"Jiannu may only attack in May or June next year, there is still nearly half a year before now, and it is not our main battlefield next year, our main battlefield next year is in Liaodong. Now that our second-line troops have been established, we will have enough troops to recover Liao in all our strength within three years. Zhao Yan said to the generals: "And before we go all out to recover Liao, there must be a place in Liaodong where we can log in safely." ”

"We Denglai and Liaodong are close to the sea, the best place to log in is on the Liaodong Peninsula, that is, Lushun, Jinzhou, according to the report, Jiannu's defense in Lushun is very empty, there are only more than 500 soldiers and horses in the city. Jiannu's defense of the Liaodong Peninsula was very empty, and it was the best time to attack. Zhao Yan asked, pointing to the Liaodong Peninsula on the map.

"It shouldn't be too difficult to capture Lushun and Jinzhou, if you adopt a safe method after capturing it, build a fort and defend it, and then advance year by year, slowly encroaching on the land of Liaodong, it will take ten years at most, and Liaodong can be restored." Liu Heng said.

"Too slow." Zhao Yan shook his head and said, "Liaodong is our current goal, but it is not our ultimate goal, the world is so big, there are fertile places everywhere waiting for us to expand our territory, how can we let Liaodong be contained for ten years?" Zhao Yan vetoed such a solution.

"If you want to shorten the time to recover Liao, the lord can build a fort and defend it, and then gradually increase troops to Liaodong, and launch an offensive against Jiannu every year. As long as our finances are still as prosperous as they have been in the past few years, we will be able to continue to invest manpower and material resources in the Liaodong battlefield. Liu Heng is obviously well versed in Zhao Yan's strategy.

Zhao Yan has now created an assembly-line war machine, from training to combat, first in Tundi Township, and then into the new barracks for training, and then into the combat sequence, theoretically as long as there is enough silver, there will be a steady stream of production of soldiers.

And making money is what he does best.

As to the details, the people discussed for nearly a morning, and finally planned to launch an offensive on the Liaodong Peninsula in May next year, and before April next year, an infantry battalion and a cavalry battalion would be transferred from Handan and Yingzhou.

The reason why the attack on Lushun was done by the second-line troops was because next year the first-line troops would go north to Qinwang, and in terms of difficulty, there was no doubt that Qinwang would be more difficult.

The defensive strength of Lushun, Nanguan, and Jinzhou is not strong, and with the sharpness of the artillery in Zhao Yan's hand, it is not difficult to attack. In terms of fortification defense, a set of effective defensive patterns have been formed.

…… At this time, the personnel sent by the Batavia Company had also come to Denglai and brought a letter of protest from the governor of Taiwan.

In the letter, Taiwanese Governor Putman said that the company could not accept the unreasonable blackmail of the Ascend Lai side and threatened the Ascend Lai authorities that they would retaliate against the Bright Empire for their actions if their soldiers and ships were not immediately released and returned.

This reminded Zhao Yan that the coastal defense of Denglai was still very fragile and needed to be strengthened to avoid being attacked by the Dutch.

After blasting away the messenger sent by the Dutch, Zhao Yan immediately set about strengthening the defense of the port. Longkou Port is relatively simple to defend, and there is a piece of land in Longkou Port that extends out, like a V-shaped pocket, and a fort can be set up on the peninsula that extends into the sea to keep it airtight.

Longkou Port is a very important place for Zhao Yan, because the shipyard and dock are here, and if it is attacked, it will inevitably suffer heavy losses.

The defense of Qingdao was more complicated, and the forts were not as simple as Longkou Port. The artillery laboratory has determined that the largest artillery in the lower system is a 2,000-kilogram 185-mm heavy cannon with an effective firing range of 2,000 meters.

Any danger that may occur must be eliminated in time, and we must not take chances. The erection of the fort began immediately.

Ten shore defense guns were erected at Longkou Port, 22 at Qingdao Port, and 19 at Shanghai Port. Each fort had to build a turret to protect the artillery, and the turret was used as a bunker, and the quality requirements were stricter than that of the city wall, so all of them were poured with Sanhe soil and glutinous rice juice. During the Republic of China, the roofs of the [***] bunkers were also built in this way.

The shells of the 185-mm cannon are more than 30 pounds, and no matter what ship is bombarded, it will definitely be so happy that it will die of desire.

The northern part of the Ming Dynasty has been in a state of maritime ban for a long time, although smuggling continues, but there is not much maritime power rising, so there is no threat of maritime power before.

Now it is different, Zhao Yan has already worked with the Dutch, and the coastal defense system has been very urgent to establish.

In addition to the forts, Zhao Yan gathered the warships of various coastal defense posts and set up a coastal defense fleet, whose mission was to patrol the sea in order to detect enemy ships in time.

The enemy that these coastal defense posts originally defended was the Japanese Bandits, but the Japanese Bandits had been pacified for a long time, and the coastal defenses had become dead in name, and there were no officers and men patrolling the sea at all.

…… After Zhao Yan set the plan for next year's attack on Liaodong and the coastal defense system, he began to deal with the affairs of salt administration.

Last year, I earned four million taels of salt profits, and I handed over three million taels, which is only one million taels of salt profits and one million escort dividends earned by the mercenary camp.

However, the three million taels are worth spent, and after he takes up the post of Shandong salt transportation envoy, he will be able to sell salt justifiably, and he can justifiably crack down on the two Huai salt merchants, who let them sell private salt.

The tidal flats of Laizhou Bay have been fully transformed, and the salt production will reach 30 million quintals, but not so many salt workers have been recruited, and 30 million quintals of salt are really produced, so it really has to be poured back into the sea, with a population of more than 100 million and no industrial demand, where can so much salt be consumed.

