Global colonization began with Ming Dynasty pirates.

After assigning Li Mu to oversee the production of the muskets, Lin Hao turned to the two government musket pilots who had just test-fired. The two men were looking at him nervously.

Lin Hao smiled slightly, then asked softly, "What are your names?"

"Replying to the young master, my name is Zhang Dong," the musketeer replied, bowing.

"Replying to the young master, my name is Wu Jian," the Lu Mi gunner replied in kind.

"Very good, Zhang Dong and Wu Jian, you both performed excellently today. From today onwards, you are officially released from prisoner status and will join the combat troops tomorrow to train together. Your resettlement allowance will be issued later."

To their surprise, Lin Hao did not choose one of them as he had previously said, but instead granted both of them the status of combat soldiers.

Upon hearing this, the two were overjoyed.

Previously, they were still debating who performed better, fearing they would be left out. But now, upon hearing that Lin Hao had selected both of them for the combat army and would even provide them with a settling-in allowance, they were overjoyed and knelt down to express their gratitude.

In reality, their worries were completely unnecessary. Talented individuals like them, who knew how to fire muskets and had some military experience, would be selected by Lin Hao to join the ranks of soldiers after a period of time, once they had performed sufficient hard labor among the prisoners.

They simply got in ahead of time.

Although they were no longer prisoners of war and no longer needed to do hard labor, they still needed to join the combat training camp for training. The level of exertion between the two wasn't significantly different, though neither of them knew it yet.

Waving the two men away, Lin Hao said to Li Qiang, "I remember Brother Chunlin had already finished making the artillery carriages, why haven't we seen them today?"

"Well..." Li Qiang said awkwardly, "We've received the artillery, but young master, there are no horses."

"You're the one without a horse, your whole family..." Lin Hao's curse was on the tip of his tongue, but he swallowed it back. It was only then that he realized this was the Ming Dynasty, not the 21st century. Here, no one would dare to play these kinds of puns with him, so the horse the other person was talking about must really be a horse.

"No horses?" Lin Hao frowned deeply, then realized that there really seemed to be no horses on his island, not even a single donkey.

"Yes, young master, we have the artillery vehicle, but we don't have any livestock to pull it. So we can't test it," Li Qiang said awkwardly.

Lin Hao was immediately displeased upon hearing this. "So what if we don't have horses? Does that mean we can't pull the cart? Can't you use your blockhead? Our Four Seas Gang has captured so many prisoners, feeding and caring for them well. Are we expecting them to act like lords? If we don't have horses, then let them pull the cart."

Upon hearing Lin Hao's words, Lin Shisan and Li Qiang exchanged bewildered glances. Then they realized their mistake. Who said a carriage had to be pulled by a horse?

"Young Master is right, I'll go find someone right away," Li Qiang said hurriedly, bowing and scraping.

"Please forgive us, young master. We'll mount the cannons onto the gun carriage and demonstrate them right away," Lin Shisan quickly added. These past few days he'd been so busy leading his men to test the eight newly cast cannons that he hadn't given the gun carriage a proper chance to think about it; otherwise, he certainly wouldn't have made this mistake.

After the two hurriedly left, Lin Hao sighed helplessly. But in truth, he didn't feel much blame. The Four Seas Gang had far too many affairs to handle; mistakes and oversights were to be expected.

Half an hour later, a group of people appeared in front of everyone, pulling two artillery carts.

The two cannon carriages were of different sizes, but the cannons on them were identical. They were both from the first batch of castings, weighing 500 jin (approximately 250 catties), equivalent to a five-pound cannon.

The small cannon cart required four people to pull it together. The large cannon cart, on the other hand, could be easily pushed by just two people.

Judging from the relaxed appearance of the two people pulling the cannon, Lin Hao even suspected that even one person could probably push it with a little effort.

However, given that it's only a 500-pound cannon, this phenomenon is normal. If it were a 12-pound cannon weighing over 1000 pounds, these two people probably wouldn't be able to move it.

After the artillery vehicle arrived, Lin Hao examined it carefully and found that it was basically the same as the artillery vehicle he had seen in the museum in his previous life.

He then tried pulling it himself and found that he could barely push the 5-pound cannon, which weighed 500 pounds, with his own strength. Especially after removing the rear half of the ammunition box, Lin Hao could lift the rear of the single-tailed cannon with one hand and then push the front two-wheeled cannon for short-distance maneuvers.

The effectiveness of this artillery piece is remarkable. Even with the ammunition carts behind it, it will probably only require two horses to pull it, easily keeping up with the marching column.

As for the small artillery carriage, it's not much to look at. As long as it can move and doesn't fall apart when the cannon is fired, that's fine. Anyway, it doesn't need much mobility. It only needs to move backward to dissipate the recoil when firing.

"Let's test the strength of this artillery piece," Lin Hao immediately ordered.

Under Lin Hao's orders, Lin Shisan arranged for the gunners to fire several salvos at the two cannons. After the firing, the cannons were unharmed.

After the test was completed, Lin Hao nodded in satisfaction, then said to Lin Shisan:

"Thirteen, these two cannons seem to be up to standard. But they still need a lot of testing. In the next few days, put the newly produced cannons onto the corresponding cannons and have them travel around the island. At the same time, fire them as many times as possible to test them. If you find any problems, report them back in time as a basis for improving the cannons in the future."

"Yes, young master. I understand." Lin Shisan nodded in agreement.

Just as Lin Hao was inspecting the cannons, an old man dressed in a scholar's robe, accompanied by several men who looked like constables, stepped onto the pier of Dongluo Island.

The guards on the dock were taken aback when they saw these people, then looked at them warily, their right hands already on the hilts of their knives, the blades half-drawn. If anything seemed amiss, they would immediately rush forward and subdue them.

Upon seeing the guarded actions of these people, the old man in the scholar's robe immediately became displeased.

He raised his head arrogantly, stroked his beard with one hand, and then berated the guards: "You insolent fools! I am a staff member under the Prefect of Fuzhou. How dare you draw your swords against me? Are you plotting a rebellion?"

Upon hearing this, the guards exchanged bewildered glances, not out of fear, but out of confusion. Had this old man gone mad? We were pirates, after all; what difference was there between us and rebellion?

Seeing that the guards remained wary even after he finished speaking, the old man said with a dark face, "I was sent by the prefect to discuss matters with your master. Go and report immediately that I have something very important to discuss with your master. If this is delayed, you will not be able to bear the consequences."

Hearing this, and seeing that there were only two constables behind him, the guards lowered their guard slightly. One of them stepped forward and said, "Since you are an official, please wait a moment. Please wait here for a while and do not make any rash moves. I will go and report to the gang leader immediately."