Zhao Yan also knew that Cao Song and they all wanted to hear about their plans for sea trade, so he didn't let them wait too long, and after listening to Cao Song's summary of the sea trade industry, Zhao Yan finally said slowly: "I listened to everyone's opinions just now, but I found that everyone regards sea trade as a simple business activity, which is not right!" ”

"Purely commercial activities? Third brother, what do you mean by this? Wang Shiyue frowned when he heard this and asked, although they and Zhao Yan have known each other for more than a day or two, but sometimes they still can't fully comprehend the fresh names that pop out of Zhao Yan's mouth, fortunately, they are also used to this situation, and generally ask Zhao Yan directly if they don't understand, instead of asking him where he learned these terms.

"In fact, it is very simple, for example, like the eldest sister and eldest brother-in-law, you are now doing the sea trade line, every month to organize the fleet to carry goods south to buy and sell, this is a simple commercial activity, and does not involve other aspects, but I don't think so, in my opinion, sea trade should be a comprehensive activity involving commerce, military, colonization and so on, we can not only rely on commerce to obtain huge profits, but to get other benefits from it, such as territory, resources, population, etc." When Zhao Yan said the end, there was a rare ambitious expression on his face.

"I understand, the sea trade that the third brother said in his mouth can be summed up as not only doing business, but also expanding our territory and sea areas on the sea, just like we did before destroying Western Xia, and swallowing up all their resources!" At this time, Xu Yuan was the first to understand, and he also summarized Zhao Yan's meaning very accurately.

"Haha~, it's still the second brother-in-law who knows my heart very well, my Great Song Dynasty has always thought that the Celestial Empire is the upper country, and overseas are barbarian lands, but I know that overseas resources are very rich. In particular, some islands have minerals that we urgently need, such as the previous Qiongzhou Island, as you know, where a super-large-scale iron ore was found, and there is also an associated copper mine, these two deposits alone can bring endless wealth to my Great Song Dynasty, and as far as I know. The mineral deposits on some islands in the South China Sea are definitely not worse than those in Qiongzhou, and even surpass them! Zhao Yan laughed out loud at this time and said seriously again, he has been coveting the resources of Nanyang for a long time, minerals are only one aspect, and there are also spices, gems, precious wood, etc. produced in Nanyang, but they are all goods urgently needed by the Great Song Dynasty.

Hearing Zhao Yan's words, Cao Song, Su Shi and the others all looked at each other, and they couldn't accept Zhao Yan's words for a while, but Xu Yuan, Wang Shiyue and Cai Jing all showed expressions. Among them, Xu Yuan and Wang Shiyue have both been to the sea, and Cai Jing, as the governor of Guangzhou, naturally knows the richness of overseas, so the three of them deeply agree with Zhao Yan's description of overseas richness, but at the same time, they feel that Zhao Yan's plan is a little too bold, because overseas is not so easy to conquer, not to mention that it takes a lot of manpower and material resources to determine the location of those islands.

"Third brother. We all know about the big iron ore found on Qiongzhou Island, but are you sure that there are still islands in the South China Sea that are rich in minerals like Qiongzhou? At this time, Cao Song said in disbelief. Although he has gained some insight in the past two years, it is mainly confined to the interior of the Great Song Dynasty, and people like him, who grew up in the capital and received a traditional education, really can't believe that overseas resources are more abundant than those of the Central Plains.

"There are too many overseas resources, and you can look at the goods traded every day at the port of Guangzhou. Among them, spices, gemstones, etc. are produced overseas, and overseas minerals are even more abundant, such as copper that is in short supply in our Great Song Dynasty, but there are rich copper mines in Nanyang, and even I know that there is an island in Nanyang that is almost all copper ore. The whole island is almost equivalent to a huge copper plate, in addition to the South China Sea is also rich in gold and silver, there is an island larger than the original Western Xia named Jinzhou, listen to this name to know what is abundant on this island. Zhao Yan tempted again at this time.

Hearing Zhao Yan give two examples again, Cao Song and the others finally believed that Zhao Yan was not joking, and they all showed shocked expressions at the moment, and it took a long time to digest the news, but at this time, Su Zhe said with some embarrassment: "Your Highness, no matter how rich overseas mineral resources are, it is also in other people's territory, our Great Song Dynasty has always been a state of etiquette, if there is no reason to forcibly occupy other people's islands and mine other people's mineral deposits, is this a little inconsistent with the way of the sage?" ”

As soon as Su Zhe's words came out, they immediately attracted Su Shi and Li Gonglin to nod again and again, and then looked at Zhao Yan together, as traditional scholars, they value etiquette, righteousness and honesty very seriously, even if they send troops, they also pay attention to the reputation of the teacher, but if they send troops to attack other countries for no reason, they are unrighteous teachers in their eyes, and it can be said that their opinions also represent the opinions of the scholars of the Great Song Dynasty.

