Chapter 28: Procuring Military Equipment (1)

  Yuan Fang, like Ma Cheng, came from the patrol battalion system and had not attended a new-style school or studied abroad. However, his military training skills were not weak, and he was recognized by Sun Daoren and promoted to battalion officer at the 37th Banner. Previously, he surrendered to Chen Jingyun because, on the one hand, he was at a disadvantage and would have been killed if he hadn't surrendered. On the other hand, he had also seen the trend of the times and didn't want to die with the Qing dynasty. However, he didn't have a good impression of the revolutionaries, and it wasn't until he saw Sun Daoren's letter and met Chen Jingyun that he decided to surrender to him.

  In his view, throwing himself into Chen Jingyun's hands and throwing himself into the revolutionary party were two different things.

  Indeed, within just two days, he discovered that the people from the Alliance seemed to be at odds with Chen Jingyun, especially Lin Wenyin and Peng Shousong. When Peng Shousong tried to pull out his gun to threaten Chen Jingyun that night, Yuan Fang decisively killed Peng Shousong, thereby submitting a letter of surrender. At least in his view, the original choice was correct, when Chen Jingyun gave him a position as a brigade commander during the reorganization of the three brigades, fulfilling the promise "if you come to join me, I will entrust you with an important task". In just seven or eight days, the four or five hundred men under his command had grown to over three thousand.

  Chen Jingyun dared to trust him and use him, so he is not the kind of person who knows how to repay kindness. This time, he came to Quanzhou and Zhangzhou with a determination to win.

  Yu Shao-yong, who was standing beside him, saw Yuan Fang reveal a mysterious and subtle smile, and immediately walked over two steps and said: "Brother Yuan, is your heart still idle after taking in the new concubine the day before yesterday?"

  "Get out of here!"

  The two men laughed and said a few more words before Yuan Fang ordered, "Speed up the journey, arrive in Xinghua before nightfall, and rest for a day!"

  Fujian is mountainous and the roads are inaccessible. It's been three days since I left Fuzhou, and I've just arrived at the border of Xinghua. There's still a long way to go before I reach Quanzhou!

  When the third column had set out for southern Fujian, the first and second columns were also on their way, the first to Funing Prefecture in the northeast and the second northwards to Yanping Prefecture.

  "What about the Guards Regiment now?" Chen Jingyun drank his tea, put down his cup and looked at Lin Chengkun: "The 4th Brigade has just recruited more than 2,000 new soldiers who have not yet formed an army. Now Fuzhou is left with only one Guards Regiment, you must be careful!"

  Lin Chengkun, of course, was familiar with his own troops and replied immediately: "Don't worry, Commander. The Guard Regiment is the old foundation of the Imperial Guards, and a few days ago I also got more than a dozen veterans from Ma Cheng's hands. The new recruits are also being trained by me every day, although the time is a bit short, but it's still no problem to intimidate Fuzhou City!"

  "That's good!" Chen Jingyun said thoughtfully, "Although the revolution has succeeded for now, the surrounding situation is still unstable. This guard unit is our bottom line. Don't let your guard down!"

  Lin Chengkun stood up and said: "I, Lin Chengkun, will train the guard troops well even if I don't eat or drink!"

  "Let's not talk about it, I'll go and inspect again in two days." Chen Jingyun thought for a moment, then said: "By the way, Chen Kui came yesterday and said that his seventh regiment has already taken shape, he wants to ask me for military equipment! What's the situation with the armory?"

  When Chen Jingyun mentioned the arsenal, Lin Chengkun didn't dare to slack off. He immediately took out a small notebook he carried with him: "This arsenal has always been under my management, and the entry and exit of military equipment over the past few days have been following the governor's orders! Since the formation of the 4th Brigade and 1st Battalion (four brigades and one guard battalion), all the firearms in the entire army were temporarily collected and redistributed. A total of 12,500 new and old Hanyang-made guns were obtained, with the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Brigades each taking away 4,000 guns. There are also over 400 imported Mauser rifles (1888 Commission Rifle, or Hanyang-made imported version) that have been collected and stored, plus more than 300 remaining Hanyang-made guns, which are prepared for the three brigades to replace and use as spare parts. The Japanese-made Type 30 rifle has nearly 2,000 guns, which equipped the guard battalion. There are a few thousand old Mannlicher rifles, about 3,000 of them, and other miscellaneous guns like the "Water Pearl" add up to almost 1,000, but the models are too diverse, and we don't have many matching bullets in stock, so they can't be used for the time being. If the 4th Brigade is formed soon, it can only use these 3,000 Mannlicher rifles first."

  Chen Jingyun's eyebrows furrowed upon hearing Lin Chengkun say that only three thousand Mannlicher rifles were left in stock, and he was aware of the tense situation with military supplies, but had not expected it to be this severe.

  Actually, Chen Jingyun did not expect the expansion to be so rapid. At the beginning of the uprising, he planned to expand the army, but he did not anticipate that it would expand to over 10,000 in just ten days. The original plan was to arm an entire division with Hanyang-made guns, but after distributing them to three brigades, there were none left. Even the guard regiment was equipped with Japanese-style rifles. As for the batch of Mannlichers in the arsenal, he knew they had been purchased from the Beiyang government years ago and had been stored away for many years. In recent years, when the Beiyang army changed its equipment, Sun Daoren obtained them from the Ministry of War, but after a short period, the new army here also switched to Hanyang-made guns, so these Mannlichers were given to the old troops such as the Patrol Battalion and the Green Battalion. After Fuzhou was recovered, they were also collected from various departments that had surrendered or been defeated by the Qing army.

