Sailing on the sea is boring, there can be no fun at all, in this regard, the officers and soldiers of the naval division have become accustomed to it, leaving Penglai City, three warships entered the sea in formation, everything became empty, what you see is the blue sky and white clouds, and the blue sea, and occasionally you can see some small islands that are exposed to the sea.

The officers and soldiers of the naval division are prepared, the imperial court does not attach importance to coastal defense, and has never thought of hegemony on the sea, during the Wanli period, the Japanese invaders plundered the sea, and the Ming Empire did not have the slightest way, so that the southern coast, encountered the ravaging of the Japanese invaders, and the common people suffered heavy losses, Qi Jiguang formed the Qi family army, and completely suppressed the Japanese invaders.

When Zheng Zhilong was a pirate, he basically controlled the southern seas, and later accepted the appeasement of the imperial court and became a member of the Ming Dynasty, but the imperial court did not attach importance to the construction of the sailor and had no time to take care of it.

Jiangning battalion set up a sailor, this time the trial voyage, whether it will meet Lu to see pirates, or to meet other merchant ships or even warships, this is also an uncertain thing, the sailor officers and soldiers study the booklet, for the situation at sea, made some general introduction, so that everyone knows that the Ming Dynasty thousands of miles away from overseas, the Netherlands, Spain and Portugal and other places, the sailor is very powerful, there are huge warships, and often come here, this is disrespectful to the Ming Dynasty, if you meet Lu to see, it must be suppressed, The Jiangning Naval Division must control the sea surface in the Bohai Sea, the Yellow Sea, the East China Sea, the South China Sea, and other areas to ensure the smooth progress of maritime trade.

The majestic fleet of ships on the sea seems so small, which also makes the officers and men of the Navy Division have a real awe of the sea in their hearts, and most of the officers and men of the Navy Division. It was the first time to see the vast sea, and although these things were mentioned in the booklet, it was only after the real experience that everyone felt this first-hand.

The trial went very smoothly, and there were no battle fleets, but there were still some merchant ships. These merchant ships, seeing such a large fleet, have long been far away, and occasionally they can meet some fishing boats, according to the regulations of the sailors, these ships are the ships that the Jiangning Camp Sailors need to protect.

Because of time constraints, it is impossible to go too far in this sea trial. On 25 November, the fleet began to return home, and the Penglai and Yantai formations will return to Penglai City, and the Weihai formation will go directly to Weihaiwei Wharf to participate in the opening ceremony of Weihaiwei Wharf.

As the pilot warship of this trial, the Penglai No. 1 warship. It will also sail to Weihaiwei Wharf.

On 30 November, the flotilla entered the Weihaiwei wharf.

Xiong Zijian et al. They had already been prepared, and after they participated in the ceremony of the sailor's sea trial, they hurried back to Weihaiwei Wharf, and made the final preparations, and the governor's office had already sent official letters to the yamen of many prefectures and counties along the coast. It was clearly informed that Weihaiwei Wharf would be opened on December 1 of the thirteenth year of Chongzhen.

In the official letter, it was clearly informed that all overseas sea vessels wishing to conduct trade with Daming must go to Weihaiwei Wharf to trade, if this notice is violated. Once discovered, the Daming Sailor will take decisive measures to confiscate all commodities and severely punish them.

The official letter also specifically stated that Weihaiwei Wharf is the only wharf allowed by the Ming Dynasty to conduct overseas trade transactions, and all overseas merchant ships that trade at Weihaiwei Wharf will be protected by the Daming Sailors, and within a certain range, if they are attacked and cause losses, the Daming Sailors will severely punish the other party.

This is an official letter with a special meaning.

Su Tiancheng understands that this is also a warning letter issued by the Governor's Office, the initial warning, mainly Zheng Zhilong of Fujian, although he belongs to the same Daming Navy, but the interests of the two are not the same, Zheng Zhilong dominates the open sea, seeking the interests of the family and the individual, Su Tiancheng dominates the open sea, seeking the interests of the nation and the dynasty, standing on this point of view, Su Tiancheng will not be polite to Zheng Zhilong, although Zheng Chenggong is a national hero, but the history before that time, now history has still completely changed.

If after the opening of Weihaiwei Wharf, Zheng Zhilong can accept it when he sees it, and An An will stay in Fujian, relying on the coastal waters of Fujian to seek some benefits, Su Tiancheng will not care, but if he wants to attack Weihaiwei Wharf and continue to dominate the open sea, then the sailors of the Jiangning battalion have just found the object of the first battle, and Su Tiancheng will no longer be merciful, and will completely destroy Zheng Zhilong's sailors.

Weihaiwei Wharf revealed a joyful atmosphere, bustling crowds, merchants coming and going, in fact, before the opening of the port, there were already a small number of merchant ships, with a tentative purpose, to Weihaiwei Wharf, the owners of these merchant ships, soon found that this is extraordinary, not to mention the huge wharf, can accommodate many large merchant ships at the same time, just look at the facilities around the wharf, you will understand that this is a very formal trade place.

