Chapter 34 Unexpected Discovery

After the sea wolf began to produce steel in small batches, it is undoubtedly a great good news for the entire sea wolf's industrial system. In the past, because of the problem that materials could not be solved, but now it is gradually solved because steel can be obtained.

Although there are still problems such as large consumption, unstable quality and high operational hazards in soil blast furnace steelmaking, nothing can be perfect in the initial stage.

At least through this local steelmaking, a large number of craftsmen have learned how steel is refined, and gradually improve the process in the future. Sooner or later, more perfect steelmaking technology can be developed, and flat furnace steelmaking will naturally not be too far away.

The acquisition of steel has also made the army and navy of the sea wolf much stronger, especially the army. Because of the use of steel barrels, the army's wire-bore guns can be produced in large quantities, so that the firepower output distance of the sea wolf shows a leap of development.

In order to test the combat effectiveness of the army using rifles on a large scale, Yu Xiaotian launched two anti-bandit operations in Fujian. In one of the battles, he only invested two infantry companies. These two infantry companies used wolf tooth rifles, a team of 500 people, facing nearly ten times their enemies, only a few The round shot completely destroyed a group of local bandits in Fujian, killing nearly 1,000 enemies, including the gang leader who were also shot in front of the battle on the spot.

The two infantry companies of the sea wolf suffered less than ten casualties in the battle, and they were basically caused by the violent attack of injured bandits pretending to be dead when they were cleaning the battlefield. When fighting head-on, the sea wolf did not suffer any casualties. Such a result made everyone stunned, but Yu Xiaotian Not surprised at all.

As Yu Xiaotian's foothold in Fujian becomes more and more stable and stronger, but what makes many people feel a little confused is that Yu Xiaotian has never pocketed the sea in the two Guangdong and Guangxi.

During this period, the sea wolf navy generals believed that they were ready to go south to attack the two Guangzhou oceans, and they could easily sweep the seas of the two Guangzhou seas and control the whole southern seas in the hands of the sea wolf.

However, such a proposal was rejected by Yu Xiaotian without exception. The navy of the sea wolf was not allowed to reach out to Guangdong, but secretly supported Chu Cailao and Yan Siqi to move on the sea in Guangdong.

These two groups were secretly supported by Xiaotian. Whether they were ships or firepower, they became quite strong. In the face of opponents of the same level, they naturally took a lot of advantage. Therefore, since they entered the sea around Guangdong, they have achieved quite fruitful results and each controlled a large sea. The sea north of Guangzhou Bay is now almost controlled by both of them.

Although on the surface, it has little to do with Yu Xiaotian, Sea Wolf Group has had quite frequent business contacts with Guangdong over the years. In addition to transporting a large number of goods to Guangdong, it also needs to transport a large number of raw materials and materials from Guangdong.

Before, sea wolves did not control the sea surface of Guangdong. Many sea wolf merchant ships are often attacked by pirates large and small in the coastal area of Guangdong. Although sea wolf merchant ships also have strong combat effectiveness, such ship robberies mostly ended in failure, but there will still be some ship losses.

And the sea wolf has no actually controlled safe haven in Guangdong. Once the ship encounters a storm at sea, it often becomes the prey of hostile forces.

But after Chu Cailao and Yan Siqi went south, this situation was changed. Chu Cailao and Yan Siqi both occupied some territory and controlled many havens and sea routes. When Sea Wolf's merchant ships went to Guangzhou for business, they could basically be escorted by both sides along the way, and they could also encounter a storm. Choose the safe haven controlled by both of them to avoid the storm, so that the sea wolf ships doing business in Guangdong began to become much safer.

In this way, the cost of sea wolves going south to do business has been greatly reduced, making their business in Guangdong bigger and bigger, making a lot of profits, and the financial resources can be said to be rolling in.

In addition, it should be mentioned that after completely controlling the Weitou Bay, Yu Xiaotian also completely controlled the sea trade in Fujian and the sea trade in Fujian, which is equivalent to controlling the trade with Japan.

Although Zheng Yiguan has used Li Dan's network to control trade with Japan, as Zheng Yiguan was driven out of Fujian by Yu Xiaotian, Zheng Yiguan also lost Fujian's supply of goods, and it was impossible to organize enough sources of goods to Japan for trade in winter.

However, Yu Xiaotian, on the contrary, got an excellent opportunity to take advantage of Xu Xinsu and two or three merchants with trade power over Japan to start opening up the channel of trade with Japan and shipping a large number of goods to Japan.

