"Where are these interpreters?" Su Chengyu immediately looked at Ji Liang.

"Returning to Your Highness," Ji Liang waved his hand, "The grass people have come here with five interpreters, and they should be able to arrive with the truck tonight." ”

Su Chengyu nodded, and asked again, "You still brought goods here?" ”

"The grass people have brought something that His Highness might need."

"Oh? You're pretty good at business. Su Chengyu smiled, "What's there?" ”

Ji Liang handed a booklet to the guard beside him, then handed it to Su Chengyu, and then said: "Eziba you Ya big bird gun, spring wheel short gun, stainless steel cuirass, telescope." Of course, if you need it, there are also cannons, but you don't have them with you, that's on the manifest. ”

It turned out that this Ji Liang was an arms dealer, Su Chengyu opened the booklet, and saw that all kinds of military supplies were neatly listed on it: Eziba You Ya Big Bird Gun, fourteen taels and one branch. Ezebazi you are a light bird, eight taels and one branch. The spring wheel is short, fifteen taels and one piece. Stainless steel cuirass, set of thirty-two. Telescopes, thirty-five taels. Shenwei General Cannon, two thousand three hundred taels. Invincible general cannon, three thousand eight hundred taels.

Su Chengyu had little interest in the firecracker in front, for example, although this Spanish heavy musket was powerful, it weighed more than 20 pounds and had to be propped up with a bracket before it could be fired, which was not compatible with the advanced military concept of speed and flexibility. As for the Spanish light musket, it was a few notches worse than the flintlock gun he had Lu Ning and others making.

Telescopes are more useful, but the price is too dark.

When he saw the last two cannons, he couldn't help frowning and said, "How many pounds are each of these Divine Mighty General and Invincible General?" ”

Ji Liang was stunned for a moment, he didn't expect Su Chengyu to ask so expertly, so he had to answer truthfully, "The former is an eighteen-pound cannon, and the latter is a twenty-four-pounder cannon." ”

Su Chengyu shook his head, "The caliber is too big." Then he continued, "Are there any six-pounder guns and three-pounder guns?" ”

Ji Liang nodded suspiciously, and then shook his head again, "There should be, but I have to go back and see if there is stock." Then he took two more steps closer and pretended to be mysterious, "How can a six-pounder cannon be enough in a fight?" The power of the twenty-four-pounder cannon, tsk, what kind of strong wall can blast a few meters wide with a few casual blows. ”

"Twenty-four pounder?" Su Chengyu looked at him and smiled meaningfully, "How much does this thing weigh?" ”

"Weight?" Ji Liang thought for a while and said, "More than four thousand catties." ”

"You want me to drag a big guy of more than 4,000 pounds to fight?" Su Chengyu said coldly, "By the time this thing drags on to the front line, the battle will have been over for more than a month." ”

Ji Liang was stunned, and said in his heart that this is not like the style of a Ming officer, don't they usually pick the biggest one to buy? So he continued to suggest: "These twenty-four pounder cannons are also very suitable for the defense of the city. ”

Su Chengyu frowned, how can this arms dealer always like to fool people with large-caliber cannons, back then, Xu Guangqi, Li Zhizao and others just didn't understand the needs of the Ming Dynasty, and bought twenty eighteen-pounder guns to go back to defend the city. As a result, these cannons did not do much to defend the city, and the city walls used to bombard the Ming Dynasty after being captured by the Qing army were all easy to use.

In fact, these large-caliber cannons are basically naval guns on European warships, and it is very inappropriate for the army to use them in the field, and they can only be used when destroying city walls.

On the contrary, it is small and medium-caliber cannons and howitzers that are suitable for the army - they are lightweight, they can run around the world with a few horses in tow, and they have a short preparation time for firing and a high rate of fire.

The artillery of this era fired solid iron balls. The 22-pound iron ball that is fired every 20 minutes is naturally far less lethal to the enemy than the 6-pound iron ball that is fired every 2 minutes.

But nowadays, both the Ming army and the Qing army are very fond of heavy artillery, and there are often situations where large troops have arrived on the battlefield for more than a month, and the artillery is still on the way. But even so, guided by the old military philosophy, they still scoff at light artillery.

"If the opponent does not have heavy artillery, there is no need for heavy artillery to defend the city. And if the enemy has heavy artillery, even if I have more powerful heavy artillery, I still can't prevent the enemy from blasting through my walls. Su Chengyu squinted at Ji Liang, obviously not interested in his suggestion.

This arms dealer can fool ordinary Ming officers, but he definitely can't fool Su Chengyu, a modern person who came out of the military forum.

