Yang Zhao is now in charge of more and more positions, but most of the positions are just nominal, he does not personally manage them, and he does not have so much energy to manage them, and the actual things are in charge of the deputy position. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

In this way, he naturally doesn't know much about what is happening in these departments, but many of his henchmen and subordinates around him must know all the big and small things in the department, and then pick up the most important ones and report them to him.

When Yang Zhao heard this, he also felt that he was a little derelict in his duties, so he hurriedly looked at his subordinates and asked sharply: "What the hell is going on, tell me quickly." ”

The little official saluted lightly and said: "Here's the thing, in the area of Guangzhou, there are many merchants who do maritime trade, using the sea route to sell the silk, porcelain and other commodities of the Tang Dynasty to the Nanyang countries, and then, buy scarce commodities from the Tang Dynasty, so as to earn a large amount of profits, but the sea route has never been smooth, there are often pirates infested, so that the merchants suffer heavy losses, and the pirates are mostly gathered in the areas far away from the coastal areas of the Tang Dynasty, and it is elusive, it is not easy to exterminate the pirates, the merchants have been robbed repeatedly, and the losses are quite large!" ”

"Oh, I see! It was these merchants who were greedy for wealth and wealth, and they had to go so far to do trade, and they were robbed by pirates and brought it on themselves. ”

Yang Zhao didn't care, paused, looked at Li An, and asked curiously, "Why did Li Shilang suddenly care about maritime trade?" ”

Li An smiled and said softly: "A few years ago, my Tang Dynasty's railway led to the land in the river, making the Silk Road more prosperous, and Yang Taifu knows how much my Tang Imperial Court benefited from this railway?" ”

"Thanks to Li Shilang's proposal to build this railway, I have obtained a steady stream of financial resources for Datang, which is said to be hundreds of times more than before the railway was built? It is a road to financial resources. ”

Yang Zhao smiled happily and said, how could he not know the wealth brought by the railway to the imperial court, in addition, the wealth brought to the imperial court was only a small head, and the merchants inside and outside the Tang Dynasty used this railway to obtain more economic benefits, far exceeding the money collected by the imperial court, which can be described as a way for the people to benefit from making money.

In addition, Yang Zhao's own industry has also created benefits through this railway, and a large number of new clothes and Hushubao products have entered the Hezhong market, and even the nobles of the Great Food Country have used these items, so he attaches great importance to this railway.

"That's right, this is a road of wealth, and it must be managed well, but as long as it is managed well, such a road to wealth can also be formed at sea, and when the time comes, the two roads of wealth will be parallel, and I Datang will be able to earn more money."

Ang Lee explained excitedly.

Yang Zhao's eyes lit up, and he hurriedly said: "You can also form a way to make money on the sea, and Li Shilang is so optimistic about maritime trade?" ”

"As long as the maritime trade is well developed, it may not lose to the Silk Road on land, this official has been thinking about this for a long time, and it should not be wrong."

Ang Lee replied confidently.

"No wonder Li Shilang is so interested in the lawsuit of the merchants in Guangzhou, it turns out that he is planning to develop sea trade routes."

Yang Zhao had a look of sudden realization.

Li An was not polite, and directly demanded: "Yang Taifu, you hand over those Guangzhou businessmen to me!" I'm going to learn more from them. ”

"Okay, no problem, when I go back, I'll send someone to send these merchants over."

Yang Zhao readily agreed, and left after a short time.

In order to find out the details of the maritime trade routes, Ang Lee had to meet with these Canton merchants in person, and only from their mouths could he get the most detailed first-hand information.

In the office of Datang Daily, Li An met with these Guangzhou businessmen, a total of more than 10 people, in fact, this time there are far more than a dozen Guangzhou businessmen who entered Beijing, there are as many as 3,500, these dozen people are just representatives.

In addition, the purpose of their entry into Beijing was not only to deal with the problem of piracy, but also to sell rare goods from Nanyang.

They took the risk to sell goods from Nanyang, and the price they could get in Guangzhou was very different from that in Beijing, and they could get more profits by selling them directly in Beijing.

"Li Shilang."

More than a dozen Guangzhou businessmen bent down to salute Ang Lee.

