"Your Majesty, Mr. Li has already boarded the ship from Lushun."

In front of the Dazheng Palace, Huang Taiji trained with Concubine Hai Lanzhu with great interest in the open space, and tried to ride the parting gift that Li Peiting gave to Huang Taiji, two pure snow-white war horses.

For these two tall and strong war horses, Huang Taiji naturally likes abnormalities, and what amazes him the most is that after he puts on two layers of heavy armor, this war horse can still run as usual, without any restrictions.

"Good horse! Sure enough, it's a good horse! ”

He jumped off his horse, wiped the sweat from his forehead with the handkerchief that Hai Lanzhu handed him, and couldn't stop praising the best horses from this heaven.

"Your Majesty, Mr. Fan is talking to you!" His queen Zhezhe reminded him in a low voice.

"It's okay! Mr. Fan is not an outsider! Sometimes it is better to get rid of the deeds between the monarch and the minister! ”

These days in Shenyang, Li Peiting's days can be said to be a small banquet on three days and a big banquet on five days. The lords of each flag took turns to invite banquets.

The older ones are on the grounds of reminiscing about the past, while the younger ones are to "pass on the traditional friendship from generation to generation". At this moment, the housekeepers and minions of the Rui Wangfu have picked up a big bargain. In order to be able to understand the movements and preferences of this Second Master Li, what kind of food he likes to eat, what kind of wine he likes, and what kind of beauties are easy to lose his revolutionary vigilance, the housekeepers in the palace and the officials of various banners gathered around Prince Rui's mansion one after another, please drink, give gifts, send slaves, and send money to the stewards and servants in Prince Rui's mansion. In order to be able to set out this information.

"Your Majesty, Mr. Li has been in Shengjing for a long time, and he has been moving around with the princes very frequently, and the ministers are worried."

Although Fan Wencheng didn't say anything, his worry was overflowing.

"Don't worry about it, in comparison, he gets the most benefit from me. Businessmen are greedy for profit, and they still know very well which one is heavy and which one is light! ”

Huang Taiji gently twisted the blade of the sword made of iron steel with his fingers, "Such a sharp weapon." It's a pity that I can't equip all of them to the Eight Banners! ”

"Your Majesty. The minister thinks that no matter how good a soldier is, there must be a commander and soldiers who match it! ”

"Hahaha! Mr. Fan, you can speak to my heart every time! Not bad. No matter how good the weapons and armor are, they are in the hands of the soldiers of the Ming army. It's just a burden. It's just a burden to escape! ”

"The minister heard from the eldest young master of the Fan family that they purchased more than 3,000 sets of armor for the emperor from Datong Town, Jingying and other departments. Fifteen hundred long knives and 2,000 spears will arrive in Shengjing in a few days. ”

Huang Taiji was still very satisfied with what the eight businessmen in Shanxi did.

"I have Li Er to provide salt cloth in the Qing Dynasty, and Shanxi merchants to purchase grain, weapons and iron tools for us, why worry about big things?!"

Concubine Hai Lanzhu was very well-behaved and brought hot tea to Huang Taiji and Fan Wencheng Junchen, and asked them to sit down under the pillars and taste the autumn tea picked in the south of the Yangtze River.

"Mr. Fan, you go to tell Fan Sanba and Wang Dengku, just say that it is my will, and ask them to send their merchants to Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian and other places in the Ming Kingdom, first, to purchase commercial goods for me and the Qing Dynasty, and second, to learn about the military situation and people's livelihood of the Southern Chinese Army by the way. Let's take it with you and see if you can get some food and weapons for me from there! I heard that this Li Shouhan once sent 500,000 stone japonica rice to Chongzhen Xiao'er, if this lot of grain is in my Qing Dynasty, I am afraid that it will be enough for the military and people of the whole country to eat for a winter! ”

The words are full of envy for Emperor Chongzhen and yearning for that rich land, and more evil is greed and covetousness for wealth.

"Your Majesty, I should follow the mandate of heaven in the Qing Dynasty, and the whole world is naturally the king's land. It's just a matter of time and night! ”

After discussing military affairs for a while, Fan Wencheng got up and retired and arranged for Fan Yongdou and other eight Shanxi merchants who were close to the Qing army to go to Liangguang, Fujian, and Nanzhong to spy on the military situation.

