I really don't want to be emperor at the end of Ming Dynasty

Chapter 234 Does the court have anything to do with us

Chapter 233

The Eight Princesses is a large ship of 800 materials, which is equivalent to more than [-] tons in terms of displacement.Putting it on Europa is already a fourth-tier cruiser.

However, the problem is that Cheng Shijie did not install any artillery when he gave it to Zhu Weiti. Doing business relatively fairly, once the other party is weak.

On the boundless sea, it is possible to attack nearby ships anytime and anywhere. In order to protect Zhu Weiti, Cheng Shijie loaded four Thunderbolts on the starboard and starboard sides of the Eight Princesses, two in the front and two in the rear. , The entire warship has a total of twelve Thunderbolt guns. With this level of firepower, even if it faces small and medium-sized pirates, it will definitely not suffer a disadvantage.

Of course, unless facing pirates equipped with naval guns, this ship still has self-defense capabilities. A large ship is naturally of great benefit. Zhu Weiti asked craftsmen to remodel a swimming pool on the first deck. Of course , Zhu Weiti doesn't like swimming, she is for Cheng Shijie.

In addition to a swimming pool, there is also a small terrace for barbecues on the first deck, as well as a movable warmer.

When Catherine boarded the Eight Princesses, her first feeling was luxury. Only Cheng Shijie could do such a thing with a standard fourth-class battleship as a yacht. If Catherine had a Eight Princesses class warship, she would definitely be on it Load forty or fifty cannons to make it a main battleship.

It's just a pity, no matter how upset Catherine is, this is Cheng Shijie and Zhu Weiti's freedom.

At this time, Catherine, the first family of the Venetian city-state Republic and the second heir to the Contarini family, was grilling squid on a hot plate with a spatula.

"Your Excellency, how about you try my handicraft!"

In order to obtain the unparalleled naval warfare artifact of the Ning Navy, Catherine is willing to pay no matter how much it costs, because it is very hard for the current Venice City-State Republic to lose their overseas colonies one after another. If the Ottomans win the Venice City-State Republic The last overseas colony of the United States, that is, Crete.

If Crete is captured, the Ottoman navy will hit the mainland of Venice. This is the real reason why the Venetian city-state Republic most urgently needs the naval warfare weapon of the Ning Navy.

Of course, Cheng Shijie didn't know Catherine's worries. If he knew, it would be a joke that Catherine was worrying unnecessarily, because in history, Crete was successfully captured by the Ottoman Empire in 30, more than 1669 years later.

This has to be said that the national huskies and the brilliant record of the Ottoman Empire have fought against the Venice City-State Republic with a population of less than 20 for more than 200 years, and their own losses are hundreds of times that of the Venice City-State Republic.

Cheng Shijie said with a faint smile: "It's okay, I can barely enter!"

Zhu Weiti doesn't like to eat squid, she only eats vegetables baked by Gu Ziyi.

Hearing Cheng Shijie's evaluation, Catherine was a little dumbfounded. Of course, there was nothing she could do about it. As the second in line heir of the Contarini family, she began to receive education and studied law, politics, culture, fencing, and fighting. Necropolis, Doge of Venice, raised him as his son.

It can be said that if it wasn't for the time at sea, she would never have had the opportunity to touch these humble jobs.

Even if she didn't get Cheng Shijie's praise, Catherine didn't care. She tried to make herself smile, and the smile was very charming: "Your Excellency, can we talk about the sale of naval guns!"

"There's no need to talk about it, it's impossible."

Whether it is the three-inch guns of the Ning Navy or the four-inch guns of the Ning Navy, they all carry the black technology brought by Cheng Shijie. The technological content of these artillery has reached the technical level of the mid-nineteenth century.To put it unreliably, even if the Ning Navy is now fighting against the British Royal Navy in 1860, the Ning Navy can still fight against the British Royal Navy.

This is the gap in technology.

Catherine smiled and said: "Your Excellency, there is nothing that cannot be traded in this world, it is nothing more than the price. I only need a cannon, can I?"

Catherine thought that as long as she bought a cannon back home, it should be possible to imitate it with the technical level of the Venice City-State Republic.

Seeing that Cheng Shijie had no intention of talking at all, she continued, "One hundred thousand ducats!"

Dukat is also called Duka coin or Jersey coin or Xi Kun coin.The gold coin minted in Venice is approximately pure gold (the gold content is 0.997 identified by later generations), weighing 3.56 grams.

It can be said that Catherine's sincerity is quite sufficient, one hundred thousand ducats is equivalent to 350 six kilograms of gold, but the gold content of the Ming Dynasty is not as high as that of ducats.Due to the continuous depreciation of silver, the current exchange ratio between gold and silver has changed from 5000:[-] at the beginning to [-]:[-] now. After conversion, a gold carter is equivalent to nine cents and five cents of silver, one hundred thousand pieces That's [-] taels.

