Red Mansion: I am Jia Lian

Chapter 551 Welcome and send off
On the issue of arms sales, Zhang Tingen clearly stated that he was opposed to it. The reason was simple: the country's most important weapons should not be shown to others.

There is a precedent for this. In the Northern Song Dynasty, there was a book called "Wujing Zongyao", which contained extremely comprehensive content on the military affairs of the time. It even described clearly how to make weapons and how to deploy troops.

Such a book is actually sold to the public.

Just from this one thing, we can see why the Northern Song Dynasty became weak.

Later dynasties learned from the lesson to a certain extent, and the Qing Dynasty only allowed elite troops to be equipped with the most advanced firearms at the time.

You have to know that when it comes to manufacturing, the more you produce, the lower the cost.

Jia Lian naturally welcomed the arms sales. Heavy industry was a losing business. Fighting a war was a waste of money, and the equipment produced was a waste if it was not used.

Now someone wants to buy it, why not take it up quickly? Of course, even if you want to sell it, you can't just force it. Jia Lian thought about it and wrote back to the capital saying that it can be sold, but you have to talk to Jia Lian.

After receiving the reply, the capital asked Ibrahim to go to Guangzhou to talk to Jia Lian, and said that in principle it could be sold.

Jia Lian's decision was also selfish. In order to support the industrial development of Guangdong, he naturally had to place part of the production here.

The key point is that Jia Lian did not plan to sell percussion cap guns, not even rifled guns, but only flintlock smoothbore guns. He could sell some cannons, which were not exclusive products anyway. And the Ottoman Empire was not incapable of making cannons, but the performance was a little worse. In the Ming Dynasty, there was the so-called Rumi gun, which referred to the fire guns produced by the Ottoman Empire at that time.

In fact, what the Ottoman Empire needed most urgently was not guns but warships. The war between them and Russia was mainly for the control of the Black Sea.

Looking at the expansion history of Tsarist Russia, on the one hand it was an endless desire for land, and on the other hand it was a tireless pursuit of access to the sea.

European and American Western countries have one thing in common: once internal conflicts intensify, they often choose not to resolve internal problems, but to divert conflicts through external wars.

This tactic has been used from modern times to the present day and has become path dependence.

How should I put it? Nationalism, which originated in modern times, is a double-edged sword, hurting others while also hurting oneself.

To be frank, the country in the world that is best at self-reflection is the University of Tokyo.

For Jia Lian, the most successful thing was to change the diplomatic habits of Dongda. Since ancient times, Dongda has regarded itself as the Celestial Empire, and has always looked down on diplomacy. In the past, foreign envoys came to pay tribute. Jia Lian changed this concept, at least towards European and American countries, he adopted an equal diplomatic attitude. Since it is equal, you don't think of taking advantage.

The Ottoman Empire sent the emperor a very valuable state gift. Since it was equal, Emperor Chenghui was not stingy in the return gift. He increased the gift by 30% compared with the return gifts from Britain and France.

From Ibrahim's perspective, this visit was a great bargain in terms of gifts. The top silk, porcelain, tea, and lacquerware were all things that could not be bought even with money in the West. Ibrahim was ecstatic when he learned that these gifts could not be bought even with money in China and could only be obtained through the emperor's grant. Even if he had them, the color of silk was regulated and the porcelain could not be used and could only be used as a sacrifice. This shipload of gifts was worth three ships' worth of gifts.

Therefore, Ibrahim did not care that there were no women in the emperor's return gift.

There was another issue, which was intermarriage, which Ibrahim also raised to Li Qing. Li Qing directly told him to talk to Jia Lian.

How should I put it? The Great Zhou Dynasty continued the Ming Dynasty's system of not marrying off relatives. The general attitude was, how could a royal lady from the Celestial Empire marry a barbarian? Of course, they wouldn't say it out loud.

When Ibrahim sensed Li Qing's impatience on the issue of intermarriage, he gave up on his own accord. He had already made too much money, so there was no need to create more trouble.

Carrying a boat full of return gifts, the Ottoman delegation left the capital and headed for Guangzhou.

Just as the Ottoman delegation left, the Russian delegation arrived in the capital. Compared with the Ottoman delegation that floated on the sea, the Russian delegation traveled by land.

