[quote=@Commodore Robot]
From my understanding of it they're a relatively small nation that's been paying attention to the way things have been going in the north and have been taking notes (A bit like Meiji era Japan I would imagine). The ideas haven't really spread too far from them considering that the majority of the southern peoples are nomadic tribes or are incredibly insular and conservative.
[/quote]

Oh, so instead of buying them, you're thinking they send people over to observe and learn, or just engage in espionage, then manufacture them themselves? That makes sense to a point, but how long have machine-guns or mortars been around? When was the last major advance in Service Rifle technology? I am just skeptical of the Red Dragon having top-of-the-line things, as they describe themselves to have. I'd imagine like the Boshin War clowns, they would get sold second-rate weapons that are easy to manufacture without a massive industrial sector, as opposed to heavily-engineered bolt actions or machineguns, that require metal cartridges that need a great deal of manufacturing capability to make in number.