However, this question did not wait for Zhao Yan to answer, Cai Jing, who was sitting next to him and had not spoken, was the first to speak: "Brother Ziyou doesn't know, although there are many small countries in Nanyang, and some small countries still claim to our Great Song Dynasty, which can barely be regarded as our subject country, but the natives on the Nanyang side are shameless and unethical, their parents and brothers and sisters live together, and the women are even more open-breasted and breast-baring, and there is no shame at all." ”

When he said this, he saw Cai Jing pause for a moment and then said: "In addition, although Nanyang is rich in products, those natives are extremely lazy, occupying the good place given to them by God, in addition to eating and drinking every day, they sleep, and they have a cruel temperament, and they draw swords against each other without saying a word, plus there is no law there is no law for the natives, they have always respected the strong, and those who kill will not be punished, and even some more brutal natives have the custom of cannibalism, these are all I know from some overseas merchants, there is absolutely no half-false!" ”

Although Cai Jing's words are somewhat exaggerated, they cannot be said to be wrong on the whole, after all, the natives of Nanyang are indeed in this barbaric period now. Su Shi and the others are also well-informed and know the customs of some barbarian peoples around the Great Song Dynasty, but they didn't expect that the natives in Nanyang would be even more barbaric, just like the wild people who drank blood in the legend.

Seeing the shocked expressions on the faces of Su Shi and the others, as well as the smile on the corner of Zhao Yan's mouth, Cai Jing knew that his above words were very much in line with Zhao Yan's intentions, so he stepped up his strength again: "The barbarism of the customs of the Nanyang natives, what I am talking about now is only one of the ifs, it can be said that in the eyes of our Central Plains people, the Nanyang natives cannot be regarded as people at all, but are just beasts that walk on two legs, and as the children of saints, I think we can not only educate the people of the Great Song Dynasty, but also take on the heavy responsibility of educating overseas natives. It just so happens that there are mineral materials that we need overseas, and the mining of these mineral materials will also revitalize the island's economy, thereby improving the living conditions of the natives. ”

Hearing Cai Jing's words, the most surprising thing was not Su Shi and the others, but Zhao Yan, because he didn't expect Cai Jing to put forward the concept of a two-legged beast hundreds of years earlier than the Europeans, it seems that there is not much difference between people who read the book of saints and those who read the Bible, for their own interests, they can distort any dogma, anyway, as long as they can make themselves feel at ease.

When Su Shi and the others heard Cai Jing's story about the situation of these Nanyang natives, they all showed contemplative expressions, Zhao Yan is not a scholar, so naturally he can't use the thinking of a scholar to figure out the thoughts of Su Shi and these people, but Cai Jing is different, he is not only a reader, but also a master of figuring out people's hearts, so his words can actually make sense in the thinking logic of readers, at least it has caused Su Shi to think.

After a long while, Li Gonglin was finally the first to speak: "What Elder Brother Yuan said is not unreasonable, rather than letting those natives continue to be so barbaric, it is better for us to educate them, so that they can understand what is called etiquette, righteousness and shame, the sage said that there is no class, we didn't know it before, but now that we know the barbarism of the Nanyang natives, and they also have the ability to educate them, then we should take this responsibility, so I am very much in favor of His Royal Highness King Yue's idea." ”

Li Gonglin is the youngest, and he studied with Zhao Yan at the beginning, although he mainly studied painting, but he was also influenced by Zhao Yan in other aspects, especially when he was in the period when his outlook on life and world view were stereotyped, so some of Zhao Yan's concepts can be easily accepted.

People have a herd mentality, seeing that Cai Jing and Li Gonglin both agree with Zhao Yan's vision of overseas, Su Shi and Su Zhe brothers also glanced at each other at this time, and then finally nodded, temporarily agreeing with Zhao Yan's words, but they also have some ideas in their hearts, that is, they want to go overseas to see for themselves, if the local people are really like Cai Jing said, then it is not necessary to educate them, at least let them know what courtesy, righteousness and shame are like the people of the Great Song Dynasty.

Seeing that everyone agreed with his words, Zhao Yan also secretly breathed a sigh of relief in his heart, because what he was most worried about was that his overseas expansion plan would contradict the traditional thinking of the Central Plains, but now it seems that even Su Shi and a few other scholars can accept it temporarily, so the next thing will be much easier.

"Third brother, we all understand what you said about sea trade, but the overseas situation is complicated, there are thousands of islands in the South Sea alone, even if we want to expand sea trade, but where should we start?" At this time, Xu Yuan asked again, he didn't care about any natives, since he had been a pirate for a few years, his thinking had become more and more like a pirate.

He had already prepared for Xu Yuan's question, only to see him reach out and open a map on the wall behind him, which was a map of the southern coast and the South Seas of the Great Song Dynasty, only to see him stretch out his hand to a huge island on the map, and said with excitement on his face: "Our new way of maritime trade will start here!" (To be continued......)