The normal artillery price is more than 1000 taels to 5000 taels of silver, which also includes the heavy 48-pound Hongyi cannon.

"This is our Daming's powerful weapon for suppressing the country, and I will not sell it!"

"Your Excellency, I understand your concerns, but we, Venice, have no interest in the East, nor do we have any desire for territory. We are tens of thousands of miles away from you, and it will take nearly ten months at the fastest to go back and forth. It is impossible for us. Threatening the Ming Empire."

Cheng Shijie shook his head and said, "Did you know? Our brave sailors just now will not surrender after they run out of ammunition and food. They will choose to self-destruct the battleship, let the gunboat sink to the bottom of the sea, and prevent the enemy from getting our artillery!" "

"15 ducats!"

Catherine upped the ante.

"no!"

"20 ducats!"

Cheng Shijie held the wine glass and began to think.

20 ducats are equivalent to [-] kilograms of gold, which is close to a ton of gold. It is impossible to say that Cheng Shijie is not tempted. After all, the Ning Haijun group spends too much money.

However, Cheng Shijie's principles will not change.

Catherine was observing Cheng Shijie carefully, and she could tell that the price was about to break through Cheng Shijie's psychological bottom line, so she slapped Cheng Shijie in front of him: "50 ducats!"

"impossible!"

Catherine glared at Cheng Shijie: "One million ducats, no more!"

Cheng Shijie shook his head and said, "The crisis you are facing in Venice, I can help you solve the problem, 100 million ducats will do!"

"You want an idea to exchange our one million ducats in Venice?"

"You can choose not to change!"

Cheng Shijie doesn't have any special feelings for Venice. It can be said that Venice's life and death have no direct relationship with Cheng Shijie.

"How do I know if you're lying to me?"

"You can choose not to believe it!"

Cheng Shijie got up, clapped his hands and said, "Okay, lunch is over, I should go and digest!"

Cheng Shijie ignored Catherine, but went straight to the swimming pool, ready to take a bath.

Although life at sea is very boring and fresh water resources are very precious, as the leader of the entire fleet, Cheng Shijie actually has no shortage of fresh water.

Because the Ning Navy Navy is actually not short of fresh water, they have learned the simple purification of sea water, of course, it is actually a distillation device, although the cost is high, it can solve the drinking water problem of the sailors in the most difficult time.

Catherine was caught in a tangle. One million ducats was not a small amount. Although ocean trade was huge profits, the problem was that her capital was not thick. She didn’t have one million ducats now, and a large amount of money was used to purchase silk. and porcelain and things like that.

Now she is staying in Daming and will not return to Venice. She is still waiting for a batch of silk. Now that the deposit has been paid, she is only waiting for the delivery. If she defaults on the contract, the deposit of 10 taels of silver will be for nothing.

Of course, if you don't want to be in vain, you can only use Xu Shumin's face to borrow money from Liaodong Bank.

Catherine didn't want to pay this money, but when Catherine was depressed, she unexpectedly met a Venetian acquaintance. When Catherine went to sea from Liaodong, Virgil, as a Venetian, applied to the Ninghai Navy with his excellent naval command tactics. He served as a teacher at the Naval Academy and is now an instructor at the Ning Naval Academy.

Due to the rapid expansion of the Ning Navy's navy, even the trainees were pulled onto the battleship, which made Virgil, an instructor, have to go south with the Sixth Squadron. He is now the combat staff officer of the Ning Navy's Sixth Squadron. On board the Liangzhou of the Sixth Squadron.

Virgil hasn't seen this former boss for more than a year, fellow townsman, naturally he has a lot to say.

As the combat staff officer of the Sixth Squadron of the Ning Navy, Virgil still has a lot of face. He set up a table of food and wine, and chatted with Catherine in the second-floor cabin.

Catherine's eyes lit up when she saw Virgil: "Virgil!"

Speaking of this, Catherine looked around, but none of the Ning navy officers paid attention to Virgil.

Catherine asked: "You should know the news that the Ning Navy defeated Zheng Zhilong's fleet, right?"

"Got it, many of the participating soldiers and commanders are my students!"

"You are very proud now!"

"Of course!"

Virgil said even more proudly: "Miss Contarini, you don't know that I now own a castle in Liaodong, which is bigger than your castle on the Aegean Sea!"

Of course, Virgil's so-called castle is actually a reinforced concrete courtyard. Virgil, as the instructor of the Ning Naval Academy, participated in actual combat teaching at the very beginning, leading the navy's student soldiers to destroy a group of pirates.

According to Ning Haijun's regulations, rewards are naturally needed, but the problem is that Virgil is not from Daming, and he cannot reward the land like other Ning Haijun officers and men, so he was given a homestead of three acres, which is 980 square meters.Virgil used the reward of beheading to ask someone to build a nondescript castle.

