Beiyang reactionaries

Although the position of a chief of the police department is very important, it is nothing compared to the railway construction funds and education development funds that Duan Xun is about to invest in.Therefore, Guo Xiren had no choice but to give up his post as director of the Shaanxi Police Department.

Duan Xun smiled.

Guo Xiren is good, very up-to-date.Duan Xun came here today for the purpose of being the chief of the police department, first taking away the most important position in Shaanxi.

"Then I will thank Governor Guo for Yu Peidi."

203 Arms trade

"Fang Chen, you have worked hard."

"No."

At the end of 1918 and the beginning of 1919, various departments came to Xi'an in turn to report to Duan Xun.In addition to reporting on the events of 1918, he also handed in Duan Xun's work plan for the new year.Han Linchun also came to Xi'an to report to Duan Xun by transporting weapons this time.

"How about the arsenal? What about the construction of the new factory?"

"General, I was about to report this to you."

"Say."

Although Duan Xun is now wooing this and that, but Duan Xun's most important thing is the army.If there is an army, then there will be everything.Without the military, what you have today would be lost.

This is the situation now.

For a warlord like Duan Xun, nothing is more important than the army.Not to mention anything else, after Yuan Shikai died, Duan Qirui was able to control the Beijing government a few times, relying on the mighty military strength of the Anhui Clan.It relied on the full support of the Anhui generals.That's why he was able to expel people like Li Yuanhong and Feng Guozhang one after another.Similarly, although Feng Guozhang failed in the battle with Duan Qirui, he was still able to steadily contend with Duan Qirui, relying on the strength of the direct army in the Yangtze River region.

And what is the most important thing to maintain the army?

That is the arsenal.

Regardless of whether your arsenal is big or not, and whether the weapons you produce are good or not, you must at least have an arsenal.Otherwise your troops will always be subject to others.Therefore, Duan Xun attaches great importance to the development of the Sichuan Arsenal.

Since Duan Xun entered Sichuan, no matter how tight the funds were, Duan Xun would invest millions in the Sichuan Arsenal every year.Before Duan Xun came to Sichuan, the Sichuan Arsenal was able to receive about 100 million yuan a year.But Duan Xun immediately doubled his investment several times.

And this time, the Sichuan Arsenal has been expanded three times in a row.

"General, the construction of the new factory has ended, and the recruitment of workers has also ended. However, many of the newly recruited workers are not as skilled as the old workers, and they need to be trained for a while. However, the machinery and equipment we purchased this time are better than our previous ones. The machinery and equipment are much better. Therefore, there is no problem with the output. And I not only recruited Liu Qingen and others from the Hanyang Arsenal, but also more than 100 technicians and more than 500 skilled workers. So the new factory There were no delays in the construction of the project, and the output was better than expected.”

"Really? Great. Have you calculated the annual output of the arsenal?"

Duan Xun was overjoyed.

Only if there is an arsenal that can satisfy his troops, Duan Xun will not be afraid of anyone.At present, there is no army in China that has an arsenal that can satisfy its own troops. If Duan Xun is the first to realize it, then Duan Xun's status in China will be greatly improved.

"According to the calculations in December last year (1918), the monthly production of rifles in our Sichuan Armory can reach 83. If we go all out, we can produce about 130 rifles a month. Every month can Produce 75 heavy machine guns, [-] two light machine guns. And produce eighteen [-]mm infantry guns. And..."

"There is no need to talk about the next one."

Duan Xun interrupted Han Linchun's next report.

Because the next thing is the production of ammunition, and the production of grenades.Han Linchun will make a detailed report on these things to Duan Xun. Now that Han Linchun has said it, it is impossible for Duan Xun to remember all of them.

Duan Xun only needs to remember the first few data.

So Duan Xun asked: "In other words, can we produce more than 6 rifles a year? More than 1000 heavy machine guns and about [-] light machine guns?"

"Yes. The new workers in our new Sichuan Armory factory, as long as they get used to it a little bit and become proficient, they can produce [-] to [-] rifles a year. If there is a need, the machines can be fully turned on, and they can produce [-] rifles a year. possible."

"it is good."

The output of the current Sichuan Arsenal is very good, which is just right for Duan Xun.

Now Duan Xun has about 20 troops under his command, plus the police in various provinces, and the troops that Duan Xun needs to use arms to win over, and counting the weapons reserves, the total amount of arms Duan Xun needs is about 30.

Production is now more than sufficient.

