Fanning quickly accepted the reality that if Cheng Qing was indeed talented, but he was only restricted because he was born in a merchant family, then it was not impossible to give him a hand.

He said to Lin Junsheng again: "This mansion is too old, I want to tear down and rebuild, build a courtyard house centered on the mountain and the lake, and the wasteland north of the mansion is also my land, I plan to pave it into a large meadow, the kind on which you can ride horses, and then build a private wharf in Jinjiang, and see if you can start construction as soon as possible and build it as soon as possible." ”

Lin Junsheng said: "There is no problem in building a mansion, I promise to build a beautiful and comfortable mansion for the envoy, and it will only take two months, but the key is that the envoy will go to the Ryukyu Mansion the day after tomorrow, so how to confirm the drawings?" It was necessary to wait until the envoy returned from the Ryukyu Prefecture, and this problem had to be resolved before the envoy set off, so that the construction period would not be delayed. ”

"Is there anything else you can do outside the forester?"

"There's a way."

Lin Junsheng thought for a while and said: "We have built a lot of mansions over the years, all of them have lakes in the middle, or I will take the ready-made drawings for the envoy to choose, if I can find a ready-made one, then modify it slightly, no need to redraw." ”

This method is good, and it saves a lot of time by using the drawings of the mansion built by others as a reference.

"Will the demolition of the old house affect the mountains and lakes?" Fanning asked again.

Lin Junsheng smiled slightly, "We have experience in this, first build a high wall to isolate the hill from the lake, and then remove the high wall after the new mansion is repaired, and then carefully decorate the scenery of the mountain and lake to ensure that there will be no use at all." ”

"How much does that cost?"

"Simpler, three or four thousand guan is enough, if you want to repair a little better, then at least five or six thousand, but to build exquisitely, the kind of beauty, at least tens of thousands of guan, this is still I don't make the king's money, only charge material money and wages, and repair the wharf has to be counted separately, if it is to build a sea ship wharf, it can't be repaired without five or six thousand yuan."

Fan Ning nodded, "Then I will prepare 10,000 yuan to build a mansion, and as for the wharf, Lin Dongzhu will calculate that two 3,000-stone sea ships can dock at the same time." ”

"I understand, tomorrow morning, I will bring the drawings to the envoy to choose, and strive to complete the mansion within two months, the dock will be faster, and it will be completed within a month, and I will pay after the envoy is satisfied."

"Then please leave the forester!"

..........

This time, Fanning went to the Ryukyu Prefecture to inspect the Ryukyu Province, and just as he was following the supply fleet, 50 10,000 stone sea ships were already parked in the Quanzhou Bay, carrying 50,000 stone of grain, meat, and various daily necessities to the Ryukyu Province.

Zhang Ying, the magistrate of the Ryukyus who accompanied the ship, sighed and said to Fan Ning: "This supply to the Ryukyu Mansion is 200,000 yuan, and we have to supply it twice a year, and it has been like this since the establishment of the Ryukyu Mansion, no wonder the imperial court complained, saying that we are a huge burden to the imperial court, and we are not willing to do it!" ”

"If you don't want to be a burden to the imperial court, then you have to rely on yourself, what is Zhang Zhixian's idea?"

"In fact, our three Ryukyu governors have a common idea, to emulate Kunzhou, first of all, the grain should be self-sufficient, followed by road construction, and then the development of carp silver mines, these three things can be implemented, and the Ryukyu Mansion will not need the imperial court to continue blood transfusion, especially the grain planting conditions of the Ryukyu Prefecture are much better than those of Kunzhou, and they can be harvested three times a year, and these advantages have not been developed, which is a pity."

Fanning frowned, "I remember that the Ryukyu Prefecture has already developed a silver mine?" and the Kunzhou gold mine at the same time. ”

Zhang Ying sighed and said: "The silver mine that the envoy said is the carp silver mine, which is fifteen miles southwest of Ryukyu County, and is in excellent condition, but it has to be stopped after less than two years of mining. ”

"Why?"

"Safety!"

Zhang Ying hit the nail on the head and said: "The local natives sneaked up on the miners at night and promised to kill eighteen people, and the remaining hundreds of miners had to withdraw to the county and wait for the army to exterminate the natives, but there was no result in this, Di Qing wrote to the court many times, asking the court to approve the army to suppress the bandits, but the Privy Council just did not approve it." ”

Speaking of this, Zhang Ying complained a little: "In my opinion, Di Yuanjun is still too conservative, and the other state capitals of the Great Song Dynasty suppressed bandits, and I didn't see anyone ask the imperial court for instructions, so he directly sent troops to attack, why can't the Ryukyu Mansion take the initiative to attack?" ”

Fan Ning shook his head and said: "You really can't blame Di Shuai for this matter, the Quanzhou army is a naval army, which belongs to the forbidden army, and any movement of the forbidden army must be consulted by the Privy Council, and the suppression of bandits in various places is mainly to use township soldiers and box troops, so it is relatively free." ”

"Then there's no hope!"

