1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 163

Li Nai exchanged glances with He Qiang and immediately made a decision - to see the goods first.They know better than these traversers what the current market for artillery is. This thing is much more popular than matchlock guns. The gold masters in Fujian are holding money and begging grandpa and grandma everywhere, but they can't buy it.If the Haihan people can provide Hongyi artillery, they can sell as much as they have. As for the price, it is not a problem at all for those armed sea merchants in Fujian who are making money every day.

So Gu Wei took everyone to the artillery range not far from here. Because of the range of the artillery, this range is much larger than that of the arquebus, and several artillery positions of different specifications have been built, including Li Nai. The kind of battery design they saw when they came into port.There are several stone warehouses next to the shooting range, which are usually used to store artillery and ammunition.Because of the recent shortage of gunpowder, the artillery has been taken back to the warehouse, and the artillery positions are empty.

Under the command of Gu Wei, the crowd quickly pushed out a 6-pound army gun from the warehouse, followed by a flatbed cart carrying ammunition.The difference from the usual training is that the gunners no longer use naturalized civilians, but all passers-by who belong to the military and police department. This is also to ensure that this show of force can go smoothly.

Li Nai's heart began to itch after watching the artillerymen of the Haihan people fire seven or eight cannons.The performance of these cannons is no worse than the Hongyi cannons he has seen, and the range and accuracy are also good. If you want to criticize, you can only say that the caliber of this cannon is really small, and its power is still very limited.

After firing ten rounds, Tao Donglai signaled the artillerymen to stop first, and asked Li Nai for his impressions.

Li Nai pretended to be calm and nodded in response: "This cannon is okay, I wonder if Mr. Tao can explain it in detail?"

Tao Donglai said: "There are two types of 440-type artillery, one is used on land, and the other can be installed on ships. The one just tested is an army artillery used on land. The total weight of this gun is [-]mm. The shell weighs five catties, the effective range can reach one and a half miles, and the cooling interval is twelve rounds fired continuously."

That is, you can hit two miles?Li Nai raised his eyebrows lightly, thinking that this cannon is really powerful, but continued to ask calmly, "Then how much is your price for such a cannon?"

He didn't know that the data reported by Tao Donglai was actually the foreign trade version, while the range of the self-use version of the military and police department was a full two miles, and this range actually refers to the maximum range. The foreign trade version for export can rely on aiming and adjusting the angle The effective range for correction is only one mile at most, and the distance beyond that can only be pure luck.However, for the armed forces of the Far East in this era, the difference in actual effective range does not matter anymore, because they do not have telescopes to use, and it is already very difficult to observe targets one mile away on flat ground, let alone aim. In their eyes, a cannon with such an astonishing range is already a great artifact.

Schneider took over the topic and said: "Although our artillery has excellent performance, the price is very affordable. Like the 600-style army artillery that Mr. Li saw, each one only costs [-] yuan, which is [-] taels of silver..."

Seeing that Li Nai frowned slightly, Schneider added calmly: "...the price also includes the whole set of sights, shooting gauges and loading tools for the artillery, as well as the strong and light tactical gun mount that carries the artillery. In addition, there are ten rounds of refined iron shells and the corresponding propellant packs. In view of the good cooperation relationship between us and 'Furuifeng', we will also give an additional pull-type ignition tube that can be fired ten times. I believe you have just agreed As you can see, the benefits of this pull-type ignition device are not only to protect the safety of the gunner when firing, but also improve the reliability of the artillery in bad weather conditions. No matter how strong the wind is, it will not affect the artillery. launch."

After listening to his explanation, Li Nai understood why when the artillery was fired just now, those artillerymen were standing far away, holding a thin rope connected to the body of the artillery in their hands, pulling hard to make the artillery fire. It needs to use an open flame to ignite the powder or the fuse. This is really a new device that Li Nai has never heard of before. Even the artillery of the Frang Robot and the Red-haired Man have never heard of such a convenient design.

Schneider went on to say: "If you are not interested in our equipment, you can also choose to buy naked guns directly. The price of each gun is only [-] yuan. This price is absolutely worthless, and it is impossible to have a second arms dealer Cannons of this quality can be sold at this price!"

Buy naked guns?What are you kidding?The patron who can spend a lot of money to buy a cannon will not care about spending a little more to buy all the supporting equipment for this cannon, especially the convenient and safe pull-type ignition device - Li Nai immediately rejected it in his heart Schneider's proposal.Of course, when this cannon is shipped to Fujian for sale, it will not be something that can be bought for 600 taels of silver, at least it will have to double the price.

