Chapter 388 Quan Xu was also very helpless, he originally wanted to bluff and scare Huang Taiji, but what he didn't expect was that Huang Taiji was so loud that he actually retreated.However, what Huang Taiji thinks of this actual combat confrontation exercise, Quan Xu can't control.However, this time, the Venetian caravan brought a large amount of supplies.The materials that Helena brought were all the materials that Quanxu needed.For example, there are as many as five manganese sand, almost 4,000 tons.There were also two ships of tin ingots, more than 1,600 tons, five ships of saltpeter of 4,202 tons, four ships of sulfur, more than 3,000 tons, and the rest of ivory, silver coins, gold, and the like.Of course, this time, Quan Xu did not directly buy all of Helena's things, but hung all the materials on the exchange in Golden State, marked the price, and let the merchants choose to purchase or not to purchase by themselves.There are too many industries under Quan Ji's command, such as weapons and equipment such as guns, artillery, rocket artillery, knives, guns, shields and other weapons and equipment under the Gun and Artillery Bureau, and Quan Xu will occasionally raise the issue of external prices.Generally speaking, he only raises prices, and will never interfere with the competition of other industries.For example, at present, Quanji's salt factory is expanding its production capacity, preparing to increase its annual output from 3 million stones to 80 to 10 million stones, according to the plan submitted by Qujing, who is in charge of salt and iron.In Daming, there are many people who can't eat salt, and black-hearted salt merchants, in order to make profits, usually add sand, stones, and soil to salt and sell it as salt.With the increase in the output of the Quanji salt farm, Qujing is ready to hit the price of salt, further suppress the price of salt, and bring the price of salt to the price of cabbage, so as to benefit the people of the world.Qu Jing's proposal, Quan Xu did not directly card him, but replied: "Don't do loss-making transactions!"
”Qu Jing was very happy, which showed that Quanxu supported his plan, and after the construction of the Quanji Salt Factory, due to the gradual exposure to the sun by means of the Longmen sluice, plus the process of analysis and separation, the staff of the salt factory was less than 600 people.Seawater does not cost money, the real cost of producing salt, most of it is the wages of workers, plus welfare, the cost of sea salt is less than 30 yuan per stone, if it is not for the good treatment of the craftsmen of Quanji, the high salary, this cost price will be lower.Nowadays, the price of salt from the Quanji Salt Farm has dropped to 100 wen per stone, and the retail price of the dealer is not allowed to exceed 5 wen per catty of salt, otherwise the dealer will be disqualified.After the salt, Qujing's next step is not to prepare to use the advantage of low cost and price to smash the price of Daming Iron and Steel down.It's just that it's pig iron or mild steel that is smashed, not high-carbon steel.Because mild steel has strong plasticity, it can facilitate all kinds of steel products in life, but the only drawback is that the hardness is not high, and it is difficult to cast weapons.During this time, Helena visited the industrial base in southern Liaoning every day, so that she finally saw what it means to be a "heavenly kingdom".Helena actually wants to buy the cement manufacturing technology in Quanxu's hands directly, but Quanxu will not sell it at all.Cement manufacturing is, to put it bluntly, a layer of window paper.The ingredient is limestone and clay ground into powder, mixed evenly according to a certain proportion, and then burned in the kiln to burn into cement clinker, and the clinker is ground with the slag left after ironmaking, which is cement.This is a simple cement making method, commonly known as soil burning cement.Although the cement is fired by the soil method, the production scale of the cement manufacturing plant in southern Liaoning is not small, and the crusher used to grind limestone and clay is powered by a diesel engine, which can produce more than 50 tons per day.Such a cement factory was not even a small industry in later generations, but at this time, it required more than 1,500 workers to work hard.Helena looked at the cement dust in the sky, at the hard-working craftsmen, and at the clothes on her body, and suddenly lost interest in looking at it.This is something that Quanxu can't do, although cement manufacturing is simple, but the problem is that there is a sudden occupational disease, so the workers must wear thick protective equipment, such as an industrial-grade dust mask like a gas mask, this thing Quanxu can't produce, can only buy from later generations.Since then, the cost of cement production has gone up.The price of each ton of cement that Quanxu is ready to sell to the Dutch is 25 taels of silver, but in fact, the production cost price of Quanji cement is about 178 taels, which is unacceptable to Quanxu.However, there is no way, and shattering is a huge problem."
You can also see that the cement production workers here are very hard!"
Quan Xu shrugged, looked at Helena with an innocent face and said: "Unless slaves are used and they are not provided with salaries, in this way, it is indeed possible to reduce costs and expenses, but burning cement is also a technical project, not all the slaves you can catch casually, charge you thirty taels of silver, it is not expensive at all, if it is too expensive, then you can only mine stones, when you came, did you see the dock?"
”"See!""
The sea embankment on the pier is made of stone and cement, and a small amount of cement can be used!"
