The trade between the Ming army of Fujian and the Ming army of Zhejiang, or the trade between Zheng Chenggong and Chen Wen, is nothing more than the exchange of these four words. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

The Fujian Ming army dominated the Fujian Sea, controlled the shipping lanes of the Taiwan Strait, collected tolls in the Taiwan Strait, and conducted maritime trade to obtain large quantities of silver. Zheng Chenggong has money, but he is so poor that there is only money left, and at present, the relocation and prohibition of the sea have not yet been introduced, and soldiers can also be recruited through coastal islands, but food, weapons, armor and raw materials are the hard wounds that limit the development of the Ming army in Fujian, even if they have won most of the Zhangzhou Mansion now, they have only slightly reduced this hard wound.

For the Fujian Ming army, which had tens of thousands of troops and countless ships, trade was life, and the goods they needed mainly came from Japan and the South Seas.

Japan has food, raw materials, weapons and armor, but the production is too low and the price is too high, and the power of the arquebus and the like may not be satisfactory. However, the relatively low degree of development of Nanyang, coupled with the unfriendliness of the European colonists to the Nanyang Chinese, and even the negotiation of Zheng Chenggong could turn a deaf ear, the Fujian Ming army could obtain very few resources from there, and Japan became the best choice in comparison.

Historically, Zheng Chenggong's main trade object was Japan, and the scale of trade was very large, and the Fujian Ming army was mostly equipped with Japanese-made Japanese swords, deer guns, copper cannons, iron cannons, and even Japanese-style armor. In addition to Japan, grain, cloth, raw materials and other goods were also purchased from Annam, Luzon, Siam and other places, and at the same time, the fleet was used to carry out maritime trade in the China Sea.

Of course, in addition, the Japanese shogunate and the people also gave Zheng Chenggong some weapons and funds. Aside from the support for trading partners, it can actually be regarded as a response to the beggars who went to Japan - if the Ming Dynasty really turned the tables, the repeated refusal to send troops would definitely be turned over by some radicals, and Japan's military strength could not withstand the might of the Ming army in World War I, which had been confirmed in the Imjin War.

However, now, with the strong rise of the Zhejiang Ming Army, there is one more object of maritime trade, even if there is no access to the sea for the time being, with the strength of the Zhejiang Ming Army, it is bound to become an indispensable part of the trade chain.

Compared with the Fujian Ming Army, the Zhejiang Ming Army did not have access to the sea, but it has been in the southwest of Zhejiang for nearly two years, and the output of grain, cloth and raw materials is not low, and with the end of this war, the southeast war situation is different from the offensive and defensive situation, once Chen Wen restored Hangjiahu and came to Susongchang Town, the trade volume will also show explosive growth.

In addition, the Zhejiang Ming army won many battles, and the cold weapons, firearms and armor captured from the Qing army, and even the war horses were not comparable to the Fujian Ming army, these were all materials urgently needed by Zheng Chenggong and Zheng Tai, and Chen Wen also had the same idea and traded with Zheng Chenggong.

"Junior brother, I heard that many of your troops are equipped with Japanese swords, brass guns, iron cannons, and deer guns, but is there such a thing?"

As the name suggests, it has always been an important commodity in Japan's foreign trade; Tong Xi is a copper artillery, and later generations have recorded that it is a Franc machine, but from the Hokkien language, Xi refers to a front-loading gun, not a rear-loading gun represented by a Franc machine; In addition, the so-called iron cannon of Japan is not a Chinese artillery, but actually an arquebus; On the other hand, the deer gun is a large Japanese arquebus in the style of a large barrel, and its power is between a large arquebus and a light cannon.

In the Qing Dynasty, it was recorded that "each thief gunboat has a large bronze cannon in red clothes, weighing three or four thousand catties, and there are more than 20 guns on both sides of the bow of the ship, and 1,200 guns are missing", the thief here refers to Zheng Chenggong and Zheng Jing's father and son, and what he is talking about is the firearms on the gunboat of the Zheng family's sailors.

"Exactly."

That's right.

Chen Wen unconsciously sat up straight, revealing a smile that his colleagues called "starting again" when he was doing sales.

"As far as the younger brother knows, the iron cannon of the Wa Kingdom is long and thin, and the power is very small, not enough to break the armor, but is there such a thing?"

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Japanese arquebus could only kill and injure the unarmored soldiers, and the armor-clad soldiers were almost ornamental, and the 200,000 Japanese troops and tens of thousands of birds had no way to take Li Rusong's Liaodong iron cavalry during the Renchen War, and the famous general Wu Weizhong in Zhejiang was shot in the chest and could still shout to supervise the battle, and its power can be seen. And today's Ming and Qing armies are equipped with bulletproof cotton armor, although the most that can be defended is a bird's gun, and the Manchu Qing Dynasty in history has eliminated this "body armor" with the upgrading of arquebuses, but at this moment it is still not what Japan's iron artillery can do.

"Indeed, there is a lack of power."

If the power is great enough, why do the Japanese still toss a weapon like a deer gun, which has the same idea as carrying a gun.

