Cai Yan and Zhen Mi had already gone back to their rooms to rest, while Shirley entered the forbidden room after checking the surroundings and asked Lu Ren's hologram, "Master, have you negotiated the matter with Zhen Mi?" Just now, Zhen Mi said that she and you are not talking about marriage, but like talking about business. ”

Lu Ren nodded: "There is no emotional foundation between me and her, so my relationship with her, or with them Zhen clan, is a cooperative relationship." But I really didn't expect the Zhen clan's desire to marry me so urgently...... No, I should say that I didn't expect the Zhen clan to have the desire to marry us. ”

Shirley said: "According to my analysis of many documents, marriage is a very common means in ancient and modern China and abroad. Even if it has no practical significance, it can at least bring a kind of psychological stability to the clans on both sides of the marriage. And we in Yizhou currently only have the two major clans of the Lu clan and the Mi clan of Mi Zhen, the population base of the Zhen clan is relatively small, and the strength is very weak, if you do not reach this kind of marriage relationship with the master, it can only be a dependency relationship that is completely dependent on the power of the master, plus the old lady of the Zhen family has offended you, and there is a layer of estrangement between Lu Cheng and the Zhen clan, so it is normal for the Zhen clan to be a little uneasy psychologically. ”

Lu Ren said: "Zhen Mi said these things very frankly to me. But you also know that although we are in a strong position in the face of the Zhen clan, in fact, we can't do without, at least for a short time, the support of the Zhen clan for us. If they can't settle and work in Yizhou with peace of mind, it won't be good for us, so this incident between me and Zhen Mi is also a bit logical. ”

Shirley looked at Lu Ren for a while, but suddenly laughed. And the smile was a little treacherous: "Master, are you exculpating yourself now?" ”

“……”

Lu Ren was speechless for a while, and then shook his head helplessly: "Okay, I have that meaning." ”

Shirley still smiled: "Actually, Zhen Mi is the best choice in terms of appearance, charm and personality, master, do you dare to say that you don't have any crooked thoughts about her?" So master, you're typical, cheap and well-behaved. ”

Lu Ren was also happy, shrugged his shoulders and put on a more rogue posture. Strange smile: "I call it pretending to be 13, do you understand?" There is a wife who is confused and has a country and a city, this kind of thing is basically a man who will not refuse, okay? Even if you can't get her heart, it's good to be able to get her flesh/body. ”

Shirley smiled: "Master, you are secretly cool." ”

“…… Okay, okay, don't talk about that. I just told Zhen Mi that it is almost August and September, and I am preparing to leave for Yizhou in February or March next year, and I will talk about her affairs in detail when I go back. There's nothing to say about this for the time being, but is there anything else going on with you right now? ”

Shirley stopped joking with Lu Ren, activated the chip and looked it up, and said, "I really have some things here." First of all, Huang Zhong returned from Malacca last month. Originally, he wanted to go further to Burma and India. However, because the number of ships was relatively small, and they had already collected too much cargo along the way, the supplies were not enough to support his further voyage, so they sailed back to Yizhou. ”

I want to say here that Lu Ren's exploration of Southeast Asia has actually been carried out several times, and Gan Ning and Lu Cheng have led teams to go, but they all take the northern route, which is also through Vietnam, Brunei, and Malacca. And Huang Zhong is joining...... Or at present, Huang Zhong is only employed by Lu Ren. It took the eastern route of the Philippines, Indonesia, and Jakarta, and it took a little longer to reach Malacca. However, more goods can be collected along the way, which can then be returned via the northern route. In other words, Huang Zhong's small fleet actually drew a circle in a clockwise direction in the waters of Southeast Asia.

Lu Ren listened to the details reported by Shirley in detail, and the harvest was indeed not small. After thinking about it again, Lu Ren asked, "Then what is the reaction of Huang Zhong and Old Man Huang now?" ”

Shirley smiled, "What else can you react to?" Every once in a while, they came to me, hoping that I would send him another fleet. It can be seen that Mr. Huang has been very happy with the oil and water on his first voyage this time, and he always told me that if it wasn't for the limited cargo hold of the ship last time. He's sure he'll be able to get more back. ”

Lu Ren shook his head: "It's not just as simple as fishing for oil and water. Shirley, let me tell you, people in this era are people like Mr. Huang who have the ability to do things, and the willingness to do things in their minds is much stronger than that of modern people like me. And the first half of Mr. Huang's life was actually not very ambitious, and now that we give him such an opportunity, he will feel quite enjoyable. I'm afraid that this kind of addiction is like smoking opium/tablets, and the addiction can't be suppressed as soon as it comes up. ”

Shirley said, "What do you mean, master?" ”

Lu Ren said: "Transfer it to him and let him go crazy." But remember to warn him not to cross the Strait of Malacca for the time being, because we do not have the strength to put our hands on the Strait of Malacca at the moment. ”

