At that time, Fujian Province went to Beijing, the main land route was of course to follow the post line, through Jianzhou out of Xianxia Pass, into Quzhou, along the Liangzhejiang Road to the Yangtze River, after crossing the river along the canal line, so all the way to the north, if it is Tangma urgent, are in the post station to change horses, walk about 400 miles a day, exactly ten days to arrive. If it is 400 miles expedited, you can walk 6 or 700 miles a day, and it is generally the most urgent military order under the two prefectures to go like this, and you can go from Beijing to Fuzhou in five or six days. The business travel officials who go north generally take the sea boat to the north, and do not go much along the land route, at most to Liangzhejiang, and the south of the Yangtze River will go along the land route, but there are many rivers along the way, all of which are taken by land for a while, and then replaced by a water boat.

Yuezhou, Mingzhou, Quzhou, Chuzhou, until Hangzhou, Jiazhou, Suzhou, Runzhou, Jiangling, this road river water network is vertical and horizontal, business travel with goods, basically Fuzhou to the mountainous area of western Zhejiang is by land, the rest of the itinerary is mostly in the two Zhejiang Road and Jiangnan East Road to hire ships, buy goods and sell goods, are like this.

Merchants from western Zhejiang, Jinghu North Road, and Jinghu South Road will also come to Fuzhou and Quanzhou to do business, basically bringing local specialties from the land route, and going down the Minjiang River or Lianjiang River to Fuzhou, Quanzhou and other places.

This is also the reason why the geographical conditions of Gukou, Shuikou and Nan'an are important.

Xu Zi went north first, but it was not too urgent, so naturally he didn't have to gallop along the post station.

Taking a sea boat to the north, it usually takes about 20 days to arrive, which is 10 days longer than the 400 miles a day by land, which is not too much delay, and in terms of cost, it saves too much.

The most important reason is that Xu Zixian brought a lot of subordinates on this trip, and it was not a good choice to go on land, and the sea ships went north, and he brought more people and sailors to work with him to maneuver the boat, even if the military attache could not become a sailor, but at least he had to know how to do it, so that he would be qualified to fight at sea in the future.

The South China Sea Water Camp is the top priority in Xu Zixian's eyes, and many outstanding military attaches will be transferred to the Water Camp, and the Water Camp must set up at least two battalions, first practice on the river, and slowly go to the coastal places for boat training, until Penghu and the Eastern Domain.

As soon as this plan was said, Chen Zhengbin and Chen Duzhong both knew it, Chen Duzhong nodded and said: "I understand, the Qishan thieves will not be eliminated, the five thieves at sea will not be eliminated, and you will never be able to feel at ease." ”

Chen Du said in the center, the general regimental training envoy, after fighting the battle of the river beach, the place of peace of mind is to garrison the place, or recruit more land battalions to defend along the coast, no matter how strong the five pirates at sea are, it is unlikely to gather a large army to attack Fuzhou, Qishan thieves are only 2,000 people, and the regimental training should not be afraid of Chen Yutai.

But Xu Zixian is determined to forge ahead, judging from the current performance, I am afraid that Qishan will not be able to steal Nan'an, and Nan'an will have the intention of attacking Qishan.

At the very least, the water camp will be built, and the blockade along the river to the sea will be done, and if it can be done, the Qishan bandits will be invincible.

Chen Zhengbin also understood this, and said with a smile: "Mingda is really enterprising, and the foolish brother admires it." It's a pity that Brother Fool can't help much in Penghu, but there are some old sailors who have accumulated years, for Mingda to choose, if the water camp is an important person, you can come to Penghu, Brother Fool recommends some real good hands to Mingda. ”

"That's really grateful, so grateful!" Xu Zixian stood up and bowed respectfully to Chen Zhengbin.

Sailors are too easy to find in Fujian, this place only has a large area of arable land in the Fuzhou Plain area of Eastern Fujian, the land in the rest of the places is quite scattered, many mountains and rivers near the sea, a large number of people are begging for a living in the sea, Oriental and Western countries, the people of the Great Wei who immigrated to the past, but also the people of Fujian Road as the most, at least one million people have moved in more than 200 years, and now even the early immigrants have bred out, and the overseas Han people have millions of people, and in many places they have become the majority of ethnic groups, and even the country has been established.

But sailors are easy to obtain, real veterans, good hands, and still relatively rare.

It's like a few people in the Great Wei who can't farm, but the yield of the same acres of land is three or four percent more than that of those who can't plant, this is everyone's ability.

Veteran sailors, it is likely to run overseas, at least ten years at sea, a few old sailors dare to control the small sentinel ship from Jinjiang to Penghu and the Eastern Domain, in the eyes of later generations may be an act of death, but this kind of thing is too common in Fujian Road, these old sailors can be at sea after encountering strong winds for a few days without fear, this kind of ability is not ordinary people can have.

Chen Zhengbin said that the good hand must be a strong hand of this grade, if the water camp is established, there can be high-level sailors to join it, it can be said that the result is twice the result with half the effort.

"It's all for the people of Fujian Road, and we are on the official side, so we should consider the people." Chen Zhengbin returned the favor and said with a smile: "I really didn't expect that Mingda would really want to talk about business when he came to us." ”

Xu Zixian smiled and said: "I don't have time to come to the door again after the deadline is completed, and I want to prepare to go to the sea to the north......"

Chen Zhengbin immediately said: "I will send someone to Penghu after a while, find some old sailors to make an envoy to Mingda, don't delay the trip to the north, wait for Mingda to come back, everything is very different, this is a big deal, don't delay." ”

Xu Zixian's current rank is General Zhaowu, and his official position is the training envoy of the Wupin Regiment.

In terms of official positions and duties, they are far below Lin Douyao.

