Among all the merchants involved in this overseas trade, the members of the Kyushu Chamber of Commerce were the main force, and they took advantage of the overall advantages of the Chamber of Commerce, and raised a large number of goods through guò shares, which accounted for four-fifths of Zheng He's treasure ships.

According to Li Yuntian's calculations, as long as this overseas trade can be reached smoothly, then the strength of the Kyushu Chamber of Commerce will be improved by more than one step, which is enough to compete with the Salt Merchants Association.

In order to ensure the safety of the road, Li Yuntian called more than 15,000 sailors to escort him, all of whom were veterans who had followed Zheng He to the Western Ocean and had rich experience at sea.

If you add all kinds of entourage, the number of people in this overseas trade has reached more than 17,000 people, which can already catch up with the scale of Zheng He's voyage to the West.

It is worth mentioning that Li Yuntian's painstaking organization of this voyage was not just as simple as overseas trade, a large number of intelligence personnel of Jiangwutang traveled with the fleet as merchants, and their task was to stay in the Nanyang countries in the name of doing business to collect military and political information of the Nanyang countries, and survey their geographical topography, so that Jiangwutang could control all kinds of intelligence of the Nanyang countries, and then summarize and analyze them.

Different from the nature of Zheng He's trip to the West, Zheng He's trip to the West was to promote the prestige of the Ming Dynasty, and the household department prepared a large amount of property to give to the Nanyang countries to show the demeanor of the Ming Dynasty, and the treasury of the Ming Dynasty suffered a huge loss.

Therefore, after Zheng He's sixth trip to the West, the treasury of the Ming Dynasty was really unable to bear the huge expenses of the seventh trip to the West, and Zheng He's trip to the West was therefore shelved.

Li Yuntian led the overseas trade is for the purpose of profit, in his opinion the Ming Dynasty's national prestige should not be based on those small favors, this kind of relationship is not reliable in the diplomacy between countries, and many small countries in the South Seas do not really submit to the Ming, but just want to get benefits from it.

In Li Yuntian's view, the relationship of responsibility and power between countries, including vassal states and suzerainty states, should be based on common interests and be defined in accordance with the treaties signed between them.

In fact, after the decline of the late Ming Dynasty, there were very few countries that came to pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty, because the benefits given to them by the Ming Dynasty were usually not enough for them to come to the Ming Dynasty, and they were full of food to support the Ming Dynasty.

The purpose of this overseas trade is to open up trade between the Ming Dynasty and the Nanyang countries, so that both sides can benefit from it, rather than the Ming Dynasty's unilateral efforts.

In other words, Li Yuntian is relying on his own strength to gradually find a way to reverse the foreign relations of the Ming Dynasty, and then truly make those overseas countries submit.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this official wishes you a smooth journey, and when you return to China next year, this official will set up wine for you to catch the wind and wash the dust!"

In the reception hall of Yuntun City, Li Yuntian arched his hand at the dozens of officials and businessmen standing in front of him, and said to Shen Sheng.

These officials and merchants were the core leadership members of the fleet for this overseas trade, both civil and military officials and merchants, with a clear division of labor, each with its own duties, with Chinese officers responsible for diplomatic matters, military attachés responsible for security matters, and merchants responsible for commercial transactions.

Among them, the head of the civil officials is Zhang Zhang, the left temple of Honglu Temple.

Honglu Temple is not a temple where the monks are, but a yamen located in the capital of the Ming Dynasty, in charge of the four Yi tribute, feasts, giving, sending welcome and the country's fierce rituals, the ancestral temple of the capital, the prohibition of the Taoist account is attached, it is the ancient diplomatic department.

