Chapter 233

The Eight Princesses is a large ship of 2,500 materials, which is equivalent to more than 800 tons when converted into a displacement. In Europa, it is already considered a fourth-class cruiser.

However, the problem is that when Cheng Shijie gave it to Zhu Weiyuan, he did not install any artillery, but the sea is not very peaceful now, and the roles of maritime merchants and pirates can be switched at any time.

In order to protect Zhu Weiyuan, Cheng Shijie loaded four Thunderbolts on the left and right sides of the Eight Princesses, two in front and two in the rear, so that the entire warship has a total of twelve Thunderbolts, this level of firepower, even in the face of small and medium-sized pirates, will definitely not suffer.

Of course, unless facing pirates equipped with naval guns, the ship still has the ability to defend itself, and the ship is large, which naturally has great benefits, Zhu Weiyuan was on the first deck and asked the craftsman to transform a swimming pool, of course, Zhu Weiyuan didn't like to swim, she was prepared for Cheng Shijie.

In addition to a swimming pool, there is a small terrace on the ground deck for barbecues and a warm pavilion that can be moved.

When Catherine boarded the Eighth Princess, her first feeling was luxury, using a standard-level fourth-class battleship as a yacht, and only Cheng Shijie could do this kind of thing, if Catherine had a battleship of the Eighth Princess, she would definitely load forty or fifty guns on it, making it the main battleship.

It's just a pity, no matter how unhappy Catherine is, this is the freedom of Cheng Shijie and Zhu Weiyuan.

At this time, Catherine, the first family of the Republic of the Venetian city-state and the second in line to the throne of the Contarini family, was holding a spatula to grill sizzling squid.

"Your Excellency, how about you try my craft!"

Catherine was willing to pay no matter what the price was in order to obtain the unparalleled naval warfare artifact of the Ning Navy, because it was very hard for the current Venetian city-state republic to lose their overseas colonies one after another, and if the Ottomans took the last overseas colony of the Venetian city-state republic, that is, Crete.

If Crete is captured, then the Ottoman navy will hit Venice proper, which is the real reason why the Venetian city-state republic needs the Ning navy as a weapon of naval warfare most urgently.

Of course, Cheng Shijie didn't know Catherine's worries, and if he knew, it would be a joke Catherine's worries, because in history, Crete was successfully captured by the Ottoman Empire in 1669, more than thirty years later.

This has to be said that the Huskies in the country, the glorious achievements of the Ottoman Empire, fought with the Venetian city-state republic with a population of less than 200,000 people for more than 200 years, and its own losses were hundreds of times that of the Venetian city-state republic.

Cheng Shijie smiled faintly: "It's okay, it's barely accessible!" ”

Zhu Weiyuan doesn't like to eat squid, she only eats vegetables grilled by Gu Ziyi.

Hearing Cheng Shijie's evaluation, Catherine was a little crying and laughing, of course, this is also a matter of no way, as the second heir to the Contarini family, she started from education, learning law, politics, culture, fencing, and fighting was completely cultivated by the governor of Venice, Niccolò, as a son.

It can be said that if it weren't for the time at sea, she would not have had the opportunity to touch these menial jobs at all.

Even if she didn't get Cheng Shijie's praise, Catherine didn't care, she tried to make herself laugh, and her smile was very charming: "Your Excellency Duke, then can we talk about the sale of naval guns!" ”

"There's no need to talk about it, it's impossible."

Whether it is the three-inch cannon of the Ning Navy or the four-inch gun of the Ning Navy, they all carry the black technology brought by Cheng Shijie, and the scientific and technological content of these guns has reached the technical level in the middle of the nineteenth century. To put it unreliable, even if the Ning Navy is now fighting against the British Royal Navy in 1860, the Ning Navy can still suppress the British Royal Navy.

That's the tech gap.

