There was still a lot of room for the development of the merchant armed forces of the Chu State, because the trade between Qin and Chu had only just begun, and the slave trade was extremely in demand, especially after the large-scale commodification of grain production. This is where the demand becomes extremely strong.

Bashu has always been the reserve granary of the Qin State. The Qin State has also maintained its attention to the grain production of Bashu. This focus makes food production in Bashu particularly important. However, the special geographical location of Bashu makes it impossible to carry out a large range of agricultural planting with a large number of agricultural machinery provided by the industrial economic belt in Guanzhong. These agricultural machinery cannot enter Bashu. Transshipment is extremely cumbersome. And the roads are difficult to build.

However, after the annexation of land in the Bashu region, more and more laborers were needed to work on the farms. In the absence of machinery, the Bashu farmers began to refocus their attention on cheap slaves. And the slaves were easy to transport. In this way, Bashu became one of the new large markets for slaves in Qin. And there is a potentially sustained demand in this market. This demand will affect the development of events in the future.

The local merchants of the Qin State also began to pay attention to this demand for slaves. But the number of slaves they provided was far from what was needed. And as more and more land is reclaimed. This demand is getting bigger and bigger. Bashu fell into a state of great labor shortage. In particular, there has been a new breakthrough in agriculture. This is the two-cropping system formed by the cultivation of two crops, wheat and rice. Wheat is planted after winter. This is followed by rice planting. When the wheat is ripe after the rice is planted, the wheat is harvested. When the wheat harvest is complete, the rice maturity is approaching. This kind of double cropping in one year is not strictly two crops in one year. However, it has greatly increased the yield of crops. But at the same time, it has also increased the demand for labor. The Qin state lacked the necessary labor force to complete this balance.

The mercenary forces of the Qin State entered the southern regions. But to the west of Bashu is the high mountains, and to the south is today's Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. The road is extremely difficult to walk. This natural geographical barrier made it difficult for the Qin State to merce armed forces to do much.

In contrast, the Chu State relied on shipping for the slave trade, which was much simpler. And it is very maneuverable. They can travel from place to place frequently. It's easy to take a hit-and-run strategy.

However, there is an important issue that needs to be resolved before the slave trade can escalate. That's the problem of water piracy.

"Did you find out?" Xiang Yan asked a general of the Chu army.

"Report to the general, it's been investigated." The general of the Chu army said.

"The water pirates mainly come from fishermen such as Jiujiang and Wu Yue. They have lived by the water for generations. Familiarity with water. So, they are very proficient in water warfare. The general of the Chu army said.

"Well, I know that, too. Among these water pirates, unemployed vagrants make up a large component. Xiang Yan said.

"What the general said is very true." The general of the Chu army said.

"Therefore, it is difficult to suppress bandits here." Xiang Yan said.

"However, there is also one thing that my subordinates think should be extremely important." The general of the Chu army said.

"Say." Xiang Yan said.

The general of the Chu army nodded.

"General. The last general found that among the local garrisons of our Chu army, there were a large number of officers and soldiers and water thieves who colluded with each other, and they wantonly robbed the merchants' property, and then the two families shared the spoils on the spot. The generals of the Chu army pointed out an important reason for the ineffectiveness of the Chu army's naval army in suppressing bandits.

"Oh." Xiang Yan asked with a surprised expression.

"It's happening." The general of the Chu army affirmed.

"Yes." Xiang Yan nodded. In fact, Xiang Yan had known about such a thing for a long time, but he didn't think that it was not the main reason, but he didn't expect that his subordinates found out that this reason was raised. Then this will be a little tricky.

Because he was ordered to resolve the matter quickly. Because Qin is a country that is not easy to mess with. However, these problems were placed in front of Xiang Yan. The first thing he has to face is an army of trolls that has been corrupted internally. This naval army can basically rule out the possibility of still having combat effectiveness. Because they were able to collude with the water pirates, it has been proven that they are specifically for the purpose of making money. Once excessively superstitious about property, such an army is basically no different from those water thieves who are openly robbed.

At the same time, he also needs to solve this matter quickly. In fact, the Qin side had already taken strict diplomatic measures. This measure was that they sent an envoy with a handwritten letter from the King of Qin and Shangwen, asking the Chu State to quickly deal with the problem of water piracy. If Chu can't deal with it in the short term, then Qin will send its own armed forces to protect the safety of its merchant ships.

However, it will take some time for this epistle to be delivered. Because, the road traffic situation in Chu is really too poor. There was also no telegraph between the two countries to communicate with each other. The worst thing was that the Qin ambassador to Chu was driven back.