Li An waved his hand lightly and said, "The official already knows a thing or two about the things you reflected, but the official wants to know more about the situation, and tell the official everything you know." ”

"Li Shilang, Nanyang trade started from Guangzhou, passed through Yazhou, crossed the vast South China Sea, all the way into the Indian Ocean, passed through dozens of countries along the way, and sold goods quite lucratively, but this road was rampant with pirates, the road was not smooth, and many peers died at the hands of pirates."

"In previous years, it was better, but in recent years, piracy has suddenly become more rampant, and pirates have appeared where there were no pirates."

"It's not because my Datang's products are getting more and more abundant, the shipbuilding industry is becoming more and more developed, and there are more and more merchants engaged in maritime trade, so there are more pirates."

"Yes! Li Shilang, in recent years, commerce has become more and more prosperous, the people's demand for Nanyang goods is getting bigger and bigger, we sell back the items every time are not enough to grab, many merchants see that it is profitable to engage in maritime trade, but nearly half of the profits are into the pockets of pirates, in the long run, pirates will inevitably become more and more powerful, so that they are invincible! ”

"Li Shilang may not know that the biggest pirate in Nanyang now has hundreds of big ships, and the scale of men and horses is nearly 10,000 people, and his strength is already extremely strong, if he is not annihilated with all his strength now, he is afraid that his strength will only surpass the imperial court in the future."

"Once the strength of the pirates surpasses that of the imperial court, they will be even more arrogant in the future, and even invade the coastal ports of the Tang Dynasty, and they must be annihilated as soon as possible."

"Li Shilang, we are not just thinking about our own interests, but also for the sake of the imperial court, once they let them sit big, it will also be a threat to my Datang."

All the businessmen in Guangzhou, you talked about it word by word.

Li An listened carefully, and felt that what these merchants said was very reasonable, if they ignored the pirates, not only the interests of the merchants would be greatly damaged, but the interests of the Tang Dynasty would also suffer heavy losses, and the most serious consequence was that after these pirates became strong, they would not continue to be pirates in An'an, and it was very likely that they would harass the coastal areas of the Tang Dynasty with their strong strength, thus causing huge losses to the coastal people of the Tang Dynasty, and would reproduce the troubles of the Ming Dynasty in later generations.

"Someone, hang the map."

Ang Lee asked his subordinates to hang up a specially made map.

The map includes the southern territory of the Tang Dynasty, the entire South China Sea, the Indian Ocean, and the coastal territories of East Africa, and all the areas through which the maritime trade routes passed.

"Li Shilang, what is this map?"

More than a dozen Guangzhou businessmen, the moment they saw the map, all widened their eyes, this map and the map in their hands have many similarities, but it seems more compact and real, which makes people's eyes shine.

"This is the map of the maritime trade route drawn by the official himself based on the literature, I don't know if you can understand it?"

"I can see it, it's about the same as the sea map in our hands."

Li An nodded and said, "According to this map, you can tell this official about pirates?" ”

An older merchant walked up, pointed to a location on the map, and said: "Li Shilang, piracy is the most rampant here, the grandfather of the pirate leader was originally a child of my Datang, an ordinary fisherman in Leizhou, because he was afraid that he couldn't make too much money by fishing, so he set up camp here, and started a pirate business. ”

Li An glanced at it, and a sneer appeared on the corner of his mouth, this pirate leader is quite smart, he actually put his nest in the Strait of Malacca, which is a necessary place for Tang merchants to enter and exit the Indian Ocean, as long as some pirate ships are sent to block the strait, all merchant ships passing through here cannot pass, which can be described as extremely insidious, so that merchant ships have nowhere to hide.

"Pirates blockade the straits, how do your goods get in and out?"

Li An scolded sharply.

"Li Shilang forgives the sin, we have no choice but to pay a high toll, not to fund the pirates."

More than a dozen businessmen were startled and quickly knelt down.

"Since you can be safe and sound by paying the toll, why do you come to the capital, what does it matter if you earn a little less."

Li Ancai will not believe that these guys are really here for the foundation of the Tang Dynasty, businessmen are all in pursuit of interests, and they will not do things without interests.

"Li Shilang, this is not the only pirate along the way, some pirates are easy to talk to, and they can eliminate disasters by giving some money, but some pirates are bent on killing people and goods, and it is difficult to save their lives even if they have everything, in short, there are all kinds of pirates, which makes people unguardable."

