1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 366 Arms sales are just the beginning

At this moment, in Enrique's eyes, Yan Chujie is not like the military leader of an armed group, but a black-bellied and hateful profiteer—it's nothing more than showing off the performance of new weapons to me, and then he said "" Don't sell", isn't this tossing people alive?
Of course, Enrique also immediately thought of another possibility, that is, Yan Chujie's bragging about the new rifle was purely a means to deceive people, the Haihan people did not make any new rifle at all, and the thing he saw in front of him was just a show It's just a decoration.However, he quickly denied this assumption on his own. Even without mentioning the Haihan people's consistent good reputation in business and trade, their daring to sell weapons to Portugal already shows that they must have some countermeasures in their hands—— Nothing is more effective than creating weapons with better performance and greater lethality.

Next, Yan Chujie introduced to Enrique several main artillery produced by Haihan.At present, the artillery produced by "Haihan Ordnance Industry" is mainly divided into four categories: army artillery, naval naval artillery, large-caliber coastal defense artillery and export artillery.With the division of functions of various arms and the gradual improvement of the production process, the specifications and burden functions of the artillery have also begun to be set in more detail. Only the coastal anti-corrosion artillery has several different models of 12 pounds, 18 pounds, and 24 pounds. model, and the design department has been secretly trial-producing a 48-pound heavy gun with a larger caliber.The army artillery also has 6-pound and 12-pound main artillery, as well as large-caliber mortars for siege, 3-pound small guns for mountain special forces, and so on.

Although Yan Chujie didn't mention much about the performance parameters of the artillery during the explanation, Enrique can still judge one thing from such a rich product line: the level of the Haihan people's cannon casting is indeed quite high, which is definitely not the case. The Portuguese Chamber of Commerce or the Dutch East India Company, a second-tier arms dealer who lacks production capacity, can be compared.The Haihan people claim to be able to export arms to Western countries, but it seems that they are not bragging.

Of course, rather than looking at these samples in the showroom, Enrique prefers to take a look at the place where these weapons are manufactured.He also knew that there was a rather large workshop in the inland Tiandu area, where thousands of naturalized laborers were working day and night in that area to produce various industrial products for the Haihan people, including these The weapon used by the Haihan people to siege cities and plunder land.It's a pity that everything about Tiandu Industrial Zone is shrouded in fog from the outside world, and few outsiders can enter the area under strict military control. Since the opening of Shengli Port, it is said that only "Furuifeng A limited number of people, including Li Nai, the young owner of "Yacheng, and Luo Shengdong, an officer of the Ming Dynasty in Yacheng, have been there.But after that, these people didn't mention a word about what they had seen and heard, kept secret, and didn't know what kind of ecstasy drug was given by the Haihan people.

But Enrique is also very clear that he cannot go to Tiandu, at least it is unlikely to go there through normal means.The roads in and out of Tiandu are said to have checkpoints of the militia, and it is impossible to pass without the certificates issued by the relevant departments. Of course, Enrique would not be able to get in even if he had the certificates. His appearance is so eye-catching that he has no chance to pretend to be an employee. .

After watching the exhibits in the showroom with deep resentment, Enrique couldn't wait to urge Yan Chujie: "Boss Yan, can we go to the shooting range now?"

"No problem, let's go now." Yan Chujie also felt that Enrique's appetite had almost been caught, and responded with a smile.

Out of the pride of a veteran national of the empire and his fear of Haihan, a new opponent, Enrique actually didn't want to see Haihan's weapons really be as powerful as Yan Chujie described.But from the perspective of a businessman, he couldn't help but have expectations for the performance of Haihan weapons. After all, the profits in the arms trade are quite considerable. It is not delusional to sell Haihan weapons on the European battlefield.

It has been a full ten years since the outbreak of the European War in 1618. The war has gradually evolved from a civil war in Bohemia to a melee between the Protestant League and the Holy Roman Empire.All European powers were involved in this chaos, and no one could stay out of it, and no one knew how long this war would last and how the final outcome would be.Countless people lost their families and lost their wives and children because of this war, but there were also many people who found business opportunities from the war and made a lot of war fortune, especially the arms dealers from various countries who were able to manufacture their own weapons, almost all made a lot of money. The bowl is so full that there have been no extra weapons to sell to the Far East in the past two years.

It is worth mentioning that it was during this 30-year melee that all countries gradually realized the evolution of military theory.In order to be able to carry out long-term and protracted operations, all countries have begun to implement the conscription system, and have established standing armies, reserves, and logistics supply systems.Due to the vast area of ​​operations, the army had to streamline its establishment and organization in order to obtain better mobility.The most important thing is that the tactics have also gradually evolved from the cold weapons in the past to hot weapon warfare. The spearmen were replaced by the musketeers, the artillery became the decisive force on the battlefield, and the cavalry changed from the main force in the past to auxiliary force.This period of tactical change is simply a once-in-a-century opportunity to make a fortune for arms dealers.

