Zhao Yan and they naturally didn't know about the battle in the city of Guangzhou, and Xu Yuan didn't know that the Rakshasa army under his command had been treated unfairly, so they didn't rush to hurry, but played in Hangzhou for a few more days, and then rushed to Quanzhou, another seaport on the southern coast of the Great Song Dynasty. Zhao Yan met many overseas businessmen in Quanzhou Port.

Although the natural scenery of Quanzhou is not as good as Hangzhou, it is stronger than Hangzhou in terms of prosperity, and because it is a seaport, the city has accepted a lot of exotic atmospheres, such as the fair-skinned Persian bearded girl, there are also tall and majestic fire worship temples, and even the dark-skinned Kunlun slaves can be seen, Zhao Yan They are very curious about this, so they stayed for a few days before reluctantly leaving.

Not far from the sea off Quanzhou is the big island of Liuqiu, that is, Xu Yuan's hard work for many years to lay the foundation, it just so happened that Zhao Yan also attached great importance to this later Taiwan island, so after they left Quanzhou, they did not immediately go south to Guangzhou, but took a boat to Liuqiu Island to inspect.

For this return to his hometown, Xu Yuan is also very excited, after all, the flow of the island is a lot of his hard work to build, when he asked the Great Song Dynasty to attach, the population of the island has been nearly one million, the arable fields are increasing every year, the grain production is almost self-sufficient, no longer have to rely on the mainland's supplies to live.

Quanzhou and Liuqiu Island are only separated by a strait, that is, the Taiwan Strait in later generations, but now it should be called the Liuqiu Strait, Zhao Yan and their ship left Quanzhou to sail southeast, and soon saw the coastline of Liuqiu Island, and even saw some buildings by the sea. At this time, Xu Yuan was very excited to introduce: "Third brother, the side of Liuqiu Island near the Great Song Dynasty is the most populous place, and many people who immigrated from the land have settled here. What we see in the distance should be a place called Ping'an Town. ”

Seeing that Xu Yuan even remembered the name of a small town very clearly, Zhao Yan and the others also looked at him in surprise, but it is not strange to think about it, before Xu Yuan came to Liuqiu Island, in addition to the natives, there were only some Han people who were half-fishermen and pirates on the island, and the number was not much. It can be said that he single-handedly handled the planning of the entire island, and it is normal to be familiar with this place.

However, as Zhao Yan's fleet approached the direction of Ping'an Town, Xu Yuan's brows gradually wrinkled, and Zhao Yan and they didn't find it, because they only looked at the scenery of Ping'an Town on the coast, and saw that there was a small port built on the side of the town, and there were many large and small fishing boats moored, and Zhao Yan was surprised to find it. The scale of this Ping'an town is not small, and from a distance, the houses in the entire town stretch for more than ten miles. This is a town, it can be regarded as a county seat.

"Xu Yuan, I didn't expect you to make such achievements in just a few years on Liuqiu Island, just one small town has such a scale, it's really rare!" At this time, Su Shi looked at Ping'an Town. While smiling, he said to Xu Yuan next to him, he used to be a friend of Kong, and naturally knew that Xu Yuan was empty, but he knew that he knew it, but he never said anything about it. Even Su Zhe and Li Gonglin are tacitly aware of each other.

"No, how could Ping'an Town become like this?" However, at this time, Xu Yuan said with a puzzled expression, only to see his eyes looking at Ping'an Town in front of him in disbelief, as if he didn't know this place.

"What's wrong, is there anything wrong here?" Zhao Yan also heard the conversation between Su Shi and Xu Yuan at this time, and asked at the moment, in his opinion, Ping'an Town is normal, although it is a little far away, but you can vaguely see people coming and going on the dock, and there are many fishing boats fishing on the sea nearby, which looks similar to the fishing villages along the coast of the Great Song Dynasty, but the Ping'an Town in front of him is bigger and more prosperous.

"No, it's a little abnormal, when I left Liuqiu, I once passed by Ping'an Town, at that time it was just a small fishing village with less than 100 households, it was said to be a town but in fact there was no appearance of a town at all, but it was only a few years, how could Ping'an Town develop so fast, you see the scale of this town, it can already be called the county seat." Xu Yuan said with a puzzled face at this time, it has only taken a few years to develop from a small fishing village to a county seat, and with his understanding of Liuqiu Island, it is really a bit abnormal.

"What's strange about this, I guess it should be that after the annexation of the big island, the local officials began to move people to the island, which is why it has developed so quickly." Li Gonglin was the first to speak when he heard this, his guess was also very reasonable, and Zhao Yan and the others also nodded after hearing this.

