At the same time, in a villa in Moscow, Russia, it is a different scene.

"Dear General Makanov. I have found the first unfreezing port for your fleet in the Far East. I believe that in the near future, you and your fleet can fully demonstrate their skills in the Far East." Foreign Minister Lobanov said happily.

"Is that so? Is it Yongxing Bay or Juwen Island?" Makanov, commander of the Russian Pacific Fleet, joked.

"No, my dear general, is from Japan. Of course, the Japanese have not agreed yet, but as Japan borrows more and more from the empire, I think the empire can control this little dwarf sooner or later." Lobanov said with a smile.

The visit of the North Sea Fleet to Japan caused a huge shock to the Japanese government and opposition at that time. The Japanese government passed the proposal proposed by the navy that "the Japanese naval investment must be increased and a navy that can deal with the North Sea Fleet." With the support of Hirofumi Ito, the newly-employed Japanese Matsuba cabinet proposed a naval investment plan of 60 million yen, and planned to build four 10,000-ton ironclad ships and six cruisers in the next nine years.

"I hope so, but if possible, I want the Japanese to buy Russian warships. Since Japan wants to buy warships, it is not the one to buy." Makanov said meaningfully.

"This is natural, but the first thing the empire needs is to let these little dwarfs open the door to the Qing Dynasty." Lobanov said.

"Well, then how much money do the Japanese plan to borrow?" Makanov asked.

"It's a total of £2 million. The first loan of £700,000 is 3.5 cents. There are no additional conditions," Lobanov said. "We want to fish for big fish with long lines, you know."

"I hope the Empire's investment will get the return it deserves."

"Of course, every golden ruble that flows from the empire will be worth the money!" Lobanov said confidently.

The news that Japan and Russia signed a loan agreement was soon passed back to Britain by spies. Considering that Russia would almost certainly extend its greedy tentacles to Japan later, the British government began to turn its support for the Qing government of China more firmly. Because once Japan wins the victory in the East Asia battle, Russia will inevitably gain the unfreezing port they dream of, and Britain's interests in the Far East will face direct challenges from the Russians and even the Japanese.

Under the guidance of this foreign policy, the British government expanded the number of students originally planned to accept Chinese Navy and the number of students from industrial overseas. At the same time, the continuous lesson plans of the three provinces, which could have had a great impact in the Yangtze River Basin, were also hastily concluded.

In fact, Ronglu had basically completed the closing of the lesson plan of the three provinces a month ago. After obtaining key information, Ronglu and Zhang Zhidong immediately took countermeasures. However, because Li Hong bit his tongue and committed suicide after being captured, they could not know exactly where the next lesson plan would occur. The Gelaohui was extremely powerful, almost all provinces along the Yangtze River from Shanghai to Chongqing. If there was no conclusive evidence, not to mention Ronglu, even Guangxu would not dare to catch and kill people casually. So they first placed strict controls on various docks and churches to monitor all suspicious people. At the same time, they sought contact with churches from various countries in order to obtain authorization.

On July 28, a spy in Yichang sent back news that a local French church had bribed a young boy named You. Ronglu immediately determined that the next lesson plan might happen in one incident and immediately arranged guard soldiers to take precautions.

On the 29th, a woman claimed to be a relative of a child and went to the church to ask for a return. Without any surprise, a large number of residents immediately began to gather outside the church. The 2nd Company of the Eighth Regiment was responsible for the local alert. On the one hand, they tried their best to prevent the gathering of the masses, and at the same time sent people to report to the government.

Soon, the local magistrate rushed to support. The guards officers and soldiers who had taken out immediately conducted investigations around the surrounding area and captured the gunman hiding in the American Episcopal Church next door. At that time, he was about to shoot at the masses.

Subsequently, with the cooperation of the local area, the Guards successively arrested more than ten people including Zhu Faquan, Zhao Zongya, etc. These people were eventually sentenced to be exiled or beating.

Because of the Qing court's performance in this case, coupled with the British policy towards China, the French, who originally wanted to take advantage of the situation, were unable to speak out. In the end, the third possible Chinese-Western crisis ended.

The chain reaction of this incident is that the French government feels its disadvantage in the international community and accelerates the alliance between France and Russia.

On August 7, just as Japan had just passed its naval budget, France signed a defensive alliance with Russia.

Year by year, especially busy days, suddenly you find that it is the end of the year again.

Half a year has passed since the Huai Army’s training at the small station. In the past six months, the officers and soldiers of Sheng Jun, who were originally full of energy, felt like they were reborn from top to bottom after Liu Shaoqing’s training.

The training work has been on track at this time. Liu Shaoqing can breathe a sigh of relief and go to Beijing to report on his work in the past six months, and visit Jianning by the way.

This time I returned to Beijing, in addition to reporting on the training work, there are two other things that are also very important.

First, Feng Guozhang was responsible for the training of recruits in Fengtai Camp. The recruits were different from the Huai Army. They were easier to form an army with just one piece of paper. However, it was Feng Guozhang's first time taking the lead alone, and it was a scale of 10,000 people at once. Liu Shaoqing still had to take a closer look at how he completed it.

Another thing is the experimental work of newly invested weapons and equipment this year.

Based on the experience summarized in the Tibet-Border Conflict, Liu Shaoqing has no big bottleneck in the current manufacturing technology. For artillery, the small-caliber mortar itself has the least difficulty coefficient in artillery technology. This time the new weapon is just improved on the original basis, and the main changes are only on ammunition and gun barrels.

The shells were made of cheap cast iron. Thanks to the support of the emperor, the General Administration of Machinery Manufacturing of the Beijing Machinery Manufacturing, the former name of the Shenjiying Machinery Bureau, obtained a new high-explosive formula. The power of the grenades produced was greatly improved. In addition, the tail design of the shell itself also increased greatly, which basically achieved the original design goal. The optical scope on the cannon was produced by the Germans.

