Late Ming sea owl

Chapter 161 Ships and Cannons

"What did you say? My brother is back?" Zhu Niang was surprised and happy when she heard this. Like Lin Hai, she had been worried about whether something happened on the other side of the stone wall these days.

"Yes, it is said that more than 20 boats and thousands of people came. After getting the news, Mr. Zheng's family went to the mouth of Tamsui River to greet them in person. Mr. Shi's family should have entered Guandu City by now."

"Let's go to Guandu immediately." Lin Hai happily said to Zhu Niang. After hearing Viper's words, the big stone that was weighing on his heart finally fell to the ground. It seemed that Shibi and Miguel had completed their mission well.

"Brother, can I come with you?" Lun Yi said, "I asked Mr. Chen to bring my family over before, but I don't know if they will come this time."

"Okay, you can come too." Lin Hai felt happy after hearing the good news. "If your family comes over, I will give you five days off."

"Brother, five days is too much of a delay. It's enough for me to take one day off to get my family settled." Lun Yi replied after hearing this.

Since the opening of the construction department, he has been busy every day, but he is very happy.Once you have a taste of power, it is easy to become addicted, which is why those who hold high positions in the workplace generally have difficulty adapting to retirement life.

There was a wharf for transporting personnel and supplies not far from the Bingzhan Bureau. Everyone hurriedly boarded a galley and sailed down the Xindian River. After reaching the Tamsui River, they turned a big bend and saw Guandu City in the distance. In sight.

Lin Hai couldn't wait to look at the river outside the city. He saw boats and boats holding each other outside Guandu City, and from a distance, they could see a forest of masts.

"Look, it's the boat my brother and his friends brought back." Zhu Niang also saw that there were more boats on the river than before, and said to Lin Hai excitedly.

"That's right, my old lock fleet is finally here." Lin Hai couldn't hide his excitement when he heard this.

Although the ships couldn't be seen clearly from a few miles away, Zheng Tingqiu only had seven or eight sea-going ships with more than two masts. These must have been brought back by Shibi and Miguel.

Since the immigration work in Tamsui began, Lin Hai has been worried that Zheng Zhilong would get the news and go north to attack Tamsui.

In order to cope with possible wars, the Zhoushan Battalion has recently been expanded into four bureaus, and the new recruits are all selected from Wanhua immigrants.At the same time, the number of people in the Security Department has doubled, and the main recruits are Haitan fishermen.

As early as after the war in Xiamen, Lin Hai planned to expand his army, so he brought Wu Guoyi and Feng Yidao to Zhoushan at that time.

As a result, Hong Chengchou unexpectedly resigned, and the idea of ​​recruiting troops from the mines was scrapped. At the same time, the incident with the Wu family in Shanyin also made Lin Hai make some revisions to his strategy in the past two years, and he temporarily decided to simply recruit troops from immigrants.

At present, except for the second bureau led by He Ying, who is stationed in Xiamen, the other three bureaus of the Zhoushan Battalion are all in Guandu, and with more than 500 people in the Security Department, Lu Zhan Lin Hai is definitely not afraid of Zheng Zhilong.

However, naval warfare is still weak. If Zheng Zhilong leads a fleet to blockade Tamsui Port, he will have no choice.Fortunately, this guy has been busy looting in Guangdong recently, so he doesn't have time to trouble him yet.

Now that Hao Jing's fleet is back, Lin Hai has nothing to fear even if he confronts Zheng Zhilong head-on at sea.

After a cup of tea, Lin Hai and others arrived at Guandu City. He roughly counted and found that there were almost twenty old lock boats on the river, some with two masts and some with three masts, some new and some old. Some of them are newly made, and some are purchased ready-made.

Regardless of whether they are new or old, these old lock ships all have gun windows on their sides, but some have more and some have less.However, the gun window door was closed at this time, and the cannon inside could not be seen.

Lin Hai and others disembarked from the boat and landed. They saw that the shore outside the city was already bustling with people. Many unfamiliar faces were curiously looking at everything around them. There were laughter and chatter in Cantonese accents everywhere.

"It's so lively. I haven't heard so many people chattering in their hometown dialect for a long time." Zhu Niang felt warm after hearing the long-lost native accent.

"Isn't that right?" In fact, Lin Hai felt quite familiar with Cantonese when he heard it, mainly because he had to learn too many dialects in the year and a half since he traveled to the Ming Dynasty.

First he learned Minnan dialect, then Wu dialect, and now he has to learn Eastern Min dialect. So far, he can only understand roughly what the immigrants in Wanhua say...

Fortunately, he can speak Cantonese. If a northerner lives on the southeast coast, his skills will be as big as a bucket.

At this time, loud curses in Cantonese came from behind the crowd: "Get out of the way, get out of the way, do you guys have any eye-catching tools? The boss is here, why don't you get out of the way."

