Twenty large sea ships are certainly not enough for large-scale commercial transportation, but they should be used as the first exploration.

Liu Ye lowered his head and thought about it.

"Your Majesty may want more, and Your Majesty still wants to go to many places, twenty large sea ships should not be enough, but the first use should be enough......"

"The first time is absolutely enough, such a big sea ship, how many tens of millions of catties of goods can carry?"

Cheng Yu looked at the huge sea ship and said with a smile: "We will try to make it as big as possible, so that we can bring more goods and food, at that time, even if the Great Qin Kingdom is thousands of miles away, it will definitely be able to arrive smoothly As for the more sea ships that His Majesty needs, I will also find a way to speed up the progress."

By the end of the year, I will deliver another thirty to forty ships to form a second merchant fleet, and the number of ships should be fine, and there will be no problem with the sailors, and there are many people here who are familiar with water and ships, and they can be used with a little practice, but on the vast sea, if there are not enough experienced people to discern the direction, it will be very problematic.

You'd better talk to Your Majesty when you go back, I heard people with sailing experience here say that it's very common to get lost at sea, and when the weather is fine, you can still tell the direction, once it's cloudy, if you don't drive on the shore, it will be very dangerous, you see if there is any solution on Your Majesty's side. ”

"Can Your Majesty solve this kind of thing?"

Liu Ye smiled and said: "Your Majesty is the emperor and the Son of Heaven, why bother Your Majesty with this kind of thing?" ”

"Don't say it, how many problems we have encountered are solutions that His Majesty has come up with."

Cheng Yu said with a smile: "The structure of this pointed bottom sea ship is required by His Majesty, and we didn't think this thing was anything powerful at first, but then I tried it and found that this structure is really powerful, the hull is very stable, and it can resist wind and waves. ”

Liu Ye thought about the things he heard in Luoyang, including the legendary story of Liu Bei's salt making in Liangzhou, etc., one by one, it seems that it really started from Liu Bei's side, not to mention the current Royal Gongqiao Research Institute, which is also Liu Bei's hard work.

Perhaps, he really has a way?

With some ideas, after completing his business trip in Yangzhou, Liu Ye took a boat from the port of Wujun and continued southward, sailing all the way along the coastline to the direction of Rinan County, and arrived at Rinan County in March of the second year of Zhenguan.

After landing at the northern port of Rinan County, Liu Ye quickly went to see Fa Zheng, and when he arrived at the county office, Fa Zheng just sent away a group of foreign merchants, chatting and laughing with them at the gate of the county government, and when he saw Liu Ye arrive, he hurriedly went out to greet him.

"Rinan County is law-abiding and upright, welcome angels!"

"It doesn't matter."

Liu Ye looked at Fa Zheng with a smile: "You are worthy of being your Majesty's proud disciple, this time your Majesty's proposals were taken to a formal meeting by Your Majesty to discuss with us, and a lot of things were discussed, and many people praised your suggestion, and Your Majesty was even more happy." ”

"In this way, it is very satisfying to be a courtier."

Fa Zheng smiled: "Then about this matter, how does Your Majesty plan to advance it?" ”

"It is divided into two ends, and the household department and the Shaofu are advancing separately."

Liu Ye said: "Because the Tiegui Household Department is in charge of Shu Jin and the Shaofu is in charge, the Household Department must also be involved in this matter, and the Household Department also has its own opinions. ”

Liu Ye said and told Fa Zheng Zhen Yan's opinion on this matter, Fa Zheng thought about it and felt that it made sense.

"Indeed, the steel of my Han Kingdom is indeed the best in the world, even the iron of the cast iron pot is very good, you can't just sell it to outsiders, so as not to make them into blades, what Zhen Butang said is reasonable, I agree."

"That's for the best."

Liu Ye said with a smile: "In addition, regarding these two things, Your Majesty thinks that we can sell these merchants some things they need, but more importantly, we must also master the route to their country, take the initiative to sell things, sell more things, and sell things directly to those who need them." ”

Liu Ye also told Fa Zheng the news that Liu Bei was going to organize a caravan of sea ships to go to the home country of these foreign merchants, and told him that the sea ship team to the Great Qin Kingdom would be ready in the middle of the year, and at the earliest, he would be ready to set off for the Great Qin Kingdom in the second half of the year to explore. ”

"I'll recruit reliable people to help the fleet move."

