Listening to Albert talk about the Dutch, Wang Xinyu's first reaction was to feel whether the Dutch had cooperated with the Qing court! This is not alarmist, in real history, the Qing court was looking for the help of the Dutch, and only then did the wise and martial national integration hero General Shi Lang cross the sea to defeat the separatist Zheng family, and later generations also filmed a TV series dedicated to praising the national hero Shi Lang, in this film, Zheng Jing, who was obviously unwilling to sell sovereignty to the Dutch, became a traitor, and the Qing court ******** national sovereignty and defeated Zheng Jing who colluded with the Dutch to sell the interests of the motherland.

The real history is that the Qing court found the Dutch to cooperate, on the condition of betraying Taiwan's interests. Qing Zhengfu, who likes traitorous treaties the most, has betrayed the country since the first emperor Kangxi.

If there were no Western-style warships of the Dutch, it would not be easy to defeat Zheng Jing with the few broken ships of the Qing army's sailors.

Wang Xinyu keenly felt that the Qing court must have the idea of cooperating with the Dutch! At present, the territory of the Southern Ming was scattered and completely dependent on sea communication links, which was an advantage, because the Qing court did not have a navy to threaten itself; But it is also a weakness, since this model is seriously threatened by foreign navies.

At present, the silk produced in Jiangnan controlled by Wang Xinyu, the ceramics, gold, and silver imported from Japan, the tea, porcelain and raw silk from the official kiln smuggled from China, the spices produced in Nanyang, and the machinery, precision instruments, clocks, and precious stones produced in the Middle East and Africa purchased from the British East India Company in Burma must all be transported through the sea route.

At that time, the profits of maritime trade were very staggering, and although Zheng Zhilong defeated the Dutch in the coastal seas, he was still unable to open up the route from Fujian to the South Seas, and the trade he carried out was only to use a few of his ports to do some business with the Spaniards and Portuguese, plus the trade route from Fujian to Japan. made Zheng Zhilong the richest maritime merchant in the Ming Dynasty.

Now Wang Xinyu has opened up the Nanyang route through cooperation with the British and the Spanish, and also opened up the Strait of Malacca, and the trade profits obtained from it have long exceeded Zheng Zhilong, and his Nanyang company has also become one of the three major trading companies in the world, the other two are the British East India Company and the Dutch East India Company.

"Boss. You're absolutely right! The Dutch had already signed a treaty with us, so why did they suddenly change their minds, it must have something to do with the barbarians in the north! I think that our fleet should ensure the safety of the Strait of Malacca first, and only after the construction of the Singapore Fort is completed, can our fleet go to the mouth of the Yangtze River to settle accounts with those barbarians. Albert said.

"That's right! The turret is the most important thing! Singapore must not be lost! Wang Xinyu nodded.

Singapore is not only a lucrative city where goods from all over the world can be bought, but it is also an important base for entrepot trade, as well as providing fresh water and supplies to merchant ships. Moreover, Singapore is of great significance to the entire Nanming and Nanyang Company, and to control Singapore is to control the Strait of Malacca, which not only ensures the smooth flow of shipping routes, but also can introduce the British to deal with the Dutch at any time. Singapore is also the choke point from Qiongzhou, Luzon, and Borneo islands to the Southern Ming Dynasty in Burma, and the Qiongzhou Army, Zhejiang Army, and Zhengjia Army in the east must pass through Singapore to contact the Xiying, Western Expeditionary Army, and Kuidong Righteous Army in the west. Suppose Singapore is captured by the Dutch. Then the entire Nanming was cut into two by someone, and the end could not be connected.

The casting of superguns is not an easy task. Especially this heavy artillery with rifling. There is no way to cast such a large cannon with iron mold casting cannon method, and the primitive clay mold casting cannon method can only be adopted, but fortunately, the number of rifled heavy guns required is not much, and there is not much clay mold. After the barrel is cast, a rifling is carved out on the inner wall with a knife and a boring machine.

