flstandardbreds Chapter 1043 This is it!
Chapter 1043 This is it!
Chu Chenjing tapped his fingers lightly on the table, then spoke unhurriedly: "I heard Your Highness mention that each of your entourages who came to my Western Chu Kingdom is equipped with a musket? Is that true?"
Ouyang Yunyao disliked that Henry's translation was not only slow but also clumsy, so she took over as the translator herself. Besides, only she could fully translate Chu Chenjing's meaning, so she helped Chu Chenjing translate in sync.
Upon hearing this, Joliv's expression immediately hardened. His gaze swept over Chu Chenjing, Han Fengli, and the others. He nodded and said solemnly, "Your Highness Prince Jing, not every soldier in our accompanying guard team is equipped with a hand musket. Instead, each pair of soldiers is equipped with one. However, all of us are equipped with hand muskets."
"Was this musket manufactured in your country?" Chu Chenjing frowned slightly, his fingers still tapping lightly.
He inquired about the musket not for any other purpose than to see if they intended to sell it.
They didn't intend to buy muskets; they simply didn't want these weapons brought by the people of the Luoba Continent to be sold to other countries, which would inevitably plunge the Yuzhou Continent into war again.
He never wanted another war. Although their country possessed magical firearms that their queen had retrieved from space, they would never invade other nations. He considered that if they wanted to sell muskets, they would buy them all.
Upon hearing this, Joliv said, "Yes, it is indeed made by our own country now. All the countries on our continent of Loba can now manufacture firearms."
He paused and continued, "But the number that our countries can produce each year is not much, not enough for our needs at all. Only the Duchy of Sturmgard produces a larger quantity each year, and their quality is the best."
As soon as Joliff finished speaking, Brian beside him quickly added, "Our prince is right. Although the Duchy of Sturmgard is not large, it is a mountainous country, almost entirely surrounded by mountains. They have a large amount of iron ore and also a lot of gunpowder."
"Oh? According to you, how many can they produce each year?"
Joliffe pondered for a moment: "Our country can produce about a hundred each year, while Stratgard... should produce about a hundred and fifty or sixty."
Chu Chenjing's heart relaxed. He analyzed in his mind that the number produced this year was not large, and the countries around them should be unstable, so there wouldn't be many that could be sold here.
But then he thought again, do they have a large stockpile? So he continued, "In that case, your country must have a fairly sufficient supply of muskets?"
Upon hearing this, Joliv and his companions exchanged glances, wondering if Prince Jing was asking to buy their muskets. Joliv, caught in a internal struggle, forgot to speak. He thought that if they really wanted them, he would reluctantly part with his own musket and give it to them.
Seeing that Jollif had been lost in thought for a while without speaking, Brian quickly waved his hand, "Your Highness has misunderstood." He explained with a hint of helplessness in his voice, "To be honest, we have only mastered the method of manufacturing muskets for about four years, and the entire Kingdom of Lorian has less than four hundred muskets, including those we previously purchased from Sturmgard."
"Only this much?" Han Fengli couldn't help but interject. "Then your army hasn't been equipped with any either?"
At this moment, Joliv looked up from his thoughts and said to them, "We have equipped them. Most of the muskets have been allocated to the troops guarding the border. Wars often break out between the kingdoms on our continent of Roba."
"But our kingdom is relatively good because it is located on a peninsula and has little contact with other countries, so some muskets have been provided to the guards in the palace."
Joliffe sighed and continued, "For this voyage, my father specially allocated more than ten guns for the guards we were leading. We also secretly used our connections to buy more than a dozen more from Stratgard."
"There are people in the Duchy of Sturmgard who would sell to you privately?" Han Fengli's eyes were full of surprise.
“Our prince and their third prince are close friends, so we bought it from him,” Brian said proudly.
"If that's the case, why don't you manufacture more?" Chu Chenjing asked, raising an eyebrow.
Joliv said helplessly, "The process of manufacturing muskets is very complicated, and our country has too little iron ore, so we cannot manufacture many."
Upon hearing this, Chu Chenjing understood. He exchanged a knowing glance with Ouyang Yunyao; they posed no threat in the short term. He then changed the subject: "What is the range of the muskets you carry?"
Seeing this, Joliv no longer kept it to himself. He took out a musket about the length of a forearm from his pocket, held it up with both hands, and handed it to Chu Chenjing and the others to see: "Your Highness, look, this is a musket made by Sturmgard. Theirs is even better than the ones made in our country."
Pointing to the bronze handle of the musket, he explained, "This handheld musket has a range of fifty meters; we also have a long-barreled musket on our ship with a range of about seventy meters."
Joliv was a businessman in his kingdom; he had no ambition and was known for his mild temperament. Although they had brought muskets and small fire grenades, they dared not be overconfident.
Moreover, while they were in the Yue Rong Kingdom, they had already heard that the Western Chu Kingdom had many people with profound martial arts skills, and the most skilled of them was their war god, Prince Jing, who was not only good at martial arts but could also fly over walls and walk on walls.
Furthermore, during his two conversations with Prince Jing and his group, he discovered that Prince Jing was a peace-loving person. In addition, their country and the Western Chu Kingdom were not on the same continent, so he was very open with them.
After Chu Chenjing and Han Fengli examined the musket, Gong Qianyu took it, leaned back in his chair, and looked it over from left to right. He then placed the musket on the table, raised an eyebrow, and looked at Ouyang Yunyao and Chu Chenjing, saying, "Master, have you seen this musket? This thing? Not very good!"
Gong Qianyu's casual remark left Qiao Lifu and the others staring at him in disbelief, feeling utterly devastated. They wanted to shout at him, "We're nothing special, but what about you?"
Seeing the way those guys were practically begging to eat Gong Qianyu alive, Ouyang Yunyao chuckled. Looking at the smug Gong Qianyu, she said, "Alright! Take out your treasure and let them have a look too."
"Hey, what's so great about my junk? You're better..." He suddenly remembered something, as if he had pressed the pause button, and didn't finish his sentence.
He then took out his treasure from his pocket, placed it on the table, and said smugly to the blond men, "Your Highness, come and take a look at this piece of junk!"
Joliffe and his men stared wide-eyed at the two muskets placed side by side, the difference in height immediately apparent. They were completely dumbfounded.