The sun never sets

Hearing that he could pay more, Adolf became even more excited. He stretched out his open right hand and then raised the index finger of his left hand, "60 dollars!"

60 dollars for an M1886? Are the French crazy?

Adolf's face turned serious. "That's the price! Why don't you go ask someone else, Mr. Lin?"

The French were not the first power to enter the financial capital market, nor were they the last. It was normal for them to look down on the few people who sold weapons. Lin Yongchang was smiling in his heart, and when he said goodbye to Adolf, he thought that if he had the chance in the future, he would definitely support the Führer's just cause.

Arms trade is not only an economic issue, but also a political issue. Now think about it, the Russians agreed so readily, maybe it was related to the conflict between Russia and Britain? Maybe the Russians wanted to strike against the British power, so they took the opportunity to sell some weapons. Mosin-Nagant is a famous cheap product. Chekov and Andrei sold it at such a high price, but they pretended to be losing money.

Thinking about it again, Chekov and Andrei didn't seem to be the kind of people with deep thoughts. Lin Yongchang was still confident in his judgment of people. If he was wrong, it meant that Chekov and Andrei were very good. If that was the case, he could have a good fight with them, but the possibility was too low.

After leaving the French, Lin Yongchang went to the American consulate next door. The attitude of Americans is completely different from that of the British and German countries. Americans are very enthusiastic. Lin Yongchang has established an image of a fool with a lot of money, and Americans like such customers. As for buying a gun to shoot the British? That's even better.

At this time, a typical American must insist on two things: believe in God and hate the British!

If the Chinese could beat the British in Tibet, Americans would applaud, especially those Irish Americans. Of course, the Chinese Exclusion Act must continue to be enforced.

Chapter 40: Conger

The United States was not a beacon of democracy from the beginning. Not to mention the massacre of Indians, all the great powers have massacred indigenous peoples. But the United States is the only country that explicitly persecutes a specific ethnic group through law, and that is the Chinese Exclusion Act.

The British were more evil than the Americans at that time, but the British did not enact laws specifically targeting any ethnic group like the Americans did. Lin Yongchang knew this past clearly, but he certainly would not talk about it in front of the American consulate officials.

If you lag behind, you will be beaten. This is an eternal truth. It is true between countries and between people. No matter how much bullying you suffer now, you will pay it back twice as much when you become stronger. What if you can't become stronger? If you can't become strong, you will just be beaten all the time.

"Mr. Lin, your accent reminds me of New York."

Conger was the US ambassador to China. He had a smile on his face and did not have the arrogance of other foreigners who were famous for facing barbarism. But this was just a superficial phenomenon. When the Americans annexed the Philippines, Conger cheered loudly. In essence, Conger was no different from other colonizers of the great powers. The fact that he seemed to have a slightly better attitude towards China was also because the United States was too weak in East Asia.

"Good day, Mr. Kongge, and the beautiful lady. This is my fiancée, the daughter of a Mongolian prince, with the blood of the Golden Family. You can call her Gege."

Kanger first expressed surprise at Wuyun Qiqige's young age, and then took Lin Yongchang to discuss business. Because the Americans developed too slowly, they had missed the colonial wave of dividing the world. Looking at the map, there were not many places they could intervene, and China was the largest one.

In order to gain greater benefits, the Americans were active in China, but due to insufficient deployment of forces and coming too late, the influence of the United States on China was seriously insufficient. The court recognized Britain and Germany. The former was the world hegemon, and beat the Jin Dynasty to a pulp in the two Opium Wars. The latter simply overturned France in the Battle of Sedan and ascended the throne of the great powers by stepping on the corpses of the French army.

Americans? How many divisions did he have? Even the Japanese who had defeated the Imperial Court were not taken seriously by the Imperial Court. They thought that if they fought again, they might not lose so badly, not to mention the Americans who were thousands of miles away.

Most Chinese students who study abroad now go to Germany, Britain or Japan. They go to Japan because it is close and cheap. They go to Germany because Germany's army is the best in the world, and they go to Britain because Britain's navy is invincible in the world. Basically, no one goes to the United States.

If this continues,

When those who study abroad come back, the United States will be even more excluded. Those who can go abroad to study are either rich or noble, or at least middle class, otherwise they can't even afford the money to buy a boat ticket. Those students will meet many people while studying, and they will be familiar with the language and culture of the great powers. After returning home, they will naturally tend to cooperate with the country where they studied.

