Great Entrepreneur of the Universe

Chapter 231: Honoring the ancestors, showing relatives and making famous

November 11, Thanksgiving Day.

Wang Shouliang stood on the high ground of the fort and looked down at Tung Chung Fort on Lantau Island. He saw hundreds of figures of varying heights, fat and thin, most of whom were dark and strong, with black and yellow teeth showing when they smiled.

After he took a small bowl of rice wine from Li Chujiu behind him, he exhaled and said, "Brothers, the road is at your feet. The escort agency will pick up escorts for the first time in half a month."

"Yalun Ghost has placed an order for 10,000 tons of armor steel from the Japanese devils. Don't tell me I won't give you a chance on this trip."

"Whether it is an assassin or a junior escort who drives a torpedo boat and sinks a cruiser, each survivor will immediately receive a bonus of 10 taels of silver and be promoted to a five-star escort leader."

"From now on, the monthly salary will be 300 Heishige Yingyang. Everyone knows the benefits and benefits. At least he will be the captain of a cruiser. He will have a big house and marry several wives, so that he can honor his ancestors!"

As Wang Shouliang's words slowly spread throughout the audience, hundreds of waiters and junior bodyguards all raised their bowls crazily, paying homage to Shopkeeper Wang from a distance, and shouted in unison, "Guangzong Yaozu!!"

Isn't it just risking your life? Are you desperate?

You risk your life once, come back alive, sink a cruiser, 10 snowflakes of silver, not to mention the monthly salary of 300 yingyang, which is about 220 taels of silver per month, drive a big ship, be the captain, and have amazing benefits. .

There is nothing more inspiring than this kind of promotion and salary increase for barefooted, humble people living in troubled times.

These hundreds of people are the torpedo boat sailors who took the escort job from the Sihai Escort Bureau in December and stood up and planned to become death soldiers.

Wang Shouliang's current strength on the surface is about 2100 people, but if he shouts, there will be five to six hundred executioners and junior bodyguards willing to rush to be the dead soldiers.

There is no way, shopkeeper Wang gave too much!

For young men who were working as little pirates in small groups a few months ago, or who had no support in life and were living on a diet of chaff and water, it was so exciting to be able to become a master after one fight.

In September, more than two months ago, the Luo San Artillery Department went to sea once, and at least one person lost 9 taels of silver.

Make a fortune!

With such a precedent, we are not afraid that Shopkeeper Wang will break his promise and get rich.

These people had at least boarded the Sihai and Nanhai ships and trained as sailors for more than a month, including taking turns operating torpedo boats.

Otherwise, if Wang Shouliang raised his arms in eastern and western Guangdong and offered such conditions, more than a few hundred dead soldiers would be killed? ? You can take your pick from tens of thousands of young men.

In troubled times, human life is humble, and those who are humble cannot be lower than others.

After Wang Shouliang drank a bowl of rice wine and hundreds of people below him drank together, he asked Li Chujiu to pour wine again and raised the bowl. The wine pourer below also ran to pour wine for the crowd.

Wang Shouliang's voice continued to flow, "If unfortunately you die in battle, I guarantee that each person will receive a pension of 1000 taels of silver, which will be distributed to your designated relatives and friends."

"And based on the merit points, you can designate a relative or friend to take your place. If you sink a cruiser and die in battle, your relative or friend will inherit the position of senior escort and be rewarded with a big house with three bedrooms and one living room."

"A cruiser was seriously injured and killed in battle. Relatives and friends took over the position of intermediate bodyguard."

"Glorify the ancestors, show relatives and make a name for yourself!"

"The worst is to appoint a relative or friend to take over the position of junior bodyguard and be rewarded with a one-bedroom and one-living house."

Along with these generous reward measures, the already enthusiastic dead soldiers all blushed and started shouting about honoring their ancestors and showing their relatives and fame.

Before World War I, torpedo boats generally had a full complement of three to five people. The group of dead soldiers below could already operate hundreds of torpedo boats.

Because it is a small boat like a torpedo boat, in just one or two days, Joseph's people have already sent more than 30 boats to match the previous boats from the Sihai and Nanhai.

Starting from today, it is necessary to conduct full training and rehearse various torpedo boat swarm attacks. After all, the Asahi, which is heading towards the island country, as well as the accompanying cruisers, large merchant ships, etc., will pass nearby in more than ten days.

They do not pass directly through the waters of Hong Kong Island, but mainly take the bend over there and the Ryukyu route.

On the third bowl of rice wine, Wang Shouliang gave the many dead soldiers another shot of chicken blood before throwing the bowl and shouting, "Go to sea!!"

Hundreds of pirates and good men, who had been trained for one, two or three months, also threw bowls together and roared out to sea.

