On the third day of the sixth year of Wanli, the negotiations still encountered a pass, or at this time, the real negotiations had just begun.

"In terms of commercial negotiations, it seems that the negotiations are very harmonious, but they complement each other, we have a strong and prosperous handicraft industry, which can provide a wide variety of goods for military equipment, noble enjoyment, and daily use of the common people, which the Spaniards need to be luxurious."

"Their cast-iron cannons, cannonballs, gunpowder, and armor used to rely heavily on the Netherlands, but now seventy percent of them are out of stock except for armor, and armor can still be purchased from Milan and other places, but at a high price."

"The aristocracy enjoyed the daily necessities of the common people, many of which could not be provided in the locality, and even some things were not available in their own right, so there was no doubt that it was relatively easy to negotiate in this regard."

A pair of thick cowhide soled military boots staggered on the table, Chen Mu leaned back on the chair very unvividly, took the trade goods list submitted by Zhao Shizhen and commented, turned to the next page, and said to himself: "Let me see the price, it's not bad!" Two catties of land warfare for General Zhenshuo six times, and twenty catties of cast iron for ships, General Zhenshuo has twenty-seven times the profit? ”

"It's okay!"

It's not that Chen Mu is insatiable.

The cost of artillery is not high, but the labor cost is very high, and the defective rate is extremely high, in the Nanyang Guard Weapons Bureau, which has the best artillery casting technology in the country, the experienced gunsmith supervises the manufacture of ten cast iron cannons with ten pounds of ammunition, and three of them can be used together to be a master.

Of course, the rest can be picked out for three or four more to make do, but trachoma will make the life of the gun even lower.

Just like Chen Mu's early years by Guan Yuangu to cast the batch of cannon that was smashed under the gate of Guangzhou Prefecture, and it is technically difficult to improve in a short time, before the modern smelting system made a leap, the casting capacity of the Ming Dynasty has reached its peak.

The selling price of a 20-pound cast-iron Zhenshuo gun is 27 times the cost, but if you add the defective rate, it is actually only about four times the profit, and the reason for this pricing is because this price is much cheaper than Spain's own casting of a copper cannon of the same caliber.

The larger the cannon, the more difficult it is to make, and the more expensive it is, just like the small splicing rotary cannon, which is commonly known as the small Francophone machine in the Ming Dynasty, the Spanish craftsmen knocked it with an iron hammer and knocked it on mass production.

Nowadays, the iron core copper shell technology used in the artillery held by the Ming army can significantly reduce the defective rate and improve the quality and life of the artillery, which can generally reach five times the life of the cast iron cannon.

But Chen Mu has always had the professional ethics of a qualified businessman - the cast iron cannon that the Spaniards need, and what people want to buy is the iron cannon.

We must not sell things that others don't need with good filling, and people don't need the copper core and iron shell Zhenshuo's general artillery, so we can't shoehorn it into others.

And in the Ordnance Research Institute of Guangzhou Jiangwutang, the iron-core copper shell process does not belong to metallurgy, but to material science, strictly speaking, Zhao Shizhen did not deceive people in the propaganda - he said to Acosta that the cast iron cannon is the representative work of the highest achievement in metallurgy of the Ming Empire, yes, it is not deceiving, it is very rigorous.

Chen Mu sat up straight, holding a teacup from the table, thinking about the division of the Ming army's defense zones in Asia in the future, and raised his eyes to Zhao Shizhen and asked, "It seems that the progress of the negotiations is very good, what makes the negotiations deadlock?" ”

Zhao Shizhen smiled bitterly: "Serious business." ”

The three days of a package of commercial cooperation, ranging from military supplies to daily trade supplies, made the envoys in the middle of it think that their negotiations were completely off the rails - they sat at the negotiating table, neither of them thinking that the other side was very hostile to their side, and they were all surprised by the reaction of the other side.

"We don't plan to fight with the Westerners, this is what the marshal has long expected, and the Westerners don't plan to fight with us, the trade orders set by the two sides will first pass Chen Shuai's inspection, and then the Westerners will return to Mexico, divided into two batches of daily and military, and the daily trade can begin after the governor confirms that it is correct, and the military and coinage still need to be returned to Madrid, with the permission of its king."

"I have no problem here, except for the cotton and silk removed from the order, the rest will be according to the price and quantity agreed by you - we want to upgrade the industry and not sell raw materials to others. What's wrong with them? Sit down and say. ”

Zhao Shizhen nodded and sat opposite Chen Mu, opened the notebook he carried with him, Chen Mu's habit has affected a large number of people in Nanyang and Beiyang for several years, basically from the junior officers to the top, everyone will carry a notebook and charcoal with them, and write down what they think.

"Mainly in land and minerals, the Westerners made great concessions on the land, and they said that the Fu guerrillas had beaten the boundary monument two thousand miles south of the Zhuangyuan Bridge, which they called three hundred and sixty leagues, in the desert of Baja California, New Spain."

"They want to divide Asia equally with the Ming Dynasty, and they plan to draw a line from west to east on the map with the boundary monument as the limit, and the north of the line belongs to the Ming Dynasty and the south belongs to New Spain."

Chen Mu sneered, and said in his heart how this Spain is the same virtue as the Portuguese, and said with a smile: "Remember the Lion Country, the Portuguese were as generous as them at that time, and took the land they couldn't occupy to Chen as a favor." ”

"The north is either a big desert or a high mountain, and only the coastal area can cut down some good timber and catch some seafood, even if you can get out of the desert, it's almost time to fight with others, right?"

Zhao Shizhen was a little surprised, and said: "How did the marshal know that there was a desert, this is the second concession of the Westerners, they have explored this land for forty years, although they have no intention of operating, but they have accumulated a lot of information, these things can also be completely handed over to the Ming Dynasty, but there is one condition." ”

Chen Mu just raised his eyebrows, to be honest, he did feel that the Spaniards had made a big concession, but in his heart he could only classify this into the scope of sincerity.

He was not very interested in this information, saying that after forty years of exploration, it must have been Wang Po selling melons, but he had definitely sent many expeditions to a certain extent, but if this information was really useful, how could the Spaniards be willing to give this land to themselves?

It's impossible, at most it's just waste paper that can save people some effort, and it may be of great use to someone else, but for him - isn't it good to directly assign the miner mountain owner to San Francisco to prospect for mines?

"On what terms?"

"Europa French pirates are rampant in the Caribbean, New Spain hopes that the Ming army can send a fleet to bypass South Asia and help it clear its routes, and in the intelligence handed over to us by the Westerners, these people have also set foot in the north of the Great Ming Boundary Monument in Asia, and they are in the east."

"It seems that the Spaniards wanted us to make enemies of the French, whom we had never met."

Chen Mumo chin was noncommittal, and Zhao Shizhen followed closely and said: "In this condition, the Westerners do not intend to hand over the coast south of the boundary monument to the Ming Dynasty, and they refuse like this: the governor thinks that the Ming army is used for fishing, and the northern coast is enough. ”

"But they have a second option."