These families used to be tenants of the Li family, but now the merchants of the Ming Dynasty do not dare to own too much land and will pay heavy taxes, so there are relatively few tenants left, and the Li family has always been good to the tenants, and everyone is willing to help.

Of course, the key is that this time Li Guo used the blood book, thirty times a month at sea, if he died, he would directly have five hundred taels of silver.

So everyone came, twenty-five in all, plus the hired retired sergeants, thirty who could use guns and firearms, and the sailors were not here.

Li Guoyong was about to set off, and today he was going to take people away, Zhong Baihu called him to a house in the camp, and there was another general of Suzhou Wei at the scene, a small official of Suzhou Mansion.

"The young owner has some things to declare to you, the cannons you bought are numbered and need to be brought back, unless you sink the ship."

"En'en" Li Guoyong nodded, indicating that he understood.

"Other firearms don't have to be returned, but try not to fall into the hands of Fan Yi."

"If there is danger, I will smash it, or throw it into the sea." Li Guoyong said loudly.

"It's not usually dangerous." Zhong Baihu said with a smile: "Three thousand big ships, and then you are on the configuration of the young owner, ordinary pirates are not your opponents, the key is bad weather, Liu Baihu has experience, you listen to him more." ”

"Don't worry."

"Artillery and firearms, the day before you leave, go to the warehouse of Suzhou Wei Liujiahe Fort, collect it with the ticket, if there is anything bad, contact us in time, the court will also lend you some strong crossbows and armor, and when you come back, you have to return it to the court——"

Zhong Baihu gave instructions, Li Guoyong signed on a piece of paper, and then returned to Suzhou City with thirty people.

Halfway through, he took out a few treasure banknotes, and now the treasure banknotes have a face value of 100 taels, and handed them to Liu Baihu: "Set off in three days, you guys have a good time in Suzhou City these days." ”

"Hahaha, thank you Shaodong." The crowd rejoiced.

Li Guoyong still has a red mansion in his own house, and after he separated from everyone, he came to his own red mansion.

Mother Li in the building quickly recruited eight girls.

The girls are all a little older, the youngest is almost twenty years old, and usually business in the building is not very good.

"Are you all willing to go to sea?" Li Guoyong asked.

The eight people nodded one after another, there is a young man who takes care of us so much, of course we have to go.

Li Guoyong is the heart of An Jun, and this time he specially took eight girls on the boat, and each of them said that they would be 100 times a month, and at the same time limited to ensure their bodies.

When the eight people agreed, they immediately signed with them, and then paid for a month.

Three days later, Liu Baihu and others came to the wharf, and saw a huge 3,000-material ship by the wharf.

The official price of the 3,000 material ship is 10,000 taels, and the cost is estimated to be about 3,000 taels.

The imperial court sold this boat to make money by blood, but the people had no choice but to buy it.

Li Guoyong took them to the Liujiabao Ming Army warehouse first, and received six light and medium-sized ship guns, two of which were medium-sized, four light, the medium-sized ones weighed about seven or eight hundred catties, and the light ones weighed three or four hundred catties, and the barrels were particularly long, which were said to be called cannons, which were very suitable for the sea, and then received a batch of other firearms, which cost him thousands of taels, but when he came back to return the guns, he could return the money to him

The Ming army not only borrowed binoculars, but also borrowed iron armor, cotton armor, and leather armor, and asked him if he wanted a strong crossbow and returned it when he returned.

He prepared his own bow and asked for a crossbow.

He prepared the gunpowder himself, and the cannonballs were provided by the imperial court, and each one carried a hundred rounds each.

They were carrying it all day long, as well as loading other supplies, including food, fresh water, medicines, and even brought plugging gear (Da Ming's new invention playing cards) to keep them from being bored on the boat.

It took two days to prepare, and two days later, four boats lined up at the pier, ready to go.

On this trip to South America, Li Guoyong had one ship of 3,000 materials, two ships of 1,000 materials, and one ship of 400 materials, a total of 162 sailors, and 50 strong families, of which 25 were trained by the Ming army and 5 were retired from the Ming army.

There were also eight girls, twelve logisticians, two doctors, four apprentices, and six craftsmen, making a total of two hundred and forty-two.

The size of Li's fleet was larger than that of Columbus who went to sea with the support of the Kingdom of Spain a few decades later.

Decades later, Columbus made his first voyage on three ships, more than 80 men, including some prisoners, and he set out from Spain with letters from the King of Spain to the emperors of India and China, first south and then to the Atlantic.

Columbus sailed as far as Cuba and Haiti for the first time, and when he arrived in Cuba, he thought he was in China, but it turned out that it was not, and after arriving in Haiti, he thought he was in Japan, but it turned out that it was not, but in Haiti, someone told him that there was an island in the south of Haiti, rich in a lot of gold, and Columbus hurried south, but unfortunately encountered a strong wind and ran aground on a beach on the island of Haiti, unable to continue the voyage. Columbus immediately decided to leave the 39 sailors on the ship on the island, establish a "white village", and also left cannons and supplies, and he himself changed to the "Nia" ocean-going sailing ship and hurriedly returned to the sea, while the white people left behind by Columbus brought diseases to the local area, and the local natives almost died in the last period of time.

Columbus was the first to reach the Americas at that time, but only in North America.

And Li Guoyong spent a huge amount of money and vowed to reach South America.

On the 6th of February, when the sea was windy and sunny, Li Guoyong began to preach on his largest ship, which he named the South America, and prepared to set off.

Five sergeants and twenty-five trained men were behind him, and he explained to them the discipline, the dietary requirements of the ship, the precautions, and the common sense that he was particularly prone to sepsis.

Then he said that there were girls on the boat, and each person could only come once every seven days on average, and there was no need to give money, and the money was paid by Li Guoyong.

The ships were overjoyed and laughed.

There is a blockage on the boat (the new invention of the Ming Dynasty), everyone can not bring money, Li Guoyong brought money, each person first sent five copper coins per month, for them to play, lose Li Guoyong, win their own.

And all the people rejoiced, and they all called the proprietor righteous.

Li Guoyong said with a calm face, blocking money can harm people, so it should be done in moderation, once I know who has lost red eyes, indulged in it, and ruined my navigation affairs, don't blame me for being polite.

Then he said, who can guarantee that he will not block the money, and when he comes back, he will be rewarded with a hundred yuan per person.

Everyone was shocked, and many people thought to themselves, it was better not to block.

Li Guoyong basically thought about everything, and in order to pass the long and boring time, the girl and the cards were brought to ensure their morale.

On the afternoon of the 6th, with the sound of a cannon on the bow of the ship, the South America took three ships to the east and entered the East China Sea.

The main local officials of Suzhou Prefecture in the Ming Dynasty came to the scene and saw them off in person, because in the past few years, there have also been ships to South America, but Li Guoyong has the largest fleet, the largest number of personnel, and the most complete preparations.

Li Guoyong was extremely excited to listen to it, and instantly felt that he had invested tens of thousands of taels of silver in real value.

(End of chapter)