Cheng Shijie looked at Chen Guodong and said, "What new information do you have over there?" ”

Chen Guodong thought for a while and said: "There really is, this Anthony's position is very dangerous now, since last year's Dutch East India Company's profits fell by two-thirds compared with the previous year, the gentlemen instructed the Ministry of Justice to investigate the senior employees of the Dutch East India Company. ”

Cheng Shijie said: "So, the Dutch Ministry of Justice has really found a problem?" ”

"How can there be no problem?"

Chen Guodong pointed to the file that had just been sent over and said: "Just last year, their Dutch East India Company had about four million guilders in money that could not be reconciled, and as the Ministry of Justice began to investigate the senior employees of the Dutch East India Company, more and more people were involved, and several key departments of the East Indian colonial government authorities were in danger, and many people had already submitted their resignations to Anthony, which had seriously affected the normal work. ”

To put it mildly, there are really few officials in these years who can stand up to investigation, not to mention the Dutch who are still colonial officials, and the Dutch who are willing to go to Southeast Asia, most of the Dutch officials are not in a good economic situation, and they can hardly survive in the Netherlands, which will force them to leave their homeland.

So after these people grasp power, their appearance is really ugly, officials from aristocratic backgrounds will be a little restrained, and officials from ordinary backgrounds are simply unscrupulous.

For example, the protection fee paid by the Dutch East India Company to Zheng Zhilong was 120,000 francs per year, one franc is equal to 100 centimes, which is about 5 grams of silver with 90 percent of the silver content, and one franc is equivalent to about 500 grams of silver, which is equivalent to about 1.62 million taels of silver.

In fact, the Dutch East India Company reported 400,000 francs to the country, which was more than three times the expenditure, and the Viceroyalty of Batavia, there were serious fictitious costs and cutting corners, which could have been built with only 100,000 guilders, but the total expenditure actually reached 1.1 million, and many structures marked with marble were secretly replaced with reinforced concrete, so that in the end, it is estimated that 100,000 guilders will not be used up.

The gentlemen usually turn a blind eye to these things, after all, the Dutch also understand that if they want the horses to run, they must let the horses graze, and now they are only affected by the financial crisis, and they urgently need the Dutch East India Company to transfuse blood into the country.

Cheng Shijie sighed and said, "I see, this Anthony, wants to take refuge in Daming?" ”

This made Cheng Shijie think of the refuge in another time and space, the number of refugees who went to the beautiful country is not small, and the beautiful country has also become a place to hide dirt and dirt.

Sun Zhili finished reading Anthony's resume and said: "It turns out that this is a big rat who relies on nepotism? ”

"They want to be attached, I'm afraid there are conditions, right?"

Cheng Shijie said: "We can not talk to them for the time being, and we will fight first!" ”

Although Anthony's troubles are not small now, they are not yet in a desperate situation, no matter what the dimensional considerations, Anthony will definitely seek to maximize the interests of himself and his allies. But the problem is that the world is not like the future generations, and the current world is the two superpowers of the Ming Dynasty and Spain.

Neither Great Britain nor France had yet to rise, and even the Sea Grooms had not yet gained independence, and it was at least seven years later, in 1648, that the Netherlands forced the Spanish Empire to allow the Netherlands to become independent.

Another reason why Cheng Shijie decided to do it is that now the gun bureau has made a new breakthrough, that is, the real mortar has finally come out.

The large-scale application of steam engine-style machine tools and mechanical equipment, as well as the improvement of spring technology, made it very convenient for soldiers operating long-barreled mortars to finally get rid of the annoying task of stuffing explosives into the barrels, and now they only need to put the long-tail shells into the barrels, release the primer of the nitrocellulose-detonated shells, and the shells will scream and fly towards the enemy.

Although the technology is not very good, nitrocellulose can only be used to replace the lighter firing pin, but compared to the previous bulky heavy artillery, it is already heaven-shattering!

The most important thing is that the whole cannon is made of steel, which is very lightweight, a mortar of the same four-inch caliber can be disassembled and carried by a few people, and a four-inch cannon can make the cow tired and stick out its tongue, let alone carry it by people.

Located in the production factory of the Xishan Gun Bureau outside the capital, Cheng Shijie excitedly looked at the dozens of mortars that had been manufactured, for the time being, the naval guns or army guns under the Ming Dynasty only have three calibers, namely the smallest three-inch gun, four-inch gun, and five-inch gun, which are converted into 94.5 millimeters, 126 millimeters, and 157.5 millimeters in later generations.

