Yang Yuanqing under the escort of a thousand cavalry, all the way west, leaving the twilight and the stars behind, when the second morning sun was ushered in, he arrived in Lulong County, looking at the county from a few miles away, the glow of the sun stained the county red, so that this ancient county town was bathed in a magnificent halo.

Dong Xi, the overseer of Beiping, went out of the city for five miles to greet him, he couldn't hold back the excitement in his heart, turned over and dismounted, knelt in front of Yang Yuanqing and cried: "Jiaqi see the young master!" ”

Jiaqi is the number that Yang Su gave him exclusively, thirteen years have passed, he has gradually changed from a young general to a general of the town army, this loyalty that has withstood the test of time also made Yang Yuanqing quite moved, he turned over and dismounted to help him up, "Each of you has a good home, this is the most gratifying thing for my grandfather." ”

Dong Xi wiped away his tears, looked at Yang Yuanqing, and saw that his appearance was mature, his eyes were full of confidence and indifference, and he had a temperament of not being angry and arrogant, he couldn't help but sigh with emotion: "When I left Gongzi, Gongzi was only sixteen years old, and now Gongzi has become a real dragon among people, if the old master is still alive, I don't know how relieved I should be." ”

Yang Yuanqing smiled slightly and patted him on the shoulder, "Don't talk about this, tell me about Gao Kaidao's movements." ”

"Childe is going to do something to Gao Kaidao?"

"Not necessarily, just to find out about him."

Yang Yuanqing went all the way into the county seat, compared with Youzhou, the city of Lulong County looks dilapidated and poor, the city is narrow, the population is estimated to be less than 1,000 households, the streets are deserted, there are low houses everywhere, bumpy streets, and groups of children with vegetables surround them.

"When Gao Kaidao retreated, he took away nearly half of the county's population, and all the officials took it away, and the rest were thousands of old and weak women and children, and the food was exhausted.

Dong Xi sighed, his heart was full of hatred for Gao Kaidao, his wife was from Lulong County. His wife and brother were forcibly conscripted into the army by Gao Kaidao and taken to Liaodong, so he couldn't wait to launch a campaign against Gao Kaidao tomorrow, but he also knew it. The young master already had a plan in his heart.

Yang Yuanqing nodded, turned back to Pei Qingsong, who joined the army in the record room, and said: "Send a letter to Taiyuan City immediately, and order Ziwei Pavilion to immediately send a new Lulong County Order, Beiping County Taishou can be adjusted Yanmen County Magistrate Shi Liu Zigui to serve, Leping Ling Gao Zhuwen to serve as the chief historian, Yongan Wei Zhao Qiong to serve as Sima, and then order Wen Yanbo to quickly transfer 50,000 stone of grain to Beiping County." ”

Pei Qingsong bowed down on the horse and said, "Write immediately!" ”

The group came to the county office. Yang Yuanqing sat down in the county yaneitang, two soldiers brought a map and hung it on a wooden frame, this is a map of Beiping County and Liaodong, Dong Xi picked up the wooden pole, pointed to Linyu Pass and said to Yang Yuanqing: "This is Linyu Pass, one of my subordinates pretended to be a medicine picker, and crossed Yanshan Mountain to the back of Linyu Pass." It was found that Gao Kaidao had more than 10,000 garrisons behind the pass, and tens of thousands of craftsmen were summoned to repair the city by digging stones. ”

Linyu Pass is not the later Shanhaiguan. To be a little more south, because of the close to the Yushui and get the name, the north is a Yanshan branch, Linyuguan guards the mountain pass, is also a terrain dangerous place, the cause of nine years, Yang Yuanqing has been stationed in Linyuguan for nearly a month, the terrain there is very familiar.

But he didn't come to Beiping County this time to come to Linyu Pass, let alone to attack Gaokaidao, and now he doesn't consider Liaodong for the time being. He wanted to concentrate on capturing Hebei and dealing with Dou Jiande, who was his main enemy.

Yang Yuanqing walked to the map, looked at it carefully for a moment and asked, "Is there a place where Yuan Hongsi built a ship back then?" ”

Dong Xi scratched his head and said, "Childe, the place where Yuan Hongsi built his ship is at the mouth of the Wei River. ”

Lulong County is close to the Wei River. Yang Yuanqing followed the map of the river to the south, and soon found the mouth of the river, from the map, about 100 miles away from Lulong County.

"Is there a way to go?"

"An official road was specially built back then, but it has not been taken for many years, and it is estimated that it has been abandoned."

Yang Yuanqing immediately said to the left and right: "Let's go now!" ”

Out of Lulong County, along the river to the southeast, there is an official road built by Yuan Hongsi, the governor of Youzhou, the official road is compacted to be extremely smooth and fine, although it has not been used for many years, but there is still no grass on the road, more than 1,000 cavalry out of the city, along this official road to the southeast direction to rush away.

In the afternoon, Yang Yuanqing led his soldiers to arrive at the mouth of the river, and from afar he saw more than a dozen huge warehouses, like a dozen giants standing tall and tall, standing on the shore against the sea breeze.

At the end of the official road was an open space surrounded by high walls, and the warehouse was within the walls, which had not been breached due to the desert for dozens of miles in the vicinity, and a rusty iron gate blocked their way.

