Chapter 163 Sales success
Li Nai and He Qiang exchanged glances and immediately made a decision - to see the goods first. They know better than these time-travelers what the current market price of artillery is. This thing is much more popular than the matchlock gun. The money masters in Fujian can't buy it even though they have money and begged grandpa and grandma everywhere. If the Haihan people can provide Hongyi artillery, they can really sell as much as they have. As for the price, it is not a problem at all for those armed maritime merchants in Fujian who are making money every day.
So Gu Wei took everyone to the artillery range not far away. Because of the range of the artillery, this range was larger than the matchlock range, and several gun emplacements of different specifications were built, including Li Nai. The kind of battery design they saw when they entered the harbor. There are several stone warehouses next to the shooting range, which are usually used to store artillery and ammunition. Because of the recent shortage of gunpowder, the artillery has been withdrawn into the warehouse, and the sky above the gun position is empty.
Under the command of Gu Wei, everyone quickly pushed out a 6-pound army cannon from the warehouse, followed by a flatbed truck carrying ammunition. What is different from the usual training is that the gunners no longer use naturalized civilians, but are all members of the military and police department. This is also to ensure that this show of force can go smoothly.
After watching the Haihan artillery fire seven or eight cannons, Li Nai's heart began to itch. The performance of these cannons was no worse than the Hongyi cannons he had seen, and their range and accuracy were also good. If I had to find fault, I could only say that the caliber of these cannons was actually smaller and their power was still very limited.
After firing ten rounds, Tao Donglai signaled the artillerymen to stop first and asked Li Nai for his thoughts.
Li Nai pretended to be calm and nodded in response: "This cannon is acceptable. I wonder if Mr. Tao can explain it in detail?"
Tao Donglai said: "There are two types of Type 27 artillery. One is used on land, and the other can be mounted on ships. The one we just tested is an army cannon used on land. This kind of gun weighs four One hundred and forty kilograms, the shell weighs five kilograms, the effective range is up to one and a half miles, and the heat dissipation interval is twelve consecutive rounds."
That means you can hit two miles? Li Nai raised his eyebrows slightly, thinking that this cannon is really powerful, but he continued to ask with a calm face: "How much do you want to quote for such a cannon?"
He didn't know that the data reported by Tao Donglai was actually the foreign trade version, while the military and police department's own version had a range of two miles, and this range actually refers to the maximum range. The exported foreign trade version can rely on aiming and adjusting the angle. The effective range for correction is only one mile at most, and the distance beyond that can only depend on pure luck. However, for the Far East armed forces of this era, this difference in actual effective range no longer matters, because they do not have telescopes to use, and it is already very difficult to observe targets one mile away on flat ground, let alone aim. , a cannon with such an astonishing range is already an incredible artifact in their eyes.
Schneider took over and said: "Although our artillery has excellent performance, the price is very affordable. The type 27 army artillery like the one Mr. Li saw only costs 600 yuan each, which is 600 taels of silver... ”
Seeing Li Nai's slight frown, Schneider added calmly: "...the price also includes the artillery's complete set of sights, firing tables and loading tools, as well as the sturdy yet lightweight tactical gun mount that carries the artillery. In addition, there are ten fine iron cannonballs and corresponding propellant packs. In view of our good cooperative relationship with 'Furuifeng', we will also give you an additional pull-type ignition tube that can be fired ten times. As you can see, the benefit of this pull-type ignition device is not only to protect the gunner's safety when firing, but also to improve the reliability of the artillery in combat under bad weather conditions. No matter how strong the wind is, it will not affect the artillery. The launch of ”
After listening to his explanation, Li Nai understood why when the artillery was fired just now, the artillerymen stood far away, holding a string connected to the cannon body in their hands, and they could make the artillery fire by pulling hard. It is necessary to use an open flame to ignite the ignition powder or fuse. This is a new device that Li Nai has never heard of before. Even the artillery of the Franco and Red-haired people has never heard of such a convenient design.
Schneider continued: "If you are not interested in our equipment, you can also directly choose to buy naked cannons. The price of each cannon is only four hundred yuan. There is absolutely no moisture in this price, and there will be no second arms dealer. Cannons of this quality be sold at this price!”
Buy naked cannon? Are you kidding me? A sponsor who can spend a lot of money to buy a gun will not care at all to spend a little more to buy all the supporting equipment of the gun, especially the convenient and safe pull-type ignition device - Li Nai immediately rejected it in his heart accepted Schneider's proposal. Of course, when this cannon is shipped to Fujian and sold, it will not be something that can be bought for 600 taels of silver. It will have to be at least doubled in price.