Engraving rifling is not a complicated technique. It's just too time-consuming and labor-intensive. In addition, the most difficult problem to solve was how to load the shells of the front-loading rifled guns.

Directly build a breech-loading gun? With the current technology, it is simply impossible to produce, and the afterloading gun involves various aspects of metallurgical technology, materials science, mechanical engineering and structural science. The current technology is not up to par, and if you insist on building a breech gun, I am afraid that when you fire it, it will not automatically pop off the bolt. When gunpowder gas is sprayed to kill and injure one's own people, it directly smashes the cannon bolt and turns it into fragments scattered at one's own gunners, or it is a serious gas leak.

Wang Xinyu also considered imitating the Franc machine gun, making an opening in the belly of the cannon to realize the function of rear-loading shells. However, it is impossible to make a big Franc cannon, and the gas leakage is very serious, if the rifling is added to the front, the friction of the cannon ejection is increased, and it is designed to look like the Franc cannon, and it is a question whether the shell can be shot out, and I am afraid that all the gunpowder gas will be sprayed to the back at that time. In the end, Wang Xinyu decided to use a front-loading gun with mature technology.

However, after engraving the rifling, the question arises again, the friction between the shell and the barrel increases, how to load the shell? You can't hammer it like a rifled gun. The bullet is light and can be punched with a hammer. The weight of the shell is large, and one shell of this heavy artillery is more than 100 catties, who can use a hammer to knock the shell into it?

In the end, Wang Xinyu considered that one of the methods he had seen before was to put rivets on the shells, so that when the shells were fired, the rivets could jam the rifling and realize the rotation of the shells. Anyway, the production of this kind of shell does not require too high accuracy, compared to the mini bullet rifle bullet, the technology is much simpler, but the cost of this kind of shell is too high, and the casting of the cannon is also very complicated, so it is impossible to equip it in large quantities.

The use of rivets to drive into the shell made it possible to make the shell smaller than the barrel and easier to load.

There is another small cannon of smaller caliber in the Singapore battery, which is about equivalent to the caliber of an eight-pounder gun, which is also a front-loading rifled gun, except that the inner wall of the barrel is not round, but hexagonal, and the shells are also hexagonal. This is the Westworth hexagonal cannon, which also rotates when fired and is quite accurate. However, this kind of cannon is also expensive and technically complex, and under today's scientific and technological conditions, it is impossible to build more, and only a few cannons can be manufactured and used on the fort. In the future, this hexagonal gun can be considered on warships, using a rotating gun mount. It was placed on deck, but that was for later.

With these advanced weapons, there is no need to worry about the Dutch provoking.

Wang Xinyu stayed in Singapore for only two days, visited the construction progress of the fort, and then went to see the casting artillery and the special artillery shell manufacturing plant under construction. Then I went to see the shipyard again.

On the seventh day of the first lunar month, Wang Xinyu took Zheng Xi and Zheng Jing to embark on the clipper ship again, left Singapore, and went to Pontianak City, Borneo Island, where the headquarters of Nanyang Bank is located.

The clipper boat sailed into the Kajiang River, a large river known to the locals as the Kapuas River, and the shadow of Pontianak City in front of it gradually became clear in Wang Xinyu's eyes. It's been two years since I've been to Borneo, and after two years, Pontianak City has undergone drastic changes. This city, built by overseas Han Chinese, is now a fortified city with bastions and forts. Because the Dutch had appeared in the southern part of the island of Borneo, occupied Matapura, and established a colony there as well. In order to deal with the threat of the possible arrival of the Dutch, Nanyang did not dare to relax its guard here.

In real history, the Dutch posed a threat to the Han Chinese of Borneo for more than 200 years, but now that history has changed, it is likely that the Dutch will come to the Chinese towns of Pontianak, Sankouyang, Dong Wanlu and Kuching in advance. on this. Wang Xinyu and Nanyang Company will never dare to take it lightly.

