The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 588 Still flying

Although Liang Dunyan was only the governor of Zhili now, he was in charge of contacting and compiling the situation in Shandong with the governor of Shandong, and finally reporting it to Yang Shixiang.

Liang Dunyan's position as governor was actually equivalent to a half-governor. It could even be said that he was Yang Shixiang's assistant and served as half-governor.

Liang Dunyan said happily, "In reply to the Marshal, according to the Marshal's method of distributing livestock and making green fodder among the people, now almost every farmer in Zhili and Shandong is raising pigs, cattle, sheep, chickens, and ducks."

"According to statistics, this year we can sell up to 6 million pigs and over 4 million sheep. We also have 200,000 imported Swiss Simmental and French Charolais cattle, more than 100,000 yellow cattle from western Shandong, and a large number of chickens, ducks and other poultry. Some wealthy households have also set up pig farms and chicken farms."

Most of the compensation paid by the French was eventually used to import France's famous beef cattle, namely the Charolais cattle breed and the Simmental cattle, which can produce both meat and large amounts of milk.

However, this kind of large livestock is not suitable for ordinary farmers to raise, and the effect of promoting free-range breeding is not very good. Now most of them are raised in official ranches in Duolun, Wuqing and Jizhou.

Among them, the ranch in Wuqing raises Simmental cattle, which produce both meat and milk. Most of the milk is supplied to the dairy factory under the Aurora Industrial Development Company to produce milk powder and milk candy.

Liang Dunyan said, "It is expected that the number of pigs slaughtered next year will increase significantly."

"In addition to fulfilling the contract with the Aurora Industrial Development Company, the people's surplus pigs, cattle and sheep are sold in large quantities in the market, which has already pushed down the price of pork and mutton in the two provinces by 10%. The price of poultry eggs is also falling. Thanks to merchants from not only Liangjiang but also Henan Province coming to buy live pigs and sheep, the price has been stabilized."

Liang Dunyan said cheerfully, "Now in our Zhishan Province, a new profession has emerged. Many people have started to go door to door to buy chicken and duck down. Some people even go to the neighboring Liangjiang and Henan Provinces to buy and bring back to sell to the Down Factory."

"Nowadays, farmers' incomes other than land have increased significantly, and people's livelihood has improved greatly. Many farmers even have a memorial tablet for the Marshal at home."

"If the troops have a large demand, the prices of pigs, sheep and eggs will rise, and the people will earn more."

The down factory is the only enterprise under the Zhendan Industrial Development Company that is not very profitable. The down vests they produce are all supplied to the logistics department of the Zhi army, so naturally they don't make much money.

Down jackets are not expected to be popular in the domestic market, but they may be popular abroad. However, there is no technical difficulty at all, and it is impossible to make money from foreigners.

When milk was first introduced, Teng Yuzhao was quite troubled, because few people at that time would drink fresh milk.

In the end, Zhou Xuexi had no choice but to build a dairy factory to produce milk powder and milk candy.

Milk powder is a very promising industry, but since pasteurization would not appear until more than 20 years later, milk powder companies could not grow big at that time, and Changliang was also very small.

Teng Yuzao applied this technology, which Zhou Xuexi called Teng's disinfection method, to milk powder production, making it possible to purchase large quantities of fresh milk to make milk powder.

In order to maintain product leadership, Teng Yuzao did not even apply for a patent.

It is also because of this that, except for the 10% of the output produced by this dairy factory that Teng Yuzhao forced Zhou Xuexi to keep for domestic sales, the rest is bought up by European businessmen at high prices.

Now, Zhou Xuexi is clamoring to expand milk production and the scale of the dairy factory.

Teng Yuzhao was very happy about the sufficient supply of meat and eggs. He also did not comment on the fact that the people in the two provinces offered him longevity tablets. He was happy to see this situation.

What Teng Yuzhao wants most now is that his own reputation will grow so that the court will not dare to touch him easily.

Xu Shichang, Ning Xingpu, Zhou Xuexi and others were very happy to hear that this measure of Teng Yuzao alone not only solved the source of raw materials for canneries, milk powder factories, down factories, and leather products factories, solved the large demand for meat in Zhili, but also significantly increased farmers' income and improved people's livelihood. They also respected Teng Yuzao even more.

Teng Yuzhao not only has the creative ideas to produce goods that foreigners like, but also has good ways to benefit the lives of ordinary farmers. He is simply a man who can turn stones into gold. With such a governor governing Zhi and Shan provinces, the people of these two provinces are blessed.

Teng Yuzao smiled and nodded, saying, "Very good! Songsheng, you still need to work hard. You must vigorously promote everything that is conducive to improving the livelihood of the people."

