Chapter Twenty-Five: The Guerrilla of Jiezhou

  In the capital, Chen An finally found out where Cao Kun lived after much difficulty, but unexpectedly Cao Kun was often at the Beiyang New Army's Xiaocun military camp. Several visits yielded nothing, and it would be even more inappropriate to go to Tianjin to look for him. With the year-end approaching, he simply stayed at a nearby inn, frequently running to Cao Kun's residence to ask the doorman for news. After sending several small red packets, the doorman became quite familiar with him, greeting him warmly whenever they met.

  Chen An wasn't without the idea of going directly to the Wang Fu, but unfortunately, before he even reached the gate, he was chased out by patrolling soldiers. That area was all imperial relatives and meritorious nobles, and without a certain identity or title, it was impossible to get through at all.

  On this day, Chen An brought Hu Zi and swaggered into Cao Kun's mansion. He was surprised that the doorman hadn't come to greet him today, only to find out that the doorman was busy serving tea to a young military officer. Chen An found it strange, as he had also gotten used to the doorman's temperament, although he wouldn't bully people with his power, but to get him to enthusiastically receive guests, it would require someone of noble status.

  The young officer heard someone coming in, turned around and took a look, but was immediately stunned.

  Chen An was stunned for a moment, then suddenly shouted with joy, "Zi Yu big brother?!"

  Isn't it, it's actually Wu Ziyu. The two of them suddenly hugged each other excitedly and burst into loud laughter.

  The gatekeeper on the side was stunned, fortunately, this period of time did not neglect this visiting guest, Wu Ziyu is Cao's darling in front of him, looks like they are very familiar with each other.

  Wu Ziyu greeted Hu Zi and excitedly asked Chen An why he came here instead of going to find him?

  A string of questions left Chen An at a loss for which one to answer, and he could only smile wryly and rub his nose.

  Half a moment later, after Wu Ziyu's excitement had subsided, Chen An finally found an opportunity to speak. The address that Wu Ziyu had originally provided was the Beiyang Military Governor's Office, but that place was also a key military location. Moreover, Wu Ziyu had been on official business in Northeast China for some time and it was impossible to ask him about his whereabouts. As for finding Cao Kun, Chen An spoke bluntly: after all, Wu Ziyu understood him very well - as a descendant of the Gansu warlord and landlord class, if he wanted to rise above others, what else could he do but buy an official position?

  "Director Cao is very pleased with this, so there's definitely no problem." Wu Ziyu guaranteed with his mouth full.

  Chen An was indeed curious about Wu Ziyu's appearance at Cao Daren's mansion, and Wu Ziyu explained with a smile. The land battle of the Russo-Japanese War is expected to end soon, and after a long siege and bloody battle, the Japanese captured the Port Arthur fortress, relieving the rear constraint and ensuring that they can concentrate all their strength to thoroughly annihilate the Russian army in Fengtian. After Russia lost the Port Arthur fortress, it basically lost the opportunity to win the land battle, unless it wins a decisive victory at sea.

  However, according to the assessment of the Japanese and Beiyang Army joint reconnaissance team, the Russians' momentum had already gone, and the Mukden Battle would inevitably end in a crushing defeat. The navy came from afar, and with outdated ships, it was entirely possible for them to be defeated by the Japanese in one blow. Therefore, the mission of the joint reconnaissance team had basically come to an end, and personnel returned to their original units.

  Wu Ziyu's outstanding performance in Liaodong intelligence gathering earned him not only the praise of the Northern Warlords' high-level officials but also a Japanese medal, which he was forced to accept with mixed emotions. Someone introduced Wu Ziyu to Cao Kun, the commander of the right-wing infantry brigade of the Northern Warlords, and the two became fast friends. Cao trusted Wu completely, while Wu devoted himself fully to serving under Cao's command.

  Just then, Cao Kun returned. Unlike Wu Ziyu's thin and frail appearance, he had a tall and majestic eight-character beard and a somewhat stout figure, with a different kind of majesty about him.

  Wu Ziyu pulled Chen An over and bragged about him for a while, making Chen An feel somewhat embarrassed. Lord Cao was indeed surprised and stared at Chen An for quite some time.

  "When I was still in the Yi Army, I had been friends with Dong brothers of the Gan Army for a long time. This small matter is not worth mentioning at all. Later, I will personally accompany you to visit the Qingwangfu. In fact, I just accompanied Mr. Yuan back from the Wangfu." Cao Kun said with a smile.

