Fuzhou.

It was raining heavily outside the palace, which was not luxurious, and lightning and thunder were heard in the distance and in the direction of the sea, and the wind and rain were shouting, making the palace room feel very much like a ship on the sea.

Zuo Wenhuai sat on a chair in the middle of the imperial study, talking to the young emperor in front of him about a series of things about the southwest, and Zhou Pei, Cheng Zhouhai and others were also around.

“…… As for the development of Gewu here, when I came, Mr. Ning once mentioned that the southeast side is suitable for the development of seagoing ship technology. The artillery and other things on the battlefield, these technologies we brought are enough, the southeast is just on the coast, and we need to develop commerce and trade, and from this line, the profit from research may be the greatest......"

"But seagoing technology is of little use on the battlefield." Zhou Junwu looked at Zuo Wenhuai and smiled, "On the battlefield, after all, artillery, gunpowder and other things are reliable, relying on what Mr. Ning sent, we may be able to defeat Wu Qimei, but if one day, we finally meet the Huaxia Army on the battlefield, in the time we studied the sea ships, the artillery of the Huaxia Army, as well as the rockets and other things, have been changed for several generations, and in the end, isn't it also for the Huaxia Army." ”

"Forgive...... The minister said bluntly. Zuo Wenhuai hesitated and arched his hand, "Even if artillery is developed together, the southeast side will not be able to catch up with the Huaxia Army after all." ”

He followed Zuo Xiuwen and a group of young people from the Zuo family from the southwest, and it was not long before he came to Fuzhou across a distance of thousands of miles. But fortunately, after saying that, no one showed any anger.

The eldest princess Zhou Pei, who had a graceful attitude, even smiled: "Why? ”

"There are two problems with the development of Gewu, on the surface, it seems that it is just Gewu research, and it is good to invest money and manpower to make people think of inventing something new. But in fact, the deeper thing lies in the popularization of the thinking of Gewu, which requires researchers and all those involved in the research work to have a clear concept of Gewu as much as possible, one is one and two is two, to let people know that the truth will not be transferred by human will, and the researchers involved in direct work must understand this, and the officials above must also understand this, and whoever does not understand will affect the efficiency. ”

When Ning Yi was teaching in Xining, he was very detailed about things in terms of things, so Zuo Wenhuai was also very good at this moment.

"Gewu research and Gewu thinking complement each other, and if the research work is done well, the thinking will also be improved, and the Gewu thinking will be improved, and the Gewu research can naturally be done better. In the Huaxia Army, since the period of Xiaocanghe, Mr. Ning has been laying the foundation for people to think about things, and it has been more than ten years to have today's results, and the southeast should catch up in these two aspects, first to eat the ready-made results thoroughly, it will take several years, and after eating thoroughly, make new things, and the test at that time is the thinking of things. ”

"In the more than 10 years of Huaxia Army, every day desperately to do research, make breakthroughs, in this process, researchers have formed a clear comparison, induction, summary of the method, here in the southeast with other people's existing science and technology to copy again, maybe the researchers take a look, pat their heads, find that they understand, it's as simple as that, when they study new things, they will find that their thinking is simply not enough."

Zuo Wenhuai paused: "As far as I know, Your Majesty's side has been imitating and researching hot air balloons, artillery, and other objects a long time ago, all of which are already available to the Huaxia Army, but it is also very difficult to copy. His Majesty gathered the craftsmen and let them use their brains, and whoever had a good way would give money, but the method of these craftsmen, in short, was to pat their heads, try this and try that, this is luck. However, the real research lies in the researcher's ability to compare, summarize and summarize. Of course, Your Majesty has been promoting Gewu for so many years, and there must be some people who have such a methodology, but if you really want to go to the front of the world, this kind of thinking ability must be the first in the world, and the six relatives will not recognize it, and if you are vague, you will fall behind a little more. ”

"I like your sentence that the six relatives don't recognize." Zhou Junwu was serious at the moment, and when he replied, it was not easy to see what he was thinking. Zuo Wenhuai looked around and found that Zhou Pei and Cheng Zhouhai also had solemn faces, so he stood up and arched his hand: "Yes...... The minister Meng Lang is gone. ”

"It doesn't matter." Jun Wu smiled and waved his hand, "You have studied in the southwest for many years, and it is very good to have this straightforward temperament. From these words, I can see what kind of place the southwest is, don't change it, go on, why study sea ships. ”

