On 25 March, Zhuang Shao's fleet returned to the river, with a smooth wind and water, much faster than when it went to the headwind.

The people left behind in the county came to the wharf to greet them, and Guoyuan also arranged a lively entrance ceremony to the city, and thousands of empty alleys in the county poured into the streets to welcome the soldiers who returned triumphantly.

The next day, Zhuang Shaoyou convened everyone to discuss the matter.

"Ladies and gentlemen, a few days ago, Goguryeo came to attack, and our army cooperated with the Xi'an Ping defenders to fight with Goguryeo for several days, which was considered a draw, and it ended without distinguishing the winner or loser. However, thanks to your excellent performance in this battle, our army was able to fight more with less, especially to defeat the enemy army on the west bank of Mazishui, killing 8,000 enemies, which can be called a great victory!

This battle is all thanks to the planning of the Chinese army division, General Tai Shici is brave and good at fighting, and the command is appropriate, and the ink command of the naval army overwhelmingly defeats the enemy naval division, and the whole army can only win by working together! No one in this room can be victorious!

Therefore, I also considered it again and again and decided that the military division Hua Xin, the cavalry battalion general Tai Shici, and the commander of the naval army Ink would be the first merit! Do you have any objections? ”

Hua Xin smiled and said: "General, his subordinates are just moving their mouths, if it weren't for the general's judgment of the situation and knowing people well, how could there be room for subordinates to play, and in the end, the raid on the enemy's granary failed, and the general was already afraid if he didn't punish him, how dare he be greedy!" ”

Tai Shici also stood up: "General, although our army won the battle on the west bank of Mazishui, it was not the work of our cavalry battalion, and the general failed to kill the enemy's main general at the end of this battle, so the cavalry battalion suffered great casualties and lost five hundred iron cavalry. ”

Ink also hurriedly got up and said: "General, my subordinates are just commanding the naval army to do their duty, and they have no good plans to defeat the enemy, and they have no miraculous feats to win, but they almost negligently affected the lives of the general and your colleagues!" As for the sailors' defeat of the enemy, it was purely a strong weapon of the ship, and his subordinates not only did not succeed, but they did, please punish the general! ”

Zhuang Shaoyou looked at the three of them excitedly, and the monstrous waves rose in his heart, and he generously stated: "How can I, Zhuang Shaoyou, be so loyal!" This is the luck of my Zhuang Shaoyou, the luck of the people, and the luck of the world! You are all good generals in the world, meritorious but not arrogant, but more than yourself, so that this general is embarrassed!

Ladies and gentlemen! In this case, General Ben decided to give the first credit to all the participants in this battle! Each person will be given five acres of land and five taels of silver! Those who have meritorious service are counted separately! The bereaved families of the dead were given 20 taels of silver and 10 acres of land! Seriously injured retirees will be given ten acres of land and ten taels of silver! ”

Guo Yuan was a little anxious when he heard this, how much does this cost? There are 8,000 soldiers who participated in the war, and it doesn't matter if they give land, there are some in southeast Liao, just register it, but give five taels of silver, a total of 40,000 taels of silver, and the dead and seriously injured get tens of thousands of taels of silver, this time the enemy is killed tens of thousands, and the reward for war merits is at least 10,000 taels, a total of 10,000 taels of silver!

Since the beginning of the freeze last winter, there has been no financial revenue, but it has been spending money, a four-masted warship will get 8,000 taels of silver, a total of four, a three-masted warship will be 4,000 taels of silver, two will be built, and Zhou Tian and Wu Liang will go south and take away 50,000 taels of silver, and there are less than 20,000 taels left in the county treasury, how can you get so much money and reward?

But now they don't dare to stand up against it no matter what, everyone is full of enthusiasm and high morale, if they splash such a basin of cold water, wouldn't they be ruining the scenery?