Teng Yuzao then said to Yang Shixiang, "Please arrange for the method of green fodder to be published in the Ta Kung Pao. This will benefit the people in all provinces."

Ignoring Yang Shixiang's reluctance, Teng Yuzao said to Zhou Xuexi.

"Jizhi, write a letter to Lord Zhou and tell him about the method of dispersed breeding. As long as they can transport the pigs from Liangjiang, you should buy all of them."

Although Teng Yuzhao knew that Zhou Fu would soon be transferred to Guangdong and Guangxi by Cixi, Zhou Fu felt feared by the court, so he voluntarily resigned from his post in Guangdong and Guangxi and returned home to retire.

Teng Yuzao didn't want Zhou Fu to leave just like that. He wanted Zhou Fu to keep working hard and make a difference in people's livelihood, which would hold Zhou Fu firmly.

Afterwards, Wei Jinghai reported on the storage quantity of various types of artillery shells and the configuration of the troops' heavy machine guns.

The reserve of artillery shells was still sufficient. Not only were there captured artillery shells, but the arsenals of the Baoding and Tianjin Ordnance Departments also produced a large amount of artillery shells.

Just because it has to be kept secret for the time being, all mortar shells are produced in the former Dongjuzi Arsenal which was expanded and moved to the seaside.

In addition, there were artillery shells produced by the Hanyang Gun Factory, which also had considerable output, and Zhang Zhidong also mainly supplied them to the Zhi Army.

Although Zhang Zhidong now advocated an alliance with Japan to fight against Russia, he also believed that the Zhili Army at the gate of the Northeast should be prepared for war. After all, only with sufficient strength will people be willing to unite with you.

The Zhi army's heavy machine guns had some problems. Since Teng Yuzhao now looked down on the bulky water-cooled Maxim heavy machine gun, he also came up with a sketch of what he called a general-purpose machine gun. However, due to the poor technical strength of the Ordnance Department, it has not yet succeeded in trial-producing it.

However, Teng Yuzao came up with another type of light machine gun that does not require water for cooling, has a thick air cooling tube, and uses a magazine tray or drum for ammunition. The Ordnance Department has not only developed it, but has also been producing it in small batches.

This type of machine gun, which Teng Yuzao called the straight L light machine gun, has begun to be equipped in the Fourth, Fifth, Eighth and Cavalry Towns.

The light machine guns now being produced are being equipped to the First Town.

According to Teng Yuzhao's instructions, this type of light machine gun will temporarily only be equipped to troops that may participate in the war outside the Great Wall.

Although this light machine gun was available, there were still certain problems with heat dissipation, and its firepower sustainability was poor. Therefore, the Maxim heavy machine gun still had to remain in the army, but it was only used as firepower support at the battalion level.

This light machine gun is actually the Lewis light machine gun. Its principle and manufacturing are not difficult at all. The whole gun weighs less than 47 kilograms. The ammunition is supplied by a single drum or magazine of 97 or 7.62 rounds, with a caliber of .

Historically, it would take another ten years before the Lewis light machine gun began mass production in the UK.

In fact, Teng Yuzao could have come up with a lighter MG34, but he didn't want to be too ahead of the times. He wanted to take it slow and just be slightly ahead of the times. As for the 7.62 caliber, it was mainly because he had to consider that it would inevitably be supplied to domestic troops in the future, so he had to at least have some control over the bullets.

The ammunition produced domestically is mainly Mauser 79 caliber.

According to Teng Yuzhao's request, all sentries of the troops equipped with light machine guns were no longer equipped with heavy machine guns, but were all equipped with six of these light machine guns that could be used for charging.

Therefore, the Zhi army can only sort out and classify the existing complicated models of heavy machine guns to facilitate the supply of ammunition.

Now all the Zhi army units had only two types of heavy machine guns. The other different types and the surplus Maxims were sold to the new armies in other provinces. Yuan Shikai purchased 100 of them.

The Zhi army now has two types of heavy machine guns, one is the Maxim heavy machine gun, which is the most captured, and the other is the French Hotchkiss heavy machine gun.

Because of its light weight, the air-cooled Hotchkiss heavy machine gun was mainly equipped in Wu Peifu's Fifth Regiment and Li Jinyu's Eighth Regiment stationed in Zhangjiakou, as well as the Cavalry Regiment.

The rest of the troops all used Maxim heavy machine guns.

What Wei Jinghai talked about after this were all trivial matters.

Such as the recruitment and training of new soldiers, the storage of military uniforms, military shoes, cowhide belts, military water bottles, etc.

Liu Changfa and Sun Shijun's reports were even briefer, only supplementing some details mentioned by Wei Jinghai.

Then, it was Li Yulin's turn to report the situation.

