Travel through the Qing Dynasty and become emperor

Chapter 111 Trends in Southeast Asia
Guan Xuqing walked to a soldier standing guard, and picked up his rifle with great interest.Although the industrial strength of the Qing Dynasty has developed considerably in recent years compared to history, the domestic arms production capacity is still very limited, especially the restrictions caused by the production of steel. Because of the explosive development of the Industrial Revolution, places that need steel There are so many that the steel required for the military industry has been very tight.Therefore, in terms of firearms, the main priority is to change the army. However, as the flagship of the Beiyang Fleet, "Zhenyuan" was the flagship of the Beiyang Fleet. This time, Guan Xuqing visited the German ship. A batch of the latest Hanyang Type I rifles, this kind of rifles developed by the Hubei Gun Factory, is the most famous rifle in the modern history of China.

这型步枪是中国自行设计制造的第一种后膛装无烟火药连发步枪。主要生产者为位于武汉汉阳之汉阳兵工厂，因此一般称之为汉阳造。抗战时其步枪厂於1938年交与21厂，因此从1939年至1944年生产的汉阳造在枪匣上印有字厂徽及汉式字样。一直到1944年21厂改造中正式步枪，这种步枪在中国前后生产了将近50年。

In this time and space, due to the butterfly effect set off by Guan Xuqing, Zhang Zhidong became the governor of Huguang a few years earlier, and with the development of domestic industry and commerce and the imperial court's strong support for modern arsenals, the original Hubei Gun Factory developed abnormally. Quickly, the Hanyang Type [-] rifle was developed a few years earlier than in history.Here I have to talk about Zhang Zhidong's credit.

In the 12th year of Guangxu (1886), the war between China, Britain and Burma was in full swing.Zhang Zhidong saw that the guns made by various domestic manufacturing bureaus were old-fashioned, and it was not suitable to imitate British Nanxia guns. At that time, the big powers were afraid of offending Britain.There are great restrictions on exporting weapons to China.After Zhang Zhidong carefully studied and asked Chinese and foreign craftsmen.It is "ordered to focus on imitation of the Manlicher and the new Mauser." Manlicher refers to the M1888 Steyr Manlicher rifle of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This type of gun is an important rifle in the history of Austrian light weapons.Its main advantage is that the overall structure is simple, light in weight, reliable in action, easy to use, and capable of firing a variety of bullets.certainly.Many problems have been found during use, and there are two main problems: one is that it is difficult to extract the shell; the other is that the bolt is easy to move by itself.This is because the "wedge latch body" locking mechanism is a point locking mechanism, and when the chamber pressure is high, it is prone to incomplete locking.However, at the time, the overall performance of this rifle was top-notch.

The new Mauser Zhang Zhidong referred to the Mauser 1884 rifle at the time, but it was changed to the Mauser 1888 rifle during the development process.This type of rifle and the Mauser 1884 rifle are also improved on the basis of the Mauser 1871 rifle.It was not developed by Mauser, but by the German Military Council.Therefore, it is also known as the "Committee Rifle". This caliber is 7.92 mm.A rifle that fires smokeless gunpowder bullets, has a single row of vertical box magazines, and has a capacity of 5 rounds. It is the first modern rifle in the true sense.Because there is a sleeve outside the barrel, it is commonly known as the "old sleeve". In history, China has imitated a large number of this gun. Together with the Hanyang-made and Zhongguan rifles, it is also known as the three most famous guns in modern China.

The above two guns have been produced in large quantities and have been replaced by various rifles such as Mauser, Li Yi, Manlicha, Sharp, Martini, and Three Years equipped by the armies of the Qing Dynasty.

At this time, the fog on the sea is gradually dissipating with the rising sun in the east. Seabirds flapping their wings can be seen flying lightly everywhere on the calm sea, but most of them are fishing boats going out to sea in the early morning.Since only a few rivers such as the Nanliu River and the Red River flow into it, there are not many rivers along the coast, and less sediment is brought into the bay.The difference between winter and summer surface water temperature is less than 10°C.Therefore, Beibu Gulf is home to a large number of warm-water species, and it is an excellent fishing ground for catching scarlet carp, red snapper, golden thread fish, and blue round fish.

After the warship sailed through the Beibu Gulf, it arrived at Siam (Thailand), which was occupied by Germany, in exchange for Germany's support during the Sino-French war.China unilaterally sold suzerainty to Germany, causing Germany to invade Thailand.Therefore, the relationship between Thailand and the Qing Dynasty is very sinister.

In fact, at that time, Thailand and China were not the suzerain-vassal relationship as understood by Europeans, but belonged to the loose tributary relationship in ancient China, but because China often gave more rewards every time it paid tribute, so the neighboring small countries Happy to maintain this relationship.But does it all matter?The Germans just need a face that neither offends the British.It can also be an excuse to intervene in the Indochina Peninsula. As for the relationship between China and Thailand, will anyone really study it carefully?Perhaps only angry Thais would want to justify this.

