Dragon Sea Empire

Before Lu Shitou's plan came into effect, Xu Xinsu still gained something in various parts of Fujian.Since Yin Feng has decided to split the stock price into 500 taels per share, the threshold for buying shares has been lowered, and more small businessmen can buy shares.Therefore, Xu Xinsu raised nearly 4 taels of silver in a short period of time in various places in southern Fujian.

Zeng Yue's younger brother, Zeng Rui, is the youngest boy in the Zeng family.He once supervised shipbuilding for Yin Feng in Quanzhou. Young people are not interested in being an official in the imperial examination, but they are very interested in things like shipbuilding and firearms.On this day, he came to Taiwan on a fishing boat and found Yin Feng's residence directly after landing in Tainan Port.However, Mai Wan'er told him; Yin Feng had gone to Taipei Port, oh, that is what everyone often called Yaogang, and said he was going to check and accept some warship.In fact, Zeng Rui was entrusted by Zeng Ke to give Yin Feng the money to invest in shares.When the company was first established, the Zeng family did not take any shares, but they acquiesced in allowing Yin Feng to use the contacts and business channels of the Zeng family firm.

After Yazhou judge Zeng Qi officially retired and returned home, Zeng Jingshan told him about the origin and goals of the company.Now, after repeated thinking and weighing, the Zeng family finally took out 3 taels of silver to invest in the shares.Zeng Rui thought this matter was very important and had to explain it to Yin Feng in person, so he asked a servant of Yin's family to lead the way, and drove to the north "Taipei Port" in a carriage early the next morning.

As soon as I got out of the wooden wall surrounding the city, I heard thunder bursts from a nearby river beach, the sound of explosions continued, and gunpowder smoke continued to rise.Zeng Rui was taken aback, and hurriedly asked his servants to rein in the carriage, and asked, "What is this sound, it seems to be the sound of a firearm being fired?"

This servant of the Yin family was originally from the Zeng family, and he was married to Yin Feng's family to serve his wife Zeng Jing.He smiled and said, "Young master, there is no need to panic, this is my uncle's guards training bird gun shooting."

Zeng Rui's interest in all kinds of strange tricks was seduced: "Come on, let's take a look."

The servant looked distressed: "Master, you can only watch from a distance, you can't get close."

Zeng Rui urged: "Go if you are told, I am Brother Feng's brother-in-law, how can they not give me this face?"

While urging the carriage, the servant shook his head and said, "It's useless, these guards don't recognize their relatives, just watch."

Sure enough, when it was two miles away from the river beach, the carriage was stopped by several black-clothed guards holding spears, and they refused to let them go any further.Zeng Rui revealed his identity, and the other party rolled his eyes at him, saying, "Don't get close to a military important place."

There was a burst of gunshots on the river beach, making Zeng Rui's heart itch.But the group of guards in front of him who didn't recognize his relatives simply refused to let him in, and refused to let him go forward.

"The owner of the ship has a strict order. Without his warrant, no one is allowed to spy on the military situation. Anyone who violates the law will be punished as a spy." A small guard, who seemed to be a small leader, stepped forward and said seriously: "Since you are the brother-in-law of our ship owner, then please Go back and ask the ship owner for a warrant. I'm waiting for my duty, so don't make things difficult for us."

Zeng Rui had no choice but to turn around and continue the journey to Yaogang.He murmured: "Brother Feng, what kind of guards are you doing? They have such strict military discipline and hide their secrets... Guards, why are they called guards?"

The servant said: "It is said that this name is temporary and will have to be changed in the future."

The main members of the guard are mostly refugees from the original Luzon Island, including pirate gang brothers, craftsmen, shop assistants, coolies or farmers.In addition, at the beginning of this year, the victims who could not survive were recruited in Quanzhou and Zhangzhou. Some were attracted by the generous treatment and were willing to serve as soldiers.The instructors were a dozen or so veteran Portuguese mercenaries who had arrived, and several members of the Danmin Sailor Musketeers were auxiliary instructors.

Zhaojia'ao's Zhao brothers have just joined the guards for more than ten days, and are currently undergoing rigorous training.

Now Yin Feng's troops have not yet completed their formation. More than 1200 people are divided into 12 teams of hundreds, of which 6 teams are conducting musketeer training, 4 teams are conducting spear assassination training, and 2 teams are conducting professional artillery training.In the early stage, before the muskets arrived, everyone trained with models. Now that 300 Siamese matchlock guns are in place, plus 50 self-made flintlock guns, the musketeers can already conduct live ammunition training.On the contrary, the artillery team has been training with live ammunition for a long time, but Coutere is not a professional artillery soldier after all, and his level is so-so.Now that the professional Portuguese artillery has arrived, it is natural to strengthen the live ammunition training.Yin Feng is not stingy about the use of funds for the guards, emphasizing not only military discipline, but also live ammunition training.

Regarding everything about the guard, Yin Feng firmly controlled it in his own hands; political power grows out of the barrel of a gun, this famous saying of later generations has always been engraved in his heart.In fact, in this era, the gap in military technology between the East and the West is gradually widening. On this island of Taiwan, he is the only one who has a clear understanding of the military technology situation at that time.What needs to be done to catch up, Yin Feng has not fully considered it. Anyway, in terms of weapon technology and troop tactics, the use of firearms is becoming more and more important. Fully gunned down.

……

Yaogang, the original pirate's lair, is now the station of the China United Company war fleet.

A brand new warship is mooring in the port.

