Red Alert 1895

Chapter 12 – Wild Ambition

Tang Jingsong knew that this tattered rifle ninety years ago could be obtained for only ten silver dollars, and Tang Jingsong was immediately tempted. Because ten silver dollars is not expensive, once they arrive in the mainland, they can be exchanged for thirty taels of silver, and everyone began to place orders with Wang Guorui. However, Wang Guorui also asked those who placed the order to pay him half of the deposit first, which is five silver dollars for a rifle, so that they can place an order with the so-called Western smugglers. Moreover, Wang Guorui only accepts cash and does not pay on credit, and even bank notes are not recognized. But thinking that the other party is an arms smuggler, it is normal not to accept the cashier’s ticket.

“Wangzhi County, now we have a steady stream of soldiers coming over, and it won’t be long before we can reach 5,000 people, which is just a reinforced regiment. But…”

Hearing Hu Wei’s hesitation, Wang Guorui said impatiently, “But what?”

“However, some people don’t seem to be willing to join the army. They are strong men from other local governments. They are because those county magistrates are greedy to help Wang Zhixian. You can gain a lot of benefits in recruiting troops, so they were forced by those magistrates to come here. Make up the numbers, and they all can’t stand these trainings, and they are a little disgusted with the training.” Hu Wei said.

Wang Guorui frowned, because he realized that the magistrates of other counties had forced their young men to come here. Because Wang Guorui’s conditions were so good, every time a qualified soldier was sent, those local officials could get three old-fashioned rifles that Wang Guorui gave them. And these old-fashioned rifles can be sold for thirty taels of silver in the mainland, and the profits in this are too huge. Because China is actually very chaotic now, there are countless armed landlords of all kinds, and many landlords have established their own guards, or militia groups, and these people belong to the private army.

The armed forces of these landlord militias actually originated from the period of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. In order to attack the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom as much as possible, the Manchu Qing actively authorized some landlords to form their own private armed forces. Although this is a method of drinking poison to quench thirst, once the military power is given out, it means that it will be difficult to take it back. What’s more, the landlords of this kind of country are all forming their own troops. If they want to take it back, they will be moving the cake of the landlords of the world. Although the Manchu Qing Dynasty was invaded by foreign races, they later regarded the landlord class as their own reliance in exchange for the landlord class’ support for the Manchu Qing Dynasty. Therefore, the Manchu Qing cannot offend the landlords, otherwise the final result is to lose the right to rule.

Under such circumstances, the establishment of those landlord armed forces was tantamount to planting the seeds of warlord division within the Manchu Qing Dynasty. After decades of evolution, the Manchu Qing was still lucky, because the landlord class obviously lacked funds. In addition, all weapons and equipment had to be imported from outside, so the central government of the Qing Dynasty, which controlled the sources of weapons, was still able to maintain domestic stability. As long as those landlords are not allowed to have too advanced weapons, then everything will be fine. However, the landlord class is not vegetarian, and they will also find ways to get foreign guns. But it is almost impossible for China to produce foreign guns in its own country, and the rifles produced in China are all for the army controlled by the central government, and the landlord class has no share. So in this case, foreign guns have a price but no market, and those landlords who want to form their own armed forces also hope to obtain foreign guns and then defend their own rights and interests. These foreign guns have a price but no market, so there is no need to worry about no market.

Wang Guorui got foreign guns, and those magistrates also wanted to get these foreign guns. As for the method of obtaining it, it is also very simple, that is, to give the Kingdom Swiss soldiers. And they are also very smart, they don’t recruit soldiers directly, it’s too slow and annoying. They directly issued an administrative order, and then asked those yamen servants to arrest the strong men, and gradually arrested those qualified men, and then sent them to Wang Guorui to be regarded as soldiers. And Wang Guorui’s place is filled with all kinds of people who didn’t want to be soldiers, they can be regarded as strong men who were forced to come here.

“This is a solution. I will start to solve it in a few days? It is already the beginning of March. I am afraid that we will have news in a short time. The terms of the peace talks between the imperial court and the Japanese are very harsh!” Wang Guorui Said.

Hu Wei sighed again, he knew that the Japanese were going to win. Now everyone knows that although the news from Taiwan came relatively late, there is news anyway. During this period of time, there has been news that the Japanese have issued a peace negotiation notice to the Manchu government, and soon there will be peace talks between China and Japan. But everyone knows that this time between the Manchus and Japan will definitely end with the Manchus losing the war. It’s just a question of whether the compensation is more or less.

“Damn it, I am a big country of China, but I can’t even beat a Japanese pirate!” Hu Wei said angrily.

