One evening a few days after Yu Xing's envoy left, Ouyang Xuan had just come out of the improvised laboratory when he saw Xia Dagen and two people standing in his dormitory from a distance. The residences of Ouyang Xuan and other high-ranking officials of the Perak Army are also like ordinary soldiers and civilians, with earthen walls and grass roofs, and their appearance is no different. It's just that Ouyang Xuan likes to read books, and sometimes he has to deal with official business, so his windows are opened wider, and in order to prevent rain from wetting books and documents, the roof thatch should be thicker.

There are often people who come to report official business at night or even in the middle of the night, so Ouyang Xuan has long been accustomed to Xia Dagen bringing people to visit in the evening. He approached and looked at the people in the setting sun. Although these two people were dressed in brocade forging but their faces were full of dust, Ouyang Xuan only felt vaguely familiar, but he couldn't remember who these two people were for a while. Just when he was puzzled, one of the two spoke: "Brother Xuan, I am the ..... of Liuqiu Company" Ouyang Xuan patted his head, and suddenly remembered who it was.

These two people are the veterans of the caravan, and they went to Lin'an with Li Kaipeng in the first half of the year, and they were ordered to come back to report the situation. One of them also accompanied Ouyang Xuan to break through the blockade of the Xiongben bandits at the beginning of the establishment of the Thunderbolt Army, and returned to Liuliba from the fire well, but Ouyang Xuan couldn't name it. Ashamed, Ouyang Xuan hurriedly invited the two of them into the house to talk, and asked Xia Dagen to get some water. At present, the Perak Army is still in its infancy, and housing is still very tight, and ordinary soldiers and civilians are mostly a few people in one house. It's just that because he has to meet guests and handle official business at any time, Ouyang Xuan has two rooms, one is used to receive visitors, and the other is a study and bedroom. The Perak Army advocates equality, but not egalitarianism.

From the two people, it was learned that the current development momentum of the company is good, there are already 600 people, more than 40 large and small ships, including eight large and small ships. In the early stage, Li Kaipeng had asked someone to bring back a secret letter, but because he was afraid of leaking secrets, he was not very detailed in the letter, only saying that he had made extensive friends with courtiers, and had established a basis on a small island in the open sea, and had begun to do business. Ouyang Xuan only said that they had gained a firm foothold in Lin'an, and their overseas development career had begun to start. After listening to the two of them in detail, they learned that the development of Liuqiu company is extremely vigorous. In other words, Li Kaipeng is really a talent, although the Thunderbolt Army has provided him with a lot of start-up capital, and the elites and elites of the Thunderbolt Caravan are also going with him, but it is not easy to open up a career thousands of miles away.

At present, the headquarters of the company is still in Lin'an, but most of the personnel and assets are placed on Zhoushan Island in Ouyang Xuan's mouth. Of the company's 600 employees, more than 40 assisted Li Kaipeng in liaising with high-ranking officials and dignitaries — in other words, public relations. In addition to wandering around the halls and halls to find out the news, these people wandered around the homes of important ministers of the court and the central government without incident, and took the opportunity to get close to the staff, doormen, cooks, nurses, and even sedan chair drivers, but they also had a lot of useful information. It was with this information that Li Kaipeng successfully approached these dignitaries, and it was the support of the dignitaries and dignitaries that Ouyang Xuan successively obtained the official positions of Yongkang Zhijun and Chengdu Pacification Deputy Envoy.

During this time, Li Kaipeng and Jia Yidao's two doormen, Liao Yingzhong and Weng Yinglong, had a hot fight, and the two of them should meet their requirements for eating, drinking, and having fun, and became righteous brothers in the heat of wine. Making friends with the two was specially arranged by Ouyang Xuan. In the historical line that he is familiar with, after Jia Rudao becomes a powerful minister, he will indulge in lustful dogs and horses, day and night, taste elixir every day, prostitute beauty, appreciate treasures, listen to singing and dancing, fight crickets, and all political affairs are handled by these two guests. Even if Xiangyang's emergency document flew to Lin'an like snowflakes later, it could not change the leisurely days of Jia Rudao's "cricket prime minister". He lived in the mansion, and the officials of the imperial court ran to the Jia Mansion every day with documents to ask him to sign, but he indulged in lewd pleasures, where would he handle official business? Therefore, no matter how big or small things are in the court, they are all decided by Liao Yingzhong and Weng Yinglong, and all the other important ministers are just decorations.

