My Daming New Empire

Page 421

In a naval battle, two-thirds of the artillery shells prepared by Daming were fired.Today's cannonball polishing is not an easy task, there is no special machinery, almost all rely on manual labor.

In Daming, this matter is not difficult to handle. There are specialized stonemasons, an apprentice chisels out the rough shape, and an old stonemason polishes it. Two people can produce four qualified shells in one day.

But here, it is difficult to produce even one qualified one per day.

Huang Yuan didn't think about this problem at all at first, which led to the slow efficiency now.

Zhu Zhanji did not blame him, and said: "I was negligent about this problem at the beginning. At that time, I only thought of preparing enough gunpowder, and only thought that stones were everywhere, and it could be made by just finding some people. Since it takes a while Time to polish the shells, then I will let Zheng He lead a fleet to Tianfang..."

"It's enough to give them half a month. Within half a month, they will definitely be able to replenish the shells."

Zhu Zhanji has also been annoyed by a group of big cannibals recently. Most of them want to borrow the power of Ming Dynasty to destroy the Black Sheep Dynasty and recover Baghdad to the Arabs.

But of course Zhu Zhanji would not agree to this matter. The Black Sheep Dynasty is now in conflict with the Timur Kingdom. It is best to keep the enemy's enemy for the time being.

Without enough benefits, Daming would not use weapons.

As for the oil here, there is not even an internal combustion engine now, so oil is useless.Zhu Zhanji didn't know whether he could produce a qualified internal combustion engine until he was old. He would record these problems in his suicide note in the future, so that future generations could be more vigilant.

There was also the issue of the Suez Canal, he didn't want to open it at all, he would rather let the Ming Fleet bypass the whole of Africa to go to Europe.

If the Suez Canal was opened, then Ming would occupy South Africa, wouldn't there be no businessmen willing to leave!

Many decisions will involve the development of later generations. The Suez Canal must not be opened before the development of South Africa.

As for the future, he can't control so much.

Zheng He, who got the news, led two thousand cannibals and a fleet to Tianfang, which is the Mecca of later generations.

Of course Zhu Zhanji wouldn't go, if he did, it would be to flatten the place.

After Zheng He and the others left, Zhu Zhanji issued a circular to recruit talents proficient in Spanish.

These people are difficult to meet in the East, but there are many here, especially some businessmen, in addition to Greek, they are also proficient in Italian and Spanish.There are quite a lot of people who want to find talents in the Latin department.

It doesn't take much to recruit these people. If one person gives them a bag of spices, it will take them half a year.

So Zhu Zhanji recruited more than 100 people at once and arranged them in the fleet.

The only trouble is that some of them are proficient in various languages, but they don't understand Minghua, so someone still needs to translate from it.

Zhu Zhanji also tried to communicate in Spanish with a businessman who is proficient in Spanish. After half a day of dialogue, the two could barely communicate.

Although the structure of Old Spanish and later Spanish has not changed much, there are many differences in words and pronunciation.

In his first life, he first learned Spanish in Chile, which is of the same origin as ancient Spanish. It is only a matter of vocabulary and pronunciation. If he does not pursue the speed of speech and communication, he can barely communicate.

And he spoke Xiyi dialect, of course behind other people's backs, only a few close eunuchs knew.

Later, he arranged for several businessmen who are proficient in Italian and Spanish to teach him foreign languages ​​every day.

From here to Europe, it will take a few months at least, and he has the foundation. When he arrives in Europe, there will be no problem with basic dialogue.

But English, he is not going to "learn" anymore. Now the upper class in the UK still speaks French, and few people speak English at all.

In today's Europe, Latin is the lingua franca, as well as Italian, and at least French.

Zhu Zhanji knew Spanish in his previous life and a little bit of Italian in the same language family, so it is not difficult to learn.

As for French, he knows very little and has no interest in learning it.

(I want to write in detail, but I am afraid that the plot will be too long outside. I have been a little out of control in the past few days.)