How long did it take? Ten months.

The head of the mission, General Rumyantsev, personally commanded the army and participated in the Fifth Russo-Turkish War.

The reason why he took the trouble to visit Dongda for ten months was very simple. Russia was very worried about Dongda's expansion to the north. In particular, the country had ambitions in Central Asia and had been supporting local powerful groups. These actions were strongly countered by Dongda. Not only did Wang Ziteng kill people in the Western Regions, but a few decades ago, there was also a war between the two countries in Siberia, and Russia suffered a shameful defeat that time.

The current situation is that the King of Xining is expanding in Central Asia and has purged the powerful factions supported by Tsarist Russia. There is also a force of the Li royal family in the Far East, drinking from the North Sea.

Tsarist Russia was very worried about being attacked from both the Ottoman Empire and the Ottoman Empire. In addition, pressure from the Austro-Hungarian Empire forced Tsarist Russia to be cautious strategically, otherwise it would not be able to withstand the attack from three sides.

Li Qing really had no energy to complain. Although he was ranked third in the cabinet, he was now responsible for welcoming and seeing off guests.

Li Qing also realized that because of the land tax, he had lost points in the emperor's eyes. Therefore, he worked diligently and tirelessly to do his job as the head of the Ministry of Rites.

In fact, the expansion of Central Asia is not without benefits, at least in terms of horses, which have been greatly improved. As the flagship product of domestic trade, the quality of Central Asian horses is obviously more marketable than Mongolian horses. Except for the slightly inferior endurance, they are almost a perfect winner in other aspects. In recent years, a large number of horses have been transported from Central Asia to Beijing. If a rich person does not have a good horse produced in Central Asia, he will lose face when he goes out.

It was already the end of April, and the Tsarist Russian delegation had deliberately chosen to take the Central Asian route, and the shocks they encountered along the way were no small.

Both are large countries with vast territories, but there are obvious differences. The bigness of Tsarist Russia is that it has a vast territory and a sparse population, and only the European part has a relatively dense population. Dongda is big. After entering Shaanxi and Gansu, it is obvious that the population density along the way is much higher than that of Tsarist Russia. When they arrived in Chang'an, Rumyantsev and others had a clear understanding of the population gap between the two countries. Such a large city with a population of hundreds of thousands is not even among the top ten in terms of population in Dongda.

Through their understanding, the Russian delegation learned a fact: the further south you go, the denser the population is. The reason why the population in the north and northwest is small is that it is not suitable for farming.

When it comes to the population figure, the receiving official couldn't explain it clearly and could only vaguely say that it was over 200 million. After all, the last time the Fish Scale Book was drawn up was fifty years ago.

Two hundred million people is a very shocking number for Rumyantsev. If it is a poor and weak country, it doesn't matter. But this is a big country, and a strong and rich country that is bigger than Tsarist Russia. This is very scary. There is an essential difference between the underlying logic of Eastern and Western thinking. One is a secular society, and the other is a society dominated by religion. It is strange that the thinking logic can be the same.

In the West, the concept of the state in the modern sense was first born because the cost of war was unbearable, and then because of the struggle between secular power and ecclesiastical power. Nationalism was born during the French Revolution.

Upon learning that Li Qing was a cabinet minister in charge of diplomacy and education, Rumyantsev had a very good attitude and showed humility and proactive enthusiasm.

But Li Qing was not very polite. The friendship between the two countries was not deep, and they once fought each other. In addition, the Ottoman Empire delegation received earlier knew that Tsarist Russia had been expanding outward, so his attitude could only be said to be polite. This alienation was very obvious. After receiving the delegation, he introduced them to the post house of the Honglu Temple, and Li Qing did not care about it. The follow-up matters will be discussed later.

This attitude made Rumyantsev feel deeply worried. The strength of Tsarist Russia was relative. What he had seen along the way made Rumyantsev feel deeply afraid of the University of Tokyo. Especially after entering the vicinity of the capital, the cement hardened roads made the entire delegation feel inferior like country bumpkins. Of course, the last person who had the same feeling was the Ottoman Empire's delegation.

The Tsarist Russian delegation seemed to have found the reason why Britain and France, as powerful European countries, took the initiative to show goodwill to the University of East Asia and conclude a friendly treaty.

