On the streets of Anqing, a car is dripping.

Looking out through the car window at the bustling street scene, Galio, who was sitting in the back seat, smiled at Hubbert next to him. "Dear Mr. Harriet, maybe we should consider setting up an office in Anqing, so as not to have to come here in person every time..."

"I agree with this proposal...", freeing his eyes from the information in his hand, Hubbert nodded somewhat reservedly.

Hubbard is a middle-aged gentleman in his 40s, just like the average Englishman, with a rigid look, but also a little more contrived...

Seeing Hubbard pretending to be there, Galio couldn't help but curse 'British' in his heart, and at the same time remembered the former manager of Jardine Matheson.

Although that guy doesn't have a very good relationship with him, he won't pretend like the one in front of him.

Turn your head away and let yourself ignore Hartbo, who had turned his gaze back to the data. Galio looked out the window at the scenery, compared to the last time he came, Anqing is now much more prosperous, not only some of the main parts of the city have been paved with gray roads, but also on both sides of the road are some street lamps that are not very common in Germany.

If it weren't for the old Oriental buildings on both sides of the road, Galio would have believed it even if someone told him that this was some Western country.

"What a change..."

At Galio's exclamation, the car had already driven out of the city and arrived at the manor by the lake.

Starting from the recovery of Anqing. Construction of the manor had already begun, only because Elano and Caterina had high requirements for a place to live, so it was not until the new Governor's Palace and other parts of the building were built. It's still not finished.

It was not until the eve of the end of the Cihu River Battle that it was almost built with the efforts of the construction team.

However, at present, it is only the main mansion that has been built, and some other facilities around, such as swimming pools or gardens, have just started, so it is still far from the one on the other side of Wuhu.

"It's been a long time..."Standing at the gate of the mansion with a smile, Yan Shao greeted him with open arms.

"It's been a long time..."I'm not used to hugging people, especially men. Gario held out his hand.

On the side, Hubbert also stretched out his hand and shook Yan Shao.

As an Englishman, he is less accustomed to hugging strangers than Galio—————— especially men. He's the same as Galio in this regard.

Yan Shao didn't care about this, because he didn't like to hug men either...

"Let's go, let's go in and talk...", making a gesture of invitation, Yan Shao stayed with Galio and Hubbert and walked into the mansion.

Although it hasn't been done yet. But by this time the interior of the mansion had been almost finished. In addition, Yan Shao is not short of money, so after seeing the scene outside, when he gets inside, he feels like he has entered another world.

The three of them had just sat down on the couch when they saw Galio laughing. "I haven't said it yet, congratulations on your victory in a battle..."

Hubbard, who was sitting on the side, heard Galio say this, and also congratulated him with some reserve.

As the new manager of Jardine Matheson, he certainly knows how much benefit the Chinese man in front of him has brought to the company. Not to mention the things that Yan Shao buys from Jardine Matheson every year, he only resells cars for Yan Shao in Britain, India and other colonies. The profit you make from being a dealer is quite a lot of money.

Especially after several new assembly lines were put into production, and the production of cars at the car plant reached a huge figure of seven hundred thousand. The profit obtained by Jardine Matheson is even comparable to the profit of half a year.

For Jardine Matheson, Yan Shao is already their most important profit target in China, and the same is true for Lai Ho and other foreign firms. It is precisely because of this that when Yan Shao and Nanjing clashed, they would work so hard to raise materials for Yan Shao—————— naturally, Yan Shao's high price was also one of the reasons.

It's just that the natural superiority of the white race over the yellow race, coupled with the inherent taciturn of the British, makes them very reserved...

Yan Shao didn't care about this, he hadn't been dating the British for a day or two, so he naturally understood this stinky problem of the British, so after thanking and greeting him, Yan Shao picked up the juice that the next person had just brought and said to Galio and Harbert. "Now let's get down to business..."

Hearing Yan Shao talking about business, Galio and Hubbert reluctantly put down the black tea in their cups.

"Please!"

"I believe that the two of them also know that the junta has just won a big victory in the Cihu River, and after the original enemy army defected to the junta, the strength of the junta has now expanded from the original three divisions to nine divisions, and naturally, the original purchased weapons have become somewhat insufficient..."

Speaking of this, Yan Shao frowned slightly. "Although the arsenal has started construction with the help of German experts, I am afraid that there will be no way to put it into production before the end of the year, and this time I invited two of them to come just for this matter..."

"Now the military government has become hostile to Nanjing because of the battle of Cihu River, and urgently needs to expand its military strength in order to prepare itself..."

"Mr. Yan, you should still plan to buy German ordnance this time, right?" Hubbard, who had been sitting on the sidelines, listened quietly for a moment before interjecting.

"That's right." Yan Shao nodded, now the route of the revolutionary army has been determined, the training of the army is French, the equipment is German, and only the pistol is American. Now that the system is gradually established, there is no need to mix in other countries, after all, it is easy to cause trouble.

