Jagged Warlord

It turned out that this foreigner, who was neither ugly nor handsome, was an American Jew, an employee of the American gun manufacturer Remington Company, which was called Lamington Company by the Chinese at that time.China's domestic arms market is dominated by old British and French firms. Although American gun manufacturers are powerful, they are often reduced to the role of OEMs, producing water for Russia and Lee Enfield for Britain, but their own products cannot be sold.The number of warlords in China, such as Zhang Zuolin of the Feng family and Duan Qirui of the Anhui family, used Japanese-style rifles. The arms used by the Lu Xiao warlords are even more complicated, such as Carcano in Italy and Manlicia in Austria, etc., but there are really few American weapons.

As for why Franken was with the Japanese, he couldn't explain it himself.According to him, he was walking on Wusong Road by himself.When passing by a few Japanese, he accidentally bumped into them on the shoulder, and then the Japanese began to besiege him.

Li Mohan was not very interested in why he fought the Japanese, but was interested in the ammunition he brought, so he asked to see Franken's goods.

Franken was overjoyed, and led Li Mohan and his party to a warehouse in the International Settlement.He knocked open a green wooden box, took out a big guy, and said, "Look, the original American product~"

Li Mohan looked at it and smiled. This is not an m1903 or m1917, but a Mosin Nagant rifle.During World War I in 1916 and 1917, as the Russian army was in short supply of small arms, additional foreign contractors were needed to produce the Mosin-Nagant.The production contract was mainly signed with two American companies - Remington c) and Westinghouse in New England (westinghouse), which produced a large number of 1910-style m1891 rifles.When the October Revolution occurred in 1917, these rifles were not delivered to the original customer - the overthrown Tsarist Russian government, 280,00 were received by the US military, and most of them were replaced with parts and only used for basic training purposes.

The deal almost didn't cost Remington his life.

Franken was about to introduce the performance of the Mosin Nagant rifle. Li Mohan waved his hand and said, "No, I know the performance of this gun very well. Let's look at the others."

Franken shook his head and replied: "Nope~!" However, seeing Li Mohan's disappointed expression, he said mysteriously: "Actually, the range, power, and accuracy of this rifle are pretty good. And The price is cheap and the process is simple. If you need it, I can even get you a full set of production equipment. As far as I know, there are almost no generals in your country who can produce their own guns, right?"

In Li Mohan's view, something like the Mosin Nagant rifle is very suitable for a war of attrition.The current China is the same as Russia, and the cultural quality of soldiers is very low, so it is more necessary to ensure that the weapons are simple and easy to use.Of course, there is another important reason for looking at it, that is, the Russian 7.62*54r projectile with a protruding edge has less recoil than the current German 7.92mm bullet, which is more suitable for Orientals, and the tapered shell with a protruding edge is suitable for basic industries. In poor countries, because the projected bottom shell has relatively loose requirements on the size of the chamber, a large production tolerance is allowed.During World War II, the Nazi German army was rich and handsome in terms of the quality of weapons and soldiers. In contrast, the Soviet army was truly poor.But the Soviet army insisted on counterattacking the rich and handsome Germans with a large number of Soviet guns, and even hit Berlin all the way.

Based on this consideration, Li Mohan felt that the use of Russian light weapons was quite in line with China's current national conditions. "Can you really help me buy a complete set of equipment?" Li Mohan asked

"Of course, you have to believe in the contractual spirit of our Americans." Franken was overjoyed to see Li Mohan's interest in the equipment that the head office regarded as tasteless.How did he know that the production equipment of that batch of Mosin Nagant rifles may be backward production capacity for American firearms dealers, but it is advanced production technology and equipment for Li Mohan or Chinese military industry.

Thinking of this, Li Mohan said: "Okay then, I want these guns, and I want those equipment too. Let's make a price."

Franken said: "For the problem of machinery and equipment, I need to send a telegram to the head office to inquire about the price first. What about this batch of guns? For every 1000 rounds of ammunition, the price is 70 US dollars, which is equivalent to 125 Chinese silver dollars."

