No one will be surprised if anything new happens in Luoyang City, because everyone has already acquiesced that Luoyang is different from other places. As a transportation hub city, Luoyang has an unknown number of outsiders who come in every day, and sometimes, the last time they came to see it, it was different from what they saw this time. There are always small changes waiting for them to adapt.

At first, people still found it inconvenient and always complained a little, and the locals of Luoyang went to explain. But later, with the benefits brought by these changes, Luoyang became better and better, and Luoyang people were also arrogant, no longer explaining, just waiting for you to adapt.

Others didn't think there was anything, but Li Mu understood it in his heart.

In his previous life, there was an old man who drew a circle along the coast. The people in that circle have roughly gone through such a process.

Reform must have a pilot, and this pilot project is one step ahead, in fact, the essence is to try and make mistakes. But Li Mu has a vision beyond the previous year, he knows how to go right, so there is no process of trial and error, and the results obtained are all positive, which can naturally deepen the people's sense of self-confidence.

Li Mu likes this sense of self-confidence, so for this change, he chooses to acquiesce.

……

The focus of Li Mu's work is still shipbuilding.

The main parts of the Wandan ship have been built. But they encountered a new problem, the Xiao family sent people to inspect the river, and found that there were some sections of the river, the silt was too high, and ordinary boats were naturally unhindered, but the Wandan boat had a deep draft, and there may be blockages.

Although it is not 100% happening, it is possible, and we cannot afford to take this risk. Dredging the river is a big project, even if you organize people to do it now, it will be at least a project of more than a year, and Li Mu can't afford to delay this time.

Therefore, the second solution can only be chosen, which is to transport the parts that have already been made in batches, choose another seaport, and then assemble them.

After Li Mu studied it carefully, he found that this matter was still wrong. Compared with assembling in Luoyang, there are many advantages to assembling in the harbor.

There is no need to worry about the draft of the seaport, Zheng He went to the West and set off from the seaport. Moreover, the size of the Wandan boat is not for river transportation, and the river cannot use such a large boat.

In addition, Li Mu has been ignoring one thing. That is, he underestimated Datang's current sea transportation.

In fact, Datang has maritime trade, and it has always been prosperous. It's just that the imperial court doesn't pay enough attention to this, and the people are also willing to make a lot of money in silence, so few people know about it.

Li Mu remembered this, so he found the bearded guest and learned more about it. As the master of the 36 islands in the South China Sea, the bearded man knows the trade at sea all too well.

In fact, there has always been shipping in the Central Plains. As early as the Qin and Han dynasties, there is a legend that Xu Fu Dongdu took away 3,000 boys and women, although the legend has an apocryphal component, but at least it also shows that as early as the Qin and Han dynasties, there was already a sea transport, and the carrying capacity of the ship was not small.

The exact records that can be found can be traced back to the Three Kingdoms period. During the period of the Three Kingdoms, Wei, Shu and Wu divided the world, and the west and north of Wu were blocked by Wei and Shu, and they were forced to have no choice but to develop maritime trade.

For example, at that time, Wu sent a fleet to first develop Yizhou (Taiwan) and established a stronghold to continue southward. Later, he sent Zhonglang to lead Kang Tai and Zhu Ying to lead the sea fleet to Southeast Asia and to the southern part of the South China Sea. After the fleet returned, they also wrote a separate record of the illustrated books, "The Biography of the Foreign Society of the Wu Dynasty" and "The Chronicle of Foreign Objects in Funan", both of which are collected in Li Tai's Literature Museum.

And the Wei State during the Three Kingdoms period, the development of the sea was also good. Yixiu told Li Mu that there was a golden seal given by the king of Wei in the Wa Kingdom, which showed that as early as the Three Kingdoms period, the Wa Kingdom had a connection with the Central Plains, and this also illustrated another problem. That is, during the Three Kingdoms period, the small countries of Fanbang actually took Wei as the Zhengshuo.

Subsequently, the Central Plains entered a split, and the imperial court gradually lost control of shipping, which was in the hands of local clans and gate valve families. This is also why, although the Central Plains has been fighting for many years, the gate valve family can still be as stable as Mount Tai, they got the materials they needed by sea, and they made a lot of money.

Li Mu has repeatedly dealt with the gate valve family, and they are all able to retreat, instead of jumping over the wall in a hurry, which is also related to this. No matter what, as long as Li Mu's hand didn't reach out to the sea, they had a way out.

After Li Mu learned about these news, he couldn't help but be furious, this group of grandsons actually bluffed Lao Tzu, is it really a fool for Lao Tzu? You don't want me to touch it, so I'll have to give it a try.

