Haisheng Mingdi

Chapter 510 Naval Gun Diplomacy
Zhu Yihai inspected three Spanish galleons. The ships were a bit old, but overall they were well maintained, and the cannons on board were all fine.

The lines of the galleon are beautiful, and the stern is surprisingly exquisite.

However, it is obvious that the shape of the Spanish galleon, with its high sides and high poop, is already an obsolete type, and the failure of the Spanish Armada can also explain some problems.

All three ships are said to have been built in Spain at the Havana shipyard in the Caribbean, the largest shipyard in the New World.

The cannons on the ship mainly come from the Liergens Cannon Foundry in Spain.

The artillery on these three ships also shows the characteristics of the Spanish firepower system. There are cannons, long cannons, stone shooting cannons, mortars, and rotary cannons on board. The cannons are the largest and strongest, and have a higher diameter-to-length ratio than ordinary long cannons. .

The stone-shooting gun is a backward weapon that has been eliminated, and it is a close-range weapon.

The swivel guns are assembled on the rotating gun mounts on the side rails of the ship. There are three types of one-pound, one-and-one-half-pound and two-and-a-half pounders. Obviously fast fire rate but short range and low power.

Cannons and long cannons are really easy to use. Of course, if they are used to deal with the Qing army, then stone shooting cannons, rotary cannons and even mortars are already considered advanced.

After all, in comparison, the navy of the Qing army is actually an ordinary transport ship or even a fishing boat, and a big fat tribute is installed on the ship. This gun is said to be an imitation eagle gun, which is a small artillery and weighs about two to three hundred Jin, fire about a catty of shells.

Some ships will also be equipped with Franco cannons, that is, rear-mounted sub-cannons, which are also small cannons.

These are not even as good as the level of the Navy during the Ming Dynasty.

Even now, the Qing army has completely lost control of the sea surface and inland rivers, and there are no such boats as bird boats, rice boats, and boats suitable for water warfare.

These three galleons are a bit behind the Portuguese or Dutch galleons, but the artillery on board is still solid, of which only heavy cannons are equipped with 24 pieces, and the small rotary cannons are not counted.Among them were two 24-pounder cannons, four sixteen-pounders, ten twelve-and-a-half-pounders, and eight eight-pounders falcons.

Instead, the largest cannon was used as a stern counterattack gun, and the others were arranged on both sides. The long cannon was in the middle of the ship, the falcon cannon was placed in front of the mainmast, and the semi-long cannon was facing the stern, all mounted on two-wheeled gun carriages.

The ship is also equipped with 14 rotary cannons, which are usually placed on the deck or under the ship tower. Once necessary, they can be reinstalled on the two ship towers.Like other galleons, 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 also be the reason why the Spaniards are willing to sell these three galleons directly to Zhu Yihai. The three old ships are exchanged for full-scale trade with Daming. This deal is cost-effective, not to mention that the price of their ships is also high, including weapons. , and even the water mercenaries on board can make another fortune.

Zhu Yihai looked inside and outside, just like buying a second-hand house. Although a second-hand house is not as good as a new one, it is obviously more suitable for just-needed ones.

He is very satisfied with the things, but the price is the second priority. The specific price can be discussed in detail, and even raw silk, silk, tea, etc. can be used for transactions in the end.

A load of raw silk is worth 100 taels in Huzhou, and it is worth at least 200 taels when it is shipped to Manila. If it is shipped from Manila to Mexico, it will be worth 500 taels, which is a big profit.

It belongs to 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 is actually not from Huzhou Prefecture, but from around Taihu Lake. The real pure Huzhou silk is more expensive. Some.

The high-quality silk in Huzhou is Jili Husi, 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 dan of lake silk for one boat, and six hundred dan of lake silk for these three boats!"

The special envoy of the Spanish Governor of Luzon made some calculations in his mind and was very moved, but he still deliberately pretended to be difficult.

"One of our ships can be worth at least 5 taels of silver, plus the weapons on board, it can be worth tens of thousands of taels. We sell 10 taels, which is considered a very favorable price."

Zhu Yihai directly pointed out that the guns on the Spanish ship were relatively backward, only the two heavy cannons were decent, the four long guns were barely okay, the semi-long guns were already small, and the falcon guns were outdated bronze guns. Not to mention the cannon.

All the cannons together are not worth 1 taels, and even 5 taels of the ship with cannons is too much.

"In this way, how about six hundred tons of lake silk, how about we send it to the port of Manila?"

According to the previous price, a load of raw silk in Manila sells for 200 taels. This lake silk is more expensive, and the two hundred loads are worth about 5 taels of silver?

It was sent to Hong Kong by package again, and the messenger thought it was a good deal.

Zhu Yihai also had his plan. Of course, the free shipping wasn't for lowering the price, but he planned to deliver the goods to Luzon by the way to get some grain, cotton, cotton yarn, sugar, etc. over there.

You must know that the merchants of the Ming Dynasty were very skilled in the past. They transported cotton or even cotton cloth from Luzon back to China, and then immediately processed the cotton or cotton cloth and shipped them back to Luzon for sale.

