[Today's more 7k big chapters hehe.]

After Kwong Rongguang and the workers went down to the mine, he soon found smooth vein-like silver ore areas in the copper mining area being excavated in the lower layer, these bright white silver ores are similar to the color of a large number of waste ore in the copper mining area, but this is also completely in line with the geological principle, under normal circumstances, the copper ore area is associated with silver ore, and there should be gold ore associated with it.

However, this small copper mine is on the periphery of the Noke Mountains, and the local aborigines basically live in the coastal plains, so the copper deposits originally found in the local area are very small, relatively speaking, the output of silver ore and gold ore veins associated with the copper mining area is even smaller, but Kuang Rongguang collected a part of the ore and observed the ore layer in the lower cave.

He immediately concluded that the ore area here is in the shape of an impact rock layer, which exactly matches the information that Lord Qin explained to him when he was leaving, the so-called impact rock layer is the impact action inside the mountain produced by the orogeny movement in the geological era, forming a large area of impact ore layer, according to this theory, the ore veins found on the periphery of the mountain indicate that there may be a larger mining area inside.

After quietly completing his investigation of the small mining area, he returned to Olongapo and convened a meeting at the Mawei Shipping Company, where Qin Kai had given him command of the prospecting operations, a force of 50 marines to keep them safe, and the Freemasons to arrange for local Chinese guides and laborers.

Soon the prospecting team set off again, this time to the inhabited interior of the Noke Mountains, one of the five locations that Lord Qin Kai pointed out that must be carefully investigated, in Qin Kai's time, there was the Noke Copper Mining Company in the Philippines, the third largest copper mine in the country.

The Philippines is a large country with resources, the special structure of the island makes them have a large number of impact rock formations, and the copper ore reserves have reached an astonishing 4.8 billion tons, and according to the conventional estimation of mineralogy, the copper mining area is generally associated with 1% to 2% of the gold mining area, if in terms of mineral value, copper ore is undoubtedly one of the most valuable minerals, which is why Qin Kai can't wait to send a prospecting team.

Of course, he didn't plan to open mines under the noses of the Spaniards, but it was important to explore the mines he knew about early and identify valuable locations.

In the palace of the Governor of Olongapo, Governor Pedro was convening the officials, and Vice Admiral Robben of the First Fleet of the Spanish Far East was present, and it was clear that this was a very important meeting.

A native of Luzon was accepting the question, and this time was answering the question of an official next to him before, "Master, those Chinese went to the small copper mine of Nading a few days ago to investigate, and I carefully observed their expressions when I accompanied them, and they also seemed to think that the technology of the copper mine was very backward, but I inquired on the side, but they refused to explain!" ”

"Oh...... Orb, do you think they have mastered any more advanced copper smelting processes? It was a gloomy-faced official who was questioned.

"Lord Ma Long, they didn't say anything, they just went down a few caves, collected some stones, and said that they would take them back to do geological research!" The native named Orb replied with a sincere fear.

Pedro touched his baldness, this time the Chinese fleet came to Subic Bay again, and it was not the last fleet, what is the Guangzhou fleet, but this fleet is also very powerful, the commander came to visit Vice Admiral Robben, and the treasurer Liu of Mawei Shipping personally sent a generous gift, saying that Lord Qin, the minister of the Nanyang of the Great Qing Dynasty, was very satisfied with the cooperation between the two sides and hoped to continue the cooperation between the two sides.

The other party's request was really insignificant, and he was asked to issue a license agreement to allow an expedition from the Great Qing Kingdom to investigate geology in the Lüsong Mountains.

For more than a year, Pedro had made a lot of money from the company that had taken a joint stake in the horsetail goods, and he had earned more gold in a year than he had received in previous years in all the bribes and bribes he had received, and he should have been in the governorship for five or six years, and at that rate, by the time he retired and returned to Europe, the whole family would have lived in abundance.

So for the other party's small request, he did not hesitate at all, and immediately agreed, but this does not mean that he does not want to understand the true intentions of these Chinese, in private, he also sent someone to secretly investigate, but there is no progress, the other party hires all local Chinese, which is already beyond blame, after all, it is more convenient to communicate if you hire Chinese expatriates. ,

However, soon, he learned through some channels that these Chinese organized a team to go into the mountains to investigate, and brought back a large number of ore specimens, these news made his nerves nervous for a while, not worried about what damage the Chinese would do, but worried about what valuable minerals the Chinese would find in the Philippines, but he didn't know anything, and missed the opportunity to make a fortune at that time.