Thanks for the bamboo sticks, Aweizi, seeing people with lights, Sixiang salted fish guns for the rewards, thank you for your support

Chapter 43 Bypassing Africa

After confirming that the only country that intercepted the Ming fleet was Timur, the plunder of trading points by Ming could be called very civilized, because Ming carefully screened all industries, belonging to the Kurumus and Black Sheep dynasties Most of the industry has not moved.

But even so, Saifuddin of Khurmos was afraid that Shahru would settle accounts with him, so he took the initiative to take out nearly 5 taels of gold, and arranged his youngest son and a group of descendants of close ministers into the Ming fleet .

These wealth and manpower can be regarded as a way out for their future.

Although Zhu Zhanji has no intention of protecting them, he will not let go of the opportunity to intervene here.

As long as these people are in Daming's hands, they will have the opportunity to intervene here at any time in the future.

As for gold, Zhu Zhanji never paid attention to it. 5 taels of gold is a lot of wealth for an individual, but it is just a drop in the bucket for a country.

In terms of the price of gold in future generations, 5 taels of gold is only one and a half tons, and at most it is more than 3 million yuan.Three hundred million yuan is a lot for a person, but it is not worth mentioning for a country.

There are millions of taels of gold circulating in the entire Ming Dynasty.What's more, for a country, gold is just a measure of social wealth, not how useful these gold can be.

Although the national treasury of Daming is not abundant now, there is only one Beimingshan copper mine, which can produce 10,000+ taels of gold every year. When the gold mines in Nanyang and Nanzhou start to be developed, the annual gold output will reach more than one million taels.

Therefore, I will not covet their little gold.

Of course Saifuddin also saw this, so I am not afraid that Zhu Zhanji has any bad intentions. The quantity of goods they trade each time is more than this number.

Zhu Zhanji arranged them into the fleet, of course not to go to Europe with him, but to arrange for them to go to Daming in the name of envoys.

The fleet going to the West will be completely separated here. Except for the fleet going to Europe and the goods traded with Europe, other cargo ships will have to return.

There are not a lot of goods traded in Southeast Asia and India, including here. Many cargo ships are already fully loaded, and there is no need to trade with Europe.

After careful inventory, most of the cargo ships had to return to Daming by the same route. The European fleet was mainly warships, and there were less than a hundred cargo ships full of spices, porcelain, tea, silk, and iron.

In order to escort these cargo ships back, the Navy will deploy two military guards and 1000 people to escort these cargo ships and some merchants back, and all these people will be led by Zhu Zhanji's chief steward, Jin Kuo.

Jin Kuo is the chief eunuch, in the ranks of the former eunuchs, he is at the same level as Zheng He, and his status is high enough.

The more important thing is that he is loyal. This time he robbed 10,000+ taels of gold in Hulumos, and there are more valuable goods than these golds.

In addition to the transaction in India, the returned fleet is fully loaded with more than one million taels of gold, so it must be delivered by a trustworthy person.

Moreover, Zhu Zhanji will not return to the country for the time being, and he needs a confidant to go back to help him keep an eye on the country. Jin Kuo is the most suitable candidate.

Besides Jin Kuo, Sun Lin will also return this time.He is in charge of the Information Department, and the focus of his work is to supervise the internal and neighboring countries of Ming Dynasty.

Europe is too far away, and it's not yet time to develop tentacles. Therefore, he can play a greater role if he stays in Daming.

When Zhu Zhanji had arranged these trivial matters, Zheng He and the others also returned from Tianfang.

When they came back, they also brought back some Spanish-speaking businessmen from the Mamluk dynasty, and Zhu Zhanji was also included in the fleet.

Almost all the big cannibals who came to the Western Regions for trade with the caravan returned with the caravan.

At the end of April, the fleet set off again from Horumos, this time traveling all the way south, circumnavigating the entire African continent, and headed for Europe.