"The effectiveness of cultivating a materialistic mindset is limited simply by understanding off-the-shelf techniques, because these researchers can easily feel that they have made a result, and that they can deceive people, and they are not stressed enough. It is better to find an area that is more urgently needed here and the results are easier to test, and let people do research. For those who are able to solve problems frequently, it is convenient to pick out the fittest, and promote them to develop the right way of thinking. ”

Zuo Wenhuai's words came to this, Jun Wu and Zhou Pei nodded in the room, and Cheng Zhouhai said loudly: "I have always developed the technology of sea ships, and now the southeast coastal shipping is developed, and there is no place where it is insufficient. Mr. Ning asked us to care about the sea vessels, and it was not a good idea to be afraid. ”

"Money is always ...... It's going to be missing. Zuo Wenhuai looked at a few people, he was new to the city and didn't know much about these things, so he was a little hesitant. Then he said: "In addition, Mr. Ning once said that the ocean is vast, on the one hand, it connects various foreign countries, and the sea is very profitable, on the other hand, the sea is barbaric, once you leave the shore, you can only rely on yourself for everything, in the face of all kinds of pirates and enemies, whether the ship can be strong, whether the artillery can shoot a few more inches, it is a real thing." As a result, the ocean as an environment may be more critical than land if it is to enable long-term technological progress. ”

"Of course, it's ...... In the past few years, he has mentioned the benefits of opening the sea several times in small talk, and most of the talks are about long-term benefits. Now that Wen Huai is here, the short-term benefits that can be thought of are nothing more than sea trade, raising troops is too expensive, and sea trade is very profitable, and the ships are better, the guns are better, you can be better at sea, this truth, I think it will never change......"

After Zuo Wenhuai arrived in Fuzhou, Jun Wu would have a meeting almost every other day, and when he talked about the ocean, it was more like a small talk, and he was no longer attached after handing over the words, after all, this kind of general direction is not something that can be said in a few words. Moreover, regardless of whether maritime research is developed or not, the work of reproducing artillery must be put in the first place, which is also something that everyone understands.

After chatting for a while, the heavy rain gradually stopped, and Cheng Zhouhai sent him out of the palace. When Cheng Zhouhai returned to the imperial study, Jun Wu and Zhou Pei were talking in a low voice with a teacup, Cheng Zhouhai saluted, and Jun Wu waved his hand to let him sit down at will.

"This one from the southwest is admonishing us." Zhou Peidao, then looked at Cheng Zhouhai, "Do you think this is the idea of the southwest, or the idea of the Zuo family...... Or is it his own idea? ”

"Ning Yi's thoughts are very clear." Cheng Zhouhai smiled, "He can give us artillery, give us Gewu, he can let us defeat others, with his usual domineering, maybe he also wants us to train him some researchers with that kind of Gewu thinking, in the future, he will level the world, all of them will be in his bag, let us develop shipping technology, maybe in the future he will call, this technology will be his." ”

"Wen Huai has a point." Jun Wu held the teacup and smiled, "Gewu thinking is very important, when I built the Gewu Research Institute in Jiangning, I received a large group of craftsmen and raised them every day, hoping that they would make some good things out, and with good things, I would not hesitate to reward them, and even wanted to give them knighthoods...... This is not wrong, but only by such means, those craftsmen are just trying their luck after all, or let them have the right way to compare, summarize, and induct. When he said it, I only felt like a slap in the face, and if I had heard these words a few years earlier, I would have avoided many detours. ”

He took a sip of tea, and the reason for his serious expression may be that he remembered the past and Ning Yi when he was in Jiangning, but unfortunately he was too young at that time, and Ning Yi could not talk to him about these complicated things.

Cheng Zhouhai said with a smile: "I wanted to say that Mr. Ning threw the artillery technology directly over, just because he didn't want us to develop our own thinking of things, but when I think about it, I really sold it if I got cheap." ”

"Several young people in the Zuo family have been taught well, so there is no need to embarrass him." Zhou Pei said, and then frowned, "However, when he mentioned shipping, it was not without purpose." I got the news yesterday that Wu Peiyuan transported the goods from Jiangnan West Road, and was robbed on the way, and now I don't know if it's true or not, and several ships of things in Guangzhou are now going to be postponed. Fujian is originally a high mountain and a long way, they add some stoppers on the way, many things can not be transported in, there is no trade, there is no money, relying on the current sea trade of this bit of commercial tax support, we can only last until August. ”

"The last few times I've been out of the palace, I think it's pretty good outside, it's thriving." Junwu grunted as he drank tea.

