War has appeared a long time ago, and it has great harm to the entire human race, and most of the battles on the battlefield in ancient times were the number of soldiers, and the requirements for individual combat effectiveness were relatively high.
Since modern times, more and more guns have appeared on the battlefield. At this time, the requirements for weapons for the victory of a war were relatively high, and in the late Qing Dynasty, there was no contact and communication with other countries, the quality of weapons dropped sharply, and it was impossible to resist in the face of harassment by foreign powers.
If at that time, the Qing Dynasty army had the world's top weapons, whether it could keep the Qing Dynasty and stand in an invincible position, Li Hongzhang went out to investigate, saw foreign fully automatic machine guns, and then asked a question, and the foreigners present were very shocked.
In the late Qing Dynasty, there were also many capable people, Li Hongzhang was one of them, he was originally a literati, took the imperial examination, entered the dprk as an official, but the results were not particularly excellent. After entering the court, he seized power with military merit.
Later, people also had a completely different evaluation of him, some people believed that he relied on war to gain benefits and expand his power, and some people said that he was a scholar of Hanlin Academy and became a robbery bandit.
During that period, China needed to sign many treaties with other countries that humiliated the country, most of which were signed by Li Hongzhang, and some people called him a traitor, but in fact, he was only trying to minimize the losses of the country in such a dark period.
I think that signing these treaties on behalf of the country during that period will inevitably leave a reputation in the history of Qingdao, which is estimated that many ministers in the DPRK have already thought of it, but Li Hongzhang still chose to participate in this negotiation and retain the dignity of the Qing Dynasty as much as possible at the negotiating table and preserve the country.
Li Hongzhang also believed that the backwardness of the country was related to the production technology at that time and the advanced weapons, at that time Zeng Guofan had a large-scale procurement of weapons, and later, Li Hongzhang took charge of the court, and also continued to attach importance to weapons, he also advocated the foreign affairs movement at home, and was also very interested in foreign advanced technology.
In 1884, Germany, as the most advanced weapons producing country at that time, produced a new machine gun, Li Hongzhang learned the news, came to this place on business, just happened to visit the machine gun production plant.
At that time, the owner of the factory also knew the identity of Li Hongzhang, and he also knew the current situation of the Qing Dynasty at that time, and in order to impress the other party, he specially prepared a performance, hoping to fully demonstrate the power of this machine gun.
At that time, he took Li Hongzhang to an empty field, in the center of the field there was a tree thicker than a person's waist, and not far away there was a table, the table was full of machine guns, when the boss took the machine gun and fired at the tree, and in half a minute, the tree with a thick waist was broken.
This performance made him very shocked, and he couldn't help but think that if this gun was used on the battlefield, it would greatly save the time for changing ammunition.
And the lethality is so strong, if the soldier has this weapon, it is not difficult to block ten on the battlefield.
The owner of the weapons factory was also very proud, seeing the shocked Qing Dynasty minister, he felt that this business should be stable, and even began to consider the next questioning price of the other party.
Bargaining involves asking questions like when the order will be delivered, only to have the other party ask a question that surprised him completely.
He asked the boss a question, how many rounds of bullets were fired when he knocked down the tree? This makes the boss wonder a little, as long as the weapon is useful, it can kill the enemy of the other side, who cares about how many bullets are fired.
After all, war itself is a costly thing, and if it is to save money, no war is the best.
However, in the face of this question, he could not help but answer, so he roughly counted it and told the other party that he had just fired a total of 300 bullets, and Li Hongzhang was silent after listening.
Finally, I replied that the bullets were used too much, and the Great Qing Dynasty could not afford to use them at all. He then left the factory without buying machine guns, much to the shock of the others present at the time.
For a long time, Western countries were very curious about China, thinking that the country was very rich and full of treasures, so they would come here with soldiers' guns and cannons to plunder, but at this time, a Manchu Qing minister said that the Qing Dynasty could not even afford a fully automatic machine gun, not even a bullet.
epilogue
Li Hongzhang's statement is not exaggerated, at that time, after years of backwardness and beating, the Qing Dynasty treasury was already very empty, and Empress Dowager Cixi had to keep her luxurious life, and the financial income collected every year in addition to the reparations was provided to the royal family, and the money that could really be used for war was very small.
In addition to the reparations, the rest of the revenue received was provided for the royal family, and the money that could really be used for war was very small.