When Wang Shouliang walked down from the high platform, Luo Sanpao came over and said, "Big shopkeeper, are those 10,000 tons of armor steel used by the Japanese for fishing purposely?"

"After all, even if the British ghosts took the blame for the 500 tons of rubber last time and passed it on to the rebels and pirates who betrayed the Ying Lun Army, the ghosts are not stupid."

"Did you fish us out on purpose to cripple us? Clear the sea?"

Wang Shouliang smiled and waved his hands, "They should have this idea, but as long as it is not one Asahi that mutates into three or four Fuji and Shikishima-class fleets, a cluster of more than a hundred torpedo boats can beat them to death."

The Japanese must have the intention of fishing for counterattack. The Yalun ghost guy wanted to clear the inventory and make money at the same time, and at the same time instigated Wang Shouliang's Sihai Escort Agency and the Japanese to bleed each other.

Everyone is not a good person.

Wang Shouliang? Of course he is practicing his iron-blooded water power. No matter how much money he spends on it, if there is no blood, no training and actual combat, it will be just an empty show.

Just like Beiyang... How much money did you spend traveling by land and water? It's quite a lot, but without brutal battles and training, without cleaning up and rectifying the rotten system, it will all be in vain, and the second-rate elite cannot be counted.

What Wang Shouliang can do is to ensure that what he says comes true one by one while spending a lot of money.

The bounty and pension system he came up with was really beyond the standards of any major power in this era, let alone the Qing Dynasty.

In terms of Beiyang pension, if a military-level general is killed in battle, it is only 1500 yuan, and if a second-class soldier is killed in battle, it is only a few dozen yuan. There is no guarantee that real money will be paid consistently.

These dead soldiers are given a starting pension of 1000 taels of silver, including at least nominating a relative or friend to take over the junior escort position, which is also a monthly salary of 10 black Mexican eagles, the level of squad leader, and a one-bedroom apartment in a tenement house. .

If the designated person really cannot go to the battlefield and cannot become a good soldier, he can still sell these resources and positions.

Sihai Escort Bureau will help you control the situation and ensure fair transactions.

Such conditions would be unscientific if they could not inspire the soldiers at the bottom, whose lives are worthless in troubled times, to work with their lives! !

Next, after watching the training for a while, there were still British ghost soldiers helping to lead the team, and they learned to further practice the escort operations of the torpedo boat tactical group. At two o'clock in the afternoon, Wang Shouliang boarded the ship bound for Kowloon.

In the Battle of Tsushima a few years later, with the help of great luck, the island countrymen lost only three torpedo boats and 117 people were killed, and they defeated the Big Bear. The results included sinking 21 Big Bear warships and capturing seven of them.

This outrageous record was caused by the Japanese sending 9 torpedo boats to attack the port.

The entire island country's 30 torpedo boat fleets contributed vigorously throughout the battle.

An opening fight shocked the world and shocked Europe and the United States.

Wang Shouliang didn't believe how bad his charging group of hundreds of torpedo boats would be. As long as Joseph didn't fool him, there would only be one Asahi and some cruisers with a displacement of two to three thousand tons?

His four ships, Sihai, Nanhai, Beihai, and Donghai, plus several cruisers and torpedo boat groups, will definitely sweep the Japanese fleet.

The only weak ones on his side are all the pirates and good men, whose training time is too short. If Joseph fooled him...

Then don't blame Wang Shouliang for not respecting martial ethics and playing dimensionality reduction strikes. At worst, after the war starts, he will pull out some missiles from the portable space.

Of course, he couldn't trust Joseph 100% based on what he just said. That would be foolish. He also needed to launch a silver bullet offensive and find out more information.

He was trying to practice being an escort under the escort agency and becoming an elite escort team, but he was not going to die.

………………

On November 11, Wang Shouliang woke up in his spacious Yau Ma Tei villa and was about to ride his bicycle to inspect the construction speed of above-ground and underground reservoirs and water storage ponds in various districts of Kowloon.

When the bicycle arrived at a residential street full of five-story tenement buildings, I saw a beautiful girl with a side ponytail and a cheongsam, with a sweet voice and a beautiful voice walking towards her. "Sir, are you selling flowers? I will definitely bring you a flower for 10 yuan to save the country." Come for good luck.”

Wang Shouliang couldn't help but took out a money bag from his pocket and said, "Here you go, I wish you good luck."

The pretty girl smiled and took out a flower, stretched out her hand and said with a smile, "I am Bai Yinghong. Thank you so much, Shopkeeper Wang, for donating 15000 Heixige Yingyang to us last time. This has been of great help to our progress."

The last time he gave Shanshan 150 Yingyang was already on June 6, less than half a year ago. It is not surprising that progressive groups like Bai Yinghong could find out his identity.

Wang Shouliang shook hands with the other party and said with a smile, "You're welcome. We are all a family and we should help each other."