Rumyantsev convened the delegation members for an emergency meeting to discuss how to proceed with the subsequent negotiations. He also formulated a principle that a war with the Ottoman Empire must not break out while the war with the Ottoman Empire is ongoing. This is unwise and unacceptable. Therefore, the members of the delegation are expected to restrain their previous rude behavior, especially the accompanying Kazakh cavalry.

Perhaps due to stereotypes, Li Qing told the Honglu Temple before he left that the members of the Russian delegation must be kept under close watch and absolutely not allowed to cause trouble. Someone must be sent to follow them when they go out, and they are not allowed to carry weapons on the streets, not even a fruit knife. How can I put it? When Li Qing returned to the cabinet and reported to Zhang Tingen, he couldn't help but complain: "The Russians are all barbarians, you can tell by their faces."

You really judge people by their appearance.

In this regard, Zhang Tingen did not blame Li Qing for his subjective and arbitrary judgment, but agreed with his statement: "He was born in the wild land of the far north, so he is like this by nature! During the time of Emperor Yingzong of the former Ming Dynasty, the Battle of Tumu Fortress took place because the barbarism and greed of the Oirat could not be tolerated. Although things are different now, we cannot treat the barbarians as a country of etiquette. As long as it is not excessive, just be patient. If you really can't bear it anymore, then there is no need to be patient." The reason why Zhang Tingen was not under much pressure was that he had the King of Xining in front of him, and it was not the turn of the local army to fight.

Even if a fight really breaks out, Zhang Tingen is not afraid, because he has a trump card named Jia Lian in his hand, so he is confident.

It's not that Zhang Tingen is arrogant. Through the British and French resident envoys and some past records, Zhang Tingen saw that Jia Lian had brought the European powers, the Netherlands and Spain, under control. Is he afraid to return to Tsarist Russia?

Regarding the arrival of the Russian delegation, Zhang Tingen did not forget to send someone to send a letter to Jia Lian to seek his opinion. After all, he was recognized as the first person in the Great Zhou who understood the West and an outstanding diplomat.

When Ibrahim arrived in Guangzhou, Jia Lian gave him enough face and personally led a group of officials to welcome him and hosted a banquet.

The next day, despite being tired from the journey, Ibrahim couldn't wait to meet Jia Lian.

The Russo-Turkish War had been fought five times, and the Ottoman Empire was well aware that the next war was not far away.

It can only be said that after the Ottoman Empire was defeated in the last war initiated by it, it has been thinking about getting back its ground.

If we want to regain control of the Kerch Strait, we must win the next war.

When it comes to war, the easiest thing to think of is upgrading armaments.

Ibrahim had been doing a lot of homework during this period. After sitting down in the reception room, he immediately asked the two singers if they were satisfied. If they liked them, he had plenty of gifts and would send them to them next time.

Jia Lian subconsciously looked around at such a naked remark. Only his followers were standing not far away. Then he smiled and said, "I'm too busy recently and don't have time to watch the singing and dancing. Let's watch it when I'm free."

In fact, Jia Lian had a lot of grievances. First, Baochai used a tight-guarding tactic, and second, the third sister was busy giving birth to a child. Since returning from the capital, he had not touched the two singing girls, not to mention the Yuanyang. If Ibrahim had not come, Jia Lian would have used the excuse of going on tour to hide for a while.

"Is that so?" Ibrahim was a little disappointed. How could he not enjoy the singing and dancing? Work is work, life is life.

Fortunately, Jia Lian was quite considerate and took the initiative to bring up the arms sales: "Your Majesty and the cabinet have given me full authority to handle your request for arms sales. As for warships, it's easy. Guangzhou has at least ten shipyards that can build the British Royal Navy's standard third-class battleships. If you need them urgently, we can open new shipyards. As for weapons, we have as many flintlock muskets as you want, and the price is easy to negotiate."

"Your Excellency Governor, regarding the purchase of weapons, I still hope to see the goods in person." Ibrahim seemed very cautious, although he knew that the goods from Dongda must be better than those produced domestically.

"No problem, seeing the goods is a reasonable request." Jia Lian agreed readily. After all, he had been preparing for a while.

