My Italy

Guangzhou City is still so lively and prosperous. As the only foreign port, most of the prosperity of Guangzhou City is based on foreign trade. Even the Portuguese Macau and now the British Hong Kong still cannot shake Guangzhou's status in South China.

Even during the war with France, merchant ships from various countries continued to arrive in Guangzhou. They transported goods purchased from various countries and then transported specialties from China from Guangzhou. In such an environment, a British merchant ship named Azalea docked at Tianzi Pier inconspicuously.

However, after the Azalea docked, it did not immediately find coolies to load and unload the cargo. Instead, it continued to dock calmly. It was not until night that the unloading of goods began under the protection of a group of officers and soldiers.

In this dark environment, a group of obviously unusual people stood aside and watched silently.

Anyone who knows them will be surprised to see this group of people, because these people are extraordinary. Standing at the top of the list is Zhang Zhidong, the new governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, and standing next to him is Howard, an Italian white-glove businessman who has recently become famous in the Far East.

"Your Excellency Governor Zhang, this time our company hid it from other countries and spent a lot of effort to finally transport 3,000 fast guns and 27 steel cannons. These are all standard equipment of our country and can definitely add some value to your country. Help.”

It was Howard, an Italian businessman, who spoke, and Governor Zhang nodded in response to Howard's words. "Thank you for your company's strong support. I, Zhang, will definitely express my gratitude to your company for your selfless help."

Although Howard owns a company, who is behind it is basically an open secret in the Far East. The French Minister cursed Italy's shamelessness in public more than once, and almost had a physical conflict with Italian Minister Jia Liwen because of this.

Faced with the conflict between the two foreign ministers, many people acted like they were watching a Western.

However, for Zhang Zhidong, he had no intention of watching such a Western scene. The main reason was that the situation in Guangdong and Guangxi made him restless. Before he took office in Guangxi and Guangxi, Zhang Nanpi was worried about the current war with the French. He did not expect that after taking office, Pan Dingxin, the governor of Guangxi, gave him such a big surprise, which almost made him breathless. He, Pan Qinxuan, had lost his master and humiliated his country, and was destined to be implicated by him. Even if he was Li Hefei's subordinate, he could not stop Zhang Nanpi's determination.

Of course, the impeachment of Pan Qinxuan can be put aside for the time being. The most important thing is to guard the country and not let the French invade Guangdong and Guangxi, otherwise he will suffer the same consequences. So during that time, Zhang Nanpi looted the land and tried to supplement enough food and wages for the frontline soldiers. During that time, there were nursery rhymes about Zhang Nanpi in the city. When adults entered Guangzhou City, the blue sky was three feet high again.

Needless to say, this is scolding Zhang Zhidong for scratching the ground. But he also admitted this. As long as the French were not allowed to invade Guangdong and Guangxi, the ground would be scraped three feet away. The princes in the court could understand his painstaking efforts.

The issue of food and wages is easy to solve, but those on the front line kept clamoring for foreign guns and cannons in order to withstand the French offensive.

Food and wages can still be raised locally, but there is no place to buy foreign guns and cannons. Since the war with France, those foreigners have stopped selling firearms to the court. Even if they offered a high price, these money-minded foreigners would shake their heads like rattles, each one saying that they must follow the principle of neutrality and not sell ordnance and other supplies to the court.

Just when he was troubled by this, the white-glove Howard from Italy came to visit quietly and told Zhang Zhidong that he had a batch of arms for sale.

After learning the news, Zhang Zhidong was immediately overjoyed and quickly expressed that he wanted them all. Although this batch of ordnance is a bit expensive, it can still be bought. There is some money in the treasury, so this is simple. The governor of Guangdong and Guangxi invited the wealthy businessmen in the city to a banquet, so he could naturally raise all the money.

This is not just after receiving the weapons, but also to personally look at these foreign guns and cannons.

After waiting for the unloading to be completed, Governor Zhang walked over in person. Howard was also a clever man and asked someone to open a gun box and take out a Vitry M1870 rifle.

