Chapter Thirty-Four: Arms Deal

  P.S: This is a book with a different style from the previous one, but please trust Hippopotamus, I really put my heart into writing it!

  Collect!!

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  "What's wrong, lost your appetite?"

  Xiao Anguo winked at Yang Qiu as soon as he came downstairs, causing Shen Shukai and Dong Zhanggui to secretly laugh.

  "Just send the message 'Peacock flies southeast', forget about the rest." Yang Qiu glared at him with a bad temper, seeing that the servant was still packing up the luggage, handed over the telegram address and content to Dong Zhanggui: "Is Shenda still going to Chengdu?"

  "Not going to Chengdu, but back to Shanghai." Shen Shu Kai patted Yang Qiu's bag and smiled: "It just so happens that there is a boat in a while, so I plan to go back immediately. This place is 10 million."

  Yang Qiu didn't stop him, this matter was more urgent for him than Shen Shukai, since the Chengdu blood case had already occurred, then the Wuchang Uprising must be imminent. Since the Hanyang Arsenal is currently unable to provide any effect, then external aid must be found, otherwise what can block the Northern Expedition's elite troops?

  When several people arrived at the dock, it was already crowded with people. Listening to their accents, most of them were ordinary people who escaped from Sichuan due to war and chaos. Since the waterway to Chongqing had been cut off, they could only take the land route via Hankou to escape to various places.

  The war disaster spread, and there were many more soldiers on the streets. The tense atmosphere in the air began to thicken. After finally squeezing into the crowd to see off Shen Shu-kai, Xiao An-guo could no longer hold back. He grabbed him and walked towards the ferry boat back to camp, asking: "Brother, I'm not an outsider, am I? Give me a straight answer, what exactly is that thing of yours?"

  "Blueprints for 340mm naval gun and submarine snorkel designs."

  "Warship cannons? Or ventilation?" Xiao Anguo heard something inexplicable, but was afraid to reveal his ignorance in front of his brothers, so he could only hold back for the time being and not ask again.

  His strange appearance made Yang Qiu temporarily forget what had just happened, but she was still a little worried about Shen Shu's trip.

  The design drawings were fine, and the two technical items were also carefully selected by him from the data machine. Originally, he had considered selling the data of the French "75 Miss" gun, but considering that Germany might not think its own artillery was inferior to France's based on just blueprints, and the "75 Miss" was too secretive, so that only after the start of World War I did the whole world know about this super-high-speed field gun, unless he took out the actual object, otherwise Germany would also think it was fake.

  The 340mm naval gun was different, the main armament of the Bretagne-class battleships before World War I, all of Europe knew that France was building a new type of battleship, and this gun had a higher power than the British 343mm naval gun. The most important thing is that it adopted a large-scale recoil mechanism similar to "75 Miss", which greatly improved efficiency.

  From the actual combat at sea, this auxiliary retreat and advance machine is just a romantic idea of the French, but now no one knows! In theory, a firing rate of three rounds per minute can absolutely make Germany jealous!

  Although in fact the German Navy had hardly ever clashed with the French Navy during World War I, Wilhelm II and the German Navy would not think so. Before World War I, a large part of the German Navy's goals were to defeat the French fleet, so every move of the dead enemy was worth paying attention to by the German intelligence agency, let alone the details of the new ship under construction. Therefore, Germany must have also grasped some intelligence and would certainly be willing to pay a price to buy the complete set of drawings as soon as they saw the blueprints.

  As for the submarine snorkel technology, it was only developed after World War I. To be aware that during World War I, submarines did not have long-term underwater capabilities, in other words, they were small semi-submersible torpedo boats, most of the time had to float on the surface, and could only dive when approaching the enemy, with a survival time of about one or two hours, with extremely poor survivability.

  But with the snorkel, submarines can stay submerged for a long time and engage in underwater activities, not only improving their concealment capabilities but also enabling them to possess certain counter-surface warship capabilities in an era that relies on visual detection and lacks anti-submarine measures.

  According to later sources, William II never worried about his own army, but rather the ever-growing fleet was a heart disease, a technology that could quickly narrow the distance with the British Navy and even occupy an advantageous position in some cases, which he would definitely buy.

