Li Nai was stunned for a moment, then shook his head and said: "Mr. Shi is only afraid that there is something untrue in what he said, as far as I know, such a fine bird gun is only available to the Francois of Manila and the red-haired man of Batavia." （.）”

In the context of this era, Li Nai can be regarded as a very knowledgeable young man, which also has a great relationship with his family environment. "Fu Ruifeng" also has a lot of Western goods in its business scope, and has trade contacts with maritime merchants from Western countries, so he will know that the two largest trade centers in the South China region in this era are the largest.

Batavia was later the capital of Indonesia, Jakarta, and the Dutch began to establish colonies in the Far East in the early 17th century, with Batavia on the island of Java as its center. In 1619, Petersson, the third governor of the Dutch East India Company, made Batavia the headquarters of the East India Company, and it became the political and economic center of the entire East Indies colony.

The Dutch managed to bring in a large number of Chinese immigrants to Batavia to work on infrastructure projects, and used various means to induce Chinese merchant ships to trade in Batavia in order to obtain the silk, porcelain, tea and other goods they coveted. After the transfer of oriental goods such as silk to Europe from here, the gross profit margin was as high as three times, which was enough to make the profit-seeking Dutch maritime merchants take risks for it.

In fact, in the 17th century, the East India Company sent armed ships to blockade the ports of Manila, Macao, and the Penghu Islands occupied by the Spaniards, in order to allow more Chinese merchant ships to trade in Batavia.

Manila was occupied by the Spanish in the 70s of the 16th century and gradually became the capital of Spanish colonial rule in the Far East at the end of the 16th century. Geographically, Manila is about 600 nautical miles from Guangzhou, while Jakarta is 1,800 nautical miles from Guangzhou, which is three times the distance, so most maritime merchants still choose to trade in Manila when the route is normal.

At this time, Macau, which was leased by the Portuguese, because Portugal had not yet gained independence from Spanish rule, Spanish merchant ships could also dock and trade in Macao, and the Ming Dynasty also called the foreign devils of these two countries as the Franco.

These trades between China and foreign countries are not only normal commodity exchanges, but also some secret or semi-open arms deals. As far as Li Nai knew, the Franc machine people in Macao had sold a lot of Hongyi cannons to the imperial court, as well as the well-made Lumi guns from the Ottoman Empire, thousands of miles away. And the quality of these imported weapons seems to be significantly better than that of domestic products, just like the arquebuses in front of him compared to the bird guns equipped by the Lijiazhuang militia, Li Nai obviously does not believe that the arquebuses used by these militias were made by the Haihan people themselves.

Schneider still wanted to argue a few words, but Tao Donglai had already preemptively said: "It doesn't matter if we made it or not, the important thing is that we can sell this weapon here, and the price will be cheaper than anywhere you know." If Mr. Li wants to buy this kind of weapon, I think we should be your best bet here. ”

Li Nai asked, "Does Mr. Tao know the market situation of the bird?"

"I still know the approximate price. Tao Donglai had done special research on this issue before, and his answer was also full of confidence: "The bird gun equipped by the Ministry of War for the army is about ten taels, and the Lumi gun is about twenty taels because of the complicated process of making zuò." The price of these weapons flowing from the military to the civilian population may have to double. As for the weapons shipped from the West, because the quantity is too small, the price is even higher, and arquebuses like the Lu Mi Gong cost at least fifty taels or more. ”

"Mr. Tao is also well-informed. Li Nai listened to Tao Donglai's speculation and the quotation on the market was not much different, and nodded slightly.

"Our Type 27 arquebus is available in two styles, the basic version without a bayonet and the upgraded version with a bayonet, which surpasses any arquebus you can find on the market today. Tao Donglai had already handed an arquebus to Li Nai as he spoke, and Li Nai hesitated for a moment, but still took it and looked at it carefully.

"Add two more taels of silver, and you can get a tactical strap that originally cost five taels separately. Schneider grabbed a militiaman, pointed to the backpack system on his body and explained: "Mr. Li, please see, the three leather boxes on this strap are respectively loaded with primers, propellants and projectiles, with a clear division of labor, which is easy for soldiers to carry, and this set of tactical harnesses is all made of cowhide, which is rainproof and moisture-proof, and durable." With this thing, the commander no longer has to worry about the soldier not being able to find ammunition on the battlefield because of nervousness. ”

"Oh?" Li Nai looked at this set of tactical harnesses carefully, frowned, and said: "The workmanship is still sloppy, but this thing costs two taels of silver, isn't it too expensive?"