Although Zheng Yiguan is very powerful and has many relations in Japan, the Japanese are also very realistic. They soon learned that Zheng Yiguan lost power in Fujian and found that Zheng Yiguan has been unable to deliver a large number of goods to Japan since the winter of the sixth year of the Apocalypse. On the contrary, it is another force and began to replace it. The goods needed by Japan were shipped to Japan.

So these original Zheng Yiguan's related households soon turned the trend and began to contact the sea wolf, because they are very realistic. Who can ship the goods to Japan and who is the best partner, because they, Japanese merchants or families, also rely on these goods to make money.

In addition, they also have to export some goods. Zheng Yiguan is obviously unable to eat the goods in their hands. Naturally, they have to find another buyer, and this buyer is naturally the only Sea Wolf Group.

So since the end of the sixth year, the sea wolf has gradually opened up the trade with Japan and extended its tentacles to *, becoming the actual controller of trade with Japan.

Of course, Zheng Yiguan will not let go easily, because trade with Japan has always been regarded as a ban by him. Now although he has been expelled from the coast of Fujian, he still does not want to give up this profitable business. Even in the case of betrayal, he continues to lead fleets along the Ryukyu Islands to ambush sea wolves. A fleet to Japan.

In recent years, the two sides have fought on this route every year. At first, Zheng Yiguan could also cause some trouble and losses to the sea wolf, but by the end of Chongzhen's third year, Zheng Yiguan's ambush had become much less. Because of the years of fighting, Zheng Yiguan did not have a single star. Cheap can be said to be harmful to others.

In addition, he gradually found that even if he did this, he could no longer change the sea wolf to replace him to control the trade with Japan. If he continued to do this, there was no benefit except for his men complaining, so he could only stare and accept his fate.

And Yu Xiaotian is not afraid of Zheng Yiguan cutting off the Ryukyu route, because the nautical technology of sea wolves has been greatly improved compared with before. In the past, Daming sea merchants had to rely on the needle road along the Ryukyu Islands as a landmark indicator to find the direction and sail to Hirado and other places in Japan for trade. .

However, after the sea wolf defeated the Spaniards and the Dutch many times, they have gained many prisoners of war. These Western navigators have already mastered more advanced navigation technology and no longer need landmarks as a guide for navigation. They can use their navigation technology to more accurately determine their position at sea. Set the direction and drive directly to the destination.

The sea wolf made many prisoners as instructors in the navy of the sea wolf, and purchased or imitated a batch of Western nautical instruments and equipped them on the ships, so that the sea wolf's merchant fleet can no longer take the route of the Ryukyu Islands and sail directly to Japan from anywhere in Fujian.

The improvement of navigation technology has made trade with Japan more profitable. In the past, merchant ships could only set sail in autumn and go to Japan for trade. In the spring of the following year, they returned to Daming and only went once a year, which has made a lot of profits. However, since the sea wolf improved their navigation positioning technology, many merchant ships now have now. There is no longer need to take the Ryukyu route and follow the needle road to Japan.

They can go straight to Japan directly from anywhere on the coast of mainland China, thus saving two-thirds of the distance and time. In a year, they can run at least three times, or even more. In this way, a large number of Chinese goods can be dumped to Japan, and the sea wolf is even more here. There are a lot of money in all kinds of business.

Even some merchant ships of Sea Wolf have to transport some goods from Zhejiang or Songjiang Prefecture to Japan. In the past, these goods had to be shipped to Fujian and then redistributed and loaded before they could be transported to Japan on the Ryukyu route. During this period, a lot of capacity costs have been added, but now Sea Wolf's cargo ships can be loaded in Zhejiang. After filling up the goods, the direct flight to Japan eliminates the cost of intermediate transshipment, so that the price of the sea wolf's goods can be lower, so that it completely defeats other competitors.

In addition, two years after Chongzhen, the sea wolf has a ship on its way to Japan and passes through Jeju Island. Although Jeju Island is not valued by the * royal family, it is not very rich, let alone a commercial transit base. It is usually very unpopular. It is mainly used as a place for * exiled prisoners. Most of the islands Official slaves have lived on the island for generations and lived an extremely poor life.

However, Jeju Island has a considerable resource, that is, it is a horse farm. There are a large number of grass beaches on the island, and the climate is also very suitable for raising horses. Therefore, Jeju Island is mainly used as a pasture and has to pay a lot of war horses to * officials every year.

However, those * officials and rich businessmen on Jeju Island are actually very good at planning for themselves, secretly replacing the good horses on the island with bad horses, and then secretly selling them to make huge profits.

(I spit it out, now I can't write the novel. Zhonghe connects the two words, which is actually a forbidden word! I'm dizzy! Now you know why sometimes the number appears inexplicably! Because of prohibited words, it can't be uploaded! How to write this book!)