Chapter 423 Military Industry Promotion

Far East.

After receiving the telegram from home, Richard soon met with senior officials of the Far East government and began to promote the work of the weapons production line.

Richard went straight to Li Hongzhang, then the Far Eastern Academician and Governor-General of Zhili, and said straight to the point: "Mr. Li, just tell me whether you want it or not!"

Li Hongzhang was not ignorant of military affairs. He was quite familiar with them and was very clear about what was happening in the West. He looked at the sample of the Dreiser rifle sent by Richard and said, "It is indeed well made. However, Ambassador Richard, if I remember correctly, this Dreiser rifle did not seem to perform very well in the war between Prussia and France, so..."

You picked it up! Richard was a little unconvinced, so he said, "That's right, you are telling the truth. The Dreiser rifle is not perfect, but it is sufficient for the current situation, especially in the Far East. And as far as I know, many of your top military enterprises are still producing extremely backward muzzle-loading rifles. Our Dreiser rifle production line is more advanced than those rifles. This was proven in the Italo-Austrian War a few years ago. Take the 1853 Enfield rifle produced by the Jinling Manufacturing Bureau, for example. It is a product that is completely behind the times."

"Ambassador Richard, that's true, but we don't have any demand in this area at the moment, or we don't have any new purchase plans."

In fact, Li Hongzhang had seen many cases of foreign countries selling their weapons to the Qing Dynasty. Foreigners' words were generally not trustworthy, and the imperial court was really short of money at that time.

Richard was not in a hurry. He said, "Mr. Li, don't rush to make a conclusion on this matter. Once you know their prices, I believe you will like them. The entire Dreyse rifle production line only costs 110,000 taels of silver. This price is absolutely worth the money. This is not ordinary munitions, but a munitions production line. I can tell you that after you get this batch of production lines, it can fully meet the needs of your army."

The price is indeed not expensive. This batch of production lines can almost meet all the needs of the Far East at full capacity. After all, the size of the East African Army was maintained at about 200,000 before the disarmament, and there were 700,000 militia and police, all of whom used the Dreiser rifles produced in East Africa. At this time, the standing force of the Far East was only maintained at about 800,000, so in fact there were more in East Africa.

Of course, the militia and police in East Africa cannot be regarded as standing armed forces, but their combat effectiveness cannot be underestimated. When it comes to suppressing indigenous people, they are the absolute main force in East Africa. With such a large number of indigenous people and a large land area, it is necessary to maintain such a large military force.

Richard's words did scare Li Hongzhang a little. He asked, "Does your country really only want 110,000 taels?"

You should know that the Jinling Manufacturing Bureau, as the largest military factory in the Far East, has an annual budget of only about 100,000 taels, and its production capacity is extremely limited.

Richard: "Of course. Although these production lines have been used in East Africa, they have only been in use in East Africa for a few years. You can still use them for a long time. It is definitely worth the money."

Li Hongzhang thought for a moment and asked, "Although this is the case, we do not need so many production lines. Can your country make it cheaper so that we can buy less?"

Richard shook his head and said, "That won't do. This is a one-time deal. We either sell everything or none at all. Besides, this kind of business is always a loss-making business. We only make a little money from shipping fees in East Africa, so the price cannot be reduced at all."

It is indeed a loss-making business. Ernst spent a lot of money to buy these production lines. Moreover, they have to be shipped from Europe to East Africa, and now from East Africa to the Far East.

But this is all necessary. Ernst attached great importance to the development of East African military power. Some things must be done even if it means losing money. When the Dreiser rifle became obsolete, it was inevitable that it would be replaced, even though it had not served in the East African Kingdom for a long time.

Of course, Ernst only plans to sell about 60% this time, because the integration of the Dreiser weapon production line can still be used to produce Mauser rifles. The Mauser rifle was originally the product of the Mauser brothers' upgrading and transformation based on the Dreiser rifle, so there is no problem in producing the Mauser rifle after the modification, but many parts need to be re-produced.

After hearing what Richard said, Li Hongzhang had no choice but to give up. What Richard said was true. With such a low price, some requirements were inevitable.

However, he still had to make sure that the East African Kingdom was not making fun of him. After all, the Far East Army was nominally the largest army in the world. As a small German colony, do you really have the strength to brazenly meet the needs of the Far East Army?

So Li Hongzhang tried to probe: "Is your country really capable of providing so many machines and equipment? If it is Prussia or Austria, then there should be no problem. After all, the scale of their armies is indeed huge. As for East Africa..."

As the exchanges between the Far East and East Africa deepened, the Far East actually had a more "profound" understanding of East Africa, which was to understand East Africa as a colony like India.

At the beginning, the East African Kingdom did scare the Far East, because at that time East Africa played the German card, Prussia, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, as if it was the representative of the two countries, and these two countries were not inferior to Britain, France and Russia.

In fact, it was true at that time. The Principality of Hechingen was part of Prussia! At that time, East Africa was still the territory of the Hechingen royal family, so it was not wrong for East Africa to say that it was Prussia. After East Africa became independent, it no longer mentioned Prussia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but instead referred to itself more as East Africa or Germany.

As for why the word "Germany" is so general, it is because it is too broad. Germany can say that it is Germany, Austria can say so, even Luxembourg can say so, Liechtenstein can say so, and East Africa can naturally say so. Just tell me whether these countries are German countries!

Of course, East Africa is German in culture, and its ethnicity is mixed with a lot of water, but that does not prevent East Africa from calling itself a German country.

Perhaps some people in Germany, such as extreme nationalists like Adolf, would be less likely to recognize the German identity of the citizens of the East African Kingdom if they had a deeper understanding of the conditions in East Africa and knew how the East African Kingdom was formed.

This will not change anything. East Africa insists that it is German, and that is Germany. At least the German and Austrian officials must recognize it. Excluding the Hechingen royal family factor, the two countries will have to ask East Africa for help for their own interests.

Richard said, "Haha, don't worry about this. As for whether we in East Africa are strong or not, you can directly ask Mr. Liger, your country's ambassador in East Africa. There is a saying in the Far East that a glimpse of the leopard through a tube can tell the whole picture. Mr. Liger should be able to be the one who sees the leopard."

Li Ge! If Richard hadn't said that, Li Hongzhang would have forgotten that the Qing Dynasty had such a person in East Africa. At the beginning, Li Ge was sent to supervise the East African Aid Group, but Li Ge never returned. A few months later, King Constantine of East Africa sent a letter to recommend Li Ge as the Far East ambassador to East Africa. At that time, the Far East government accepted it with a pinch of the nose. After all, it had never encountered such a situation before. In addition, Constantine was a foreign king after all, and Li Ge was just a juren before, that is, a reserve official, not even a member of the Qing Dynasty. No unlucky person was willing to go to East Africa to ask about the situation. What if he was detained like Li Ge!

In fact, there was nothing wrong with Li Hongzhang's doubts. It was impossible for East Africa to shout to the whole world that it actually had a million troops. Except for Cape Town and Mozambique, which knew that the East African Kingdom had at least tens of thousands of troops, other countries including Germany believed that East Africa was at most an ordinary colony, and an extremely ordinary colonial country.

(End of this chapter)