On the third day after Sun Yuanhua returned to Beijing to report, the General Staff Headquarters quickly passed a resolution to set up two companies of new-style artillery units to test the performance of the artillery and the way the artillery marched and fought. Each artillery company has six guns and is divided into three artillery platoons.

Artillery crews previously equipped with the use of old firearms in the new army were withdrawn, and the personnel of the newly formed artillery units were temporarily divided into three ranks, auxiliaries, gunners and gunners. Each gunner will be awarded the official title of general flag, and the commander of the gun will be given the rank of hundred. Auxiliaries receive 150% of the infantry's salary, while gunners and gunners receive double salaries.

At the same time, as the temperature rises, the port of Tianjin has finally opened. After the news reached the capital, the meeting of the Maritime Merchants Association finally came to an end, and Zheng Zhilong and other southern maritime merchants were ready to return to Taiwan and Fujian and Guangzhou by sea to carry out a new round of commercial activities during the trade season.

And after these maritime chiefs saw the artillery drills specially prepared for them by Chongzhen, and after making sure that they could also * these artillery, they asked the ordnance superintendent * enough cannons to equip 10 ships.

Zheng Zhilong was the most wealthy, and he took 4 ships in one go, while the others only tried to buy 1-2 ships, after all, this ordnance supervisor had just learned to cast cannons, and no one could guarantee that the cannons they had arrived could be like those cannons in the exercise.

For these semi-independent maritime merchants who were under the jurisdiction of the Ming Dynasty, but had independent personnel rights and wartime command rights, Chongzhen gave a price that was twice as high as that provided to the army directly under the Ming Dynasty. Although this price is a bit expensive in the eyes of Sun Yuanhua and others, it is about half cheaper than the price given by the Macau Artillery Factory and the Dutch East India Company.

What's more, for large-caliber 18-pounder guns, these Europeans will never sell. The 18-pounder Hongyi cannon sold to the Ming Dynasty by the Macao people was not a military item, but a civilian item on a wrecked British merchant ship. The people of Macao did not want to offend the Ming officials who bought the cannons from them, and did not want to sell military cannons that could endanger the Macao batteries and ships, so they instructed the Ming people to salvage the civilian artillery on the British merchant ships.

Although in the minds of most maritime merchants, the way to fight at sea is to use fire to attack small ships or jump gangs in hand-to-hand combat. But the disadvantage of this tactic is that either the battlefield is close to their base, or they have an advantage in the number and number of ships. If the battlefield is in the ocean or in the waters where others are entrenched, it will be difficult for them to use the above methods to win.

Previously, these maritime merchants or amateur pirates were only operating in the coastal waters of the Ming Dynasty, so for the foreign ships that broke into the Daming waters, they could always gain an advantage by relying on their homeland, even if they could not burn the other party's ships, they could also drive the other party's ships out of their sphere of influence.

In addition to facing the sailors of the Ming Dynasty, both sides can be regarded as having geographical advantages, so it can only be seen who can't hold on first. Although the Eighteen Zhi Pirate Maritime Merchants Group led by Zheng Zhilong repeatedly defeated the Ming army and sailors, and plundered the coastal areas of Fujian several times, in fact, his massive plundering actions not only did not shake the foundation of the Ming Dynasty, but even the inland of Fujian did not affect it.

With the continuous defeat of the officers and troops of the Fujian Naval Division, the fishermen and gentry in the coastal areas began to spontaneously form regiments to train the people's army, among which the militia group formed by Cao Lutai of Anzhi County and Dong Yingju, the gentry of Fujian, has thwarted several pirate invasions.

And this is also the reason why Zheng Zhilong decided that only accepting the imperial court's recruitment was the final way out for Eighteen Zhi, because if they continued to be hostile to the imperial court, the forces organized by the Fujian gentry alone would already make their ships unable to go ashore, and it was obviously a delusion to want to shake the southeast half of the Ming Dynasty.

Now that they were recruited by the imperial court, Chongzhen did not force them to go ashore, but allowed them to go to foreign seas to open up new routes for trade, which naturally fell into the hands of these maritime merchants.

However, the maritime merchants who originally gathered in the corner of the southeast coast of the Ming Dynasty had just stepped out of their homes and found that their seemingly huge strength had not yet filled a quarter of the ocean in Southeast Asia, and they already felt a little powerless.

