Chapter 162 The Second Dealer
Li Nai was about to reply when he saw He Qiang winking at him quietly, then he cupped his fists at Tao Donglai and said, "Please allow us to discuss for a moment."
Tao Donglai knowingly pulled Schneider away to give them some space.
He Qiang whispered: "Third Young Master, you can purchase this item in large quantities!"
Li Nai said in shock: "Why is this? Our militia in Lijiazhuang only has a hundred people. Even if half of them are equipped with this kind of firecrackers, only forty or fifty are enough. It only costs a few hundred taels of silver, and they have it in stock. If If you buy in large quantities, the Haihan people may not be able to supply it immediately.”
He Qiang said: "Third Young Master, this is a good thing. Not only can we keep it for our own use, but we can also resell it and make money!"
Li Nai shook his head and said: "Those military leaders in the army are all cannibals who eat people without spitting out their bones. You might be able to ask them to sell ordnance, but if you ask them to dig into their pockets to buy ordnance... it is absolutely impossible!"
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"Even if they are willing to buy it, how much money can they make by selling it to the military?" He Qiang looked at Tao Donglai and Schneider who were standing in the distance, and continued: "If we sell this thing to Fujian, at least we can make a lot of money." Make twice as much money!”
"You mean...sell it to Shiba Zhi?" Li Nai asked with some uncertainty.
He Qiang nodded and said no more. He believed that for this reason, Li Nai could naturally figure out whether this was feasible.
The so-called Shibazhi is a pirate alliance organized by Zheng Zhilong, a big pirate leader in Fujian. When Zheng Zhilong was young, he traveled around Southeast Asia and worked under the great pirate merchant Li Dan and the Dutch. In 1624, Zheng Zhilong married the daughter of the Japanese pirate leader Yan Siqi and inherited his inheritance after Yan Siqi died the following year. They gathered pirate leaders from all walks of life and established the "Eighteen Zhi", becoming the most powerful armed force in the coastal areas of Fujian. By the way, it is worth mentioning that Zheng Zhilong’s son, the national hero Zheng Chenggong, who was revered by later generations, was born in 1624 and is still in the form of an infant.
After the establishment of Shibazhi, Li Dan also died in August of that year, so all his properties in Taiwan were controlled by Zheng Zhilong, while the properties in Xiamen fell into the hands of maritime merchant Xu Xinsu. At the time when the Crossing Group settled in Sanya, Shibazhi was based in Jingang, Taiwan, constantly fighting with the Ming army along the coast of Fujian and Guangdong, and at the same time attacking Xu Xinsu's maritime power.
"Fu Ruifeng" also has a semicolon business in Fujian, and even has private business dealings with Xu Xinsu and Shibazhi, and is very aware of the situation there. Now Zheng Zhilong and Xu Xinsu are trying their best to eliminate each other and dominate the southeastern sea area. They have a huge demand for various materials, and weapons are naturally the top priority.
Since the Ming army in Fujian and Shibazhi are at war, it is obviously impossible for Shibazhi to buy standard weapons from the army. The only Dutch people who can provide weapons to Zheng Zhilong and Xu Xinsu in large quantities have been holding on to their ambitions. With a mentality of watching the tigers fight, they rejected the requests for help from both sides. Apparently, they wanted to wait for them to decide on their own before deciding on the next partner.
Under this situation, if another arms dealer intervenes in the market, it will undoubtedly be sought after by these war participants. As for the price of these weapons, as long as they do not exceed the existing black market price, these wealthy investors will definitely purchase them in large quantities.
Although there is a certain risk in this kind of underground arms trading, for "Fu Ruifeng" who is used to doing big business, their ability to resist risks is much stronger than that of ordinary commercial banks - they pay a lot of money every year to eat delicious food The militiamen who are well fed and supported are not vegetarians. These people are usually militiamen who guard villages and fortresses. When escorting caravans, they transform into armed escorts. Now that Li Nai plans to further weaponize the militia's equipment, it can be predicted that its combat effectiveness will soon be greatly improved. As "Furuifeng"'s business on the southeast coast grows, the scale of the militia under its control also needs to be further expanded. Even if it cannot be sold by then, there will be no problem in digesting these matchlock guns internally.
Li Nai made up his mind and walked back to Tao Donglai and said, "I would like to purchase two hundred of this kind of firecrackers, so the price will be as per the previous quotation, which is a set of twelve taels. What do you think of Mr. Tao?" ?”
Tao Donglai said: "Two hundred pieces is no problem, but we don't have that much spot on hand at the moment. How about trading a hundred pieces this time, and another hundred pieces half a month later?"
"If that's the case, then please ask Mr. Tao to give you more discounts." Li Nai took the opportunity to bargain.