Fa Zheng said: "We don't understand the matter of navigation, so we have to find a reliable person to inquire carefully, if you are not careful, the ship will be destroyed and people will die, no matter how many people you go to and how many things you carry, you will sink into the sea, and there is absolutely no chance of survival, so you must be cautious." ”

Liu Ye nodded and agreed.

The two talked about navigation for a while, and Liu Ye suddenly asked about something he saw in the port before.

"When I was in the port, I noticed that there were soldiers carrying a group of hundreds of prisoners of war on board, each of whom was locked with ropes, what was this doing?"

"Oh, that's a native captive captured in battle, and it's going to be sent to Jiaozhi County."

Fa Zheng said with a smile: "Jiaozhi County is now the place where these prisoners of war are most needed in the entire Jiaozhou, and they are also willing to bid, so we will give priority to sending prisoners of war to Jiaozhi County, and we can also make a sum of money to subsidize the use of the county and share the worries of the court and Your Majesty." ”

"And this kind of thing?"

Liu Ye was curious: "Who is buying these natives?" Were these natives captured by the army dispatched by Ninan County? Did Your Majesty agree? ”

"His Majesty and the Privy Council know about it."

Fa Zheng nodded and said: "This matter was actually a helpless move at the beginning, although the district company died after recovering Xianglin County before, the rest of the natives still insisted on making trouble, often attacking the county seat and farms, making it very difficult for my officials and people.

Its people are very cunning, the army is not there to attack, the army is to dodge, the mountains are high and the road is far away, the jungle is deep, the army is easy to get lost in the jungle, and the natives live scattered, even if they are lucky, they find the natives settlement, and they can only destroy more than 200 natives in a sortie.

Later, we felt that this was not the way to go in the long run, so we thought of capturing prisoners of war as slaves and selling them to those who needed them, so as to form a long-term exchange of interests, so as to gather more people to take the initiative to arrest the natives and sell them, so that we could achieve the good effect of killing two birds with one stone.

Now it seems that the effect is really good, except for the government side will send a part of the county soldiers, the other parts are locals, and some local families and even individuals will join the arrest team, form a joint arrest team, act together, and then the money from the sale of the captured natives will be divided together. ”

"How?"

"How?"

"No matter how many people the government dispatches, it will always account for 30%."

Fa Zheng said: "And if there is no arrest certificate issued by the government, it is not allowed to arrest the natives privately, otherwise they will be severely punished by the government, these thirty percent is equivalent to the tax and fee to the government, as for the other seventy percent, it mainly depends on how much they have personally caught and how much they have sold, and the government will do justice to avoid internal disputes." ”

After Liu Ye heard this, he nodded again and again.

"I see, this is a good way, indeed, Your Majesty in Jiangnan is allowed to use foreigners as slaves, so in this way, these natives can not only be sold in Jiaozhi County, but also in Jingzhou and Yangzhou, so ...... Are there enough natives here? ”

"This is not a problem, at present, there are a large number of dense forests in the south and west of Ninan County that have not yet been explored, how many natives live here, we don't know, to be counted later, at present, the most important thing is to complete the order."

Fa Zheng smiled: "By the way, there is an interesting thing, where does the largest order for natives of war come from, do you know?" ”

"Where?"

"Jiaozhou Thorn History, Liu Biao."

Fa Zheng said with a smile: "Liu Yuanjun is the biggest buyer of the natives of Rinan County at the moment, and one person placed an order for six hundred natives, this time the joint arrest team came out with three hundred people, and only five hundred and sixteen people were captured, and there are eighty-four people who need to be arrested next time, and now the big guys are discussing the place to arrest the next out." ”

"So much?"

Liu Ye was surprised: "Does Liu Yuanjun want so many slaves?" How much land does his family have? ”

"It is said that Liu Yuanjun led fifty or sixty members of his family to go south to Jiaozhou to take up posts, and according to the provisions of the Dutian Decree, the imperial court approved a total of more than 40,000 acres of land to Liu Yuanjun and his family."

Fa Zheng said with a smile: "But because the land approved by the imperial court is undeveloped wasteland and requires a large number of people to reclaim it, Liu Yuanjun needs a huge number of slaves to reclaim these wastelands.