Catherine smiled and said, "Your Excellency, there is nothing in this world that cannot be traded, it is nothing more than the price of money, can I only use one artillery?" ”

Catherine thought that as long as she bought a cannon and went back, with the technical level of the Venetian city-state republic, it should be able to imitate it.

Seeing that Cheng Shijie didn't mean to talk at all, she continued: "One hundred thousand ducats!" ”

Ducat, also known as Ducat, Jersey or Sikun. The gold coins minted in Venice were made of approximate pure gold (0.997 gold content was later identified) and weighed 3.56 grams.

It can be said that Catherine's sincerity is quite sufficient, 100,000 ducats, equivalent to 356 kilograms of gold, but the gold content of the Ming Dynasty is not as high as that of Ducat. Due to the continuous depreciation of silver, the current exchange ratio between gold and silver has changed from one to eight at the beginning to one to ten now, and when converted, a gold carter is equivalent to nine coins and five cents of silver, and 100,000 pieces is 95,000 taels.

The normal price of artillery is more than 1,000 taels to 5,000 taels of silver, which also includes the heavy 48-pound Hongyi cannon.

"This is our Daming's weapon for the country, I won't sell it!"

"Your Excellency, I also understand your concerns, it's just that we Venice have no interests in the East, and we have no desire for territory, we are tens of thousands of miles away from you, and it will take nearly ten months to come and go at the earliest, and it is impossible for us to threaten the Ming Empire."

Cheng Shijie shook his head and said, "You know what? Our brave admirals will not surrender after running out of ammunition and food, they will choose to blow up the battleship, let the gunboat sink to the bottom of the sea, and avoid the enemy from getting our artillery! ”

"One hundred and fifty thousand ducats!"

Catherine doubled up again.

"No way!"

"Two hundred thousand ducats!"

Cheng Shijie took the wine glass and began to think.

200,000 ducats are equivalent to 712 kilograms of gold, close to one ton of gold, it is impossible to say that Cheng Shijie is not impressed, after all, the Ning Haijun group has too many places to spend money.

However, Cheng Shijie's principle will not change.

Catherine was carefully observing Cheng Shijie, she could judge that this price was about to break through Cheng Shijie's psychological bottom line, and she slapped her hand in front of Cheng Shijie: "500,000 Duccat!" ”

"Impossible!"

Catherine glared at Cheng Shijie angrily: "One million ducats, it can't be more!" ”

Cheng Shijie shook his head and said: "I can help you solve the crisis that Venice is facing, one million ducats will do!" ”

"You want an idea for a million ducats in Venice?"

"You can choose not to change!"

Cheng Shijie does not have any special feelings for Venice, it can be said that the life and death of Venice are not directly related to Cheng Shijie.

"How do I know if you're lying to me?"

"You can choose not to believe it!"

Cheng Shijie got up, clapped his hands and said, "Okay, lunch is over, it's time for me to go and eat!" ”

Cheng Shijie didn't pay attention to Catherine anymore, but walked directly to the pool, ready to take a bath.

Although life at sea is very boring and fresh water resources are also very precious, as the head of the entire fleet, Cheng Shijie actually has no shortage of fresh water.

Because the sailors of the Ning Navy are not short of fresh water, they have learned to purify the seawater simply, of course, it is actually a distillation device, although the cost is high, but it can solve the drinking water problem of sailors in the most difficult time.

Catherine was in a tangle, a million ducats is not a small amount, although the ocean trade is a huge profit, but the problem is that her capital is not thick, she actually does not have a million ducats now, and a lot of money has purchased things like silk and porcelain.

Now she stays in Daming and does not return to Venice, which is still waiting for a batch of silk, now the deposit has been paid, just waiting for the other party to deliver, if she defaults, the deposit of 100,000 taels of silver will be lost.

Of course, if you don't want to go to waste, you can only borrow money from Liaodong Bank with the help of Xu Shumin's face.

