1850 American Gold Tycoon

“Not only Governor Xu’s Dubiao Battalion needs to buy foreign guns and cannons, but Governor Ye’s Fubiao Battalion and my Tibiao Battalion also need to buy some.

Governor Xu and Governor Ye had observed the training of the Guangdong Yong Camp and greatly appreciated this fast gun that could fire on its own. They ordered me to come and purchase some guns and ammunition. "Hong Mingxiang said.

The standard camp can be simply understood as the field army in the Qing army's green camp combat sequence.

After the world was settled, the main task of the regular army of the Qing Dynasty changed from military combat to civilian defense.

Green battalions from various provinces were stationed at various flood gates to serve as public security police.

The number of people in each flood is the same as that of the camp. There is no fixed number, ranging from a small flood with only a few people to a large flood with dozens of people.

As for the specific number of people in each floodgate, it depends on the importance of the floodgate.

Although the Green Camp is called a battalion, it was already difficult to see a Green Camp that was stationed and trained in battalion units during the Kangxi Dynasty.

The reason why the Manchu and Qing government divided the green battalions into pieces and dispersed them at various flood gates was out of consideration for maintaining their own rule.

The population of the bannermen is small, and the pampered bannermen do not like to leave the colorful world of the capital to garrison in various places, so the number of Eight Banners garrisoned in various places is very limited.

It is obviously not enough to rely on these sparse garrison Eight Banners to maintain rule.

Therefore, the Manchu Qing Dynasty had to use the more numerous Han Green Camps to maintain public order in various places.

However, they could not trust the Han people and were always on guard against the Han people, so they divided the green camp into pieces and dispersed them in various flood mouths to maintain public order.

Even if these Han green camps want to rebel, each green camp is scattered in various places in flood units and cannot gather many people. The Eight Banners stationed in various places can also put out the flames of rebellion relatively easily.

Facts have proved that this move by the top management of the Manchu Qing Dynasty was successful and they maintained their rule at a relatively small cost.

However, this move also has a very fatal shortcoming, that is, these green battalion soldiers who lack intensive training lack training and have no experience in coordinated operations. They are no longer suitable for use as a field military force and have been completely reduced to public security police.

Even if the battalion officers from various places gathered all the soldiers from all seasons to perform tasks during the war, the battalion officers did not understand the soldiers they had accepted, resulting in a situation where the soldiers did not know the generals and the generals did not know the soldiers.

This is also the reason why 7,000 British troops were able to traverse the Qing Dynasty. As if they were in uninhabited territory, the Taiping Rebellion was able to fight all the way from Guangxi to Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi, Anhui, and finally captured Nanjing.

The main force in the Opium War and the early campaign to annihilate the Taiping Rebellion were these battalions that were still capable of fighting.

The so-called 800,000 Qing troops faced by the British army were actually just 800,000 security police responsible for filling in the lines.

In actual battles, the difference in numbers between the British army and the Qing army was not as exaggerated as people imagined. The British army could even use its advantage of mobility to create a numerical advantage in local battlefields, and then encircle and annihilate the Qing army.

Liang Yao's second uncle, Deng Yan, served in Guan Tianpei's bidding camp in his early years. This bidding camp was annihilated by the British army at Humen Fort.

There were four types of standard camps in the Qing Dynasty.

One is the civilian faction, the Dubiao Battalion and the Fubiao Battalion, which are the personal soldiers of the governors of each province and the mobile forces that the governors can directly mobilize.

Generally speaking, there are 2 to 5 battalions in the Dubiao camp, with the number of people ranging from one thousand to four or five thousand. The number of people in the Xiebiao camp in the Qing Dynasty is quite flexible. For units with the same establishment, it is normal for the number of people to vary several times.

The Fubiao Battalion has a slightly smaller establishment, with only 2 to 3 battalions, ranging from a few hundred to 2,000 people.

Because civil servants have the right to speak and the power to allocate local finances, Du Biao and Fu Biao are often the most elite military forces in a province.

As for the admiral's Biao Battalion (3rd to 5th Battalion) and the General Soldier's Suppressing Battalion (2nd to 5th Battalion) in the military attaché system, although in terms of organization, they have an advantage over the Governor's Biaoying Battalion.

However, the soldiers in the Governor's Biao Camp and the Zhenbiao Camp are not as well treated as the Governor's Biao Camp, and their combat effectiveness is also slightly inferior.

If Guangdong's bid supervisors, bid appraisers, and bid raisers wanted to purchase foreign guns and cannons from him, the quantity would be very considerable.

"I'm afraid Governor Xu and Governor Ye want to buy foreign guns and cannons for Biao Camp for more than just these reasons, right?"

Liang Yao took Hong Mingxiang, Liang Shaoqiong and their entourage on the special train to Sacramento.

This was not the first time that Hong Mingxiang, Liang Shaoqiong and others took a train. They had already arrived in San Francisco in mid-April. Before Liang Yao returned to California, they had already taken the train to travel around California.

Therefore, they are now used to taking trains and are not too surprised.

"Brother Liang still has sharper eyes. In the second year of Xianfeng (1852), Brother Liang surrendered the Japanese pirates with only two to three thousand soldiers and horses, and asked the Japanese pirates to sign the Nagasaki Article and the Edo Article (the Treaty of Goodwill between the United States and Japan). Governor Xu even I was surprised. I didn't expect that among the Western countries, besides England, there were other countries that were so good at war.

Furthermore, Changmao has captured Jiangning and occupies half of the southeastern half. Governor Xu is worried that one day Changmao will move south to Guangdong and Guangxi and it will be difficult to deal with it. "Hong Mingxiang found a seat and sat down, shook the copper bell skillfully, and ordered a cup of tea.

