In the afternoon, Fan Ning and his wife Zhu Pei arrived in Jiangdu City on a thousand stone passenger boats, and Fan Ning and his wife arrived in Jiangdu together, as well as Zhu Yuanfu's third grandson Zhu Sheng and Gao Zunfu's son Gao Shilin, they all had to go to Kunzhou together.

Zhu Sheng is the eldest son of Zhu Pei's second uncle Zhu Xiaolin, the same age as Fan Ning, tall and thin, lively and cheerful, very flexible and capable, previously in charge of the Zhu family's tea farm in Jianzhou, and Mingren and Mingli have a very good relationship, this time he will be in charge of the Zhu family's gold mining, and Gao Shilin is in charge of the Gao family's gold mining.

In addition, the Zhang Yaozuo family also got a mining index, the Zhang family went to Liuqiu Mansion to open a silver mine, and the nephew of the Empress Dowager Liu also got the right to mine silver in Liuqiu Mansion, in addition, there are seven or eight powerful families are also applying to go to Liuqiu Mansion to mine silver, Kunzhou is too far away, and the magnates prefer Liuqiu Mansion close to Fuzhou, and there is no need to build a 10,000-stone sea ship, a thousand stone sea ship is enough, and the cost is much lower.

But it is precisely because of the powerful people's involvement in overseas mining, under their joint promotion, that the Imperial Salt and Iron Division decided to postpone the supervision of overseas private mining for another year, which means that overseas private mining does not have to hand over mining shares within a year, and gold, silver and copper do not need to be purchased by the Salt and Iron Division at a low price.

Of course, this kind of good thing is not available to everyone, only the powerful in the DPRK and China have a chance, and the indicators are also very few, the Kunzhou Imperial Court only puts five places, and the Liuqiu Mansion is a little more, thirteen places.

"Yesterday, I went to the Salt and Iron Division to go through the formalities, and I heard that the remaining two mining quotas in Kunzhou have come out, it seems that they are the Yang family and the Pang family."

It was Gao Shilin who spoke, and Fanning found that he was not wooden, but he was very low-key in the capital, and as he left the capital, he became more active, as if there was a huge magnetic field in the capital or something that restrained him, and now he gradually broke free from the shackles of the capital.

After crossing the Huai River, he became a chatterbox, talking non-stop all the way, Fanning now believes in Mingren's judgment, Gao Shilin will be an active person after going to Kunzhou, as for Mingren, he set off in advance five days ago, he is going to Pingjiang Mansion to pick up the goods, he purchased a large number of honey and rouge powder, ready to go to the Japanese market to ship, and also bought hundreds of barrels of soju, ready to use these wines to replace the Kun people's sea pearl, Kunzhou men are generally good wine, Fan Ning has to admire Mingren's business acumen, can always grasp the weakness of the Kun people.

"A-Ning, will you approve it?" Gao Shilin asked Fan Ning again, everyone called Fan Ning A-Ning, and he followed suit.

Fanning was a little distracted, didn't hear what he was saying, and looked at him a little blankly.

"I mean, the Salt and Iron Division has approved the Pang family and the Yang family to go to Kunzhou for mining, will Kunzhou approve it?"

Fanning laughed, how could Kunzhou not approve it! The Pang family was originally hinted at by him, so Pang Ji started quickly, just like when he bought the Huangshi mineral, as for the Yang family, it was Yang Wenguang who came to the door, and Fan Ning agreed, but Fan Ning did not have the right to interfere with the approval of the mining rights by the Salt and Iron Division, which was done by the Pang family and the Yang family themselves.

It's just that there are only five places for private mining rights in Kunzhou, which was approved by the Son of Heaven, and now that the quota is full, other families who want to make a fortune overseas can only go to the idea of begging for the government.

"Then are the children of Pang Ji and the Yang family here?" Zhu Sheng asked next to him.

"It should have come in advance, and we must take our ships to Kunzhou, otherwise we will have to wait for a few more months, and the imperial court will only approve an extension for one year, so time will not wait!"

Gao Shilin let out a long sigh, his eyes were already full of anticipation for gold.

........

On 26 May, 500 ships of 10,000 stones set off from the banks of the Yangtze River in Jiangdu and sailed mightily towards the East China Sea.

In the early morning, the sea is full of golden light and smooth waves, and although it is early summer, the cool breeze on the sea surface is particularly refreshing.

Juppé stood on the side of the ship, looking at the glow in the distance, this time to go to sea may be because of the husband by his side, Juppé did not have the embarrassment when he went to sea for the first time, a storm encountered two days ago, the ship was bumpy up and down, she actually survived.

Not far from her, the tall Jian Meizi was lying on a soft chair, enjoying the cool breeze of the early morning, in the afternoon, the sea was relatively hot, Jian Meizi squinted, as always, her face was cold, Zhu Pei's marriage meant that her original employment contract had ended, but she still followed Zhu Pei, and even she couldn't figure out what her current identity was.

