Daming pirates

Next is the matter of muskets. It is impossible for Yu Xiaotian to sell the Nanyue-style flintlock they use to Yan Siqi. In this era, no matter where it is, it is definitely an advanced weapon.

Their secret weapons cannot be easily taught to others!

Unless Yu Xiaotian develops a rifled rifle next, he will not sell this thing to others now.

So he ordered the gun maker to build a batch of matchlock guns specifically for Yan Siqi. The caliber was slightly smaller than the Nanyue-style flintlock rifles they used, but the caliber was slightly larger than the bird blunderbuss used by the Ming army. The length of the blunderbuss tubes

It is also reduced by three inches, so that its effective range cannot exceed the effective range of Sea Wolf's own flintlock gun. In addition, the wall of the barrel is slightly thinner, and the craftsmanship is also reduced. For example, the process of boring the inner wall of the barrel is replaced by a simple method.

To create.

All in all, the musket is an absolute monkey version. Compared with the flintlock gun used by Sea Wolf, it is one level worse. Of course, safety is still required. At least each gun must be able to fire more than a hundred rounds. This quality is already better than

The quality of some muskets made on land is much better, but compared with the 200-round barrel life of Sea Wolf's own flintlock gun, it is still inferior.

To such a request, the gun craftsmen immediately agreed and produced this monkey version of the musket according to Yu Xiaotian's requirements, preparing it for Yan Siqi's use. However, the quantity was also discounted, and only one hundred and twenty were sold to them.

Yes, the delivery time will be about one month.

And in terms of price, the original price offered by the Council was that a No. 3 cannon cost 1,000 taels of silver, a monkey version of the No. 5 cannon cost 2,000 taels of silver, and the old Tiger Crouching Cannon cost 200 taels of silver, which is an imitation of the old model.

The price of a prisoner-killing cannon is four hundred taels of silver, and a musket costs forty taels.

This price is the price that Yu Xiaotian and his men have discussed before. It is definitely not cheap. The profit can be guaranteed to be more than 300%. However, because Seawolf has never had spare capacity to carry out arms trade, this matter has been

Drag on, this price is also priceless and there is no market at all, there is no goods to sell.

But even this price is not too expensive on the black market in this era, because pirates have a huge demand for artillery and muskets. Except for a few places such as Qinzhou in Guangxi, Foshan in Guangdong, and Zhangzhou in Fujian, there are underground factories.

Apart from building workshops secretly and then selling them to pirates, the only way left for pirates is to buy them from the Spanish. Whether it is the Spanish, the Portuguese, or even the Dutch, they all know that this is a big business and the price is high.

Very high.

The prices of these black market transactions are only higher than the original price set by Sea Wolf, and they cannot meet their demand at all, not to mention the quality. These artillery with crude craftsmanship cannot be compared with those produced by Sea Wolf.

The artillery is comparable, even the monkey version is definitely far superior to them.

For those Europeans, the Ming Dynasty was a money-sucking hole. Most people in the Ming Dynasty still lived a small-scale peasant economy, which was basically a self-sufficient life. The circulation of commodities was far from as large as later generations thought, especially for ordinary farmers.

There is no purchasing power at all, and even some small landowners live a self-sufficient life with very little demand for goods.

But many of the commodities produced by the Ming Dynasty were eagerly sought by Europeans. For example, ceramics, tea, lacquerware, pigments, raw silk, silk, etc. from the Ming Dynasty were all things that Europeans wanted, but these Europeans could take them out.

There were only a handful of goods sold to the Ming Dynasty, and they really couldn't provide many affordable things to trade with the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, they could only transport the silver and gold obtained from other colonies to the Ming Dynasty and buy it from the Ming Dynasty merchants.

Carry boatloads of goods.

And the goods they can sell are spices produced in some of their colonies in Southeast Asia, Indian cotton cloth, glass products, and limited jewelry. In addition, there are almost no products that can attract the Ming people.

Artillery and muskets are obviously one of the few most popular commodities they can get rid of, so it is impossible for them to find a way to sell them at high prices.

Therefore, it is very difficult for pirates to purchase large quantities of arms in this era. Even if they have money, there is nowhere to get them. Only very few people have such access to cannons and muskets. Many small groups of pirates can only use

Cold weapons were used to commit robberies at sea, and their equipment was very poor. This is why Yu Xiaotian tried to find ways to produce his own firearms and arm his men, because even if he had money, he could not buy many firearms. In addition, most of the Ming black workshops made their own firearms.

The quality of firearms is simply not good. In addition to low power and poor accuracy when used, the probability of accidents is also too high. The chance of killing your opponent is probably not as high as the chance of killing yourself!

Therefore, even if the price offered by Sea Wolf is very high, there is no need to worry about no one wanting it. After the council pulled out the price list, Yu Xiaotian took a look at it and without saying anything, ordered Chen Xun to be summoned.

Informed Chen Xun of the results of their discussion.

When Chen Xun heard that Yu Xiaotian actually gave them so many cannons, he was naturally overjoyed. In fact, he did not expect Yu Xiaotian to satisfy them with the quantity he originally proposed. Although Yu Xiaotian now promised to give them the cannons,

The quantity of guns was at a discount compared to what he asked for, but it still met most of their requirements.