When both the attacking and defending sides use heavy artillery, the attacker hardly needs to aim at a target the size of the wall, and the defender must hit the enemy's cannon to keep the city. In the Ming Dynasty, where there was no modern knowledge of ballistics and sights, thousands of shells fired could not necessarily hit a cannon two miles away.

"I need two six-pounder guns and three three-pounder guns." Su Chengyu didn't wait for Ji Liang to speak, and continued, "There are still twenty telescopes. Fifty reed wheel short guns. "He will definitely make his own artillery in the future, and the ones he buys now are all for artillery training.

Seeing his resolute attitude, Ji Liang stopped selling heavy artillery, "Eight hundred and one six-pounder cannons, and five hundred and eighty taels of three-pounder cannons." With the addition of the telescope and the short gun, there are four thousand seven hundred and ninety taels in total. You see if this big bird is ......"

He originally wanted to make a lot of money by selling some heavy artillery and firearms, but he didn't expect to make a "small business" of more than 4,000 taels, and he was a little unwilling.

"That's all." Su Chengyu shook his head, and then suddenly said, "By the way, I want to barter." ”

"Okay, I want raw silk, tea, and porcelain."

"It's steel." Su Chengyu has long wanted to sell the crucible steel overseas, and now that there is this profiteer who is in collusion with the Portuguese, of course he will not let go of the opportunity.

"Steel?" Ji Liang said with a smile, "Your Highness, don't entertain the grass people. But if you want the best Goan steel, I've got some stock here. ”

Goa is a Portuguese colony in India, which is now the finest producer of steel in all of Asia. Daming suffers from too many iron ore impurities, and the reputation of steel quality has always been poor.

Su Chengyu took Shi Lin's saber—it was the first batch of steel knives produced in Su Ji Iron Yard—and handed it to Ji Liang, "Let's try it." ”

Ji Liang took the steel knife, and he was quite unimpressed, but for the sake of face, he still asked for a piece of hard square wood and slashed a few times.

He has been selling weapons since he was a child, and he is very familiar with steel knives, and he feels different after a few knives. After he finished cutting, he checked the edge of the knife, and couldn't help but be shocked, so he hurriedly asked for another piece of wrought iron, and after obtaining Shi Lin's consent, he slashed hard at the wrought iron rod.

The wrought iron rod the thickness of a rolling pin was broken! Ji Liang looked at the knife edge again, and was really shocked at this time - the edge was smooth and without bending, and there was no sign of passivation or fragmentation.

He tried again and again for a long time, and finally confirmed that this was a fine stainless steel knife, and the quality of the steel used was definitely better than that produced anywhere in Europa!

If it can be made into a style commonly used by the Europas, I am afraid that one can be sold for fifteen ducats of gold, that is, more than fifteen taels of silver. At present, there is no country in Europa that is not at war, and it is foreseeable that such a good steel weapon will sell very well, and this is a good opportunity to make a lot of money!

Ji Liang licked his lips and looked at Su Chengyu, "Dare to ask Your Highness, how many knives are there?" However, the style of this knife is only suitable for the use of the Ming army. Can you sell me steel ingots directly, and I can make a sword suitable for the Yi people to sell. ”

"This steel refining is difficult, I can supply you with 10,000 catties every month." Su Chengyu, a person who has used Xiaomi mobile phones, naturally knows how to starve marketing, in fact, if Su Ji Iron Yard is open, it can produce nearly 30,000 catties per month.

Ji Liang was greatly surprised, knowing that if the traditional forging and steelmaking method is followed, this 10,000 catties of stainless steel will consume at least 50,000 or 60,000 catties of iron to be produced.

Forging 10,000 catties of steel every month, I am afraid that thousands of craftsmen have to work day and night to catch up. With such a large consumption of manpower and materials, the price must not be low. Thinking of this, Ji Liang asked a little nervously: "What about the price?" ”

"One thousand pounds of steel ingots, one thousand seven hundred taels of silver."

The price of conscience! Ji Liang asked cautiously, "The guarantee is the same as the steel used for this blade?" ”

"Return, exchange." Su Chengyu said indifferently, "To be honest, this knife is just a prototype. Those steels sold to you, the quality will only be better. During this time, the iron yard has been repeatedly testing the slag ratio and heat, and he believes that the current process should be higher than the first two furnaces.

Ji Liang seemed to see boxes of gold coins piled up in front of him, and hurriedly said: "If this is the case, the grass people want to buy this 10,000 catties of stainless steel every month!" ”