"Yes! Li Shilang, as well as some fishermen, went to plunder merchant ships when they encountered a bad harvest, which was even more unguardable. ”

The merchant who knelt on the ground hurriedly explained.

Li An pondered for a moment, looked at the dozen or so kneeling merchants, and said, "Okay, you all get up!" I don't blame you. ”

Seeing more than a dozen merchants get up in turn, Li An pointed to the Malacca area and asked, "The pirates here must be pacified, do you know the details of the pirates here." ”

The merchants were overjoyed when they heard this, but they didn't know the details of the pirates, only that the pirates' strength had skyrocketed in recent years, with nearly 10,000 people, and they didn't even know where the pirates' lair was.

"Li Shilang, the pirates are also afraid that the imperial court will send troops to encircle and suppress them, so the specific situation will not let us know, but there must be nearly 10,000 horses, in addition, there are other pirates, the imperial court must send at least 50,000 sailors to wipe out these pirates in one fell swoop."

A businessman said.

"The continued prosperity of commerce has allowed these pirates to take a big advantage, how can this work, no matter how many soldiers and horses the imperial court sends, it will definitely be able to exterminate the pirates, you don't have to doubt the strength of the Tang Dynasty at all."

Li An said confidently.

"Li Shilang, I wonder when the imperial court will be able to send troops to quell the pirates?"

The merchants asked with concern.

Li An thought for a moment and replied: "It will take a lot of time to mobilize troops, horses and materials, at least three or five months!" ”

"It's been soon, it's been very soon."

The businessmen were very happy, they didn't have much hope when they came, it was enough to be able to win the imperial court to send troops to Nanyang, where would they dare to fight for the imperial court to send troops as soon as possible.

Subsequently, Ang Lee talked more about the sea routes with these businessmen and listened to the national folklore, local policies and goods along the way.

It turned out that the threat faced by these merchants was far more than just pirates, but also fishermen who could become pirates at any time, the oppression of the local court in Nanyang, the exploitation of local snakes everywhere, and natural disasters such as storms and typhoons that suddenly arose.

Therefore, although the profits are extremely rich, the risks that merchants have to take on a long voyage are also very large, and once they encounter too many accidents, they will lose money on a long voyage.

If the Tang Dynasty can clear the pirates along the way, ensure the safety of merchant ships at sea, and force the coastal countries not to bully the Tang maritime merchants through certain means, the cost of the maritime merchants of the Tang Dynasty will be greatly reduced, so that the price of goods can also drop a lot, which is also beneficial to the common people.

In short, Li An has strengthened his belief that he must make every effort to rectify the chaos of the Maritime Silk Road, return a good trade environment to the merchants, further enhance the strength of the Tang Empire, and benefit the people of the Tang Dynasty.

However, the strength of the pirates is not weak, and the strength of the countries along the way is also not to be underestimated, if you want to solve them, you need to mobilize the forces that have always been strong, as for how much to mobilize, Li An must think carefully.

After returning to the courtyard, Li An fell into deep thought, thinking about the situation introduced by the merchants in Guangzhou during the day, and thinking about how much strength he needed and how much time it would take to achieve his goal according to the map in front of him.

With the current strength of the Tang Empire, it is impossible for any pirate to match it, but the pirate's lair is too far away from the territory of the Tang Dynasty, and it is not easy to exterminate them.

In addition, Ang Lee is a person who pursues zero casualties, so it is necessary to mobilize the most elite forces to make the pirates completely unable to resist.

After thinking about it, Li An decided to go to the sea in person, and the soldiers and horses to be mobilized included a flying group of the Celestial Army, the first brigade of ironclad artillery vehicles, and more than thirty steam ironclad battleships, as well as a larger number of supply ships.

In addition, in order to accommodate a flying group of ten aircraft, an aircraft carrier with a straight deck must be built, and in order to accommodate a brigade of ironclad gunners, five landing ships were needed, each of which could accommodate ten ironclad guncars.

Aircraft carriers and landing ships do not need to be rebuilt, only a small number of modifications are required on the basis of the original steam ships, after all, the first generation of aircraft does not have high requirements for the deck of the aircraft carrier, as long as one deck is made, and the ironclad gun car only needs one exit, and the difficulty of modification is even lower.