I formed the strongest swordsman group.

Chapter 783: The Shinsengumi has guns! M1861 rifles and Parrot rifled cannons! [5000]

Those who have money contribute money, those who have grain contribute grain, and those who have animal power contribute animal power.

These are just the businesses that have openly expressed their support for Qingdeng.

There are also many businesses that secretly provide implicit assistance to Qingdeng.

These well-known businessmen actually donated generously to the same person at the same time... Such a scene is rare and shocking!

Of course, whether they are the tycoons in Osaka or other merchants far away, they are not direct subordinates of Huluya, and there is no relationship of "commander" and "commanded" between them.

The two parties are merely partners with "deep friendship".

Hulu House has indeed done them a favor, but if they abuse this favor, it will only backfire.

No matter how great Kinoshita Lin's reputation was, she could not force them to ruin their families and sell everything they had to support Qing Deng.

Therefore, they can only help Qingdeng as much as possible under the premise of "not affecting their own business conditions."

Such assistance will not be long-lasting and sustainable.

If all these businesses were like Huluya and supported Qing Deng without limit... then Qing Deng would probably become the most powerful and influential daimyo in Japan!
With this terrifying material advantage, even if we can't flatten all of Japan, we can at least capture the entire capital city!
All in all, the main source of support for Qinjin clan still comes from Huluwu itself.

In addition to "investment", Huluwu also runs grain, wine and other businesses.

According to Mr. Kiryu, the early gourd houses made a living by selling grain.

Japan under the Edo Shogunate implemented a rice standard.

Rice standard - a monetary system in which rice is the base currency, with the value of each unit of currency being equal to a certain weight of rice.

In other words, selling rice in the Edo period is equivalent to selling gold in modern times!
One can imagine how supreme its status is.

It may not be the most profitable business, but it is definitely the most stable, the most prestigious and the most powerful!
Just by making a living from "selling grain", Huluwu accumulated considerable wealth.

Following Kinoshita Lin's order, the entire gourd house began to operate quickly and orderly like a precision machine that was suddenly started!

……

……

Osaka——

The headquarters of Hyakuya is located in southern Osaka, close to the harbor.

The air was filled with the salty smell of the sea.

The calls of seabirds appear and disappear from time to time.

The plain architecture and unpretentious decoration are in keeping with the low-key style of Calabash House.

Black roof tiles, diamond-patterned walls...at first glance, it looks like just an ordinary landlord's compound.

Today, Kinoshita Lin held a high-level meeting.

In the tea room at the deepest part of the mansion, the core cadres of Huluwu gathered together.

Sitting on the main seat, Kinoshita Rin was still wearing the elegant and luxurious furisode with a black background and gold edges.

Mai Kinoshita, dressed in red, sat behind her.

As for Qing Deng, he sat side by side with her.

Just by looking at the seating arrangement, you can see how much importance Kinoshita Lin attaches to her granddaughter and grandson-in-law.

Boss Kiryu, Shichirobei Asai, Katsurokuro Shimada, Yoshikiyo Mogami...the core executives of Huluya sat below them in order of their status.

"I, an old woman, don't intend to talk too much nonsense."

Kinoshita Lin went straight to the point.

The steady voice with full power dominated the entire tea room and was clearly heard by everyone present.

"'In order to completely wipe out the Fazhu Party, we will provide unlimited support to the Qinjin Clan' - this is not just a vague joke, but a strategy that will be implemented soon!"

"It will be very busy next time. Thank you for your help."

"First, we need to open the granary and provide Qinjin Clan with sufficient food and fodder to ensure the stability of their country!"

……

Osaka, a warehouse area near the port -

"Open all the granaries! Quick! Hurry! Don't dawdle!"

The transport team consisting of able-bodied men and pack horses rushed straight towards the chessboard-like warehouses.

The heavy iron chains and sturdy door locks were removed.

Accompanied by the crisp sound of "click, click, click", the heavy doors were slowly pushed open, revealing the scene inside the warehouse - mountains of rice stacks.

The so-called "rice drum" is a kind of container unique to Japan for transporting and storing rice. It is actually a wooden barrel covered with a layer of rice straw.

