Ming Dynasty man

Chapter 534 Escort
After a pause, Li Jing continued with a smile: "Mr. De Bauer, in fact, you should understand that we are not worried about selling these weapons. After seeing the power of these weapons, Spain and Portugal will definitely be willing to pay for them. You Dutch If you can’t come up with a few hundred thousand taels of silver, I think these two countries will definitely be able to.”

De Bauer couldn't help being stunned.Isn't this a threat?And it's a face-to-face threat that if I don't buy you, I will sell it to our enemies. Do you dare to be more shameless?

Seeing Li Jing's smiling expression, De Bauer felt a chill coming from his heart, and shivered for no reason.

"This... Your Excellency Prime Minister, can we discuss this price again." De Bauer asked hurriedly.

Li Jing shook his head lightly and said with a smile: "Mr. De Bauer, in your words, these weapons all cost money, and we also need some profit, don't we?"

De Bourg gritted his teeth: "Master Prime Minister, you know that this matter is not up to me alone. I will return to China with samples first. I believe that the king will definitely buy these weapons after seeing them. As for this batch of weapons , I hope that the Prime Minister will not sell it to other countries. Well... I can pay a part of the deposit first. It’s just that my property is all in Taiwan, and it was detained by your subordinate General Sun. I wonder if the Prime Minister can be more flexible..."

Li Jing nodded with a smile: "I understand, no problem, Mr. De Bauer is my friend now, and we will definitely not detain your personal property."

After a pause, Li Jing continued: "But it's limited to Mr. De Bauer's personal property. As for the soldiers under your command, we don't speak dark words in front of the public. Everyone knows how these properties come from. More than ten years ago, what did you people do when you came to my Ming Dynasty? Mr. De Bauer must know clearly. Therefore, I will not return the property of these people, and they have to sell their labor to repay the crimes they committed before. offense."

De Bauer looked at Li Jing and smiled wryly in his heart. It seemed that the prime minister of Daming was not only powerful in politics, but also held grudges. When dealing with this person, he must be careful in the future.

With a smile, Li Jing continued: "By the way, you have five warships surrendering this time, and I am not interested in your ships. If you are still interested in these five warships, then bring money to send the five warships to surrender." buy a warship back."

"I don't know how much Mr. Prime Minister is asking... How much?" De Bauer asked tremblingly.

Li Jing said with a smile: "It seems that your five warships are not seriously damaged, and they are no different from new ones after repairing them. How about this, I will sell them to you at two-thirds of your cost price.

As for the soldiers on the ship, I wanted them to enjoy the same treatment as those in Taiwan.But for your sake, I allow you to pay to redeem them. In this way, the ransom is 300 taels for an ordinary sailor and soldier, 500 taels for an ordinary officer, 800 taels for a senior officer, and 500 taels for a captain. Fleet commander 1 taels. "

After speaking, Li Jing turned to look at Sun Meng and said, "Governor Sun, how many Dutch soldiers and officers surrendered?"

"A total of 860 four people, most of them are ordinary soldiers, there are more than 640 people, more than 150 ordinary officers, about forty senior officers, five captains, and one fleet commander." Sun Meng said hastily.

Li Jingjing nodded, and calculated with his fingers: "That's more than 31 taels of silver. After they surrender, we need to provide them with food and accommodation every day. This also requires a lot of silver. We don't want too much, just make up an integer. 7000."

"The commander-in-chief's calculations are clear, and I admire you so much." Sun Meng suppressed a smile.

Li Jing waved his hand, turned around and said to De Boer: "Mr. De Boer, I don't know how much it costs you to build a warship? Don't lie to me. If you say less about the cost, then I will keep these warships." gone."

Hearing this, De Bauer was speechless again. As the governor of the East India Company in Taiwan, he had seen many shameless profiteers, but compared with Li Jingyi, those profiteers were nothing worth mentioning.

Sighing lightly, De Bourr said, "A battleship, including artillery, costs about 30 taels of silver."

Li Jing smiled: "30 taels of silver? Even if the difference is not much, let's count it as 30 taels. If it is converted into two-thirds, that one is 20 taels of silver, and five is 100 million. Two, plus the soldiers is 130 taels of silver. To you East India Company, 130 taels of silver is nothing but small money."

De Boer smiled wryly and said, "No matter how rich the East India Company is, it won't be able to provide so much cash all at once."

Li Jing smiled and said: "I know, I didn't ask you to redeem all of them with cash. If you don't have enough, you can use materials to pay for it. I know that you have hoarded a lot of materials in Batavia. I want all the supplies, so you don't have to pay so much cash.

Of course, if you think it is expensive, you don't have to redeem it, especially those soldiers.

To be honest, I am very interested in these soldiers. If you don’t want them, then I will keep them. These people have been at sea for a long time and are familiar with life at sea, which can just make up for the lack of experience of our sailors.

