Ming Dynasty man

Chapter 533
"However, with all due respect, although the Prime Minister's analysis is reasonable, this situation will only happen temporarily, or after many years. I use this as a reason to sign such an agreement with Daming. Not to mention the kingdom, it is our East India The shareholders of the company will not agree either." De Bauer said anxiously.

Li Jing shook his head and said with a smile: "If people have no long-term concerns, they must have near-term worries. If the upper echelons of the Netherlands do not consider the future crisis as De Bauer said, then the future of the Netherlands is in doubt. For a country with no future, I will sign such an agreement with him. There's really no need for an agreement."

De Bauer hurriedly said: "Your Excellency, please don't say that, at least our Netherlands is still strong now. Well, at least our sea power is strong. In the sea, we have suffered losses at the hands of Zheng Zhilong twice. , We have never lost a battle with other countries at sea.

Now our warships are cruising all over the world's oceans, and our merchant ships are trading in every corner of the world.We don't know what will happen in the future, but at least for now, Daming can still get huge profits from trading with the Netherlands. "

Li Jing shook his head and said with a smile: "Judging from the current situation, what you said is correct, but I don't know what resources you, the Netherlands, can use to trade with Daming after Daming takes back Southeast Asia. Well... You can’t say that, at least you can still use gold coins to trade with us.”

Sighing lightly, Li Jing continued: "Well, Mr. De Bauer, I don't think you have the right to sign such an agreement with Daming for the time being. I believe that as long as your high-level officials in the Netherlands read what you brought back, they will seriously consider my conditions."

De Bourg said happily: "That's very grateful to the Prime Minister, but I don't know what business you want to discuss with me? What can convince the top leaders of our country?"

Li Jing smiled: "Weapon."

"What? Give them the weapons?" Not only De Bower was shocked, but also the Ming officials present couldn't help but exclaimed.

Li Jing waved his hand to stop the commotion, ignored the astonished expressions of Sun Meng and the others, and said with a smile to De Bauer: "Mr. How powerful is the weapon?"

De Bauer pondered for a while and said: "Your country's weapons are extremely sharp, and our weapons are not your country's opponents at all."

Li Jing smiled: "Mr. De Bauer is sincere, I don't know if I sell you the weapons we have installed, are you willing to buy them?"

De Bauer hurriedly said: "I am willing, of course I am willing. If our country can install such weapons, then we will not be afraid of any enemies even in land battles. I just don't know how many such weapons the Prime Minister is willing to sell us, and what is the price? How many?"

Li Jing smiled and stretched out a finger: "I can sell you one hundred guns and three thousand rounds of ammunition first. Take them back to your country and show them to your king and important ministers, so that they can see them for a while. the power of these weapons.

As for the price, a gun is 50 taels of silver, and bullets are one tael of silver and ten rounds.But this is the first time I do business with you, so the [-] rounds of ammunition this time will be given to you for nothing. "

"So expensive?" De Bourgh exclaimed.

Li Jing shook his head and smiled, "Is it very expensive? I remember that the Hongyi cannons you sold to Daming cost three to four thousand taels of silver each, while our rifles only cost 4000 taels of silver, which is already very cheap in comparison."

"Can this be the same? Is the cost of cannons comparable to that of rifles? Moreover, the scrap rate of artillery is too high. It is already a very high success rate to produce two finished products out of ten, and the cost of scrapped artillery is also counted. As for the finished artillery, in fact, the cost of a finished artillery is more than 1000 taels of silver, plus the long-distance transportation, we still need to make money, 3000 taels of silver for a cannon is actually not expensive.” De Boer was busy road.

"Mr. De Bauer is very good at making artillery?" Li Jingqi said.

De Bauer shook his head: "I don't know much about artillery production technology, but as the governor of Taiwan stationed by the East India Company, I have to be in charge of many business affairs, especially arms business, so I must understand the production cost of arms, otherwise If so, wouldn't that be a sky-high asking price?"

Li Jing couldn't help but smile when he heard that De Bauer was insinuating that he was asking for a lot of money.

Li Jing shook his head lightly, and said with a smile: "Your artillery casting technology is very advanced, but the large-caliber and powerful artillery you produce cannot rely on the existing technology, so the scrap rate is high."

"Oh, does it mean that the artillery produced by Daming is more advanced than ours?" De Bauer asked in surprise.

Li Jing said with a smile: "Let's not advance first, Mr. De Bauer should have seen it before?"

"Well, when your army attacked the city of Zeelandia, did they use cannons? Are there such small cannons? They can be carried and run by one person?" De Bourr was startled.

Li Jing smiled and said: "No way, our technology is not very advanced. In order to reduce costs and ensure the yield, we can only produce this kind of small artillery. Of course there are heavy artillery, but the heavy artillery we produce is far less than yours. It’s so big, it only weighs more than 1000 catties and less than [-] catties.”

