After handing over the affairs of Manila to his younger brother, Zheng Sen got on the boat. To be honest, Zheng Sen was not too worried about Zheng Du'www.biquge.info s ability at this time, but he left him a complete staff team on the Luzon side, and there was still a considerable amount of time for the arrival of the Spanish fleet, so even if Zheng Du was dizzy, there should not be too much of a problem. Zheng Sen estimated that if he could successfully repel the Spanish expeditionary fleet this time, his control over Luzon would probably be stabilized.

The development of Luzon was a very important part of Zheng Sen's plan. In the future, Luzon will be the source of many of the most important materials for the Zheng Group. But now, the focus of the Zheng Group is obviously going to be placed in China.

The "Feiyan" did not sail directly to Taiwan, but first made a turn and went to Qiongzhou. The significance of Qiongzhou's steel to the Zheng family cannot be overestimated. Qiongzhou's steel production, on the other hand, is heavily dependent on coal from Vietnam. The transportation of this coal is dependent on sea transportation in the Beibu Gulf. This transport line may be attacked by the Spanish expeditionary fleet in the future. The coal carriers on this transportation line were even inferior to the traditional fortune ships because of their pursuit of large carrying capacity, and it was almost impossible to escape on their own once they were attacked by the Spanish fleet. And the Zheng family's fleet is obviously not tied to this route. Because that would mean the loss of strategic mobility for the entire fleet. But the fleets of the Spaniards also had their own weaknesses, and they lacked other available bases in Asia except Manila. This makes it difficult for them to maintain a presence in the Gulf of Tonkin for long periods of time, and also makes the whereabouts of their fleet very easy to observe. Therefore, before the Spaniards launched an attack on this route, the Zheng family had a very good chance of being warned and having their transport ships hide in the harbor to avoid a possible attack by the Spaniards.

It's just that the Spaniards may also attack the port directly, so during this time, the Zheng family has been strengthening the defense of Haiwei Port. When Zheng Sen came to Qiongzhou at this time, he first came to inspect the defense of Haiwei Port.

Haiwei Port was originally a small fishing village, but the hydrological conditions are actually not bad, and the port can be built, and it is relatively close to the Shilu Iron Mine, so it has entered the eyes of the Zheng family.

This small fishing village is called Gou Jiazhuang, and the owner of the village is called Gou Xunyi, who originally begged for a living at sea, and was a good man who did not have the capital to buy and sell. Later, when he made some money at sea, he went ashore, bought a field, and became a rich man. Behind his back, he still has dealings with the heroes of the sea, helping these heroes buy something, sell something, and shelter some murderers and outlaws, rampant in the countryside. Since ancient times, the emperor of Qiongzhou has been far away, and the people in the official face have all got the silver of Gou Xunyi, and they naturally turned a blind eye to the various behaviors of Gou Dahu, so Gou Dahu quickly got all the fields in this area into his hands, and became one of the largest landlords in the whole county, and definitely the richest one. The only problem is that their family has not produced even a child, so, in the final analysis, in the eyes of the county commander, he is just a rich man.

However, as a "rich man" who has lived on the sea and still has contacts with some people who live at sea to this day, he knows much better than the local magistrate what kind of force the Zheng family is. Therefore, when the people of the Zheng family proposed to him that they were interested in this land, Gou Xunyi did not dare to resist at all. Because he knew that if he dared to say half a "no", he was afraid that in a few days, there would be pirates or robbers or something ashore, and Goujiazhuang would naturally be breached, and the owner of the village would naturally die. Then, that piece of land naturally had a way to fall into the hands of the Zheng family.

It's just that the price offered by the Zheng family is really ...... In Gou Xunyi's view, it can be said that it is even darker than his use of those outlaws to buy and sell from others, because people don't plan to produce even one of the worst Chongzhen Tongbao (because of financial problems, Chongzhen Tongbao is heavily mixed with lead, with very low copper content, and is even rejected in many places). A young man named Zheng Ci sent by the Zheng family said to Gou Xunyi:

"Master Gou, you may have misunderstood what we meant, we have no intention of paying for your land. We just hope to cooperate with you, Master Gou, to develop it. Gou Zhuang, you are also a person who begged for a living at sea, so you will naturally look at the port. In the bay of Goujiazhuang, you can park big boats, and now you only make a fishing port, and you go out to catch a few catties of fish or something every day, which is simply begging for food with a golden rice bowl, which is really a pity. Therefore, wouldn't it be better to take out this piece of land, put it into individual stocks, and operate it with us, and then eat meat and share the silver together? ”

"Beautiful or not" or something, the owner of Gou Zhuang didn't understand it too much, but he still understood the meaning that the Zheng family wanted his land and didn't want to pay money. If it is other people, especially other little dolls who are about to be in their twenties (the homeless children from the model army are generally taller and better developed than their peers because they can keep up with the nutrition after entering the model army system, so it is easy for others to see their age as larger), if they dare to make such a request to him, he must wrap this guy in a broken fishing net and throw him into the sea, so that he knows that the old Gou family is not easy to mess with. However, this person is a member of the Zheng family, and it is certainly not a fake, because the few warships with the Zheng family's flag parked overseas (in fact, they are old warships that have been turned into merchant ships) cannot be faked, and no one dares to hang the Zheng family's flag indiscriminately on the sea here.