Li Kaipeng really hates dealing with corrupt officials and traitors in his heart, but this is Brother Xuan'er's personal explanation, and he has to force a smile on his face. Before he went to Lin'an, Ouyang Xuan had a long talk with him all night, not only talking about the Daliuqiu, Xiaoliuqiu, and the Spice Islands, but also about the massive gold and silver in the Bison Continent, the Alpaca Continent, and the Kangaroo Continent in the extreme west, as well as the drought-tolerant and high-yield grain plants, and also talked about the overseas strategy related to the survival of the Perak Army, and even the success or failure of the anti-Mongolian cause. Ouyang Xuan told him that there must be sacrifices in everything that accomplishes great things. In this era of "bad money driving out good money", even if bribery and dealings are detrimental to honor and reputation, as long as it is conducive to the cause of resisting Mongolia, we must grit our teeth and continue to do it.

In addition to lobbying in Lin'an Mansion, Li Kaipeng put most of his energy on doing business, after all, although he brought a lot of money from Chongqing Mansion, if there was no input, he would be sitting on a mountain empty, not to mention that it was used to dredge up the relationship and the cost was huge, but the cost of food and clothing for hundreds of people in the company was really a lot. At present, the company has obtained a business license from the city department in charge of overseas trade in the government, and went to Quanzhou to trade according to Ouyang Xuan's requirements.

Quanzhou is the most prosperous city for overseas trade at the moment, and the most profitable of them is the trade to Tianzhu, Persia, and Dashi, which is monopolized by a large food merchant named Pu Shougeng, who has thousands of ships under his command. The trade route from Lin'an to Quanzhou was also extremely profitable, but it was also controlled by the Pu family. The Pu family is rich and rivals the country, not only in Quanzhou, but also in the DPRK. Liuqiu Company has no strength to compete with the Pu Shougeng family at the moment, so it has to let Jia Yidao and other dignitaries mediate and get a piece of the pie on this trade line, at the cost of sharing one-third of the profits. Rao is so, and the net profit of Liuqiu Company is also extremely considerable, which has the basis for rapid expansion.

In addition to these two things, another thing Li Kaipeng did was to explore overseas. Since most of the people from Shu were businessmen and soldiers, there were not many people who were proficient in navigation, and there were no people who were proficient in navigation. Therefore, the people who are currently engaged in sailing are all new recruits. It's just that overseas exploration is different from offshore sailing, and it is extremely demanding for ships and sailors, and it is difficult to recruit them. The Liuqiu Company only recruited a small number of people locally, so it had to send people to Huaidong and Shandong coastal areas to recruit and collect sea charts. At present, dozens of sailors who are skilled in long-distance voyages have been recruited, and these people come from all over the world, not only Liao, Jin, and Goryeo, but also a few wandering Japanese sailors.

The reason why Ouyang Xuan named Li Kaipeng's team Liuqiu Company is because he hopes to use Liuqiu as a base to develop overseas businesses. Ouyang Xuan told Li Kaipeng that there are big and small Liuqiu, and the big island on the other side of Quanzhou is called Daliuqiu, and the archipelago north of Daliuqiu is called Xiaoliuqiu. The reason why these two islands were chosen was because they were isolated overseas, and neither the Mongols nor the government could reach them, and the big merchants such as Pu Gengshou also considered them to be wild places and had little interest, and only the murderous bandits hid here. Ouyang Xuan knew that in fact, these two islands could be called treasure islands, especially Daliuqiu, which not only had a large amount of timber for shipbuilding, but also a large area of rich land that could be cultivated, as well as an excellent natural port. More importantly, it will become an outpost for the Perak Army to expand overseas, and it will also be the most important base for the Perak Navy.