According to Li Yulin, the arsenals under the Ordnance Department have already begun to organize production at full capacity, but due to insufficient production equipment, the two factories are unable to meet the combat needs of hundreds of thousands of troops.

Although equipment has been purchased in Germany through Ning Xingpu's trading company, it is too late to increase equipment production now.

He suggested to Teng Yuzao that he should buy some supplements from abroad.

Li Yulin also mentioned in his report that the production volume of new firearms developed by the Ordnance Department was still insufficient.

Teng Yuzhao knew that the new firearms that Li Yulin mentioned included not only the straight-L light machine gun but also submachine guns.

Submachine guns also appeared in World War I. The first submachine gun was designed by the Italians eleven years later. Later, the Germans designed the famous MP18 submachine gun. The sketch that Teng Yuzao gave to the Ordnance Department was the MP18. It was still mm in caliber.

Regarding the self-developed new weapons, Liu Changfa, Sun Shijun, Liu Shijiu, Cao Futian, Liu Bingyi and others were not surprised, because two years ago, under the same circumstances, Teng Yuzao was able to develop an extremely convenient and powerful weapon like the mortar.

Even Ye Zugui and Sa Zhenbing did not feel that there was anything special about it, because their navy's ultimate weapon was trial-produced by the Ordnance Department based on the principle sketch drawn by Teng Yuzhao.

Even because of the need to purchase raw materials and funds, people like Ning Xingpu, Zhou Xuexi, and Xi Ligong also have a rough idea of ​​the cost.

These people were just curious and wanted to know what this thing was.

However, people like Yang Shixiang, Xu Shichang, Yang Shiqi, Tang Shaoyi, Liang Dunyan and Cao Jiaxiang were greatly surprised.

They were extremely surprised that the Ordnance Department could develop new weapons.

In response to these people's doubts and suspicions, Teng Yuzao smiled.

"Don't disbelieve me. Our Ordnance Department has indeed researched and manufactured extremely powerful new weapons. And it's not just one type. I can only tell you that these are two new types of firearms. Even the great powers don't have them. But it needs to be kept secret for now."

Li Yulin said admiringly, "I can also tell you something more. These two new guns were trial-produced based on the principle sketch drawn by the Marshal."

"To be exact, these two new types of firearms were invented by the Marshal."

Tang Shaoyi, Liang Dunyan and Cao Jiaxiang were all shocked that Teng Yuzao could invent new weapons. The look they showed towards Teng Yuzao was not only of surprise but also of admiration!

Teng Yuzhao sighed, feeling a little annoyed with himself. Although he had already planned to fight outside the Great Wall, he could not make up his mind to use new weapons, so it was a little late.

"Qionglin, it's not possible to buy a large amount of ammunition from abroad now. This will make the great powers mistakenly think that we are going to join the war, or at least there is a possibility of joining the war. You have to know that now these major powers hope that Russia and Japan will fight in the Northeast. No one wants to see us join the war."

"If they think we might join the war, not only will they not be willing to sell us ammunition, they may even reveal their judgment to Japan and Russia, or even to the imperial court, which would be very disadvantageous to us."

Teng Yuzao smiled apologetically at Li Yulin and said, "Qionglin, we should still rely on ourselves. This will make it hard for you. You also need to find ways to tap the potential of the Tianjin factory, such as three shifts and incentive measures. If you need funds, just ask for it."

Teng Yuzao reminded again, "Although time is a bit tight, we must ensure quality, especially safety, otherwise it may backfire."

Although Li Yulin felt somewhat helpless about Teng Yuzao's request, he had no choice but to nod in agreement.

Li Yulin was still very convinced of Teng Yuzao. In his opinion, Teng Yuzao had considered everything very carefully.

Li Yulin took a deep breath and said, "Marshal, according to the design sketch you brought out before the inspection, the airship has been successfully trial-produced, and after a month of repeated test flights, it is in good condition and should be able to be put into use."

Airships are not something rare. More than a hundred years ago, the French brothers Robert built the world's first human-powered airship.

Their airship is 15.6 meters long and has a maximum diameter of 9 meters. It can generate more than 6 kilograms of lift when filled with hydrogen.

However, for more than a hundred years since then, it seemed that only the French were interested in airships, while other European countries were not interested.

So, even though airships have had power and steering capabilities for more than a hundred years, they are still soft airships.

It was not until the Gengzi Year that a more advanced rigid airship was successfully produced by Zeppelin, a German who was the first to take an interest in airships.

All the stories about airships were widely reported, especially the success of the German Zeppelin rigid airship in the Gengzi Year, which was very famous. Not only newspapers in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hong Kong reported on it, but also the Ta Kung Pao reprinted it.
(End of this chapter)