If the attack is successful, Xu Zixian will at least be able to compete with Lin Douyao, and his position in the officialdom will not be too far apart.

"I think Mingda invited me over, shouldn't I have been listening?" Lin Duzhong said with a smile: "I don't know what to tell me to be the defense envoy of the Eastern Domain, the commander of the village?" ”

"Uncle Nine's words are serious." Xu Zi took a look at it and said: "I just want to inquire, what is the situation of the fields and acres over there in the Eastern Domain, the people are scattered, there is no government control, daily livelihood, public security, culture and education, how to deal with these things?" ”

"Mingda is a person who makes big articles...... Chen Duzhong said: "To be honest, I don't really care about these things." But since you asked, you can finally answer it. The eastern part of the Eastern Domain is full of continuous mountains, dense forests, and mountains, which are difficult for people to reach. Only a small number of natives live in it, and there are dozens of tribes, large and small, and there are always more than 100,000 people. The imperial court also wanted to exterminate it in the early years, but the various departments of Shengbo hid in the mountains, but our army had no way to go deep, and supplies, miasma, and plague were all the sworn enemies of the army. A small number of people and horses entered, and Shengfan was good at archery, hiding and constantly harassing, even the forbidden army in iron armor could not be disturbed. Later, the imperial court simply established more than a dozen military villages of different sizes along the western coast and several water sources with rivers flowing to the sea in the southwest of the Eastern Domain, so as to protect our people. These military villages, with a garrison of less than 2,000 people, are unified by me, the commander and defense envoy of Shangzhai, mainly to prevent pirates from settling in the Eastern Domain, not only to smoothly replenish food and water, but also to support our imperial court sailors, shelter shipwrecked merchants, and protect the Great Wei fishermen who have fallen from Penghu. ”

Xu Zixian sat opposite Chen Duzhong, listening to the other party's introduction very calmly, Chen Zhengbin's face showed sympathy, this ninth uncle is young and smart, but he is too naughty, so he can't do anything about literature, he can only practice martial arts, after taking the martial arts examination, with the relationship of the Chen family, it is also soaring, but it has been many years in the defense of the Eastern Domain, which has made this kind of middle-level to high-level excessive position, looking at the current situation, as long as Lin Douyao is here, Han Bingzhong is here, and Zhao Wang is here, Chen Duzhong can only continue to stay in the Eastern Domain, don't want to be transferred or promoted.

Xu Zixian also realized it at this point, no wonder the Chen family and himself have to think twice, this family affair is knotted, and King Qi, Xu Zixian is of course a relationship of marriage alliance, and at the same time, it also offends King Zhao's lineage, the Pu family, and the forces that appease Lin Douyao are naturally neutral to hostile, and it is not one or two people who are affected.

The civil official system, the Chen family is not afraid of any opponent, the military attache system has its own rules, and the system can act cheaply, if Chen Duzhong does not listen to the military order, Han Bingzhong, the system envoy, dares to take down Chen Duzhong directly, and the court will only acquiesce afterwards.

After all, the military and official powers must be unified, and there must not be too many constraints, otherwise the front-line generals will not be able to lead the troops.

"It's me who is causing Uncle Nine." Xu Zixian had to get up again and salute with a fist.

"Even if you don't have a clear mind." Chen Duzhong said: "I don't want to move in three or five years, this matter doesn't matter...... Speaking of the affairs of the Eastern Domain, there is no talk of commerce and trade there, there are more than 10,000 people on the island, mainly in the southeast coast to open up wasteland and farm, mainly produce soybeans and mung beans, similar to Penghu, the coastal land is barren, and the production is not much. In addition, it is to trade deer skins and sand gold with Shengfan, and the amount is not large, and of course the tax cannot be drawn. When Mingda went, he knew that the situation over there was far worse than here in Fuzhou. The official offices of my defense envoy are almost the same as the shacks here......"

Chen Zhengbin shook his head with a smile, Uncle Jiu complained about it for a day, mainly because he wanted to resign and not do it.

The people of the Changwen Marquis Mansion do not necessarily want to be officials, they resign and go home to live idlely, they are still powerful gentlemen, and the people of the near tribe get a lot of dividends in the public every year, Chen Duzhong himself also has a business name to buy, and he doesn't know how leisurely and happy he is after returning home.

However, the elders of the clan agreed that the Chen family could have one or two fewer civilian officials, and there were too few military officials after all, and the importance of mastering the army was increasing day by day in such a troubled time.

This time the marriage with Xu Zixian, in fact, many people in the Changwen Marquis Mansion are also based on such considerations.

In any case, having a marquis of a close branch of the clan and an elite army of less than 2,000 people is much more important than the prefect of a prefecture.

Chen Duzhong wanted to resign and go home to enjoy happiness, but several meetings in the clan rejected him, so he could only ask Chen Duzhong to continue to suffer in the Eastern Domain, and of course Chen Duzhong had to complain, he was a senior person, but he was less than forty years old, so what if he suffered for a few more years.

"I asked Uncle Jiu about it, mainly because I wanted to try to grow ......cotton on a large scale in the Eastern Domain," Xu Zixian explained: "Except for my own official village, almost all the land here in Fuzhou has a lord. Buying tens of thousands of acres, or even tens of thousands of acres of land, may be financially available within a year or two, but I can't do it. Food is the foundation of local stability, although we can buy grain from western Zhejiang and Jinghu South Road, but it is not good to rely on others, and it is difficult for trees without roots to survive. And the movement is too big, which is easy to cause undue trouble...... Therefore, if the cotton fields can be expanded, it is always good to open up cotton fields in the Eastern Domain. I want to know if the people are enough, the water, the light, these are not allowed......"