Volume 1 Tigers in Southeast Asia Chapter 48: Major Upgrade of Naval Weapons
After conquering various tribes, Lin Fei called the chiefs of the ten tribes together. The ten chiefs were intimidated by Lin Fei's advanced weapons and became as obedient as sheep.
Lin Fei said loudly: "You guys need to prepare some gifts for me, are you willing?"
Chief Isco said first: "Yes, yes, of course I am willing to offer you twenty top-quality virgins, all of whom are beauties picked from a hundred!"
Lin Fei frowned and said, "I don't want a beautiful woman!"
Chief Isco laughed and said, "You don't want beautiful women, then do you want gold and silver? But you said that gold and silver are no longer useful. We have already switched to 'Huaxia Currency'."
Lin Fei said: "What I want is very simple, all kinds of rare stones, do you understand?"
Everyone was puzzled and asked, "What is this rare stone?"
Lin Fei said, "Go find me stones with various patterns and colors. You must go deep into the mountains to find them. Do you understand?"
The ten clan leaders nodded in agreement. Lin Fei continued, "After you find the stone, don't think that you can just send it to me. You must remember where you found it and tell me when the time comes. Do you understand?"
The ten clan leaders nodded in agreement again. Lin Fei then waved his hand and said, "Time is running out. Go find it quickly. Once you find it, send it to me as quickly as possible."
The ten clan leaders each walked out. At this time, Li understood and said, "City Lord, what's the point of asking them to find stones for you?"
Lin Fei smiled and said, "Leyte Island is rich in manganese ore and sulfur ore, as well as some other ores, but Leyte Island is very large and I don't have the energy to look for them myself, so I asked these clan leaders to help me find them. I'm sure I'll find a lot of useful ores."
Lin Fei finished his work , then got up and returned to Yanhuang City. With the new craftsmen, the construction of the industrial zone in Yanhuang City was faster. Time passed quickly and it was December 1894, the third month since Lin Fei came to the island. New blast furnaces and converters had been built, and roads had been built between the various tribes on Leyte Island.
On this day, a soldier suddenly came to Lin Fei and said, "Report to the city lord, First Mate Yu and Comprador Chen are back." Yu Xier's position was the first mate of the Nuwa ship, and Chen Fu's position was the comprador, so they were called like this.
Lin Fei was excited and was about to go out to greet them, but he saw Yu Xier and Chen Fu walking in together. Lin Fei hurriedly greeted them and said with a smile: "Thank you for your hard work..."
Yu Xier and Chen Fu looked solemn and gloomy. Lin Fei saw that something was wrong and asked hurriedly, "What happened?"
Yu Xier sighed heavily and said, "We are in trouble!"
Lin Fei was startled and asked hurriedly: "Trouble? What kind of trouble did you encounter?"
Chen Fu sighed lightly and said, "There are two troublesome things."
When Yu Xier heard this, his expression suddenly changed and he coughed heavily. Chen Fu was stunned and turned to look at Yu Xier. Yu Xier coughed again, and Chen Fu said, "Oh, there is a troublesome matter."
Lin Fei frowned, his tone was filled with anger: "Old Yu, Little Chen, do you two think I'm a fool? What do you mean by one or two? Tell me what's going on."
Yu Xier laughed and said, "Chen Fu is young, so he remembered it wrongly. There is only one troublesome thing."
Chen Fu also laughed and said, "Yes, yes, yes, there is only one thing, just one thing, hahahaha, I am young after all, and I speak without thinking, please forgive me, please forgive me."
Chen Fu laughed dryly while talking, trying to cover up the matter. Lin Fei thought to himself: "These two guys must be hiding something from me. Chen Fu is a little kid with a big heart. He is very good at lying and talking nonsense. I can't find a breakthrough from him. The breakthrough can only be found from Yu Xier!"
Lin Fei turned his head suddenly, staring at Yu Xier with sharp eyes, and said sternly: "Old Yu! Tell me, can a devout Catholic lie?"
Yu Xier was hit so hard by Lin Fei's words that his face flushed and he couldn't speak. Lin Fei continued, "How will God punish liars on the Day of Judgment? There are no priests on the island. You have no place to confess your sin of lying to me. Do you want to take this sin into your coffin and be judged by God?"
"Well... well... okay, I'll tell you what happened!" Yu Xier was cornered by Lin Fei and had no choice but to say, "Here's what happened. We met a Japanese businessman in Taiwan. He has excellent character. We think that if we hand Chiyo Mika over to him, he can send her to Japan properly."
Lin Fei frowned and asked, "Is this what you and Chen Fu wanted to hide from me?"
Chen Fu and Yu Xier nodded together, and Lin Fei asked, "What's the trouble with this matter? I promised Chiyo Mika a long time ago that I would send her back to Japan as soon as I had the chance."
