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On February 11th, the paddle-wheel steamship docked outside the Nanjing port controlled by the Taiping army, attracting a large crowd of onlookers. Even though there was a war going on, there were still many onlookers. The troops set up a cordon to keep the group of people at a distance.
As for the Taiping army soldiers nearby, their expressions were filled with curiosity, doubt, confusion, and a strong sense of vigilance. There were many armed foreigners on the ship, nervously on guard.
Vézé brought Chen Zhe, the head of the technical department of the General Staff, and Ke Gongyu, the commander of the training brigade, as well as the troops of the training brigade to pick up the goods. Ke Gongyu was puzzled. "What are these foreigners afraid of? Are they afraid that we will rob them? "
"They are afraid that we will rob them." Vézé replied. The Taiping army only killed the Manchu Qing officials and exploited the rich. They never robbed the common people. With this mentality, it was difficult for Ke Gongyu to understand why the foreigners, who were used to robbing, were so afraid.
Seeing Vézé, the businessman Smith took a small boat to the shore. It seemed that he did not have much confidence in Vézé.
"How do we inspect the goods?" Vézé asked.
"Let's inspect the goods." Smith suggested.
Vézé laughed. "Don't think it's too slow. Just transport the goods from the ship to the shore. We will pay you after the inspection. Let me tell you in advance, we will inspect each gun one by one. If there is a problem with the gun, you will have to bring it back. "
Smith did not expect Vézé to be so serious. He was a little hesitant. Finally, Smith replied, "I have seen the gunpowder. There is no problem. But the gun is an old gun. We have mentioned it in the contract. "
"An old gun and a crappy gun are two different things!" Vézé immediately refuted Smith's point of view. Vézé had read about a case. During the Civil War, a consortium provided a batch of crappy guns to the Northern army, but the army refused to accept them. So the consortium sued the court. In the end, the court ruled in favor of the consortium. The U.S. Army had to pay for it.
Vézé did not trust Smith at all. He had to ensure that the weapons he bought were up to standard. The number of troops was sufficient, and there were plenty of people to inspect the weapons. During the inspection, the instructors could also familiarize themselves with the new weapon.
In order to put pressure on Smith, Vézé waved to the soldiers behind him, who carried two large boxes over. After opening it, it was filled with silver ingots. Smith looked at the shining white chests of silver ingots and couldn't help but suck in a breath of cold air. In the end, he gave in and agreed to Vézé's suggestion.
Europe's flintlock rifle is indeed much more powerful than the Manchu Qing's matchlock muskets; it is already a fairly mature product. Hundreds of years of continuous wars in Europe had constantly increased the demand for military technology, and this demand had indeed promoted the advancement of the military industry.
The officers and soldiers of the Instructional Brigade found that the European rifle was quite similar to the flintlock Vézé had modified from a matchlock, but the barrel was thicker and the muzzle was larger. Furthermore, some of these rifles even had a bayonet. Although the bayonets were full of rust and had many dents, they did not seem to be very useful. However, the overall design of the rifle was much stronger than the barely modified rifle.
"Tell the people on the ship not to be afraid, we want to test the guns!" Vézé said to Smith.
Smith had no choice but to pass on Vézé's words to the people on the ship. The muskets began to clash, and just as Vézé expected, at least one-third of the muskets had problems with the springs and could not fire at all. Vézé handed these muskets to Smith and asked him to send them back to the ship. The other muskets that could fire were also inspected, and the poor quality ones were rejected.
In the end, more than 2,500 muskets were selected, and the gunpowder was opened one by one. Vézé also ordered people to use a tool used by the Taiping army to check whether the gunpowder was damp. It was a copper double-layer casing, and the inner and outer layers were cut out along the longitudinal edge, so that the tube was not sealed. After a certain angle, it was still a closed tube, and there was a small rotating mechanism on the side. The tube was inserted into the bottom of the gunpowder barrel from top to bottom, and the small mechanism was turned to seal the mouth of the tube at the bottom, and then it was lifted. When the tube was turned, the two gaps were aligned, and the composition of the sampling compartment could be seen.
These methods of inspection made Smith's face more and more ugly. Sure enough, a lot of the gunpowder was damp, and there were lumps. There was also a lot of sand at the bottom of the gunpowder barrel. Vézé was a little unhappy at first, but in the end, he was even happy. It seemed that this was the behavior of these arms dealers.
Seeing that he couldn't trick Vézé, and seeing that Vézé didn't get angry, Smith came over and said: "General, I think you can understand that I have done my best to transport so many supplies to Nanjing in such a short time. As for the damaged guns, they can still be used after repair. If you are willing to calculate what kind of parts you need, I can be responsible for sending these parts to your hands. As for gunpowder, I can also provide you with more. "
Vézé didn't want to haggle over the details. What Vézé needed was to expand his reputation among the foreign devils through Smith. Of course, this reputation definitely couldn't be a "rich, stupid" reputation. After bargaining between the two sides, Vézé finally accepted all 4,000 guns, including the damaged ones. Of course, the price of a damaged gun was reduced to two taels. The two sides signed a contract for various parts, including bayonets, springs, gunpowder, and so on.
"I have never seen such a smart general like you!" Smith said to Vézé after he asked his people to move the silver to the paddle steamer.
"I'll take it that you're praising me," Wei Ze said with a smile.
Smith didn't directly answer Vézé's words, he also smiled and said: "I look forward to doing more business with you. General, I think you may be interested in the 12-pounder cannon. "
Vézé nodded, "Of course I am interested, but I don't know much about cannons. We have to talk about this business."
