Liu Laoqi predicted that a southerly wind would rise within two days, but he was conservative, and in the second half of the night on March 13, the southerly wind would rise.

It's just that there is a deviation, to be precise, southeast wind.

If the grain convoy is close to Shandong, it can have this wind direction, which is a perfect match. When you set off on the journey, the southeast wind direction is not so suitable, and the southwest is better. However, everything is difficult to complete, Zhu Yuan is just an unlucky traverser, and he is not a son of the plane who can even come to the aid of meteors during a war. Therefore, if there is a wind and you can set off, you already have to thank God for blessing.

As a result, the preparations became more and more compact.

In other words, what is the most important thing before going to sea?

Answer: Sacrifice!

The next day was March 14, and it was windy all day, but I couldn't set off immediately.

In addition to various details that are still being improved, the key one is the sacrifice. Not to mention now, even in a few hundred years, whether it is a merchant or fishing, it is indispensable to worship the gods and pray for peace.

It's already a culture.

Besides, in this era, there are many gods and goddesses sacrificed by coastal residents, including dragon kings, sea goddess Niangniang, Guanyin Bodhisattva, and some virtuous ministers and famous generals who once kept one side safe, such as Qian Biao, the king of Wuyue at the end of the Tang Dynasty.

The Navy Governor's Office and the Camp Sea Division held a special meeting for this purpose, and felt that neither one could be neglected, so it was finally decided to send officials to the nearby temples of the gods to worship separately, and before leaving, a large joint sacrifice would be carried out.

Combined sacrifice is also a common sacrificial method used in various large-scale festivals in all dynasties.

After all, the four directions of heaven and earth, wind and rain, thunder and lightning, mountains and rivers and five mountains, and the sages of the past dynasties...... If you come one by one, let alone a day, you won't be able to finish it in a month.

Back to this era, Zhu Yuan, who will always ridicule a few words about many things, did not dare to have a trace of disrespect this time, on March 14, Zhu Yuan deliberately changed into a rarely worn Zhengsanpin official hat and robe and rushed to the Guanyin Temple and Guangde Wang Temple in Dinghai City to incense.

And so it came to March 15th.

Zhu Yuan had already gotten up at the beginning of the morning, and he didn't care about anything else, so he wrapped a piece of clothing at random and rushed out of the house.

OK.

The wind continued to blow.

After breakfast, Zhu Yuan and Hua Gao converged, and came to the port outside the East Gate with two major government offices and a group of local officials. Among them, more than 200 grain ships loaded with 200,000 stone of grain have all been berthed to the periphery of the port in the past two days, and the bows of the ships are also facing outward, ready to go.

Time is tight.

According to the accurate tide timetable recently calculated by the Yinghai Division, the departure time is 7 o'clock in the morning, and it is 10:45 a.m.

It's not a matter of random picking.

Seven quarters is the peak of today's high tide, the so-called 'flat tide'. On the one hand, when the sea level is at its deepest, it can avoid unexpected situations such as stranding and hitting the reef when the ship is moving, and on the other hand, it can also allow the sea vessel to go offshore faster when the water is turning to low tide.

An altar has been set up at the foot of Zhaobao Mountain.

Except for a small number of officers who needed to be on duty and could not leave the ship, most of the officers and soldiers who were going to sea this time were lined up in front of the altar.

Liu Lian, who was also dressed in formal clothes, was responsible for presiding over the ceremony.

First of all, Hua Gao invited God.

Subsequently, Hua Gao, Wu Zhen, Zhu Yuan and other chief officials led people to offer sacrifices to the gods.

Liu Lian recites the sacrificial text.

In the solemn sound of ceremonial music, the officials of various ministries offered incense in turn, and as for the ordinary soldiers and soldiers, they could only ignore it because they did not have enough time. Then, under the altar and around it, tens of thousands of people knelt down and prayed to the gods for a safe voyage.

In the end, Hua Gao sent God.

At the end of the sacrifice, the officers and soldiers who were in charge of transporting the grain took small boats to board the ship from the shore in turn.

Zhu Yuan didn't waste any time, and took advantage of the last opportunity to continue to recruit the responsible persons, make various inquiries and explanations, and try to ensure that nothing is missing.

When the last Tianxingwei commanded Tongzhi Xia Hai and his party to board the fast oared light boat bound for the flagship, the time was about to be six o'clock.

Zhu Yuan, Hua Gao and a group of generals stood together on a long causeway with the best view on the wharf outside the east gate, and waited for a moment, I don't know if it was an illusion, the tide that had been surging before seemed to stop instantly, and the sound of the horn also sounded on time, and there were faint voices of people coming from one after another.

"Open-ship-huh-"

"Open-ship-huh-"

"Open-ship-huh-"

Between the gaps in the mast, it can be vaguely seen that the front row of large ships started first, followed by the second and third groups......

Zhu Yuan looked at the distant scene, and a series of accurate numbers flashed in his mind.

This time to the sea.

Total population: 13,306.

Among them, there are about 3,000 officers and soldiers of Tianxing Guard, and about 7,000 boatmen, guides, officials, medical officers, etc.