Weihai Wei City, has begun to work, open sea into the Ming Dynasty merchant ships, the main goods, generally minerals, timber, spices, gold, jewelry and rice, etc., there are also some ivory, blankets and other precious goods, they will transport these things to Daming, in exchange for porcelain, tea, silk and other goods, these things, transported overseas, belong to luxury jewelry, but also profiteering goods.

Since Weihaiwei belongs to the dock of the Ming Dynasty that allows the implementation of overseas trade, it can purchase a large number of these goods needed by the shipowner, and Qingzhou is the gathering place of a large number of these goods, and the goods such as porcelain, tea and silk from all over the Ming Dynasty will gather in Qingzhou for the shipowner to purchase.

As long as you are not a stupid shipowner, you can make a fortune if you come directly to Weihaiwei Wharf.

The goods transported to Weihaiwei Wharf are all taxed at a rate of 10%, which is also a matter of joy to many overseas shipowners, and the Daming sailors led by Zheng Zhilong have collected taxes on the open sea, exceeding 30% of the value of the goods, which is the reason why the Zheng Zhilong family became rich, but it also made the maritime trade slowly begin to shrink.

Overseas merchant ships came to Daming with great difficulty, and after paying such a high amount of taxes, they entered the Ming trade, and they had to work hard to purchase goods from all over Daming, and they were a little careless, and they encountered bandits and even officers and soldiers, and it was a huge loss.

The overseas merchant ships who came to try the transaction also had the mentality of trying it out, and finally avoided the Daming Sailor entrenched in the South China Sea, and made a detour to Weihaiwei, where the transaction made them almost crazy, countless merchants were waiting here to buy their goods, and the goods on the ship had been traded at the fastest speed, and then they went to Qingzhou, where they could purchase any goods they needed, and there was a special transport team to help transport, so they didn't have to worry about bandits and officers and soldiers, and the whole way was smooth sailing. It's the perfect place for them to trade.

The purpose of commerce is to maximize profits and minimize risks, and only in this environment can commerce and trade really develop, the establishment of Weihaiwei Wharf is for this purpose, several overseas merchant ships that came to trade also learned about the service requirements here, from their personal experience, Weihaiwei Wharf has done this.

However, there is also a worry, that is, Weihaiwei Wharf, if it is attacked, then nothing exists, overseas ship owners understand that maritime trade relies on power.

But they also heard that not far from the Weihaiwei wharf, there are special sailors, and these sailors, not only to protect the Weihaiwei wharf, but also to patrol the sea, to combat piracy and any other force that infringes on the interests of merchant ships.

Naturally, such news spread quickly.

Therefore, the day when Weihaiwei Wharf officially opened is destined to be a feast.

The moment he got off the warship and stepped on the ground, Su Tiancheng felt with special emotion, life at sea is indeed boring and boring, which also means that the officers and soldiers of the naval division will have to pay more sacrifices, but fortunately, the 25,000-strong naval division can take the way of changing guards, unless it is a large-scale naval battle, otherwise it will not be on the warships and patrol ships every day, and for a period of time in the future, the focus may still be on patrolling the sea to protect the safety of maritime trade channels.

The prosperity of Weihaiwei has been beyond Su Tiancheng's expectations, but in a few months, the shops here have been full, all the shops have been built, one hundred and fifty shops, all of them have been sold, the market town is about five miles away from the shops, many houses are in the process of construction, the market town that has been formed, showing an unusual liveliness, the market town, inns, restaurants, tea houses and green buildings, etc., are readily available.

The radiation radius of Weihaiwei Wharf demarcated by Su Tiancheng is ten miles, but now the radiation range is far more than ten miles, which can be predicted, and it will not take long for the prosperity here to even exceed Wendeng County.

Gu Xingsong, the magistrate of Wendeng County, was also waiting at the dock, because of his special relationship with Su Tiancheng, he was still a little powerful in this county, and Gu Hengbo also came to Dengzhou, and on several occasions, Gu Xingsong went to the governor's mansion in Dengzhou Mansion to visit his sister Gu Hengbo and see his nephew Su Mingming, and sometimes he was lucky enough to be able to meet Su Tiancheng.

Gu Xingsong once proposed that the construction of Wendeng County is a little difficult, mainly because it requires a lot of silver, so after Weihaiwei Wharf starts to operate, can it be considered to give Wendeng County Ya a certain amount of income to help Wendeng County Ya better construction, Su Tiancheng did not agree to Gu Xingsong's request, but allowed Gu Xingsong to arrange some county officials at Weihaiwei Wharf to maintain local order, and the Municipal Department of Shipping is responsible for the income of these officials, and at the same time, from this point of view, give Wendeng County certain support. However, Su Tiancheng also warned Gu Xingsong not to use his power for personal gain, not to think that the relationship is different, and to do something illegal and undisciplined. (To be continued......)