So, today he gathered all his officials to prepare for a law on minerals in the Philippines, but this law was questioned by several officials, and the minerals of the Philippines have not been found much in the more than 200 years of Portuguese and Spanish rule.

There are indeed a lot of small copper mines here, but the local aborigines are full of stupidity, and the Spaniards have also introduced the process of pyrometallurgy from Europe, but the hired indigenous workers are completely unable to complete the relevant industrial production, and the local coal mine output is very low, and it is very difficult to make back the cost of the production of small copper mines.

Therefore, those small copper mines operated in the local area would rather use the primitive wet copper smelting, anyway, the labor here is cheap, although it is a little stupid, it is still possible to do these rough work, but it can also make a lot of money, if these small copper mines are legally restricted, it will undoubtedly directly lead to the rise of the processing cost of these copper mines, and in fact, the ownership of these copper mines is more than 9 into 5 into the hands of these colonial officials.

Pedro also had a stake in a small copper mine, but the income there was very small, and after cooperating with Mawei Shipping, he had long been out of sight of the other small money, and finally he and Lieutenant General Robben made a decision, and the Doge's Office issued a new law that all non-Spanish mining industries would have to be taxed high in the future.

In this way, in his opinion, no matter how the Chinese toss, it will not escape his control. Other officials don't have much opinion on this new law, they only care about the vested interests in their own pockets, as long as they don't violate this bottom line, they naturally have no opinions.

Naturally, this news was quickly sent by telegram to Guangzhou, and Qin Kai's reaction to the Spaniards was already expected. The enterprising spirit of Magellan's time, and the funny thing is that even the largest Spanish colony was snatched from Portugal by the Portuguese Magellan for them.

Now, the Spaniards still maintain the appearance of this old empire, but the ability to hold this rich land is also very weak in Qin Kai's view, with a colonial army of only 100,000, it is completely impossible to control the Philippines, which is more than 7,000 islands of all sizes, and the weakness of this is undoubtedly the navy.

In fact, Spain was now able to fully control the territory of the northern Philippines, and the large southern islands were only nominal colonies.

And this self-righteous law of the Spaniards is just a completely useless text in Qin Kai's opinion, he never intended to mine these minerals under the rule of the Spaniards, and he admired the sensitivity of the Spaniards' dog noses, and he went to engage in geological exploration, so they pondered and wanted to share the silver with us...... There are no doors

A telegram was immediately sent to Olongapo, instructing the prospecting team to keep a low profile, keeping an eye on the movements of the Spaniards and the local natives, and instructing the local Freemasons to continue to strengthen the local organization and gather information from all over Luzon.

When Kuang Rongguang was a savage in Noke Mountain, Xu Shoushan's fleet had already moved away from Luzon Island and sailed into the pirate-filled Sulu Sea, but they did not have any discomfort in this unfamiliar sea, and they were all in the hands of Lord Qin, and now this fleet consisting of two ironclad ships and four cruisers was almost a country's strength in this era.

Four of the eight Mawei ships that followed them were training ships piloted by naval trainees and instructors, and even with a training 150mm rapid-fire gun on one of these ships, these officers were sure to defeat the well-armed Sulu pirates.

The sea was calm, this huge fleet was advancing unhurriedly at a cruising speed of 8 knots, Xu Shoushan lay on the chart and carefully drew the chart, and other officers in the command room were also crowded around, looking at the route of the chart extending thousands of miles from the horse's tail, everyone's eyes were full of pride and confidence.

"Report!" A soldier rushed into the command room, "My lord, a fleet of ships has appeared on the right side of the front, and the course is approaching us!" ”,

"Oh......" Xu Shoushan didn't raise his head, still carefully calculating something on the chart, and the other officers heard the news, hurriedly took their places, and began to issue combat readiness orders, which are all processes that must be strictly enforced according to the Navy's combat regulations, and the war between the warships is completely a struggle between aircraft.

But in addition to the slightest luck, the most important thing is to control the combat personnel of this steel machine, a battleship has to go from a normal cruise to mobilize all its combat forces into pre-war preparations, it also takes a period of preparation, of course, these little things, there is no need for Xu Shoushan to schedule.

