On an open playground on Turtle Island in the southern part of Nanyang Province, thousands of people stood straight and straight, wearing armor all over their bodies, swords pinned to their waists, bows and arrows on their backs, and muskets on their backs.

Hu Xian, who was standing on the platform, nodded with satisfaction, at least it looked imposing, like that.

The armed forces that the major commercial houses have cobbled together in front of us are the legitimate overseas armed forces formed by the Western trading houses.

According to the legal code promulgated by the imperial court, the armed forces of the major trading houses must and can only exist in overseas areas, and they are not allowed to set foot in the Ming Dynasty for the rest of their lives, and they must also be regularly inspected by the imperial court.

At the same time, there are strict restrictions on weapons and equipment, and there are detailed and strict regulations on how large the scale and how many weapons can be equipped.

The armed force of 5,000 people in front of them is already the largest armed force that Hu Xian and they can build.

For this armed force of 5,000 people, they have spent millions of taels of silver so far.

Because there are strict regulations on the imperial court's side, weapons and equipment can only be purchased from the Miyun Iron Factory, and hundreds of thousands of taels of silver are spent just to purchase these weapons and equipment.

Obviously, the price of this weapon is very expensive.

In the words of Miyun Iron Factory, if you can't earn the emperor's money, you have to earn your money.

There is no way, in order to make a fortune overseas, they can only pinch their noses and admit it.

Of course, the quality of the weapons and equipment of the Miyun Iron Works is also undoubted, whether it is conventional swords and armor, or muskets and artillery, the weapons and equipment of the Miyun Iron Factory are absolutely the best.

The price is more expensive, and everyone is willing to buy it, after all, even the weapons and equipment used by the Ming army are purchased from the Miyun Iron Factory.

In addition to weapons and equipment, there were also the recruitment of these 5,000 people, and Hu Xian and Zhang Yuan also spent a huge price.

It's definitely not an easy thing to get someone to work for you.

At the very least, this silver must be put in place, otherwise who is willing to give you their lives, let alone go overseas, God knows if you will die outside.

And once he becomes the private arm of the commercial house, he can no longer set foot in the Ming Dynasty in this life, and can only settle in the overseas provinces and overseas of the Ming Dynasty.

This means that not only do you have to migrate to Daming's overseas provinces, but even your own family has to move out.

This money must have been paid by the bosses of their trading houses, 5,000 people, and each person gave 100 taels of silver to settle in, which cost 500,000 taels of silver.

If it weren't for the fact that the imperial court now vigorously encouraged immigrants to the Nanyang provinces, the whole family would have been able to obtain a large amount of land and rewards by immigrating over, and no one would have been willing to come for a hundred taels of silver for a settlement fee.

The proprietors of the major commercial houses also relied on their influence in their hometowns to coax and deceive, and only then did they recruit 5,000 young people.

With people, with weapons and equipment, and with professional people to train them.

For this reason, they had to spend a lot of money to dig up some training instructors from the Daming Royal Military Academy to train these people.

Now after more than a month of training, at least this team or something, it's still like that, and it looks like this momentum is very good.

"Instructor Chen~"

"I wonder if they're ready to fight now?"

Hu Xian looked at the five thousand people on the playground, thought for a while, and asked Chen Lin, the chief instructor beside him.

"Into the fray?"

"It's still too early, it's only been more than a month of training, that is, it will stand in line, and all other aspects are far from good, such an army, it is just a showcase."

Chen Lin shook his head slightly, to be honest, if it weren't for the super high salary opened by the Western Commercial Bank and the dividends after the fact, he Chen Lin would not be willing to be this instructor.

Now he is an instructor, and he may have to take them to fight overseas next, so Chen Lin is still very careful in this regard.

"My Instructor Chen, we went overseas to deal with some barbarians, many barbarians don't even have knives and guns, and it doesn't take too much training to deal with them."

"You only need to be able to shoot, be able to fire, and be able to aim, and we are not rebelling, why are we trained so well."

When Hu Xian heard this, he couldn't help but say anxiously.

If you continue to train slowly like this, when will you be able to go overseas to fight?

"Your side is going to speed up the training, there are still five hundred war horses to arrive in a few days, your side to speed up the training, next month we will set off to fight Ceylon."

Hu Xian shook his head helplessly, as a capitalist, well, he still values low-input, high-yield, and high-turnover trading.

Millions of taels of silver have been invested in this, and both he and the other shareholders of the Western Commercial Bank hope to be able to form combat effectiveness as soon as possible, so that they can go overseas and get rich faster.

If Chen Lin is allowed to train according to the standards of the Ming military for a year and a half, this person will eat horses, and these shareholders will lose to their grandmother's family.

