Before Lu Shitou's plan came into effect, Xu Xinsu had gained something in various places in Fujian. Since Yin Feng had decided to split the stock price into 500 taels of silver per share, the threshold for shares was lowered, and more small businessmen could buy shares.
Therefore, Xu Xinsu raised nearly 40,000 taels of silver in a short period of time from various places in southern Fujian.
Zeng Yue's younger brother, Zeng Rui, was the youngest boy in the Zeng family. He once supervised shipbuilding for Yin Feng in Quanzhou. The young man was not interested in becoming an official in the imperial examination, but he was very interested in shipbuilding, firearms and other crafty things.
Interested. On this day, he came to Taiwan on a fishing boat. After landing at Tainan Port, he went straight to find Yin Feng's residence. However, Mai Waner told him that Yin Feng had gone to Taipei Port, oh, that's what everyone often says.
Yingang, they said they were going to inspect some warships. Zeng Rui was actually entrusted by Zeng Ke to give Yin Feng money for shares. When the company was originally established, the Zeng family did not invest in the company, but they tacitly allowed Yin Feng to use the Zeng family firm.
network and business channels.
After Zeng Qi officially became an official in Yazhou Prefecture and returned home, Zeng Jingshan told him about the company's origins and goals. Now, after repeated thinking and weighing, the Zeng family finally spent 30,000 taels of silver to become a shareholder. Zeng Rui
Thinking that this matter was very important and I had to explain it to Yin Feng in person, I asked a servant of the Yin family to lead the way, and early the next morning I took a carriage and rushed to the "Taipei Port" in the north.
As soon as he left the wooden wall surrounding the city, he heard bursts of thunder, explosions, and smoke rising from a river beach nearby. Zeng Rui was shocked and quickly asked his servant to rein in the carriage and asked: "Is this
What's the sound? It sounds like the sound of a firearm being discharged?"
This servant of the Yin family was originally from the Zeng family, and was brought to Yin Feng's house to serve his wife Zeng Jing. He smiled and said, "Young master, there is no need to panic, this is my uncle's escort team training to shoot muskets."
Zeng Rui's interest in all kinds of strange and obscene tricks was aroused: "Let's go and take a look."
The servant looked troubled: "Master, you can only watch from a distance, not close."
Zeng Rui urged: "Go if I tell you to. I am Brother Feng's brother-in-law, can they still give me this face?"
While urging the carriage, the servant shook his head and said, "It's useless. These guards don't recognize their relatives. Just watch."
Sure enough, when it was still two miles away from the river beach, the carriage was stopped by several guards in black armed with spears, who refused to let them go any further. When Zeng Rui revealed his identity, the other party rolled his eyes at him.
In one sentence: "Don't get close to important military areas."
There were bursts of gunshots on the river beach, which made Zeng Rui feel itchy. But the group of guards in front of him who did not recognize his relatives were simply unwilling to let him go forward.
"The captain of the ship strictly ordered that without his warrant, no one is allowed to pry into the military affairs. Violators will be punished as spies." A small guard member who seemed to be a small leader stepped forward and said sternly: "Since you are the brother-in-law of our ship owner, then you still have to invite me.
Go back and ask the captain for a warrant. We are on duty, so don’t make things difficult for us."
Zeng Rui had no choice but to turn back and continue his journey to Yingang. He murmured: "Brother Feng, what kind of convoy did you do? It's so disciplined and hidden... Why is the convoy called the convoy?"
"
The servant said: "It is said that this name is temporary and will have to be changed in the future."
Most of the main members of the escort are refugees from the original Luzon Island, including pirate gang brothers, craftsmen, shop assistants, coolies or farmers. There are also those victims who cannot survive who were recruited from various places in Quanzhou and Zhangzhou at the beginning of this year.
The generous salary attracted him, and he was willing to serve as a soldier. The instructors were more than a dozen old Portuguese mercenaries who had recently arrived, and several members of the Danfolk Sailor Musketeers were auxiliary instructors.
The Zhao brothers from Zhaojiao have just joined the escort team more than ten days ago and are currently undergoing rigorous training.
At present, Yin Feng's troops have not yet completed their establishment. More than 1,200 people are divided into 12 hundred-man teams, of which 6 teams are conducting musketeer training, 4 teams are conducting spear assassination training, and 2 teams are conducting professional artillery training. In the early stage,
Before the muskets arrived, everyone was training with models. Now that 300 Siamese matchlocks are in place, and 50 homemade flintlock muskets, the musketeers can already conduct live ammunition training. On the contrary, the artillery team has already been training with live ammunition.
trained, but after all, Coutre was not a professional artilleryman, and his level was so-so. Now that the professional Portuguese artillery had arrived, it was natural to strengthen the live-fire training. Yin Feng was not stingy with the use of funds for the escort. In addition to emphasizing military discipline, he also emphasized
Live fire training.
Yin Feng firmly controls everything about the escort; political power comes from the barrel of a gun. He remembers the famous saying of later generations. In fact, in this era, the gap in military technology between the East and the West is gradually widening.
On the island of Taiwan, he was the only one who clearly understood the military and technical situation at that time. Yin Feng had not fully considered what he needed to do to catch up. Anyway, in terms of weapons technology and troop tactics, the use of firearms was becoming more and more important.
This should be correct, so he spent a lot of money to completely weaponize his troops.
…
Yingang, the original pirate den, is now the home of the Chinese United Company's war fleet.
A brand new warship is moored in the port.
It is indeed a brand-new warship. The hull has a pointed nose and square tail shape that combines Chinese and Western styles. The length-to-width ratio is more than 6:1, which is suitable for fast travel. Like a large Fuchuan, all the towering buildings on the ship have been cancelled. There is a steering cabin at the stern and a steering wheel is used.
