Chapter 439 Japanese Girls Dating Group

The capital city, Xicheng Shijinfang Street, Shuncheng Prince’s Mansion.

After the bannermen moved away, the capital city became much quieter, and this iron-hat royal palace became Zhang Zhidong's office.

"Prime Minister, good news. The people in Nanzhili are doing evil things and forcibly confiscating the land of the gentry. Most of the gentry have come to invest here with silver dollars."

Zhang Zhidong smiled bitterly and shook his head, "This is what Wenwen did, it is in accordance with the will of heaven. Those who till the land shall own the land. This is a long-term plan. He has won the hearts and minds of the people. This is not the case here."

"But if we compare the time span of ten years, we will have the advantage in the short term."

Zhang Zhidong took out a list and said, "This is a list of items that the foreigners urgently need. With the war in Europe, tobacco, bristles, and furs have become scarce. If we guide those wealthy people to invest in these industries, we will definitely make money."

The plans of any strategist are based on accurate intelligence. Zhang Zhidong has always had a group of subordinates who are responsible for collecting various types of intelligence. Of course, the scale of their work is not as large as that of the Huai Army Intelligence Department.

After becoming the Prime Minister of Northern Zhili, he had more sources of intelligence.

"The Marshal is very particular. He didn't take a single silver dollar from the silver left in the Qing treasury. We must also build a bank here."

"Those warlords robbed a lot of bannermen, and we issued a document asking them to invest in the bank. The money in our treasury should be used to provide relief to the war orphans and let them go to school. I, Zhang Zhidong, cannot let people stab me in the back just to win."

"The iron mine in Nanfen, Benxi, is about to be opened. Send people to contact foreign experts to help prospect for coal mines nearby, and then build an arsenal in Fengtian."

"This European war won't end anytime soon. We don't have enough time to earn the high-end money from arms, but we can still get a piece of the pie."

"Twenty percent of the companies in the south are unwilling to accept Sven's unified control arrangement. If they are lost here, we must make sure they are settled well."

"I will personally go and make arrangements for them this afternoon. Warn those warlords that if they dare to slaughter these fat sheep, I will not be able to serve as prime minister. Whoever is willing to do it can do it."

"The warlords still support the Prime Minister."

"That's good."

Zhang Zhidong picked up the teacup and said, "Hey, we have 14 provinces here now. I am not just here to eat and do nothing. Marshal, you made this bet a little hasty."

…………

At the Haozizi Company, gongs and drums were beating, firecrackers were blasting, and the staff club was crowded with people.

The military band played the Marshal's training song. More than a dozen model workers, wearing red clothes and ribbons, walked onto the stage one by one. Marshal Shao personally pinned big red flowers on them, gave them bonuses, and then they surrounded the Marshal and took a photo with him.

Babbage's management model was widely implemented. After the first month, the industrial achievements here were remarkable. Motivating people's morale was the only way Shao Quanzhong could help Zhang Siwen.

"Brother Shao, our production has doubled this month, and even the foreign experts are amazed."

"Ren Jun, don't be proud. This is also related to our expansion of production scale. We don't take dividends, but the salary of foreign experts cannot be reduced. By the way, how is the airship?"

"It's stuck on the four-stroke internal combustion engine now, but Otto has already made a sample and is conducting a continuous working life test. It should be ready soon. Brother Shao, come with me. I have something good to show you."

Shao Quanzhong followed Ren Jun to the shooting range of Haoguozi Company and said, "Brother Shao, the 20-shot large mirrored box gun that you first requested to develop has been made."

"Wow, ok, so fast?"

"It's been several years. The processing accuracy was always insufficient. Since the completion of the two national projects, the Large Differential Engine and the Analyst, the technicians who participated have received generous rewards. The workers have become more motivated and have worked overtime to improve their skills. Now we have enough senior technicians."

"It's not enough to just rely on craftsmanship, we also need to increase the processing accuracy of machine tools."

"That has also increased. The smelting experts from the Austro-Hungarian Empire have developed a new high-speed steel. Otherwise, the analytical machine would not have been able to come out so quickly. But - Brother Shao, although this automatic pistol has strong firepower, its performance is not good. It jumped after the first shot."

Shao Quanzhong slapped Ren Jun on the neck and said, "You are stupid and don't know how to use it. Watch me."

Shao Quanzhong couldn't let go of the blue-tiled box gun after receiving it. "Alas, this thing came out too late. If it had been available when the group training started..."

Shao Quanzhong muttered to himself, and his hands moved very quickly. The box gun quickly turned into parts and then into a whole gun. Ren Jun was stunned, "Brother Shao, your craftsmanship is amazing."

"Hehe, back then - forget it, this thing is not very useful on a large-scale battlefield. But, ah, everyone's guards can be equipped. I asked you to work on this slowly, actually, it was just a thought."

Shao Quanzhong loaded the gun with bullets, held the mirror box horizontally, and fired several shots in succession.

"See? It doesn't matter if the gun jumps. Just turn it sideways and fire in a sweeping motion. It's just a small submachine gun."

"What is a submachine gun?"

"That's a really useful thing. Since the mirror box can be made, this is easy. Next, you have to make the submachine gun for me as quickly as possible."

Shao Quanzhong turned around and gave a few instructions, and a guard ran away. After a while, he came back with a stack of drawings in his hands.

