"Didn't come back all night? Didn't Gan Ning say she would come back in the morning? ”

When Liu Zheng heard Zhang Duyu's words, he was stunned.

"No, I didn't see Sister Cai Yao when I got up in the morning."

Zhang Duyu's words made Liu Zheng even more curious, but Cai Yao didn't come back, and Liu Zheng could only put it on hold if he wanted to ask her clearly.

"What are you looking for Sister Cai Yao to do, just tell me, and when she comes back, I'll tell her for you."

Zhang Duyu was warm-hearted, but Liu Zheng was blushing, this kind of thing was naturally not good to talk to Zhang Duyu, so he could only wave his hand.

"It's okay, it's okay, since she's not here, then I'll come back to her next time."

Liu Zheng hurriedly left in front of Zhang Duyu's door, for fear that she would see some clues.

Originally, he still wanted to find Cai Yao, but he didn't find Cai Yao, and this matter was temporarily left behind by Liu Zheng.

At this time, Liu Zheng was very busy, first dealing with some large and small affairs in Jiaozhou during this time.

Although during this period of time, there was the management of Shixie, Xu You and others, although there was not too much chaos in government affairs, there were some things that Liu Zheng still needed to make decisions in person.

After all, it is impossible to completely trust Shixie in everything, and some important matters, things involving a lot of money, must be done by yourself.

Even if he doesn't do it himself, Liu Zheng has to review it afterwards to avoid mistakes and even prevent corruption.

He went straight to the Thorn History Mansion and began to deal with the affairs that Jiaozhou had recently squeezed down with Xu You, Yuan Zhou and others.

For example, the amount of money needed to build a city damaged by the war, the amount of funds, the conscription of new troops, the allocated military expenses, the comfort of the families of the dead soldiers, and the funds needed, although Shixie and others can make decisions.

But these things must be known to Liu Zheng, and at the same time, Liu Zheng must look at them and have an understanding of these things.

When Liu Zheng looked at these things written on the government affairs brief, in fact, in the final analysis, it was still one word.

Money!

Not to mention everything, most of the things are related to money.

As long as there is enough military spending, most of these backlogs here can be alleviated.

Liu Zheng picked out some urgent approvals from this, such as comforting the families of the dead soldiers, giving the injured soldiers the military expenses needed for treatment, and taking the lead in allocating the money needed.

Liu Zheng has always attached great importance to the construction of the army, and without these people, Liu Zheng would not be able to defeat the world at all, so he naturally appeased him well.

As for repairing the city wall, building houses, and building a new Thorn Mansion, Liu Zheng doesn't particularly value these things, and they can still be used for the time being, so let's make do with them first.

But after all, it will be accumulated in the next three or four months, and it will not be able to be done for a while.

It was busy until the evening that Liu Zheng finished handling these government affairs and handed them over to Shixie to continue to follow up.

At the same time, for the lack of funds, Liu Zheng paid more and more attention to Jiaozhou, Jiaozhou is not an economically developed place, and it is far from enough to rely on the taxes paid by the people under his command to support the development of Jiaozhou.

It is possible to maintain the expenditure in the front, but it is not easy to increase the army construction and develop Jiaozhou into a developed area like Yangzhou and Jingzhou.

Therefore, Liu Zheng must solve the matter of Poyang Lake as soon as possible, and at the same time develop his coastline caravan.

Only in this way will he be able to use more funds to build Jiaozhou.

Day 2. Just after the New Year, Liu Zheng couldn't wait to go to Poyang Lake with Zulang and a group of people and horses to deal with the robbery.

From Hepu City in Jiaozhou to Poyang Lake, if you go by land, it will take more than ten days, after all, the mountain road is difficult to walk, and there is such a long distance, more than ten days are fast, if you go slowly, I am afraid it will take nearly a month.

And this time, Liu Zheng didn't plan to go by land, he decided to take the waterway.

"What, my lord, are you going to take the waterway?"

When Zu Lang, Gan Ning and the others heard Liu Zheng's words, they were all stunned.

They didn't know what Liu Zheng meant by the waterway, after all, there was no river in Jiaozhou, which could lead directly to Poyang Lake.

Instead, there is a Mekong River that leads downstream to Southeast Asia.

"Naturally, I have always had an idea in my heart to open up a direct waterway to Youzhou, and if it can work this time, then the one that leads to Youzhou can also work."

What Liu Zheng thought in his heart was actually normal, he wanted to establish a coastal trade route, so he naturally had to go by himself.

If he, a modern person, could not sail around the coast, then those ancient people who did not know geography at all and did not know what a map looked like would not know how to go.

"But there is no water in Jiaozhou that leads to Poyang Lake?"

"Yes, the seaside of Hepu, go up along the coastline, and you will definitely be able to reach Poyang Lake!"

Liu Zheng told Zu Lang and Gan Ning what he thought in his heart, but Zu Lang and Gan Ning both looked at Liu Zheng with a puzzled look.

Although they live on the river all year round, they do not know where the downstream of the river leads to, because the river is not smooth sailing, and the wind and waves are calm.

Sometimes, there will be faults that make it impossible to sail at all, and it is difficult to go down the river.

"You don't have to doubt what I'm saying, just follow me."

Liu Zheng said a word to Zu Lang and Gan Ning, and then led everyone and began to go to the beach.

There has long been a ship here on the beach, waiting, although Liu Zheng's navy has not yet been formed, and the fleet has not been completely completed, but it is still simple to purchase one or two ships.

Before Jiaozhou, Hepu was a port, and there were some fishing boats that went to sea to fish, although the fishing boats and war ships could not be compared, but some of the ships moored here were also decent.

Liu Zheng spent money to collect it.

With Zu Lang, Gan Ning, and Su Fei in charge of sailing, plus some previous naval personnel, Liu Zheng transferred 300 people, and then took Xu Yu with him, and started sailing directly along the coastline.

This voyage was an exploration voyage, because none of the people on board had gone further through the coastline.

Of course, this voyage was not all smooth sailing, Liu Zheng's vague memory of the map, the first stop, made him a little confused.

Because sailing along the coastline from Hepu, the first stop is Zhuyazhou.

Zhuyazhou is actually the Hainan Island of later generations.

Liu Zheng is still clear about this, but the Zhuyazhou Strait is not under Liu Zheng's control now, and he controlled most of Jiaozhou before, but it is left here.