believed that Li Weiguo would accumulate his strength until he was extremely powerful before he would do it. Moreover, judging from Li Weiguo's foreign-related attitude, he might not allow the British fisherman to benefit, so John always believed that selling Li Weihuo to make him bigger was not a good thing. Unfortunately, John was humble and the British side did not listen to his advice.
"You are wrong, John!" Pushkin smiled and said, "China has no industry. If Li Weiguo wants to maintain his army, his weapons and equipment must always be supplied by us. Once he is hostile to us, as long as we cut off his arms supply, he will be done."
"No! You were wrong!" John sneered: "China does not have industry yet, but it will be available soon. Li Weiguo imported a large number of machinery and equipment from Europe and the United States, and is about to build an industrial city base in the surrounding areas of Shanghai. He is very smart. He not only bought machinery and equipment, but also bought all kinds of lathes that manufacture machinery and equipment. In other words, he can make all kinds of industrial machinery and equipment by himself in the future, and he cannot make us hold his neck. I am very sure of this."
Pushkin couldn't laugh, but looked at Li Weiguo on the dock with a serious expression, frowned and said, "Why didn't you tell the people in the military earlier?"
John was silent, not answering, not knowing whether he was protesting or deliberately watching jokes.
Pushkin waited for a while and saw that John did not speak, and couldn't help but smile bitterly: "I will immediately report the situation to the military when I go back, but I hope your judgment is wrong."
After working hard all day, all counting and handing over was finally completed. Li Weiguo handed over the final silver to John. As both sides shook hands, the completion of the arms transaction was marked.
"It's getting late, so why not just rest here for a night and I'll invite you to drink!"
"Thank you! I don't think it's necessary. I have to send the money back immediately. You know, those people are waiting to share the money. If they go back late, they will complain."
John politely declined Li Weiguo's invitation, but Li Weiguo did not force it and watched John leave.
"Young Master, when will this batch of weapons and equipment be sent to the brothers?"
Zhang Xiaoliu came to inquire on behalf of the officers and soldiers, and explored Li Weiguo's tone.
Li Weiguo smiled and said, "When can you do it? Send it down immediately, I want to see a mighty and majestic army!"
Chapter completed!