In an open space in the Governor's Mansion, Yan Shao didn't know how many laps he had run around.

"Whew..."The footsteps slowed down slightly, and Yan Shao looked at the Elaline people who were chatting not far away. How many laps are left? ”

I don't know what they are talking about, they seem to be very engaged, Yan Shao shouted Elaline three or four times in a row before replying. "There are two and a half laps left..."

Hearing that there were still two and a half laps left, Yan Shao smiled bitterly, wiped the sweat on his forehead with the back of his hand, and then took another step. By this time, he was almost at his limit, so it took him almost 10 minutes to run (walk) the remaining two and a half laps...

Seeing Yan Shao sweating down from the clearing, Elaline and Caterina were a little helpless. "I don't know what kind of nerves you have, you have to run five kilometers every day..."

Caterina on the side also sneered after handing over the towel. "I think he's just hot-headed, and it won't be long before he gives up like he did before..."

In the past, Yan Shao often made certain decisions on a whim, and then, like Caterina said, it didn't take long to give up, but this time...

Glancing at Lu Ying, who was looking at him not far away, Yan Shao wiped the sweat off his face with a towel and didn't say anything more.

This time he didn't do it on a whim, but really seriously.

There is no way, although with his current financial resources and status, he can open a harem that is higher than the level of previous emperors (at least higher than the unlucky Guangxu). But if you want to satisfy all the women in the harem, it's not a matter of money at all.

Now Yan Shao is young and strong, and he can still have some spare strength to meet two at a time. But what about when he's older? What's more, there is now an extra Lu Ying in his harem. Maybe there will be more in the future...

At that time, Yan Shao needed to satisfy the physical fitness of three or four people at a time, and touched the abdominal muscles on his stomach that had almost grown into a piece, and Yan Shao had already made up his mind. Rebuild your abs into eight pieces in the shortest time possible.

To this end, he also formulated a series of plans, such as five kilometers a day like the revolutionary army, and today is the first day.

Seeing that Yan Shao was wiping his sweat with a towel but didn't say anything, Ileno and Caterina shook their heads, turned around and continued to talk to Lu Ying and Kaoru Otsuki about things between women.

Anyway, in their opinion, Yan Shao couldn't last long, so there was no need to care about this kind of thing at all.

The sweat on his face was almost wiped away, and Yan Shao handed the towel to the subordinates on the side. Suddenly, someone walked in from outside. Said to Yan Shaogong. "Governor, Mr. Ergarth, they're here..."

"They're already here..."Looking at his watch in surprise, Yan Shao said suddenly. I didn't expect me to run for so long..."

Elaline and Caterina on the side seemed amused. Covering his mouth and laughing. "Are you sure you are running instead of walking?"

By the time he reached the last two laps, Yan Shao was indeed almost gone, so it was no wonder they said that. Hearing the words of the two of them, Lu Ying and Otsuki Kaoru couldn't help but laugh. But the most exaggerated laugh is Fumiko. The whole person was about to laugh and lay down, seeing her laughing so happily, Yan Shao couldn't help but hold her in his arms and ravage her.

When the play was over, Yan Shao faced his subordinates. "You let them wait in the main hall first, and I'll take a shower and go over."

It smells of sweat, and it's always hard to go out to meet people.

Hearing Yan Shao's words, the subordinate nodded and turned to leave.

After the figure of the subordinate disappeared, Yan Shao looked back at Elano and Katarina. "How. Do you want to wash with me..."

What answered him were two beautiful legs stretched out at the same time, and Yan Shao quickly dodged it. Elaline couldn't help but smack. "The child is still here, what are you talking nonsense..."

Looking down at Fumiko, who was looking at him with big eyes curiously, Yan Shao gave a snort, and quickly turned around to leave.

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After washing off the sweat on his body, Yan Shao walked to the main hall with a head full of water stains, and at this time Urgat and several other people from the foreign company had been waiting here for nearly 20 minutes.

"Sorry to keep you waiting..."

Looking at the few people sitting in the seats, Yan Shao said apologetically.

"Nothing."

After all, Yan Shao is now their big customer, and they won't mind this little thing until Yan Shao's money falls into their pockets.

Nodding, after sitting on the main seat and drinking the juice handed over by the subordinate, Yan Shao said to the few people present. "In that case, let's get down to business..."

Hearing Yan Shao say this, the Ergart and the others also sat up straight and got upright.

"A few days ago, we have reached a preliminary agreement on arms procurement, so today's discussion is mainly about other matters..." I'm going to open an arsenal in Xiangshan that specializes in repairing and producing all kinds of ordnance, well, the ones I bought from you this time..."

As a person from the afterlife, Yan Shao has always believed in walking on two legs.

That is, to be able to rely entirely on yourself on key projects.

Obviously, like steel, weapons and equipment are things that can only be relied on by themselves. If he really relies completely on foreigners, if he fights with the other party one day in the future and imposes a military purchase restriction on himself, then he will be doomed.

The most important thing is that the Mauser 1904 rifle used by the Anhui Revolutionary Army today, although the arsenals in Guangdong and Sichuan are also producing, the production is too small. There is no way to meet Yan Shao's needs, not to mention that Yan Shao can't go to Sichuan and Guangdong to buy rifles, right?

