The first thing Zhao Yan did was to rectify the military affairs of Denglai, and when he was promoted to the commander-in-chief of Denglai, the commanders of various guards also came to visit him and gave him a meeting gift.

When Zhao Yan inspected the guards, he saw some unclothed military households, mostly old and weak soldiers, and their weapons were uneven.

Of course, there are also some so-called elite families, and the number of these families is small, even if they are elite, it will not help.

When Zhao Yan went to Fushan Zuo to inspect the station, he was surprised to find that the situation here was much better than that of other guards, and the military households here had cultivated a lot of land, and the fields were planted with grain, unlike the barren situation of other guards.

And the soldiers are much better than the other guards, although there are not many soldiers, but there are not many vacancies, and most of them are young and strong, but they are still a rabble.

"How can such soldiers and horses fight? That's how you defend your country? Zhao Yan scolded Mr. Qian on the spot.

"Your Excellency...... The way of the world is like this, and there is nothing that can be done about it. That Qian was always a middle-aged man, and he was reprimanded by a general soldier much younger than him, and he didn't dare to refute it. Although he did much better than the thousand generals of other guards, he was much worse than the general soldiers.

Not only did they organize the homeless people to wantonly farm the fields, but the military horses under them were also neatly armoured, which was far from being comparable to his small family.

"That's how the world is!" Zhao Yan sighed, his expression was much gentler, and he asked Mr. Qian, "What's your name?" ”

"Villain Yan Shiliang." During the Qianzong answer, Liu Heng, who was beside Zhao Yan, asked in surprise: "Are you the Yan Shiliang who served as a general under Yuan Keli?" ”

"Yes." Yan Shiliang replied.

"If you are a general, why did you become a small household?" Zhao Yan asked strangely. Yan Shiliang frowned, and said with a half-sigh: "The past is unbearable, when I was young and vigorous, Yuan Junmen was ostracized by my colleagues after leaving. ”

"Huh! Yan Qian always served as a general under Yuan Junmen, so he must have some ability. Liu Heng said with a smile on the side, Yuan Keli is the most accomplished one among the governors of Denglai, and most of the governors of Denglai who took office afterwards are mediocre, although Sun Yuanhua admires Western learning and is also working hard to train soldiers and build artillery, but he is too indecisive in handling things, so that Kong Youde has taken advantage of loopholes.

"Hmm!" Zhao Yan nodded and asked Yan Shiliang, "Are you willing to work under me?" ”

"I am willing to die for my lords." Yan Shiliang is not a stupid person, Zhao Yan was originally his boss, and there must be other meanings in this question, a big opportunity is in front of him, how can he let it go, and express his attitude to Zhao Yan on the spot.

"Okay, if there is anything missing in the palace, just report it to Staff Officer Liu, and in a few days, the official will send someone to the palace for training." Zhao Yan said with great satisfaction.

Originally, I came to this Fushan Left Guard, just to find fault, but I wanted to transfer the thousand presidents of this Fushan Left Office, and then occupy this place, but the situation of this Fushan Left Office is different from other guards, and it is rare to find a talent.

The station of Fushan Zuo is next to the port in Qingdao, and Zhao Yan's purpose in coming to Fushan Zuo is naturally to open up a port here.

Qingdao Port is located in Jiaozhou Bay on the south coast of Shandong Peninsula, the water area in the port is wide and deep, navigable in all seasons, and the harbor mouth is small and large, and it is a famous excellent port. It mainly consists of Dagang, Zhonggang and Huangdao Port.

…… On the third day, there were people from Zhaojiabao to Fushan Zuosuo, and began to recruit migrant workers in the local area, and began to build the wharf in full swing.

Then ships came to Qingdao Port one after another, and these ships were large and small, all of which were transport vessels.

On the fifth day, the newly built navy also appeared in Qingdao Port at noon that day, and four tall Fu ships were already loaded with artillery. The officers and soldiers of the navy above also wore a unified military uniform, the military uniform was designed with the military uniform of later generations, which was very suitable for the needs of navigation, and the white military uniform chest, there was a flame pattern, representing the fire virtue of the Ming Dynasty.

