Four days later, Fanning arrived in Yangzhou, which had developed rapidly in the past two years after being transferred to the center of goods two years ago, especially along the river, with more than a dozen large wharves and hundreds of giant warehouses.

Fanning's 3,000 stone sailed on the canal, which was full of boats, and a fleet of ships carried a heavy load of all kinds of goods northward, covered with thick tarpaulins, and it was impossible to tell what it was, but it was most likely various tropical fruits from the Ryukyu and Luzon provinces, or the first rice season in Luzon.

There are so many boats in the canal that navigation becomes a little slow, and in the distance, there are large rice paddies on both sides of the river, and small villages in the distance.

Yangzhou has long popularized double-cropping rice, and the yield is very high, with a yield of 400 catties per mu, which is twice that of wheat.

At this time, Fanning suddenly saw a large field of corn, which surprised him, and Yangzhou also began to plant corn.

The year before last, Fan Tieniu's corn had a bumper harvest, last year he planted corn on his own 5,000 acres of land, and Liu Yuan also planted corn on his own 3,000 acres of land, and the corn planted by the two of them had a bumper harvest again last year, with a yield of corn grains per mu of 1,000 catties, which immediately caused a sensation in Pingjiang Mansion, Pingjiang Mansion quickly reported to the imperial court, and the imperial court was extremely shaken, and Xiangguo Han Jiang and Fu Bi personally rushed to Pingjiang Mansion with dozens of officials to check on the spot.

When it was determined that the corn yield was real, the whole government and the opposition were excited, drought-resistant, high-yield, this is simply the grain prepared for the northern dryland, starting from this year, each county of Shaanxi Road and Hebei Road has selected a certain amount of land to start planting corn, Fan Tieniu was also awarded the earl, reward 10,000 taels of silver, Liu Yuan led the promotion of merit, and was also awarded the viscount.

Another of his products, pumpkins, has also been promoted in the Jiangnan region, which was launched in Beijing last fall, and the price of a pumpkin is as high as 10 yuan, but it is estimated that the price will plummet after the large-scale harvest begins this year.

Fanning didn't expect Yangzhou to start planting corn, Fanning of course knew that grain production is the key to population breeding, the Song Dynasty because of the promotion of Champa rice, coupled with the great improvement of agricultural technology, so that the population exceeded 100 million, the Qing Dynasty was because of the emergence of corn, sweet potatoes, potatoes and other high-yield crops, the population increased to 400 million.

Now that corn and pumpkins have appeared, will the population of the Song Dynasty exceed 150 million in a few decades? This created demographic conditions for overseas colonization.

.........

Fan Ning met Zhu Pei's second uncle Zhu Xiaolin in Yangzhou, just two years ago, when Fan Ning had just begun to build Xingang, Zhu Pei's grandfather Zhu Yuanfu finally died of illness, Zhu Xiaoyun, who had just taken office in Chengdu Mansion, could only resign from his official position and return to his hometown to guard filial piety for his father

The imperial court stipulates that the shortest period of Ding Wei for officials is two years, and of course Ding Wei does not mean living next to the tomb of relatives for two or three years, only a very small number of people will do this, and most officials live a normal life at home and spend two years of Ding Wei period very leisurely.

For the general people there are not so many strict rules, according to the customs of various places, the Jiangnan region is more pragmatic, pay attention to filial piety can not miss the agricultural production, generally in the relatives buried in the soil for a month, then remove filial piety, restart normal production and life, but every day of worship will rush to the grave to worship.

Three months after his father's death, Zhu Xiaolin went north to Yangzhou to start his business, mainly engaged in warehousing, shipping and shipbuilding.

He had abundant capital as a guarantee, and he received news from Fan Ning in advance, so he purchased a large amount of land along the Yangtze River in Yangzhou, built three large wharves that could dock huge ships of 10,000 stones, and 80 huge warehouses, and thousands of ships with 500 stones and 1,000 stones, and became the largest inland storage and shipping owner in the Great Song Dynasty.

In addition, Zhu Xiaolin also bought the powerful Yang's shipbuilding workshop in Jingkou, which can build hundreds of ships every year, and can also build more than 10,000 stone sea ships.

"Aning, look at that big ship!"

Zhu Xiaolin pointed to a huge sea ship on the dock and said: "That is the king of ships built by our shipyard last year, the Fengxiang, 30,000 stone paddle boats, 30 sealed cabins, which can sail in the depths of the sea, and was snatched away by that stinky boy of Akihito." ”

The advent of docks and the use of sealed cabin technology made the shipbuilding level of the Song Dynasty unique in the world, and the ships built could withstand the storms in the Indian Ocean, which were very popular with Western merchants.

Fan Ning's spirits perked up, "Second Uncle has been able to build a sea ship of 30,000 stones?" ”

"Last year, only one was built, not because of the ability, but because I wanted to play a brand, so this one was built very hard, and the materials were not stingy, and the front end was equipped with a bumper head, which was two or three times stronger than the average Wanshi sea ship, and even stronger than the military ship, so we called it the king of ships."

Fanning laughed, "I just don't need a boat to ride, so give me this boat!" ”

"But this is Akihito......."

Zhu Xiaolin stopped halfway through speaking, and there was a kind of schadenfreude in his heart, he refused to sell it at the beginning, and was bought by Mingren, and now he is favored by Fanning, so he can only say that he deserves it.

Zhu Xiaolin said with a smile: "Then you can go directly to Quanzhou on this ship." ”

Fan Ning hesitated for a moment and said, "I still want to go to Wujiang to worship the old man." ”

"It doesn't matter, I'll let the boat sail to Mingzhou first to wait for you, and after you go to Wujiang, go directly to Mingzhou to board the ship."