Originally, the Ming maritime merchants who relied on numbers to win in the coastal waters of the Ming Dynasty found that they could not compare with the local indigenous pirates in terms of ships and numbers; In terms of the quality of the ships, they could not compare with those Europeans.

As a result, they are in a very awkward situation. Once they were confronted in the outer seas, they were either overwhelmed by the number of native pirates, or they were re-educated by the Europeans with tall plywood boats and artillery.

If it weren't for the fact that they are now hanging the signboard of the Ming official army, whether it is the natives of Southeast Asia or the Europeans, they can't figure out their details, so they don't have trouble with them for the time being, it is estimated that these Ming maritime merchants will not be able to gain a foothold in these areas at all, and can only rely on a certain force to settle down like the Chinese merchants who went to sea before.

It is precisely because of this sinister environment that Zheng Zhilong, Yang Tiansheng, Zhong Bin, Li Kuiqi and others have to put aside their contradictions, cooperate in foreign countries, and begin to find ways to gain a foothold in foreign countries.

Unlike Yang Tiansheng, Zhong Bin, Li Kuiqi and others, who were still taking one step at a time, Zheng Zhilong, who had spent a few days in the Dutch East India Company, quickly decided that only by learning the ways of the Dutch could his fleet gain the right to sail freely on the sea.

Although the Dutch were known for their weak naval trade in Europe, freight was cheap and fast. But the Dutch East India Company's style of doing business in Southeast Asia was entirely a barrage-backed deal.

In order to monopolize the output of the Spice Islands, they blockaded the islands by force, making it impossible for foreign merchant ships to land on the Spice Islands for trading; On the one hand, he used force to persecute the king of the island, and placed the spice trade under the management of the East India Company.

Therefore, what Zheng Zhilong learned from the Dutch was to use strong ships and cannons to open the way for trade escorts. In fact, he wanted to imitate the model of European merchant ships and install guns on ships, so as to revolutionize the way of fighting at sea.

First, it is always easier to fire from artillery than to attack ships with fire, and secondly, ships equipped with artillery can use artillery to drive away the opponent's ships even when they are surrounded by superior enemies, thus creating conditions for escape.

However, the people of Macao were apparently reluctant to sell him artillery, because he was friendly with the Dutch, and had attacked Portuguese merchant ships at sea that were bound for Japanese trade. The Portuguese in Macau, apparently fearing that the artillery would be sold to him, would be used by Cheng Chi Long to blockade the Macao-Japan shipping route, so they resolutely refused him.

As for Zheng Zhilong's former owner, although he had promised to sell him a few cannons, it was because the Ming refused to establish direct trade ties with the Dutch East India Company, so he wanted to conduct indirect trade through him.

But now that the Dutch East India Company had established direct trade ties with the Ming Dynasty, Zheng Zhilong's promise had long been forgotten.

Now that the imperial court is willing to provide them with artillery and ammunition, Zheng Zhilong doesn't care about 3721, and first orders a cannon that is enough to equip 4 ships and a large amount of ammunition.

A total of 389 cannons, 250 tons of shells and 150 tons of guns*, plus 3,200 arquebuses and 15 tons of guns*, the total contract price is 300,000 yuan, and it is agreed that all will be delivered by the end of October this year. The Ordnance Superintendent earned at least 45 per cent of the profits from this contract.

Under pressure from Chongzhen, the Maritime Merchants Association eventually recognized that merchants from all provinces should have a fair chance to participate in overseas trade. However, the policies formulated by the maritime associations are clearly biased in favor of maritime merchants who have already taken the lead in overseas trade.

For example, most of the tonnage taxes required to be paid by ships involved in overseas trade fell into the hands of the founders of the maritime association, although Chongzhen, under the criticism of merchant representatives from the southeastern provinces, ordered the money to be transferred to a newly established maritime bureau for the establishment of waterway beacons, navigation beacons, and rescue.

However, everyone understands very well that this is just a trick to cover up people's ears, after all, these maritime bureaus still belong to the maritime merchants who previously governed the local waters.

However, on the whole, the representatives of these businessmen were satisfied with their participation in the meeting of the Maritime Association, after all, after the change from the bow tax to the tonnage tax, a part of the ship tax that needs to be paid has been reduced.

