Wen Bangliang took the clippers and experienced two days of wind and waves, and finally arrived in Nagasaki, and when he set foot in Nagasaki again, he had already changed his identity.

After Yan Siqi failed to plan the peasant uprising, Wen Bangliang never set foot in Yueben again.

Nagasaki is still the same as ever, the coolies on the docks are busy loading and unloading goods, and from time to time you can hear people talking to each other in Hokkien dialect, and you can see Akito all over the street.

Without staying long, he visited the shogunate in Nagasaki and revealed his identity.

Unsurprisingly, Moon was immediately treated as a guest of honor by the shogunate, and Wen handed over a letter from Zhao Yan to Tokugawa Iemitsu, and then began to wait.

The letter was urgently sent to Edo (Tokyo), and five days later Tokugawa Iemitsu received a letter from Zhao Yan to him, and Tokugawa Iemitsu was overjoyed to have the contents of the letter translated, and he was undoubtedly very excited that the Tokugawa shogunate would be recognized by the general army of the Ming Dynasty.

At the same time, the chief soldier was willing to trade with him, and at the same time was willing to sell him muskets and artillery, as well as plate armor commonly used by Westerners, which was undoubtedly what Tokugawa Iemitsu cared about and excited the most.

He also bought some of these things from Westerners, but they were so expensive that he could not buy them on a large scale with his financial resources.

The excited Tokugawa Iemitsu immediately rushed to Nagasaki to meet the envoy from the Ming Dynasty.

In Nagasaki, Tokugawa Iemitsu met with Bun Bang Ryo who was the envoy to Denlai on behalf of the Denlai side, and Wen Bang Liang communicated with Tokugawa Iemitsu very fluently in Mandarin.

Moon Bangliang and Tokugawa Iemitsu exchanged views for nearly three days and finalized the details of the trade between the two sides. Wen Bangliang's negotiations with Yuben Trade went very smoothly, and basically reached all the conditions explained by Zhao Yan.

It was said that the Terrai side was allowed to set up a guild hall in Nagasaki, and at the same time an exchange agreement was reached for the trade of saltpeter, sulfur, and brass.

The cost of fifteen taels of plate armor, the price is set at 720 catties of brass, which is equivalent to 30 taels of silver in the book, but it can be minted into a copper coin equivalent to 90 taels of silver when it is shipped back to the Ming Dynasty, and the price is higher after being made into bronze.

The cost of a musket is only three taels of silver, and the price is 3,000 catties of saltpeter, or 2,000 catties of sulfur. A front-loading smoothbore gun is priced at 2000~5000 taels of silver.

Such a price is completely acceptable to the side, and even very willing to accept it.

Because it is said to be a place with a lot of nitrate, copper, and sulfur, and because of the low price and heavy weight of these things, few foreign merchant ships are willing to carry these things.

For example, if you use 1 tael of silver to buy the goods shipped back, you can buy 24 catties of brass. Suppose a merchant ship transports a total of 1,000 taels of goods to the capital, and earns 2,000 taels of silver in the capital, and transports the goods back to the capital, and can earn 2~4 times the profit, of course, the 2,000 taels of silver are all exchanged for commodities and shipped back, in order to grab the maximum profit.

But if you want to buy all brass, it is obvious that the loading capacity of the merchant ship is not enough, and it is naturally very uneconomical. Naturally, no merchant was willing to buy the brass.

It is said that this is a mineral standard country, that is, there are all mines, but except for saltpeter, brass, and sulfur, there are not many others.

Zhao Yan's shipyard can build flying clippers, with the trade speed of flying clippers, there is no need to be restricted by transportation capacity, brass is a very profitable thing for Zhao Yan, this thing is simple to operate, and it can be directly made into copper coins and issued after being transported back to Denglai.

Saltpeter and sulfur are exactly what Zhao Yan lacks in military affairs. The weapon that consumes the most gunpowder is, of course, the rocket currently in use.

In a campaign, as long as there are enough rockets, they can all be hit, there is no problem with the rate of fire at all, this is a more powerful weapon than artillery, but the problem is that it burns too much, as long as there is enough gunpowder, then everything is not a problem.