The rifling process is a technology that only a very small number of high-end craftsmen in Europe can master, but Jia Lian has solved the problem of machine production. The British and French don't know about it, let alone the Ottomans.

The flintlock rifles are produced with unified standards and have interchangeable parts. This was invented by Jia Lian. Compared with Europe and the United States, which are still at the stage of hand-making gun barrels, this has incomparable advantages.

A simple visit turned into an ordering meeting. Jia Lian led Ibrahim to the shooting range of the military camp outside the city, and Jia Lian personally went live to sell the goods.

"Sir, please look at this Type 5 rifle. It uses high-quality barrel steel, the most advanced drilling and cutting processes, and one-time barrel molding technology. Its airtightness is much higher than that of traditional manual hammering. Also, please see that the parts on different guns can be interchanged after disassembly and it does not affect the trial version." After Jia Lian demonstrated it on the spot, Ibrahim had a feeling that he was lying to me.

Pointing to the row of fifty rifles in front of him, Ibrahim questioned: "All the guns here, I believe the parts are interchangeable, but for other guns, I don't believe it."

Damn, I knew you would be skeptical. Do you understand standardization?

Forget it. I won’t bother with people from such a backward place. Real money and real gold are equal.

"Follow me!" Jia Lian made a gesture, and he didn't believe that he couldn't deal with this bearded man.

Jia Lian was taken directly to the door of the armory, where a batch of flintlock rifles produced in the past were stored, but they lacked a rifling process. This batch of guns was prepared for the people of Nanyang. After all, it was very risky to engage in reclamation at that time. Not only did they have to compete with wild animals for living space, but they also had to compete with local indigenous people. How can I put it? On such a large island, it is impossible for everyone to obey. There are always some people who are unwilling to surrender and want to fight against the colonizers.

Rifled rifles are too powerful and are not suitable for civilians. Smoothbore rifles are not a problem and are more than enough to deal with the natives. Moreover, in Southeast Asia, several countries across the strait have taken the initiative to send people to meet Li Yuan. After presenting gifts, they asked to purchase military equipment, which led to the batch of smoothbore rifles.

The quality of products produced in Guangzhou is naturally not as good as that of the R&D department in Beijing, but there is no problem in dealing with export customers.

There were boxes of rifles in the armory. Jia Lian asked Ibrahim to open any box and find a part that was not interchangeable. Jia Lian would give him a thousand rifles for free.

Seeing such confident words, Ibrahim knew that it was unnecessary to question them. He must be very sure of himself to make such a big statement.

"Okay, I'm sorry for questioning your words. Go back and continue testing the gun." Ibrahim took the initiative to make amends. After all, he was the one who was seeking to purchase.

Jia Lian smiled and said, "Pick out ten boxes of rifles at random and carry them over to replace them."

Ibrahim hesitated for a moment, nodded, and marked the box with chalk, then watched the soldiers carry it out and replace the flintlock rifles that had been prepared earlier.

The accuracy of a flintlock rifle is guaranteed within fifty meters, but beyond that, there is no telling where the bullet will fly.

The targets in the shooting range were all set at fifty meters. Ibrahim's entourage stepped forward, opened the box, took out the rifle, loaded it, and conducted a test shooting for an hour.

All the rifles were shot, and then the rear mechanisms were actually removed, replaced under the guidance of the technicians, and then shot.

The accuracy of the shooting was obviously satisfactory. With a 90% accuracy in a 50-meter target, I was already very satisfied. The subsequent replacement of parts made Ibrahim speechless. He was no layman and knew the benefits of interchangeable parts. It was common for guns to be damaged on the battlefield. When the time came, it was much better to combine two broken guns into one good one and continue to use it than to have both guns unable to be repaired immediately.

Afterwards, Jia Lian took Ibrahim to watch the artillery demonstration. The two-wheeled field artillery showed great mobility, which was much better than the artillery produced in the Ottoman Empire.

This kind of field artillery with a gun carriage was pulled by four horses and had a mobility far higher than that of infantry. Well-trained soldiers could even deploy artillery in front of the enemy and hit the enemy infantry, and then run away. It would be impossible for the enemy to catch up.

Of course, when you encounter complex terrain and bad roads, there is nothing to say.

(End of this chapter)