Of course, there are counter-examples. Someone once said after studying infantry tactics in Japan that "the worst thing about Japan is the army." However, this is still a minority, and most people who study in Japan become pro-Japanese.

The United States also wants to attract Chinese talents to study in the United States, but what should they learn in the United States? Learning the gun-drawing skills of Western cowboys? Conger has been trying to make this happen and to reverse the Chinese people's prejudice against the United States, but the results are not very good. Then, Lin Yongchang appeared in front of him.

The agent of the Tibetan ruler, the son-in-law of the Mongolian prince, speaking English with an American accent, looked like a man who had fallen from the sky and was tailor-made for Conger. This was an excellent candidate for investment. Yuan Weiting had gotten on the train of the British and Germans and couldn't get off. The Americans couldn't intervene, so they had to change their target.

However, before investing, you need to find out the bottom line first.

Kanger exchanged a few pleasantries with Lin Yongchang, such as "How's the weather today?" and then casually asked, "Mr. Lin, have you ever been to New York? Your accent sounds very Manhattan."

"I really want to see the Statue of Liberty, but unfortunately, I don't have that opportunity."

"Oh, so you learned English from a tutor?"

"That's a long story!" Lin Yongchang smiled, "Let's talk about some current events first."

"Haha, you're impatient, like a cowboy, but I like it!" Conger also laughed, with a smile in his eyes, but the lower half of his face was serious, which gave people a scary feeling. "Then let's talk about the current situation."

Lin Yongchang felt that Conger gave people a scary feeling just now, but when he looked closely, it seemed not so scary. He thought to himself: Maybe I was influenced by the later generations, and subconsciously regarded the United States as the domineering American Empire. Now the United States is not so scary, and it can only bully the poor Spain in Europe.

Kanger glanced at his wife and Mongolian princess not far away, and then asked casually: "How many guns do you want?"

Lin Yongchang raised his eyebrows. The other party's words were very interesting. He came to the Americans just to "try three shots first". It seems that the Americans are easy to talk to? But the United States really didn't have any good military rifles at that time!

The M1982 rifles that the Americans are currently equipped with are too complicated and not very useful. This magazine-type rifle that uses smokeless gunpowder has a strange structure and requires side pressure to load bullets. As a result, it was beaten badly by the Spanish Mauser rifles in the Spanish-American War. The Winchester rifles that the United States sold to the court before were also not very useful and are now piled up in warehouses.

The Winchester is a lever-action rifle with a high rate of fire. It once shone in the Russo-Turkish War, but that was more than 20 years ago. In the past few decades, military technology has developed rapidly, and the speed of weapon replacement has also been very fast. The Winchester has a short range and its advantage in rate of fire has disappeared. The disadvantage is that it is not convenient to shoot while lying on the ground, and the use of a box magazine greatly limits the ammunition capacity.

Taking all of the above into consideration, Lin Yongchang said seriously, "As long as it's cheap enough, I'll take as many as you can get."

"Oh, what if there are a hundred thousand?"

Kang Ge had some good feelings towards Lin Yongchang, but he still wanted to warn this young man so that he would not be ignorant of his own limitations.

Lin Yongchang didn't feel like he was being beaten. One hundred thousand rifles is certainly not a small number, but it's not a lot either. How many people are there in China? Four hundred million! According to the book Lord of War, even if ten people have one gun, that would require 40 million rifles!

What is a hundred thousand rifles? No matter how many, they are not too many!

But the problem is, he doesn't have that much money.

Chapter 41: Confidence

"I really can't afford 100,000 rifles," Lin Yongchang shrugged and said indifferently, "How about the US government give me some interest-free loans?"

Night Raid Group: 69④9, 361③5 "Interest-free loan?" Kanger shook his head and said, "Lin, you know this is impossible."

"Well, I still have 47 dollars. If your weapons are cheap enough, I will buy them all from the United States." Lin Yongchang skillfully added a piece of sugar to the cup and stirred it. "You give me a price. If I think it's okay, then it's settled. If not, then we can just treat it as a pleasant chat."

He didn't have 47 dollars, it was nonsense. But Lin Yongchang's tone was as if he was talking about a few dollars, which seemed to be an understatement. He tasted the coffee and then remembered something, "Mr. Conger, what do you think of the business of selling coffee in China?"

While Kang was still thinking about the price of arms, Lin Yongchang suddenly mentioned the coffee business. The ambassador was stunned and said, "Chinese people mainly drink tea, not coffee. I'm afraid the coffee business is not very good."