After another moment, the officer at the lookout post walked in, leaned into Xu Shoushan's ear and whispered a few words, before he nodded and gave the exact combat order, "The port target is approaching at full speed and maintains a first-level combat readiness!" Shells are ready to go! ”

The herald officer immediately hung up the flag of the order, and after receiving the order, the three heavy guns in front and behind the 701 ship quickly turned slowly, adjusted the angle of fire, and pointed at several ships that were gradually approaching in the distance.

The distance between the two sides was rapidly narrowing, and the shooting commander had already reported with Liu Ye's probe, "My lord, the target distance is 5 kilometers, and the other party's signal flag has been observed in the high-powered telescope, the layout is red, black, red and black, and the red flag is hung at the top!" ”

Xu Shoushan nodded, the opposite should be the pirate Liu Hong who was in charge of receiving the return of the Sulu Sea, he had just arrived in the sea area mentioned in the plan, this Liu Hong came to the door, it seems that there are still some doorways, and he laughed secretly in his heart, there are people who are familiar with this sea area, that is good

He stood on the bridge of the ship, holding a telescope to observe the ships on the opposite side, a total of three sea ships came, and they all looked like cargo ships, if he hadn't known in advance, he wouldn't have thought that these were three pirate ships, of course...... It is now a pirate ship attached to the Nanyang Naval Division

Soon when the three large ships on the opposite side approached to a distance of three kilometers, the two ships behind no longer moved forward, but took the initiative to turn and drive in the same direction on the outside of the Guangzhou fleet, while the first large ship slowly turned and slowly followed the flagship No. 701 in the same direction, and at a distance of 500 meters, a small boat was lowered on the opposite side.

In the process, the guns on several battleships followed the targets on the opposite side the whole time, and if there was the slightest mistake, they could definitely sink all these ships with one round of fire.

Liu Hong has been disgraced recently, some time ago after receiving the weapon support of the Nanyang Naval Division, his fleet has improved a lot in combat power for a while, and there are definitely no more than 10 pirates with 500 fast guns in the entire Sulu Sea, you must know that the Sulu Sea is a pirate base camp, and it is a family-style pirate group entrenched in various islands, and there can be hundreds of large and small pirates.

In order to improve their combat effectiveness, Qin Kai even asked Maweihai to transport two 100mm breech guns, which were Krupp breech cannons that had long been used by the Nanyang Naval Division, but among pirates, they were definitely very sharp weapons, so he quickly began to bury his head in annexing the small group of pirates nearby in accordance with Qin Kai's established orders.

Unexpectedly, for some reason, several groups of local indigenous pirates entrenched in the south of Sulu Sea actually attacked their fleet when Liu Hong went to sea to fight, although Liu Hong's two big ships each had a 100mm Krupp gun, but this time, it was obvious that there was an unexpected situation, and the bandits on the opposite side also had artillery, and the ships were more than twice as many as Liu Hong.

At this moment, Liu Hongke couldn't stand it, relying on the artillery escort, the other party did not dare to push too hard, and the whole army turned in, but in the end he still lost a ship, and after escaping back to Pulin Island, he insisted on waiting for help. Although there were many people on the other side and artillery, they did not have any advantage in grabbing quickly, and retreated after a few days of siege.

From the captured captives, it was learned that the three pirates besieging him were actually the three great pirates of the Sulu Sea, but the reason for besieging him made Liu Hong somewhat depressed, because recently the pirates from the Sulu pirates of the Chinese nationality were basically absorbed by Liu Hong, and some people behind the scenes suspected that Liu Hong might have something to do with the South China Ocean Company in Borneo, so these pirates were entrusted to destroy him.

And the mastermind behind the scenes, the purpose of the other party, these little minions are unknown, Liu Hong suspected that the other party might want to be the enemy of China South Ocean Company, so he sneaked to Subic and asked Mawei Shipping to call Qin Kai.

It is estimated that the fleet supporting him should have arrived, these days, he has come here with the fleet every day to guard, and the reinforcements he finally saw today, and it is such a large fleet, he was shocked, and he admired the wise decision he made up his mind to take refuge in the first place. ,

After boarding, he respectfully came to see Xu Shoushan under the leadership of the officer, this ironclad ship was his first time up, he couldn't help but look around, curious, this is a battleship made of steel, even if the cannon hits it, there must be no problem, and the three thick scary cannon barrels that he saw when boarding the ship, he has been completely convinced.

