"You are Wu Lei?" Li Hao looked up and down at the slightly young man in front of him, and felt that this person looked quite upright, and his speech and demeanor were quite elegant, which was quite attractive.

"Back to King Qiongnan, the villain is Wu Lei." Wu Lei saluted respectfully, obviously a little excited.

Li Hao nodded and said, "This king is very curious, how did you make enough money with a penny in three days, can you tell me?" ”

"Absolutely." Wu Lei said, "The villain took a penny given by Commander Lu that day, bought two Hu Biscuits, and then ran to the construction site south of the port and sold them to the workers, because there were no vendors near the construction site, the villain felt that the workers worked hard, and it should be easy to get hungry, and the cakes should not be difficult to sell, so they came here to sell, and sure enough, some people were willing to buy them, but the villain raised the price, and each Hu Biscuit was sold for a penny, so that the villain made a penny, and then the villain continued to buy Hu Biscuits to sell ......"

"Wait!" Li Hao raised his hand to stop him and asked, "You won't use this method to make enough money, right?" ”

"It's not." Wu Lei shook his head and said, "The villain went back and forth several times, earning a hundred wen, others saw that the villain made money, and also came to sell cakes, and some people came to sell tea, the villain knew that he couldn't make much money if he continued to do it, so he took it when he saw it, found a bamboo tube, put fifty bamboo sticks in the bamboo tube, and the bottom of a bamboo stick was brushed with a little red paint, but put it in the bamboo tube, others could not see it, the villain went to the teahouse, let the tea guests draw lots, and if anyone drew the red paint at the bottom, the villain gave him fifty wen, but if the draw failed, the person who drew the lot gave the villain five cents.

"Wait!" Li Hao raised his hand again to interrupt him, frowning and said, "This is gambling, no...... How does it feel like a raffle......"

Li Hao was stunned for a moment, and then remembered that the lottery itself was a kind of gambling.

As soon as he heard that he was gambling, Wu Lei was immediately extremely nervous, because Li Hao had given Lu Yun an order to strictly prohibit the opening of gambling houses within Liuqiu, this matter, the people of Liuqiu knew about it, it can be seen that Li Hao hates gambling very much, and it is no wonder that Wu Lei is nervous.

Li Hao was not angry because of this incident, on the contrary, he admired Wu Lei's talent, it can be seen from selling cakes that he is very smart and can grasp business opportunities, but don't underestimate the matter of selling cakes, which reveals a lot of knowledge, the location of selling cakes, and the choice of the buying masses, which shows that Wu Lei has a unique eye and can find business opportunities, and when others come to sell cakes, he chooses to accept it when he sees it, and retreats bravely, which also proves that he can perceive the situation and is not greedy.

The lottery is a way to make money, which is Wu Lei's original, which was not available in ancient times, more than 1,000 years after this era, and it can also be seen from here that Wu Lei is really smart, and he can walk ahead of others ideologically, and he can naturally find business opportunities one step ahead of others.

Two simple things, Li Hao saw a very deep potential from Wu Lei, this is a natural business wizard, he must make good use of it, what books do you read.

Li Hao and the ancients thought differently, the ancients thought that everything was inferior only to high reading, the ancients also thought that there were no businessmen and no treachery, so they looked down on businessmen, and businessmen had a low status, but Li Hao thought that money was the last word, and money could make grinding ghosts, if he had no money, how could he develop Qiongnan and Liuqiu so prosperous, how could he build such a large fleet, how could he open his own business empire, how to set off the Age of Discovery, all of this was piled up with mountains of gold and silver.