Hu Wei is really hard to accept, because the Chinese still have great self-confidence in front of the Japanese, because Japan has been a vassal state of China for more than a thousand years, but now it has been defeated by the vassal state, which is obviously for the Chinese. They are all guilty of the following. But they were still defeated, and they still had to pay compensation, or even cede land, which made it very difficult for everyone to accept. If they lost to the Western powers, then everyone would be able to swallow this breath, but now they lost to the Japanese, then this is really annoying.

“Hu Wei, this time our imperial court negotiates peace with the Japanese pirates, I’m afraid my crying won’t make it so easy for us to pass the test!” Wang Guorui said.

“What? Do you want to cede the land?” Hu Wei asked.

And Wang Guorui said: “Go and call all the officers!”

Soon, Wang Guorui’s officers above the battalion level all came, and these people were all dug from the Green Camp by Hu Wei, and the oldest was no more than twenty-five years old. In the past, they were all around the general, or even lower, but now that they came here, they have all been “promoted”, and each of them has become a battalion commander, and one even became the commander of the second regiment.

“Everyone, now there is news that the imperial court has negotiated peace with the Japanese pirates, and this time I guess the Japanese pirates will not let the imperial court settle down, and will definitely blackmail the imperial court severely. But this time, it is nothing more than land cession and compensation. But, It is important to know where to cut the land.” Wang Guorui said.

“Wangzhi County, where will the pirates go?” someone asked.

Wang Guorui took the initiative to say: “The Japanese pirates have now occupied Liaodong, which is the land of Longxing in the Qing Dynasty. They have already eaten it in their mouths, and they will not spit it out so easily. Therefore, Liaodong is probably going to be lost. And they have another One goal, that is, the land under our feet—Taiwan.”

“What?” Everyone exclaimed.

They were all surprised that the target of these Japanese pirates was actually Taiwan, which is unbelievable. If this is the case, then things are really big. You must know that they are all officers of the green battalion. The green battalion is an army of the Qing Dynasty, and they have been soldiers for generations. The father retires, and the son takes over, so this is a generation of soldiers. And these green camps guarding Taiwan, although their ancestors may be foreigners, they have all lived in Taiwan for several generations. It can be said that Taiwan is already their hometown, and now they hear that their hometown will be ceded to Japan, and they will immediately fry the pot.

“How could the imperial court do this, bastard!” A grumpy man immediately said angrily.

“Is the imperial court really going to cede Taiwan to us?” Someone asked calmly.

Wang Guorui took out a map, which was obviously a map of China, and showed it to everyone.

“Everyone is optimistic, let’s use the mind of the Japanese pirates to estimate the thoughts of the Japanese pirates. You may not know that the Japanese pirates want to encroach on my China as their fundamental strategy, and this war is only their first step in destroying my China. You guys Looking at my map of China, they have occupied Liaodong, which means they can continue to break through Shanhaiguan and invade our Central Plains at any time. And they also want to occupy our Taiwan, and our Taiwan is also the southern gate of China. If they occupy Taiwan, That is to block our southeast coast strategically. Even, after they occupy Taiwan, they can have sufficient army supply bases. They can use the help of the navy at any time from our southeast coast Land at any point and attack from the south to the north. In this way, they can attack from both sides and destroy China! You must know that they had the idea of conquering China as early as the Ming Dynasty. One of the important leaders of the Japanese pirates Toyotomi Hideyoshi once made a plan to conquer Korea, then China, and finally India.”

“However, you should all understand that this Toyotomi Hideyoshi did not succeed in the end. He didn’t even defeat North Korea, and then he failed. Supporting North Korea that year happened to be one of the three Wanli expeditions of our Ming Dynasty. He once wrote in a letter to his family that he wanted to conquer Beijing and make Japan the capital of Beijing. Then he even said that he wanted to move to Ningbo to live, because Ningbo is very close to India and he can conquer it easily. Of course , His ideas back then were very ridiculous, and he was taught a lesson by the Ming Dynasty.”

“But now, Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s thoughts have completely left seeds in Japan, and now they have become towering trees. Why don’t they follow the path of Toyotomi Hideyoshi? First conquer Korea, then China, and finally Conquer India and then rule the world.”

Wang Guorui’s words immediately turned everyone’s faces green, because they really didn’t expect that Japan had such great ambitions. In their eyes, Japan has always been a submissive country, at least for more than a hundred years since the founding of the Qing Dynasty. But I didn’t expect that Japan has such ambitions, which really makes everyone’s thinking change.

“Wolf ambition, it really is wolf ambition!” Hu Wei said angrily.