The artillery will be such a caliber, that is, because of the standardization of the Ming Dynasty, and now with the increasing influence of the Ming Dynasty, the stone is a unit of measurement grain, which has basically formed a consensus all over the world, and the length units are also steps, rulers, and zhangs, as for the difficulty of conversion, it is a bit difficult, and there is no way.

Who makes Daming strong now? Because the Ming Dynasty is strong and has too much influence, the land area is mostly mu, tilt and other units, and there are very few square meters.

Cheng Shijie excitedly patted the swarthy mortar, and said to Bi Maokang, the current director of the Gun Bureau: "You have made a great contribution!" With this weapon, our army can be supported by powerful artillery even in the mountains, and a few of these guns may be able to turn the tide of a battle and save the lives of thousands of soldiers! ”

Bi Mao Kang word Menghou, the eastern suburbs, Shexian passerby, Ming Wanli twenty-six years (1598) Jinshi, awarded the middle scholar, after the relocation of Guangxi Province to supervise the imperial history, the right to the imperial history, Shaanxi patrol, Shandong patrol salt imperial history. In the early years of Chongzhen, he was appointed as the political envoy of Nanjing, and he was promoted to the right attendant of the military department. When saying goodbye, Emperor Chongzhen ordered the Wugang car, Shenfei cannon, etc. After the armament was completed, he edited the "Illustrated Description of Weapons" to enter Emperor Chongzhen. Because of his meritorious service, he was promoted to the right servant of Nanjing's household department, and the governor of the grain was not returned with the eunuchs.

Later, Cheng Shijie asked Bi Maokang to come back, served as the director of the Gun Bureau and concurrently served as the secretary of the Ministry of Machinery, entered the cabinet of the Dingxin Dynasty, and became one of the cabinet ministers.

Bi Maokang said puzzledly: "This kind of lightning cannon has a fast shooting speed, small size, light weight, and simple structure, which can be described as having many advantages, but it is not very powerful, it is far worse than the cannon, and the minister thinks that it does not have the significance of a large number of equipment!" ”

Cheng Shijie shook his head: "No, although its lethality is weak, its deployment is very flexible, and after dismantling it, several soldiers can carry it all over the mountain, which can not be done by any cannon, mountain artillery, or field artillery, which is very important!" You allocate some manpower and machinery to come out, and then set up a branch factory to produce this kind of ...... Oh, you call it a lightning cannon, build a branch factory to produce this kind of lightning cannon! ”

Bi Maokang was a little puzzled, this kind of cannon he personally tested, easy to operate, the rate of fire is also very fast, and at the same time strong and durable, but the power can only be said to be average, he thinks that with the increasing maturity of artillery technology, the weight of the three-inch millimeter cannon is further reduced, this kind of lightning cannon should be withdrawn from the equipment sequence, why does Cheng Shijie attach so much importance to it?

Cheng Shijie thought for a while, and added: "By the way, after it is put into production in large quantities, you should try to develop a smaller caliber of lightning artillery, nine or eight centi, it doesn't matter if the range is shorter, the important thing is that it must be lightweight, durable and cheap, in the future, the troops will be equipped with a large number of equipment, it is too expensive for everyone to afford!" ”

Bi Maokang couldn't help but ask: "Is this cannon really worth mass production?" ”

Cheng Shijie smiled and said: "You haven't been in the army, you don't know its value...... Just do what I say! ”

Bi Maokang had no choice but to comply, and after Cheng Shijie left, he allocated manpower and machinery to set up a branch factory, which was responsible for manufacturing and improving this cheap and slag-free lightning cannon.

Cheng Shijie originally wanted to teach the Dutch a lesson first, and let Anthony lower his requirements when he negotiated, but Cheng Shijie's order had not yet reached the troops, and he fought first in Zhanzhou, that is, Australia.

With a large number of immigrants and labor prisoners coming to Zhanzhou, the animals in Zhanzhou have also opened everyone's eyes. Kangaroos are not an uncommon thing for a long time, and when you see groups of kangaroos, your first reaction is that the meat tastes almost the same as beef, a little fishy, a little disgusting.

However, the thylacine, whose fur is strangely striped, the koala that hangs on the eucalyptus tree all day long and eats the young leaves, and the bandicoot, which has a pair of huge rabbit ears but looks like a mouse, all surprised the prisoners and opened their eyes.

