If Li Zhi wants to make money from the maritime trade, he must use the best force to protect his ships. The veterans of the Xuan Feng Regiment www.biquge.info the pen "Fun" Pavilion have rich combat experience, so they are naturally the first choice for Li Zhi to take on the ship.

Li Zhi got on the boat, stood on the roof of the tail tower and shouted, "Turn on the steam engine!" ”

The ship's chief ran down the tail tower and passed Li Zhi's orders to the craftsman who managed the steam engine. When the craftsmen heard the order, they turned over the coal and burned it under the steam engine. The fire was getting stronger and stronger, and the steam engine made a loud noise, and it started little by little.

The paddle wheel gradually turned, and the paddles slapped on the surface of the sea, creating bursts of waves. Driven by the paddle wheel, the ship headed towards the deep sea little by little.

Li Zhi's steam engine steamer was successful.

The sailors on board cheered in unison, and the shouts shook the sky.

The Nova drove faster and faster, heading out to sea. The ship's guide ran out, threw a piece of wood from the bow of the boat, and then ran after the chip, counting the time it took for the piece to reach the stern. After a while, he was a little shocked and speechless, and was stunned for a long time before shouting loudly to the crew: "You can run sixty miles in an hour." ”

When the old shipwright on the ship heard the guide's words, he was even more dumbfounded, this can run sixty miles and an hour without oars or sails, relying on two machines, which is really incredible. You must know that the wooden sailing ships of this era ran very slowly, and even if it was downwind, it would take more than ten days to set off from Tianjin to Hirado in Wakoku at the earliest.

According to the speed of this steam engine ship, wouldn't it be possible to reach the Wa Kingdom in six or seven days, and make a round trip once in half a month? This ship can run without sails, so wouldn't it be able to travel back and forth to the country dozens of times a year?

Not to mention the safety of the ship running fast - when encountering pirates, just run at full speed, and the sailboat will definitely not be able to catch up with this steam-engine steamer.

Everyone looked at Li Zhi in awe and admired the miraculous invention of the Grand Duke.

Li Zhi saw that everyone was looking at him with round eyes, smiled, waved his hand and said, "The gunner is in place!" ”

More than seventy gunners ran into the second deck and began to maneuver. The Nova had one cannon at each bow and stern, and nine cannons on each side, for a total of twenty cannons. One heavy gun with eight gunners, and seventy-two gunners were required to operate nine cannons on one side.

The eighteen-pounder cannon was loaded with shells, gunpowder and primers. The gun commander adjusted the elevation angle and angle of the gun, aiming at a small dilapidated fishing boat three hundred meters away from the Nova. The broken fishing boat was used by Li Zhi to be used as a target.

The new flintlock cannon no longer ignites the rope, and the gun commander grabs a rope ready to fire.

"Fire!"

In a deafening roar, nine heavy guns on the port side opened fire. On the bumpy sea, the cannon rises and falls with the ship, and the hit rate is relatively low. Nine shells flew over, not a single shell hit the fishing boat.

The shipwrights who had come to Chayunk's support had never seen such a large heavy cannon, and they all lay on the side of the ship to watch the cannon salvo, they were startled by the roar of the cannon fire, but at this time, seeing that none of the shots hit the fishing boat, they shook their heads and sighed.

The Nova turned around and opened fire from nine heavy guns on the starboard side. More than seventy gunners switched to operating the guns on the starboard side. The cannons fired one after the other, and this time one of the shells hit the fishing boat, shattering its entire sail.

There was a burst of cheers on the deck of the ship.

The hit rate of naval guns at sea was relatively low. However, this is also because the target of the fishing vessel is too small, and if the target is a merchant ship of several hundred tons, the hit rate will be much higher.

Li Zhi waved his hand and said, "Buy a few more scrapped fishing boats, and the gunners will practice firing!" Practice until you get 1 out of 10 shots! ”

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After the ship went to sea, Li Zhi began to buy all kinds of materials and prepare to sell them to the Japanese country.

At this time, China's foreign trade mainly consisted of two shipping lanes, the South Sea and the East Sea.

