The process of inviting Xu Na out of the mountain is very smooth, after all, this era is no longer the Wei and Jin dynasties in ancient times, and there are no real hermits among the scholars, they study hard all year round, in order to sell what they have learned to the imperial court, and Xu Na is no exception, so when Zhou Zhong and Wang Shouren expressed their intentions, Xu Na agreed without hesitation.

Originally, Zhou Zhong and Wang Shouren were on a micro-service visit this time, and they did not notify the local officials, and even they only planned to rush back to Songjiang immediately after persuading Xu Na, after all, both of them are now high-ranking and powerful, and they have countless official affairs to manage, so naturally they can't stay here in Jiangyin for a long time.

However, what Zhou Chong didn't expect was that Xu Qia, who had brought them before, immediately told the elders of the clan the news of his and Wang Shouren's arrival after going back, and talked about the incident from the last Xu Jing, Jiangyin Xu's reputation was also damaged, although there was still some incense with Li Dongyang, the first assistant of the dynasty, but it was still difficult to stop the fall of the Xu family, and no official had come to visit the Xu family for a long time.

It is precisely because of this that when Zhou Chong and Wang Shouren just persuaded Xu Na, a few old people from the Xu family poured outside, and they had to invite Zhou Chong and Wang Shouren to stay for dinner, looking at each other's trembling appearance, Zhou Chong and Wang Shouren were really hard to refuse, so they had to stay and have a meal with the Xu family, and at the time of eating, the people of the Xu family finally knew the reason why they came to invite Xu Na out of the mountain.

Speaking of which, Xu Na was not famous in the Xu family, and only some of the unappreciated side branch disciples of the Xu family followed him to study, in order to be able to master the strength of a branch in the future. In the future, it will be considered to be a prospect for merchants. It is also a well-earned livelihood. As for other people who are qualified to participate in the imperial examination, they are not willing to send their children to study under Xu Namen.

But now it is completely different, according to Zhou Zhong and Wang Shouren's introduction, there are a large number of newly occupied land overseas that need to be explored for mineral deposits, and the Governor's Mansion is also in urgent need of talents in this area, so after Xu Na leaves the mountain, he will immediately be reused by the Governor's Palace, as long as he can find enough mineral deposits in the future. It is definitely not a problem to be promoted to an official and make a fortune, and even as long as Xu Na goes to the Governor's Palace, it is no problem to give an eighth-rank official at the beginning, as for what grade he can be promoted to in the future, it all depends on his own efforts.

Although the Xu family is very wealthy, and they also have a reputation for poetry and book heirlooms, in fact, in this generation, no one in the family has held an official position in the court, which is like a catastrophe for a scholar family. Even if this continues, the Xu family will completely degenerate into a family of merchants. The reputation that had been built up over the generations was ruined.

It is precisely because of this that Xu Manmen naturally attaches great importance to Xu Na's ability to appear this time, and even many people have come to Xu Na, whispering to discuss with him, sending their children and grandchildren to Xu Na to study, for the requirements of the elders and brothers in these clans, Xu Na is not easy to refuse, in addition, Zhou Zhong also signaled him to accept more disciples, after all, just a Nanyang, it will require a lot of manpower, not to mention the Americas in the future, so Xu Na had better cultivate more prospecting talents, Zhou Zhong even felt that if necessary, he should open a separate geology school and let Xu Na teach this knowledge, and maybe many years later, Xu Na would become the originator of geology.

When they came, there were only Zhou Zhong and Wang Shouren, and there were some guards, but when they left Jiangyin, they brought more than a dozen cars, most of the cars were Xu Na's new learning, and most of them were Xu's children, and a few of them were old Xiucai with gray hair, who had not been able to be admitted to the lifting of people in their lives.

In addition, it is worth mentioning that not all of the Xu children who left with Zhou Zhong this time, because many people need to arrange their families, so they will go to Songjiang a few days later, and there are also the families of the first batch of people, so when the second group of people leaves, the scale will be larger, and even Xu Na said to Zhou Zhong with a smile, this time he almost accepted half of the young children of the Xu family as disciples, adding up to hundreds of people, plus other children of the foreign clan who are good friends. The number of protégés of Xu Na has reached one hundred and fifty or sixty, which makes Zhou Zhong even more determined to open a special geological school for Xu Na.

However, the geology school is not said to be open, at least Xu Na needs to make certain achievements, and when he has merits, Zhou Chong will give him a special school to follow, and there will not be too many people who will oppose it, and it is refreshing to do things, so when Xu Na came to Songjiang with a group of people, he arranged his family in the shortest time, and then he took the first batch of more than 30 students, plus the guards and guides arranged for them by the governor's palace, and went to Nanyang by boat.

