They were indeed touched by the beautiful scene described by Zhou Zhong to Father John, although Father John and Priest Nader knew that Zhou Zhong did not just want to help them, but most importantly, they wanted to use their strength to recruit some craftsmen, but they did not mind, after all, this matter was good for both of them, and everyone took what they needed.

It is precisely because of this, after Father John and Priest Nader listened to Zhou Chong's words, the two discussed in a low voice for a long time, and finally nodded in agreement: "Master Zhou, your missionary method is indeed much more clever than ours, although some places violate our teachings, but in order to spread the glory of the Lord, everything is worth it, so we are willing to cooperate with you to help the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce find the craftsmen it needs!" ”

When Father John spoke, he deliberately added the word "cooperation", and Zhou Zhong did not care about it, and then continued: "Father John is worthy of being the president of the Dominican Society, and sometimes in order to achieve the goal, it is necessary to make some small changes, but I would like to ask, how sure are you to recruit craftsmen to build ships?" ”

"This is not a problem, in the past few years there have been a lot of grape people arrived in India and other places, many of them know a craft, it is not difficult to find people who understand shipbuilding, and most of these people have the dream of making a fortune in the East, as long as we tell them to work in the legendary Ming Dynasty, they must not be able to ask for it, after all, in the eyes of our Europeans, the Ming is a rich land full of gold!" Father John was very relaxed at this time.

Zhou Zhong also nodded when he heard this, and now Europe is in the early stage of the Renaissance after the darkest period in history. Europeans at this time were influenced by books such as "The Travels of Marco Polo". For the Central Plains, there is an infinite fantasy of beauty. In their view, the Central Plains is an ancient country with a prosperous civilization, where everyone wears expensive silk, uses white porcelain, and the country's military power is extremely strong, which can be said to be a paradise in the minds of many Europeans. It is precisely under the impetus of this beautiful fantasy that Spain and Portugal will spare no effort to open up the route to Daming.

In addition, Zhou Zhong also knows that no matter how beautiful the fantasy is, it cannot become a reality. In the next few hundred years, the footsteps of Europeans spread all over the world, but the Central Plains region was resting on its laurels, and when the Europeans saw the true face of the Central Plains, many Europeans were immediately disillusioned, and reported infinite hostility and contempt for the Central Plains, so later there was an invasion of China by European powers, which led to nearly 100 humiliating history in China.

Thinking of this, Zhou Zhong couldn't help but sigh, but he then stood up with a smile. He said to Father John and Priest Nader, "Well, that's it." Next, I will send someone to discuss with you which craftsmen we need, and the treatment of these craftsmen, as long as you can recruit people back, I will immediately ask people to build the first church of Daming in Shuangyu Port! ”

Hearing Zhou Chong's promise, Father John and Priest Nader also showed excited expressions, but at this time, Priest Nader suddenly spoke: "Master Zhou, in fact, before I became a priest, I used to do a lot of work, and I also know a lot of skills, do you think this is good, I will contribute my skills now, and then let Father John recruit people alone, and you will help us build the church now, so that when Father John recruits people, the church will almost be ready to use!" ”

Hearing Priest Nader's suggestion, Zhou Zhong was also very interested, he found that this priest who didn't like to talk very much was really his lucky star, he gave him chili seeds before, and now he even knows a lot of skills, but I don't know if what Priest Nader understands will be useful to him?

Thinking of this, Zhou Chong asked Priest Nader to explain what he knew, but Zhou Chong found that the other party was also a hard-working person, he had no parents since he was a child, in order to support himself, Priest Nader worked as a barber, blacksmith, shoemaker, farmer, etc., and even he had participated in mercenaries before, and it was during that time that he went to the Americas for a long time, and almost died there at the end of the day.

When Zhou Zhong heard that Priest Nader was a blacksmith and had also been a mercenary, his heart couldn't help but move, and he immediately asked: "Priest Nader, now our Chamber of Commerce needs weapons more than ships, I wonder if you will rely on muskets or artillery?" ”

Priest Nader was also stunned when he heard that Zhou was making muskets and cannons, but he still replied very honestly: "I know how to make muskets, when I used to be blacksmiths, we were conscripted into the army to make weapons, but at that time I was mainly responsible for making muskets, although I knew a little about the manufacture of artillery, but I did not really participate in it, and the casting of artillery was not something that could be completed by one or two people." ”

Hearing that the other party can only make muskets, Zhou Zhong couldn't help but be a little disappointed, the current musket is at most an arquebus, which is not very convenient to use on a ship, and it is not even as reliable as a cold weapon, what he needs most now is a cannon that can threaten the safety of the ship, but unfortunately although Priest Nader understands something, he has no practical experience.

