Smuggling Daming

The two guns of the Pinghai fired a total of two groups of sub-cannons, that is, a total of twenty shells, one of which hit the target and made a washbasin-sized shell mark on the hard reef, and the remaining eighteen shells had three shells. One hit the sea surface within a radius of fifty paces from the reef, while the others all fell into the air.This kind of result seems to be poor, but in the ups and downs of the sea, it is already a good result.

After watching the shelling, Zhou Zhong and Liu Tao went down to the gun cabin, and encouraged the gunners who shot today. Among them, the group that hit the rock was rewarded with ten taels of silver by Zhou Zhong personally to encourage them Make persistent efforts and strive to shoot faster and more accurately in the future (what a strange feeling).

Since he came to Pinghai for a trip, Zhou Zhong was not in a hurry to go back. He sat down with Liu Tao and Shi Ping, asked someone to set up a pot to cut the beef, and chatted and bragged while eating hot pot. Zhou Zhong liked to listen to their stories the most. Some things related to sailing, after all, he relies on sailing for a living, so there is no harm in knowing more about sailing.

But when Zhou Zhong and the others were chatting happily, someone suddenly came to report that Ashikaga Kazuki and Tayama Shangyoshi didn't know how they were drinking together, and they came to ask for a drink.

Speaking of which, Kazuki Ashikaga and the missions of the Japanese country took the ship of the Ashikaga Chamber of Commerce, named Yamato, but this Yamato was a lucky ship built by Ming Dynasty, not the kind of lucky ship imitated by the Japanese, because the Japanese imitated it. Not only the speed of the Fuchuan is not as fast as the real Fuchuan, but it is also much smaller, and its sturdiness and safety are also poor. Only some small forces among the Japanese will use the kind of Fuchuan made by the Japanese for cheap. .Large chambers of commerce such as the Ashikaga Chamber of Commerce have abandoned their own ships and used the Fuchuan of Ming Dynasty instead.

Hearing that Kazuki Ashikaga and the others were coming, Zhou Zhong, Liu Tao and the others looked at each other, and then the three of them smiled tacitly. No need to ask, the other party must have been attracted by the sound of the artillery just now, so I want to come and inquire .

"Please hurry up, and ask someone to add a few more sets of bowls and chopsticks!" Zhou Zhong said with a smile, since they dared to test the cannon so openly while sailing.Naturally, he was not afraid of Kazuki Ashikaga and the others hearing it, and it happened that he also had a business and wanted to talk to Kazuki Ashikaga.

Hearing Zhou Zhong's order, the people below agreed to turn around and leave, and soon saw Ashikaga Kazuki, Tayama Shangyoshi and Hatano Hideko coming to the boat, and Ashikaga Kazuki first smiled and said: " Mr. Zhou, we were taking a nap just now. We suddenly heard thunderous roars outside the window. I thought it was about to change the sky, but I didn’t expect that it was Mr. Zhou who was testing the cannon, and I have seen the cannon marks on the reef just now. It is really amazing. ah!"

Regarding Ashikaga's praise, Zhou Zhong just smiled lightly and asked the other party to sit down and said: "President Ashikaga is over the award. You are also a person who often travels on the sea, and naturally you know that sea ships are often peeped by pirates and other young children. So you must not Not equipped with some weapons for self-defense, the Nanyang and Pinghai are all new ships. It just so happened that our chamber of commerce has cast some cannons, so we asked people to put the cannons on the ship to try their power. I didn’t want to disturb the president of Ashikaga Wada Ambassador Shan, Zhou has made an apology to the three of you here."

Zhou Zhong briefly explained the matter of the cannon test without much explanation.However, he deliberately revealed a message to Kazuki Ashikaga in his words, that is, his Nanyang Chamber of Commerce already has the ability to forge artillery.In order to show their strength to Kazuki Ashikaga and the others.

Sure enough, after listening to Zhou Zhong's words, Ashikaga Kazuki and the three of them all looked at each other in awe. Among them, Tayama Shangyoshi and Hatano Hideko were better. Although their Japanese country had artillery that imitated Daming, they were not good at technology, so They are not very powerful, and they don't even have much actual combat value. Cannons are rarely seen on the Japanese battlefield, so they don't pay much attention to cannons, and they don't understand what it means for Zhou Zhong to be able to make cannons.

But Kazuki Ashikaga is very aware of the power of the Daming artillery, and also understands the significance of the artillery to the Ming court, and he also knows that the casting of firearms has always been in the hands of the Ming court, but now Zhou Zhong also has the ability to cast artillery. In Ashikaga Kazuki's view, Zhou Zhong must have received the support of Da Tianzi, so he was able to cast artillery. Otherwise, Zhou Zhong would not dare to cast artillery without authorization even if he had the casting technology of artillery.

Thinking of the joints involved, Ashikaga Kazuki looked at Zhou Zhong with a bit of awe again, the other party was so young that he had already gained such trust from Da Mingzi, and his future future must be immeasurable. He secretly made up his mind that he must take good care of his relationship with this Young Master Zhou in the future, otherwise offending the other party is likely to offend the emperor of Daming, and he definitely cannot afford such serious consequences.

