January in the South African highlands is the most beautiful season of the year, the vast grassland is full of flowers, green trees, all kinds of animals in the grassland in groups, standing on the low hill to look out, it is refreshing, twenty-year-old boy Eder bites a grass root in his mouth and looks vigilantly at the grassland below.

During this time, under their elusive blows, the sentry of the British army has been greatly restricted, compressed to a range of twenty miles, and the British have also learned to be obedient, and often ten or twenty people come out together, which is not easy to ambush.

A group of zebras eating leisurely on the grassland suddenly galloped wildly, Eder immediately became vigilant, and hurriedly raised his binoculars to search, and soon, he saw more than a dozen red figures, "All up, work!" ”

As the words fell, a dozen Boer warriors resting in the shade of the trees quickly jumped past, the Transvaal had no standing army, but every adult Boer man was a warrior, every Boer family had guns and ammunition, horseback riding and shooting were compulsory subjects for every Boer boy, it was necessary to survive.

The leader Flender took the binoculars and took a closer look, a total of twelve horsemen, coming towards the hillside where they were, he cautiously searched behind for a distance, and saw that there was no enemy behind him, so he relieved his heart and said softly: "Prepare for battle." ”

The British sentry did not find out at all and controlled the speed of the horse to move at an even speed, Flender patiently waited for the other party to enter the distance of 200 meters before shooting, the British army in front of the sound fell down and fell off the horse, the Boers who tacitly aimed at the target opened fire one after another, several British soldiers carried off the horse one after another, and the rest of the British troops reacted and quickly jumped off the horse, each looking for cover.

"The old rules!" Flender raised his hand, and suddenly, the eight Boers quickly retreated and pulled out their war horses to turn over and outflank them from both sides, for them this is already a familiar tactic, one is to shoot and contain, one is outflanked by both wings, and none of the British troops can escape.

To Flender's surprise, the British troops below did not shoot back as before, but directly hung out the white flag with their guns, although they saw the white flag, all the Boers stopped shooting but did not dare to be careless, carefully outflanked from both sides, and ordered the British to surrender their guns.

When Flender arrived, Eder hurriedly reported: "They said that the letter was delivered, and the British commander Napier wrote a letter to the president. ”

The letter was written in English, and Flender could not read it, so he groaned a little before he said, "Gather the horses and take them back." ”

Two days later, a letter written in the name of Napier, commander of the British Transvaal Expeditionary Force, was sent to Pretoria, the presidential palace, and the president's office. ”

After speaking, he looked at little Pretorius with an eager face, the content of Napier's letter really moved him, on the one hand, the army was pressing, and on the other hand, there was a high degree of autonomy, for the Boers, it was not difficult to make a choice.

Little Pretorius was silent with a cigarette holder in his mouth, with a high degree of autonomy, and he was indeed a little tempted, but it was too late!

Seeing that he was silent for a while, Boggs said slowly: "This is already the maximum concession that England can make, it can be said that Napier has shown the greatest sincerity, and for us, a high degree of autonomy is also the best choice."

Even if we can win this war with the Qing army, it will inevitably cause great casualties, besides, who can ensure that the Qing will not annex us in the end? If we lose this war, the result will be even worse, and what awaits us may be extermination! ”

Little Pretorius took the pipe from his mouth and sighed, "It's too late." ”

"Too late?" Boggs was stunned, what does it mean to be too late? There has not yet been a large-scale war with the British, and everything still has the opportunity to mediate and negotiate, so why is it too late?

"You should understand that the British are here for the gold mines!" Little Billtorius said in a deep voice: "The Qing people are also coming for the gold mine, we are now sandwiched between the British and the Qing country, there is no choice, even if we agree to the conditions of the British, the Qing people will not allow us to agree!" ”

Boggs was stunned for a moment and said: "We are highly autonomous, and the commercial and trade agreement signed with the Qing people is still valid...... and what needs to be abolished is only the security treaty." ”

"The British themselves are here for the gold mines, and will they let the Qing people occupy all the gold mining rights?" Little Pretorius rolled his eyes, "The Qing people are not idiots, as soon as we agree to annex the English Cape Town colony, the Qing people will immediately turn against us!" ”

"Even if the Qing people turn their faces, we are not afraid, there are no British?" Boggs said without backing: "Besides, the Qing people are not the opponents of the British. ”

"No matter what the circumstances, war is inevitable for our country." Little Pretorius's voice sounded a little low, and his voice slowed down significantly, "The British gave us a high degree of autonomy, and the Qing gave us an independent and sovereign state, and they also promised to assist us in annexing Orange and expanding outward.

