Daming pirates

Since establishing business relations with Sea Wolf, the trade between the Portuguese and Sea Wolf has been going quite well. Many things that they could not sell before have finally found a buyer willing to take over, although the price is not affordable to them.

It's very satisfying, but it's better than asking them to continue to use only silver to purchase goods. To a certain extent, the two parties are using barter.

Therefore, the Portuguese are quite satisfied with doing business with Sea Wolf, and have also given Sea Wolf considerable discounts. Nowadays, because the Spaniards, Portuguese and even the Dutch compete with each other, like the saltpeter Sea Wolf purchased in the past,

The price has dropped by more than 40%, allowing Sea Wolf to buy more things more cheaply.

But the Portuguese were also wary of Sea Wolf, because while doing business with Sea Wolf, they also discovered that Sea Wolf never bought artillery, matchlock guns and other popular items from them, and they never bought them from them.

It is strange for them to buy any luxury goods in their hands.

It stands to reason that for weapons such as firearms, the Ming Dynasty has been at war with the slaves in the north for many years and had to deal with the She'an Rebellion, so there is a huge demand for weapons.

This has also made it difficult for pirates to spend money to purchase enough weapons over the years, especially heavy weapons like artillery. Government supervision on land is relatively strict. In addition, the quality of Ming Dynasty firearms has always been inferior to those made by Western craftsmen.

Because of its high quality, it is something that pirates flock to, and the price is very high.

It turns out that both the Spaniards and the Portuguese had made suggestions to the Sea Wolf people, and were willing to use the cannons and matchlocks they made in exchange for Sea Wolf products, but they were all rejected by Sea Wolf, and they had seen the products they made.

After seeing these firearms for sale, the Sea Wolf people still seemed a little disdainful.

This makes them a little strange. It stands to reason that Seawolves are also pirates and should like these things, but why are they unwilling to want them? Unless they have better things, otherwise there is no reason why they don't want these guys.

Yeah! It wasn't until Hailang and Chu Cailao fought a battle that they heard that Hailang could forge cannons by himself, and it was said that the cannons Hailang forged were Western-style Hongyi cannons.

At this time, these Europeans were a little surprised. They didn't believe that a group of pirates could actually forge Western-style cannons by themselves. Even if the Ming Dynasty government wanted to imitate this thing, it would be very difficult. There was no reason for a group of pirates to

It's actually possible to do this!

Moreover, there are rumors that Sea Wolf has a lot of these Hongyi cannons, which is even more incomprehensible. They all know how difficult it is to cast cannons. The techniques used by Western cannon-casters in this era are actually no better than those used by Ming craftsmen.

As sophisticated as the craftsmanship is, it is also cast using clay molds.

It's just that when Western gunsmiths cast cannons, they have mastered some relatively advanced concepts, formulated some advanced specifications for cannon casting, formed a relatively systematic cannon casting technology, and had an in-depth understanding of the relationship between gunpowder and artillery.

The relationship between them made their cannons better cast.

However, Chinese craftsmen have never formed a systematic concept of cannon casting. Although they are now learning to imitate Western-style cannons and can even control the casting quality very well, they have always lagged far behind Western countries in terms of concepts and can only follow suit.

Follow Western countries and imitate them.

Therefore, these Europeans do not believe that Sea Wolf has such good means and can cast very good cannons. They just think that Sea Wolf may have mastered some cannon casting techniques, and there are some craftsmen who are good at casting cannons and can initially imitate some.

Western-style artillery, but it cannot be better than the artillery they cast.

For this reason, they have tried many ways to get one or two artillery pieces cast by Sea Wolf for comparison. However, for more than a year, they have been unable to do so. Sea Wolf has never sold artillery guns to outsiders before, and no one has captured them.

Even if someone has hijacked the Sea Wolf's warship, the Sea Wolf's merchant ship is only equipped with some light artillery, and there is no way to tell why.

They could only give up on this matter and continue to slowly wait for the opportunity.

And Zheng Yiguan now went to Haojing'ao to find the Portuguese to buy artillery. It was also out of helplessness. Recently, Yan Siqi and him had many battles on the sea in Penghu. Zheng Yiguan found Yan Siqi's ship and loaded it on it.

He had some very powerful cannons that could bombard his ships from a long distance.

He could guess without thinking that Yu Xiaotian must have sold this to Yan Siqi. Zheng Yiguan's men took advantage of Yan Siqi's newly acquired cannons produced by Sea Wolf when they fought against him.

With the help of these artillery purchased from Sea Wolf, he could often defeat more with less, and even sank several of his ships at a distance of 200 steps.

Zheng Yiguan realized at this time that if he wanted to compete with Yu Xiaotian and his colleagues at sea next, he would definitely suffer if he did not improve the quality of his equipment, especially if he had to compete with Sea Wolf in the future.