Everyone also found that in addition to the evolution of a nursery bag in Australian animals without saying a word, they are docile and easy to bully.

For example, the thylacine is very thin, and it is very questionable whether it can beat the hound in the Ming Dynasty. There is also a koala, who hangs himself on a tree all day long, and is not afraid to see someone approaching, so he stares at the visitor with a pair of eyes full of curiosity, and is very cute.

The Dutch are also interested in these Australian animals, and they are interested in hunting them and then taxidermy them and bringing them back, even the adorable koalas.

This barbaric move made the Ming personnel very angry, and a quarrel broke out between the two sides, the Dutch said that they were going to bring these specimens back for study, all for science, and the Ming people said that Zhanzhou was the territory of the Ming Dynasty, and anything on this land was the territory of the Ming Dynasty, and they were invading the territory of the Ming Dynasty.

This is also caused by the difference between the traditional concepts of China and Europe, in the concept of the Ming people, the dead are the greatest, and they should be sent to the end of their favorite things, even if it is a cat or a dog, and let it be buried in the ground, and it is unbearable to make a corpse into a specimen, even if it is eaten is better than this.

After the Renaissance in Europe, the atmosphere of scientific research became increasingly strong, and it was a common practice to bring new and exotic species back to the country by specimens, which could not only contribute to scientific research, but also make a fortune if they encountered the cultivation of rare objects.

The clash of ideas makes both sides think that the other is unreasonable, and the quarrel is extremely intense.

Fortunately, the Dutch were also very restrained and did not break out into a head-on conflict, but the problem was that until this day, Chen Dachun, a patrolling Ming soldier, found that several koalas were hit by muskets, and the large-caliber muskets smashed the koalas' heads: "This is the damn Dutchman who did it!" ”

There is no way, Zhan Zhou is too big, although the number of Ming people in Zhan Zhou is more than one million, but one million people is too small for Zhan Zhou.

Chen Dachun reported the phenomenon and proposed to protest to the Dutch.

Chen Dachun's boss killed Huang Yulang, the son of Huang Sizheng, a guerrilla general of the Dongjiang Army.

Huang Yulang said: "Da Chun, you are a kind person, but your kind of thinking will put you in a very dangerous situation!" You know, there are too many very barbaric countries and tribes in the world, one of their characteristics is that they don't remember well, you are good to them, they dig out their hearts to kill you, and you beat them, slaughter several tribes, they are obedient to you! You are so bent on being good to everyone that everyone will take you for a fool......"

Chen Dachun explained: "I'm not that stupid! I'm ......."

"It's not an explanation, everyone knows it!"

Huang Yulang said: "You can't be polite to the Dutch at all, if you don't do it, you will be killed." ”

It's just that when the Ming army stationed in Zhanzhou wanted to make a move, it was found that the strategic transfer of the fleet of the Dutch expedition came resolutely and quickly, which greatly surprised the Zhanzhou army. But the determination of the Zhanzhou army to eliminate them, the speed with which they responded, and the decisiveness with which they acted were also greatly surprising to the Dutch.

The Dutch expedition that had left Zhanzhou had left more than seven hours earlier than the Ming army, and when the Dutch had enjoyed a good meal and began to fall asleep, the vanguard of the Zhanzhou fleet had already appeared in their sight.

Running at the front, it was not the warship of the Ming army, but the armed merchant ship Oriental, which belonged to the Liaodong Oriental Firm, although the Orient was an armed merchant ship, it was a 6,000-material ship, equipped with twenty-four heavy naval guns, of course, this was the backward Hongyi cannon purchased.

Zhang Chen, the big shopkeeper of the Oriental Company, likes koalas, but the two koalas died unexpectedly, Zhang Chen was sad for a long time, and the guys of the Oriental Company blamed themselves very much, and naturally they would not let them go for the murderer of the koalas. 、

"Shoot ......"

The Dutch soldiers screamed and scurried around like flies caught by man, even hitting a piece solidly. Some of the fellows trembled, kneeling on the ground and making wild crosses, their faces as earthy as they muttered to themselves begging God to bless.

The damage caused to them by the shelling was actually not large, but it almost made them psychologically broken, there was no way, there were too many warships of the Ming Dynasty, they were overwhelming and dense, as far as the eye could see, not only warships, but also a considerable number of merchant ships, fishing boats, and civilian ships. (End of chapter)