Beiping County is today's Tangshan area, Beiping County Shipyard is located at the mouth of the Weishui River, covers an area of dozens of miles, the scale is huge, and the Shouguang Shipyard of Beihai County, the Jimo Shipyard of Gaomi County and are called the three major shipyards in the north.

Although the Shouguang Shipyard in Beihai County and the Jimo Shipyard in Gaomi County were destroyed by bandits, the Weihekou Shipyard in Beiping County was completely preserved. Second, the bandits in the Youzhou area were not interested in ships, and they had no intention of plundering the shipyard, and the Weikou shipyard was fortunately preserved.

But in spite of this, with the end of the Goguryeo Campaign and the north-south freight industry was blocked by bandits from all over the country, the shipbuilding industry also fell into a huge depression, the shipbuilding workshop in Beiping County suffered a fatal blow, there was no income, there was no wages, a large number of shipwrights left the shipyard, in just one year, tens of thousands of shipwrights have left the shipyard, there are only a dozen stewards left in the shipyard, all day long, drinking and gambling, stealing and selling the materials in the shipyard has become their way to make money.

That night, a mysterious guest came to the shipyard.

"Mr. Fang, I'm really strange, what does the Fang family want these shipbuilding materials for?"

The shipyard steward's name is Zhan Huan, an old man who is nearly sixty years old, tall and broad-faced, he has been working in the shipyard of Beiping County for forty years, he has already passed the age of knowing the destiny of heaven, and the troubled times are coming, he is full of pessimism about the future of the Great Sui, and he just wants to sell the materials of the shipyard at a good price, and he can also return to his hometown to enjoy his old age in peace.

The person who negotiated this deal with him was Fang Yanqian, the head of the Fang family in Qi County, that is, Fang Xuanling's father, of course Zhang Xuan could not come forward, and it was best to let the wealthy family of Qi County come forward for him.

Fang Yanqian smiled slightly: "The family is too big. Just planting a few acres of land can't support so many people, and I happen to have a piece of land by the sea in Donglai County, and building a shipbuilding workshop can be regarded as adding industry to the Fang family. ”

The corners of Zhan Huan's mouth showed a mocking smile, industry! If shipbuilding can still become an industry. Why should he sell these good ship materials at a low price, the Fang family built a ship yard, I am afraid that he will only lose all the old capital.

But Zhan Huan would never say this, although there were many people who came to see the materials, but no one was willing to take out five hundred taels of gold to buy them, and the Liuhe Shipyard in Wu County was only willing to take out two hundred taels of gold, which was too far from his expectations, and this Fang Yanqian did not object to five hundred taels of gold, which gave Zhan Huan a glimmer of hope. He didn't want his honesty to ruin that hope.

Zhan Huan knew very well in his heart that if these shipbuilding materials were not sold, they would eventually rot in the warehouse and become worthless, and more importantly, he would be fifty-nine years old this year, and he would get out of here when he turned sixty next year, and the imperial court would appoint another chief steward, and all the benefits would not be his turn at that time. He will die in despair.

"Mr. Fang's foresight is admirable, please follow me!"

Zhan Huan took Fang Yanqian to the main warehouse. The warehouse was locked with a huge iron lock, and he took off the key about two inches long from his waist, and said with a wry smile: "There are too many people stealing materials, and I have to keep the key myself." ”

He opened the big iron lock and pushed the door open, under the reflection of the torch in Zhan Huan's hand. In the huge warehouse, all kinds of materials were piled up, the planks were several feet long, and the figures of more than a dozen keels seemed to be lonely logs hidden in the corners.

"What valuable material this is!"

Zhan Huan gently stroked the plank, his heart was full of nostalgia, after all, he had been here for forty years. Asking him to give up these materials is equivalent to giving up the shipyard, and he is somewhat reluctant in his heart.

"And those keels, which can make five thousand stone ships, each of which is worth hundreds of gold, they are like my children."

"Steward Zhan, I'm not reluctant." Fang Yanqian said lightly on the side.

"Nope! No! No! ”

Zhan Huan hurriedly waved his hand, "I don't mean that, I'm willing to sell them to the owner of the house, after all, the owner of the house also uses them to build ships, not to build houses or anything like that." ”

Fang Yanqian waved his hand, and the two family members walked in quickly, put a wooden box in front of them, and bowed and retreated, Fang Yanqian opened the lid, and suddenly the golden light was shining, and the box was full of gold bars.

"Five hundred taels!" Fang Yanqian looked at Zhan Huandao.

Zhan Huan's eyes were fixed on Huang Cancan's gold, and he couldn't help but swallow his saliva, he finally looked away, "Six hundred and fifty taels!" ”

"What!" Fang Yanqian was stunned.

