The weather is getting colder and colder, but Li Jie is going south by boat, but it is getting warmer and warmer, and when the fleet is about to reach the mouth of the Yangtze River, Li Jie has to change into single clothes, you must know that the north is already going to wear cotton clothes at this time.

"Li Banyu, further forward is Suzhou, and then we will be separated!" At this moment, a person walked up to Li Jie and said, it was Gu Xuewen, a businessman who went out with the army.

"You're not going to the capital?" Li Jie also showed a look of surprise when he heard this, this time he came back from the Wa Kingdom, and many of these merchants came back with his ship, after all, Li Jie brought a few warships, and there was a guarantee of safety.

Speaking of which, Gu Xuewen and these people also made a windfall in Goryeo and the Wa Kingdom, not only bought Zhang Dingbian's spoils at a low price, but also traded with the people of Goryeo and the Wa Kingdom, each boat was full of goods, these goods took up a lot of money, and they needed to be sold as soon as possible, so they came back with Li Jie.

"I won't go, but I will send a steward to the capital with some goods, after all, although the capital is prosperous, it can't eat so many goods, so I decided to stay in Suzhou and transfer these goods to the south in batches to sell." Gu Xuewen replied again.

At the beginning, Gu Xuewen's father-in-law, Shen Wansan, was based in Suzhou, transporting goods from all over the country overseas, becoming the leading maritime businessman on the southern coast, and the Shen family also became the richest man in Jiangnan by relying on sea trade, even after several blows, but the Shen family still stands, these are the solid foundation laid by Shen Wansan back then.

Li Jie also nodded when he heard this: "Suzhou is a good place, located in the Yangtze River waterway, and can be connected to overseas, but I suggest that you can develop a little further east, such as Songjiang Mansion, although it is a small place, but it is near the river and the sea, and it must be a commercial town with the rise of maritime trade in the future!" ”

Shanghai is the economic center of China in the future, and Li Jie has long wanted to develop Songjiang Mansion, but the time is not yet ripe, so he can only let businessmen like Gu Xuewen think about it first, as long as Songjiang's commerce can flourish, it will naturally be a matter of course in the future.

It's just that what Li Jie didn't expect was that as soon as his words fell, Gu Xuewen looked at him in surprise and said, "Li Banyu, you think so too!" ”

"Anyone else thinks like that?" Li Jie heard Gu Xuewen use the word "also", and immediately asked curiously.

"Exactly, when my father-in-law was alive, he told us many times that although Suzhou is a good place, the potential of Songjiang is far greater than that of Suzhou, and even my father-in-law has bought a lot of land in Songjiang, but unfortunately later sold a lot because of family accidents, but now we still have thousands of hectares of fertile land in Songjiang." Gu Xuewen nodded again, and his eyes looking at Li Jie were also full of admiration.

Li Jie was also stunned when he heard this, and then he also praised Shen Wansan's vision, worthy of being the person who can become the richest man in the world, Shen Wansan actually saw the potential of Songjiang early, and even bought land, but unfortunately he only considered the economy, but did not take into account politics, and did not expect that the Ming Dynasty would ban the sea, until the foreign powers invaded China, and had to open the sea ban, making Shanghai finally become the economic center of China.

"I hate to see Shen Gong!" Li Jie also sighed at this time and said, the time he crossed was a little late, and many legendary characters were not seen, such as Chang Yuchun, Xu Da, Shen Wansan, and so on.

Referring to Shen Wansan, Gu Xuewen also showed a nostalgic look, and even he felt that if his father-in-law could live until now, he would definitely become friends with Li Jie.

In the afternoon, Li Jie's fleet finally entered the Yangtze River, because of the previous conversation, Li Jie also deliberately ordered someone to take a long detour and enter the Yangtze River from the south side of Chongming Island, so that they could see the situation in Songjiang Mansion.

However, compared with the prosperity of later generations, the current Songjiang Mansion is only a small place rich in silk, not to mention compared with Jinling, even the Suzhou next to it is countless times stronger than it, for the current Suzhou people, Songjiang Mansion is the real countryside.

In the evening, the fleet anchored at the port of Suzhou, and Gu Xuewen also invited Li Jie to go ashore and go to the Shen family's old house to rest for a few days, and by the way, he could also play and relax.

Although Li Jie also wanted to see what Zhouzhuang was like during the Ming Dynasty, he also went to the former residence of Shen Wansan in Zhouzhuang in later generations, and he didn't know if there were any changes in the hundreds of rooms?

However, Li Jie considered that there were still a lot of things in the capital, especially Zhu Biao's side, which made him very uneasy, so he didn't want to waste time here in Suzhou, so he finally declined Gu Xuewen's kindness, and then continued to rush to Jinling after a night's rest.

In the East Warm Pavilion of the Jinling Palace, Zhu Yuanzhang was reading the recital as usual, Zhu Biao was sitting aside, and the table was also full of recitals, no matter how big or small the Ming Dynasty was, all of them were in Zhu Yuanzhang's hands, and the affairs he dealt with every day were also extremely amazing, even if Zhu Yuanzhang was capable, he also needed to let Zhu Biao help him share some affairs.