Xu Shoushan is very polite, for these overseas reformed Chinese, Qin Kai has already explained, he is not to blame in the past, as long as he starts to do it now, then give him a chance, seeing that this Liu Hong is a scholar, he is also a little surprised, and he also knows the difficulty of the survival of this overseas Chinese.

After a few polite words, Xu Shoushan took out a document, handed it to Liu Hong, and said with a smile: "Liu Hong, this is an official document for you, Lord Qin, the minister of Nanyang, has already promoted you to be the pacification envoy of Guangdong, and you will be awarded a real position, and the top of the six products, I hope you will continue to serve the adults in the future!" ”

Liu Hong is actually still pondering, this time his task was not completed, so as not to be punished, but he didn't expect to wait for a big promotion, from a cloth clothes directly jumped to the actual position of the six products of the same knowledge, he is a Chinese who has been overseas for a long time, but he does not know much about the official position of the Qing Dynasty, but he also knows that it is easy to donate officials in the Qing Dynasty, but it is difficult to get to heaven in real office, and the official position of the sixth grade is higher than that of the county order of the seventh grade, which makes him even more grateful to Dade.

Since he broke his family and went to sea to make a living as a pirate, to be honest, he who has read the book of sages and sages is naturally unwilling to be confused for a lifetime, otherwise he would not take the initiative to take refuge in the escort Wan Dafu in Subic Bay, and he didn't think that he had not made any contributions, but Lord Qin had already rewarded the top of the 6 grades, and now he could finally return to the family that had been absent for many years openly, because he was no longer a broken family.

Thinking of this, he was also beaming, and immediately got up and left his seat, holding the document in his hand, and respectfully bowed to the north to show his gratitude, "Lord Xu, please tell Lord Qin that Liu Moujie is clothy, and he is set to be the first and second horse in the saddle of the adult, and there is no second heart!" ”

Xu Shoushan nodded slightly, in the end, he is a cultural person, this is better than the communication of the big and rough pirates, it is strange that Qin Liefeng is willing to spend some money, this Liu Hong is a thousand golden horse bones, I heard that this guy is still a child of the Liu family of the Nanyang family, it seems that the adults have already planned a plan

He laughed and motioned for Liu Hong to sit down, "Liu Hong, after today's award, we are colleagues, let's talk about the situation on Suluhai's side!" In the future, this Sulu Sea will be our territory in the South Seas! ”

"My lord......" Liu Hongjian began to talk about business, but he immediately changed the topic and told him about the recent situation here, Xu Shoushan listened carefully to what happened, not to ask some doubts, and took out a large map of Nanyang and marked some locations on the map.

After talking for an hour, Xu Shoushan made a series of plans for Liu Hong to carry out, and after the two fleets were merged, they sailed to the port of Quezon on the west side of Pulin.

This Quezon port is in the middle of Pulin Island, hidden behind a bay, the water depth of the inner harbor is more than 10 meters, it is a good deep-water port, this is Liu Hong's nest, after a large number of ships of the Guangzhou Navy Division are close to the port, it is completely able to berth, which makes Xu Shoushan also amazed, this is obviously an excellent port.

This time with the ship, Xu Shoushan brought two more Krupp 100mm guns for Liu Hongyun, 200 speed guns, and hundreds of thousands of ammunition, Qin Kai is so generous, it is because these things are from Zhang Shusheng in Beiyang, Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau has done more than ten years of foreign affairs, and there are more goods in this inventory.

If you give it to the Nanyang sailor or the guard, it is completely unpopular, these front-loading and rear-loading old-fashioned firearms, if you want to be more powerful than the AK02 rifle, it is not a grade at all, let alone the 80-type submachine gun, but it is better to send it to Nanyang to arm the local Chinese.

After installing the artillery, Liu Hong set off with three boats the next day, and this time with such a powerful backstage, he naturally had to take advantage of the momentum.

Now the pirates on the Sulu Sea are basically grouped, Liu Hong has integrated seven or eight bandits within the Chinese forces, with 6 armed merchant ships, some large and some small, basically ships of 1,000 to 2,000 tons, and less than 1,200 soldiers who can fight, but there are more than 1,000 new rifles and 4 heavy cannons, as for the old guys such as bronze cannons, they are not counted at all.