Li Hao didn't need to listen to Wu Lei anymore, he showed a satisfied smile and asked, "Wu Lei, do you have any ambitions?" ”

Wu Lei saw that Li Hao was not only not angry, but also smiled, and he also asked himself what his ambitions were, and couldn't help but say happily: "Back to the prince, the villain's greatest ambition is to travel all over the world, because the villain recently learned from the book that this world is very big. ”

"Oh?" Li Hao raised his eyebrows when he heard this, and said with a smile, "The world is so big, do you want to go and see it?" ”

"Yes." Wu Lei nodded vigorously, "The villain wants to go and see." ”

Li Hao said happily: "That king recommends two books to you, one is "The Chronicles of the Territory", and the other is Master Xuanzang's "Records of the Western Regions of the Tang Dynasty", Master Xuanzang's book should still be compiled, but it should be close to the end of the compilation, it is estimated that the book will be completed within a year or two, and after the book is completed, this king will send someone to send it to you." ”

Wu Lei was flattered when he heard this, and hurriedly saluted excitedly: "Thank you, Lord Wang!" ”

"Don't be too busy just yet." Li Hao smiled and said, "There is also a good thing, this king seems to be a business talent, so I want to reuse you, in the future, this king's trade fleet will be handed over to you to take care of, but at the moment, you are still a newcomer, you still need to be sharpened, first listen to Lu Yun's arrangement, follow the ship for two years, two years later, you will be the king's maritime trade director, specializing in helping this king take care of maritime trade, how about it?" ”

"This ...... This...... How can the villain be virtuous! Wu Lei was really shocked this time, just met for the first time, Li Hao entrusted such a heavy task to his little person, it was unbelievable, he was really more frightened than surprised.

"Don't be afraid." Li Hao said, "You are very smart, as long as you accumulate a certain amount of maritime trade experience, two years later, you will be a bright star in the era of sailing, so that you can also take the fleet to every corner of the world." ”

Wu Lei was so excited that his eyes were red, he never expected that the flood brought a tragic change in his life, but he let himself get acquainted with his idol King Qiongnan, what he didn't expect the most was that King Qiongnan actually treated and reused him so much, he really didn't know how to express his mood at the moment with words, he tried to calm his emotions, let his tone be as calm as possible, and said: "Lord Wang, villain...... It's hard to repay the villain's broken bones! ”

"Why say it so seriously." Li Hao smiled lightly and waved his hand, turned his head to face Lu Yun, and said, "Lu Yun, haven't you prepared translations from many countries, pick a few important national translators, and let them call Wu Lei to speak foreign languages, he will be the king of the sea in the future, it is useful to learn these, but ...... This king still hopes that in ten years, or twenty years, the language of our Tang Dynasty can spread to every corner of this world, and all this depends on you, Wu Lei. ”

Wu Lei was shocked when he heard this, let the language of the Tang Dynasty spread to every corner of the world, what a grand ambition this is, Wu Lei compared Li Hao's ambition with his own ambition, Fang Jue Li Hao is great, no wonder he can become the king of Qiongnan from a white body at such a young age.

The fleet docked in Qiongnan for four days, Li Hao and Lu Yun also planned all the routes, and then Li Hao personally sent Lu Yun on board the ship, and saw them go to sea, this time to go to sea, it is not as simple as the last time to go to the country, this time they brought out the materials, more than ten times the last time, and they also shoulder the two heavy burdens of Xuanwei and the spread of Tang culture, which is of epoch-making significance, if the voyage is successful, it is very likely that this is the first voyage of the Age of Discovery, and it is also the starting point of the era of Discovery.

After sending Lu Yun away, Li Hao gave another very important order to build artillery.

Although he now has a ship, but his ship is not too strong aggressive, the power of the bed crossbow is limited after all, can not meet Li Hao's requirements, his requirements are very high, he feels that these sea ships, only with artillery, can be strong in the world, dominating the sea, so it is imperative to manufacture artillery.

There are many kinds of artillery, like the red-coated cannon in the Ming Dynasty, which is a relatively old one, although the power can also be deterred, but the range is not far, the power is not satisfactory, and the loading is too troublesome, Li Hao is a traverser after all, he either doesn't do it, he wants to do it well, he plans to go beyond the old artillery, directly make a cannon, his goal is set for cannons.