Dozens of soldiers went up and broke open the iron gate, and everyone rushed into the wilderness surrounded by high walls, and the scene in front of them amazed everyone, and in the distance was the vast sea, and on the long shore were hundreds of huge ships, all of which were 5,000 stone ships, but most of them could not see the masts, these were obviously unfinished ships.

Yang Yuanqing's eyes narrowed, he had heard Cui Hongsheng say that in the shipyard of Beiping County, there were hundreds of unfinished sea ships, which were built by order of Yuan Hongsi, the governor of Youzhou at that time, but later Yuan Hongsi was transferred, and the shipyard was suspended, Yang Yuanqing did not have time to come over to inspect, until today, after nearly six years, he came to this shipyard belonging to Youzhou for the first time.

Although the Sui army had tens of thousands of large and small ships, those ships could only sail in inland rivers and could not go to sea, and in order to go to sea to Goryeo, large sea ships had to be built to resist the wind and waves on the sea.

Yang Yuanqing couldn't help but think of the future of the navy, when Yang Guang died in Yangzhou, he was aiming to build a ship in Danyang County, and later it was said that he surrendered to Xiao Milling and became the governor of Xiao Milling's navy, which made him a little regretful, he lacked a general to lead the navy.

"Chief Qiqi, we have found quite a few people living here." A personal soldier ran up to report, interrupting Yang Yuanqing's train of thought.

Yang Yuanqing saw that the soldiers had brought more than 20 people, both men and women, followed by a large group of children, all of whom cowered, their eyes full of fear.

This made Yang Yuanqing feel a little strange, the shipyard that had been abandoned for several years was still inhabited, and he stepped forward and asked these people: "Who are you?" ”

Everyone was so frightened that they knelt down and stammered to explain, most of them were accents from Qi County, and after talking for a long time, Yang Yuanqing probably understood what they meant, they were all from Donglai County, they were originally shipyard craftsmen, and after the craftsmen stopped work and disbanded, they returned to their hometown in Donglai County, but the bandits over there were too strong, and they fled back to the shipyard, where they grew grain and vegetables, and there were cloth in the warehouse to make clothes, and dozens of them took this place as their home, and they have lived for five or six years.

At this time, Yang Yuanqing remembered something and instructed his soldiers: "Let them all go, and find two leaders to talk to me." ”

The soldiers found a clean room, put a couch, Yang Yuanqing sat down, and the soldiers brought two middle-aged men in, and the two knelt down in front of Yang Yuanqing tremblingly, Yang Yuanqing saw that they were strong and muscular, and they could see that they were people who did manual work, so he smiled and asked them softly: "What is your name, are you also from Donglai County?" ”

A slightly older man said: "General Hui, the two of us are brothers, my name is Zhang Long, his name is Zhang Hu, both from Huangxian County, Donglai County, and their ancestors made a living by shipbuilding. ”

Yang Yuanqing pointed to the hundreds of big ships on the coast and asked them: "Those sea ships don't seem to be finished, can they still be repaired?" ”

"It can be repaired, we go up a lot, the boats are very strong, as long as there are enough materials and boatsmen, it can be completely repaired in a few months, and we have repaired a boat ourselves, and we often go out to sea to fish."

The reason why Yang Yuanqing asked them was because there were not many shipbuilders in Youzhou, and most of his craftsmen had no experience in building sea ships, and he needed a large number of craftsmen who could build sea ships. ”

"General Hui, we went back to our hometown last autumn to sweep the graves of our parents."

"Are there any shipbuilders in your hometown? I mean the craftsmen who build the ships. ”

The two brothers glanced at each other and nodded together, "There are still a lot, but now no one builds ships, everyone has changed careers, farming and doing some small business, etc., Xu Yuanlang has heavy taxes over there, and everyone has a hard time." ”

Yang Yuanqing pondered for a moment, pointed to himself and asked, "Do you know who I am?" ”

The two brothers shook their heads timidly, and Yang Yuanqing smiled slightly, "Have you heard of Yang Yuanqing?" I am! ”

Yang Yuanqing's name, no one in the world knows, the two heard that the general in front of them is the famous Chu King Yang Yuanqing, so frightened that they kowtowed, "The villain has eyes and doesn't know Mount Tai, please forgive His Royal Highness the King of Chu." ”

Yang Yuanqing waved his hand to stop them, "I don't want to scare you, I just want to tell you as the king of Chu that I plan to recruit a large number of shipbuilders in Donglai County to build ships here, and give the best money and grain, I can give each shipbuilder fifty yuan and one stone of rice every month, and you two brothers will recruit shipwrights for me, and I will reward you with one or two silver, and I can also let you be an official in the future, how about it, do you want to do it?" ”

Under the temptation of official profits, the eyes of the two brothers were bright, this was easy for them, they had repaired a big boat, and they could directly drive the boat across the sea to recruit people, and more importantly, the other party was a dignified king of Chu, and would not lose trust with their small people, they said, "We will return to our hometown tomorrow and recruit shipwrights for His Highness, at least a thousand people We are sure." ”

"Good! Then we'll make up our minds. ”