With this in mind, Qin decided to posthumously appoint Qin's envoy as Qin's ambassador to Chu after the envoy was dispatched. And sent a military attache stationed in Chu, a counselor and other civil and military officials. In order to strengthen the rapid connection between the two countries, the Qin State also issued a special proposal, the content of which was to establish a telegraph line in the Chu State to solve the problem of unfast contact between the two countries.

Xiang Yan didn't know what was happening, but he knew that the Qin State would definitely take the opportunity to intervene. Because this country is a country that can't be idle, as long as there is an opportunity, especially something related to himself, he always intervenes. And look for a very suitable reason. As a result, the state of Qin has begun to intervene in these matters.

"We sent an envoy and posthumously ordered the ambassador of the Qin State to the Chu State, but this is far from enough." Shang Wen said at a small cabinet meeting.

"Our merchant ship supply problem has not been resolved. In particular, our merchant ships will become bigger and bigger in the future. Those small ports in the Chu State simply can't accommodate our merchant ships. Especially when the last incident happened, it was because our merchant ships could not dock at the docks of the Chu State. If our merchant ships arrive in Chu again, such a thing will still happen. Shangwen paused. Therefore, we want to build our own wharves and even military bases on the territory of the Chu State, so as to ensure that our merchant ships can be replenished and safely docked on the shore to carry out commercial trade activities. Shang Wen said.

"So what do we do next?" Assistant Security Consultant asked.

"We need to take this as an opportunity to enter the state of Chu and build our own port in the name of building a port for free and establishing a concession." Shang Wen said.

The crowd nodded. agreed, in fact, the Qin State has always carried out trade in the name of establishing a commercial concession. In Korea, Zhao and Yan all have such concessions. These concessions were rooted in various countries like the cities of the Qin state, and they were the gathering areas of the Qin people, especially the merchants. There, the Qin state used it to carry out various commercial activities. These activities have led to the development of the surrounding areas of the country. In particular, the development of industry and commerce.

This time, the Qin State also planned to spread this kind of concession to the Chu State, and mainly these concessions appeared in the Chu State, so the trade between the two countries would be intensively expanded. The Qin state occupied the trade activities carried out by this transportation artery.

This was perhaps the first stage of Qin's trading activities. Occupy a wide range of key points of the main traffic arteries. And a large number of commercial outlets are arranged along the way. Base. The layout of these commercial outlets and bases converged into a commercial chess step under the Qin State.

Qin Guo thought so and did so. The Qin navy has already organized and registered a large number of merchant ships that have been launched. Then military training is carried out. Let them understand as much as possible the meaning of military operations. And the General Staff, the Admiralty have issued a request to organize exercises of large-scale merchant formations. At the same time, the upper echelons of the Qin State also began to actively send out invitations, inviting the upper echelons of the Chu State to come to the Qin State to discuss some key things. These things are well-established dock facilities.

Just when the state of Qin was aggressively carrying out a new strategy. Xiang Yan also adopted a new strategy to carry out the reform of the navy. Moreover, this reform mainly starts with how to suppress bandits.

Xiang Yan believed that the Qin army was more likely to launch a surprise attack from the waterway and attack Shouchun, the capital of Chu, from behind, than to attack Chu from the land. The naval power of the Qin State was growing stronger step by step, and this threat was very obvious and very deadly. You must know that the ships of the Qin State are getting bigger and bigger. Xiang Yan believes this. First of all, the carrying capacity of the ship is very unusual. On land, a heavy artillery requires a lot of horses, even oxen, to pull. This type of towing led led to the fact that the artillery was not very mobile. But it's powerful enough. But for the defending side. But there can be a long enough time to prepare. Because it takes a long time to mobilize heavy artillery. In particular, the state of Chu, where the roads were not sound, did not have railways, and the roads provided its mobility.

But waterways are different. Once the cannon is loaded on board. The boat can easily maneuver to any position, and at the same time, the ship can carry powerful guns. These guns can cover the landing of the soldiers, and can also easily destroy any fortification. And most importantly, these guns could not be destroyed. Because the ships of the Qin State were made of iron, there were no weapons that could penetrate such iron ships at present. Only the artillery made by the Qin State itself can. The state of Chu does not have such ability. Even explosives require a lot of explosives. This possibility is small. In this way, the Chu State Navy will face a new threat. In order to deal with the threat, military reform is required. This is the reform of the navy army of the Chu State. The purpose of the reform was to adapt to the challenge from the powerful Qin navy.

However, the first link in the reform of the navy is the reform of the main body of the navy with the aim of suppressing bandits. The main purpose of this reform is to improve combat effectiveness. That is, the determination to fight.