It was another month before the fleet led by Li Nai set off from the port of Guangzhou. In the meantime, "Fu Ruifeng" purchased two more sea-going ships and some other supplies for the Haihan people, and recruited a group of craftsmen and crews who were specified by the other party. Li Jifeng hoped that the means of sending Li Nai to visit and providing these personnel and materials would show enough goodwill to the Haihan people in Yazhou and lay a good foundation for the long-term cooperation between the two sides in the future.

It was not the first time for Li Nai to go to sea by boat, when he went to Beijing to take the entrance examination, he took a boat from Guangzhou to the north, and after landing in Hangzhou Bay, he visited some local teachers and friends, and then went to the capital by land. However, this trip as the leader of a caravan was indeed a new experience for him, and he was wondering how to communicate with the Haihan people after arriving at the place along the way.

According to Yazhou Li's shopkeeper, although these overseas visitors are dressed a little strangely, they can feel that they are all very well educated, and their speech and demeanor are polite, not at all like those Western barbarians. But Shopkeeper Li also mentioned that these people do not agree with many of the rules of the Ming Dynasty, and they can be regarded as informal at best, but when they are bigger, their words and deeds are somewhat lawless.

Li Nai didn't particularly care about these details, if he was really a law-abiding maritime businessman, could he have the courage to make and sell smuggled salt? "Fu Ruifeng" can grow step by step in Guangzhou to today's scale, but it is not entirely a legal business, in fact, as long as the master of maritime trade, who dares to say that his ass is clean?

For maritime merchants, the definition of whether they commit a crime or not does not lie in how it is written in the Ming Law, but whether they have been caught or not, as long as they are not caught by the government, then whether it is smuggling or tax evasion, it belongs to the category of "legal". If you want to make a lot of money from the maritime trade, you have to take this risk.

Perhaps because there was an important person in the fleet, Li Nai, and the personnel concerned did not want to risk sailing into the open sea, so the route of the fleet tended to be more conservative. After the fleet left the mouth of the Pearl River, it went all the way west, passing through Yangjiang, Maoming, Zhanjiang, and then south along the Leizhou Peninsula, crossed the Qiongzhou Strait, and then stopped at the capital of Qiongzhou for a day to replenish and recuperate, and then continued along the east coast of Hainan Island all the way around to the vicinity of Sanya.

Such a route is a third farther than going straight to Hainan from the mouth of the Pearl River, and the fleet has been stopping all the way, and it took more than ten days to get to the place. （.）

When the fleet passed by Xizhou Island in Yalong Bay, it met the "Haixun 01" ship that was digging guano here and preparing to return to Hong Kong.

"Third young master, this headland in front of you is Jinmu Horn, bypassing this place, it is where the port of the Haihan people is located. The person who spoke was the person sent by Li Jifeng to assist Li Nai this time, He Qiang, the deputy manager of the "Fu Ruifeng" general cabinet. He has worked in "Fu Ruifeng" for many years, and has been promoted step by step from an errand boy, and he is also one of the few people with a foreign surname in the senior management of the entire "Fu Ruifeng". Li Jifeng was worried that the fledgling Li Nai would be deceived when trading with the Haihan people, so he sent He Qiang to follow him, and he could help Li Nai take the pulse and provide some reference advice at the critical moment.

He Qiang had been to Yazhou several times before, so he was familiar with this route, and continued to introduce: "The harbor where the Haihan people stayed, known as Yulin in ancient times, and Shengli Port was the name they changed after they came here...... However, this place is too far away from Yazhou, sparsely populated, and is attacked by pirates every year, so it is not a good place. It is said that because there are not many people who have settled here, the Yazhou government has removed the administrative office here a few years ago, and only a dozen miles inland are there some Li Miao mountain people who live. I really don't know why those Haihan people chose such a desolate place. ”

"According to what Shopkeeper Li said, these Haihan people are extremely intelligent people, and they act before acting, and they must have a reason for doing so. Li Nai didn't think about things very simply, his views were the same as Li Jifeng's, these Haihan people were bold and cautious, but they were by no means aimless, and they must be more careful when dealing with them.

As the two spoke, a white dhow suddenly sprang out of the bay on the right. The ship was flat and flat, but it was incredibly fast at sea, and it made a long arc in front of their fleet before heading toward the seas to the west.

"This is the fast sailing ship of the Haihan people that Shopkeeper Li said!" Li Nai saw this legendary ship appear in front of him, and immediately went to the side of the ship to look at it: "It is said that there are two such sailing ships, one is called 'Lightning' and the other is called 'Feisu', but I don't know which one we saw. ”

He Qiang, who prides himself on being well-informed, also grew his mouth in surprise at this time, witnessing the speeder sweeping across the sea at an astonishing speed, and could only mutter: "It's so fast...... Good fast boat ......"