With very contradictory feelings, Enrique finally came to the shooting range he was looking forward to, and visited the live ammunition training of the Haihan militia.

The first is the live ammunition shooting of the rifle. In order to compare the performance differences of the weapons, Yan Chujie asked Enrique to randomly select ten soldiers from the training soldiers to test fire.To Enrique's slight surprise, the Haihan people actually took out a batch of matchlock guns that the Portuguese had sold to South Vietnam as a test comparison.But immediately he thought of the source of these guns - the Haihan people conquered Hoi An city some time ago, and that is the only channel for all western goods to enter South Vietnam. .

Considering that shooting accuracy varies from person to person, the test of matchlock guns mainly focuses on range and lethality.However, to Enrique's disappointment, the performance of the Portuguese musket was significantly weaker than that of the Haihan people's [-]-style arquebus only in terms of the penetration depth of the wooden target at a distance of [-] paces.And when this distance is doubled, the gap between the two sides will be even wider, and the Portuguese muskets have even lost enough lethality.

After the Type [-] flintlock was replaced, the difference in performance between the two weapons was truly exposed. No matter in terms of range, lethality, accuracy, or reloading speed, the weapons of the Haihan people were obviously superior to their opponents.In a trance, Enrique seemed to be able to see rows of South Vietnamese troops standing on the target positions, being beaten up by Haihan's muskets.

Then there is the new rifle that Enrique was skeptical of just now. Enrique noticed that the loading method of this rifle is completely different from the musket he knew. There is a small movable device on the back of the gun. Gunpowder is loaded into the barrel from this place, and then fired.This loading method does not need to clean the barrel at all, and it seems that the loading speed is indeed fundamentally improved compared to traditional front-loading guns.And the result of the subsequent shooting made Enrique even more speechless. The range of this gun was twice as far as that of the flintlock guns seen before!This means that if the opponent you encounter on the battlefield is only equipped with a traditional musket, you can use the advantage of the range to hang the enemy, which is no different from massacring a group of unarmed people.

In the end, Yan Chujie showed his trump card and asked people to take out several [-]-style sniper rifles imitating Whitworth for test shooting.The slightly weird appearance of this weapon left a very deep impression on Enrique at the first time, and its performance shocked the Portuguese who had almost reached the limit of their psychological endurance-this rifle could actually At a distance of two miles, hit a half-body-sized target with a high hit rate.If he hadn't witnessed the whole process with his own eyes and signed his name on the target in advance to prevent fraud, it would be really hard for Enrique to believe that the results he saw were true.

As far as Enrique knew, the weapons used on the European battlefield, not to mention muskets, even artillery could not easily reach such a long range, not to mention the terrifying accuracy!This means that when the two armies are still in the stage of confrontation, the Haihan people can use this terrible long-range weapon to kill the commander in the enemy camp!
Can this still be a good fight!Enrique felt that the concept of war in his mind seemed to need to be redefined.If European military strategists know that someone in the Far East has created this magical weapon, they will definitely go crazy.Thinking of this, Enrique felt that Yan Chujie's previous statement that he would not sell the most advanced weapons did not seem to be a bad thing.

And the subsequent artillery shooting also made Enrique feel very hurt. Leaving aside the advantages of Haihan artillery in terms of range and accuracy, Enrique was amazed by the pull-style ignition method alone.The traditional open flame ignition method is not only dangerous to a certain extent, but also affected by objective factors such as weather conditions and the humidity of the powder. However, the Haihan people's invention obviously eliminates these accidental factors, and each cannon can be fired at the same time. The gunner fired immediately after the command of the gunner, reducing the delay time required for ignition to a minimum.

Enrique was also amazed by the short-range explosive ammunition used by the Haihan artillery. Seeing this kind of artillery shell smashing a large number of targets into pieces, Enrique seemed to understand why the Haihan people in the battle of Lijiazhuang could Resisted and repelled more than ten times the enemy with very few troops.With this terrible shell, a small-caliber artillery can match the power of twenty or thirty infantrymen firing at the same time.

As for the coastal defense gun that Enrique wanted to see, he couldn't see the demonstration of live ammunition shooting.It's not that Yan Chujie deliberately hides his secrets, but that the shooting range here is too small to fully reflect the range of the coastal defense guns.Due to the need for confidentiality, it was impossible for Yan Chujie to take Enrique to visit the coastal artillery fortifications.

"How is it? Is Mr. Enrique satisfied with our demonstration?" Yan Chujie asked with a smile, as if he didn't notice Enrique's pale face at all.

Enrique cheered up and reluctantly responded: "Well... your weapons are indeed very powerful, and I personally have no objection to this."

