The wind moved south, which accelerated Li Xiao's ship's speed much faster. Because he hijacked Shen Zhixiang's fleet to escort, Li Xiao's next trip to Shandong was very smooth. After the seventh day, he arrived at the beach in Mating Town, Dengzhou.

Along the way, Shen Zhixiang, Wang Tingrui and Yuan Anbang were all detained by Li Xiao on the No. 2 Fu Ship. There were these three heavyweight hostages, and Li Xiao was not worried that the Ming army navy would have any dissatisfaction.

Sure enough, when they reached the coast of Dengzhou, three Ming army naval ships followed the boats honestly without any abnormal movement. After arriving at the coast of Dengzhou, Shen Zhixiang and others thought they could finally return to Dongjiang Town, but Li Xiao made a request to them.

That is, sell some of the cannons and muskets from these three ships to him.

"General Li, how can this be done! These cannons and muskets are essential items for my navy ships, so how can I resell them?" The guerrilla Yuan Anbang took the lead in opposing it, his words were quite sad.

"Hmph! You Dongjiang Town, what can you do if you sell some of the artillery guns to our army? Besides, the court will equip you with firearms every year, and you will replenish them, but it's a good idea." Li Xiao gave Yuan Anbang a cold look.

"Forget it, people are under the eaves, so why don't you bow your head?" Shen Zhixiang sighed next to him and said slowly: "Now, we are just hostages of General Li. Even our lives are in the hands of your army. What else can we say?"

Seeing that he was so pitiful, Li Xiao sneered, "Director General Chen doesn't have to be so aggrieved. I, Li Xiao, have never been a person who forced me to take over. Everyone is still the official army of the Ming Dynasty, so we should pay attention to the exchange of etiquette. The cannons and muskets I chose will be returned to you at the same price. If you sell these southern silks in the north in the future, you may have a lot of money."

After Li Xiao finished speaking, Shen Zhixiang's eyes lit up.

Li Xiao is still a very reasonable person. If he really exchanges silk with me, he will secretly sell these silk to the gold in the future, but he can still make a lot of money.

Shen Zhixiang was secretly happy. He changed his tone and said, "Li Zhuang is polite. Everyone is serving the Ming Dynasty. It should be together. Chen can help the army, but he is also very happy."

Wang Tingrui next to him took the speech and said in detail to Li Xiao: "Li Qianhu, the weapons and equipment of my three ships are as follows. Among them, there are 6 Red Armor cannons, 30 thousand jin Francs, 18 bowl guns, 50 Thunder cannons, 120 spray drums, 30 Lumi guns, 500 crossbow arrows, 30 gunpowder crossbows, 550 Shenxing rockets, 350 asphalt fire bricks, and also swords, guns and shields..."

"No need to say more, I will only choose what our army really needs, and I don't want to hear your endorsement here." Li Xiao waved his hand to interrupt him, which made Wang Tingrui quite embarrassed.

Finally, after Li Xiao personally selected, Li Xiao selected 6 well-made and newer red cannons, 10 Francs, 10 tiger squat cannons, 60 Lumi guns, and a large number of solid iron bullets and gunpowder lead bullets from these three Ming army naval ships.

Other firearms such as Thunder Cannons and Bowl Guns were not selected because of their rough workmanship and old appearance. However, Li Xiao didn't choose any of the early firearms such as the nozzle drums and the Shenxing Rockets. Li Xiao thought that they were already outdated and had little lethality, so he didn't want them.

Among the firearms chosen by Li Xiao, the ones that Li Xiao liked the most were the Red Cannon and the Lumi Gun.