By controlling a runner system, you can easily control the rudder. The two masts are hung with soft cloth sails and Chinese-style hard sails, combining Chinese and Western styles. The forward mainmast has a bucket, and the Western-style soft sail on the mizzen mast has a jib on the top.
There are other auxiliary sails. Since the hull adopts a structure of keel combined with ribs, traditional Fuchuan has no rib structure and uses transverse bulkheads as the lateral support structure. This warship is much stronger in transverse structure than traditional Fuchuan.
And because a large number of iron materials are used as fasteners, this may be the first ship in China to adopt a combined structure of wood and metal.
Due to the support of the rib structure, there is no need to worry about cracks and leaks in the hull after several cannon salvos like the Xinxing. Therefore, this new battleship with a displacement of about 800 tons has 15 gun windows on each side, plus the bow
There is one cannon at each stern of the ship, and a total of 32 cannons are equipped.
Yin Feng was at the bow of the ship, naming the battleship "Flying Dragon" and appointing Ye Hua as captain. Ye Hua, a good long-distance swimmer, initially qualified as a captain under the training of Captain Barreto Jr. of Portugal.
Today is the maiden voyage of the "Flying Dragon" and the first sortie. The target is the Japanese Zhuin ship.
At that time, although Japan's Tokugawa shogunate had a tendency to close the country, it was still thinking about expanding overseas. However, due to backward shipbuilding technology, it could only build river ships and coastal ships, but never ocean-going ships. So the Japanese took advantage of the opportunity to go to Xiamen.
They began to build their Nanyang trading ships based on the ship. The Tokugawa shogunate issued the "Exotic Sea Crossing Seal" to the ship merchants, and the ships were allowed to go to Annam, Siam, Luzon, Cambodia and other Southeast Asian countries for trading activities. Keicho 9
In the 32 years after 1604, there were a total of 356 ships, an average of 11 ships per year. The shipowners were mainly southwestern daimyo, shogunate officials, and wealthy domestic and foreign merchants.
This type of ship is collectively called a Zhuin ship, and there are different ship types based on the names of the shipowners' families, including the so-called Kadokura ship, Araki ship, and Sueyoshi ship. Many Zhuin ships use the sails of Chinese ships, and the internal structure of Japanese "Yamato-type" ships
, there are even Chinese-style hard sails, Western-style soft sails and Japanese-style canvas on one ship, turning it into a "Chinese, Western and Japanese" hybrid. This kind of bad taste is probably only shared by the Japanese.
Japan's Zhuinship trading fleet to Southeast Asia is generally believed to have been started by Toyotomi Hideyoshi in the first year of Bunroku (1592). The Zhuinshipe imported Chinese goods such as raw silk, Juan fabrics, cotton fabrics, woolen fabrics, shark skin, ivory, pepper, water, etc.
Horns, lead, medicine and other Southeast Asian commodities. The output is mainly silver, copper, iron, sulfur and other minerals. Others include swords, handicrafts, etc.
The most eye-catching historical fact is: At that time, Japan was one of the few silver-producing countries in the world, with considerable purchasing power, which was a great threat to Western businessmen in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Spain and other countries. Japan’s domestic handicraft products were exported abroad.
There were not many of them, and Zhuyin ships often departed loaded with silver, sulfur, and returned home loaded with silk and other goods.
Yin Feng's "Flying Dragon" will set up an ambush in the Taiwan Strait, waiting for the Zhuyin ship's full warehouse of silver to arrive.
In addition to the Feilong, the Xinxing also attacked together. The two ships simultaneously hoisted the black pirate skull and crossbones flag, as well as the Dutch tricolor flag, pretending to be a Dutch warship that had not arrived in the Taiwan Strait at this time. Anyway, both ships were
It is a combination of Chinese and Western styles, so even if you pretend to be a Dutch ship, you won't be exposed.
Lu Shitou accompanied a middle-aged man in Confucian robes to the bow of the ship. Yin Feng was looking around with a telescope on the bow of the ship. When he heard the sound, he turned around and bowed quickly: "Thank you for your hard work, Mr. Lu. I'm glad you led the way myself."
.Will this Japanese red seal ship definitely come to Jingang in the next few days?"
Mr. Lu's full name is Lu Yun, with the courtesy name Xiaohan. He is the business agent of the King of Ryukyu Kingdom on Okinawa. He is a Chinese with surname 36 from Fujian who immigrated to Ryukyu in the early Ming Dynasty. He has been doing business in China, Southeast Asia and other places for many years. He and Lu Shitou are
We are old acquaintances and have dealt with each other in Hong Kong, Taiwan.
He quickly raised his hands and saluted: "Where is it? It's just a little effort, not hard work. The Satsuma clan has oppressed our Ryukyu Kingdom for many years, and I am also exporting bad breath to the people of the country. Originally, the Zhuin ship would add water from Ryukyu and go directly south to Luzon or
Nanyang, the sailors on the ship this time are Chinese recruited from our Ryukyu Kingdom, and they are only familiar with the waterway leading to Jingang, so they will definitely pass by here."
He paused and then said: "Because Japanese ships are too small and not suitable for sailing on the ocean, the Satsuma lord bought a Chinese sailing ship that can carry 180 people and hired a Tang captain to sail. What should the captain do with these Chinese people?
?”
Yin Feng smiled and said: "I am also a Tang Dynasty doing business overseas. Naturally, I will not kill my compatriots indiscriminately."
Lu Yun nodded: "The captain is kind and loyal. I have heard about it for a long time. That's good..."
Yin Feng shook his head and said: "It's just that these crew members can't just let them go home easily, and of course they can't go back to Japan. After all, our Chinese company doesn't have the ability to fight against the Japanese country yet."
"There's nothing we can do about it..." Lu Yun lowered his head and muttered a few words.