Author: tx Cheng Zhi

Chapter 233

The Eighth Princess is a large ship with 2,500 materials. When converted into displacement, it is equivalent to more than 800 tons. It is already considered a fourth-tier cruiser on Europa.

However, the problem is that when Cheng Shijie gave it to Zhu Weiti, he did not install any artillery. However, the sea is not peaceful now. The roles of merchants and pirates can be switched at any time. When they cannot be defeated, they are merchants and can

Doing business relatively fairly, once the other party is weak.

In the boundless sea, it is possible to attack nearby ships at any time and at any time. In order to protect Zhu Weiti, Cheng Shijie loaded four thunder cannons on the left and right sides of the Eighth Princess, two in the front and two in the back.

, the entire battleship has a total of twelve thunder cannons. With this level of firepower, even when facing small and medium-sized pirates, it will definitely not suffer.

Of course, unless facing pirates equipped with naval guns, the ship still has the ability to defend itself. The big ship naturally has great benefits. Zhu Weiti asked craftsmen to renovate a swimming pool on the first deck. Of course,

, Zhu Weiti doesn't like swimming, she prepared it for Cheng Shijie.

In addition to a swimming pool, there is also a small terrace for barbecue and a movable greenhouse on the first deck.

When Catherine boarded the Eighth Princess, her first feeling was that of luxury. Only Cheng Shijie could do such a thing using a standard level four battleship as a yacht. If Catherine had a battleship of the Eighth Princess level, she would definitely be on it.

Load forty or fifty artillery pieces to make it a main battleship.

It's just a pity that no matter how unhappy Catherine is, this is Cheng Shijie and Zhu Weiti's freedom.

At this time, Catherine, the first family of the Venetian City-State Republic and the second heir of the Contarini family, was grilling squid on the iron plate with a spatula.

"Your Excellency, how about you try my craftsmanship?"

In order to obtain Ning Haijun's unparalleled naval warfare artifact, Catherine is willing to pay no matter what the price is, because what is very difficult is that the current Venetian City-State Republic has lost their overseas colonies one after another. If the Ottomans win the Venetian City-State Republic

The last overseas colony was Crete.

If Crete is captured, the Ottoman Empire's navy will reach the mainland of Venice. This is the real reason why the Venetian City-State Republic most urgently needs a naval warfare weapon like the Ning Navy.

Of course, Cheng Shijie did not know about Catherine's worries. If he had known, he would have laughed at Catherine's unfounded worries, because historically, Crete was not successfully captured by the Ottoman Empire until more than thirty years later, in 1669.

This has to be said about the glorious achievements of the Huskies and the Ottoman Empire in the country. They fought against the Venetian City-State Republic with a population of less than 200,000 for more than two hundred years, and their own losses were hundreds of times that of the Venetian City-State Republic.

Cheng Shijie smiled lightly and said: "It's not bad, I can barely get in!"

Zhu Weiti doesn't like to eat squid, she only eats vegetables roasted by Gu Ziyi.

Hearing Cheng Shijie's comments, Catherine was a little dumbfounded. Of course, there was nothing that could be done about it. As the second heir to the Contarini family, she began to receive education and studied law, politics, culture, fencing, and fighting.

The Doge of Venice, Niccolo, raised him as his son.

It can be said that if it had not been for the time at sea, she would have never had the opportunity to be exposed to these menial jobs.

Even if she didn't get praise from Cheng Shijie, Catherine didn't care. She tried her best to smile and smiled very charmingly: "Your Excellency, can we talk about the sale of naval guns?"

"There is no need to talk about this matter, it is impossible."

Whether it is Ning Haijun's three-inch cannon or Ning Haijun's four-inch cannon, they all carry the black technology brought by Cheng Shijie. The technological content of these artillery has reached the technical level of the mid-19th century. To put it bluntly, it is unreliable.

, even if Ning Haijun was allowed to fight against the British Royal Navy in 1860, Ning Haijun could still defeat the British Royal Navy.

This is the gap in technology.

Catherine smiled and said: "Your Excellency, there is nothing in this world that cannot be traded. It's just the price. I only want one cannon, okay?"

Catherine thought that as long as she bought a cannon, she could imitate it with the technological level of the Venetian City-State Republic.

Seeing that Cheng Shijie had no intention of talking, she continued: "One hundred thousand ducats!"

Dukat is also called Duka coin, Jersey coin or Sikun coin. The gold coin minted in Venice is made of approximately pure gold (the gold content was identified as 0.997 by later generations) and weighs 3.56 grams.

It can be said that Catherine's sincerity is quite good. One hundred thousand ducats is equivalent to 356 kilograms of gold. However, the gold content in the Ming Dynasty is not as high as that of ducats. Due to the continued depreciation of silver, the current gap between gold and silver

The exchange ratio has changed from one to eight at the beginning to one to ten now. After conversion, one gold carat is equivalent to nine cents and five cents of silver, and one hundred thousand gold coins is equivalent to ninety-five thousand taels.

The normal price of artillery is only more than one thousand taels to five thousand taels of silver, which also includes the heavy 48-pound Hongyi cannon.

"This is our Ming Dynasty's most powerful tool for ruling the country, and I won't sell it!"

"Your Excellency, Duke, I understand your concerns. However, we in Venice have no interests in the East and no desire for territory. We are tens of thousands of miles away from you. It would take nearly ten months at the fastest to go back and forth. It is impossible for us to

Threaten the Ming Empire."

