Late Ming sea owl

Chapter 322: Macau Office

"Gongsha, my friend, it's nice to see you again." Lin Hai stood up to greet Gongsha. He could finally get rid of Wang Mingqi, the crappy translation.

"General Lin, this is our military leader Luo Bo." Gongsha bowed to Lin Hai and tactfully did not use the word "governor".

Rob only imitated Gongsha and bowed his hands, not even lowering his head. Of course, even if he wanted to lower his head, he couldn't do it, because the ruff collar was actually very hard, and wearing it was almost like a prisoner in shackles...

Lin Hai didn't care about this either. He just smiled and held out his hand, saying, "Sit down, both of you, please."

Gongsha and Robo then sat down, but the latter's pumpkin pants were stuffed with cotton, feathers and other fillings, and his sitting posture was quite funny.

Lin Hai continued, "Gongsha, your Weiliduo seems to have a lot of questions for me. Can you be my interpreter and ask him what he is asking?"

Gongsha also had a special relationship with the Council, so he took over Wang Mingqi's translation work, exchanged a few words with the director, and then asked: "General Lin, I actually want to ask this question as well. What is the relationship between Huiyou Company and Jinhe Country?"

Lin Hai then understood what the Portuguese director had just asked. It was indeed a life-threatening question. No wonder Wang Mingqi didn't dare to translate it.

However, he was prepared for this and immediately replied: "Huiyou Company has nothing to do with Jinhe Kingdom, but Lin and Queen Jinhe are old friends and have many business dealings. So after Lin drove away the Spaniards for Jinhe Kingdom, Queen Jinhe gave Keelung Port to Huiyou Company as the home port of the fleet."

This explanation was of course far-fetched, and Gongsha and the others obviously didn't believe it, but like Araki Sotaro, they all tactfully accepted it: "So that's how it is..."

Lin Hai continued, "In short, the Kingdom of Jinhe is the Kingdom of Jinhe, and the Huiyou Company is the Huiyou Company. We Huiyou are very happy to maintain friendly exchanges with the Portuguese. As for the Dutch who have repeatedly invaded the Ming Dynasty, I, as a guerrilla in Penghu, will sooner or later drive them away from the coast of Fujian."

Putting aside the Jinhe Kingdom, Lin Hai's reiterated position was very clear. The Portuguese director was very happy to hear this. Last night, he also learned about the details of the Battle of Lantau Island. He knew that the maritime combat power of the Huiyou Company should not be underestimated. This was a great benefit to the Portuguese in Macau.

After all, the Dutch had never given up their desire for Macau. Just last June, the VOC sent four galleons to attack. Although they lost the land battle, they blockaded the Portuguese for two months at sea.

At that time, many Portuguese merchants were sailing abroad, and the entire Macau did not even have a decent medium or large armed merchant ship. In the end, it was only by relying on Portuguese merchant Thomas Vieira and others to use galleys to raid and drive away the Dutch who were unfamiliar with hydrography.

"General Lin, I am very grateful to the Club for its kindness to the Portuguese. If there is any need for the Portuguese from Macau in the future, you can always send someone to give me instructions..."

After Gongsha finished translating Wei Liduo's words, Lin Hai smiled and said, "No need to bother. I plan to set up an office in Haojing..."

He pointed to a young man standing beside him and continued, "This is my godson Lin Han. He will be the person in charge of the Haojing Office of Huiyou Company from now on. Please take care of him."

Lin Han was one of the first adopted sons bought by Zhu Niang. He was incorporated into Lin Hai's personal guards at the beginning of the sixth year of Tianqi and trained by him personally. Now he is seventeen years old, barely an adult. After the establishment of the Ministry of Communications, Lin Han assisted Zhang Yong in setting up the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics of the General Affairs Department, but he had never had the experience of being on his own. The Haojing Office was the first out-of-town agency under the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics, so sending him here was also a kind of experience.

The work of this office is not complicated. It is mainly responsible for daily liaison with the Portuguese Macau authorities, collecting various types of intelligence on Macau, and also recruiting some useful talents like Ho Leung Tao. The most important quality of the person in charge is the ability to accurately judge which information and talents are valuable to the company.

In addition, the Haojing Office will also serve as a trading station, responsible for purchasing some materials needed by the company. This is relatively minor, because most of the goods in Haojing are not attractive to Lin Hai.

But at the moment, he really had some things to buy from Haojing. After greeting his adopted son and the people present, Lin Hai said to the Portuguese director, "Veneto, I want to buy a batch of matchlock guns and the corresponding lead bullets, but I will be leaving Haojing in the next few days. I wonder how many guns you can buy for me within three days?"

After listening to the translation, the Portuguese director replied: "General Lin, how much do you want?"

"500 heavy muskets and 1000 light bird guns, all of which must be finely crafted, how much silver will it cost in total?" The reason why Lin Hai proposed to buy muskets was mainly to strengthen the weak firepower of Li Zhongguo's troops. This thing is not difficult to train, and it takes only a few days to get the hang of it if you don't practice volley fire.

At present, the General Security Bureau is recruiting peasant soldiers, and the production capacity of the forging workshop of the Firearms Bureau needs to meet the needs of the Agricultural Soldiers Bureau, and there is no need to consider Li Zhongguo's troops. In addition, the matchlock guns made by the company are mainly three-cent bird guns, and the bird gunners of the Agricultural Soldiers Bureau and the Army Department do not use heavy matchlock guns.

In fact, this thing is very good for naval warfare, because naval weapons are not very sensitive to weight, and there is a ready-made bracket on the side of the ship that can be used. Therefore, the Banjiu gun was equipped in large quantities in the navy at the end of the Ming Dynasty, but it was not promoted in the land forces.

It just so happened that there were many matchlock workshops in Macau, and their production capacity was mainly heavy matchlock rifles. After all, the standard equipment of local Portuguese soldiers was a heavy matchlock rifle plus a Western sword, and Portuguese merchants engaged in maritime trade also had a huge demand for it.

The matchlock guns produced by these workshops had no unified standards and their calibers varied in size. The company's own army would certainly look down on them, but they were perfectly suitable for equipping Li Zhongguo's troops.

"About 8000 taels..." The Portuguese director naturally did not dare to criticize Lin Hai. This price was fair. He continued, "But 1500 muskets must be finely crafted, and they are needed so urgently. Haojing definitely does not have that many."

"You should go to all the firearms workshops now and ask them to leave all the stock to me. Others' orders will be put on hold." Lin Hai made his request confidently...

He Rubin's reputation is not in vain. He has the power but would rather not use it. Just think about the damn Bugarao Artillery Factory, which allowed the Vice-Prince of Goa to cut in line, so that half of the gun positions in the Laozha fleet brought back by Shibi and Miguel were empty.

"Yes, yes, General Lin, I will do it now." The Portuguese director agreed after listening to the translation.

"Han'er, please send Wei Liduo and Wang Tongshi off for me, and also take a look at the firearms workshop in Haojing." Lin Hai then instructed his adopted son beside him.

"Yes! Foster father!"

(End of this chapter)