The Qing people have always had this attitude and position, but what about the British? First the Canadian federal model, and now it is highly autonomous, compared with the two, I prefer to choose to believe in the Qing people! In addition, for this war, I am more optimistic about the Qing country. ”

As soon as the words fell, he heard a knock at the door, and little Pretorius glanced at the door and said, "Please come in." ”

An attendant pushed the door open and reported: "Your Excellency, the commander of the Wehrmacht, General Kruger, is here. ”

"Ask him to come in." Little Pretorius commanded.

Boggs seized the opportunity and said: "Whether to choose Qing or Britain is a matter of life and death for our country, and I implore that a meeting be convened to vote." ”

"Yes." Little Pretorius nodded without thinking.

Kruger walked into the room quickly, glanced at the two of them, and said, "Two gentlemen, General Feng, the commander of the Qing army, warmly invited our dignitaries to observe their live-fire drills. ”

Live-fire drills? At this time, the Qing army still has the leisure to conduct live-fire drills? Little Pretorius immediately reacted that the Qing army was coming to the country in order to enhance their confidence in resisting the British army, and even smiled happily: "Okay, it's time for us to learn more about the actual combat strength of the Qing army." ”

Southern suburbs, Qing army camp.

Early in the morning, the cavalry of the two battalions drove out of the big camp, and cleared out an extremely open no-man's land in the south of the big camp as a shooting range for live ammunition exercises, and a two-meter-high observation wooden platform was also quickly erected, at ten o'clock in the morning, Feng Zicai led a kind of general to ride over, and after some inspection, he boarded the observation platform and asked: "When will they come?" ”

Wu Junlin, the head of the regiment who followed him, hurriedly replied: "Twelve o'clock, the invitation card says twelve o'clock, and it is expected that they may arrive half an hour earlier." ”

It was only morning, and the sun was already a little scorching, but fortunately, there was a shed built on the observation platform to block the sun, Feng Zicai glanced around and said, "Prepare some herbal tea for each table, as well as binoculars." ”

Feng Zicai didn't plan to do this live-fire drill at all, in his opinion, it was purely a waste of ammunition, and it was easy to meet the request of the call, saying that it was to strengthen the confidence of the Boers to resist the British army, and he knew that this was to prevent the British commander Napier from winning over the Boers.

Wu Junlin's prediction was good, several dignitaries of the Transvaal rushed over on time at half past eleven, there were not many people, a total of nine people, it seems that the Transvaal side is also worried about revealing the true combat strength of the Qing army.

Came to the observation platform, at a glance at a glimpse of several artillery and mortars of different sizes neatly arranged, little Pretorius and others eyes lit up, although they had long guessed that the Qing army was equipped with artillery, but seeing it with their own eyes can be reassuring after all, what surprised them was that the Qing army's artillery was actually quite a lot, there were four types of artillery alone, and the number could be less?

Feng Zicai didn't let anyone introduce him, and after guiding everyone to sit down on the observation platform, he said in a deep voice: "Let's start!" ”

"Boom." The dull sound of artillery sounded immediately, little Pretorius picked up the telescope and looked at the target area marked with a white cloth in the distance, was estimating the range, but heard a cannon sound, he glanced at it, and saw that the same cannon was still firing, he couldn't help but be surprised, only to look carefully and notice that the artillery did not retreat, and then, he saw another shelling, this time he saw it really, the artillery did not retreat, it could be shelled continuously!

He was not the only one who saw the strangeness, after the three consecutive shots of the artillery, everyone saw the abnormality of the Qing army's artillery, and everyone knew how much advantage this kind of artillery that could carry out continuous artillery bombardment, and they couldn't help but be shocked and happy.