What Li Jing said was indeed true, because the material used in the weapons of the Ming army was not iron but steel.

At that time, the production of steel in Daming was extremely low. Li Jing spent four or five years in Hongshanling, but he only produced more than 200 small cannons and about [-] rifles. The biggest reason was the difficulty of steelmaking.

It was not until Li Jing occupied Pingyang Mansion that the scale of production was expanded. However, it took five years to produce more than 1000 small cannons and 1000 cannons weighing more than [-] jin.It was not until Li Jing took power in Beijing that more resources could be mobilized, and the production of cannons increased. However, in addition to the previous production of Pingyang Prefecture, it was only more than [-].

It's not that Li Jing doesn't want to produce artillery with a larger caliber, but limited to the production of steel, he can only be content with the status quo.

It is so difficult to make cannons out of steel with the resources of Ming Dynasty, let alone a small country like the Netherlands?In fact, the cannons produced in Western countries at this time were all made of iron, but the quality of cannons produced in Western countries was better than that of Ming Dynasty.

But the weapons produced by the best iron are not as good as steel. Especially after Li Jing used the hydraulic stamping mechanism to produce machine tools, using hydraulic power to drive these equipment to produce weapons not only saved a lot of manpower, but also improved the quality of weapons.

At this time, the weapons produced by the Ming Dynasty were far ahead of the West, and the most important thing was that the ammunition used by the Ming Army was far ahead of the West.

As a special soldier from later generations, Li Jing can not only use various weapons proficiently, but also make explosives. He can use the most primitive method to produce nitroglycerin (see Verne's novel "Mysterious Island"). The production process of nitroglycerin), and then use charcoal ash to turn the liquid nitroglycerin into a safe solid explosive (diatomaceous earth works better, but there is no diatomaceous earth in Henan and Shanxi).

When yellow powder began to replace black powder, the power of the weapon was naturally stronger.And gunpowder is the highest core secret of the military factory or Ming Dynasty. All craftsmen who have learned how to make gunpowder from Li Jing are strictly protected.

As for the artillery and shells, they are not really secrets, because the projectiles fired by using the principle of mother and child guns are actually shells.In terms of the level of secrecy, the level of secrecy of artillery is not as high as that of rifles and bullets.

Therefore, Li Jing did not conceal the performance and power of the Daming artillery from De Bauer.

Although he did not conceal it, Li Jing would not sell artillery and shells to the Netherlands and other countries before Daming developed artillery with better performance and longer range.

Because once the Dutch fleet is equipped with such artillery, then at sea, no country is an opponent of the Netherlands, including the fleets of Daming and Zheng Zhilong.

Li Jing will sell the existing artillery only after Daming develops a more powerful artillery that can completely suppress the existing artillery.

The most advanced technology and the sharpest weapons must be in his own hands. Only in this way can he deter Xiaoxiao. Of course Li Jing knows such a simple truth.

Li Jing told De Boer these materials, in fact, to seduce De Boer.

The Dutch navy is strong, but the army is a scumbag. The two neighbors of the Netherlands, France and Germany, can easily overwhelm the Dutch army.De Bauer was not ignorant of the situation in his own country.

But if the Dutch army is equipped with rifles and portable small artillery, the result will be different. The Dutch army will become a strong army in a sudden change.

Sure enough, De Bauer was greatly moved when he heard this: "Your Excellency, Prime Minister, if your country is willing to sell that kind of small gun, we, the Netherlands, are willing to buy a hundred of them."

Seeing De Bauer's movement, Li Jing chuckled twice: "Mr. De Bauer, what kind of weapons to equip the troops is not as simple as you imagined, the portable small guns are really powerful, and they are very convenient to use. , but it must be used in conjunction with infantry. In fact, it needs infantry protection, otherwise it is easy to be attacked. You don’t want to buy a rifle, but you want to buy a small gun. This idea is wrong.”

"But the rifles you sell are too expensive, 50 taels of silver each, and it costs 1000 taels of silver to arm a 5-man army. That's not counting the bullets, so we really can't afford them." De Bourgh smiled wryly.

"Hehe, if you can't afford a rifle, then you can't even afford our small portable cannon. That kind of small cannon costs 400 taels of silver a piece, and a cannonball costs 20 taels of silver a piece." Li Jing laughed.

"What? 400 taels, why is it so expensive?" De Bauer asked in surprise.

Li Jing smiled and said: "It's expensive, but it's worth the money. Think about it, after installing rifles and small cannons, a few hundred troops will be worth as much as your original thousands, and you can save a lot of military pay." .Actually, I can only sell you a hundred of these small guns at most, and I can’t afford more, but I can sell you three to five thousand rifles.”

(End of this chapter)