Fanning nodded, "That's a good idea!" ”

Saying goodbye to Zhu Xiaolin, Fanning continued to go south by boat, and after paying homage to Zhu Yuanfu, he will embark on the road to the South Seas.

..........

Ten days later, the 30,000-stone oarboat arrived in Quanzhou, and together with Fanning, he arrived in Quanzhou, along with thirty alternate officials, and as Fanning's Nanyang strategy continued to advance, four more counties would be built on the two large islands south of Luzon Province, one county on Natuna Island, and two more at the entrance to the Strait of Malacca.

In addition, there is also Irian Island, which is not yet uninhabited, and even the Australian mainland, which is only separated by a strait from Irian Island, once colonization begins, a large number of officials and people will be needed here, and he must make reserves.

The big ship slowly docked on the wharf, and someone had already run to the Jingluo Mansion to report, and the deputy envoy Li Mu and his staff Gongsun Xuance stood on the wharf to welcome the arrival of Fanning and the new officials.

"It's hard work for the king, has the imperial court approved the expansion of the power of the Jinglu Mansion?" Li Mu asked with concern.

Fan Ning nodded, "After giving up the power of Japan and Kunzhou to the Zhizheng Hall, they are willing to agree to us to expand our power, Yu Xiaonian will be transferred back to the capital soon to serve as the Shaoqing of Honglu Temple, and in the future, we will not care about Japan and Kunzhou through the Liufu." ”

"That's fine, we can concentrate on passing through the South Seas."

"I also think so, you first bring the officials back and settle them, I will rest for two days today and tomorrow, and I will leave for Xingang the day after tomorrow."

Gongsun Xuance next to him smiled: "Make you too anxious!" ”

"I can't help but hurry! The Sriwijaya Strait is full of pirates, Western merchants have suffered heavy losses, and if it drags on for a few more months, the trade route will be broken, and Sriwijaya must be cleaned up by thunderbolt means to ensure our interests. ”

"That's right, yesterday Mingli came to complain, their fleet went south, and encountered pirates blocking the way off the coast of Luzon, they had to turn around and come back, now the pirates are becoming more and more rampant, and if they don't crack down, they will be killed at the doorstep."

Fanning gave a few more words, handed over the officials to them, and he himself went home with a few retinues.

Compared with two years ago, Fanning's family has changed a lot, mainly because the number of heirs has begun to increase, Ouyang Qian gave birth to a son the year before last, and not long after, the concubine Aya also gave birth to a son, and last year Zhu Pei was pregnant and gave birth to a daughter in the autumn, Fanning now has three sons, two daughters and five children, and the whole family has become extremely lively.

Of course, the most favored is the eldest daughter Fan Zhen'er, Fan Zhen'er is six years old, still loves small animals and horseback riding, in addition to Fan Ning, her closest person is the silly uncle Zhu Zhe, both of them have a special feeling for small animals, the number of small animals at home is gradually increasing, last year I don't know where a few monkeys came, settled down on the hill, the winter before last, more than a dozen geese and swans flew in the pond, as well as deer and squirrels, the whole mansion is full of vitality.

After Fanning returned home, he rode a horse with his daughter, and then returned to his study, he was really a little tired.

The door of the study opened, Aya came in with a cup of tea, she saw that Fan Ning was a little tired, so she whispered: "The official should not go to bed and sleep for a while!" ”

Fanning took a sip of tea and said with a smile: "I'm not sleepy, just close my eyes and recuperate for a while." ”

"Then I won't bother the officials!"

She was about to withdraw, but Fanning took her hand and sat down with her in her arms, and Aya snuggled meekly into her husband's arms.

"How is Xiaoyu now?"

Xiaoyu is Aya's younger sister, last year Aya went back to Japan to visit relatives, her family is in the countryside of Hizen country, is a tenant farmer, the family is poor, and even can't eat.

But since Aya became Fanning's concubine, Fanning gave Aya 5,000 taels of dowry silver, she gave all of it to her mother's family, Aya's parents quickly became famous local landlords, and Fanning simply funded her brother and sister-in-law to open a cloth shop in Nagasaki, specializing in distributing cloth from Fan's weaving workshop, and the business was very large.

Last year, Aya went home to visit relatives and brought her youngest sister Yuzi to Quanzhou, where she is currently living in Fanning Mansion at the age of fifteen, learning Chinese and tea art.

"Tamako is very smart, she can already speak in Chinese, and Madame likes her very much and doesn't want her to go back to Japan."

Fan Ning nodded, "It depends on her own wishes, she doesn't want to go back, it's not bad to stay in the Song Dynasty, and find a good family to marry in the future." ”

"By the way, my sister-in-law wrote a letter and said that she would come back to visit her mother in two days."

The sister-in-law that Aya said is Fan Ning's sister Fan Jing, who got married last autumn and married Zhu Qi, Zhu Qi and Lu Min were both admitted to the Jinshi in this year's Enke, one was 374 and the other was 441, both from the Jinshi.

Sima Guang, who was in charge of the Ministry of Officials, heard that Zhu Qi was Fan Ning's brother-in-law and a student of Ouyang Xiu, so he arranged for him to serve as an assistant teacher in Yingtianfu, Fan Jing and her husband currently live in Yingtianfu, and Lu Min served as the lieutenant of Kunshan County.

Although both of them are alternate officials from the ninth grade, after all, they have real positions, and they have Fan Ning as the backstage, and they can be turned into Beijing officials after serving a full term.

Fan Ning heard Zhu Pei say that his sister might be pregnant, he nodded, "I am going to Nanyang the day after tomorrow, you will take good care of her for me." ”