open sea

Chapter 999 Trafficker
Chen Mu felt that no matter how much he tried to persuade Yang Yinglong about this kind of thing, it was useless.

The foundation of the ancestors was ruined once, and this matter would be embarrassing to anyone. If Yang Yinglong only had three coins of gunpowder, Yang Zhaolong would definitely be shot with a gun if he was caught.

If it's six dollars, kill Yang Zhaolong first and then kill yourself.

So Chen Mu didn't want to persuade him, but just wanted his brother-in-law to go in a good direction and look forward.

Let's say... Xinming has a bigger development than Banshu.

Chen Mu didn't know about other developments, and he didn't plan to let his brother-in-law raise kangaroos there to make a fortune, so there was only steel.

But when Yang Zhaolong answered his question, the answer almost made him so angry that he pulled out a gun and killed Yang Zhaolong—he asked how many kilograms of Xinming Iron and Steel’s daily output.

This is an approximation, he wants to hear an answer of tens of thousands of catties or more, to make himself happy.

Tens of thousands of catties is not an exaggeration. In this era, people cannot use metallography to accurately know the composition changes of steel and iron, but this does not prevent people from being familiar with their physical properties.

In this context, the "steel" in Chen Mu's mouth refers to both wrought iron and steel.

The annual output of Guangdong Province is more than [-] million catties due to the reverse taxation. Due to the limitation of production scale, living standard and the management mode brought by the times, all the stoves only burn for more than a hundred days a year, and this is taxation reverse. Chen Mu has no way of knowing the real output.

As far as he knew, Qingyuan Weiqing City Qianhu was under the jurisdiction of the Qingyuan Weiqing City, which he had led troops to suppress, and Lao Bai had agreed that he would take the Qianhu as his own control, but because of Wu Guifang, he was transferred to Tieshan, where Xiangshan had turned yellow. Absolutely no tax.

As a result, the little bastard Yang Zhaolong stammered, "Three, thirty or forty catties?"

Co-authoring the whole thing is so big and new, the annual output is not enough to burn a blast furnace in Weigang, Nanyang for two days?

Even if there are not tens of thousands or thousands of catties, the thirty or forty catties are too careless, right?
But Chen Mu thought about it later, even if Yang Zhaolong was a fool, but Yang Zhaolong didn't handle the iron mine over there, then Li Hualong couldn't be fooled too, there must be a reason for such a low output.

There is indeed a reason. They discovered a huge iron ore deposit and tried to exploit it, but the vein with the largest reserve is in the desert, and there are no forests and trees around it. The nearest forest farm is 140 miles away; there are also iron mines on the coast, but that is The output of river iron sand that is mined in a very small amount, Yang Zhaolong said, is the output of a nearby Miao village.

The old blacksmith used the same method of making steel, carburizing, forging to decarburize, and burying it in the soil for a month; taking it out, carburizing, and then forging to decarburize... Repeated several times, it took several months to finally complete this process. After one process, a piece of steel that can be used for clamp forging is obtained.

Li Hualong did not build a large iron factory in Xinming. He built roads, transported mules and horses to the imperial court, and encouraged the Minguang merchants who contracted mines in Xinming to work hard.

Fortunately, Xinming's iron ore composition is much better than that of many iron pyrites in the country. It is a relatively cost-effective approach in the short term to save up for ten days and a half months and send a fleet to pull the stock back to Nanyangwei Port.

Now there are four banner troops from the Ministry of Hundred Households dedicated to protecting this cargo route, transporting more than 12 catties of iron ore and coal every month.

Without good road transportation conditions and not enough horses and chariots, even if a huge mineral deposit is discovered, it will not help.

Chen Mu also believed that Li Hualong's decision was correct. In the short term, it would be more cost-effective to use the limited funds on hand to build roads than to build an ironworks.

Otherwise, with an iron smelting plant, it will be really uncomfortable if the iron ore transportation conditions cannot keep up with the output.

Problems arise to solve them. In Chen Mu's view, such things as roads, livestock, and ironworks are not difficult problems for Yang Yinglong.

The Yellow River, which has burst thousands of times, can't trouble the people of Shenzhou in Chixian County. What is it to repair a road that is hundreds of miles long?
Chen Mu not only wants to worship data for Yang Yinglong, but also draws big cakes for him. It has been 700 years since Yang Duan, the ancestor of the Yang family, led the army into Bozhou to suppress the rebellion and was granted the consolation envoy of Bozhou; If the Xuanwei envoy gets a wider land, if he can gain a firm foothold, wouldn't he inherit the virtues of his ancestors and set a precedent for future generations?