The extra 3,000 people were temporarily arranged by Zhu Yuan in the past two days.

Because of the letter from Huang Chen, the commander of Huai'anwei the day before yesterday, Zhu Yuan decided that the Navy Governor's Office would personally take over the eight lighthouse ports between Mingzhou and Jiaozhou, including Haizhou, Rizhao, Yancheng, Baoshan, and Hai'an.

The manpower of the two major yamen is limited, even if Zhu Yuan forcibly allocates 1,500 of the 2,000 pro-army that Lao Zhu gave him despite the opposition of the people around him, he can still only squeeze out 3,000 people, and Zuo Qi, who has been with him for a long time, was also sent out by Zhu Yuan.

Eight lighthouse ports, the largest number of planned garrisons, that is, the later Lianyungang.

Because Haizhou is the first deep-water seaport that is very suitable for docking after the grain fleet has passed the long shallow area between the Changhuai estuary, 500 people have been specially dispatched, plus the local area will also be somewhat replenished with some manpower, and there will be a thousand households in Haizhou under the Navy Governor's Office, which happens to be led by Zuo Qi.

Outside of Haizhou, the other seven lighthouse ports can only be divided into two or three hundred people.

was forced to make this arrangement in advance, and Zhu Yuan had no complaints about Huang Chen. 3,000 people, eight teams, just go through the eight first-aid sea routes in the plan, and for this reason, each team is also equipped with a battalion sea officer.

There is only one person, which doesn't seem to be much, and it was also squeezed out by Zhu Yuan.

When he first came to Mingzhou, Lao Zhu selected, as well as Liu Lian from the Taishi Academy and the Ministry of Rites, the two parts of the officials, a total of less than 60 people. Next, each batch of grain convoys had to be equipped with 10 people, and then 8 were allocated to the eight lighthouse ports, and in the blink of an eye, there were 38 less.

In a recent letter, Zhu Yuan has asked Lao Zhu for people again, and he also plans to recruit some on his side, otherwise, when everyone who should be sent out will be sent out, and Yinghai Si will be paralyzed.

After all, Zhu Yuan has to do more than just transport grain.

With the first batch of grain ships going to sea, the other two batches only need to be done step by step, and next, there is another big plan of the Yinghai Division.

Seeing the big from the small, this is also a portrayal of the fact that there are many people in Mingzhou, but it is not enough to use manpower.

If possible, Zhu Yuan even wanted to send out some of the girls in his back house, these women were unwittingly instilled with a lot of new knowledge by their own petty officials, and their knowledge was no worse than the officials trained by Zhu Yuan like a duck during this time.

It's a pity that it would be too rebellious to do so.

Offend public decency!

Vulgarity!

Zhu Yuan can only sigh, a good half of the sky, just because of the rules of this era, collapsed!

This was followed by sea vessels, with a total of 318 vessels.

In order to ensure the safe arrival of the first batch of grain ships to the greatest extent, these are a group of ships in the best condition carefully selected by Zhu Yuan, as well as some new ships that have only recently been built.

Among them, there are a total of 271 key grain ships, carrying 200,000 stones.

And not counting the daily rations of the officers and soldiers.

Zhu Yuan has studied in detail many processes of shipping in the Yuan court, including various shady methods of embezzlement of ink. In order to reduce fraud, the separation of food shipments from food rations is one of the preventive measures.

Zhu Yuan still provided two liters of rice per person per day, and with the most lenient consideration, he gave 10,000 people a month's worth of food and 9,000 stones. Of course, under ideal external conditions, the fleet can reach Shandong in ten years or even less, and then it only needs to consume 2,000 stone of grain.

The excess still has to be handed over.

As for the additional 3,000 people who were temporarily dispatched, they each brought one month's rations, and the local government subsequently paid for them.

Zhu Yuan has already given it to people, and he has tacitly assumed the responsibility of coastal defense, and it is unreasonable for the localities to refuse to pay for food.

In addition to a total of 271 grain ships, Tianxingwei has 8 full-time escort ships of 1,000 people, the flagship is a 2,000 material ship on which Xia Hai is riding, and there are two other 1,000 material ships and 5 500 material sea ships, which does not seem to be much, but with the other 2,000 officers and soldiers directly stationed on the grain ship, in this era, unless they encounter another national-level naval fleet, no one dares to make up their minds easily.

The fact is that even the Yuan court in the north, after losing Shandong, no longer has much naval strength.

Finally, 39 seagoing vessels of various types with a maximum of 1,000 materials and a minimum of 500 materials will be brought to eight lighthouse harbors by an additional 3,000 people.

Thinking about these things in my mind, I unconsciously stood on the causeway for a long time.

Seeing that the last batch of sea ships were also slowly leaving, Zhu Yuan looked at the tiger squatting mountain next to Zhaobao Mountain, which was like a crouching tiger, and remembered a poem describing the Yuan Court's sea grain transportation in many materials collected in these days, and couldn't help but read it softly.

"The dragon is the sea, and the tiger squats under the mountain to calm the tide."

"Knock on the sail and turn the rudder together, and I don't see the ship in front of me crossing the reef."

"The big star is bright and the sky is bright, and the name of the general cao is written on the yellow flag."