After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, Ming Taizu set up a ceremonial division, Hongwu nine years to set up the palace ceremonial division, Hongwu 30 years officially set up as the Honglu Temple, is the yamen of the four products, with a person in the temple of the four products, one person from the left and right Shaoqing of the five products, one person from the left and right temples of the six products

Honglu Temple consists of the main book hall and the master of ceremonies, the second office of the guest, the main book hall of the main book of the main book, the gift of the text of the transfer, the master of ceremonies, the second sign of the nine products of the signature of one person, from the nine products of the woo praise of each four people, from the nine products of the preface class of a total of 50 people.

The master of ceremonies is in charge of the furnishings and music, and the master of ceremonies is in charge of the ethnic minorities and foreign tributary envoys, and the preface class is in charge of the service class, the Qi class, the correction and the praise.

It is worth mentioning that Zhang Zhang and Li Yuntian are Jinshi of the same department, and the relationship between the two is very good, and they very much agree with Li Yuntian's use of the treaty system to replace the current tributary system of the Ming Dynasty, and also believe that the tributary system can not really enhance the national prestige of the Ming Dynasty overseas, and more of them are just speculators who are greedy for profits.

Therefore, Li Yuntian took the lead in thinking of using Zhang Zhang to be responsible for the diplomatic affairs of the countries along the way.

The head of the military attache of this overseas trade was not an outsider, and Li Yuntian asked Luo Hailai, the commander of the Suzhou Zhenhai Guard, who had escorted him to Jiaozhi, to take charge of the security affairs of the fleet.

As for the businessman in charge of commercial affairs, to everyone's surprise, Li Yuntian did not use the people of the Chen family behind Chen Ningning, nor the Zheng family behind Zheng Wanrou, but appointed Zhao Yuancai from Ningbo Mansion in Zhejiang to take charge of this matter.

Zhao Yuancai, also known as Yamashita Yuandao, came to Jiaozhi in June and has been explaining the national conditions and customs of the Nanyang countries to the intelligence personnel sent by Li Yuntian to the Nanyang countries.

Even Zhao Yuancai never thought that Li Yuntian would hand over the power of this overseas trade to him to dispose of, in his opinion, he didn't have much friendship with Li Yuntian, Li Yuntian should use the people of the Chen family or the Zheng family.

Therefore, after learning that he was appointed by Li Yuntian as the commercial director of the fleet, Zhao Yuancai was stunned at first, and then he was ecstatic, so that he became the person in charge of the private overseas trade that was officially allowed for the first time in the history of the Ming Dynasty, and he also led such a large fleet, which would be an incomparable honor for him, and he was extremely grateful to Li Yuntian in his heart.

In fact, the reason why Li Yuntian used Zhao Yuancai was not only because Zhao Yuancai understood the affairs of the Nanyang Kingdoms, but also to avoid a fight between the Chen family and the Zheng family on this matter.

Although the Chen family and the Zheng family usually live in harmony, there are conflicts of interest and entanglements between the two sides after all, and the commercial director of this overseas trade must be famous in the Ming business community, leaving a name in the history of the Ming Dynasty, which is an honor to honor the ancestors, so the Chen family and the Zheng family naturally fight openly and secretly, and they want to take it into their hands.

For this reason, the Chen family and the Zheng family found Chen Ningning and Zheng Wanrou, hoping that the two could blow the pillow wind to Li Yuntian, but Chen Ningning and Zheng Wanrou refused, and clearly told them that Li Yuntian had a candidate for commercial director in his heart, which made a dispute settle.

The outside world was very curious about Zhao Yuancai standing out as the commercial director of this overseas trade, and secretly probed his details, but there was no special discovery, and there seemed to be no intersection between Zhao Yuancai and Li Yuntian, and everyone was very puzzled about how Li Yuntian found him.

Since the purpose of this voyage was to conduct trade with the countries of the South Seas, Zhao Yuancai's commercial supervisor had a pivotal position in the fleet, and Zhang Zhang and Luo Hai actually served him.

Above Zhao Yuancai, Zhang Zhang, and Luo Hai, there was a person who was in charge of all the affairs of this overseas trade, and this person was the deputy chief instructor of the martial arts hall, Li Daniu, a general under Li Yuntian.