The boat docked, and Wang Xinyu and others were surrounded by a group of personal soldiers. I got off the boat and went straight to the central bank of the Nanyang Company in the city.

Wang Xinyu himself is a senior manager of Nanyang Company, and he is the king of Dongdu and the king of Dongzhou, two county kings to run business, so naturally the procedures for handling loans are very simple, Wang Xinyu picked up the contract and glanced at it, and signed his name on it. The loan amount on the contract is still blank, so he can fill it in casually.

"Let's give you a loan of one million taels first, so much silver is enough for a long time." Wang Xinyu turned his head to look at Zheng Xi and Zheng Jing, and saw that they nodded, so he wrote down the amount of one million taels of silver on the contract. One million taels of silver was an astronomical amount of money back then. If Wang Xinyu hadn't come forward, not to mention that the king of Dongdu and the king of Dongzhou would have come to take out a loan, even if it was Li Dingguo's loan, Nanyang Bank would not have been able to approve it immediately, and it would have to go through strict review.

"There are so many people queuing up over there, what are they doing?" Zheng Jing asked, pointing to the people who had formed a long line at the entrance of the bank.

"Oh, that's the guy who bought the stock warrant. Nanyang Company is about to issue shares, and only those who have purchased the stock subscription warrants can buy the original shares issued by Nanyang Company. Wang Xinyu replied.

"How can there be such a thing? Can anyone who bought your original shares make a fortune? Zheng Jing's eyes widened.

"Not bad! Those who bought the original shares must make a sure profit! Wang Xinyu said with a smile.

A security guard at Nanyang Corporation Bank on the side said: "They all came to line up all night!" It's not on sale yet, and the queue is a few blocks away! ”

Now Wang Xinyu's Nanyang Company has made a lot of money by virtue of sea trade, as well as the gold, silver, and copper mines of Borneo and Luzon, and the Nanyang Company has become very rich, and in just three years, the value of each of the shares of the first batch of shareholders has increased by 26 times! Those Nanyang Chinese businessmen who refused to buy shares back then all regretted their bowels. Now they want to take a stake? I'm sorry, but it's not that cheap, and I won't give shares so casually. Nanyang Company is about to issue shares, and those who want to buy shares must first purchase a share warrant.

As a result, after the announcement of the issuance of shares came down, all the people who got the news rushed their heads to line up to buy stock warrants. When buying a stock subscription warrant, you first buy a lottery ticket to go to the lottery. Each ticket sells for 10 cents, the winning rate is 1 in 10, and each winning ticket can get a stock subscription warrant that qualifies you to buy 1,000 original shares. Each original share of stock sells for three pieces of silver.

"Aunt Liu, are you also queuing up to buy subscription warrants and lottery tickets?" Wang Xinyu recognized Aunt Liu standing in the long queue at a glance. This Aunt Liu is also an old acquaintance, she resolutely opposed her daughter marrying Jiang Zhiping, and in the end, Wang Xinyu forcibly made the decision and asked her to marry her daughter to Jiang Zhiping.

Now that Jiang Zhiping has been promoted to a third-grade guerrilla, Aunt Liu only then understands that her son-in-law has a bright future. It's just that Jiang Zhiping was sent to Jiangxi by Wang Xinyu and became one of the generals of the Jiangxi army, developing guerrilla warfare in the heart of the Qing army.

"Of course I want to buy it! Such a good thing, how can the old lady miss it! Aunt Liu replied.

Someone in the crowd sneered: "Aunt Liu, if you win the lottery, do you have so much money to buy tickets?" ”

"Hahaha!" Immediately, the crowd erupted in laughter.

"Don't underestimate the old lady! The old lady can afford it! Aunt Liu replied confidently.

"It's time, it's on sale!" I don't know who shouted in front of me.

There was a commotion in the queue of people, some people were ready to move, trying to run to the front to cut the line, but standing on the edge of the line, the bank security personnel wearing the uniforms of the Ming army were not vegetarians, and when they saw someone trying to cut the line, they immediately rushed up and dragged the person out of the line, regardless of whether he wanted to or not, he drove directly to the back of the line, and the one who refused to go was the leather whip to serve.

