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With the help of Zeng Mou, the owner of a fellow ship in Zhejiang, Ren Siqi bought eight three-masted ships at a low price, and each ship worth more than 3,000 taels in Daming only cost 1,000 taels of silver, which made Ren Siqi very moved, which was of great help to Ren Siqi. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

The original crew of the ship, knowing that they were going to fight the Dutch, left the ship timidly, while those who had feelings for the ship and some of the brave crew remained. If the whole is calculated, there are nearly 100 crew members left, which is not enough to drive eight lucky ships. Ren Siqi had no choice but to visit Li Guozhu and ask him to help him recruit some sailors.

Li Guosuke had lived in Japan for many years and was familiar with all the Ming immigrants of the Nagasaki Hirado generation, and with his help, he quickly recruited more than 150 people. In this case, all eight ships are fully manned.

In order to hide the strength and not let the Dutch find out. Ren Siqi sent Mao 18 to lead eight new Fukubunes to train in the sea near Hirado Island.

At the same time, the recruitment of wandering samurai was already underway, and more than 300 wandering samurai had been recruited in Koga Village. At the beginning, Li Xingjiu's recruitment was very strict, and he didn't want to be poor in martial arts at all. After Ren Siqi found out about this situation, he asked Li Xingjiu to lower his standards, as long as his physical fitness was not bad, he could bring his own sword and martial arts. Of course, samurai who fail the test will only receive half of the salary of those who pass the test.

For more than two months, the silver has been spent like flowing water, which has made Sima Nan and others feel distressed and have a toothache. This corresponds to the great increase in the strength of Qiyun Trading Company, and Ren Siqi's confidence to fight against the Dutch is getting stronger and stronger.

The saltpeter, copper and iron, muskets and other goods purchased by Li Guozhu were gradually purchased and successively delivered to the "Flying Fish" and "Fuchun" ships. A total of more than 20,000 catties of saltpeter were purchased, and tens of thousands of catties of refined copper and hematite were also purchased, but the price was higher, one percent higher than the price of Daming. Muskets, knives, and other weapons were strictly controlled, and only more than 150 muskets were procured, while more than 200 sabers were purchased.

More than 80,000 taels of silver were spent on these goods, and now the silver deposit of Qiyun Commercial Bank has dropped to less than 400,000 taels.

Flat outdoor sea.

More than 10 miles from Hirado Island, there is a chain of islands, all of which are made up of small islands. A few miles away, the small islands are just showing their spikes. The island is too small to be inhabited at all. Coupled with the fact that it is far from Hirado, there are few traces of boats in the vicinity. It became a place for training and recruiting sailors.

Three three-masted galleons were breaking the waves on the sea, and suddenly, five fortune ships sailed out from behind the islands, and their sails were raised high, and they quickly pressed towards the three-masted sailing ship. The three-masted galleons quickly turned their rudders, trying to close the distance.

However, the five ships were completely uncarried, the ships were very light and fast, and the distance between the two sides was rapidly decreasing. When they were less than a mile away, suddenly some black dots were thrown out of the five ships behind and smashed towards the three three-masted ships in front. Most of the black spots fell in the sea, and a few fell on the three-masted ship, and smoke billowed from the deck of the three-masted ship.

On a lucky boat, Mao Shibai stood at the bow with a serious face. More than a dozen crew members in groups of four were busy operating wooden equipment. Looking at the shape of the instrument, it is clear that it is a small stone throwing machine. The two crew members struggled to stir the noose, the long arm of the trebuchet gradually leveled, one crew member put a stone in the net pocket at the head, suddenly released the noose, and the short arm fell quickly under the weight, and when it was completely down, the black jar placed on the head of the long arm flew out of the net pocket and was thrown towards the three-masted galleon.

"Did the owner make these things really useful?" Beside Mao Eighteen, Chen Sheng muttered. Now that there is artillery, such an ancient siege equipment that is easy to break has basically been eliminated, but I didn't expect Ren Siqi to move him to the deck of the ship again. Although this kind of stone throwing machine is much smaller than that used for siege purposes, only three can be placed on a ship, because there must be room for the crew to operate. In order to deal with the Dutch ship, Ren Siqi can be said to have racked his brains and found many Ming carpenters in Japan to make this ancient catapult.

"Stupid!" Mao Eighteen glared at Chen Sheng dissatisfiedly, "Of course it's useless to put stones, what if you put a fire oil can!" ”

"You mean fire?" Chen Sheng suddenly realized.

"Why do you think you let all the ships come within a mile! There are many cannons on Dutch ships, and our ships can't install cannons at all, so they can only attack at close range. But the broadside battle is not something you want to take the broadside. The Dutch are not stupid, how can they give you a chance to get close, they have so many cannons that you may not be able to get close to the ship and be sunk, but with this thing, we can finally compete with them. Mao 18 said helplessly. The Dutch ships were strong and powerful, and the fortune ships of the Ming Dynasty could not compete with them at all, so they could only rely on the number of ships to pile them to death, but even if they won, they would pay a heavy sacrifice.

The inner side of the Nagasaki Peninsula, Koga Village. Not far from the village, dozens of small boats were parked in the sea with the undulation of the waves, and a group of wandering samurai wearing new samurai uniforms lined up from the village, each led by the leader to board a small boat. Ten people in a boat, each with a wooden oar, rowed a small boat.

However, although they are all strong in martial arts, they are not sailors after all, their boat skills are really poor, and the speed of the ship is very slow.

Each ship was led by a crew member of the Qiyun Trading House, who was roaring and scolding with all their might, directing the samurai to operate.

The scarface warrior was about to follow the warriors, but Li Xingjiu grabbed his arm and looked at Li Xingjiu in puzzlement.

Li Xingjiu was a little helpless in the face of this Japanese samurai who was silent all day long and couldn't say a few words for a day but had extremely high sword skills. During the test that day, all his attacks were easily taken over by the other party, and Li Xingjiu, who was not convinced, looked for opportunities to try again from time to time, but the other party did not accept the offer at all, which made Li Xingjiu quite helpless, he couldn't force the other party to compete.

"You don't have to go, you guys have other arrangements!" Li Xingjiu said to Scarface Samurai.

Seeing that the samurai who were left behind were the best samurai, the scarface samurai stood there silently.

"You, don't you want to ask what the hell you're going to do?" Looking at his usual silent appearance, Li Xingjiu finally couldn't help but ask.

The scar-faced warrior stared at Li Xingjiu silently, and suddenly smiled, the vertical and horizontal scars on his face squirmed, looking so ugly and hideous, Li Xingjiu couldn't help but tremble in his heart, and subconsciously wanted to turn his head.

"I can't kill people left and right, what is there to ask!" The Scarface Samurai's voice was hoarse, but it was incomparably calm, a kind of indifference that saw through life and death.

Looking at him like this, Li Xingjiu was stunned! (To be continued.) )