"Then all guns will be distributed with forty rounds of ammunition, which is equivalent to giving us two thousand more rounds of ammunition. Is that okay?" Tao Donglai will definitely not reduce the price. He would rather give out more gifts. The price is too high to let go. . "Then it's settled!" Li Nai was happy and didn't bother too much with Tao Donglai over this small amount of money. After all, the trade content of this visit to Victory Port did not originally include weapons, it was just a temporary business. Although the transaction volume has exceeded two thousand taels, in Li Nai's eyes, the trade with the Haihan people is far from stopping at the level of "one thousand taels".
The only troublesome thing is that the Haihan people do not directly use silver coins for transactions. Li Nai and the others must first exchange the incoming cash into the Haihan people's "circulation coupons". Fortunately, the exchange rate between "circulation coupons" and silver is set at the same Comparing it, it’s not too troublesome to redeem it. Li Nai still has many transactions to discuss with the Haihan people during this trip, and he is not in a hurry to settle the transactions immediately.
After negotiating the deal, Li Nai asked: "If I want to purchase a large amount of this kind of firecrackers in the future, can I have better conditions in terms of price and delivery period?"
The two old foxes Tao Donglai and Schneider looked at each other, and both of them had the same idea in mind - this guy wants to be a second-tier arms dealer!
Tao Donglai and the others don't mind Li Nai's idea. Although the agent will take away a considerable part of the profit margin, for the Crossing Group, which currently lacks people, ships and connections, this is actually a way to open up the market in a short time. the most effective way. If you have to rely on yourself to explore bit by bit, I am afraid that you will have to wait until next year at the earliest to sell the goods to Guangzhou. But now agents like "Furuifeng", "Anfuhang" and Luo Shengdong have quickly Sell the products produced by the Time Travel Group to areas currently inaccessible to Time Travel.
It is even more difficult to open up sales for products with such special nature as arms. Tao Donglai had already discussed this matter with Luo Shengdong last time, but Luo Shengdong said that it was not easy for the Ming army, which was strapped for funds, to purchase arms. Unless the imperial court and the Ministry of War allocated special funds, even if the match rope crossed the group, It’s useless even if the gun is so powerful that it can kill a hundred people with one shot.
The young boss of "Fu Ruifeng" obviously didn't raise this issue out of nowhere. Both Tao Donglai and Schneider were immediately keenly aware of the business opportunities.
Tao Donglai coughed dryly and said: "As long as you can place the order in advance, we can negotiate the specific price and delivery time... In fact, in addition to matchlock guns, we can also buy other ordnance here. .”
Li Nai shook his head and said: "If they are ordinary swords and guns, Mr. Tao doesn't need to sell them. There are blacksmiths all over Foshan. It is very convenient to make these things and the price is extremely low."
Tao Donglai also shook his head and said: "Mr. Li misunderstood me. I have no intention of selling you those things. What I mean is that there are some weapons more powerful than matchlock guns. I wonder if Mr. Li is interested?"
Li Nai immediately thought of the forts being built on the slopes of the shore when he entered the harbor, and immediately blurted out: "Could it be the Hongyi artillery?"
Tao Donglai nodded and said: "If you are interested in buying it, we can also discuss the price."
Compared to the matchlock business, Tao Donglai and the entire military and police department were more interested in selling artillery. The same ton of pig iron requires far fewer people and hours to produce artillery than to produce matchlocks, and the profit of the finished product is even greater. The current production cost of a Type 27 matchlock gun including a bayonet is about two yuan, and the selling price is ten yuan, with a gross profit margin of about five times.
The production cost of a Type 27 6-pound army gun is less than fifty yuan. According to the estimates of the military industry department, the sales price is at least six to eight hundred yuan, and the gross profit margin is as high as ten times. As the manufacturing difficulty of larger-caliber artillery has doubled, the price has increased exponentially. For example, the large-caliber ship-borne long heavy artillery sold to the Zheng Navy by European merchants cost thousands of taels of silver for an 18-pound cannon. Which of the two weapons, guns and artillery, is more important for foreign trade? From the perspective of profit, the result is self-evident.
In order to prepare for the arms sales that will come sooner or later, the military industry department has long been working hard to develop foreign trade versions of artillery specifically for export. As the artillery cannot be upgraded in the short term, in order to adhere to the "generation difference theory" in arms transactions, the military industry department has consciously made small reductions in the gunpowder, range and service life of the foreign trade version. If one day the troops crossing the group face enemies using foreign trade weapons on the battlefield, the gap in range will be enough for the artillery to teach their opponents how to behave.
As for the sales of matchlock guns, there is no such concern, because the development of the next generation of main weapons, flintlock guns, has been successfully completed. After the coal is transported back to the Black Earth Port and the steel-making furnace here starts to be used, the tough steel will be solved. Due to a series of technical problems in military production, the flintlock gun will soon become the standard equipment of the armed militia. The matchlock gun, which has a relatively slow firing speed and limited power, will be completely reduced to a foreign trade product. Of course, this kind of eliminated armament is still high-end goods for the battlefields in the entire Far East region at this stage. As long as the idea opens up sales, the military products of the Crossing Group will definitely quickly occupy the underground arms market in this region.
(End of chapter)