Li Nai did not comment, but instead asked another question: "Is there a more powerful cannon like this?"

"Yes, of course!" Tao Donglai replied without hesitation: "We also have a thousand-jin cannon, the shell weighs ten catties, and the range can reach two miles..."

The thousand-pound cannon that Tao Donglai was talking about was naturally the 12-pound cannon that the military industry department had already successfully trial-produced.However, due to the lack of material breakthroughs, the artillery retreat system has not been developed. The 12-pound artillery cannot be installed on the current sea-going ships, and as an army artillery, it seems a bit cumbersome. It doesn't take that much firepower.It can be used as coastal defense guns, but the military and police department also said that the Western gunboats of this era have already used 18-pound guns, and greater firepower must be used to effectively suppress them. The guns to be used in the future are set at least 24 pounds or more.In this way, the 12-pound gun became a tasteless one for a while. After the military industry department made a few 12-pound guns for finalization, it did not carry out follow-up production, and instead vigorously developed the 24-pound heavy gun needed for coastal defense fortifications.

The time-traveling group will not be able to use it temporarily, but it does not mean that the outside world does not have this demand. In Li Nai's view, the power of the jack-of-all-trades is obviously more suitable for those gold masters who are in a state of war. admired by them.But out of prudence, Li Nai still inquired about the price first.

Schneider's quotation is not outrageous, 12 taels for the 1000-pounder gun set, and 800 taels for the naked gun.In Li Nai's opinion, this price is completely acceptable.However, to Li Nai's slight disappointment, when he asked for bigger and more powerful cannons, Tao Donglai rejected the new proposal.

Tao Donglai's reason is simple: "At present, we have no plans to sell more powerful artillery. If we can sell it in the future, we will definitely notify your bank first."

Now if larger caliber artillery is sold, it will undoubtedly affect the safety of Victory Port itself.In order to avoid the absurd scenario of a fleet equipped with large-caliber naval guns manufactured by the Transit Group attacking Victory Port, the artillery export plan should not be too big for the time being.

But such a sales ban should not last for too long. As long as the steel output breaks through the bottleneck, it will be a matter of course for steel cannons to replace iron cannons.With the steel cannon, the increase in the range and power of the cannon is a logical technological advancement, and there will be nothing to worry about if the iron cannon that has been eliminated is gradually sold.

Although this request was rejected by Tao Donglai, Li Nai was not discouraged by it. It was a surprise to be able to buy such a heavy weapon here. You must know that even Westerners are not willing to sell this kind of thing easily. Yes, it is purely a commodity with a price but no market.Li Nai quickly placed an order for ten 6-pounders and five 12-pounders.Fortunately, considering the huge profits of artillery, the military industry department had already prefabricated a batch of foreign trade goods in advance, and this order can be supplied to "Fu Ruifeng" in the form of spot goods, which is convenient for the payment settlement later.

The reason why they only bought a few cannons was not because Li Nai didn't bring enough money, but because they only had one boat on their return journey, and the load was limited, and these dozens of cannons plus ammunition weighed more than [-] yuan. catty.Considering the need to load other cargo and supplies on the return trip, Li Nai could only bear with it for the time being, and secretly decided in his heart to apply for a second fleet to go to Victory Port to do some shopping as soon as he returned to Guangzhou.

So far, Tao Donglai and Schneider's real attempt to take Li He to visit the new barracks has been a great success. The order amount for matchlock guns and cannons has reached more than 3000 taels, which is also the largest number of foreign trade orders since crossing. Pen.And for such a big business, it only took two hours and fifteen minutes from their landing at the recruit camp pier to reaching a preliminary agreement. The work efficiency of the two hot-mouthed salesmen is quite impressive.

And Li Nai, who was willing to spend so much money, didn't feel bad at all. In his opinion, after these things were shipped back to Guangzhou, they would soon be able to double their profits. But less and less.

Most importantly, Li Nai believes that there is another advantage of doing business with Haihan people, that is, there is no need to pay in cash every time.Haihan people have a very wide demand for various raw materials and primary products. As long as the materials they need are brought in, they can be converted at a discounted price. In this way, there will be both in and out, and there will be no running out of business here. Appeared, the utilization rate of ships is quite high, and it also avoids the danger of carrying too much cash to sea.

(End of this chapter)