Daming pirates

As he spoke, Yu Xiaotian handed the small mirror he bought to Li Yi. Li Yi picked it up, looked at it and said immediately: "This is a glass mirror made from Taixi. It is indeed a good thing. I have seen it twice before.

Compared with the bronze mirror we used, the picture is indeed much clearer, but this thing is too expensive, and it probably came from the Franji people!

What? Mr. Yu wants to do this business, right? The Franji people don’t bring much of this stuff, and it’s very expensive. You need someone to have a relationship with them to get it, but just doing this is probably not enough.

You can’t make much money!”

Yu Xiaotian took back the small mirror, put it away, shook his head and said with a smile: "I didn't say that I would ask Folangji to purchase it. I just know how to make this thing. If we make it ourselves, wouldn't it be much cheaper?

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If I can make it, then Shopkeeper Li, how much do you think we can earn in the future?"

Li Yi's eyes lit up as soon as he heard this, and he stood up in a hurry. He almost rushed to catch Yu Xiaotian. After calming down his emotions, Li Yicai said: "Does Mr. Yu really mean what he said? Do you really know

How is this thing made?”

Yu Xiaotian smiled triumphantly, picked up the tea bowl and took a sip, nodded and said: "When did I, Yu, deceive you, Shopkeeper Li? Don't talk about this, Yu also knows a lot of rare things!"

When Li Yi heard this, he was so happy that he walked back and forth in the room, rubbed his hands and started to count: "If Master Yu can do this, then we may really get rich!

The small side of this thing can be sold for a hundred taels of silver. If it is a little larger, it now costs hundreds of taels or even thousands of taels of silver!

If we can make it ourselves, then even if it is cheaper, we can make a lot of money by shipping one mirror like this for fifty taels of silver!

Mr. Yu, please stop joking! I take this matter seriously!"

Yu Xiaotian smiled and said: "Hehe! To be honest with shopkeeper Li, when Yu was overseas, he happened to work in a factory that specialized in manufacturing this kind of thing. I can't say he is proficient in it, but at least he knows a little bit about it.

One or two, as long as you give me two or three months, I am confident that I can come up with this kind of thing for you. I don’t know how much it will cost at the moment, but it will definitely not be too high. It is said that it will cost fifty taels of silver to ship.

Even if it costs fifteen taels of silver to ship the goods, I guess we can still make a lot of money!"

Li Yi doesn't know what to say to Xiaotian now. This Yu Xiaotian can always bring him surprises one after another. From the beginning, he was just a small pirate leader who couldn't be underestimated, and now he has become a leader in just one year.

In just a few years, he became the overlord of the sea in Fuzhou, and even Hun Jianglong was subdued by him, so he had no choice but to retreat back to Funing Prefecture.

Nowadays, when they go to Zhejiang to purchase goods and travel across the sea from Funing, they only need to fly the flag given by Hailang, and they can travel unimpeded along the coast of Funing. It can be seen that Hunjiang Long has really been subdued by Yu Xiaotian.

Now that he is cooperating with Hailang, his business has grown bigger and bigger, and he is already very satisfied with it, but Yu Xiaotian can actually bring him an even bigger surprise.

Now he feels more and more that meeting this Yu Xiaotian is really the luck brought to him by God. If it were not for this Yu Xiaotian, he would probably still be doing his "little business" cautiously!

So he turned around and said to Xiaotian: "In this case, it won't be too late, the sooner the better! Mr. Yu hurry up and take action. As long as Mr. Yu can get this kind of thing, there will definitely be no problem in selling it.

Not only can we sell it here in Fuzhou, we can also sell it to Guangdong, and even sell it to the capital. If that happens, it will be difficult for us not to make a fortune!"

Yu Xiaotian nodded and said: "Okay, after I go back this time, I will start working on this matter. In addition to this, I'm afraid I can come up with a lot of decent things. I will definitely not worry about sales problems.

Not to mention that they were sold in our Ming Dynasty, I plan to sell these things back to those Taixi people later, so that they know that our Ming Dynasty has as many talented people as them!"

Li Yi was so happy that he couldn't help but smile from ear to ear. After the food and wine were served, he and Yu Xiaotian started drinking from one cup to another.

During the dinner, Yu Xiaotian put down the business matters and talked about some current affairs. Li Yi now knew very well what he should do for Yu Xiaotian, so he was very concerned about the official affairs in Fujian.

Whenever there is an opportunity, he will inquire about various information, then gather it together and let others know about it.

As far as Li Yi knows, the situation in Fujian is also very tense. Nan Juyi is still sitting in Zhangzhou Prefecture, trying to find a way to deal with the red-haired people who occupy Penghu.

In November, due to the powerful guns of the red-haired ships, they blocked Zhangzhou Bay, preventing the Ming army from going to sea, and several battles ended in defeat.

So Nan Ju had no choice but to break this predicament and prevent his colleagues from impeaching him for failing to do things well, so he sent people to contact the red-haired people and asked them to send people to Zhangzhou Prefecture for negotiations.

As a result, during the negotiation, Nan Juyi's people suddenly rose up and arrested the red-haired man who was attending the appointment, and imprisoned him in Zhangzhou Prefecture as a hostage.

On the same day, taking advantage of the unpreparedness of the people on the red-haired people's boats on the sea, they suddenly sent out a number of fire boats, surrounded the red-haired people's boats, and set fire to one of the red-haired people's boats.

