There is nothing in the world to resist the spring sorrow, and it is a cry to the heavens. Forty million people burst into tears, where is the end of the world is Shenzhou -- Tan Sitong
If the ancient battlefield competition is the number of people, is the population base and economic strength of the two countries to compete, then the modern war competition is science and technology, when a country's weapons technology has a great advantage, after the outbreak of battle, there is almost no possibility of defeat.
In the face of the enemy's hot weapons, the warriors fell like straw pieces, in the face of this situation, the Qing government also made changes, in addition to the efforts to develop modern weapons, the biggest change is to buy, buy and buy! At that time, the Qing government bought almost all advanced weapons.
New weapons
In the late Qing Dynasty, it was the year with the greatest changes in the entire Central Plains, whether it was military technology or civilian technology, the entire Qing government was constantly refreshing the three views, although in the civilian aspect, with the inheritance of some ancient skills, the Qing government still had the strength of a war, then in the military aspect, the Qing government was defeated.
In fact, the Qing government did not have a clueless person, in the Qing army, muskets and cannons are still equipped, but these weapons, no matter from which direction, are no different from knives and guns, especially muskets, can not even advance to the range, in this situation, even the stubborn Cixi had to announce the start of the purchase of new weapons.
Although the Qing government has always been looked down upon by foreign powers, but no one will be inseparable from money, the Qing government has more money than everyone imagines, so when the Qing government announced the purchase of weapons from outside, various countries flocked to it, hoping to win this batch of orders at the best price.
Among the world powers at that time, each country was developing different weapons, the strongest of which was Britain, France, Germany and Austria-Hungary at that time, of which austria-Hungary had the largest order volume.
During yuan shikai's time, the Austro-Hungarian 1895 rifle was equipped with an entire army at one time, which made the Austro-Hungarian Empire make a lot of money, but before that, the Austro-Hungarian Empire had never received orders from the Qing government.
Varied
When Cixi allowed the Qing government to buy foreign arms, the countries were first ecstatic, and then fell into a deep headache, because the Qing government did not implement unified procurement, but was purchased by the heads of each army individually, which is the main reason why the equipment in the Qing army was uneven.
In that time period, the Qing army mainly purchased British and German weapons, and the British at that time had built their own system of never setting the sun, which not only increased Britain's military deterrence, but also made a qualitative leap in Britain's trade capabilities.
At that time, in order to win this batch of orders, the British not only mobilized a large number of equipment in a short period of time to the Qing army, but also gave a super low price.
However, the officials of the Qing army are not fools, they naturally know the truth of shopping around for many years, although they have also purchased a large number of British weapons, but for the German weapons, they have not given up, plus some generals who prefer French weapons, the weapons in the Qing army at that time, mainly in these three countries.
In this circle, the most bitter in the heart is the Austro-Hungarian Empire, whether from the quality or price point of view, the Austro-Hungarian Empire's weapons are very high-quality, cost-effective, but why the Austro-Hungarian Empire did not take this batch of orders, in fact, there is only one reason, that is, not familiar enough.
Although the Austro-Hungarian Empire was very powerful, but its radiation surface in Asia was small, and it had not dealt with the Qing government, so it naturally lost in this large procurement, but according to later archaeological findings, the Qing army preserved a lot of Austro-Hungarian weapons, which is why.
The dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire
The weapons of the Austro-Hungarian Empire had three large-scale transactions with the Qing government, the first transaction was the bald torpedo on which the Austro-Hungarian Empire was famous, which was the first real torpedo in the world at that time, and its power was very amazing, so the Qing government also made a large number of purchases.
However, it was later found that the preservation conditions of this torpedo were too harsh, and it was not long before it was abandoned by the Qing government, and then it was not purchased with the Austro-Hungarian Empire for a long time.
The second large-scale transaction can no longer be regarded as a transaction between the Qing government and the Austro-Hungarian Empire strictly speaking, but a transaction between Yuan Shikai and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which was in 1895, when Yuan Shikai, who was in charge of military training, realized that the disunity of weapons and equipment would not only affect daily training, but also many unexpected situations in wartime.
For example, in the course of the battle, his own firearm was accidentally damaged, and he was ready to use his companion's gun but found that he would not use it, and the ending would be very tragic, in order to change this situation, Yuan Shikai purchased a large number of 1895 rifles from the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Yuan Shikai chose this gun because this gun was very famous at that time, not only the structure is simple and easy to maintain, the overall weight is light, but also can reduce the burden of soldiers, it is also very easy to use, an ordinary soldier can ensure a certain stable shooting within three days, so it has won the favor of Yuan Shikai.
But then in the course of the battle, Yuan Shikai found that this gun was very easy to enter the sand, affecting the shooting of the gun, so he gradually replaced it with a Mauser rifle, but the 1895 rifle was still preserved in large quantities, and even in 1906 it could be seen on the battlefield.
As for the third transaction, it was not actually a direct transaction between the Qing government and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, when the Austro-Hungarian Empire had disintegrated, a large number of weapons were disposed of at a low price, and the Qing government saw this opportunity to make a large number of acquisitions of Austro-Hungarian weapons, the most typical of which were czech rifles and Zb26 light machine guns.
Although these two guns did not help the Qing government win the war, in some subsequent battles, these weapons helped a lot, in the early days of the War of Resistance, many troops were equipped with these weapons in large quantities, the combat effect was very good, and even during the civil war, the shadow of these two guns could be seen.
In fact, the weapons technology of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was at the forefront of the world at that time, whether it was light weapons or heavy weapons, it maintained a super high level, but for various reasons, the Qing government did not make a large number of transactions with the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but bought a lot of weapons that britain was ready to retire, which made the Qing government suffer a big loss in the battle.
In addition to conventional weapons, the Qing government also ordered a destroyer from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which was at the forefront of science and technology at that time, and its combat effectiveness was very fierce.
Unfortunately, after the completion of this destroyer, the Qing government has entered a financial crisis, and after many arguments, it finally had no choice but to give up, and could only watch this destroyer built for the Qing government enter the service of the Austro-Hungarian navy.
In the late Qing government, the paper strength of the Qing government was already quite resistant, and the disadvantage was not large, but with the gradual decline of the economy and internal corruption, these weapons did not produce the greatest combat effectiveness in the end, and some smart people sealed these weapons, waiting for the opportunity to immediately play their original role.