"You can send someone to go with me to Shanghai." Smith smiled.
"If there is a chance, I will send someone." Vézé replied.
As a weapons dealer, Smith certainly knew that Vézé wouldn't send people to Shanghai during the war. At least in his army, his hairstyle was completely different from that of Manchu Qing, and the Qing Army in Shanghai would immediately notice it. After making an appointment with Vézé to do business again in about two months, Smith returned to the paddle steamer on a small boat. The boat immediately turned around and went down the river towards Shanghai.
"Order the troops to change their equipment. Give the new guns to the brigade, and give the other flintlocks to the troops." Vézé ordered.
"Will the soldiers have enough time to train?" Ke Gongyu was very doubtful. The 1st Division originally had 1,000 flintlocks. This time when Vézé led the troops to the east, he brought the flintlocks of the 2nd Brigade of the 1st Division with him. With the new batch of weapons, Vézé's entire army could have a flintlock, but they might not be able to keep up with the training.
Vézé replied: "Then we will rotate them. Some of them will train, and some of them will fight. We have fewer troops, and Nanjing is not so easy to attack. "
"What's so hard about Nanjing? We have already occupied a section of the city wall. "Ke Gongyu was very puzzled by Vézé's idea.
Vézé wanted to tell Ke Gongyu the truth, but he couldn't. Earlier, Vézé had already started to reflect. When Luo Dagang suddenly agreed to be below Vézé, Vézé felt that something was wrong. After breaking a section of the city wall, Vézé was excited for ten minutes, and finally realized that he had overdone it. Working in a state-owned enterprise, this was not a particularly difficult thing for Vézé.
From a military point of view, breaking this section of the city wall had no particular practical use. According to the map provided by the mapping department, Vézé found that the significance of this section of the city wall was very limited. The Gate of Treasures was the largest city gate in Nanjing. It was much larger than the city gates in Beijing that Vézé had seen during his travels. Moreover, the structure of the Gate of Treasures was a barbican, even if they broke a section of the city wall, it would be meaningless.
From a political point of view, this section of the city wall was not a help to Vézé, but a burden. If he broke a section of the city wall, others would naturally blame Vézé for not being able to control the entire Gate of Treasures. After fighting for such a long time, Vézé already understood that his military strength was not enough to take over Nanjing. From a political point of view, if Vézé got lucky and really took over Nanjing by accident, then he would be overshadowing the government. What would Hong Xiuquan and Yang Xiuqing think of Vézé? Moreover, the generals of the Taiping Rebellion were waiting to take over Nanjing, how would they think of Vézé?
Vézé set off from Wuchang, and followed the Yangtze River all the way to Nanjing. He was blinded by victory. Now that he encountered some resistance, he turned around and thought. He realized that he had made a big mistake. But the business with the foreign devils was not bad, Vézé just found a reason to withdraw his troops.
The generals did not dare to disobey Vézé's orders, so Vézé led his troops from offense to defense. The Qing Army was also quite powerful, other than the Qing Army in Nanjing who quickly blocked the small hole in the city wall near the Gate of Treasures, the other Qing Army, after receiving the news, also began to gather in the direction of Nanjing.
All kinds of news came one after another, Vézé had a good excuse. On the 14th of February, the first vanguard of the main force arrived in Nanjing. It was Lin Fengxiang and Li Kaifang, led by more than eight thousand people. They brought a piece of news that a Jiangxi Qing Army was trying to attack Chi Zhou.
Vézé immediately handed over the important task of attacking Nanjing to Lin Fengxiang and Li Kaifang. Although this method of mending the pen after the sheep had been lost was a little stiff, Wei Ze had no other choice. He led his troops west to 'reinforce' Chi Zhou.
It was impossible to go against the current, even though the wind and the current were smooth sailing. Vézé could only take his troops by land. Hurrying, the vanguard finally arrived at Chi Zhou on the 19th of February. There was always some wind in the rumor, and there really was a Jiangxi Qing Army near Chi Zhou. But it was not the Qing Army that was specifically attacking Chi Zhou, but a small group of scattered Qing Army. They did not know where to go, so they wandered around Chi Zhou. They wanted to see if there was an opportunity to enter Chi Zhou. After a long and arduous journey, Vézé's troops were exhausted. The cavalry used their last bit of strength and finally annihilated the more than two hundred Qing Army.
Chi Zhou was not far from Anqing. Vézé immediately contacted Wei Changrong, who was guarding Anqing. Knowing that they were still guarding here, Vézé was completely relieved.
Regardless of whether the troops behind him had all arrived at Chi Zhou, Vézé led the troops that could still move westward. On the 21st, Vézé finally entered Anqing, panting. After such a struggle, when Vézé saw Wei Changrong, he gave Wei Changrong a fright. "Uncle, why are you like this?"
Of course, Vézé could not say that he had made a mistake. He had to fight to the death to make up for it. He could only say tiredly, "I heard that Qing Yao was preparing to attack Anqing, so I rushed back!"
"Uncle, you are so well-informed!" Wei Changrong praised.
Looking at Wei Changrong's sincere expression, Vézé wanted to explain the truth, but he held back. Some things could not be explained, and everything Vézé did had to be tested. If the King Of The East, Yang Xiuqing, did not believe him, then Vézé's efforts would be tantamount to failure. This was something that did not need to be discussed.
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