The trainees are nearing completion, and the next step is weapons training. According to www.biquge.info the Daishan military system, two general flags in each team are pikemen, and one general flag is musketeers, which means that there are one-third musketeers in the two thousand infantry.

At present, the spears of the Daishan Army are enough for new recruits, but there are only more than 100 muskets. In the blacksmith shop, Liu Cheng and other Ming blacksmiths had never made muskets, while Dutch craftsmen such as Bell and White were making cannons and were working to design new blast furnaces to get enough hot iron. So the production of the musket came to a standstill.

Just when Ren Siqi was worried about the musket, Anthony and Li Xingjiu, who had been sent to Macau two months ago to buy machine tools, finally returned.

"Owner, I'm finally back......" Seeing Ren Siqi, Anthony looked extremely excited, and his eyes were red.

Li Xingjiu was also excited, but he tried to maintain his usual cold appearance.

Seeing the safe return of the two, Ren Siqi was also very excited, comforted the two with kind words, and then asked about the harvest of the trip.

"Your blessing, Lord Tobo, you don't need this trip. Not only was a machine tool purchased, but also three hundred muskets were bought by the way. Anthony was quite complacent. Then he talked about the two-month itinerary.

Because of the road guide issued by the Daishan Inspection Division, they were quite peaceful on the road, and the Zheng family's fleet did not embarrass them. And with their strength, small groups of pirates are not taken into account at all.

However, after arriving in Macau, when he came into contact with the Portuguese, he was rejected outright. The Portuguese had arsenals in Macao that could make muskets and artillery, but they were reluctant to sell the machine tools used to make guns to the Ming people.

Helpless, Anthony and Li Xingjiu had to stop in Macau to see if they could think of a way. This stay is more than half a month, and I wander around the island of Macau every day.

On this day, in a tavern in Macau, Anthony befriended a down-and-out Portuguese named Francis.

Francis was a clergyman who had come to the Far East with lofty ideals to spread the Gospel of God in the East, so that the pagans could also bathe in the light of God.

Who knew that he came to Daming thousands of miles away, but he ran into walls everywhere when he was preaching. In the Ming Dynasty, there were many Western priests who came to the Ming Dynasty to preach, such as John Tang and others. Francis came after John Tong, but the two men had very different missionary philosophies. John Tang adopted the method of scientific preaching, took the upper route, got acquainted with the court officials, and helped the Ming court formulate the calendar and cast cannons.

Francis, however, did not agree with John Tong's missionary philosophy and insisted on preaching among the people.

The first is that the local government does not allow Yi people to preach in private, and he has been arrested and imprisoned by the government many times. Secondly, because of the difference in appearance between Westerners and Ming people, the people of the Ming Dynasty saw him as if they were ghosts, not to mention preaching, even it was difficult to communicate.

Chongzhen came to Daming in the seventh year, and for ten years, Francis traveled to the provinces of Daming, but his missionary career was fruitless.

In the end, he returned to Macau in extreme distress, and could only use alcohol to drown his sorrows every day, which caused other Macau people to be very dissatisfied with him.

It was in this situation that Anthony and Francis met in the tavern, Anthony was a fake foreign devil who had lived in the Dutch crowd for several years, and had been baptized in order to survive, so to speak, a Catholic, of course, whether he really believed in God or not is another matter.

So Anthony and Francis hit it off and had a great chat. Anthony settles the money for Francis' drinks and makes an appointment for the next time they drink together.

The two became good friends, and Francis told Anthony what had happened to him. Anthony told Francis that his master, General Ren, managed dozens of islands in the Ming Dynasty, and that he could introduce Francis to General Ren and let him preach under General Ren.

Francis was so distressed that he was almost in debt, and of course he was excited to hear that his missionary career had finally dawned.

However, Anthony also said that he was sent by General Ren to Macao to purchase weapons machine tools, and now he can't buy machine tools and can't return to meet the general.

Francis volunteered to plan for Anthony. Although he is down, he is very familiar with people in Macau. Soon colluded with the steward of the arsenal to eliminate a machine tool that was close to scrapping in the name of scrapping, and then sold it to Anthony at a high price.

A dilapidated machine tool actually asked for a thousand taels of silver. Francis then approached the Arsenal to help Anthony buy weapons. For a thousand taels of silver, two twelve-pound cannons were purchased, which could be placed on a sailing ship as a naval cannon or for the defense of the city. Two hundred muskets were sold to Anthony for ten taels of silver, which was twice the normal price.

In this transaction, Francis received a kickback of up to five hundred taels of silver.

Finally, at Anthony's request, Francis helped recruit Roman, a mechanic who can drive machine tools.

"Owner, the silver you gave has been spent......" Anthony said to Ren Siqi nervously, he also knew that the price of machine tools and weapons was really outrageous, but in order to complete the task assigned by Ren Siqi, he had to accept such a high price.

"As long as the machine is bought." Ren Siqi did not reproach him, but encouraged him with kind words. For the current Daishan, money is not a problem, the key is to make weapons as soon as possible.

Two hundred muskets were bought at the right time, and with these two hundred muskets, the musketeers of the new army could reach two people, and there was no problem in training in turns.

As for the two guns, Ren Siqi did not plan to put them on the ship, but decided to build forts in Gaoting and Cen Harbor to protect the port.

"You two are very hard, I will reward you well," Ren Siqi smiled and said to the two, "Anthony, you will be the deputy Qianhu of the Daishan Army in the future, and you will actually be the director of the Military Intelligence Department of the Daishan Army." Li Xingjiu is also a deputy Qianhu and serves as the captain of the personal guard. ”

Deputy Qianhu, but from the military attache of the fifth grade, Anthony never thought that he would be an official one day, and he was overjoyed at the moment, kneeling on the ground and kowtowing repeatedly.

Li Xingjiu was just as excited, but he was much calmer than Anthony.

"General, I want to go back to Pingdao and move the villagers to Daishan." Li Xingjiu made a request to Ren Siqi, and in the days he left Hirashima, he missed his relatives who were still in the Ryukyus every day.

At the beginning, Ren Siqi had promised Li Xingjiu, and after standing firm in Daishan, he promised him to move the villagers of Pingdao back to Daishan, and when he heard Li Xingjiu's request, he readily agreed. (To be continued.) )