In April, the governor of Manila, Spain, finally received a letter of authorization from King Philip IV, authorizing him to sign a contract with the Ming Empire on behalf of the Spanish Empire to jointly deal with the Dutch in the Far East, and at the same time, Philip IV asked Corquian to find a way to order a batch of flintlock pistols from the Ming Empire.

What is going on, how could the king of Spain, who was far away in Europe, know about the flintlock pistols produced by the Ming Dynasty?

It turned out that the Portuguese adventurers bought the revolvers and 24 flintlock rifles produced by the Ming Dynasty and the adventure gains more and more, and they even occupied a large area in the archipelago south of Luzon and east of Java, such as Papua Island, a super island that was originally to be occupied by the Dutch, was divided by them!

After returning to Europe, they not only bought and sold goods, but also showed off their revolvers and flintlock pistols everywhere. The ingenious structure and exaggerated reloading speed naturally became a topic of conversation in the circle of adventurers, and soon the news reached the ears of some nobles.

At that time, the aristocracy of Europe was really rich, you must know that the gold and silver shipped back from Africa and the Americas were shipwowed by boats, this kind of ship has a nice name called the treasure ship, a ship is at least tens of thousands of kilograms of gold and silver, so much gold and silver poured in, so that the gold and silver in Europe have depreciated, and money can't buy things! A weapon of self-defense like a revolver, those nobles naturally tried every means to buy it, and it didn't matter if it was gold or silver.

Anyway, this gun is a guy who eats, and it is unlikely that these adventurers will sell it to others, but they can't help those nobles from smashing it with money. The popular auction in Europe during the colonial period, as long as there are good things, those nobles don't care about money, maybe many cultural relics can be auctioned at every turn for tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of prices are influenced by the aristocratic nouveau riche during that period.

Those aristocrats are basically in this tune, how much did you buy this gun? Two hundred taels of silver, five hundred taels of silver, is it not sold? Five hundred taels are not sold, and one thousand taels are not sold? Don't sell a thousand taels, shoot special, can't you sell a thousand taels of gold?

Aren't these adventurers running around the world just for money, when the money is too much to a certain extent, let alone the guys who eat, you just buy their lives, and they also sell them, so these guns gradually flow into the aristocratic circle.

This gun was popular in aristocratic circles, and King Philip IV of Spain, as a bigwig in aristocratic circles, naturally knew about it, and soon a revolver and a type 24 flintlock pistol were delivered to him. As the head of a country, he naturally does not value a sophisticated appearance, and even the revolver, a new favorite in the aristocratic circle, he does not value it much, without him, because the range is not long enough.

What he values most is the loading method of the flintlock pistol, breech loading, and the bullets and gunpowder can be pre-loaded into a sub-gun, and when it is replaced, it is enough to pull and push, and if someone else puts one shot, you can put five shots.

He was so pleased with the mechanism that he brought in the craftsmen who made the muskets and wanted them to copy them. This period of time is the flintlock pistol to replace the arquebus, Spain as an old colonial power, this is naturally in the forefront, now the Spanish army has begun to replace the flintlock pistol, flintlock technology has become more and more mature, he thought that there is a real thing here, naturally can be imitated. As a result, a bunch of craftsmen shook their heads after taking it apart and looking at it carefully, they couldn't make this thing at all!

With their professional eyes, they can naturally see that this gun is not only casting, forging, and drilling, but also has been cut in many places, and at that time there were only simple machine tools in Europe, and it would take more than ten or twenty years for a machine tool like this to cut metal on the European continent, and they couldn't understand how this iron could be cut arbitrarily like wood, so they couldn't do anything.

If you can't do it, then buy it, Spain can also produce its own guns, and the manufacturing cost of this musket is naturally very clear, he thought that he would only be twenty or thirty taels of silver to die, but when he inquired, this gun was bought from a Portuguese adventurer for one thousand taels of gold. Well, these bunch of losers, this is certainly not the real price, and there is no way that the Portuguese adventurers can make this kind of gun, continue to inquire.

In the end, I finally inquired that this gun was produced in a mysterious country called the Ming Empire in the far east, two hundred taels of silver.

Spain is rich, since 1503 just from the Americas looted gold is tens of thousands of kilograms, silver is millions of kilograms, however, Spain spent more money, 1588 to 1601 in just a dozen years, in order to retaliate against the British, just hundreds of battleships of the Armada Spain built five waves! It can be said that Spain has developed a problem of spending money like water since the Age of Discovery, and the funds have not been very rich, and in these two years of the war, the Holy Alliance and the Spanish alliance have the advantage, and have just defeated the Swedish army, the main force of the Protestant League, so Philip IV did not want to spend a huge price to buy this kind of gun, and this matter passed.

However, as soon as the New Year passed, the situation was not right, the Protestant alliance of France was rearming for war, the French army was stronger than the Spanish army, and France, as the inventor of the flintlock pistol, the army was already equipped with a flintlock pistol, and the combat effectiveness was not ordinarily strong, so Philip IV was in a hurry.

At this time, the governor of Manila, Corquean, came back with news that the Ming Empire had defeated the Dutch navy and intended to unite with Spain against the Dutch in the Far East. Such a powerful country naturally wanted to win over, and he also wanted to buy a flintlock pistol from the Ming Empire, so he sent the power of attorney and the idea of ordering a flintlock pistol to Kokuian.