"Li Jie should be back soon, right?" Zhu Yuanzhang stretched after reading a transcript, and then asked Zhu Biao.

"Last time, he wrote to Yun Xi, saying that he would be back this month, so it should be soon." Zhu Biao raised his head and replied that Li Jie had been gone for several months, and only occasional letters had been sent back, but because of the long sea route, sometimes it had been a long time since the letters were delivered.

"It should be fast, this kid is not here, there seems to be a lot less things in the capital all of a sudden, and I feel a little unaccustomed." Zhu Yuanzhang raised his head and looked out the window and said, Li Jie has been gone for so long, and he also misses each other a little, because as long as there is Li Jie, he will bring some surprises to Lao Zhu from time to time.

"Even if he is not there, there are still many things related to him in the capital, such as the truth-seeking academy recently run by Qin Tianjian, which has caused quite a stir among scholars, many Confucians say that they are deviant, and some people agree with some of the doctrines in the academy, that is, Li Jie is not in the capital, if he is in the capital, maybe some people will burn him on him." Zhu Biao shook his head helplessly.

The so-called Qiuzhen Academy, in fact, is the small class that Li Jie opened in the hot air balloon workshop, the content of the lecture is very miscellaneous, at the beginning it only talked about astronomy and geography, and then began to involve physics, chemistry, biology and so on, which also attracted many people to listen to the class, such as Xie Jin, who is a bachelor of Hanlin.

Even after Li Jie left, this small classroom was still in operation, and with the expansion of the scale, Qin Tianjian simply set up an academy, named Qiuzhen, which means seeking the truth of the world, and even began to divide some subjects in the academy, such as the physics taught by Xie Jin, which is a very famous discipline in the academy.

However, the emergence of the Truth-seeking Academy has also caused some controversy among the readers, in the past, the academy of the academy was only spread in a small area, only attracting some interested readers, but since the establishment of the academy, it began to officially spread some of the doctrines of the academy to the outside world, which had some impact on the Confucian system, so there were many people who opposed it, and even began to attack the Truth-seeking Academy.

"The matter of the scholars, let them go, the so-called Xiucai rebellion, it will not be successful in three years, no matter how many scholars these scholars fight, it will have no impact on the imperial court!" Zhu Yuanzhang is very generous, he doesn't read much, but he is very tolerant of scholars, in his opinion, no matter what doctrine, as long as it has no impact on the court, it doesn't matter.

Zhu Di knew that his father would not care about the affairs of the Seeking Truth Academy, so he smiled again: "The Iron Book Army is also related to Li Jie, and now Mu Sheng has trained the Iron Book Army in a good way, and he also uses muskets all of them, abandoning knives, guns, bows and arrows, is this really feasible on the battlefield?" ”

Hearing the Iron Book Army, Lao Zhu also immediately showed a solemn expression, and after a while, he spoke: "I have also thought about the matter of a pure firearms army for a long time, and in terms of the power of firearms, it is indeed possible to form an independent army, but this kind of thing is a war, only if the real sword and gun are pulled to the battlefield and try it, can we know whether it will work or not, so I can't say for sure about this matter." ”

For the first time in the history of the Iron Book Army, although Lao Zhu is a genius commander and knows the power of firearms, he is also a little uncertain about this new type of army.

However, Lao Zhu soon smiled again: "Originally, the Iron Book Army was just used to house the sons of those princes' families, and I didn't plan to let them really go to the battlefield, but I didn't expect Li Jie to give me a surprise, and let Mu Sheng make such a strange army, if there is a chance, I can let them try it on the battlefield!" ”

"Now is your chance!" Zhu Biao suddenly thought of something at this time, and immediately stood up and said again, "The fourth brother wrote me a letter from Goryeo, I don't know where he heard about the Iron Book Army, so he also wants to build an army of pure firearms in his own army, after all, he only has a few thousand people in Goryeo, and it is not easy for such a few people to suppress Goryeo." ”

Zhu Yuanzhang also showed a contemplative look when he heard this, and his fingers tapped lightly on the table, and after a long while, he spoke: "It's really not easy for the fourth child, when Li Jie proposed Gaoli's plan, I wasn't very optimistic, but it didn't hurt to think about giving it a try, but I didn't expect him and the fourth child to really succeed." ”

"Then my father agreed, and I will have someone gather a batch of muskets for him now!" Zhu Biao was also overjoyed when he heard Zhu Yuanzhang's words, Zhu Biao has never had any precautions against Zhu Di's brothers, and he is not worried about them sitting big, because he is the eldest brother and the prince of the Ming Dynasty, and he has this confidence and strength.

"No need, it's a little late to build a firearms unit now, I think Mu Sheng has trained the Iron Book Army well, just let them go to Goryeo to see some blood, and then they can know the power of this new army!" Lao Zhu interrupted Zhu Biao's words, although he believed in his son and believed in Zhu Biao's strength, there were still some things that had to be guarded against, and it was not a good thing for Zhu Di to have too many troops in his hands.