However, Xu Yuan still stubbornly shook his head and said: "Impossible, after I occupied the Great Island of Liuqiu, I tried my best to immigrate from the Great Song Dynasty, but the local officials of the Great Song Dynasty were very strict in this regard, and most of the people were not willing to leave their hometowns, so I worked hard for many years and only moved hundreds of thousands of people, among which a considerable number of them are Guishun natives, and they are not conspicuous at all on the whole island, but according to the scale of Ping'an Town, the population on the island has increased too much." ”

Zhao Yan and the others also showed a contemplative expression when they heard Xu Yuan's words, one of the Great Song Dynasty's assessment of magistrates was the population of the people under their rule, so the general magistrates were indeed unwilling to let the people under their rule lose, so even if the Great Song Dynasty occupied the Great Island of Liuqiu, it was impossible to relocate the people on a large scale, and if it was really such a thing, the imperial court should also know, but Zhao Yan didn't know anything about it, so there must be a reason why the population explosion in Ping'an Town in front of them was unknown.

Zhao Yan also attaches great importance to Liuqiu Island, and even regards it as an important transit station for his island, otherwise he would not have come to watch it in person, and now the situation on Liuqiu Island is abnormal, so Zhao Yan can't sit idly by, and immediately command the fleet to dock near Ping'an Town, and then send someone ashore to identify himself, so that local officials can come to see him.

In fact, there is no need for Zhao Yan to send people, the people of Ping'an Town are very curious when they see Zhao Yan such a large fleet coming, and the local officials immediately rushed to the dock, worried that they had encountered pirates or something, but when they saw that it was the official ship of the Great Song Dynasty, they put their minds at ease, and when the boat sent by Zhao Yan docked, they immediately stepped forward to ask, and when they knew that it was His Royal Highness the King of Yue of the Great Song Dynasty, they immediately startled these officials, and then got on the boat and came to see Zhao Yan.

The official on the boat was a middle-aged man in his forties, probably because he was on the beach, his complexion was relatively dark, Zhao Yan knew as soon as he looked at his official uniform, the official in front of him was a county order, so to speak, this Ping'an Town should have been promoted to a county-level administrative body, otherwise there would be no county order here.

Sure enough, after seeing this middle-aged official get on the boat, he immediately saluted Zhao Yan and said, "Xiaguan Ping'an County Commander Zhou Ju, meet His Royal Highness King Yue!" ”

"No need to be polite, isn't this place called Ping'an Town, when did it change the town to a county?" Zhao Yan first asked the other party to stand up, and then asked.

"His Royal Highness King Qiyue, this place was indeed called Ping'an Town a year ago, but as the scale of the town became larger and larger, Dong Zhizhou reported to the imperial court and upgraded the town to a county, and the lower official was sent to Ping'an County to serve as a county commander a year ago." Zhou Ju said very respectfully, he was a Jinshi who had been in Zhiping for three years, and when he was in the capital to take the exam, he also went to Gewu Academy to audit for a period of time, so he also admired Zhao Yan very much.

Speaking of coming from after the Great Song Dynasty was attached to Xu Yuan, Liuqiu Island also officially became the territory of the Great Song Dynasty, because the island is vast and sparsely populated, so Liuqiu Island was directly classified as a Liuqiu Prefecture, and there were seven or eight counties under its rule.

"But a few years ago, Ping'an Town was a small fishing village with less than 100 households, and now it has become a county, how is this possible?" Xu Yuan couldn't help but speak at this time, he was very curious about the changes in Ping'an Town, and at the same time, he wanted to know what had happened on Liuqiu Island in the past few years since he left.

"This is ......" Zhou Ju looked at Xu Yuan, who was speaking, and asked with some confusion at the moment.

"Oh, this is my brother-in-law, that is, the former master of your Liuqiu Island, Xu Yuan, the leader of the Rakshasa Army!" Zhao Yan smiled and helped them introduce.

"It turned out to be Xu Concubine, Xia Guan has admired the name for a long time, speaking of which Liuqiu Dadao can have today, thanks to the work of the concubine!" Zhou Ju is seeking to be an official, so he has naturally heard of Xu Yuan's name, in fact, some of his peers are still Xu Yuan's former subordinates, so he has also heard of some of Xu Yuan's deeds.

Xu Yuan was polite to Zhou Ju at the moment, and then asked eagerly: "Zhou Zhi County, why has Ping'an Town increased its population so much?" ”

Seeing that Xu Yuan was so anxious to figure out this matter, Zhou Ju did not say any more polite words, and immediately talked about the reasons for the explosion of population in Ping'an County, speaking of which there are two main reasons, the first of which is very simple, because a gold mine was found in a mountain in the southeast of Ping'an County, although the scale of the gold mine is not large, but it also attracted many people to come to mine, and mining has promoted the economy of Ping'an County, so that a large number of people began to settle here.

However, because the scale of the gold mine is very small, the ability to attract the population is limited, and the reason for the population explosion in Ping'an County is because of the second reason, but when Zhao Yan heard the second reason, his face showed a heavy look. (To be continued......)