"See? This thing is called a hand-held flower machine gun. It's much more powerful than your favorite shotgun. I've wanted to make it for a long time, but we couldn't make it before. Hurry up, I want to see the finished product as soon as possible."

After leaving the Good Fruit Company, Shao Quanzhong's guard platoon had become a pistol platoon. Shao Quanzhong himself did not have a mirrored case, which was a bit too big for him, and as a general, he no longer needed it.

The streets were crowded with people, and it was very lively. "What are they watching?"

Thousands of beautiful women were walking down the street, all wearing simple kimonos.

"Shao, this is a blind date group of women from northern Japan. Tokugawa Yoshinobu asked us to send men over to solve the imbalance between men and women in Japan, but those who are willing to go are all poor people from remote areas. Basically no one from Hailing goes."

"The better-looking women in Japan come here in groups, hoping to find a better husband. Shao, why don't you pick a few to enter Qiao Garden?"

"Go away, I don't like this. Send someone to take them to the barracks. Our soldiers are rich, so it's no problem for them to marry concubines. They can have as many children as possible. I'm going out to grab territory. The more territory we grab, the better."

"Huh? Why are there so many fur girls behind?"

"They are from Bulgaria. Their male-female ratio is not good. Alas, a large number of men in our Lucia are now on the battlefield. I am afraid that in the future, there will also be Lucia women's blind date groups coming to Hailing..."

…………

When he returned to Qiao Garden and entered the bamboo house, he saw piles of telegrams waiting for Shao Quanzhong to read.

"The war between the north and south of Japan has ceased. The reinforcements, King Ying and King Yi, have already returned. King Wo, in accordance with your wishes, has taken people to control the Sulu Kingdom and replaced Li Wencai back to Cuba."

"Zhang Lexing did not try to set up the Heavenly Kingdom in Sulu, and the hopeful Langji did not become one of the Seventh Son of the Heavenly Emperor. Sulu became a country similar to Lan Fang. Zhang Lexing built the Confucius Temple and Guandi Temple there, promoted Chinese culture, and is now very close to Zhang Zhidong in the north."

Well, Zhang Lexing was conferred the title by Hong Xiuquan, but he had no choice. He was actually a traditional person like Tian Xing. It was not obvious when he was under the King of Ying. He made his own decisions. The Nian Army actually had different ideas from the Taiping Army.

"These are about the European war."

Wang Yongxian is waiting for Shao Quanzhong here. The European war is the biggest part of China's exports, and Wang Yongxian is watching it personally.

A month has passed and it is now June. Shao Quanzhong, who has been busy with domestic affairs, has finally turned his attention to Europe.

"Italy launched its second crusade against Ethiopia. This time, Britain was prepared and gave the Ethiopians the obsolete Schneider rifles that had been converted from muzzle-loading rifles to breech-loading rifles for free."

"The result was that Italy lost even more miserably this time. The Italian expeditionary force of 17,000 suffered 11,000 casualties, 4,000 were captured, and they were almost wiped out."

"Italy was forced to sign the Treaty of Addis Ababa with Ethiopia, ceding territory and paying compensation. It gave back the northern Ethiopian region it had occupied and paid 1000 million liras in compensation."

Well, it is really strange that European powers ceded land and paid compensation to African chiefs. Ethiopian Emperor Menelik II became famous, and Italy was embarrassed again.

Bismarck commented on Italy, their pig ally, "They came to the African continent with a mouth full of decayed teeth and a huge appetite..."

Perhaps it was angered by Bismarck's sarcasm, and of course mainly because of the interests of Britain and France, Italy resolutely defected and joined the Allied Powers. It sent 250,000 troops to invade the Austro-Hungarian Empire from the direction of the Alps.

Shao Quanzhong just shook his head and said, "I don't think it's very useful. If they can't even defeat the Africans, they probably won't cause any trouble to the Austro-Hungarian Empire."

"That's true, but our channel for selling arms to Austria-Hungary and Germany through Italy has been cut off."

"The Americans, on the other hand, are still selling weapons and daily necessities to Germany through the North Sea, making a lot of money."

"Hehe, we won't be able to make money from the Americans for many days. Big Brother Britain will definitely gather a fleet to blockade the North Sea."

"Godfather, what about our munitions? Austria-Hungary and Germany are also in short supply of daily necessities..."

"Stupid, you can't leave Italy, so you can leave from Bulgaria. Isn't Quanxiao's side neutral?"

"Oh, this is a bunch of jewelry that Ping'er gave to Princess Sissi. They really appreciate each other. Our supplies are to be sent to Austria-Hungary. Yongxian, send someone to take them to Princess Sissi as well."

Maria ran over excitedly, "Shao, the latest news is that Kaufman led the tank troops in a lightning attack, encircled and annihilated the protruding German and Austro-Hungarian joint forces, and won a great victory called the 'Kaufman Breakthrough'."

"110 million Austro-Hungarian troops were annihilated, 35 German troops were destroyed, and Russia lost only 50 men."

Uh, this "only" is too much. The Russians are indeed a fighting nation. Kaufman was the first foreign senior general to know about the existence of armored forces. I didn't expect that this guy was just pretending to be stupid. In fact, he knew it.

Shao Quanzhong's eyes began to roll again. Germany and Austria had suffered heavy losses. Maybe they were unwilling to fight. This was not acceptable. We had to find a way to strengthen them. Well, we couldn't tell Maria about this.

(End of this chapter)

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