Zhou Zhong also attached great importance to Xu Na's trip to Nanyang, not only equipped them with the best manpower and preparations, but also greeted officials in Nanyang and other places, asking them to cooperate with Xu Na and others. In fact, there is no need to remind them at all, those Nanyang officials are eager to treat each other as grandfathers after knowing the purpose of Xu Na and his party, after all, as long as mineral deposits can be found in the area under their rule, then it will attract a large number of immigrants in the future, and it will also promote the local economy and people's livelihood, so they are very welcome to Xu Na.

After sending Xu Na away, Zhou Zhong turned his gaze to Edo Bay of the Wa Kingdom again, Shen Zhou and Li Anliang had already opened up the situation there with the fleet, among which Shen Zhou led the army to clean up the various forces in Edo Bay, and the Japanese servant army formed by Li Anliang was also pulled onto the battlefield by them after a simple drill, and began to take the initiative to attack the remaining Japanese forces around them, and these Japanese servant army fought ferociously, and there was almost no grass everywhere they went.

However, the ferocity of the Japanese servant army has also aroused the hatred of other Japanese people, and now the Japanese servant army attacks any powerful force, which will cause the other party to resist desperately, after all, instead of being slaughtered by the servant army after defeat, it is better to resist on the battlefield, maybe you can repel the opponent's attack.

It is precisely because of this that the battle losses of the Japanese servant army are also very large, almost every month there are thousands of casualties, but for these casualties, Li Anliang doesn't care at all, anyway, there are many Japanese who are willing to join the servant army later, and even among the newly conquered Japanese people, they will quickly forget their hatred for the servant army and join the well-paid servant army for the benefit of their families.

For what Shen Zhou did in Edo Bay, these are all specially instructed by Zhou Zhong before, Edo Bay is the Tokyo Bay of later generations, Edo is the predecessor of Tokyo, there is a natural excellent harbor, which can allow ships to avoid the strong winds and waves from the Pacific Ocean, and in the northeast direction of Tokyo Bay, there is a current from west to east, which can take ships all the way to the Americas, so that Edo Bay, which is not very conspicuous, has become the only place for the Ming Dynasty to reach the Americas.

It is precisely because of the important location of Edo Bay that Zhou Zhong has long wanted to occupy this place, but although the Wa Kingdom is in turmoil, Zhou Zhong is worried that if he rashly sends troops to the Wa Kingdom, it will cause the Daimyo from all over the Wa Kingdom to join forces to counterattack, so he has not dared to make a move, but now Ashikaga Yoshisai and Hosokawa Takakuni have become a meat grinder, and the entire Daimyo of the Wa Kingdom will pay attention to the capital, and there is no time to pay attention to such a remote place as Edo, so Zhou Zhong made a decisive move.

Facts have proved that Zhou Chong's judgment is correct, after Shen Zhou appeared in Edo Bay with the fleet, although it caused panic and hostility among some of the surrounding Japanese daimyos, but under the blows of Shen Zhou and Li Anliang, these Japanese daimyo were either directly destroyed, or bowed their heads to show their deference to the Ming Dynasty, and did not dare to face the Ming fleet head-on.

However, as Zhou's ally in the Wa Kingdom, Ashikaga Yoshisai sent Ashikaga Kazuki to find Shen Zhou and ask them why they sent troops to Edo, after all, he was still the nominal general of the Wachu and had the right to intervene in the Ming invasion of the Wa Kingdom. In this regard, Shen Zhou just said that he had been ordered from above, and he didn't know what the reason was, so he pushed Ashikaga Kazuki back with a very tough attitude.

After that, Ashikaga Kazuki personally went to Matsue to find Zhou important to say, but Zhou Zhong played Tai Chi in this matter, and directly said that he didn't know the way, maybe Shen Zhou misinterpreted his orders, so he rashly sent troops, for which he also said he was very sorry, but now that Edo has been occupied by Shen Zhou, he has no way, so at most he can only give Ashikaga Yoshisai some compensation in other aspects.

In fact, Ashikaga Yoshisai didn't really want to ask Zhou Zhong for anything, he just wanted to use this matter to ask Zhou Zhong for some benefits, after all, he and the Hosokawa clan were fighting to the death, and they didn't have the energy to care about the territorial integrity of the Japanese kingdom. Therefore, when Shushige proposed compensation, Ashikaga Kazuki, who had already received the instruction of Ashikaga Yoshisai, also immediately agreed, and offered to hope that Shushige could support a batch of weapons and food that they most urgently needed.

Zhou Zhong had already expected Ashikaga Kazuki's reaction, after all, he instigated the infighting between the Ashikaga clan and the Hosokawa clan in the first place, originally so that they would have no time to take care of other parts of the Wa Kingdom, so that he could take the opportunity to make profits.

It is also worth mentioning that in addition to giving Ashikaga Yoshisai some food and weapons, Zhou Zhong also reached another deal with Ashikaga Yoshisai, which was also exchanged for the interests of the Japanese state. Although Ashikaga Yoshisai knew that making a deal with Zhou Shige was tantamount to seeking skin with the tiger, in the current situation, they couldn't care much about it. (To be continued......)