Chapter 109: The Flotilla Lands in Lisbon and Sails to the Strait of Gibraltar

Zheng Zhilong was shocked when he heard that King Joao IV still needed a thousand muskets. The heart said, "Good boy! We have two thousand five hundred on board, and you need another thousand, so it seems that you really have money! ”

He hurriedly agreed: "Your Majesty, we have a total of 2,500 muskets on board, and if you still need them, we will inform our family to prepare them for you when we arrive at the Black Sea, and we will bring them to you when we return from the Black Sea." It would be better if there was a robbery over there! ”

"Okay, General Yihong will leave this matter to you!" King João IV really wanted to get his hands on the musket.

Originally, before Mu Yi and the others set off, Zheng Zhilong said that he would bring the muskets replaced by the army, and Mu Yi also said that he didn't know who to rob and want, so he should bring something else.

Zheng Zhilong said, "There is no weapon, and the money comes quickly." Rest assured, when I get to the south of Europe, as long as they are fighting, I will be able to sell my guns. Besides, the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire have advertised enough to us, and there is no one who does not know that our muskets are good. In fact, Zheng Zhilong's original idea was to sell the musket to European merchants, and they had a way to sell it.

There was a truce between the two countries, and Lisbon, who had already been frightened, was also happy. In particular, the Ming Dynasty also promised to compensate for the buildings destroyed by artillery fire, which made the Portuguese feel that they had regained some face. Of course, the people don't know how much silver the Ming Dynasty has compensated, but they just know that the Ming Dynasty has compensated, and they feel that it is enough.

King João IV not only asked for 2,500 muskets on board, but also the bullets they had brought.

When King Ruo Ao IV saw Zheng Zhilong alone, he made a request, which made Zheng Zhilong a little embarrassed, he said: "General Yihong, can you give me all your sulfonamide drugs, and I promise to accept them at the market price?" ”

Zheng Zhilong thought for a while, and felt that if he gave this very lucrative business to King Joao IV, then there would be a private friendship, and it would be easy to talk about anything in Portugal in the future.

Zheng Zhilong said in embarrassment: "Your Majesty, you know that this sulfonamide drug is the most lucrative business, as soon as we go ashore to do business, the first thing that the businessmen want is sulfonamide medicine." Especially this thing doesn't take up space, and you don't have to worry about selling it wherever you bring it, you want to grab it! ”

King João IV said: "General Yihong, we Portuguese children know this kind of thing, and we Portuguese started by trade. The reason why I want to do this business is not only to be optimistic about his huge profits, of course, this profit is too tempting, and it really makes me excited, and there is also the idea that if there is another war in our army, I can control this medicine that is related to the life and death of many officers and soldiers. Please understand General Yihong! ”

King João IV found a more high-sounding reason, and Zheng Zhilong said: "Well, Your Majesty! I grant you this request. But this is to be done in secret. We said to the outside world that we would never wholesale drugs, but we would retail them in our stores. If we don't sell this very lucrative drug, then it's not normal! ”

"Good! That's great! King Joao IV was also very happy to get this very lucrative business, "General Yihong, you are about to dock for business, I think we will finish this musket business before you do other business." It is best to use the night to unload the musket after you have landed. I don't want the Spanish spies to know prematurely that we got the muskets. ”

"It's easy to do, and we're up to you. I also told Your Majesty that our big ships have cranes that can unload goods directly onto the docks, and you can just use the trucks to transport the goods away! ”

"Good!" King João IV, "Also, this business is so big that it is a bit difficult for us to pay so much silver at once, can we pay you a portion of the gold?" ”

"There's no problem, we ship gold and take up a lot less than silver." In fact, Lu Chengxiang repeatedly told Zheng Zhilong to ask for as much gold as possible, and there is now too much silver in China.

"Oops! General Yihong, it's really a pleasure to do things with you! King João IV was naturally very happy to see that everything was going well.