"Then this time..."It can't be that the Germans will take the business while watching the two of them sign, right? He has just become the manager of Jardine Matheson, if he has just taken office like this, wouldn't he want the shareholders to scold him to death?

"I'd like to know when those gunboats will be delivered, and there's some other business to discuss..."

Now that he has made a bad deal with the Alliance, Yan Shao has to think about some other things. For example......... Directly capture Nanjing or something.

At this time, the Navy needs to come forward, well, of course. It can also be called a water army. It has been a few months since Yan Shao handed over the order to the British.

In this era, the shipbuilding industry of the British was still very developed, and with the efficiency of the British, it only took more than 4 months to build a dreadnought and bring it to the stage of launching and outfitting, and only a gunboat of more than 1,000 tons was obviously not difficult for them (the first dreadnought in history was laid at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard on October 2, 1905. It was launched on February 10, 1906, and sea trials began on October 1 of the same year. ）。 At least from the news from the British last month, those gunboats have entered the outfitting stage...

Hearing Yan Shao say that there were other businesses, Hubbard's expression was a little better.

"It's no problem," Habbert nodded. I had already been in contact with the British side before I came, and now the ships have entered the sea trial stage. If you will. You can send someone to receive them at any time, and if you send someone now, you might be able to drive them back..."

Perhaps because of the influence of the new business, Hubbard also made a small joke.

"Forget it then." Shook his head helplessly, he traveled directly from the British mainland to China, this journey is definitely exercised, the problem is that Yan Shao does not have so many manpower in his hands.

Ten gunboats of more than 1,000 tons, one also gave at least more than 100 people. Ten ships are more than 1,000 people. If it's just the army, it doesn't matter, but the navy doesn't have so many people. Yan Shao also planned to wait for the ship to come, and slowly use the boat to train this group of people...

Hubbert was clearly aware of this, so he smiled and said nothing.

After the conversation with Hubbard, Yan Shao turned his head to look at Galio on the side.

"The amount of arms I need this time is a bit large, so I want to know the prophet, do you have any way to supply it?"

"How much?" Frowning slightly, Galio said.

Although Galio is very confident, no one knows how much Yan Shao wants this time, if Lihe is really not satisfied, and finally has to give some to other foreign companies, this is a matter of smashing the signboard...

Yan Shaozhi didn't think about it so much, but calmly stretched out his fingers. "This number..."

Looking at Yan Shao's outstretched fingers, Galio was taken aback, but after bowing his head and groaning for a while, he nodded slowly. "No problem..."

On the side, although Hubbert still looked very reserved, there was already a hint of envy in his eyes.

Because the list was too large, in order to negotiate the deal, Yan Shao and Galio negotiated for more than a week before they finally reluctantly negotiated.

According to the agreement reached later, within six months, Lihe & Co. will provide the Anhui military government with 300,000 Mauser 1904 rifles, as well as 20,000 6.8mm Danish Madsen machine guns and 10,000 Maxim heavy machine guns.

Naturally, there is no need to say that according to the new firepower configuration, there is still one light machine gun per squad, and there are a total of 432 squads in the division, that is, 432 squads. In addition, in addition to the regimental guard platoon, brigade guard company, division guard company, etc., the division has a total of 471 light machine guns.

In addition, the heavy machine gun is still equipped with a heavy machine gun company in each regiment, and in addition, there is a heavy machine gun battalion directly under the brigade headquarters—————— and many people have seen the power of the machine gun in Cihuhe, so no one has an opinion on the purchase of so many machine guns.

A machine gun company has 18 heavy machine guns, four regiments have 72, plus two heavy machine gun battalions directly under the brigade headquarters, the number of heavy machine guns will reach 216.

The combined number of light machine guns and heavy machine guns is 687, which is much higher than the average during the First World War. It is even 3 higher than the 684 in France, but it is still a little worse than the 1,000 in the United States, when the American infantry division alone had 775 light machine guns, and you must know that before the war, the American infantry division had only 18 per division, and he was really a local tyrant.

In addition to machine guns, Yan Shao also purchased a considerable amount of artillery.

However, relatively speaking, the most important thing is the change in the establishment.

The original artillery was a continuation of the establishment of the new army at the end of the Qing Dynasty, with three companies and six guns, that is, three companies, six guns per company, eighteen guns in one battalion, and five battalions in one regiment, that is, fifty-four guns. Of course, at the end of the Qing Dynasty, this kind of compilation only existed on paper. At least except for the six towns of Beiyang. In most of the southern provinces, the new army had only six to eighteen guns, that is, an artillery battery or artillery battalion.

Naturally, due to the relationship of funds. So all artillery is armed with 75mm guns, even the Beiyang side is no exception. Not to mention the more common 210 or 150mm heavy guns in Europe, there is not even a single 105mm caliber light gun.

