Zuo Zongtang turned his head tremblingly and found a man in his 40s standing behind him, dressed strangely, which made Zuo Zongtang gasp.

The man was wearing a pair of straw slippers on his feet, a pair of shorts on his legs, and a short jacket on his upper body. The clothes looked expensive. In addition, this Qing-style short jacket was specially added with an inappropriate square pocket on the chest. It was clearly visible inside, and a round object was installed. A silver chain was pulled out of the pocket and tied to the other end to the cloth;

He had even had short and messy hair on his head, and even pinched a folding fan with one hand and held a small purple clay pot with the other. He was staring at the long package in Li Yuan's hand.

"Where is this long-haired soldier?"

Zuo Zongtang breathed a sigh of relief. The two bodyguards finally saw the guy behind him. They turned their heads and gasped in the scared breath just now. Li Yuan asked loudly: "What's wrong with this gentleman?"

"I said, have you bought guns from the one named Pan?" the middle-aged man came over and said in a low voice.

Seeing that the other party had guessed it correctly, he thought he was familiar with the situation on the street. Zuo Zongtang said casually: "Yes, what advice do you have?"

"I heard it, Changsha accent, I am from Chenzhou." The man snorted coldly and continued, "You must have been hacked by him. This little bastard specializes in damaging foreigners. What did you buy, how much money did you pay?"

Li Yuan sneered: "We can buy some specialties and take them home, it doesn't matter if it's a little expensive."

"It's the first time I'm here in Haijing." Seeing that the other party didn't trust him, the man shook his head and pointed to the street intersection behind him and said, "Look, my shop is also inside."

Zuo Zongtang and the other two stood out their heads and looked at the street behind the man, while stunned. The street was about 20 meters long, and the signs on the street were full of guns. Even more, there was a wooden cannon of similar size to the real thing was placed in the center of the street.

"If you were not pulled in by Pandi, you would see this musket street with ten steps." The man looked at the three of them as dumb as a silence, and sneered: "Haijing has two things: profiteering and money. You can only buy them by comparing the goods. You are a fellow villager. Go to the store with me. I will give you some advice."

I thought the shop was just an arsenal, but looking at the streets, if all the weapons were taken out, they might be able to arm a camp Hunan Army!

Zuo Zongtang and the other two walked in a daze, followed the fellow villager into a store on the street. In addition to the full of guns, there were long rattan chairs and coffee tables in the middle. The decoration was much better than that of the Xiaopandi Store. The owner asked them to sit down, exchanged some greetings, and brought them a pot of tea in person. He said, "Call me Lao Zhang, take out your guns and I'll take a look."

Zhang Longtan looked at Lao Zhang skillfully fiddling with the "Treasure of the Store" Sharps breech gun. He looked very nervous: "He asked for 350 taels. Do you think it's worth it?"

"350? I really dare to ask for it! You have money too!" Lao Zhang was also surprised. Then he snorted coldly: "I will sell you 5 taels here."

"What?!" Zuo Zongtang and the other two changed their colors together. Li Yuan stammered and asked, "Is he a total liar? This gun cannot penetrate Yang within a mile or a hundred steps?"

"No, Sharps is of course a good gun. It's almost the same as passing through Yang in a hundred steps, but you need to shoot accurately, and you can't hit that far." Old Zhang threw down the gun and said with his legs crossed.

"The rifle that is 100-step through Yang is worth 5 taels? I know that the mezzanine is just six or seven guns that explode together. It is incomparable to this kind of foreign gun." Zuo Zongtang opened his eyes wide and said, "This is a sharp weapon. Even a skilled craftsman has never heard of a gun that can be built so far and accurate!"

"Western guns are all made by machines, just like hens laying eggs. As long as you have enough hens and eggs are coming, why aren't they cheap?" Lao Zhang asked in confusion.

"You mean, this thing is not craftsmanship? If you have a machine, you can do it?" Zuo Zongtang asked, immediately lifted up his lower collar and wiped his sweat.

"Well, there is no need for craftsmanship, it is all made by machines." Lao Zhang noticed Zuo Zongtang's nervousness, but he regarded it as disappointment of buying high-priced goods.