On the lucky boat, the moon flag of the Ming Dynasty is hung.

Zhao Yan also specially told the crew about the special meaning of the moon flag:

The symbol and meaning of the moon flag: this flag is called the yellow in the middle of the moon flag, symbolizing the light behind the moon, symbolizing the purple and blue sky symbolizing the sun, and symbolizing the open Ming Dynasty.

Take the meaning of the overlap of the moon (said in the back, the moon in front) said that the moon is the sharpness of the Ming Dynasty to the four directions, symbolizing "the extreme heaven and the earth, no concubines" and means that courtesy, righteousness and shame, the four dimensions of the country, is the moral norms that the Ming Dynasty abides by.

"Red" and "yellow" symbolize the noblest meaning in China, and blue represents the dawn of reform in the Ming Dynasty.

The flag consists of a pattern of overlapping red and yellow moons and a blue background. The blue background represents the blue sky, symbolizing the bright, noble and great personality and ambition of our Han nation.

The overlap of the moon is the word "Ming", which represents the Ming Dynasty, which is located in the middle of the banner and is impartial, which means that China is located in the Quartet.

The yellow color in the center of the flag represents the skin color of the Han people, symbolizing that the Ming Dynasty is a country established and ruled by the Han people, and the interests of the Han people are always safeguarded.

The red light is the light of the sun, and symbolizes that the Ming belongs to the fire virtue, the twelve rays of light refer to the twelve hours of the day, the twelve months of the year, the light is located above the blue sky, indicating that the bright moment of the Ming Dynasty is shining in all directions.

Maybe the people who designed the Yueyue Flag in history didn't have so many meanings, and they just designed it according to the word 'Ming', but Zhao Yan instilled it in the crew.

At present, the navy has been initially established, and the four ships are also equipped with heavy artillery, and the bottom layer is equipped with a 165 mm cannon weighing 2,000 pounds, with an effective firing range of 1,600 meters and a maximum firing range of 3,000 meters, with a total of 24 guns, including 2 in the bow and stern, and 11 on each side.

The second layer is equipped with a 1300-pound 125-mm cannon with an effective firing range of 1100 meters and a maximum firing range of 2000 meters. There are 22 doors in total, 11 on each side.

On the top deck is a 75-mm cannon with an effective range of 600 meters and a maximum range of 1,200 meters.

All the Navy lacks is combat experience. In terms of seafaring experience, there was not too much lack, as there were crews recruited from Fujian in the fleet. The navy appeared at Qingdao Port this time to carry out an escort mission.

I saw that in the port, a load of salt was being loaded into the ship, and some migrant workers were loading yarn into the ship, and there were not too many of these ships, only forty or fifty, and the tonnage was not large.

The ships that transported salt were not owned by those smuggled salt traffickers, and Zhao Yan did not interfere in the sale of salt, except for Shandong merchants who could buy salt from him, foreign merchants could also come to him to buy salt.

Most of Shandong's illegal salt trafficking by sea is concentrated in the port of Jiaozhou Bay, where smuggler salt dealers drive their ships here all year round.

These people also became Zhao Yan's main customers, and some of the sea salt produced in Laizhou Bay was bought by Shandong merchants, some were transported by land, and some went north to Zhili Province from Longkou Port.

There is also a part of Jiaozhou Bay in the south, and there are also salt dealers from other places in Jiaozhou Bay, so the sea salt produced in Laizhou Bay is constantly being transported to Qingdao Port.

The top and bottom of the Shandong Salt Transportation Division have been stuffed with silver by Zhao Yan, and so far no one has talked much, and the salt transportation yamen of the county offices in Denglai have also closed their mouths one by one, ignoring Zhao Yan's behavior.

Most of the 300,000 taels of silver that Zhao Yan budgeted to bribe officials were used on the people here, and as for the other officials, they were only given a little more.

"Brother, why is there only one family left selling salt here?" A smuggler of salt had just arrived in Laizhou Bay, and after looking for a long time, he only found a salt seller.

