On February 10th, after spending more than half a month, the three German Maxim heavy machine guns ordered from foreign merchants in Tianjin were finally shipped to Luanzhou. www Along with these heavy machine guns, there were also
There is a French engineer whose task is to teach customers to assemble and use heavy machine guns.
Yuan Su had no intention of picking up these three heavy machine guns. He just entrusted Wang Litong and Ge Jinzhang to take the heavy machine guns to the first battalion. Not only had he decided to go to the Supervisory Training Office to supervise the training today, he would also find time to go there in the afternoon.
I went to the Second Battalion to find He Qigong and had no time to pay attention to this matter.
Regarding the preparations for leaving Twenty Towns, the First Battalion and Chen Wenian have already talked, and now the only thing left is the Second Battalion.
However, just after noon, Wang Litong sent someone to the Supervisory Training Office to find Yuan Su and told Yuan Su that the foreign engineer wanted to meet with him and introduce him to him in detail about the characteristics of the heavy machine gun.
Yuan Su knew that foreigners would not have any good intentions. For a transaction of more than 10,000 yuan, how could he be so considerate and send a special engineer? But since the foreigners made such thoughtful arrangements, he also wanted to know what the foreigners had in store.
attempt.
He had lunch with the militiamen at the Supervisory Training Office, and explained some words to Guo Wenyuan and others, and then set off for the Yamen of the state capital. Along the way, he was still thinking in his mind that the French interests in China were basically concentrated in
In theory, in the south, it is impossible for me to have any dealings with these people in the future. This time, I just went to meet them with the mentality of inquiring about the foreigners' coveted Luanzhou.
After arriving at the prefectural government office, after some briefings, a person in charge of the government office led Yuan Su to the front hall.
In the front hall, Wang Litong was drinking tea with the foreign engineers and several Chinese attachés. Both the foreigners and the Chinese attachés were all wearing crisp suits, and the Chinese attachés had even cut off the braids on the back of their heads.
From Wang Lantong's smiling and extremely attentive attitude, Yuan Su couldn't help but think of the Chinese people's attitude towards foreigners in the 21st century. It seems that China's humility in front of foreigners is no longer a matter of one or two generations. The national
The xing things are dissipating bit by bit.
Seeing Yuan Su walking in from the door, Wang Litong stood up quickly and politely said to an interpreter next to the foreign engineer: "Please tell Mr. Poincare that this is the general who ordered the heavy machine gun.
Mr. Yuan Suyuan."
The Chinese translator immediately said a few words in French to the foreign engineer, who then stood up and welcomed the arrival of the Chinese. Wang Li walked a few steps down the hall and met Yuan Su.
Su introduced the situation of the foreign engineers.
"This foreign gentleman's name is René Poincaré. He is not an employee of Credit Agricole Bank, but a technical expert from the French Consulate in Tianjin, specializing in arms technology."
"Oh, really? What were you talking about just now, and you were so happy talking about it?" Yuan Su asked casually.
"It's like this. This time Mr. Poincaré came to Luanzhou specifically to help us familiarize ourselves with the operation of these heavy machine guns as soon as possible. Because the machinery made in Germany is relatively complicated, it is not so easy to operate.
On the other hand, Mr. Poincare personally hopes to negotiate with us to see if we can establish a long-term and closer cooperative relationship." Wang Liantong hurriedly briefly explained the situation.
"A long-term and closer cooperative relationship?" Yuan Su couldn't help but smile and asked again. His smile was full of sarcasm and disdain. Not to mention that the arms of Credit Agricole Bank were extremely expensive, and he was now
If you don’t have that much money, how can you establish long-term cooperation with these people?
Furthermore, based on his understanding of multinational banks, the biggest profit project of these multinational banks is not arms. This transaction of more than 10,000 yuan can allow a foreigner to see business opportunities. It is really a funny thing, even if it is
It is impossible for a smart businessman to sell goods to people who cannot afford them.
Therefore, he knew very well that since the foreigners were interested in discussing long-term cooperation, the only explanation was that the other party was interested in other things in Luanzhou, and these things could only be taken away with the cooperation of the local government and army.
Wang Li did not see Yuan Su's true intention at the same time, he just answered with a smile, then brought Yuan Su to the hall and made a formal introduction to Poincare.
Poincaré is a typical Frenchman, about forty years old, tall and thin, with a high nose bridge, round head, and brown hair that seems a bit sparse. He bowed to Yuan Su very elegantly,
And said a French greeting.
Yuan Su asked Poincare slowly: "How long has Mr. Engineer been in China? Don't you still speak Chinese?"
The translator on the side translated Yuan Su's words to Poincare, and then Poincare said with a smile in broken Chinese: "A little bit, not much, not much." Obviously, the little Chinese he knew was nothing more than this, and immediately
He switched back to French and babbled a lot.
The translator relayed Poincare's words to Yuan Su: "Mr. Poincare has been in India and Hong Kong before, and was just transferred to Tianjin last year. He currently only knows English and Italian, and he is still learning Chinese."
