Chapter 732, businessmen will not do business at a loss
On an open playground on Turtle Island in the south of Nanyang Province, thousands of people stood upright, wearing armor, swords on their waists, bows and arrows on their backs, and muskets on their backs, with a formidable momentum.
Hu Xian, who was standing on the general stage, nodded with satisfaction. At least he still looked full of momentum and looked like that.
The armed force that the major trading houses have put together in front of them is exactly the legal overseas armed force formed by Western trading companies.
According to the code promulgated by the imperial court, the armed forces of major trading houses must and can only exist overseas. They are not allowed to set foot in the mainland of the Ming Dynasty for life, and they must also undergo regular inspections by the imperial court.
At the same time, there are also strict restrictions on weapons and equipment. Detailed and strict regulations are imposed on the size of the facility and the number of weapons it can be equipped with.
The armed force of five thousand people in front of them is already the largest armed force that Hu Xian and others can assemble.
For this armed force of 5,000 people, they have spent millions of taels of silver so far.
Because the imperial court had strict regulations, weapons and equipment could only be purchased from Miyun Iron Factory. It cost hundreds of thousands of taels of silver just to purchase these weapons and equipment.
Obviously, the price of this weapon and equipment is very expensive.
In the words of Miyun Iron Works, if we can’t make the emperor’s money, we will always make your money.
There is no other way. In order to make a fortune overseas, they can only hold their noses and admit it.
Of course, the quality of Miyun Iron Factory's weapons and equipment is unquestionable. Whether it is conventional swords and armors, or muskets, or artillery, the weapons and equipment of Miyun Iron Factory are definitely the best.
The price is more expensive, but everyone is happy to buy it. After all, even the weapons and equipment used by the Ming Dynasty army were purchased from Miyun Iron Factory.
In addition to weapons and equipment, recruiting these five thousand people also cost Hu Xian and Zhang Yuan a huge price.
It is definitely not an easy thing to ask someone to work for you.
At the very least, the money must be provided, otherwise who would be willing to sacrifice their life for you, let alone go overseas, God knows whether they will die there.
Moreover, once you become a private arm of a trading company, you will never be able to set foot in the Ming Dynasty again for the rest of your life, and you can only settle in the Ming Dynasty's overseas provinces and overseas.
This meant that not only did he have to move to the overseas provinces of Ming Dynasty, but his whole family also had to move out.
This money must come from the bosses of the business houses like them. There are 5,000 people, and if each person is given 100 taels of silver to settle in, it will cost them 500,000 taels of silver.
If it weren't for the fact that the imperial court was now strongly encouraging immigrants to the Nanyang provinces, the whole family would have received a large amount of land and rewards by immigrating there. No one would be willing to pay the settlement fee of one hundred taels of silver.
The owners of the major trading houses also relied on their influence in their hometowns to recruit 5,000 young people through coaxing and deception.
We have people? We have weapons and equipment, and we need professional people to train them.
For this reason, they had to spend a high price to dig out some training instructors from the Ming Dynasty Royal Military Academy to specially train these people.
Now after more than a month of training, are we at least on the same team? Or is it the same thing? It seems that the momentum is very good.
"Instructor Chen~"
"I wonder if they can go into battle now?"
Hu Xian looked at the five thousand people on the playground, thought for a moment and asked Chen Lin, the chief instructor next to him.
"Into battle?"
"It's too early now. It's only been more than a month of training. Does that mean you know how to stand in line? Are you far from good in other aspects? Such an army is just a showpiece."
Chen Lin shook his head slightly. To be honest, if it weren't for the extremely high salary offered by the Western Trading Company and the dividends upon success, he, Chen Lin, would not be willing to be an instructor.
Now that he is an instructor, he may have to take them to fight overseas? So in this regard, Chen Lin is still very careful.
"My instructor Chen? We are going overseas to deal with barbarians, many of whom don't even have swords or guns? We don't need too strict training to deal with them."
"All you need is to be able to shoot, to fire cannons? Just to be able to aim? We're not rebelling? Why are we so good at training?"
When Hu Xian heard this, he couldn't help but said anxiously.
If you continue training slowly like this, when will you be able to go overseas to fight?
"You need to speed up your training. Five hundred war horses will arrive in a few days. You need to speed up your training. Next month we will set off to fight against Ceylon."
Hu Xian shook his head helplessly. As a capitalist, well, what he valued more was low-investment, high-yield, and high-turnover transactions.
Millions of taels of silver have been invested in this. Whether it is him or other shareholders of Western Commercial Bank, they all hope to form a fighting force as soon as possible, so that they can make a fortune overseas faster.
