Daming Military Empire

Chapter 207 The Spanish Governor Was Terrified

In April, the governor of Manila, Spain, Coquian, finally received a letter of authorization from King Philip IV, authorizing him to sign a contract with the Ming Empire on behalf of the Spanish Empire and the Ming Empire to deal with the Netherlands in the Far East. At the same time, Philip IV asked Coquian to find a way Order a batch of flintlock guns from the Ming Empire.

What's going on here? How could the king of Spain, who was far away in Europe, know about the flintlock guns produced by Daming?

It turned out that after the Portuguese adventurer team purchased the revolver and the [-]-type flintlock rifle produced by Ming Dynasty, the adventure gained more and more. They even occupied a large area in the archipelago south of Luzon and east of Java, like Papua Island, which was originally The super large island to be occupied by the Dutch was divided up by them!

With a big harvest, it is natural to go back to Europe to turn the looted things into money. After they return to Europe, they not only buy and sell goods, but also show off their revolvers and flintlocks everywhere. It has become their daily routine.The exquisite structure and exaggerated loading speed naturally became a hot topic among adventurers, and soon the news reached the ears of some nobles.

At that time, the nobles in Europe were really rich. You must know that the gold and silver brought back from Africa and the Americas were ship by ship. This kind of ship has a very nice name called treasure ship, and each ship is at least tens of thousands of kilograms. Gold and silver, so much gold and silver poured in that the value of gold and silver in Europe has depreciated, and money can't buy anything!For self-defense weapons such as revolvers, those nobles naturally tried their best to buy them, and gold and silver were not a problem.

It is said that this gun is a guy who eats. Originally, these adventurers were unlikely to sell it to others, but those nobles couldn't help but spend money on it.Auctions were popular in Europe during the colonial period. As long as there are good things, those nobles don’t care about money. Maybe many cultural relics can be auctioned for tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of prices. .

Those aristocrats are basically like this. How much did you pay for this gun? 200 taels of silver, can you sell it for 500 taels? Can you sell 500 taels, or 1000 taels? 1000 taels are not for sale, Shete, can you sell 1000 taels of gold?
Isn’t it just for money that these adventurers have worked so hard to travel all over the world? When the money reaches a certain level, let alone the guys who eat, you just buy their lives, and they also sell them, so these firearms gradually flow into the aristocratic circle.

This gun became very popular in the aristocratic circle. As a big man in the aristocratic circle, King Philip IV of Spain would naturally know that a revolver and a Type [-] flintlock gun were delivered to him soon.As the lord of a country, what he values ​​is naturally not the exquisite appearance, even the revolver, the new favorite in the aristocratic circle, he doesn't pay much attention to, without him, because the range is not far enough.

What he values ​​most is the way the flintlock is loaded, breech-loaded, and the bullets and gunpowder can be pre-loaded into sub-guns. When changing, just pull and push. Others fire one shot, and you can fire five shots. What is this? concept!
He was very satisfied with this kind of mechanism, so he recruited craftsmen who produced muskets and wanted them to imitate them.This period of time is the period when flintlock guns replaced matchlock guns. As an old colonial power, Spain is naturally at the forefront. Now the Spanish army has begun to replace flintlock guns one after another. The technology of flintlock guns has matured day by day, he thought. There are real objects here, so naturally they can be imitated.As a result, a bunch of craftsmen shook their heads after taking it apart and looking at it carefully. They couldn't make this thing at all!

With their professional eyes, it can be seen that this gun is not only cast, forged, and drilled, but also has been cut in many places. At that time, there were only simple machine tools in Europe. It will take more than ten or twenty years to appear in the European continent. They simply don't understand how this iron can be cut like wood, so they can't do anything.

If you can’t make it, then buy it. Spain can also produce its own guns. Naturally, it is very clear about the manufacturing cost of this musket. Bought from Portuguese adventurers.Well, these prodigal things, this is definitely not the real price, and it is impossible for the Portuguese adventurers to make this kind of gun, continue to inquire.

Finally, I found out that this gun was produced in a mysterious country called the Ming Empire in the far east, and it cost 200 taels of silver each.

Spain is rich. Since 1503, it has plundered tens of thousands of kilograms of gold and millions of kilograms of silver every year from the Americas alone. , In order to retaliate against Britain, Spain built five waves of the Armada of hundreds of battleships alone!It can be said that Spain has developed the problem of spending money like water since the age of great voyages, and the funds have not been very abundant. In addition, in the two years of war, the Holy Alliance and the Spanish Allied Forces had the upper hand. The main force of the Swedish army was defeated, so Philip IV didn't want to spend a huge price to buy this gun, and the matter just passed.

However, after the new year, the situation is not right. France, the Protestant Alliance, is preparing for war. The French army is stronger than the Spanish army. Moreover, as the country that invented the flintlock gun, France's army is already equipped with flintlock guns, and its combat effectiveness is impressive. Not so strong, now Philip IV is in a hurry.

At this moment, the governor of Manila, Coquian, sent back news that the Ming Empire had defeated the Dutch navy and intended to unite with Spain to deal with the Netherlands in the Far East.Such a powerful country naturally wanted to win over, and he also wanted to buy flintlock guns from the Ming Empire, so he sent the letter of authorization and the idea of ​​ordering flintlock guns to Cokuian.