"It's your brother here." Lin Hai said to Zhu Niang beside him. He recognized that the speaker was Zhang Daniu, a close confidant of Shi Bi, the same bull-eyed young man who cursed at Commander Jiang on the last ship.

Sure enough, the crowd in front of them quickly moved away, and Shi Bi, Zheng Tingqiu, Miguel and others walked over side by side.

"Haha, sister-in-law, I haven't seen you for more than half a year and your bones are getting stronger and stronger." Shibi strode forward and gave Lin Hai a hammer on the shoulder.

"It's okay, uncle, you are more energetic than before." Lin Hai smiled and punched him back. Shibi did seem to have a stronger aura than before. After all, he is now leading thousands of people. The large fleet is no longer the bandit leader of the small gang of 200 people before.

"Brother! I'm here." At this time, Zhu Niang called Shi Bi.

"I've seen it earlier." Shi Bi responded to his sister with a smile, and said to Lin Hai, "Sister-in-law, congratulations. I heard Fourth Brother Zheng said that Mother Zhu gave birth to a big fat boy for you."

"Same joy." Lin Hai said as he glanced at Shibi and the people around Miguel, and saw that He Xiang, mother and son were both there.

He stepped forward and hugged Miguel and said, "Old man, welcome to Tamsui."

Miguel replied seriously: "Thank you, this will be my home from now on."

"I hope you can find fun here, and I hope little Martin can grow up healthily here." Lin Hai stepped forward and touched little Martin's head, while saying hello to He Xiang. Zhu Niang also came over to talk to He Xiang. say.

"Sister Hexiang, haven't your mother and Xiaobao come over?"

"They're all here. I haven't seen them right now. Maybe they're wandering around somewhere. I'll take you to see them later."

Lin Hai heard that Aunt Chunhua and Xiaobao were also coming, and wondered if it was time to develop the entertainment industry in Tamsui.

After all, with so many sailors here, there must be a place to vent their desires. I wonder if the mother and son are still willing to do this business now.

At this time, Lun Shiyi saw Chen Yaozu walking over with his mother and four younger brothers, and his eyes instantly became moist.

Great, my mother and brothers are still alive! ——This was Lun's first reaction after seeing his family.He didn't bother to thank Chen Yaozu, and rushed to his mother in three steps at a time. He knelt down and kowtowed: "Mom, my child is unfilial. He ran out secretly and made you suffer all the time."

"You little boy, what nonsense are you talking about? If you were still in Shalitou, would you be here today?" Mother Lun had a kind smile on her face and touched her eldest son's head and said, "Son, they said you were here Is it true that you have become a high official outside?"

Lun Di glanced at Chen Yaozu in surprise, who was winking at him. He immediately understood that this must be a lie told by Mr. Chen in order to trick his mother into coming to Dongfan, and he couldn't help but be even more grateful to Chen Yaozu.

"It's true, mother, my son is now promising." Lun Diyi's voice was a little sob.

Tears welled up in his eyes unknowingly when he thought that he, as the only strong laborer in the family, secretly went to sea alone, leaving his mother and four underage brothers to suffer at home.

Fortunately, he had made the right bet, and the future that Lin Hai had brought to him had far exceeded his imagination.

Now when he met his family, his mother didn't even say a word of blame. She was just concerned about her future. This made Lun Yi feel even more guilty, and at the same time, he secretly vowed to compensate his family twice as much in the future.

While he was thinking about it, Lun Second, Lun Third, Lun Fourth, and Lun Fifth all ran over, shouting in all directions: "Brother, brother, I also want to be an official."

"Okay, okay, you can all be officials in the future." Lun First touched the head of his youngest brother Lun Fifth, crying and laughing at the same time.

At this time, Zheng Tingqiu's loud voice rang out: "Everyone, please stop standing here and come into the room to talk."

Everyone then walked towards Guandu City while talking. A luncheon was being arranged in the city, but due to the conditions, the dishes could not be compared with Xiamen.

Before the luncheon started, Lin Hai found a reception room and ordered people to serve fruit refreshments. He first asked Shi Bi and Miguel about the harvest of this trip to Haojing. Chen Yaozu was also present as the financial deputy.

"Uncle, how many ships did you bring back this time? How many cannons are there on the ship?" Lin Hai first asked about the thing he was most concerned about. After all, this was his biggest shortcoming at the moment.

"Twenty old lock ships, half of them are three-masted ships of about ten feet, and half are two-masted ships of about seventy feet. They all have gun windows on their sides, but only half of them are equipped with cannons..."

Shi Bi introduced the ships brought back to Lin Hai in detail, and Chen Yaozu on the side handed him a list.

Lin Hai initially planned to go to Haojing and buy ten more old lock boats about the same size as the Bowang. However, after talking about this to Miguel in Japan, the latter suggested that he buy more smaller boats.