"Then Mr. Enrique thinks our weapons are stronger or weaker than those of Western countries?" Yan Chujie didn't intend to let him go, and asked further.

"Well... to be fair... your weapon may be a little bit better..." Although he didn't want to admit this against his will, Enrique also knew that this was the case, and the gap between the two sides was not even Just a little bit.

"It seems that we can make an appointment to sit down and discuss business." Seeing that Enrique was powerless to refute, Yan Chujie finally got to the point contentedly: "I can tell you very frankly that we now need a powerful agents, and transport these weapons to the western battlefields for us, so that they can play their due role."

Enrique raised his head to look at Yan Chujie, summoned up his courage and asked, "Mr. Yan, there is one thing that I still don't understand after thinking about it for a long time. Why do you know that there is a big war going on in Western countries?"

"How did we get this news? In fact, you don't need to know. Even if I explain it to you now, you can't understand the reason at all..." Yan Chujie spoke the truth in front of Enrique. .

"This is simply a perfunctory excuse." Enrique silently slandered in his heart.

"I think you should focus on your future sales strategy, think about how you can sell more weapons to warring countries, how you can use this battlefield, and get more benefits, whether it's for yourself or for others. Your country!" Yan Chujie continued to persuade with a pleasant face.

The word "country" irritated Enrique slightly, and he blurted out: "The Portuguese Empire has no willingness to actively participate in the war!"

"But your sovereign country, Spain, doesn't think so. As an ally of the Holy Roman Emperor, Spain's participation in the war is certain. As a vassal state of Spain, you, Portugal, certainly have no chance to stay out of it." Yan Chujie mercilessly The scars of Portugal were uncovered.

In history, Portugal was originally a part of Spain. In 1143, Portugal and Spain signed the "Treaty of Zamora" to declare independence. The "Treaty of Tordesillas" was signed, which determined that the Pope's meridian 1297 nautical miles west of the Cape Verde Islands was used as the demarcation point, and the east belonged to Portugal and the west belonged to Spain.The two maritime empires divided the earth like cutting watermelons, and Portugal has reached the pinnacle of history since then.

However, Portugal went downhill during the Habsburg dynasty in the second half of the 16th century, and once again became a vassal of Spain.Although Portuguese like Enrique would proudly declare that the Portuguese Empire is an independent sovereign country, in fact, in today's Europe, Portugal is treated as a genuine slave country, and even the king is appointed by the Spaniards.In the war Spain participated in, Portugal would inevitably be involved.

Before Enrique came to the Far East, Spain and Britain and the Netherlands had been fighting for the ownership of overseas colonies for several years, from South America to Europe.Three years ago, the Portuguese fleet expelled the Dutch in El Salvador, South America, and occupied the city, but the Dutch navy has continued to harass the Spanish fleet at sea since then, and the joint British fleet has frequently attacked the Portuguese coastline.

Of course, these wars are too far away from the East, and the situation here is different from that in Europe.In the Far East, the Spaniards and the Portuguese both competed and cooperated. On the one hand, they wanted to compete for colonies, and on the other hand, they also joined forces to fight against the continuous expansion of the powerful Dutch East India Company in the Far East.Compared with the hateful Dutch, Enrique felt that the Haihan people were closer. Although there was a conflict of interest between the two sides, the Haihan people did not intend to kill them all after gaining the upper hand. Instead, they had the intention of seeking cooperation in business.

So even though Yan Chujie's words did not leave a fig leaf for Portugal, Enrique was not angry because of it, but asked instead: "What does Mr. Yan mean by getting more benefits?"

"All the powerful countries have been involved in this great melee on the continent of Europa. In the end, no matter who wins or loses, the loss of strength is a sure result. If we can wipe out the strength of several powerful countries as much as possible , then there is actually hope for your country's resurgence." Yan Chujie threw out the bait in a timely manner.

Sure enough, Enrique became interested when he heard this: "Boss Yan means, let us sell arms to both warring parties at the same time, so as to make this war last longer and consume more power of these countries. Some?"

"That's right, Mr. Enrique, you are a very smart person! If the politicians in your country can have your brains, then it is only a matter of time before you completely get rid of the Spanish rule." Yan Chujie generously Throwing a high hat to the other party, and at the same time not forgetting to point out the theme-in fact, the arms trade can be completely connected with your great cause of resisting Spanish rule.

"But that means we have to sell our weapons to our opponents? That's not a good idea." Enrique hesitated about this. It's okay for other countries, but the Dutch have direct competitors in the Far East. , Sell the weapons to the enemy, maybe they will flow back to the Dutch East India Company in the Far East.

"I know what you are worried about." Yan Chujie observed his words and said: "The Dutch East India Company is a stumbling block for you and me. The Manga in the south and the Japanese route in the north are all controlled by the Dutch. We While selling weapons, we can also think about how to work together to deal with the Dutch in the Far East."

(End of this chapter)