Opening game, American Tycoon

Chapter 198 Conscience of a Smuggling Merchant (Second Update, please subscribe)
In the sea mist like a tulle, the roar of the naval guns resounded through the sky like the thunder god's roar.

Suddenly, a smuggling boat with a low freeboard and painted blocky camouflage rushed out of the sea fog. Although the sea was not very stormy, due to the speed, the turbulent waves kept beating the high-speed smuggling boat, and the waves kept breaking. Some flew over the bow, jumped over the side, and hit the deck.

The sailors who ran out on the deck braved the waves and tried hard to cover the ropes of the canvas tightly. If it weren't for the ropes tied around their waists, they would probably be photographed into the sea when a wave slapped away.

"arrive!"

Finally, with an excited roar, Wilmington Harbor broke into the sight of the sailors.

The port of Wilmington is not a big port, but when ports such as New Orleans were occupied or blocked first, it became one of the passages between the south and the outside world.

For the merchants in the city, they would stand by the port and stare at the sea every day, expecting that the merchant ships would break through the blockade and bring urgently needed materials to the south - a large amount of shoes, salt, medicine, military supplies and other goods, but these Items are mainly obtained from the outside world.

Of course, merchants don’t need to pay cash. They have a large amount of an agricultural product that is urgently needed by the outside world—cotton. The outside world needs cotton from the south, and the south also needs to obtain materials through exporting cotton.

As usual, the merchants in the hotel sighed as they once again cast their eyes on the empty bay.

"Brian, it's another lonely night!"

"Yeah, not a single boat."

"Oh, what a pity. When will the damn navy break through the Yankee blockade and defeat their fleet?"

Just as the businessmen were talking to each other, suddenly, someone broke in and shouted loudly.

"There is a boat, there is a boat breaking in!"

what!
In an instant, the merchants who were still moaning and sighing rushed out like a whirlwind as if they had been injected with chicken blood. When they ran to the port, they saw a low-sided smuggling boat slowly sailing into the bay. , as long as you see its hull, you can recognize its identity.

"It's a ghost!"

"It's a ghost ship at sea!"

"Long live!"

Suddenly, there was a burst of cheers on the pier. The ghosts of the sea, in fact, this kind of breakthrough ship painted with stripe camouflage first became famous in New Orleans. It once transported urgently needed supplies there under the cover of twilight, because of them Its whereabouts are surreptitious and extremely fast, so it is called the "Caribbean Ghost", and then it slowly appeared in various places.

As soon as the ship docked, Lin Yuehu felt the enthusiasm of the port of Wilmington. As in the past, the merchants at the port waved their hats and shouted at them to ask about the types of goods, and some people simply shouted to take over the ship. all goods.

Of course, this is impossible, and soon several officials crowded forward and welcomed him.

"You are welcome, Mr. Captain."

"Thank you."

Before the officials could ask, Lin Yuehu took out the manifest.

"This is my manifest, sir. As in the past, 1100% of the 70 tons of cargo on board are military supplies."

In order to ensure the transportation of military supplies, the Confederation issued corresponding regulations, and each ship must have 70% of the tonnage used to transport military supplies.But even so, many smugglers will still do everything possible to deliver goods with higher added value. For example, weapons are definitely more valuable than boots or military uniforms. But for the South, what they need is not just weapons, boots and military uniforms It is also the supplies they urgently need.

Especially the boots, they don't look very eye-catching, but they are extremely important supplies for the army.In the south, there is no large-scale military boot factory at all. The shortage of military boots even affected the combat effectiveness of the Confederate army. Many soldiers even had to march barefoot to fight after their boots were damaged.

But for those smugglers, they don't care about these, all they care about is always money.

But unlike them, Lin Yuehu's ship not only had the weapons needed by the confederation, but also had leather boots, military uniforms and other various military supplies they urgently needed.

As soon as he saw the cargo list, the official understood that the captain in front of him must be a very conscientious person.He actually shipped tens of thousands of pairs of boots!After all, boots only have double the profit.Ordinary smugglers simply look down on such a small business.

This is definitely a man of conscience!

In his gratitude, he also found that there were some items in the cargo list that had never appeared before.

"What kind of rifle is this?"

The officer asked, pointing to the rifle model in the manifest.

"Don't have an Enfield rifle?"

"Strike 1862 rifle."

Lin Yuehu took a rifle from the crew and introduced it.

"The Enfield P1853 rifle is definitely the best muzzle-loading rifle of this era. There is no doubt about it. But the Strike 1862 rifle is the best rifle in the world."

The Spencer 1862 rifle is an improved rifle modeled by Nanhua based on the Spencer rifle. In fact, it uses .45.58 center fire ammunition. Become an extremely deadly weapon on the battlefield.

Thanks to the expansion of the arsenal, Nanhua is now able to mass-produce and export this type of rifle. Under the condition that it can meet its own use, it is natural to export a batch to the south. It is a fire!

"The Enfield rifle may be excellent, but apart from the rifling and the thunderbolt cap, it is essentially the same as the muskets of the Napoleonic era. Even the best rifleman can only shoot two rounds a minute at most. Three times, this old-fashioned weapon is out of date."

As Lin Yuehu said, he pulled the lever of the rifle to load it, then aimed at the sea surface [-] meters away, and fired several times.

"My God, it fires so fast..."

Seeing the dumbfounded look of the officials, Lin Yuehu smiled and said,
"Although it is not cheap, but believe me, on the battlefield, one Strike rifleman is equal to ten muzzle-loading gunners!"

Good goods are not cheap, and cheap goods are not good.

The same is true for weapons. The higher the price, the better the weapons.In fact, for the logistics officials of the Confederacy, they don't care about the price at all, because... if you can buy it, it is already a blessing from God.

Soon, the two parties reached an agreement-they paid for the goods in cotton, and settled at a price of 10 cents per pound of cotton.

While the black slaves were unloading the military supplies from the ship, Lin Yuehu and his party came to the shore, and followed the enthusiastic businessmen to the hotel.

The official business is done, now it's time to deal with private individuals.Although it is now in a time of war, the Confederacy does not completely monopolize trade, but follows the confiscation of smuggling ships, which carry certain civilian supplies to meet the needs of the people. Of course, these merchants who are qualified to purchase supplies in the port refer to It may not be the "white gloves" of those officials.

"Half cash, half cotton, sir, and I'll only ask you nine and a half cents a pound of cotton, if you'll take it!"

"On the same terms, sir, my cotton is nine cents..."

There was no need to bargain, as soon as the list of goods was received, the merchants rolled up their own hands. Lin Yuehu was naturally happy to see the result. Of course, he didn't even care about his ship at all, and it was impossible to ship it. Take all the cotton, and the excess cotton will be stored in the warehouse. This cotton is extremely cheap. Even if it is stored in the warehouse for a few years, when the war is over or the sea blockade is broken, it will be extremely profitable if it is shipped out. profits.

Of course, because of this, smugglers like him are extremely welcome, whether it is the government or the private sector. After all, other smugglers will never accept such barter transactions. , the rest of the materials must be paid with gold and silver coins, not even a penny less.

However, these transactions do not require Lin Yuehu's participation at all. There is also a full-time second officer on board who is responsible for transactions with merchants.In fact, Lin Yuehu is not a simple captain, he has another identity - Coast Guard reserve officer.In fact, breaking through the blockade is also a kind of training for him and his sailors.

When the second officer was negotiating with the businessmen, Lin Yuehu accidentally glanced out the window, and when he saw the sailors disembarking surrounded by a group of women, he couldn't help but smile.

"These guys are indeed sailors! They found the fun so quickly."

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(End of this chapter)