From the perspective of Daming’s habits, this is a courtyard house. The only difference is that the surrounding houses are all 100 feet high. The entire castle has more than [-] rooms, and there is a huge garden in the middle.

"It seems that you are doing well. Did you meet love in Daming?"

Speaking of this, Virgil looked helpless: "No beautiful woman from Ming Dynasty is willing to marry me, no matter how many gifts I give, it's useless, they discriminate against me!"

If Virgil was in other places in Daming, he could really spend money to get a girl from a local family in Daming. In the two capitals and thirteen provinces of Daming except Liaodong, there are too many poor people, and there are countless people who sell their sons and daughters .But the problem is that Liaodong is different.

Now Liaodong women can also participate in the work, and they can earn ten taels of silver a year, and the situation of selling children and daughters does not exist. Moreover, Liaodong legislation prohibits human trafficking. Once you report it, you can get ten times the amount of the sale. award.The seller will be punished with labor reform for less than ten years, while the buyer will be severely punished. Even if the family property is [-] yuan, it will be fined to bankruptcy.

Seeing that Virgil seemed to be in a good mood, Catherine lowered her voice and asked, "Have you collected the information we need?"

"Of course!"

Virgil told Catherine: "So far, the Ning Navy has served three kinds of warships, one is 650 materials, which is 970 tons, and equipped with 24 artillery pieces. Only four of these warships called Seawolves have been built so far. They are named Jinzhou, Haizhou, Gaizhou, and Fuzhou, and the construction of the Seawolf-class battleship has stopped. It may be built in the future, but there is no such thing now. The second type is the Sanqianlian-class warship, which is 38 Five tons, named the Sea Shark class, this warship is equipped with [-] three-inch guns, twelve four-inch guns, a total of [-] naval guns."

Catherine frowned: "Why is a nearly thousand-ton battleship equipped with 38 cannons? Doesn't make sense?"

In Europa, warships like the Haisha-class warships of the Ning Navy need at least fifty or sixty artillery pieces.

This means that the thousand-ton warships of the Ning Navy are only equipped with half of the artillery of Europa's warships of the same level.

Virgil smiled bitterly and said, "Miss, you don't know that Ning Haijun's cannon-casting technology is very good. Their three-inch and four-inch cannons are both 28 times the diameter and have a long range. It is not difficult to see that the Ming people's Cannon casting technology is indeed very powerful. No country in Europe dares to adopt such a multiple-diameter ratio. Generally, it is 21 times the diameter, and very few can achieve 23 times. Longer barrels can increase the range and accuracy, but it will also make the gun Even if it is under stronger pressure, if the metallurgical technology is not up to standard, doing this will only blow up the chamber.”

"The Sea Shark class is not the largest yet, should a warship like yours be the largest warship?"

"Actually not!"

Virgil said bitterly: "They have even bigger warships, which are said to exceed [-] tons!"

"Two thousand tons, how is it possible?"

As a maritime power, Venice's shipbuilding technology is actually very advanced, and it is also top-notch in Europe. Spain, the United Kingdom, France, and the Holy Roman Empire are all learning Venice's shipbuilding technology.

It is no exaggeration to say that Venice is the world's shipbuilding giant.

"nothing is impossible!"

Virgil said with some emotion: "Da Ming said that as early as 200 years ago, they manufactured sailing ships of the 1000-ton to 3000-ton class, and as early as [-] years ago, they manufactured warships of more than [-] tons!"

In fact, Catherine is not interested in the warships of the Ning Navy. In fact, although the warships of the Ning Navy are smooth and fast, they are similar to the Venetian Golden Lion-class warships. The speed is similar, and the controllability of the Venetian warships is actually better.

"Then, how much do you know about their artillery?"

"Their three-inch gun is..."

While talking, a Ning navy soldier came over, scaring Virgil into shutting up.

Fortunately, this Ning Navy soldier just came to take a meal and leave.

After watching the Ning Navy soldier leave, Virgil heaved a sigh of relief. He looked at Catherine and said, "Miss, I know what you want to do. You want to imitate Ning Navy's naval gun?"

Catherine nodded and said, "That's right. I originally wanted to buy it, but even though I paid 100 million ducats for a cannon, Your Excellency the Duke is still unwilling to sell it! We can only do this!"

"But I tell you, it's impossible!"

"Why not? Haven't you seen their artillery?"

"Don't say I've seen it before. In fact, I can even recite all the parameters of Ning Haijun's three-inch guns and four-inch guns..."

"That's great, with you guiding them, we have a better chance of success!"

"On the contrary, it is absolutely impossible for us to imitate it!"