Li Nai did not comment, but asked another question: "Is there any more powerful iron cannon like this?" "Yes, of course!" Tao Donglai responded without hesitation: "We also have a thousand-pound cannon with a shell weighing ten kilograms and a range of up to two miles..."
The thousand-pound cannon Tao Donglai mentioned was naturally the 12-pound cannon that the military industry department had already successfully trial-produced. However, due to the lack of breakthroughs in materials, the artillery retreat system has not been developed. The 12-pound artillery cannot be installed on current sea ships. As an army gun, it is a bit bulky. It is not suitable for the current militia establishment. You don't need so much firepower. It could be used as a coastal defense artillery, but the Military and Police Ministry also said that Western gunboats of this era already used 18-pound guns, and greater firepower must be used to effectively suppress them. Therefore, the coastal defense artillery fortifications that are still under construction have been The gun to be used in the future is set to be at least 24 pounds. As a result, the 12-pounder became useless for a while. After the military industry department made a few 12-pounder guns for finalization, there was no subsequent production, and they instead focused on developing 24-pounder guns for coastal defense fortifications.
The fact that the Time Travel Group is temporarily unavailable does not mean that the outside world does not have this demand. In Li Nai's view, the power of the Thousand Jin Cannon is obviously more suitable for those sponsors who are in a state of war. The greater the power and the farther the range, the more capable they will be. Be sought after by them. However, out of caution, Li Nai inquired about the price first.
Schneider's quotation is not outrageous. The 12-pounder cannon is 1,000 taels for the set and 800 taels for the bare cannon. This price is completely acceptable in Li Nai's opinion. However, what made Li Nai slightly disappointed was that when he asked for bigger and more powerful artillery, Tao Donglai rejected the new proposal.
Tao Donglai's reason is simple: "At present, we have no plans to sell more powerful artillery. If we can sell it in the future, we will definitely notify your bank first."
Now if larger-caliber artillery is sold, it will undoubtedly affect the security of Victory Port. In order to avoid the absurd scenario of a fleet equipped with large-caliber naval guns manufactured by Chuanchuan Group attacking the Port of Victory, it is better not to take too big steps in the artillery export plan for the time being, as this is easy to mess up.
But such a ban should not last too long. As long as steel production breaks through the bottleneck, it is a matter of course that steel cannons will replace iron cannons. With the emergence of steel cannons, the increase in the range and power of artillery is a natural technological advancement. By then, there will be nothing to worry about if the eliminated iron cannons are gradually sold.
Although this request was rejected by Tao Donglai, Li Nai was not discouraged. It was a surprise to be able to buy such a heavy weapon here. You must know that even Westerners are not willing to sell this thing easily. Yes, it is purely a commodity with a price but no market. Li Nai quickly placed an order for ten 6-pounder cannons and five 12-pounder cannons. Fortunately, taking into account the huge profits of artillery, the military industry department had already pre-produced a batch of foreign trade goods in advance. This order was actually able to be provided to "Fu Ruifeng" in the form of spot goods, which facilitated the subsequent payment settlement.
The reason why they only bought a few cannons was not because Li Nai didn't bring enough money, but because they had only one ship on their return trip, and the load capacity was limited. The weight of these dozen cannons and ammunition already exceeded 10,000. catty. Considering that he had to load other goods and supplies on the return trip, Li Nai could only endure it for the time being, and secretly decided to apply for a second fleet to go shopping in Victory Port as soon as he returned to Guangzhou.
At this point, Tao Donglai and Schneider's real attempt to take Li He to visit the new barracks was a great success. The order amount for matchlocks and artillery reached more than 13,000 taels, which was also the largest foreign trade order since time travel. One stroke. Such a big deal only took two hours and fifteen minutes from the time they landed at the boot camp dock to the time they reached a preliminary agreement. The work efficiency of the two hot-tongued salesmen was quite impressive.
And Li Nai, who happily spent so much money, didn't feel bad at all. In his opinion, after these things were shipped back to Guangzhou, he could quickly make double the profits. This kind of huge profit business is very popular in today's fiercely competitive maritime trading houses. But there are fewer and fewer.
The most important thing is that Li Nai believes that there is another advantage of doing business with Haihan people, that is, you don't have to settle in cash every time. The Haihan people have a very wide range of needs for various raw materials and primary products. As long as the materials they need are shipped, they can be discounted and converted. In this way, there will be money coming in and money going out, and there will be no shortage of money when trading here. appeared, the utilization rate of ships was quite high, and the danger of carrying too much cash out to sea was avoided.
(End of chapter)