Qingyuan Mansion is Mingzhou, the name was changed a few years ago, it was originally an excellent seaport, and it was the place where thousands of merchants gathered since the Tang Dynasty. After Gaozong crossed to the south, set up a coastal system to set up an envoy, stationed a large army here, the most time the auxiliary forces of the war were all added, there were more than 10,000 people, and then after the reduction, there were still more than 2,000 people left in the years of Xiaozong's main road.

The nominal control of the coastal control envoy is often the prefect of Qingyuan Prefecture, but it is the commander who really commands these thousands of naval troops on a daily basis.

Lin Xi was the leader of the Naval Army under the Commander of the Coastal Command, and there were 22 leaders like him in the entire military camp, so it can be seen that this was just a small junior official who was slightly larger than the flag head (Note 1). Since the Jiading peace negotiation, the Song and Jin Dynasty have not been in a state of war, but after all, this coastal control envoy is the most important, and the naval army does not dare to slack off in the drills, like Lin Xi, every five days he will lead a sea falcon warship to the sea, around the neighboring islands of various sizes a few times.

However, they did not use the ironclad sea falcons made by Qin Shifu for their daily patrols, so they were relatively light and flexible, and they were as agile as flying in the wind and waves.

On this day, it was Lin Xi's turn to patrol the sea, because the place he inspected was not to the north, but to the southeast of Dinghai, except for some pirates who did not know the depths of the area, there were mostly fishermen or merchant ships coming and going. Several islands in the vicinity belong to Anqi Township, Changguo County, Great Song Dynasty, because they are far away from the mainland, except for some fishing boats fishing here to avoid the wind, there have always been few people who live.

But when the sea falcon ship passed by the eastern end of Hanging Mountain Island, Lin Xi found something unusual.

Originally a long and narrow island, the eastern end of the island was called a gong by fishermen, and few people stayed here except for pirates. But Lin Xi found that in the original desolate inlet, I don't know who built a simple wharf here, three or four boats were parked on the wharf, and dozens of people were carrying goods from the boats. Lin Xi was shocked, this place is extremely close to Dinghai, it is the place where their coastal envoys patrol, in front of them, there are pirates who dare to land on the island to build a nest?

He ordered the boat to move towards the island, and the people on the shore also saw them, but they were only slightly flustered, and when they saw the Great Song Banner on the ship clearly, they regained their composure, and several people waved to them.

"Sect Leader Lin, do you want to lean in?" Seeing that these people were already within range of the crossbow, a sailor asked.

"Stay up, be careful, if it's a pirate, everyone will obey my orders!" Lin Xi held the bow and placed his red tassel gun in the place where he was in his hand.

The sea falcon warship began to dock under the paddle of sailors, and the people on the shore were still unhurried, and an old man of about sixty years old came out, and shouted from a distance of dozens of feet: "Which commander is coming?" ”

"Lin Xi, the leader of the coastal control envoy, is here, who are you waiting for?" A loud banner shouted.

"The little old man's surname is Zhao, a single name and a happy word, he is from Shaoxing Mansion, he came here to buy island property, and asked Lin Jiaotou and all the military academies to come up for a while." The old man's voice was not small, and although there was a sea breeze, he could still hear it clearly.

"People from Shaoxing Mansion come here to buy island property?" Lin Xi was stunned when he heard this, although the Great Song Dynasty had a remote field household, that is, a person who did not buy land in his hometown, but he had never heard of a remote island household, this small island far from the mainland, what was the use of buying it?

He commanded the sailors to draw the ship closer, and whispered to the sergeant to be on guard, and when the ship came to shore, he put up a plank the width of a palm, and stepped on it as if it were on the ground. The old man who called himself Zhao Xi picked out his thumb and praised: "Good skills, the official is the head of the Lin sect?" ”

"It's me." Lin Xi stared at Zhao Xi for a while, and then looked at the people who were busy loading and unloading from the ship: "What is that doing?" ”

"Build a dock so that ships can dock." Zhao Xi nodded earnestly, when he came, Zhao and Ju had already confessed that he wanted to make friends with the people of the coastal control envoy, and now this sect head named Lin Xi was sent to the door, how could he not work hard to stammer: "Lin Jiaotou is a person from Fujian Road?" ”

"How do you know?" Lin Xi was taken aback.