When Yuan Su heard this, he immediately said to Poincaré in somewhat unfamiliar English: "Really? It turns out that Mr. Poincaré also knows English. It happens that I also know some English."
Poincare immediately raised his eyebrows, looked at Yuan Su with admiration, and said in an admiring tone: "It turns out that General Yuan also understands foreign languages. It's really amazing."
Yuan Su didn't care about Poincaré's praise. He asked straightforwardly: "I heard that Mr. Poincaré is here to instruct us how to operate the heavy machine gun. In that case, why don't we go and take a look at these three machines now?"
A heavy machine gun?”
After Poincare thought for a while, he nodded and said, "That's fine."
Immediately, Yuan Su turned around and asked Wang Litong where the three heavy machine guns were now. Wang Litong said that after the heavy machine guns were unloaded from the train in the morning, they were temporarily stored in the state capital, and he also said that they had been sent
Go and notify Mr. Zhao of the First Battalion and ask Mr. Zhao to send someone over to take the heavy machine gun back.
Yuan Su immediately ordered Wang Liantong to send the heavy machine gun to Xiaokan Village now. Since Poincare wanted to instruct the use of the heavy machine gun, he should conduct live ammunition firing in Xiaokan Village. How many people did Wang Liantong have?
They were surprised that it was too troublesome to go to Xiaokan Village right now at noon. Besides, Poincare had already hinted that he had other things to discuss, so why not finish the discussion first before going to test the gun? However, although Wang Litong felt that
He muttered, but he could see that Yuan Su did this on purpose.
Although Wang Litong was not sure what Yuan Su was planning, he could only follow Yuan Su's arrangements for now. He told Poincare's translator about the matter, and Poincare's face turned pale after hearing the translation.
There were changes, but in the end he didn't say much and immediately arranged for his entourage to prepare for the trip.
After a group of people dragged the parts of three heavy machine guns out of the city, they met a team led by Zhao Shanhe himself into the city halfway. The two roads merged into one and continued to move towards Xiaokan Village.
Zhao Shanhe kept pace with Yuan Su. He looked back from time to time to look at Poincare who was sitting on the carriage. Finally, he couldn't help but asked Yuan Su with some doubts: "Master Yuan, what on earth is this foreigner following? What are you talking about?
It’s not like we don’t know how to build a heavy machine gun? Assembling a heavy machine gun is just a matter of time, do we need to be so serious about it?”
Yuan Su sneered and said: "The drunkard's intention is not to drink. This foreigner has his own purpose."
After listening to Yuan Su's words, Zhao Shanhe felt that the other party seemed to be prepared, so he stopped talking nonsense.
After arriving at Xiaokan Village, everyone went directly to the First Camp. Although there are traces of foreigners everywhere in China these days, for people in some small villages and towns, this is still a strange thing. Not only Xiaokan
The common people in the village ran out of their houses to see the foreigners. After entering the camp, many soldiers couldn't help but point fingers and talk in low voices. However, Poincare had traveled far and wide and had seen a lot, so he didn't take these things seriously.
Yuan Su did not rush to take out the heavy machine gun, but asked Zhao Shanhe to find a remote wilderness near Xiaokan Village.
Although Zhao Shanhe had been transferred to the First Battalion not long ago, when he was searching for the escaped robbers in the robbery some days ago, he still visited the desolate places around him. The place he quickly arranged was a place to the north of the First Battalion's camp.
In front of Xiaolinzi, and considering that there would definitely be live ammunition fire later, we specially sent people to clean up the surrounding area.
Afterwards, Yuan Su arranged for a team of people to bring the heavy machine gun parts to the wilderness outside Xiaolinzi, and asked Poincare to personally teach Zhao Shanhe and others to disassemble and assemble the heavy machine gun.
It has to be said that the heavy machine guns made by the Germans are indeed very precise. The entire assembly system is very complicated. Even installing the small wheels of the heavy machine guns requires a lot of effort. But Yuan Su knows very well that it is precisely because of the complexity of German machinery.
, which makes them have excellent mechanical performance and long life.
In addition, he also discovered that Poincaré is really an expert in mechanical engineering. He is not only skilled but also very efficient. He can assemble complex heavy machine guns made in Germany with ease. Not only that, Poincaré
While assembling, I also explained it to Zhao Shanhe and others. Whenever I encountered a very critical step, I would demonstrate it several times.
Because the entire explanation contained many professional terms, several Chinese attachés from Poincaré came forward to help with the translation. It took all of their efforts to successfully resolve the matter.
After the first heavy machine gun was assembled, Zhao Shanhe sent two soldiers to push the heavy machine gun to the direction facing the grove, and ordered Sun Lianzhong who was standing aside to get the heavy machine gun bullets in person. Unfortunately, all the bullets he ordered from Zhang Zuolin were
They were all filled with bullets, but heavy machine guns needed to use ammunition belts to feed them continuously. When Sun Lianzhong came over with a bag of bullets, Poincare immediately stepped forward, shaking his hands and shouting.