Zhang Ying said with a desperate face: "The imperial court does not allow us to use soldiers, so we can only live in chaos, and we can't do anything!" ”

Fan Ning smiled slightly: "Since the imperial court does not allow the forbidden army to transfer troops at will, then why can I bring two thousand troops to the Ryukyu Mansion this time?" ”

Zhang Ying was stunned at first, and then overjoyed, "Has the envoy been approved by the imperial court?" ”

Fanning smiled and nodded, "I can mobilize Quanzhou's naval army with full power, and if I am lucky this time, I plan to take action against the natives and severely attack their arrogance." ”

Zhang Ying was so excited that tears were about to flow down, how many years had they been looking forward to this day, and finally it came.

Fanning looked at the blue sea and asked, "I heard that there is a pirate near the island of Ryukyu, is it true?" ”

Zhang Ying nodded, "There is indeed a pirate, a dozen small boats, thirty or forty people, but not on the big island of the Ryukyus, but in the area of the small island of the Ryukyus, this pirate has been around for a year, but it is very mysterious, robbing more than a dozen cargo ships, but not a single person was injured, some people suspect ......."

"Suspect what?" Fanning asked warily.

Zhang Ying hesitated for a long time and said: "My subordinates have only heard that some people suspect that this pirate is a soldier of the Song army stationed on a small island in the Ryukyus, pretending to be a pirate to make profits. ”

"Impossible!"

Fan Ning was extremely shocked, Song Jun actually pretended to be a pirate, this kind of thing was unimaginable.

"I think it's possible, after the imperial court contracted its overseas expansion, there were obviously fewer troops guarding merchant ships, and many scattered merchant ships went north without any escort at all, which is a good opportunity to make money, and it is normal for some people in the army to be tempted."

Fanning's face became very ugly, if this matter is as Zhang Ying said, the nature of this matter is too bad, he must investigate to the end and punish him severely, otherwise once this momentum spreads in the army, it will be a very heavy blow to his overseas expansion plan.

........

The fleet finally arrived at Ryukyu Island, Ryukyu Island is naturally today's Taiwan, called Ryukyu in the Song Dynasty, as early as the Three Kingdoms period, Sun Quan sent troops to inspect the Ryukyus, in the Song Dynasty, there are still many fishermen settled in the Penghu Islands, here is not under the jurisdiction of the government, no need to pay taxes, rich in products, so there are still many people who settle on the Penghu Islands.

But since more than ten years ago, Fanning mentioned in the imperial examination interview that after passing through the Ryukyu Islands, the good days of the residents of the Penghu Islands came to an end, and the government took over the Penghu Islands, and used it as a transit springboard to start building a city on the Ryukyu Island, after several years of efforts, the first county seat Ryukyu County appeared, and the imperial court immediately established the Ryukyu Prefecture, under the jurisdiction of Ryukyu County and Penghu County, the Ryukyu prefect is generally concurrently served by overseas economic envoys, so the county magistrate Zhang Ying is the real subordinate of Fanning.

The county seat of Penghu is very small, with only more than 300 households, almost all of whom are military families, and the garrison has 500 people, led by a commander.

There were other ships for the supply of Penghu County, so the fleet did not make a detour to Penghu County, but went straight to Ryukyu County.

Ryukyu County is located in the northernmost part of the island, surrounded by mountains on three sides, facing the sea on one side, that is, the area of today's Keelung Port, the county seat is about 20 miles away from the harbor.

The weather was good these days, the roads were not muddy, and the arrival of the supply fleet was a major festival for the military and civilians of Ryukyu Prefecture, with 3,000 troops and more than 7,000 civilians running to the beach to meet the supply ships.

There are 2,600 households in Ryukyu County, more than 10,000 people, and nearly seventy percent of the people have come here.

The fleet did not hesitate, and immediately began to dock and unload, and the soldiers and young and strong people were used as coolies, carrying food and supplies onto carts and towing them to the county town.

More than a dozen garrison generals and county commanders and county lieutenants stepped forward to welcome the arrival of the new envoy.

The soldiers set up a makeshift tent on the shore, and Fanning invited the generals into the tent to meet.

The commander of the envoy is called Zhou Mi, a native of Fuzhou, thirty-seven or eighteen years old, with dark skin, a very loud voice, very bold, he introduced Fan Ning's subordinates one by one, and he said openly and honestly: "The thing we hope most is that Fan Envoy Jun can get the right to send troops, and we can be suffocated to death all these years!" ”

Fanning smiled and nodded, "I got everything you craved the most!" ”

As soon as these words came out, a cheer suddenly sounded in the big tent, and then the entire dock also became a sea of jubilation, they had been longing for many years, and they could finally send troops.

。 m.