"This makes sense. I wonder how many foreign guns and cannons Hong Junmen will purchase this time when they are ordered to purchase?" Liang Yao took out a match, raised one leg and put the head of the match on his leather shoes. As soon as he wiped it, he picked up the ignited match and lit the cigarette in Diao's mouth.

"I wonder how much the foreign guns sold by Brother Liang cost?" Hong Mingxiang asked Liang Yao the unit price of the foreign guns.

"Foreign guns using paper-cased bullets are priced at US$25 each, and foreign guns using metal-cased bullets are priced at US$30 each." Liang Yao reported the price of the guns and added.

"If Hong Junmen wants to buy it, Liang will suffer a little loss. Each gun comes with 100 bullets."

With the increase in gun production, the manufacturing cost of guns has also declined. The manufacturing cost of the Walter m1851e is 13 US dollars and 40 cents per gun, and the manufacturing cost of the Walter m1851 is 18 US dollars and 70 cents per gun.

When it was first put into production, the manufacturing cost of the Walter m1851e was $15 and 25 cents per rod, and the manufacturing cost of the Walter m1851 was $20 and 30 cents.

Compared with the Springfield m1842 currently commonly equipped by the American army, which sells for $8 a shot, the Walter m1851 rifle that has been put into mass production still has no price advantage.

So far, only a few colonels in the United States have ordered a small number of Walter m1851e rifles to equip their troops, and Robert, the principal of West Point Military Academy, ordered 500 Walter m1851e rifles for use as teaching aids.

This type of firearm has not been successful in the domestic market of the United States, and the cumulative sales in the United States currently do not exceed 5,000.

Currently, only Liang Yao's Arizona Infantry Regiment in the American army, which has deep pockets, is equipped with this type of firearms. As for the California Infantry Regiment, the standard weapon currently equipped is the Dresser needle gun.

Liang Yao also needs to explore overseas markets and sell his arms to relieve the pressure on the Sacramento Arsenal and strive to make the Sacramento Arsenal profitable.

If you want to make arsenals profitable in a relatively short period of time through large-scale arms sales, you can only sell arms in the international market.

As for the colonels in the United States, they would rather spend $8 on a musket with outdated performance to equip their soldiers than spend $25 on a breech-loading rifle to equip their soldiers.

Liang Yao is currently optimistic about two major customers in the international market. One is the French Army, which urgently needs to replace its standard light weapons, and the other is the Green Camp Hexiangyong of the Qing Dynasty.

Liang Yao asked Hu Jinchen to take a Walter m1851 rifle from the accompanying guards and give it to Hong Mingxiang for inspection.

Hong Mingxiang played with this well-made and well-maintained rifle and praised it full of praise.

"What a gun, what a gun." As he said this, Hong Mingxiang put his eyes close to the muzzle of the gun. "This gun also has yin and yang lines? Is this the reason why this gun is so accurate? I watched Guangdong Yong practice using this gun and hit 50 feet ( Targets beyond 5m are as easy as poking around.”

The old matchlock guns equipped by the Green Camp are simply a pile of scrap metal compared to the foreign gun Hong Mingxiang is holding in his hand now, not to mention the target 50 feet away, even if it is 5 feet away Targets and misses are common.

"Exactly, this is also the reason why this gun is more expensive than other foreign guns. The yin and yang wires are not easy to machine. Take Liang's Sacramento ordnance shovel as an example. The yin and yang wires of ten barrels are often scrapped. 1 to 2 pieces, and the materials used for the barrels are all good materials," Liang Yao said.

"To tell you the truth, Brother Liang, I really like this gun. The price is too expensive. The paper bullets cost 16 taels of silver (the US dollar silver exchange rate in the mid-19th century was approximately: 1 US dollar exchanged for 637 taels of silver). One shot, can it be cheaper?" Hong Mingxiang began to bargain.

"It can't get any cheaper. No matter how cheap it is, I won't have any money to make. Ghosts always come to me to buy guns, and I always sell them to them at the price without giving away bullets." Liang Yao shook his head and said, "Out of the friendship between our compatriots, I’ve included 100 bullets with each gun, and these bullets are not cheap.”

Hong Mingxiang was about to negotiate the price again, but Liang Yao interrupted Hong Mingxiang and asked Hong Mingxiang, "Let's do this. Hong Junmen will directly tell Hong Junmen how many guns they want to purchase this time."

Hong Mingxiang thought for a long time and then said: "5,000, a foreign gun with paper shell bullets, but a foreign gun with metal bullets is too expensive."

"Hong Junmen, you think this is great. If Hong Junmen buys these 5,000 guns at the price, Liang will give an additional 200 guns to Hong Junmen." Liang Yao said.

5,000 guns is not a small deal, the total price reaches US dollars.

This is the largest order since the founding of the Sacramento Arsenal.

It has already exceeded the sales volume of the gun in the United States since it was put into production. It doesn't hurt that Liang Yao sends an additional 200 guns to Hong Mingxiang.

"That's great." Hong Mingxiang agreed after thinking about it.

After discussing the gun sale, Hong Mingxiang asked about the price of the cannon: "I wonder how much the foreign cannon produced here, Brother Liang, costs?"

"Cannons? Cannons are much more expensive than guns." Liang Yao said, "Rifled cannons and non-rifled cannons, large-caliber cannons and small-caliber cannons, front-loaded cannons and rear-loaded cannons, The price difference is not even a bit different.”

"I know this. How can we generalize the prices of different cannons." Hong Mingxiang said, "Brother Liang, please tell me the details first, so that I can have an idea."