Chen Mu regretted very much that he didn't study hard, otherwise he should know where Brazil was profitable.

Now he has to rely on his instincts, believing that Brazil is huge and that he will have to try to send people to blindly explore to be sure.

Although it had only been two years since the Ming army landed in Asia, after accepting the huge amount of information left by the Spaniards in Panama, the water shelter in Changsheng County was already full of manuscripts and books that had been translated or were waiting to be translated.

The Water Shelter Pavilion is just like its name, on the low hill south of Changsheng, like a temple, but it is actually Chen Mu's library, because the pavilion owner has no culture, so it is all named because of the brush of tung oil without water.

The heavy work brought great resentment to Zhao Shizhen, carrying heavy translated books into the military yamen, shouting all the way for fear of falling the map tube to the ground if he couldn't hold it steadily, until he entered the side hall, he struggled to put down all the objects, and complained to Chen Mu while panting, and said: "Dashuai, why are we going to care about Portugal, this will take care of him a little earlier, right?" ”

There was a mess in the side hall of the military palace, seven or eight soldiers who followed him on weekdays were busy putting together the long tables, and there were scribes holding the golden cups they had brought from the Panama church and didn't know where to put them, staring at the room full of dust and dazed.

Chen Mu sat quietly in the corner of the window, looking at the training report of the Ailan Restoration Army last month with his left hand, holding a musket in his right hand and slowly scratching it in his back into his clothes, the light pillar of the sun hitting the window reflected the fine dust fluttering.

I don't know what he saw, his brows suddenly furrowed and looked at Zhao Shizhen, and the walnut wood on his back was pulled out: "Eh! ”

Zhao Shizhen, who was setting up the book map, hurriedly turned his head: "The student is right, it's too early to meddle in Brazil, wait for Xiyi to officially start war against Portugal, and then send troops to take advantage of the situation......"

Zhao Shizhen was halfway through his words, and he heard Chen Mu say very clearly: "Two things, go back and ask someone to be an old man for me, forget it, go to the jade shop to see if there are any large pieces of material, and make a ruyi to scratch your back." ”

Zhao Shizhen: ???

Still old man happy? Returning the jade to Ruyi? Would it be okay to let the Ordnance Bureau make you a five-claw short handle?

Zhao Shizhen, who was holding the map scroll for a moment, acted in a small movie in his heart, and scratched the back of the leading actor Chen Mu with iron claws, but the next moment the movie ended.

Zhao Shizhen replied: "Okay, handsome man, what's the second thing?" ”

"Inform the Beiyang Army that there are a total of 6,000 households in the victorious banner army and personal soldiers, and let all the bird gunners strengthen their shooting training in their weekday training, according to three times as many as usual, in the past, they used to shoot targets six times a month, three guns each time, and they will be strengthened in the next three months."

Chen Mu said as he dragged a charcoal pen from the table and counted it on the paper, and said: "The bird guns under the six thousand households are roughly three thousand, no, there are many bird guns in the pro-soldiers, as well as cavalry and artillery, and the number of people who use guns should be about four thousand seven hundred, yes, that's all." ”

"Three months later, Chang Sheng held a shooting competition, divided into teams and individuals, and there were rewards at that time."

Zhao Shizhen's picture scroll was only halfway unfolded, and the movements in his hands stopped when he heard the words, and he couldn't find the pen when he wanted to find it, so he simply took his finger and drew two strokes on the table with the floating dust, and asked, "Dashuai, are you holding on?" ”

He roughly calculated that Chen Mu would let go of 20,000 catties of gunpowder with one mouth, which was enough for a battle.

"Is this holding up? When the shooting competition is over, I still want the patrol, militia, and border guards to practice together, and at least 60,000 yuan will be released. ”

Sixty thousand?

Zhao Shizhen was very clear about the various inventories of the military government, and opened his mouth to ask: "Is the batch of gunpowder in the second year of Wanli broken?" ”

Chen Mu nodded, praised Secretary Zhao's professional ethics with an approving gaze, pointed to the document on the table, and said: "The instructor of the Restoration Army sent the training report from last month, and they have experienced a decline in the power of muskets and artillery for three consecutive months, and there have been several times when they have not fired, and that batch of gunpowder is no good. ”

"I didn't prepare for the war with the West last year, and then I was a little panicked, and I hurriedly prepared all the gunpowder, I thought that at least 200,000 catties would be lost, but who knew that Bell, who was stationed in Mexico City, couldn't help fighting."

Gunpowder can be used when it is damp, but the quality will definitely be affected to a certain extent, at present, Jincheng already has a fixed output of nitrate, and southern Chile may not be of much significance in the short term, but there will be no shortage of gunpowder in the future, so Chen Mu does not plan to be so frugal.

simply used expired gunpowder as training medicine, and all those who could fight were beaten, and the right was to exercise the flag army.

"The key to low gunpowder consumption is that there is no major naval battle, otherwise 200,000 is enough to choke." Zhao Shizhen chuckled, and then fiddled with the map and said: "The navy is the real expensive thing, according to the standards when we went to sea, Liuding Liujia loaded forty-four artillery pieces with an average weight of eighteen catties, and pulled out two rounds of gunpowder of tens of thousands of catties and went out." ”

Not only gunpowder, but also artillery shells.

Even with the relatively low prices of the Ming Dynasty, 10,000 catties of gunpowder are not counted as 240 taels, 10,000 catties of cannonballs are not counted as 60 taels, and 12 large ships go out to fire a cannon is 300 taels of silver, who can afford it?

Compared with this, the cost of the army is really trivial, and the gunpowder of three hundred taels of silver is used by four thousand musketeers, and each person shoots three times a day, which can be fired continuously for a month.

"I'm afraid that's not enough, no, the students are saying they can't run out." Zhao Shizhen put his hands in his chest sleeves and said, "There are still two fleets that have not returned the gunpowder, and there may be an extra thirty or forty thousand catties." ”

"But the marshal can't all use it like this, in a few months, the Jincheng side may not be able to fill such a big gap, the gunpowder of the Lu division is easy to say, but the gunpowder of the fleet can't be empty for a moment according to the regulations."

"It's okay, the victorious Lu Shi trains first, and then he will be a soldier. The nitrate on the Jincheng side is almost enough, so send someone to Yang Tingxiang, buy sulfur from Mexico City, and then let the wood yard in Zou Zhi County make charcoal. ”

Chen Mu raised his hand as he spoke, and counted his fingers outward: "If there is still a surplus of expired gunpowder that can be sold, gunpowder is in short supply, everyone wants it, Alvana can sell it for four or five thousand catties, and the Portuguese in Brazil can also sell it for one or two thousand catties, but it is estimated that they have no money to buy it." ”

"That's right, and Peru, this year Peru should give Chang Shengyun silver, we still signed the treaty to mint coins for them, and when their ship comes, let him go back and give a message to the governor of Peru, there is money to buy it...... It's okay, there's Fei Er. ”

"As long as he wants, we can sell as much expired gunpowder as possible."

"Big handsome, big handsome?"

Chen Mu was sitting there fantasizing about selling the expired gunpowder to His Royal Highness Philip in the future, when he heard Zhao Shizhen shouting that his voice was a little weak, and he got up and asked, "What's wrong?" ”

"I tell you, don't hit me and don't scold me."

Zhao Shizhen glanced at Chen Mu cautiously, quickly spread out the large map of Asia spread out on the two tables, pressed the ends like a rabbit-like paperweight, jumped away like a spring, and said quietly: "This is all our military government knows about Brazil!" ”