It is indeed a brand-new warship. The hull is in the shape of a pointed head and a square tail combining Chinese and Western styles. The aspect ratio is above 6:1, which is suitable for fast driving; like a large Fuchuan, all tall buildings on the ship have been canceled; there is a steering cabin at the stern, and the steering wheel is used. Control a rotary wheel system, you can easily control the rudder.The two masts hang soft cloth sails and Chinese-style hard sails respectively, combining Chinese and Western styles. The front mainmast is expected to fight, and the Western-style soft sails on the backmast are topped with jib sails and other auxiliary sails.Because the hull adopts the structure of keel combined with ribs, the traditional Fuchuan has no rib structure, and the transverse bulkhead is used as the horizontal support structure. Compared with the traditional Fuchuan, this warship is much stronger in the horizontal structure.And because a large number of iron materials are used as fasteners, this may be the earliest ship in China that uses a wood and metal structure.

Due to the support of the rib structure, there is no need to worry about cracks and water leakage in the hull after several cannon salvos like the Xinxing.Therefore, this new warship with a displacement of about 800 tons has 15 gun ports on each side, plus one gun at the bow and stern, and is equipped with a total of 32 cannons.

Yin Feng was at the bow, naming the warship "Feilong" and appointing Ye Hua as the captain.Ye Hua, an expert long-distance swimmer, has preliminarily qualified as a captain under the training of Captain Barreto Jr. from Portugal.

Today is the maiden voyage of the "Flying Dragon", and it is also the first attack. The target is the Japanese Shuyin ship.

At that time, although the Tokugawa shogunate in Japan tended to close the country, it was still thinking about expanding overseas. However, due to backward shipbuilding technology, it only built inland river ships and coastal ships, and never built ocean-going ships.So the Japanese began to build their Nanyang trading ships based on the Fuchuan that went to Xiamen.The Tokugawa shogunate issued "exotic crossing sea seals" to ship merchants, ships that were allowed to go to Annan, Siam, Luzon, Cambodia and other Southeast Asian countries for trade activities.In the 9 years after the 1604th year of Qingchang (32), there were 356 ships, with an average of 11 ships per year.The owners of the ship are mainly daimyo from the southwest, officials from the shogunate, and wealthy businessmen from home and abroad.

This kind of ship is collectively called Zhuyin ship, and there are different types of ships according to the family name of the ship merchant, such as the so-called corner ship, Araki ship, and Sueji ship.Many Zhuyin ships used the sails of Chinese ships, the internal structure of Japanese "Yamato" ships, and even a ship with Chinese-style hard sails, Western-style soft sails and Japanese-style canvas, becoming a "Chinese, Western and Japanese" mixed type. .This kind of bad taste is probably only possessed by the Japanese.

It is generally believed that Japan’s Zhuyin Ship trading fleet to Southeast Asia started in the first year of Wenlu (1592) Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Horn, lead, medicine and other Southeast Asian commodities.The main outputs are silver, copper, iron, sulfur and other minerals, as well as swords and handicrafts.

The most eye-catching historical fact is that Japan was one of the few silver-producing countries in the world at that time, with considerable purchasing power, which was a great threat to Western businessmen in Britain, the Netherlands, Spain and other countries.Japan's domestic handicraft products are not exported to foreign countries, and Zhuyin ships often set off with a full load of silver and sulfur, and return home with a full load of silk and other goods.

Yin Feng's "Flying Dragon" will set up an ambush in the Taiwan Strait, waiting for Zhu Yin's full warehouse of silver to arrive.

In addition to the Flying Dragon, there was also the Xinxing, and the two ships flew the black pirate skull flag and the Dutch tricolor flag at the same time, pretending to be a Dutch warship that had not arrived in the Taiwan Strait at this time.Anyway, the two ships are a combination of Chinese and Western styles, so pretending to be a Dutch ship will not reveal the truth.

Lu Shitou accompanied a middle-aged man in a Confucian toga to the bow.Yin Feng was looking around with a binoculars at the bow of the boat. When he heard the sound, he turned his head and hurriedly said, "Mr. Lu has worked hard, and you will lead the way yourself. Will this Japanese Zhuyin boat come to Yaogang in the next few days?"

Mr. Lu's full name is Lu Yun, and his character is Xiaohan. He is the business agent of the king of the Ryukyu Kingdom on Okinawa Island.He and Lu Shitou are old acquaintances, and they had dealt with each other in Hong Kong, Taiwan earlier.

He hurriedly bowed his hands and saluted: "Where is it? It's just a matter of raising your hands. It's hard work. This Satsuma clan has oppressed my Ryukyu country for many years, and I did this to vent my anger for the people of the country. Originally, the Zhuyin boat would add water from Ryukyu and go directly south to Luzon or Nanyang, this time the sailors on board are Chinese recruited from our Ryukyu country, and they are only familiar with the waterway to Hong Kong, so they will definitely pass through here."

He paused and said: "Because the Japanese ships are too small to sail on the ocean, the Lord of Satsuma bought a Chinese sailboat that can carry 180 people, hired the captain of the Tang Dynasty, and sailed. How will the captain deal with these Chinese people?" ?”

Yin Feng smiled and said: "I am also a Tang native doing business overseas, so naturally I will not kill my compatriots indiscriminately."

Lu Yun nodded: "The owner of the ship is kind and has a deep sense of loyalty. I have heard it before. That's good..."

Yin Feng shook his head and said: "It's just that these crew members can't easily let them go home, and of course they can't go back to Japan. After all, our Chinese company is not yet capable of fighting against the Japanese country."

"It's impossible..." Lu Yun lowered his head and muttered a few words.