Virgil smiled bitterly: "We may be able to imitate the naval guns of the Ning Navy, but the problem is that their naval guns are not complicated. What is really complicated is their shells. Without shells, the cannons we imitated are just a bunch of useless Scrap iron..."

"How could this be?"

Catherine was very distressed.

"The artillery shells used by Ning Haijun are not black powder at all, but a new type of explosive that we have never seen before. In the battle, you can bury your head and fight fiercely without cleaning the barrel at all. We don’t have such gunpowder, and we can’t make shells like theirs.!”

Catherine was startled and said, "A new type of explosive? How much do you know about this new type of explosive?"

"This is their core secret, and it is difficult for outsiders to get in touch..."

Virgil smiled wryly: "Ning Haijun's gun factory is an assembly line operation, and every worker knows part of the craftsmanship. It is said that there are many factories that manufacture this kind of explosives for them. As for the craftsmanship, it is top secret and only a few people know about it. , It is estimated that even the people who produce this kind of explosives don't know what the things they produce are used for."

Virgil This is indeed the truth.

He didn't know that in the military factory that produces gun cotton, the various factories are strictly divided. The workers responsible for cleaning and degreasing cotton may think that this job is dedicated to washing and boiling cotton, and the workers in charge of soaking cotton with nitric acid also recognize this factory. It is dedicated to destroying cotton. In a word, everyone does not know what the work they have done is useful. They only know that the management is very strict and the craftsmanship is extremely demanding. It is almost impossible.

Catherine sighed, excitement turning to frustration.

She had to admit that she was too naive. She simply thought that as long as she got the various data and drawings of the naval gun, she could imitate it, but she never expected that the seemingly ordinary cannon was actually made by an industrial system. Crystallization, it's useless to just concoct it.

How to do?
In fact, even if Ning Haijun's naval guns are released, no one can imitate them. The current artillery is either made of bronze or cast iron. Only Ning Haijun's artillery is made of steel.

Virgil's ability to do this is already the limit. Even if he is willing to risk his life, he may not be able to obtain many secrets, so he can only find another way.

However, is there any way for her to obtain these key technologies that are related to the future destiny of the Republic of Venice?Cheng Shijie is not easy to deal with. This guy seems to be greedy for money, but once these key technologies are involved, the magic power of beauty and money will be invalid. If you try hard and soft to coerce and lure him, he just won't nod!

Thinking of that nasty guy, Catherine's teeth itch with hatred, can you die if you sell me two new naval guns?I will not lose your money!
On July [-], the seventh year of Chongzhen, Cheng Shijie arrived at the port of Manila in Luzon smoothly.

Cheng Shi, Li Zhixiang, Xie Jinglin, Wu Shangzhi and other Lusonning navy or Chinese representatives lined up at the port to welcome Cheng Shijie.

"Welcome to the handsome tiger!"

"Everyone is free, flat body!"

Cheng Shijie inspected the Ning Navy Navy and Army troops stationed in Luzon at the pier. Following Cheng Shijie disembarked, the fifth and sixth squadrons of the Ning Navy Fleet, a total of 32 warships, came with Shijie.

This made Li Zhixiang heave a sigh of relief. During the Subic naval battle, the Ning Navy lost five warships and 25 were injured. It can be used to make do with it, but the problem is that with the two sinking and two injuries of the Four King Kong, there are only 38 battleships in the main fleet of the Ning Navy that can still fight normally.

If Zheng Zhilong makes a comeback, Li Zhixiang really doesn't know what to do.

Well now, with the arrival of the Fifth and Sixth Squadrons, even if Zheng Zhilong fights again, Li Zhixiang is not afraid of them anymore.

Cheng Shijie looked at the energetic Ning Haijun soldiers and was very satisfied.

"Meet the Master!"

"The soldiers have worked hard!"

"Die for the handsome!"

"Die for the handsome!"

Although Wu Shangzhi is a businessman, to a certain extent, a businessman is actually very concerned about politics. Although Wu Shangzhi is far away from Daming, he also has an amazing sense of smell because he often deals with Spaniards.

Just as Cheng Shijie was reviewing the officers and men of the Ning Navy on the pier, as the officers and men of the Ning Navy and Army went ashore, all the officers and men did not mention their allegiance to Daming at all, but only said their allegiance to Cheng Shijie. This shows that this large army has become Cheng Shijie's private army.

Political struggles have always been bloody, and they put their treasure on Cheng Shijie, which means that they will part ways with the court in the future.

However, Wu Shangzhi and Li Guoqun looked at each other.

Li Guoqun lowered his voice and said, "Does the imperial court have anything to do with us?"

Wu Shangzhi was slightly taken aback: "Yes, the court has nothing to do with us!"

"How many of us were killed by the Spaniards back then, it can be seen that the imperial court let go of a fart?"

"Yes!"

"Now we can't turn back. No matter how difficult the front is, we have to go on!"

(End of this chapter)