"You open the sea ban, develop acres of land, encourage agriculture, encourage commerce, and of course the ordinary people in Fuzhou are doing well. But the original big family, they didn't rely on doing some small business in Fuzhou and buying some snacks and cooking cakes to get by. In the past, they had people outside and connections in the army, so they took advantage of the convenience to transport things out of Fuzhou and bring in things from outside Fuzhou. Now we have taken most of the power here, and those who have lost power have gone to other places to do business. When the water is clear, there are no fish, can we still rely on those who sell cooking cakes and farmers to transport things out? ”

"Over the past year, you have done a lot of things, all of which cost money." Zhou Pei crossed his fingers, "Raise the two armies of Han and Yue outside, set up a military academy, let those generals come to study, make a newspaper office, expand the Gewu Research Institute, conduct a census of population and acres, and build an ordnance workshop...... This time the southwest is coming, and you have to expand the Gewu Academy, and you have no money to expand, so you can only adjust it slowly......"

Zhou Pei's chatter like this is actually not the first time. Since the intention of the new court in Fuzhou to "respect the king and fight for the emperor" became obvious, a large number of Wu Dynasty clans who originally stood on the side of Junwu have been slowly changing. The admonition of the policy of "ruling the world with scholars and doctors" has been raised, and the old ministers in the court have been knocking on the side in the hope that Junwu will change his mind.

In the outside world, some old Confucian scholars who were originally loyal to the Wu Dynasty and had to support Fuzhou by smashing pots and selling iron stopped their actions, and some of the teams that transported supplies were at risk halfway. No one directly opposed Junwu, but these large clan forces located on the transportation roads only slightly relaxed the deterrence of the nearby mountain bandits and horse gangs, and Fujian was originally a rugged place with mountain roads, which subsequently led to the continuous reduction of commercial and transportation forces.

People are waiting for Jun Wu's regret and return, and Jun Wu, Zhou Pei and others also understand that as long as he stops this tendency to centralize power, the original loyal ministers of the Wu Dynasty will also make support actions one after another - at least better than supporting Wu Qimei.

Jun Wu looked at the map on the wall of the study, the territory he really owned now is not large, north to Changxi (Xiapu), south to Quanzhou, many places to the south nominally belong to him, but in fact they are watching and wavering, the two sides maintain the apparent harmony, and from time to time also send some supplies over, Jun Wu did not continue to use troops to the south for the time being.

The forces of the small court of Lin'an are now concentrated in the area of Yongjia (Wenzhou) north of Changxi, and a large number of fortifications have been built to block Junwu's northward advance, and the coastal defense has also been strengthened. This is the clearest line of conflict between the two sides, theoretically speaking, since Junwu claims to be orthodox, it is impossible to retreat in Fuzhou all day, sooner or later he has to choose to fight Yongjia, and then return north to Lin'an. Scale Literature

"Will we have money if we beat Yongjia?"

"It would be better to get out of the mountains, but further out they are still controlled by Wu Qimei, Tie Yan and others, and sooner or later they will be defeated."

"Defeat them, and the next step is to fight the Fairness Party." Jun Wu looked at the map, "He Wen, still don't want to talk?" ”

There was silence in the study.

“…… I recently talked with General Yue that Fuzhou has just taken root, and there is not much artillery for the time being, but it has little to do with it. According to Han and Yue, we can barely eat the million-strong army of Wu and Tie, but once we advance north and highlight the mountains in the southeast, we must be prepared for a series of big battles...... If we can get Lin'an back, we may be able to make a difference, but looking at the momentum of the Fairness Party now, I am afraid that they will not stop for a while. ”

When Jun Wu said this, Zhou Pei said: "You are already the emperor, and now everyone is looking at our approach, if you have been hiding in the southeast and not going north, then next, I am afraid that people's hearts will also change." ”

"Go north, after fighting Lin'an, and then hit He Wen, raise your arms and call the world to return to your heart, I think so too. But no matter how you think about it, I always feel that it is wrong, especially this year, the changes of the Fairness Party in Jiangnan, it is different from the past peasant uprisings and religious rebellions, it uses the method passed on by Mr. Xi Nanning, but it can reach this level of method in a year, why doesn't Mr. Ning use it? I think that this kind of violent means cannot be controlled by superhumans, and it cannot last long, it will have an accident sooner or later, and I can't crash into it when it burns the most. ”

"How can an emperor ever be afraid of rebellion throughout the ages......"

