Information asymmetry is an indispensable bargaining chip in negotiations, just as now, Chen Mu knows that everything on the other side of the sea is decided by the Portuguese governor, and the premise of his final say is to ensure trade and mission.

On the other hand, the governor did not know whether Chen Mu really had the ability to cut off the passage of the Portuguese in the sea, and would definitely selectively ignore whether Chen Mu could influence the emperor's opinion.

It's always fun to bully the big.

Everything, except for the shooting of Davega, was not a whim.

Chen Mu's eyes had been staring at Malacca for a long time, especially after knowing that Haojing was a unilateral trade, Chen Mu decided to change all this.

Look for a breakthrough.

Understand first, then make follow-up plans.

On the other hand, he really planned to recruit Spanish maritime merchants from Luzon to do business here once the Portuguese did not accept the conditions, not to mention that he still had a chip in his hand - Lin Feng.

This is a very rare relationship, officials look down on pirates, pirates look down on officials, and there are very few people who can be relied on after surrendering like Lin Daoqian, but how much is that relied on?

It's just a small help to the chief officer to join the military.

In Chen Mu's opinion, it was completely insulting, let a green forest bandit leader who was proud of the sea be a little military member?

However, pirates only have a little status in the eyes of officials, and officials are so respected in the eyes of pirates, everyone thinks this way.

Only Commander Chen can have a close equal status to trade with Lin Feng, which provides a layer of insurance for Chen Mu's threat to the Portuguese.

Needless to say, once the two sides are in conflict, no Portuguese ship can dock here; And the chicken coop and Penghu also guaranteed that no Portuguese ship could go to Japan.

Isn't it very good, the worst outcome is that the Portuguese will lose everything, neither Hao Jing nor the Ming will lose anything, and the further power of the Spaniards in the East Asian seas will inevitably ensure that there will be more friction between them and the Portuguese - they better fight again.

It was the end of the year when he came back from Haojing, and Qi Zhengyan, who was handy at helping him, led the fleet to Japan, and most of the family affairs were presided over by Xie Ming, which was quite thoughtful.

A year ago, Xie Ming paid a sum of money from the account, transported back three carts of gifts from Guangzhou Mansion, and sent them to the flag officials of the various departments of Nanyang Wei in the name of Chen Mu a year ago, and made a detailed investigation of the family situation of the flag officials.

Those who have children at home will send some cloth pen and ink, and the elderly in the family will be personally visited by Chen Mu to talk to the elderly.

In short, widows and loneliness must be taken care of.

In addition to Nanyang Weili, Zhaoqing, Guangcheng, and Qingcheng, Chen Mu also ran enough at the beginning of the year. The old governor Zhang Han, the righteous brother Chen Lan, and the old chief Bai Yuanjie are all going to visit, of course, there are Yin Zhengmao, who may become the new governor in the future, and the old general Yu Dayou, but Guangxi is too far away, and Chen Mu sent the soldiers to find the eighth master with some small gifts.

Of course, Chen Mu did not ignore other places.

But if there is a reason to pay New Year's greetings, even if it is Tan Butang and Old Man Wu of the Beijing Military Department, and Chen Mu, the general of Jizhen, they all sent people to Beijing in January.

Prepare with both hands, not only thinking about how to run outside, but also how to run outside.

"This is the assessment result of the Xiangshan Banner Army?"

On the fifth day of February, Deng Zilong reported the drill assessment of the Xiangshan Institute, Chen Mu flipped over the assessment results of last autumn, and said: "The indicators are upgraded and demoted, and they will be rewarded and punished according to the truth, and the flag officers shall not be greedy for ink. ”

These reward and punishment systems are all set by Chen Mu last year when he wrote the drill manual, and they are assessed once a quarter, and a number of combat capabilities of the flag army are selected, mostly for the hard assessment objectives of physical fitness and skills, and four grades of A, B, C, and D are listed, each grade is divided into upper, middle and lower, and a certain amount of silver taels or rice grain is taken out from the treasury every year as a reward.

Compared with the past, there are rewards for progress and punishments for regression in each assessment of the banner army, until in the end, all qualities and skills are first-class - in fact, very few people can obtain a top class, let alone a top class.

Even Chen Mu himself could only obtain the upper armor in the gun technique and artillery technique, and Deng Zilong only obtained the upper armor in melee combat and bow technique, and Chen Mu, who set the standard, did not expect anyone to get the upper armor in all aspects.

The key purpose of this initiative is not to make all flag troops reach the top level, but to give each flag army a quantitative assessment of their combat ability, so that the flag officer who directly commands them can more clearly understand the talent of his subordinates, so as to achieve the most suitable manpower for each combat position in the army.

Chen Mu looked at Deng Zilong and asked, "How does the flag officer feel about the assessment results, maybe he is used to it?" ”

"Well, it's not bad, this should be able to implement the whole army, but-" Deng Zilong paused and said: "The implementation of the four thousand households, should the basic requirements be set again, the newly recruited flag army may not be able to meet the basic requirements, maybe the entire newly recruited thousand households flag army in a quarter everyone reaches the next level, I'm afraid it will not be able to practice well." ”

"You're right, I'll do it." Chen Mu readily agreed, and then said to Deng Zilong: "You can order the manual to be transmitted to the three thousand households, so that they can train the flag army in accordance with the above regulations, and all departments must not slack off." In the past few days, the Xiangshan Banner Army has loaded all its cannons onto shark ships and prepared to patrol overseas. ”

"Count the time, it's almost time for the Francos to send a message back."

There are a lot of warships in Nanyangwei, and if it is only used by the Xiangshan Banner Army, they can't even make all the shark ships move. At the Xiangshan Shipyard, 77 shark ships were docked in the harbor, and the total cost of this fleet of more than 200 clipper gunboats was more than 10,000 taels of silver.

It would take a long time to pull 500 guns to the shipyard and the armed warship would take a long time, and it would be a lot of physical work, but this matter obviously couldn't wait, what if the Franc machine man really had a bad brain?

"It's a pity that the shark ships can't all put ten pounds of cannons."

Shark ships have two cannons in the bow and stern, but limited by the production capacity of the Nanyang Guard Weapons Bureau, only 30 shark ships are loaded with a ten-pound cannon in the bow, and the rest are two five-pound guns, and the stern is limited in shape, some are two five-pound cannons, and some are large tiger squats on the ship.

Thirty killer ships equipped with ten-pound guns were assigned by Chen Mu to five each of the Xinhui and Tuen Mun offices, and the remaining five-pound gunboats to assist the attack were assigned to five of each of the five thousand-household offices, and the most cutting-edge combat power was left in Xiangshan for the use of the Xiangshan Banner Army and Jiading during the war.

Chen Mu was prepared for the worst and fought a battle with the Portuguese at sea - whether it was a centipede ship or a Carrick sailboat, the ship's board could not block the killing of a ten-pound cannon, even a five-catty cannon could cause partial damage to the hull.

Chen Mu is looking forward to the next development.