1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 161 Crazy Arms Sales
Li Nai was taken aback for a moment, then shook his head and said, "Mr. Shi's words may be inaccurate. As far as I know, the only ones with such excellent guns are the Frangipani from Manila and the Batavia. Red-haired people have it."

Looking at the background of this era, Li Nai can be regarded as a very knowledgeable young man, which has a great relationship with his family environment. "Fu Ruifeng" also has a lot of Western goods in its business scope, and has trade relations with maritime merchants from Western countries, so he knows the two largest trade centers in the Central and South Seas of this era.

Batavia is the later Indonesian capital Jakarta. The Dutch began to establish colonies in the Far East in the early 1619th century, and the center was Batavia on Java Island. In [-], Petersson, the third governor of the Dutch East India Company, set Batavia as the headquarters of the East India Company, and it became the political and economic center of the entire East Indies colony.

The Dutch tried every means to introduce a large number of Chinese immigrants to Batavia to engage in infrastructure projects, and used various means to lure Chinese merchant ships to trade in Batavia to obtain silk, porcelain, tea and other goods they dreamed of.After transshipment of oriental commodities such as silk to Europe from here, the gross profit rate is as high as three times, which is enough for profit-seeking Dutch maritime merchants to take risks.

In fact, in the [-]th century, the East India Company sent armed ships to blockade the Spanish-occupied Manila, Portuguese-occupied Macao, and the ports around the Penghu Islands in order to allow more Chinese merchant ships to go to Batavia for transactions.

Manila was a colony occupied by the Spaniards in the 70s, and gradually became the capital of Spanish colonial rule in the Far East at the end of the [-]th century.From the geographical point of view, Manila is about [-] nautical miles away from Guangzhou, while Jakarta is [-] nautical miles away from Guangzhou, which is a full three times the distance. Therefore, most maritime merchants will still choose when the shipping route is normal. Go to Manila for trade.

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

These trades between China and foreign countries include normal commodity exchanges, but also some secret or semi-public arms transactions.As far as Li Nai knew, the Frangji in Macau had sold many red cannons to the imperial court, as well as 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 domestic ones, just like the matchlock guns in front of the Lijiazhuang militia compared with the bird guns equipped by the Lijiazhuang militia, Li Nai obviously does not believe that the matchlock guns used by these militiamen are made by the Haihan people themselves from.

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

Li Nai asked, "Mr. Tao, do you know the market conditions of bird guns?"

"I still know about the price." Tao Donglai has done research on this issue before, and he answered with confidence: "The bird guns equipped by the Ministry of War for the army are about ten taels, and the Lumi guns are expensive because of the complicated production process , about 20 taels. These weapons flow from the army to the people, and the price may have to double. As for the weapons shipped from the West, because the quantity is too small, the price is even higher. The gun must be at least 50 taels."

"Mr. Tao is well-informed." Li Nai nodded slightly when he heard that Tao Donglai's speculation was not much different from the quotation on the market.

"Our [-]-style matchlock gun is divided into two types, the basic version without a bayonet is eight taels of silver, and the upgraded version with a bayonet is one ten taels of silver. The production process and performance have completely surpassed what you can now Any matchlock gun you can find on the market." Tao Donglai had already handed a matchlock gun to Li Nai while he was talking, Li Nai hesitated for a moment, but took it over and inspected it carefully.

"Add two taels more silver, and you can get the tactical straps that were sold separately for five taels a set." Schneider grabbed a militiaman, pointed to the carrying system on his body, and explained: "Mr. Li, please look, the straps on this strap The three leather boxes contain primers, propellants and projectiles respectively. The division of labor is clear and easy for soldiers to carry. Moreover, this set of tactical straps is made of cowhide, which is rainproof, moisture-proof and durable. With this thing, the commander no longer has to worry about Soldiers on the battlefield can't find ammunition because of nervousness."

"Oh?" Li Nai took a closer look at this set of tactical straps again, frowned and said, "The workmanship is rather sloppy, but this thing costs two taels of silver, isn't it a bit too expensive?"

"It's not expensive, it's not expensive at all." Tao Donglai, who had confirmed that Li Nai was willing to buy, immediately helped to add: "As long as you buy any of our matchlock guns and tactical straps, we will give you three as a gift." Ten rounds of refined ammunition."

"Lead bullets and gunpowder are worthless!" Li Nai immediately pointed out.