The Red-Body Cannon, also known as the Red-Clothed Cannon, is a front-mounted smooth-bore cannon that was passed down from Europe to the Ming Dynasty in the early 16th century. Cheng Ziyi of the Ming Dynasty once described this cannon in detail: "The Western Red-Body Cannon was made by Xiangshan Ao Western Barbarians. Its construction is clever, and the copper and iron are extremely refined, the size is proportional, the thickness is appropriate, and the horns are square, and all are good. The method of making gunpowder is even more skillful, and the people who fire cannons are used to it. The cannons have three: the number one is one zhang long, the gun mouth is slightly raised, and it can reach 16 miles; the number two is eight feet long, and the gun mouth is slightly raised, and it can reach 12 miles; the number three is six feet long, and the gun mouth is slightly raised, and it can reach 8 miles. The available formations of this number can be killed and killed more than one life. All the thieves are scared when they hear it. There has never been such a top weapon since ancient times. Those who have ambitions to the battlefield should be familiar with it."

As can be seen from the above documents, the red and barbarian cannons can be roughly divided into three types according to specifications. Calculated by one mile of the Ming Dynasty, the largest red and barbarian cannons can attack 8 kilometers away, and the smallest red and barbarian cannons can also attack 4 kilometers away. In fact, after later firearm experts, this is an exaggeration. According to repeated tests, the historical community now generally believes that the Ming Dynasty's red and barbarian cannons can reach 2.5 kilometers. However, the actual controllable effective range is within 1,600 meters.

When the red cannons were famous, Nurhaci was seriously injured for the 12 red cannons placed on the head of Ningyuan City in the past.

In fact, at that time, this batch of 26 red cannons, a total of 26 red cannons were salvaged from the "unicorn" shipwreck of the British East India Company. Among the 26 red cannons, 12 of them were the best quality, and were transported to Liaodong thousands of miles away and placed on the head of Ningyuan City. In the end, Nurhaci was seriously injured, which made the Ming court very excited. In fact, this red cannon was still an early product, with an effective range of only 500 meters and a farthest distance of only 1.5 kilometers. The Ming army was able to kill old slaves, which was indeed lucky.

After tasting the sweetness of the Ming Dynasty, the monarchs and ministers of the Ming Dynasty began to order such cannons from Westerners in large numbers. However, the purchase price of the red cannon was extremely expensive. During the Tianqi period, Xu Guangqi ordered a large number of red cannons weighing 10 kilograms from Westerners. At that time, each red cannon was priced at 2,000 taels of silver, including a copper-core red cannon weighing 7,000 kilograms. The solid cannon used weighed 23 kilograms, and the price was as high as 8,000 taels!

The red cannons that Li Xiao chose now are all the new three thousand kilograms of red cannons weighing more than 3,000 kilograms, about 3 meters long, and a diameter of 110-130 mm. These giant cannons were sold at nearly 3,000 taels per porch at that time. This kind of red cannon was a large-scale cast in Dengzhou when the firearm expert Sun Yuanhua was the governor of Denglai. Both the Dengzhou army and Dongjiang Town were equipped with them. Moreover, because they used measurement and calculation tools such as the thousand-mile mirror, the degree of torque, and the gun plaque, the targets can be accurately positioned to ensure that they can be shot accurately and fiercely. For targets within 1.5 kilometers, precise strikes can be carried out.

Li Xiao suddenly thought that on that day, the court spent countless silver and money and hired the Portuguese as a teacher to train the new firearms troops. They did not kill any Tartar soldiers or soldiers. However, under the threat of Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming and others, they first made rebellions in Shandong, and then rebelled and defected to the Qing Dynasty, which became a huge nightmare that the Ming Dynasty could not get rid of. Countless loyal and brave Ming Dynasty official troops died in the hands of the elite rebels who spent countless silver and hard work in the court. After the rebels surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, they brought the latest artillery and operation technology to the Later Jin Dynasty, which made the already powerful Later Jin Dynasty even more powerful. The decline of luck in the late Ming Dynasty was enough to make people sigh!

Compared with the famous Red Cannon, the Lumi Gun is much less famous. The reason why Li Xiao chose to leave this kind of musket was to consider the development of the army.

