Fan Ning returned to his official room, Chen Wei stepped forward to salute, Fan Ning smiled: "Is it that the unprocessed paperwork has piled up again?" ”

Chen Wei smiled slightly: "According to the envoy's instructions last time, everyone tries to do all kinds of things separately, but there are not many things left, only a few wills and documents sent from the imperial court, which need to be seen by the envoy himself." ”

With that, he placed a stack of paperwork on Fanning's desk.

Fanning nodded, and asked again, "What other important news does the imperial court have?" ”

Chen Yu thought for a while and said: "It seems that the Queen Mother is seriously ill, and the court affairs are temporarily presided over by the Queen Mother." ”

"The Queen Mother is seriously ill?"

Fan Ning was taken aback and hurriedly asked, "When was it?" ”

"I heard about it two days ago, but the news has reached Quanzhou, and I may have been ill for a while."

Fan Ning was a little uneasy in his heart, if it was an ordinary illness, it would be impossible for even Quanzhou to know, since the news reached Quanzhou, it meant that Gao Tao's condition was serious.

Chen Yu retreated, and Fan Ning carefully looked at the imperial court's handwritten edict, which was issued by the Empress Dowager Cao, and the content was very simple, hoping that he would enter Beijing as soon as possible after he returned.

Fanning looked at the time, it turned out to be issued the day before yesterday, and it was delivered to Quanzhou this morning, so this edict should have been sent by pigeon letter, and it must be that something happened to the court.

He put down Empress Cao's edict, and opened the imperial court's inscription, which turned out to be a copy of the pigeon letter, which was also delivered to Quanzhou yesterday, and the Zhizheng Hall asked him to enter Beijing as soon as possible, and there was a major matter to discuss with him, which should be the Zhizheng Tang received a pigeon letter from Luzon.

Fanning does have a lot of ideas, and he needs to persuade the Zhizheng Hall to implement them, and it seems that he has to enter Beijing once in public and private.

........

At noon, Fan Ning left Jingluo Mansion and came to the Fan firm near the port, just Mingren and Mingli were there, these two brothers, Mingli was responsible for running the northern line of Japan and Goryeo, and Mingren ran the Nanyang line, and the fourth uncle Fan Tongzhong was in charge of the firm, but today Fan Tongzhong was not there, and went to Fuzhou to urge the goods.

The firm is very large, covering an area of ten acres, with more than 50 people, clerks, and bookkeepers, and as soon as Akihito saw Fanning, he shouted, "I said that everything should be clearly divided between public and private, you said that the fifteen oarboats were borrowed from us, and this loan is not going to be returned?" And what the hell does the 30,000-stone oarrow boat in Jingkou say, if you want to use it, then you have to give me the money! ”

Fanning glared at him, "I've been missing for three months, and you don't care about it, and you ask me to collect debts as soon as you meet, are you really open?" ”

"Didn't you go east and find a lot of islands and land? I know all about your itinerary, but what do those paddle boats say? I admit that the government wants to expropriate me, but I have to compensate us! ”

Fanning had wanted to return the oarboats to them after the Sriwijaya War, but after a trip to the east, he realized that without the oarboats, he would not have found Australia at all, and he would not necessarily come back so soon, they would need to wait for the trade winds to return north.

If you want to buy all these sixteen oarboats, it will cost at least two or three hundred thousand taels of silver, Fanning thought about it and said, "That's it! I will persuade the Son of Heaven to give you an island as compensation. ”

A sneering smile appeared on Akihito's face, "Just like Zhu Sanye's Vermilion Bird Island?" ”

Suzaku Island is indeed a joke, nominally Zhu Yuanfeng's private island, but if he wants to mine gold on the island, he has to get the approval of the imperial court, and he has to hand over most of the shares like a normal gold mine, and he has to send a mine supervisor to station, so angry that Zhu Yuanfeng Island doesn't want it.

Fan Ning smiled slightly: "Don't think about things so badly, the imperial court has stated that private people are allowed to buy the island, and private individuals can occupy all the resources on the island and pass it on to their descendants, but how to implement it has not yet been clearly stated, once there is too much overseas land, the imperial court will eventually let go, and I will return to the imperial court in two days to discuss this matter with the imperial court." ”

Mingli shook his head, "A-Ning, we don't dare to believe the promise of the imperial court easily, I remember very clearly, the imperial court promised to give Suzaku Island as a private property to Zhu Sanye as a reward for him to introduce stallions, but then the imperial court changed, and now if the imperial court promises to give us the island, we really don't dare to ask for it." ”

"It's not what you think, let me ask you, why did you dare to ask for the island in the first place when you wanted to buy the island in the hands of the king of Luzon?"