  "In that case, let's allocate this batch of Mannlicher rifles to the 4th Regiment first! Use them for now!" Chen Jingyun thought for a moment and said: "You go ask at the foreign firm if we can purchase military equipment!"

  Lin Chengkun thought for a moment and said, "Actually, in the past few days, several foreign firms have heard that I am in charge of military equipment for the military government, so several foreigners have already approached me to sell military equipment! However, the purchase of military equipment belongs to the category of logistical equipment, and as a subordinate, I dare not overstep my authority! So I declined!"

  "Oh, is that so?" Chen Jingyun hadn't heard anything about foreigners coming over the past few days: "Since they've come to our doorstep, you bring them to see me tomorrow!"

  After finishing speaking, Chen Jingyun habitually tapped the desktop with his fingers and immediately said: "There's no need to wait either. You go call him now, I'll be waiting!"

  Lin Chengkun left after receiving the order, and Chen Jingyun shouted: "Come in!"

  He was immediately succeeded by his new deputy commander, Chen Cai. The name is a bit common, but like Chen Kui, he was originally a house servant of the Chen family and later became a personal soldier of Chen Jingyun in the military camp. After Lin Chengkun was transferred to the Guard Corps as the corps commander, Chen Kui took over Lin Chengkun's position. When Chen Kui also took office as the commander of the 7th Regiment, Chen Cai succeeded him as the deputy commander of the guard team and became one of Chen Jingyun's trusted subordinates.

  "Go and call all the people in charge of the Machine Bureau and the Shipyard, I want to see them!" The Fujian Shipyard mentioned by Chen Jingyun is also known as the Mawei Shipyard or the shipbuilding factory. It was founded in 1866 by Zuo Zongtang, the governor of Min-Zhe province, during the late Qing dynasty, and it was one of the most important modern naval production bases in China. Li Hongzhang praised it as "the ancestor of opening up the mountain". Later, under the diligent management of Shen Baochen, the successor to the Minister of Shipbuilding, the shipyard became the largest shipbuilding factory in the Far East at that time. The Fujian Machine Bureau was originally affiliated with the Mawei Shipyard, but later became an independent factory. After a fire in 1907 and subsequent rebuilding, it resumed production last year, mainly producing bullets and shells. In previous years, it also produced guns and cannons, but due to high prices and poor quality, production was discontinued. After Fuzhou's liberation, without Chen Jingyun's instruction, Zheng Zuyin and others in charge of civil affairs organized the resumption of production. Due to scale and technical issues, currently only bullets and shells can be produced, and the quantities are not large. In the past, supplies for the 10th Regiment and the Patrol Battalion were sufficient, but now they have to purchase bullets and shells from Hanyang.

  Call the two factory directors over, naturally for the sake of military equipment. Currently, Fujian's military equipment is in short supply, and external purchases are temporarily possible, but absolutely not feasible in the long run. Not to mention that purchasing military equipment from outside is unstable, even the finances cannot afford it. Therefore, being able to manufacture it oneself is still better than manufacturing it oneself, let alone Chen Jingyun also wants to see if he can produce mortars and hand grenades, which would also help alleviate the problem of lacking heavy artillery support.

  Lin Chengkun's speed was very fast, and in less than an hour, he led a foreigner in! Then he walked quickly to Chen Jingyun's side and introduced: "This is York Henry of the Lihe Foreign Firm!"

  He then spoke in a loud and clear voice: "This is Chen Jingyun, the Governor of Fujian Military Government and the Commander-in-Chief of Fujian National Army!"

  York Lang, a standard white man with a square face and high nose, wore a black tailcoat, held a civilized cane in his hand, and wore a top hat. After seeing Chen Jingyun, he didn't show the same respect and fear as others, but instead took off his hat and slightly bowed: "I've seen General Chen!"

  After they sat down, Chen Jingyun gestured for tea to be served: "Mr. Henry's Chinese is quite good! I suppose you've spent a considerable amount of time in China?"

  After sitting down, Henry, like Chen Jingyun, picked up his teacup, gently swirled the tea water with the lid and took a small sip. After hearing Chen Jingyun speak, he put down his teacup and said: "General, you're overpraising me! I've been in the Far East for 15 years now, except for the first few years in Tokyo, all the other time has been spent in China!"

  "General's tea is good!"

  Chen Jingyun nodded and smiled: "This tea is indeed good stuff, left over from the former Governor's mansion!"

  The two men didn't mention buying arms at all, they just chatted casually. Henry was a China expert, having been to Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Wuhan and Chongqing, so he knew more about Chinese customs and human relationships than Chen Jingyun did. Chen's insights also surprised Henry, not only did he have a deep understanding of the European situation, but he could also offer unique perspectives on some social phenomena in Europe. After this conversation, neither of them was in a hurry, but Lin Chengkun, who had already drunk four cups of tea beside them, became impatient.

  Just as Lin Chengkun thought he couldn't help but interrupt, Henry suddenly changed the subject from Archduke Franz Ferdinand to the Austro-Hungarian army, and then his tone slightly sank: "As far as I know, Fujian also has a lot of Austrian military equipment!"

  After talking for so long, the topic finally turned to military affairs. Chen Jingyun looked at Henry's still calm face and felt a little amused. Originally, he was going to ask directly about military affairs, but at first, Henry had blocked Chen Jingyun's several probing questions in a row, so Chen Jingyun simply didn't mention it again, accompanying him in nonsense talk. After this nonsense talk for nearly half an hour, Henry finally stopped talking nonsense and started discussing serious matters.

  Chen Jingyun said: "There is indeed a batch!"

  "As far as I know, your army is expanding very quickly, shouldn't this arsenal be tense?" Henry asked.