"The grass people wait to see Your Majesty!" In the Quanzhou Mansion, hundreds of businessmen knelt down together and said in unison.

"Let's get flat!" Zhao Chen said.

At that moment, the hundreds of merchants stood up together, and they looked at the young man wearing a bright yellow dragon robe standing on the steps, and many of them showed excitement in their eyes.

Many of these businessmen are retired young men in the military!

Since the war of extermination, the army has retired soldiers one after another, these soldiers in the army after training, firm minds, dare to take risks, dare to open up, many people returned to their hometowns to start a business business, and the soldiers are unusually united, they help each other, now the size of the merchant group composed of retired soldiers in Quanzhou has accounted for nearly a quarter.

Looking at Zhao Chen, they felt as if they were still in the army, and in front of them was still the Great Song Emperor who led them to victory after victory, and some businessmen couldn't help but burst into tears.

"This Quanzhou Mansion has limited space, and I can't entertain you well, come here, get a stool, let's have a good chat in this courtyard today." Zhao Chen said.

At that moment, there were guards and officials to fetch stools, and the merchants hesitated for a moment, but finally sat down, Zhao Chen also sat there, and Yu Yunwen and other ministers of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs were beside him.

"Overseas trade is very profitable, isn't it?" Looking at these businessmen, Zhao Chen smiled.

"Your Majesty, we are just making some hard-earned money, but it's still much better than farming in our hometown." A man in his thirties sneered that he was a soldier who had retired from Liu Qi's army.

"Have you encountered any difficulties when you have been adrift at sea all year round?" Zhao Chen said.

"Generally, there is no difficulty, when we first did business, we had no capital, and then borrowed money from money banks in various places, and the business gradually improved, and now there is only one difficulty." The man said.

"What's the difficulty?" Zhao Chen said.

"Your Majesty, let's go to the South China Sea to do business, there are a lot of pirates there! The first time I went to sea, nearly half of my brothers were killed by pirates, and our cargo was looted by pirates! The man said.

"Are pirates in the South China Sea rampant?" Zhao Chen frowned and said.

He didn't get any news about it at all! In fact, over the years, he has been concerned about the strong enemy in the north first, and then the fundamental system of the country, and such a thing as piracy in the South China Sea will not be sent to him at all.

"Yes, Your Majesty, the pirates of the South China Sea are very rampant! In the waters south of Annam, there are hundreds of pirate groups, large and small, and some of them have joined forces to control the seas, and if we want to pass through the seas, we must give them a huge number of tolls! If you don't pay it, then it is inevitable that people will die and the goods will not be available, they are very brutal, and often arrest our Han merchants, and then hang them in the scorching sun, and burn them alive! In the South China Sea, there are corpses of our Han merchants in the camps of many pirates! A businessman in his fifties stood up and said.

"Your Majesty, there are still Tianzhu merchants and Arab merchants in the South China Sea, and some of them also colluded with pirates to deliberately detain our cargo ships, and then those Tianzhu merchants and Arab merchants transported the goods away, sold them, and then divided them equally with the pirates!" A businessman in his forties.

"Have you reacted to the government?" Zhao Chen said.

"We have reacted to the government, but the government is helpless! There are too many pirates in the South China Sea, they are everywhere, and it is difficult for the government to encircle and suppress them. The businessman in his thirties who spoke before said.

"The local government really has no choice! However, there are still more than 100,000 navies in the Great Song Dynasty, especially after the establishment of the Ministry of Ocean, the government affairs from top to bottom know that the sea is related to the national fortune, and they attach great importance to maritime affairs! A few years ago, the navy has been in the north, mainly because Goryeo and Dongying are too close to Yanjing, the Goryeo people are eyeing Liaodong, and there are Japanese in Dongying, in this case, the first task of the navy is to destroy Goryeo and Dongying! Now that Goryeo and Dongying have been destroyed, the navy can finally pull out its hand to safeguard the interests of our Great Song merchants! Zhao Chen said.

Yes!

The merchants below all had a surprised smile on their faces.

Zhao Chen thought about it, he drew it on the ground, and it turned out to be a rough map of the South China Sea and West Asia. These maps come from his previous memories on the one hand, and from the collection of the Government Council over the years.

"Which of you will stand up and draw the line of the sea that you often walk?" Zhao Chen said.

Someone stood up and began to mark the sea line on the map.

In this era, the maritime trade has been very developed, the merchants of the Great Song Dynasty set out from various ports and terminals across the country, and finally passed through Annam, Malaysia, and then crossed the Strait of Malacca into the Indian Ocean, and then reached Ceylon, which was the private interception of later generations, and then went north to Guli! Gurinai was the site of the Kozhikod of later India, and in this era, it was the center of world trade! Chinese merchants, Indian merchants, Arab merchants, European merchants all ended up going there and trading goods there! Famous seafaring heroes such as Zheng He and Da Gama in history have all visited Guli.

"Guri is in the hands of aliens, they levy a lot of taxes on us, it's very unfair to us, we can't compete with the local merchants!"