"Cough, Mr. Zhou!" Ashikaga Kazuki was stunned for a moment, then suddenly cleared his throat and said in a deep voice, "I didn't expect that the Guild of Commerce already has the right to forge artillery, but I don't know whether you are willing to sell artillery, Mr. Zhou. Our Ashikaga Chamber of Commerce is very willing to buy, and the price will definitely satisfy you!"

When Zhou Zhong revealed that he was able to forge artillery, he already guessed that Kazuki Ashikaga would definitely want to buy it. After all, Ashikaga dreamed of forming an armed force to turn around. If artillery can help, it will naturally make the army In addition, his Ashikaga Chamber of Commerce also needs a large number of artillery armed ships, so no matter how you look at it, Ashikaga Kazuki will be tempted by artillery, which in fact proves that Zhou Zhong's guess is correct.

I saw that when Zhou Zhong heard that Ashikaga Kazuki wanted to buy artillery, his face showed a look of embarrassment, and then he sighed after a while and said: "President Ashikaga, it's not that I don't want to promise you, it's just that you I also know that artillery is the most important weapon of the country, and our Ming Dynasty must never sell it to other countries easily. Although I have the right to cast it, I dare not disobey the imperial court's order, so let's not mention the purchase of artillery !"

Just kidding, Zhou Zhong from later generations knows that artillery is called the "God of War". Although the current artillery is still very primitive, with the development of artillery technology, one day it will become a key weapon that determines the outcome of the battlefield.So for this kind of weapon, it is absolutely impossible for him to let the Japanese master it.

In fact, Kazuki Ashikaga regretted it as soon as he spoke, because he also knew that his request was too much, and now he was not surprised when he heard Zhou Zhong directly refused, but sighed regretfully: "Oh, That's really a pity, originally our military strength was much weaker than that of Ouchi Yoshiko and Hosokawa Takakuni, if we could have artillery, we could narrow the gap, but now it seems impossible."

Seeing Ashikaga Kazuki's regretful look, Tayama Shangyoshi and Hatano Hideko looked at each other strangely. In their cognition, the artillery is just an enlarged fire system. Although it has some power, the operation is too complicated , it is not convenient to move, and it will take up a lot of precious iron, so in their opinion, instead of buying impractical artillery, it is better to spend more money to build some ordinary weapons and armed soldiers.

When Zhou Zhong saw Ashikaga Ikki's dejected look, he sipped his tea with a light smile, and then said slowly: "President Ashikaga, although I can't sell you the artillery, but for your current situation Zhou is also very sympathetic to the situation, so I can sell you some weapons, such as knives and spears."

"This... is this true?" Hearing Zhou Zhong's promise, Ashikaga Kazuki immediately said excitedly. Although their Ashikaga Chamber of Commerce is doing a lot in the smuggling industry, most of the smuggled goods are porcelain, silk, and cotton. As for civilian goods such as weapons and even iron materials, few people dare to smuggle them, because these things are military supplies, and the court is very strict, and the profits are not very high, so even if Kazuki Ashikaga wants to Daming smuggled weapons to Japan, but no one was willing to take the risk.

"Of course, in fact, our chamber of commerce has its own iron-making workshop. The steel produced now is mainly used for casting artillery. However, although our chamber of commerce has a large demand for artillery, with the current casting speed, we will soon no longer need a large number of iron-making workshops. To supply steel, I will build some ordinary weapons at that time, originally intended to be reserved for the people of the Chamber of Commerce, but thinking that President Ashikaga is in urgent need of weapons now, so those weapons can be supplied to you first!" Zhou Zhong said with a smile .

Zhou Zhong didn't have any good intentions in selling weapons to Ashikaga Kakki, and of course it wasn't for making money, but he knew very clearly that even if Ashikaga Kakki and the others could persuade Emperor Zhengde this time, given the current situation of Ming Dynasty, it might not be possible. Can't give them much substantive help.

And according to the original history, Ashikaga Yoshiki's resistance to Ouchi Yoshiko and Hosokawa Takakuni is doomed to fail. This is not the result that Zhou Zhong wants to see. A chess piece, so this chess piece must survive, he is now selling weapons to Ashikaga Ikki, it is to let the other party help Ashikaga Yoshiki to have stronger strength, which will also make the political situation of Wa country more chaotic.

How could Ashikaga Kazuki think that Zhou Zhong sold him the weapon with such vicious intentions?But even if he knew, he might still choose to make a deal with Zhou Zhong. After all, in his opinion, in order to restore the past glory of the Ashikaga family, he would not hesitate to do it even if it brought the entire Wa country into the abyss of eternal doom.

Hearing that Kazuki Ashikaga and Zhou Zhong reached a deal to buy and sell weapons, Shangyoshi Tayama and Hideto Hatano were also shocked, and then began to discuss with Kazuki Ashikaga in a low voice. It seems that they also want to get a share from this deal. Some benefits, and Kazuki Ashikaga also knew that this was a good opportunity to win over Tianshan and Hatano, so he also generously agreed to share part of the weapons he would get in the future with the other party. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets. Your support is my biggest motivation.)