If you want to do a good job, you must first sharpen your tools, and Song Youliang gave Sun Hejing and Shen Buqi of the Ordnance Institute a difficult task: to further improve the firecracker

"How?" Sun Hejing was a little directionless

"Is it carved in the pipe?" Shen Buqi blurted out

"How do you know? Could it be ~~" Song Youliang was very surprised, and almost said, "You are also a crosser?" ”

Shen Buqi said with a smile: "When I was in Macao before, Ao Yi once showed his subordinates a kind of fire gun, which had a straight groove in the pipe, which Ao Yi called rifling. It is said that there is such a rifled firebolt, which has a longer range and is more accurate, so this is what Childe wants to do, right? ”

"Bu Qi is really well-informed~~~, but this so-called rifling is not the best~~" Song Youliang said with a smile

"And what could be better than that?" Shen Buqi's eyes widened

"Have you ever played 'Cheap Bones'?" Song Youliang clasped his hands around his chest

"It's a spinning top, right?" Sun Hejing said with a smile, "My subordinates did play when they were young~"

Song Youliang used the tip of a knife to depict on the mud floor: "Once the top is thick and thin, it is not easy to fall down, even if the top is a little off, it still rotates forward around the center line, and the rotation movement of the tip is very stable." If the ammunition shot out of the gun is also like a spinning top, it will be more powerful, and it will shoot farther and more accurately~"

Sun Hejing said incredulously: "Can this really be the case? ”

"If you can really do this~~ it depends on whether Bu Qi has this skill~" Song Youliang replied with a smile

"My lord, the straight rifling subordinates in the Aoyi's gun tube have only seen the real thing, and they don't know how to build it, and now they want to bend it, I'm afraid the subordinates~~" Shen Buqi looked embarrassed

"Don't worry~ You two can think about it slowly~~ It's really not good, I'll go to Macau and hire a few Aoyi to come over~" Song Youliang told Sun and Shen how to make rifling, and asked them to try slowly

So, at the end of October of the tenth year of Chongzhen, the prototype of the iron-blooded lion that later shocked the world, the Liangzi Battalion, was born. (The bright character is taken from Song Youliang's name)

In November of the tenth year of Chongzhen, Xu Erduo brought a few fishermen to report that a large ship was stranded on the beach in the south of the city of Qianhusuo in Haiyang, and there were many dying Hongmaoyi on board

It was a Spanish galleon, apparently after a fierce naval battle before running aground. On the broken mast, the sail was full of holes, like a sieve. The gunsoft windows on both sides of the hull were shattered, the deck was covered with wood chips and blood, and more than two commanding sergeants successively removed more than a hundred sailor-looking Europeans from the ship. Some of them were already dead, and there were less than fifty people who barely had a faint breath, and a middle-aged man with blond hair holding a dagger in his hand aroused Song Youliang's idea, not for anything else, just because he was not dressed like an ordinary sailor

"Water~~Water~~" The man's voice was extremely weak

"Portuguese?" Song Youliang waved his hand, "Carry back those who are still angry, and bury the dead on the spot~~" Then he said to Xu Erduo: "Erduo, pass on my order, no one is allowed to touch anything on the boat~"

"Order~" Xu Erduo immediately commanded back and forth, carrying people and people, and burying corpses

The blonde man was carried back to Song Youliang's mansion, Haiyang people were the first time they had seen Europeans, and everyone wanted to see something new, but they were all stopped by Zhang Shi

After a few sips of fresh water and sugar water, the blonde man woke up and muttered in a low voice in Portuguese, "Is this heaven?" ”

"No, this is the world~~" Song Youliang stood by the kang and looked at the blonde man with a serious face

The blonde man was stunned, then his eyes widened, and he replied in Portuguese: "You ~~You are ~ Chinese"

Song Youliang smiled and nodded, Xu Erduo on the side was also surprised, thinking that the young master had studied for a year, and now he could even say the words of Hongmaoyi? But now Xu Erduo has long admired Song Youliang, and Song Youliang will not feel strange if he does anything amazing. It's just that it was the first time he had seen a European, and he couldn't help but take a few more glances at the blonde man

"My name is Song Youliang, and I am the commander here~" Song Youliang said with a smile

The blonde man closed his eyes slightly, as if he was accumulating strength, and he paused for a few seconds before saying in Portuguese: "My name is Michelle Brandt, the battle captain of the Navik~"

"You're a soldier?" Song Youliang asked

"I used to be a colonel in the Army Corps~" Michelle picked up a porcelain bowl from the kang head, took a small sip, and found that it was fresh water, so he raised his neck and drank it in a few sips

