open sea

Chapter 325 Brimstone
conscription.

Suleiman's order started from Hawksbill Harbor, and sent soldiers who were good at running through the dense forest to the settlements in the north and east of Hawksbill Harbor, bringing a small number of new fighters and previously defeated stragglers.

To the east of Hawksbill Harbor, thousands of sergeants are busy logging, clearing out a large area of ​​woodland outside Panshilan City as a new barracks, where new recruits and the original sergeants of Hawksbill Harbor will be trained to use blunderbusses and spears as future soldiers. reserve soldiers.

There are two roads on land from Manila to Hawksbill Harbor, one needs to pass through the mountains, and the other needs to pass through dense forests and rivers. The garrison force is changed from pirates to the [-] Banner Army led by Shao Tingda, and artillery is built at the main pass. Fortress.

Although the garrison force has decreased, the blocking force has increased by more than one level.

The pirates in Shihe only had a few old-fashioned mortars and Francophones, and their firearms were mixed with firecrackers, birdcracks, and quick guns. Even so, the number of scattered firearms was pitifully small. It may be possible to resist without forming an formation with only cold weapons. Once the banner army forms an formation, two hundred households will be able to overwhelm them.

The pirates were too easy to be defeated. Although they were extremely fierce individually, they were the first to flee for their lives when the situation was a little unfavorable.

Not far from the shore to the west of Hawksbill Harbor is the camp of the Chen Mu Banner Army. Half of the troops on board are either in the port or patrolling the open sea. Only less than a thousand households of the Banner Army remain in the camp.

Chen Mu's first official position was Chen Bazhi, a thousand households of Banshilan. He is now an instructor of thousands of troops in Banshilan City.

There is no one who is as proficient in artillery and blunderbuss tactics as Hachiro, who has not only been trained in Chen Mu's military training, but also commanded and drilled Qi's army is more suitable as a recruit instructor.

Qi Jiguang had a great influence on Hachiro. Chen Mu turned him from a dead boy into a dead boy who could use artillery, sail boats and lead soldiers, and Qi Jiguang made him complete the change from a dead boy to a soldier and general.

Qi's army is much better than his father.

If it was in the past, he would definitely not be happy to ask him to lead new recruits. Everyone knew that he wanted to be at the forefront.But it's different now. Hachiro, who received the order, handed Chen Mu a military training plan starting from formation the next day. As soon as Chen Mu was happy, he took the seal of the Minister of Nanyang and gave him a Banshilan Qianhu.

The silly son is sensible!
"According to your plan, organize the soldiers as the guards. The first small flags to be promoted will be selected from the Han people and those who understand Chinese. If the Luzon people understand Chinese, the Luzon people will be given priority. Chen Zongbing will bring in two people in the near future. One thousand eight hundred bird guns are available for your use, this is a long-term plan. It can range from three months to a year, depending on the quality of the war, if everything goes well."

Chen Mu said to Wei Balang: "For a year and a half, I want you to train [-] reserve soldiers who are proficient in blunderbuss, spears, and formations in Panshilan City."

This is a guard force without artillery, because Chen Mu's army is not rich in artillery.Due to limited transport capacity, they carried pitifully few field guns, and the entire army only had twenty two-pound cannons and ten five-pound cannons.

Of course, if the situation is critical, the naval guns can also be removed, and the two-jin guns can be quickly used for city defense to reach hundreds of scales.

There is no need to think about cannons weighing more than five catties. The few pack horses on the grain ship are only enough to fight a small battle of a thousand men. They can only be transported to Manila one by one by the Fuchuan that is returning to Nanyang Port.

What about his artillery now?Pirates and sea merchants, as well as local recruits, came to pull.

Apart from the deployment of defenses along land and sea, the scouts were not idle. Two groups of scouts, composed of locals and banner troops, approached Manila. They had different missions.The local scouts detect the military situation and the movements of the Spaniards, while the flag army scouts are responsible for surveying and mapping the terrain.

