Cai Fuyi has seen and heard a lot, but he still doesn't know much about flintlock pistols.

I have heard of this name, and I know that it is a new type of firearm that does not need a fire rope, but uses the flint inside the gun as an excitation device to ignite, and because there is no open flame, it is not called a gun, but is called a gun by Wang Hongyu.

Wang Hongyu said: "The flintlock pistol is not in a hurry to produce, firstly, there are no craftsmen who can make it except for me and Bi Maokang. On the other hand, if the battalion soldiers and guards take this kind of equipment, they are afraid that they will sell it again. ”

"Ha, isn't it~"

Cai Fuyi smiled and shook his head a little helplessly, the generals of the battalion and guard soldiers here in Guangdong often deduct weapons and sell them again.

Give them these good guns, and in a few days they may be in the hands of the pirates.

Although Cai Fuyi was able to strictly manage and minimize these situations when he was the governor of Guangdong, with the human, material and financial resources, it was better to produce more in the workshop that built the military tun.

"Although there is no need to make flintlock pistols here, you should learn to build Hongyi cannons and Western-style fast galleons from the Franc man."

Wang Hongyu had previously obtained from the missionaries the blueprints of the fortress, the Karak galleon, the Galen galleon, and the heavy naval guns.

The fortress had already played an important role in the bloody battle of the Hunhe River, and there was no place to build these fast, high-end Western-style sailing ships.

Guangdong is definitely one of the most suitable places at this time.

After Cai Fuyi came to Guangdong, he also had some understanding of the current trade in Nanyang.

At present, Fujian, Guangdong, and Zhejiang have many fleets with Wa, Luzon, Malacca, and Goa.

Although many pirates roamed the seas of Fujian and Guangdong, some of them also made money by running merchants, so the trade was very frequent.

As far as Malacca, there were many Daifuku ships and Cantonese ships transporting goods, and to the west of Malacca, the two sides of the Franco-Rang and Dutch sides were equally divided.

Daifuku ships and Cantonese ships are both Chinese-style sailing ships with a large cargo capacity, which are larger than the Western-style sailing ships here, and are the first choice for shipping.

However, the speed is slightly slower, the structural strength is not as strong as that of the Western style, and the number of decks will be smaller, so there is a significant gap in combat performance.

At present, Guangdong has a number of coastal cities such as Guangzhou, which is wealthy, and there is no shortage of Cantonese ships and Dafu ships, but there is a lack of Western-style warships and heavy naval guns.

Wang Hongyu hoped that Cai Fuyi could build a fleet that did not need to be large-scale, and specifically standardize maritime trade.

At the same time, he adopted a strategy of appeasement and explored the possibility of co-opting Zheng Zhilong and Liu Xiang, after all, the reputation of the two of them after the two was like thunder at sea.

As far east as Korea and the Wa Kingdom, and as far west as Sri Lanka and Goa, they all knew that they could not be provoked at sea.

Especially Zheng Zhilong and Zheng Chenggong in the future, they are now slowly building their own Western-style fleet.

Cai Fuyi also had the idea of building a new warship, but he didn't have the money to build it, and he didn't know what business to run after he built it.

Wang Hongyu already had an idea: "Money is not in a hurry, first, we will standardize the customs tax little by little, and allow tax payers to do a certain amount of business in Guangzhou and other places."

It is also possible for businessmen from Guangzhou and Ho Jing Ao to come forward, and they can contribute financial and manpower resources, so that they can build channels to share some money, which is to concentrate the power of society and do great things in a planned way. ”

"Good! If I start from scratch, with no money and no one, they will participate and share together, and the result will be twice as effective with half the effort. ”

"That's right, just like opening a store and buying shares, this is also investing in customs and fleets."

This way of concentrating forces is a move by Wang Hongyu to overtake in a corner and quickly surpass the Western colonizers.

In fact, the Dutch people had already used joint-stock companies to establish the East India Company by pooling all kinds of funds from Dutch municipalities, enterprises, and citizens.

However, they did not have the manpower and material resources of Guangdong, nor did they have the rich agricultural products, minerals, handicraft workshops and labor of the Ming Dynasty, nor did they have the excellent strategic initiative of the Ming Dynasty.

The Franc Man, the Ace Duck Man, and the forces of the Roman side will all be pulled over.

This concentration of power can suddenly surpass the Dutch as middlemen.

The goods of East Asia were still produced in East Asia, and the transportation and sales channels were in the hands of the Ming and Franc machines, and the sale to Europe was eventually used by a large number of people.

Goods from Europe and the Americas are also produced locally, and then to East Asia through channels.

The production and purchase at both ends, and the transportation and sales channels in the middle, can be strategically planned in advance.

As long as you start acting now, the Dutch people can't take the Ming.

It is necessary to unite the forces that can be united to fight against those opponents who are unwilling to unite or who are interested in challenging this plan, Wang Hongyu pointed out a direction for Cai Fuyi:

"Some of the pirates can be co-opted, and some of them know the routes very well."

Cai Fuyi knew that Wang Hongyu sometimes spoke amazingly, and what he did was beyond usual, but he had made real achievements.

Some conservative literati can't listen to these words, let alone support them, but they are not the kind of conservative civil servants themselves.

"Some pirates are indeed mainly smuggling for a long time, but some also hire pirates and often plunder ships.

"That's right, we have to do a good job of details and analyze specific problems. The Zhao'an part is willing to run business, not burn and loot. If the latter has great merit, it can be used as a specific example. ”

The two also briefly exchanged the current handicrafts of the coastal workshops.

At this time, the Ming Dynasty mainly exported all kinds of tea, ceramics and other products, which were very expensive overseas and had a certain irreplaceability for the time being, coupled with huge textiles, to earn silver in the hands of Nanyang and Franco.

There's a risk here.

Vicarious risk.

Mughal and Persian cotton can also be produced, and tea may also be introduced in India and Sri Lanka. Regardless of whether these places are conquered by others and engaged in these things, or develop these industries themselves, they will definitely take away a part of the market.

The technical threshold of ceramics itself is not very high. Other textiles rely on social stability, and have some advantages in output and quality, but they are by no means irreplaceable. If technology cannot be improved, it is only a matter of time before the cottage industry breaks through and is surpassed.

There are already some traces of this risk point coming quietly.

It has been 50 years since Longqing opened the sea.

Daming commodities are legally sold in the South Seas, the West and the Americas, and although the export volume is growing, the growth of silver income is becoming more and more sluggish, and the price of commodities is also decreasing little by little.

With the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War in Europe, silver was more involved in the war in Europe than in East Asia to buy goods and sell them to Europe.

During the most difficult period of the late Ming Dynasty, Europe was fighting a Thirty Years' War, and the demand for tea, ceramics, and textiles temporarily decreased.

It was not until the Thirty Years' War ended after the hanging of the Chongzhen Coal Mountain, and the high demand for East Asian goods was revived. However, the newly rising Britain and other countries have gradually completed technological substitution and industrial upgrading.