From this day on, all kinds of spies, meticulous work, and spies from the hinterland squeezed over Nanzhong like a carp crossing the river, trying to get what they needed from here. Among them, there are spies from various departments of the Ming army, there are meticulous works of anti-thieves in Liaodong, and there are spies of peasant armies from all walks of life who wander between the Jianghuai River and the Han River, and all these are just a few. There are also scholars, officials and eunuchs from all walks of life who came to study under the banner of the Ming Dynasty.

When Huang Taiji and Fan Wencheng discussed military and state affairs, Li Peiting's fleet had already left Liaodong Bay, watching the sailors busy carrying a cannon from the bottom of the cargo hold to the gun position, the tense and orderly busy figure, against the magnificent and vast sea and sky in the spring, made Li Peiting have a burst of impulse to compose poetry, but unfortunately after searching for dry intestines, he found that there was not much inventory, so he had to give up.

"The big shopkeeper, the sentinel ship in front of me has a signal, there is a Nanzhong fleet on our south channel, with the flag of Xu Huanshan on it, and in addition, one of the ships is the ship of the eldest lady!"

"Signal! Lean in! Hearing that his family's fleet was in the nearby waters, Li Peiting's heart immediately settled down a lot, although these days in Liaodong every day is wine and meat singing and dancing, but after all, he is in the wolf's den and tiger's den, and the slightest carelessness is a broken bone.

"Returning to the mountain, how did you get here?!"

On top of Xu Huanshan's flagship, after drinking two glasses of hot sugarcane wine to stabilize his mind slightly, Li Peiting began to ask Xu Huanshan, the right-wing commander of the water division, about his intentions.

"Didn't the lord promise to give the emperor Lao'er 500,000 stone japonica rice every year? A few days ago, the eldest lady sent 200,000 stones, and the emperor felt that it was a little slower, so he encouraged and urged on the one hand. The lord ordered me to lead a team to come, transporting 400,000 stones, japonica rice, oil, salt, cloth, wrought iron, farm tools, knives, guns, artillery, armor and other things! ”

"Wait! Wait a minute! What have you done to transport all these many goods to the north? All of them were transported to Jingshi? Li Peiting was very keen to catch the loopholes in Xu Huanshan's words.

"Three hundred thousand stones are for the emperor. The rest of the grain and rice were handed over to you and sold on the land of Jingshi. Wrought iron, farm tools, knives, guns, armor, artillery, and other items were promised to be sold to Governor Lu on the same day. The rest of the swords, guns, armor, gunpowder and artillery were sold to various departments of the official army! ”

Hearing that it was only to transport goods to the ground in Beijing for sale, and it was not a move to expand the scope and variety of trade, Li Peiting had to give up. But looking at the sails that covered the sky and the sun on the sea, and then looked at the gunboat in the fleet with Li Huamei's flag hanging high, he always felt that there was something wrong with it.

"If you only send food, rice, ordnance, cloth, oil, salt, etc., can you be so prosperous? With these many ships, even if your sailor's right flank is dispatched, it may not be able to do it! Tell me, what did the lord give you? ”

Li Peiting pointed to the gunboats around him with gun windows densely lined up on both sides of the ship's side, as well as those lucky boats under the banner of transporting grain and rice. Fu ship. A large number of soldiers and sailors blew the sea breeze on the deck.

"You brought out at least two battalions of the Xuanwu Battalion!"

"Not two battalions. Rather, four battalions. One battalion and two outposts remained in the Beijing Division, serving as the escort of the merchant and the guard of the dredging canal and the Haihe River. The grain and rice that the Lord ordered me to transport were used for dredging the river. Xu Huanshan still had a somewhat wooden expression.

Four battalions of soldiers and horses? couldn't help but make Li Peiting gasp. This is almost the same as the number of soldiers and horses of King Qin last time in Shouhan. To say that there was no battle this time. That's weird!

Since it is a coincidence. Pei Ting naturally couldn't let go of this opportunity to add a military record to himself.

"Who are you going to hit? My boat also happened to be heading south, and now it's mostly empty. Get your men on my ship, don't all be crowded together! ”

When Li Peiting went north. The fleet was loaded with a large amount of oil, salt, cloth, spices and other materials, and when going south, most of the cabins were filled with ginseng furs and some raw gold and dongzhu, and the transportation space on the ship was naturally much empty.

After the two fleets were reorganized, Xu Huanshan ordered someone to put down the traffic boat and go to Li Huamei's ship to pick her up and talk.

