The prosperity of Yangzhou was once second only to Chang'an and Luoyang, and with the gradual decline of Chang'an Luoyang in recent years, Yangzhou is outstanding. She is like a bright pearl, dazzling and tickling. It is precisely because of the importance of Yangzhou in the south that Li Ze began to lay out in Yangzhou a few years ago with the help of Jin Mantang. After several years of operation, we have finally reaped fruitful results.

The main officials in Yangzhou basically fell to Wuyi, and in the business and civil circles, the intensity of penetration was much greater. No matter what, it is necessary to keep Yangzhou, this is the consensus of the Wuyi court.

The current Tang army is cut off by pseudo-beams, and the only one that can lead to Yangzhou is the sea route, and it is actually extremely difficult to hold Yangzhou, because for Zhu Youzhen, Yangzhou is his first goal to defeat Huainan.

This is also Li Hao's personal arrival in Yangzhou and the command of the five thousand Tang soldiers assembled in Yangzhou.

For the whole Yangzhou this kind of silent change, the ordinary people of Yangzhou do not have much feeling, they are still enthusiastic about the New Year, the New Year's Yangzhou, lifted the curfew, the lights of thousands of purple and red, the whole Yangzhou city is reflected as a beautiful world like a paradise, on the canal, on the Yangtze River, a luxurious painting boat in the melodious sound of silk and bamboo slowly walking, standing on the shore, vaguely can see the beautiful dance of the dancers in the painting boat.

Mei Jiu and others naturally can't celebrate the New Year with peace of mind.

At this moment, he was in the Yangzijin Shipyard, greeting Li Hao and his party who arrived here.

Taking advantage of the tide, Li Hao led five warships and quietly sailed into the dock of the Yangtze Shipyard.

Yangzijin Shipyard is a shipyard wholly owned by Shenglong Qianzhuang and the largest shipyard in Yangzhou, he can build not only river ships, but also sea ships, and in the past two years, they have even begun to stock up on the technology to build warships. And these technologies naturally come from Cangzhou Haixing Shipyard.

Li Hao's personal arrival made Mei Jiu also breathe a sigh of relief.

What is he most afraid of? What I am most afraid of is that Wuyi does not have a firm determination to protect Yangzhou, but only wants to use himself to beat Yangzhou to a pulp before giving up. Due to the difference in Li Hao's identity, Mei Jiu believed in Li Ze's determination to defend Yangzhou.

Li Hao is one of Li Ze's closest confidants.

"General Lee." Mei Jiu clasped his fists and saluted: "It's been hard all the way, and in the shipyard, food and rest have been prepared for the soldiers." ”

"Thank you, Mei Zhizhou." Li Hao smiled and returned the salute with his fists.

"I'm here to introduce General Lee!" Mei Jiu turned sideways, revealing a group of officials behind him in front of Li Hao. Su Bao, Qin Xinming and others stepped forward one by one to greet Li Hao.

"General Li, a banquet has been prepared, let's talk about things while giving General Li the wind!" Qin Xinming said straightforwardly.

"Good!" Li Hao called over to Ren Xiaonian: "Big dog, come over after you arrange the soldiers." ”

"Yes!" Ren Xiaonian gave up his orders, perhaps it was the words with Li Hao that made him have a great change in his psychology, in the following days, he slowly adapted to the life on the ship, after arriving here, although he still looked a little haggard, but the spirit of the whole person was back.

The room was as warm as spring, the fine silver charcoal did not have the slightest strange smell, and on the table of the Eight Immortals, there were dozens of delicacies in a dazzling array of dishes, which Li Hao looked straight at. He was one of the people who belonged to the Golden Spire in Wuyi, but he had never seen so many dishes in one meal.

Li Ze is delicious, but he eats a taste and exquisiteness, and it is just four or five dishes, in Wuyi, under the influence of Li Ze, such a big scene is very rare. People like Li Hao have suffered a lot since childhood, and the most particular thing about eating is to eat enough, where have I seen such a row of noodles.

"I'm afraid this table will cost a lot of money, right?" Standing at the table, Li Hao asked.

Seeing that Li Hao's face was a little uncertain, Mei Jiu couldn't help but stagnate, Qin Xinming finally had a different identity, and said with a smile: "Today is Chinese New Year's Eve, General Li came from afar, naturally he is prepared more richly, in normal times, where is there such food?" ”

Li Hao nodded, when he first arrived, it was naturally difficult to refute the other party's face, and if he really wanted to have a seizure, it would make people feel that he was unreasonable and difficult to deal with, which would cause some obstacles to the cooperation in the future.

After the two sides prevaricated over who would sit on the main seat, Mei Jiu was finally pressed to the main seat by Li Hao, which made him have a lot of good feelings towards Li Hao in his heart. Although the other party is Li Ze's confidant, he is still very measured in dealing with people.

But immediately, Mei Jiu appreciated the difference between the people from Wuyi.

After everyone politely toasted a glass of wine, Li Hao put down the wine glass, added rice, and devoured it, he only picked a few dishes in front of him to eat, and the soup and water were not taboo, so he directly buttoned it into the rice bowl, and in a moment, he picked up three bowls of rice and went down to his stomach. Then he put down the dishes and chopsticks.