If he fights without a decent enough cannon, he might end up following Chu Cai's footsteps.

So he began to buy various cannons everywhere. Some iron yards and iron casting workshops in Guangdong and Fujian have now begun to imitate Western-style cannons, also known as Hongyi cannons. However, these cannons are closely watched by the government and are not easy to obtain.

, most people don’t dare to sell it.

But the key is that Zheng Yiguan found a way to land and take a look at these Hongyi cannons imitated by Ming craftsmen. These cannons look similar to Western cannons in shape, with the addition of lugs and a front sight, but there is a problem.

These cannons are all heavy cannons. Even the smaller ones weigh more than a thousand kilograms, and the big ones even weigh seven or eight thousand kilograms.

Even if he could buy this cannon, it could only be used on shore. Currently, very few of the ships in his hands could be equipped with these cannons, so he had no choice but to turn to the Dutch and Portuguese for purchase.

But because Xu Xinsu broke up with him, Xu Xinsu was very popular with the Dutch and controlled a large amount of raw silk supply. The Dutch did not want to offend Xu Xinsu, so they had no choice but to let Zheng Yiguan go, so Zheng Yiguan met with the Dutch.

After a while, the only path left was the Portuguese.

It is said that the Spanish also had a gun range in Manila, where they cast cannons for sale or for their own use. They were quite famous in this era, and they were often called Luzon cannons in later generations.

But because of Li Dan's relationship, they were at odds with the Spaniards in the past. Li Dan was once cheated by the Spaniards, so he later helped the Dutch deal with the Spaniards. As a result, Zheng Yiguan has inherited Li Dan's mantle, and naturally

It was on the Spaniards' blacklist, so it was basically hopeless to buy cannons from the Spaniards.

Because Zheng Yiguan was familiar with him in Macau, and he was baptized and believed in Catholicism, the Portuguese did not refuse his request to purchase cannons. Some time ago, the Portuguese agreed to help Zheng Yiguan cast a batch of cannons.

This news is not good news. This news shows that Zheng Yiguan may improve some of his strength in a short period of time. Then, Yan Siqi may find it more difficult.

So after Yu Xiaotian thought about it, he discussed it with Liu Laoliu, Ma Xiao and others, and decided to add insult to injury to Zheng Yiguan, and recently sold a batch of artillery to Yan Siqi, including Xu Xinsu's side, and others.

Send someone to contact them to see if they can establish a cooperative relationship with Xu Xinsu.

Xu Xinsu has strong economic strength but weak military force. This is an easy thing to take advantage of, so Yu Xiaotian decided that Yan Siqi cannot take all the advantages. When necessary, he can also provide Xu Xinsu with some help, whether it is sending

It doesn't matter whether the ship escorts them or sells him some cannons, as long as it makes money while making Zheng Yiguan disgusted.

In addition, they have now built a batch of Feihao clippers. The number of such ships is no longer as scarce as the year before. Over the past year, Seawolf has launched many Feihao clippers one after another.

These sloops have very strong offshore navigation capabilities and strong firepower. When dealing with their counterparts' Chinese warships at sea, they have a one-sided advantage, so Yu Xiaotian decided to draw a batch of about five to seven flying boats.

A single-masted clipper was dispatched to conduct activities on the ocean in the Zhangquan area.

The task of this fleet is very simple. It is to look for trouble with Zheng Yiguan there. Just like it did with Chu Cailao, it specially attacks Zheng Yiguan's lone ships, like peeling onions, gradually weakening Zheng Yiguan.

The strength of the officer.

According to Yu Xiaotian, aren't you, Zheng Yiguan, now rich? I'm not in a hurry to have a big showdown with you, but I can slowly grind you down and strip you naked little by little, as long as

As long as I, Yu Xiaotian, am still hanging around in this sea, I cannot tolerate you, Zheng Yiguan, being as rampant as you were in another time and space in history.

The Feihao clippers are an excellent ship type that can serve as privateers. However, unlike the privateers in Western countries, these Feihao clippers sent by Sea Wolf are the official actions of Sea Wolf and not private ships.

It is nothing more than a private armed ship. It is an official military operation of Sea Wolf, rather than a spontaneous personal behavior seeking profit.

Only Zheng Yiguan could bear this. Some time ago, Sea Wolf was just the instigator behind the scenes, manipulating Yan Siqi and Zheng Yiguan against each other. But now Yu Xiaotian decided to jump to the front and personally participate in the deal.

Among the ranks of Zheng Yiguan.

Although his investment was not large, he believed that his well-trained and strictly organized subordinates, coupled with these sloops, would be enough to give Zheng Yiguan a headache for a long time.