At the Nantou City Yamen, Hou Yao was chatting happily with the foreigners rescued from Wutong Mountain.
This man's name is Francis Perez, a Portuguese missionary. They landed in Guangzhou more than 20 years ago.
After landing ashore, he met with the governor of Guangzhou at that time and asked for their permission to spread the gospel of God.
The chief envoy of Guangzhou at that time saw that they did not know the Mandarin Chinese and relied on generals to communicate with others, so he drove them out of Guangcheng.
The chief envoy's original words when he met them were:
"You all can't speak Chinese, so how can you preach to the Chinese people with a general?"
Francis and his companions were speechless and finally had to retreat to the sea.
But what they didn't expect was that as soon as they returned to the sea, they were targeted by a group of pirates.
The pirates killed most of his companions. Only Francis himself was left alive by the pirates because he could make firearms.
After that, he was taken to Wutong Mountain and helped the pirates make firearms.
In the past few years, it was mainly manufacturing artillery, but in recent years it has only begun to manufacture matchlock guns.
However, due to materials and various reasons, not too many matchlock guns were made, and those more than a hundred were all.
Hou Yao became very nervous when he heard that Li Jingshan and Li Jingfeng still had artillery in their hands.
"How many artillery pieces do they have? How powerful are they?"
"Sir, I've built more than sixty artillery pieces in total, but don't worry, because they don't have enough gunpowder, they probably won't be able to fire a few cannons.
I estimate that they only have enough gunpowder to fire four or five cannons at most. As for the power, I am actually not good at making artillery.
I can only say that the power is passable."
Francis has been hanging out with the miners over the years and has long since learned fluent Cantonese.
Hou Yao shook his head and smiled bitterly. Four or five cannons can already cause a lot of casualties. If used well, it can even make his own arrangements go to waste.
But there is no point worrying now. Anyway, I have made all the arrangements I can. Some things are planned by people and accomplished by God.
"By the way, I haven't asked the Franciscan priests yet why you insist on coming to China to preach?"
Francis made a salute:
"I came here following the legacy of my ancestors. Twenty years ago, Bishop Saint Francis Xavier came to the East to preach.
After preaching in India, Java, Japan and other countries, he finally discovered that the Japanese were always "begging for the wisdom of the Chinese."
To convert to the Japanese, you must first convert to their superstitious Chinese.
China is rich in products, has a large population, is politically unified, and has the same language.
All these are ideal conditions for missionary work.
China also has experience in successfully spreading foreign Buddhism, and he firmly believes that God will also give the loyal apostles a chance.
Therefore, he finally came to China. Unfortunately, Bishop Shalu, like me, was unable to enter Guangzhou and could only live in Shangchuan Island, where he eventually died of malaria.
It was not until three years after his death that his deeds were reported back to Portugal, and we decided to fulfill our ancestors' legacy.
What’s more important is that we believe that the Chinese people also need God’s salvation.”
Shangchuan Island is a deserted island off the coast of Guangdong. In the past, many Portuguese smugglers settled on the island.
More than ten years ago, Yao Yuanzhou expelled all Portuguese smugglers on the island, and now it is the garrison point of Nanhaiwei.
Portuguese businessmen who do business through normal channels usually go to Macau to live.
Hou Yao shook his head slightly. In fact, the Chinese people have always believed in pragmatism, and missionary matters are not important.
No matter what religion you dare not believe, you will eventually return to your ancestral beliefs.
"The priest's spirit was deeply moved, but he has always had a problem. He likes to exchange things of equal value.
If I allow you to preach, what can you bring to me?"
Francis looked surprised at first, but then he was disappointed and said:
"Sir, it seems that I can't help you with anything except making firearms, but making firearms takes a lot of time.
If you want to preach, I don't have that much time to help you make firearms."
Hou Yao shook his head. In fact, he just found an excuse to block his mouth.
The real purpose is to send this man back to Haixing Island, tell him some principles of the Suifa Gun, and let him return to the island to research the Suifa Gun.
It's just that this person is determined to preach in Daxia. If you directly tell him to go to overseas islands, he will definitely not agree.
And with my current status, it is not convenient to deal with him like I did with Xiong Yushi.
Therefore, I wanted to find an excuse to give him hope first, and then trick him into going to the island to work for me.
"You are overthinking. The firearms you make are really not on the market. There is a Shenji Camp in Daxia, and their firearms are ten times more advanced than what you make.
What's more, as an official of Daxia, making firearms privately is a capital crime."
Francis lowered his head in shame. In fact, he also knew that the firearms he made could not be used.
His real profession is actually an alchemist, and his ability to make simple firearms is his limit.
"Sir, I am indeed not good at making firearms. In fact, I am just an alchemist.
If there are any minerals you want to study, I may be able to help."
Hou Yao was stunned for a while before he finally figured out, aren't alchemists the earliest chemists?
Originally, I wanted him to help make the musket, but now it seems that it is not necessary. Wouldn't it be better to just get the nitroglycerin out?
It is not difficult to make nitroglycerin. The main thing is to mix nitric acid, sulfuric acid and glycerin evenly.