Mu Yi really admired Zheng Zhilong, but he didn't expect to earn a large amount of silver as soon as he arrived in Portugal, "Lao Zheng! I really convinced you, when you said to bring a musket, I was still hesitating, but I didn't object because I was afraid of your Lao Zheng's face, I didn't expect our first silver to be earned like this! ”

"That's right! My Lao Zheng's feeling is like this, as long as it is a useful and good thing, someone will naturally want it. It's just that I didn't expect that this time I would earn money and have a good relationship with the Portuguese. ”

"Yes! In particular, it is a good move for you to hand over the sulfonamide drug business to this King Joao IV! If King Ao IV can get tangible benefits himself, it will be easier to do things in the future! When you hand over muskets to them tomorrow, remember to bring him some nice gifts! Mu Yi said.

This time, the Portuguese bought a total of 2,500 muskets, 250,000 shotguns each, **2.5 million. The final round of the total was six million six hundred and sixty thousand taels of silver. Since the Portuguese brought back a large amount of gold from South America, they were also willing to pay in gold, and the kiln people were willing to ask for gold, and both families were happy.

The big shopkeeper sent by Lu Chengxiang personally went to the dock to inspect the gold fineness. The shopkeeper who can be sent to issue the ticket number is a person recognized by Lu Chengxiang, who can see the gold and silver quality at a glance, and can see the difference without going to the scale.

However, more than 600,000 taels of gold are really not easy to test. The Portuguese are also business veterans, and the people who come out of them are not ambiguous, but they are also convinced when they see the methods and seriousness of the Ming Dynasty people to inspect gold. The so-called layman looks at the excitement, and the insider looks at the doorway.

As soon as the kiln gang people appeared, they won applause.

After the inspected gold boxes were sealed, the 5,000-ton cargo ship from Yaogang docked. Such a large ship surprised the Portuguese, who considered themselves the ancestors of the seafaring, and they thought that a very large ship was nothing compared to a ship as large as this mountain. This incident also hurt the self-esteem of the Portuguese.

Especially when the electric crane on the ship easily hoisted boxes of heavy weapons onto the dock, the Portuguese no longer had any idea of maintaining self-esteem, and were full of respect for the Ming Dynasty. The Portuguese opened the weapons and inspected them for a few times, and then did not inspect them. They saw that the weapons were very well maintained, and each gun was protected with butter. From here, they also saw that the people of the Ming Dynasty were meticulous and conscientious.

The guns on the dock were transported directly by Portuguese soldiers in horse-drawn carriages. Boxes of gold on the docks were hoisted onto the ship, and Zheng Zhilong signed the handover documents with the ministers sent by King Joao IV.

Both sides were happy. The next day, Zheng Zhilong brought a group of young officers and a hundred soldiers to King João IV to serve as instructors.

King João IV was thrilled to see these officers and soldiers, knowing that his army would be trained by these instructors to become an invincible army capable of using muskets. King João IV demanded that officers at all levels respect these instructors and give them the highest treatment.

Next, Mu Yi and Zheng Zhilong knew that it was time for them to perform. The Portuguese gave a few of their cargo ships a few berths next to each other, and a few large ships came ashore and were ready to go about business.

It turned out that Mu Yi thought that he had just fought with others, and the people here would definitely resist them. But Zheng Zhilong didn't think so, he knew that as long as it was profitable, these Xiyi people didn't care about it at all.

As soon as the ship came ashore, the Yaogang people were still preparing, and those ministers took advantage of the fact that they had seen Zheng Zhilong to lead people to see Zheng Zhilong, it turned out that they all wanted to contact Zheng Zhilong first, and wanted to seize the opportunity in business.

Zheng Zhilong knew that if he started like this, it would be difficult to handle the rest of the matter, so he rejected them, on the grounds that he was not responsible for business, and there was a special shopkeeper in charge of business, but he could find an opportunity to introduce them, and when he left, Zheng Zhilong gave them some tea and so on, which made them all very happy.

After these people left, Mu Yi joked: "It is said that you Min (Fujian) people have a good façade, and there is a worm in your stomach, and I saw it today!" ”

"Hey! There is no way, we do big business, if we make an exception and the business is not good in the future, we should give all businessmen in Lisbon an equal chance. "Zheng Zhilong is not a layman in business.