"How did you end up here?" Song Youliang asked

"We've met the damned Dutch bandits~~" Michelle said hatefully

"Would you like to be my soldier's instructor, then?" Song Youliang asked

"Huh?" Michelle looked at Song Youliang in surprise, "Your Excellency, young man, do you have your own army?" ”

"No, I'm the army commander here, and I need someone like you to train my soldiers to use muskets ~ or even artillery ~"

"You want to hire me?" Michelle smiled: "My monthly salary~" Michelle held out 6 fingers, "6 escudos~" Escudo is a type of Portuguese currency

"I don't know what Escudo is, I'll give you 100 taels of silver from my country every year~~" Song Youliang said, in the second year of Chongzhen, the Ming Dynasty government had Xu Guangqi come forward and hired a Portuguese mercenary, and the Ming Dynasty promised to pay the leader Gonza Sho de Sierra an annual salary of one hundred and fifty taels, plus an additional fifteen taels per month, and the rest of the people were paid one hundred taels a year, and another ten taels of food money per month. The price offered by Song Youliang is basically based on this price. "In addition, I need more mercenaries, craftsmen who can make muskets, cannons, armor, and a lot of muskets~~ Can you do it?" Song Youliang said with a smile. Because he and Michelle had been talking in French, Song Youliang wasn't worried that someone would know what they were talking about

"Xu Erduo~~" Song Youliang finally said something that Xu Erduo could understand, "Go to a hundred taels of silver?" ”

"De Ling~" Xu Erduo quickly took out a pocket, Song Youliang took it and handed it to Michelle, "Here is a hundred taels of silver, you can see for yourself how many escudos are equivalent to~"

Michelle shook the silver in his hand and shouted excitedly: "God, this is the mysterious East~~"

Song Youliang snorted coldly, "I have the money, but I don't have time, so you have to complete these tasks as soon as possible~~"

Michelle took off his hat neatly and saluted: "My beloved commander, Michelle and his men will be at your service~"

"Let's go see your men~~" Song Youliang smiled: "There are still people alive in them~~"

Due to the fresh water and food, a total of more than 20 people on the Navik were rescued, Michel first introduced to Song Youliang: "Your Excellency, this is Heinrich von Seckert and Ludwig Walter of Hesse~" The two European men who are both 1.8 meters tall took off their hats to Song Youliang, "At your service, my Excellency~" The two Europeans spoke German

Song Youliang returned the salute and replied in German: "I hope your bravery will bring me victory~~" Heinrich von Seckt and Ludwig Walter bowed respectfully, "Your Excellency is our savior, we are willing to fight for you~"

Heinrich said: "We were accompanied by thirty German mercenaries aboard the Navik, all of whom had been battle-hardened. As long as you give you a proper reward, they can even fight the devil~"

Ludwig Walter said: "I heard Michel say that you still need a lot of ammunition, and at the moment we have 200 muskets and 300 fighting swords on the Navik, if the price is right, we can give them all to you~"

"How many people are there on board?" Song Youliang asked lightly, "I need soldiers, craftsmen, musketeers and even cannons~"

"There are thirty of my soldiers, employed by the Navik, and the rest are sailors on the Navik, if you want to hire anyone else, you have to ask the captain of the Navik~" Heinrich spread his hands

Song Youliang stood up, shook the armor on his body, and said with a smile: "Okay, take me to meet the captain~~"

"East of Jieshi, to view the sea~~" Song Youliang rode a red horse to the seaside, the horseshoe fell deep into the soft sand, looking at the blue sea and the stranded Spanish galleon on the sea, Song Youliang was full of emotion, imagining that the Zheng He's treasure ship was better than the Spanish galleon, and China was the hegemon of the sea at that time. Now, while the Western European powers are seeking maritime supremacy, the Chinese Empire is in turmoil

From Michelle's mouth, the Navik was actually a private merchant ship and privateer, and from the 16th to the 19th century, in order to compete for maritime supremacy, the European powers used all means, including "encouraging pirates to attack other countries' ships". It was against this backdrop that privateerships were born, although they all declared that they were not at odds with pirates on the surface, but behind the scenes, they were aggressively recruited for their own use. The captain of the Navic was a young Portuguese nobleman - Donat Fernández. He was full of yearning for the mystery and wealth of the East. So with everything they had, the ship was built, and a group of soldiers and sailors were hired from Portugal, Spain, Holland and even Germany. As soon as he woke up, he insisted on returning to his ship and protecting his property.