Seeing that things were not going well, the red-haired people were forced to retreat from the periphery of Zhangzhou Bay and returned to Penghu. The red-haired people were angry that the Ming Dynasty officials had reneged on their promises. While withdrawing the siege, they also sent ships to attack the villages and towns along the coast and shelled them.

They entered a town, killed and injured many Ming Dynasty people, and stole many cattle, sheep, chickens, ducks and other supplies.

Now the Fujian navy has all gathered in the area of ​​Quanzhou and Zhangzhou Prefecture. They are ready to go to Penghu to fight the red-haired people. This time Nan Juyi and the governor of Guangdong gathered nearly 200 ships and more than 10,000 soldiers.

, made it clear that he would fight to the death with the red-haired people in order to drive them away from Penghu.

Yu Xiaotian was not surprised after hearing this. He had actually inquired about this matter in advance. Although the Dutch had strong ships and powerful artillery, after all, they were conducting an expedition with a partial division. Their ships and troops were very limited. They could only gather one or two thousand people.

There are a lot of them, but they are still at an absolute disadvantage in terms of numbers.

The Ming Dynasty can give full play to its advantages in local operations. Logistics and troop deployment are relatively easy. In addition, although the Ming Dynasty warships are far less powerful than Western warships, the Fuchuan and Guangzhou ships still have a certain combat effectiveness after all, and their numbers are obvious.

The Korean side has an absolute advantage, and the ants are killing the elephants. Without effective support, the Dutch simply cannot win this war.

Therefore, it was only a matter of time before the Dutch were forced to leave Penghu. However, historical records also told Yu Xiaotian that the combat effectiveness of the Ming Dynasty's navy was limited to this.

This time, Nan Juyi gathered ten times more troops and ships than the enemy. Although he finally achieved a so-called victory and forced the Dutch to leave Penghu, he ultimately failed to completely destroy the Dutch and their fleet entrenched in Penghu.

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This also fully shows that in this era, the Ming Navy's navy was already much weaker in technology and combat effectiveness than the Western maritime powers of the same period. This kind of victory was not so glorious.

This is also something that makes Yu Xiaotian quite sad. If the Ming Dynasty had not been stubborn and had not banned the sea, with the intelligence and wisdom of the Chinese people, the level of shipbuilding today would not necessarily be any worse than that of Western countries. When encountering such a situation

If there is a strong navy, the Dutch invaders can be captured in one fell swoop. How will the Dutch occupy Taiwan in the future?

Now that he has made up his mind to use Taiwan as his base, he will inevitably have a head-on conflict with the Dutch or even the Spanish in the future. With his current strength, there is no way to compete with them.

Therefore, he is very anxious now, so he is busy non-stop, building Nanri Island, developing his boathouse, and forging his own cannons. He is very busy.

Because he knows better than anyone else that if he wants to build a powerful navy, the navy, whether now or in future generations, will definitely be a very expensive arm. If there is no money, he will have nothing.

No need to think about it anymore.

With the current cost of building ships, even the most common Haicang boat or a smaller bird boat requires more than a thousand taels of silver. The larger Fu ship, Songsong, requires more than two thousand taels of silver. This is still

Just the cost of building the ship, plus equipping it with artillery, would require more money.

Now it seems that he is not very short of money, but if he wants to do these things, with his current financial resources, it will be a drop in the bucket. This is why he is eager to make money faster.

After talking about Nan Juyi and the Dutch, Yu Xiaotian asked about the local official situation in Fuzhou. Li Yi nodded and said: "You don't have to worry too much about this. Mr. Nan is busy with Penghu now."

The matter of the red-haired people has been reported throughout Fujian

The focus is on that side. Yu Dang's family has already taken care of the area around Fuzhou. Moreover, Yu Dang's family has not harassed the coastal villages too much recently. Therefore, there is no official call to send troops to attack Nanri Island. Please tell me about this.

Don't worry, Mr. Yu!

Li is here and will keep an eye on this matter for Master Yu. If there is any trouble, someone will be sent to notify you as soon as possible!"

Yu Xiaotian was relieved now. He was not afraid that the Fujian government would send troops to suppress him. According to what he knew about the style of officials in the Ming Dynasty, whether these officials were honest or ignorant, they were all too many. One thing is worse than one less thing. As long as they can fool them, they are not willing to provoke others and use force.

What's more, the piracy industry has existed for a long time, and he didn't come to the coast of Fuzhou just today. People here have long been accustomed to pirates like them. The government can't suppress them, just like mowing grass, and another crop grows again.

Rather than cutting it over and over again, it would be better not to cut it at all.

In the past, there was an official who wanted to perform meritorious service and sent troops to suppress Nanri Island. Instead of wiping out the Shark Gang, he was in trouble. Later, many of the official's colleagues were implicated and sentenced.

For the crime of provocation, being dismissed from office was considered a minor crime, and some people were even exiled thousands of miles away.

Therefore, for officials, especially civil servants, soldiers are an important weapon of the country and should not be used lightly. They will not easily use swords or guns with others until there is absolutely no other way.

At least so far, he has not attracted enough attention from the government. As long as he does not go too far, the government will not be interested in causing trouble for him.

What he needs most right now is not fighting with others, but a stable time so that he can devote more energy to making money. Therefore, since the government has no intention of causing trouble for him, he will not take the initiative to do so now.

It would be too much trouble to fill in the paperwork for the government.