Later, the governor of Luzon discovered that the hard-working cotton planting industry turned out to be the raw material supply for merchants in the Ming Dynasty. The local cotton spinning and processing in Luzon was overwhelmed, which forced them to order to prohibit Ming merchants from transporting cotton, and Ming cotton cloth from being sold in Luzon.

What the Luzon envoy was thinking was that three old boats could be exchanged for 200 tans of precious lake silk, which would earn three times the profit if they were transported back to Mexico or Peru. It's a matter of burden, after all, Daming's raw silk has always been in demand, and it is difficult to grab a share.

In the past, they had to go through the hands of the Zheng Group or even the Dutch.

"For these three ships, change the head portrait, and then change the name."

"Our previous Dutch galleon was called Shandong, so I think these three can be called Liaoning, Zhejiang and Jiangsu."

This kind of flagship-level galleon can just be rowed to each navy as a flagship, named after the province.

"In the future, when there are enough guns, replace the artillery on it with heavy artillery."

The navy and generals of the imperial battalion are very happy to add three main battleships to serve at once. This kind of mobile fortress at sea will greatly boost the strength of the navy.

Although Zhu Yihai still looks down on this kind of ship which is only about [-] tons, but compared with the ships that the Ming army currently has, this kind of ship is still relatively strong.

Zheng's three-masted gunboat, equipped with eight Hongyi heavy cannons, forty thousand-jin Franglers, can accommodate 300 people, has a length of twenty feet, and a mainmast of four feet. This is the strongest gunboat of the Zheng family, but this There are not many gunboats.

Moreover, although the Qianjin Frang machine can barely be regarded as a heavy artillery according to the shells, there is still a gap in performance between the long artillery and the long artillery.

Chinese hard sailing ships actually have many advantages in coastal waters and inland rivers. Western soft-sailing warships also have great advantages in the sea. Colonists such as the Netherlands have specially developed Calais sailing warships on the inland rivers of the South Sea. To make up for the shortcomings in the inner river.

Zhu Yihai directly exchanged [-] dans of Husi with free postage for three Spanish galleons, and both parties were very satisfied with the deal.

This time a large number of ships came from the south of the Yangtze River, bringing in a lot of food and military equipment, including firearms from gun factories and gun factories in Zhoushan and Macao, as well as a lot of clothes, cloth, and medicines.

It is indeed more efficient to transport by sea, and many newly built ships from Guangdong, Fujian, and Zhejiang have also been transferred.

Some ships stayed directly in Shandong, some had to be transferred to Liaodong, and some had to transport people back.

Because of the big breach of the Yellow River, there is no one to stop the disaster relief, a large number of refugees have emerged, and many people have come to the peninsula, and Zhu Yihai is doing his best to treat them.

In addition to giving priority to transporting craftsmen to Jiangnan, they are also speeding up the transport of some hungry people to Taiwan.

Although Zhu Chenggong's military offensive in Taiwan was not smooth, they were still in a confrontation surrounding the Dutch castle, but on the other hand, the Ming army also began to build village castles in Taiwan, and began to immigrate there to reclaim wasteland and farmland.

The Dutch have two castles in Taichung, both of which are bastions, and their defense capabilities are quite strong. They also divide their troops to stay behind in the former Spanish stronghold in Taipei.

Now the Ming army is also divided into siege.

Surrounded by soldiers on the one hand, they also immigrated to reclaim wasteland, and even the soldiers who besieged the city could take turns to rest, besiege the city, and station troops. For the Dutch, the long-term siege tactics of the Ming army undoubtedly made them very uncomfortable.

Moreover, the Ming army's siege was not just to siege but not to attack, but also to sweep up their outer strongholds, and even to win over and conquer the nearby natives, and to reorganize and accommodate the Han people on the original island.

Even for those fortresses, there are also civil engineering work on the side, building fences and even earthen fortresses, and then digging trenches to communicate with the castles. Anyway, both sides have artillery, and you are not in a hurry to hit each other.

As a result, although the Dutch were still stubbornly resisting, they were blocked in the castle and could not go out. Therefore, they could not stop the immigration of the Ming army on the island.

Even if the Dutch wanted to call for Batavia's reinforcements, the Ming army was not afraid, and they had already prepared for it. When they came and fought at sea, they still had the confidence to repel them.

The cost of sending the starving people from Shandong to Taiwan for reclamation is not small, but it is also a good arrangement.

This time we reached a cooperation agreement with the Spaniards, and the Spaniards will also take action to intercept the Dutch ship going north. Zhu Yihai also agreed to the Spaniards, and when the Dutch on Taiwan Island are driven away, the Spaniards will be allowed to return to the island to open a business. trading.

Although for the Spaniards in Luzon, they have directly obtained the trading rights of more than a dozen treaty ports in Daming, and they don’t care about the wild island in the East China Sea at all, but 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 their breath. Now that they have the opportunity, they are of course willing to make a move.

They also thought that when the Dutch stronghold in Taiwan was destroyed, they would also be able to get a share of the Japanese trade.

(End of this chapter)