At the end of November of the eighteenth year of Zhenguan, Li Su suddenly sent troops to Malacca, including 20 main warships, hundreds of other auxiliary ships, and tens of thousands of soldiers accompanied the ship.

After this huge fleet entered Malacca, it immediately caused panic among the countries such as Mo Luoyou, thinking that the prince of the Tang Dynasty was finally going to do something to them. However, what everyone did not expect was that after this fleet entered the strait, it did not clash with any forces, but stopped at the Malay Peninsula on the other side of the city of Mora Yucheng, and then began to build a city and a port on the Malay Peninsula under the watchful eyes of various forces along the coast of Jinzhou.

Across the strait from Mora You was the future famous port state of Singapore, but now the island of Singapore is still desolate, and there is only a tribe of about 100 natives on the island, which was quickly cleared by the landing army, and then the army went ashore and camped, and the craftsmen and slaves who came with them also transported all kinds of materials off the ship, and then immediately began to build docks and accommodations.

Mo Luo You and the other countries were very puzzled at first, and they couldn't understand what these people were going to do, but they saw that the other party was strong, and it was not something they could provoke at all, so they were all very honest and didn't dare to interfere at all, but as soon as the dock on the island was completed, Lu Qing, who was sent here to be in charge of the matter, immediately announced to all the forces in Malacca that the port under construction would be named the Lion City, and it would be under the jurisdiction of the Qi Palace, and he would temporarily take the position of the governor of the Lion City, in charge of the military and political power of the Lion City.

The reason why Lu Qing, a military general, was temporarily appointed as the governor was mainly because the Lion City was newly built, and it was in Malacca, a place far away from Taiwan. Therefore, there must be a general who lives in the town, so Lu Qing became the governor as a general. However, this will only be temporary, until the Lion City has established itself in Malacca. Li Su will soon send a civilian official to manage the Lion City, which is not because he does not trust Lu Qing, but he cannot set a precedent for military generals to interfere in politics.

As for the establishment of the Lion City, these forces were quite unimpressed at first, after all, they were all native to Malacca, and they had been operating in the strait for generations, and although the port was not very safe, it was also very complete, and it was not at all comparable to an outsider.

But soon they found out that they were wrong. The craftsmen in Lu Qing's hands commanded the slaves to work day and night, they used cement to build ports and various facilities, and then used gunpowder to blow up the reefs in the sea, clear the wide channel, and in just half a year, many usable docks have been built.

As soon as the construction of these wharves was completed, many Han Chinese ships immediately berthed at the wharves, although the facilities on these wharves were still very incomplete, but compared to the chaotic port of Morayou on the opposite side. The entry and exit are also very orderly, and there will be no congestion as often as in the Suroyu, and there is one most important condition. That is, the safety is guaranteed, and there will never be a situation where the goods are detained or even stolen.

With the establishment of the port of the Lion City, most of the Han Chinese ships were willing to dock here. And with the further improvement of port facilities, coupled with good port management. Slowly, not only the merchant ships of the Han people were willing to anchor in the Lion City, but also the merchant ships of other countries were willing to dock their ships in the port of the Lion City.

The boat traffic in Malacca is high though. However, with the rise of the Lion City, there are fewer and fewer ships docking at other ports, and this is still under the premise that the Lion City is not fully built, I believe that with the improvement of the Lion City, one day it will monopolize most of the ships in Malacca, and then Malacca will also be completely in the hands of Li Su.

In addition, at the same time as the construction of the Lion City, the twenty main warships of the Navy stationed in the Lion City were not idle, they were divided into several teams, patrolling the strait every day, mainly to fight the pirates in the strait, and no matter what background these pirates had, as long as they encountered them, they would all be killed.

Most of these pirates are supported by some local forces in Malacca, they are already very dissatisfied with the Lion City, and now the pirates they sent out have also been attacked by the Lion City fleet, which makes them even more angry, but unfortunately their strength is too weak, and they can't help the Lion City at all. However, these people will not be willing to give up, and the forces led by Mo Luo You are secretly colluding in an attempt to form an alliance against Li Su's aggression.

However, for this situation, Li Yu has long been prepared, and even he deliberately annoys these forces of Mo Luo You, in order to let them take the initiative to attack, but these forces like Mo Luo You are located in Jinzhou, and the Lion City is located in the Malay Peninsula, so if they want to make a move against the Lion City, they must go out to the navy, but in this world, there is no naval army that can threaten the main warship in Lu Qing's hands!