If Chen Lin were allowed to train according to the standards of the Ming Dynasty military for a year and a half, he would be a fool, and shareholders like them would lose money to his grandma's family.
So from the beginning, Hu Xian and the others planned a training time of two months, and two months was enough.
Those peasant rebel armies in the past didn't have any training. Most of the time they trained while farming. One training every three days was considered good.
They serve delicious food and drink here and train every day. Two months is enough.
"Leaving to Ceylon next month?"
When Chen Lin heard this, he couldn't help but widen his eyes slightly.
"Isn't this too fast?"
"You have to train for half a year to do this."
"If you don't have much fighting power and you can't win overseas, wouldn't it be an even bigger loss?"
"Of course I know, but how could I not win?"
"Look at the armor they wear. This is the armor from Miyun Iron Factory. There are also swords, bows and arrows, muskets, and artillery. If there are so many sophisticated weapons and they can't win, then there's really nothing to say.
."
Hu Xian thought for a while and nodded slightly. To be honest, he didn't have much confidence in his heart. After all, this was a major event related to war. It was too risky to conquer a country with five thousand people. It was a bit snake-like.
The feeling of elephant.
But think about it, Tian Erniu conquered two huge kingdoms on the Golden Continent with only 10,000 people, and his own casualties were minimal.
He conquered two countries easily and not only gained an unimaginable amount of wealth, but he was also able to acquire huge amounts of wealth every year in the future.
Other trading companies are working hard to mine gold and silver, but Tianjin Ocean Trading Company can just sit and collect gold and silver. The Aztec Kingdom and the Inca Empire will mine gold and silver, smelt it, and stack it.
It's all neat and tidy, just collect it slowly.
The reason why Lu Buwei was successful during the Warring States Period was because he raised his business to the national level. The same is true now for Tianjin Ocean Trading Company.
Easily conquer two countries, enslave them, and let them create a steady stream of wealth for themselves.
Now their Western United Trading Company is doing the same thing.
As long as you can capture Ceylon Island, if nothing else, you can mine the gems on Ceylon Island at will.
Huge profits also drove Hu Xian, Zhang Yuan, and Feng Xiang to take risks.
"I've also heard about Tianjin Ocean Trading House."
"The natives of Golden Continent don't even know how to smelt iron. It's different here in Ceylon. They can still use bows and arrows, steel and the like. That's why I have to be careful."
Chen Lin nodded slightly. He knew that he would command this rabble to conquer Ceylon Island later, so he also understood the situation on Ceylon Island in advance.
"It's right to be careful, and I'm relieved."
"When time does not allow, we have to set off next month. The ocean currents in the Indian Ocean are very special. Summer goes smoothly and winter reverses. In winter, we can reach Ceylon Island more smoothly with the help of ocean currents."
"In addition, I have sent people to Ceylon Island to inquire about the situation. News will come in the next few days."
"Their strength will not be very strong. I checked the history books and found that in the eighth year of Yongle (1410), the Sanbao eunuchs passed by Ceylon Island when they sailed to the West."
"When I returned to the Ming Dynasty, the king of the mountain kingdom of Ceylon, Ariel Kunel, coveted the items on the ship and sent troops to besiege the fleet of the eunuch Sanbao. The eunuch Sanbao led two thousand people to raid the island and conquer the capital of the mountain kingdom, capturing Yalie alive.
Kunel, bring his whole family back to our Ming Dynasty."
"Emperor Yongle took pity on their ignorance, released them, and provided them with food and clothing."
"Eunuch Sanbao easily took over the mountain kingdom of Ceylon with only 2,000 men. You have 5,000 men in your hands, as well as such sophisticated weapons and equipment, and after two months of training, I
I think it should be no problem."
Hu Xian nodded slightly and said.
He had been a censor before and knew many things very well.
This armed force has invested a huge amount of money. Naturally, he and the shareholders of Western United Trading Company will not invest casually. Ceylon Island is also their target after thousands of selections.
To put it simply, when a businessman does business, how can he do business at a loss?
Logically speaking, Myanmar is closer to Nanyang, so the first target should be Myanmar, but they did not attack Myanmar.
Because Myanmar was strong and powerful during this period, it was more difficult to conquer with a few thousand people, but Ceylon Island was different. They had also learned about the situation on Ceylon Island from Du Mingen, the Marquis of Taiping who returned home.
Ceylon is just an island. The country is small, weak, and more importantly, relatively backward. It is not difficult to conquer them, and there are enough interests on Ceylon. Ceylon produces a variety of gems.
This thing is very valuable here in Daming now.
After two months of training, they set out to conquer the island of Ceylon. They also made detailed calculations and thoughts, and they definitely did not do it randomly.