Cheng Shijie shook his head and said: "Did you know? Our heroic naval officers just now will not surrender even after they run out of ammunition and food. They will choose to self-destruct the warship, letting the gunboat sink to the bottom of the sea, and preventing the enemy from getting our artillery!"

"

"One hundred and fifty thousand ducats!"

Catherine upped the ante again.

"no!"

"Two hundred thousand ducats!"

Cheng Shijie held the wine glass and began to think.

Two hundred thousand ducats is equivalent to 712 kilograms of gold, which is close to one ton of gold. It is impossible to say that Cheng Shijie is not tempted. After all, the Ning Haijun Group spends too much money.

However, Cheng Shijie's principles will not change.

Catherine was observing Cheng Shijie carefully. She could tell that the price was about to exceed Cheng Shijie's psychological bottom line. She slapped her hand in front of Cheng Shijie: "Fifty thousand ducats!"

"impossible!"

Catherine glared at Cheng Shijie: "One million ducats, no more!"

Cheng Shijie shook his head and said: "I can help you solve the crisis you are facing in Venice, just one million ducats!"

"You want an idea for a million ducats from our Venice?"

"You can choose not to change!"

Cheng Shijie has no special feelings for Venice. It can be said that the life and death of Venice are not directly related to Cheng Shijie.

"How do I know if you're lying to me?"

"You can choose not to believe it!"

Cheng Shijie stood up, clapped his hands and said, "Okay, lunch is over, it's time for me to go eat!"

Cheng Shijie ignored Catherine and went directly to the swimming pool to take a bath.

Although life at sea is very boring and fresh water resources are very precious, as the leader of the entire fleet, Cheng Shijie actually has no shortage of fresh water.

Because the Ninghai navy actually does not lack fresh water, they have learned how to simply purify sea water, which is actually a distillation device. Although the cost is high, it can solve the sailors' drinking water problem in the most difficult times.

Catherine was caught in a dilemma. One million ducats was not a small amount. Although ocean trade was a huge profit, the problem was that her capital was not rich. She actually did not have one million ducats now, and a large amount of funds were needed to purchase it.

Things like silk and porcelain.

Now she is staying in Ming Dynasty instead of returning to Venice. She is still waiting for a batch of silk. Now that the deposit has been paid, she is just waiting for the delivery. If she breaches the contract, the deposit of one hundred thousand taels of silver will be wasted.

Of course, if you don't want to waste money, you can only borrow money from Liaodong Bank with the help of Xu Shumin's face.

Catherine did not want to withdraw the money, but when Catherine was depressed, she unexpectedly met an acquaintance from Venice. When Catherine went to sea from Liaodong, Virgil, a Venetian, applied for the Ning Navy with his excellent naval command tactics.

He served as a teacher at the Naval Academy and is now an instructor at the Ninghai Navy Naval War College.

Due to the rapid expansion of the Ning Navy Navy, even the cadets were pulled onto the battleships, which forced Virgil, an instructor, to follow the Sixth Squadron south. He is now the combat staff officer of the Sixth Squadron of the Ning Navy.

Aboard the Liangzhou of the Sixth Squadron.

Virgil hadn't seen his former boss and fellow countryman for more than a year, so naturally he had a lot to say.

As the operational staff officer of the Ning Navy's Sixth Squadron, Virgil still had a lot of dignity. He arranged a table of food and wine and chatted with Catherine in the second-floor cabin.

Seeing Virgil, Catherine's eyes couldn't help but light up: "Virgil!"

Having said this, Catherine looked around, but not as much as Captain Ning paid attention to Virgil.

Catherine asked: "You should know the news about Ning Haijun's defeat of Zheng Zhilong's fleet, right?"

"I know, many of the soldiers and commanders who participated are my students!"

"You are very proud now!"

"Of course!"

Virgil said even more proudly: "Miss Contarini, you don't know that I now own a castle in Liaodong, which is bigger than the one you have on the Aegean Sea!"

Of course, what Virgil calls a castle is actually a reinforced concrete courtyard. As an instructor at the Ninghai Navy Naval Academy, Virgil participated in actual combat teaching at the very beginning and led the navy cadets to wipe out a group of pirates.

According to Ning Haijun's regulations, rewards are naturally needed. However, the problem is that Virgil is not from the Ming Dynasty and cannot reward land like other Ning Haijun officers. Therefore, he was given an exception of three acres of homestead, which is 1,980 square meters.

Gil used the reward of beheading to hire people to build a nondescript castle.

Judging from the customs of the Ming Dynasty, this is a courtyard house. The only difference is that the surrounding houses are all eight feet high, and the entire castle has more than a hundred rooms, with a huge garden in the middle.

"It seems that you are living a good life. Have you found love in Ming Dynasty?"

At this point, Virgil looked helpless: "No beautiful Ming woman is willing to marry me, no matter how much I pay as a bride price, it will be useless. They are discriminating against me!"

If Virgil was in other parts of the Ming Dynasty, he could really use money to buy a girl from a local family in the Ming Dynasty. In the two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty except Liaodong, there were too many poor people, and there were countless people who sold their sons and daughters.

.But the problem is that Liaodong is different.

Now women in Liaodong can also work, and they can earn at least 18 taels a year. There is no such thing as selling children. Moreover, Liaodong has legislation prohibiting human trafficking. Once you report it, you can get ten times the amount of the sale.
To be continued...