Tokugawa Iemitsu could not meet the trade needs of brass, saltpeter, and sulfur, and promised to immediately strengthen the mining of brass, saltpeter, and sulfur.

At the beginning of July, Wen Bangliang returned to Shandong after completing the mission.

After Zhao Yan heard Wen Bangliang's report, he couldn't help but be overjoyed, and immediately asked the First Fleet, which was already in place, to escort the fleet to Yuben.

The fleet that went to Yuben this time had a total of six merchant ships, and the four Fu ships were also loaded with goods, but the goods loaded were not much, they were all some glass mirrors and 50,000 catties of cotton cloth.

At the same time, people from the trading houses were transferred to the city to set up a permanent association to deal with trade issues. There are many benefits to setting up a clan, and the biggest benefit is to save time.

The guild will prepare the goods for the return voyage in advance, and the merchant ships will directly unload the goods after arriving at the capital, and then load the goods to return to the sea, which can improve the efficiency of trade.

If there is no guild hall, it will take a long time to prepare the goods. At the same time, Zhao Yan also set up a large warehouse in Qingdao to hoard export goods.

For example, in terms of exported goods, Wen Bangliang listed a profit table for Zhao Yan, among which the biggest profits were raw silk, cotton cloth, sugar, poria cocos, licorice, and lead.

Cotton cloth is the highest, which is Zhao Yan's advantageous industry, the profit is 300% ~ 400%, Poria cocos, licorice these herbs, the profit is also between 200% ~ 400%, licorice is generally more than 300%.

Sugar 200% ~ 250%, lead is mainly for refining silver, the profit is also between 200% ~ 300%, waste lead shipped back to Daming, still has its own price, the profit is as high as 200% ~ 300%.

The profit of raw silk is generally about 200%~300%, the price per load is generally between 600~1000 taels, and the profit of silk is 150%~200%.

The profit of porcelain is generally between 150% ~ 400%, mainly depending on the quality.

Among them, the largest goods are sugar and porcelain, which are also the two most imported and sold in the country. At present, Zhao Yan can export goods to Yueben, mainly cotton cloth, munitions, ironware, and glassware.

Sugar and porcelain had to be bought from the south, and it was easy to buy them, and it was not as difficult as for Westerners, who generally went to local compradors, and a part of the profits were eaten up first.

Zhao Yan does not plan to develop sugar and porcelain, and Shandong is not suitable for large-scale cultivation of sugarcane as a cash crop.

However, the profit of licorice is good, Zhao Yan decided to set aside 50,000 acres of land in Dengzhou to plant licorice, in addition to the trade, hospitals also need this herb, and the amount is very large.

…… At the beginning of July, the war in Henan had come to an end, and Zhao Yong's infantry battalion and Lin Yi and Wu Yongliang's cavalry battalion captured more than 400,000 people from the thieves.

Gao Yingxiang fled into the mountains like a lost dog, and Zhao Yong and the others stopped the pursuit. The variables of the battle in the mountainous area are too large, not only is it easy to be ambushed, but it is also very difficult to supply, so Zhao Yong and the others did not chase into the mountainous area according to Zhao Yan's explanation, and Zhang Xianzhong, Lao Hui Ma Shouying, Luo Rucai and other departments, Zhao Yan also had no intention of taking care of it.

After driving Gao Yingxiang into the mountains, he immediately ordered the battalions fighting in Henan to withdraw the captured population to Shandong.

For these captives, most of whom were peasants from Shaanxi, and there were a large number of thieves mixed with them, Zhao Yan was not at ease to place them in Yingzhou or Handan, and it was safest to bring them back to Shandong for resettlement.

At the same time, other soldiers and horses were recalled to Shandong, also in order to deal with the plundering of the Qing troops next year. In the ninth year of Chongzhen, that is, when Huang Taiji ascended the throne, Houjin would be renamed Manchu.

From May to July this year, the Manchu soldiers appeared in Shanxi and northern Shaanxi, and in this year they completely conquered the Mongols.

During the conquest of Lin Dan Khan, he also plundered in Daming by the way, but the movement was not too big.