In 1919, an American foreign firm smuggled m1917 rifles to China, and the quotation was only about 1000 US dollars for every 45 rounds of ammunition, which was equivalent to about 81 Chinese silver dollars.Franken's quotation obviously took Li Mohan as a fool.

Li Mohan said very bluntly: "Mr. Kern, I have lived in the United States for many years and met many businessmen, but this is the first time that you treat customers like fools. Bye-bye." , Li Mohan turned his head and left.

Seeing that the business was about to blow up, Franken hurried forward to grab Li Mohan, but was stopped by Tie Luohan, and then several pistols pressed against his head and chest

Franken quickly apologized with a smile, and said to Li Mohan: "Okay, you can make a price."

Li Mohan waved his hand, signaled Tie Luohan and others to put away their guns, and said without looking back: "Each gun comes with 1000 rounds of ammunition, and the price is 15 dollars."

"God~" Franken shouted, "Isn't this robbery?"

Li Mohan turned around and said, "The war in Europe is coming to an end soon. At that time, all countries will have countless military surplus materials for sale. At that time, even if you are willing to sell it to me at this price, I will still consider it."

"Twenty-five dollars." Franken replied cautiously.

"20 dollars, this is my reserve price." Li Mohan's expression was very serious, with an unquestionable expression

"Deal~!" Franken readily agreed

After leaving the warehouse, Li Mohan and his party checked into a hotel in the International Settlement.Li Mohan didn't know that a large-scale riot was quietly brewing.

It is said that the Hongkou area of ​​Shanghai is an important settlement of Japanese expatriates in modern times. In 1914, the Public Concession Bureau of Industry began to hire Japanese policemen to participate in the management of public security and traffic affairs in the Hongkou area.Later, the Japanese Consulate in Shanghai requested to increase the number of daily arrests, and some Japanese overseas Chinese even advocated that all daily arrests be used in the Hongkou area.Once these propositions become a reality, they will not only affect the management of the Ministry of Industry in the International Settlement, but will also seriously infringe on the rights and interests of the Chinese, and of course they will be opposed by the Chinese.In this regard, the criminals among the Japanese overseas Chinese held grudges and often provoked troubles to retaliate against the Chinese.

A few days ago, there was an incident of Japanese sailors smashing and looting a Chinese watch shop on Wusong Road, and several Japanese sailors were arrested.The fight on Wusong Road this time was originally caused by the Japanese attacking the Chinese arresters and foreigners, but it was used by a few Japanese militarists with ulterior motives. participate.For a while, rumors spread in the Hongkou area, and Japanese overseas Chinese hated the Chinese even more.

Some Japanese overseas believed that the detention of the sailors would damage the dignity of Japan. They also heard that the Chinese arresters had attacked Japanese civilians with large weapons, and they were determined to find an opportunity to retaliate.That night, a large number of Japanese overseas Chinese gathered around the Murray watch store to demonstrate. Seeing that the shop assistants were about to close the store, some Japanese overseas Chinese cursed loudly, and some rushed forward and beat them with fists.The Chinese arrester, who was patrolling nearby, arrived upon hearing the sound, and caught two Japanese who attacked the shop assistant on the spot, and the other escaped under the cover of Japanese overseas Chinese.During the arrest, a Chinese arrester was bitten on the hand by the murderer.When the two Japanese thugs were escorted to the arresting room, a large group of Japanese overseas Chinese followed them aggressively and demanded that the arresters be released immediately.The two sides confronted each other in the arrest room, and the atmosphere was very tense.At this time, it happened that the Japanese consul ordered the Japanese consul to come to the arresting room to inquire about the matter, and the arresting room decided to hand over the two troublemakers to the Japanese arresting house.As soon as they arrived at the Japanese Consulate, the two were released on the spot.Later, as usual, the arresting house filed a lawsuit against the troublemaker at the Japanese Consulate Office, but just like the last time it sued the Japanese sailor, the Japanese side only asked briefly and then announced their withdrawal from the court, which was nothing.

On the evening of the 18th, hundreds of Japanese overseas Chinese gathered along Wusong Road in Hongkou, many armed with swords, sticks and other weapons, to demonstrate against the concession authorities and the Chinese.