The most important thing is that by the time of World War I, the trade between Germany and China will definitely be blocked by the Entente, and what will Yan Shao do at that time? You can't abandon the German Mauser guns and buy American rifles—————— at that time Britain was playing lively, it is estimated that there is no energy and no capacity to sell weapons, and if you want to buy it, you can only find Americans to buy it...

Therefore, the most important thing for Yan Shao is self-reliance, as long as weapons such as rifles can be made by himself. You don't need to worry about that...

"Arsenal—" Ergarth nodded, then looked at his notebook. I'm right. Are you planning to order equipment specifically for the production of Mauser rifles, Browning pistols, Madsen light machine guns, Maxim heavy machine guns, 75mm mountain guns and 105mm howitzers, as well as the required ammunition? ”

"That's right." After speaking, Yan Shao glanced at the British, although none of the equipment ordered this time was British, but it seemed that they had learned a lesson from the last time, so they were not in a hurry to come out this time. "In addition to these, I intend to open a shipyard in Wuhu dedicated to the repair of 10 gunboats ordered from the British. In addition, I need this shipyard to have some shipbuilding capacity, especially the ability to build warships..."

Compared with the business of the arsenal, the shipyard is probably more profitable. So the British were quick to stand up and say so. "If you wish, I can also help you contact a few senior ship designers in the UK, and there is no problem in designing a normal warship, and if necessary, I can even help you contact a few naval officers..."

"It's naturally best this way..."Yan Shao said with a smile.

For China. The importance of the ocean cannot be overstated.

However, the Chinese navy at this time was mainly composed of the Min family. This is also known as the Fujian Gang. The Fujian navy refers to the naval force composed mainly of people from the Fuzhou area of Fujian Province from 1898 to 1945 and controlled by Fuzhou generals.

At present, more than eighty percent of the officers and men of the Chinese Navy are Fujianese, and Yan Shao has no opinion on the Fujianese, but a country's navy is almost entirely controlled by people from one province, and no matter how you think about it, it is unreasonable. After all, there are nearly 30 provinces in this country, and there are nearly 10 coastal provinces, and the current situation is not only unreasonable. It is also bad for the Navy, because it is a completely deformed development.

At this time, Yan Shao only had one place in Anhui. But his ambitions are not limited to Anhui.

So although there is still a long time, he must first prepare to deal with the Fujian Navy in the future, that is, to build a team of his own. This is also the reason why Yan Shao required a certain amount of ocean-going capability when ordering gunboats, and at the same time had to send people to Britain.

Gunboats have grown from more than 100 tons to thousands of tons, and are subdivided into river gunboats, coastal gunboats, etc., and even torpedo gunboats later, but they can usually be collectively referred to as "patrol gunboats".

Yan Shao needs gunboats to help him control the Yangtze River, but he needs him to help him train a navy of his own.

Of course, with warships, there needs to be a place for repairs. Otherwise, if something goes wrong in the future, Yan Shao will not be able to send the warship to Britain for repair.

In addition, the crude steel output of Xiangshan Iron Plant has reached more than 500,000 tons, and they must find a way out.

Seriously, Wuhu is actually not a very good shipyard, and the reason is very simple, the water is deep.

The water depth from Nanjing to Anqing reaches 6 meters, and only 5,000 to 10,000-ton sea vessels can be navigated.

If it is in the later generations, the 10,000-ton class is already quite remarkable, after all, after the use of missiles and other weapons, most of the destroyers in later generations are 3, 5000 tons, even the American Burke-class is only more than 9000 tons, Japan's Atago barely exceeds 10000, and South Korea's KDX-3 is more powerful, and it is more than 11000 tons.

However, in this era, it is the era of large ships and huge guns, and it is possible to pull out a cruiser of more than 10,000 tons, and the number of 2 or 30,000 tons of battle cruisers and battleships is even more than enough.

Fortunately, the main purpose of Yan Shao's construction of the shipyard is to train manpower and lay the foundation for building a large shipyard along the coast in the future, so there is no need to care about these. And even if you can't build large warships, it's not bad to build some frigates, destroyers or something, well, there are submarines, most of China's submarines in later generations were made by Wuhan shipyards, deep inland, and you don't have to worry about air raids by the United States and Japan.

By the way, the water depth from Wuhan to Anqing is only 4.5 meters, and it can only pass 5,000-ton sea vessels at most, which is also the reason why Lu He built submarines there. Because the displacement of submarines is generally only 2, 3000 tons, and it will not be possible to replace it with a larger destroyer...

————————————————————

Hearing Yan Shao's words agreeing with him, Powell's face showed a hint of joy.

Because of the Xinhai Revolution. Now half of China is in chaos, and the financial statements of major foreign banks are also red lines. Before coming to Anqing, Urgarte and Powell even had a headache about how to explain to shareholders.

Also because of this relationship. The sudden appearance of Yan Shao became their hope.

As long as there is Yan Shao's business, at least in the second half of this year, the financial statements of various foreign banks will not become too ugly.