Chen Fu said: "But if we send her back to Japan, what if she tells the Japanese that we are on Samar Island and the Japanese come to attack us?"
Lin Fei shook his head and said, "No, Japan is now at war with the Qing Dynasty, why would they come to fight us? Even if the war with the Qing Dynasty is over, they don't need to mobilize a large number of troops just because of our dozens of prisoners of war and run thousands of kilometers to Samar Island to fight us."
Yu Xier said on the side: "I think the trouble is not this, but..."
Lin Fei said: "Old Yu, if you have anything to say, just say it directly, don't be so hesitant!"
Yu Xier sighed and said, "Captain, can you say that you have no other feelings for Chiyo Mika? Now that she is leaving, can you not be sad?"
Lin Fei's heart suddenly moved, and he hurriedly said: "Old Yu, don't talk nonsense, I have no other intentions towards her. If I have other intentions, it is out of guilt. She is an innocent girl. I kidnapped her and ruined her life."
Yu Xier looked at Lin Fei for a long time without saying anything. Lin Fei felt confused and said hurriedly, "Okay, let's not talk about this matter. There is another problem. What is it?"
Yu Xier said, "Since you can let go of Chiyo Mika, let's go straight to the next thing. When we were in Taiwan, we heard from a Spanish businessman that the Spaniards in Manila were very angry about the looting of plantations on Ibayat Island, Batan Island, and Babuyan Island. The Manila navy has sent warships to search for us in the eastern part of Luzon Island and the Visayas Islands."
Lin Fei was startled and asked, "The trouble you are talking about, do you mean we will encounter the Spanish Navy?"
Yu Xier nodded and said, "Yes, with the current Nuwa, it will be hard to win against the Spanish Navy."
Lin Fei smiled and said, "Don't worry, Lao Yu. There are so many islands in the Philippines, it will be difficult for them to find us."
Yu Xier said: "The chances of them discovering us are slim, but we are now growing in size, and they might hear about us somewhere and find us."
Lin Fei nodded thoughtfully and said, "What you said makes sense."
Yu Xier's tone was filled with worry: "What should we do? Can we build a brand new warship now?"
Lin Fei shook his head slightly and said, "It's difficult. Although I conquered Leyte Island and upgraded the industry of Yanhuang City during your absence, there is too little alloy ore now to smelt advanced alloy steel, so we have to wait before we can build warships."
Yu Xier asked hurriedly: "What should we do now? Without warships, how can we deal with the enemy if they come?"
Lin Fei smiled leisurely and said, "I have thought of a way!"
Yu Xier frowned and said, "Isn't it another life-and-death battle like seizing a ship at sea? The Spanish won't be fooled."
Lin Fei smiled and said, "Of course not that kind of fighting style. I want to conduct a major upgrade of naval weapons."
Yu Xier asked: "How do you upgrade?"
Lin Fei smiled and said, "There are many specific aspects that need to be improved. I can't introduce them one by one now. I will tell you later. How are the things I asked you to buy?"
Yu Xier smiled and said, "I've bought everything, including tin ore, pig bristles, and tung oil."
Lin Fei said, "That's good. Transport the tin ore to the metallurgical production area, transport the bristles to the light industrial base in Chiyou City, and transport the tung oil to the chemical production area first."
Chen Fu then asked: "Captain, what are the uses of these three things?"
Lin Fei smiled and said, "It's very useful. Let's talk about tin ore first. After smelting tin, tin can be used as welding material. Do you know welding? It's connecting two pieces of steel together. This is what you need to do to build a warship."
"Tung oil is used to make paint, which is applied to steel to prevent it from rusting. As for the bristles, they are used to make brushes. How can you use paint without tools to apply the paint to steel?"
After Lin Fei finished his explanation, Chen Fu and Yu Xier organized people to transport these things. The tin ore was sent to the metallurgical production area for smelting. The tin ore also had to be smelted by fire to produce tin, which was similar to the basic principle of copper smelting, and the smelting equipment also had something in common.
The pig bristles were given to the light industry craftsmen in Chiyou City to be made into brushes. Light industry also made great contributions to military industry. Brushes are one example of this. Ship cables and various military ropes are also produced by light industry.
After Lin Fei arranged all these things, he asked Yu Xier: "Old Yu, what is the name of the Japanese businessman you know? Can he be trusted?"
Yu Xier said: "The Japanese businessman's name is Kishida Ginko, he deals in medicinal materials, his shop is called Le Shan Tang, the first two times we bought cinnabar and saltpeter, we bought them from his subordinate shop."
After hearing what Yu Xier said, Lin Fei's face suddenly changed drastically, and he asked in surprise: "What did you say the name of that Japanese businessman was?"
Yu Xier was stunned and said, "Kishida Ginka, what's wrong? Is there something wrong?"
Lin Fei's heart trembled suddenly, and he thought secretly: "Kishida Ginka, how could it be him?"
