Volume 1 Wuchang Vortex Chapter 34 Arms Trade
"Why, are you frustrated?"
As soon as he went downstairs, Xiao Anguo winked at Yang Qiu, causing Shen Shukai, Manager Dong and others beside him to laugh secretly.
"Only send the sentence 'The Peacock Flies Southeast', and forget about the rest." Yang Qiu glared at him unhappily, and seeing that the servants were still packing their bags, he handed the address and content of the telegram to Shopkeeper Dong: "Brother Shen, are you still going to Chengdu?"
"We're not going to Chengdu, we're going back to Shanghai." Shen Shukai patted Yang Qiu's bag and said with a smile, "It just so happens that there's a boat coming soon, so we plan to go back right away. There's 1 million here."
Yang Qiu did not stop him. He was more anxious about this matter than Shen Shukai. Since the Chengdu Massacre had already happened, the Wuchang Uprising must be imminent. Since the Hanyang Factory could not provide any help now, they had to find some external aid. Otherwise, how could they stop the Beiyang elite?
When the few people arrived at the dock, it was already crowded with people. Judging from their accents, most of them were ordinary people who had fled from Sichuan because of the war. As the waterway to Chongqing had been cut off, they could only flee to various places by land through Hankou.
The spread of war has resulted in many more soldiers on the streets, and the air is becoming more tense. After finally squeezing into the crowd and seeing Shen Shukai off, Xiao Anguo finally couldn't help it. He held him and walked towards the ferry back to the camp, while asking, "Brother, I'm not an outsider, right? Tell me the truth, what exactly is that thing of yours?"
“Design drawings of the French 340mm naval gun and submarine snorkel.”
"Naval gun? Or a ventilator?" Xiao Anguo felt puzzled, but was afraid of exposing his rustic nature in front of his brothers, so he could only hold it in for the time being and not ask any more questions.
His strange appearance made Yang Qiu temporarily forget what happened just now, but he was still a little worried about Shen Shukai's trip.
The design drawings were fine, and the two technologies were carefully selected by him from the data machine. He originally considered selling the data of the French "Miss 75", but considering that Germany might not think that its artillery was inferior to France based on the drawings alone, and the "Miss 75" was kept so secret that the world did not know about such a high-speed field artillery until the beginning of World War I, so unless the real thing was produced, Germany would think it was fake.
The 340mm naval gun is different. It was the main naval gun of the French Bretagne-class battleships before World War I. The whole of Europe knew that France was building a new battleship, and that this naval gun was more powerful than the British 343mm naval gun. The most important thing was that it had a very special feature, which was that it used a large recoil assist mechanism similar to the "Miss 75", which greatly improved its efficiency.
Judging from the actual combat at sea, this kind of assisted recoil mechanism is just a romantic idea of the French, but no one knows it yet! Theoretically, the firing rate of three rounds per minute would definitely make Germany jealous!
Although in fact the German Navy and the French Navy had almost no battles during World War I, William II and the German Navy would not think much of it. Before World War I, a large part of the German Navy's goal was to defeat the French fleet, so the German intelligence agencies had to pay attention to every move of their mortal enemy, not to mention the details of the new ship that was under construction, so Germany must have mastered some intelligence. As long as they saw the blueprints, they would understand and would definitely be willing to pay some price to buy the full set of blueprints.
As for submarine snorkel technology, it was a technology that only appeared after World War I. You should know that submarines during World War I did not have the ability to dive for a long time. To put it bluntly, they were small semi-submersible torpedo boats that had to surface most of the time. They could only dive for about one or two hours when they were close to the enemy, and their survivability was extremely poor.
But with the snorkel, submarines can stay underwater for a long time, which not only improves the submarine's concealment capability, but more importantly, allows submarines to truly have a certain ability to compete with surface warships in this era of visual observation and no anti-submarine means!
According to later information, William II never worried about his own army. Instead, building more and more fleets was a concern. He would definitely be willing to purchase a technology that could quickly narrow the distance with the British Navy and even gain the upper hand in some cases.