In this way, you can save a lot of money, and you can use this money to buy some porcelain, tea, silk and other materials from Daming.If you ship it back to China, you can also make a lot of money. "

"Prime Minister, now that Zheng Zhilong is occupying Managa, if there are only one or two ships, we can sneak through the Strait of Managa, but if there are too many merchant ships, I'm afraid we won't be able to hide from Zheng Zhilong's fleet." De Boer With a wry smile.

Li Jing waved his hand: "Don't worry about this, I will send a fleet to escort you, and of course you will pay for the escort."

De Bauer was puzzled when he heard the words: "Master Prime Minister, is he confident of defeating Zheng Zhilong's fleet?"

Li Jing shook his head: "No, at sea, we are not yet Zheng Zhilong's opponent."

"Then how will the Prime Minister escort us?" De Bolch said.

Li Jing smiled and said: "At sea, we are no match for Zheng Zhilong, but on land, even if Zheng Zhilong has ten times the military strength, he is still no match for Daming. You don't think we have to be at sea if we want to defeat Zheng Zhilong. Defeat him on land. You know, no matter how powerful the navy is, it will eventually have to go ashore for supplies.

No matter how strong Zheng Zhilong is, he cannot block the entire South China Sea. I have more than 100 warships. As long as there are a few ships that can carry troops to Manjika, he will have to leave Manjika with his tail between his legs.

Therefore, as long as Zheng Zhilong is not confused, he will not do stupid things to anger Daming. In fact, he is far away from the South China Sea and occupies Manlajia, which shows that he does not want to fight Daming to the end.Therefore, seeing Da Ming's fleet escort, he will definitely let it go. "

De Bourgh smiled bitterly: "Your Excellency, you are the most confident person I have ever met."

Li Jing said with a smile: "To be confident, you must first have the capital of self-confidence. Self-confidence without capital is called arrogance."

De Bauer nodded silently upon hearing this.

"Okay, Mr. De Bauer, I've finished my conditions, what other conditions and requirements do you have?" Li Jing said with a smile.

De Bauer thought for a while and said, "I don't know if our country will agree to the Prime Minister's conditions, and I don't know what will happen after I return to China. I hope that after I leave, the Prime Minister can protect my family."

Li Jing smiled and said: "There is no problem at all. Mr. De Bauer is my friend. It is the duty of a friend to protect a friend's family. I was stunned and immediately arranged a mansion for Mr. De Bauer's family in Fuzhou, and then sent People took Mr. de Bourgh's family over, and we must not neglect Mr. de Bourg's family."

"Yes, handsome." Liu Er said hurriedly.

Li Jing waved his hand, turned his head to look at De Bauer and said, "I don't know what else you want?"

"No more." De Bauer shook his head.

Li Jing smiled and said: "I appreciate De Bourner's style of doing things very much. As a friend, I think I can do something to help Mr. De Bourner. In this way, I will write a letter to the king of your country. If you If China agrees to Ming’s conditions, then I hope that Mr. De Bauer can be the first Dutch envoy to Ming.”

De Bauer's eyes lit up when he heard the words: "If that's the case, then I would like to thank the Prime Minister."

Li Jing smiled lightly and said: "Mr. De Bower, as the governor of the East India Company stationed in Taiwan, although you have great power, you are not an official official of the country after all, but if you become the envoy of the Netherlands to Daming It’s different, and then you can truly represent the Netherlands. Of course, if you want to be the representative of the East India Company in Ming Dynasty, you can even work part-time.”

"Thank you, Prime Minister." De Bauer said happily.

Li Jing stood up with a smile and said, "That's how it is. I wanted to treat Mr. De Bauer for a drink at noon today, but there are some things that need to be taken care of in Beijing. Shiji, you will hold a banquet for me at noon today in honor of De Bauer." If Monsieur de Bower wants anything, sir, try to find a way to satisfy it."

"Yes! Commander." Lin Yuji hurriedly got up and cupped his fists.

De Bourr also hurriedly got up and said: "The prime minister is busy with affairs, how dare I waste the prime minister's time."

Li Jing smiled and said: "I am afraid that the affairs here will not be finished in a short while, Mr. De Bauer, don't worry, just take a look around in Fuzhou, and if you have anything to do, you can go to Governor Sun and the chief envoy, Mr. Liu. "

"Thank you, Prime Minister, for your care." De Bauer said hurriedly.

Li Jing waved his hand, and led everyone slowly out of the living room, leaving only Lin Yuji and the others to entertain De Bauer.

After leaving the hall, Sun Meng finally couldn't hold back and asked: "Commander, are you really going to sell the weapons to the Dutch?"

Li Jing smiled and nodded: "Of course, selling arms is the most lucrative business."

"But, aren't you afraid that the Dutch will come back and attack us after buying our weapons?" Sun Meng asked suspiciously.

Li Jing said with a smile: "Since I dare to sell them the weapons, I am not afraid of his anger. In fact, after seeing our weapons, the Dutch must not have the guts to challenge us. The Dutch are not stupid, how could they not think of it?" We will have more and more advanced weapons in our hands? Unless the Dutch have their heads in water, they will not go to war with us."

(End of this chapter)