Immediately, Li Mu had a detailed understanding of the current situation of Datang's seaports, and Datang's foreign trade now has two major ports.

First, Guangzhou Port, on the verge of the South China Sea, is an important place, commonly known as Yin Rong. Guangzhou Port is a natural port, its water and land transportation conditions are superior, and adjacent to the South Sea countries, and most of the Chinese and foreign sea ships between East and West Asia start and end at Guangzhou Port. What shocked Li Mu was that, according to the bearded guest, the trade of Guangzhou Port could lead to Africa. Kunlun Nu came in by this route, Li Mu always thought that Kunlun Nu was a Nanyang native, but he didn't expect that he had already arrived in Africa.

The bearded man had never been there, but his men had been with the ship. The route is roughly as follows: from Guangzhou, the islands of the Vietnam Sea head southeast, along the east coast of the Indian Peninsula in the South China Sea, cross the Gulf of Siam, follow the Malay Peninsula south, reach the southeast of Sumatra, and sail to the island of Java. It then goes west out of the Strait of Malacca, passes through the Nicobar Islands, crosses the Bay of Bengal to Shizi Country (Sri Lanka), then travels along the west coast of the Indian Peninsula, crosses the Arabian Sea, passes through the Strait of Hormuz to the vicinity of Abbadan at the head of the Persian Gulf, then traces the Euphrates River to Basra, and travels thousands of miles northwest to Baghdad, the capital of Arabia. From the Persian Gulf, it sails west along the southern coast of the Arabian Peninsula through Bahrain, Oman, Yemen to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait at the mouth of the Red Sea, and then south to various places along the coast of East Africa.

According to the bearded man, the route takes three months from Guangzhou to Basra and half a year round trip. You only need to go out once a year, and you can make a lot of money, and the ivory, rhino horn pearls, precious stones, coral, glass, frankincense, ambergris and other spices that are abundant at the anchorage of the ship are all available locally, and only need a bowl or a piece of cloth to exchange for a large number of them, which are shipped back to China, but they are all good things equivalent to gold.

Another large port is Yangzhou, which is located at the mouth of the Yangtze River and is connected to the Grand Canal. It is the convergence point of southeast traffic, and it is the place where the Yangtze River materials converge, and the geographical location is unique, Goguryeo, Silla, and Wa Kingdom all take this as the destination port, and it is regarded as the first inland commercial port.

Commerce here is very developed, because it is not only a transshipment place for materials, a distribution market for raw materials, but also a lot of skilled craftsmen who process raw materials into commodities on the spot. The silk weaving industry here is very developed, and most of the silk sold to the sea passes through here. The porcelain of Yuezhou, Hongzhou and other places also take Yangzhou as a trading market, and the goods of Guangzhou, transported from the waterway, are also through Yangzhou, if the attribute of Guangzhou Port is an import and export port, then Yangzhou is a trading port.

Both ports have supporting shipbuilding industries. The scale is not small, but the ships built are not as big as Wandan, but Qiandan ships abound. Li Mu consulted the information of the two ports, and in terms of shipbuilding, with a slight change, the two ports can actually meet the demand, but comparing the two ports, the most suitable port is Yangzhou. First, the distance is appropriate, and Luoyang and Yangzhou are connected by Tongji Canal, and the material transfer is very convenient.

Li Mu immediately wrote a letter to Li Shimin, requesting the requisition of Yangzhou Port. Li Shimin's will is still on the way, and Li Mu's boat has already gone down the Tongji Canal and is about to arrive in Xuzhou.

……

Aboard.

"Husband, it's time to rest." Jin Chen brought Li Mu some snacks and reminded him softly. But she also knew that it was useless to remind, Li Mu would not be obedient to sleep, in the past few days, he had slept late every day, holding the superstition sent by Jinyiwei, and he didn't know what he was studying.

Sure enough, Li Mu didn't raise his head and said, "You and Yingluo sleep first, I'll talk about it later." ”

Jin Chen pouted and said, "Where is the husband sleeping tonight?" ”

Hearing this, Li Mu's face was bright, he glanced at Jin Chen, leaned close to her ear, and whispered, "Sleep with you." ”

Jin Chen pursed his lips in shame, turned around and went out. After a while, Wei Yingluo came in with a stack of files, put them on Li Mu's desk, and said, "It's all sorted out, the information of the Jiangnan Shi clan." "In recent days, Li Mu has collected information on Yangzhou's 'head snake' through various means, and now all the information is gathered here.

"Let me do it all over again." Li Mu took the information and looked at it from the beginning.

Jiangnan Wang clan, now can be mentioned, a total of twelve. They are the four surnames of Huiji, the four surnames of Wuzhong, and the four surnames left by Yiguan Nandu.

