Zhu Yihai inspected three Spanish galleons on board. The ships were a bit old, but overall they were well maintained, and the cannons on board were also in good condition.
The lines of the large sailing ship are very graceful, and the stern is even more amazingly exquisite.
However, it is obvious that the Spanish galleons, with their high sides and high stern, are actually obsolete. The failure of the Spanish Armada can also explain some problems.
It is said that these three ships were built by Spain at the Havana shipyard in the Caribbean Sea, which is the largest shipyard in the New World.
The artillery on the ship mainly comes from the Riergens gun foundry in Spain.
The artillery on these three ships also fully demonstrates the characteristics of the Spanish firepower system. There are cannons, long cannons, stone cannons, mortars, and rotating cannons on the ships. The cannons are the largest and most powerful, and have a higher diameter-to-length ratio than ordinary long cannons.
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The stone-shooting cannon is an outdated weapon that has been eliminated and is a close-range weapon.
The rotary guns are mounted on a rotating gun mount on the ship's side guardrail. There are three types: 1-pound, 1.5-pound and 2.5-pound. All rotary guns are rear-loading, which means that these guns can be reloaded very quickly, but
It has an obviously fast rate of fire but short range and low power.
The really useful ones are heavy cannons and long cannons. Of course, if they are used to deal with the Qing army, then stone cannons, rotary cannons and even mortar cannons are actually considered advanced.
After all, in comparison, the navy of the Qing army was actually an ordinary transport ship or even a fishing boat, with a large gun mounted on the ship. This gun is said to be an imitation of an eagle gun, a small gun, weighing about two to three hundred dollars.
Jin, fires about one kilogram of shells.
Some ships will also be equipped with Fran cannons, which are rear-mounted double and twin cannons, which are also small cannons.
These are not even as good as the level of the Navy during the Qi Dynasty tomorrow.
Even now, the Qing army has completely lost control of the sea and inland rivers, and even has no boats such as bird boats, rice boats, and boats suitable for water warfare.
These three large sailing ships are somewhat behind the Portuguese or Dutch sailing ships, but the cannons on board are still real. Among them, there are twenty-four heavy cannons alone, not counting the small rotating cannons. Two of them are
Twenty-four-pounder cannon, four sixteen-pounder cannon, ten twelve-pounder half-long cannon, and eight eight-pounder falcons.
The largest gun is used as a stern counterattack gun. The others are arranged on both sides. The long gun is in the middle of the ship, the falcon gun is placed in front of the mainmast, and the half-long gun is facing the stern of the ship, all mounted on two-wheeled gun carriages.
The ship is also equipped with 14 rotating guns, which are usually placed on the deck or under the ship's house. Once necessary, they can be reinstalled on the two ships' buildings. Like other large sailing ships, this ship is well armed, but
Compared with the main battleships of the British Navy and the Dutch Navy at this time, there is still a big gap.
This may be the reason why the Spaniards are willing to sell these three large sailing ships directly to Zhu Yihai. The three somewhat old ships are exchanged for full-scale trade with the Ming Dynasty. This transaction is very cost-effective, not to mention that the price of their ships is also high, and they come with weapons.
, and even the water mercenaries on the ship can make another fortune.
Zhu Yihai looked at it both inside and outside, and it was like buying a second-hand house. Although a second-hand house is no better than a new one, it is obviously more suitable for those who just need it.
He was very satisfied with the items, but the price came second. The specific price could be discussed in detail, and in the end he could even trade in raw silk, silk, tea, etc.
A load of raw silk is worth 100 taels in Huzhou, and when shipped to Manila it is worth at least 200 taels. When shipped from Manila to Mexico, it is worth a minimum of 500 taels. The profit is huge.
It is a hard currency, and the Huzhou raw silk in Daming Raw Silk is a famous brand product, and the price is even higher. This Huzhou raw silk actually does not refer to Huzhou Prefecture, but is produced around Taihu Lake. Real pure Huzhou silk is more expensive.
Some.
The top quality Huzhou silk is Jili Hu silk, which is more expensive. In the past, the imperial court even restricted the production because the quantity was too small and it was not enough for the court to export.
"Two hundred loads of lake silk can be exchanged for one boat, and six hundred loads of lake silk can be exchanged for these three boats!"
The special envoy of the Spanish Governor of Luzon calculated in his mind and was very moved, but still deliberately pretended to be embarrassed.
"One of our ships is worth at least 50,000 taels of silver, and with the weapons on board, it can be worth tens of thousands taels. If we sell it for 100,000 taels, it's a very good deal."
Zhu Yihai directly pointed out that the guns on the Spanish ships were relatively backward. The two heavy cannons were decent, the four long cannons were barely okay, the half-long cannons were already too small, and the Falcon cannons were outdated and backward bronze cannons.
Not to mention guns.
All the cannons together are not worth 10,000 taels, and even the ship and the cannon are worth 50,000 taels.
"How about we deliver six hundred tons of Hu silk to Manila Port?"
According to the past price, a load of raw silk sold for 200 taels in Manila. This Hu silk is more expensive, so the 200 loads are worth almost 50,000 taels?
It was also packaged and delivered to Hong Kong. The messenger thought it was a good deal.
Zhu Yihai also had his own plan. Of course, the free shipping was not to lower the price, but to deliver it to your door and stop by Luzon to bring some grain, cotton, cotton yarn, cane sugar, etc. over.
You must know that the merchants of the Ming Dynasty were very sophisticated in the past. They transported cotton or cotton cloth back to China from Luzon, and then immediately processed the cotton or cotton cloth and transported it back to Luzon for sale.
