According to the needs of the terrain, Chen Xian planned to establish three outer defense lines in the north, middle and south.

The southern line of defense was located in Haizhou, that is, the line from today's Lianyungang area to Yecheng and Lanling.

The plan of the northern defense line is from Yidu to Laizhou Bay.

The central line of defense, which is planned to be on the Taean to Surabaya line

In order to gain the integrity of the northern defensive line, Chen Xian began to increase his troops outside the city of Yidu.

At this time, Yidu City had no owner, and its previous masters, Wanyan Chengzong and Wanyan Pingtao, father and son, had already taken their Tianping Army to Liaodong.

It turned out that just after the Mongolian army lost the capital and returned to the grassland in the north, Wanyan Chengzong's father and son did not know how to operate, and they were ordered to go to Liaodong to conquer Yelu Liuge.

Jin Xuanzong Wanyan Xun appointed Wanyan Chengzong as the marshal's right supervising army, the head of Liaodong's soldiers and horses, and Wanyan Pingtao recruited envoys for Liaodong, and started the Northern Expedition of 30,000 Tianping Army, known as 100,000 troops to the outside world, and killed Liaodong.

As soon as Wanyan and his son left Yidu, Chen Xian occupied the most important city on Shandong East Road.

In the next two years, Chen Xian adhered to the policy of digesting the territory by himself and practicing his internal skills, and concentrated his energy mainly on the inside.

On the one hand, he carried out the construction of local administration in a steady and steady manner, but in the case of a shortage of manpower, he preferred to leave some areas to their own devices, and only exercise relatively extensive military jurisdiction, and let the local areas temporarily exercise self-control and other methods to maintain basic rule.

In places where political power has already been established, the strategy of making schools the centres of local administration has been further adhered to, with education in the newly occupied areas being given top priority.

In the forts where political power had already been established, cement factories and brick kilns were built, the reinforcement and transformation of the forts in the occupied areas were steadily promoted, the construction of new castles, the relocation and merger of small forts. He wants to build the eastern part of Shandong into a castle forest before the situation deteriorates again!

Fighting with the Mongols, the most annoying thing is their mobility, the most feared is that the other party does not confront you head-on, but goes around to your interior, burning, killing, looting, and destroying production.

In the future war, if Chen Xian could not build a cavalry that could fight with the Mongol iron cavalry, then the castle tactics would be his greatest reliance against the Mongol iron cavalry.

With these castle complexes protecting the rear, he was able to calmly maneuver with the Mongol iron cavalry on the great plain of Shandong, which was not dangerous to defend.

……

In addition to the construction of base areas, seeking new trade partners is also Chen Xian's top priority at this stage.

In this era, the best object of foreign trade is undoubtedly the Southern Song court.

After the completion of Experiment No. 2, Chen Xian and his shipbuilders finally finalized the model of the 100-ton sea ship after some improvements.

Twenty-two meters long, seven meters wide, and weighing more than 100 tons, this sailing ship was powered by a Western-style Galen hull, Chinese-style hard sails, and a gun deck below the deck, which could accommodate ten twelve-pounder guns on the left and right.

This kind of sailing ship was inconspicuous in the Age of Discovery, but in this era, it was definitely the overlord of the sea.

Although there were ships much larger than this kind of sailing ship in this era, in terms of combat effectiveness, they were more than one level different from this kind of battleship designed specifically for battle.

Chen Xian designated this kind of sailboat as a Daystar-class sailing ship, organized his shipyards, and put into production five Daystar-class sailing ships at the same time.

In the past six months, Chen Xian has been experimenting with the improvement of the dock while trying to produce new ships, and when building the second test ship, he built four new docks at the same time, dividing the bloated shipbuilding team that had been deliberately cultivated into five, and recruiting some shipbuilders to supplement it, and then set up five shipbuilding teams.

The five Daystar-class sailboats were also built using finished materials previously collected from private shipyards.

After building these five ships, there was not much finished ship material left for Chen Xian's collection.

Chen Xian built a timber yard to dry the ship's timber at the same time, but also let people try to build a drying room to quickly obtain high-quality shipbuilding materials by drying.

Unfortunately, this is not a simple matter, the drying room experimental team wasted a bunch of wood and building materials, but did not dry a qualified ship material, in this era, temperature and humidity control is a big problem.

Five Daystar-class warships were launched, and Chen Xian was not in a hurry to form a navy, but formed an armed merchant fleet at sea.

On the one hand, Chen Xian did not know how to build a navy, and secondly, he felt that it was not necessary because he did not have enemies from the sea.

Chen Xian feels that his fleet will be positioned in merchant ships, transport ships, and logistics supply ships for a long time in the future.

The crews of the five new ships were partly veteran seafarers recruited by Chen Xian in the coastal areas, and partly young soldiers he recruited from the army.

When the previous two experimental ships were training, one of the most important tasks was to select young soldiers who could adapt to life at sea.

The selected soldiers will take turns to follow the two experimental ships to go to sea for training.

Chen Xian divided the sailors on the armed merchant ships into three types, one was the sailor who operated the ship, and the other was the sailor who was specially responsible for combat.

Sailors who operate ships can also participate in battles, but sailors do not participate in ship manipulation and labor, they are specialized combatants, much better treatment than ordinary sailors, and in addition to naval battles, they are also the force used by captains to suppress ordinary sailors.

Therefore, the sailors were all selected from the soldiers under Chen Xian, and their loyalty and combat effectiveness could be guaranteed.

Ordinary sailors were not usually equipped with weapons, and only when the battle was approaching, the captain ordered them to open their weapons and temporarily arm them.

Sailors, on the other hand, need to wear light armor, hold light shields and long swords, and wear short muskets with wheels to light fire, and be on standby in designated places on the ship, ready to fight at any time, and when they are not on duty, they can stay in the cabin or move on the deck.

The sailor's cabin was closer to the upper deck and slightly more spacious than the ordinary sailor's cabin.

The third type of crew is the gunner, who is responsible for the control of the more than 20 guns on board, and they are also selected from the infantry, and the treatment is similar to that of the sailors.

Because the crew has been selected and trained before the new ship is launched, the crew is in place very quickly after the five new ships are launched.

After more than a month of training, the new fleet set sail laden with cargo and headed south along the coastline.

Also departing were many merchant ships from the local maritime merchants in Michigan.

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