Zuo Zongtang was shocked. There were many craftsmen in the Qing Dynasty, but it would take several years to train a blacksmith to build muskets. It would be difficult to build muskets. If Western guns were made like this, wouldn’t it be that Zhao Kuo, a traitor, wouldn’t he lack guns if he had money?

Li Yuan didn't expect the joints in it. He pointed to the two Minnis he gave. He blushed with anger and asked, "Mr. Zhang, these two were given by this fucking profiteer. They said they were French goods. Do you think they are worth it? Is it scrap iron?"

Lao Zhang put down the teacup, picked up two guns and looked at it and laughed: "Why is it scrap iron? But it's not French, it's the Song Dynasty."

"What does the Great Song Dynasty goods mean?" asked three spies in confusion.

"It is the imitation of the Minnis in France in the Song Dynasty, which is the local origin." As he said that, Lao Zhang put the gun flat, pointed to the logo engraved on the buttstock and said, "Did you see the logo of the two fists together? This is the trademark of the brother." Then he took another gun, lay it flat, pointed to another logo and said, "This cross and the sun represent the Huangen Factory."

"What does imitation mean? What are brothers and emperor grace?" Zhang Longtan asked in confusion.

"For example, if you have a roast duck in Changsha that is well cooked, I will make roast duck according to your method, just copy it. Brothers and Huang En are both our own military factories."

"What? Are you saying that this kind of gun was created by Da Song Chang... Da Song himself? It is also a machine?" Zuo Zongtang widened his eyes suddenly.

"It's all machines, but the Chinese use French methods to imitate the method ** hot." Old Zhang was stunned for a moment and thought to himself: These fellow villagers are so rustic.

"How about performance and output?" Zuo Zongtang asked anxiously: "By the way, what about comparison with French guns?"

"The performance is similar, and the same price as the French gun, both are naked guns, without bayonets, and equipped with bullets.^Books.Bar^Go to read the latest novels." Lao Zhang smiled and said, "But it is better than the original French gun, because we can repair the ground guns ourselves, and the accessories are very convenient to buy. The output is not clear, but it is said that they can supply to the army, and they have spare time to retail a batch first. It should be quite high, right?"

"It's only seven taels?" Zuo Zongtang yelled in disbelief. He knew the price of the Qing craftsmen who made ground-loading guns and convex guns for the army. Not to mention lifting guns, the cost of muskets is several times higher than that of this kind of Western gun!

"The two are too cheap... Isn't Haijing expensive for everything?" Zhang Longtan also felt something was wrong, and he asked in a trembling voice.

"You are right, everything is expensive except arms." Lao Zhang explained: "Now foreigners are constantly transporting new guns, which are getting more and more powerful and cheaper. Yesterday's hot goods may turn into fire sticks tomorrow; and they are fighting in the West every day. It is said that old arms are piled up in the warehouse. Now we fight with Qing Yao, and we need arms, and all countries are desperately transporting them here. For example, the army's equipment is the old brown beth used by the British when they first fought more than 10 years ago. The emperor said to learn Western tactics. Ship it in ships, and it is all the inventory of the Empire of the Sun Never Set."

"Actually, the old brown besieged gun is not easy to use. The emperor dared not offend the British and had to buy it. The French friends were all squeezed away and were very angry." Old Zhang said in a low voice, pointing to the rifle on the table and continued: "The British guys actually don't need the old brown besieged. Their military equipment is Enfield. Now the French friends are equipped with Minnis. Our Song Dynasty also bought French machines to train workers and began to imitate Minnis in large quantities. But there is no way, British guys, damn it, that's Qin. Who dares to offend?"

Zuo Zongtang felt cold sweat flowing down his forehead, "Damn it! This crazy Zhao Kuo! His high-cap demon soldiers used old-fashioned Western guns, all so fierce! If they changed to a new rifle, wouldn't the world be invincible?"

Zuo Zongtang was in a daze, and Li Yuan was already asking Sharps about the question. After all, no matter how the soldiers were, they still like weapons. Of course, Li Yuan still liked swords a day ago, but compared with the Hunan Army's 30-pound gun lifting guns and bird guns that were about one person tall, how could Haijing's Western muskets with only high waists and lightweight Western muskets that were only high and light.

