This time, Li Buqi returned to Guangzhou, but there was no urgent military situation waiting for him, but the people from his family were already waiting in the yamen. The letter was written by Zhao Min, and at first glance it was a letter from home to report safety, but Li Buqi brushed it with alum water, and the handwriting written in the blank space was revealed.

Because it is MeSign, the number of words is not much, it is simple and concise, and it says two things. One is that the Liao State has sent 50,000 people to build a water division, and Tao Lin's men have pretended to be maritime merchants to enter the Liao State, claiming to be able to help the Liao State train water masters, and they are treated like guests by the Liao Emperor; In order to strengthen the determination of the Liao people to build warships, Tao Lin has also frequently used arrogant tactics recently. The second is that the Abe clan of the Wa Kingdom defeated the Japanese army, and now the Great Song Dynasty maritime merchants are quietly using the Hokkaido model to dump iron farming tools on the daimyo of Kitakyushu and Shikoku Islands, and it is expected that the yield of crops per mu on these two islands will increase greatly in the future.

These things are all in charge, and Li Buqi is now beyond the reach of the whip in the south, so he replied to the letter and asked me everywhere to carry out the original plan, and he still has to do his best to deal with the problem of the two Guangzhous. The front-line army reported that after Di Qing captured Kunlun Pass, he often sent troops to attack and harass the Jiaozhi army, and interrogated the prisoners and learned that the Jiaozhi army in Yongzhou had exceeded 50,000 people. In this way, counting the Jiaozhi army guarding the grain road in Qinzhou, Lianzhou and Guangyuan Prefecture, it is estimated that the total strength of Jiaozhi has exceeded 100,000.

Li Buqi didn't have enough troops to fight the Jiaozhi army back, so he had to compete who could hold on to the Great Song Dynasty and Jiaozhi. Li did not give up and did not prepare to attack, but was busy farming and training. For this, he can be said to have racked his brains. In view of the lack of fertilizer in this era, and the problem that farming can only be widely planted and harvested, Li Buqi also specially ordered to carry out experiments on the coastal areas with fish and shrimp scraps and useless small fish and shrimp compost.

As he expected, in mid-June, the generals of the Song army, who were guarding the direction of Qinzhou and Lianzhou, suddenly reported that the Jiaozhi people occupying Qinzhou and Lianzhou had retreated in the direction of Yongzhou after slaughtering the local people and burning the towns. It seems that this is a cochin person who can't hold on.

It has been half a year since the Jiaozhi people in this place were cut off from sea transportation, there is nowhere to rob them, and all the grain and straw are transported from Yongzhou, and it is not easy to survive to this day. Li Buqi estimated that it would be difficult to transport grain and grass in the rainy season, and the Jiaozhi people who occupied Yongzhou should almost retreat, so he hurriedly sent a messenger to remind Di Qing.

Within a few days, Di Qing sent someone to report that the Jiaozhi people retreated from Yongzhou, Di Qing led a large army to chase and kill, and the Dao Barbarians took the opportunity to intercept and kill, and the Jiaozhi soldiers were defeated. In particular, the 20,000 Jiaozhi troops who retreated from Qinzhou and Lianzhou to Yongzhou were intercepted, ambushed, and chased by the barbarians all the way, and the marching speed was slow, so they lost their schedule. Before they arrived in Yongzhou, Di Qing entered Yongzhou and cut off their way back. After this Jiaozhi army could not break through the interception of the Song army, it had to escape into the mountains, but it was encircled and suppressed by the barbarians, and I don't know how much I could go back. In short, by the time Di Qing sent out the good news, Di Qing and Su Mian had already received a large number of Jiaozhi prisoners, plus those captured by the Song army, and the number of Jiaozhi prisoners currently detained in Yongzhou had exceeded 15,000.

However, Di Qing's good news also recounted the tragic situation in Yongzhou after the Jiaozhi people retreated. The Jiaozhi people carried out a massacre before retreating, and the corpses inside and outside the city of Yongzhou were all over the field, the rivers were all red, and there were no living people for hundreds of miles. Wang Han estimated that at least 40,000 people in Yongzhou were slaughtered by the Jiaozhi people.

So Li Buqi immediately set off for a trip to Yongzhou, one was to comfort the army, and the other was to pay tribute to the victims. In order to build momentum for the conquest of Jiaozhi, Li Buqi personally wrote a memorial text, beheaded ten Jiaozhi generals in front of the mass grave built by collecting the bones of the dead people outside the city, and burned the oath to repay the blood debt to Jiaozhi in public.

This is also a precaution in case the emperor convulsions let Li Buqi fight with him, with this oath archived in heaven, Li Buqi has an absolute reason to suppress Zhao Zhen with public opinion.

However, this oath shouting blood debt and blood repayment is just to boost the morale of the officers and soldiers and people of Quang Nam, and the matter of revenge must be taken slowly. Not to mention anything else, let's just say that although the troops led by Di Qing were equipped with many medical officers, and more and more consciously implemented the health regulations formulated by Li Buqi for the Zhenwu Army, and even basically shaved their heads, many people still died because of the lack of water and soil. So many people died inside and outside the city of Yongzhou, although there were prisoners of Jiaozhi and Nong Zhigao's army to collect their bodies and disinfect them with a large amount of lime, but in the middle of summer, the plague still inevitably appeared. Di Qing had no choice but to lead his army to withdraw from Yongzhou and disperse to escape the heat and avoid fighting in this hot season.

