Cao Xiu saw the famous elf little eccentric of the Fan family the next day, Fan Zhen'er was just eight points ill, so she couldn't lie down, ran to find her new third mother, pulled Cao Xiu up the mountain, and introduced her to a group of squirrel brothers, a few sika deer heroes, and the hedgehog brother didn't know where to hide, but he still saw Zhu Zhe living in his own world.

It was Fan Zhen'er's elf cuteness that helped Cao Xiu a lot, making her quickly adapt and integrate into the family.

At the same time, Fan Ning is accompanying his new father-in-law, Cao Tong, the Japanese father-in-law will not mention, it is not a world, among the three father-in-laws of the Great Song Dynasty, he doesn't like Zhu Xiaoyun very much, too serious, serious, which makes it difficult for him to adapt.

Ouyang Xiu made him a little scared and a little ashamed, he was in contact with Ouyang Xiu, always talking about big things, making people feel uneasy, and he could not see as much as possible.

But the third father-in-law, Cao Tong, he likes it very much, this uncle of Cao Guo in the Eight Immortals is full of romantic spirit in his bones, and other people's families go to sea with him to find a rich island, but he is not, he wants to go overseas to find immortals.

On the third day after the marriage, Fan Ning accompanied Cao Tong to Cao's firm, and the Cao family's son Cao Ping was also the son of the Cao family, and his status in the Cao family was very important, and he also came to attend the wedding of his little sister Cao Xiu the day before yesterday.

The reason why the Cao family sent their son-in-law to sit in the Quanzhou Commercial Bank was because the task of the commercial bank was extremely important, and it actually undertook the heavy responsibility of the Cao family's overseas development.

Of course, Cao's firm also does overseas trade, their business is mainly two, one is the spice trade, dipterocarp in Luzon, sandalwood in the Bo Ni country, the Cao family is transported into the Great Song Dynasty in large quantities, and the second is overseas mining, the Cao family has an iron mine and a copper mine in Luzon Prefecture, employing 18,000 Japanese laborers in the mine, and employing 1,000 Song Dynasty craftsmen to be responsible for smelting, last year produced 7 million catties of high-quality pig iron, 2.4 million catties of blister copper ingots.

Another important task of Cao's firm is to find a suitable island, which is actually Cao Ping's task.

Fan Ning has become the son-in-law of the Cao family, and Cao Ping did not avoid it, but reported to Cao Tong in front of Fan Ning the results of their search for the island in recent years.

Cao Ping hung out a map, and Fanning recognized it at a glance, this is a map of Luzon, and the focus of Cao Ping's investigation in recent years is on Luzon Island.

"According to the family's idea, we have focused on the islands with a similar area to the Ryukyus Province in recent years, and there are four eligible islands, all of which are south of Luzon Province, and frankly speaking, these four islands are not ideal, there are too many mountains, too few plains, although they are covered by forests, but the development value is not large, and they are too far from Luzon."

Cao Ping put up a map of the four islands, which was so inaccurate that Fanning couldn't see where they were. But one of the islands he recognized, Palawan, was a narrow terrain.

Fanning asked, "How many families want to buy the island?" ”

Cao Tong thought for a while and said: "As far as we know, there are currently a total of thirty-three families who want to buy the island, but the requirements are different, most families only want to buy a medium-sized island like Tanzhou or Xiaoliuqiu, and only a few families want to buy a large island, no more than five. ”

Fanning understood that most families only wanted a medium-sized island of a few thousand square kilometers.

Although Luzon is recognized by all as the best island, it is after all too large, 100,000 square kilometers, equivalent to the area of a province in later generations.

Kunzhou is also only slightly smaller than Luzon, and although many families are eager to acquire such a large area of land, they have chosen to keep a low profile due to the political risks involved.

"A-Ning, you are very familiar with Luzon Mansion, you can evaluate these four islands!" Cao Tong said to Fan Ning.

This is also the main purpose of Cao Tong to bring Fan Ning to Cao's firm, since they are all a family, then Fan Ning should be frank with the Cao family and come up with a more valuable plan.

Fan Ning smiled and said: "Last time I was in the capital, I recommended Timor Island to Cao Shi, the area of Timor Island is only slightly smaller than Ryukyu Prefecture, which is very much in line with the requirements of the Cao family. ”

Cao Ping shook his head and said: "Brother Fan said that Timor Island, we have not been there, it is too far away, and our initial consideration is to choose an island among the Luzon Islands." ”

"If it were me, I wouldn't choose the islands of Luzon, in fact, whether it is Luzon or other South Seas regions, it is too hot, I would rather choose a slightly colder place like Kunzhou."