The Lumi gun is a new type of firearm developed by Zhao Shizhen, a master of firearms in the Ming Dynasty. Its prototype is the Misterk heavy mesh gun paid tribute to the Turkish Lumi Kingdom (Ottoman Empire). In 1598 (the 26th year of Wanli), Zhao Shizhen asked the Lumi messenger Duosima to ask the Lumi Kingdom for the structure and production methods of the Lumi Kingdom. After improvement, it was made into the "Lumi Gun".

Of course, Li Xiao is not a gun expert, and his understanding of Lumi guns is limited to this. The reason why he decided not to make rough ordinary muskets, but to transport all the Lumi guns equipped on these three ships back to the shore, just because he remembered that there was a comment on this kind of gun in "Wu Beizhi": "Only Lumi guns are the farthest and most poisonous."

Li Xiao saw that the Lumi gun was made of all good-made iron forged, with a double-layer gun barrel, and the body was integrated. The gun body was heavier, the diameter was smaller, the appearance was slender, and the black and shiny. It made people love it when they were held in their hands.

According to research by firearm experts in modern society, this well-made Ming Dynasty Lumi gun can have a range of 150 steps, and the initial speed of the projectile is extremely high, which is basically the same as that of later rifles. At this time, ordinary muskets can basically only hit a distance of 60 steps. Even the firearms used by the Qing army in the Opium War in the later years may not be stronger than the Lumi gun in performance.

Li Xiao believes that this Lumi gun, which can shoot the enemy from a distance, should be the key development direction of Li Xiao's muskets in the future.

Li Xiao, who got the firearm, was in a good mood and made the next price negotiation much smoother.

The 6 red cannons are calculated at 2,500 taels of silver per cannon, totaling 15,000 taels.

There are 10 Francophones and 10 tiger squat cannons, each of which is calculated at 450 taels, totaling 9,000 taels.

There are 60 Lumi guns, calculated at 25 taels per piece, totaling 1,500 taels.

The rest of the piles of black gunpowder, hundreds of solid 10 kilograms of bullets, more than two thousand ordinary 3 to 6 kilograms of iron bullets, and more than 3,000 Lumi lead projectiles, the total price is 1,300 taels.

Then, the total price is 26,800 taels.

"President Li, this price is already a loss, but don't think it's expensive." After Yuan Anbang saw that the price was quoted, Li Xiao pondered and whispered in a low voice.

He made up his mind that if Li Xiao insisted on lowering the price, he would sell him 25,000 taels or even 20,000 taels to Li Xiao, who would let his life be held in his hands?

"Haha, Yuan Guerrilla thought too much, Li is not the one who deducted the robbery. Let's do this, Li adds a little more to you, and it's only 27,000 taels of silver. Our army exchanges 10 taels of silk for each piece of silk, and a total of 2,700 taels of exchange for you. However, you have to leave a master who understands firearms for our army." Li Xiao had a smile on his face, but his words were filled with irrefutable pressure.

"Okay! Li takes the general's work as a pleasure, so Shen treats it as a friend." Seeing that Li Xiao was so generous, Shen Zhixiang was willing to trade 2,700 pieces of silk for exchange, and was very happy.

He knew that if these 2,700 pieces of silk were sold secretly to the gold, each piece could be earned at least twice as much as possible. In this way, it would be equivalent to more than 50,000 taels of white silver, which could be easily delivered to his pocket.

Besides, the firearms that Li Xiao took away did not need to be paid for by himself. Shen Zhixiang thought to himself that he only needed to report upwards and said that these firearms were damaged by fighting against the enemy, so he should be fine. After all, he reselled the firearms occasionally, so it would not be too eye-catching. At that time, he could wait for the court to pull them out again.

This is simply a business of making money from nothing.

Damn, it seems that you will have to have a good relationship with this little Li Xiao in the future. This guy is simply his God of Wealth.

