The sky was clear, and as far as the eye could see, there was not a single cloud in sight. The sun shines on the sea, sparkling in the microwave, like a mother coaxing her child to sleep, gently touching the beach of Lieyu.

This is a rare good weather in recent times, and the haze has been swept away. On the lookout platform of Lieyu, the soldiers looked into the distance, and a small grain of rice was breaking through the line between the sea and the sky. This is common sense, the soldier knows very well that this can only be a sea ship is slowly coming, Nanao Island is on the sea trade route, and it is the most normal thing for sea ships to come and go, but he doesn't care too much. But as time went on, the reflection of the ship in his eyes grew, and he soon realized how extraordinary the ship was.

The incoming ship was a water-borne ship, one foot five or six feet wide, more than seven feet high, with complete gun emplacements, especially the gun at the bow, pointing straight ahead.

The ship came in with a crushing wave, and the sergeant immediately informed the officer in charge of the lookout. The fort and beacon tower are all the best preparations, once there is something, they will open fire, and at the same time light the beacon fire to warn Nanao Island. However, they soon found out that this was just a false alarm, because the ship was clearly under the banner of Zhou Rui, Marquis of Min'an, and it was thought that Marquis Zhou and Chen had returned from the army.

At the wharf of Nanao Island, the bow ship is moored at the wharf and the sails are lowered and anchored. The boat stopped, Chen Kai, Zhou Rui and others transferred to the boat, hurriedly went ashore, hurriedly came to Zheng Chenggong, and bowed.

"Zhou Hou and Chen joined the army to save my people, and I should salute and thank you."

Hearing the news, Zheng Chenggong came out to greet him, and as he spoke, he solemnly bowed. Chen Kai and Zhou Rui also hurriedly returned the salute, so that they could be regarded as making the mess on the number of gifts clear.

"This is Kuang Lu Kuangshe."

"Kuang She is a humanistic style, calligraphy has the wind of wishing Jingzhao, and I have also heard of a great name in southern Fujian for a long time, like thunder."

"Don't dare, no matter how flowery the article is, he is just a useless scholar at this time of national crisis. The surname of the country is both civil and military, and it is the right way to regain the lost land and protect the people in eastern Guangdong and southern Fujian. ”

The sedan chair carries people, Chen Kai rescued Kuang Lu, Kuang Lu is not a hypocritical person, talking and laughing with Zheng Chenggong at the moment, at first glance, it looks the same, but on the boat, there seems to be a layer of separation between him and Chen Kai, not as close and tacit as when he planned to connect grassroots civil officials and guards in Guangzhou City.

"It seems that this Kuang Sheren doesn't like to owe other people's debts."

"Well, his temperament is used to being free and easy."

Just finished the journey, physical and mental exhaustion was inevitable, the reception banquet was set for tomorrow night, after a short greeting, everyone retreated to rest. The next person led Kuang Lu to the arranged room, Zheng Chenggong said casually, Chen Kai replied quietly, and the two came to Zheng Chenggong's study without saying a word.

After serving a cup of tea, the servant left the room by himself. Chen Kai and Zheng Chenggong sat opposite each other, tasted a product, and it was a little hot, so he casually put it on Zheng Chenggong's desk. Just before he could speak, Zheng Chenggong didn't seem to be very satisfied with the temperature of the tea, and when he put it down, he said to Chen Kai: "If you can come back safely, I will be content." ”

"Thank you for your family name, and the official ......"

"Actually, I don't want to say more kind words. 110,000 people, more than 700 large and small ships, plus 110,000 taels of silver, I will not forget your efforts, the people of Guangzhou will not forget, and the Ming Dynasty will not forget either. Speaking of this, Zheng Chenggong paused, and then changed his words: "However, from Guangzhou to Chaozhou, these are resources and help, but if you don't get it right, it will become a burden, or even a disaster, and you have to bear a heavier burden." ”

"Xia Guan understands."

"I'm not worried about your ability, I'm just worried that you're always confined to the affairs of the Ordnance Bureau and can't let go."

When he first arrived, Chen Kai showed his strength in the Ordnance Bureau and obtained the opportunity to integrate into this military and political group, and since then, he has also focused more energy on the development of the Ordnance Bureau, as if it was inertia.

