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On 1 May 1856, Vézé had just finished arranging the operation to eradicate the Thirteen Elements. That was when he found out that someone from Heavenly State had come to seek an audience with him, and that it was a letter from the Wing King, Shi Dakai. However, this person was Lin Fengxiang's personal guard. When Vézé went north to rescue the Northern Expedition Army, the officers in Vézé's army had seen this guy many times. Therefore, he was sure that the person who came was not a spy in disguise.
Eradicating the Thirteen Lines was something that Vézé had to do. The reason was quite simple. The Thirteen Lines had a huge amount of gold and silver in their hands, and they also had a huge amount of land in their hands. Moreover, this group of people had defected to the British and become their lackeys. From Vézé's point of view, each of these crimes was enough to warrant the death penalty. Not to mention, this group of people occupied a large share of the tobacco trade.
Of course, the reason why Vézé decided to take action at this time was that his intelligence network had discovered that these people were beginning to transfer silver to Hong Kong. If they had obediently surrendered to the Photovoltaic Governor's Office, Vézé might not have been so ruthless. At the very least, he would have collected more evidence of their crimes. However, this group of people had already begun to plan for a way out for themselves. This was already an extremely clear statement that they would not occupy the same trench as Vézé. Since that was the case, the Standing Committee of the Restoration Council discussed it and voted unanimously to eliminate the Thirteen Lines.
Faced with the inquiry, the receptionist at the door replied, "They brought news that the Manchu Qing army has begun to equip a large number of firearms. In order to fight against the Qing Army, the Taiping Rebellion has requested for technical support."
"Did they say how much they would pay?" Vézé asked.
Hearing Vézé's straightforward words, the staff member smiled and said, "They said that they have sent 50,000 taels of silver as salary to the Martial Governor."
"It's fine as long as we have money. We can still discuss this matter in a meeting. Let him continue to wait. "Vézé then returned to the venue.
The other committee members didn't know what to say after hearing the news. The reason was actually quite simple. First, they had no time to deal with the Taiping Rebellion after they invaded Guangdong. Second, no one was willing to take the initiative to find trouble for themselves. Now that the Heavenly State had taken the initiative to ask for help, the Central Committee members felt that something was amiss.
"The British have already begun to lay out their plans." Vézé laughed.
Most of the Central Committee members were stunned by this sudden question. Although they could be considered important people now, most of them were very straightforward and had not come into contact with strategic considerations on a broad level. How did the British plan have anything to do with the Kingdom of Heaven of Peace? It was hard for them to understand.
Vézé didn't want to be mysterious. He explained, "The British know that we easily defeated the Qing Army, and now they know that we ban smoking. If the British still want to do the tobacco trade, they either have to beat us into submission or get rid of us. Otherwise, they can only go to Shanghai to sell tobacco. Not to mention other policies of the Taiping army, they are as firm as us on the smoking ban. For these reasons, they will naturally support the Manchu Qing. "
"So the British will die if they don't sell tobacco?" Wei Changrong said angrily. As a martial artist, he would still be injured if he carefully protected his health, not to mention smoking tobacco, which was a destructive substance. Therefore, Wei Changrong's attitude towards tobacco was especially fierce.
Actually, Wei Ze didn't feel anything special. After World War II, the originally popular "narcotics" became popular in Europe and the United States with overwhelming momentum. This business even surpassed most of the world's businesses. In the second decade of the 21st century, in order to increase the total GDP, the British even included the figures of drugs and selling drugs into their own GDP, which really increased the total amount of data.
At this time, Vézé could only use an easily understood reason to say to everyone, "The British are probably best at selling tobacco. This is a racial characteristic of their race. If we don't teach them a lesson, they will definitely sell it. "
Many committee members couldn't help but nod their heads at this statement. Some of them agreed that the British should be taught a lesson, while others felt that perhaps the British really had the nature of selling tobacco.
Since the Heavenly State brothers were very cooperative and brought 50,000 taels of silver, the committee naturally wouldn't refuse to provide technical support to the Taiping Rebellion, especially when this support also had the effect of counterattacking the British.
After interrogating the emissary, more information became clear. Now, in Jiangxi, the Taiping army and Ceng Guofan's troops were fighting fiercely. Ceng Guofan's main force was besieging Jiujiang, and the Taiping army couldn't help Jiujiang, so the Western Expedition Army could only fight with Ceng Guofan in other areas. Both sides were unable to defeat the other in one fell swoop, so the battlefield was intertwined.
In Changzhou and Zhenjiang, Yong Tianhou Zhang Yingchen's troops were in a standoff with the Jiangnan Jiangbei Camp's Qing Army. Although Zhang Yingchen's troops only numbered about 6,000, when faced with the Jiangnan Jiangbei Camp's 100,000 Qing Army, Zhang Yingchen instead launched frequent attacks.
As for Huainan, the situation had fallen into a defensive position. Huainan was now the most important source of supplies for the Taiping Rebellion. Although there were 100,000 troops there, they had to face pressure from Huaibei, Hubei, and Jiangsu. Moreover, the troops had plans to recapture Huaian, so the 100,000 troops were still stretched thin.