Catherine didn't want to give out this money, but when Catherine was depressed, she unexpectedly met an acquaintance in Venice, when Catherine went to sea from Liaodong, as Venice's Virgil with excellent naval command tactics, he was recruited to the Ning Navy Naval Academy as a teacher, and now he is an instructor at the Ning Navy Naval Military Academy.

Due to the rapid expansion of the Ning Navy Naval Division, even the cadet soldiers were pulled on the battleship, which made Virgil, the instructor, have to follow the Sixth Detachment to the south, and he is now the operational staff officer of the Sixth Detachment of the Ning Naval Division, on the Liangzhou of the Sixth Fleet.

Virgil hadn't seen the former boss for more than a year, and naturally had a lot to say.

As the operational staff officer of the Sixth Detachment of the Ning Navy, Virgil still had a lot of face, he arranged a table of wine and food, and chatted with Catherine in the cabin on the second floor.

Seeing Virgil, Catherine's eyes couldn't help but light up: "Virgil! ”

With that, Catherine looked around, but not as much as Admiral Ning paid attention to Virgil.

Catherine asked, "You should know the news of the Ning Navy's defeat of Zheng Zhilong's fleet, right?" ”

"Got it, many of the soldiers and commanders who participated were my students!"

"You're so proud right now!"

"Of course!"

Virgil said even more proudly: "Miss Contarini, you don't know that I now own a castle in Liaodong, which is bigger than the one you have on the Aegean Sea!" ”

Of course, Virgil's so-called castle is actually a reinforced concrete quadrangle, and Virgil, as an instructor of the Ning Navy Naval Academy, participated in actual combat teaching at the very beginning, leading the cadets of the Navy Division to exterminate a group of pirates.

According to the regulations of the Ning Navy, he naturally needs to be rewarded, but the problem is that Virgil is not a Ming man and cannot reward the land like other Ning Navy officers, so he gave him an exception of three acres, that is, 1,980 square meters of homestead. Virgil used the reward of beheading to hire someone to build a nondescript castle.

If you look at it from the habits of the Ming Dynasty, this is a courtyard house, the only difference is that all the surrounding houses are one by one foot high, and the whole castle has more than 100 rooms, and there is a huge garden in the middle.

"Looks like you're doing well. Did you meet love in Daming? ”

Speaking of this, Virgil looked helpless: "No beautiful Ming woman is willing to marry me, even if I pay more bride price, it is useless, they discriminate against me!" ”

If Virgil is in other parts of Daming, he can really smash out a local daughter of Daming by throwing money, in Daming except for Liaodong, there are too many poor people, and there are countless people who sell their children and daughters. But the problem is that Liaodong is different.

Now Liaodong women can also participate in work, and they can earn ten taels of silver a year, and the situation of selling children and daughters does not exist, and Liaodong legislation prohibits human trafficking, once reported, you can get a reward of ten times the amount of sales. The seller will be punished with less than 10 years of labor reform, while the buyer will be severely punished, even if it is 100,000 yuan of family property, he will be fined and bankrupt.

Seeing that Virgil seemed to be in a good mood, Catherine lowered her voice and asked, "Have you gathered the information we need?" ”

"Of course!"

Virgil said to Catherine: "So far, the Ning Navy has served three kinds of warships, one is two thousand materials, that is, six hundred and fifty tons, equipped with eighteen guns, this kind of warship called the Seawolf class has only been built at present, named Jinzhou, Haizhou, Gaizhou and Fuzhou, and the Seawolf-class battleships have stopped construction, and may be built in the future, but not now, the second is a three-thousand-class battleship, which is 975 tons, named the Sea Shark class, this kind of battleship is equipped with twenty-four guns, three-inch guns, and twelve four-inch guns, A total of thirty-eight naval guns. ”

Catherine frowned: "Why is a battleship of nearly a thousand tons equipped with thirty-eight guns?" Doesn't make sense? ”

In Europa, a battleship of the Sea Shark-class battleship class of the Ning Navy needs at least fifty or sixty guns.