Everyone dispersed in high spirits, each busy with their own affairs, but Guo Yuan stayed, and said to Zhuang Shaoyou: "General, there are less than 20,000 taels of silver left in the county treasury!" ”

"What!? Why are you such a loser? Where did it go? Zhuang Shaoyou was also shocked when he heard it, isn't this fatal! I just promised to go out, and now tell me that I don't have any money? Why didn't you say it earlier?

Guo Yuan made a bitter face: "General, before the freeze last year, a total of 170,000 taels of silver were earned, and a total of 40,000 taels of silver were spent on the construction of warships, four four-masted warships, two three-dimensional warships, a total of 40,000 taels of silver, 10,000 taels of silver for the New Year, and 20,000 taels of silver for spring ploughing, and Zhou Tian and Wu Liang took away 10,000 taels of silver when they went south, and more than 10,000 taels of silver were spent on the war a few days ago, plus 10,000 taels of daily expenses in the past five months, there are less than 20,000 taels left!" ”

Zhuang Shaoyou was anxious when he heard this: "Didn't the merchants go to sea trade after the beginning of spring?" Hasn't the tax come up for so long? ”

"General, I heard about the war a few days ago, and the enthusiasm of those merchants to do business was much lower, and Xiangping thawed seven or eight days later than ours, so it delayed the progress of the trade, and now the first wave of businessmen has only gone out for ten days, and it will take at least ten days to come back, where is the time!"

Zhuang Shaoyou frowned, and thought for a long time: "Mr. Guo, first send the pensions of the dead soldiers and seriously injured retired soldiers, and wait for the rest for the time being, just say that they will be sent to them within half a month!" Let's vouch for the reputation of this general! Hurry up and send out all the merchant ships and make money for the old man! ”

…………

On the second day of April, the second spring rain of this spring fell on the land of Liaodong, moistening the seedlings in the fields.

Today is the day of the fourth thinking warship to test the waters, Zhuang Shaoyou has nothing to do, and he is in a depressed mood, so he came to observe the trial voyage and relax by the way, Mo Mei and Gongsun Linglong knew that he was in a bad mood recently, so they followed very well.

Zhuang Shaoyou is now twenty years old, eighteen years old came to the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and he has been on the battlefield for two years, and his temperament has become more mature and calm.

Since the freezing incident last winter, the relationship between Zhuang Shaoyou and the second daughter has heated up rapidly, but it has never broken through the last line of defense, Zhuang Shaoyou always tried every possible way to push down the ink eyebrows, but now there is a change, the emotional things are still natural, the moment when the overlord is the bow is wonderful, but what can be left after the end?

Zhuang Shaoyou stood on the deck, feeling the big ship sail out of the dock and into the sea, and then constantly tested various performances under the command of ink.

"Ink, how's the Four-masted Merchant Ship going? Rest assured, general! When we come back, I will urge them to start building, with the bottom of this warship, it will be much easier for merchant ships, and it is estimated that they will be able to launch a trial voyage before a month! This dock launched this ship today, and the craftsmen were very tired during this time, and the shaft rotated for two months, so I gave them five days off, and the construction started in five days, and it is expected that the trial voyage will be available in the end of the month! ”

"Hey! Zhou Tian and Wu Liang haven't come back yet, and I don't know what happened to them, if something happens, we can't reach it, it's really worrying! Zhuang Shaoyou said worriedly

The ink was not stubble because I didn't know how.

The two were silent, and after a long time, Mo Mei suddenly spoke: "Brother Shaoyou, do you see if there is a boat over there?" ”

Zhuang Shaoyou and Ink suddenly came to their senses when they heard this, and without Zhuang Shaoyou giving an order, Ink had already ordered: "Turn the course and move closer to that ship!" ”

Zhuang Shaoyou smiled: "What are you doing in such a hurry? What if it's an enemy ship? ”

Ink said indifferently: "General, it's not me blowing with you, although the ship is far away, people who have been at sea for a long time know that the ship is not small!" There is absolutely no second one who can build such a big ship in this Bohai Sea, except for our Mo family! ”

Zhuang Shaoyou shook his head and smiled, without refuting.