"Brother, although I came here on King Yi's orders, the one who really asked for the Prince Of Qi was my Prime Minister Lin. Prime Minister Lin said that the Prince Of Qi is extremely righteous and has always treated his brothers extremely well. Our lives were saved by the Prince Of Qi, and the Prince Of Qi was also wronged by the Tianjing incident. Although this was the case, as long as we sincerely asked the Prince Of Qi, the Prince Of Qi would still lend a helping hand … "Lin Fengxiang's guard said emotionally.
This guard had followed Lin Fengxiang on the Northern Expedition, so he was sincere when he spoke of Vézé's kindness. However, the staff member in charge of receiving him obviously didn't have a good impression of him. He naturally knew how much Vézé had sacrificed for the Taiping Rebellion, and how much the Taiping Rebellion owed Vézé. The more the staff member heard, the angrier he got. He rudely interrupted the guard's words. "Alright, let's not talk about this anymore. Do you have any brothers who work in the Craftsmen Camp with you? "
"Yes! Yes! "The guard quickly replied.
Experts were different from ordinary people. The Liberation Army sent out technical personnel to discuss with the staff of the Taiping army, and they quickly confirmed the needs of the Taiping army. The Taiping Rebellion was very eager to learn Vézé's techniques for making firearms. With the Craftsmen Camp, the Taiping Rebellion's military efficiency was naturally higher than that of the Manchu Qing. However, they had seen Vézé's super high military efficiency, so they naturally hoped to be as capable as Vézé's subordinates.
"They're not here to beg, they're here to help!" the staff member said to Vézé when he reported.
Vézé laughed. "Haha! Lin Fengxiang, Lin Da Ge is a smart man. If they only know how to beg, it doesn't seem like something Lin Da Ge would do. Let me arrange this. "
"Commander-in-chief, we really can't give them too much!" the staff member couldn't help but advise.
"Even if you give them too much, they have to be able to eat it first. I don't intend to throw a bright pearl into the dark side. "Vézé said confidently.
When the technicians from England, America, and France arrived in China, they all came up with their own plans. Although Vézé did not specialize in smelting, he was a graduate student in propeller processing. The material science required for propellers was a very serious subject.
The difference between China's traditional ironmaking and modern steel mills was actually a problem of "boiling molten iron", or in other words, whether the smelting temperature was high enough. Vézé had never seen the blueprints produced by the technicians from the three countries. This was because these technologies were so outdated that the new China didn't even have the corresponding blueprints. However, they had the basics of smelting, such as regenerative chamber, refractory material, ore pH, and so on.
There were many ironmaking shops and craftsmen in the Foshan area of Shaoguan. Relying on his own knowledge, Vézé finally decided on two plans. When choosing the refractory material, it took a lot of time. Vézé didn't want to delay, so he ordered people to prepare the other parts first. Not long ago, the refractory material was produced, and the new factory immediately started work. Because of the powerful equipment, not only did they produce pig iron, they also produced cast iron. Gray iron and white iron could be considered as the basic products of modern ironmaking. Vézé hadn't conquered Jiangxi yet, so he still couldn't produce high-temperature blowpipes. For the time being, he was using a reverberatory furnace to smelt steel. Vézé was prepared to start using the open-hearth high-pressure air blowing method after he had some technical reserves.
Steel was the backbone of a country. Vézé had repeated this many times. Even if the production of cast iron wasn't high, Vézé could still start producing metal machine tools. Once he had a large amount of qualified steel, Vézé naturally dared to upgrade and produce new steel machine tools. Even with such "outdated" equipment, Vézé didn't dare to let the technical personnel of the Taiping Rebellion visit his munitions factory.
In the end, Vézé decided to provide three types of products. In addition to a batch of high-carbon steel crucible tools for the Taiping army, he also provided the fire cap technology that the Taiping army desired. In addition to what the Taiping army wanted, he also provided the Taiping army with a crusher. In the processing of granular gunpowder, the diameter of the powder greatly affected the effectiveness of the gunpowder. The cast iron crusher could effectively improve the degree of grinding and the efficiency of the grinding.
The first two items were fine, but the crusher did make Vézé feel a little pain. However, Vézé didn't like to do things piecemeal. Since he really wanted to improve the combat ability of the Taiping army, then this investment was nothing. In addition to training, the military department gave the brothers of the craftsman battalion a manual.
In addition to these arrangements, Vézé also went to inspect the military department. Since they were going to war with the United Kingdom, all the military departments had to be relocated. At the very least, they couldn't be located in Guangzhou, a place where the British warships could display their might. The next day, in the afternoon, Vézé returned to the command center in a bad mood. As soon as he entered the door, he asked, "Have we set off?"
"Governor, the troops have set off." Bi Qingshan immediately replied, "We've also mobilized people to investigate the land of the Thirteen Elements."
"When will the land investigation of the entire Pearl River Delta be completed?" This was a question that Vézé was very concerned about. Without a stable rear, the Photovoltaic Governor's Office couldn't fight a protracted war with the United Kingdom.
"Latest by July this year, the Pearl River Delta area will be basically understood. By then, we can implement the land grant order! "Bi Qingshan, who was also the director of the Guangdong Land Issue Office, answered very firmly.
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