Wrapping up the Zheng family's people with fishing nets and throwing them into the sea, Gou Xunyi didn't have the guts, it was good to die with a household registration book. Therefore, after thinking and thinking, and enduring and enduring, the owner of Gou Zhuang still coaxed: "Sir, this, how to calculate that share?" ”

"Ah, Lord Gou, you provide the land, and we will build the docks and build all kinds of things." Zheng Ci said, "When the wharf is built, there will naturally be boats, and then people will come ashore, and the people who go ashore will eat, live, and ...... In short, it costs money. At that time, as long as the owner of Gou Zhuang opens a few shops here in the port, he will make a lot of money, right? There's a lot of good to do that. Well, Gou Zhuang owner, you are also always running on the sea, you must know that according to the rules, the shops near the dock must pay us a sum of money, one is the land money, and the other is that since ancient times, this dock is easy to make trouble, and this money is also used to maintain law and order. This land was originally owned by the owner of Gou, so naturally he could not ask the owner of Gou for anything else, and in addition, the cost of public security could also be reduced or reduced. In this way, the owner of Gou will not earn much less than if he hired people to fish and farm. ”

Speaking of this, Zheng Ci glanced at Gou Xunyi again, and saw that he didn't move his eyebrows, but he also secretly admired it in his heart, so he smiled again: "You and I know a little bit about how Master Gou Zhuang got this family business over the years." The owner of Gou Zhuang has made a fortune very quickly over the years, but there are many people who are afraid of offending. Now that Gou Zhuang's main fortune is prosperous, he is naturally not worried, but one day the fortune road will turn around, but it will also be a trouble, isn't it? The owner of Gou Zhuang is also a person on the rivers and lakes, so he naturally knows that the rivers and lakes are dangerous. If you can find a big boat to go up, even if you have to pay a little fare, it's safer than taking a small sampan at home, isn't it? ”

"How can you do this, aren't you robbing openly? You also ......" Before Gou Xunyi could speak, his nephew Gou Chengxuan couldn't help but scold.

"Shut up! Where is your place to speak! Gou Xunyi hurriedly shouted. Gou Chengxuan was not very convinced, and wanted to say something more, but Gou Xunyi took a step forward with a blushing face and shouted: "Don't let me get out yet!" ”

Gou Chengxuan saw that his uncle's face changed, and knew that he couldn't say any more, so he bowed to Gou Xunyi and threw the curtain out, and snorted heavily before going out.

However, the outcome of this matter is not something that can be changed by Gou Chengxuan shaking the curtain. Although Gou Xunyi was also quite dissatisfied with the Zheng family, after weighing the strength of both sides, he still agreed. However, in fact, the owner of Gou Zhuang did not suffer any losses, after reaching this agreement, with the tiger skin of the Zheng family, the smoother the Gou Zhuang owner did things such as bullying and goodness, and now, the land in his hands has actually increased a lot. This can be regarded as a lost harvest of mulberry elm.

The Zheng family is actually very satisfied with this result, which saves a lot of money, and now they have to prepare for the war, although the Zheng family has a lot of money, but there are just as many places to spend money, so it is naturally good to save a little.

After the war against the Spaniards, the defenses of Kaiwei Harbor began to strengthen rapidly. During naval and land battles, some cannons captured from the Spaniards were transported here to equip the newly built batteries here. These guns were already technologically backward, however, given the natural superiority of shore guns over naval guns, it was still possible to use them to protect the port.

"You see, Major General, our batteries are in these three positions, and any ship entering or leaving the harbor must pass within our firing range. And it can form crossfire. After the battery was completely built, a full twenty-four cannons, even if the guys from the fleet came, only the dry stares, let alone the Spaniards. So you can rest assured that our port is foolproof. Near a fort under construction, Huang Cheng, an engineer from the factory protection team, was holding the drawings and explaining them to Zheng Sen.

"If the enemy lands from here in small boats, does the battery have a corresponding defense plan?" Zheng Sen asked. Zheng Sen knew that many times, the batteries were conquered by enemy troops who landed from outside the firing range.

"The cannons on the turret can move and turn in other directions if necessary." Huang Cheng replied, "However, after all, the batteries are mainly used to deal with sea targets, so the three batteries cannot form mutual cover. Major General, the situation you said mainly depends on the model army and the army. Huang Cheng replied.