432 win-win cooperation

[Today's chapter is presented, please collect and subscribe!!] Thanks! 】

"Haha, General Li is just refreshing. Since General Li is so cheerful, then the official can't be stingy.

In the future, as long as it is a merchant ship flying the flag of your Li family, it will go to sea, and my Zheng family fleet will provide you with protection and will not accept insurance...... Any fees. ”

Zheng Zhilong originally wanted to talk about the protection fee, but the protection fee was not very good, so he quickly changed his words.

Zheng Zhilong also understands that, just like Li Zixiao said, the cake of maritime trade is very big, and it is impossible for the Zheng family to enjoy it exclusively.

"Then thank you Zheng-sama."

Li Zixiao said with a smile, this is also one of his goals this time, and it has been achieved.

Li Zixiao also wants a piece of the maritime trade, and more importantly, he hopes to form a fleet to go to sea first, explore the way to Nanyang and other places, and accumulate experience.

In a few years, when the naval army in his hands becomes stronger, it is time to fully open the sea ban, and after accumulating experience in maritime trade, the maritime trade under his command can also become bigger and bigger.

In general, Li Zixiao set up the City Department this time to attract Zheng Zhilong, on the one hand, to dig a pit, so that the Zheng family and the Dutch feel that they were fighting at sea and weakening the strength of both sides.

The other is to try maritime trade initially, accumulate experience, show muscles to the Zheng family, and seek more cooperation later.

And the big pit dug for Zheng Zhilong in front of Li Zixiao is Li Zixiao's real purpose, but he doesn't know if Zheng Zhilong will jump down.

"General Li, is the kind of artillery that opened the shells that this official saw just now a new artillery for the imperial court?"

The flowering bomb that Zheng Zhilong said, Li Zixiao knew that it was the 'explosive bomb' that they were equipped with in the army at this time.

"Oh, that kind of artillery, it was built by the craftsmen under Ben General, and it is also the standard artillery in our army at this time."

"Yes, there are many skilled craftsmen under the general! I saw that the artillery under the general was extremely accurate, how did this happen? ”

Li Zixiao took a sip of the teacup and replied casually: "Our flowering bomb is different from the traditional flowering bomb of the Ming Dynasty, we use the manufacturing scheme of the Western flowering bomb and improve the delayed fuse. ”

Of course, Li Zixiao also wanted to use the flowering bomb designed by Daming himself, but unfortunately he did not have such craftsmen, and this technology was even lost in history, and not many people in later generations of Chinese descendants knew about it.

The only thing Li Zixiao knew was the manufacturing method of this flowering bomb in the West, and he told Wu Yao of the Arsenal Ammunition Institute to make it more than a month.

"This officer saw that the kind of firecrackle in the general's army seemed to be different from ordinary firecrackers, not only had a different shape, but also did not use the fire rope to ignite, and the firing rate was extremely high.

Dare to ask the general, is this a flint flint gun? Zheng Zhilong continued to ask the question in his heart.

"Even? Does Master Zheng know about the broken hair? That's right, it's a flintlock gun, which can be shot without an arquebus. ”

"This kind of broken hair gun under the general is very similar to a kind of fire gun brought by the red-haired ghost in Yizhou (the Dutch, Zheng Zhilong calls the red-haired ghost to Westerners) some time ago.

The red-haired ghosts hold a firecrackle in their hands, and they don't need a firewire to start a fire, but their mute fire rate is very high, and it is far less stable than the flintlock gun like the general. ”

After Zheng Zhilong finished speaking, Li Zixiao nodded, he also knew that at this time, there should have been flintlock pistols in the West, but it has not yet completely evolved, and it is still imperfect.

"Our Zheng family fleet far surpasses the red-haired ghost in terms of the size of the warship and the personnel, but only the artillery and firearm in the hands of the red ghost are much sharper than ours.

I wonder if the general can sell us a batch of this artillery, flowering shells and flintlock guns? ”

"Of course there is no problem, in the future, the Daming Haijiang will still need your Zheng family to protect it, how could Ben be stingy with these, but the manufacture of these artillery, flowering shells and flintlock guns is quite silver......"

Li Zixiao pretended to be quite generous and replied, but in the end, his eyes looked at Zheng Zhilong.

"General rest assured, silver is not a problem, as long as the price is right, our Zheng family is willing to purchase hundreds of these artillery, we can discuss this in detail."

Zheng Zhilong is not short of money, and said very generously.

Li Zixiao then said: "I don't need silver, I originally planned to order fleet ships from General Zheng, and now Lord Zheng also takes a fancy to my artillery."

Lord Zheng can use ships to trade with us, but I have long heard of the kind of three-masted gunboats under Lord Zheng, and I have always wanted to buy a few. ”

Li Zixiao also said at this time that another very important purpose for him to meet Zheng Zhilong this time was to buy sea boats.