This means that the 1,000-ton warships of the Ning Navy are only equipped with half of the guns of the same class warships in Europa.

Virgil smiled bitterly and said: "Miss, don't you know, Ning Haijun's casting technology is very clever, their three-inch guns and four-inch guns are twenty-eight times the diameter, and the firing range is very long. It is not difficult to see that the casting technology of the Ming people is indeed very powerful, and no country in Europe dares to adopt such a ratio of times to diameter, which is generally twenty-one times the diameter, and very few can achieve twenty-three times. A longer barrel increases range and accuracy, but it also puts the barrel under more pressure, which will only blow up if the metallurgical technology is not up to par. ”

"The Sea Shark class is not the largest, should a battleship like yours be the largest warship?"

"Not really!"

Virgil said bitterly: "They also have bigger warships, which are said to be more than two thousand tons!" ”

"Two thousand tons, how is that possible?"

As a maritime power, Venice's shipbuilding technology is actually very advanced, and it is also the top in Europe, such as Spain, Britain, France, and the Holy Roman Empire, all of which are learning Venice's shipbuilding technology.

It is no exaggeration to say that Venice is a world shipbuilding giant.

"Nothing is impossible!"

Virgil said with some emotion: "Da Ming said that as early as more than 200 years ago, they built a 5,000-8,000-ton sailing ship, and as early as more than 1,000 years ago, they built a warship of more than 3,000 tons!" ”

Catherine is actually not interested in the battleships of the Ning Navy, in fact, although the battleships of the Ning Navy have a smooth hull and fast speed, they are about the same as the battleships of the Venice Golden Lion class, the speed is about the same, and the control is actually better than the battleships of the Venetian Navy.

"So, how much do you know about their artillery?"

"Their three-inch cannon is ......"

While he was talking, a Ning Navy soldier walked over and frightened Virgil into silence.

Fortunately, this Ning Navy soldier came over to bring a meal and left.

After watching this Ning Navy soldier leave, Virgil breathed a sigh of relief, he looked at Catherine and said, "Miss, I know what you want to do, you want to imitate the Ning Navy's naval guns?" ”

Catherine nodded and said, "Yes, I originally wanted to buy it, but when I got a million ducats and a cannon, His Excellency the Duke still didn't want to sell it!" That's all we can do! ”

"But I tell you, it's impossible!"

"Why can't it be? Haven't you seen their artillery? ”

"Don't say I've seen it, in fact, I can recite all the parameters of the three-inch and four-inch guns of the Ning Navy backwards......"

"It's great, with you guiding them, we have a better chance of success!"

"On the contrary, we will never be able to make it!"

Virgil smiled bitterly: "We may be able to imitate the naval guns of the Ning Navy, but the problem is that their naval guns are not complicated, what is really complicated is their shells, without shells, the cannons we imitate are just a bunch of useless scrap iron......"

"How so?"

Catherine was very distressed.

"The shells used by the Ning Haimen are not black powder at all, but a new type of explosive that we have never seen before, this kind of explosive is huge, and there will hardly be any residue left after the explosion, so their gunners can bury their heads in the battle and fight fiercely, and there is no need to clean the gun chamber at all, we don't have such gunpowder, and we can't make shells like theirs.!"

Catherine was stunned and said, "New explosives? How much do you know about this new type of explosive? ”

"This is their core secret, and it is difficult for outsiders to access ......"

Virgil smiled bitterly: "The guns and artillery factories of the Ning Navy are all assembly line operations, and every worker will have a part of the process, it is said that there are many factories that specialize in manufacturing this kind of explosives for them, as for the process, it is top secret, only a few people know, it is estimated that even the people who produce this kind of explosives do not know what they produce for what they produce." ”

Virgil: This is indeed the big truth.