However, Zhou Zhong quickly woke up from his disappointment, and at the same time secretly scolded himself for being too greedy, and it was already very rare for Priest Nader to understand the principle of cannon casting, so it was a big deal to invest more time and money in himself, and let Father John pay more attention to this talent, I believe that one day he will be able to build a cannon.

Thinking of this, Zhou Zhong immediately agreed with Priest Nader's words, asking him to study the process of casting artillery in the next few days, and he would prepare a few assistants for him, and he would fully assist him in casting artillery at that time. Of course, Zhou Zhong agreed to start the construction of the church immediately, which made Father John ecstatic and stayed up all night to draw the drawings of the church. A few days later, when the planning of the church was finally completed, a fleet of ships was leaving the port of Shuangyu with the fleet.

Nanyang Chamber of Commerce residential area south of a new workshop, from time to time can hear the "clanging" sound of iron, do not need to ask to know that this is a piece of iron, Nanyang Chamber of Commerce is indeed to declare that this iron shop is used to create weapons for the Chamber of Commerce, after all, the weapons used at sea are easy to damage, just by buying is really not cost-effective.

However, at the beginning of the construction of this blacksmith shop, it was carefully valued, and in the center of the shop, it was a relatively closed area, except for some related craftsmen, others were strictly forbidden to enter and exit, this is the area that Zhou Chong set aside for Priest Nader to study artillery.

Today, Zhou Zhong was still the same as usual, and after getting up early in the morning, he left his residence directly, and then went straight to the newly built iron shop. With the expansion of the chamber of commerce's power, Zhou Zhong felt that it was necessary to increase the armed power of the chamber of commerce, so that he could better maintain the transcendent status of the chamber of commerce, and in the event of an accident, he could also better deal with it.

I saw Zhou Chong with Wangcai a few followers to the iron shop, the outside of the blacksmiths saw Zhou Chong, are frequent to greet him, many of these blacksmiths are from the military, mainly for the army to build weapons, the craft is very good, but unfortunately their fields have been embezzled by the officers above, in the hometown really can't survive, so they took the risk to flee overseas, as a result of Zhou Chong's reuse, with their current treatment, one person can feed a large family, so they are very grateful to Zhou Chong.

For these blacksmiths, Zhou Zhong also attaches great importance to them, smiling and saying hello, meeting a few people they know, and asking how the other party is doing in the Chamber of Commerce, although this means of buying people's hearts is low-level, but it is very effective, at least Zhou Zhong has been doing this for so long, and this has also earned him the reputation of being approachable and unassuming in the Chamber of Commerce. In addition, Zhou Chong is not worried that he will lose the majesty of the superior by doing so, when he first took over the Chamber of Commerce, he destroyed two medium-sized chambers of commerce in a row, and even personally cut off the heads of several important figures in the Jeolla Chamber of Commerce in front of everyone, which also made many people very awe of him, and some people even secretly called him "the son of the exterminator".

Passing through the perimeter of the iron shop, in the center is a separate area, surrounded by a tall earthen wall, and the only gate to enter and exit is guarded by guards, ordinary people can't enter at all, of course, Zhou Zhong is an exception.

After entering this independent area, Zhou Zhong's eyes were greeted by a tall iron-making furnace, but there was no fire now, and Priest Nader and a few people dressed as iron-making masters were pointing around the iron-making furnace, and I don't know what Lu Dao was discussing.

Unlike the blacksmiths outside, Nader now has several people around him who are ironsmiths, as well as a group of young apprentices, all of whom have been transferred to Nader's priesthood, intending to refine a better kind of steel. This is mainly because the artillery has high requirements for the quality of steel, and the steel that Zhou Zhong found on the market cannot meet the requirements of the Nader priest, fortunately, the Nader priest knows how to make iron, coupled with the iron-making skills of the Ming Dynasty, so he suggested that Zhou Zhong start from scratch and first smelt a steel that meets the requirements.

In fact, it is best to use copper as the material for casting cannons, because copper cannons are lighter than iron cannons, and they are also safer, but the copper price of Daming is too high, not to mention a small rich man like Zhou Zhong, even the army of Daming uses heavy iron cannons. In addition, Zhou Chong's cannon is mainly used on sea ships, and it doesn't matter whether it's bulky or not, so Zhou Chong didn't consider the copper cannon from the beginning.

Zhou Zhong saw that Priest Nader and the ironsmiths around him were discussing very fiercely, and it seemed that Priest Nader was arguing with those ironsmiths alone, which made Zhou Chong also a little curious, and walked over to listen to it, but it turned out to be dumbfounded, but he didn't expect them to be arguing about this. (To be continued......)