Under Liu Juntao's instructions, Feng Xiang led the reorganized and expanded Dongping Island Navy to attack frequently, and almost every few days it was rampant on the sea of Qingzhou Mansion, Dengzhou Mansion and other state capitals.

On this vast sea, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands and other countries have been robbed one after another, especially the Japanese ship, almost every time is "empty of people and money", in just over a month, Feng Xiang's department has intercepted and killed seven batches of more than 200 Japanese!

At the same time, the pirates who were rampant in the sea outside the capitals of Shandong also suffered heavy casualties, and Feng Xiang, in accordance with Liu Juntao's orders, not only plundered these pirates, but also killed them all.

During this month's time, the prestige of the Dongping Island Navy under Feng Xiang's command was greatly enhanced, and it was widely spread in the coastal areas of Shandong and even in the coastal areas of Nanzhili, and for a time all the forces begging for a living on the sea were much more cautious, and even some forces with poor strength began to retreat and no longer run the sea trade routes.

Because of this, all the sea trade routes passing through Qingzhou and Dengzhou are "sparsely populated", and they are basically cut off.

On this day, after Feng Xiang led the Dongping Island Navy back to Dongping Island, he was preparing to rest for a few days, let the officers and men take a breath, and at the same time "maintain" the fleet's warships.

Moreover, the seizures during this period of time have also accumulated a lot, and at this time, the seizures piled up on Dongping Island have been more than 48,000 taels of silver, more than 94,000 stones of grain, and the rest of the weapons and baggage are not counted!

Feng Xiang also planned to take advantage of this time of recuperation to send a transport fleet to transport the baggage to Andongwei.

With the addition of the establishment of the transport fleet in the Dongping Island Navy, Feng Xiang promoted another of his old subordinates to serve as the captain of the transport fleet.

This person's name is Dou Fengsong, who was originally Feng Xiang's "logistics captain", who specially led some small boats that could not be put on the table to transport materials for the large army, or brought goods to sell.

At this time, Feng Xiang promoted Dou Fengsong to the captain of the detachment of the transport fleet, and he took a fancy to this person's meticulous and loyal duties.

After receiving Feng Xiang's order, Dou Fengsong, the captain of the transport fleet, commanded his men and horses to load the money and grain hoarded on Dongping Island in batches, and then ordered ten transport ships to set off and send the first batch of money and grain to Andongwei.

Since then, Dou Fengsong has been busy for nearly a month before he finished transporting the money and grain in three batches.

Of course, that's all later.

Since then, the Ministry of Intelligence has sent Liu Juntao's new order.

Feng Xiang received the order to open it and take a look, and was immediately pleasantly surprised.

Originally, Liu Juntao ordered Feng Xiang to start transferring manpower, and the Dongping Island Navy set up at least two merchant fleets as soon as possible to occupy the trade routes along the coast of Qingzhou Mansion and Dengzhou Mansion as soon as possible!

Liu Juntao has already mentioned in the order that the Ministry of Commerce has now ordered 20 merchant ships of about 1,000 materials in various shipyards in Shandong, all of which are in the style of lucky ships, and this matter has already begun more than a month ago, and it is estimated that it will be completed in two or three months, and then these 20 merchant ships can be delivered to the Dongping Island Navy.

In this regard, Feng Xiang was also very happy, because Liu Juntao had already mentioned in the order that after the establishment of the merchant fleet, the main task of the Dongping Island Navy was to cover the trade routes and provide protection for the merchant fleet.

At that time, the merchant fleet was under the direct management of the Ministry of Commerce, so every time the Dongping Island Navy provided an escort, the Ministry of Commerce would pay 1% of the value of the goods, which was a lot of money!

"When the time comes, the brothers will be rich!"

Feng Xiang can already meet it, once the merchant fleet is established, he and his soldiers will not only have a generous military salary, but also earn a lot of extra money through escorting, and it will be difficult to get rich at that time!

As soon as he thought of this, Feng Xiang immediately gathered his subordinates, Zheng Cheng, Guan Wu, and Dou Fengsong, the three captains of the detachment, as well as Bai Yan, An Jianhai, Shen Fei, Ji Yu, Fan Jingyu, Liu Dongling, Tan Chao, Feng Wei and other captains all gathered in the naval camp that had begun to see the scale, and sat down in Feng Xiang's Chinese army lobby.

When Feng Xiang announced Liu Juntao's order, everyone was boiling, which is a great thing!

