Chapter 775: Qi State's arms exports

"The harder we fight, if we can annihilate this Qin army, then the state of Qin will not dare to do anything against us." Tian Heng said confidently. The other generals were stunned. They couldn't figure out whether this young man was crazy. If the State of Qin did not annihilate a single unit, he would definitely take revenge. At that time, the State of Qi would most likely face a direct attack from the powerful forces of the Qin Army.

But Tian Heng believes that such a situation cannot happen. Qin Guoguo suffered from this dumb loss. The people of Qin will not use all the country's military power to attack Qin because of the loss of hundreds of people. Regardless of Tian Heng's perspective, it is indeed impossible for Qin State to send troops to participate in it prematurely. The reason is that Qin State's national interests are not enough to take huge risks and invest in a war that cannot be profitable.

Tian Heng's consideration may be the case, but Qin can use his huge economic advantage to manipulate other countries to participate in it. For example, Zhao Guo.

Just when the front line turned their attention to how to deal with the Qin army, new changes took place in Qi. This change comes from diplomacy. It can also be said to be arms foreign trade.

With the large-scale replacement of equipment by the Qi army, especially the musket equipment. Qi Jun's arms trade demand continued to be strong. But the price of arms is extremely high, especially Qin State monopolizes the entire arms production. This undoubtedly stuck his neck for Qi Jun. To this end, Qi's military production department began to develop its own muskets.

However, Qin State produced valve rifles and more advanced rifles. Qi's military production started from imitation. The first rifle produced by Qi State was the old-fashioned flintlock.

Qi can import black powder from Chu on a large scale. So, for them. Black powder is not very scarce. On the contrary, for the bullet shells, Qi State cannot mass produce them because of the lack of complete military production equipment. They can only rely on manual secondary reloading of discarded bullet shells. This kind of bullet often misfires when shooting. Therefore, soldiers are unwilling to accept this ammunition. For this, Qi can only do this.

However, on the other side, Qi Guo has done very well. That is, they successfully imitated the flintlock produced by Qin. This gun is simple to manufacture and does not require high bullets. Therefore, Qi State carried out a large-scale imitation of it. As for the material of the gun. Most of the steel exports from the Qin State, especially steel pipe exports. But Qi Guo also produces gun barrels himself. But its craftsmanship cannot be compared with that produced by Qin State.

Moreover, Qi Guo's production is entirely handmade. Usually, it takes three working days for a skilled craftsman to complete the production of a barrel, and the barrel has very poor heat resistance.

However, for a flintlock rifle with a low firing rate, it is very sufficient. But with the production of flintlock guns on the right track, a new problem posed in front of Qi's military industry.

The problem is that what the Qi army needs is a rifle that can be fired continuously. What Qi can provide is a flintlock rifle that is one grade lower than its large-scale equipped trapdoor rifle. This high demand and low configuration caused a large number of flintlock guns to be scrapped. Although it is a waste product, it is a weapon after all, and it was manufactured using a lot of resources and money. It is obviously not Qi Guo's initial idea to treat it as scrap iron.

So Qi's military manufacturers began to vigorously promote their products, Qi-style flintlocks. But when they peddled their products on the market, they discovered that the share of trapdoor rifles was far greater than they thought. Even the flintlock of the same level. The flintlock gun produced by Qin Guo Machinery has strong parts and durability. Easy to replace. In particular, some rifles of the flintlock have good versatility. Since the Qi-style flintlock has just been released, it can't compete with Qin's military factory.

But there are still some things that Qi people are happy about. That is, the merchants of Chu State ordered a batch of 500 flintlocks. This order is of great significance to Chinese people. The Chu merchants who ordered are in their own consideration.

These Chu merchants were mainly engaged in the slave trade. To start the slave trade, ships must be built first, but building a ship is expensive. Even a few businessmen unite. It can only be almost finished. Then there are a lot of manpower and other expenses. These are extremely expensive. Especially weapons costs. Qin's trap rifles are expensive. Although they are not very expensive when they are exported from Qin, these weapons will be robbed by the country's water robbers when sailing through the Yangtze River. Therefore, it is difficult for such armaments to reach the merchants' hands. Even if it is purchased from Qin State and Korean merchants, the price is extremely high. Even if they buy, they can only buy a few rifles. These rifles are undoubtedly not enough for Chu merchants.