"The breech gun has a disadvantage. It can never be solved." Lao Zhang said happily: "It's just a leak. It's not easy to burn your hand with the gun, and they rely on the needle of the barrel to make it very easy to break. So if you are in other places and don't live in Haijing, you may be useless if you buy a breech gun and shoot a few shots. Of course, if you want to buy a Minni, the front bore is solid, and you can pass it on to your son and grandson."

"I think that kind of short gun is good. It can be shot six times in a row. Is it possible to explode?" Zhang Longtan stared at the revolvers in Lao Zhang's shop and couldn't move it away.

"Any gun can explode your hand." Old Zhang glanced at Zhang Longtan and said, "The revolver is cheap and not easy to use. It is indeed very dangerous. Generally, it is best to load a bullet chamber and not fully loaded, otherwise it will really explode your hand. But now there are new good revolvers, and 6 rounds are definitely fine. The price of the United States and Germany is expensive. The Jinyiwei of the army assassinated the pirate leader in Hong Kong and Macau. They like to use the revolver, slowly lean over, suddenly pull out of their clothes, raise their guns and run away after they hit them, and foreign patrols can't catch you at all!"

"Embroidered Uniform Guard? Kill the pirate leader?" Zuo Zongtang's eyes widened again.

"That's sure, the pirates didn't write on their foreheads when they got ashore. You can't catch them on the foreign territory, you can only kill them in secret." Lao Zhang said with a smile.

Then he asked Zhang Longtan: "I have a fine revolver here, 100 taels. It seems that they are all fellow villagers and have fate. If you want it, I will give you 0 taels a handful."

"Shopkeeper, come one?" Zhang Longtan looked at Zuo Zongtang with a gaze.

"We have bought three guns..." Zuo Zongtang pretended to smile bitterly, and raised his head to ask Lao Zhang, "Brother Zhang, how can this Minnie gun be loaded? Is it fast? It is faster than a bird gun? I heard that the high-cap soldiers of our Song Dynasty are fighting very well. Why are they so powerful?"

"Wait." Lao Zhang stood up and went to the counter, took out a pile of booklets and oil paper, put them on the coffee table, and picked them up.

Zuo Zongtang and the others took a peek and saw that the first book was the Bible!

"This is the instructions for using the Minnie gun. Didn't the bastard named Pan give you it? His store was originally a piano store run by an English idiot. It went bankrupt in less than two months. He just sold the kind of worker who knocked on the piano. Later, he bought the store. It was located in a good location and specialized in damning foreigners. He didn't know anything about it. This was written by Boss Emperor Li. He is also a fellow villager, a scholar, and his skills are very good." Lao Zhang handed the three of them a thin booklet. When they opened it, they found a guide to loading a bore gun with pictures and texts. From standing attentively with the gun to cleaning the barrel after the war, it was extremely detailed.

"Let me see! Let's see!" Li Yuan was very interested in this, so he turned a few pages and took it over and read it himself.

"Old Zhang, I found that you Haijing businessmen are knowledgeable and good at speaking, oh, do you still believe in foreign religions?" Zuo Zongtang pretended to be casual and flipped through the pile of newspapers on the coffee table.

"Hey, farmers can be illiterate. We who do business are illiterate and illiterate? How can we read newspapers and materials? How can we know when the goods will come from the port if we don't read newspapers? What goods will come? Not only can we know literacy, but we also have to calculate. In this situation, we must also understand Christianity. Otherwise, if you have a foreigner or a group of crazy believers who want to join the army, you can't chat and do business. You can't understand what they think." Lao Zhang boasted proudly.

Zuo Zongtang opened the Bible above as if he was touching a poisonous mushroom. The few books spread out on the newspaper below suddenly made Zuo Zongtang's eyes lit up: one is the "Song Dynasty Royal Army Infantry Practice" signed by Zhuang Lizhong, and the other is the "Global Warring States Period" signed by Huan Zhuguo. The importance of the former is self-evident. Zhuang Lizhong is also a demon general worth 20,000 taels of silver, and the latter is the famous Prime Minister of the pseudo-court of the Haisong court.

