The surrounding merchants dispersed and poured into the venue, and only a group of people remained in the square, and they reacted."
Your Excellency, what now?"
Dutch business panicked.After the fall of Zheng Zhilong, the Dutch originally thought that they would be able to take the opportunity to gain maritime supremacy in East Asia, but the reality slapped them very much.The Netherlands is known as the coachman of the sea, and what he does is mainly to ship by sea, transporting goods from one place to another, so as to earn the difference.Now, Huaxing Company has set up a merchant shipping company to meddle in maritime shipping, which is to rob the Dutch of their jobs.This made Mousse and others realize the seriousness of the matter and the threat of Huaxing Company to the East India Company.If the Huaxing Company was weak, the Dutch would not care and destroy it directly, but the Huaxing Company had a stronger force than the Dutch Taiwan East India Company, which was enough to make the Dutch feel threatened.In the West, the British Royal Pirates arose to challenge the Dutch hegemony in the Atlantic, and in the East, another Huaxing Company appeared to challenge the interests of the Dutch in the East, and the Dutch's face suddenly became ugly.The advantage of the Dutch is to master the channels of sea transportation, and now Huaxing Company has set up a merchant shipping company to participate in sea transportation, which makes the Dutch's intention to reduce prices completely bankrupt.Zhao Ming glanced at a few Dutchmen, with a contemptuous smile on his face, and beckoned Li Yuanyin, Ruan Jin, Fang Shiyan, Wu Shengqin, Zheng Lian, and Li Laiheng, who was sent by Longwu, to come to a closed place of the expo together.This is an exhibition area for weapons, which is not accessible to ordinary merchants, and only representatives sent by the commanders of the Ming army towns to purchase arms are eligible to enter.Drugs and arms are the most profitable business in the world, Zhao Ming sent a batch of firearms to Hu Guangming's army, the original intention was to support Huguang to resist the Qing Dynasty, but he didn't expect that after Hu Guangming was in the army, his face was still big, and he actually sent someone to ask for it.Although Zhao Ming supported the anti-Qing Dynasty, he also had to think about himself and sent a batch, which was already done his best, how could he provide it impermanently.Therefore, he simply turned the support into a business, so as not to unconsciously ask for it from him impermanently.At this time, Zhao Ming led a group of generals to an exhibition area, picked up a flintlock musket with oil volume, and said to everyone: "This kind of musket, everyone must have seen it."
His advantages are long range, great power, no need for ignition, and less restricted by the weather, but there are also many disadvantages, mainly because the firing rate is not high, only about fifty percent. ”Zhao Ming handed the musket to a few people, "Who are you going to give it a try?"
”Most of the generals of the Zhejiang army have seen the muskets in Donghai Town, and Li Laiheng from Hu Guanglai said: "Guogong, I want to give it a try!"
”Zhao Ming handed the musket to Li Laiheng, and a soldier brought gunpowder, Zhao Ming introduced: "The operation of this musket is basically the same as that of the bird, but the ammunition is loaded with a paper tube, which further increases the rate of fire of the musket and makes up for the defect of low fire."
Of course, if paper cartridge ammunition is used, the cost will increase a lot, and this kind of ammunition is not often used in our army, and only at critical moments, will paper cartridge ammunition be used regardless of the cost. ”When Zhao Ming spoke, the soldier explained to Li Laiheng that the method used, Li Laiheng had already learned to operate after a while.At this time, Li Laiheng stood seventy paces away from the target, and after loading, he raised his gun to aim at the target, and then pulled the trigger, and the hammer hit the reed, and the musket suddenly shook, and the muzzle spewed out flames and projectiles, and the target was hit with sawdust flying.Li Laiheng was slightly stunned, then immediately took out the paper shell ammunition, bit off one end of the paper bullet with his teeth, poured the primer into the fire door, and then stuffed the gunpowder in the fixed paper cartridge ammunition into the muzzle of the musket, stabbed the gunpowder lead bullet three times with the throughbar, stabbed the gunpowder lead bullet solidly, and then inserted the throughstrip back.There was a "bang", the fire was blazing, the smoke was rising, and another shot was fired.Li Laiheng fired six shots in a row, faster and faster, and the middle was dumb three times, but the parity rate still exceeded that of the arquebus, and the wooden target in the distance had been completely shattered, showing the armor-piercing ability of the flintlock pistol.Li Laiheng couldn't put it down and stroked the musket in his hand, knowing that this kind of musket would not be a problem to deal with the heavy armor of the Manchurian soldiers.On the Huguang battlefield, the very poorly equipped Shun Ming army, in the face of the Manchu Sanshun King's well-equipped Eight Banner soldiers, was very passive, often three or four non-commissioned soldiers, in order to kill a banner soldier, the Huguang Ming Army fought very fiercely, and urgently needed a batch of advanced and easy-to-use firearms."