Nanyang is to the Philippines, Thailand, and even Indonesia, this route is long, and it earns the silver of Western colonizers:

At this time, the Spaniards occupied the Philippines, which at this time was called Luzon. The Spaniards were rich in silver deposits in Latin America. The Chinese maritime merchants sold silk and porcelain to Manila in Luzon to earn eagle dollar pesos, and the Spaniards loaded ships to sell Chinese goods to Europe, which was very profitable.

There were also dealers with the Dutch, and there were often traders who sold their goods to Batavia, which was the Dutch colony in Indonesia. The Dutch were known as the coachmen of the sea, and the Chinese luxury goods sold by the Chinese maritime merchants were loaded and sold to the whole world.

When returning from the South Seas, the merchant ships brought more pepper, spices, pearls and other specialties on the return trip. When Li Zhi first crossed over, his family did a pepper business, and the source of goods came from Nanyang. Sometimes the traders would bring some ivory and gold from the Western colonizers in Africa. However, compared with China, which was rich in products, there were not many overseas goods that could be sold back to China, and the most important thing that merchant ships brought back was silver.

However, the direction of the Nanyang Passage is due south, and the distance from Guangdong and Fujian is closer, and the distance is only half that of the northern maritime merchants, and the northern merchants cannot compete. Therefore, most of the maritime merchants in Nanyang are merchants from Guangdong and Fujian.

The other shipping route is the shipping route of the Oriental Wakoku Kingdom.

The so-called Wakoku is the later Japan, and most of the time it is called Wakoku, but the Wakoku people call themselves Japan, so gradually some people call it Japan. To the east of China, the Wa Kingdom was rich in silver, gold, and copper, so prices were high. As a result of the high prices of the Ming Dynasty, the cheap goods of the Ming Dynasty were very popular in Japan, and no matter what the goods were, as long as they were sold to Japan, they would be profitable.

However, there was a large samurai class in the Wa Kingdom, and this class was required to wear silk clothes, and the samurai uniforms worn by high-ranking samurai were all silk, and the ladies of samurai families also wore silk. Therefore, Japan's demand for China's raw silk is very high, and most of the merchant ships that go to the East sell raw silk, and the profit margin can be 150% during the Apocalypse.

Of course, with the outflow of silver from Japan and the inflow of silver from China, this huge spread gradually decreased. In the twelfth year of Chongzhen, the profit of a load of raw silk was only thirty or forty taels.

Most of the ships sold back from the Wa Kingdom carried copper, Japanese knives, and goods, and of course more silver. Whether it is the Oriental or South Sea routes, a large amount of silver is imported into China.

For the merchants in the north, compared with the South Sea, the East Ocean is much closer, and the maritime merchants in the north mainly run the East Ocean.

The route that Chayunke runs is the route of the Oriental Wakoku. Therefore, the interpreter he assigned to Li Zhi could only speak Japanese, and the surveyor only knew the Oriental route. Under these conditions, Li Zhi could not go to the South Seas, so he could go to the East.

Li Zhi went overseas for the first time, and he didn't know what was selling well in Japan, so he purchased everything.

Li Zhi bought fifty quintals of fine Dengzhou Baisheng silk for one hundred and seventy taels of silk.

Li Zhi had heard Cha Yunke say that the best Dengzhou Baisheng silk was only one hundred and seventy taels, so he also took this price to find those big silk merchants.

Tianjin is a north-south cargo distribution center, and everything can be bought. Li Zhi bought raw silk and asked Zheng Kaida to buy it, but the merchant who sold the silk was reluctant to sell it to Zheng Kaida at this price, saying that Zheng Kaida was a new face and asked for one hundred and seventy-five taels. As a result, Zheng Kaida reported the name of Li Zhi's crown prince Taibao, and the merchant was so frightened that he immediately lowered the price.

In addition to raw silk, Li Zhi also brought 20,000 pieces of Li Jiajing cloth produced by the textile factory.

The large sales of Li Jiajing cloth in Daming will impact the economic system of small people in Daming, male farming and female weaving, and Li Zhi does not dare to produce too much. But when you sell it to Japan, you don't have to worry about that. (To be continued.) )