Chapter Sixty International Arms Dealer

  Upon receiving Nissenberg's telegram, Chen An was overjoyed and excitedly exclaimed three times, "Must sell, must sell, must sell." Having been worried about the interruption of arms transactions this year, he suddenly saw a business opportunity knocking on his door, how could Chen An not be delighted?

  Clutching the telegram, he turned around several times with his hands behind him and calmed down again. The Russians, how could they think of buying arms from Nissenberg? It wouldn't be that the imperial court asked the Russians to set up a trap, would it?

  Chen An immediately wired back to Nissenbaum, without mentioning the sale of arms, but only asking why the Russians did not procure arms from the French. As far as Chen An knew, France and Russia were allies, and Russia's military-industrial foundation was really too poor, while France was very solid.

  He sent another telegram to Klauser, asking him to secretly investigate the background and root cause of this matter.

  A few days later, two telegrams almost simultaneously arrived in Chen An's hands, with almost identical contents.

  Europe is now overcast with war clouds.

  In the year before last, or 1906 in the Western calendar, the British battleship Dreadnought was launched, finally triggering a nearly frantic arms race among several major European powers.

  This equipment is equipped with ten 305mm heavy guns, with a full load displacement of over 21,000 tons, and is equipped with four new steam turbine propulsion units different from the old reciprocating steam engine, making it have a maximum speed of 21 knots. The super battleship with armor thickness of up to 280mm on both sides, turret and command tower almost changed the development direction of warships in the world.

  The following year, Germany also began building dreadnoughts in response to the British threat. Britain immediately responded with a two-to-one naval expansion program, maintaining a two-to-one advantage in dreadnoughts over Germany.

  At the same time, Britain, France and Russia began to form an alliance to counter the threat of the German-Austrian alliance. Two gigantic military machines started to move slowly, occasionally colliding and sparking here and there.

  The result was not only a naval arms race, but also the beginning of a full-scale expansion of the armies to counter the threat of war. Thus, in just over a decade, the standing armies of the various countries, which had previously been kept at relatively low levels, were expanded frantically, with Germany, France, Austria and Italy all increasing their forces by nearly one hundred percent.

  But the quality is very low, and Russia, which can only rely on human sea tactics, is the most crazy, proposing to expand its 800,000 regular army to a target of 2.3 million. Even in distant America, the United States also expanded its military strength from more than 30,000 people to 160,000 people due to the tense situation in Europe.

  Now, the whole world is doing its best to produce more munitions.

  However, the production of naval fleets occupied the main position of various firearms production lines and took away the vast majority of military resources. In just ten years, the total tonnage of British warships grew rapidly from over 1 million tons to over 2 million tons, while Germany also quickly increased from less than 300,000 tons to over 900,000 tons.

  Whether Britain, France or Russia, they all put their main strength into producing more warships, and naturally there were no more resources to produce equipment for the army. So it was not only the Russians who were looking everywhere for arms dealers, but also the British who gave most of the orders for rifles and other firearms ammunition to the Ishapore Arsenal in colonial India in the Far East.

  After hesitating for a long time, Chen An finally made up his mind to sell Beiyang military equipment. Why not sell Western military equipment? Anyway, Chenjiazhuang is far away in Gansu's Jiaozhou, and no one can run to the distant Chinese hinterland to teach him a lesson.

  A telegram was sent to Nissenbaum, "You can separately find the British, French, Russian and German purchasing agents in China for secret talks. As long as the other party is willing to provide samples and technical manuals, any military equipment can be provided at market prices. The cost of samples can be deducted from the supply, but patent fees must be exempted."

  Ni Senbo's forehead kept sweating, holding this thin telegram, trembling constantly. Chen An isn't crazy, is he? Just relying on the two sets of 15-ton flat furnaces I provided, dare to boast such a big mouth?

  After struggling in his heart for a day, the greedy Nissenbaum finally chose to believe Chen An. After all, he had traded with Chen An so many times and had never defaulted. The high handling fee of up to 10% was an irresistible temptation that Nissenbaum, who adhered to the Jewish creed, could not refuse.

  Nilsen Bohm secretly contacted many arms dealers and consular officials from various countries.

  Many people's first reaction is that Nissenbaum is a big scammer. What successful military industry does China have besides the Hanyang Arsenal, which can't even draw a tiger and ends up looking like a cat? After some polite conversation, they usually ask their servants to show Nissenbaum out.

  Russians who had previously contacted Nissenbaum took the initiative again.

  Also forced by the great expansionist dreams of the Russian Emperor, the bureaucrats in the Russian General Staff had no choice but to scour the world for arms, as long as they were rifles that could be fired, and deceive the emperor first.

  The ones that were immediately delivered were the new version of the Mosin-Nagant rifle, model 1891, still with a caliber of 7.62 mm, with bayonet and a length of 1738 mm, weighing 4.22 kg without ammunition. And also the lightweight 7.62 mm Maxim machine gun that Vickers had just delivered to Russia.

  Two months later, the first batch of 10,000 M1891 rifles and 100 rounds of 7.62mm pointed bullets, as well as 100 Maxim machine guns, arrived at Shanghai Port by steamer. The Russians immediately dispatched warships from Vladivostok to take away all the ammunition. The Japanese warship, which was extremely hostile to Russia, did not intercept under the persuasion of the British.

  Chen An refused the Russian's request to trade in rubles and insisted on trading in gold or silver. The wealthy and arrogant Russians, who were now short of ammunition rather than gold or silver, did not entangle much and soon agreed. After deducting costs, freight and commission, Chen An made a net profit of nearly 280,000 taels of silver at one time.