"Oh, what is this?" Zuo Zongtang pretended to stretch out his thick fingers to get the two books.

Old Zhang was quick-witted and clamped the "Infantry Warning" with a bang, and said with a smile: "This is not easy to do, buy land from the officers. Just watch anything else. I'm sorry."

"Oh. Haha, okay, I'll just take a look." Zuo Zongtang was shocked, and picked up the "Global Warring States Period" with a smile, flipped through the cover, and saw that the title page read: The imperial examination was designated for use. He flipped through it, and almost vomited when he saw the words: It was the disgusting writing mixed with white texts on the Hai Songdi newspaper. In the eyes of great scholars like Zuo Zongtang, this kind of article was for semi-illiterate. They all felt dirty when they read it, as if high school students were reading elementary school students' compositions.

"No wonder you are forced to fail the imperial examination in the Celestial Empire, so you go and assist in the Changmao! Not to mention your integrity, with your literary talent, you are fucking shame for studying people! The chief examiner in Hunan beat you up, he is extremely wise!" Zuo Zongtang cursed in his heart, but he still resisted the double disgust of literary talent and character in his eyes. In order to collect information, he was determined to roll up his sleeves and accidentally fall into the toilet. He looked wildly.

The booklet is very thin and written straightforward. There is not even an allusion and metaphor that shows his Confucianism cultivation. After a few glances, Zuo Zongtang roughly understood the meaning, and his heart was filled with a sudden burst of fire: the article is actually to popularize global geography and explain the characteristics of the Western powers. It is just to change to the Warring States Period of China familiarity with the Warring States Period. It says that Britain is as strong as Qin, diplomacy is as strong as Zhang Yi, France is as tall as Chu, America is as Han, and the Haisong thieves are actually compared to Qi before Guan Zhong came! The Qing Dynasty was compared to Yelang, a barbaric small country!

----This is completely implying that this land is not a bird's country at all!

It turned out to be Yelang!

This completely infringed on Zuo Zongtang's love for the Qing Dynasty, how could he not let him get angry?

"How crazy!" Zuo Zongtang suppressed his inner excitement, tried hard to relieve his hands and slowly put the book back on the coffee table.

After taking a long breath, Zuo Zongtang squeezed a smile on his face and asked Lao Zhang: "I also heard that the Song Dynasty army is invincible... amazing! My nephew once wanted to escape to Guangdong to join the army. I want to buy your fucking script to see if it's OK, how much money can I pay?"

Lao Zhang, who was sitting opposite, was observing these three people. When he saw this, he personally brought a cup of tea and handed it to Zuo Zongtang.

Zuo Zongtang just took it and said "thank you". The other party's words made him splash tea.

Lao Zhang asked: "Are you from the Hunan Army?"

Exposed?!!!

The three lonely 00s changed their faces together!

"You are so good at joking. We are from the antique calligraphy and painting shop. Where does it have anything to do with the Hunan Army?" Li Yuanqiang smiled, holding the guide in his hand but was trembling. Zhang Longtan wanted to reach out and draw the knife again, but looking at the other party's smiling face, he was so hesitant that he didn't know what to do.

"Come on, I have been observing you for a long time." Lao Zhang smiled: "A calligraphy and painting shop? It's normal for a shopkeeper to read, both of you guys can read?! Your shop is so fragrant. You two guys are not only literate but also strong, with calluses on your hands. The guys in the calligraphy and painting shop have calluses on their hands? Did they touch a knife? The guys also like guns, but the shopkeepers like to fuck the dictionary? What guns do you touch in your calligraphy and painting shop and see what army fuck the dictionary?!"

"What are you talking nonsense?" Li Yuan was completely stunned. There were two friends in the store, and there were people coming and going outside, so it was not suitable for killing people to silence them.

Zuo Zongtang smiled and said, "You are wrong? We are businessmen in Hunan. Aren't you also from Chenzhou?"

Zhang Longtan had completely touched the dagger on the back of his waist.