The kiln workers spent money to hire craftsmen to build many booths out of wood on the wharf, and sorted various commodities into categories and placed them on the booths. At night, all the ship's generators are running at full capacity, illuminating the docks as if they were daytime. There are also loudspeakers playing oriental music, making Lisbon more lively than the New Year. This attracts people who do not hesitate to visit and buy.

Those big households want to come to talk about business, naturally there are managers at all levels to receive, but after drinking tea, they are required to go to the dock to see the sample, each commodity is marked with a number, they read the sample, how much they want to buy, there is a unified discount for them.

King Joao IV's family did not steal any other business with the merchants, and sent someone to take the medicine with gold early on. At this time, King Joao IV played with the record player, cassette recorder, and camera that Zheng Zhilong gave him, and ignored anything. These things were simply so charming that the king felt that he could not have enough fun.

The business of the kiln gang people is so good that the merchants of Lisbon have to admire. They set up cameras on the docks to take pictures of people who pass by, and they can pick them up the next day. After attracting a lot of people, he began to sell cameras and printing equipment.

Merchants who were looking for something to do immediately lined up to get into the equipment. The kiln gang people also held a training course on the principle of photography and the use of equipment in the air-conditioned cabin on their big ship, everything was free, and a free lunch was provided at noon. As a result, many people bought photographic equipment. The kiln gang people still have a strange drama, if Lisbon opens so many photo studios, it will not be crowded. It soon became clear that some people had bought enough photographic film and left Lisbon with their equipment to open photo studios elsewhere.

In this way, it is the people of the kiln who admire the shrewdness of Reese himself in doing business.

In the past few days, Zheng Zhilong and the big shopkeeper have come into contact with many big businessmen in Lisbon, and these people are also willing to be friends with the kiln people. After their help, Zheng Zhilong took a fancy to a place that was not very far from the dock, this was a large courtyard of the original Spanish merchant, because the area was too large, no one could afford it, although Zheng Zhilong felt that it was a little expensive, but after talking to Mu Yi, he still made up his mind to buy it. In this way, the kiln gang people have a foothold here. The chief shopkeeper immediately began to organize people to re-plan the layout of this courtyard, and after the design was completed, he hired some craftsmen and brought craftsmen himself, unloaded some reinforced concrete, and rebuilt this courtyard. Because here is not only to make shops, but also to make ticket numbers, and the functions and layouts are different.

They first dug a basement as a generator room, because the diesel generator is too noisy, as long as the ventilation is good underground, the diesel engine can generate electricity, and the noise cannot be transmitted. Because if nothing else, the high-power telegraph can communicate with the kiln, and it will not work without a generator.

After the Yaogang fleet is arranged here, more than 50 people will be left in Lisbon to do business here. The cargo ships unloaded a lot of goods and put them in the warehouse of the newly purchased dock, where they were to continue their trading activities. More than 100 officers and soldiers remained here to train officers and soldiers for the Portuguese.

When the fleet left Lisbon, King João IV brought many ministers and noble businessmen to see them off on the dock, but this time Mu Yi did not show up in Lisbon, and it was Zheng Zhilong who came forward to contact them. Looking at the Lisbon pier in the distance, Mu Yi said: "It's really strange, when we came, we fought inextricably, and when we left, we were like relatives!" ”

"They Xiyi people are like that, if you don't convince them, you can't win their respect. Now our Ming Dynasty is a great power in the eyes of the Portuguese. Zheng Zhilong said proudly.

"Isn't that cheap?"

"It's cheap! However, they don't think it's wrong to be cheap! ”

For what Mu Yi and Zheng Zhilong did in Portugal, everyone in the Yaogang Command Center admired it very much.