Half an hour later, the two ships approached, five miles, four miles, three miles, and saw clearly, it was exactly the same as this ship, it was definitely Zhou Tian and Wu Liang who came back!

Mo Mei and Gongsun Linglong both waved excitedly at the boat opposite, and there were also people on the other side waving to this side.

Seeing this, Zhuang Shaoyou suddenly thought: "Ink! By what command does the maritime fleet transmit information? ”

"Gongs and drums! One drum advances, two drums advance at full speed, three drums prepare to charge and fight, one gong retreats, two gongs retreat urgently, and three gongs are behind the enemy attack! "The ink is flowing backwards

"Hehe, although it is concise, it is too simple, and a lot of information cannot be effectively transmitted! Why don't you use flags during the day and torches at night to convey signals? You can compile a complete set of flags, and then train those soldiers to wave them with colorful flags, so that the transmission efficiency is much higher! ”

Ink listened: "Wonderful! It's amazing! The general is really a man of God! The subordinates are served! Why does it seem that the problems that have troubled us for thousands of years always seem to be easily solved in the hands of generals? ”

When Zhuang Shaoyou heard this, he smiled wryly, he was really ashamed, if only I were so powerful!

Half an hour later, the two boats met, and Zhuang Shaoyou saw Zhou Tian and Wu Liang on the opposite boat, and immediately became happy, finally coming back safely!

When the two ships returned to the dock, they also caused a sensation, there was only one that went to the trial voyage just now, and now there is an identical ship back, it must be Zhou Tian and Wu Liang who have been out for almost two months!

Everyone returned to the county government to sit down, and Guoyuan, Hua Xin, and Tai Shici also rushed to hear the news, after all, it was important to explore the road to the south this time, so everyone was very concerned.

Zhuang Shaoyou couldn't wait to ask, "How is this voyage?" ”

Zhou Tian and Wu Liang glanced at each other, and it was Wu Liang who spoke: "General, this trip to the south is indeed not smooth, but the results are amazing!" We started from the north to the south, smooth sailing, seven days to go out of the sea route of 2,000 miles, but just about to dock to explore the Yangtze River estuary when we encountered a storm, for two days in a row, the sea was rough, the hull was cracked out of a crack, fortunately not much, so urgently repaired to survive.

After the storm stopped, we found that we were lost, fortunately, there was Sinan, who was matched by Lord Mo, after repeated corrections, the last way sailed westward, and only found the land after three days, and then inquired all the way to know that it had arrived in Huiji County, so we drove the boat into the Qiantang River, spent half a month repairing the ship in Qiantang County, and then sold the goods on the ship, because this time there were not many goods, so we only earned less than 10,000 taels of gold! ”

Zhuang Shaoyou couldn't help but scold when he heard this: "Is it less than 10,000 taels of the little thing you brought?" Don't get cheap and sell well, hurry up and get to the point! ”

Wu Liang smiled: "We went to lie in Yuhang along the river to compare the price of goods, and then purchased a batch of high-quality tea in the two places, Longjing and Biluochun, as well as silk, porcelain, jade, folding fans and many other exquisite handicrafts, the silk in the south of the Yangtze River is really exquisite!" The quality is more than one grade higher than that purchased from Puyang! And the money is several times lower! In addition, I bought 2,000 pieces of rice and came back. ”

The more Zhuang Shaoyou listened, the more pleasantly surprised, if this trip was sold to the Northland, it would be a profit! However, when he heard that he was buying rice, he was a little annoyed and said, "Why don't you buy rice seeds and come back?" ”

"General, what are you doing selling rice seeds? Are you planning to grow rice in Liaodong? Will that work? Wu Liang asked a little aggrieved.

Zhuang Shaoyou also heard it, how can rice be grown in the Northeast in this era! I was used to thinking, but my face was serious and said: "I said yes, then I can!" Next time I go, be sure to buy more rice seeds and come back, we can try planting in Liaodong! If it succeeds, it's going to be a big deal! It's better than you earning hundreds of thousands of taels of silver! ”