Li Nai exchanged glances with He Qiang, and immediately made a decision to look at the goods first. What is the market for artillery now, they know better than these traversers, this thing is much more popular than arquebuses, but the gold owners over there can't buy it with silver everywhere begging grandpa and grandma. If the Haihan people can provide Hongyi artillery, they can really sell as much as they want, and as for the price, it is not a problem at all for those armed maritime merchants in Fujian who are making money every day.

So Gu Wei took everyone to the artillery range not far from here, because of the range of the artillery, this range is much larger than the arquebus range, and several gun emplacements of different specifications have been built, including the kind of battery design that Li Nai saw when they entered the port. Next to the shooting range were several stone warehouses that were used to store artillery and ammunition. Because of the recent shortage of gunpowder, the artillery has been withdrawn from the warehouse, and the gun emplacements are empty.

Under Gu Wei's command, the group quickly pushed a 6-pounder army gun out of the warehouse, followed by a flatbed cart carrying ammunition. Unlike the usual training center, the gunners were no longer naturalized, but all of them were subordinate to the military and police department, which was also to ensure that the show of force could be carried out smoothly.

After watching the Haihan artillery release seven or eight cannons, Li Nai's heart had already begun to itch. The performance of these cannons is no worse than the Hongyi artillery he has seen, and the range and accuracy are also good.

After firing ten rounds, Tao Donglai signaled the artillerymen to stop first and asked Li Nai how he felt about the view.

Li Nai pretended to be calm and nodded in response: "This cannon is acceptable, I wonder if Mr. Tao can explain it in detail?"

Tao Donglai said: "There are two kinds of this kind of 27-type artillery, one is used on land, and the other can be installed on ships for use. The total weight of this cannon is 440 catties, the shells weigh 5 catties, the effective firing range can reach one and a half miles, and the heat dissipation interval is 12 rounds fired continuously. ”

Li Nai raised his eyebrows slightly, and said in his heart that this cannon was really powerful, but he continued to ask quietly on his face: "Then I don't know how much you quote for such a cannon?"

He didn't know that the number reported by Tao Donglai was actually a foreign trade version, and the range of the military and police department's own version was two miles, and this range actually referred to the maximum range, and the effective range of the export foreign trade version that could be corrected by aiming and adjusting the angle was only one mile at most, and the distance beyond that could only be purely relied on luck. However, for the Far Eastern armed forces of this era, this difference in actual effective range no longer matters, because they have no telescopes to use, and it is already difficult to observe a target a mile away on flat ground, let alone aiming, and being able to have such an amazing range of artillery is already a great artifact in their eyes.

Schneider took over and said: "Although our artillery has excellent performance, the price is very affordable, like the Type 27 army gun that Mr. Li saw, each only needs 600 yuan, that is, 600 taels of silver......

Seeing Li Nai frowning slightly, Schneider added unhurriedly: "...... The price also includes a complete set of sights, a meter, and a reloader for the gun, as well as a sturdy and lightweight tactical gun mount for the gun, as well as ten rounds of fine iron shells and the corresponding cartridges. In view of our excellent relationship with Frefone, we will also be giving away an additional 10-shot firing ignition tube. I believe that Your Excellency has just seen that the benefits of this pull-hair ignition device not only protect the safety of the gunner when firing, but also improve the reliability of the gun in bad weather conditions, even if the wind is strong, it will not affect the firing of the gun. ”

Li Nai listened to his explanation, and then understood why when the artillery was fired just now, those artillerymen stood far away, pulling a thin rope connected to the cannon body, and pulling it hard to make the cannon fire, without using an open flame to ignite the ignition powder or fuse, this is really a new device that Li Nai had never heard of before, and even those Franc and red-haired man's artillery had never heard of such a convenient design.

Schneider continued: "If you are not interested in our equipment, then you can also choose to buy bare guns, and the price of each gun is only 400 yuan. There is absolutely no moisture at this price, and there is no way that there is a second arms dealer who can sell artillery of this quality at this price!"

What are you kidding? The owner who can spend a lot of money on a cannon doesn't care about spending a little more to buy all the supporting equipment for this cannon, especially the convenient and safe pull-out ignition device, and Li Nai immediately vetoed Schneider's proposal in his heart. Of course, when this cannon is shipped to Fujian and sold, it will not be something that can be bought for six hundred taels of silver, and it will have to be at least doubled at this price.