He did not know that the various factories of the military factories that produced cotton were strictly divided, and the workers in charge of washing and degreasing cotton might think that this work was specialized in washing and boiling cotton, and the workers in charge of soaking cotton with nitric acid also believed that this factory was specialized in destroying cotton.

Catherine sighed, excitement turning to helplessness.

She had to admit that she was too naïve, simply thinking that as long as she got the various data and drawings of the naval gun, she could imitate it, but she never expected that the seemingly ordinary cannon was actually the crystallization of an industrial system, and it was useless to just concoct it.

What to do?

In fact, even if the naval guns of the Ning Navy flow out, no one can imitate them, and the current artillery is either cast in bronze or cast iron, and only the guns of the Ning Navy are made of steel.

Virgil's ability to do this is already the limit, and even if he is willing to risk his life, many secrets may not be able to be obtained, so he can only find another way.

But what else could she have done to gain access to these key technologies, which would affect the future fate of the Republic of Venice? Cheng Shijie is not easy to deal with, this guy seems to be greedy for money, but once these key technologies are involved, the magic of beauty and money will all fail, let you grind the soft bubble to coerce and lure, he just doesn't nod!

Thinking of that hateful fellow, Catherine hated her teeth so much that her teeth itched, can you die if you sell me two new naval guns? I'm not going to lose your money!

On July 19, the seventh year of Chongzhen, Cheng Shijie arrived at the port of Manila in Luzon smoothly.

Cheng Shi, Li Zhixiang, Xie Jinglin, Wu Shangzhi and other representatives of the Luzon Ning Navy or Chinese six or seven hundred people lined up at the port to greet Cheng Shijie.

"Welcome to the handsome tiger!"

"Excuse me, everyone!"

Cheng Shijie reviewed the naval division and army units of the Ning Navy stationed in Luzon at the wharf, and with Cheng Shijie disembarking, the 5th and 6th fleets of the Ningbo Navy Navy Division came with Shijie, a total of 32 warships.

This made Li Zhixiang also breathe a sigh of relief, in the Battle of Subic, the naval division of the Ning Navy lost five warships, and twenty-five warships were injured, of which eleven heavily damaged battleships had no strength to repair in Luzon at all, and the fourteen lightly injured ones could be used improvised, but the problem was that with the two major King Kongs sinking and two wounded, there were only thirty-eight warships in the main fleet of the Ning Navy that could still fight normally.

If Zheng Zhilong makes a comeback, Li Zhixiang really doesn't know what to do.

Well, now that the fifth and sixth fleets are coming, even if Zheng Zhilong fights again, Li Zhixiang is not afraid of them.

Cheng Shijie looked at the energetic Ning Navy soldier and was very satisfied.

"Meet the Commander!"

"The soldiers have worked hard!"

"Die for the handsome!"

"Die for the handsome!"

Although Wu Shangzhi is a businessman, but to a certain extent, businessmen are actually very concerned about politics, and although Wu Shangzhi is far away from the Ming Dynasty, he also has an amazing sense of smell because he often deals with Spaniards.

Just when Cheng Shijie was on the dock to colonel the Ning Navy officers, as the Ning Navy Army officers went ashore, the officers and soldiers did not mention allegiance to the Ming Dynasty, but only said that they were loyal to Cheng Shijie, which shows that this army has become Cheng Shijie's private army.

Political struggles have always been bloody, and they put the treasure on Cheng Shijie, which shows that they will also part ways with the imperial court in the future.

However, Wu Shangzhi and Li Guoqun glanced at each other.

Li Guoqun lowered his voice and said, "Does the imperial court have anything to do with us?" ”

Wu Shangzhi was slightly stunned: "Also, the imperial court has nothing to do with us!" ”

"How many of us were killed by the Spaniards back then, so it can be seen that the court let go of a fart?"

"yes!"

"Now there's no turning back. No matter how difficult the road ahead, we have to keep going! ”

(End of chapter)