Quan Xu smiled: "However, there is no doubt about the sturdiness of the sea defense embankment!"
”Helena took Quan Xu's arm and shook it, "Your Excellency, we Venetians need your help very much now!"
”"I want to help you Venetians too"!
Quan Xu shrugged and said, "My people, they need to eat, they need to live, they need to live!"
”"Well, I don't want a small amount!"
Helena looked at Quan Xu seriously and said: "I brought nineteen ships this time, which can load more than 20,000 tons of cargo, I want at least two-thirds of them to load cement, I want fifteen thousand tons, think about it, how much does it cost!"
”"Four hundred and fifty thousand taels of silver!""
Twenty taels!""
Helena, you don't have to do business like this!"
Quan Xu frowned and said: "Forget it, you can buy cement wherever you like, I won't sell it yet!"
”"No, I'll raise the price for you!"
Seeing Quan Xu's expression, Helena knew that the bargaining was too ruthless, so she hurriedly changed her words: "Twenty-three silver coins......"
Quan Xu shook his head: "Don't sell it"!"
Twenty-five taels!"
Quan Xu was a little thoughtful: "Okay, let's not take it as an example!"
”Through negotiations, Quanxu reduced the offer of 75,000 taels of silver, and Helena felt a great sense of accomplishment.Quan Xu: "You also made a fortune, are you going to ship it to Venice?"
I still have good steel here, do you want it?
Absolutely cheap!
”"How much?""
Three hundred taels of silver per ton!""
Why don't you grab it!""
Look at things before you talk!"
Quan Xu took the broken knife in the hand of a personal guard and said, "You look at things before you speak!"
”Helena naturally knew that the quality of Quanji's steel was very good, but the price was too difficult for her to accept, although Venice was a small country, no matter how small a country was, it also needed armed forces to defend itself.Helena followed Quanxu to the steel mill in southern Liaoning and watched the piles of steel ingots discharged into the empty yard.Helena was dumbfounded and said, "Do you have so much steel that you don't have a warehouse to store it?"
”Behind Helena, Aberg and the other knights were a little confused about Jeon Xu's thoughts.Supposedly, they had already brought the news that the Dutch would attack Liaodong.However, Quan Xu had no intention of preparing for war at all, and in the entire port of Arthur, there was only their Venetian fleet, of course, there were occasionally Spaniards and various merchant ships.Especially with such a large amount of steel, it is actually placed here, are you not afraid of the Dutch coming?"
Why aren't they ready for war?"
Aberg said: "They are already preparing for war, I heard that they also have a naval division in Liaodong, with about forty gunboats, but now, they are not in the port, it should be somewhere, ready to ambush the Dutch!"
”At this moment, Yuan Zongdi came to Quan Xu's side: "Quan Ye!
”Yuan Zongdi whispered softly in Quan Xu's ear.Quan Xu's face was as usual, and he turned to Helena and the others: "Look slowly, I still have some things!"
”Quan Xu's departure was because the Dutch came, less than two hundred miles away from the port of Arthur.After Jeon Xu just left, Helena also received the news.Because the person who sent the news this time was a Spaniard.Don't look at the fact that Spain and the Dutch belong to the same European lineage, if there is an opportunity to give the Dutch eye medicine, the Spaniards will naturally not give up this opportunity.Quan Xu returned to the mansion of Xiu Wubo in Jinshi Mountain, and together with Sanniang, Su Yin and other shadow guards, boarded a small wheel boat, sailed along the canal river on the west side of Jinshi Mountain, and sailed into the bay, and half an hour later, Quan Xu boarded the seal.Through the sea search radar on the seal, after a few minutes of searching, Quan Xu finally found the Dutch combined fleet on the sea.From Quan Xu's heart, he didn't want to fight this battle.Because the strength of the Dutch is already weak, if they are weakened by themselves, the Dutch will be even more powerless in front of the British.However, what made Quan Xu very unhappy was that the Dutch did not negotiate and went to war directly.Who to look down on?
Quan Xu picked up the walkie-talkie: "Set sail!"
”As the roar of the seal's engine sounded, the speed of the seal became faster and faster, and at this moment, Quan Xu took the walkie-talkie and said, "The Flying Fish fleet is assembled!"
”Just as the Exocet fleet converged with him according to Jeon Xu's order, Helena and the others also ran to the battleship in Venice.The Venetians came to Daming this time, a total of two warships, seventeen armed merchant ships, one of which is a typical European second-class warship, this kind of warship has two decks, a total length of 84 meters, a displacement of 1,770 tons, and 90 guns, but the speed is slow, only seven to nine knots in the case of full sail.This second-class battleship was named the Explorer, and the other was the Warrior, a third-class battleship with sixty-four large and small guns, and also a two-deck layout.Helena came to the deck and was watching a Flying Fish ship sail by quickly in the distance, looking at the black-uniformed soldiers of the Flying Fish.Helena muttered to herself, "That's crazy!
”