Late Ming sea owl

Chapter 116 Troops and Equipment

After returning to the inn, Lin Hai immediately drafted a list of required weapons, mainly based on the configuration in the "New Book of Jixiao".

In fact, he had already started to prepare for the equipment when he was in Fujian, but in the end he only got enough weapons for about two hundred people, and the firearms were not in place yet.

This is mainly because drilling the bore of a bird gun takes too much time. The "New Book of Jixiao" records that this process alone takes a month. The quality of the precision bird guns sold overseas in Fujian and Guangzhou is not inferior to the bird guns used by Qi Jiajun. It will definitely take that long.

In addition, the private workshops in Fujian are limited in scale and do not sell ready goods, so it will take less than half a year to wait for the five hundred muskets to be in place.

Although Hong Chengchou agreed to sell weapons to Lin Hai, he did not say how many soldiers he would recruit. Lin Hai first listed the amount of equipment needed for 1000 people.

Early the next morning, Lin Hai took the list he had prepared and went to see Hong Chengchou again. This time, he didn't have to wait long and soon saw the guy in the custody room of the police department.

Hong Chengchou took the list compiled by Lin Hai and read it carefully. After a while, he raised his head and said, "There are too many. This is enough to equip 1000 people."

Xie Sixin on the side was also surprised and said: "Ning Shao's bid was only for three sailors and one army general, with a total of more than [-] soldiers. If Lin Qianhu wanted to recruit thousands of land soldiers, it would be too many. ”

Lin Hai's heart sank when he heard this. He really didn't know how many soldiers He Rubin had.

If even Ning Shao has only 800 generals, then he is estimated to be allowed to recruit up to two or three hundred people for a thousand households, which is nothing compared to Zheng Zhilong.

In fact, the human problem is easy to solve. The worst thing is to recruit more fishermen. The key is that the equipment is not easy to solve.If Hong Chengchou didn't provide it here, the lead time for ordering from private workshops would be too long.

"You just want to recruit troops for self-defense. 500 people are enough. After all, there is still Deputy General He in Zhoushan." Since yesterday's conversation, Hong Chengchou has become more casual in front of Lin Hai and no longer maintains the dignity of a superior officer at all times.

He continued, "Let's do this. Hong will give you [-] troops, and half of the number of troops you listed. In addition, you are privately recruited soldiers. I can't give you armor, and you have to pay for it yourself." Raise money."

"Thank you Hong Daozun for your humble position." Lin Hai breathed a sigh of relief when he heard this. If he had [-] soldiers, that would be enough.

To be honest, if I gave him 1000 people, he would still be a little worried that he wouldn't be able to play at his own level.After all, he is not a genius like Han Xin, and he has not found suitable talents to assist him in training, so it would be good to train with 500 people first.

Hong Chengchou said again: "I have swords, guns and other military equipment here. If there is a gun, Hong will give you a note. You can go to Zhoushan to ask Deputy General He for it."

When Lin Hai heard this, he couldn't help but screamed in his heart. Damn it, you can still do this in business. You are the one who collects the money, but let others deliver the goods. Damn, this is really overwhelming at the level of an official.

In the Ming Dynasty, the relationship between the army and the generals was similar to the relationship between the governor and the general.The direct leadership of the generals seems to be the commander-in-chief, but in fact it is the military preparation road, because the food and salary supply of the generals is in the hands of the military preparation road.

At this time, Xie Sixin explained on the side: "Although the arsenal of the Police Division has more troops, as for firearms, the ones from Deputy General He are still the best."

Only then did Lin Hai realize that Hong Chengchou was thinking about him. The core of using civil society to control military affairs in the Ming Dynasty was that civil servants were in charge of logistics, so that they could control military generals in peacetime.

Therefore, most of the supplies such as food, wages, and spare ordnance were in the hands of civilian officials. In addition, Hong Chengchou also had a general of land soldiers and a sentry of sailors under his command, although the number was not as large as that of General Ning Shao who was under his control.

From what Xie Sixin said, Hong Chengchou must have been worried about the quality of the firearms under the direct control of the police inspection branch, so he asked him to ask He Rubin for them.