And the representatives of these merchants finally came to the conclusion that in order to gain benefits from the merchants of these maritime associations, they must first obtain the support of the emperor. Otherwise, with their loose strength, they would not be able to stop this group of sea merchants who have ships and guns at sea.

Therefore, under the mediation of Shen Tingyang, these merchant representatives reached an agreement with the commercial steward of the Inner Court, which was renamed the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the Inner Court contributed 250,000 yuan and the merchants of the southeastern provinces contributed 750,000 yuan to set up a north-south trading and shipping company.

The company supplies 5 vessels each to Tianjin Shipyard and Longjiang Shipyard for north-south cargo transportation and overseas trade, and the tonnage of each vessel must be between 300-600 tons.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs basically did not contribute money, but the shipping company jointly established with the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau was directly transferred to this new company. Shen Tingyang's sixth uncle was designated by Chongzhen as the head of the new company, responsible for the day-to-day operations of this trading and shipping company. The Ministry of Internal Affairs sent two people to form the board of directors of the company with six people nominated by other shareholders, plus Shen Tingyang's sixth uncle, to decide on the company's affairs.

When Zheng Zhilong and others were about to leave the capital, the British merchant Andre also asked the Ming court to leave, and he needed to hand over the trade agreement signed with the Ming Dynasty as soon as possible, and the general manager of the East India Company in Southeast Asia, who had settled in Banten, in order to finalize a formal trade agreement between China and Britain.

Although the organization of the British East India Company is still very loose, he is still not qualified to negotiate this mission with his position in the company.

Andrei came to the capital with the idea of seeing if he could make a deal with the Chinese merchant even if he couldn't negotiate. Now that the negotiations have been successful, he has to return as soon as possible with the fruits of his victory to prevent his false emissary from being revealed, thus provoking the Chinese to annul the trade deal.

Chongzhen met with André again, in which it was confirmed that he would return to Beijing in May and June, and then return to England on the monsoon in September and October.

Zhu Youzhen thought for a while and said to him: "Then when you come to the capital again, I will prepare a ship to go to England with you." In addition to traveling through Europe, my envoys will ask your king for Chinese merchant ships to go to England for free trade, and I hope that friendly relations between the two countries will be established. Of course, I have also prepared some small gifts for the king of your country, representing my friendship. ”

Andrei suddenly felt his heart beat a little faster, and he realized that his adventure seemed to be too successful, and the emperor of the Chinese Empire, who was equal to the Mughal emperor of India, was willing to take the initiative to make overtures to the British king, and intended to establish friendly relations between China and Britain.

Andrei was not one of those uninformed adventurers who simply ran to the East in search of riches. He was well aware of what it meant for Britain to establish friendly relations with such an East Asian suzerain, China.

Because it was too late to set its sights on the New World, Britain was a latecomer in both the Americas and Asia. Of course, compared to its old rivals, the French, Britain is still one step ahead.

But the New World had been divided between Spain and Portugal, and even the Dutch, who were now the most powerful at sea, had only wrested a small part of Southeast Asia from the declining Portuguese. The British merchants, who were weaker than the Dutch, had to wander away from these rich colonies and engage in the business of smuggling and piracy.

The Dutch, who had occupied Batavia, were now almost overwhelmed by the British in Southeast Asia. The British trade halls in Japan were abolished, and the trade halls set up in other parts of Southeast Asia were running out.

And the reason why British merchants have fallen to such a point is simply the lack of a strong ally in Asia. With the decline of the Portuguese, but because Macau was backed by China, the Dutch were several times unable to conquer.

If the British East India Company could establish a base in China, they could imagine whether it was the Philippines for the Spaniards or the Spice Islands for the Dutch.

Suddenly, the burden of maintaining the friendship between China and Britain fell on his shoulders so inadvertently, and André could almost imagine that if he messed up this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, the angry executives of the company and the king would surely let him hang on London Bridge for a thousand years.

After taking a few deep breaths, Andrei, who calmed down, said to the interpreter beside him: "Please tell Your Majesty that I will definitely return to Beijing as soon as possible." and escort the friendship of His Majesty to His Majesty in safety and integrity..."