Chapter 386 Home Port

Ye Tao chose this slightly risky attack method because he trusted the power of the crossbows and Greek fire, but he understood the shortcomings of these powerful weapons. In addition to the three-man gun group metal gun mounts specially used for melee combat, other crossbows are not very convenient to move horizontally or vertically. In order to reduce the weight of the structure, the crossbows' gun mounts are adjusted in two-stage modes, which can move freely in a small range, but in a large range, there is only two levels of curved shooting and fire-breathing gear. There is still a large shooting distance between the curved shooting and fire-breathing gear of the crossbows.

If you get close to the blank, use flat fire and fire-breathing equipment to launch a round of attacks. Basically, a warship on the other side will be done, and there is no escape. The fire of the fire of the fireball fired from the crossbows produces a large number of fragments that kill the opponent's personnel in large numbers, while the Greek fire can burn thick wooden boards to ashes in a short time. If you get hit by this, even if the other side wants to hit the ship and fight desperately, you still have to consider whether you can rush over. For such a close-range ship, you don't have to consider the accuracy issues involved. Basically, they maintain a high speed and shoot during the journey...

Although this tactic is a bit risky, it is not the first time that Qihai Trading Company and the Samir family have used it. They have fought countless naval battles with many opponents in the South China Sea and the Middle East, and have tried all kinds of combat methods. This approach to high-speed shooting is very exciting and very lethal, and it also tests everyone's ability to control ships and shoot, and is widely used. Originally, everyone was worried that their fleet was loaded with such a large number of important personnel, so they had to worry more about safety, and even prepared to let Qi Zhu's ship wander on the edge of the battlefield and not join the battle. Unexpectedly, Ye Tao and Qi Zhu not only demanded to participate in the war, but also became the command ships of the entire battle.

The full sail allowed Ye Tao's tiger-tooth ship to maintain a very high speed, and penetrated straight into the center of the battlefield at a sharp angle, directly into the middle of the outer circle where the pirate fleet was besieged and the inner circle where the besieged merchant fleet was located. When the ship opened fire in full, orange-red flames gushed out from the wide shooting ports wrapped in copper skin on both sides of the hull. At that moment, everyone on the ship was full of such bright colors. Mars bullets, with black smoke at the tail and stretched flames, were shot at the enemy's warship in a straight ballistic manner. Considering that the target of their first round of shooting was a pirate ship that was much smaller than the tiger-tooth ship, Ye Tao only ordered the crossbow of one-third of the gun position to design.

Almost in an instant, the pirate ship was lit into a flame. The squeaking sounds were endless. In this case, it was not the attacked pirate ship, even the pirates around him were stunned for a moment. The pirate fleet was originally a bit loose and ready to escape if the situation was not good, but it had almost no obstruction to the hybrid fleet. The hybrid fleet rumbled over the intercept line, spread its two wings to encircle it, and prepared to wipe out the pirate fleet in one round.

The entire battle lasted less than an hour. After chasing for more than ten miles, the pirate fleet was wiped out. The merchant fleet had basically completed the shelter work at this time. This merchant fleet, mainly Chunnanhai merchants, encountered two twists in these few hours, and I don’t know what they were feeling at this time. Although Dongping and Chunnan are all alliances, in Nanyang, all people from Middle-earth still take care of each other and understand each other in most cases. Everyone is even more ambitious in fighting the three major harms of hurricanes, pirates, and Xuanyi Society.

After encountering this, the merchant fleet can only follow the joint fleet to the home port of Qihai Trading Company in Yazhou. However, they have no complaints. This powerful fleet is willing to accommodate their speed and escort them. The home port of Qihai Trading Company has been built for many years not only has a fortress with rich defense means, but also a branch of many businesses, a large number of workshops, and a wealthy city with many unique products. This place called Hengbo Port is not only the capital of Yazhou, but also has become the center of the entire Nanyang.

Hengbo Port now has more than 100,000 permanent population and a migrant population slightly less than that. The various employees, folks, craftsmen, employed workers and families with many auxiliary institutions around Qihai Trading Company have a population of tens of thousands. Although Qihai Trading Company has gained a foothold in Nanyang with its many products from Zhongtu and many unique products from Ye's Workshop, Qihai Trading Company has also tasted the sweetness in Nanyang's cultivation.

Although the tropical plantations built according to Ye Tao's idea have only begun to take shape, those tropical products such as rubber, coffee, and chocolate have made extremely profits for Qihai Trading Company. Qihai Trading Company now has nearly 15,000 employees in planting and their families. Of course, not all of them are planting tropical cash crops, and growing rice is also a very basic business. Farms that use the concept of a very modern large farm to conduct intensive management have caught up with them.