Originally, Ke Kuian planned to send someone to notify Zheng Zhilong after receiving the letter of authorization, and the two parties would sign a contract in Dongfan. He happened to bring back more than a thousand soldiers captured by Cup Daming on the way, but now their king asked him to order If you want a flintlock gun, then you can't just send someone to notify Zheng Zhilong. He simply led a super battleship and ten armed merchant ships to Jinling City in Zhili, southern Daming, and was going to ask Zheng Zhilong how to buy this gun.

As a result, as soon as he entered the southeast waters, he was stopped by the patrol fleet of the Nanyang Navy. The southeast defense line of Ming Dynasty is not a joke. A merchant ship can't pass without permission, let alone a fleet composed of a battleship and ten armed merchant ships. Woolen cloth.Fortunately, he not only knew Zheng Zhilong, but also Zheng Zhihu. After the patrol fleet sent someone to report, he was directly led to the Nandaying Naval Base.

Since entering the Taijiang Inner Sea, Coquian’s mouth has never closed. The Zeelandia Castle built by the Dutch has already surprised him, and the densely packed warships in the Taijiang Inner Sea surprised him even more. After the navy was equipped with 1000 Dutch super battleships, more than [-] small warships had been assigned to the defenders of the southeast line of defense as training ships. Now there are close to [-] large and small warships in the Inner Sea of ​​the Taijiang River. With that number, Ke Kui'an is already calm enough that he didn't pee his pants in fright.

When he arrived at the port of Nandaying, his face turned pale with fright. There were many forts along the coast, a huge repair dock, a red-inlaid castle that was more majestic than Zeelandia Castle, and the huge Nandaying New City. Challenging the limit of his cognition, he always thought that his city of Manila was already one of the few cities in the southeast waters, but compared with the Nandaying naval base, it is simply a scum!
After Zheng Zhihu heard that he was coming, he received him very enthusiastically. When he heard that he was looking for Zhennan King Zheng Zhilong, he specially sent the fastest sailing boat to send him to Jinling. As for warships and armed merchant ships, then They can only stay at the Nandaying Naval Base, and Ming Dynasty does not allow warships from other countries to enter.

In the end, his trip was almost in vain. Zheng Zhilong could make the decision about the contract, but Zheng Zhilong couldn't make the decision about ordering the flintlock.Zheng Zhilong had no choice but to take him back to the Nandaying Naval Base, and then took ten super battleships and led him to the capital together.

As a result, the ten battleships were stopped by two huge warships as soon as they approached the sea area of ​​Dongdaying. Zheng Zhilong had only heard of one such battleship, which was the emperor's car, the Sun Moon, and the other was a temporary new warship. He has never heard of it, when will there be another one?
Just when they were puzzled, the giant ship in front raised a semaphore: "Surrender, or we will fire."

What are you kidding, Zheng Zhilong thought the emperor was playing with him, so he quickly asked the messengers to order the ten warships to hang white flags, otherwise the emperor ordered the cannons to be fired in vain.

He was just baffled, and his colleague Ke Kuian was already frightened. He had never seen such a huge warship, but he understood the semaphore of the other party, surrender, or fire!What kind of situation is this? Even the prince dares to fight. Is this an internal strife in the Ming Empire?
But isn't the commander on the other side a little confused, he even stopped one huge ship and the other one came up, is this going to be a boarding battle?Ke Kui'an looked at Zheng Zhilong, fortunately, Zhennan Wang didn't look very scared, but a little nervous.He doesn't have to be afraid, there are two or three thousand of his guards on these ten warships alone, and the giant ship opposite can accommodate more than 1000 people at most. About to be taken away.

But the strange thing is that Zheng Zhilong stood motionless at the bow of the ship, just watching the giant ship approaching, Ke Kuian was so frightened that he ignored the etiquette and shouted: "His Royal Highness Zhennan, why don't you let all the warships Come around?"

Zheng Zhilong rolled his eyes when he heard the words, the opposite may be the emperor, does he dare to surround him?
At this moment, a child's laughter came from the opposite bow: "Hahahaha, second uncle, how about my success ship, is it majestic?"

Zheng Zhilong was so angry that he shouted: "Little brat, what are you doing, is the emperor on the Sun Moon?"

Zheng Chenggong, who was on the huge ship opposite, staggered in fright and almost fell into the sea. Today, the flagship Chenggong built for him by the emperor has just launched, and he specially ran from the capital to test the ship. The people drove out together, this is the emperor's younger brother, the left-behind personnel on the Sun Moon had no choice but to run out with him and wander around.Not long after strolling around, he saw ten warships from the Nanyang Navy approaching. Zheng Chenggong thought it was his second uncle and wanted to play a joke on him, but unexpectedly it was his father who came. He quickly ordered the warships to turn around and run away.

Seeing his reaction, Zheng Zhilong shook his head dumbfoundingly. This kid must have come to Dongdaying alone to play and direct the navy. If the emperor was here, why would he run away?

When Ke Kui'an heard the laughter of the child opposite, he understood that this must be some prince messing around. Sure enough, Zhennan Wang Zheng Zhilong just scolded him, and the prince ran away.But the Ming Empire is too powerful, a random prince can have two super warships of this size!

He felt weak for a while, and today he was indeed frightened by the strength of the Ming Empire.

(End of this chapter)