Late Ming Dynasty: Oops, I am surrounded by the Donglin Party

"As far as I know, the Dutch not only took away the Spice Islands that originally belonged to you French people.

I have been coveting the Haojing for a long time."

Seeing Shi Luobao's gloomy face, Zhang Shikang knew that he had touched the core of the opponent.

"To be honest, I have been fed up with the Dutch for a long time. They have occupied the Dongfan area of my Ming Dynasty. This is something I absolutely cannot tolerate." Zhang Shikang said with a smile.

"My Ming Dynasty has more than one million soldiers and generals, but we are currently in need of artillery and merchant ships. Governor Schrobao, believe me, the French country is in the East and needs a friend like the Ming Dynasty."

Shi Luobao was finally moved.

"What kind of artillery does Your Excellency the Grand Marshal need? Please tell me the approximate number. How many merchant ships do you need? Large, medium or small?"

"One hundred guns are used for siege, two hundred guns are used for warships, and the guns used for merchant ships should be based on the standards of your merchant ships.

Oh, I remember that you use pounds as the unit of measurement. Siege cannons must reach 24 pounds, and warships must reach 18 pounds.

In addition, we need 20 large merchant ships and 40 medium merchant ships, and the configuration of artillery and other equipment will be as you wish. " Zhang Shikang thought about it and said.

After ending the war with the Southern Army, only Zhang Xianzhong and Li Zicheng were left inside the Ming Dynasty. They only had to wait until people's livelihood was restored this year, and by next year at the latest, they would wipe out their tens of thousands of people in one fell swoop.

In other words, the Ming Dynasty’s biggest enemy at present is the Qing Dynasty. Once peace is restored within the Great Wall, if it wants to go out and recover lost territory, it will naturally need more siege artillery.

This requires that the weight of the artillery be appropriate, otherwise it will be inconvenient for the transfer of troops. Siege artillery is not like city defense artillery and artillery batteries, which weigh three or four tons for the sake of power.

In order to be suitable for combat with the army, in this era of relying on human power and horses, field artillery had to sacrifice some of its power.

The same problem exists with shipborne guns. After all, the hull structure is made of wood, and a gun that is too heavy means greater recoil.

But Zhang Shikang's words still surprised Shi Luobao.

You should know that when European countries fought against each other, basically no more than 40 artillery pieces were deployed during this period, and the 24-pounder was already the most powerful commonly used artillery.

Wow, he opened his mouth and listed a hundred doors.

There are also eighteen-pound shipborne guns, which have not yet become standard equipment in the main naval fleets of European countries, and they require two hundred guns at a time.

"Your Excellency, Grand Marshal, my foundry can certainly manufacture 24-pound and 18-pound cannons. If they are made of pig iron, the price can be 1,200 taels of silver per 24-pound cannon, and 850 taels of silver per 18-pound cannon."

Most of the Ming Dynasty's artillery were made of pig iron, and Shi Luobao was clearly aware of this.

"We need copper cannons!" Zhang Shikang emphasized.

The main reason why the Ming Dynasty used pig iron to cast cannons was that it lacked copper, and copper had a special status in the Ming Dynasty.

When it is a lump of copper, it is only worth one copper coin, but if it is cast into copper coins, it can be used as currency.

Therefore, until now, copper has been extremely scarce in the Ming Dynasty. A cannon weighs thousands of pounds, and the Ming Dynasty simply does not have so much copper to cast cannons.

But in terms of performance, copper cannons are much better than iron cannons.

"Your Excellency the Grand Marshal, you should know the price of copper." Schrobao paused.

I don’t fucking know, Zhang Shikang thought to himself.

“If the 24-pound cannon is made of copper, according to your Ming Dynasty units, it would require at least 1,000 kilograms of copper, and the raw materials would need to be transported from far away.

Not only does it take a long time to produce three hundred bronze cannons, but they are also not cheap.

You are an honored guest. The lowest price I can give you is 1,800 taels per 24-pound copper cannon and 1,350 taels per 18-pound cannon.

As for merchant ships, large merchant ships are equipped with 20 cannons, and the total cost can be given to His Excellency the Grand Marshal as 85,000 taels per ship.

A medium-sized merchant ship is equipped with fourteen guns, and the total construction cost can be given as 52,000 taels per ship.

I didn't raise the price randomly. You should know that the Netherlands sold ten bronze cannons to the imperial court more than ten years ago, each for 1,000 taels, but they were only eight-pound bronze cannons. "

In order to show his sincerity, Shi Luobao told Zhang Shikang his estimated price.

When Shi Luobao was speaking, Zhang Shikang kept staring into his eyes. It was similar to when negotiating prices, and one can always tell something from the eyes.

During the Tianqi period, the Ming Dynasty did purchase more than a dozen copper cannons from the Netherlands, but it also bought them from the French.

Moreover, the prices offered by these two countries are very high, almost ten times the construction cost.

But the twenty-four-pound bronze cannon has lost the top level of the era, which is acceptable.

As for the European merchant ships, what Zhang Shikang valued most was not the number of sails, but the cannons equipped on the merchant ships.

Although European merchant ships did not have an advantage in cargo capacity, they were always traveling back and forth across the oceans. In order to prevent being robbed by pirates along the way, they were equipped with cannons, and there were quite a few of them.

You should know that the total number of artillery of all types on large and small ships was no more than thirty guns, but the large armed merchant ships of the Franco-Dutch countries were equipped with up to twenty guns.

This is a firepower ratio that the Ming Dynasty's current merchant ships are far from achieving.

"Deal." Zhang Shikang thought about it and made the decision immediately.

"But this order, including the merchant ship, must not be known to the Zheng family."

Zhang Shikang thought for a moment and reminded.

“Don’t worry, Grand Marshal, Shi and the Zheng family are sworn enemies.

However, this order will take two years to complete. According to your request, we have twenty 24-pound bronze cannons for siege, which can be given to you first in stock at the Bugalao Cannon Foundry.

In addition, you need to pay a 30% advance payment of 1,269,000 taels for this order."

When it comes to business, Shi Luobao said very seriously.

"Okay, I'll deliver the money to you within three days, and I'll take the twenty cannons away today. Is that ok?"

Ten ships full of gold, silver and treasures are now in the port outside Guangzhou.

However, this windfall was destined not to be delivered to the capital. The total order amount from Zheng Zhilong alone reached 21.8 million taels. Since this small fleet was purchased directly, it would cost more than 16 million taels including the advance payment.

Now the advance payment here at Fruit Tooth is more than one million taels...

Spend money like water!

Not to mention that Brother Chongzhen must have felt heartbroken after hearing this, even he felt heartbroken.

After all, that was the result of his hard work.

But for the next plan, he had to spend the money.

The only thing Zhang Shikang cared about was that the Ming Dynasty was still too short of technical talents and did not even have a decent cannon foundry or shipyard.

Otherwise, why would he spend so much money to buy it from outsiders? He simply didn't believe that Shi Luobao's business would not make money.

Even with the Zheng family and the Dutch as two "common" enemies, Schrobao would never do business at a loss.

But the current situation is this. Zhang Shikang cannot wait until everything is ready before starting to produce artillery and warships himself.

After finalizing the order, both of them relaxed, so Zhang Shikang casually asked:

"I have another small question. I wonder if Governor Shi can get some food from overseas?"

……