The speed of buying subscription warrants and redeeming lottery tickets is very fast, and ordinary people buy ten consecutive numbers, just enough to win the lottery; Some of them were domestic servants sent by wealthy merchants, and they bought hundreds, or even thousands, of consecutive lottery tickets.

Wang Xinyu, Zheng Jing and Zheng Xi were also interested, standing aside and watching with interest as people lined up to buy.

When it was Aunt Liu's turn, I only heard her say something amazing: "Girl, come and give me a thousand lottery tickets!" As she spoke, she took out a piece of ten taels of silver from her bosom and handed it over.

"A thousand?" The people who had just bought the lottery ticket and the queue behind them were stunned. 1,000 can win 100 warrants, and each warrant can buy 1,000 shares, that is, a warrant of stock requires 300 taels of silver to buy. One hundred warrants cost 30,000 taels of silver to buy! Does this Aunt Liu have so much money? Sold her daughter and grandson, I'm afraid there won't be so much!

"Auntie, you can think about it, if you win the lottery and don't have the money to buy so many stocks, your subscription warrants will be wasted, and your ten taels of silver will also be wasted!" The little girl at the counter said with kind words.

Looking at the hesitant teller girl, Aunt Liu said very decisively: "A thousand!" One is not less! ”

The teller accepted the money and gave Aunt Liu a thousand lottery tickets.

About an hour later, the long queue behind was still a mile long, but Nanyang Bank put up a sign saying "All the lottery tickets have been sold out". Then the Ming sergeant who maintained order came forward and advised everyone to go home, the original stock was only issued so much, it was impossible to sell the lottery tickets anymore, and if you want to buy it in the future, you can only buy second-hand shares in the stock market.

There was a shouting and scolding from the crowd, and some people tried to break into the bank counter door, but they were all driven out by the Ming army.

Several more sensible people stood up and shouted, "Everyone is gone, let's all go back!" That's the rule, and we didn't buy it! It's just that we didn't judge accurately, and we knew that we would come to line up overnight! ”

The long queue slowly dispersed at this time, but there were still many unwilling people who refused to leave, and wanted to try to talk to the people at the bank to see if they could buy lottery tickets. Even someone wanted to rush up directly to find Wang Xinyu to buy it, but they were driven away by his own soldiers.

"Woo, it's miserable! I didn't buy a lottery ticket, and the lord is going to kill me when I go back! A man who looked like a domestic servant fell to his knees and wept bitterly.

There was also a fat, businessman-like man who fell directly to the ground, foaming at the mouth unconscious.

At this moment, a voice suddenly came out of the crowd that was no less than the voice of heaven for these people who had not bought lottery tickets: "If you haven't bought lottery tickets, you can ask me to buy them!" The price of ten consecutive numbers is fifty taels of silver! ”

The person who spoke was Aunt Liu, who had just bought a thousand subscription warrants to redeem lottery tickets in one go!

Hearing this voice, the big fat man who fell to the ground and foamed at the mouth immediately got up, pushed away the crowd, and squeezed in front of Aunt Liu: "I'll buy it!" I bought them all! ”

"I can't sell you all! The old lady has to take care of others! I can only sell you a maximum of 100 copies! In addition, the old lady herself has to keep a hundred consecutive numbers! Aunt Liu smiled with a smile.

Immediately, more people crowded up, surrounded Aunt Liu, and stretched out one hand after another: "I'll buy it!" I buy! ”

Wang Xinyu was dumbfounded: Is this a scalper? After spending ten taels of silver, he kept a hundred for himself, and the rest changed hands and immediately became four thousand five hundred taels of silver! That's too lucrative, isn't it?

In fact, the people who buy scalper tickets from Aunt Liu are not at a loss, they can definitely make money after buying the original shares! (To be continued.) )