The once bustling private salt market has now become the only one left, and a huge façade stands by the port, surrounded by salt piles.

"Huh! You don't know, do you? This is the shop opened by the general soldier of Denglai, and now Denglai's sea salt can only be sold to him alone, I heard that he also opened a very large salt farm in the bay in the north, and other salt dealers have already been driven out of Denglai by him. A smuggling salt merchant smiled, then pointed to a group of soldiers patrolling in the distance and said, "See, that is the big soldier sent by the general army of Denglai, if they find out who is selling illicit salt in Denglai, they will be arrested and sent to labor camp." ”

"What is a labor camp?" The merchant asked, confused.

"It's just to mine and build roads."

"Oh! I see, so no one cares? ”

"Why bother? People have connections in their official faces, and they have strong soldiers in their hands, and last year, Zhao Yan cut off the heads of tens of thousands of thieves in Fengyang, didn't he care if he was looking for death? ”

"And what about the price of salt now?"

"Two taels and five dollars a load, it's fair, and it's a high-grade sea salt that is not mixed with sand, the price is lower than Huai salt, and it's more affordable to buy salt here in Shandong than two Huai, if there is a lack of human escort, as long as you spend some silver, you can hire people and horses to escort from the general army of Denglai, where does Brother Tai want to be trafficked?" The merchant asked.

"To be transported to Zhejiang, I have a way in Wenzhou." The merchant said.

"Then hurry up and load the ship! Seeing that the four lucky ships were not there, but they were all equipped with cannons, the day after tomorrow, these four warships would escort the sea ships to Songjiang, and the merchants who bought salt could accompany them. ”

"Really?" The businessman from Wenzhou was overjoyed.

"Of course, although Zhao Yan said that he didn't blink when he went into battle to kill the enemy, he liked to give people benefits the most when he did business, but he was one of the big names in Shandong, and there was absolutely no problem with his credit."

"That's great, I'm worried about being robbed by bandits on the road! The ship will leave the day after tomorrow, and the time is a little tight! Looks like I can't afford to grind. The merchant from Wenzhou said hello and ran directly to the salt shop on the port.

The Wenzhou merchant came to the salt shop, and the guy in the store enthusiastically served him a cup of tea, and then asked, "How much sea salt does the guest want?" ”

"Eight thousand quintals?" The Wenzhou merchant asked, he had also bought sea salt in Laizhou before, but he didn't buy much, and there was no way to buy salt in Lianghuai, Huai salt was monopolized by a fixed salt merchant, and foreign businessmen like him couldn't get involved at all.

"Yes, you just want 100,000 quintals." The guy said enthusiastically.

"How much silver?"

"Two or five dollars a load." The guy said, "Our rule here is to buy 10,000 quintals and give a 10% discount, if you buy 50,000 quintals, give a 20% discount." Buy 100,000 quintals at a time to give a 7% discount, 300,000 quintals to a 6% discount, if the guest officer brings enough silver, you can buy an extra 2,000 quintals, there is a 9% discount. ”

When the Wenzhou merchant heard this rule, he secretly calculated in his heart, and the eight-fold discount could save two dollars and five cents of silver per load, and it was indeed beneficial to buy two thousand more loads, so he said: "Okay, add two thousand more to me." ”

"Okay, a total of 22,500 taels."

…… On a mild morning on 28 May, fifty or sixty sailing ships sailed out of the harbor in groups of fifty or sixty sailing ships in Laizhou Bay, each of which had a deep draft and was so knowledgeable that those who knew it were full of cargo at a glance.

Two of the four warships converted from Fu ships were in front, and two were distributed on the left and right wings, and under the escort of these four warships, they headed south.

Su Buheng stood at the bow of the lucky boat, holding a telescope, looking at the sea and sky in the distance. Although it was sailed against the wind with a side sail, the Fukufune sailed quite smoothly.

"I don't know if I will meet a water bandit who doesn't have long eyes on the road, if I do, hehe! These naval guns are about to open. Su Buheng thought in his heart, and a hideous smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.

(To be continued)