Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 326 The Dutch Sail Warship

Ever since Liu Kongzhao saw the strength of the Zheng Group's sea power, he has never thought about strengthening the strength of the Ming Dynasty Navy. At this moment, he has only one goal, and that is to do everything possible to make the Daming Navy catch up with the Zheng Group's navy, and even surpass Zheng's navy. Group's navy.

This is not only because Liu Kongzhao has always regarded himself as a courtier of Zhu Youjian, and he is unwilling to let the Zheng Group continue to grow, but also because he, as a "shareholder" of the Daming Navy, also hopes that the Ming Navy can rely on armed trade and cooperation like the Zheng Group. Looting for more benefits.

Liu Kongzhao was even willing to use all means to strengthen the Daming Navy. He also knew that Western Fan was always stronger than the sea, so after meeting Van der Laan and knowing that Van der Laan was a shipbuilder, he came up with the idea of ​​buying warships directly through Western Fan.

Liu Kongzhao followed Van der Laan out of the Thousand Households in Jiaheli, and under the guidance of Van der Laan, he walked towards the docking point of the Dutch warship.

Seeing that Liu Kongzhao wanted to discuss business with Fan der Laan, Zheng Zhilong couldn't stop him.

After all, he and the navy of the imperial court are not in conflict with each other, and he even has the obligation to actively improve the combat power of the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, seeing this, he only sent two guards and an interpreter to follow Liu Kongzhao, while he himself made an excuse Leave, and go to prepare for the swearing-in.

Van der Laan was very active to tell Liu Kongzhao how high the level of shipbuilding in his family was.

After all, Liu Kongzhao was the first noble official of the Ming Dynasty who was willing to take the initiative to contact him for trade. He subconsciously felt that this was a good opportunity to open up the mainland market of the Ming Dynasty.

As soon as Liu Kongzhao came in front of the Dutch warship, he was shocked, but he still held on to the shock in his heart, pretending to be indifferent and pointed at the battleship in front of him, which was suddenly several times larger than the Fuchuan: "What battleship is this? "

"Your Excellency Earl, this is our first-class warship "Stubborn John". It has three artillery decks, 120 guns, and can carry 900 people. It is the strongest warship in the world today, and is now the governor of our East India Company. Your Excellency's flagship, I personally act as commander."

Van der Laan introduced it to Liu Kongzhao seriously, and Liu Kongzhao couldn't help touching the black and red paint on the hull, and then looked up at the mast on the ship. I don't know how much bigger than Zheng's big ship, and only this kind of warship can show the style of the Ming Navy!
"Take me up there to have a look," Liu Kongzhao said, and Van der Laan led him into the "Stubborn John".

When Liu Kongzhao saw that the interior was gorgeously paved and brightly lit, there were carpets from the Western Regions, Western oil paintings, and even a picture of the Chinese West Garden Collection. A cannon with ten to thirty catties of shells, and at this time Van der Laan also introduced:

"These are giant cannons capable of destroying warships thousands of feet away."

Liu Kongzhao was very surprised, thinking that even the artillery loaded by this so-called first-class sailing warship was already equal to the artillery of his own Ming Navy. powerful.

"How many warships like this are there, and how many can your country build?"

When Liu Kongzhao asked this question, Van der Laan also became excited: "At present, there are only two such warships in our country, one is in the hands of the Royal Navy, and the other is our East India ship, and there are no more than five ships in the whole world. "

"Why don't you build a few more ships? The number of warships that I intend to order is never less than five. Now that you let me come to you, you can't let me not bring back any of them."

Liu Kongzhao looked like a rich and powerful local tyrant now, and Van der Laan's heart was pounding at the moment, but he had to express his apology and explained to Liu Kongzhao: "Your Excellency, don't blame me, such a warship is expensive, and my country's financial resources are not as strong as yours. , having two ships is already the limit.”

"Forget it, just tell me if you can build it. If you can build it, I will buy five such warships first." Liu Kongzhao didn't even bother to ask the price, and asked for five ships directly.

"Your Excellency, there are only five warships of this kind in the world, and our country has limited manpower, so it is not enough to build five first-class warships of this kind," Van der Laan replied with some helplessness.

"Slow water flows, take your time, you can slowly build one by one, I will give you money, you build me a ship, afraid of lack of manpower, how much is this ship?"

Liu Kongzhao asked.

Van der Laan did not expect to meet such a wealthy buyer, so he thought for a long time and came up with a figure: "50 silver dollars."

Liu Kongzhao almost didn't fall to the ground. He knew that Van der Laan was just talking to the lion, so he laughed: "50, it's not very expensive, but we Frangji also said that we would sell such a warship, and As long as the price is 25 silver dollars, Your Excellency Van der Laan, I have decided to make you my friend and do this long-term business with you, so the price should be lower than 25."

"Your Excellency, this class of warships is really difficult to build. The price of these 25 cannons alone is more than this price. It is impossible for the Franc Robot to only cost [-]."

Van der Laan did not expect that the earl of the Ming Empire would not be so easy to fool. He called a price casually and was directly cut in half, but he was unwilling to compromise on this, so he still gritted his teeth.

"I believe you should have heard of Suzhou weaving Yang's family. He is my Chinese imperial merchant, similar to your East India Company. He bought warships from Frangji." When Liu Kongzhao said this, Vanderland felt a little bit Feeling uneasy, he thought that what the Earl of the Ming Empire said seemed to be true.

However, Van der Laan was still unwilling to let go, and kept explaining how difficult and expensive it was to manufacture a warship of his own class.

At the same time, he suggested that Liu Kongzhao might consider buying only the second-tier and third-tier warships, and took Liu Kongzhao to see the size of the second-tier and third-tier warships.

Liu Kongzhao did not refuse, nor did he say that he must buy it. He only listened to Van der Laan's words, and at the same time secretly wondered how to get rid of this first-class battleship before Zheng's Group started the war against the Hong Maofan who occupied Dongfan. Now, Liu Kongzhao firmly believes that the Ming Navy can only be regarded as a real navy if it has such warships.

At that time, Liu Kongzhao followed Van der Laan to this level of warship, which is the flagship of the governor under the command of Van der Laan, but he did not mention the ordering of warships at all. He only asked if Van der Laan could entertain lunch. Liu Kongzhao seemed to want to experience Take a look at the feeling of dining on this large warship.

(End of this chapter)