Wuzhong's four surnames, Gu Lu, Zhu Zhang, Huiji's four surnames, Yu Wei Kong Xie, plus Langya Wang's family, Chen Jun Xie, Yuan, Lanling Xiao family, a total of 12 major families.

The gate valve in Jiangnan is different from the gate valve like the five surnames and seven wangs. Jiangnan's gate valve, relatively speaking, is more restrained. Even many families don't want to claim to be gate valves. Different from the inner ambition of the five surnames and seven hopes, the scholars in Jiangnan, because they are far away from the political center, rarely have ambitions that swell to the point of wanting to conquer the world, of course, this is also related to their strength.

The scholars in Jiangnan have money, but in terms of force, they do not have the strength to conquer the world at all. The only one that stood out was the Lanling Xiao clan, but when the Tang Dynasty waved its army south, it hardly caused much difficulty, and it was cleaned up by Li Xiaogong.

However, the strength of the Jiangnan Shi clan cannot be denied because of the weakness of the force. The overall size of the twelve wang clans in the south of the Yangtze River in terms of economy is not below the five surnames and seven wangs, and if you count the ocean trade, it is even one level higher than the five surnames and seven wangs who were choked by Li Mu.

These 12 major families are more or less involved in shipping. But not all families need Li Mu to worry about, he sketched and painted, and in the end there were only four left, which required him to spend some time.

These four families are, Wujun Gu's, Wujun's Zhu clan, Huijiyu clan, Langya Wang clan, in fact, there is a fifth family, which is the Lanling Xiao clan, but now the Lanling Xiao clan is tied to Li Mu in the same boat, so there is no need to bother.

The Gu clan of Wujun is an indigenous scholar clan in the south of the Yangtze River and a descendant of Goujian, the king of Yue. Gou Jian's thirteenth Sun Shao, who served as the leader of the Minyue tribe, helped Liu Bang defeat Xiang Yu and won the title of King of the East China Sea. His son was named Gu Yuhou, and since then he has multiplied the Gu family. The real rise of the Gu clan can be traced back to the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and the Langya Wang clan assisted Sima Rui to ascend the throne and was reused.

The Zhu family of Wujun is the wang clan that Li Mu wants to win over the most. The Zhu clan of Wujun is a family of military generals, especially good at water warfare. During the Three Kingdoms period, it was with the help of the Zhu family that Sun Jian was able to pacify Jiangdong and lay the foundation for the next three points of the world. The most important thing is that the Zhu family has the waterway map, and it was Zhu Ying, the ancestor of the Zhu family, who was ordered to open up the roadway, and the "Funan Foreign Objects Chronicle" was written by Zhu Ying.

The Yu clan will be inconspicuous, but no matter how Jiangnan changes hands and how the dynasty changes, the Yu clan is an important minister in the court. The current Ministry of Rites Shangshu Yu Shinan was born in the Huiji Yu clan.

Langya Wang's family, before the southern crossing of the Western Jin Dynasty in the last years, was the first gate valve in the world. After crossing to the south, he supported Sima Rui to reach its peak, and it was rumored at that time that the king and the horse shared the world. But with the defeat of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the strength of the Langya Wang clan has been weakened repeatedly, but after all, the emaciated camel is bigger than the horse, and the strength should not be underestimated.

If there is no problem with these four leaders, there will be basically no problem. Li Mu made a plan in his heart, and he had a plan in his heart.

……

Li Mu is studying the Jiangnan Wang clan here, and the Jiangnan Wang clan is also studying him. Gu Yuan, the patriarch of the Gu clan in Wu County, Gu Sizhi's mansion. Today, the seats are full, but the expressions of the guests present are not very good, and they all frown, as if they are infinitely melancholy. No one touched the chopsticks on the table, as if someone had poisoned it.

Today, Gu Sizhi is the east and invites the Jiangnan wang clan to gather. The Xiao family also received an invitation, but the Xiao family did not send anyone. This move can be regarded as a statement of position.

"Li Mu has arrived in Xuzhou, and he will be there in a few days, what should we do, do you have any opinions?" Seeing that everyone didn't speak, Gu Sizhi, as the convener, had no choice but to speak first.

"Insights?" The person who spoke sneered, it was Wang Rui, the eldest son of the Langya Wang family, and said: "Who is Li Mu, you don't know anything, unless you are ruthless and work together to get rid of him, what else does he want to do, who can stop him?" ”

"Don't talk nonsense!" Wu Clan Elder Wu Qing snorted and reprimanded, "Wang Rui, do you want to kill everyone?" If Li Muruo dies in Yangzhou, what will be the consequences, have you thought about it? ! ”