The contest between Yu Bowen and the Dutch and Spaniards in Europe did not cause tension in the Far East, on the contrary, the Spanish, Dutch and Portuguese also held a joint exercise in the South China Sea for three days.

The main objective of the joint exercise was to target pirates in the region, and the four admirals deepened their exchanges and impressions with each other, especially the power of the Australian Navy's 36-pounder gun.

It is said to be a heavy cannon, in fact, its volume is not as bulky as the artillery made in Europe, but much smaller, the length of the entire cannon body is only one meter five, and the weight is only about three hundred catties.

It is not the most advanced cannon, and it has a very fatal weakness, that is, after firing twenty shells in a row, the barrel will heat up, and it must be stopped for cooling, otherwise the entire barrel will crack due to the high temperature, and eventually explode.

In later generations, for countries with extremely strict requirements for military industry, such a cannon was never accepted, and it was prone to explosion, and the number of shells fired at the same time was small, except for a certain advantageous distance in the firing range, it was basically impossible to find its other advantages.

Of course, this is only Australia, which puts process requirements and safety in the first place, if it is put on other countries in the same period, this is definitely an innovative firearm.

Australia has only loaded this 36-pound run on some of its own offshore patrol boats, and large cruisers will never be equipped with it.

In the eyes of the navy, this cannon is an unqualified and shoddy product, which cannot meet the standard in terms of material and performance, and the danger of installing it is too great. The main reason for equipping offshore patrol boats is that they have fewer opportunities to be used.

Unexpectedly, in this four-party joint maritime exercise, this kind of cannon really shined, and it was actually valued by the personnel of the other three parties, and they asked the Australians about its cost and export matters.

This came as a surprise to the Australian Navy personnel, who did not focus on the main guns of the cruiser, but on the loading guns of an offshore patrol boat.

When the Australians quoted the cost of it, both the Dutch and the Spaniards thought they had misheard.

"Oh my God. Did I really hear me right, the price of this small, lightweight, long-range cannon is only 1,500 silver dollars, is this true, the Australians are not joking. It's just incredible. ”

The price of an old Australian rifle is about 200 silver dollars. The price of this cannon is surprisingly cheap, and it doesn't make sense to calculate it.

However, the Australian officer's explanation finally answered their inner doubts, and it turned out that the reason why this gun was cheap was because it fired twenty shells in a row. It must be cooled, otherwise the barrel will burst due to the high temperature or explode during firing.

After the Australian military factory was built, it was because of these defects that neither the Australian Navy nor the Army were willing to purchase, and in the end, the Australian military factory set its price very low, and the Navy purchased a batch of offshore patrol boats.

"General Joseph, I heard that you are very interested in our 36-pounder gun," Yang Guoping, the leader of the Australian military industry, couldn't sleep with excitement after receiving the telegram sent back by the navy.

The technology of this 36-pounder gun can be said to be completely substandard at the moment. According to the engineer of the military factory, if it can be replaced with steel, the character and heat resistance of this artillery will be greatly improved, but it is only subject to the problem of material research, and there has been no breakthrough, so a batch of copper is used as an alternative material to create a batch of it, wanting to create a part of the income for the military factory.

Unexpectedly, the army did not buy the artillery they had developed, saying that its performance was too poor to be used at all, and as a last resort, it was sold to the navy for 500 silver dollars a piece, and now there are still five guns in the warehouse that have not been cared for.

But the people in the naval department are not bad. It is said that the sales price of this kind of artillery is 15,000, and if it can be successfully negotiated, the military factories will be able to earn a lot of money.

Yang Guoping took a boat overnight and came to the municipality of Christmas Island. There was a conversation with the naval personnel of the Spanish Manila flotilla who came to negotiate the purchase of artillery.

"Dear Young, we like the artillery you have made very much, and we hope to be able to procure fifty of these cannons, and a thousand more shells," Joseph said with a blank face the number he wanted to purchase.

For Joseph, who was not good at words, Yang Guoping did not feel uncomfortable. Maybe it's because the military have a natural character that is not good at words, or their profession doesn't allow them to be hippie and smiling all day long, and they have a lot of dealings with the Australian military, so they naturally don't have other feelings.

"It seems that Your Excellency General really intends to buy the artillery produced by our company, but before purchasing, there are some questions that I still have to tell you, because our company must let customers understand the performance of the product."

Joseph's palm on the table was gently raised, motioning for an introduction.

"Maybe you already know that in addition to having a certain advantage in range, it is actually not very good in terms of cooling, and if you fire twenty shells in a row, you must stop to cool it down and use it, otherwise it will increase the danger if you continue to use it, what I want to say is that simple, do you still want to buy it?"

Yang Guoping knew that the other party actually knew the weakness of this artillery, on the contrary, telling him the reason now could still make the other party feel his honesty, and it was also conducive to the second cooperation.

And since the other party can come here from Manila to talk, it is with the sincerity of the purchase, as for those performance weaknesses are not a problem for them at all.

In fact, Yang Guoping was not wrong at all, the problem of cooling after firing was indeed not a big problem for Europeans at the same time, because their own artillery also had this problem, so it was not as strict as the Australians required in this regard.

"Yang, we all know these problems you said, you are very honest, I am willing to deal with people like you, I believe you should not lie to us, if there is no problem, I think we can directly sign the purchase contract now, and I have brought you all the money."

Joseph rarely showed a somewhat stiff smile, pointed to a cloth bag he was carrying, it seemed that the other party was directly carrying the money on his back, Yang Guoping was shocked by the other party's local tyrant behavior, is he not afraid of robbery or loss, this is twenty or thirty thousand silver dollars. (To be continued.) )