Wind Rises in North America 1625

Chapter 136 "Nothing special"

"boom!"

Zhao Dayi picked up a flintlock rifle, took a quick aim at a wooden board more than 20 meters ahead, and then pulled the trigger.

"Snapped!"

Driven by the explosive force of gunpowder, a lead bullet flew out at a speed beyond the reach of the naked eye. The huge kinetic energy instantly penetrated the wooden board and fell into the wilderness behind.

"Did you make this musket yourself?" Zhao Dayi walked to the wooden board and tapped the hole with his fingers to make sure it was completely penetrated.

Well, it's a good gun!
"This musket was not made by us in the full sense." Luo Zhenhui took the musket from his hand, took out gunpowder and lead bullets from a shoulder bag, and began to reload it.

"Huh?" Zhao Dayi looked at him in confusion.

What is manufacturing in an incomplete sense?
You created it, and it is what you created.

If it wasn't made by you, then you bought it from outside.

"This musket was originally manufactured by the Portuguese in Haojing." Luo Zhenhui took the cleaning rod from a nearby militiaman and stuffed it into the barrel to compact the gunpowder and lead bullets. "However, after we bought it, we modified and optimized it, making it easier to operate and more powerful. The effective range is up to over a hundred meters."

"Go get a piece of thin iron sheet and place it in front of the wooden target." He turned and ordered a militiaman.

"In other words, you are not able to make your own muskets at the moment?" Zhao Dayi curled his lips.

"Well, at least not right now," Luo Zhenhui said with a smile. "However, as the number of craftsmen increases and the equipment and tools gradually become complete, we believe we'll be able to produce the first batch of muskets by next year at the latest, and their performance will be even superior. We're confident we can also forge even more powerful cannons next year."

"Really?" Zhao Dayi looked at him doubtfully.

"When you boarded the ship at Nan'ao Island, were you able to see the majestic appearance of our 'Breaking Waves'?" Luo Zhenhui saw that the militiaman had placed a piece of thin iron sheet in front of the wooden target, then ran to the side and waved his hand to indicate that he could open fire.

"...I've seen it." Zhao Dayi's face suddenly showed an enviable look, "If that big ship was equipped with more artillery, it would definitely be able to roam the entire Ming Dynasty sea area. However, it seems that you only have this big ship, isn't it too... too..."

"Too weak?" Luo Zhenhui raised his musket and aimed it at the target in front of him covered with a thin piece of iron sheet.

"boom!"

Luo Zhenhui pulled the trigger, and the thin iron sheet in front of the target was hit, bounced up, and then rolled to the ground.

"It's broken through!" A militiaman ran over, picked up the thin iron sheet on the ground, took a look, and then shouted loudly.

"Yes, it can penetrate armor at a depth of thirty meters!" Luo Zhenhui nodded. "If this is used against the chain mail or cotton armor of the Ming army, wouldn't it be even easier to penetrate!"

"Zhao Dayi, we can even build a ship as large as the 'Breaking Waves,' so how can mere muskets and cannons stifle us? Currently, the biggest factors limiting our growth and development are time and population. Remember, four years ago, we only had a few hundred people, one large ship, and a simple wooden fortress."

"Today, our population has grown to nearly 3,000. We have seven or eight forts of various sizes, over ten workshops of various types, and four ocean-going ships, bringing in hundreds of thousands of taels of silver annually. Furthermore, with the Portuguese joining our immigration and transportation efforts, our population will experience a period of rapid growth in the coming years."

"Given time, when our naval power gradually grows to a certain scale, not to mention protecting the safety of the hundreds of people on your Nan'ao Island, even confronting Zheng Zhilong head-on would be a piece of cake."

"This land is vast, fertile, and rich in resources. Furthermore, we face no external threats and no internal pressure from ferocious barbarians. We can conquer whatever we see. This is truly a heaven-chosen place for us to settle down. Therefore, when you return to Nan'ao Island, you can fully inform your islanders of the situation here. Feel free to cooperate with us and ensure a long-lasting prosperity for our descendants."

"Commander Luo, as you said, this is a heaven-sent land, a place to settle down. However, it is indeed too far from the Ming Dynasty. The vast sea and the turbulent waves will take months to travel back and forth. If we want to convince our brothers to take shelter here with their wives, children and relatives, I am afraid it will still be quite difficult."