"Because Luzon is too weak!"

Akihito said on the side: "I'm not afraid of Luzon at all, he dares to change, I can still recruit troops to fight with him, but the Great Song Dynasty is different, do I dare to go to war with it?" ”

Fan Ning smiled and shook his head, "Once private purchases of overseas islands are allowed, those who can buy islands must be the major powerful families, and the imperial court dares to turn against Zhu Sanye, because Zhu Sanye has no power and power, and can knead it at will, but does the imperial court dare to turn against hundreds of powerful families and deny it?"

Mingren and Mingli glanced at each other, both of them realized, Fan Ning said again: "This time I found a large number of uninhabited islands and a continent that is wider than the Great Song Dynasty, it is impossible to develop it by the imperial court alone, and it is the general trend to let go of private land purchases, which is also the strong desire of the magnates, you have to start preparing now, I will give you six of the sixteen oarboats, especially the three oarboats that follow me to explore the land are very important, I will fight for the best land for the Fan family." ”

"So what do we need to do now?"

"Ship a ship!"

Fanning said without hesitation: "To build a paddle boat of more than 20,000 stones, as well as the cultivation of nautical talents, I suggest that you open a school to cultivate nautical talents." ”

The two brothers nodded, "We get it!" ”

At this time, Fanning smiled again: "I came to you today, mainly for the carriage wheels, to what extent?" ”

Akihito's spirits perked up, he was responsible for this matter, and he hurriedly said: "It's basically succeeded, the carriage you rode in is the first equipment, we built two more, and installed a lot of wheels." ”

"Take me to see it."

Akihito took Fanning to the next door, next door was a vacant land covering an area of about four or five acres, which was also bought by the two brothers, and a fence was built around it, and the two walked into the gate, and there were several yards separated from it, some people were processing rubber, some people were making molds, and then using molds to make rubber pipes, and the other yard was making wheels.

Akihito introduced Fanning: "We used your secret recipe to make a gum that does not deform, but it took countless trials and tricks to succeed, and it is easier to make pipes and make wheel outsourcing. ”

"How do you inflate and prevent the wheels from leaking?" Fanning asked curiously.

"It's relatively simple to inflate, just use the bellows, as for preventing air leakage, I can't say clearly, you come with me!"

Fanning followed Akihito to a room, where several craftsmen were carefully hammering the pieces of iron with small hammers, and Akihito picked up a small part and handed it to Fanning: "Melt this inflatable port on the rubber." ”

Fanning took the part the size of a coin, and there was an iron mouth on it, and the iron mouth was covered with a hat, which was made very delicately, and there was a small iron buckle on each side of the hat, which could be fastened on a round iron, and it was estimated that it would be fastened with an iron hat after it was fully inflated.

Fanning smiled and asked, "Will this leak?" ”

"There is a slight air leak, and the iron buckle is too difficult to make, which are two difficulties."

Fanning said to the old craftsman who made the iron buckle: "Uncle, let me give you an idea!" You make a small gap on each side of the iron mouth, put another iron bar in the hat, and then insert the hat into it, twist it to the right, the iron bar inside the hat will be stuck in the gap, and you can't take it off, and then twist it to the left, and the hat can be removed. ”

The old craftsman lowered his head and thought about it, his eyes gradually shining, and he understood what Fanning meant.

"I'll give it a try!"

Fanning said to Akihito again: "Put a small rubber ring inside the hat, and it won't leak, can't you think of such a simple way?" ”

Akihito slapped his forehead, "I'm so stupid!" I didn't expect to use a rubber ring. ”

Fan Ning smiled slightly, patted his arm and said: "Hurry up and do it, I will enter Beijing in two days, I plan to bring two carriages into the capital, and the Queen Mother and the Son of Heaven will also take a carriage with rubber wheels." ”

"You call it elephant gum?" Akihito was stunned.

Fanning nodded, "I think it's a lot like elephant skin, you can call it elephant skin or elephant gum." ”

Akihito looked at the rubber skin, and it was really more vivid, so he smiled and said: "This name is good, let's call it elephant glue!" Sounds better than gum. ”