In short, Thailand's hostility to the Qing Dynasty is beyond doubt.But now Guan Xuqing can't deal with Thailand. Firstly, various reforms in the country are in the ascendant, and a peaceful and stable development environment is needed;The two sides are about to have another battle of national destiny according to the historical track, before solving it.It is inappropriate to establish new enemies in the south; thirdly, Germany is deeply trapped in the tropical rainforest of the Indochina Peninsula, which is beneficial and harmless to China. In the Far East, Germany can only rely on China. China's support, while India and Malay have always been regarded as the key points by the British, and Germany is fighting lively under their noses, which will definitely distract the British from China.Therefore, not only could Guan Xuqing not take advantage of the fire to rob, but he wanted to help Thailand secretly. The reason why Thailand was able to continuously obtain arms under the strict blockade of the Germans was due to Guan Xuqing's secret arrangements. Those who were eliminated by the new army The old foreign guns that came down came in handy at this time.Although the money you get is not a lot, it's better than throwing it in the warehouse to rust away!
The thing about politics is that sometimes you have to help your enemies.So in the short term, we can only let our ally Germany suffer in Thailand first.After Guan Xuqing solved Xiao, he would teach the mad dog Thailand a good lesson in the future. The British minions such as Malaysia and Singapore were also pulled out together, completely daring Britain out of the Far East.In this case, the entire Southeast Asia will be under the control of the Qing Dynasty.

But the biggest obstacle now is that in terms of the navy, not only are there four large battleships "Yamato", "Musashi", "Katsuragi" and "Kyushu" that exceed 113 tons, they are about to be incorporated into the sequence, and they have also purchased the "Yoshino" from the United Kingdom. Fast armored cruiser, this armored cruiser is 23mm thick, and can easily run out of [-] knots. It combines the strengths of the dome cruiser and the iron armored cruiser. It is the world's fastest ship at this time. In history, it used to be It is the nightmare of the Beiyang Navy.In addition, there are three protective dome cruisers, Matsushima, Itsukushima, and Hashidate, which were built with the help of France, as well as the self-built Akitsusu, Yaeyama, and Takao.

Each of the "Sanjing Ships" is equipped with a 320mm cannon, which theoretically can easily penetrate the indestructible iron-clad fortress of the "Dingyuan"-class iron-clad ships.Although the giant cannons equipped by the "Sanjing Ship" in history died down after only a few shots due to the small shooting range and mechanical failures, they were not useful at all, but they still have the "fixed sinking" effect in theory. The possibility of "far away", history has changed, and only God knows what will happen when the Sino-Japanese war comes.

The total tonnage of the navy has reached China in recent years.Due to the butterfly effect brought about by Guan Xuqing, Britain and France, which had been neutral before the Sino-Japanese War, fell in advance.It also makes his strength much stronger than in history. The British have never been used to fighting the enemy in person, but buying lackeys and killing people with knives is definitely his strong point.In this era, their population is the sum of Germany and France, and they have the most tenacious and outstanding soldiers trained by the spirit of Bushido. What they lack is money and weapons.They almost used up the last copper plate left in their national pockets to develop their military power crazily.

But now that all these have been resolved, the UK and one contribute money and guns, and the other contribute people and efforts. In order to deal with China in East Asia, the two hit it off.

For nearly 2000 years, it has been struggling under the heavy pressure of the old empire. After the Meiji Restoration, it was the first step to awaken, the domestic talents gathered, and tens of millions of citizens worked together to create the great cause of the empire that will last forever.At this time, the old empire seemed to be awakening.This ancient and huge giant, when he opened his eyes, seemed to just shake his body, making the two top three powers in the world ashamed. How could this prevent many citizens who had been keeping their eyes on this ancient country Terrified and frustrated.Even the Japanese Army Headquarters, which has always been aggressively carrying out the great cause of "conquest of Korea", lost its voice for a while.

Even so, nearly a hundred outstanding secret agents of the "Chrysanthemum" agency have entered the southeast coast of the Qing Dynasty, Vietnam, Vietnam, Tianjin and other places to collect intelligence.In this regard, the Qing Dynasty is obviously lagging behind.But fortunately, he was studying in Germany, and the originator of the secret agent that Guan Xuqing kissed was about to return to China.At that time, there will inevitably be an intelligence war between the two countries, a war between secret agents.Think about it, the secret agents of the vast territory of the Qing Dynasty would not be able to cover all of them, and the elites of the Qing Dynasty would surely be able to grasp every move more clearly than the spy satellites of later generations.

(End of this chapter)