Originally, Ke Kuian was going to send someone to inform Zheng Zhilong after getting the power of attorney, and the two sides signed a contract in Dongfan, and he happened to bring back more than 1,000 soldiers captured by the Ming Dynasty, but now their king also asked him to order a flintlock pistol, so he couldn't just send someone to inform Zheng Zhilong, he simply personally led a super battleship and ten armed merchant ships to Jinling City, Zhili in the south of Daming, and was going to ask Zheng Zhilong how to buy this gun first.

As a result, as soon as he entered the southeast sea, he was stopped by the patrol fleet of the Nanyang Naval Division, and the southeast defense line of the Ming Dynasty was no joke, and not a single merchant ship could not pass without permission, let alone a fleet composed of a battleship and ten armed merchant ships. Fortunately, he not only knew Zheng Zhilong but also Zheng Zhihu, and after the patrol fleet sent someone to report, he directly led him to the Nandaying Naval Division Base.

Since entering the Taijiang Inland Sea, Coquean's mouth has not been closed, the Dutch built the Geranza Castle has surprised him, and the dense warships in the Taijiang Inland Sea are even more shocking to him in a cold sweat, after the Beiyang Naval Division is equipped with fifty super battleships of the Dutch, the more than 1,000 small warships have been transferred to the defenders of the southeast defense line as training ships, plus the large and small warships that captured pirates, and the fleet of the Nanyang Naval Division, now there are nearly 3,000 large and small warships in the Taijiang Inland Sea. The amount of Corquian was not so frightened that he peed his pants, and he was already calm enough.

When he arrived at the port of Nandaying, his face turned white with fright, the forts along the coast, the huge maintenance dock, the Chiji Castle that is more majestic than the castle of Geranza, and the huge Nandaying New Town, challenged the limit of his cognition again and again, he had always thought that his Manila City was already one of the few cities in the southeast sea, but compared to the base of the Nandaying Naval Division, it was simply a scum!

When Zheng Zhihu heard that he was coming, he met him very warmly, and when he heard that he was looking for Zheng Zhilong, the king of Zhennan, he specially sent the fastest sailing oarboat to send him to Jinling.

As a result, he almost ran away in vain, Zheng Zhilong can call the shots about the contract, but Zheng Zhilong can't do the things about ordering flintlock pistols. Zheng Zhilong could only take him back to the Nandaying Naval Division Base, and then led ten super battleships and led him to the capital together.

As a result, the ten battleships were stopped by two huge battleships as soon as they approached the waters of Dongdaying, Zheng Zhilong had only heard of one of this kind of battleships, which was the emperor's chariot Sun and Yue, and he had never heard of another temporary new warship, when would there be one more?

Just when they were inexplicable, the giant ship in front of them raised a flag and said: "Surrender, or the cannon will be fired." ”

What are you kidding, Zheng Zhilong thought that the emperor was playing with him, so he quickly asked the herald to order all ten warships to hang white flags, otherwise the emperor would really order the cannon to be fired.

He's just inexplicable, his fellow Corquian has been scared stupid, he has never seen such a huge battleship, but the other party is so good that he understands the language, surrender, otherwise the cannon will be fired! What kind of situation is this, even the prince dares to fight, is this the internal strife of the Ming Empire?

But isn't the commander on the other side a little confused, he actually stopped a huge ship and didn't move, but the other one came up, is this going to fight a broadside battle? Ke Kuian looked at Zheng Zhilong, fortunately, this Zhennan King didn't look very scared, but he was a little nervous. He doesn't have to be afraid, there are two or three thousand guards on these ten battleships alone, and the giant ship on the opposite side can accommodate more than a thousand people at most.

But the strange thing was that Zheng Zhilong stood motionless at the bow of the ship, just looking at the giant ship on the opposite side approaching, Ke Kuian was frightened and ignored the etiquette, and shouted loudly: "His Royal Highness the King of Zhennan, why don't you let all the warships surround you?" ”

When Zheng Zhilong heard this, he rolled his eyes, the other side might be the emperor, did he dare to surround him?

At this moment, a child's laughter came from the bow of the opposite ship: "Hahahaha, second uncle, how is my success, is it majestic?" ”

Zheng Zhilong was so angry that he shouted: "Little rabbit cub, what are you doing, is the emperor on the Sun and Moon?" ”

Zheng Chenggong on the giant ship on the opposite side was scared and almost planted in the sea, today the emperor built for him the flagship Chenggong just launched, he deliberately ran from the capital to test the ship, the rise of play, even the emperor's Sun and Moon let people drive out together, this is the emperor's royal brother, the people left behind on the Sun and Moon can only follow him out and wander around. Zheng Chenggong thought that his second uncle was coming and wanted to joke with him, but he didn't expect that it was his father who came, so he quickly ordered the battleship to turn around and escape.

Seeing his reaction, Zheng Zhilong shook his head with a smile, this kid must have come to Dongdaying alone to play and command the sailors, if the emperor is here, what will he run.

Ke Kuian heard the laughter of the child opposite and understood, which prince must be messing around, and sure enough, Zheng Zhilong, the king of Zhennan, just scolded him, and the prince ran away. However, the Ming Empire is too powerful, any prince can have two super warships of this size!

He felt a sense of weakness, and today he was indeed frightened by the strength of the Ming Empire.