At this time, Fanning came out of the cabin, walked to his wife's side, put his hands on the side of the ship, he looked at the sea in the distance and asked with a smile, "Have you noticed that the color of the sea has changed?" ”

Juppe nodded, yesterday the sea was still light blue, but today it has turned dark blue, she asked curiously, "Husband, what is the reason for this?" ”

"It's getting cold!"

Fanning smiled slightly: "Maybe we entered the deep sea." ”

"Then how far are we from Kunzhou?"

This is what Juppé cares about, they have been sailing at sea for half a month, and she really misses the land.

"There are about six days left."

"Six days to go!" Juppé had a disappointed look on his face.

Fanning smiled: "But today we can get off the boat and rest." ”

Jupei's eyes lit up, "Is there a harbor nearby?" ”

Fanning smiled and shook his head, "It's not a harbor, it's our supply transfer station, an island, the fleet needs to replenish fresh water, rest for half a day before setting off." ”

"I saw a small island in the distance just now, is that coming?"

"If you see the island, it's coming!"

As soon as Fanning's words fell, a soldier on the mast shouted, "I saw Shinjima ahead!" ”

Shinjima is Nakachio Island, the Oki Islands of Japan today, and it was named Shinjima because it was also a transit point for carrier pigeons.

In the Heian period, it belonged to Izumo Province, the fourth largest island in Izumo Province, with an area of about 30 square kilometers, and the island was densely forested, basically mountainous, and uninhabited, but there were more than a dozen streams that flowed into the sea all year round, and fresh water resources were relatively abundant.

Last fall, Kunzhou bought the island for 20,000 stone rice and 5,000 pieces of cloth to serve as a freshwater supply and carrier pigeon transit station, and 20 soldiers are stationed here all year round, rotating every six months on average.

After a short time, the fleet arrived at Shinshima, where there was also a fjord about ten miles long, where large ships could be moored and take turns to dock to replenish fresh water, and the wharf was so small that only three large ships could dock at the same time.

Fan Ning and Zhu Pei got off the big boat, Jian Meizi and Aya followed behind them, Akihito, Zhu Sheng, Gao Shilin and others had already come down from another big boat, and were stretching on the shore.

Although the island is small, the garrison is also small, but the status is not low, the chief officer is a deputy commander, there are 20 soldiers and 4 pigeon messengers, nearly 100 wooden houses have been built on the island, except for the soldiers' barracks, most of the wooden houses are warehouses for storing supplies.

In addition, at the highest point of the mountaintop, there is a two-zhang high stone tower, which is the pigeon letter tower, and there will be carrier pigeons here every day to rest and transit.

At this time, a young civilian officer hurriedly stepped forward, bowed and saluted: "Commander of the lowly Shindao envoy Qiao Sheng to see Zhizhou!" ”

Fanning nodded, "Commander Qiao has worked hard!" ”

"It's not hard to be lowly and hard, it's hard to be tired all the way to Zhizhou, and the lowly job will arrange for Zhizhou to wash first."

Fanning looked back at the big boat, the big ship had already begun to replenish fresh water, and it was also interesting to replenish fresh water from the island, there was a waterhole at the foot of the mountain about two hundred paces away from the pier, and several streams were poured into the waterhole at the same time, so the soldiers stationed on the island built a waterwheel by the waterhole, and built a wooden tank two hundred paces long.

When supplies were needed, two soldiers stepped on a waterwheel to pour water into the tank, and soon, a large amount of water would flow out of the tank's outlet.

On the big ship, the crew will use the crane to put down a lifting wooden platform, a large water tank will use the lifting wooden platform to put on the dock, after the water in the wooden trough is filled with the large water tank, and then use the lifting platform to lift the water tank full of clean water on the ship, a big ship supplies more than 100 large water tanks at a time, all the ships are replenished, it takes a day and a night, and the fleet will not be able to set off tomorrow morning.

When traveling at sea, fresh water is precious, mainly for drinking, and the high-ranking officers can wash themselves a little, but the average crew and soldiers should not count on it.

So every time the ship docks, the first thing everyone does is to take a bath, there are more than a dozen hot springs on the island, bathing is very convenient, there are also hot springs specially for female dependents, built a very large wooden house, this time there are more than 30 female dependents who come with them, all of them are the families of officials and garrison generals and maids, they are led to the big wooden house to take a bath in the hot springs, and Jian Meizi is standing guard outside with a long sword in his hand.

The crew and soldiers were not so particular, and there was a large hot spring pond a mile away, and the soldiers and crew ran there to wash.

Fanning and the others were instructed to make Qiao Sheng lead to another hot spring, this is a hot spring specially for high-ranking officials and generals, the hot spring is not big, but very comfortable, Fanning soaked in the hot spring, he felt that every pore in his body seemed to be opened, the fatigue of the journey slowly faded, for a while, he felt like he had gone to heaven.