This is ironic that the United States is the largest arms importer in the world at this time, but their businessmen are the largest arms smugglers in the sea.
To be honest, I’m still very greedy for the Taiping rebels’ search for times as much as the foreigners’ search for Zhu Jinglun.
The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was blocked and arms could be obtained through smuggling, but the blockade of the Qing army was not strict. Even their troops were involved in smuggling, not only the flag, green camp, but also the king’s egg army, and even the Xiang army was involved. Of course, Zuo Zongtang himself did not care about these things, but handled them through a person who didn’t know or pretended not to know because he needed money, and that person was called Hu Xueyan.
In order to lure smugglers into the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom weapons, they adopted a high-priced acquisition method, or Yi Liangyue, governor of the two rivers in Nai, said that "15 yuan or 20 yuan can buy short guns in the sea, and the Taiping Army has to pay the smugglers 100 yuan". "Those who have always sold foreign gunpowder for three yuan a barrel have increased by 256 yuan today." Ten years have passed since the governor of the two rivers reported, but this smuggling trade is still banned in the sea.
According to the British Consul Aliguo in Shanghai, it was estimated that at that time, countries in China "behaved themselves, and foreign businessmen hated the harassment, which led to the unsalable goods of only twelve;" Those who want to evade taxes and help gunpowder and grain to make profits are actually ten. "
Obviously, arms smuggling has formed an industrial chain in the sea, and there are a large number of vested interests. They certainly don’t want the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to end the war with the Qing army prematurely, so Qichang Foreign Firm is willing to give information to Hong Rengan and Guangdong, and even they are interested in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom representatives coming to Guangdong by Qichang Foreign Firm.
"The sea situation is more complicated than I thought."
Zhu Jinglun sighed after hearing Wu Chongyao finishing the sea intelligence
A big job for Foreign Minister Wu Chongyao is actually to collect information from all over the world. He used to be a businessman. He worked with great convenience. No matter foreigners or comprador in Shanghai, they are inseparable from the past thirteen lines. Foreigners don’t say that those pervasive comprador came from Guangdong in the earliest, but they used to collect tea and other things from all over the world and sell them to foreigners in the monopoly. It was their main business in the past. Zhan Tianyou’s father was such a middleman and was very rich. He could take out tens of thousands in a disaster relief. Two silvers came, but with the end of the Opium War, the Zhan family went bankrupt, otherwise Zhan Tianyou could not have ventured to be a child. At that time, it seemed to people that it was no different from selling children.
Therefore, Wu Chongyao got information from all over the country through these comprador, mainly from various ports, but there are also some other aspects.
Collecting information is naturally rebellion or self-reliance to prepare.
The more I know about Zhu Jinglun, the more cautious I am about my career. Xiang is much worse than he thought.
The marine gun team is definitely not a Ukrainian union. Although the military discipline is not so good, the combat effectiveness is not underestimated. The main officers are foreigners’ leaders and Americans. Wall is definitely not a simple adventurer. He has military experience.
American liberal arts and military students who once enrolled in the school did not graduate, but they also had some theoretical knowledge. After that, they joined the US military, fought against Mexicans, and later joined the French army to participate in the Crimean War against Russia. It can be said that he still has quite rich military experience, especially against the Russian army. It was definitely a big war and a bitter battle.
All the officers he recruited were foreigners, mainly veterans with military experience. This kind of people are mostly in Europe where the war is going on, so his army officers are also more professional.
Weapons and equipment are close to Haigen, and there is no shortage of western-style training for foreign guns and cannons. If the army says it has no fighting capacity, it is lying.
However, in this way, the army did not dominate the Li Xiucheng Taiping Army, but failed many times. Apart from the strength gap, it is said that the Taiping Army has a fighting force against the Western-style army, at least with a strong fighting will.
However, in this way, the Taiping rebels just took Zeng Guofan and Xiang Jun. There was no way for Li Xiucheng to organize thirteen kings and more than 100,000 troops to rescue Tianjing this year, just fighting Ceng Guoquan’s defense.
Zeng Guofan said that Xiang was "fighting hard and staying in the village", but Zhu Jinglun thought that Xiang was "fighting hard and staying in the village". Farmers with strong character and strong will from Xiangxi were trained by Zeng Guofan to be able to resist one by one. Robots are extremely strong in sex and can fight to the last person, and they are also equipped with many modern weapons. This army must not be underestimated.
"Then you can’t see the man?"
WuChongYao inquired.
Zhu Jinglun wry smile way "people involved with these things will bear the blame in the future."
Zhu Jinglun never understood why the party and state did not try to correct the historical mistake, which he never wanted to make from the beginning anyway.
Wu Chongyao asked again, "What about the business?"
Zhu Jinglun shook his head. "Come on, let him go. We don’t care about Jiangnan. By the way, this matter is not confidential, so that Baigui and them all know."
Since they didn’t collude with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, they didn’t touch the bottom line of the Qing court, or Zeng Guofan. They certainly wouldn’t attack Guangdong at this time, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom could help Zhu Jinglun block for a year at least.
Wuchongyao nodded and turned his notes over a page, remembering that he had to report everything when he was old.
"Oh, by the way, there are ten Americans here, and there is one captain left. They say it is the first mate, but they guarantee that the military skills are more than enough to be a captain. They also sent a naval engineer to inspect our shipyard."
In recent months, Americans have sent hundreds of teachers, which is more efficient than Swedes. Of course, more importantly, their population base is much higher than Sweden, and they have more teachers. They have a unique sense of mission as Americans and consider themselves to be world moral models. Therefore, a large number of teachers who are willing to devote themselves to education are spreading advanced European and American education and culture to the backward East, which drives many American school teachers to take the initiative to register.
