In October, the sky in Beijing is high and the clouds are light, the climate is pleasant, in this comfortable environment, Zhu Cijiong feels that the mood is also very good, the shipyard has broken ground, the new artillery factory has also begun to build a workshop, and the sail battleship can be produced after the year, the Ming Empire is about to set sail, dominating the sea is no longer a dream, not to mention how beautiful it is in his heart.

Just when Zhu Cijiong's mood was fluttering, Song Yingxing ran over and poured a scoop of cold water very inappropriately: The iron ore is almost gone.

In the past year, Wang Gongchang does not know how many muskets, artillery and shells have been produced, and the two million catties of iron ore sent by Schvera have long been used up.

As soon as iron ore was mentioned, Zhu Cijiong couldn't help but think of Shi Weila, didn't this guy want to buy flintlock pistols and artillery with him, people? He had a general idea of the current stock of guns, which was almost 10,000 flintlock pistols and 100 518 howitzers, so he sent a summons to Schvera.

Shi Weila didn't run, he has been befriending the powerful everywhere in the capital, Daming's high-end luxury goods are his cash cow, and he can bring his family tens of millions of taels of silver a month, nothing is more important than this, as for the governor of Macau, fuck it, what kind of money can be earned, anyway, there is nothing wrong with his guards watching there, it is still important to do your own business.

It's not that he forgot to buy flintlock pistols and artillery, after all, it takes time for his family to recruit private troops, and he hasn't thought about where to send his family's army to grab money, Brazil is not bad, there is gold and silver everywhere, but he is not very familiar with it, and he doesn't have any trustworthy friends, so rashly send the army over, and he doesn't know if he can rob the money, so he has been hesitating, and this hesitation has passed for more than two months, until His Majesty the Ming Emperor suddenly summoned him.

His Majesty the Emperor of the Ming Empire is now his biggest boss, and when the big boss summoned him, he naturally had wind under his feet, his buttocks were smoking, and he rushed to the Forbidden City as soon as he slipped through the smoke.

Zhu Cijiong is quite polite to this goods, after all, the business of Daming Western trade is now handed over to him as an agent, and the monthly income is tens of millions of taels, and the contact with the great powers in the future will also depend on him to match, so basically Zhu Cijiong treats him as a partner.

After the two exchanged a few words, Zhu Cijiong went directly to the point, and asked with a smile: "Count Schwila, do you still want the muskets and artillery you said last time?" ”

Shi Vera was stunned when she heard this, and then said in surprise: "Yes, the emperor, has it been done?" ”

Zhu Cijiong nodded and said, "Well, it's ready, when are you going to pick up the goods?" ”

Shi Weira has been having a headache about where to send the army during this time, and when he heard this, he couldn't help but blurt out: "The goods can be picked up at any time, but Weichen hasn't thought about where to send the recruited army yet." ”

When Zhu Cijiong heard this, his heart moved, and he asked casually: "Oh, you also recruited an army, what do you want to do with it, to restore the country?" ”

Shi Vera hurriedly shook his head and said: "The time is not yet ripe for the restoration of the country, and besides, the restoration of the country is not my business alone, our Duke has not made up his mind yet, and it is useless for me to be anxious." I mainly want to occupy a few gold or silver mines, anyway, now Spain and our Portuguese overseas territories are very chaotic, as long as you register a company, you can grab it, whoever grabs it is whom. ”

There is such a good thing, Zhu Cijiong almost wanted to say, I will help you grab it, but after thinking about it, forget it, people are now dual citizens of Portugal and Spain, no matter where they go to rob it, it is an internal contradiction in the country, and he rushed into it to grab territory, and now Spain is still a maritime power, and Daming does not have the ability to rob colonies overseas with him.

If you can't participate, then you can only stare dryly, Zhu Cijiong said regretfully: "Oh, then where do you want to go to grab it?" ”

Schvera sighed: "I originally wanted to go to Brazil, I heard that there are gold and silver mines everywhere, but I don't know anything about it, alas. ”

You are not familiar with me, you are not familiar, so what else is there to say, Zhu Cijiong was about to end this topic, but suddenly remembered that he wanted this guy to engage in iron mines, gold and silver mines or something, you can not talk about it for the time being, but you have to fool this goods to grab iron ore!

He thought hard, which country has more iron ore in the surrounding area? Australian iron ore is famous for a lot, but it's too far, you have to find a closer, after thinking about it for a long time, he finally remembered, there are a lot of iron ore in India, and Ah San is the most annoying, or add some blockage to them by the way, just right, kill two birds with one stone.