"Mr. Li, you don't know this. Our matchlock guns and projectiles are all manufactured in a standardized manner, and the dimensions are all uniform. Any matchlock gun can be used, and there is no need for each gun to be equipped with a special bullet. This is definitely an advantage that other products can’t compare to.” Tao Donglai spit and said: “Our propellants are all packed in paper, and there will never be a situation where a soldier’s hands shake too much and the charge will explode. In addition The gunpowder we use is a unique and exquisite granular gunpowder, which is more powerful than any gunpowder you can buy on the market. If you don’t believe me, you can find it yourself after you go back. With the same amount of powder, ordinary gunpowder can only The furthest range is about 120 steps, and we can use our propellant powder to reach a distance of [-] steps!"

Li Nai secretly calculated in his heart that the militia in Lijiazhuang will be fully equipped with muskets in the future. This is a matter that has been agreed upon within the family long ago, but high-quality muskets are really difficult to buy on the market, and the price is also extremely high.Previously, several birdcracks from the Lijiazhuang militia were so-called "scrap" from the army, as high as 30 taels of silver each, and the asking price of Lumi guns was as high as 60 taels. I felt that it was a bit painful to equip a militia with such expensive things, so I only equipped the militia with ten matchlock guns.

But the matchlock guns of the Haihan people do look much better than the ones they bought before. Li Nai observed it specially when shooting the target just now. A short spear basically solved the self-defense problem of the blunderbuss.

Of course, the most important thing is that the price offered by the Haihan people is very tempting. The musket, bayonet, ammunition strap, and thirty rounds of ammunition are only 12 taels of silver in total.Based on what Li Nai knew about the market conditions, the price was indeed surprisingly low.However, he seemed to have overlooked one thing inadvertently, that is, Tao Donglai and Schneider never mentioned the price of subsequent ammunition purchases from the beginning to the end.

Naturally, the two talkative salesmen didn't forget to mention this matter, but they consciously didn't mention it.They are people from the 21st century, and they are most familiar with the arms sales strategies of later generations. They are very clear that the subsequent use and maintenance costs of weapons are the real purchasers, so they deliberately avoid them like this.

Although the lead bullets used in the 2-style matchlock guns now have no technical content and are easily imitated, the granular gunpowder developed by the military industry department is not a product that can be imitated.Granular gunpowder has great advantages over powdered gunpowder commonly used in this era, because black powder will lose its normal effectiveness as long as it contains more than [-]% water, and powdered black powder has strong water absorption, so the actual use of matchlock guns During use, there will be frequent misfires or weak launches.The water absorption of granular gunpowder is greatly reduced, and the flash rate is consistent at the same time. The power of the explosion is greater than that of powder with uneven flash rate, and it will not leave a lot of residue after burning, which is easier to clean.

The manufacturing process of high-quality granular gunpowder is very complicated for the military craftsmen of this era. First, the powder of black powder must be pressed into a high-density medicine cake, and at the same time, the various ingredients in it must be evenly distributed, and then the medicine cake should be used. After being crushed, it is made into granules, and the powder and particles with different sizes are screened out, and then the remaining semi-finished products are polished. After such screening and grinding are carried out at least several times, the obtained gunpowder particles are basically the same size. .And some of the specific technical details in the middle are definitely not something that just any craftsman can invent out of thin air. Even if you see the special gunpowder made by the Haihan people, you can't imitate it in a short time.

When military manufacturing technology develops further in another two years and fixed-load ammunition starts to be used, the buyer's dependence on ammunition will become stronger and stronger.These follow-up sales will not only bring a lot of profits to the military industry department, but also limit the actual combat effectiveness of those buyers in a disguised way, so that they cannot be enemies with the time-traveling group for a long time.

After much deliberation, Li Nai felt that this business could be done, but whether the Haihan people could supply the goods in sufficient quantity as scheduled was another question.So he asked Tao Donglai: "Then I wonder how long it will take to deliver this bird gun if you want to order it?"

Tao Donglai knew that the event had been accomplished, and said with a smile, "We have a batch of new guns in stock now. If Mr. Li doesn't order too much, we can deliver them immediately."

Since the finalized production of the 200-style matchlock gun, the military industry department has produced more than [-] guns, of which the Black Earth Port Colonization Team took away [-] guns, and the current militia is equipped with less than [-] guns, and the remaining nearly [-] guns All the gun oil is loaded and placed in the arsenal, and the equipment will not be equipped until the third batch of students graduates and enters the militia organization.But now it seems that the owners of these new guns are likely to change.

(End of this chapter)