On how to reform the salt administration, Zhao Yan gave a plan on the sixth day of October to play Zhu Youzhen.

The plan is to open up the sale of private salt, all merchants in the world can sell salt, and the government only manages the salt production, and sells it after pricing, which is not only convenient for management, but also beneficial to the people after competition in the market.

In terms of pricing, Zhao Yan felt that the price of two taels and five dollars a load was the most appropriate, in terms of the price of salt, Zhao Yan cited the prices in various places, in retail, a load of salt can generally be sold in the market for six to eight taels, if there are more merchants and more competition, the price of salt can be reduced by at least half, that is, it will benefit the people and the income of the salt administration can also increase.

At the same time, Zhu Youjian was played, and the Shandong Salt Transportation Division distributed salt to various provinces in order to arrest those who trafficked smuggled salt.

After Zhu Youzhen read Zhao Yan's very convincing performance, he immediately approved it. Before, he was still a little worried, afraid that Zhao Yan would oppress the people after serving as the salt transport envoy in Shandong, so he would also be relieved.

Data is a very easy to deceive things, for unprofessional people, it is easy to be deceived by data, just like those inflation data in later generations, in fact, when calculating data, many ugly plates have been eliminated, such as food prices are rising, this is the most ugly, this piece is not counted when calculating, and then other ugly plates are eliminated, and the data that comes out is good-looking.

Zhu Youzhen is obviously not an expert, so he was naturally deceived by the data listed by Zhao Yan.

Zhao Yan only said that the annual salt tax revenue can reach 5 million taels, but in fact, after more work, it will definitely be more than 5 million taels.

Daming's annual salt demand should be about 15 million quintals, even if it accounts for one-third, selling 5 million quintals of salt every year, there is an annual turnover of 12.5 million taels, a load of salt 2 taels and 5 yuan, and each load also has a profit of 2 taels. It's easy to earn 10 million taels a year.

In other words, Zhao Yan has embezzled almost half of it, and if the share increases, he will also pay 5 million taels, so the investment of 3 million taels is worth spent, and it is convenient to do anything with a whitewashed identity.

After getting Zhu Youzhen's approval, Zhao Yan immediately went to Jinan to rectify the Shandong Salt Transportation Division, and entered Jinan City.

It is said that since Yan Jizu took office as the governor of Shandong, Zhao Yan has not visited him, but he has sent some filial piety.

Yan Jizu heard Zhao Yan visit him in the residence in the backyard of the government, but he said to his subordinates: "This official is busy with government affairs, let him wait." ”

Since Yan Jizu took office, Zhao Yan has been the least 'sensible', and he has never seen him in the future, and in Yan Jizu's opinion, he is simply a supreme official.

If you don't come, now that you're here, it's good to bask in him, Yan Jizu is very proud when he thinks about it, who makes me a civil servant, you are a military general, and there is a huge disparity in status and status.

"My lord, Zhao Yan has won the trust of the saint, if you neglect it...... then the subordinates also understand the current affairs, and it is said that Yan Jizu will also report the mansion to these subordinates, and then express some of his own opinions, so as to appear that he is very insightful.

As far as the salt politics is concerned, the recent ups and downs of the Manchurian Dynasty have long been known to the world, as the governor of Shandong, Yan Jizu is very clear, I saw him wave his hand and said, "It's okay." ”

Yan Jizu looked down on martial artists from the bottom of his heart, since this son was so supreme, he had to at least show the appearance of a Shangguan to treat him this time.

Zhao Yan waited in the governor's yamen for twenty minutes, and when he saw that Yan Jizu had not come out, he couldn't help but be depressed, it seemed that the new governor was going to put on an official show again.

After another twenty minutes, Zhao Yan waited for the fire to start, and got up and left directly, he didn't have time to waste here.

As soon as he walked out of the governor's yamen with a few personal guards, he saw a sedan chair parked outside the yamen, and when he was pressing down, a white figure walked out of the sedan chair.

Zhao Yan glanced at the shadow out of the corner of his eyes, and looked at it with a reflexive surname. I saw that it was a seventeen or eighteen-year-old girl, with a very graceful figure, and her face was covered with a light veil, through which she could vaguely see her delicate facial features.

Before he had time to take a closer look, the subordinate who received Zhao Yan just now looked at Zhao Yan strangely, and asked with a smile: "General Zhao, why did you come out?" ”

"Hmph, the military gate has such a big shelf, and the stinky face is messing around, and this official will not accompany him." Zhao Yan snorted coldly, and directly burst out of dissatisfaction in his heart.

He is not small, and he does not need to swallow his anger.

"The general misunderstood, misunderstood! The military gate was dealing with government affairs, and he couldn't pull away for a while. The man hurriedly explained.

"Can't you fool a three-year-old child?" Zhao Yan's face was blank, and he brushed his sleeves away.

The woman looked up at Zhao Yan leaving, and it wasn't until Zhao Yan turned the corner outside the governor's yamen that she withdrew her gaze and asked strangely, "Who is that person?" ”

"Miss, that's Zhao Yan, the chief soldier of Denglai, who just came to the yamen to meet the master, but the master wanted to show him a face, and he left angrily. This is terrible, he is the overlord of Shandong, if he really fights with the master, the master will have to suffer. The man said anxiously.

"Oh! He is that Zhao Yan! The woman said in surprise, and then asked strangely: "I have been in Shandong for some time, and the people everywhere are praising him as a great good man, and he is giving porridge all over Shandong every year. ”

"Why isn't it the Tu Overlord, he has a lot of henchmen in Shandong! If the master really fights with him, I'm afraid he will be made to make it difficult to move an inch. ”

(To be continued)