Chengde County is close to Chaohu Lake, although it is a bit far from Shouchun County.

But it has the advantage that Chengde County is close to the river, and the transportation of honeycomb coal from Shouchun can be carried by water.

Doing so can greatly reduce the time spent on the road, and at the same time, the number of transports can be greatly increased.

What's more, because of Liu Ye's relationship, Yuan Yao plans to take the layout of Chengde County first, and there is another important reason.

That is, Chengde County is close to Chaohu Lake, and Chaohu Lake has Zheng Bao and other people.

Whether it is to destroy Zheng Bao or recover Zheng Bao, Yuan Yao needs to take over Zheng Bao's water ship.

If you want to sell more honeycomb coal, although land transportation is good, the speed of land transportation is slow, and the number of one-time transportation is not enough, so it is naturally impossible for sales to rise.

And if you take water transportation, although it is very good, there are not enough water boats under Yuan Yao's command.

Of course, he has a lot of that kind of small yacht under his control, and there are more powerful boats, and there are also horses.

But these ships are not suitable for transportation.

Yachts are only used for reconnaissance and exploration, not warships. There is no female wall on the ship, and the left and right oars on the side follow the size and length of the boat, four feet and one bed.

And the horse boat is also known as the "red horse boat". The hull of the ship is generally red, and it is as fast as a galloping horse. It is a high-speed warship.

These ships were all owned by Tai Shi Ci when he was a water thief, and although Tai Shi Ci followed Yuan Yao, the ships under his command were still there, and they all stayed by the Lujiang River.

And the ship Yuan Yao wanted was the kind of big ship that was specially used for transportation, with a deep draft and enough goods to transport.

It is said that during the Three Kingdoms period, Sun Quan had a large ship called Chang'an, which could carry 3,000 people at a time.

Even if one person is one hundred and thirty catties, three thousand people have four thousand catties, nearly two tons of transportation.

If you can't get enough big ships in the pond, you can get some fighting ships, which are also called "battleships" and are warships.

This kind of ship, the ship is equipped with a three-foot-high female wall on all sides, with a hole under the half-body wall, and the oars are exposed, "five feet in the board, and a fence is built to be with the female wall, and the fence is connected to the female wall", "the inside is like a sill". "Re-arranging the enemy, there is no back, and there are golden drums on the front and back, left and right."

Originally, these ships were also under Yuan Shu's command, but there were almost no sailors under Yuan Shu's command, and these ships were still in the army, and Yuan Yao wanted to get them to transport honeycomb coal, which was obviously unlikely.

So he couldn't get a ship, and it was very difficult to build it in a short time, so Yuan Yao could only want to grab it.

Just now, Zheng Bao fell into Yuan Yao's eyes.

Zheng Bao started in Huainan with water transportation, and on the surface he was in the shipping business, transporting goods from Yangzhou to Jingzhou and Xuzhou to sell.

Secretly, Zheng Bao is the water thief who robs merchants and visitors, and there are many large transport ships under his command, and there are more than ten fighting ships, if Yuan Yao takes Zheng Bao in, these ships are enough to meet his water transportation needs.

Of course, these ships under Zheng Bao's command are not the ships of the regular army of the imperial court, and the regular warships of the imperial court are divided into two types, one is the building boat, which is the main type of ship for naval warfare.

The hull is huge, more than ten feet high. Generally, three buildings are built on the ship, "the female wall, the battle grid, the tree flags, the spear hole of the driving window, the throwing car, the stone and the iron bucket, the shape is like a city fortress." "The first floor is called Lu, the second floor is called Feilu, and the third floor is called the Bird Room."

There are also more than five floors, but it is relatively rare, in history Sun Quan once sent the general Dong Xi to "supervise the five-floor ship to live in the mouth of the water", that is, the five-story ship.

The other is the warp, also known as Meng Chong, which was the main ship type of the Han Dynasty navy. The hull is narrow and long, and it is highly maneuverable, which facilitates the conflict with enemy ships. This ship "covered the boat with raw cow skin, opened the holes in both compartments, and there were crossbow windows and spear holes on the left and right, so that the enemy could not enter, and the arrows and stones could not be defeated."

In mid-November, the temperature has turned cold, although it is not so cold, but the trees outside have already withered leaves, and only a few bare trunks remain, and the intersection is intricately beautiful.

In Chengde County, a team of businessmen came.

Several horse-drawn wagons transported a lot of honeycomb coal to arrive here, and after Yuan Yao began to expand the county seat of honeycomb coal sales, several counties around Shouchun County basically began to slowly get involved, and Chengde County was the first one.

The people here have long heard of the name of honeycomb coal.

As soon as the carriage selling honeycomb coal arrived in Chengde County, even the people under Yuan Yao didn't need to shout, and many people knew about the honeycomb coal, and took the initiative to surround it and compete to get it.

In the carriage, Yuan Yao, Tai Shici, and Liu Ye sat looking at each other.

Looking at the crowd of people outside vying to receive honeycomb coal, Yuan Yao didn't say anything, but Liu Ye was quite surprised by it.

These days, Liu Ye has a certain understanding of these coals in the mines of Bagong Mountain, and he is also extremely impressed by Yuan Yao's ability to turn coals into honeycomb coal.

An ordinary stone, something that no one throws on the ground, after Yuan Yao's hand, can have huge potential and become something that everyone grabs.

"Ziyang, you are from Chengde County, tell me about Zheng Bao's situation?"

Yuan Yao came to Chengde this time, naturally mainly to fight Zheng Bao's idea, so the purpose of bringing Liu Ye was also to explore Zheng Bao's power and strength first.

Zheng Bao is different from Chen Ce, Chen Ce is a thief on the bright side, occupying a line of heavenly canyon, if he wants to attack Chen Ce, he can only attack head-on, either he can defeat Chen Ce on the frontal battlefield, or just like Yuan Yao did last time, lure the snake out of the hole, attract Chen Ce to leave the lair, and then defeat Chen Ce.

And Zheng Bao, although secretly a gang of thieves and gangsters, but on the surface, this person is still a powerful force near Chengde, and he can be regarded as an ordinary person.

Therefore, Yuan Yao wanted to try it first to see if he could surrender the army without a fight, if he could solve Zheng Bao without doing anything, it would naturally be too good.

But if the other party doesn't know how to lift, then he has to salute first and then soldier.

"Master, Zheng Bao has a huge influence in Chengde County, this person lives in Zhengjiabao, thirty miles outside the city, has three or four thousand customers, and the people who are attached to this person are more than 10,000 people, and his subordinates not only have businesses from all walks of life, but also are in charge of Chaohu Lake, the shipping business of the Yangtze River generation, in the Huainan area, quite famous."

"Not only that, there are two more famous water thieves near Chaohu Lake, one is named Zhang Duo and the other is named Xu Gan, each of whom has thousands of people and horses, and they are the one who is in trouble. The most important thing is that these two are Zheng Bao's brothers-in-law! ”