"Little Lao'er went to Fujian Road to collect sugar, and I heard Lin Jiaotou's accent like someone over there." Zhao Xi crossed his hands and saluted again: "Sect Leader Lin became a sect leader at such an age, which makes the little old man admire." ”

As the saying goes, it's not strange to have many people, although he knew that this old man was complimenting himself, Lin Xi still had some joy in his heart. He is only twenty-three years old this year, and although he has some father's shadow as the head of this sect, he mainly relies on his own skills. Among the more than 20 leaders of the coastal control envoys, he is the youngest.

"This hanging island is deserted, and the land is extremely poor, ...... buy land here" Lin Xi shook his head: "Are you old and confused?" ”

"The little old man didn't buy land for farming, but wanted to make a boat farm here." Zhao Xi told the truth and pointed to the busy people over there: "Among the little old man's companions, there is a fellow villager of Lin Jiaotou, a boatsmith invited from Quanzhou, who will benefit the ship." ”

"Oh?" Lin Xi's heart moved when he heard this, and his originally tense face relaxed: "I am also from Quanzhou, and since I am a fellow villager, I should get acquainted with him and take me to see it." ”

When Zhao Xi heard this, he shouted to those people: "Hu Boatsmith, Hu Yichen, this Lin Sect Leader is your fellow villager, and he came to visit." ”

Hu Yichen is one of the Hu family who came with Hu Fulang, he was originally Hu You's brother, working in other boatyards, and when Hu Fulang took Hu You's ancestors and grandchildren to the north, several of them also followed. Hearing Zhao Xi's shout, he put down the wooden board in his hand and ran over in three steps and two steps: "The villain greets Sect Leader Lin!" ”

Hearing that his accent was indeed from Quanzhou, Lin Xi felt extremely cordial, and most of the doubts in his heart disappeared. He looked Hu Yichen up and down: "Among the boatwrights surnamed Hu in Quanzhou, Hu Ke's skills are the most outstanding, and you are also surnamed Hu, I don't know if you know him?" ”

"It's the clansman." Hu Yichen exclaimed: "Sect Leader Lin also knows the name of my family uncle? ”

"That being the case, it's not an outsider, my father was an apprentice at Duke Hu, and you and I have a family friendship." Lin Xi hugged his fists and saluted slightly: "Gong Hu is okay now, is he still in the Mao family's shipyard?" ”

"The clan uncle has left Quanzhou and is now recuperating in Shaoxing Mansion." Hu Yichen had never heard Hu Ke say that there was an apprentice who became an officer, and he said with some surprise: "The father of the head of the Lin sect ......."

"My father was secretive, and he was recruited into the navy after a short time with Duke Hu, and he made some military achievements." Lin Xi replied casually: "When my father was here, he often said that if it wasn't for Duke Hu, he would have starved to death, and he only hated being busy with military affairs, and he had no time to visit Quanzhou. ”

After pausing for a while, he said curiously: "Why did Duke Hu go to Shaoxing Mansion?" ”

Hearing that he had a friendship with his family, Hu Yichen did not hide it, so he told what happened to Hu Ke's family on the Mao family's shipyard, Lin Xi listened with his eyebrows upside down, his father received Hu Ke's favor, although the two families broke off contact because they were too far away and entangled in military affairs, but when he was alive, he always told him that he had the opportunity to repay Hu Ke. When he heard that Hu Fulang reached out and took Hu Ke's ancestors and grandsons to Shaoxing, preparing to build a dock here to make lucky ships, Lin Xi Zhengrong saluted Zhao Xi: "I have been slacking a lot, and I hope that my uncle will forgive me." ”

Note 1: It can be seen in the "Baoqing Siming Chronicles" compiled by the Song people