"Fangchen, you should have received the news. I ordered another batch of machinery and equipment for our Sichuan Arsenal through a foreign company. Although the scale of machinery and equipment for the new factory is not as large as this time, there are still about two-thirds of the machines in the new factory. Equipment. My requirement is that for the normal operation of the arsenal, the annual production of rifles must exceed [-]. It is estimated that these machines will arrive in Sichuan one after another within three months. You must be prepared by then, Don't delay the construction of new plants."

"Yes. General, I have received a message from the general. And before I entered Shaanxi, I had already taken a fancy to a place in Chengdu, where the supporting facilities have already started to be built. As soon as the machinery and equipment arrive, I can be there Open the sixth factory of our Sichuan Armory."

"Also, we must quickly train usable skilled workers. People can wait for machines, but don't let machines wait for people."

"Yes."

Han Linchun nodded.

Duan Xun expanded the Sichuan Arsenal almost once a year.It can be seen from the increase in the number of workers in the Sichuan Arsenal that the expansion speed of the Sichuan Arsenal has been expanded in recent years.When Duan Xun entered Sichuan, the output of the Sichuan arsenal was getting lower and lower because of successive years of war in Sichuan, and there were only about 1 front-line workers.However, over the past few years, and with the newly recruited workers after the expansion, the number of front-line workers in the Sichuan Arsenal has exceeded 4000, reaching more than [-].

The Sichuan Arsenal has also become able to produce rifles, light machine guns, heavy machine guns, mountain artillery, and even imitate heavy artillery.However, after the imitation of the heavy artillery, the effect is not very good. Not only does it cost a lot of money, but the power of the imitated heavy artillery is not very good.Most importantly, it costs too much money and wastes a lot of time.And in the southwest, or the current domestic war in China, heavy artillery is not very much needed.Therefore, Duan Xun thought it was a waste of money, so he stopped the imitation work of heavy artillery.

The scale of the Sichuan Arsenal is already very large.Especially after the construction of the new factory, the Sichuan Arsenal has become the largest armory in China.But now Duan Xun is still dissatisfied, and still wants to continue to expand the Sichuan Arsenal.

"General, I think we should be able to relax a bit after this expansion. According to the current situation, there will be a large amount of weapons manufactured in our arsenal this year. I'm worried..."

Han Linchun thought about it, and tried to persuade Duan Xun.

To be honest, the current size of Duan Xun's army really doesn't need to make the Sichuan Arsenal so large.Especially after this expansion, the output of the Sichuan Arsenal can fully meet the needs of Duan Xun's current troops, and there is even a lot left.

Especially in the past two years, Duan Xun has ordered a large number of Japanese weapons from Japan.

In comparison, Japanese weapons are better in quality, more powerful, and have a longer range than the weapons of the Sichuan Arsenal, surpassing the Sichuan Arsenal in all aspects.Therefore, several direct troops under Duan Xun were the first to be equipped with Japanese-style weapons, so that the Sichuan Arsenal has already started to stock them.

In this way, the Sichuan Arsenal will expand again on a large scale, and the inventory of the Sichuan Arsenal will increase.

This time Duan Xun wanted to equip the Shaanxi Yasukuni Army with weapons and equipment, and Han Linchun didn't feel any difficulty at all.Because of the current inventory of the Sichuan Arsenal and the production speed of the Sichuan Arsenal, not to mention providing weapons and ammunition to the Shaanxi Yasukuni Army of 2 people, even if it becomes 5 people, Han Linchun is confident that it will be easily done within half a year.

Therefore, Duan Xun now wants to expand the scale of the Sichuan Arsenal, which Han Linchun thinks is a bit wasteful.So Han Linchun persuaded Duan Xun.

"You do not understand."

Duan Xun smiled.

Then he said: "Do you know? Britain, France, the United States and Japan will soon impose an arms embargo on our country, and they will impose an arms embargo on us. I guess it will be within a few months. And once the arms embargo, They not only embargo arms directly, but also embargo parts and equipment related to arms manufacturing. So we have to plan ahead.”

"Why? Don't they want to make money?"

Han Linchun was very surprised.

In China, there have always been several trades that are very profitable.Among them, the opium trade and the arms trade are almost as famous, and it can be seen that the arms trade is profitable.International losers, the favorite thing for those foreign firms is to get in touch with Chinese warlords.

Then relying on warlords to do arms trade, the profits are very large.As long as many weapons enter China, the price will increase several times.But even so, these warlords in China still like to buy foreign weapons very much.The profits in the middle are astonishing.

Why is it embargoed?

"Fang Chen, if you think about who has monopolized China's arms trade in the past few years, you will know why Britain, France and the United States have imposed an arms embargo."

Han Linchun thought for a while, and then suddenly realized: "The British, French and American countries are worried about Japan's growing power in China."