, Today's second update, summoning recommended tickets, monthly passes, banknotes!! ，

Mexico City, Governor's Palace of Mexico.

Li De, Shi Jianfei and their entourage were warmly entertained by the Mexican governor Reynoldsa, during which more than 50 businessmen, including Mattwala and French businessman Hannock, accompanied the banquet.

The Governor of Reynosa arranged this way, obviously preparing to be the sponsor of this transaction, and then draw the corresponding oil and water according to the size of the transaction between the two parties.

Li De whispered in Liu Jian's ear: "This guy is clearly going to draw a part!" ”

Liu Jian nodded and said, "We still need to buy a war horse from him, as long as we don't lose money this time, try to satisfy him, and it will be easy to do it next time we come back!" ”

Li De nodded, and everyone continued to be polite.

The wine has passed three rounds, and the dishes have passed five flavors.

Everyone said they were too drunk to drink anymore, so Reynosa withdrew from the feast. Everyone knew that the main drama was coming, and this time the governor of Reynosa came forward, presumably everyone had to give him some oil and water, otherwise it would be difficult to complete the deal.

Of course, no one was drunk, and if they were drunk at this time, they would have become lambs to the slaughter.

Soon, the Governor of Reynosa convened a trade fair. The first is to ask Li De to quote the quantity and unit price of the goods, and see how many goods the merchants can eat. As for the tariff issue, Governor Reynosa said that he would meet separately in private.

Everyone naturally understood what this vampire meant, but even if they were slaughtered by Governor Reynossa, they would still be profitable. After all, Daming's goods in Mexico have multiplied more than ten times or even hundreds of times, so they have enough price space.

Li De then ordered someone to get a list, which was the list and quantity of the goods brought this time, but the price Li De moved his hands and feet, and the price was too high, and at the same time said that if the supply of the same commodity was less than demand, then the auction would be held, and the one with the highest price would get it.

Li De's move is really ruthless enough, because the foreign objects of Daming themselves are all supple goods in Daming, and they are even more straining in Mexico, and they are obviously in short supply.

So, all the merchants said they wanted to go back and discuss. In this way, the Governor of Reynosa failed in his calculations, for he had no way of knowing the quantities purchased by the merchants, and therefore could not claim bribes from them.

The banquet dispersed, and Governor Reynosa negotiated separately with Li De and Liu Jian.

The main thing is around the issue of customs duties and transaction taxes, but the governor of Reynosa has already collected Li De's pearls and gold bars, so the tariffs will naturally be reduced.

It used to be a 100 percent tariff, and according to the value of the goods of the Pacific Trading Company in one million, then a tariff of one million taels of silver would have to be paid. Now, after bargaining with Li De, the governor of Reynosa finally set the tariff at 10 percent, but Reynosa has to eat a rebate of 400,000 taels, which is still for the sake of Li De's gift.

Although Reynosa is dark enough, the Pacific Trading Company does not only do business once, and if you want to do business for a long time, you must put up with Reynosa as a vampire.

Fortunately, Governor Reynosa had promised that in the future, the entry tariff of the Pacific Trading Company would be 100,000 taels and would not increase. However, Reynosa said that every time he came to trade, he had to give him a rebate of 500,000 taels of silver, otherwise he would be unkind.

Although this is an excessive, comparatively speaking, Pacific Trading Company's profit will not be less than one million every time, so this transaction is a good deal.

And the Governor of Reynosa is also based on the principle of a small stream of water, if he scares away the Pacific Trading Company at once, then he will not get a penny.

After finalizing the agreement with Reynoldsa, Liu Jian then put forward a request for the purchase of Spanish war horses and horse breeds.

Governor Reynosa naturally had a lot of horses in his hands, and there were a lot of them in Mexico, both in terms of riding and pulling.

There is naturally no problem with exporting, but according to Spanish law, the king of Spain prohibits the export of stallions to Daming, and all war horses exported to Daming must be cheated.

"I'm afraid I can't help you with this!"

