The news of Zhao Yan's wedding spread quickly throughout the provinces of Daming, and people all over the world couldn't help but look sideways.

But the big businessmen who can receive Zhao Yan's invitation are those who have no bad deeds or have no competition with Zhao Yan.

The Jin merchants with bad deeds and the salt merchants who sold illicit salt could not get invitations, and the big merchants in the merchants in other provinces all sent out invitations.

The intelligence department set up by Zhao Yan has long found out the situation of businessmen in various places, as long as it is a big businessman, it will inevitably be famous in the local area, and it is really simple to find out this is really simple.

In addition to inviting those big businessmen, all those in Fujian and Guangdong who are engaged in maritime trade and have ships in their hands also send an invitation very solemnly.

Shandong businessmen, regardless of size, have invitations to send out.

Shandong officials, that is, those Taoist members who belonged to Zhao Yan's camp received invitations, and it was useless for these Taoists to stay in Shandong now, Zhao Yan was already in Shandong.

But resources always have to be fully utilized! These people can be transferred to the southern provinces. The cabinet has been controlled by Zhao Yan, and it is very simple to appoint local officials, first get rid of the original ones, and then install their own people.

They were originally Taoists, and they could directly patrol the party, if they pulled a clerk who had no qualifications and was trained by Zhao Yan over, it would naturally be difficult to convince the public.

When the governor has passed, he can install his own officials below, and he can gradually control the territory of the province.

In terms of military generals, there were fewer people invited, only Qin Liangyu and a few others from Sichuan. The minister of the court, Zhao Yan also invited some, but not much.

I have something to do with Zhao Yan, so I also please.

Zhao Quan also sent a number of invitations to Zhaojiabao in Fujian, but Zheng Zhilong didn't invite him, didn't give a look at his face, and thought that Zhao Yan cared about his feelings very much.

In addition, the families of those generals who died on the battlefield for the country also sent invitations, such as Huang Long, the chief soldier who guarded Lushun.

This big wedding is very powerful.

When the generals in the army heard about Zhao Yan's wedding, they were all overjoyed, as if it was a New Year's holiday, and they were about to give congratulatory gifts, but they received an order from the military department to prohibit gift-giving, and to give gifts based on this year's military merits.

"My lord, Daxi, Daxi, the First Fleet has grabbed nine more warships, all of which have been towed back, and none of them have been destroyed." Mao Yuanyi rushed in to report the good news to Zhao Yan.

Recently, there have been many happy events! The First Fleet and the Honshu Mixed Brigade fought smoothly in this and made a lot of money cheaply.

"Nine warships!" Zhao Yan couldn't help but be moved, although it was said that after the appearance of frigates, these warships were far less useful than frigates, but the sea power was seriously insufficient, far from reaching the point of disarmament, and these warships could still be used for a long time.

The reason why the frigate is easy to use is that the frigate is simple to make, and at the same time extremely fast, combined with superior artillery, it is simply the first choice for kite flying.

However, frigates also have shortcomings, they are not enough to resist the enemy, and these warships can, one-on-one, fight hard, and absolutely win.

The frigate is made of paulownia and is very weak in defense. However, there are also frigates made of high-quality wood, and now the good wood of shipyards, in addition to building flying clippers, is to build frigates.

In addition to the plan to build a hundred Paulownia frigates, there are also thirty real frigates, but the tonnage is small, and it is not enough to resist the enemy.

Therefore, the navy must have warships so that it will not be strong from outside.

"Thirty frigates will soon be launched at our shipyard, plus fifteen warships, and ten frigates in the South Seas, and we will have a sea force of forty frigates and fifteen warships." Mao Yuanyi said happily: "With these boats, it is enough to knock Zheng Zhilong down." ”

"Zheng Zhilong, don't worry!" Zhao Yan said with a smile, "The Ministry of Intelligence has detected a news in Fujian, Zheng Zhilong is building warships. With our strength, if we fight, we will still be overturned by Zheng Zhilong if we are not careful. He can't run anyway, and the money he earns is still ours in the end. ”

"That's it." Mao Yuanyi nodded, and then continued: "The First Fleet also brought back a piece of news that the Tokugawa Shogunate was going to negotiate peace, but it was because of the riots of the Catholics in Shimabara and Amakusa that peace talks were made, and the First Fleet then went to contact those Catholics, and happened to meet the Dutch and Portuguese warships shelling the Catholics. The First Fleet blocked them in the harbor and finally captured the nine ships. Before returning, he also provided 3,000 rockets to the Catholics, as well as captured cold weapons and food. ”

"Catholic riots?" Zhao Yan was stunned and asked for details.

Mao Yuanyi hurriedly took out the report written by Su Buheng, Zhao Yan took the report and looked at it in detail, looked at it and couldn't help nodding constantly, and exaggeratedly, "The First Fleet did a good job, but this is not enough." ”

"Send another batch of supplies to the Catholics at once, no, it will not be enough insurance, and send another 3,000 men to assist the Catholics in their defense. This trump card must be pinched, and if the Tokugawa shogunate does not buy it, we will support these Catholics to overthrow his rule. Zhao Yan waved his hand and said, it is really not safe to give a little supply, in case the city is breached, then this trump card will not be lost.