"Your Majesty, not only Guri, starting from the South China Sea, as long as we dock and supply along the way, we will be exploited!"

"I think pirates are the most hateful!"

The merchants began to talk nonsense.

"I see!" Zhao Chen let out a long sigh and said.

The merchants immediately stopped, and they gathered around Zhao Chen, waiting for Zhao Chen to speak.

"This sea route is related to the interests of the Empire! Quanzhou, countless people are working, in addition to some of these items to be shipped to China, more are shipped overseas, not only Quanzhou, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Tianjin, Pyongyang, Kaijing, countless cities are working, many are to be shipped overseas! But overseas, our businessmen have been exploited so much, and our money has been robbed by some robbers! I will not allow this to continue to happen! In the past, there was no time to take care of them, but now that the country is politically stable, the system is perfect, and the annual grain harvest is increasing, it is time to deal with them! The territory of the empire is not just on the ground, but also on these sea routes! Yu Yunwen, your Ministry of the Maritime Affairs has a good discussion, how many soldiers and horses are needed to control these sea routes, how many materials, grain and grass need to be used, and what cities need to be occupied, do you want to use civilian officials to manage these places? After you go back, you have a good discussion with Wang Shu and the military department, and then act as soon as possible. Zhao Chen said.

"Wechen obeys." Yu Yunwen nodded and said.

******

In the midsummer of the 15th year of Xuanwu, Wu Lan and Wang Gui led two treasure ships, 18 first-class ships with a length of more than 60 meters, more than 300 medium-sized warships, and more than 500 small warships, with a total of 120,000 navies from Goryeo, Tianjin, Dengzhou and other places, all the way to the south.

In mid-June, the fleet replenished supplies in the Quanzhou area, and at the same time, more than a dozen experienced Quanzhou merchants and sailors boarded the warship to show the fleet the way.

When the fleet left the sea, there were cheers everywhere, and it was the first time that the merchants and people of Quanzhou had seen such a large naval fleet, and they had seen the strength of the imperial navy for the first time.

At the end of June, the fleet entered the South China Sea region.

There are hundreds of large and small pirate teams in the South China Sea, but among them, more than ten pirate teams are the largest, and the fleet is divided into more than ten routes, respectively rushing to the camp where these more than ten pirate teams are located, and first destroy their land strongholds.

In more than a month, the Song army and navy were almost devastated, and pirates on the ground could not match them at all.

In August, more than 700 pirate ships, large and small, gathered in the waters east of Kuala Lumpur.

They know the sea area here very well, it is raining heavily on this day, and they have received news that a Song army fleet is heading south!

This Song fleet consisted of more than 150 warships, and there were no treasure ships in it, only a large fortune ship led by it.

The heavy rain affected people's sight, and this Song army fleet did not know that it had been targeted by pirates!

In the afternoon, they were attacked by more than seven hundred pirate ships!

Above the sea, the waves were rough and the rain was falling like pillars, and the pirate ships surrounded them like ant colonies!

The pirates had swords in their hands, and some of them had bows and arrows in their hands, and they were getting closer and closer to the Song fleet, thinking that the Song fleet would retreat, but who knew that the Song fleet rushed up!

Rumble!

An earth-shattering loud bang came, almost deafening, the pirates didn't know what was going on, only the sharp-eyed pirates saw that there seemed to be a flash of fire on the fortune ship in the middle, and a huge column of water suddenly appeared on the sea where the pirates were, and the two small boats around them collapsed suddenly!

This is the thunderbolt cannon of the Song army, and it is the most primitive artillery!

In the heavy rain, the pirates surrounded them, and the Song army also went straight forward to attack!

The Song army's attacks are dominated by thunderbolts, rockets, fireballs, Song crossbows, etc., even in heavy rain, the flames of rockets and fireballs are still difficult to extinguish! There are also huge crossbow bolts in the bows of all battleships! This bolt is similar to the Defender's Crossbow, but even larger, each of which can shoot three finger-thick arrows at the same time, and one arrow can pierce a pirate's boat!

Sometimes, the Song warships will even rush up directly and brutally! In the violent impact, the Song warships were safe and sound, while the pirates' ships were smashed to pieces!

Above the sea, the shouts of killing shook the sky, and more and more pirate ships were smashed! An overwhelming rain of arrows rained down from the sky, and the pirates fell in a pool of blood one by one!

In less than half an hour, the pirates began to rout, and the Song army was closely chasing them behind! The speed of the Song ships was much faster than theirs, and it was difficult for the pirates to escape!

It was not until October that the Song army completely eliminated the pirates in the South China Sea, and then the Song army established ports and docks in the five most important strongholds in the South China Sea, including Malacca.

In November, 10,000 troops from the north were transported to the five docks, where officials from the Government Council set up customs to further control the sea line.

Until the first month of the sixteenth year of Xuanwu, Wu Lan and Wang Gui once again led the fleet through the Strait of Malacca and went west into the Indian Ocean.