So from the very beginning, Hu Xian and they set a two-month training time, and two months is enough.

In the past, those peasant rebel armies, how could they have any training, many times they were trained while farming, and it was good to practice every three days.

They served delicious food and drink here, and trained every day, two months was enough.

"Leaving for Ceylon next month?"

When Chen Lin heard this, he couldn't help but widen his eyes slightly.

"That's too fast, isn't it?"

"It's going to take half a year of training."

"If you don't have any combat effectiveness, if you can't win this fight overseas, wouldn't it be even more of a loss."

"Of course I know, but how can I not win."

"Look at the armor they are wearing, this is the armor of the Miyun Iron Factory, and this sword, bow and arrow, musket, artillery, if there are so many sophisticated weapons that will not win, then there is really nothing to say."

Hu Xian thought about it and nodded slightly, to be honest, he actually didn't have much confidence in his heart, after all, this is a major event related to war, and it is too risky to conquer a country with 5,000 people, a bit of a snake swallowing an elephant.

But think about it, Tian Erniu was on the Golden Continent, and he conquered two huge kingdoms with only 10,000 people, and his own casualties were negligible.

He easily conquered two countries, and not only did he gain unimaginable wealth, but he could also acquire a large amount of wealth every year in the future.

Other trading houses are tired of mining gold and silver, and their Tianjin ocean trading house is good, you can just sit and collect gold and silver, and the Aztec kingdom and the Inca Empire will mine gold and silver, smelt it, and stack it neatly, and you can collect it slowly.

Lü Buwei was successful during the Warring States period because he raised his business to the level of the state, and now the same is true of the Tianjin Ocean Trading Company.

Conquer two nations with ease, enslave them, and let them create a steady stream of wealth for themselves.

Now they are going to do the same with the Western United Trading Firm.

As long as you can take the island of Ceylon, if nothing else, the gems on the island of Ceylon can be mined as you like.

The huge interests also drove Hu Xian, Zhang Yuan, and Feng Xiang to take risks.

"I've also heard about the Tianjin Ocean Trade Company."

"The natives of the Golden Continent, they don't even know how to smelt iron, but here in Ceylon it's different, they still use bows and arrows, steel and the like, which is why I'm careful."

Chen Lin nodded slightly, he knew that he was going to command this rabble to conquer Ceylon Island later, so he was also understanding the situation on Ceylon Island in advance.

"It's right to be careful, and I'm relieved."

"When time doesn't allow, we have to set off next month, the currents on this side of the Indian Ocean are very special, the summer is good and the winter is reversed, and in the winter we can reach Ceylon more smoothly with the help of the ocean currents."

"In addition, I have already sent someone to inquire about the situation on Ceylon, and there will be news in the next few days."

"Their strength will not be very strong, I have checked the history books, in the eighth year of Yongle, the Three Treasures Eunuch passed through Ceylon Island when he went to the Western Ocean."

"When I returned to my Daming, the king of the mountain country of Ceylon Island, Arekunal, coveted the goods on the ship, and sent troops to besiege the fleet of the Three Treasure Eunuchs, and the Three Treasures Eunuchs led two thousand followers to take the island and raid and conquer the capital of the mountain king, capture this Alekhnar alive, and bring his family back to my Daming."

"Emperor Yongle took pity on their ignorance, released them, and gave them food and clothing."

"The Three Treasure Eunuchs easily took the mountain country of Ceylon Island with only two thousand people, you have five thousand people in your hands, and such sophisticated weapons and equipment, plus after two months of training, I think it should be no problem."

Hu Xian nodded slightly and said.

He had done imperial history before, and he knew a lot of things.

This armed force has invested a lot, and he and the shareholders of the Western United Trading Company will naturally not invest casually, and Ceylon is also their chosen target.

To put it simply, if a merchant buys and sells, he will not buy and sell at a loss.

It stands to reason that Myanmar is closer to the South Seas, and the first target should be Myanmar, but they did not attack Myanmar.

Because of the strength and strength of Myanmar during this period, it was relatively difficult to conquer with a few thousand people, but Ceylon Island was different, and they had already learned about the situation here in Ceylon Island from the Taiping Marquis Du Mingen, who had returned to China.

Ceylon is just an island, the country is small, the strength is weak, and more importantly, it is relatively backward, it is not difficult to conquer them, and there are enough interests on Ceylon, Ceylon produces all kinds of gems, which are now very valuable in the Ming Dynasty.

After two months of training, they set out to conquer the island of Ceylon, and they also calculated and thought in detail, and they definitely did not come out of nowhere.

A businessman does not buy and sell at a loss.