Seeing the three of them sweating profusely, Lao Zhang laughed. He pointed at Zhang Longtan who reached his back and shouted, "Brother, don't be excited, take your hand back and let me see it."

As he said that, he lifted up his shirt, and a revolver was exposed on his pants. Old Zhang smiled and said, "I am a gun shop. If you move around, I have never seen the world before. I am so excited that if I shoot randomly, I can't do business."

"I'm itchy on my back." Zhang Longtan stretched out his right hand that had touched the dagger in cold sweat. For a moment, for some reason, he suddenly wanted to kneel down at the foreign gun in Lao Zhang's waist--this sense of intimidation made him feel empty, and he regretted why he didn't buy such a short gun too.

"We are indeed businessmen. I can report to you the location of the antique store staff." When encountering this dangerous situation, Zuo Zongtang immediately calmed down. He actually started talking, and there was no cold sweat on his head.

"You all misunderstood. I have been a green camp soldier for ten years." Lao Zhang smiled: "As soon as I see your two servants, I feel like an officer."

"What?" Li Yuan and Zhang Longtan shouted together, and looked at Lao Zhang blankly with Zuo Zongtang, thinking to himself whether this is a "comrade" who is in Longtan who is looking forward to the Qing Dynasty?

"I worked as a green camp soldier in Chenzhou for 10 years, from the age of 30 to 40, and then the hair came. The city was broken. We took the lead and ran away. My family was in Chenzhou and I couldn't run away, so I surrendered." Lao Zhang said in a faint tone, as if he was talking about something else.

"Then my family and my family were all married into long hair. My 60-year-old father and I were in the men's camp. My mother, wife and daughter both entered the women's camp and couldn't meet. Now I'm still alive and dead." Lao Zhang sighed when he said this.

"Later, my part of me was incorporated into the emperor's army. We left Chenzhou, and went against the king of heaven and the female camp, and marched to the south. Then my father did not learn the difficult journey and died of illness. I followed the emperor all the way to Guangzhou alone." Lao Zhang breathed a sigh of relief: "But the emperor is not like the Qing Dynasty before. He didn't want people like us to be soldiers until old. He was dismissed. I was too old. I was not an officer. I couldn't even be a sheriff. I just took the money and distributed it to the house according to military merits and settled in Haijing. I opened this arms shop. The advantage is that I don't have to pay taxes for three years." Lao Zhang said with a smile.

"Are you dissatisfied with Emperor Zhao Ziwei?" Zuo Zongtang asked tentatively. He really didn't know what the merchant's faint tone meant.

"Of course I am satisfied." Lao Zhang smiled: "I just say this. I am a merchant now. I am not a member of the army or the court. Merchants must make money. I think you must be sent by the Qing Dynasty. You must know that the great Song army is powerful because of faith, and the other is because of Western weapons. Let's not mention faith. I don't know whether the Heavenly King is a god. I rarely go to church now. Of course, the Qing Dynasty does not believe in God, but you can buy Western guns!"

"What do you mean? What do you mean?" Li Yuan was completely dizzy.

"I mean, if you are from the Hunan Army or from the Green Camp, it doesn't matter! I can sell you muskets! What kind of model or country, you can! You can match your own ammunition, because it is more difficult to get gunpowder. If the quantity exceeds 100, I will deliver the goods to Hunan. If it exceeds 500, the price will increase by 20%. I will still send it to you! I will pack the shipping fee! It's okay to ship to Shanghai to Hunan. I'll go to Haijing Port for you to ship goods, and clear the silver goods at the port. If you are afraid, go to the fragrant ones.

It’s OK to port, I don’t care about maritime safety and land transportation. You go to Shanghai to pick up the goods by yourself." Lao Zhang smiled and said, “If there are more, I may have difficulty in transportation, but I can do it separately. I can now send you 500 British brown besses or 100 brother-branded Minnis. Do you want it? There are also cannons. I am acting as agent for artillery from foreign companies in three countries. However, now the market is in short supply due to the fierce purchase of the imperial court, and the price has risen sharply. It changes every day. The market price must be taken and cannot be paid in advance. Do you want it?”
To be continued...