Chapter 45 Maosheng Source

Yu Xiaotian told Li Dazui and Meng Fei that it is not their turn for the time being, and they don't need this thing, and if they want a cannon, it's not impossible, but they can only be equipped with light cannons such as tiger squat guns.

These two guys were very discouraged when they heard it, but they had no choice but to act according to orders. The reason why Yu Xiaotian did not distribute such artillery to their troops is that they really don't need this thing at present.

So far, the combat team is only subordinate to the auxiliary force under the marines (he has called his combat fleet the navy, and if his strength continues to expand next, he is ready to be renamed the navy).

Only with the support of naval troops will they go ashore to fight with people. They do not have the ability to complete the battle alone, so it is of little use to distribute such artillery to them. It is also necessary to equip them with animals to drag these guns. At present, it is really useless. If you really need it, It is enough to hang a few cannons for them from the ship.

The light artillery, such as the tiger squat gun, is relatively practical for the combat team. After all, the tiger squat gun is only 30 or 40 catties, and two people can run with it. It is a kind of mortar of this era. There is no need to equip them with livestock, and it is convenient to move on complex terrain.

And if this thing is filled with scattered seeds, it is as powerful at close range, like a big broom, a large piece, which is a firearm that is very suitable for them so far, so the request of the two guys was blarantly rejected by Yu Xiaotian.

However, in order to appease their emotions, Yu Xiaotian promised them that they would be given this kind of cannon when they could use it in the future, and now he will also let the cannons specially open models for them and cast some beautiful tiger squat cannons separately for their use.

So he calmed the heads of the two soldiers and let them honestly go back to take their soldiers.

After the test gun, Yu Xiaotian immediately gave orders to the cannon, so that they immediately began to keep casting new guns. While casting new cannons, they began to test the larger Hongyi cannon. When the mold was reopened, the caliber of the new gun was enlarged to about four inches, and the weight of the shell reached about 12 catties, which was close to the west. Fang's 12-pounder gun, but the barrel is not required to continue to be long, and the length of the barrel is maintained at five feet, which is a special short gun for ships.

The weight of such a 12-pound short gun can be controlled below 1,000 jin, and it is also easy to operate on the ship. The range is not required to be increased much. It is enough to maintain an effective range similar to that of a six-pound gun. Anyway, if you fight with human artillery at sea, no matter how far the range is, it will not be of great use.

The technology of this era limits the accuracy of artillery firing at sea. Even Britain, the future maritime hegemon, in the naval regulations, stipulates that the distance of maritime combat shall not exceed 400 meters, and it is not allowed to fire beyond 400 meters. In fact, in the era of sail ships in history, the distance between maritime combat is often connected. Nearly 100 meters, and even about the mouth of the gun opened fire against the muzzle, because during the shaking of the hull at sea, even if the effective range is far, it is difficult for the artillery to hit the target 400 meters away. In order to ensure the hit rate, it must be as close as possible to the enemy ship.

So when Yu Xiaoming tried to make a new 12-pound cannon, there was no need to lengthen the gun body too much, which is the reason.

What's more, the longer the barrel, the greater the weight. At present, his main ship is still a Chinese sailboat. The hull structure determines that this kind of Chinese ship is difficult to withstand too heavy artillery. No matter how big the gun is, it is useless.

The Ming Dynasty once produced a kind of big firewood, weighing more than 500 catties. As a result, this kind of big firewood could not be loaded on the ship to fire. Once the fire was fired, it may shatter the deck and destroy the ship. As a last resort, when fighting, it actually had to drag a strong raft behind the ship to lift this big hair. You can only fire on the raft. Thinking about this scene makes people laugh a little.

So so far, even if he has produced a 12-pound gun, he may not be able to be equipped with a large number of guns. I'm afraid most of the ships he has at hand can't withstand such heavy guns.

However, because of the advantages of its ship structure, the Western-style sail warship in this era can already be equipped with more than 32 pounds of heavy guns. Thinking about such a gap, Yu Xiaotian is not only a little discouraged, but also feels very anxious.