It's just that the thing will explode, so he doesn't dare to play with it himself.
The three major materials, nitric acid Bacteria is called chlorine water and sulfuric acid Bacteria are called green vitriol oil, all have ready-made extraction technologies, but glycerin is more troublesome.
However, he is planning to raise pigs in large quantities when the first batch of corn and sweet potatoes planted on a large scale are mature, and then there will be a large amount of lard to develop the soap industry.
Heat the lard and distilled water together, then add the caustic soda. Keep cooking, stirring occasionally with a glass rod.
After cooling, stratification will occur, and the upper layer that solidifies is soap.
The remaining liquid is a mixture of glycerol and caustic soda aqueous solution. Use acetic acid to neutralize the caustic soda.
Then a recrystallization method is used to separate the sodium acetate, and finally the water is removed with quicklime to extract glycerol.
This can be obtained by just doing a little processing during soap production, and it is not troublesome.
Once you get the nitroglycerin out, you'll find a way to get smokeless gunpowder. Once that thing comes out, you'll be able to defeat the whole world.
I feel quite excited just thinking about it, and it seems a little far-sighted.
Hou Yao quickly retracted his thoughts:
"If this is the case, I happen to want to start a new industry. You can help me build this industry first.
Then I will produce an oil. Once the oil is produced, I will allow you to preach in Bao'an County.
At the same time, I will also teach you the next task. If you complete it again, I will help you apply for the qualification to preach throughout Daxia."
Francis was almost incoherent with excitement:
"Thank you sir, God is with you and God will bless you..."
At this moment, Zhou Tiesheng walked over and whispered something in Hou Yao's ear.
Hou Yao smiled and nodded, and then said to Francis:
"Priest Fang, I have official business to deal with now, so I'll take my leave first."
Francis bowed respectfully:
"Sir, walk slowly."
…
After Hou Yao and Zhou Tiesheng left the Yamen together, they rode two fast horses and galloped southward.
After arriving at the shipyard, they met Liu Chengfu, Ma Feixing, Lei Xingguang and others.
Others have also found places to settle in the shipyard.
The reason why Hou Yao dared to use the strategy of luring the snake out of the cave was because he arranged for someone to return to the island to deliver the order exactly a month ago.
Let the army come to Bao'an County for training for a period of time. As the supreme commander of the army, you cannot be disconnected from the army for too long.
Although the young men who later joined the army were the people he lured back to Haixing Island from Bao'an County, and they had absolute trust and admiration for him.
But if he doesn't personally participate in the training, he will definitely not be so handy when commanding.
Knowing that their arrival date was the 15th, he dared to announce that Ouchi Yoshitsune and others would be executed publicly in three days.
Otherwise, Hou Yao is not stupid. The two brothers Li Jingshan and Li Jingfeng have been lurking in Bao'an County for so many years and even made so many guns.
He would not believe it even if he said that they only had the few people in the village.
According to Ouchi Yoshitaka, these two people were ambitious men who planned to return to Japan and unify Japan.
After thirty years of hard work, it is definitely impossible to only have such a small village.
Moreover, they are so familiar with the situation in Bao'an County. If they really dare to come to rob the execution ground, it is impossible not to calculate the military strength in the county.
Li Kangsheng's army is a force on the surface. They must at least have the strength to surpass Li Kangsheng's army before they can appear.
Otherwise, they didn't come to rob the execution ground to save people, they simply came to die.
So as long as they appear, if we only rely on Li Kangsheng's army, no matter how Hou Yao arranges it,
In the face of absolute strength, all tricks are fantasy.
If they don't show up, it proves that they don't have the strength to challenge Li Kangsheng, and there is nothing to be afraid of.
It will be easy to find excuses to deal with them in the future.
Since Hou Yao knew the consequences, he had to be fully prepared before he dared to make a decision.
Although the five-man army on Haixing Island has only been trained for a short period of time and has insufficient weapons and equipment, there are still five men.
Moreover, I have been training strictly for at least two months. I will definitely not be able to develop advanced personal martial arts skills in such a short period of time.
However, the role of individual bravery in legionary combat is limited.
Due to the lack of necessary weapons, Hou Yao asked them to train mainly on the spear phalanx, which is often called the Macedonian phalanx.
This formation will definitely be useless when encountering nomadic troops who are good at riding and shooting, but it should be no problem to defeat the little devils.
Especially when faced with little devils who have no long-range strike capabilities, they are simply invincible.
In fact, the little devils basically fight like a swarm of swarms, with no military formations to speak of.
Even at this time, Takeda Genshin, who was known as the strongest soldier in the Warring States period, only used his horses to fight quickly.
When they met Shangshan Kenshin, who also likes to play fast horse battles, the two met their opponents, and they couldn't move any wind, forest or volcano.
If Takeda Genshin's territory hadn't happened to be Japan's main horse-producing area, the title of Japan's strongest army would not have fallen to him.
It was precisely because of this preparation that Hou Yao dared to push Li Jingshan and Li Jingshan to the point of jumping over the wall.