That's sharp!"
The generals of the Hu Guangming Army who followed Li Laiheng over were all dumbfounded, and their faces were full of incredulity.Hu Guangming's army was also equipped with a lot of firearms, such as bird guns, three-eyed guns, and the like, which could not be compared with the flintlock muskets in front of them, and each of them had such power."
Guogong, how much is this flintlock gun?"
After a long time, Li Laiheng said a word, his eyes still carefully looking at the musket in his hand.Zhao Ming smiled and said: "The flintlock pistol is eight taels and one shot, and if it is equipped with thirty rounds of fixed-loading paper bullets, it will cost ten taels." ”"So expensive?"
Li Laiheng took a breath of cool air, the cost of a bird gun is only about one or two and a half dollars of silver, eight taels and one rod, which is several times more expensive.Zhao Ming said: "It is difficult to manufacture flintlock pistols, which is already the cost price.If Hu Guangmingjun thinks that the flintlock pistol is too expensive, we can also make a bird gun for you, to ensure that the quality is far better than your bird gun, and only charge one or two or three dollars of silver per shot. ”Li Laiheng couldn't put it down, stroked the flintlock pistol, gritted his teeth and said: "Guogong, the loyal battalion wants a thousand flintlock pistols and five thousand bird guns!"
”Seeing Li Laiheng's order, the generals in Zhejiang were immediately anxious, and Li Yuanyin said: "Guogong, my Wu Yijun wants 3,000 flintlock guns." ”Fang Shiyan said: "Guogong, the Wuwei Army wants to flintlock 2,000 muskets. ”~~~~~ Zhao Ming smiled and said, "Don't worry, there are good things behind!"
The production of this musket is very limited, and after placing an order, it may not be produced for a while. ”At the moment, Zhao Ming led everyone to test shoot field copper cannons and throw grenades, and also made good orders.In the firearms exhibition area, Donghai Town received at least 500,000 taels of firearms orders, and the harvest can be described as extremely rich.At the same time, in the other commodity exhibition areas, the Dutchman's face has turned green.Because, the emergence of China Merchants Shipping Company, followed by the birth of an insurance business, as long as the businessman invests a small amount of money, the goods are sailing on the sea, if there is any loss, Huaxing Insurance Company, will fully compensate the loss of the businessman, businessmen from all over the world have no scruples, have rushed to buy the goods in the exhibition area.At the beginning of the bidding, it exceeded the one tael given by the Dutch, and was raised to two taels by the Spanish and Portuguese, and finally the Dutch had to eat tens of thousands of horses at about three taels, which was twice as much as the price quoted by Huaxing Company to the Dutch at the beginning.A few days later, in the city of Chikan, the Council of the East India Company of Taiwan held a general meeting.The Acting Governor of Taiwan, Furberg, read out the resolution of the General Assembly in a deep voice, "Gentlemen, the company has suffered great losses due to the policy mistakes of the Governor Ovat, the senior business mousse.Due to policy mistakes, Huaxing Company set up its own China Merchants Shipping Company to compete with the company in the Far East, and the Council decided to remove the two from their positions, and prepare to compete with China Merchants Shipping Company, squeeze out China Merchants Shipping Company, so that the company has a firm grasp of the transportation business of Far East trade. ”(Thank you for your support, ask for a monthly pass, recommend, and read) ()