It is undeniable that the continuous strengthening of the level of weapons and equipment of Zheng Chenggong's department is sincerely beneficial to Chen Kai's efforts, but this inertia inevitably limits his development ideas to industries with military production as the main body. Of course, in addition to the manufacture of weapons, Chen Kai has not done other things, and he has also made a lot of achievements, but as a bystander, Zheng Chenggong has obviously seen that this is not the limit of Chen Kai's ability, and he still has more room for development, which is nothing more than limited by his own ideas and some other factors.

"Xiaguan ......"

Chen Kai was about to apologize, but Zheng Chenggong shook his head: "Actually, you and I have been friends for many years, you know me, I also know you, we are all people who are determined to recover, we are a kind of people!" You can see the situation in Guangzhou, just like what I saw when I was in Nanjing. Daming wants ZTE, counting on that group of guys is useless, and we need to make more efforts. ”

Having said that, Chen Kai already knew what Zheng Chenggong was thinking, so he had to nod heavily. There is no need to open your mouth for many things, this tacit understanding, you don't need to say anything more, everything can be said in silence.

After a moment of silence, Zheng Chenggong drank the tea: "It turned out that you were right to transfer some of the people and ships to Chen Qice, and the cooperation with Zhang Yue, Li Yuantai, Li Jianjie and Li Yuanyin behind them should also continue, even on the Macau side." It is unrealistic to rely on allies, but these people have their own relationships and forces, and the dominance of maritime trade is in me, and there is always something to gain. ”

Affirming Chen Kai's disposition lightly, Zheng Chenggong entered the topic: "What do you think about those people?" ”

This time, the resources brought back by Chen Kai are too huge, and the war potential contained in them is huge, whether it is explicit or implicit, it is unimaginable. It's just that now Zheng Chenggong is still digesting the strength of Zheng Cai and Zheng Lian, and he is already a little indigestion, and these brought from Guangzhou require Chen Kai to play a greater role.

In this regard, Chen Kai had expected it, but he finally sorted out the wording, and then said to Zheng Chenggong: "At this stage, our army controls Zhao'an County and Zhongzuo Office of Chaozhou and Zhangzhou Mansion. With these places, it is impossible to digest so many people. Our army cannot let them become a burden, so we need to make the best use of them. The easiest way to do this is to regain more lost ground as soon as possible, but Xia Guan doesn't think this will be very effective. ”

The counties in the area controlled by Zheng Chenggong do not have a very large capacity to absorb foreign population, especially in agriculture, not to mention the eight mountains, one water and one field in Fujian, not to mention Tingzhou, and the cultivated land area of Zhangzhou and Quanzhou is not very large, not to mention that they are all owner-owned lands. Huizhou Prefecture is also mountainous and hilly in the east, and there will be a large area of arable land in the Pearl River Basin in the west, which is why Huizhou Mansion is located in the southwest.

The most practical way is to wave the army westward and compete with Shang Kexi and Geng Jimao for the province of Guangdong. But this is contrary to the core interests of the Zheng Group itself, and it has lost the best opportunity, which will only achieve half the result, which is really meaningless.

Chen Kai said that Zheng Chenggong could also understand that what he needed was Chen Kai's answer, and Chen Kai had no intention of hiding it.

"The Pearl River water battle, the battle of Xu Long, Sheng Dengke, the detailed report must have been read. The local people in Guangzhou are not bloody warriors, and what they lack is nothing more than no one to organize them. The first policy of the lower officials was to follow the old practice of the Song Dynasty and recruit soldiers from among the victims. A soldier's true colors and colors are enough to feed a family with a small population, and if the country recruits 10,000 troops from it, tens of thousands of people will be saved from hunger and cold. ”

"Heroes see the same thing!" Hearing this, Zheng Chenggong clapped his hands and praised: "I have thought about it, you can give priority to recruiting soldiers from military households, the four guards of Guangzhou and the Tartars have formed a blood feud, and it will have a miraculous effect when they go into battle." ”

Counting on hatred to improve combat effectiveness, Chen Kai didn't care. But what about the feudal army, he didn't say anything more, and continued his advice.

"Xiaguan's second strategy is to open up, but it is not Zhangchao and the surrounding prefectures and counties."

"Oh?"

This statement did attract Zheng Chenggong's attention, but when Chen Kai took out the second strategy completely, he shook his head, which was obviously very different from his attitude towards the first strategy.

"Actually, Dayuan and Qiongzhou, these two places are not easy to develop. Instead of wasting time in these two places, it is even better to go back to Monk Kexi to compete for Guangzhou. ”