"My abilities are limited and I can only do my best."

Bai Yinghong was suddenly silenced by the words "limited ability". For a moment, other than a sweet smile, she didn't know how to answer the question.

After all, according to the information obtained, Wang Shouliang not only made a series of big moves in Shaoguan, Yangcheng, and Foshan, but also his three thousand Blue Jackets in Kowloon...

It was said that it was in the name of special police, and the public really thought that it was an establishment supported by ghost guys, but that was the General Administration of the Sihai Escort Bureau.

This is a man who has built up the power of a town in Beiyang in just over half a year.

wealth? A Zhujiang instant noodle factory currently has monthly sales of more than 20 yuan, is that okay?

As for Bai Yinghong, a progressive activist’s foundation in Hong Kong Island and eastern Guangdong? They planned several uprisings, but none of them were very successful. In order to raise funds, they even contacted people with the Third Ring Road of the town and planned to steal the precious jewelry of the boss of the security department.

Of course, the original trajectory was to steal jewelry to make money, but now that I have an income of 15000 yuan, I no longer need it.

Ten thousand yingyang can buy 200 Li's long rifles.

This thing is nothing in Europe and the United States. If you put it in eastern Guangdong, 200 guns and tens of thousands of rounds of ammunition are already capable of doing big things.

The next moment, Bai Yinghong smiled sweetly and said, "Master Wang, would you be honored to invite you to lunch?"

Wang Shouliang thought for a few seconds and said, "Okay, today's schedule is not too busy."

After making an appointment with the place and time for lunch, he set off on his bicycle. After much thinking, he realized that what the other party wanted was nothing more than something related to seamless steel pipes.

Everyone walks a different path, but a little help is not a problem.

………………

December 1901, 12, heavy snowfall.

On a certain fort on Ludao Island, two bored soldiers of the late Qing Dynasty were lying on the fort basking in the sun, and a whistle sounded from a distance.

A certain soldier suddenly stood up and looked in the direction of the sound. Soon, he seemed to be stupid, staring blankly at the end of the sea in the distance...

A huge, majestic armored fleet is quickly emerging.

When the sight became clearer and clearer, a certain top soldier trembled, blew his whistle, and kicked his colleague anxiously, "Something has happened, something serious has happened. Report it to the supervisor quickly, and let's figure out how to surrender."

They are the Fujian Navy, the only few remaining large-scale soldiers. They were once China's first modern fleet, more majestic than Beiyang, and they were the Fujian Navy captured by Mr. Zuo himself.

But after the Qing-France War, only two unprotected wooden warships, Fujing and Fu'an, were left in the entire navy. Looking at the huge fleet coming from afar...

What to block? ?

Another leading soldier also looked ahead stupidly, not being kicked away. Looking at the fleet that was getting closer and closer, he suddenly rubbed his eyes and asked suspiciously, "What kind of flags are those big ships flying?" ?Which country’s big ship?”

This does not look like the European and American fleets, nor does it look like the plaster flag of the island country.

Until more and more Fujian naval forces in the Ludao garrison were alerted, including some officials in official uniforms, who went to various highlands to look at the situation, and some people looked at it with monocular binoculars.

The more everyone looked, the more confused they became.

When someone recognized it, the red star-and-moon flags on a black background fluttered in the sea breeze on the big ships, the Sihai Escort Bureau, and the four largest ships with a displacement of more than 7000 tons, the Chinese characters Sihai, Nanhai, Donghai, Beihai number and other words.

All the members were stunned and dumbfounded.

The Fujian Navy was once the third largest navy in the late Qing Dynasty, but as early as the 19s and 60s, it barely had an annual budget of taels of silver. This was the case for the entire Navy in a year, and there was not even a single ironclad ship. .

At this moment, he looked at four large ships, seven or eight fast cruisers with a displacement of three to four thousand tons, and several 10,000-ton cargo ships.

Such a fleet... No, you said this is the escort fleet going to sea? ?

There are so many cruisers and cargo ships because there are so many hundreds of torpedo boats that they can only be transported by ship.

When several torpedo boats carrying a group of sailors and junior bodyguards came to defend the Ludao area, all the Fujian naval forces were paralyzed. In the end, a supervisor had to bravely greet them.

The torpedo boats were not big, and what floated behind them on the sea was a terrifying deterrent that was much larger than the peak Beiyang.

This is so outrageous, where did this escort agency come from? Is it really the escort agency they remembered?

However, there are also some smart people who remembered something. For example, some pirate teams that often harassed the seaside on a small scale have disappeared collectively for a while. It is said that there is some funny pirate team on the seaside of Guangdong Province that robbed Japanese merchant ships. A million taels of wealth.

Those small groups just went to freedom.

In the past, many soldiers thought this was a joke, and their claims were outrageous. Now...

(End of this chapter)