"Habits can be changed. There are 400 million people in China. If we assume that 1% of them can afford coffee, that's 4 million people. If we let them develop the habit of drinking coffee, one cup a day wouldn't be too much, right? So how many cups a year would that be? Well,

Anyway, there are a lot of them! Mr. Conger, this is a huge market! "

Kanger said perfunctorily: "Well, you are right..." He caught a glimpse of the half-smile on Lin Yongchang's face and realized that drinking coffee was not the main point of this Chinese man. He asked tentatively: "It is difficult to get Chinese people to develop the habit of drinking coffee."

"It's not that difficult. I think in today's world, only the United States of America can be called a beacon of democracy and should take on more responsibilities. With great power comes great responsibility."

Conger laughed and said, “The U.S. government thinks so too.”

Lin Yongchang then asked, "Can the price of the arms be cheaper?"

Conger smiled. Chinese people are Chinese. Even if they can speak fluent English, they are still Chinese. He nodded and said, "I know you bought some Mosin-Nagant rifles from the Russians. How about this? I can also sell you a thousand."

"One thousand is too few. How about two thousand, all Winchester. In addition to the one thousand rounds of ammunition that come with each rifle, there will be two million rounds of ammunition. That makes sixty thousand dollars. Since we're having such a pleasant chat, I'll round off the decimal and make it fifty thousand dollars. I'll give you another ten thousand dollars, so it's still sixty thousand dollars. How do you think?"

"No, no, it can't be that cheap. Winchester is a good gun, it can't be sold at such a low price. Besides, Lin, why are you hiding from bullets like this? Three million rounds of ammunition are enough to start a war."

Lin Yongchang argued, "Winchester is behind the times, sir. Look at the German Mauser and the British Lee Enfield. They are the best rifles in the world today. As for the problem of too many bullets, you know that most Chinese soldiers are illiterate and have never shot a gun before, unlike American cowboys who are all excellent marksmen. Training consumes a lot of bullets so that they can beat up the British. Yes, we are preparing for war. You should know what the British did in Tibet. That is a war."

Kanger was convinced, partly because Lin Yongchang had good negotiation skills, and partly because the deal was worth very little. Previously, American arms dealers had shipped a large number of Winchester and M1982, but now they were basically unsaleable, so it was good to clear out the warehouse.

Besides, he can get a kickback of 10,000 yuan. The position of ambassador requires money to be obtained. If he came all the way to China, if it is not to make money, then is it for the spirit of internationalism? Don't be funny, Conger can say that he loves the United States and China, but in fact he loves the United States and the US dollar.

"Lin, America can give you greater support, weapons, loans, military instructors, we can give you everything that Yuan Weiting and Nie Shicheng have, provided that you become a higher official and have stronger strength."

Lin Yongchang laughed and said, "Don't worry, I will be stronger soon."

He is always so confident. Even if he only has one coin, he can still be as confident as a millionaire. Lin Yongchang was already very confident before. Now that he has turned on the cheat, he is full of confidence. To describe it in another word, it is overflowing with confidence. Hey, is there anyone else who has turned on the cheat?

I am the king of the world! There is often a wild voice in his heart shouting. And he thinks it is right!

After discussing the arms deal, the two began to taste coffee and then chatted casually about some world events. Men like to talk about these topics, just like women like beauty salons and beautiful clothes.

"I think Britain's expansion has reached its limit, and the Boer War will be a turning point for the British Empire."

Conger disagreed. "No, I don't think so. The Boers are brave, but their numbers are too small. Even with the secret funding from the German Empire, they can't hold out for long. By next year, the Boers will surrender."

"Then we shall wait and see. By the way, doesn't the great United States of America secretly support the Boers?"

Conger said: "This is not within my jurisdiction, so I don't know."

"Alas, I think the government should shoulder more responsibility and use its long-arm jurisdiction to punish the British."

"Long-arm jurisdiction?"

Long-arm jurisdiction is a concept in American civil litigation, that is, if the defendant intentionally commits an act that generates liability in the court and is entitled to obtain rights or interests under the laws of the court, the court has jurisdiction over the lawsuit caused by the act. At the beginning, it was used to extend the court's jurisdiction over people from other states outside the state, mainly for transactions and torts; later, it was not only applicable to interstate litigation in the United States, but also expanded to international, including long-arm jurisdiction over foreign nationals.