"Don't hide it from my brother, the younger brother of this battle also captured some bird guns from the Eight Banners of the Han Army, and the army also produced this thing......"

The birds of the Eight Banners of the Han Army were all made by the Eight Banners Army, and if the craftsmen dared to cut corners, it was life-threatening in the early Qing Dynasty, so the quality was far more trustworthy than the Yamen of the Ministry of Industry of the Ming Dynasty, and even the ones made in some places may not be as good as their use. And the Zhejiang Ming army has won successive battles, and the weapons produced are impossible to be bad.

Chen Wen's proposal aroused Zheng Tai's considerable interest, and the price proposed by Chen Wen was not as high as that that the Japanese sold to Zheng Chenggong, and if the cost of Shanghai trade was calculated, it was much cheaper.

From beginning to end, Chen Wen did not ask Zheng Tai how much he wanted to buy, and Zheng Tai did not ask Chen Wen how much he had in total, the two of them knew the digestion ability of the Fujian Ming Army and the ability of the Zhejiang Ming Army to capture it, and Chen Wen almost did not make much effort to finalize this large transaction.

Using the bird guns made by the Qing army and the Ming army to grab the business of Japanese iron cannons, this is only the first step, Zhejiang is far closer to Fujian than Japan, plus the Japanese are not home delivery, Chen Wen sells the same price, the goods are better than Japan, Zheng Chenggong's cost is less than going to Japan, why not do it.

After negotiating the bird gun, the second item that Chen Wen started with was artillery.

In addition to the bird gun, this time the younger brother also captured a large number of Han Army Eight Banners, Zhejiang Banner, Zhejiang Fubiao, Fujian Biao, Fujian Left and Right Road Town Mark, and some Hongyi cannons, Franc machine guns and tiger squat cannons used by armies such as Henan Fubiao. Our firearms are all manufactured according to specifications, so it is slightly more convenient to order gunpowder, so the captured cannons, the younger brother can sell some. ”

Among the artillery guns sold by Chen Wen, they were all artillery that could be produced by the Military Industry Department, but the large-caliber Hongyi cannons were not among the ones sold.

In fact, although the weight of the artillery used by the Ming and Qing armies in this era was not small, in fact, the weight and range of the shells were not very large. Due to the problem of air tightness, for example, the weight of the shells of the 300-pound Franc cannon is only more than one pound, which is equivalent to a pound of guns, and the thousand-pound Franc machine is only three or four pounds of shells. The Hongyi cannon is better, with the same weight, the weight of the shell is twice that of the Franc cannon, but in terms of rate of fire, the Franc cannon is far ahead. As for the Tiger Squat Cannon, then there is no need to mention it.

It's just that artillery is not Zheng Chenggong's most important thing compared to the bird, he bought it from European ocean-going ships, Japan also made it, and even his occupation zone can make it. And the captured artillery doesn't know how long it has been used, and it's hard to say how well it has been maintained, so Zheng Tai seems to be a little interested in Chen Wen's proposal.

"Brother Xian, artillery is not as good as birds, there is indeed a need in the army, but it can also be made in our army......" If it is cheap enough, Zheng Tai feels that it is not impossible to consider buying some.

"Brother, the price really can't be lowered anymore. Otherwise, how about adding another hundred taels of silver to each cannon, and selling the younger brother to his brother along with the crews of those artillery? ”

Hearing this, Zheng Tai almost didn't squirt out a sip of tea, I have heard of buying a cannon to return the pearl, who has heard of buying a cannon and sending it to the artillery group, this person is just an accessory to the cannon in Chen Wen's eyes. However, Zheng Tai is not a member of a human rights organization, the artillery crew in Chen Wen's mouth is a group of prisoners, many of them are veterans of the Qing army, and there are many evils, and the power of life and death after being captured is in the hands of the Ming army, and it is normal to sell it, and it is naturally not a big deal to use it as a gift.

"This saves Oki the effort of retraining the artillery crew."

In this era of artillery, each gun crew must be specially trained, because even the same standard of artillery will be slightly different in terms of gunpowder consumption, aiming moment, and shell weight, so it is often the case that which gun is transferred must be specially adjusted. Chen Wen's purchase and gift would enable the Fujian Ming army to develop combat effectiveness immediately after purchasing these artillery, and Zheng Tai naturally did not miss this, but there were others that attracted his attention even more.

"Brother Xian has captured a lot of Han Army Eight Banners this time, I don't know what to do with these captives?"

According to Zheng Tai's meaning, if the eight banners of the Han Army captured this time are all sold to Zheng Chenggong, it is estimated that it will be enough to be shot.

But in these years, many ordinary people have sold themselves into slavery, let alone prisoners, and it is normal to slaughter them all, these people are already some heads in the eyes of their opponents, and it is not a big deal to sell them in exchange for military merit certificates.

Because the Zhejiang Ming army believed in the theory of "those who have constant production and constant industry have perseverance", in Chen Wen's eyes, the families of these Han Army Eight Banners were all in the north or Hangzhou, and they were not trustworthy at all, and it was impossible to establish their loyalty by points, especially the most scarce cavalry, as long as they were put into the army, they would have to run out of men and horses within a few days.

