A huge fleet sailed on the sea, ships connected one after another, stretching for miles.
It had been three days since they left Dengzhou. They arrived at the first port, the only one within the territory of King Wei—Tongzhou Port.
Before the fleet reached Tongzhou, Xiao Ming had already sent scouts to notify King Wei.
When the warships docked at Tongzhou dock, King Wei appeared on the dock right on time.
“Respected nephew, your uncle has been waiting here for you all day,” King Wei laughed heartily as he looked at Xiao Ming stepping down from the warship.
As soon as one foot touched the ground, Xiao Ming finally felt at ease. Sailing on the sea continuously for three days was truly grueling. In those three days, he finally understood the hardships of naval soldiers.
He had already seen King Wei on the ship, who also smiled, “Your uncle feels honored that you personally came to Tongzhou.”
“Uncle, you are too polite. Now your nephew depends on you,” Xiao Ming said.
King Wei’s eyes scanned the large warship, filled with strong envy and surprise.
Xiao Ming smiled, noticing the look in King Wei’s eyes—a greedy expression. It seemed King Wei immediately valued his warships. He said, “Your uncle is powerful. Your nephew should be the one relying on you. This stop at Tongzhou really needs your help,” Xiao Ming said calmly.
King Wei was momentarily stunned. He recalled what the scout had said: Xiao Ming’s fleet stopped at Tongzhou to resupply, not just a simple stopover. The list of needed supplies was also recorded by the scout.
“Hahaha, right, right! Your uncle remembers now. Nephew, rest assured, the supplies are all prepared. You can start resupplying now,” King Wei said.
Xiao Ming felt relieved but still worried a little. He hoped King Wei wouldn’t cause him trouble, or else he would make King Wei’s days difficult.
After ordering the fleet to resupply immediately, Xiao Ming followed King Wei into Tongzhou city. Under King Wei’s warm invitation, he had no choice but to play along.
After several rounds of wine, King Wei said, “Nephew, your uncle truly underestimated you. I didn’t expect you to have such a powerful fleet. This fleet could probably hold even against the Dutch.”
King Wei spoke with envy. He knew about the Dutch and the strength of their warships. From what he heard, Xiao Ming’s warships were very similar to the Dutch ones.
Now, suddenly leading such a powerful fleet here, how could he not be envious?
“Uncle flatters me. These warships are only my nephew’s escorts for merchant ships. I dare not say they could fight the Dutch,” Xiao Ming smiled.
King Wei was very jealous. He tried to ask, “Nephew, how did you build these warships? Oh, I remember, it must be the credit of the missionaries. Ah, why didn’t your uncle have that luck? But nephew, could you build some warships like these for your uncle?”
Xiao Ming’s expression changed slightly. He did not expect King Wei to make such a request. He might give King Wei cannons and muskets, but warships—definitely not.
After all, in this era, a warship equipped with cannons was a huge threat to sea routes, and hard to capture.
“Uncle, building these warships is complicated. In three years, I only made about ten or so. Besides, these warships are very expensive, each costing over a million taels of silver.”
“A million taels!” King Wei’s face turned pale.
“Of course. Even the smallest warship has about sixty cannons, and just the cannons cost 1.2 million taels, not including the warship itself.”
King Wei nodded, understanding these cannons were naval cannons, more expensive than regular ones.
“This is indeed quite expensive,” King Wei stroked his chin. He already knew that King Chu bought thousands of naval cannons from Xiao Ming and planned to build a fleet.
His territory bordered King Chu’s by a river. King Chu was gaining an advantage. After hesitating, he said, “Since that is the case, your uncle doesn’t want to trouble you. Nephew, why don’t you sell me some cannons then?”
Xiao Ming immediately smiled. Now that the steam engine had officially entered production, Qingzhou’s industrial power would change drastically, and cannon forging would speed up.
King Wei’s request to buy cannons meant silver money was coming his way. He said, “Uncle, that’s no problem, but the silver…”
According to Xiao Ming’s words, a thousand cannons meant 20 million taels of silver. This was a huge sum. But to avoid falling behind King Chu, he gritted his teeth and said, “No problem, at worst I’ll just rob a few rich merchants’ homes.”
Xiao Ming suddenly felt sorry for those merchants. No wonder many merchants were trying hard to stay in Qingzhou; elsewhere they had no rights at all.
But he did not care about merchants in Wei’s land. What he wanted was the 20 million taels of silver in supplies.
“Uncle is straightforward. How many cannons do you need?” Xiao Ming asked.
“A thousand,” King Wei said.
Xiao Ming understood this was King Wei competing with King Chu. He asked, “How do you plan to pay this silver?”
“Hehe, nephew, your uncle isn’t stingy. In business, one is one, two is two. Since you want to use Tongzhou as a supply point, the supply costs should be counted as silver. The warships docking at the dock also cost silver,” King Wei said with a cunning smile.
There is no free lunch in the world. Xiao Ming naturally knew King Wei would not give him Tongzhou as a supply base for free. So he said, “Your uncle makes a good point. Then all Qingzhou official ships’ supplies will be deducted from this fee. But even so, there is still a lot of silver to be paid.”
“Certainly. Let’s temporarily set the supply fees at Tongzhou dock at 2 million taels. After all, this resupply has already cost 20,000 taels. If it happens often in the future, the silver will be more. When this silver runs out, we’ll talk again,” King Wei’s eyes flashed with shrewdness.
Xiao Ming nodded in agreement. He raised the price of the naval cannons by double—it was already quite a rip-off, but at least it would give King Wei some psychological comfort.
Then King Wei said, “There’s still 18 million taels left. To be honest, your uncle also has some large merchant ships. I’m willing to trade 100 large merchant ships for 10 million taels. The remaining 8 million, I’ll pay you 400,000 taels in gold and 4 million taels in silver. How about that?”
Xiao Ming sighed inside. Wei’s land was really rich. King Wei was indeed a tycoon.
“Deal,” Xiao Ming nodded heavily. This was a very good deal. He got Tongzhou as a supply point and made an arms deal at the same time.
After a short one-day stay in Tongzhou, the next day Xiao Ming led the fleet to continue sailing. The next place he would reach was King Chu’s Ningzhou.