When Zhang Zhimu heard that Mu Yi and his fleet had left Lisbon, he said to everyone: "Mu Yi and Zheng Zhilong are really handsome!" ”

Chen Yufeng also said: "Yes, if our generals can be like this, it should be hard and soft and soft, and they can all stand alone!" ”

Ouyang He looked at the map and said, "We can be regarded as having a foot in Europe." But in the next step, it's hard to say whether the Francos will let us cross the Strait of Gibraltar! ”

"Humph! I agree with Mu Yi's statement, let us pass, we will pass it steadily, if we don't let us pass, we will fire the cannon over. However, I don't agree with Zheng Zhilong's statement that occupying the port of Gibraltar would involve our energy too much. Chen Yufeng said.

"Yes, the Francois (Spain) will not allow us to occupy a piece of their territory, and we will not be able to defend it even if we barely occupy it. However, we will have to look at our situation in the Black Sea. Maybe we have gained a foothold in the Black Sea, and we can't always be at the mercy of people in and out of the Atlantic through the Mediterranean, then we will talk about it! ”

Liu Yun said: "The Portuguese have asked for a thousand muskets again, and I have already arranged for someone to send them to Li Wei!" However, at such a long distance, the shipping cost is not low! Let's just talk about our car, if we get there and pull a car of gas by ourselves, more than half of it will have to burn it ourselves. When we are at war, we can count these things. I'm going to have to think about it in the future! ”

Liu Yun thought very comprehensively, which Zhang Zhimu appreciated, "Our oil refinery in Suzhou (Jiuquan) should be put into operation soon, so the freight can be lower." However, this year we will be able to build a railway to Lake Balkhash, and the canal from Lake Balkhash to the Aral Sea will be dug next year. In that case, our fuel will be connected by rail and water, and it will be possible to transport it to the Aral Sea. This year, we can also dig the canal from the Aral Sea to the Caspian Sea, and it would be much better if the canal was dug here. However, we still have to overcome these difficulties during this time. ”

"Next year, we must allow the completion of the road hardening project from Hami to the Caspian Sea, if the asphalt hardening is completed, the transportation conditions will be better, and our large tank trucks will be much more efficient in transporting oil." Ouyang He said.

"Alas, we have enough money to sell arms in the west!" Chen Yufeng said, "I see, the Portuguese buy our muskets, and soon other countries will know about it and will come to buy it!" ”

"Huh!" Ouyang He said with a smile, "Those Western countries have been engaged in maritime trade for one or two hundred years, so they have a lot of gold and silver, so let's use arms to divide it from their hands!" Wu Sangui and they still have so many muskets that they have changed, and it's useless to keep them, so let's make a lot of fun for Westerners! ”

Ouyang He's words reminded Zhang Zhimu that when the country first opened up in the previous life, those so-called foreign businessmen used a lot of things that were eliminated abroad and sold them for a lot of money in our country. Now I'm going to earn that money back early.

Mu Yi and his fleet left Lisbon to enter the Mediterranean, and King João IV, in order to show friendship, sent two crew members who were familiar with the Strait of Gibraltar and the shipping lanes to guide them.

The flotilla left Lisbon and headed south, then east. It has been very smooth, and the two pilot sailors have been first mates on the ship, which is considered a veteran. Their two or five thousand ton Taishan was an eye-opener, and they said that they had never been so comfortable at sea. In order to make the two of them happy, Zheng Zhilong also entertained them with delicious food and drink, and also put out a lot of sea situations from their mouths.

They were about to enter the Strait of Gibraltar, and they didn't see a ship of Furlong (Spanish) people, Zheng Zhilong was a little mentally weak, and asked the two pilot crews, what was going on?

The two of them also said it was very strange, but they didn't know what was going on, and suddenly one of the crew members said, "Yes! When winter comes, there will be a lot of fog in the strait. "If there is a heavy fog, you won't be able to see your hand in the strait." In that case, no one dared to enter the strait, and it is said that it was when the devil came out to move! ”

In fact, Zheng Zhilong is also very superstitious, and people who have been going to sea for a long time cannot but be superstitious. But for the dense fog, Zheng Zhilong is not worried at all, because they have radio detectors, which can completely identify where the coast is and where other ships are.

But sailing in the waters of the Francois (Spain) for such a long time and never seeing their ship, Zheng Zhilong still didn't understand, and he really couldn't let go of it!