So Zhu Cijiong flickered: "Aren't you very familiar with the Indian Governor Kong Dede?" I heard that there are a lot of gold mines in India, why don't you go to India, it's close to Daming, it's very convenient for you to replenish ammunition, and by the way, you can also protect our goods, isn't that great? ”

When Schvera heard this, his eyes lit up, and he said quite excitedly: "Count Conde also said that there is a lot of gold there, but he has not enough troops and has not entered their interior, so he has not found the location of the gold mine, if you add my army, you should be able to enter it." ”

Zhu Cijiong continued to flicker: "It's really not good, you can ask Kong Dede to buy some weapons too, there is a return on investment." ”

Svera said excitedly: "Yes, if it really doesn't work, let Count Conde also buy weapons to expand the army, and he will definitely be able to defeat those natives." ”

Zhu Cijiong seemed to remember what the place with the most iron ore in India was called Karnataka, so he then flickered: "Well, I heard that there is a gold mine in a place called Karnatak in India, why don't you go and have a look." ”

When Schvera heard this, he almost jumped up excitedly, and he said excitedly: "Karnataka, it's next to Goa, and the Governor's Palace of Condet is in Goa, oh, it's great to buy cakes, although it is difficult to conquer the whole of India, but if you just defeat Karnataka, it will definitely be no problem for me to cooperate with Count Conde." I will immediately ask the people of the family to go to Goa with the army, Your Majesty, I will ask the people of the family to send the money as soon as possible, and when the money arrives, can you help me send the muskets and artillery to Goa? Nikolai seems to have business over there, just let his fleet bring it over. ”

It was such a coincidence, it was really good, he had never studied world geography, he didn't know where Karnataka was, he didn't know where Goa was, he didn't expect that the two places happened to be next to each other, so close they would definitely be able to capture Karnatak quickly. As for the money, anyway, if you want to buy iron ore with him, you will have to pay it when the time comes, so it is better to pretend to be generous and sell personal favors.

So Zhu Cijiong pretended to be generous and said: "The money is not in a hurry, I can help you send the weapon to Goa now, it just so happens that there are many iron ores in India, and I also need iron ore, so you just pay with iron ore, anyway, the indigenous mining doesn't need money, right." ”

Schvera really couldn't believe his ears, iron ore, it can be paid for with iron ore, that thing may be worth a little money to be shipped to Europe, but it is also worth the cost of travel, it is generally not his own needs, and he will not do such a thankless thing. Transporting spices, tea or something is hundreds of times more profitable than iron ore, who has nothing to dig that thing to sell, so the general iron ore is to mine it for its own use, anyway, there are dug everywhere, let the natives dig it, and even the money for mining is saved, so that thing is not worth anything at all.

Now His Majesty the Great Emperor of the Ming Empire actually asked him to pay with iron ore that was worthless at all, which is equivalent to giving him guns for nothing! Schvila said movingly: "Your Majesty, you are so generous, I have never heard that you can buy things with iron ore, I don't know how much iron ore you need, I will try my best to dig for you." ”

Zhu Cijiong thought about it, he didn't need too much a year ago, after all, the naval artillery factory had not yet been built, and the two months were mainly to equip the legions with muskets and artillery, but after the New Year, the demand would be large, so he pretended not to care and said: "The amount of iron ore is not large recently, you can get me one million catties first, after the New Year, it is estimated that you will also capture the Karnataka, and then send me two million catties every month, just send it for ten years, and it will be settled after ten years." ”

Shi Vela was simply moved, fifty catties of iron ore sold for one tael of silver is expensive, just like that, two million catties are only worth 40,000 taels of silver, a year is 480,000 taels, ten years is only 4.8 million taels, the original price can be doubled, that is to say, the price of 10,000 muskets and 100 guns is 8 million taels, now the price has not only not doubled but also does not need to give cash, the iron ore is equivalent to picking up for nothing, and you don't have to pick it up yourself, just take those natives to pick it up.

Shi Weila was moved, but Zhu Cijiong was proud, those guns in addition to the material cost is also personal labor costs, if calculated according to the price of half of the materials, in fact, those guns are worth more than one million catties of iron ore, now it's good, people want to send more than 20 million catties of iron ore over, and earn a big favor, and also pit the hateful Ah San. It's cool to think about it, originally they only had to be escorted to dig gold mines, tired and tired, but that thing was not heavy, and now it was miserable, most of them had to be escorted to dig iron ore, two million catties a month, hehe, let you get shy, let you always find faults, and you can't kill these hateful Ah San.

Schwila was moved for a while, and finally remembered the matter, they colonists worked hard all over the world to run around, saying that the good thing is to make money, and the bad thing is to grab gold and silver, and now they all know that there are gold mines there to rob him, so he is naturally positive, he is a little reluctant to give up: "Your Majesty, I am afraid that Weichen is going to leave for a while, and I must go over to discuss the matter with Condet on the Indian side, otherwise he may not attack Karnatak immediately." ”

When Zhu Cijiong heard this, he wanted to roll his eyes, just go, hurry up and grab the iron ore for me, why are you still grinding and chirping here? Of course, he certainly couldn't say that on the surface, and he pretended to bless: "Then I am here waiting for your good news, I wish you to capture Karnataka as soon as possible, find their gold mines, and fill your warships and merchant ships." ”

Naturally, Schvera was very grateful, and he didn't know that His Majesty the Emperor was simply fooling him to grab iron ore!

Zhu Cijiong felt a little guilty in his heart, for the sake of iron ore to fool people like this, when the time comes, I don't know if I will be angry and scold my mother if I don't find a gold mine. What he didn't expect was that Karnataka really had gold mines, and there were a lot of them, and Svera was very happy to grab it there, so not only did Svera not scold his mother, but he kept thinking about him in his heart!