The Bowang's firepower configuration is a bit awkward on the East Asian waters. It is not enough to meet the main warships of Western colonists, but it has some firepower to deal with ordinary pirate gangs.

After all, pirates such as the imperial navy and Zheng Zhilong all had single-hull ships, and many of them were made of pine and fir wood. There was no need to use heavy artillery like 12-pounders to attack them.

In order to carry heavy artillery, the size of the ship must not be smaller. This will actually reduce the maneuverability. It is better to simply buy a smaller ship, which is easier to buy and build.

Besides the boats, the guns were the bigger problem.Heavy artillery in this era were all cast using the clay mold method or the lost wax method. It would take three or four months just to dry the clay mold. Even if the ship was equipped according to Lin Hai's requirements, it would be impossible for the cannon to be cast within the specified time. Completely furnished.

When I bought the second-hand Bowang with the ship and its guns, it was a very accidental opportunity. It would be difficult for such an opportunity to happen again.

After listening to Miguel's suggestion, Lin Hai no longer insisted on his original idea. Instead, he and Shi Bi were asked to act according to circumstances after arriving at Hao Jing. The only requirement was to return to Tamsui before the end of this year's southerly season. .

"Aren't you equipped with all the artillery?" After hearing what Shi Bi and others said, Lin Hai was slightly disappointed. Mainly because his expectations were too high after seeing the fleet on the Tamsui River before.

"Originally, we could get a similar match, but then the damn Vice-King of Goa placed an order for a hundred cannons from the Bugalao Cannon Factory, and our cannons were left behind." Miguel angrily stood aside. Unfair way.

"There is nothing we can do about it. Wannu Bugarao was sent to Haojing from Goa. He must give priority to completing the order of the deputy king of Goa."

The Wannu Bogarao whom Lin Hai was talking about was the first person in charge of the Macao Bogarao Cannon Factory. This cannon foundry was also called Wannuhang in later generations and was considered the most famous artillery factory in the Far East during the Age of Discovery.

Vannu Bugarao was a Portuguese who came from a cannon-making family. He was sent to Haojing by the Governor of Goa in the fifth year of the Apocalypse. Before that, Macau was not famous for producing high-quality artillery.

"We must have our own cannon foundry, otherwise we will always be controlled by others." Lin Hai said and added, "Have you recruited talents who are proficient in cannon making this time?"

"Of course." Miguel nodded, "We have brought several experts in this field, and I think you'd better meet one of them today."

"Is it necessary to be in such a hurry?" Lin Hai was a little surprised. The fleet had just returned and he really didn't have time to deal with such details.

Miguel smiled and said: "Because this man was tricked by me into boarding the ship. If you want to keep him, you must show your sincerity."

"Everyone has arrived in Tamsui. It's not up to him whether he stays or not." As soon as Lin Hai finished speaking, he suddenly remembered that he had just told Lun Yi not long ago that he should respect talents. If he acted like this, the impact would not be good.

So he continued: "Forget it, I'd better make time to meet the person you mentioned as soon as possible."

Miguel nodded and said: "This is the best. This man is a master in artillery. As far as making artillery is concerned, there is no one in Haojing who is more comprehensive than him. Even Wannu Bugarao is not as good as him." , and he is also proficient in building forts?”

"Are you talking about the sharp-angled fort like Hao Jing?" Lin Hai was slightly moved when he heard this. The forts built by the Portuguese in Macau were all bastions, and the design quality was quite high in Asia in this era.

Seeing Miguel nod, Lin Hai said again: "How did you trick this man into boarding the ship?"

“It’s very simple, he wanted to go back to his hometown, and I said I could send him back, so I tricked him into coming to Tamsui.” Miguel continued, “He is still waiting for me to send a ship to send him to Zhejiang. "

"Zhejiang? This person you are talking about is from Tang Dynasty?" Lin Hai was very surprised when he heard this. It is not unusual for the Chinese to be proficient in making cannons, but it would be a bit unusual if they were also proficient in building forts.

"Yes, he is from the Tang Dynasty, but he is a Catholic like me, and his Chinese name is He Liangtao."

　The Baidu Encyclopedia entry for "Bogalao Artillery Factory" states that the artillery factory was established in the 36th year of Jiajing. In fact, this time is incorrect and has misled many online novels.In fact, the Bugalao Artillery Factory in Macau was seen by the first Governor of Macau, Masluca Macau, around the third year of the Apocalypse. In the fifth year of the Apocalypse, Wannu was sent to Macau by the deputy king of Goa to take charge of the artillery factory. For details, see Jin Guoping and Wu Zhiliang's thesis "The Beginning of the Macao Bokaro Cannon Foundry".

　　In addition, shortly after the establishment of the Bugalao Artillery Factory, it received an order for 100 artillery pieces from the Governor of Goa. For details, see "Macau Chronicle". The specific time is unknown.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)