"Your Majesty the Governor, this is our country's standard rifle, the Vitri Quick Gun. This gun can fire quickly. A skilled soldier can fire 12 rounds a minute, and the effective range reaches 600 meters..."

Howard introduced the rifle in his hand eloquently, and Governor Zhang listened with interest without any impatience.

Howard had spent so much time teaching Qing officials, so of course he knew what they were interested in, so after a brief introduction to the Vitri rifle, he led everyone to the cannons, which were covered with waterproof canvas.

After lifting the canvas to reveal a cannon with a steely air, Zhang Zhidong and others immediately showed great interest.

"Everyone, this is an 85mm fast cannon manufactured by our country's Turin Arsenal. Its maximum range is 4,200 meters and its maximum rate of fire is 4 rounds per minute. This is the best fast cannon our company can produce so far."

"Not bad, very good."

Looking at the fast cannon in front of him and listening to the data introduced by Howard, Governor Zhang nodded in praise.

Don't think that Governor Zhang doesn't understand the performance of weapons. You must know that this is a major change that has not happened in three thousand years. The strength of foreign ships and artillery is engraved in everyone's heart. As an ambitious person, how could Governor Zhang not understand this? Not to mention that as the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, his army was still at war with the French, and he needed to understand the performance of weapons.

"By the way, what kind of cannon is this?"

Governor Zhang asked, pointing to a figure that was also covered with canvas, but much smaller.

"Your Majesty the Governor, please allow me to solemnly introduce this to our company's newly developed secret weapon, the Maxim Sai Electric Cannon."

Yes, it is the historical Maxim heavy machine gun, but this is a black powder version. Its caliber is 10.4 mm (the same as the caliber of a rifle), its rate of fire is 600 rounds per minute, its effective range is 800 meters, and its total weight reaches 94 kilograms (including the gun mount and mantlet).

As for why Howard called it the electric cannon, don't blame him for choosing the name randomly, because this thing has the same price as the artillery, and is even more expensive than ordinary artillery. In addition, it also looks a bit like artillery in appearance. This time, in order to increase the bargaining chip for the Qing people, Carlo put the newly developed Maxim machine gun on the battlefield.

"Electric cannon?"

Listening to Howard's introduction, Governor Zhang became interested. "Open it and let me see."

Following Governor Zhang's words, the Maxim machine gun appeared in front of everyone for the first time.

However, the first appearance was not very good, because its compact size did not have the powerful image of an artillery at all.

Governor Zhang also had this thought, and was even thinking in his heart that the Italian people were bragging. Of course, Governor Zhang would not say this, and even praised him with some nice words.

Howard was a businessman, and his most basic ability was to observe people's emotions. He immediately knew that the Qing people did not pay attention to this weapon, and he immediately had an idea.

"My lords, it's too late now. Why don't we go to the shooting range and try it out tomorrow?"

"Okay, I'll just go take a look tomorrow."

Needless to say, Howard wanted to test the quality of these weapons. He was not at ease if he handed it over directly to the frontline soldiers.

After one night, a group of people appeared at the shooting range again, but this time Maxim's performance was an eye-opener for the Qing people. In order to have a more intuitive cash withdrawal, Howard purchased a batch of pigs and sheep overnight as experimental subjects. So when the pigs and sheep fell in pieces in front of Maxim's gun, one can imagine the expressions of Governor Zhang and others.

Of course, the Italians' other weapons are also good, the artillery is very sharp, and the rifle is also good, but the ammunition is a little short.

After the demonstration, Governor Zhang immediately decided to unload all three thousand fast guns. After leaving four quick guns, he also allocated them all. As for the Maxim Sai electric cannon, it was a little special because no one was operating it. Get over this thing. Fortunately, Yiren took this into consideration and specially equipped dozens of gunners.

In the end, Governor Zhang thought about it and decided that after leaving four electric cannons and personnel behind, the other eight electric cannons were removed. Among them, as the key point to resist the French attack, Zhennanguan received most of the ordnance, among which six Maxims were sent here.

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