So, under Feng Xiang's arrangement, everyone took action, and it took only four days to mobilize more than 200 sailors for the merchant fleet that was being prepared.

Some of these sailors were drawn from the sailors of the ships of the Dongping Island Navy, and most of them were recruited from the coastal areas at high prices.

A month later, in July of the fourth year of Jingtai, Jinan Fucheng, Shandong Town General Military Mansion.

Liu Juntao received a report from Feng Xiang, the naval commander of Dongping Island:

Today, the Dongping Island Navy has recruited more than 260 sailors, which is able to meet the needs of 20 merchant ships.

Moreover, Feng Xiang also adjusted the manpower under his command and was ready to escort the merchant fleet at any time.

Liu Juntao was very satisfied with this, so he called Tang Yu, the minister of commerce, and asked about the construction of merchant ships and the orders for various goods needed by the merchant fleet.

After a while, Tang Yu hurried over and reported: "General Town, now that all twenty merchant ships have been launched and are being tested, it is expected that they will be able to arrive at Andongwei within three or five days, and then Commander Feng will take people to meet and send the recruited sailors over." ”

"Good!"

Liu Juntao thought for a while, and then said: "Although the merchant fleet is complete with people and sea ships, it can't start running business directly, and it still needs to carry out the necessary drills!" ”

Tang Yu said with a smile: "This is natural, the humble position has already been discussed with Feng Tong, and when the time comes, Feng Tongzhi will leave some people in Andong Wei, and they will practice in the area of Andong Wei for a month!" ”

"Hmmm! So how is the cargo prepared? ”

Tang Yu said: "Now the workshops of the Ministry of Commerce have prepared enough goods, Liu's Erguotou, all kinds of cars, and glass are ready, and reliable businessmen in Shandong, Nanzhili and other places have also responded, and have also hoarded a lot of goods in the nearby warehouses of our Ministry of Commerce, ready to make a profit!" ”

Liu Juntao said: "These goods must be strictly inspected, and strategic materials such as cement, clairvoyance, gunpowder, and special glass must not flow out a little!" Once the situation is discovered, the Ministry of Commerce should immediately contact the Inspection Department, and the Investigation Department and the Jianfeng Division of the Inspection Department will jointly deal with it! ”

Tang Yu also nodded heavily, these burdens mentioned by Liu Juntao are all military strategic resources, once they are obtained by Japan, Korea, and Westerners, the consequences will be unimaginable!

A month later, twenty merchant ships and more than 200 sailors were all in place, and had been practicing in Andongwei for some time, after Feng Xiang and Tang Yu passed the inspection, the two jointly announced the official establishment of the merchant fleet of the shogunate of Shandong Town!

The 20 seagoing vessels were divided into four fleets, each with five seagoing vessels, which took the four trade routes from Shandong to Japan, Shandong to Korea, Shandong to Fujian, and Shandong to Luzon.

These four trade routes have also been reviewed by Liu Juntao, among which the trade route from Shandong to Luzon is the one that Liu Juntao attaches the most importance to, and it is also a test for Liu Juntao to prepare to contact with Western forces.

Although Spain had not yet completely occupied Luzon at this time, and the local kingdom was still ruled by the Luzon Kingdom, Spanish forces had begun to infiltrate Luzon, laying the groundwork for the occupation of Luzon.

In this regard, Liu Juntao does not want to be left behind, Luzon (that is, the Philippines in later generations) has great strategic value, not only the geographical location is good, but Luzon Island is also rich in silver, iron ore and other strategic resources, these are what Liu Juntao needs!

Not to mention the extremely important rubber, oil, natural gas and other resources in later generations, although the Ming Dynasty at this time did not need these, but Liu Juntao also wanted to occupy Luzon Island for the sake of China, at least not let the Western baboons get their hands!

Therefore, the fleet of ships taking the trade route from Shandong to Luzon is Liu Juntao's most important, and the merchant ships of this fleet are also the strongest among these sea ships, and the sailors on board are also the most elite.

Fifteen days later, four merchant fleets set out from Anton Wei at the same time, loaded with all kinds of goods, and sailed out to the vast sea.

At this time, Anton Wei has also been rebuilt, and a brand new wharf has been built, even if all four and twenty sea ships are moored here, they can be berthed completely.

Liu Juntao also wants to use Andongwei as an important outlet to the sea in Shandong Town, echoing Dongping Island.