Liu Jian smiled: "You don't have to worry, we have already learned a qiē from Governor Fernando. I'm sure you have absolutely no problem with this, let alone worry. ”

Governor Reynosa was stunned when he heard this, and immediately smiled bitterly: "It looks like Fernando has betrayed me!" I don't know how much money you used to pry his mouth open! ”

Liu Jian then sued Governor Reynosa of Deng Haonan's deal with Governor Fernando. Governor Reynosa thought for a moment, and finally nodded: "I don't want kickbacks, you pay me two million taels of silver directly, and then you can buy whatever you need in Mexico, and I won't ask!" I guess you don't just want horses! Food, muskets, and ammunition are all you need! ”

Old fox! Liu Jian secretly cursed in his heart, this Reynosa is much more cautious than Fernan. But think about it, Governor Fernando is the Philippines, the sky is high and the emperor is far away, and no one cares about lawlessness. But Mexico is different, it is not far from Spain, and there are many Spanish officials in Mexico, so Reynosa is not as arrogant as Fernando.

"Two million taels is too much! How about a million taels? ”

Governor Reynosa smiled and said, "You must know that you also have to pay taxes when you purchase goods out of customs!" ”

Li De hurriedly said: "Is two million taels a one-time?" Don't we have to pay customs duties when we go out of customs? ”

"Of course!" Reynoldsa nodded.

Li De hurriedly nodded at Liu Jian, Liu Jian stretched out his hand and said, "Deal!" ”

"Happy working together!"

The two sides hold the "between". The transaction of millions of taels was swallowed up like weeps,

After discussing the details, the governor of Reynosa retained Li De, Liu Jian and others and invited them to live in the governor's palace. However, this was obviously not possible, so Li De and the others refused to be retained by the governor of Reynosa and returned to the ship to rest.

"Why aren't there any merchants buying our stuff?"

Back on the battleship, Liu Jian remembered about the other merchants, so he asked Li De, and Wen Sanjiu was also confused beside him.

Li De smiled: "Don't worry, I think they will sneak to us tonight to negotiate!" ”

Seeing that the two of them were confused, Li De continued: "These merchants are not fools, in front of the governor of Reynosa, naturally they can't say what they need and how much, otherwise they will be extorted by Reynosa." And when they saw that I was bidding for the goods, they didn't know how many extra coins they would spend once the auction started! ”

Liu Jian understood and said with a smile: "So they go back and discuss it for themselves first, and then come to us to discuss, first make a plan, and then act for Governor Reynosa to see!" ”

"That's right!" Li De smiled and was noncommittal.

Really. In the second half of the night, boats secretly sailed to the open sea, and both sides gathered together tacitly.

Matwala and Hannock, with a group of familiar merchants, boarded the Pacific Fleet frigate.

Hannock didn't understand Reed's plan at first, and he didn't know until Mattwala told him.

"You can't figure it out!"

Matwala laughed, "I know this old friend of mine too well! Isn't it? ”

"Of course!" Li De greeted them and said with a smile: "Welcome!" ”

Liu Jian and Wen Sanjiu were on the deck, quietly watching Li De negotiate with them.

"These profiteers!"

Liu Jian shook his head and smiled bitterly, and Wen Sanjiu nodded in agreement.

Li De's negotiations with them continued until almost dawn, and all the goods brought by the Pacific Trading Company were settled by the twenty-two merchants, and the excess transaction tax generated by the auction was removed, and the basic price was all negotiated.

The next day, the Governor of Reynosa, who had been kept in the dark, convened another bidding convention. Because it has been set, all the merchants have shouted the price according to the established strategy, because the competitors are all trusted, the price shouted is quite high, and many unaware businessmen have been scared away.

The reason for the high shout is that the governor of Reynosa will in the future extract the transaction tax when the merchants sell the goods of the Ming Dynasty. The higher the price, the higher the price, then if it is sold at a loss in the future, the governor of Reynosa will not be able to extract the transaction tax.

Of course, because Li De set the price itself very high, the additional transaction tax generated by the auction is not very large, and the auction winner pays the transaction tax. Then, when the real deal comes, Li De will hand over to the merchants at the low price that was secretly negotiated before.