Japan's maritime monsoon climate brings difficulties to rice storage. Rice is easily affected by moisture and mold. Covering the barrel with straw can enhance the airtightness. At the same time, the straw has good water absorption, which ensures the dryness of the rice in the barrel and prolongs the storage time.

Therefore, the convenient and easy-to-use rice drum has become the most mainstream rice storage container in Japan.

"Don't just stand there! Hurry up and load all the food onto the truck!"

The able-bodied men rushed forward in large numbers and launched a charge and attack on the "Rice Mountain" in front of them.

These rice bowls were loaded onto the carriage one by one.

Once the carriages were full, they would set off immediately, heading directly north to Qinjinfan.

……

"Qinjin Clan is in urgent need of a huge amount of funds to advance various projects. Therefore, after opening the rice warehouse, we have to open the treasury!"

Huluwu headquarters, accounting office——

Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick…

Crash, crash, crash, crash, crash, crash, crash...

The sounds of banging on an abacus, flipping through account books... they formed an overwhelming sound barrier, adding a tense and hurried atmosphere to the accounting office.

Looking around, every accountant on the scene was buried in his work, working meticulously and conscientiously.

“I’ve already done the statistics here!”

"You calculated wrong here! Calculate again!"

"The balance in Vault B is 89,342 taels of gold! There can't be any mistake. I have confirmed it many times!"

"Alright! Empty vault number B! Don't leave a single copper coin behind!"

The enormous workload leaves these accountants no time to even take a breath.

Many people have injured their fingers and tendon sheaths from fiddling with the abacus for a long time. They can only put on plasters and continue to work hard.

At the same time, countless people were coming in and out of the various vaults.

They were running back and forth hurriedly, carrying heavy lacquer boxes in their arms.

When transporting these lacquer boxes, someone walked too fast and stepped on the hem of his hakama, falling down. The wooden box in his arms drew a standard parabola in the air and flew a long distance.

With a crash, the contents of the lacquer box poured out.

In an instant, the golden glow illuminated the surrounding environment, and the smell of metal floated in the air.

It's a big shot!

What poured out from the box was a huge golden coin!

【Note: 1 small gold coin = 1 tael of gold. 1 large gold coin = 10 taels of gold. 】

Roughly speaking, there are at least 100 pieces!
"Hey! Be careful!"

"Yeah, sorry!"

"Pay attention to me, all of you! Don't have any thoughts that shouldn't be there! If I find out that you stole the money, you will be filled with incomparable regret! You will deeply understand what it means to 'regret your decision'!"

……

"Whether it's cultivating fields or building bastions, a lot of animal power is needed to support it. Therefore, in addition to money and food, we must also provide animal power as much as possible!"

Koshu, a certain horse farm——

The neighing of horses came one after another.

“Wheeze, wheeze, wheeze, wheeze, wheeze!”

"Be good! Listen to me!"

"Dodododododo... OK, it's calm now. When a horse gets agitated, you can't act recklessly, as that will be counterproductive. You have to tighten the reins while repeatedly humming 'dododo' in a low voice. This way, it will quickly return to normal."

"Yes, I understand!"

There are no native donkeys in Japan, so naturally there are no mules, which are the result of a cross between a horse and a donkey.

Therefore, apart from cattle, the most mainstream animal power in ancient Japan was the native ponies.

Although Japan's native horses are very short, no matter how short they are, they are still horses and possess strength and speed that humans cannot achieve.

Looking around, countless horses were led out of the stables and galloping across the wilderness...the scene was so spectacular.

……

"An Yi intends to establish a firearms unit. This is a correct idea! In today's world, swords and sabers are outdated! Jiaqing, you will be responsible for contacting Mr. Smith in the United States and tell him: I am interested in deepening my relationship with him. Now let's deliver the stock in the arsenal to Qin Jinfan first!"

Another warehouse was opened.

Compared with the granary, the security level of the arsenal is undoubtedly much higher.

"Be careful! This is gunpowder!"

"Ugh... it's so heavy! Hey! Give us a few more people! We can't move something this heavy!"