This is a disgusting trick that the Americans often abused after they dominated the world, but it is obvious that the US government at that time did not have the strength to stir up trouble around the world. Conger was very proud of all aspects of the United States, but he did not think that the US government could control Britain.

Master Wang is not good enough! Seeing that Conger did not take up this topic, Lin Yongchang changed the topic and talked about the challenge posed by Germany's growing strength to British hegemony. The two talked for more than two hours. Although there were many disagreements, such as Conger felt that Lin Yongchang's good impression and expectations of the United States were too strange, but overall, it was still very pleasant.

After Lin Yongchang rode away, Kang

Mrs. Ge came over, took her husband's arm, and said, "My dear, I haven't seen you so excited for a long time. What did the Chinese man say to you?"

"Some business matters." Conger retracted his gaze from the receding figure. "I don't think he looks like a Chinese, but more like an American cowboy."

“Are there any cowboys with bald heads?”

"It seems so?" Conger was not very sure. He decided to record what happened today. Maybe it would become a document studied by historians in the future.

Chapter 42: Honesty

After getting 200 Mosin-Nagants, Lin Yongchang sent people to Zhangbei to get more people. Transporting munitions or other bulk materials requires more people to watch over them. The officers and soldiers, the Boxers, the New Army and the Wuwei Army are all potential threats. It doesn't mean that someone will definitely rob them on the way, but what if?

Ronglu didn't reply, and Wang Hai's official document also fell into oblivion. Lin Yongchang didn't have that much time to waste. If the court didn't respond, he would take it as tacit approval and do it himself. Anyway, the court's control over the local areas has collapsed. He could do whatever he wanted at this time. If he missed this opportunity, it would be difficult to encounter it again in the future.

How does the saying go? Heroes seize the opportunity to establish their own regime!

In a few days, more than a hundred Tibetan soldiers arrived near the capital. Lin Yongchang had rented a large yard in a village outside the city, where 2,200 guns, ammunition, and other accessories were stored. In the village, Lin Yongchang picked out some guns and tried them out. It was not convenient to shoot in the city, but it was no problem in the village.

There were also Boxers in the village. They heard that they bought these foreign guns in order to go to Tibet to fight the foreign devils. The Boxers were very supportive, but they still asked if they could sell them a few guns, because they also wanted to fight the foreigners. It was reasonable to use foreign guns to fight the foreigners.

"Sure, but what are you going to pay with?"

The brothers with turbans and braids discussed it and asked if they could use cattle, sheep and horses to pay off the debt. Of course, this was not possible. Lin Yongchang was still planning to sell livestock from the grassland. Why would he buy livestock here? Well, it was not impossible to buy them to eat, but it was not cost-effective.

But the villagers were too poor, and apart from some livestock, they didn't have much food. Lin Yongchang wondered if they couldn't afford to raise so many livestock and wanted to save some food, so they sold the livestock. He looked embarrassed and said, "The price of livestock in Zhangbei is even lower!"

The brothers probably thought about using force, but after seeing the cavalrymen with fast horses and strong swords, as well as the rifles with bayonets, they wisely chose another way. "Master Lin, if you want anything, just ask. As long as we have it in the village, we can use it to pay off your debts!"

Lin Yongchang was waiting for this sentence, but he continued to pretend to be embarrassed. After a while, he finally let go and said, "How about this, I will buy some food and livestock from your village, which can be equivalent to four foreign guns. I will also give you 200 rounds of bullets for each gun!"

Why not give them a thousand rounds? When the bullets are used up, sell some to them. This will not only make more money, but also strengthen the control over the village. It's killing two birds with one stone. Why not do it?

He also wanted to be honest with others, but most people in this world could not understand the benefits of honesty, so Lin Yongchang could only continue to use various negotiation and transaction skills to gain more benefits for himself. After all, he could only lead everyone to common prosperity if he made money.

We should allow them to get rich first, and then the rich can lead others to get rich later, and finally we can achieve a beautiful life of common prosperity together.

"In addition, five strong men from your village will work for me in exchange for two foreign guns. Don't worry, you only need to help drive the cart to Zhangbei, with meals provided, and you will get one dollar a month."

The eldest and second brothers discussed for a while, and then the leader said, "We also need to equip them with 200 rounds of bullets!"

"make a deal!"