The transaction was carried out seamlessly, and all the transactions were completed in just five days. After deducting the principal and additional bribes, the Pacific Trading Company made a net profit of 7.5 million Mexican eagles, or 5 million taels of silver.

However, the five million taels had to be used to buy arms and horses, as well as the construction of battleships in France, which Hannock had contacted.

The arms are French-made dog-lock type annoying muskets, and Liu Hu has already paid a deposit of 100,000 Yingyang last time, and this time Liu Jian paid 100,000 Yingyang, so he got 20,000 French-made advanced muskets.

This time, the dog-lock musket taught Deng Haonan to improve the musket purchased at the beginning, mainly improving the dog-lock excitation device, making the musket easier to be excited, and at the same time changing the primer part to the side, so that the burn will not affect the launcher. Then, according to Liu Hu's request, an inverted chute was added to the lower part of the barrel of the musket. This was to facilitate the installation of the bayonet, but the French did not know that they only made it according to Liu Hu's requirements. At the beginning, Liu Hu's answer was to install a military flag on it, but the French obviously did not have the idea of installing bayonets, so they did not find anything boring.

This batch of dog-lock muskets made Liu Jian and others very satisfied. So I placed another order for 20,000 muskets, paid a deposit of 100,000 eagles, and prepared to trade it next time.

The trade of war horses was also carried out smoothly. However, prices vary from farm owner to farm across Mexico, but most fluctuate around the average price.

Among them, the price of Spanish light war horses is 130 Mexican eagles, heavy war horses are 220 Mexican eagles, and horses are the cheapest because they are widely used in Mexico and have a huge quantity, only 70 Mexican eagles.

Liu Jian was not interested in the Mexican horse, because Deng Haonan had already obtained a British heavy horse from the British. However, for the Spanish heavy war horse, Liu Jian was excited. Because this kind of heavy war horse is basically no longer used in Europe, the heavy cavalry of various countries has almost been cut. So this kind of heavy war horse is extraordinarily attractive?

This Spanish heavy war horse belongs to the branch of the Belthuren horse, whose ancestors were Arabian horses introduced to Europe by the Moors. Because of the horse's strength, bravery, and strong limbs and body, it is versatile in many ways, docile, fast and long-lasting, and can not only support heavy cavalry, but also can be used as a heavy cannon, the body is tall and defensible, and the coat color is mostly blue or black.

Because of its long-term pedigree, despite its tall body, it still has a light and elegant posture, which is resistant to severe cold and heat, and has a small amount of food and a lot of labor.

It was the Spaniards who rode them and conquered the American continent, and even destroyed the Inca civilization. The Spanish heavy war horse also stayed in the Americas, after the Brazilian introduction, the Inca dragon horse mix, making this type of war horse more brave and strong

However, with the gradual decline of the European heavy cavalry, there were fewer and fewer such Spanish heavy war horses. In the Mexican steppes, since the owner was a heavy cavalryman, after retiring from the army, he bought heavy war horses from the Spanish army, and then came to Mexico to breed. However, with the decrease in market demand, the descendants of the owner can no longer maintain this unprofitable war horse.

So, when he learned that the Pacific Trading Company had purchased the war horses and that the Pacific Trading Company was preparing to breed and retain the world's famous horses, the owner of the horse farm finally agreed to transfer the Spanish heavy war horses to the Pacific Trading Company.

The owner, Merida, gave them a unique name called the Thunder Dragon Heavy War Horse, and Liu Jian said that he would not change its name.

As a result, Merida sold all the heavy Thunder horses in his farm to the Pacific Trading Company. The unit price is not high, only two hundred and twenty Mexican eagles, but the number is not much, only 1,300 horses.

Spain purchased 20,000 light war horses, and also purchased some famous local racehorse breeds, and the total cost of purchasing war horses was maintained at about 1.9 million silver. Because Li De's funds this time are not much, he also needs to purchase about one million taels of ambergris and various spices, as well as purchase grain and forage for war horses, after all, if the horse farm is not repaired, he can't just let the war horses out. What's more, it costs money to build a fortified base on the North American continent.