Regardless of whether Chen Mu's new ideas can persuade Yang Yinglong, who is far away from Xinming, Yang Zhaolong's heart rested in his stomach after reading the letter, and he began to study North Asian intelligence and the relationship between land and sea.

Chen Mu was also very happy. The Wanshou Festival, which has been victorious for seven years in Wanli, was extremely successful. More than 320 aboriginal tribes in Asia, [-] three leaders came to the alliance to participate in the ceremony, and offered blessings to the emperor who was far away in Beijing.

To commemorate this event, he specially asked the craftsmen of the stone factory to carve a nine-foot-high huge stone tablet. The front side recorded the first participation of Asian leaders in the Longevity Festival, and the names of all the participants were engraved on the north side. Some Chinese names are transliterated, some are free translations, and some are just beginning.

The inscription on the stele, Wanli Jimao September [-]th Christmas.

Chen Mu felt that there was nothing wrong with the signature.

A group of colleagues and brothers took this opportunity to gather together, and inevitably got drunk, and the affairs became more busy after waking up.

Gifts for the emperor should be shipped in a hurry, and it would be bad if they did not ship quickly and miss the return time, not to mention not vacating the warehouse, the saltpeter on Shao Tingda's ship was still waiting to be put into storage.

Deng Zilong brought information on Panama, Brazil, and the Viceroyalty of Peru, including Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, Colombia, and Venezuela. This time, he was brought together with Bai Yuanjie and Shao Tingda. , There are really endless topics to talk about.

All topics eventually pointed to Peru occupied by Spain. At this moment, Chen Mu felt that these three people were more like warmongers than himself.

Opening the conversation, Shao Tingda said: "Lautaro of Mapuche was trained in my place. He wants to liberate the suffering people. He will gather followers when he raises his arms, but he suffers from the lack of soldiers. Our standard soldiers of Ming Dynasty I can’t give it to him, because Chile’s Western Army has very few armored soldiers.”

"Chang Sheng has it!"

Bai Yuanjie was suffocated. He thought that fighting Fayi on the east coast of North Asia would allow him to stretch his muscles. He didn't know that the French were pitifully weak. He just read the battle report, and the merchants who came back from the north brought back battles. Finished message.

At this time, when he heard the flames of war, he immediately patted the table with his palm and said: "Changsheng has everything from Western-made mail armor, cotton armor, spears, and matchlock guns. Haigong... approve?"

The jealous Hai Rui lowered his eyes and looked at the steamed fish on the plate in front of him, and snorted for a long time, "Mmm..."

The hated Hai Rui has long been displeased with the Spaniards. It is true that the war is not controlled by him, just like Chen Mu's food, grass, money and taxes are controlled by him. War is Chen Mu's duty, and no one has the right to intervene. Only then endured.

"Then Deng Mou will send out information. Panama, north and south, Costa Rica and Colombia, it's uncomfortable to put me in the middle, and destroy them. I recommend fighting Colombia in the south. I'm not familiar with the governor of the West. I don't care if they ask me to send troops. .”

As Deng Zilong said, he raised his hand and tapped some in the teacup, then drew a sketch on the table in a blink of an eye, and said: "The tribe over there is called Muxica, and the Kuxi people have been enslaved for a long time... By the way, besides that, I am in Panama There are also several Spanish ships that have been captured in the past."

"Cough cough!"

Chen Mu cleared his throat, and the four of them, including Hai Rui, looked over, laughing at each other, you look at me, I look at you, and finally Shao Tingda said: "Marshal, it's rare to have such an opportunity. Take the opportunity to beat them?"

Chen Mu pursed his lips and shook his head, raised his hand to sweep over several people: "Your attitude is wrong, this kind of thing has nothing to do with me, Daming."

"Even if the army is successful, does the land belong to Daming?" Chen Mu curled his lips contemptuously, looked at the few people and paused for a long time, then suddenly raised his head and smiled: "Of course!"

"I mean don't give them Spanish ships. The aborigines have never won a naval battle. Except for the Spaniards themselves on the west coast, we have Spanish ships in our hands."

"Besides, there are quite a lot of troops stationed at the port. I'm afraid there will be many casualties. If we go by land, we will pass through the land controlled by the Portuguese in name. Maybe the Portuguese will be willing to support them with a few Franz machines."

(End of this chapter)