It is very troublesome for the Han people to be hired, Liu Yuanjun heard that we have someone here to capture the natives as slaves, so he placed an order with us, it is said that this is the first batch, because it is more difficult to reclaim wasteland, so there are many orders from the natives to be placed in the future.

Moreover, there are many officials and subordinates on Liu Yuanjun's side who have also migrated over with their families, and there is also land that needs to be reclaimed, so if there is no accident on our side, we will continue to transport natives to Jiaozhi County, and the cooperation should be long-term. ”

After hearing this, Liu Ye nodded slowly.

"I also heard that many of the officials serving in Jiaozhou have sent their clansmen to settle down in the south, and now it seems that they really need these natives, and the Renan County can still rely on the sale of natives to earn some money, and it can also drive the locals to cooperate with the government and reduce the pressure on the government, well, it is indeed a good thing."

"That's a good thing, of course."

Fa Zheng said: "Now the biggest task of the national soldiers of Ninan County is not to maintain law and order, because the locals do not have the leisure to do anything that violates the law, and everyone, as long as they have the ability, is thinking about how to catch more natives."

The natives are brave, not easy to deal with, they have to attack when they encounter them, they have to tame them when they are caught, these will take some time, but the profits are quite huge, in just a few months, there have been several families who have made a lot of money by selling the natives, and now they are discussing with the government to go to the dense forests further west to find the natives. ”

"It was a windfall."

Liu Ye said with a smile: "In the past, the government was worried about the invasion of the natives, but now there is no need to worry about the attack of the natives, but it is worried about whether the number of natives is enough...... Having said that, in such a vast area of Jiaozhou, can all these natives succeed in reclamation? ”

"I guess not."

Fa Zheng shook his head: "The county government made an estimate before, and it is estimated that there are only about five or six hundred thousand natives in this area, and I don't know how many are further south and west, and even if all these five or six hundred thousand natives are captured as slaves, it is estimated that they will not be able to reclaim the wasteland of the entire Jiaozhi County." ”

"That'...... What if there are not enough people? ”

"Then we can only hand over the state to arrest the natives."

Fa Zheng said: "In this matter, I think all counties must contribute, the natives are not only in Rinan County, Jiuzhen County, Hepu County, Nanhai County, and Jiaozhi County, there are also many natives, including the south of Jingzhou, as well as Yangzhou, that is also a large number of natives, bandits, according to the imperial court decree, can be slaves, used for farming." ”

"Are there so many natives?"

"There really is."

Fa Zheng said solemnly: "The angel doesn't know, in fact, I only realized this matter after I arrived in Rinan County, our so-called wild land is just too far away from Luoyang, and the Han people are scarce, but there are not many natives in these places, often five or six hundred thousand, or even seven or eight hundred thousand.

A county with a population of five or six hundred thousand, even in the Central Plains, cannot be regarded as a small county, but these people are not under the control of the government and cannot pay taxes, so it will become a wild land, but if you think about it carefully, can a place where five or six hundred thousand natives can live, can it be a barren land? It's a place of anointing! ”

"This ...... It does make sense. ”

"The natives are also people, and they also need agricultural production and food."

Fa Zhengdao: "These days, I have also visited the places where the natives live, and found that these natives actually have the habit of farming, and they can also cultivate the land, but the farming skills are very poor, but despite this, they can survive five or six hundred thousand people.

This fully proves that Ilnan County is not a wild land, but a place that has not been effectively controlled, and if Ilnan County, including Jiuzhen County, can be effectively controlled, then in fact, more than a million people will cultivate the land here and carry out agricultural production.

In time, these remote places can even produce a large amount of grain comparable to that of Zhongyuan Prefecture, and at that time, whether it is Rinan County or Jiuzhen County, is it a barren land? ”

"That's true."

Liu Ye stroked his beard and said slowly: "If you can live the natives, then you can live the Han people, the real barren land should be a place where even the natives can't live, if the natives can survive and reproduce here by agricultural production, it proves that the Han people can live better here!" I must report this matter to the imperial court and let the imperial court continue to adhere to the policy! ”

"Then thank you Angel."

Fa Zheng was overjoyed and said: "Now there is no shortage of money in Rinan County, there is a shortage of people, Han people, farmers, merchants, soldiers, and capable officials, as long as you can win enough Han people for Rinan County, then I believe that Rinan County will be able to give the court and Your Majesty a big surprise within five years." ”

(End of chapter)