The gunmaking matter has also settled down. Nanri Island's artillery has been strictly alerted, and all the gunners involved in gunmaking have been sealed, so that they will never be allowed to mention their methods to any non-gunning people at any time, and the violators will bear their own consequences.

And the work of cannon was completely spread out, and the fire began to burn day and night, and began to cast cannons day and night.

The iron mold casting gun method completely solves the problem of long casting time cycle, so that they can continue to produce as long as there is no problem with the iron model of the casting gun at any time, which also greatly improves their production speed and production efficiency.

But then they face a new problem, that is, the source of raw materials is a little unable to meet their needs.

Although Guangdong produces iron, and Foshan, Guangdong is still the most important iron-producing place in the south of the Ming Dynasty, it was not very difficult to buy raw iron from Foshan, and Foshan's iron merchants are also very happy to sell it.

But now they are facing a relatively big problem, because the Dutch are still fighting against the Ming Dynasty, constantly harassing the coastal areas of Guangdong and Fujian, plundering past ships. Under the auspices of Nanjuyi, Fujian sailors are also basically concentrated in Zhangzhou, Quanzhou and Chaozhou.

During this period, the north-south maritime traffic has been greatly affected, and many merchant ships dare not travel easily at this time, so that the number of merchant ships on the sea has plummeted recently.

Although Yu Xiaotian used to pay great attention to the storage of copper and iron and other metals, once he found that there was copper and iron on the ship when he hijacked the ship, they were directly stored for his own use, and also stored a batch of copper and iron.

But if these reserves are used to cast cannons, it seems a little too little. In total, he has accumulated thousands of kilograms of iron and more than 1,000 kilograms of copper. It sounds like a large number, but once a large number of cannons starts to be cast, it will not useful at all.

Even if only cast the current six-pound light gun, the net weight of a gun can reach more than 300 catties. With the addition of loss, it takes at least 500 catties of raw iron to cast a gun, and these iron must be refined iron. His inventory, at best, can cast six or seven six-pound cannons are good, so he You have to find a way to get a lot of iron to meet your needs.

Yu Xiaotian sent the news of the purchase of a large number of raw iron to various sea merchants related to them, and the price was also relatively high, but at the same time, he considered that it was not a long-term way to always rely on these sea merchants. First, the cost is high, and the supply of goods is not controlled by himself. .

So he had to find a way to solve this matter by himself, so the matter fell on Zhao Mazi's head. Yu Xiaotian ordered Zhao Mazi to take three ships such as the Shanghai Elephant and a bird ship as a guard to form a fleet and go directly south to Guangdong to find the Feng family to buy a batch of pig iron.

The Feng family itself has an iron factory, which is not small in scale. In addition, they are very familiar with Guangdong. As long as they help, even if the court is ordering artillery in large quantities now, there is still no big problem for them to buy a large number of raw iron.

But it is obviously not cost-effective for such an empty ship to go south. The best way is to fill the ship with goods when going south, so that it is more cost-effective not to go back and forth.

As for the question of what goods to transport to the south, this is not used to worry about Xiaotian, because Li Yi is now trying to win over Xiaotian and try to tie him up with the sea wolves, so that the interests of both of them will be greater.

Previously, Li Yi was a little hesitant about Xiaotian's proposed cooperation between the two sides to open a store in Fuzhou Prefecture, but after Xiaotian defeated Hun Jianglong, his attitude changed and began to become positive.

Yu Xiaotian did not mention this matter because he had a lot of things at hand. In addition, in order to make Li Yi understand that he no longer relied on his Li family everywhere as before. Therefore, Yu Xiaotian deliberately bypassed the Li family and handed it to Li Yi's colleagues to handle it for the sea wolf several times.

Li Yi soon realized the seriousness of the matter. Yu Xiaotian deliberately embarrassed him. At present, Yu Xiaotian is no longer Wu Xia Amon. He can no longer contain Yu Xiaotian, a sea wolf. Yu Xiaotian can still live even if he completely gets rid of Li Yi.