Moreover, the snorkel technology is not so easy to imitate. This is different from his previous plan to sell tank design drawings. The tanks of this era are actually just theoretical breakthroughs, but the snorkel, especially the submarine snorkel, is a very complex technology. First of all, the snorkel also needs to be waterproof. It has a large number of tortuous circuits inside, and it also requires the use of dozens of technologies such as high pressure and drilling through the pressure hull. According to the data from the data machine, it took five years for the snorkel technology to be successfully developed from the initial proposal. So he is not afraid that the Germans will regret it after seeing the design drawings. Unless he meets a genius with a photographic memory, otherwise the Germans will have no choice but to pay.
Even if he had a photographic memory, he had told Shen Shukai that he could only look at half of it before the deal was completed. Plus, it was already 1911, so it was hard to say whether Germany could break through the other half of the blueprint within three years.
He considered it over and over again before bringing out this technology. After all, he couldn't fool these guys without some real stuff, not to mention Germany, which had the highest level of machinery. Fortunately, submarine technology during World War I was still restricted by factors such as engines and torpedoes. Coupled with Germany's inherent tragic geographical environment and the subsequent dishonesty of the United States, this technology was not enough to truly change the course of the war. The worst that could happen was that the Royal Fleet would lose more ships, which was nothing for Britain in its heyday.
So he was not worried about making money, but whether Germany was willing to exchange arms. 30 Maxims, 100 Madsen M50s and 1 million rounds of ammunition were just a drop in the bucket for Germany, but they were the key to whether he could keep the three towns. The only problem was that Germany might not have Madsen, but fortunately he had told Shen Shukai how to hint to Germany to get the supply.
Although Hanyang is worse than expected, a good foundation has been laid. At the very least, the two factories have nearly 10,000 skilled workers who have been trained for many years, which is a valuable asset. Both Hankou and Hanyang are the key to this battle. Only by keeping China's largest and most complete industrial base can there be a glimmer of hope for the future.
Ten days later, Manager Dong who stayed in Hankou brought good news. Shen Shukai was indeed a big businessman with great courage. Although he did not quite believe what Yang Qiu said, he still sent a telegram to the board of directors of Heshengyuan and persuaded the shareholders to make adjustments to branches across the country and even overseas under the pretext of taking precautions. He began to accelerate the collection of working capital and secretly stored large amounts of cash and silver in warehouses.
At the same time, he did not delay Yang Qiu's affairs. He found a down-and-out Vietnamese royal family from somewhere, disguised himself as a Vietnamese revolutionary who was resisting France, and set up a shell company called Far East Yunnan Company to negotiate with Germany.
When the German
400,000 US dollars was not even a drop in the bucket for Germany, but it fired the first shot for Shen Shukai. So when he took out the instructions for the submarine snorkel, the German ambassador ignored the surprised looks around him and immediately sent an urgent telegram to the commander of the Qingdao Far East Fleet and the domestic Navy Department.
Two days later, the commander of the German Far East Fleet in Qingdao arrived in Shanghai. The German General Staff and the Navy Department immediately demanded that Shanghai must obtain all the drawings of this technology.
After seeing half of the ventilation pipe design and manufacturing drawings with their own eyes, Germany not only agreed to invest US$300,000 to purchase the ventilation pipe design drawings and all the information, but also agreed to settle in US dollars as required, and paid two installments of US$700,000, totaling 140 taels of silver, on the same day.
Germany also gave preliminary agreement to Shen Shukai's proposal to exchange arms through a shield, but Germany did not have the Madsen M50 light machine gun. In the end, Shen Shukai conveyed Yang Qiu's hint that Russia had it. Germany then remembered that Russia did order about 500 Madsen M50s during the Russo-Japanese War, but due to late delivery, most of them did not participate in the war after being shipped to the Far East. Nicholas II thought it was troublesome to transport them back, and in order to deter Japan, they were all stored in Vladivostok.
Yang Qiu had been eyeing this batch of guns for a long time, but there was no hope for him to go to Russia now , so he went around looking for Germany for help. Germany, anxious to obtain the enemy's naval guns and snorkel technology, immediately contacted Russia in the Far East. No one knew how Russia was convinced, but in the end Russia agreed to sell 100 guns at a price of US$500 each, and each gun was equipped with four empty magazines. After receiving the news, Germany sent warships from Qingdao to Vladivostok to retrieve them that night. After solving the problem of light machine guns, Germany was worried about its own Maxim machine guns again, because Germany had no stock on hand. In order not to delay the time for transportation from Europe, it simply withdrew 20 Maxim machine guns from the Far East garrison and promised to deliver all machine guns in Shanghai in 15 days.