  "But going to Qingwang Fu is expensive, I don't know how well Chen Xiao Ge has prepared? If it's not enough, how about coming to the right wing of the Beiyang Army to help me? First go to Tianjin Wu Bei Xue Tang, wait until next year, and come back as a officer, what do you think?" Suddenly, Cao Kun was moved by Wu Ziyu's boasting earlier and wanted to recruit people.

  Wu Ziyu, who was drinking tea, almost spat it out, and immediately exchanged a glance with Chen An. Before the silver had even been spent, someone had already promised to grant an official position.

  Chen An could only smile foolishly.

  "Wu Ziyu quickly changed the subject, 'General Cao, how are our military supplies?'"

  Cao Kun deliberately avoided Wu Ziyu and glared at him fiercely, then immediately went down the steps. Suddenly, a loud scolding erupted: "Ran to Wangfu just for this matter. These dogshit bureaucrats say they must use domestically produced goods, but Han Yang can't even produce enough, let alone quality that's not as good as the original. What's even more outrageous is that what they sell us is actually twice as expensive as imports! Unfortunately, even King Qing has no way to intervene, as it involves too many royal relatives."

  Wu Ziyu also sighed, "The artillery squad under my command was supposed to be equipped with six large cannons, but now there isn't even a shadow of them. The infantry is short-handed too, and we only have thirty rounds of ammunition."

  Cao Kun was also worried, "The new expansion of the Beiyang Army has a huge shortage of military equipment. The little bit of military funds that we managed to intercept and keep for ourselves were all taken away by them in one fell swoop."

  Chen An's heart skipped a beat, and he carefully interjected, "Lord Cao, Brother Zi Yu, do you know the current situation with military supplies?"

  Cao Kun was taken aback and immediately understood the implication, "You have a way to get a batch of genuine foreign goods in?"

  "After some thought, Chen An replied cautiously, 'Water droplets, golden hook rifles and the like can be obtained, as for others, I don't know if they have them in stock?'"

  Wu Ziyu furrowed his brow and hastily stopped him, "Master Chen, don't talk nonsense."

  Chen An shook his head, "Zi Yu big brother, when I was at Da Shi Bridge before, I had partnered with a Russian colonel to do some small business, our relationship is very solid, as long as we get in touch, the rest is just a matter of time."

  Ts'ao K'un immediately said disappointedly, "Russian colonel, we are using German-made artillery, the caliber is different."

  Chen An thought for a moment, then suddenly said, "German equipment should also be possible, they seem to have an underground trading market. Oh, right, the Japanese 75mm field gun, even the shells can be obtained together."

  "What? Japanese field artillery?" Wu Ziyu was immediately delighted.

  Cao Kun's eyes also lit up, and he was overjoyed, but he didn't immediately respond. "This, I need to report to President Yuan first. It's a big deal, and we can't let those bureaucrats know."

  Actually, Chen An is the one who is secretly thrilled, if this business deal goes through, that would be a real gold mine.

  He carefully calculated that no matter what, the military equipment copied from the suitcase would absolutely not exceed half of the cost of the factory production, because there was no labor cost. A Han Yang rifle reportedly costs around 20 taels in production, with a factory price of around 26-27 taels, while the Mauser 1888 rifle has a factory price of around 30 taels. However, the military equipment merchant would add at least a 50% markup, and there were many kickbacks to be handled, so if you really wanted to get your hands on one, the price would at least double.

  That is to say, the imperial court's military arsenal was selling Han Yang rifles made in Hanyang to the Northern New Army at a price of sixty taels per rifle, or even one hundred and twenty taels per rifle. The arms trade was simply extortionate.

  Cao Kun arranged for Wu Ziyu to dine with Chen An at the mansion, while he himself took Dong Fuxiang's letter of introduction and left the mansion, but instead of going directly to Qing Wangfu, he first ran to Yuan Daren's mansion.

  It was approaching midnight when Cao Kun returned from outside, exhausted.

  Without saying much more, he directly ordered the kitchen to set up another table for a midnight snack and called Wu Ziyu and Chen An over. They ate while discussing business, as Cao Kun had been busy all day and was starving.

  "Chen Xiaoge, where do you want to be an official? A military post or a civil one?" Cao Kun asked bluntly.

  Chen An put down his wine cup and asked tentatively, "Is Gansu's Jiezhou going? Want a military job."

  "Alright, then you'll be a provincial commander-in-chief. Although the military position can only go up to commander-in-chief through imperial examination and purchase, others are just supplementary, but yours is a real vacancy." Cao Kun immediately nodded, apparently having already received assurance from the prince.