"Uncle He, in your opinion, how long will it take for this ship to go to Guangzhou?" asked Li Nai with interest.

He Qiang calculated a little in his mind before he said: "When we came, the route was suspected of being detoured, if we went straight to Qiongzhou Island from the mouth of the Pearl River, we could reach here in six to seven days, but at the speed of this ship, I am afraid that it would be there in two days at most! I have seen the Franc machine and the red-haired man's clipper, and there is no resemblance to this ship, and the speed is far less than this ship." ”

"Since the Haihan people have this kind of fast boat, why did they ask us to buy a second-hand sea boat from Guangzhou?" Li Nai frowned.

"There may be several reasons, for example, the Haihan people have a huge volume of sea freight, and this ship is fast, but the hull is flat, and the loading capacity is definitely limited, which is probably not enough to meet their requirements. The construction of such ships can be very difficult, as can be seen from the fact that the Haihan people only have these two on hand. He Qiang boldly guessed. His speculation basically hit the point, the Haihan people bought the ship because of the lack of capacity, and the materials and technology needed for the construction of the catamaran fast sailing ship are not within the reach of now.

The fleet slowly sailed into the strait next to Yulin Point, and after passing here, it officially entered Shengli Harbor. He Qiang, who looked around, suddenly turned pale, and said in astonishment: "Third Young Master, look at the coast on the right...... What's that?"

Li Nai turned his head to look and saw a row of low buildings made of stone on the coastal slope there, and many migrant workers were carrying stones and shouting trumpets to work there, which seemed to be an unfinished project. Look at the section that has been built, there is a very obvious battlement, but it looks a little like a city wall.

Li Nai shook his head and said, "Why do these Haihan people want to build a city wall by the sea?"

As soon as the words came out, he himself already sensed that something was wrong. Sure enough, He Qiang trembled and responded: "Third Young Master, that's not a city wall, that's a fort!"

"Fort?" Li Nai was also taken aback: "Uncle He, do you really see clearly that it is a fort?"

"Two years ago, when Humen renovated the fort, the big shopkeeper pledged a cannon, and the prefect met with the Guangzhou gentry who pledged on the fort. You see, every place surrounded by a moat is the place where the artillery will be placed in the future!" He Qiang was also a little knowledgeable, and lowered his voice and said to Li Nai.

At this time, the place where the boat traveled was less than 100 meters away from the coast, and the situation on the slope of the shore could be seen clearly.

Now Li Nai's face also changed, repairing the fort is not a joke, if it is really the Haihan people who built the fort here, it means at least three things: first, this place is no longer within the jurisdiction of the Ming army, otherwise the Ming army would never be able to watch outsiders build this kind of military facility here. Second, the Haihan people have cannons in their hands, and it is very likely that they are not the kind of short-barreled earth cannons that the maritime merchants are accustomed to equipping on their ships, which can only shoot some stones and iron nails, but the Hongyi artillery that is genuine! Third, even if the Haihan Chamber of Commerce is equipped with some weapons to defend against pirates on the ship, there will never be any maritime chamber of commerce to build a fort in the port, and the Haihan people will do this, and their purpose and motive are very questionable.

Li Nai thought for a while, and then smiled and said: "Uncle He, maybe we are thinking too much, since even those of us who are far away in Guangzhou know the existence of the Haihan people, then of course the Yazhou government has already known about it, maybe the government has already restored its place of governance here, and this fort is also being built under the auspices of the Yazhou garrison." ”

He Qiang sighed with hatred: "Third Young Master, if it is such a simple matter, how could I not think of it? I have been to Yazhou several times, and there has never been a fort in that place, and when I went there last year, there was not a single artillery on the city wall there, only a few Franc machine guns that could not be fired far! If you really want to build a fort to protect the coastal port, it should be built in Yazhou, not in this place!"

At this time, Li Nai couldn't think of any reason to explain the situation in front of him, but when he sailed into the harbor, he saw that there were two sailor Cangshan ships with the "Ming" flag on the top of the mast on the sea, heading to the open sea. The soldiers' clothing, weapons and military flags on the deck are clearly visible, and it is indeed the Ming army sailor of Yazhou Water Village.

The two of them glanced at each other, and they both felt that the situation here was extremely strange. He Qiang said with a puzzled face: "Could it be...... Did I really think wrong?"