Later, the Governor of Luzon discovered that the cotton cultivation industry that he had worked hard for had become a raw material supply for Ming Dynasty merchants. They went to Ming Dynasty for processing, then came back and realized that Luzon's own processing was much cheaper.
The local cotton spinning and processing in Luzon was overwhelmed, which forced them to issue an order prohibiting Ming merchants from transporting cotton and Ming cotton cloth from being sold in Luzon.
The Luzon envoy thought that three old ships could be directly exchanged for 600 tons of precious lake silk. If they were resold and transported back to Mexico or Peru, they could earn three times the profit. Therefore, they could not just buy the goods from the original value of more than 200 pounds in Manila.
Calculating two to one load, after all, raw silk in the Ming Dynasty has always been very popular, and it is difficult to grab a share.
In the past, it had to go through the hands of the Zheng Group or even the Dutch.
"For these three ships, change the prow images and then change the names."
"The Dutch sailing ship we had before was called the Shandong, so I think these three can be called the Liaoning, the Zhejiang and the Jiangsu."
This kind of large sailing ship belonging to the flagship class can be rowed to various naval divisions to serve as flagships and is named after the province.
"In the future, when there is enough artillery, we will replace the artillery here with heavy artillery."
Three new main warships were put into service at once, and the navy generals in the imperial camp were very happy. This kind of mobile fortress on the sea would greatly enhance the strength of the navy.
Although Zhu Yihai still looks down on this kind of ship, which is only about 500 tons, compared with the ships currently owned by the Ming army, this kind of ship is still relatively strong.
Zheng's three-masted gunboat is equipped with eight Hongyi heavy cannons and forty thousand-pound guns. It can accommodate 300 people. It has a captain of twenty feet and a mainmast of four feet. This is Zheng's strongest gunboat, but
There are not many gunboats like this.
Moreover, although the Qianjin Folang machine can barely be regarded as a heavy artillery based on the shells, there is still an obvious performance gap with the long artillery.
Chinese hard sailing ships actually have many advantages in offshore waters and inland rivers. Western soft-sailed warships also have great advantages on the sea. The Dutch and other colonists also specially developed the Calais sailing warship on the inland rivers of Southeast Asia.
to make up for the shortcomings of being in the river.
Zhu Yihai directly exchanged 600 loads of lake silk with free shipping for three Spanish galleons. Both parties were very satisfied with the transaction.
This time, a large number of ships came from the south of the Yangtze River, carrying a lot of food and ordnance, including artillery factories in Zhoushan and Macao, firearms from gun factories, as well as a lot of clothes, cloth, medicines, etc.
Transportation by sea is indeed more efficient, and many newly built ships from Guangdong, Fujian, and Zhejiang have also been transferred here.
Some ships stayed directly in Shandong, some had to be diverted to Liaodong, and some had to transport people back.
Because of the great breach of the Yellow River, there is currently no one to block the floods and provide disaster relief. A large number of refugees have emerged, and many people are coming to the peninsula. Zhu Yihai also tries his best to treat them.
In addition to giving priority to transporting craftsmen to the south of the Yangtze River, we are also accelerating the transport of hungry people to Taiwan by boat.
Although Zhu Chenggong and others' military offensive in Taiwan was not very smooth, and they were still in a confrontation surrounding the Dutch castle, on the other hand, the Ming army also began to build villages and castles in Taiwan, and began to immigrate to reclaim wasteland and farmland there.
The Dutch have two castles in Taichung, both of which are bastions. Their defensive capabilities are quite strong. They also divided their troops to stay at the original Spanish stronghold in Taipei.
Now the Ming army is also dividing its troops to besiege.
On the one hand, they were surrounded by large soldiers, and on the other hand, they immigrated to reclaim wasteland. The soldiers who besieged the city could even take turns to rest, besiege the city, and build military camps. For the Dutch, the Ming army's long-term siege tactics undoubtedly made them very uncomfortable.
Moreover, the Ming army's siege was not just about encircling but not attacking, but also raiding their peripheral strongholds, and even trying to win over and conquer the nearby natives, and reorganize and accommodate the Han people on the original island.
Even for those fortresses, they were doing civil engineering work around the perimeter, building barracks and even earthen forts, and then digging trenches to communicate under the castle. Anyway, both sides had artillery, so you were not in a hurry to attack me.
As a result, although the Dutch were still resisting, they were blocked in the castle and could not get out. Therefore, they could not stop the Ming army's immigration on the island.
Even if the Dutch wanted to call for reinforcements from Batavia, the Ming army was not afraid and had already prepared for them. When they came, they would still have the confidence to repel them in a naval battle.
Sending hungry people from Shandong to Taiwan to reclaim wasteland would cost a lot, but it was also a good arrangement.
This time we reached a cooperation agreement with the Spanish, and the Spanish would also intercept the Dutch ships heading north. Zhu Yihai also agreed to the Spanish. After driving away the Dutch on the island of Taiwan, the Spanish would be allowed to return to the island to open businesses.
trading.
Although the Spaniards in Luzon have directly obtained the trading rights of more than a dozen treaty ports in the Ming Dynasty, they actually no longer care about the wild island in the East China Sea. However, the Dutch and the Spaniards have been fighting in the Far East for many years, especially
The Dutch took the opportunity to seize their stronghold in northern Taiwan before, but they couldn't swallow this breath. Now that they have the opportunity, of course they are willing to take action.
They also thought that after destroying the Dutch stronghold in Taiwan, they would also be able to get a share of Japan's trade.