"I changed my mind, I want six hundred and fifty taels, no! Seven hundred taels, I will ask for seven hundred taels of gold. ”

Fang Yanqian's face suddenly became gloomy, "Big steward, business is not like you. ”

"The master of the house listened to me explain that I still have more than a dozen subordinates, and they also need to get benefits to shut up, and besides, to transport these materials from under the nose of the army, it will take fifty taels of gold, so I must have seven hundred taels."

"What if you add more?" Fang Yanqian looked at him coldly.

"If it doesn't increase, it's seven hundred taels."

Fang Yanqian pondered for a moment, and finally nodded, "Okay then!" I'll believe you again, seven hundred taels, we'll make a deal! ”

In the night, ten large ships slowly docked on the dock of the shipyard, and hundreds of young men in black rushed ashore from the boats, and they lined up in several groups to quickly move the materials in the warehouse to the ship.

"This is a ship I hired at a high price!"

Fang Yanqian looked at the ten huge cargo ships and explained to Zhan Huan: "And these young men, you know, it is not easy to find so many young people. ”

"Yes! It's not easy. ”

Zhan Huan smiled, casually perfunctory, some things are better not to ask too much, he only cares about his gold, the gold is in hand, even if the Wagang Army wants this batch of materials, he has no opinion.

At this time, Zhang Xuan walked out of the big ship at the head, standing at the bow of the ship with his hands and staring at the black fleet in the distance, his eyes were deep, no one knew what he was thinking?

"What is the general thinking?" Fang Xuanling walked up to him and asked with a smile.

"I'm thinking about the Liaodong Peninsula."

"Liaodong Peninsula?"

Fang Xuanling smiled a little puzzled: "As far as I know, there are no people on the Liaodong Peninsula, where to go and what to do?" ”

"There's a port, there's land, and it's not uninhabited there, so the nephew who came to protect the child was stationed there with an army."

Zhang Xuan's eyes fell on the fleet again, and muttered, "I wonder if the imperial court has forgotten them?" ”

At dawn, ten large ships loaded with materials for the construction of ships left the Beiping County Shipyard and sailed into the sea under the eyelids of 2,000 garrisons, heading in the direction of Beihai County.

But these were only the first batches, and they had to walk three times to get all the materials, which could build at least a hundred large ships.

Of course, these materials cannot be placed in Beihai County for the time being, but can only be placed in Ye County, Donglai County, which has a piece of land of the Fang family, and these materials are still nominally the assets of the Fang family.

As long as he can secretly transport it from Donglai County to Shouguang Shipyard when needed, although Zhang Xuan wants to show his skills, he has to be extra careful

As Shanshan entered the Shandong Peninsula in the summer, the shadow of war once again hung over the land of Qingzhou, and the military headquarters sent a letter in early May, asking the Flying Eagle Army to prepare to attack Langya County again, and the war machine was launched.

On the wharf of the Yellow River in Beihai County, which had just been repaired, large ships from Liyang Cang transported tens of thousands of stone of grain to Beihai County, including the 20,000 stone of grain promised by Pei Renji last time.

This time, Pei Renji won 100,000 stone of military rations, and he gave 60,000 stone of grain to Zhang Xuan, which shows that this time it will be Zhang Xuan's army as the main force.

Pei Renji also took a grain ship to the dock of Beihai County, and he had a lot to say about this southern expedition to talk to Zhang Xuan in person.

"I said I also want to thank the general!"

Pei Renji looked at the big ship that was unloading grain with deep eyes and said, "You taught Wang Shichong a hard lesson for me and gave me a bad breath. ”

Pei Renji was telling the truth, Qi County Tongshou was one of his transitional positions, and he didn't care that the people of Qinghe County moved to Beihai County in a big way.

Wang Shichong gave him a knife in the back, making him suffer a great humiliation, he thought that the court would condemn Wang Shichong and let Wang Shichong apologize to himself, but he never thought that the saint would acquiesce to Wang Shichong's actions, which made his heart full of grievances, and Zhang Xuan's action made him grow a bad breath.

However, Bae In-giti did not really thank Jang Hyun for this, but hinted at him that Jang Hyun had sent troops to Qi County without his consent, and he hoped that Jang Hyun would understand this.

Of course, Zhang Xuan understood the meaning of Pei Renji's words, and explained apologetically: "The handsome has been awarded, and the lowly position is also a member of the Flying Eagle Army, Wang Shichong's evil also makes me hate, originally the lowly wanted to get the consent of the marshal before doing it, but I learned that the marshal went to the capital, so the humiliation took action without permission, and asked the marshal to understand." ”

"Let's not talk about this matter, let's talk about Langya County!"

Pei Renji was very satisfied with Zhang Xuan's attitude, he smiled smugly, and then turned the topic back to the war in Langya County. (To be continued......)