In order to prevent the Ming Dynasty from taking the opportunity to attack, Huang Taiji ordered Azig to lead his troops to break into the pass and plunder, and sent Dolgon and Duoduo and others to lead the troops to march to Liaoxi, so as to contain the Ming Dynasty army in Shanhaiguan, so as to relieve the pressure of the Ming Dynasty army on the Azig department.

After two or three years of development, Zhao Yan's strength has swelled dramatically, although the foundation is not very stable, and the population that can be recruited is not too much, but he also has a complete military group in his hands.

The Manchu Qing Dynasty was the main enemy he had to face, the population of the Ming Dynasty was at least 100 million ~ 150 million, but after the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the customs and slaughtered, the population plummeted to more than 20 million, at least 60 million people died in the war, most of them were slaughtered by the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and the number of people slaughtered was more than the little devils in later generations.

Such a barbaric and backward nation naturally has to be resolutely attacked, and only by defeating the Manchu Qing can Zhao Yan feel at ease. Therefore, in the face of the Manchu cavalry that was about to enter the customs, Zhao Yan would resolutely give a severe blow.

Only by beating him painfully could the Manchu Qing be prevented from re-entering the customs.

At the same time, Zhao Yan now had warships and was preparing to start a naval offensive against the Manchus, and more than 30 carefully selected scouts boarded Lushun in a small boat at night in early July and began to survey the terrain of Jinzhou.

These scouts were originally Liao people who fled from Liaodong to Dengzhou, and these Liao people were very discriminated against in Shandong, but Zhao Yan did not discriminate against them, but placed them with his heart.

These Liao people were very useful to Zhao Yan, many of them could raise horses, and the horse farm was in need of a large number of people who knew how to raise horses. At the same time, they are familiar with the environment of Liaodong, which is exactly the manpower that Zhao Yan needs.

At the same time, the Propaganda Department established by Zhao Yan has been propagating the concept of nationality, and after the ideological propaganda of the people, insulting surnames such as Liaogou have also disappeared from the mouths of the people under Zhao Yan's rule.

Those people who fled to Denglai from Liaodong gradually integrated into the group under Zhao Yan's rule, and truly regarded themselves as part of it.

And the thirty scouts selected this time have been carefully cultivated, know how to draw maps, and have reached the point of fanaticism in terms of loyalty, and they are more fanatical than any people.

Because they have been oppressed by Jiannu for a long time, and Zhao Yan's ideological propaganda focuses on publicizing the atrocities of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and the army takes the fight against the Manchu Qing as the first goal, and always regards the Manchu Qing as an imaginary enemy, these soldiers from Liaodong feel it even more strongly.

In Denglai, it is enough for the commander-in-chief to give them a good placement, treat them as human beings, give them fields to cultivate, and never discriminate against them.

…… Since Zhang Xianzhong broke away from Gao Yingxiang's army, he has been flowing all the way to Huguang, and Zhang Xianzhong at this time is still relatively well preserved in terms of strength.

During the battle with the Denglai army, Zhang Xianzhong was the most vigilant and ran the earliest, while Ma Shouying was more miserable, and most of the personnel were lost.

The fierceness of the Denglai army made Zhang Xianzhong often restless. It was definitely an invincible army, and for the first time, his confidence was shaken, and his sense of the future became gloomy.

Maybe this is not the right path, Zhang Xianzhong sighed secretly, it is better to avoid Zhao Killing's soldiers! It's best not to be targeted by him.

Therefore, he decided to enter Sichuan from Huguang and then return to Shaanxi from Sichuan. The mountain roads in Sichuan are rugged, and Zhao Killxing's soldiers and horses may not be able to catch up with him.

Zu Kuan and Zu Dale's Liaodong soldiers were playing soy sauce as usual, and only after the thieves who came to the east were defeated, they hurried to grab the merit.

At the end of June, Zhao Yan wrote a letter to Lu Xiangsheng and shipped the first batch of plate armor to Lu Xiangsheng, a total of 5,000 pieces.