"What is this? Why is it so heavy? Is it a cannon?"

"Shh! Don't ask any more questions!"

The strong men carefully carried out the large wooden boxes in the warehouse.

At this moment, someone accidentally stepped on empty air with his left foot and fell flat on his face. The momentary loss of balance prevented the others from reacting, and the large wooden boxes they were carrying fell to the ground, the wooden lid flew out, and the things inside rolled out.

The first thing that catches your eye is the dry straw.

But if you look closely, you can find shiny, brand new rifles in these piles of straw!

These guns are all advanced rifles that are currently playing a shining role in the American Civil War - the Springfield M1861 rifle!
This gun is a muzzle-loading rifle.

Its characteristic is that it uses Minié bullet and percussion cap to fire.

Previously, the mainstream rifles in European countries were all smoothbore rifles, which had poor shooting accuracy and bullets would fly randomly at a distance of dozens of meters.

The M1861 rifle can adopt a rifled structure after adopting the Minié bullet, and the accuracy of the bullet after firing is higher, especially the range is greatly improved.

The diameter of the conical bullet of the Minié bullet is slightly smaller than the diameter of the barrel, which makes it very convenient to load the muzzle-loading gun.

When using this bullet, you need to bite open the paper bag of the Minié bullet and load the gunpowder and bullet separately.

Loading a muzzle-loader is relatively troublesome, but it is much faster than the old-fashioned muzzle-loading rifle.

In addition, the M1861 rifle uses a percussion cap to fire, which is an upgrade over the flintlock rifle.

The failure rate of flintlock rifles is relatively high, and even the best guns have a failure rate of one in ten.

For the M1861 rifle, the standard range is 500 meters, and the relative accuracy range is directly increased to 200 meters, and 3 rounds can be fired per minute.

The old smoothbore muskets had a maximum range of about 200 meters, but soldiers could rarely accurately hit any target more than 80 meters away.

"Idiot! What do you do for a living? Why can't you even move a box?!"

“No, no, no action!”

They hurriedly cleaned up, stuffed the fallen rifles back into the box, and then carried them away in a hurry.

In the 19th century, Europe and the United States were in a state of "vigorous vitality and flourishing development", and the monster called "capitalism" was growing wildly.

Simply put, their market is in a wild state of "order in chaos, chaos in order; both chaotic and organized."

As long as you have that much money, you can buy almost anything you want in the market.

Therefore, if one has that channel, it is not difficult to buy guns and ammunition.

Not only can you buy it, but if your purchase quantity is large enough, the merchant across the street may even offer express delivery and free shipping.

In order to fight against the Fazhu Party, Huluwu would naturally not let go of firearms, a powerful weapon.

Under the guidance of Kinoshita Rin, Huluya's purchasing ideas are very clear, and they do not go for "international brands".

Whether it is a musket or a cannon, they all focus on one product.

The only muskets purchased were the M1861 rifles.

As for artillery, they only purchased the most advanced field gun at the time: the 10-pound Parrot rifled gun.

This gun also proved to be very effective in the current Civil War, with both the North and the South equipped with this gun on a large scale, with the number exceeding 700.

The caliber of this artillery is 76 mm, the shell weighs 4.5 kg, and it is no longer a round shell.

The biggest feature of the Parrot rifled gun is that it uses rifled instead of smoothbore.

After the shell is fired, the bullet expands under the action of gunpowder gas, embedding into the rifling and causing the shell to rotate, greatly improving the accuracy and extending the range.

The theoretical maximum range of the Parrot rifled gun is over 4000 meters, and its actual combat range is around 2000 meters.

Huluwu doesn’t have a lot of inventory.

They could only provide 1861 M200 rifles to Qin Jinhan immediately.

As for the Parrot rifled guns, there were only 5 of them.

Although the number is small, it finally allows Qingdeng to get rid of the dilemma of "no firearms"!

……

……

Kinoshita Lin gave precise instructions in an orderly manner.

Boss Kiryu and others listened attentively.

Those who were given specific tasks—such as Motoki Yoshiki, who was sent to contact Mr. Smith in the United States—would stand up and Lang would say "yes".