Li Daniu is the head of this overseas trade, because this overseas trade is carried out in the name of Jiangwutang, so it is natural that the people of Jiangwutang will be in charge.

As the descendant of Li Yuntian's side, he is very relieved to have Li Daniu here, and he can also deter the personnel of the fleet, especially the people of the Chen family and the Zheng family.

Li Yuntian was worried that the people of the Chen family and the Zheng family would rely on their respective identities and not look at Zhao Yuancai in their eyes, and then cause losses to overseas trade, if Li Daniu was in charge, they would not dare to mess around, after all, Li Daniu was Li Yuntian's clan, Chen Ningning and Zheng Wanrou had to politely shout "uncle" when they saw Li Daniu, how could they dare to provoke Li Daniu.

It's just that this overseas trade will take at least half a year, so Li Daniu is likely to miss the decisive battle between Li Yuntian and Li Li in Jiaozhi, and then he will not be able to make military achievements like Liang Shaojie and Qin Kun.

Even if Li Yuntian wanted to give Li Daniu a part of his military exploits, he would not be able to give more because Li Yuntian was overseas, and Li Yuntian had set up a complete meritorious service system for the Xiaowu Army, and he could not take the lead in breaking this system.

Li Yuntian had spoken to Li Daniu before appointing him as the head of the overseas trade, telling him that although overseas trade could bring huge profits to the Ming Dynasty and be of great benefit to the post-war reconstruction of Jiaozhi, it had little to do with quelling the Jiaozhi rebellion, so he would not be able to make military achievements like other generals of the counterinsurgency army.

Li Daniu didn't mind this, in his opinion, military merit or anything didn't matter, as long as he could help Li Yuntian, Li Yuntian had given him enough things to make him and his eldest brother have the prominent status they have now, and he was not satisfied.

Although Li Daniu is honest and upright, as a member of Li Yuntian's clan, he also knows the truth that one is prosperous and one is lost, as long as Li Yuntian can firmly gain a firm foothold in the court, then he will be able to have a smooth sailing career.

"Don't worry, Lord Commander, we will do our best to run this errand." As the head of this overseas trade, Li Daniu, who was standing in front of the crowd, solemnly bowed to Li Yuntian and said.

"Don't worry, Lord Chief!" Immediately, Zhao Yuancai, Zhang Zhang, Luo Hai and others bowed to Li Yuntian and saluted, and said in unison.

"Okay, this official is waiting for you to triumph in Jiaozhi!" Seeing this, the corners of Li Yuntian's mouth showed a smile of relief, and he bowed his head slightly and said loudly, very satisfied with the spiritual outlook of Li Daniu and the others.

Because Li Yuntian used a stand-in in Jiaozhi, it was inconvenient for him to show his face, so he bid farewell to Li Daniu and others in the Bosi of Yuntun City.

Li Daniu and his entourage went straight to the wharf after leaving the Bosi Division of Yuntun City, and the assumed general Nan led the officials, gentry, and famous merchants of the Jiaozhi Third Division and Xin'an Mansion to gather on the wharf to see them off, and the scene was full of joy and excitement.

When the fleet set sail, Li Yuntian stood in a small forest near the wharf, looking at the ship formation slowly leaving the wharf with a stern expression, the weather at sea is unpredictable, and violent storms often occur, hoping that Li Daniu's trip will be smooth, otherwise he will have no money in his hands to invest in the reconstruction of Jiaozhi next year, and the Kyushu Chamber of Commerce will also be hit hard because of this.

At the same time, Li Yuntian also hoped that Li Daniu could rush back in time to participate in the final decisive battle against the Jiaozhi rebels, so that Li Daniu could also make military merits and then be promoted to his official position, Li Daniu was his absolute descendant, how could he let Li Daniu suffer?