The truth is like window paper that can be broken with a poke. Doro and the others immediately couldn't sit still. "Then what are you waiting for? Hurry up, hurry up... Go to Jinzhou to see Marshal Zuo immediately and ask him to send troops immediately!"
"No rush, no rush... just be patient!" Rong Quan pointed to Samuel Baker and others who were resting on the couch behind. "You have to let the patient rest for three days. You are so lucky. This snowy day Crossing the Tianshan Mountains, no one died, what a blessing from our ancestors!"
Rongquan slowly filled a glass of wine for everyone sitting there, "There's no need to rush. You just came here and don't know the details. There's really no need to rush this matter!"
"The expedition team needs to rest. Mr. Baker cannot travel without three days. Your horses also need to add some concentrated feed to build up their strength..."
"Although the Zhungeer Grassland is not a desert, traveling in winter is still very dangerous. At this moment, I have sent countless cavalry to inform the tribes on your way back..."
"Long live the Lord's angel, a distinguished guest from England is passing through, and the tribal elders must welcome him and provide protection no matter what!"
"Don't worry, once you get to Northern Xinjiang, you will be safe as long as you don't go any closer to the south. This is no longer five years ago!"
"But I have to be clear with you. Marshal Zuo has a bad temper. You have to be careful if you want to get close... But don't be impatient. Xinjiang has been in chaos for five years. Even if Agubo is a butcher, it's impossible Kill all the people..."
"I predict that if the imperial court can regain Xinjiang within ten years, that will be the limit...if we exceed this limit, let's stop dreaming about it!"
Ten years is a long time for a person, but it is very short for a dynasty!
Not to mention anything else, transporting supplies from the Central Plains to Jinzhou, which was later known as Lanzhou, would take a year!
There is no railway transportation, no canal support, and only the legs of humans and animals for supplies. The suffering involved is really unimaginable!
Waging a war to regain Xinjiang is actually very simple and does not take much time, but raising supplies and training troops are extremely time-consuming.
In ten years, only ten batches of supplies were transported to Xinjiang from the coastal areas of the Central Plains. The food could be raised locally, but the foreign guns, artillery and ammunition could be piled up entirely by manpower.
In Shanghai and other ports, there are mountains of Chinese and Western arms dealers. As long as Zuo Zongtang has money, he will sell you as many weapons as you want.
But how to transport it up? This is a *nuisance!
Why did Zuo Zongtang set up a Machinery Bureau in Lanzhou? In fact, it was a large assembly center that dismantled foreign weapons and shipped them up in parts.
It is true that the industrial level of the Qing Dynasty was backward, but no matter how backward it was, there must be carpenters and blacksmiths!
The Qing Dynasty couldn't make gun barrels and cannon barrels, and the rifling inside couldn't be cut, but couldn't they still make the wooden structure of the rifle? Chinese carpenters can’t even make a carpenter?
The blacksmith is purely hand-made, but there is no technical content in making the cannon's mount, right?
Zuo Zongtang was already racking his brains to transport weapons. Hu Xueyan, a red-top businessman in Jiangnan, raised money for him on the one hand and found technicians to study foreign weapons on the other.
All the parts, which the Qing Dynasty could not produce on its own, were purchased and sent to Lanzhou through the supply chain!
For all the rest that could be produced by oneself, the drawings were immediately bought and sent over, and a large number of craftsmen were sent to Lanzhou to make them themselves. It was this indigenous method that greatly improved the supply capacity of the Western Expedition army.
Rongquan had only heard a little bit about these things, and he didn't know the details, but Rongquan knew Agubai's truth very well.
Agubai may not look arrogant, but this guy is even weaker. The Lanzhou Machinery Bureau can still make some less complex parts, but Agubai's men can't even make these.
Since Agub has completely surrendered to Tsarist Russia, the British now regard him as an enemy and cannot get any weapons supplies from the caravan from the south of India.
All the weapons used by the entire Agub's army depend on Tsarist Russians!
Rongquan and General Mingxu captured countless Tsarist Russian caravans in the Ili area. The most important cargo of these caravans was to secretly transport arms and weapons to Agub.
After all, it is still the same old story, it is an economic problem. The Qing Dynasty was backward, but Aguba was even more backward. He was more dependent on arms and weapons.
Every year, he relies on a little arms donated by Tsarist Russia to maintain the fighting. Why has his expansion power reached its limit now and he can no longer fight?
The root cause is that the territory is too big, and his arms consumption cannot keep up with the expansion of scale!
At present, Aguba still relies more on primitive cold weapons to fight!
"Money! Right now, Marshal Zuo's biggest headache is money! In the fight to suppress the chaos in Xinjiang, in the final analysis, it's about who has more foreign guns and cannons, and who has more powerful supplies..."
“In the final analysis, it’s still a matter of competition over who has more money!”
Listening to General Rongquan's words, Duoluo and Guan Lu turned pale and said to themselves, "Hey, dear, we wasted 300,000 taels of Long Live Lord before!"
"How many foreign guns and shells will it take to make these guns and shells if the money is sent to Marshal Zuo? We are really wasting it, this is bad..."
Rongquan didn't know anything about spending money, and he was still chattering at the banquet, "The commander is poor! Before, because of the dispute between coastal defense and land defense, the commander was so angry that he said he would raise military expenses by himself, and then in exchange for the two palaces The Queen Mother’s nod…”
"The imperial court seems to have allocated a one-time allocation of 2 million to the Ministry of Household Affairs...that's all. The rest is all from provincial rates and loans from private individuals and foreign businessmen..."
"Oh God! To fight such a war, the country only gives 2 million taels?" Gordon and the resting Baker explorer both exclaimed.
The two of them looked at each other and did not dare to speak. Neither of them dared to mention how many gold francs Xiao Letian had taken away from Europe. If they said anything, General Rongquan would immediately vomit blood in anger.
Doluo and Guan Lu's faces turned red with shame. They had seen big scenes in Europe. How many warships could 2 million taels be enough to buy? Does Xinjiang, which is so big, want to take it back just because the court only needs 2 million taels?
After a banquet that lasted for two hours, the expedition team finally relieved their fatigue on the escape route. After Doro and Guan Lu soaked in the steaming wooden bathtub, their whole bodies let out painful screams. Wail.
The hot water forced the cold air out of the bones, and the muscles and bones of the whole person were softened.
The two bathtubs were placed side by side, and the charcoal pot in the room was burning brightly. They held towels on their heads and didn't speak for a long time.
"Lao Guan...guess what I remembered?"
"Bah...you must be thinking about the Fuso girls...the group of people who gave us baths...tsk, tsk, that open-air hot spring, those white buttocks and*..."
"Exotic...hehehehe..."
The two of them laughed obscenely for a long time, and suddenly their faces turned bitter. "What can we do? How can we complete Long Live Lord's mission without money?"
"It's really embarrassing for the imperial court to ask Master Zuo to pacify Xinjiang. You're so good that you paid enough!"
"Even if the court has no money, don't take two million taels to disgust people!"
"Raising money, we brothers have to raise money! Try our best to raise money for the commander-in-chief, otherwise how can we win over people for Long Live Lord?"
