At Lee's request, the trading company began to produce flintlock pistols in small quantities. The key to its technology lies in the flintlock.

At the beginning, the flintlock machine was a mature product copied from the British, the impact flintlock machine, but it was soon found that this flintlock machine had two shortcomings, one is that it cannot achieve semi-standby insurance, and the other is that the entire bolt structure is the most complex and the part that needs the most fine processing.

This batch of flintlock rifles only made up for the loss of the army during the Northern Expedition, and could not be used as the main battle weapon. Fortunately, in the Eastern Brigade, the flintlock pistols were used by elite chasers and personal guards, which were not large in scale and of high quality of individual soldiers, which did not have any adverse effects.

In his spare time, Li Zhaoji asked the craftsmen of the Oriental Brigade Repair Institute to make an L-shaped fire sickle, integrating the plate cover and the fire sickle, which was immediately praised by the army and the Tamsui Arsenal, and became the main force of the flintlock machine produced by the trading company.

From a technical point of view, with the handicraft technology of the seventeenth century, the imitation of flintlock machines was not a problem, and even the more advanced copper-capped firing pistols were also hammered by gunsmiths in the army of Monk Grinqin.

The technical problem of the flintlock machine actually lies in the material, such as the main force of the trading company's current individual equipment, Chongzhen's seventeen-year-old arquebus, its bolt is made of copper-tin alloy, these two metals are soft, and the melting point is low, it is easy to make a line, although the material is expensive, but the processing is convenient.

But the flintlock gun machine is not good, it needs to hit the friction flint to start a fire, first of all, the hammer must be iron, and the structure must withstand the force. At first, the Tamsui Arsenal tried to make it with copper, but found that it was easy to deform, so it could only be changed to steel, but the steel was very hard, the melting point was high, and it was difficult to process, and there were many mechanical parts of the flintlock, so the processing cost was much larger.

Of course, the flintlock machine of the trading company still could not satisfy Li Zhaoji, such as the leaf spring that provided the power inside, Li Zhaoji thought that he could not make it at first, but the craftsmen made it, but because the material was not up to par, so there were more materials, compared with those exquisite flintlock guns in history, the flintlock machine of the trading company looked stupid and clumsy, but it was suitable.

Of course, the leaf springs made of high-quality spring steel can improve the combat effectiveness, and it does not require the soldier to pull the trigger vigorously, you know, pulling the trigger vigorously will cause the musket to vibrate, affecting the accuracy of shooting, which will require a long period of technological progress to do.

But there are some things that technology can't solve, like flint.

Flint can be found everywhere, but flint for flintlock pistols requires high quality, and high-quality flint is produced in England and France, and the excavation, decomposition and production of flint also need to be carried out in a humid and rainy environment, and it is obvious that England is the best place to produce flint.

But it is also undeniable that flint is a consumable, and each flint can be used up to forty times, but in order to make the flintlock pistol fire rate more than eighty percent, it is generally only used about thirty times.

In history, because of the entry of the Qing army, China lost the entire flintlock pistol era, and when the individual weapon was improved, it had entered the era of fire cap guns and even firing guns. Therefore, Li Zhaoji does not know whether there are high-quality flints in China, whether in Taiwan or Liaodong, Li Zhaoji will send people to explore everywhere he goes, but at least so far he has not found it.

He couldn't take any chances, and he couldn't trade with the army to have flintlock pistols, but there were no qualified flints, so it was best to import them, and it was best to stock up on a batch.

Fortunately, flintlock pistols existed in Britain, but they were not main battle equipment, and various light arquebuses copied from Sweden were commonly used by both sides of the English Civil War, so the import of flint was not a problem in theory.

"Listen, my friend, there are two kinds of flint I need, one is raw flint ore and the other is processed flint.

The flint must be of English origin, and if you are forced to use other European bulldozing in the process of obtaining it, I will have to accept flint from the Picardy and Champagne departments of France.

There are no rules for flint ore, but the flint I need has standard specifications.

Its dimensions are 1.3 times 1.1 times 0.4, and the unit I just said is inches, which is to avoid you getting it wrong. I have prepared some samples for you, and you are going to have your British workers produce according to the samples.

The flint I just mentioned is for rifles, and I also need some pistols, which measure 1.1 times 0.9 times 0.3, which is also inches. Li Zhaoji said seriously.

Aaron recorded carefully, he picked up the sample given by Li Zhaoji, and looked at it carefully, the northern part of the flint was close to the heel, and far from the blade, the width of the front and back was uniform, almost the same, and the thickness was moderate. The back is straight and square, located exactly in the middle. The nodes are located on the bisector and are symmetrical to the left and right. The two sides are cut accurately, the heel and the blade form a straight line, and all the edges are polished into small notches, which increases friction and enhances aesthetics.

"You can rest assured, as long as the price is right, I will bring you flint that meets the standard, enough quality and sufficient quantity. Just the price, my friend. Aaron asked.

Li Zhaoji spread his hands and said: "I don't know, Aaron, I don't know what the price of flint in Europe is, but fortunately, Chen Si'an will go to Europe with you, and he will come up with a reasonable price through market research."

I gave him 50,000 taels to buy flint, so if you want to make this money, you have to work hard. ”

Aaron smiled and said, "That's natural, I'll do the best." ”

"Even if you are not the best, for the sake of our friendship, he will choose you. I don't want the best, it's not a work of art, it's a qualified product. Li Zhaoji said.

"I see." Aaron said excitedly.

Next, Lee discussed with Aaron other products, which could be produced in Europe, or from Europe all the way to the East, and produced in colonies or wild areas along the way.

In addition to warships and flint, the first commodity proposed by Lee Zhaoji was copper.