This made Mei Jiu and some others a little dumbfounded, according to their habits, such a meal, how can they eat for an hour or two, drink slowly, speak slowly, and taste slowly.

Looking at everyone's surprise, Li Hao smiled and said: "Li has been in the army for a long time, and he is used to it, everyone doesn't care about me, feel free, feel free." ”

But Li Hao is like this, how can other people chew and swallow slowly? I could only hurriedly pick up a few bites of food, and then I was done.

"Now that we're done eating, let's get down to business!" Seeing that everyone put down the dishes and chopsticks, Li Hao said, "That one will introduce the situation to me first?" ”

Mei Jiu cleared her throat and said: "General Li, Yangzhou originally had a garrison of 10,000 troops, but after Zhu Youzhen defeated Wuning, the situation suddenly became tense. ”

Li Hao smiled and said: "This sixty percent is actually controlled by Gong Yunda, isn't it?" ”

"Yes! The rest of the few are largely unhelpful. Mei Jiu said. And it is distributed in all parts of Yangzhou, mainly to play a role in maintaining law and order. ”

"Yangzhou has a naval division stationed."

"I was transferred to Chuzhou." Mei Jiu said: "Huainan Water Master, this is Gong Shuai's heart. It is also Gong Shuai's biggest reliance. ”

"Do we have some work on this water division?"

"Yes!" Qin Xinming said on the side: "There are more than 100 warships of various colors in the Huainan Naval Division, and one of them has been controlled by us, from the shipyard to the sailors, basically all of them are our people. ”

"Good." Li Hao said: "General Qin, you have worked hard all these years. ”

"Duty!" Qin Xinming said with a smile.

"But this team, there are less than twenty ships, and all of them are small boats." Mei Jiu said.

"It doesn't matter." Li Hao smiled: "As long as there are people, the boat, we have it." I can't look down on those warships of theirs! What kind of garbage? General Qin, how is our shipyard prepared? ”

"Let the shopkeeper tell you about this!" Qin Xinming said with a smile.

He Jianyi, the chief treasurer of the Yangzijin Shipyard, who had been silent, arched his hand and said: "General Li, since three years ago, our Yangzijin Shipyard has been stockpiling materials for the manufacture of warships, and in the past few years, we have stockpiled enough raw materials for the construction of twenty new warships. From a year ago, began to carry out technical reserves, Yangzijin Shipyard sent 30 shipwrights to Haixing Shipyard for half a year of study, this time, with you to come with a lot of craftsmen, from tomorrow, Yangzijin Shipyard can start construction. ”

"Didn't you build some before?" Li Hao frowned.

"Of course, for those craftsmen who practiced their hands, a total of three ships were built, but there were more or less faults, but it was not a big deal!" He Jianyi.

"That's good, I brought five, you have three here, eight new warships, enough to house my 1,000 sailors and soldiers, and this has formed a preliminary combat effectiveness. Tomorrow, your three battleships will be pulled out, and I need to install combat equipment. Li Hao said.

"No problem."

"In the future, how long will it take to build one?"

"Shifts, rest people without stopping, can build a new warship in a month." He Jianyi: "This is the fastest speed. This is because we have prepared the materials in advance, which is said to be manufacturing, but in fact it is installation. ”

"In a year, we'll have a brand new fleet, that's enough." Li Hao said with a smile.

"Even if all of them are in place, there will be less than twenty ships, and there will be more than one Huainan Navy Division!" Mei Jiu was extremely worried.

"Mei Zhizhou, the combat effectiveness of a real warship is very different from the warship transformed from a merchant ship and a civilian ship." Li Hao said with a smile: "And our weapons and equipment are not comparable to the Huainan Water Division." The Huainan Navy Division still adopts more tactics of relying on help and crowds, right? Hehe, that's just a bunch of foot soldiers on a boat, what's so scary. ”

"The land army basically depends on us, in addition to the three thousand armor soldiers who were assembled before, this time I brought another thousand, a total of four thousand, how many people can be used?"

"In the whole of Yangzhou, there are tens of thousands of members of the Zhixing Society, and about half of them have received some military training." Qin Xinming said.

"Five thousand!" Li Hao said: "That's almost, these people don't use it first, it depends on the situation!" Mei Zhizhou, I will be responsible for the affairs above the military in the future, but dealing with Gong Yunda, as well as pacifying the local government and gathering the hearts of the people, this is your business. ”

Mei Jiu nodded.

"There must be many people in Yangzhou who are loyal to Gong Yunda, do these people have the bottom in their hearts?"

"Of course."

"We first want to win Gong Yunda's resolute resistance, and the imperial court will send people to do these things. In case of changes in Gong Yunda, Yangzhou will uproot the people loyal to him with lightning speed, and turn Yangzhou into our place completely. Li Hao said: "When it is time to bleed, you must use thunderous means, and you must not be soft." ”

Qin Xinming nodded.

"It's still time to block the news as much as possible. Cover up the news of our arrival. ”