  Jiezhou's guerrilla? That's it, Chen An was a bit dazed.

  "We'll even pay for it ourselves." Cao Kun fired another big cannonball, almost stunning Chen An.

  Right away, the real play came, and Cao Kun slowly spoke out a verbal agreement.

  The expansion of the Beiyang Army is imminent, but the production capacity of the Hubei Arsenal and the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau is limited, and cannons are even more difficult to produce. The price of equipment supplied by the imperial court to the Beiyang Army is also exorbitant, making Yuan Shikai, the Minister of Beiyang, anxious. Buying military equipment from foreigners, even from Japan, is not impossible, but the main problem is that there is too much internal pressure within the imperial court, and Western countries are taking advantage of the situation to propose various humiliating terms. Suddenly, Chen An proposed smuggling in military supplies, so it's worth a try as long as the military supplies can be brought into the country.

  Especially artillery and ammunition are scarce. Originally, the newly established army had a gun team on the left, middle and right wings, with eighteen Krupp 75mm mountain light guns on the left wing heavy artillery team, twenty-four Gruson 57mm mountain quick-fire guns on the right wing quick-firing artillery team, and eighteen Gruson 57mm land quick-fire guns on the central responding artillery team. Now, at least three wings of troops need to be upgraded to towns, and these gun teams need to be upgraded to artillery battalions, with more than a hundred large-caliber guns missing.

  Just the cannons alone in this transaction are worth tens of millions of taels; isn't that enough to make people envious?

  The agreement proposed by Cao Kun was simple: the Mauser 1888 rifle would be sold at a price of forty-five taels per gun, thirty taels for the ex-factory price, and the discount would go to the smuggler. The remaining five taels would go to Chen An, and ten taels would be taken by Cao Kun to give to relevant people, but it was not clear who they were. Moreover, all other weapons would be divided in the same proportion, as long as Chen An could transport them into the country. Once inside the country, all transportation would be handled by the Beiyang Army.

  No wonder he looked down on the tens of thousands of taels of silver in Chen An's hands, and with a flourish, he wrote off the entire transaction. This military hardware business was worth tens of millions, hundreds of millions of taels! Chen An almost fainted. Of course, without Dong Fuxiang's letter of recommendation, these old cunning guys wouldn't have taken the bait either.

  Chen An, who had been sitting stupidly for half a day, suddenly jumped up and said urgently, "Lord Cao, when can the official seal be issued? I want to rush to Shanghai immediately."

  Cao Kun was startled by Chen An's sudden movement, "What are you rushing to Shanghai for?"

  "I need to contact the other party quickly." Chen An's eyes had already turned red, but what he really meant was that he must go to Shanghai to buy various equipment, especially power generation equipment. Chen An was certain that as long as he could get the power generation equipment, the briefcase would be upgraded and production capacity would increase immediately, and at that time, everything that came out would be silver.

  "Alright, I'll think of something. Tomorrow I'll go around and try to get it done by tomorrow night, so you can set off the day after tomorrow."

  Chen An grabbed his wine cup and downed it in one gulp, "Alright," he said with a single word.

  Cao Kun acted quickly, and indeed settled everything the next day. He handed over a large box to Chen An, instructing him, "Chen Xiao Ge, you must at least secure eighteen big cannons, I've vouched for you. Oh, and also, Qing Xiang Wang has taken a liking to you, specially writing a private letter to Shan Gan Governor E Yun, go pay your respects and present it together, remember, remember."

  Chen An naturally had a few tricks up his sleeve, nothing more than strengthening surveillance and opening up convenient channels to facilitate smuggling. However, being able to get in good with the Shaanxi-Gansu Governor was an opportunity not to be missed.

  Before leaving, Wu Ziyu hugged Chen Anxiong tightly again and said goodbye. He quietly handed a square package to Chen An.

  Out of the capital, Chen An opened the package in the carriage and found that it was a hastily copied new military camp ration chapter. This is an important specification for the establishment of the Beiyang New Army, which details everything from recruitment, training, standing army, division, mobilization, rewards and punishments to weapons, transportation, barracks, sanitation, etc. It is a huge military code. Finally, there were a few short sentences, meaning that time was not enough, and the training materials of the Wubei Academy were not found, and they would be discussed later if there was an opportunity.

  Zi Yu's big brother still remembers my reckless words from back then, Chen An silently recited in her heart.