The letter explained to Lu Xiangsheng the reason for the withdrawal, saying that next year Liaodong Jiannu will likely invade Guannei, and Denglai soldiers and horses must be transferred back to Shandong to attack Jiannu.

Regarding the treatment plan for that batch of prisoners, Zhao Yan hoped that Lu Xiangsheng could cooperate with one or two.

After Lu Xiangsheng received Zhao Yan's letter, he was obviously a little worried about the plan for the disposal of the prisoners. At this time, he also knew a lot about Zhao Yan's strength.

It is not an exaggeration to call Denglai soldiers the first strong army of the Ming Dynasty, the application of firearms can be described as unparalleled, the soldiers and horses are not comparable to other officers and soldiers in terms of equipment and training, and the army discipline is unprecedented, and there is no crime in the autumn.

This is not what he is worried about, what he is worried about is that Zhao Yan is not financially constrained by the imperial court, and what he has seen in the past few months is Shandong salt dealers who are trafficking in illicit salt, these Shandong salt dealers are all guarded, and the equipment is the same as that of the Denglai army, and the mercenaries wearing plate armor and holding muskets are constantly coming and going to various places in the Central Plains, and the government does not dare to ask.

At the same time, Lu Xiangsheng also learned from a Shandong businessman that the glass mirror that appeared in Daming in the past two years was also made by Zhao Yan, and it was unique to his family.

The income from this business was enough to maintain the military expenses of the Denglai army. At the same time, Zhao Yan was also very keen on Tuntian, and the Jimin Commercial Bank he opened was constantly recruiting displaced people in various places, and it was common to see a large group of displaced people rushing to Shandong, Yingzhou, and Handan under the escort of Denglai soldiers and horses on the official road.

And this time he sent troops and horses to fight the thieves, and from a series of actions of the Denglai soldiers, even pigs can be deduced, and their main task is to arrest people. Every time the Denglai soldiers bite the thief army, the first thing they do is to shout the slogan of 'kneel on the ground and do not kill, give ploughing cattle and fields to cultivate', after capturing the population, the Jimin Commercial Bank will inevitably transport the grain to within five days, and a set of specific processes have been formed for the resettlement of the displaced people.

It is conceivable that under such a continuous tuntian, the strength of the Denglai army will continue to grow, and with enough money and food, Zhao Yan can form many such armies.

"Can govern the army, can reassure the people, has a variety of means, and is a capable minister who governs the world, if it is a troubled time, he doesn't know whether he is a hero or not." Lu Xiangsheng sighed in his heart.

It's just that at present, Daming really needs such a capable army to calm the turmoil. In terms of combat, Zhao Yan was also very active, and he did not see any disobedience.

So Lu Xiangsheng has no reason to hinder Zhao Yan's development, what can Zhao Yan do if he doesn't agree with the resettlement plan for these 400,000 prisoners?

He did not have enough money and food to house these captives, 400,000 people was not 40,000, and if he did not settle these people properly, it was inevitable that these people would continue to be thieves without a way to live, or become a place where bandits would be a scourge.

At the beginning of July, Lu Xiangsheng wrote a notebook to Chongzhen, reporting the course of the war.

"The thief of the king, on June 21, he fought with the soldiers and horses under the command of Zhao Yan, the chief soldier of Denglai, and killed more than 30,000 thieves with firearms, and the king and the thieves of the tribe were defeated, and the soldiers of Denglai chased three times, and the thief of the king fought seven battles, captured more than 400,000 people, and the king rushed into the border mountains. The remaining six or seven bandits, or three or five thousand, or one or two thousand, ran into Henan and Huguang, and it was easier to attack them. More than 400,000 mutants were originally good citizens, but they had no choice but to obey the thieves because of hunger and cold, and they needed to distribute ploughing cattle, farm products, and cultivation to prevent them from returning. However, it is not a good choice to settle in Qin and Henan, with constant disasters and wars. Previously, Kong Youde chaotically ascended to Denglai, making Denglai barren, and the minister thought that it was most suitable for the people to settle in Denglai, and then the general army of Denglai was rich and wealthy, and he was willing to pay for the people, which was really a great good......"

(To be continued)