It can be said that the original five million taels of silver, if not good and carefully calculated, will soon be exhausted.

On March 18, 4 A.D., the Pacific Trading Company left Mexico. Escorted by the Pacific Fleet, the trading fleet sailed north along the east coast of the Pacific Ocean, sending warships to test the water ripples and observe the geography nearby, and of course, most importantly, not to have foreigners.

On April 23, the Pacific Fleet arrived in the Seattle area, and after Liu Jian and others landed, they checked that the nearby terrain was very suitable for building a fortress. The bay goes all the way to the bottom of the mountains to the east, and along the bay a vast plain surrounded by bays and mountains, and the 10,000 square kilometers of grassland is simply an excellent place for military horse farms. Horses are kept here, and only one of its fortresses can be built on the south side to prevent the horses from escaping.

Although it was still the place where the Spaniards claimed sovereignty, the Spaniards did not have the population and strength to build military installations or even settlements here, and from here all the way to the Gulf of Alaska, there was not even a single Spaniard except the Indians.

After Li De and Liu Jian discussed, they decided to build a fortress and a military horse farm here.

So the Pacific Fleet began to guard the nearby waters, and more than 10,000 craftsmen and employees of the Pacific Trading Company quickly drove all the horses to the Seattle prairie, and then quickly built a wooden fence on the south side to prevent the horses from escaping.

Then, craftsmen began quarrying and logging on the mountains to the east to build Fort Seattle. Employees of the Pacific Trading Company built improvised housing for workers nearby, as well as granaries and spare fodder. However, the spare forage was obviously not needed for the time being, because the vast Seattle prairie was enough for these horses to toss.

After hoarding the grain on land, the Pacific Trading Company fleet returned. At the same time, the Pacific Fifth Fleet also served as an escort to escort the trade fleet home.

Construction of the Seattle Fortress went so smoothly that the Third Squadron remained on alert for several months without seeing a single ship heading for the North Pacific coast.

Originally, he was worried that being discovered by the Spaniards would have an adverse impact, but Liu Jian was still very nervous. It was later realized that since Spain was fighting the Netherlands on its home soil, while the Mexican army was fighting the British and French armies in the Caribbean, the declining Spanish Empire, although it occupied the vast colonies, was powerless to protect most of them.

As a result of the Thirty Years' War in Europe, the Spanish Empire was challenged by almost all of Europe's emerging powers, and could not even hold on to important places like Brazil and the Caribbean, let alone the uninhabited colonies on the North Pacific coast.

Maybe it's because the Andes are in the way! In short, this is an area forgotten by the Spaniards, and Liu Jian's worries are unfounded.

On August 18, 4 AD, the Seattle Fortress was built by Liu Jian, which was guarded for four months. Backed by the Andes Mountains and facing the Pacific Ocean, a long arc-shaped bay divides the Seattle Plain into two parts, of which the plain of more than 10,000 square kilometers in the west has become a grazing ground for war horses, and the flat in the east has become a residential area for the Chinese to move to the Americas in the future.

As the first stronghold of Na Haonan's military invasion of the American continent, the Seattle fortress is 1,780 meters long, expanded to 2,800 meters in the later period, 630 meters wide, expanded to 1,200 meters in the later period, 10 meters high in the city and increased to 12 meters in the later period, the female wall is 2 meters high, and 80 God of War cannons are arranged on the city wall, two city gates, a water gate, and the corner tower is 25 meters high, and the corner tower is equipped with 4 pieces of 5,000 catties of Longwei artillery. There were 2,000 guards and soldiers, one colonel commander and one superintendent.

The establishment of Fort Seattle has added a Ming to the battle for North America, but this one. The stronghold has always been very hidden and not known to other countries, so that the news of Di Haonan's meddling in American affairs has not been known to the European powers.

In particular, the establishment of the military horse farm has made great contributions to the future of the Ming Dynasty's iron hooves sweeping the American continent. D