In the Anti-Japanese War movie, you can see that those cannons with wheels and pushed out, there is a gunner who stirs the hinge in the back and adjusts the direction of the muzzle, which is the kind of cannon, the cannon is characterized by a long barrel, a small elevation angle, a low and flat trajectory, and can be fired directly, the muzzle velocity of the cannonball is high, the firing range is long, and the cannon range of the cannon in the future world can reach 15 kilometers, that is, 30 miles, what concept.

The manufacture of artillery is very complicated, the requirements for steel are very high, and the gun body is required to have extremely strong toughness, otherwise it is easy to blow up the chamber, and the cannon is not a joke, so in the Ming Dynasty, the cannon body was made of copper, because copper is a metal with relatively high toughness, even if the cannon body is made of copper, the gun body of the ancient cannon is still extremely thick, because the artillery at that time did not have a shell, and the gun was ignited directly with gunpowder, and the pressure on the gun body was too great, and it was naturally easy to explode, so later the West would have sub-cannons, That is, the predecessor of the cartridge cannon.

Li Hao has actually secretly studied artillery for a long time, and has done a lot of preparatory work, if he wants to make artillery, he must refine the alloy structural steel that shapes the cannon body, and he knows the alloy steel materials used to make artillery, but some of the rarer metals are a little difficult to get, not that he can't get them, but the amount is a bit large, after all, it is to make artillery, and he can't only make one artillery, so the amount of rare metal materials needed is not small.

However, Li Hao firmly believes that the problems that can be solved with money are not called problems, as long as rare metals exist on the earth, he can get them, at most, it takes a little more money to spend a little money, how big a deal it is.

The material problem is not the most difficult, the most difficult is the manufacture of shells, if you want to make shell shells, it is not as simple as the shells of the red-coat cannon, the fuse of the touch explosion at the top is a difficult problem, this is not difficult for Li Hao, the final design of the shell is the kind of sub-loading, the projectile and the cartridge are separated, the fuze part is filled with red phosphorus and sulfur, the tip of the shell is retractable, equipped with a small spring, the expansion range is only three millimeters, connected to the red phosphorus with a flint, and behind the red phosphorus sulfur, it is the sealed gunpowder, Although this can also achieve the effect of detonation, there is a disadvantage, the shell is not waterproof, and as soon as it is soaked in water, it will stop and become a dud.

Although it is a fly in the ointment, for the sake of safety, Li Hao can only do this step, and he will slowly improve it when he has time in the future.

In addition to the fuse at the top of the shell, the tail fuse seems to be more difficult, and the tail must not use red phosphorus and flint, otherwise a random bump may cause an explosion.

Li Hao has thought hard about this problem for a long time, and after asking his brother Li Cheng, he has a solution, in fact, it is a truth with a gun bullet, the bottom of the bullet is fired, also known as the primer, the bullet primer in the future world, there are two major ways, namely the Bakser type primer and the Paedan primer.

And Li Hao finally chose the Bakser-style primer, in fact, it is to inlay a primer cup at the bottom of the bullet, and place a special primer for ignition in the cup, as long as the primer cup is hit by gravity by a sharp object, it will detonate the primer, and the strong explosion pressure will pass through the ignition hole, enter the cartridge case, push the bullet, and make the bullet fire.

Shells and bullets are actually a principle, so Li Hao decided to use this method of ignition, which is safe and reliable.

Manufacturing artillery is a high-risk industry, Li Hao is actually very worried in his heart, it took two months, Li Hao spent tens of thousands of tons to collect more than a dozen tons of rare metals, at the same time, all the artillery castings have been done, just waiting for steelmaking casting.

It is not very dangerous to manufacture the gun body, Li Hao personally guided, and after the parts of the gun body were cast, they were polished and assembled.

Because it is a shell gun, it is loaded from the tail, and this time the barrel thickness is 8 cm, and the bottom barrel thickness is 1 cm, because the bottom is in the explosive position, the pressure is the largest, so it is thicker, so it is safe.

After the cannon body is built, it is mounted on the base, 1.8 meters long, with a caliber of 130 mm, which is much smaller than the cannon.