Originally, this seemed to be nothing, but this time, when the Cihu River was in place, foreign foreign companies got a batch of 105mm caliber light howitzers, which were much more powerful than 75mm guns. At least the people in the Ministry of Military Affairs liked this thing, so in the end there was a change in the establishment of artillery. What was supposed to be three battalions of one regiment turned into four.

In addition to the original three battalions of 75mm mountain artillery battalions, an additional 105mm light howitzer battalion was added, making the original 54 guns of a regiment become 72. The firepower has increased significantly, and the only problem is maneuverability ...

However, at this time, in addition to the 10 new assembly lines of the automobile factory, the original 5 have also been converted into truck assembly lines, tractor assembly lines, etc., and have been put into use.

15 assembly lines. With the current industrial base of Anhui. It's impossible to satisfy one of them. Fortunately, a large number of parts imported from the United States can operate these 15 assembly lines at full capacity, so as long as there are more tractor trucks, it shouldn't be too much of a problem...

Naturally, poor infrastructure is also a problem, but the first highway in the original history of the world was only built in the 30s, after Hitler came to power, and now it is only 1912, even if the domestic roads are bad, compared with foreign countries, it will not be much worse...

In the end, Yan Shao decided to import 1,000 75mm mountain guns and 500 105mm light howitzers from Lihe & Co. These are enough to equip the 9 infantry divisions that have already been erected, and the rest can even help Yan Shao form another artillery division—————— but now in the revolutionary army. Except for the artillery regiment of the first division, which is still a bit of a look, the others basically only know how to load and fire, and they don't understand the shooting of Zhu Yuan, so the artillery division doesn't have to think about it, and the extra can only be used as a backup.

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300,000 Mauser 1904 rifles, 20,000 6.8mm Madsen light machine guns, plus 10,000 Maxim heavy machine guns. The value of these things alone has reached more than 30 million, not to mention more than a thousand artillery pieces? In the end, the whole business added up to more than 50 million, which is already equivalent to the price of two latest battleships.

When Galio left, Hubbard, who had always behaved very reserved, almost melted Galio with envy in his eyes.

This time, Hubbard also got some business, but only some.

For example, the purchase of some equipment, the purchase of some public appliances, such as street lamps or something, is not a small number, but compared to Galio, it is far behind.

Looking at Hubbard's pretend, as if he couldn't see anything, but from time to time he looked at him with envy and jealousy, Galio wanted to laugh in his heart.

In addition to a large amount of accidents this time, he and Hubbert also negotiated with Yan Shao to set up a special office in Anqing, and left a deputy manager here. In this way, even if there is anything in the future, they don't need to make a special trip from Shanghai, and the general things can be handled by the person in charge of the office.

For Jardine and Lihe, this is obviously something that has not happened in the past, but Yan Shao is still qualified now. After all, the trade between Yan Shao and them is not only limited to the import of ordinary arms or machinery, but also the annual export of Yushi Automobile Company to foreign countries, such as Lihe & Co. and another French foreign company, which undertook the distribution of cars in most parts of Europe, while Jardine Matheson Co., Ltd. was responsible for the Commonwealth countries and their huge colonies.

Several foreign companies make a lot of profit on this every year, they have been discussing this matter for a long time, and this time it is just official...

While Yan Shao was talking about business with Galio and Harbert, the Ministry of Military Affairs was also changing the outfits of the six newly added divisions. It's said to be a change of clothes, but in fact, it's just a change of clothes.

The 100,000 rifles and other equipment that Yan Shao ordered from the Germans after the liberation have not yet arrived, and there is no way to reequip the troops of the six divisions, even if these divisions are basically not fully formed.

Therefore, now the Ministry of Military Affairs can only place an order, and then let the garment factory work overtime to produce military uniforms, after all, the new troops cannot be allowed to continue to wear the original clothing.

By the way, the Ministry of Military Affairs is the happiest about such a large arms procurement plan. However, there are those who are happy and those who are unhappy, and this kind of thing has always existed, and the Ministry of Military Affairs is happy with more than 50 million arms, but the Ministry of Finance is uncomfortable.

Although the Yushi Group now pays very high taxes in accordance with the law every month, it collects and spends a lot, and the Ministry of Finance simply cannot come up with so much money to purchase arms. In the end, there was no way, and I could only go to Yan Shao to borrow it...

More than 50 million, if you count the interest, as long as you think about Li Liang and the people in the Ministry of Finance, you will feel that your head hurts, and correspondingly, Fu Xiuming and Zhang Ying are all happy on their faces...

It is also for this reason that for a long time, the people of the Ministry of Finance did not have a good face when they saw the people of the Ministry of Military Affairs. However, Yan Shao didn't have time to mediate the contradictions between them, because not long after the arms list came out, a news came back from Outer Mongolia that Kulun rebelled... (To be continued......)