"I wish to have a good wind for three or four days, and urge the Spring Festival to Yanjing as soon as possible."

At the end of the reading, Zhu Yuan smiled and muttered to himself: "You don't need to go to Yanjing, just go to Shandong." ”

A hand on his shoulder came over, and it was Hua Gao's voice: "Come back, the wind is getting stronger." ”

Zhu Yuan nodded.

I wanted to turn around, only to find that my legs were a little stiff.

Standing for too long.

Hua Gao was keenly aware of it, grabbed it, and hurriedly ordered the sack girl beside Zhu Yuan and Zhao Xu not far away, and regretted his carelessness, just now he also watched the fleet leave and forgot for a while, and let the little ancestor stand here for so long.

Waiting for Zhu Yuan to be helped to sit in a sedan chair on the shore and go to the city, Hua Gao didn't want to go back for a while, waved his hand and signaled Wu Zhen, Liu Lian and other generals to go to the left officials to get busy, and he continued to stand on the causeway, looking at the farther and farther fleet.

Looking back on the past month or so, Huagao is the most emotional.

Hua Gao did not forget that his father-in-law originally planned for him to preside over shipping matters.

I can't help but imagine, if I hadn't just left the little boy and came to Mingzhou by myself, what would I do?

The first is, of course, to raise ships.

However, without that little boy, there would be no current Navy Governor's Office, there would be no Yinghai Division, and there would not be Wu Zhen and Zhang Cundao, he brought thousands of people over, and in order to compete for the southern line to capture the sea ships, he would inevitably have to quarrel with a group of proud soldiers and fierce generals in the south.

After all, they will definitely not send the ship easily, and they may even quarrel with the lord.

Ready-made captured ships are certainly not enough, but also shipbuilding.

Hua Gao was born as a fisherman, but he didn't know much about shipbuilding, not to mention anything else, just the initial collection of a large number of ready-made dry timber, he felt that he could not have thought of such a comprehensive timber raising plan, let alone the shipbuilding and ship repair production area that was rapidly spread out on the banks of the Yongjiang River.

Therefore, it was just a matter of the ships used to go to sea, and he felt that he could not make up for it without tossing for two or three months.

As for manpower.

Fang Guozhen's old department, where it is so easy to reassemble. There were also coastal fishermen, who had just come over at that time, but he heard Xue Shu say with his own ears that the fishermen who heard the news had begun to flee in large numbers.

How did the little boy do it?

Hua Gao could see that just a sufficient supply of food had eliminated the resistance of a large number of soldiers and civilians to shipping. At the same time, the preferential treatment of tax exemption for those participating in the sea has also attracted many fishermen who were worried about taking the initiative to serve. In this regard, he may be able to sit down, but, if there is no reference at all, he feels that he will not do this, and he is more likely to follow the old rules, forcibly pull the strong ding, and then, it will drag on for a few months.

Although it is more expensive to supply enough food, if it drags on for a few months, it is not difficult to imagine that the cost will only increase.

And the pirates.

This is not a big problem, but in just over a month, at least in the sea off Minzhou, there are no pirates who can interfere with shipping.

As for the rest, sending people all the way north to carry out surveying and mapping, teaching the battalion sea commanders and naval officers and sailors all kinds of maritime knowledge, building a system of navigation lighthouses, collecting money, ships and manpower from maritime merchants, as well as the towering gantry crane, the precise sea map, and even the occasional penicillium therapy without doing a good job, can pull back a person who has stepped into the palace of Hades with half a foot in it, and so on, which is completely beyond his knowledge.

Hua Gao can imagine that maybe those onlookers who are always unaccustomed to Xiao Hanlin in private will say that his own lord indulges that little boy like a doting son, which will make him so handy and smooth, but, think about it separately, if he Hua Gao can propose this series of clever measures, won't the Lord's Guild support him?

Yes, I will definitely support it.

However, he couldn't mention these things at all, because he didn't have this talent, and he didn't have Xiao Hanlin's unheard of brilliant knowledge, and he was sure that there were few people in the Manchu Dynasty...... No, no one can do it.

All in all, Hua Gao felt that if he was given full responsibility for transporting grain, he could send the first batch of grain ships after the summer harvest and arrive safely in Shandong, and he could go to the main bus with his head and chest up.

However, it only took a little more than a month for a certain young boy to send the first batch of grain ships from coming to Mingzhou.

Hua Gao could even imagine that even if there was a problem with this batch of grain ships, it would not affect Zhu Yuan's merits at all.

Because, in just one month, the little boy has built a complete set of complete measures that can transport grain by sea without interruption, from ship supply, manpower arrangement, to pathfinding and navigation, and accidental rescue, anyone, as long as he is not too stupid, has seen his previous arrangements, can sketch a complete picture of shipping from Mingzhou to Jiaozhou in his mind.

Then I will think, this thing is too simple, I can do it.

Of course you can!

The road is paved, lift your feet, and walk.

Thinking about it, Hua Gao remembered the little boy's words again.

Send 500 years of national honor.

If this great talent, if the lord of his own family can consistently reuse it and create the Ming Dynasty for 500 years, what is the difficulty?