At this time, Qingjiang Shipyard does not know when it will be fully put into operation, and it is far away from the production of large sea vessels.

There is no way, Li Zixiao is in Qingjiang Shipyard and can build large sea ships by himself, he needs to buy sea boats from other channels.

Among them, Zheng Zhilong is undoubtedly the most suitable choice, he has many shipyards in Fujian, and the sea ships produced have long been inspected by the Zheng family at sea, and they are all more practical sea ships.

Take the three-masted gunboat, for example.

This kind of three-masted gunboat is a giant battleship in Zheng Zhilong's naval division, the length of the warship is 20 zhang, it can accommodate 300 soldiers, it is divided into five layers, the tree has three masts, the mast is 4 zhang high, and it carries 40 guns of the Franc machine and eight heavy "red-coated cannons".

In terms of design, the three-masted gunboat can be said to be the product of the combination of Eastern and Western shipbuilding ideas, and its hull shape belongs to the modification of the traditional Chinese Dafu ship.

However, the setting of its deck and gun body refers to the deck and gun emplacements of Western warships, and its volume is larger than that of traditional Chinese large Fu ships, and its firepower is directly chasing Western warships, which can be called a sharp weapon combining East and West.

In the Battle of Liaoluo Bay that year, these three-masted gunboats helped Zheng Zhilong a lot, so that Zheng Zhilong defeated the Dutch.

This kind of battleship is also the strongest main battleship in Zheng Zhilong's army, and there are only more than ten such warships in Zheng's fleet.

When Zheng Zhilong heard this, Li Zixiao was going to buy several three-masted gunboats as soon as he opened his mouth, his eyes widened, and he said in his heart: "You really dare to speak!" ”

You must know that it is not too expensive to make one of these three-masted gunboats, but for Zheng Zhilong and Li Zixiao, it is definitely not too expensive.

But why Zheng Zhilong only has a dozen under him, the main reason is that the production of this kind of three-masted gunboat is too cumbersome, and in a year, the Zheng family shipyard only produces a few.

This kind of three-masted gunboat is equivalent to the battleship of later generations in this era, and this era is similar to the period of World War I in later generations, and naval battles are the world of giant ships and cannons.

Li Zixiao ignored Zheng Zhilong's expression, but continued to take care of himself: "In addition, I also want to buy forty bird boats and eighty catch boats. ”

The bird ship is also a kind of capital ship in the Zheng group, which is 31 meters long, 6.8 meters wide, 2.2 meters deep, and has a displacement of 230 tons.

It adopts a wooden rudder, the rudder is 11 meters long, 2.3 meters wide, has three masts and five sails, the main sail is 24.5 meters high, the mainsail is three-sided, and the speed of wind power can reach up to 9 nautical miles per hour.

The fishing boat is a type of large fortune ship, which can be used for war boats, fishing and transporting timber.

Because the bottom of the boat is to prevent the corrosion of barnacles and other sea insects, it is often painted with white ash or white paint, so it is also called "white-bottomed boat".

Among them, the length of the large ship is more than 36 meters, the width is about 7 meters, 24 cabins, can carry 1,500 stones, each ship is equipped with more than 30 sailors and boatmen, 80 sailors, and adopts double masted, double rudder and double iron anchor.

For these more mature and practical ships in the Zheng family's fleet, Li Zixiao had already sent Zhang Fugui to investigate in advance.

When Li Zixiao said this, Zheng Zhilong smiled wryly and shook his head again and again, but did not speak.

"Oh, by the way, there are one hundred and fifty hundred sand boats!"

This sand ship was not a warship, but a transport ship with a carrying capacity of 4,000 to 6,000 stones.

The structure of the sand boat is unique, with a square head, a square tip, a flat bottom, a shallow draft, with the characteristics of wide, large, flat and shallow, the bottom is flat and can sit on the beach, not afraid of running aground, the draft is shallow, and the influence of the tide is relatively small.

The sand boat has many masts and sails, high masts and high sails, shallow draft, low resistance, can sail fast at sea, and has good seaworthiness; Large load capacity.

This is a transport ship with a large carrying capacity and a very mature design, and Li Zixiao intends to use a sand boat to transport grain and troops.

"There are several three-masted gunboats, forty birdships, eighty rushing ships, and one hundred and fifty sand ships." Zheng Zhilong looked at Li Zixiao's ship purchase order, and couldn't laugh or cry.

It is true that Zheng has his own shipyard in Fujian, but a large warship such as a three-masted gunboat can build five or six ships a year at most.

"After the general finished speaking, the officer can only tell the general, what the general just said, the official really can't take it, there is nothing he can do, it seems that our cooperation cannot be negotiated."

Zheng Zhilong smiled bitterly, shook his head and said.