"We only have a few cities, so we forget the previous territory of ten thousand miles, and when we are a little emperor in the southeast, we will slowly expand our territory." Jun Wu smiled, he looked up at the map, and did not move away for a long time.

"Maritime Trade ......"

He muttered.

……

It's summer in Fuzhou, the sea breeze comes and goes, and there are a few more thunderstorms, and the scene in Fuzhou is in full swing.

After the little emperor put on a political tendency to respect the king, the large-scale commercial operations that were originally going to Fuzhou stopped a lot, but after the original coastal port became the core of the political power, the increase in the scale of commerce washed away such signs. Various reforms have brought together the hearts of the people at the bottom and the scholars at the bottom, and with the exchange of sea ships, the scene on the streets always makes people feel vibrant.

In mid-May, about 20 days after the arrival of the Southwest Huaxia Army group, some complicated atmosphere was gathering in the city.

It was a starry night, and the restaurant called Gaofulou in the east of Fuzhou City, the little maid sent off the guests in the building early, scrubbed the ground again, hung up the lanterns, and arranged the environment.

As we approached, a carriage stopped outside the building.

In the large private room at the top of the Gao Fu Building, a private gathering began to take shape.

The first to arrive here was Gao Fulai, the owner of Gao Fulou and one of the most famous maritime merchants in Fuzhou, and after Gao Fulai, another big businessman with a fleet, Shang Bingchun.

The third person to arrive was a fat man with a white scarf on his head, this person's name was Pu Annan, whose ancestors were foreigners who migrated from Arabia, and who had been sinicized for several generations, and now became a wealthy man who occupied a place in Fuzhou.

The fourth person who arrived was a slightly chubby old Confucian student, with half white hair and a calm and proud gaze, this was Tian Haoran, the patriarch of the Tian clan of the Wang clan in Fuzhou.

After the four of them sat down, they exchanged a few words before the fifth person was led through the secret passage. This man is tall and well-proportioned, with dark and rough skin, and at first glance he is a man on a ship who often walks the sea, this is Wang Yikui, the most powerful pirate "Dragon King" on the southeast coast.

He silently pulled the fifth chair at the black round table and sat down.

"Drink tea."

Gao Fulai said.

Wang Yikui picked up the teacup, sniffed it, drank it all in one gulp, and put it down.

"Talk about business." Gao Fulai said, "Everyone has heard the news recently, the Huaxia army has come to a group of rabbit cubs, and talked to our new emperor about the wealth on the sea, the imperial court is short of money, so now I plan to go all out to develop sea ships, and release the two fleets in the future to make money with us, I heard that their ships will be equipped with iron cannons from the southwest...... The emperor wants to ship heavily by sea, and next, our maritime merchants will prosper. ”

He said festive words, but his eyes were cold, and his words were cold.

The Wu Dynasty attaches great importance to commerce and trade, and does not excessively prohibit the sea, when the Wu Dynasty still ruled the entire Central Plains, the maritime trade in the southeast was carried out well, but occupied a vast land, the Wu Dynasty court has not officially intervened in the maritime trade, as long as the tax is paid, the barbaric affairs of the maritime merchants are not touched, and there is a kind of gentleman who is reserved for cooking.

When the Wu Dynasty moved south to Lin'an, the southward shift of the economic center made it easier for Fuzhou and other places to receive all kinds of goods, which further promoted the development of maritime trade. But the sea is a barbaric place, ordinary forces can not be grouped, it is difficult to go deep into it, after more than ten years of fighting, until the Jurchen went south again, the Wu Dynasty collapsed.

For Jun Wu, Zhou Pei and others to come to the southeast and conquer Fuzhou, the maritime merchants here adopted a positive and positive attitude, and also donated a large amount of property as military expenses to support the little emperor to fight north from here. On the one hand, of course, it is necessary to keep a piece of incense, and on the other hand, it will naturally attract more business and trade when it becomes a temporary political center.

But for now, the little emperor is ready to study sea ships and sea trade......

“…… It shouldn't be. ”

The chubby Pu Annan pressed his hands on the table and said calmly.