After just looking at the prices listed on the list, Chen Xun's face still fell. Don't look at the thumping of his chest when he first begged Yu Xiaotian. He said that he let Hailang set the price casually, but seriously

When he saw the price, he couldn't help but click his tongue.

"Thank you so much, Master Yu! You can give us so many cannons, but...but...the price..." Chen Xun had a look of embarrassment on his face.

The person accompanying me today is Zhao Mazi. Zhao Mazi is in charge of business. In addition, he is a clerk of the Li family. He used to rely on talking and bargaining with others. Now Sea Wolf's business has become big, but in this aspect

His skills are still there, and he has often dealt with merchants in the past few years, and his bargaining skills have become even more perfect.

Hearing that Chen Xun thought the price was a bit high, Zhao Mazi immediately said, "Brother Chen, do you think it's too expensive?"

Chen Xun replied a little awkwardly: "Well... that's it. As you all know, our boss is now recruiting people from the mainland. The positions on hand are a bit tight, and the price is really a bit... I'm afraid that for a while we

It’s not evenly adjusted!”

When Zhao Mazi heard this, he shook his head and said: "This is what you are doing wrong. You must know that in order to help you this time, our boss even asked the brothers to dismantle the cannons being used on our ship for you!

In order to collect so many cannons, the brothers in our fleet are almost falling out! The boss forced the brothers to get these cannons for you, and also asked us to do nothing in the artillery work. We will do it for you this month.

live!

You also know that casting cannons is not a simple matter. If you cast 30% of the cannon, you are considered lucky! And you also know that it doesn’t matter what we want here. Iron, charcoal and everything have to be transported overland. Our relationship with the government now is very different.

I'm so nervous, and I don't have enough iron material on hand.

What's more, the craftsmen we hired cost a lot of money. You must know that the cannons we cast are all Western cannons, and the craftsmen we hired are not ordinary craftsmen. You must not compare our cannons with those of us.

Compared to those junk goods on land.

As far as the price is concerned, if you don’t want it, double it, and I guess there will be people who want it without hesitation!”

Chen Xun became anxious when he heard this, and said quickly: "I know, I know! It's not that I don't think it's expensive, we really can't afford so much cash right now! When we came down, we didn't expect it to be so expensive! I still hope it will be so expensive."

If the master can show his noble hand, please give in a little more!"

After hearing this, Yu Xiaotian smiled and said: "Brother Chen San, this is easy to talk about. Let's do this. You haven't had the chance to see whether our cannons are expensive or not. It's not too late for you to see the goods first and then talk about it! If

After looking at our stuff, if you still think it’s expensive, how about we tell you later?”

When Chen Xun heard this, he nodded in agreement. For a long time, they had only heard that Sea Wolf's cannon was powerful, but they had never had the opportunity to take a closer look.

Yu Xiaotian took a boat to their place twice, but no one else could get on Sea Wolf's boat. The Sea Wolf tribe on board watched closely, and the cannons were covered with oilcloth, so they couldn't see them at all.

Cannons, those who really saw their cannons were those who opposed them, but they were all beaten badly by the sea wolves.

Chen Xun and Yan Siqi have been very curious about Sea Wolf's cannon for a long time, but they have never found a chance to see the advantages of Sea Wolf's cannon. They have talked about it to this extent today, and he has not seen the goods yet.

, I can’t explain it even when I go back! So when Yu Xiaotian said that he would let him see the goods first, Chen Xun quickly agreed and followed Yu Xiaotian nonchalantly towards the outside of the village.

Sea Wolf used to have a test range on Nanyue Island, but later there was too much movement here. After the immigration increased, the test range here was closed and moved to a small island in the north of Nanyue Island.

The island is uninhabited, so you can do whatever you want with it.

Yu Xiaotian did not let Chen Xun watch the cannons on the wall of Dazhai. Instead, he randomly selected a boat moored at the dock, took Chen Xun on board, and immediately sailed out of the bay of Langxue Dazhai, heading towards

Go up the sea.

At this time, someone opened the coat of a gun on the ship, revealing a six-pound gun underneath. Chen Xun immediately pounced on it, like a wolf smelling blood, and hurriedly lay on the gun and looked up and down.

After sizing it up, I couldn't help but touch the cannon with my hands.

Seawolf uses the iron mold casting method, which is very different from the surface of the cannon cast by the clay mold method. The surface of the castings cast by the iron mold casting method is naturally quite smooth, and it is basically impossible to leave any flaws.

Things like pores, even if the gun body is not polished, are already very smooth. Compared with the castings made by the clay mold casting method, without polishing, they are not at the same level.

What's more, the Sea Wolf tribe takes great care of their artillery and performs careful maintenance on it every day. Even when it leaves the factory and before it is delivered for use, in order to reduce the workload, the cannon body is not carefully polished on the surface.

During normal maintenance, I would polish and polish the gun body when I have nothing to do, and then oil and maintain it.

Over time, the entire body of the cannon was polished and polished until it was shiny and shiny, making it look very beautiful.