King of German Mercenaries

By the time Marlin brought Angela back to Den Burg, it was already June. Da Gama's departure time is about July 8th, the time is already very tight.

After Columbus arrived at Texel with the essence of his family, Marin arranged Columbus's wife and two sons in Den Burg, and arranged artisans to help the Columbus family build a large house.

Squinting at the sight of Da Gama's departure, Columbus also needs to leave immediately. Columbus had no comment on this. Great sailing skills have been deep in his soul. Moreover, he is now very downcast, and only by sailing for Marin can he earn enough money to support his family.

Colin Marin assigned two Frisian warships with a displacement of about 130 tons to Columbus for their leadership. However, the sailor was put on, but most of them were replaced.

Among them, the replaced sailors are mainly fishermen under the Marin rule. The bald Abben is the head of the sailors from these young Frisian fishermen.

What made Marin happy was that shortly after he returned to Texel, the Karak sailing vessels that had been ordered in Spain and Portugal had arrived.

The two Karak sailing boats are about the same size, with a displacement of about 180 tons, a length of 27 meters and a width of 8.5 meters. The draft is 2.3 meters and the sail area is about 372 square meters.

Of course, this sail area refers to the sail area. In addition to horizontal sails, all ships are equipped with a spinnaker. The cross sail is used during downwind and can make the most of downwind. The spinnaker is mainly used in the headwind area. Because the spinnaker is convenient for "Z" maneuvering and suitable for headwind. When Columbus first explored the Americas, he was also equipped with two sets of sails.

As for the artillery put on, Draka also purchased a batch of Fran machine guns from Portugal. These Fran guns are available in 10-pound, 8-pound, and 6-pound, a total of 30, all equipped on two newly purchased Karak sailing ships.

后 As soon as the new ship was in place, Marin immediately arranged for Columbus to become familiar with the ship. Later, the sailor also adjusted. The local Frisian sailors led by Abben boarded two new ships. As for the two 130-ton warships seized by the Republic of Friesland, half were originally captured by Frisian sailors and the other half were selected and trained by newly recruited fishermen.

In order to prevent these sailors from making trouble, Marin chose not only honest sailors, but their families also stayed on Texel Island as hostages. Marin specially sent Kohler to tell the sailors explicitly that if they died because of work, their families would receive preferential treatment. If they betrayed, all their families would be hanged, even if they were children ...

In fact, the newly recruited Frisian sailors, that is, the young men selected from the 80 fishermen led by Abben, were not trained enough. But these people are better at being honest. Unlike the sailors captured by the other half of the Friesland Republic, Marin was not assured of them. Fortunately, the families of these people were also received on the island, and they were not afraid of playing tricks. As for the families who were not able to pick up the island, they were excluded from the voyage.

Moreover, the 80 Frisian sailors left behind will not only operate the sailboat, but also fire guns-this is the biggest reason Marin chose them ...

At this time, sailing at sea was fraught with danger. Although there is no such thing as a strong pirate group such as the British Islands and Barbary Pirates, there are many scattered pirates.

There are 40 warships with a total of 50 artillery. As long as there are enough gunners to use, it can definitely crush all kinds of pirates. After all, big voyages have not yet taken place, and the scale of pirates is very small. Even if there were, they were all goods of the jetty gang to cut people with a knife, and they were vulnerable to the artillery.

The only thing to note is whether the Portuguese will turn their faces and attack them. After all, Marin has also touched the interests of the Portuguese this time. Even if Marin had the Pope's permission, if the Portuguese ignored the Marin fleet at sea, Marin would have no reason to do so. As long as the four ships were sunk, the Portuguese wiped them out very quickly and no one could say anything.

Therefore, the 50 artillery on board is designed to prevent the Portuguese from turning their faces ...

In addition, Marin dispatched Kohler's most important assistant, Draka, to the boat and let him preside over the trade with the Indians. Draka, under Kohler's hands-on instruction, is also good at computing, and has dealt with many people. He has extensive business experience.

Then Marin arranged to hire two translators who knew Arabic in Portugal. The two have been on the African coast all year round and know how to speak Arabic. Moreover, the two also knew Spanish. As it happened, Columbus also knew Spanish and directed them to negotiate with Malindi's chief.

At this time, there were many Arab colonies on the east coast of Africa. For example, Mombasa and Malindi are colonies under Arab control, and the chiefs are also Arabs who speak Arabic. For example, Majid, who originally guided Da Gama in history, was an Arab born in Oman.

There are two Arabic-speaking translators ~ www.readwn.com ~ also convenient for negotiation with Arabs. Arabic is widely spoken, and it is the official language spoken from Persia to the North African Atlantic coast. Spain and Portugal clamored with the Arabs because they faced North Africa. So there are quite a few people in both countries who know Arabic. Just like Spain, the Sultanate of Granada (on the southern coast of Spain) founded by the Arabs was not destroyed by Spain until 1492 ...

Columbus took the sailors, maneuvered the two new ships out to sea, and found that the quality was not bad. The sailors and gunners also conducted naval battle exercises.

In order to meet the needs of naval warfare, Marin had to send someone to Antwerp to purchase large quantities of gunpowder and iron ball shells to meet the needs of sea artillery.

In addition, Marin ordered that all the stained glass artwork worth 10,000 gold coins brought back from Venice were transferred to the ship and exchanged with the Indians for spices.

Stained glass is a specialty of Venice. Although Indians have seen glass, stained glass is rare. Because it didn't take long for the Venetian to make stained glass. In addition, because of Ottoman Turkey blocking business, India, stained glass crafts, the price is quite expensive.

Draka, as the person in charge of the trade, Marin gave him another 20,000 gold coins, so that he could purchase spices. After all, it takes time to sell stained glass art, and it takes time to purchase spices.

If you wait for the product to sell out before purchasing spices, it will waste time. Then, the initial start-up funds are also necessary and necessary. With the start-up funds, the sale of stained glass and the purchase of spices can be carried out at the same time to improve efficiency ~ www.readwn.com ~ Welcome the book readers to read, the latest, fastest and most popular serial works are in ~ www .readwn.com ~ Please read for mobile users.