Chapter 372 I Came to Hebei Province
Chapter 372 I Came to Hebei Province
After the parade, cannons and tanks were parked in rows on the field, German instructors and new army cadets lined up on the field, and Bismarck delivered an enthusiastic speech.
As soon as Bismarck opened his mouth, Shao Quanzhong was stunned.
"I came to Hebei Province. I didn't come here for any big problems. China is so great..."
This place is now called Zhili, old Bi.
Shao Quanzhong vaguely remembered that when he evacuated the capital and returned to Fengtian, he received news that the puppet government in Nanjing planned to rename the capital as Beiping and Zhili as Hebei.
But before it could be executed, I traveled to this world due to an accident.
How did Bismarck know about Hebei? When did he learn to speak Chinese?
Maria, who was standing next to him, was unaware of Shao Quanzhong's astonishment and simultaneously interpreted, "Germany is alone in Europe. It has to rely on its own strength to conquer Europe. Now it has the Qing Dynasty as a staunch ally..."
Uh, it’s German. Am I the only country bumpkin who heard it wrong?
Sure enough, he was the only one who misheard. The students on the playground had learned 60% to 70% of German from the German instructors. Although they still needed translation during the lectures, it was estimated that it would not be needed soon.
After Bismarck finished his speech, his face flushed with excitement, and he saluted again.
When we were reviewing the soldiers just now, no one was prepared.
This time, under the instruction and leadership of the German instructors, the trainee soldiers returned the salute together, with right arms raised all over the field, and everyone cheered, "Hi, Bismarck!"
Standing in the guest seat, Chief of General Staff Moltke, who was accompanying Bismarck on the visit, also felt blood boiling in his chest and raised his right arm along with everyone else.
The scene was so exciting that Bismarck decided to promote this etiquette in Germany when he returned home.
This was just the new army students giving face to Bismarck, the visiting guest, and Shao Quanzhong didn't feel anything.
President Johnson beside him also looked calm. The Federation was blessed by nature, and basically occupied a continent. No matter how chaotic Europe was, the Federation would not be in chaos. It could just hide and develop nearby, watch the clouds rise and fall, and then come out to reap the benefits at the critical moment.
The Qing Dynasty, like the Federation, is now far away from the center of chaos in Europe. It should also focus on development and seize the good opportunity created by the Europeans to rise.
Shao Quanzhong and Johnson smiled at each other. The foundation of cooperation between the two sides is solid. They have the common interest of overthrowing European hegemony. The Qing-US alliance is unbreakable - at least it is unbreakable before overthrowing the British big brother, which should be a long way off.
Blanqui, who was standing on the other side of Shao Quanzhong, sneered contemptuously. Humph, evil imperialism.
Well, France is also an empire, but the context is different now.
We in France have something that will make you German imperialists tremble, but it has not yet been revealed, so you don’t know how terrible we are.
You, Bismarck, thought that Germany was the Qing Dynasty's staunch ally, but in fact it was France.
It was Marshal Shao who sent Instructor Zhang to save France. Is there any need to question Marshal Shao's true identity? He must be our reliable comrade.
We are all the sparks hidden within imperialism. If you still dare to come to France, come on. The future France will give you surprises.
On April 7, the tenth year of the Tongzhi reign, Shao Quanzhong accompanied the visiting Johnson, Bismarck and Blanqui to Hailing.
Shao Quanzhong held a banquet at Qiao Garden to entertain guests from the three countries, and also entertained representatives of scholars, experts, and technicians from the three countries who came to aid the Qing Dynasty.
After the banquet, the Huai Army Song and Dance Troupe performed “Prince Rui’s Dance to Break the Formation”.
Bismarck just felt that the grand show was lively. Chief of General Staff Moltke, who was accompanying him on the visit, pulled Bismarck's sleeve.
"Mr. Prime Minister, there is something in this Huai Army program. It contains military ideas that we don't know about."
