open sea

Chapter 885
Chen Mu missed Lin Afeng so much at this time.

Although there was no definite news about Lin Ahfeng for several years, he knew that Lin Ahfeng was resuming his old business in the Arabian Sea area, doing his old business of angering the surrounding countries.

Although there are a large number of elite Beiyang soldiers who have nothing to do and have been reduced to militia instructors, the Beiyang army is not good at wreaking havoc, not to mention that this is different from their thinking-the Beiyang army is a force with lofty goals.

Each of them firmly believes that what they do can make life better for every citizen in Daming, and also make life better for all the people in this world who are oppressed by the feudal lords of other countries.

What they firmly believe is correct, but the problem is that their commander-in-chief Chen Mu is not lofty, so he can only guarantee the first half of the sentence.

He just wants Europe to be destroyed by war.

In this way, regardless of the process of war or the process of reconstruction, Daming can draw enough nourishment from it to become stronger and richer, and establish the general trend of the world for the next few hundred years.

But now, Chen Mu's top priority is to wait for the delivery of 22 artillery pieces from Dutch businessman Lamb to Changsheng County.

In November last year, Li Dan rescued Lamb in the Caribbean Sea, sank two French pirate ships, and seized 22 cannons in the merchant ship. However, Li Dan did not kill Lamb and his crew, but only killed the ship and Harvest impounded in Puerto Rico.

In addition, a fast boat was dispatched to land at the abandoned fishing port of Veracruz in the wet and rainy Gulf of Mexico. Two fast horses were half borrowed and half seized from the Spanish team stationed there, and they delivered the news all the way through Mexico City. Changsheng Dongyang Military Mansion.

Chen Mu's response was very simple, let Li Dan continue to detain him in Puerto Rico, but it is a difficult task to send people to transport 22 artillery pieces to Changsheng County.

Artillery is not like ordinary goods or soldiers and horses. Unless it is a wrought iron Francophone like the European one, it cannot be moved by manpower.

In Europe at this time, the Francophone was called 'Kou Feilin', which is the transliteration of 'Culverin'. It simply means a long-barreled gun, which is similar to the meaning of a cannon. Canna's 'Canna' also means a tube.

Later, the reason why people used the free translation of the howitzer and the transliteration of the cannon was probably because the tube gun was too ugly.

In the later history, the Hongyi cannon obtained and imitated by the Ming Dynasty could also be called Kou Feilin or Ganon, but in this era, no one in Europe except the Netherlands would make such a heavy artillery. The reason why the average pound weight of artillery is 17 pounds, while the average pound weight of British shipboard artillery is 7 pounds, is because the British only had Francophones on board during this historical period.

Chen Mu wanted to take a look at the method of the Dutch artillery. In addition to the stone-shooting artillery, he wanted to see what the heavy artillery looked like.

When it comes to the Netherlands, everyone will think of the word "sea coachman". In a short period of time, a small country has inherited the past and inherited the future, sandwiched between Spain and England, two maritime overlords, for a hundred years and once ruled the world's seas. Orchids are of great interest.

Especially after hearing that the businessman named Lamb would rather flee than use the brand-new artillery in the warehouse in the face of pirate pursuit, his interest in the Netherlands became even stronger.

For Chen Mu, to understand a place, first look at their ships and then their guns. Ships and guns are the most intuitive benchmarks to measure a country's industrial capacity or national strength.

Lamb's merchant ship has been roughly understood by Chen Mu through Li Dan's letter. It is indeed an ordinary merchant ship, but because it is a merchant ship of this era, it seems too special.

There is no artillery platform, the hull is very thin, and it only carries cargo but not armaments. The speed of the ship is very fast, just like Li Dan's evaluation of this kind of ship, "money is not life".

Of course, its cost is still much more expensive than Fuchuan, but according to the standards of European merchant ships, the cost of such a ship is probably only half of that of ordinary merchant ships, and if the cost of armament is included, it is less than half.

The rest depends on the artillery made by the Netherlands.

But it's kind of hard.

There are two roads from the Gulf of Mexico to Changsheng. The official road through Mexico City is easy but not safe. The road through Qilinwei to Panama for shipment to Changsheng is safe but not easy.

If he took the latter path, Chen Mu would probably have to wait until the third phase of the Beiyang Banner Army arrived to see the artillery he wanted to see.

If you think about it, you will know that the horse-drawn people dragged the road dug on the high mountain, and it was wet and rainy. To be honest, if it was possible, Chen Mu would not want anyone to walk on that road.

Taking the route of Mexico City, one must be on guard against the Spaniards robbing the guns. If they were robbed, they would blame the pirates or the aborigines for their crimes. Chen Mu had no other means of punishing the Spaniards except to start a war, but he didn't want to start a war.

Then you can only ask the Spaniards for help.

A letter arrived in Mexico City, and Yang Tingxiang came forward with the letter to negotiate with the Duke of Alva, and finally let Spain send a company of [-] infantry to guard the artillery with Yang Tingxiang's [-] Banner Army all the way west.

Even so, the cannon still traveled on the road for two months before being delivered to the Mingxi border, and then it took another half month to reach Chen Mu. Together with the cannon, there were more than 200 howling Spanish donkeys.

The Spaniards bought a lot of donkeys in the New World, and put them in nice clothes to improve the logistics capabilities of the army.

When taking over the area west of Mexico City, the Ming army had already taken over a lot of donkeys from the Spaniards that were too late to withdraw. Chen Mu also had no intention of returning the more than 200 donkeys to Duke Alba.

He liked these little donkeys in red, blue and blue clothes.

The booming cannons exploded on the northern hillside of Changsheng County. Chen Mu said to the front-line flag army who was leading the donkey and didn't know how to respond: "You put 25 pieces of silk back to Alva, and those plain colors don't have any bright patterns or dark patterns. A donkey is worth two thousand Tongbao, and I thought the price was fair, so I said I needed these donkeys."

Just after explaining the matter, Zhao Shizhen came with a young craftsman from the Ordnance Bureau, and said to Chen Mu: "Marshal, the 22 cannons are all land artillery, the smallest is a little more than three catties, and the largest is nearly fourteen catties , our cannonballs are a little smaller, but they can be fired with a skid.”

Zhao Shizhen turned his head and glanced at the craftsman, and then said to Chen Mu: "This is the cannon maker of the Cannon Armor Factory of the Changsheng Military Bureau. I can't tell the difference between the cannon and our cast iron cannon, but he said it is the same as the town's cannon." General Shuo's method is different."

Chen Mu looked at the cautious cannon maker behind Zhao Shizhen, and the loud sound of artillery firing in the distance was a little deafening. He asked, "What's the difference?"

"He knocked and thought that the cannon was not cast in one piece, but a layer of iron was poured on the outside. No one knows whether it is copper or not. If you want to know how it is made inside, you have to blow up the cannon first... Flag The army is measuring the parameters of the artillery."

Zhao Shizhen looked at Chen Mu, and asked in a low voice: "Commander, why don't you choose two cannons to test their durability?"

Chen Mu folded his arms on his chest and nodded for a moment, looking at the artillery test site in the distance, and said: "Build three thick walls, let the artillery be careful and keep fighting!"

(End of this chapter)