This further proves that He Rubin is not a mediocre general. At least this Ningshao general is highly recognized by Hong Chengchou in terms of firearms production quality control.

But in this case, Lin Hai still had to express his feelings towards He Rubin. Fortunately, he originally planned to make friends with him, and he had prepared a trump card for this as early as half a year ago.

Hearing Xie Sixin's words, Lin Hai quickly thanked Hong Chengchou: "Thank you Hong Daozun for your kindness. After recruiting soldiers for your humble job, you will train strictly and strive to train a usable army. Only in this way can you live up to Hong Daozun's high expectations." Hong Chengchou nodded and said: "You... Since the five hundred soldiers raise their own food and wages, there is no need to serve as military households. Do you understand what Hong means?"

"Bi Zhi understands that as soon as the training of troops begins to show results, these five hundred soldiers can be deployed at any time. If Hong Daozun is promoted to go elsewhere in the future, just give an order, and Bei Zhi will immediately go to Hong Daozun's tent to listen to orders."

Although Lin Hai said this, what he was thinking in his heart was: If I don't want to go then, there are naturally ten thousand reasons to shirk it.

Of course, Hong Chengchou would not be fooled by Lin Hai's high profile. He didn't care if Lin Hai was playing tricks on him. If there was really a need in the future, he would definitely transfer Lin Hai directly to his subordinates.

Because of this, he didn't want Lin Hai to turn these five hundred soldiers into military households, but wanted them to remain private soldiers, since he didn't need to pay for them anyway.

"Very good, very good." Hong Chengchou smiled and encouraged Lin Hai twice, "Hong will not officially go to Wenzhou County to recruit troops. I heard Master Xie say, do you want to recruit miners?"

"Hong Daozun can see thousands of miles. This is exactly what I want."

"There is a Wushan Grottoes in Yin County. There are thousands of quarrymen inside. It is a good place to recruit troops." Hong Chengchou said to Xie Sixin, "Master Xie, you go to Zhao Mingfu as soon as possible and make sure to get this matter done." .”

"Don't worry, Mr. Dong, I will go to Zhao Ming's house tonight." Xie Sixin bowed to the side and replied.

The so-called Mingfu is another name for the county magistrate. The magistrate of Yin County is surnamed Zhao. The stone mines in Wushan Grottoes are currently mined by Magistrate Zhao's brother-in-law, so Hong Chengchou asked Xie Sixin to find him.

Xie Sixin worked very efficiently and went to the inn to find Lin Hai early the next morning.

The problem is that although his efficiency is high, County Magistrate Zhao wants to delay it for half a month.The reason given was also very sufficient. The Chinese New Year was coming soon and it was difficult for the mine to recruit workers. Lin Hai was asked to wait until he finished this year's work.

This County Magistrate Zhao is a genuine Jinshi. Although he is Hong Chengchou's subordinate, as long as he is a Jinshi, you have to give him some face.

After all, almost every Jinshi has been appointed as a senior official in the central government in the same year, and as long as you are a Jinshi, the upper limit for climbing up in the officialdom is very high. No one knows whether others will climb above you in the future.

In addition, in order to keep Lin Hai's five hundred soldiers as private soldiers, Hong Chengchou did not formally write to Yin County. To put it bluntly, he was using his status as a Shangguan to ask Magistrate Zhao to give him face, so Xie Sixin was not easy to treat Magistrate Zhao. Too much forcing.

After hearing Xie Sixin's words, Lin Hai had no choice but to wait half a month before recruiting troops.

At this moment, Ruan Mei came back from Hangzhou and said that the package had been given to Taoist Wang Wei in Cao Yi.

Lin Hai then decided to go to the West Lake first and also visit the Wu family in Shanyin.

The old man of the Wu family died not long ago. If you don't know, that's fine. If you know and don't go to pay homage, this would be unjustifiable in ancient times. After all, Zhoushan is not far from Shaoxing.

By the way, Lin Hai also wanted to talk to Wu Mengren about the raw silk business next year.

He now has abundant capital, and the amount he wants this time is quite huge. If he does not agree in advance, he is afraid that the supply of goods will be insufficient.

This is currently Lin Hai's biggest way to make money, and he must not be careless.

(End of this chapter)