Li Nai didn't say anything, but turned to ask about another thing: "Is this kind of fine iron artillery more powerful?"

"Yes, of course there is!" Tao Donglai replied without hesitation: "We also have a jack cannon, the shell weighs ten catties, and the firing range can reach two miles......

The jack cannon that Tao Donglai said was naturally a 12-pounder cannon that had already been successfully trial-produced by the military industry department. However, due to the lack of a breakthrough in materials, the artillery control system has not been developed, and the 12-pounder gun cannot be used on current sea vessels, and as an army gun, it is a bit bulky, and with the current militia establishment, it does not need such a large firepower. It was used as a shore defense gun, but the military police department said that the Western gunboats of this era had already used 18-pounder guns, and they had to use more firepower to effectively suppress them, so the shore defense artillery fortifications that were still under construction had set the guns to be used in the future at least 24 pounds or more. In this way, the 12-pounder became a chicken rib for a while, and the military industry department did not carry out follow-up production after making a few finalized 12-pounder guns, and instead vigorously developed the 24-pounder guns needed for shore defense fortifications.

In Li Nai's view, the power of the jack cannon is obviously more suitable for those who are in a state of war, the greater the power and the longer the range, the more sought after by them. However, out of prudence, Li Nai still inquired about the price first.

Schneider's offer was not outrageous, a set of 12-pounder guns was one thousand taels, and the naked cannon was eight hundred taels. This price is completely acceptable in Li Nai's opinion. However, to Li Nai's slight disappointment, when he asked for a bigger and more fierce artillery, Tao Donglai refused to mention a new one.

Tao Donglai's reason is very simple: "At present, we have no plans to sell more powerful artillery for the time being, if we can sell it in the future, we will definitely notify your bank first." ”

Now if larger caliber artillery is sold, it will undoubtedly affect the security of Victory Port itself. In order to avoid such an absurd scenario as a fleet equipped with large-caliber naval guns manufactured by the Crossing Group to attack Port Victory, the foreign trade export plan of artillery should not take too big a step for the time being, so that it is easy to pull the egg.

But such a ban should not last long, as long as the steel production breaks through the bottleneck, then it is a matter of course that steel cannons replace iron cannons. And with the steel cannon, the increase in the range and power of the cannon is a logical technological progress, and there will be nothing to worry about gradually selling the obsolete iron cannon.

Although this request was rejected by Tao Donglai, Li Nai was not discouraged by this, it was a surprise to be able to buy this kind of heavy weapon here, you must know that this thing is not even willing to be sold lightly by Westerners, it is purely a priceless and in-demand commodity. Li Nai quickly placed an order for ten 6-pounder guns and five 12-pounder guns. Fortunately, considering the huge profits of artillery, the military industry department has prefabricated a batch of foreign trade goods in advance, and this order can be provided to "Fu Ruifeng" in the form of spot, which is convenient for the settlement of goods in the future.

The reason why they only bought a few guns was not because Li Nai didn't have enough money, but because they only had one boat on their return trip, and the carrying capacity was limited, and the weight of these dozen guns plus ammunition had exceeded 10,000 catties. Considering that he would have to load other goods and supplies on the return trip, Li Nai could only endure it for the time being, and secretly decided that he would immediately apply for a second fleet to come to Shengli Port to search for it after returning to Guangzhou.

So far, Tao Donglai and Schneider's real attempt to take Li He and the others to visit the new barracks has been a great success, and the order amount of arquebuses and artillery has reached more than 13,000 taels, which is also the largest number of foreign trade orders since the crossing. And such a big business took only two hours and fifteen minutes from their disembarkation at the barracks dock to the tentative agreement, and the efficiency of the two mouth cannon salesmen was quite impressive.

And Li Nai, who spent so much money happily, was not distressed at all, in his opinion, after these things were shipped back to Guangzhou, they would soon be able to double their profits, and this kind of profiteering business was becoming less and less common in today's fiercely competitive maritime firms.

Most importantly, Li Nai believes that there is another advantage of doing business with Haihan people, that is, you don't have to settle in cash every time. The Haihan people have a very wide demand for all kinds of raw materials and primary products, as long as the materials they need are transported, they can be converted at a discount, so that there are in and out, and there is no situation of running out of the trade here, and the utilization rate of the ship is quite high, and the danger of carrying too much cash to the sea is also avoided.