Once upon a time, copper in Asia was very cheap, especially copper sheets produced in Japan, which was the main commodity shipped to Europe by the Dutch, but with the large-scale mining of copper mines in Sweden, the price of copper in Europe plummeted, and it was already cheaper than copper in Asia.

Aaron recorded a notebook full of trade details, and Aaron was surprised by Li Zhaoji's super memory, but it was undeniable that this was the best partner he had ever met in his life: "I heard Chinese businessmen say that you Chinese call the person who changed his fate a nobleman, and I think you are my nobleman." What can I repay you? ”

Li Zhaoji laughed and said: "You have three good ships, and there is actually a lot you can do, but you are also anxious to leave, so there is not much you can do." In this way, how about you go south with my fleet and be the tiger behind me again, and let me be a fox and a tiger? ”

Aaron nodded, pointed to the treasure ship that was carrying gold and silver outside, and said, "But if there is such an opportunity again, I will do the work according to your request, but don't take me on the ship again."

I love gold and silver, but seeing that I can't get it is my biggest pain. ”

"Okay, I'll pay attention, not this time." Li Zhaoji thought about it and said seriously.

Aaron covered his face and exaggeratedly said, "God, you must have gotten another chance to rob the treasure ship, right?" Definitely!

I get miserable when I see my friend mixed badly, but I suffer even more when I see my friend mixed better than me.

You're going to get a lot of riches, and I'm going to be miserable. ”

Li Zhaoji laughed: "But I'm very happy." ”

After the end of the First Battle of Wenzhou Bay, Li Zhaoji sent a detachment of troops to Tamsui, and then assembled and went south, spending half a month in Penghu, gathering ships from all sides. Some ships came from the north, armed merchant ships of trading houses and merchant ships of Cantonese partners, and they also agreed to help.

There were galleys from the Beihai detachment, and there were also galleys from the Guangdong Customs.

All that was left were ships from Tamsui, and eventually the fleet came together to form the first large fleet of trading houses.

It consisted of a heavy cruiser, four large Yahats, six small Yahats, four brigs or sloops, six heavy galleys, and twelve fast crabs, and after the fleet was assembled, it set out and landed directly in Fujian, occupying the town of Weitou at the exit of the northern channel of Zhangzhou Bay.

It is now the northern season, and the fleet assembled here directly occupies the upper wind direction, thereby blocking the entire Zhangzhou Bay. And Li Zhaoji had to deal with Xia Guoxiang, who had just obtained the two states of Zhang and Quan, as a domain, on the contrary, Xia Guoxiang was a good ally of the trading company now, and both sides were willing to suppress the remnants of the Zheng family's power in Fujian.

Li Zhaoji had to deal with Zheng Caibu, who was entrenched on the islands of Kinmen and Xiamen in Zhangzhou Bay.

Li Zhaoji used Wu Xiang's father and son and Lu Jianguo's regime to arrest Zheng Zhilong and bring down the Zheng maritime business group that was rampant in the China Sea.

With Wu Sangui's defection, Zheng Zhilong was taken hostage to Liaodong, and there were still three forces left in the Zheng family at this time, one of which was Zheng Zhilong's sister-in-law Zheng Chenggong, who was now in the new camp and was supported by Shen Youlong. After the establishment of the Hongguang Imperial Court, Shen Youlong let go of the Zheng family's army captured by the Lujian State regime and handed it over to Zheng Sen to manage, so that Zheng Sen had more than 1,000 people under his command.

The second is under the command of Zheng Hongkui, the chief soldier of Zhenjiang, who is Zheng Zhilong's fourth brother and his confidant, but his status in the Zheng group is somewhat special.

Although he is also one of them, after Zheng Zhilong attached to the Ming Dynasty, he was admitted to the Wujin Warrior, successfully cleared his name, and entered the Ming officialdom, which did not involve much in the sea trade, so after he joined the Hongguang regime, he gave up the maritime trade and completely transformed into a general, with more than 3,000 people under his command.

The last one is Zheng Zhilong's nephew, Zheng Cai, who is also the brother of the Eighteen Zhibai Brothers, who fled from Chongming and returned to Fujian, where he collected the rest of the Zheng clan, with more than 15,000 horses at its largest.

But with the Xia Guoxiang into Fujian, while suppressing and pacifying, some people were exterminated, some people were cared, and some people fled Fujian, joined the trading company or went to the South Seas, more than two months later, Zheng Cai still had more than 7,000 horses, more than 100 ships, stationed in Jin and Xia at this time, while contacting Shen Youlong to be appeased, while fighting against Xia Guoxiang.

Li Zhaoji didn't want Zheng Cai to be appeased, so that the remnants of the Zheng family would still form a force to be reckoned with and continue to oppose him.

But Li Zhaoji also didn't want Xia Guoxiang to exterminate Zheng Cai, because when Zheng Cai was collecting the remnants, he took the opportunity to gather all the wealth that the Zheng family had accumulated for more than 20 years on Kinmen Island. Li Zhaoji doesn't know how much this wealth is, but it must be a very objective wealth.

It's enough for him to grab a time difference and come to play an autumn breeze.

And now is the perfect time. Shen Youlong was busy with the establishment of the new dynasty and sharing the cake in Nanjing, where was there to take care of Zheng Cai's affairs. Xia Guoxiang took over the Liao soldiers from Nanjing on the coast of Fujian and Zhejiang, but also because of the lack of fleet, he could not pay Zheng Cai.

Only Li Zhaoji, led the fleet, arrived at Zhangzhou Bay, but Li Zhaoji did not want to have a decisive battle with Zheng Cai in this narrow sea area, fortunately, he arrived in the first battle of Zhangzhou Bay, he ran into a grain fleet under Zheng Cai, and the commander of the fleet was Zheng Cai's younger brother, Zheng Lian.

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