When Zheng Zhiguan and his staff came out of the conference hall, Xia Nan's face immediately sank: "Did you all hear it?" This is buying guns, it is clearly a door-to-door demonstration! ”

Sima De said: "This Zheng Zhilong is very beautiful at the moment, wearing the skin of the government, doing maritime business, asking for money, asking for people, and it is normal to be arrogant." Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ”

Murong Longcheng also said: "Zheng Zhilong has destroyed the former sworn brothers, only one Liu Xianggou is still breathing, and now he is in Fujian like the sky, and even the Dutch have to endure a little, which is enough to show how powerful he is." If it weren't for the sake of the general who was also a military general of the imperial court, I am afraid that he would not buy it with silver, but would have come directly to the door to rob it. ”

Xia Nan let out a sigh and sighed, "It's not. If it weren't for the temporary lack of strength in our navy, I wouldn't have suffered from this anger. ”

Sima De asked, "Little Brother Murong once proposed to form an alliance with Zheng Zhilong to deal with Liu Xiang together, but now that he has come to the door, it is an opportunity. ”

"The reason why I proposed to meet Zheng Zhilong was to take the opportunity of selling artillery to talk about the alliance, and this naval gun is a stepping stone to show my sincerity." Xia Nan said, "But even if I can form an alliance, I will not be willing to sell him the cannon - no matter how much money he pays." ”

Murong Longcheng agreed: "My subordinates have personally experienced the power of this artillery, which is stronger than the Dutch, who are known for their strong ships and guns. After he destroyed Liu Xiang in the future, he naturally wanted to share the competition with Zheng Zhilong, wouldn't selling him artillery lift a stone to shoot himself in the foot? ”

Everyone was silent, this was a dilemma. wanted to pull one faction to fight another faction and quickly gain a foothold in the Fujian seas, so he temporarily united with Zheng Zhilong to deal with Liu Xiang and the Dutch; And in order to unite Zheng Zhilong, he had to sell the cannon to him, but it was a short-sighted decision, and he would reap the consequences in the future.

Lin Weiye thought for a long time and said, "Actually, there is a compromise solution......

Xia Nan's eyes lit up, cheered up, and urged: "Come and listen." ”

"Our Caron cannon is made of gray iron...... It is made of refined iron, which is not only smooth and durable, and it is not easy to explode. If it is made of ordinary pig iron, it will be the same on the surface, but in fact the service life is much shorter, and by the time we kill Liu Xiang and turn around against him, these cannons will almost be wasted, so that the cannons sold will not become their own threat. ”

The crowd praised, "It's a great idea, killing two birds with one stone." ”

Sun Yuanhua asked: "But how can ordinary pig iron cast cannons have our cannons smooth and agile, and the inner wall and exterior are rough and uneven, isn't it exposed at a glance?" ”

Lin Weiye said with a smile: "Except for the different materials, the same iron mold is used to cast the cannon, the surface is still smooth and tight, and it cannot be recognized by the naked eye, but the material is hard and brittle, and it is easy to explode if the cannon is fired continuously." ”

Except for Sun Yuanhua, who has the experience of casting cannons, and understands most of them, others seem to understand it, but Xia Nan completely understands what he means: the cannon cast by the iron mold casting cannon method is still made of white iron, and the bubbles produced by the mud mold casting cannon method are less, and the air tightness is better, but the white iron has never had the tensile resistance like gray iron, and the life is much shorter, and the barrel is heated and expanded and deformed after continuous firing, and it is easy to explode.

He laughed and said, "Honest people make deception even worse." No one can see the difference between the cannon cast in this way, and it will only be known after the bore is blown up. Let's be profiteers again, haha! ”

Since it is possible to fool the past with white iron cannons, it is not a problem to sell cannons, and you can use this as a bargaining chip, asking the two families to form an alliance to jointly deal with Liu Xiang and even the Dutch, and then turn back to deal with Zheng Zhilong.

"If that's the case, then let's buy such a cannon for Zheng Zhilong, and we can get a lot of silver. Taking this opportunity, I personally went to the Zhongzuo Institute to meet with Zheng Zhilong, and we must settle the matter of the alliance and clear the obstacles for us to go to Japan to do business. ”

Sima De persuaded: "It is really dangerous for the general to go in person. What if this Zheng Zhilong is a bandit, which is not good for the general? ”

Sun Yuanhua stroked his beard: "This is not necessarily. Zheng Zhilong is a Fujian guerrilla, and the general is a Guangdong general, both of whom are military generals under the control of the imperial court, and they will not do anything on their own territory unless they are enemies of life and death. Since he is willing to be cared for, on the surface, he still has to abide by the rules of officialdom, and he will never be so nonsense. ”

Xia Nan also nodded and said, "Our navy is not enough to pose a threat to him, and he can't give up his official position to attack me." ”

A few days later, Xia Nan led several newly built Wuxiang-class patrol ships to the Zhongzuo Institute.

The reason why he didn't bring the Wuyi-class battleship with a displacement of 500 tons was because he was worried that Zheng Zhilong would be jealous. By the current standard, the Wu Yi class is a big ship of 800 materials, even in Zheng Zhilong's fleet. If you bring a fleet of Wuyi-class warships, it will be majestic, but the goal of showing favor and alliance may be lost. Only about 400 Wuxiang-class will not make Zheng Zhilong jealous and hostile, he has a lot of ships of this tonnage, and with the same cannon, it is half a catty and eight taels with the Wuxiang-class - at least on the surface.

Zheng Zhiguan was responsible for leading the way, and when the fleet arrived at Kinmen Island in Fujian, he got off the ship, boarded his own ship, and went to Zhongzuo Suocheng to report first, so that the fleet in Xia Nan waited near Kinmen.

Xia Nan pouted at Lin Weiye and said, "The spectrum is really big enough." It is said that his rank is lower than mine, I am a third-rank general, he is a fourth-rank guerrilla, and now it is as if I went to meet the governor. ”

Lin Weiye soothed: "Relax, he is a maritime merchant no matter how much he puts on the score, the bottleneck is here, and he is not worthy of lifting shoes for you in terms of potential, and the status between you will be reversed sooner or later." ”

More than an hour later, Zheng Zhiguan's ship returned to Kinmen, and he motioned for the fleet to follow him into the harbor. After entering Zhongzuo Suogang, Xia Nan realized that this pretentiousness was not completely for the sake of arrogance, but because of Zheng Zhilong's strong strength.

The city of the left is the Xiamen Island of the later generations, which belongs to Yongningwei at this time, and the full name is the center and the left guard of the thousand households. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the system of the guard collapsed, and the city was occupied by Zheng Zhilong, which became the base camp of his maritime trade. As a famous coastal developed city in later generations, Xiamen has a natural harbor with very superior conditions, the port is wide and deep, and it does not freeze all year round. I thought that these were merchant ships unloaded in the center and left, but when I got closer, I found that most of the ships were flying the flag of the Zheng family, the people on the deck were all strong and capable sailors, and copper guns of different calibers could be seen from time to time on the side of the ship, although their power was doubtful, but they showed the identity of their warships. (To be continued.) )