King of German Mercenaries

When Marin brought Angela back to Den Burg, it was already June. Da Gama's departure time was around July 8, and the time was already very tight.

After Columbus arrived at Texel Island with the essence of his family, Marin, Marin arranged Columbus's wife and two sons in Den Burg, and arranged for craftsmen to help the Columbus family build a big house.

Seeing that Da Gama's departure is imminent, Columbus needs to start immediately. Columbus had no problem with this. The skills of great sailing have been deeply embedded in his soul. Moreover, he is very depressed now, and only by sailing for Marin can he earn enough money to support his family.

Marin allocated two Frisian warships with a displacement of about 130 tons to Columbus to lead them. However, most of the sailors who were put on were replaced.

Among them, the replaced sailors were mainly fishermen under the rule of Marin. The bald Aben is the leader of these young Frisian fishermen and sailors.

To Marin's delight, shortly after his return to Texel, the Karak sailboats he had ordered in Spain and Portugal also arrived.

The two Karak sailboats are about the same size, with a displacement of about 180 tons, a length of 27 meters, and a width of 8.5 meters. The draft is 2.3 meters, and the sail area is also about 372 square meters.

Of course, this sail area refers to the cross sail area. In addition to the cross sails, all boats are equipped with a set of jibs. Cross sails are used when the wind is down, to make the most of it. The jib is mainly used in the headwind area. Because the jib is easy to do "Z" maneuver, suitable for going against the wind. When Columbus first explored the Americas, he also wore two sets of sails.

As for the cannons worn, Draka also purchased a batch of Fran cannons from Portugal. There are 10-pound, 8-pound, and 6-pound cannons for these Fran cannons, a total of 30 guns, all of which are equipped on the two newly purchased Karak sailboats.

Immediately after the new ship was in place, Marin arranged for Columbus to familiarize himself with the ship. Then the sailors made adjustments. Local Frisian sailors, led by Aben, boarded two new ships. As for the two 130-ton warships captured by the Frisian Republic, half were originally captured Frisian sailors, and the other half were selected from newly recruited fishermen.

In order to prevent these sailors from rioting, Marin not only selected honest sailors, but their families also stayed on Texel Island as hostages. Marin specially dispatched Kohler to tell the sailors clearly that if they died on duty, their families would be given preferential treatment. If they betrayed, all their family members will be hanged, even children...

In fact, the newly recruited Frisian sailors, the lads selected from the 80 fishermen led by Aben, were not well trained. However, these people are better than being honest and obedient. Unlike the other half of the captured sailors of the Frisian Republic, Marin was not very reassured by them. Fortunately, the family members of these people have also been taken to the island, so they are not afraid of their tricks. As for those whose family members failed to pick up the island, they were all excluded from this voyage.

Moreover, these remaining 80 Frisian sailors can not only operate sailboats, but also fire cannons - this is the biggest reason why Marin chose them...

In this day and age, sailing at sea is full of dangers. Although there are no powerful pirate groups such as the English islands and the Barbary pirates, there are also many scattered pirates.

Four warships, a total of 50 artillery pieces, as long as there are enough gunners to use them, they can definitely crush all kinds of pirates. After all, the great voyages had not yet arisen, and the scale of pirates was very small. Even if there were, they were all those who jumped into boats and slashed people with knives, and were vulnerable in front of artillery.

The only thing to watch out for is whether the Portuguese will turn their backs on them. After all, Marin has touched the interests of the Portuguese this time. Even though Marin had permission from the Pope, if the Portuguese ignored it,

Killing Marin's fleet at sea, Marin has no reason to go. As long as all four ships were sunk and the Portuguese wiped it clean, no one could say anything.

Therefore, the 50 artillery pieces equipped on the ship are specially designed to prevent the Portuguese from turning their faces...

In addition, Marin sent Kohler's most important assistant Draka on board, and asked him to preside over the trade with the Indians. Under the hands-on teaching of Kohler, Draka is also good at computing, and has dealt with many people, so he has rich business experience.

Then, Marin arranged to hire two translators who knew Arabic in Portugal. The two spent years hanging out on the African coast and knew how to speak Arabic. Moreover, the two also understand Spanish. Columbus just so happened to know Spanish, just in time to direct them to negotiate with the Malindi chief.

In this era, there were many Arab colonies on the east coast of Africa. For example, Mombasa and Malindi are colonies under the control of Arabs, and the chiefs are also Arabs and speak Arabic. For example, Majid, who originally piloted Da Gama in history, was an Arab born in Oman.

There are two translators who understand Arabic, which is also convenient for negotiating with Arabs. Arabic is widely spoken, from Persia to the Atlantic coast of North Africa, it is the common official language. Spain and Portugal fought the Arabs a lot because they faced North Africa. Therefore, there are quite a few people in the two countries who understand Arabic. Just like Spain, the Sultanate of Granada (on the southern coast of Spain) established by the Arabs, was not destroyed by Spain until 1492...

Columbus took the sailors and steered the two new ships out to sea and found that the quality was not bad. The sailors and gunners also practiced naval battles.

In order to meet the needs of naval warfare, Marin had to send people to Antwerp to purchase gunpowder and iron balls in large quantities to meet the needs of naval artillery warfare.

In addition, Marin ordered that all the stained glass works of art worth 10,000 gold coins brought back from Venice should be moved to the ship and exchanged for spices with the Indians.

Stained glass is a specialty of Venice. Although Indians have seen glass, stained glass is rare. Because it didn't take too long for the Venetians to make stained glass. In addition, because Ottoman Turkey blocks trade routes, the price of stained glass handicrafts in India is still quite expensive.

And Draka, as the person in charge of this trade, Marin handed him another 20,000 gold coins so that he could purchase spices. After all, it takes time to sell out stained glass art, and it takes time to source spices.

It's a waste of time to wait for products to sell out before buying spices. Then, the initial start-up capital is also necessary and necessary. With the start-up capital, the sale of stained glass and the purchase of spices can be carried out at the same time, improving work efficiency...

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