Cao Tong suddenly remembered that the Queen Mother had hinted to herself that the Fan family would also buy the island, so where did the Fan family want to buy the island?

Thinking of this, he commented to Cao without hesitation: "Give up choosing an island near Luzon and think about it elsewhere!" ”

Cao Ping was stunned, they spent three years, five times to Luzon Mansion, each time staying for two or three months, one island by one to eliminate the islands, and finally found four more suitable islands, but now they were categorically vetoed, and they didn't even take a look, so they made a decision.

Cao Ping was extremely aggrieved in his heart, but he couldn't compete with Cao Tong, Cao Tong was his elder, and his status in the family was much higher than him.

He even hated Fanning a little, a proposal from Timor Island, which made his years of hard work go to waste.

At this time, Fan Ning also saw Cao Ping's dissatisfaction, and he smiled lightly: "There is no need to rush this matter, first approve the application, and then slowly find the island." ”

Cao Tong also realized that he was in a hurry, so he stopped mentioning the matter of buying the island, and said with a smile: "You really can't be in a hurry, let's talk about it later!" Let's go and see the fleet first. ”

The two left the business house and took a carriage to the harbor, on which Fan Ning said bluntly: "Father-in-law, I can help the Cao family, but I don't want this to cause conflicts within the Cao family, I hope that my father-in-law can communicate well with the head of the family." ”

Cao Yan sighed, "This matter is really not easy to do, Cao Ping is currently the Cao family's full responsibility for overseas, although I am his elder, but I will go to sea next year more for private purposes, the final decision is still in Cao Ping's hands, the Cao family really can't have internal conflicts for an overseas island, it is really inappropriate for me to make a hasty decision just now." ”

Fanning muttered, "Let him see other islands, maybe his mind will change." ”

"Perhaps! This matter can only be considered in the long run. ”

Fanning asked again, "Has any family applied to buy the island?" ”

"There should be, I heard that there are about ten in the first batch, but they are strictly confidential and not open to the public, the Cao family has already applied, Aning, your Fan family has also submitted it!"

Fanning didn't want to hide Cao Tong in this matter, he nodded, "I should be the first to submit, and the island I submitted has also been decided." ”

Cao Tong was immediately interested, and hurriedly said, "Where is the island?" ”

"It's far away, even farther than the southern continent, about the same size as Luzon, and legend has it that it's a place where gods live."

Cao Yan laughed, "Since there are immortals, I can't go and see it." ”

Fanning's favorite island is the North Island of New Zealand in the future, Fanning originally wanted the Zhu family to get the South Island, but the Zhu family's conditions are insufficient, so the Zhu family can only rely on the Fan family.

Now Fan Ning has a new idea, let the Cao family get the South Island, relying on the Cao family's strong military background, the development of the North Island will also be greatly convenient in the future, and now Fan Cao marries, so that the Cao family can get the South Island, which is more in line with the interests of the Fan family.

.........

On the wharf, there is a fleet of official ships that have just returned from Luzon, all of them are ten thousand stone boats, this kind of boat is also a kind of oars, it is a real long oars, there is a row of windows on both sides of the big boat, each window stretches out a large oars up to several zhang, each oar needs twenty-four people to row, a ten thousand stone boats have sixteen large oars, a total of three hundred and eighty-four oarsmen, so this fleet of twenty lucky boats, the oarsmen alone need more than 7,000 people, it really consumes a lot of manpower.

The official fleet was unloading more than 300,000 stones of rice from Luzon Province, and the wharf of Quanzhou Port was piled up like a hill, and the wharf laborers were using wheelbarrows to deliver the rice to the warehouse.

"Since this fleet doesn't need wind power, why don't you send the grain directly to Yangzhou and put it in the Quanzhou warehouse?" Cao Yan asked puzzled.

"This is a far-sea fleet, and it is too cost-effective to use them to transport them offshore, there is an offshore fleet, and it will go north after the beginning of spring next year, and this fleet will soon have to transport supplies to Luzon."

Cao Yan's eyes lit up, "Then I will also follow them to Luzon Mansion, I happened to take a good look in Luzon Mansion in the past few months, and when you go to the south, you will pick me up in Luzon Mansion." ”

"This ......."

Fanning is a little big, how can his father-in-law say that the wind is the rain, and he can leave if he wants, not that he will go to sea together in February next year.

"Father-in-law, do you want to go back and discuss it with Xiu'er?"

Cao Tong waved his hand, "I don't need to discuss it with her, this is my business, so it was decided, I will go to Luzon Mansion with this fleet." ”