"What? The Zheng family has so many shipyards in Fujian, and these ships can't be built, or is it that Lord Zheng is unwilling to cooperate with Benjiang? ”

"General Li is serious, it's not that the official doesn't want to cooperate, but the number of generals is too much.

Let's take the three-masted naval gun as an example, this kind of big warship, the shipyard under the officer, is working overtime a year, and only three or four ships can be built.

As soon as the general opened his mouth, he asked for several ships, how could this officer agree, in that case, I am afraid that my Zheng family's fleet will not have any new ships to join within a year. ”

Zheng Zhilong deliberately halved the production capacity of the shipyard under his command, because he was vigilant, wary that Li Zixiao bought so many warships, most of them to form a naval army.

He was worried that after Li Zixiao built a naval army, it would pose a threat to the superiority of their Zheng family's fleet in the East China Sea, so he didn't want to sell it in his heart.

"That's right, it seems that Ben will be reckless." Li Zixiao said on his lips, but sneered in his heart.

The Zheng family's shipyard's manufacturing capacity for one year, Li Zixiao also sent someone to investigate, and it was by no means as little as Zheng Zhilong said.

And Li Zixiao also guessed Zheng Zhilong's concerns, and said: "The general originally planned to form a fleet, and when necessary, go north to land in the imperial court and attack the Tartars.

But if you want to land in North Korea from the sea, you can't do it without sea ships, which brings to mind Lord Zheng, but unfortunately Lord Zheng doesn't seem to support the general! ”

"The general bought a sea ship to fight the Tartars?" After listening to Li Zixiao's words, Zheng Zhilong asked in surprise.

"Of course, otherwise Ben would have spent so much silver to buy those sea ships, at this time the Tartars are the henchmen of the imperial court, and Ben will need to escort the fleet all the time to escort my soldiers across the sea."

Li Zixiao said seriously.

Zheng Zhilong couldn't help but think about it, how true Li Zixiao's words were, if Li Zixiao bought a sea ship really to land in the imperial court to fight Tartars, then Zheng Zhilong would feel a lot more at ease.

At the same time, Zheng Zhilong also understands that a strong navy is not just a few sea-going ships, sailors, training, and experience are the most important things.

Even if Li Zixiao was given a few three-masted gunboats, Zheng Zhilong believed that Li Zixiao would not be able to threaten the Zheng family's hegemony in the Southeast Sea.

The strength of the Zheng family's fleet is not blown out, besides, Zheng Zhilong wants to buy those sophisticated artillery, flint guns, etc. from Li Zixiao, how can he do it without showing some sincerity.

"Okay, I promised the general, but the number of ships that the general said just now should be halved, and two three-masted ships should be sold!"

"Bird ships, sand boats, wait for me to drive two-thirds of the number, three three-masted gunboats, no less.

When the time comes, I can promise to sell Lord Zheng 200 artillery pieces, 1,000 flintlock guns, and 1,500 flowering shells. ”

"Yes, but the number of artillery and flintlock guns and flowering shells I want to buy will be doubled on the basis of what the general said.

Moreover, the general must ensure that if my Zheng family needs more artillery and flintlock pistols in the future, the general must not deliberately refrain from selling them, and the price cannot increase too much. ”

Zheng Zhilong bargained, after all, new conditions were offered.

"Deal!" Li Zixiao said with a smile.

He deliberately said that the number of artillery pieces was very small just now, just waiting for Zheng Zhilong to bargain!

Zheng Zhilong was originally a businessman, and he was also very good at bargaining.

"In this way, General Li, let's talk about it, the price of specific ships and artillery must be sold at a preferential price.

Afterwards, the official will send a confidant to talk to the person sent by the general. Zheng Zhilong said again.

"Yes."

"How long can I trade?" Li Zixiao asked, this is what he cares about.

"How about a year?"

"No, a year is too long, half a year at most."

"Does the general have so many cannons and flintlock guns in his hands?"

"Don't worry, since I see that it will take half a year, it will definitely be delivered as promised, and besides, there are a lot of artillery and guns that have been delivered in our army.

When the time comes, I can transfer a batch from the army, don't worry, I'm worried about whether Lord Zheng can deliver the ship as promised. ”

"Haha, General Li has said so, how can this officer not agree, this official also happens to have a three-masted gunboat in his hand, and some other ships.

Originally, these ships were intended to be filled into the fleet by the officer, and now they will be delivered to the general first!

The remaining ships are short, and within half a year, I asked the shipyard to work overtime, and it should be able to be manufactured. Finally, Zheng Zhilong said with a smile.

"That's good."

Li Zixiao smiled slightly and said, in fact, with the production capacity of Li Zixiao's arsenal at this time, it will be fully operational, and this artillery will be produced in less than half a year.

(End of chapter)