In Zhejiang, at most, they were pulled into the coolie camp to build roads, forts and other facilities, and it was absolutely impossible to be incorporated into the army. But in Zheng Chenggong's place, what is most scarce at the moment is soldiers with combat experience, especially such soldiers with rich combat experience are treasures in the army, so compared to those weapons, this is the most critical goods that Zheng Tai wants to buy here, and his attitude of buying and giving away just now just aroused Zheng Tai's mind.

"Is the elder brother planning to buy weapons, and then let the younger brother give away the soldiers of the Eight Banners of the Han Army? Didn't that little brother lose a lot of money? ”

Chen Wen's joke stunned Zheng Tai for a moment, which immediately triggered a burst of laughter between the two.

"If the virtuous brother really intends to sell it like this, the foolish brother will also be disrespectful."

There are more than 4,000 people captured by the Eight Banners of the Han Army this time, leaving aside the parts that have been promised to be released and the gift artillery group that has just been negotiated, as well as the Eight Banners of the Hangzhou garrison that have been sentenced to death by Chen Wen, there are still more than 2,000 people left. These Qing soldiers were all sharp soldiers in the Eight Banners of the Han Army, but Zheng Tai was most interested in the sword and shield soldiers. Thinking about it carefully, in fact, this is also extremely normal, Chen Wen had no intention of bargaining, and simply ended this transaction of buying and selling human beings with fifty taels of silver for each of the eight banners of the Han army, which was twenty taels more than the thirty taels of silver for the whole team of the eight banners of the Han army that he set when he was in Dalan Mountain.

It's just that a soldier of the Eight Banners of the Han Army sells for fifty taels of silver, and when the Qing army did not enter the customs at the end of the Ming Dynasty, a skilled maid in the south will be sold for more than twenty taels. These Qing troops have not been in the army for less than ten years, and they have fought a lot more battles than Chen Wen's subordinates, but for Chen Wen, the Zhejiang Ming army is heavy on rewards and punishments, cooperation, and cannot cooperate with comrades.

Those who steal the hook are punished, and those who steal the country are princes. Arms and population, Chen Wen and Zheng Tai, the two marquis of the Ming Dynasty, lightly talked about these ironclad transactions in prison, and then talked about other goods.

Chen Wen had already confirmed that he would not sell the grain, which made Zheng Tai feel a little disappointed, but Chen Wen was still willing to sell cloth, leather, and other raw materials and in-demand commodities such as medicinal herbs, which made Zheng Chenggong have one more source of goods in addition to Japan and Nanyang, and it was also a source of goods that was closer and cheaper, and could use the same resources to enhance greater strength.

On Chen Wen's side, although there is no sea entrance yet, Zheng Tai did not ask, nor did he mention the proposal of the Fujian Ming Army to help the war, obviously he has great confidence in the current combat effectiveness of the Zhejiang Ming Army.

In fact, Chen Wen's current occupation area is only a hundred miles away from the sea, as long as Qingtian County is taken, the capital city of Wenzhou is almost impossible to defend, but now is not the time to use troops, and what he wants is not just a Wenzhou.

Relatively speaking, while Chen Wen sold goods to Zheng Chenggong, he also planned to buy some of the things he needed from Fujian, the first of which was warships, and secondly, large-caliber Hongyi cannons, European craftsmen and books were also within the scope.

After negotiating the business and trade exchanges, although most of them are still general intentions, and more detailed negotiations will be carried out after the Zhejiang Ming Army obtains access to the sea in the future, but the intention can be reached, which just shows that there is a basis and possibility of cooperation between the Zhejiang Ming Army and the Fujian Ming Army, which makes Chen Wen and Zheng Tai very happy.

At the banquet, Chen Wen found the generals in Jinhua Mansion and the civil officials headed by Sun Yu to accompany them, and the two talked happily at the banquet.

Political marriage, this is something that Chen Wen has long expected, no more than Li Dingguo courting Zheng Chenggong's daughter for his son, but this time it is the Ishii Zheng family who wants to marry him.

For the Zheng family, it would be a good choice to further obtain the land support of the Ming army in Zhejiang, whether it was to resist the threat from the north, or to work together to recover the land of Fujian, or even to cooperate during the Northern Expedition; For Chen Wen, the sailors of the Fujian Ming army were the weakest link in his army, and he could do more with the help of Zheng Chenggong's strength, and in the long run, if the Zheng family's internal strife still happened as in history, the identity of a son-in-law of the Ishii Zheng family, Zheng Chenggong's brother-in-law or brother-in-law could allow him to obtain more resources.

Although it is still inseparable from the category of political marriage, it is undoubtedly beneficial to both parties. It's just that when the words come to the lips, when they are spoken, they are no longer the results of the pure profit just now.

"Don't hide it from my brother, the younger brother already has a crush, but the war has just stopped, and he hasn't had time to hire him yet." (To be continued.) )