Last year's late rice planting, coupled with the mature season this year, has fully recovered the high cost of land preparation and land reclamation, and even transporting a batch of plowing oxen to come here from thousands of miles away. According to Qihai Trading Company's estimates, the current planting area and production of tropical climates will be no problem to feed about 400,000 or 500,000 people. But for the time being, the food is given priority to supply to the Samir family, who is still in the founding of the Kingdom War, and there is no plan to significantly increase the population that needs to be supported in Southeast Asia.

The plantations of these cash crops, together with large areas of farmland, revolve around the radiation of Hengbo Port. A small town with clear planning is located among them, accommodate farmers and their families. At the same time, these small villages and towns are also fortresses that can be used to resist threats from the ground. Each small village has its own independent defense system, and regardless of whether it is free or not, all farmers must conduct military training during the slack farming. Qihai Trading Company mainly focuses on maritime development. Although merchants from Middle-earth have far greater interest in reclamation than the Samir family that originally ruled here, reclamation

The work of colonization itself is quite challenging. Qihai Trading Company did not just raise the butcher knife, but instead appeased, domesticated and wiped out the other side. After several years of operation in Nanyang, many tribal survivors who were originally hostile to Qihai Trading Company have become the residents of Yazhou who were loyal to Qihai Trading Company and Dongping due to the improvement of life and the influence of education. These people are now completely different from those who still covet the wealth of Qihai Trading Company and always think about how to drive out Qihai Trading Company and any other non-local forces. With such a group of artificial buffering, Hengbo Port is even more impoverished.

Ye Tao hurriedly walked around Hengbo Port and could feel how cautious Qihai Trading Company was in operating Nanyang, and also understood why Qihai Trading Company's total net profit in recent years has been so low. Hengbo Port, with a population of more than 100,000, covers an area of ​​more than Yicheng Port, which now has hundreds of thousands of people. The defense system surrounding Hengbo Port is very complete, both on land and on water. The density of various heavy equipment installed on the outer edge of Hengbo Port is probably worse than Danyang.

Not far away. Ye Tao was surprised to find that almost everyone was able to operate crossbows and divine bows from all over Dongping, which had recruited poor people and refugees from all over Dongping, and 40,000 core troops who hired a large number of retired soldiers as their backbones at high prices. Among the commanders of this army, there were many retired soldiers of the Blood Qi Army. The retired soldiers from various cities and guards were even in numbers. There were a total of fifteen battalions of this army, whether in organization, training or weapon equipment style.

They are all very similar to the Blood Qi Army with a strong Ye Tao style and many troops in Yunzhou. On the one hand, they emphasize the professionalism of the sergeants, and on the other hand, they also care about the ability of each army to change the functions of the battlefield in an emergency. The slight difference is that due to the characteristics of the tropical region, the three heavy equipment battalions basically have no need to move and carry out combat, and are completely based on city defense. There are only two cavalry battalions, each battalion has a scout cavalry brigade. The others are two longbow battalions, five light infantry battalions and three

The equipment of these troops is not bad. Since many troops in Dongping have been replacing weapons over the years, the Qihai Trading Company, which Tan Xiaopei personally expressed support, is very cheap to purchase weapons. The equipment of these troops is better than the military in Dongping before Ye Tao contacted the army. The various weapons and armor are quite complete, but because this army expands too quickly and the source of troops comes to support, it is not strong enough in terms of temperament and has not yet formed an invincible spirit.

Because the local labor is super cheap, Qihai Trading Club even has tens of thousands of indigenous military farming soldiers. In terms of combat power, it is far more than the many tribes hidden in the super-large island where they are located, which is slightly smaller than that hidden in the mainland. According to Qi Zhu, the cost of supporting such tens of thousands of people is probably less than one-tenth of the army recruited from the local area. Apart from food, simple weapons, incentive costs in training and combat, as well as rewards and pensions after the war, almost nothing is left.

There is no salary at all. In order to protect the land they obtained from Qihai Trading Company and the current Yazhou Governor's Office, these military farm soldiers were particularly brave in fighting. The recent two tribal coalition invasions were almost scared away by the courage of these military farm soldiers to the end. It is precisely because of this situation that Qihai Trading Company and Yazhou Governor's Office are discussing to strengthen the education of military farm soldiers, improve their equipment and treatment, and gradually give local residents of these military farm soldiers who are mostly transformed by slaves and prisoners.

Compared with the developed workshops in Hengbo Port, Ye Tao really couldn't understand what stage was Hengbo Port in? It was a semi-colonial society? It was still a primary capitalist society?... Judging from the governance mechanisms of Hengbo Port and the entire Yazhou, it was very unfeudal anyway. This was a joint discussion and joint decision. Whether it was the Qihai Trading Company or the official system of the Yazhou Governor's Office that had not been here for a long time, no one would bypass the other party and decide what was alone. Everything had to be made through collective decisions.
Chapter completed!