  Moreover, the snorkel technology is not that easy to imitate, unlike selling tank design drawings. The tanks of this era are actually just theoretical and haven't made any breakthroughs yet. However, the snorkel, especially for submarines, is an extremely complex technology. Firstly, the snorkel also needs to be waterproof, with a large number of curved circuits inside, and requires the use of dozens of technologies such as high-pressure drilling and penetration-resistant shells. According to the data from the machine, it took five years from the proposal of the snorkel technology to its successful development. Therefore, he is not afraid that the Germans will regret after seeing the design drawings, unless they encounter a genius who can memorize everything at a glance; otherwise, the Germans can only pay up obediently.

  Even if it's unforgettable, because he entrusted Shu Kui to only look at half of the transaction before 1911, and now it's already 1911, it's hard to say whether Germany can break through the other half of the blueprint within three years.

  This technology was something he had considered bringing out after much thought, after all, not taking out some real stuff to fool these guys wouldn't work, especially since it was Germany, which had the highest level of mechanical expertise. Fortunately, during World War I, submarine technology was still limited by factors such as engines and torpedoes, plus Germany's inherently tragic geographical environment and later America's unscrupulousness, so this technology wasn't enough to truly change the course of the war. At most, it would just result in the Royal Navy losing a few more ships, which wouldn't be anything for Britain at its peak.

  So he wasn't worried about making money at all, what he was really worried about was whether Germany would be willing to exchange military supplies. 30 Mark IVs, 100 Madsen M50s and 1 million rounds of ammunition were just a drop in the bucket for Germany, but for him it was the key to keeping the three towns safe. The only trouble was that Germany might not have any Madsens, fortunately he had already told Shen Shukai how to hint to Germany to get the goods.

  Although Hanyang is worse than expected, it has laid a foundation. The nearly 10,000 skilled workers from the two factories are more valuable than any treasure. Whether in Hankou or Hanyang, they are the key to this battle of contention. Only by preserving China's largest and most perfect industrial base can there be a glimmer of hope for the future.

  Ten days later, Dong Zhanggui, who was left in charge of Hankou, brought good news. Shen Shukai proved to be a businessman with great courage and vision. Although he still didn't quite believe Yang Qiu's words, he sent a telegram to the board of directors of He Shengyuan and persuaded the shareholders to take precautions before anything happened, using this as an excuse to adjust the branches across the country and even overseas. They began to accelerate the collection of floating funds and secretly stored large amounts of cash and silver ingots in the warehouse.

  At the same time, he did not delay Yang Qiu's affairs and found a declining Vietnamese royal family from somewhere to pretend to be a Vietnamese revolutionary resisting France. He also set up a leather goods company called Far East Yunnan Company and negotiated with Germany.

  The German consul in Shanghai was skeptical at first when he saw the complete design drawings of the 340mm caliber naval gun, but after comparing several known details with his home country, he became excited and almost shouted out loud, immediately agreeing to buy the entire set of drawings for $400,000.

  $400,000 is not even a hair on the head of Germany, but it was the first shot for Shen Shukai, so when he took out the instructions for the submarine air pipe, the German ambassador immediately sent an urgent telegram to the commander of the Qingdao Far East Fleet and the domestic navy department, regardless of the surprised eyes around him.

  Two days later, the commander of the German Far East Fleet arrived in Shanghai, and the German General Staff and Navy Department immediately demanded that Shanghai obtain all the technical drawings.

  After seeing half of the ventilation pipe design and manufacturing drawings, Germany not only agreed to pay $300,000 for the ventilation pipe design drawings and all materials, but also settled in US dollars as required, and paid two installments of $700,000 on the same day, totaling 1.4 million silver dollars.

  Shen Shukai's proposal to exchange military equipment through the shield was initially agreed upon, but Germany did not have any Madsen M50 light machine guns on hand. It wasn't until Shen Shukai relayed Yang Qiu's hint that Russia had some that Germany remembered that during the Russo-Japanese War, Russia had indeed purchased around 500 Madsen M50s, but due to late delivery, most of them did not participate in the war after being transported to the Far East. Nicholas II thought it would be troublesome to transport them back, and in order to intimidate Japan, they were all stored in Vladivostok.

  Yang Qiu had already noticed this batch of guns, but he knew that going to Russia now would be hopeless, so he went through Germany instead. Germany, eager to obtain the enemy's warship cannons and ventilation pipe technology, immediately contacted Russia's Far East region. It is unknown how they were finally persuaded, but in the end, Russia agreed to sell 100 guns at $500 each, with four empty magazines per gun. After receiving the news, Germany sent a military vessel from Qingdao to Vladivostok that night to bring them back.