As for the bullets, Germany was very hesitant. According to convention, countries rarely sell bullets directly, especially such a large-scale smuggling. Finally, Shen Shukai gritted his teeth and quoted a price of 2 yuan for 10 bullets, which was twice the market price. He also expressed through an agent the temptation to no longer trade if there were no bullets. After repeated hesitation, Germany agreed to sell 300,000 7.92mm pointed bullets at this price, which were also drawn from the Far East garrison.
Yang Qiu was both happy and amused after receiving the news. He was happy because although there were 10 fewer Maxims than expected, he finally got the Madsen M50 and earned the first money after his reincarnation. He was sad because the submarine snorkels, which he thought could be sold at a high price, were sold at a low price instead. The Germans did not even blink an eye for the design data of the French 340mm main gun, which they thought was worthless. However, they hesitated for a long time about the snorkels. As for the urgently needed bullets, there were too few!
If he were there, he would definitely offer 2 million US dollars first. Unfortunately, Shen Shukai didn't understand the technology. He only knew that Yang Qiu said to sell it for at least 500,000. When he saw that the prices of the two drawings were slightly higher than the limit, he made the deal.
Alas, it’s still the traditional thinking of big ships and big cannons!
However, Shen Shukai was no ordinary person. Taking advantage of Germany's joy over obtaining new technology, he signed a pre-sale contract with Germany to purchase 100 M1908 75mm field rapid-fire guns produced by Krupp at a price of US$2,000 per gun. Originally, Shen Shukai wanted to order some artillery shells, but Germany flatly refused.
After careful consideration, Shen Shukai agreed to the contract. According to the meaning in his telegram, he would buy it at a low price first and make a fortune by reselling it later.
Selling guns but not shells! This kind of thing is probably only possible in the Far East in the late Qing Dynasty.
Yang Qiu looked down on this kind of field artillery that was purely for export. First, its rate of fire was slow, and second, it was too heavy. His ideal artillery composition should be the "Type 92 Infantry Gun" and the German Krupp 105 howitzer. As for the French Miss 75, which represented the highest level of artillery before World War I, he didn't even think about it. A big guy weighing more than a ton might still be called a field light artillery in Europe, but it would be no different from waste in China. What's more, even if France wanted to buy it, it would be impossible for it to sell 75mm field artillery before the war. As for the 105, Germany was willing to sell it, but even if it took the entire Hanyang, the logistics could not afford it for the time being. However, whether it was for the Yangxia War or future development, he also needed a military transition, so he agreed to sign first, but the condition was that the first batch of 54 guns must be delivered within two months.
As for artillery shells, there is no need to worry, because the Hanyang Gun Factory has been producing 75mm artillery shells. As long as we make some modifications after they become stable, we can produce improved artillery shells with good power.
Shen Shukai was a steady man. He did not send a telegram until everything was settled. Although he did not say when the arms could be obtained, he said that Germany had agreed to complete the transaction within ten days. According to the time calculation, it should be delivered before the Mid-Autumn Festival. As for how to transport it secretly to Hanyang, I believe that Shen Shukai, a big businessman, also has his own way. The two transactions totaled 700,000 US dollars, which is equivalent to 1.4 million yuan in China (except for specific foreign currencies in the book, other yuan are calculated ). He also temporarily deposited it in the Bank of America under the name of Yang Qiu.
This amount of money may seem scary, but it costs about 200,000 yuan a month to support a town (excluding equipment), and the Hanyang Gun Factory is a bottomless pit. So for Yang Qiu, who is determined to carry out technological innovation in Hanyang after the situation stabilizes in the future, money is still a big problem.
Seeing Yang Qiu rubbing his temple, Ma Kui laughed. He had already learned about this from Xiao Anguo, but he didn't expect Yang Qiu to come and tell him about the progress in his busy schedule. He was very happy that Yang Qiu trusted him so much. When he heard that he had exchanged dozens of drawings for so many good things and earned 1.4 million, he was even more impressed.
But he soon frowned and asked, "Brother Hu, I'm not saying anything discouraging, but your Maxim... and Madsen M50, no one in the new army has ever used them, who are you going to find to use them?"
Yang Qiu: “…”