But if Li Yi offends Yu Xiaotian, then the matter will be much more serious. Yu Xiaotian only needs an order to get rid of his Li family's maritime business, so that his Li family's business will immediately plummet.

At this time, Li Yi did not dare to hesitate any more. He began to think carefully about Yu Xiaotian's intention of cooperation, and finally felt that this business could be done. With Yu Xiaotian, a big man on the Fuzhou sea behind him, he stood at the front desk. Ordinary people did not dare to fight against them at all, although Yu Xiaotian must definitely account for the profits. But as long as the business opens up, the remaining small head will be much bigger than when he did it himself.

And through more than a year of cooperation with Yu Xiaotian, Li Yi also saw that Yu Xiaotian is a trustworthy man, a standard man who spits and spits. As long as the two sides agree, Yu Xiaotian is worth cooperating.

So Li Yi took the initiative to find Yu Xiaotian and mentioned the cooperation again. Yu Xiaotian is now very busy and doesn't have much time to deal with this matter, so he deliberately delayed Li Yi for a few days. As a result, Li Yi became more nervous. He ran to Nanri Island for three days and repeatedly lodged Yu Xiaotian to move. Before their friendship, they tried to impress Xiaotian to cooperate with him again.

Yu Xiaotian saw that Li Yi was really anxious, so he lowered his posture and handed over the cooperation between the two sides to Liu Laoliu and Zhao Mazi to discuss with Li Yi.

Yu Xiaotian proposed a way of cooperation. The two sides cooperated to establish a joint-stock business, nominally with Li Yi. Yu Xiaotian as the major shareholder of the company behind it. Li Yi took his current shop as a share, accounting for 40% of the shares of this trader, while Yu Xiaotian invested in goods and some cash, plus his The right is responsible for maritime transportation, accounting for 60% of the shares. The two sides jointly send accounts to be responsible for the management of accounts. At the end of the year, the profits obtained are divided according to the shares they own.

After calculating for a while, Li Yi finally agreed to the condition proposed by Yu Xiaotian, which was basically similar to his original expectation. Even Yu Xiaotian gave him more shares than he expected. At first, he thought it was good that he could account for 30% to 35, but now Yu Xiaotian gave him 40% of the shares. It has made him very satisfied.

In this way, after the two sides finalized the cooperation, the Li family's business name was changed to Mao Shengyuan, which is still the exclusive business of the Li family, but only a few people know that now this Maoshengyuan is actually a cooperative business between the Sea Wolf and the Li family.

Yu Xiaotian also converted the large number of goods left at hand into silver and threw them into Maoshengyuan in accordance with their agreement. In addition, 3,000 taels of cash were put forward from the sea wolf's treasury and filled into Maoshengyuan's firm. In the next year, 5,000 taels of silver will be invested as his stock one after another. fen。

The capitalist industry and commerce in the Ming Dynasty have already begun to germinate. The improvement of social productivity and the growth of population have led to the increase of idle labor, which also provides a guarantee for businessmen to set up human resources. In addition, maritime trade in the coastal areas has secretly flourished under the control of the imperial court, making Capitalism has sprouted in the sea area very early.

Therefore, businessmen like Li Yi are very shrewd and open-minded in business, and it is easy to understand the benefits of this joint-stock cooperation for him, so the two sides soon reached an agreement.

Through this cooperation with the Li family, Yu Xiaotian opened a door for himself on land. In addition to obtaining business exports, he also gained a real partner and foothold on land. In addition, the most important thing is that he can directly put his eyes in Fuzhou, a southern town. On the surface, you can observe official developments at any time, and it is much easier to obtain information.

This time, Yu Xiaotian sent a ship south to Guangdong to purchase raw iron. Mingli was carried out in the name of Maoshengyuan. With Li Yi, an old sea merchant in the town, he didn't have to worry about what goods to pull and where to sell it when he went on this trip.

(The iron-handed love brother rewarded me again today! Ha ha, thank you very much! The cold wind continues to work with illness and ensures two update every day! This chapter is basically 4,000 words, which was forced to be coded last night! He)