Seeing Powell's happy appearance, Yan Shao shook his head slightly in his heart while smiling.

In fact, he personally preferred to hand over the business to the French, who at this time had only one colony in the Far East, Vietnam, and did not care much about other places. If Yan Shao wants to find a country in Europe to contain Britain, France will be a very suitable target.

And now Elaineau's father has also been promoted to lieutenant general, and he has considerable influence even in France. There's this relationship. I believe that the French would also be happy to have a friend in the Far East, even if this friend seems relatively insignificant now.

However, France's strength is good, but it does not seem to be outstanding in armaments.

Except for one that claims to be the first in Europe. In fact, it is the second army, and Yan Shao doesn't know what famous weapons and equipment France has. Rifle? The most outstanding rifles of this era were the German Mauser G98 and the British Lee Enfield. In particular, the Mauser G98, even the American Springfield and the Japanese Type 38 are all imitations of this rifle.

As for the pistol, the German shell gun is certainly a classic. But the structure is complicated and also too expensive.

In comparison, the M1911 in the United States has 11.43mm. That is, with a caliber of 0.45 inches, it only takes one shot to completely incapacitate the enemy. Moreover, this pistol has been in service for more than a hundred years in Yan Shao's time, and it is likely that it will continue to be in service for several decades, which shows the degree of classicism.

Light and heavy machine guns ...

The performance of the Madsen light machine gun is good, but it seems unlikely that in this day and age it will be impossible to find a better light machine gun than the Madsen.

In the case of heavy machine guns, the power of Maxim has been fully demonstrated in places such as the Somme.

As for light and heavy artillery, does it need to be said more about the power of German-made artillery?

The words of the Navy. The French Navy is mainly active in the Mediterranean, and the design of warships is also biased towards this. Not surprising either. After all, France's main colony was in North Africa, so the scope of French naval activities was mostly in the Mediterranean, and in later generations, Britain and France even had disagreements with other countries when they cooperated with the 'Horizon-class destroyers' for this reason.

Even later, when designing the Richelieu-class battleships, the positioning of the battleships was because their colonies were mainly concentrated in North Africa, so the main task was to seize the sea supremacy in the Mediterranean Sea and the eastern Atlantic, and to ensure the maritime connection between the colonies and the French mainland, and the demand for the ocean was not high.

Unlike France, Yan Shao still has high expectations for his navy, and both the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean are much more vast than the Mediterranean, so it is naturally impossible for a country that only operates in the Mediterranean to help him get a navy.

So naturally, although Yan Shao was very inclined to France, he could only hand over the business to Britain, Germany and the United States in the end.

"If there's anything great in France, I'd really like to buy it..."

With a long sigh, Yan Shao looked at Urgat and the others under his seat, ready to talk about the next thing.

However, there is one thing that he is actually mistaken, that is, France at this time is not actually without advanced equipment, on the contrary, it can even be said to be epoch-making.

This equipment is the French 75mm field gun, also known as Miss 75...

The reason for this name is that this kind of artillery was really as widely used as a young lady during the First World War.

The rate of fire of the artillery of the same era was generally only 6 or 7 rounds per minute, while the French Miss 75 gun could reach the level of 15 rounds, and even 30 rounds at the limit. The fact that the highest rate of fire of the same time was only 15 rounds (Lee Enfield in England), and the fact that a cannon could have a rate of fire equal to or even exceed that of the fastest rifle speaks for itself...

The reason for this is because before the Miss 75 gun, no matter what kind of artillery it was, there was a common drawback, and that was recoil.

The recoil of the gun when fired will push the gun back away from the gun position, which not only makes the soldier have to struggle to push it back into position, which limits the location that the gun can choose when placing the gun, but also makes the aim completely lost, and the ballistic elements have to be recalculated, which is time-consuming and inefficient. The French made an improvement by adding a hydraulic stationary and retreating mechanism to the gun, so that the recoil of the gun was absorbed by the stationary and retreating machine, and the recoil transmitted to the gun carriage was reduced.

This was simply an artillery revolution, and as a result, Miss 75 became the most advanced rapid-fire gun at the time. It's a pity that the French are too superstitious about this kind of artillery, and as a result, the French only use this kind of artillery on the battlefield, so they suddenly stopped eating when facing the heavy artillery cluster of the Germans...

No way, after all, it's a rapid-fire gun, although the rate of fire is amazingly high, but when it comes to power and range, it's much worse than heavy artillery.

Yan Shao can be said to be a military fan in later generations, but most of the military fans at that time only studied World War II, modern equipment or something, and few studied World War I and pre-World War I equipment, Yan Shao is the same, so he doesn't know that France actually has a 75 Miss cannon, and the performance is quite excellent, otherwise he will definitely replace his artillery with this kind of artillery...

But then again, no matter how good the performance is, the rapid-fire gun is still a rapid-fire gun. At least in World War I, the main force on the battlefield was machine guns and heavy artillery. The French Miss 75 is certainly powerful, but when she arrives on the battlefield, she can't lift her head under the heavy artillery of the Germans ... (To be continued......)