My Apprenticeship to Uncle Jiu: I Was a Warlord in the Republic of China

When William heard this, he immediately turned into an interpreter and began to translate for Charles respectfully.

After listening to William's translation, Charles spoke a long passage with disdain. Jiang Li naturally didn't understand it, so he turned to look at William.

William also translated directly, "Of course you can. The weapons of our British Empire are naturally the most advanced in the world. Even the weapons replaced from the colonies are more advanced and easier to use than the new guns produced by you Chinese."

Upon hearing this, Jiang Li of course agreed repeatedly. After all, they were just some free compliments, and it would not hurt to say more. What's more, what the other person said was not wrong. As for the current level of China's military industry, it is really hard to describe in a few words.

Led by several British soldiers, he also saw the weapons on the list. With Charles's consent, he picked up a rifle and conducted several shooting experiments.

Jiang Li was surprised to find that the performance of this gun was indeed good. This really made him curious as to why they wanted to eliminate such weapons, and why an entire brigade wanted to eliminate them on such a large scale.

"Is it like 'our Great Qing', with its own national conditions?"

But he would not ask this out loud. As long as he could buy weapons, he didn't care where they came from.

After looking at the guns and cannons, he found they were in good condition, with some wear and tear but that did not affect their usability. So, with the help of William's translation, he discussed the specific price with Charles.

After this guy quoted the price, William did not translate it directly, but looked at Charles with disbelief.

After that, the two of them discussed carefully for a while, and William frowned and told Jiang Li the price.

"Mr. Jiang, this is the latest equipment of an entire infantry brigade of the British Empire. Viscount Charles intends to sell it all at once, rather than selling it in batches. I wonder if you can accept it?"

Jiang Li had a bad feeling when he heard this, but he still pretended to be calm and said, "Don't worry, Mr. William, I can buy them all if the price is right!"

William stopped hiding the truth when he heard it. "Viscount Charles's offer for this batch of weapons is one million pounds!"

Jiang Li was immediately furious when he heard this, because he had learned about the value of currency from Han Yong.

Now the exchange rate between the pound and the dollar has reached one to five, which means that they plan to sell these second-hand weapons for five million dollars, or 8,800 kilograms of gold.

This was just treating him as a fool, so he refused righteously, "William, please tell Viscount Charles that it is impossible for me to spend so much money to buy these second-hand weapons."

"If he is not sincere, then I think there is no need to continue this deal!"

In fact, William was not very satisfied with the price, so he explained it carefully to Charles, and finally he decided to give in and sell it at a 30% discount.

But Jiang Li was still not satisfied with this. After another round of bargaining, he finally sold the deal to 2.2 million dollars and 1,800 kilograms of gold.

Fortunately, Jiang Li had seized a large amount of money before, otherwise he wouldn't even be able to afford the gun.

After negotiating with Charles, Jiang Li invited him to get off the boat and have dinner in town, but he refused.

Jiang Li considered that the man might be wary because he was not familiar with him, so he did not force him. He asked someone to transport the gold and oceans, and then went on board to count the arms and completed the transaction.

Afterwards, he moved the two production lines and various circuit transmission and receiving equipment brought by William off the ship, and also paid a large sum of gold and silver.

After the transaction was successfully completed, Charles took William away, and Charles never looked at Jiang Li directly from beginning to end.

Watching the ship leave, Jiang Li laughed and said, "So what if they are nobles? They are just afraid of being robbed by me, so they are running so fast!"

He put away his smile and stared at the back of the ship for a long time before he averted his gaze. It was no wonder that he was surprised by what he saw, because what was loaded on the ship was almost all of his fortune.

In addition to purchasing weapons and the things William brought, Jiang Li spent another 400,000 yuan and 200 kilograms of gold, which almost bankrupted him.

Fortunately, the harvest this time was pretty good, including weapons and equipment for an infantry brigade, two production lines, and several personnel who installed and maintained circuits donated by William, so it was not a loss at all.

Han Yong just saw that Jiang Li had people moving things onto the ship box by box. Judging from the amount of things, it was probably money.

He was afraid that the goods would be a burden on his hands, so he came up to ask, "County Magistrate Jiang, when do you think the cars and gasoline I brought will be loaded and unloaded?"

Jiang Li knew exactly what he was planning, so he just glanced at him and said, "Alright, alright, I know what you are planning, let's do the deal now, you won't lose that little bit of money!"

"County Magistrate Jiang is so straightforward. I have added two ships this time, transporting a total of six trucks, thirty motorcycles, and five thousand liters of gasoline. You can check them at any time!"

Upon hearing this, Jiang Li asked someone to go on board to take an inventory. After confirming that the quantity was correct, he settled the payment with him. This time he spent another 60,000 yuan, which made him feel very distressed.

After the transaction was completed, Jiang Li and Han Yong went to Renjia Town for a meal, and then returned to Tengteng County.

After returning to the county, Jiang Li immediately ordered people to start building a cannery and an arsenal. Yes, they had to rebuild them instead of merging them with Wuzhu Mountain.

Firstly, this rifle production line is more advanced and requires more energy, and most importantly, it requires electricity.

This demand could definitely not be met by the electricity generated by the small dam in Wuzhu Mountain, so he could only build the arsenal two miles away from the dam to facilitate future coal supply and electricity transmission.

As for the canning factory, it is also nearby, also for the same reason of coal and electricity.

Although William said that the canning plant does not need electricity, basic lighting is still needed. With electric lights, it is possible to work in two shifts without stopping the machines.

So for the next period of time, Jiang Li's figure once again shuttled between various construction sites. Fortunately, the main body of the dam has been basically completed, and only the topmost roads, observation points, and lines have not yet been arranged.

Because of this, a large number of manpower can be allocated here to build the factory.

As for the weapons and equipment of that brigade, he currently does not have enough personnel to use them. He can only wait for a month until the next batch of 1,200 recruits complete their training before he can equip an infantry battalion.

As for why the original veterans were not mobilized, it was naturally because British weapons were different from other weapons. Those veterans were accustomed to using domestic weapons and would not be very familiar with using them. They still had to practice with the new recruits.

Moreover, after personnel are transferred from various places, they have to get familiar with each other. After all this is done, the combat effectiveness of the garrisons in various places will definitely be weakened. This is totally not cost-effective.

Besides, he had no combat needs recently and was not in urgent need of obtaining a troop equipped with British weapons.