"To be honest, when we first arrived in your place, we all thought we had reached the end of the world. If we were to settle our family here, we would probably be separated forever, and it would be extremely difficult for us to see each other again."

"You mean, you don't plan to take your family to Qiming Island?" Luo Zhenhui frowned when he heard that.

If these pirates don't move their families to Qiming Island, how can we feel confident in making greater investments in them?
Half a year ago, the pirates entrenched on Nan'ao Island sent a letter to Meng Shengxin, expressing their agreement to cooperation between the two sides.

However, they requested that the traversers provide some firearms and daily necessities first, so that they could improve the defense capabilities and living conditions of the Nan'ao Island stronghold. Ideally, they could also give them some silver to appease the pirates' morale.

When the immigrant fleet was on its way back to Qiming Island, it stopped at Nan'ao Island for a day and provided the pirates with more than 20 muskets and several barrels of gunpowder, as well as some food, cloth and other supplies.

As for silver, there were only three hundred taels.

The two parties also agreed again that Nan'ao Island would help the time travelers "recruit" various craftsmen and artists, as well as young immigrants and young women, and the time travelers would provide corresponding living supplies and silver subsidies according to their needs.

In other words, the two parties did not establish a mutually subordinate relationship, but only reached a preliminary cooperation intention based on "population trade."

After all, no one knows each other well, so how can anyone dare to invest all their chips in the other party?

If you are not careful, you will lose everything.

This pirate named Zhao Dayi is the brother-in-law of Xu Wenhao, the current leader of Nan'ao Island. He was ordered to take a boat to Qiming Island to find out the strength of the time travelers.

If we can rely on them as a backer and take shelter under their wings, then we might as well be humble and consider joining them, thus saving the lives of hundreds of people on Nan'ao Island.

But if the other party is just trying to trick you into giving you something without any real action, and only talks nice words but doesn't deliver on their promises, then there's no need to say anything, just part ways with them and go your separate ways.

At that time, Nan'ao Island will try to find other forces to rely on in order to continue to survive.

Zhao Dayi has been on Qiming Island for more than three months. He has visited Shixing Fort, Guangfeng Fort and more than ten surrounding immigrant settlements and Indian tribes, and has basically gained a certain understanding of the basic base of the time travelers.

From his perspective, the strength of the time travelers is really not that good.

The most fatal flaw is that their population is too small.

Including the arrival of this immigrant group, the population they control is just over 2,000 people, and more than 20% of them are local natives.

With such a small number of people, how can we protect the safety of Nan'ao Island?

Back then, when Yan Dadang led many leaders to settle in Dongfan Island (now Taiwan Island), in just over a year, he recruited more than 3,000 immigrants from Zhangzhou and Quanzhou.

At the same time, using the existing thirteen large ships and taking advantage of the convenience of maritime transportation, they developed trade exchanges with the mainland.

In addition, fishermen were organized to fish at sea and hunters to hunt on the island to develop the mountain and sea economy to meet the material needs of immigrants in production and life.

As a result, Dongfan Island was able to basically achieve self-sufficiency in a short period of time, and it was a prosperous situation.

After Zheng Zhilong took over, he vigorously developed and constructed Dongfan. Over a few years, he recruited tens of thousands of Fujian villagers and achieved his hegemony at sea.

To be honest, if Zheng Zhilong had not been greedy for the wealth of the court and was determined to seek amnesty and take all his troops to the mainland, it would not have been impossible for him to establish his own regime and ascend the throne based on the prosperous situation on Dongfan Island.

There is no place like Qiming Island, which not only has a sparse population but is also located in a remote area. How could it grow so quickly?
Commander Luo even boasted that they had gathered such momentum in just four years, and even wanted to compete with Zheng Zhilong in the future!

Okay, out of courtesy as a guest, I really can't laugh at you.

But err!

Forget it. After I go back, I will inform the chief and brothers on the island about the situation here. The power on Qiming Island seems to be thriving, but I am afraid it is not strong enough to rely on it as a backing.

In the future, the two sides can cooperate to a certain extent on "human trade", but forget about further deepening the relationship or even tying them together.

(End of this chapter)