When Li Zhi, who had just arrived in Shanghai, received Li Su's troops in Malacca, and did not directly clash with those natives, but chose to build a city, he couldn't help but be a little disappointed in his heart, he thought that the sixth brother Li Su would have a new round of war operations, but he didn't expect him to use such relatively mild means to control Malacca, so that although war may also break out, but the ghost only knows when?

However, although Li Zhi was disappointed, he didn't show it, and still happily visited Shanghai with his eldest brother and third brother. In the past, he only heard that the new city of Shanghai is extremely prosperous, and the merchants in the city are like clouds, and there are opportunities to make a fortune everywhere, but he has not had any personal experience, until he has been in Shanghai for a few days, he really understands the prosperity of Shanghai, not to mention, just the amazing flow of goods on the dock every day, and the train in the city is very crowded all the time, etc., all of which are telling outsiders about the prosperity of Shanghai.

After observing Shanghai in the past few days, Li Zhi compared Dengzhou, which is also a port city, with Shanghai, and as a result, he soon found that although Shanghai is still not as good as Dengzhou, Dengzhou's development potential has been exhausted, and no matter how hard he tries in the future, it is estimated that he can only maintain the current state.

But Shanghai is different, the development potential of this new city is much stronger than Dengzhou, especially a Chang'an waterway, but also to bring endless wealth to Shanghai, I believe that in a few years, Shanghai will surpass Dengzhou, leap to become the most prosperous city along the Tang coast.

After staying in Shanghai for nearly ten days, although Li Chengqian and Li Ke have always wanted them to stay for a few more days, Li Zhi is anxious to go to Taiwan to see, which is not only the base camp of the sixth brother Li Su, but also the place where Cai'er was born, so whether it is public or private, Li Zhi is full of yearning for Taiwan.

Seeing that Li Zhi had made up his mind, Li Chengqian and Li Ke no longer kept it, but just took out a lot of gifts to Li Zhi and the three of them, which was regarded as some of the intentions of the two of them to be elder brothers, and Li Zhi, his son-in-law, and Cai'er naturally would not shirk it.

Speaking of the ten days in Shanghai, Li Zhi was most happy not to see the prosperity of Shanghai, but to see the changes of his eldest brother Li Chengqian, the former Li Chengqian as the crown prince, although the attitude towards their younger brothers and sisters is not like Li Tai and Li You, but it is also very rigid, and likes to take out the eldest brother's frame to teach people, and is also very proud, and does not like to listen to other people's opinions.

However, when he saw Li Chengqian, he found that his eldest brother was not depressed because the prince was deposed, but also participated in the construction and management of Shanghai with great interest, and became a good assistant to the third brother Li Ke.

Shanghai is very close to Taiwan, especially after the opening of steamship flights, which is only a few days away. When they arrived in Dengzhou before, they had seen a steamboat on the dock, but they never had the opportunity to sit on it, and this time they couldn't miss it again. So Li Zhi had a few steamboats chartered, and then the fleet followed, and they first sailed to Taiwan.

Li Zhi is also very interested in this kind of steamship that travels thousands of miles a day, and he also chatted with the shipyard for a while, and learned about the performance of the steamship in detail, and found that the original ship is also very restricted, one is easy to break, of course, with the progress of technology, this problem has been greatly reduced than before. Second, there is a huge demand for carboniferous and fresh water, so there need to be supply points along the way, otherwise it is not as good as sailing.

However, although the steamship has such and such shortcomings, and the hull is relatively small, can not stand the turbulence of the wind and waves, but it covers up its advantages, such as the biggest feature is that the speed is fast, and the need for less manpower, when sailing, do not have to consider the wind direction, ocean currents and other issues. It is believed that with the development of navigation, one day this kind of steamship will replace the sailboat and become a real sailing weapon.

After three days at sea on a steamer, Li Zhi and his team finally arrived in Keelung, Taiwan. Li Zhi stood at the bow of the ship, watching the ships coming in and out of Keelung Outer Port, and couldn't help but be a little excited in his heart, this is the base camp that the sixth brother has worked hard to build, the island has grown from scratch, and has slowly developed into a famous pearl overseas, and even in the various newspapers in Chang'an, Taiwan's prosperity is mentioned from time to time, which attracts many scholars to take Taiwan as their must-go place when they travel abroad.

"Although Taiwan and Dengzhou are both your sixth brother's territories, they are fundamentally different, whether it is politics or economy, they are obviously different from Datang, you must carefully observe and study with an open mind when you get there, I believe you will definitely have a huge harvest!" Thinking of his father's advice to him when he left Chang'an, Li Zhi couldn't help but feel a kind of expectation, he really wanted to know, what could he learn in Taiwan? (To be continued......)