Their military advisers have just confirmed that the news is estimated to have left at this time, which is Zhu Jinglun’s request for roll call.
After Xiang’s fighting capacity exceeded his estimate, he was worried that the war with Xiang would develop into a protracted war in the future. Zhu Jinglun didn’t want to fight the Qing court for more than ten years. If his change was an industrial revolution, not a war, not the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom War, not the American Civil War, it was a meaningless war. Once this happened, it was a tragedy, and twice was a disaster. Once this happened, Zhu Jinglun dared not imagine how chaotic it would be. I’m afraid it would be to catch up with Wu Luanhua.
Therefore, he decided to devote his main energy to the navy. If the land war reached a deadlock, he must break the deadlock by sea. The most direct way is, of course, to follow the example of the British and French Coalition forces and drive directly to Peiping.
But he didn’t have a qualified naval officer. The Swedish navy was not strong. He thought about it. First, the navies of Britain and France fought against the Russian navy in the Crimean War. The French even made early armored ships.
However, these two countries are not optimistic about Guangdong at this time. Although they can accept Guangdong’s self-reliance, they are not willing to intervene. After all, they are not a small country like Sweden. A small local government in China can make them pay more attention to the country with the most experience in fighting between Britain and France, that is, the United States.
The American Civil War is still in a fierce battle. Although the south still maintains its offensive on land, the strength of the northern United States continues to increase in the ocean. In 163, it had five ships and 340,000 personnel. In 164, the number of ships increased by 671, with 5.15 million personnel. By the end of the war, there were more than 7 ships. By the end of the war, the size of the American northern navy would become the world’s first navy.
The key is that the US Navy has accumulated a lot of experience in the long-term blockade and the battle with the Southern Navy. These war experiences are exactly what Zhu Jinglun is short of. Hiring naval officers from the United States is second only to Britain and France.
Zhu Jinglun specially wrote a letter to Lincoln because Zhu Jinglun supported Lincoln on behalf of the Guangdong government and bought tens of millions of dollars of Lincoln bonds. Although Lincoln Heng is a local government and according to intelligence, he is likely to rebel. Although he is worried, because the United States is now counterinsurgency and supporting a possible rebel force, which may be bad for their international image, he still wrote back and promised to send officers, but repeatedly stressed that American consultants will not intervene in the China war, and he will withdraw them once war breaks out in China.
After the government completed the negotiations, an advisory group was formed. After half a year of preparation, the Americans were finally ready and selected officers to come to Guangdong.
The Americans came sooner than Zhu Jinglun expected, and they arrived a month later.
At this time, the official China New Year, February 1, 163, Tongzhi two-year Spring Festival.
The Americans had a good day, but it interrupted Wu Chongyao’s New Year. Zhu Jinglun asked him to take American consultants around Guangdong to feel the lively atmosphere of China New Year, especially to let them feel the atmosphere of Guangdong. Compared with the hellish situation in Jiangnan at this time, I believe they will have a more psychological identity with the local government of Guangdong, and once they are psychologically identified, they will be more efficient in performing their duties.
It was not until the fifteenth day of the first month that they became official.
The captain and the first mate are all assigned to Zhu Jinglun. At present, there is only one gunboat, and two other gunboats are about to be completed. After building the first one, they have accumulated experience and then improved it to produce. In addition, a 1-ton warship is being produced with the help of Swedish engineers.
This is the largest production capacity in Guangdong at present, and it will be impossible to expand it for a while.
As two gunboats are about to water, Zhu Jinglun needs to give two gunboat officers, so when these Americans come to town, let them take charge of the emergency training of the navy at once, and secondly, let them familiarize themselves with a gunboat of Zhu Jinglun.
But a month later, the American engineer who came with the officers suggested Zhu Jinglun to make armored ships after inspecting Zhu Jinglun Shipyard. He believed that Zhu Jinglun Shipyard was fully capable of producing armored ships.
Section three hundred and twenty-seven Seize this talent
Production of armored ships?
Zhu Jinglun had another idea. He didn’t consider the suggestion made to him by American engineers. He immediately discussed it with some other consultants. He remembered that it was inevitable for warships to change from wood to steel, but he didn’t study the military history. This kind of thing is so unpopular that few people pay attention to it.
Swedish consultants also know about armored ships, but they are too advanced. The Swedes can’t afford to play with Britain and France. But the armored ships built by the two countries are also very different. Judging from the sketches they drew for Zhu Jinglun, the shape is quite wonderful. There was no such thing as armored ships in the first twenty years. The armored fort was built in the Crimean War
More than two years ago, Britain’s first armored ship, the Warrior, came out. It looks a bit like a ship.
It was only during the war that the Americans built the first armored ship, and the north and the south each built a warship abandoned by the south and the north. It was really terrible to refit it. The wooden steamboat was directly covered with an iron shell, while the northern warship was more like a floating fort floating in the water.
It is obvious that Zhu Jinglun is not interested in fighting for a first-class vanity innovation technology, which means that he has to make great achievements and learn that he is unable to play this game.
This is also the case. The Americans allocated 50,000 US dollars for the construction of the monet armored ship, which is equivalent to more than 30,000 taels of silver. The United States, a country like this, has only built one such thing in the south and one in the north, which really can’t afford to play.
But after some weighing, Zhu Jinglun decided to build one.
The reason is that a resume is placed in front of him.
It’s the resume of this American investigator.
Don’t look at don’t know a look startled this guy in the history of ships in the world turned out to be a seat to experts.
But also a Swede.
His name is john ericsson. He was born in Wemland County, Sweden. He became a student in the Swedish naval machinery team at the age of 18 and worked as an army surveying and mapping engineer for 12 years. Obviously, the Swedish army trained him.