  In Shanghai's concessions, the difference between "secret" and "non-secret" lies in that the former is spoken at the bedside, while the latter is spoken at a banquet.

  It soon became known that the Russians had bought a large quantity of arms in China. The Russians thought Chen An's backer was British, the French thought it was Japanese, the British thought it was French, and the Japanese thought it was American; everyone was mistaken.

  Before the Russians who were overjoyed could send a second order, the British came knocking on their door.

  The Indians have been sulking for some time, and the British ordnance factory at Ishapore has almost come to a standstill. As soon as they see the Russians buying arms smoothly, they immediately abandon that little patent dispute and rush over in the hope of purchasing enough arms.

  Nissenberg suddenly discovered the great role of munitions merchants, and immediately abandoned other businesses, focusing on selling Chen An's munitions. Of course, the machinery business that Chen An asked him to purchase would not be abandoned.

  The British brought the Lee-Enfield rifle and the Vickers 7.72mm heavy machine gun model 1908. The Vickers heavy machine gun model 1908 weighed 14.5 kg without cooling water, tripod weighed 22.7 kg, ammunition box capacity was 250 rounds, combat firing rate was 200 rounds per minute.

  This time the delivery was faster, and within a month, the ship loaded with military supplies had arrived at Shanghai Wharf. Because except for the 1908 model Vickers heavy machine gun which needed to be delivered before production could begin, Chen An received Nissenberg's telegram and directly produced rifles and bullets, he already had the prototype of the Li rifle.

  Germany haughtily rebuffed Nissenberg's renewed overtures, refusing to believe that anyone other than Germany could produce military hardware of comparable precision.

  The French were busy collecting more resources from places like Vietnam and sending them back home, so suddenly they didn't have time to bother with commissioning others to produce munitions.

  The Russians who had tasted the sweetness quietly sent over a few large cannons and inquired whether they could be allowed to produce them, thinking they were British.

  Nissenbaum, now confident and fearless, directly accepted the challenge. He almost believed that Chen An was an incarnation of God.

  The Russian 76.2 mm mountain gun of 1909 weighed 627 kg, with a shell weight of 6.5 kg and a range of 7100 m. There was also the 105 mm mountain howitzer of 1909, weighing 730 kg, with a shell weight of 12 kg and a range of 6000 m. And the 122 mm howitzer of 1909 weighed 1340 kg, with a shell weight of 22.8 kg and a range of 7600 m.

  Chen An saw the original goods, also eyeing them covetously, but did not replace them with his own troops. The main reason was the range, Japanese artillery was cumbersome, but its range exceeded that of these Russian-style artillery pieces.

  To produce these large cannons that can equip nine artillery battalions, and nearly 30,000 rounds of various shells, Chen An estimated it would take more than half a year, which means all the remaining time in the first year of Xuantong's reign would be used up, and three or four months of next year would also be needed to complete the military orders.

  However, this order was the largest one Chen An had ever received, and the profit of over two million taels of silver alone was enough to make him smile for three days and nights.

  Even to ensure the production of this batch of arms, Chen An hastily instructed Nissenbaum to suspend acceptance of other people's orders for the time being. This caused the French, who had just come to their senses, to loudly protest that they were not receiving fair treatment.

  Nissenbaum, now a big shot, was too lazy to bother with the unreasonable demands of the French. He was preparing to take on the second batch of 10,000 rifles from the British, but needed to make it clear to them that there would be no production scheduled for this year. At the same time, he also had to continue negotiating with the Russians, demanding that they pay at least half of the goods in gold and the rest in silver.

  The Russians immediately protested, as they knew the British were paying in pounds.

  Nissenbaum banged his fist on the table and said loudly, "The British pound has not depreciated, while the Russian ruble is almost devalued every day."

  The Russians were speechless and finally agreed on a clause for payment of one quarter of the goods in gold.

  As silver was becoming increasingly scarce, Chen An began implementing a policy of establishing gold reserves that K'ou Ts'ai had proposed several years earlier.

  The newly appointed Governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, Lord Changgeng, has finally been appointed by the imperial court.

  Chang Geng, for the first time, broke the routine of Shaanxi-Gansu Governor's inaugural journey from Xi'an to Lanzhou. He took the Beijing-Hankou Railway southbound to Hankou, then boarded a small steamship of the China Merchants Steam Navigation Company, and directly disembarked at Biku Wharf. Thereafter, he presided over the opening ceremony of the Longnan Railway's Chenjiawan-Biku section.

  After more than a year of hard work, the nearly 200-li section from Chenjiaying to Biku was first opened to traffic, but five technicians including Xu Shiyuan were all exhausted. Now it is Zhan Tianyou, the general manager who has just completed the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway, personally responsible for the construction of the railway from Chenjiaying to Jixian to Yangguan.

  Chang'geng, a Manchu nobleman who had just attended the opening ceremony of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway, unexpectedly learned that there was another railway built by Chinese people in Lünan that was about to open, and he couldn't help but come to cut the ribbon himself.

  It was just that Zhang Gong had not expected that he could take a small steamer directly to Biku. The navigation channel treatment work, which was also in charge of Lu Si, went through one and a half years of hard work and sweat, even at the cost of several employees' lives, and finally successfully completed the task of allowing 100-ton small steamers to go up and down from Biku to Chongqing.

  Lai's Livor Company has just purchased seven new hundred-ton steamers, ensuring that there are always eight hundred-ton steamers on this route, continuously transporting raw materials or military supplies. At the same time, two hundred-ton torpedo boats, which were actually disarmed, were placed in Chongqing and Shanghai, ready for use at any time.

  The Yangtze River route has been thoroughly opened up by Chen An.