Feng Zicai didn't explain, except for the largest artillery that didn't fire live, the other three guns all fired three shots in a row, and seeing the artillery evacuate, little Pretorius pointed to the gun and said softly: "What kind of artillery is that?" ”

Listening to the translation, Feng Zicai smiled and said: "It is also a land artillery, because there are not many shells, so there is no live-fire drill." ”

The largest artillery is an infantry gun with a caliber of 150 mm, with a range of up to four thousand meters, this is an artillery specially designed to suppress enemy artillery fire, because it weighs up to two tons, and it takes six horses to pull it, Feng Zicai only has a total of six guns on hand, and it takes a lot of effort to transport them from Maputo, and the shells will naturally not be less, Feng Zicai just doesn't want to be exposed.

Little Pretorius's attention was quickly attracted by the four soldiers carrying weapons from the country on their shoulders, machine guns, new machine guns! In an instant, he breathed quickly, the Gatling hand-cranked machine gun had been used in actual combat in the Franco-Prussian War, however, the Gatling machine gun was composed of multiple barrels, which was very bulky, and this machine gun only had one barrel ......, I don't know how it performed?

Makqin machine gun, this heavy machine gun developed by the Yuanqi Weapons Research Institute, Yi Zhizu is still named Makqin machine gun, as soon as the gunfire of the "Tututu" Makqin heavy machine gun sounded, little Bytorius and others couldn't help but stand up, this machine gun with only one barrel fired at a faster rate than the Gatling hand-cranked machine gun!

How many such machine guns did the Qing army have? Little Pretorius asked excitedly, "How many meters is the effective range?" ”

Feng Zicai replied indifferently: "Fifteen to two thousand meters." ”

Boggs's face turned extremely pale in an instant, this kind of machine gun is enough to cause devastating damage to the cavalry that the Transvaal is proud of, and no matter how fast the cavalry is, it will only be slaughtered in front of this machine gun!

In an instant, he decided that the Qing army could not be provoked, even if it offended the British, it could not offend the Qing people! Even if the British Navy is stronger than the Qing Navy, the Qing Army is much stronger than the British Army! It is no wonder that the 6,000 troops of the Qing army dared to swagger into Pretoria, and people did not take them seriously at all.

The expression on the face of the commander of the Wehrmacht Kruger was very exciting, excited, stunned, happy and other expressions were intertwined, Feng Zicai dared to propose to use the 6,000 Qing army as bait to defend Pretoria and strive for the opportunity to annihilate the 38,000 British army, he vaguely guessed that the Qing army must have full confidence, but he never thought that the Qing army would have such a powerful machine gun!

Feng Zicai glanced at several dignitaries in the Transvaal, and said slowly: "My prince has never fought a war that he is not sure of, nor has he ever done anything that he is not sure of, and if he dares to come to South Africa and sign a security treaty with your country, he will be completely sure to ensure the security of your country."

What you can see today is only the new weapons developed by our army over the years, and I believe that after the end of the war, you will also have the opportunity to observe the new ironclad ships and weapons developed by our navy. ”

The Navy also has new weapons? Little Pretorius and the others put down their hearts completely, if the other party said this before, I am afraid that few people will believe it, after all, the strength of the British Navy is well known, but now no one dares not to believe this, just the artillery that can be continuously shelled is enough to show that the performance of the Qing Navy's battleship guns is far better than that of the British Navy!

Little Pretorius glanced at Boggs meaningfully, and said with a smile on his face: "For the military strength of your country, my country has always believed in it, and please reply to His Royal Highness the King of Zhennan of your country, my country will definitely do its best to assist and cooperate with your army to resolutely eliminate the invading enemy and safeguard the integrity of our territory and sovereignty!" ”

Listening to the translation, Feng Zicai said with a smile: "You have also seen that our army has a lot of heavy weapons, and if you want to quickly intersperse and fight flexibly, you must have enough horses, and I hope that your country can provide them in large quantities." ”

Little Pytorius said very happily this time: "General Feng, don't worry, even if our national defense force is turned into infantry, we can't let your army lack horses!" After a pause, he continued: "Our country will do its best to meet the food, cattle, sheep, fruits and vegetables, labor, etc., which your army needs!" ”