He didn't go out today to find someone to fight hard, naturally he didn't need to send the whole army, the nest must be defended! Xu Shoushan didn't plan to hang around here for a long time, so the proposed tactic was to fight quickly, and Liu Hong naturally sent it out as bait. ,

The first target is a group of pirates Hu Luo entrenched on Balabac Island, another side of Pulin Island, this group of pirates can be regarded as the top three major forces in the entire Sulu Sea region, and it is this guy who took the lead in attacking Liu Hong, since this guy is the most recent and the culprit, it is naturally the first to pick Ta Luo.

On the second day of the first month of May, to the west of Balabac Island, this is the base camp of the bandit Huro, hidden in the port behind a bay, if you are not familiar with it, you will not be able to find the entrance here if you take a detour, two thousand-ton wooden boats sailed out of the port unhurriedly, this is the bandit on the island went out to do business, and today the commander is the younger brother of the bandit Huro, Pacquiao.

Going out to sea to rob this kind of technical work, generally two ships are enough to deal with, because most merchant ships see pirates, only one action, turn around and run, catch up with them and capture them, that is what pirates do most often.

But today, as soon as the two ships turned out of the harbor, a ship twice as big as them collided at full speed in front of them, which made Paquin, who had just hugged the chick on the first boat and was a little sleepy, was taken aback, rubbing his eyes and looking, the other party had already rushed to a distance of 1000 meters.

"Bastard," Paquin yelled at his men, apparently still unfigured out the situation, "go and see, it's that guy, do you want Lao Tzu to let them?" ”

The minion on the side was obviously much more sober than him, and shouted loudly: "Second master, it doesn't seem to be our ship, I look familiar...... It seems to be the Chinese Liu's ship! Seeing that the second old man still hadn't woken up, he hurriedly added, "It's the Chinese who fought with me a few days ago and occupied Quezon Port!" ”

Now Paquin was sober, and he shouted loudly: "Turn around, turn around!" ”

It's just that there is no such good U-turn at the mouth of this harbor, they are followed by a sea ship of their own, and Liu Hong on the opposite side naturally did not intend to give Pacquiao any chance, at a distance of 700 meters, an order, the roar of the two small-caliber breech guns that had just been installed two days ago.

Don't look at the caliber of this 100mm Krupp gun, but the shells are all high-explosive flowering shells specially supplied by the Mawei Artillery Bureau

At this distance, both guns hit the middle of the ship directly, and the gunboat drilled into the cabin and there was a violent explosion, and in the boiler room of the bilge, several natives who were burning the boiler were immediately torn apart by the fragments of the shells, and the fire caused by the fire burned violently in the wooden cabin, and the billowing smoke immediately spread from all sides of the ship

At this time, the other party's ship was still trying to turn around and escape, completely ignoring the fire in the bilge, Liu Hong ordered loudly, "Lean up, lean up!" Platoon guns ready to ......"

The other party's two ships were embarrassed to be stuck in the narrowest part of the channel at this time, which was also one of the purposes of Liu Hong's attack here, and soon the distance between the two sides was quickly shortened.

Rice......

300 m ......

100 m ......

At this time, the rows of guns on both sides had already been fired, Paquin panicked as the big ship quickly approached, it was obvious that it was impossible to escape back to the port at this time, he cursed loudly the broken ship behind him, pulled out an American-made front-loading Colt pistol from his waist, and shouted loudly, "Rush up for me, kill a reward of 10 Yingyang, kill them all......"

The billowing smoke from the bilge made all the bandits on the ship squeeze to the deck, and when they heard Paquin's shout, they all excitedly raised all kinds of weapons in their hands, and the weapons in their hands were mainly cold weapons such as melee knives and axes, just waiting for the other party to engage in broadside combat

However, Liu Hong ended Paquin's farce with another round of guns and two close-range bursts, and the bandits on the deck were swept down, and Paquin was also blown to pulp in the second round of artillery fire at close range

Seeing Paquin being torn to pieces by cannonballs in front of him, the fighting spirit of the bandits on the deck was drained in an instant, and only a few were still holding their weapons and shouting hysterically, and those who were a little more sober were not as if they had jumped into the sea from the other side, which was not far from the coastline, swimming desperately, it was still infinite......ly alive.

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