After she finished speaking, she slowly turned her head and looked at Qing Deng beside her.

"Aki."

The sudden roll call made Qing Deng subconsciously straighten his back and look in the direction of the voice.

"I, an old woman, have done all I can. From now on...it all depends on your performance."

"I won't tell you what to do, and I won't interfere in the internal affairs of Qinjin Clan."

"If you still can't make immediate achievements despite my strong support, I will be angry."

"In short, let's make Qinjin Fan look brand new as soon as possible."

Having said this, Kinoshita Lin paused.

Then, she curled up the corners of her mouth and changed her tone to a half-joking tone:

"I'm looking forward to it... looking forward to Qinjin Domain becoming a powerful country that is not afraid of any force!"

After hearing this, Qing Deng smiled slightly, and then said passionately:
"Grandma, please look forward to it. What I do best is exceeding other people's expectations!"

……

……

Iwakura Village, on the outskirts of Kyoto, is the retreat of Iwakura Tomomi.

Iwakura Tomomi: “…”

Katsura Kogoro: "..."

The two sat facing each other.

They stared at each other, but no one said anything.

Iwakura Tomomi was sitting with his body tilted, a pipe in his mouth, puffing out smoke with a "puff" sound.

After a moment, he suddenly grinned, as if he was talking to Katsura Kogoro in front of him, or as if he was talking to himself, and he said quietly:

"I seem to be too arrogant..."

"Although I don't want to admit it, I really underestimated Tachibana Aoto..."

"This guy... is a monster!"

Having said this, his face suddenly fell, and his expression became extremely solemn and terrifying.

"How on earth did he do that...?!"

"Why was he able to convince the big businessmen in Osaka to invest in him...?!"

“Damn it…! My chessboard is messed up again…!”

Squeak, squeak, squeak - he squeezed the pipe tightly, and the pipe made a "squeak" sound as if it could not bear the weight.

Katsura Kogoro said nothing, just remained silent, allowing Iwakura Tomomi to curse and vent his anger.

About 5 minutes later, Iwakura Tomomi slowly stopped talking and his emotions gradually calmed down.

After a while, he slowly raised his eyes and stared straight at Katsura Kogoro.

The violent look on his face had faded.

Instead, there was a bright and pleasant expression.

"Mr. Katsura, I am now somewhat interested in your proposal of 'secret cooperation between the imperial court and Choshu'."

"..."

Katsura Kogoro still didn't say anything.

However, the slightly upturned corners of his lips have already exposed his true feelings.

……

……

Satsuma Domain Residence——

Yoshinosuke Saigo stood upright on the corridor, with his hands behind his back, facing the bright sunshine, and looking up at the courtyard scenery with great interest.

Suddenly, Xiaosong appeared behind him with a knife.

"Saigo-kun, the Tosa samurai who calls himself 'Sakamoto Ryoma' is here again."

"He insisted that 'only by realizing the Satsuma-Choshu alliance and working together to overthrow the Edo shogunate can Japan have a bright future.'"

Saigo Yoshinosuke raised his eyebrows:
"'Japan'? Ha, what a strange fellow..."

As he spoke, he looked up at the boundless sky.

"…Osomatsu-kun, send him away. I don't have the need to see him right now."

Xiao Song Dai Dao narrowed his eyes and laughed dumbly:
"'For now'?...Okay, I get it."

After saying this, he bowed, then quickly retreated to the corner of the corridor in the distance.

Yoshinosuke Saigo withdrew his gaze from the other person and looked into the distance.

After a while, he whispered softly in a voice that only he could hear:

"'Satsuma-Choshu Alliance'... Now is not the best time to form an alliance..."

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PS: Thanks to my book friend [Bingwu Yeyang]! Although we haven't reached the chapter about Qingdeng's wedding yet, he has already drawn fanart for the book with the heroines wearing white wedding clothes for free! This book finally has fanart (crying leopard head.jpg)

This book friend has posted the picture in the comment section of Qidian.com. Interested book friends can go and have a look! (豹嗨.jpg)