In addition, Chen Mu and Lin Feng's people set out together with the scouts. They need to sneak into Manila and find Li Dan and Zhuang Gong.

"Next time, Nanyang Wei needs to transport saltpeter and Xu Erjin to the Hawksbill Port. At the same time, the unloaded Fuchuan will transport the sulfur back to Nanyang. The price of sulfur in Daming is six taels per stone, and a Fuchuan can transport a thousand stones."

Holding a strange dagger in a wooden scabbard, Chen Mu drew on the map and frowned: "How much sulfur can be collected locally in a month, and what is the selling price?"

Sulfur is a specialty of Luzon. It is neither expensive nor hugely profitable, but Chen Mu needs to exchange it for saltpeter. Just from the price, one catty of yellow can be exchanged for two catties of saltpeter. Except for the self-produced production of Guangdong Dusi, Chen Mu's logistics supplies are all To rely on private supply, he can't help but count it.

"It's everywhere on the island. If the commander-in-chief is willing, I will use Ming craftsmen on the island rich in yellow to recruit local people to pick yellow. You will know how much you can pick within half a month."

Li Yuxi is a big businessman, his mind is not joking, he directly plans to do business without capital, just open a mine and pay the wages.

"Okay, it's up to you to pick the yellow and transport the sulfur to the port. A ship will give you 400 taels of silver, of which 100 taels are for workers. Luzon people should be given priority in recruiting workers. This can ensure that each worker's monthly salary is at least One or two. Don't steal or rob work, this money is what people deserve, so don't worry about it."

Li Yuxi felt a bit of a toothache. Even when the handsome man was still a military man, he had already experienced Chen Mu's domineering style in Haojing. At this moment, he still felt very uncomfortable.

This person actually told him the profit of each ship after transporting Daming, and then told him that one ship made him earn 300 taels, it was clear.

It’s not that he thinks he earns little. Even if a ship costs 300 taels, if he can get forty ships of sulfur every month, he can still earn more than 10 taels, [-] taels of silver a year. He only needs to recruit a bunch of miners. It's not that easy to earn.

Especially in the case that sulfur is forbidden to be sold at sea by Daming.

But where is the problem?

The problem is that the selling price of Yifuchuan sulfur in Daming is 6000 taels, even if the price is low, there is still a profit of at least 4000 taels.What the handsome man needs to do is to load the baggage ship that was going back to Nanyang Port empty, and find a place to sell it.

They also keep saying that people deserve their efforts to get money, and they can't be blackmailed; but if we don't work hard on this matter, shouldn't we deserve it?
What did he hear right after him?
Chen Mu didn't pay attention to his expression at all, and took that weird dagger to draw on the wooden table on the outer edge of the map, muttering to himself: "Shipping it to Taiwan, let the ship merchant of Hexingsheng pick it up there, A boat costs 3000 taels, and Chen doesn’t care about other things.”

"Hao Jing, handsome man, transport it to Hao Jing, and a certain Li can sell it for 4000 taels on a boat!"

"Oh! 4000 taels is still profitable." Chen Mu looked at Li Yuxi in great surprise, nodded and said, "Okay, then ship it to Taiwan. A ship costs 500 taels. Is there any profit for 500 taels?"

Li Yuxi's expression looked like he had eaten flies, but he still expected to follow Chen Mu, so he said helplessly: "There are, there are still, but it really can't go up any further, and if it goes up, it won't be sold."

"Okay, that's it. You're in Taiwan for 300 taels per ship." Chen Mu smiled with satisfaction, took out a one-foot-six-inch dagger that looked like two hands from the wooden scabbard, and took the bird at random. He put the dagger through the mouth of the gun and handed it to Li Yuxi, saying: "The rich merchant can do me a favor again, and send this gun to the monk Tianshi of the port, and ask him to make up a set of gun stabbing techniques for Mr. Chen."

(End of this chapter)