"Big worm, it's enough for you to come here for this errand to transport grain and rice, why do you want the eldest lady to come? I don't know if it's a good place to go in the wind and waves?! ”

Xu Huanshan looked left and right, and whispered to Li Peiting: "If you think that just the eldest lady is here, then you are very wrong!" Not only is the eldest lady here, but the eldest young master is also on the eldest lady's ship! ”

Hearing this, Li Peiting couldn't help but gasp, not only Li Huamei came out, but even Shouhan's eldest son (not counting those who died young) Li Huayu came with the team. It seems that the origin is not small.

"Is the lord planning to let the eldest young master accumulate experience?"

"That's just one thing, there's another problem. Avoid acne! ”

Not long ago, with the establishment of the Shouhan branch in Guangzhou, a large number of people in Liangguang who were harassed by the war and disaster went south one after another to find a quiet place to take refuge in Nanzhong.

But all at once hundreds of thousands of people swarmed and headed south along the coastline and by land. For a time, the temporary resettlement quarantine area set up at the pass was overcrowded. Incidents of infectious disease outbreaks that occurred in various places in the past due to the large movement of people in Nanzhong have recurred.

"The epidemic in the jurisdiction is epidemic, the adults are better, the children are sick, and in less than a month, more than 1,000 children have died because of this. In order to prevent the spread of the epidemic, the lord ordered that all schools in the area where the epidemic occurred were temporarily closed, and children were all at home. ”

Xu Huanshan's tone was very solemn, which made Li Peiting feel shocked.

"What is the condition? So ferocious? ”

"Smallpox plus plague (influenza). Although there was a seedling method before, it was not urgent. When we went to sea, Miss Hua Ning and Young Master Hua Xuan in the house also had bad symptoms, and the lord was worried about the safety of the two of them. I was afraid that it would spread in the house, so I asked the eldest lady and the eldest young master to go to sea with me to practice. One is to increase some knowledge, and the other is to avoid acne. ”

When Shouhan proposed this idea, Yan Mei'er, who was responsible for raising this group of children, was quite reluctant in her heart. Although Huayu was not born to her, she has always grown up in front of her eyes, and her feelings for Huayu are as good as Huayu's biological mother Li Muhua. However, when Li Muhua, Huayu's biological mother, heard that Shouhan had the idea of letting Huayu go to sea to practice, she immediately ordered someone to pack Huayu.

Although she was reluctant, Yan Mei'er still knew that it was time for her son's wings to go out and fly, otherwise, how would she lead this army in the future?

While talking, the traffic boat took Li Huamei and Li Huayu to Xu Huanshan's flagship.

After not seeing each other for months, the two children have grown a lot taller. Li Huamei, who can see bright eyes and bright teeth. Li Peiting couldn't help but think of his sister who died early, if his sister was still there, he was afraid that the child he gave birth to would be Li Shouhan's enthronement. His uncle's position is even more solid.

"I've seen my uncle! Seen the Commander. ”

Hua Mei and Hua Yu were very educated and greeted Li Peiting and Xu Huanshan.

Pei Ting took a closer look at the eldest son of the Li family in front of him.

It is said that the son looks like his mother, and Hua Yu's appearance is quite a bit of Li Muhua's shadow. But the outline of the facial features is the appearance of a shouhan. This appearance made Li Peiting not know how to treat Huayu for a while. The Li brothers are extremely disgusted with Li Muhua, but Hua Yu's identity is the young master.

"Forget it! Just get on business! Lest anyone say that I am a relative interfering! ”

Having made up his mind in his heart, Pei Ting's expression was very stable.

The four of them sat down in Xu Huanshan's cabin, and Xu Huanshan took out a secret order from Shouhan, and first asked Pei Ting and Hua Mei to check whether the fire paint seal on it was intact.

"When I went out to sea. The lord confessed. After the delivery of the grain and rice goods, he immediately led the army eastward, and after leaving the Bohai Bay, he opened this military order. Do as ordered. ”

This military order of Shouhan. The core intention is: to capture Tamna Island!

The crowd immediately gathered in front of the charts to find the location of the Tamna Island.

