Wei Boqiu has been annoyed lately. The negative impact of the prolonged war on the front line on the economy has gradually become apparent, and the two workshops on Yangma Island and Jeju Island have been working day and night, but they still cannot effectively support the consumption of the front line, arrows, leather armor, knives and guns, gunpowder, hollow iron bullets have been used like a stream, and then a pile of torn armor, scrapped gun barrels, empty gunpowder barrels and other materials have been pulled back, so that Wei Boqiu, who is in charge of logistics and supply, almost has gray hair.

Seeing that the previous inventory was about to bottom out, and the war in Shandong showed no sign of stopping, Wei Boqiu not only recruited manpower to step up production expansion, but also tried to find a way to dump some goods from Japan and North Korea. However, these two places have been peaceful for a long time, and the scale of production of military materials such as swords, guns, swords, halberds, and protective gear is not one in ten compared with the wartime, but it is very capable of organizing a large amount of materials for a time. In the end, the servant troops on the front line had already begun to use the captured cold weapons and protective gear of the Qing army, and the artillery on the east bank also used the inferior gunpowder of the captured Qing army, which more or less affected the combat effectiveness of the troops.

Shao Shude's letters urging supplies were transferred to Wei Boqiu one after another, and Wei Boqiu was forced to have no choice but to rush from Jeju Island to Yantai by boat, and took with him the daily production number of the largest Jeju Island workshop, ready to talk to Shao Shude, making him realize how much trouble the "uninhibited" combat style of the front-line officers and soldiers had caused to the military production department in the rear. However, when they sailed with the navy ships near the Changshan Islands, they met a group of special guests, and then decisively "invited" them to Yantai Port as guests.

"Martin? Glitz Song? Captain Fries? Wei Boqiu slowly took off the white gloves on his hands, glanced coldly at the Dutch red hair who was being watched firmly by several military policemen, and then said in slow Spanish: "Why did your ship appear in Liaohai this season?" Have you started a new trip? ”

Captain Fries looked up at Wei Boqiu. Silent and did not speak.

Seeing this, Wei Boqiu snorted coldly. said: "With a boatload of weapons and ammunition. And dozens of experienced mercenaries, it looks like you want to join a war! Is it the war going on on the land of the Ming Dynasty? Are you going to get involved in this quagmire too? ”

In fact, there was no need for Captain Fries to say anything, because after his ship "Castelliku" was intercepted and detained by the East Coast Navy near the Nagayama Islands, Wei Boqiu's men had already taken what they wanted to know from the mouths of the sailors and officers on the ship. It turned out that these Dutch were carrying a shipload of weapons and ammunition to trade with the Manchu court, and their destination was Jinzhou!

At that time, the Dutch three-masted armed merchant ship was discovered by the East Coast Navy from a distance, and after realizing that the appearance of Western sailing ships in this sea area was extremely unusual, Wei Boqiu immediately ordered the Dutch ship to be detained. At that time, the East Coast Navy had a total of eight sailing ships, loaded with salted fish, cured meat, grain and forage, and some Shandan replenishment troops brought from the port of Heishui. Since these ships are not professional warships. Each ship was equipped with only 6-8 small and medium-caliber guns, which did not seem to be very powerful. But the ants bit the elephant to death, and the eight ships together had fifty or sixty guns, and the speed of the voyage made it quick to intercept the Dutch armed merchant ship "Castellicus", which was armed with 12 guns, and there was no heavy fighting, during which the Dutch fired a few shots, but there were no casualties.

Immediately after the "Castelliku" was taken over by the East Coasters, the gendarmes who boarded the ship found a large number of flintlock muskets, guns of various calibers, a large number of shells, and gunpowder of standard configuration in the cabin. This discovery made the people on the east coast suddenly cheer up, and the gendarmes immediately interrogated the Dutch sailors and some Scottish and German mercenaries on the ship, and learned that this group of people actually went to Jinzhou to trade with the Qing Kingdom!

It's a bolt from the blue for the East Coasters! To know. One of the great weapons that the people on the east coast relied on to win in the battle against the Qing army was the light and flexible field artillery. Whenever the two sides fought in array, the cannonballs that rained down often smashed the Qing army into a queue. Morale fell to the bottom, and at this time, the East Coast people sent elite combat forces to take the initiative, and they could often win the battle in one battle. This pattern has been carried out many times, and the Qing army is simply unable to resist, and later they basically did not even dare to fight in the field with a comparable number of yellow-clothed thieves, and this is the reason.