"It's not expensive, it's not expensive at all. Tao Donglai, who had already confirmed that Li Nai was willing to buy, immediately helped: "As long as you buy any of our arquebuses and tactical harness package, we will give away thirty rounds of refined ammunition." ”

"Buckshot gunpowder is worthless!" Li Nai immediately stabbed.

"Mr. Li, you don't know this, our arquebuses and projectiles are all standardized manufacturing, the dimensions are all neat, any arquebus can be used, and there is no need for each gun to be specially equipped with a mold for making bullets, which is definitely not comparable to the advantages of other products. Tao Donglai spat and said: "Our propellants are all packaged in paper, and there will never be a situation where a soldier's hand shakes the medicine and explodes the chamber." In addition, the gunpowder we use is a unique and delicate granular gunpowder, which is more powerful than any gunpowder you can buy on the market, so you can try it yourself when you go back. With the same amount of charge, ordinary gunpowder can only hit a distance of about 70 paces at the most, and with our propellant we can hit a distance of 120 steps!"

Li Nai secretly calculated in his heart that the militia in Lijiazhuang would be fully equipped with muskets in the future, which was a matter that had long been agreed within the family, but it was really difficult to buy high-quality muskets on the market, and the price was extremely high. Before, several bird guns of the Lijiazhuang militia were the so-called "scrap" from the army, as high as 30 taels of silver, and the price of Lu Mi Gong was as high as 60 taels, even the wealthy "Fu Ruifeng" felt that it was really a bit painful to use such an expensive thing to equip a militia group, and only 10 arquebuses were allocated to the militia before and after.

But the arquebus of the Haihan people does look much better than the goods bought before, Li Nai specially observed when he was shooting the target just now, and the rate of firing dumb fire is extremely low, and the tip of the spear can also be added in front of this fire gun to become a short spear, which basically solves the problem of self-defense of the bird gunners.

Of course, the most important thing is that the price offered by the Haihan people is extremely powerful, with a musket plus a bayonet and an ammunition strap plus 30 rounds of ammunition, a total of only 12 taels of silver. Judging from the market situation known to Li Nai, this price is indeed surprisingly low. However, he seems to have inadvertently overlooked one thing, that is, Tao Donglai and Schneider never mentioned the price of subsequent ammunition purchases.

The two salesmen who were talking big naturally did not forget to mention this matter, but consciously did not mention it. They are people from the 21st century, and they are most familiar with the arms sales strategies of later generations, and they know very well that the subsequent use and maintenance costs of weapons are the real purchases, so they will deliberately avoid them in this way.

Although the lead bullets used in this Type 27 arquebus have no technical content and are easy to imitate, the granular gunpowder developed by the military industry department is not a product that can be imitated. Granular gunpowder has great advantages over the powder powder powder commonly used in this era, because the black powder will lose its normal effectiveness as long as the water content exceeds 2%, and the powdered black powder has strong water absorption, so the actual use of arquebuses will frequently have mute fire or weak firing. The water absorption of granular gunpowder is greatly reduced, and the flash velocity is the same, the power of explosion is greater than that of powder with uneven flash velocity, and it does not leave a large amount of residue after combustion, which is more convenient to clean.

The manufacturing process of high-quality granular gunpowder is very complicated for the military craftsmen of this era, first of all, the powder of black powder must be pressed into a high-density medicine cake, and at the same time to ensure that the various components in it are evenly distributed, and then crushed with medicine cake to make particles, sieve out the powder and the particles that do not match the size, and then polish the remaining semi-finished products. And some of the specific technical details in the middle are definitely not just any craftsman who can invent them out of thin air, even if they see the special gunpowder of the Haihan people, they can't imitate it in a short time.

In two years' time, when military manufacturing technology is further developed and fixed-loading ammunition is used, the buyer will become more and more dependent on ammunition. These subsequent sales will not only bring a lot of profits to the military industry, but also limit the actual combat effectiveness of those buyers in disguise, so that they will not be able to fight against the crossing group for a long time.

Li Nai thought about it and felt that this business could be done, but whether the Haihan people could supply the goods in full and on time had to be asked again. So he asked Tao Donglai: "Then I don't know how long it will take to deliver this bird gun if you want to order this bird?"

Tao Donglai knew that the big thing had been accomplished, and said with a smile: "We now have a batch of new guns in stock, if the quantity set by Mr. Li is not too much, then it can be delivered immediately." ”

Since the production of the Type 27 arquebus, the military industry department has produced more than 200 guns, of which 60 have been taken away by the Heitu Port Colonization Team, and the current militia is equipped with less than 100 guns, while the remaining nearly 100 guns have been loaded with gun oil and placed in the arsenal, waiting for the third batch of trainees to complete their graduation and enter the militia establishment before they will be equipped. But now it seems that the owners of this new batch of guns are likely to be replaced.