So he slaughtered cattle and sheep, and treated everyone to a big meal with the village's grain and rice wine. After the meal, he also distributed salaries to his followers and cavalrymen, one tael of silver per person, or two silver dollars. He handed it out in front of the villagers and handed it to each person personally. This was just the salary, and the usual fodder money and food and lodging expenses were all covered by Lin Yongchang.

Whether they were Mongolian cavalrymen or Tibetan soldiers, they were all very happy after receiving the money. They thanked Lin Yongchang repeatedly, and some even knelt on the ground and kowtowed. When they worked for Mongolian princes and Tibetan chieftains, they worked for free and sometimes even had no food. In comparison, the new boss was really generous.

The villagers and the Boxers looked at the jingling ocean with envy. The village chief came over to discuss whether they could have a few more people. The dark-skinned, wrinkled-faced village chief said, "We have a lot of good guys in our village. We can have 20 more!"

At that time, most people in the countryside lived in clans. Most people in a village were relatives. The village chief had a high prestige here. He pulled out 20 men, who were indeed very good young men. Although they were a little dark and thin, they looked very capable and strong.

After asking, he found that most of these people were in their early twenties, and some were less than twenty, but they looked almost thirty. Lin Yongchang didn't find it strange. People of this age generally look old, and he was used to it. These were all good soldiers, but Lin Yongchang refused to send these twenty people.

He accepted all of them, and only accepted 5 more people.

"Mr. Lin..."

Lin Yongchang reached out his hand to stop the village chief from continuing to speak, "You can't just recruit people from your village, there are other villages as well. How about this, you go to other villages to help me recruit people, and I'll give you two guns with bullets for every ten people in each village, and I'll give you another gun."

The village chief thought about it and thought that this business was worth doing, so he agreed. Then he put on his melon-shaped hat and hurried out to recruit people. Lin Yongchang had seen some pyramid schemes before, had been introduced to Amway, and had participated in the fission marketing activities of Bingxixi, so he had a lot of experience in how to attract people.

After one day in the village, the village chief brought him more than 300 people, all of whom were nearby villagers and members of the Boxer Rebellion. This was a bit too many. Lin Yongchang originally thought that he would only bring people. However, there are many people to use. He first organized these people into teams according to the villages, with five people in a squad and ten people in a group. One village is exactly one group and two-five.

Above the squad leader, there are squad leaders and captains, who manage 300 and people respectively. Above them? There is no one above them, and for the time being, there is only the captain level. If a leader who controls people appears, what is the use of Lin Yongchang? He only has more than capable fighters under his command.

In addition to the young and strong who were ready to carry the work, there were also many family members and onlookers. There were probably thousands of them. The more I heard that they were buying food, eggs, pickled radishes and cabbages at high prices, it was not a high price, just a few cents higher than the market price. Even so, many people braved the wind and snow to travel dozens of miles to bring the few food, eggs and other supplies they had at home to sell.

Lin Yongchang was in charge of all the work. He was very satisfied with the enthusiasm of the people and believed that there was great potential for development in the vast rural areas.

Chapter 43 Hero

Li Dayan is 21 years old and is a local tyrant in Hebei. He was born with one big eye and one small eye, so people later called him Li Dayan, and gradually few people knew his original name. Li Dayan was very satisfied with this nickname and often told people that "Dayan" was a good name. In the past, there was a fierce general named "Dayan", and Yue Fei, the grandfather of Yue, also had one big eye and one small eye, also "Dayan".

But Yue Fei fought against the Jin soldiers. The rulers of the court were the Jurchens, also known as the "Jin Kingdom". Your name is Li Dayan. Do you want to rebel? Rebel if you want! Li Dayan felt that he was born to rebel!

He started practicing martial arts when he was young, and when he grew up, his martial arts skills were unmatched in the surrounding area. Relying on his martial arts skills and his lavish spending, he attracted a large number of good men. When the Boxer Rebellion broke out, he naturally raised an army, took the lead in capturing the foreign churches and businesses, and then burned them down.

But it was during that battle that the foreigners' guns left an indelible impression on him. The foreigners' weapons were really quite sophisticated. More than a hundred of them fought against a dozen of them, but more than thirty were killed or injured!

From then on, Li Dayan thought about where to get more foreign guns and cannons. But his father no longer gave him money. Li Dayan spent too much money in the past and lost half of the family property. In a fit of rage, Mr. Li drove him out of the house and announced that he would never give him a penny again.

Li Dayan didn't care about it. A hero should carve out a world for himself!