At this time, the Qi-style rifle produced by Qi itself has a new demand target. This is the demand for the slave trade launched by Chu merchants. Although they don't trust this product very much, for now, this is their only choice.

In this way, Qi Guosui's flintlock was sold to Chu slave traders. The matter is not over yet. The demand of Chu merchants was only a small amount compared to the quantity produced in Qi, and the number of Chu merchants who started the slave trade was not very large. The largest number of them is just over 300. The youngest has fifty people. Therefore, the demand for muskets is not enough to constitute a huge commercial market.

In this way, the Qi State becomes a huge loss. But the turning point is often when disappointed.

The mission from North Korea gave Qi a huge turn in arms production. North Korea, an alliance country, is suffering from the frenzied invasion of Qin and Yan militants, and their scope of activities is getting closer and closer to the Korean peninsula. Especially their demand for slaves.

Being deliberately avoided by the Huns, the mountain people migrated to the depths of the virgin forest. The number of slaves acquired in the northern part of the Qin Kingdom is decreasing. in contrast. The Confederate States of Korea, which are in a settled state, are becoming more and more attractive to them. As a result, the militants began to re-target the North Korean side.

As a result, the North Korean state urgently needs a weapon that can withstand the attacks of these militants. Especially the kind of weapons that can breathe fire. In Qi, they finally came into contact with the weapon they wanted.

For trap rifles, that kind of weapon is already very advanced. But they are not familiar with flintlocks at all, because it was this flintlock that shot them first. For flintlocks, they remember too deeply.

And they can still accept the price of flintlock. Under normal circumstances, three flintlocks, plus 100 rounds of ammunition can be exchanged for a valve rifle, and the ammunition of the valve rifle needs to be counted separately.

After the North Korean mission saw the flintlock. They immediately made a purchase request. And the number is very large. They opened their mouths and asked for five thousand. The demand for bullets even reached 300,000 rounds. They exchanged all the gold they said they were carrying for their flintlock guns. Not only that, they also brought out some rare specialty products used to open up joints, ginseng unique to Changbai Mountain, as well as some furs, pearls and so on.

These things were exchanged for flintlocks immediately. This incident happened very unexpectedly, and it was only spread as an anecdote in Qi, and it was passed to King Qi's ears without knowing how. Maybe it was because of curiosity, or maybe it was the reason why staying in the Qi Palace was too bored. In short, after King Qi got the news, he unexpectedly summoned Hou Sheng to discuss national affairs.

"Who heard about this, and felt that this matter is very good for Qiguo." Qi Wang said excitedly.

"Widow’s army is equipped with Qin’s rifles, and the rifles produced by ourselves can’t be equipped with our own army. The range is not as good as Qin’s. In other words, the things produced by the widows are waste products. However, the widows now think about it. It's OK." King Qi said as he walked back and forth. Then Shengzhizhi followed Qi Wang back and forth.

"The rifles produced by the widows are sold to those in whatever direction. In short, the widows are sold to them. And they are sold to them in large quantities. In this way, the widows have a source of war expenses against the country of Yan. And I heard Say, those things are close to Yan State, Liaoxi, Liaodong, that's good. Then let those who fight with them, so that the widows get more reinforcements. You say, how good this is." King Qi Obviously feel very clever for his clever actions.

"I, Wang Yingming." Hou Sheng can only say so for such a decision.

"You see, the widow himself feels that the widow thinks differently." Qi Wang was happy to smile. However, after winning, I felt a little regretful. I didn't think about such a thing that could make money and gain fame.

At the beginning, the ministers of Qi State kept their opposition. What do you say, I am a Central Plains country, and I can't mix with those barbarians, now. You take a look. Not only did he not make any money, but, oh, think about it, the future victory felt a mess.

Wait until the king of Qi is happy. After the victory took the opportunity to leave, he had to do two things. The first was to find the ministers to settle the accounts. The second is to find a way to contact that country and to see if they need it. After winning, I think we should continue to earn, and it is best to ask for as much as possible. Just give gold, give valuable things. Anyway.

In this way, when the king of Qi was greedy for some small profits, Qi sold the useless flintlock guns he produced to North Korea. And these weapons will then cause new problems. In this regard, Qi's ministers have more long-term insights, but Qi's high-level officials do not know this at all.