But now the situation may have changed a little, because in the past, the Qing army did not have light and flexible field artillery, and could only be beaten and could not fight back, but now it is likely that there is: purchased from the Dutch. Although their artillery may lag behind the "yellow cannon" in terms of mobility, range, caliber, accuracy and longevity, this is still an artillery with battlefield mobility after all, and it can already threaten the military formation of the people on the east coast, which is a huge challenge for the people on the east coast. Especially those servant troops, when fighting in the front line, only the east coast people used artillery to shake the enemy's formation, and then they stepped forward to pick up the cheap; But from now on, they may also face the artillery bombardment of the Qing army, which will have a huge impact on morale.

Thinking of this, Wei Boqiu also felt a headache, and this battle in the future is estimated to be not as good as before. Because according to the information obtained from the interrogation, before Captain Fries and others, there was already a ship that went to the coast of Qing to trade, and they sold "dozens of artillery" and a large number of arquebuses and flintlock pistols to Qing Guo. Muskets were fine, but the maneuverable field artillery was a nuisance, and the Tartar court in Peking was not stupid, and they knew to ask the Dutch to send instructors to explain to them the tactics of the Yellow Thieves' march and battle, and of course they knew to ask the Dutch to send someone to teach them how to cast light guns, which ended because the Dutch East India Company was also in dire need of such talents in the Far East.

It was the first time that Captain Fries had come to Liaohai to conduct secret trade with the Qing Kingdom. He and some of his retinue were released in the autumn of '47 after two and a half years in Beijing's stinking prison. The Qing court escorted them all the way to Zhejiang, then quietly sailed south to Formosa, and finally returned to Batavia in the late spring of 1648. They were accompanied by a promise by the Qing court to open trade with the Dutch East India Company on the condition that the Dutch promise to sell them weapons, send officers to explain the yellow-coated thieves and tactics, and instruct the craftsmen of the "Great Qing" to forge the light field artillery.

I have to say that at this time, the Qing court was still quite discerning, they understood what the Dutch wanted, and they also understood the huge deterrence and dominance of the super-mobile yellow-coated artillery on the battlefield, so the cooperation with the Dutch was a win-win situation. The Dutch were also attracted by the Qing court's commitment to open up trade, and as far as they knew, silk was now in high demand in many provinces in the hands of the Qing court, and porcelain was a small but highly profitable commodity, which was not without a small financial supplement to the East India Company (which competed with Portugal and Britain in the East Indies, Ceylon, India, and other regions), and was therefore the most primitive motive for trading with the Qing court. For this reason, even if it is not at the expense of breaking the verbal agreement with the people of the East Coast. After all, some unwritten conventions with yellow-skinned infidels are a bit of a compared to cute silver coins!

"Whether you're ready to defend yourself or not, you've broken the rules, Captain Fries." Wei Boqiu stood up, pinched the Dutchman's jaw hard, lifted his head, looked at his blue eyes, and said: "Whether your company knows it or not, your personal actions have broken the agreement between our government and your company, therefore, I declare that the three-masted galleon 'Castelliku' and its cargo will be confiscated. You and your subordinates will be punished for working on a construction site, and this is the final verdict and you have no right to appeal. Come on, send them to Zhifu Island to quarry, and set off now. ”

After sending off the East India Company employees, Wei Boqiu sat down again, took out the letter and began to write to Shao Shude. He felt that there was no need to go to Jinan anymore, because it was obvious that there was a heavy change, and it was more important for him to return to Dabo Port, and the Dutch might have some revenge!

The content of the letter was mainly about the trade between the Dutch East India Company and the Manchu court, and of course there were some of his complaints: nothing more than the lack of material production, the consumption of the front was too large, and they were allowed to save some money. After writing the letter, he was handed over to the scouts and rushed to Jinan, after which Wei Boqiu stayed in Yantai for a while, mainly to check the growth of wheat, corn and other crops in the nearby farmland.

This year is the first time that people on the east coast have planted fields on a large scale in the Jiaodong area, planting all kinds of crops, but staple foods such as wheat, corn and sorghum still account for the majority, and soybeans and sweet potatoes are also planted on a small scale. As for potatoes, because the detoxification technology is not up to par, the yield is not as good as before, and it is currently only grown in the colder climate of Sakhalin Island, the Heilongjiang River basin and near the port of Kushiro (the toxicity is low in cold areas).

Wei Boqiu optimistically estimated that it would be basically impossible for the Qing army to enter Shandong in a big way before the autumn harvest -- in fact, even after the autumn harvest, limited to the terrain of the Shandong Peninsula, the Qing army would not dare to penetrate deep into the Dengzhou area -- so this year's grain output will certainly make a leap compared with previous years, and this will strongly support Wei Boqiu's next large-scale development of Sakhalin Island and Ezo.

On July 15, just two days before Wei Boqiu left Yantai, Shao Shude's handwritten reply arrived. In his letter, he instructed Wei Boqiu to negotiate with the Dutch as much as possible. If the Dutch refused to back down, they would trick the Zheng clan into occupying Taiwan, and the navy on the east coast could assist them. (To be continued......)