Tamna Island is separated from the Korean Peninsula by a strait. It is less than 200 miles from the southernmost tip of the Korean Peninsula. To the east is the island of Tsushima in the Wakuni Province, across the sea from Nagasaki Prefecture, Fukuoka, and Kagoshima, and to the west is Shanghai Prefecture in the middle of Matsue Prefecture in the south of Naoli. The island's inhabitants are said to be descendants of Xianbei and Karasuma, and are known for their ability to raise horses.

During the Zheng period, the Yuan Dynasty set up a horse farm here, sent personnel to manage it, and provided horses for the army and the government. Until the fall of the Yuan Dynasty, there were still twenty or thirty thousand horses left here.

What's more, it happens to be a transportation hub in Northeast Asia.

Whether it is to Japan, Heilongjiang, Liaodong, or Gyeonggi region, it can be used as a transit station for personnel, materials and ships. It was here that Kublai Khan set up a rear base for the expedition to the east. It was from here that large quantities of supplies and ships departed for Japan.

Since the Yuan Dynasty, it has been the place where criminals were exiled by the Yuan Dynasty and the then Goryeo royal family. Now, the elder brother of the King of Joseon, the former King of Joseon, Gwanghaejun Yi Hun, has been transferred by the Joseon royal family from Ganghwa Island to this island of Tamna Island for exile.

After listening to the reports on the situation on Tamna Island by the personnel of the business intelligence room and the investigation room who accompanied the fleet, the four of them felt that it would not be a big problem to take this island with the strength of the fleet and the number of artillery. However, how to get it, or even ask the king of Joseon to give away this Tamna Island, is a difficult matter.

"If not, I will take out the token order arrow given to me by Huang Taiji and ask for this island from the hands of the king of Joseon, Li Liang!"

The fleet had already passed Weihaiwei and sailed eastward, but the fleet was still arguing about how to capture the island. The officers of the fleet advocated a forcible attack, so they just killed the island, killed the Korean officials on the island, and seized the island! The soldiers and civilians on the island, those who are willing to surrender will stay for the lord to raise horses and carry them, and those who are not willing to surrender will be sent back to North Korea! This is a claim for grabbing.

The other faction, led by Li Peiting, advocated seeing what kind of way could make the Joseon king Yi Yu cry and shout to give up this Tamna Island. This faction is an advocate of ingenuity.

These two factions of people have their own reasons, and Li Huayu's eyes are full of little stars, and he really feels that it is better to travel thousands of miles than to read thousands of books. After coming out, every qiē is insight.

"Uncle, I don't understand, why do we have to use the banner of the Liaodong anti-thieves to recover the land managed by the officials of the Yuan Dynasty? Even if you get this island in the hands of the king of Joseon under the banner of Jiannu, what if Jiannu asks you for it? Moreover, this place has been the land of my Celestial Empire since ancient times, but it was temporarily stolen by North Korea due to the change of dynasties, and now is the time to return it! ”

Li Huayu, who has not received a day of orthodox Confucian education since he was a child, speaks in a way that is quite in tune with Li Peiting and others.

"Our army is upright and rebellious, and it is naturally upright and upright to rejuvenate the division on behalf of Tianxing. Why do you do such a filthy thing? Moreover, our army, whether it is manpower, artillery, or ships, is more than several times that of North Korea. As you just said, the new defeat of Korea at the hands of Kion-nu was just when the troops were exhausted, and our army would know about it after conquering Tamna Island. See how other kings and ministers should get along with me! ”

Li Huayu's opinion increased the momentum of the Hao Duo faction, and immediately overwhelmed the Qiao Qiao faction led by Li Peiting. Originally! What are we coming here for? Isn't it just to raise the prestige of our South Central Army beyond the waves? When you get here, you just want to cheat under the banner of Tartar? How can this be explained to the officers and men in the army?!

The matter of Tamna Island was thus agreed, and the captains of each ship and the two battalion officers of the Xuanwu Battalion sang in unison, and each went to prepare, and the fleet sailed all the way to the east along the route marked on the chart, using a sextant to calculate the results according to the logarithm and trigonometric functions.

After a few days of sailing, a huge island appeared in the distance among the waves of the East China Sea, and towns and houses faintly flashed in the telescope. There were bursts of loud cheers from the helmsmen and sailors who often took the trade route of the Tsushima family, and the houses and towns not far away were Seogwipo on Tamna Island!

"My lord! My lord! On the sea on the east side of our fleet, several ships are speeding towards us! ”

The hurried sound of the observer on the top of the mast fell from the top of the people's heads. (To be continued......)