Taking advantage of the calm of the war, Li Buqi brought back to Guangzhou the 10,000 Guangnan "militiamen" who had been sent to see the world with Di Qing, and continued the exercises, in addition to training the battle formations in the flat land and water network areas, that is, to make them adapt to sea crossing. In the autumn, he went out to Jiaozhi again, and this was the main force of Li Buqi.

With the arrival of summer, ships returning from the West also continue to sail into the port of Guangzhou. For the merchant ships entering the port, Li Buqi ordered the city shipping department to levy a port construction fee of 20 per ship. Of course, it makes sense for Li not to give up the collection of taxes, and the proclamation he issued clearly told the merchants that they needed money to clean up the Jiaozhi water army, and they also needed money to build a lighthouse at the wharf, and they were worth the money, and if they used copper instead of money, there were also discounts.

It was precisely because of reading the proclamation that some maritime merchants who had been going to sea for many years knew that Li Buqi was in Guangzhou. Yang Baisheng, the head of the Yang family's fleet in Hangzhou, came to see Li Buqi and reported to him the Yang family's fleet to explore the south of Manbarsa.

Li Buqi asked, "But what have you seen?" ”

Yang Baisheng's lips trembled with excitement: "We saw the Qilin." It's really a unicorn! ”

Zhu Changsheng, who was sitting with him, asked in surprise: "Is there really a unicorn?" ”

Yang Baisheng nodded vigorously: "Really." The ship's painter had already drawn the appearance of the unicorn. ”

Immediately, he carefully took out a stack of thick paper from his arms and respectfully handed it to Li Buqi. Li Buqi picked up one and looked at it, and nodded his head - sure enough, it was a giraffe. What he paid more attention to was that this picture was very expressive, and it could be regarded as a naturalist painting.

Li Buqi handed this picture to the curious Zhu Changsheng for him to appreciate slowly, and then asked Yang Baisheng: "When you arrive in the south of Manbassa, what are some strange goods?" ”

Yang Baisheng hurriedly said: "But it's a lot." There was a lot of gold, precious stones, and copper, and fine ivory and rhino horns. This time I got a lot of good leopard skins, and by the way, there was a very peculiar horse covered in stripes, and I also got a few skins. ”

Li Buqi said casually: "Zebra." ”

"It turns out that Li Daguan knows about this? It turns out it's called a zebra. Yang Baisheng was overjoyed, took out a brocade box from his arms, opened it, took out some shiny things from it, and said, "Do you know what this is?" We were sure it would be valuable, but we didn't know what it was. ”

Li Buqi picked up one of the brightest pieces, looked at the sunlight shining in at the door, and said, "Diamond is also known as diamond. The hardest thing in the world can be used to cut glass. When I go to Slow Barcelona in the future, I remember that this diamond is like a grain of sand, and I have to buy it back. It's a great material for cutting glass. And this diamond is a rare gemstone, especially with good transparency, if cut well, it can conjure up colorful light. This one is the size of a hazelnut, and although it is still rough to cut and polish, it will be brilliant when carefully processed. This one is worth at least a thousand gold. It's just that people nowadays probably don't know about this thing, and they may not be able to sell it for a good price, so you can keep it at home as an heirloom. ”

Yang Baisheng nodded repeatedly. Li Buqi scratched it in the brocade box again and said: "You can first take out these slightly inferior ones to let people gain insight and cultivate the market, and then I will write something to you to explain the benefits of this diamond and let people know its benefits." ”

Yang Baisheng was overjoyed and hurriedly said, "Thank you to Daguan Li." He took out the diamond that Zhu Changsheng put back from the brocade box, held it in front of Li Buqi with both hands, and said, "Since this thing is still rare, let's give it to the official as a polishing pen." ”

Li Buqi pushed the diamond back and said, "Your Yang family has also helped me do a lot of things over the years, and I should have helped with this." If you have to thank me, you can promote the Guangzhou Institute of Navigation in Hangzhou for me. Sailing is a science, and the more you study, the farther you can sail and the safer you will be. You people in Hangzhou are probably secretly slandering me that I don't set up this institute in Hangzhou, but Guangzhou is just outside the South China Sea, and it is much more convenient to do some research than in Hangzhou. ”

Yang Baisheng hurriedly patted his chest and said that he would persuade the principal of the family to support the Guangzhou Navigation Research Institute when he went back.

Although Li Buqi still has more than 3 million yuan of money and grain in his hands, he has to spend money everywhere, so Li Buqi can save every penny, and things like running research institutes can only mobilize businessmen and big households to pay money. Li Buqi now thinks of Jiaozhi to grab a handful, which is better than two days of relaxation. But it is also a country, and the political environment of the Great Song Dynasty will never allow Li Buqi to lose a battle. Therefore, Li Buqi could only wait for the summer to pass, and slowly advance his plan in a step-by-step manner.