The sea is full of wind and rain, and the sea boat is also like a flat boat tossing in the waves, fortunately, this wind and rain is not very big, Li Zhang has long been accustomed to the wind and waves at sea, and at this time he is still sitting firmly at the desk looking at what he has seen and heard recorded during this time.

The trip to the coast had come to an end, and Li Zhang and the others had arrived in Quanzhou from Guangzhou in a few days, and then Dong Qing got off the ship, and he was going to start planning the tasks assigned to him by Li Zhang, while Li Zhang continued to go north to prepare to return to Beijing.

However, this trip to the coast also made Li Zhang gain a lot, which mainly has two points, the first point is the sea trade situation of the Great Song Dynasty, before Li Zhang only knew that the sea trade was very profitable, and there were a large number of goods in and out of various ports every day, but he did not know the detailed situation, and this time he not only went to Quanzhou and Guangzhou, but also went to Mingzhou and Hangzhou, and the investigation of these large ports also allowed him to grasp a lot of details about the sea trade.

In general, the Great Song Dynasty mainly exported handicrafts such as silk and porcelain, and imported either valuable gold, jewelry and other items, or spices, ores and other agricultural products or raw materials, especially ores, Li Zhang also knew for the first time, because the Great Song Dynasty lacked copper, so it has been importing copper ore from overseas.

According to Li Zhang's preliminary statistics, the import and export of goods in various ports of the Great Song Dynasty is estimated to be more than 400 kinds, and the number and variety are extremely varied, but in general, the Great Song Dynasty has been in a trade surplus with foreign countries, after all, the Great Song Dynasty exports mainly handicraft exports, with labor value, and most of the imports are gold, silver, jewelry and other valuables, or some other very rudimentary raw materials.

In addition, Li Zhang also found a very interesting phenomenon, that is, the copper coins of the Great Song Dynasty are also an important export commodity, because the copper coins of the Great Song Dynasty are exquisitely shaped, and there is the endorsement of the national strength of the Great Song Dynasty, so it is also a common currency overseas, which is equivalent to the status of the US dollar in later generations, especially the countries around the Great Song Dynasty, are very fond of using the Great Song Dynasty copper coins, so some overseas businessmen will exchange the goods for copper coins, and then transport them overseas to sell, and the profits are also very huge.

However, this also caused the loss of copper coins in the Great Song Dynasty, after all, the Great Song Dynasty was originally short of copper, so there was a situation of importing copper ore from overseas, but it still could not meet the demand for copper coins.

"Maybe it's time to put the matter of starting a money store overseas on the agenda!" Thinking of the money, Li Zhang couldn't help but whisper to himself, although the money bank is still nominally his private property, but in fact, it has been handed over to the imperial court step by step, especially after Douzi was admitted to the Jinshi, the money bank already has a semi-official background, and it is estimated that in a few years, the money bank will be officially renamed the Great Song Dynasty Royal Money Bank.

However, under the prosperity of maritime trade, there are also a lot of gloom and crises, such as because of the huge profits of maritime trade, and also evolved into many dark professions that depend on maritime trade for a living, the most representative of which is pirates, and even many famous maritime merchants are pirates, these people kill people at sea and set fires to do all evil, and the sea is a place outside the law, there is no law to punish them, which also makes the development of pirates rapid, many pirates even dare to go ashore to loot.

If this situation is allowed to develop, I am afraid that there will be a pirate king along the coast of the Great Song Dynasty in the future, this situation is not unprecedented, in fact, as early as the Tang Dynasty, the coastal pirates annexed each other, and finally formed some small forces, but the Tang Dynasty was strong, and the pirates did not dare to go ashore, but the Great Song Dynasty was different, and now the pirates are still divided, and they already have people who dare to go ashore.

Thinking of pirates, I have to say that Li Zhang's second gain, that is, the military discipline of the Great Song Dynasty coastal area is corrupted, this corruption is not only the naval division, at the beginning, Li Zhang was still very annoyed by the military discipline corruption of the naval division, but when he saw the infantry stationed in various coastal places, he found that the situation of the naval division was quite good, and the situation of the infantry was even worse, even to the point of being useless.

In fact, this can't be blamed for the corruption of military discipline in the coastal garrisons, mainly because the military center of gravity of the Great Song Dynasty is in the north, and the threat is mainly Liao and the northwest, so they have always paid little attention to the south, and the south, whether it is officials or ordinary people, also has a kind of psychology, that is, they feel that the south is far away from danger, and the north has everything to do, so they are not worried about the invasion of the enemy.

Under the above mentality, not only the coastal areas, but even the entire southern garrison is almost all corrupt, not only the number of soldiers is not enough, but also the soldiers are almost not very trained, usually let them maintain law and order, set up cards to collect taxes is no problem, but if they are allowed to go into battle, it is better to let a flock of sheep go to the battlefield, at least the sheep may still injure a few enemies under the flock of ramming, and if this group of southern troops goes to the battlefield, maybe the enemy does not attack them and they will collapse first.

This is not that Li Zhang underestimated the garrison in the south, in fact, the south has not been peaceful in recent years, especially Li Huan of Jiaozhi seized the power of the Ding Dynasty and established the former Li Dynasty, Li Huan is very ambitious, on the surface he submits to the Great Song Dynasty, and often sends people to pay tribute, but in fact he often sends troops to harass the borders of the Great Song Dynasty, and the garrisons in the Yongzhou area can't even stop the small Jiaozhi, and even have to ask for help in the Guangzhou area, but even if the rescue arrives, it is still more defeated and less victorious, which is simply a loss of the face of the Great Song Dynasty.

Fortunately, in the past two years, the military power of the Great Song Dynasty has been greatly enhanced, and it has defeated the party and the Liao State in one fell swoop, which also makes the southern Jiaozhi much more honest, and he does not dare to harass the Great Song Dynasty for the time being, but if the situation of the military discipline of the southern garrison is not changed, Jiaozhi will definitely not look at the fat on the side of his mouth and not lower his mouth.

Thinking of the situation of the army in the south, Li Zhang couldn't help sighing, and then flipped through a few more pages of the record in his hand, but the more he looked at it, the more he frowned, and it was by no means a simple matter to change the corruption of military discipline in the south, but there were still ways, such as the task he gave Dong Qing, maybe the threat of Jiaozhi could be removed from the sea, and there was also the rectification of the sailors, if an elite sailor could be built, then the threat of Jiaozhi would not be a cause for concern.

Just when Li Zhang was pondering, the wind and rain on the sea slowly passed, in fact, it is very common to encounter this kind of passing rain on the sea, and sometimes you can even see the wonder of heavy rain on the right side of the ship and the sunshine on the left side of the ship, coupled with the large number of creatures in the sea, the East China Sea has basically rarely seen whales in later generations, but it is extremely common in this era, but ordinary fishermen do not dare to provoke these behemoths.

"Big brother, there's a situation ahead!" But at this moment, I suddenly saw a wild dog break in and report to Li Zhangyu.