Shirley nodded: "Understood, then I'll arrange it later, and the size of the fleet should be doubled compared to last time, right?" Truth be told, this is the limit of what we can mobilize at the moment. ”

Lu Ren also checked the information sent by Shirley, nodded and said, "It's almost, if we give more, I'm afraid we won't be able to bear it with our current situation." Although there is no problem in terms of financial resources, there is some unbearable personnel deployment. ”

Here Lu Ren mentioned the problem of manpower, but Shirley immediately found another document and said to Lu Ren: "Master, there is no situation in other places for the time being, until Gan Ning on the other side of Jeju Island came back with a message, saying that the number of displaced people accepted by the regular caravans in the north before was 70 percent more than that of two years ago, Gan Ning felt that the situation was wrong, and after withdrawing from the Bohai Sea, he specially sent someone to Liaodong to investigate, and felt that the situation in Liaodong in the past two years did not seem to be very stable." ”

Lu Ren was stunned: "The situation in Liaodong is unstable? Probably not, right? Didn't the Gongsun clan sit very firmly in Liaodong? ”

Shirley reminded: "Don't forget, my lord, Gongsun Du died of illness at the end of the ninth year, and it is Gongsun Kang who now rules Liaodong. ”

――――――――――――――――――――

The Gongsun clan of Liaodong has always been a powerful force that has often been overlooked.

In the historical records, there are not many records in Liaodong, but if you look carefully, it is not difficult to find that the Gongsun family, or the Gongsun Du who defeated several counties in Liaodong, is actually a person.

Gongsun Du, the word Shengji, originally from Xiangping, Liaodong, moved to Xuansu County because of his father Gongsun Yan. Later, Gongsun Du once mixed into important positions such as Shang Shulang and Jizhou Assassin Shi, but he was dismissed because of rumors. Next, Gongsun Du was recommended by Dong Zhuo's general Xu Rong and became the Taishou of Liaodong. By the way, Xu Rong is not a fuel-efficient lamp, Cao Cao almost died, and in the end, it was Cao Hong who handed over the horse to Cao Cao to let Cao Cao escape with his life, which is Xu Rong's masterpiece.

Don't go far, just say that after Gongsun Du arrived in Liaodong, he faced a Liaodong where officials were lawless and wealthy clans were rampant, but Gongsun Du was able to sweep away all the scum, and then "attack Goguryeo in the east, attack Karasuma in the west, and travel overseas". During this time, the Liaodong region was relatively stable, and many displaced people from the north fled to Liaodong, and the Liaodong region at that time had a population of about 700,000 to 800,000, which was very rare at that time. You must know that when Shu Han fell, the population was only more than 900,000.

And Gongsun Du is also quite discerning, and after Liaodong gradually settled down, he also had a lot of development in HNA. If according to the original history, the later Gongsun Yuan could hook up with Sun Quan who was far away in Jiangdong, and if he didn't have good Hainan navigation ability, it would be nonsense, and such a foundation was laid down from the time of Gongsun Du. And during the Gongsun Du period, he even "crossed the sea to collect Donglai counties and set up the history of Yingzhou Thorn". Where is Donglai? Nima is on the Shandong Peninsula!

However, it may be due to the appearance of Lu Ren, an outlier figure, that some processes of Gongsun Du have been ruined, at least Lu Ren has been mixed for so many years, but he has never heard of any Donglai Yingzhou. Maybe this Donglai Yingzhou appeared before Lu Ren's "landing", then it must have been leveled by Yuan Shao; If it appeared after Lu Ren's "landing", either Gongsun Du didn't dare to provoke Yuan Shao and Cao Cao, or Lu Ren made a series of sea activities after arriving in Yizhou, and the strength of a series of sea activities made Gongsun Du a little jealous.

Of course, these are just side stories, and they don't have much impact on Lu Ren, at least Lu Ren at the current point. Lu Ren arrived in Yizhou in the middle of the sixth year of Jian'an, and the northern route established included trading activities with Liaodong. The sixth year of Jian'an has reached the last few years of Gongsun Du's life, and Liaodong has been relatively stable and prosperous under Gongsun Du's painstaking management for many years, and it is naturally very welcome to those caravans sent by Lu Ren with a large number of southern specialties, so the transaction volume at the end of Liaodong accounts for a large proportion of Lu Ren's northern routes, and even Lu Ren has a relatively important attitude towards the situation in Liaodong.

In the ninth year of Jian'an, Gongsun Du died, and Lu Ren certainly got the news. However, Gongsun Kang's succession was relatively smooth, and nothing special happened, and Lu Ren was busy dealing with a series of problems caused by the population surge in Yizhou at that time, so he did not pay too much attention to the situation in Liaodong. Now that more than a year has passed, Lu Renke suddenly heard that the situation in Liaodong is unstable, and even caused an increase in the number of displaced people who have migrated south...... (To be continued.) )