Shen Zhixiang's face showed the most comfortable and joyful smile in many days. He then pulled out a thin-faced person from a group of soldiers, but with a very vivid eyes, and then said to Li Xiao: "General Li, this person's name is Zhao Jie, and he has a lot of research on firearms. He escaped from the rebel camp in Dengzhou that day and then entered my Dongjiang Town to make firearms. Today, I will leave this person to you."

After Shen Zhixiang finished speaking, he shouted to Zhao Jie again: "Why are you still standing there? Have you seen Lord Li quickly!"

Zhao Jie hurriedly turned to worship, but was supported by Li Xiao.

"Don't do this, Zhao Zaozuo, I hope to do my best to work for our army in the future." Li Xiao smiled gently.

Li Xiao's kind words made Zhao Jie feel warm. He said anxiously: "Mr. Li values ​​it so much, and he is determined to let our army do everything possible."

After Li Xiao ordered all the firearms and ammunition needed to load and unload all the required firearms and ammunition to the shore, Shen Zhixiang and others brought the 2,700 pieces of silk sent by Li Xiao and led their three ships off the shore.

Li Xiao looked at the No. 1 blessed ship Shen Zhixiang was riding on the departing, his eyes full of envy.

This No. 1 Fu Ship was the most core and main warship of the Ming army at this time. It was twenty-five zhang long, six zhang and six feet wide, with a draft of two zhang and one foot. It was divided into thirty-three cabins, with heads raised and tail raised. The surface of the ship was as high as a city, with five masts standing in front and back. The large mast was 9 zhang and 8 feet long, the secondary mast was 7 zhang and 5 feet long, and the small mast was 5 zhang and 3 feet long. According to the Ming Dynasty, each zhang was about 3.3 meters, readers can imagine how huge this No. 1 Fu Ship warship was.

It is precisely because of its huge size that it can carry a large number of military and weapons, which is the most ideal naval warship in Li Xiao's heart.

Along the way, Li Xiao had never thought of seizing Shen Zhixiang's No. 1 lucky ship, but after careful consideration, he did not do this.

After all, if you are so ugly that you can swallow this No. 1 lucky ship, which is a giant ship, into your stomach, then Dongjiang Town is afraid that you will regard yourself as your mortal enemy. If Dongjiang Town sends troops to attack, its strength is too weak now and it will definitely be difficult to fight. Then your series of great achievements will probably die before you even start.

This is also the reason why Li Xiao did not move all the cannons on Shen Zhixiang's three ships in one breath and was willing to use silk to exchange firearms. This method is all to dispel the other party's hostility as much as possible.

Li Xiao always believed that when his strength is weak, unless there is no way, he should try not to provoke opponents stronger than him. After all, it is better to take a look at the scenery in the long run.

Multiple opponents are not as good as multiple friends. This principle is especially effective when you are weak.

What surprised Li Xiao was that after Shen Zhixiang and others left, they praised Wu Liang and brought a large group of civilians who were pulling a carriage to the beach to assist Li Xiao's entire army in carrying items.

It turned out that Wu Liang and the others arrived at Longkoudun one day earlier than themselves. Seeing that the pier was extremely broken and could not live in, Wu Liang immediately recruited craftsmen from Mating Town and other places, transported straw boards and assembled straw sheds, so that everyone could have a place to settle down first.

At the same time, Wu Liang sent some light cavalry and had been patrolling the coast in the past two days. Wu Liang asked them to report if a ship came.

Wu Liang had only waited for one day before Li Xiao's ship arrived. He was very happy and immediately sent the civilians to help transport Li Xiaojun's goods.

Li Xiao and Wu Liang and others greeted each other for a while, and immediately ordered that only satin, cloth, fur, east beads, musk, ginseng and other items be left on the ship, ready to be transported to Laizhou, Dengzhou and other places for sale. The other gold, silver and wealth were loaded into the car and transported to Longkoudun.
Chapter completed!