At the shooting range in Nanyuan, five trained Guard artillery soldiers will be responsible for the test-firing tasks of two new mortars. The division of labor of the five people is that the gunman, as the commander of the entire team, carries spare parts and tools with him. The first gunman is responsible for aiming, carrying bottom sheets and gun stands, and the second gunman is responsible for loading shells, carrying gun gods and sights. The third gunman is responsible for installing fuses, adjusting loading and transporting shells, carrying shells and launching medicines. The fourth gunman is responsible for observation and alert, carrying shells and individual weapons, and assisting the third gunman in his work if necessary.

This arrangement is in the experimental stage and during the real combat period, Liu Shaoqing's plan is to form a gun platoon with four guns, and the commander of the gunners will be the platoon leader. At this time, a group of gunners will become four people. Of course, in order to carry ammunition and other equipment, other auxiliary soldiers will definitely be arranged, so let's talk about this later.

With a command, five strong artillery soldiers entered the launch position with one of the 60mm mortars tentatively designated as 1891.

"Prepare!"

With the order of the dispatcher, the soldiers began to place artillery. The gunman first used a telescope to observe the target. At the same time, a gunman quickly used an engineer to shovel to dig a small pit on the ground, then put the bottom sheet into the pit, and then set the gun mount in the approximate direction. The second gunman lowered the gun body and placed the tail on the bottom sheet to lock it. Then the first gunman and the second gunman cooperated to place the gun on the bracket and adjust the probability level. The gunman walked behind the gun and used a plumb line to correct the engraving line on the gun body. The target and the gun body were on the same level. At the same time, the third gunman and the fourth gunman opened the ammunition box, installed a fuse for the shell, and were ready to shoot at any time.

"The entire assembly work is no more than five minutes, and it is very fast." Liu Shaoqing said.

Liu Jun, the accompanying factory technician and artillery battalion commander, nodded in agreement. "The installation technology required for this kind of artillery is very simple. Even for new recruits, the installation time will not be much longer. The difficulty is aiming. Therefore, it is recommended that in the subsequent matching, it is best to use trained veterans as gunners, first gunners and third gunners." Liu Jun then suggested.

Liu Shaoqing agreed with his opinion: "That's right. I think so too."

While several people were talking, the gunner had completed the pre-tuning and aiming of the artillery, and then a high-explosive grenade was fired out.

'boom'!

A ball of gunpowder rose from the preset target in the distance. When the gunpowder dissipated, soldiers immediately went up to confirm the damage.

"Report! The actual landing point of the shell deviates from the main target by five meters. Judging from the wooden rakes set up around, the shrapnel scattering degree is good, and the damage radius is about twelve meters."

The shells tested just now used strong charges, and from the perspective of range, they reached 1,400 meters. Afterwards, the soldiers used different equivalent charges to conduct shooting experiments and tested the maximum rate of fire.

According to experimental data, the maximum range of a 60 mm mortar can reach 1,450 meters, the damage range of high-explosive grenade is 12 meters, and the damage radius of ordinary grenade is seven meters. The maximum elevation angle and the lowest charge shooting can hit targets 200 meters away. The maximum rate of fire is twenty rounds per minute.

During the development of the new artillery, Liu Shaoqing ultimately did not use the design of a small-caliber artillery proposed by the emperor, which could be used simultaneously with the throwing grenades of infantry. Because during the research and development, he found that the weight and rate of fire of the 60 mm caliber mortar can fully realize the needs of infantry attacks. If the output and logistics can keep up, it can be fully configured to be used in the company and platoon level. Moreover, the range and power are incomparable to small-caliber throwing weapons. Therefore, in the end, he decisively gave up the design of small-caliber grenade throwing weapons and focused entirely on the mortar.

After testing the 60 mm caliber, the soldiers tested the 1891 Type 81 mm caliber mortar and obtained relevant data. As for the originally planned 120 mm mortar, the new equipment for producing the gun barrel has not yet been shipped from Germany, so the manufacturing has not started.

After testing the two types of artillery, Liu Shaoqing began to accept the new machine gun.

The gun uses rifle bullets used by the Guards infantry. Each magazine is loaded with 30 rounds, and the firing rate is adjustable. In theory, it can reach a maximum of 280 rounds per minute. However, Liu Shaoqing did not intend to use such a high firing rate in war, which is Maxim's job. Moreover, because the gun adopts an air-cooled design, excessive firing rate will cause the barrel to overheat, increase the service life of the gun, and increase the failure rate. However, it is now the test stage, so we should check the maximum firing rate and the reliability data of the barrel.

"Although this gun is much lighter than Maxine, it still weighs twelve kilograms. It seems that the one who carries it will be a strong guy." Liu Shaoqing said with some difficulty picking up a 1891 light machine gun filled with bullets.

Liu Jun said: "Beizhi believes that if you want to play the role of this gun, only one person is absolutely not allowed. The empty gun weighs more than ten kilograms. In addition to the ammunition and tools you need to carry, I personally recommend that a light machine gun team of four is the minimum limit. The commander who does not consider carrying accessories and tools, the main shooter is responsible for carrying machine guns, the deputy shooter is responsible for replacing and alerting, and the remaining two are ammunition players. In theory, one person must carry about 8 magazines."

This personnel arrangement is basically the same as Liu Shaoqing's idea. Considering the firepower requirements for wars that the Guards may face in the future, as well as the addition of mortars and Maxim machine guns, this machine gun that is mainly used in the company and platoon support will appear in the army sequence in the form of machine gun squads. Each machine gun squad is organized with fifteen people and is equipped with two machine guns.
Chapter completed!