As long as these Catholics do not perish for a day, it is equivalent to pinching the eggs of the Tokugawa shogunate forever, and they can cut off their children and grandchildren at any time, and this is the end.

"In addition, the other three warships of the First Fleet are already protecting more than 500 ships returning to Shandong, and the ships are filled with overseas laborers, about 150,000."

"Well, as soon as there are more overseas workers, production in Shandong will not be a problem."

"But it still takes a lot of labor to develop North Korea and Liaodong." Wang Wenyue said: Agriculture in North Korea and Liaodong adopts the farm model, and although a household of 300 mu can be operated under the farm model, large farms require labor.

The large farms were assigned to him by Zhao Yan and to those landlords in Qingzhou.

With so many 'overseas workers', it is natural to set aside some land to raise horses, and although these workers do not know how to raise horses, they are capable of doing hard work on horse farms.

At present, many of the young and strong people in the various tun areas of Denglai have gone to join the army, and agriculture naturally cannot be wasted, and the laborers who have been captured will be assigned to the tun lands after receiving training, and under the management of the tun chief, they will replace the young men who have joined the army to cultivate.

Half of the income from labor.

plus military salary, it can definitely be regarded as a small rich family.

The soldiers' welfare has one more item, which is equivalent to giving them half of the 'demographic dividend', and the other half of the demographic dividend belongs to Zhao Yan.

"I just don't know how many people will die when I arrive in Shandong." Mao Yuanyi sighed.

…… After Zhao Yan's order was issued, 3,000 marines boarded five armed merchant ships of the First Fleet and headed for the original island.

They will assist the Catholics in their defense, but they will not help them to counterattack, but only in defense.

Inaba was apparently taken aback by the annihilation of the Dutch and Portuguese warships by the First Fleet, and when Inaba received the news, he almost fell off his horse.

Soon Inaba Masakatsu learned during a tentative attack that the Catholics in the ancient city had been supported by the Akito.

Without the shelling of the Dutch and Portuguese, and with rockets and many cold weapons and muskets, the Catholics became more and more fortified in defense.

Inaba Masakatsu's tentative attack was directly repelled by more than a dozen rockets.

This kind of thing Inaba Masakatsu had seen the Ming army use in Edo, and after escaping from Edo, Inaba Masakatsu also tried to have people make this kind of rocket.

The structure is simple and simple, and complex and complex.

With the ability of this craftsman, it is necessary to upgrade and upgrade, these Catholics have rockets in their hands, which is not obviously related to the Ming army.

Inaba Masakatsu hurriedly reported to Tokugawa Iemitsu for advice on what to do.

As a result, he was scolded by Tokugawa Iemitsu, scolding Inaba for being a fool, since these Catholics have hooked up with the Ming army, then what is there to hesitate, naturally it is necessary to solve these mobs as quickly as possible at all costs, so as not to have many dreams at night.

Such a simple thing has to be reported for instructions, and how much time is wasted in the middle, it is as stupid as a pig.

After Inaba Masakatsu received Tokugawa Iemitsu's letter, he looked annoyed, he was indeed too stupid. So he immediately beat the drum and stormed the ancient city.

This time, Inaba Masakatsu completely abandoned the plan of a long-term siege, and the Catholics in the ancient city received assistance from the Ming army, and if they were allowed to develop, it would be even more difficult to deal with.

The siege progressed very fiercely, and Inaba Masakatsu mobilized more than 50 artillery pieces to bombard the ancient city at night, but the gap could not be penetrated.

The Catholics in the ancient city had already built a wall behind them before the artillery opened a gap, and the attacks were defeated by the strong-willed Catholics.

The rockets in the hands of the Catholics played a huge role in the defense, and Inaba Masakatsu's artillery was dumbed several times by the rockets.

In addition to artillery, the regular army of Benben had almost no other siege facilities in the siege, and the siege technology was very inferior, and there was no way to do it after the artillery was dumb fire.

However, Inaba Masakatsu has reached the point where it will cost no reason, and although the Catholics in the ancient city have resisted very stubbornly, they have also suffered heavy casualties.

After three days of continuous attack, the city was already full of corpses, and the Catholics in the city also killed more than 4,000 people and wounded many more.

At this moment, eight large ships sailed into the harbor behind the ancient city, and it was the First Fleet that set off after towing the captured warships back to Shandong.

As soon as the First Fleet arrived, it launched an artillery bombardment on the besieging army.

Under the heavy shelling, the corpses of the army that had been left to the ground in less than a quarter of an hour were repulsed again, and the Catholics cheered collectively when the First Fleet appeared on the ancient city.

Five armed merchant ships quickly approached the dock, and a group of heavily armed marines rushed out of the boats, in addition to these marines, and the ships were also loaded with war supplies......

(To be continued)