"Hmm? Aside from mechanization and tanks, weren't all the military skills of the Huai Army taught by our instructors?" "Yes, but Admiral Emery, who studied in Germany, has surpassed us and summarized combat principles and training regulations that surpass ours. Look, this is their internal teaching material that our instructor in Baoding gave me."
Bismarck said with a serious face, "This is not good--"
"No, Emery said that Shao instructed them to give it to us."
"If we had summarized these things ourselves, including the coordination between infantry and tanks, the slow advance of barrages, trench warfare rules, and street fighting training methods, we would have paid the price of blood on the battlefield. Now the Huai Army has shared them with us for free."
"This will greatly strengthen the German army and reduce the unnecessary sacrifice of countless German soldiers. We owe Shao a huge favor."
Shao Quanzhong's sincerity does not stop there.
The next day, the guest delegation inspected several joint ventures of the four countries of Hailing, including the Haoguozi military-industrial complex. Blanqui and President Johnson completed their mission and returned home.
Shao Quanzhong still accompanied Bismarck on a "friendly visit" to the mainland.
As it received assistance from three great powers at the same time and was the most prosperous center of the Qing Dynasty's economy, Hailing had become an international metropolis comparable to Paris and Berlin.
The Yangtze River Diversion Canal, Hailing Metro, and the Hailing street renovation project copied from Paris are being constructed simultaneously. Hailing's economy is booming and its appearance is changing with each passing day.
The train passed through the Central Plains, and the further west it went, the more backward the scenery became. Bismarck was filled with emotion and patted Shao Quanzhong on the shoulder, "Shao, I guess that the whole Qing Dynasty was like this ten years ago. You have greatly changed the Qing Dynasty."
In fact, it wasn't even like this ten years ago. At that time, the Nian Rebellion was rampant, bandits were rampant, the land was barren, and there were starving people everywhere. The people didn't have enough food to eat, and there wasn't a single smoking factory...
"This is all thanks to the sincere and friendly cooperation between Qinghai and Germany."
The economic gap in the Qing Dynasty was so huge that it still had a long way to go to achieve full industrialization.
It seems that the Qing Dynasty does not have the strength to arm hundreds of thousands of large-scale mechanized troops, and we cannot expect to receive direct military support from the Qing Dynasty in future wars.
But now the support received from the Qing Dynasty has exceeded Bismarck's expectations.
The train ran across the Central Plains, heading west. After seven years of construction, during which countless bandits and eunuchs died, the Baoji-Lanzhou railway was finally completed.
Five days later, the train arrived at Lanzhou Station, and Bismarck and Moltke were invited by Shao Quanzhong to enter the Qing Dynasty's most secret Lanzhou Arsenal.
After inspecting the Lanzhou Arsenal, Bismarck held Shao Quanzhong's hand tightly and said, "The friendship between us is the most sincere in the world."
"Having learned the secret of TNT, we in Germany are confident that we can sweep across Europe. Come, convey my order to fully teach the Krupp crucible technology of making large blocks of high-quality artillery steel and the most important key processes to the Qing experts and technicians."
"In the future, the world will be jointly ruled by Germany and the Qing Dynasty."
Shao Quanzhong was very modest. "You have seen along the way that our Qing Dynasty's industrial foundation is still far behind. We rely on Germany for everything. We are willing to follow in its footsteps."
Five days later, the delegation returned to Hailing, but the visit did not end.
Shao Quanzhong boarded the Haiqi, accompanied by four German ironclad ships, and headed south.
On the first day of May in the tenth year of the Tongzhi reign, Shao Quanzhong accompanied Bismarck to the Zhanjiang Shipyard, a joint venture between Qing and Germany.
Here, a launching ceremony was held for four ferocious ironclad behemoths. They had no sails, were fully ironclad, and had a displacement of 7635 tons. The four warships were the first batch of warships built through the cooperation between Qing and Germany.
The ships were named "Sachsen", "Bayern", "Württemberg" and "Baden".
(End of this chapter)