  As for the bullets, Germany was very hesitant, as it is rare for countries to sell bullets directly, especially on such a large scale of smuggling. Finally, Shen Shukai gritted his teeth and quoted a price of 10 rounds for 2 taels, which was twice the market price. He also expressed through an agent that if there were no bullets, he would not trade anymore. After repeated hesitation, Germany agreed to sell 3 million rounds of 7.92mm pointed bullets at this price, also mobilized from the Far East garrison.

  Yang Qiu was both delighted and cried with laughter after receiving the news. He was happy that although there were 10 fewer Madsen M50s than expected, he had finally gotten his hands on them and even made a profit, earning his first money since reincarnation. However, he was also disappointed that the submarine air pipe, which he thought would sell for a high price, ended up being sold cheaply. On the other hand, the German buyer didn't even blink at the 340mm main cannon design documents, but hesitated for a long time over the air pipe. As for the urgently needed bullets, there were too few of them!

  If he were present himself, he would have definitely reported $2 million first. Unfortunately, Shen Shukai didn't understand the technology and only knew that Yang Qiu said to sell for at least $500,000, so when he saw two diagrams with prices slightly higher than that, he made a deal.

  Alas, it's still the traditional thinking of giant warships and big guns!

  However, Shen Shu-kai was not a mediocre person. At the time when Germany obtained new technology, he signed a pre-sale contract with Germany to purchase 100 M1908-style 75mm field quick-firing guns produced by Krupp at a price of $2,000 per gun. Originally, Shen Shu-kai also wanted to order some shells, but Germany refused outright.

  After consideration, Shen Shukai still agreed to this contract. According to the meaning of his telegram, it is cheaper to buy first and then sell at a high price later.

  Selling cannons but not selling cannonballs! This kind of thing probably only happens in the Far East during the late Qing dynasty.

  Yang Qiu looked down on this purely imported field artillery, firstly because of its slow firing speed and secondly because of its excessive weight. His ideal artillery composition should be the "92-style infantry gun" and the German-made 105mm Krupp howitzer. As for the French 75mm, which represented the highest level of pre-war artillery, he didn't even consider it. A one-ton plus behemoth might still be considered a light field cannon in Europe, but bringing it back home would make it useless. Moreover, France wouldn't sell their 75mm field guns before the war. Germany was willing to sell their 105mm howitzers, but even if they could take down Hanyang completely, logistics would still be a problem for the time being. However, Yang Qiu needed military modernization for both the Xinhai Revolution and future development, so he agreed to sign the contract first, with the condition that the first batch of 54 guns must be delivered within two months.

  As for the shells, they are not afraid, because the Hanyang Arsenal is currently producing 75mm shells. As long as it stabilizes and modifies them a bit, they can produce improved shells with considerable power.

  Shen Shukai is a cautious person, and only sent the telegram after everything was settled. Although he didn't specify when the arms could be obtained, he said that Germany had promised to complete the transaction within ten days, which should allow for delivery before the Mid-Autumn Festival. As for how to secretly transport it to Hanyang, I believe Shen Shukai, as a big businessman, has his own methods. The total of the two transactions is $700,000, equivalent to 1.4 million yuan domestically (except for specific foreign currencies, all other yuan are calculated based on the value of one or two silver coins or one dollar). He also temporarily kept it in the name of Yang Qiu at an American bank.

  This sum of money seems quite frightening, but now it costs around 200,000 yuan per month to support a town (excluding equipment), and the Hanyang Arsenal is even more of a bottomless pit. So for Yang Qiu, who wants to wait until the future when the situation stabilizes before carrying out technological innovations in Hanyang, money remains a big problem.

  Yang Qiu rubbed his temples, and Ma Kui smiled. He had already learned about this from Xiao Anguo, but he didn't expect Yang Qiu to come and tell him the progress in the midst of his busy schedule, and he was also delighted that Yang Qiu trusted himself so much. Hearing that he got back so many good things with just a few dozen drawings and even made a profit of 1.4 million, he admired him even more.

  But soon he frowned and asked, "Tiger brother, not to be pessimistic, but that Mauser...and that Madsen M50, no one in the new army has ever used them, who are you going to get to use them?"

  Yang Qiu: “......”