Wei Chengfeng built a mansion for Zhao Bufan in Dongxian Harbor with a sea view, which is not only wide in area, but also on higher ground, standing on the attic and looking out, you can see the blue sea and blue sky, and you can also take in the prosperous Dongxian Harbor, which really took a lot of thought.

What Zhao Bufan didn't expect was that Wei Chengfeng and others had extraordinary knowledge because of their perennial overseas trade, and the style of this house was also quite peculiar, in addition to the traditional architectural style of the Great Song Dynasty, it also slightly integrated the architectural styles from the Great Food Country and the Western country, and the mix and match seemed to be natural, and the ingenuity of the conception was breathtaking, obviously from the hands of well-informed architectural masters.

Zhao Bufan was very satisfied after coming here, and asked Wei Chengfeng who the designer was, only to know that this was completed with the assistance of a big food country merchant, and the merchant had already returned to his hometown by boat after the design was completed, and it was difficult to say whether he would come back in the future.

This kind of caravan along the Maritime Silk Road took great risks, but there were also terrible profits, sometimes the gross profit could reach more than ten times, or even hundreds of times, and the vast majority of people would return to their hometowns to live a prosperous life after a trip and a huge fortune, and only a very small number of large families or adventurous people would continue to trade and trade.

Therefore, the possibility of this big food country merchant coming to Cangzhou again is very low.

Zhu Lian learned a lot of stories on the sea from Wei Chengfeng, and faintly rose a yearning for the ocean, and his beautiful eyes were full of longing.

"Commander Wei, do we have an ocean-going fleet in Dongxian Harbor now?"

Wei Chengfeng looked at Zhao Bufan with a smile, and said proudly: "There is an ocean-going caravan composed of ten giant warships and seven merchant ships, which has been sailing for more than half a year, and it is expected that we should be able to return next spring. ”

Zhao Bufan couldn't stop laughing when he heard this, and said with a high-spirited smile: "Then when will the second ocean-going fleet be formed? I recently destroyed Wanhualou, but I just sent you a huge amount of wealth, won't you tell me enough?"

Wei Chengfeng smiled happily and nodded again and again: "Little prince, four layers of the money we have allocated from Juxianzhuang have been invested in the construction of Dongxian Port, and the remaining six layers have all been invested in the construction of the second ocean-going fleet, and the government-run shipyard in Dengzhou replied that it will be able to deliver the ship by next summer at the latest." ”

Zhu Lian was speechless when he heard it: "You have already spent the money so quickly?"

"This ......" Wei Chengfeng was a little embarrassed by the question, and said helplessly: "Back to the princess, this development of a port, spending money is indeed very fast, but it is useless to save money, only by investing in development as soon as possible, can we seek greater benefits." ”

"Oh, I see!"

Zhu Lian didn't understand these things, although he replied, but in fact he didn't understand anything.

Zhao Bufan looked at her pretending to understand, shook his head funny, did not dismantle her, and asked instead: "Chengfeng, the profits of this shipbuilding are a lot, why don't we build a shipyard ourselves, so that we can not only save costs, but also undertake some shipbuilding business." ”

Wei Chengfeng shook his head again and again when he heard this, and sighed: " Little Wang Ye does not know, we also have a small shipyard, weekdays are also open to the public, the production of some small boats and fishing boats can be, but in order to create a new type of ocean-going vessels, we have to invest millions of dollars in the shipyard to have production capacity, and we do not have the latest drawings and process values, if you build a relatively backward technology of sea vessels, the sale price is relatively low, the profit is not high, but also does not meet the strategy of the prince to build Dongxian Port, in the matter of shipbuilding, private shipyards have always only done inland waterway business, sea ships are monopolized by government shipyards。 ”

"Then forget it, everything will be done according to the rules!"

Zhao Bufan chose to give up, he didn't want to shake the economic system of the Great Song Dynasty too much now, many things were involved in the whole body, and he was not willing to take this huge risk unless he had to.

After that, he lived in Dongxian Harbor peacefully, except for occasionally going to see the training of their intelligence battalion, every day is to read books, practice martial arts, and also plan for next year's Northern Expedition, and in the evening, he will take Zhu Lian to the beach by the sea for a walk, and quietly listen to the ebb and flow of the tide with the sunset.

Five days later, Hu Sanniang rushed over from Juxianzhuang with thirty-six Feifengwei.

Zhao Bufan was very happy, and personally took Zhu Lian and Fang Baihua to greet him outside the mansion, he didn't think that he had just met, and before he had time to greet him, Hu Sanniang said with guilt on his face: "Brother Bufan, Xue Ling is lost!"

"Lost?"

Zhao Bufan was incredulous, and his whole body froze in place.

"How can a good living person be lost?"

Hu Sanniang looked very self-blaming, didn't dare to look at Zhao Bufan's eyes, lowered her head and said, "I'm sorry, I really can't stop Xue Ling, her martial arts are too high." ”

Zhao Bufan frowned: "What do you mean?"

Hu Sanniang sighed, and her tone was very helpless: "Earlier, we went north first, everything was going well, but when I didn't want to go to Hejian Mansion, Xue Ling suddenly found that there was a master of Western Xia following, and Xue Ling seemed to have a deep grudge against this master of Western Xia, so she was stimulated to fall ill on the spot, and then chased after the person like crazy, I couldn't stop her." ”

"Bufan, what can I do about this?" Zhu Lian asked anxiously.

Zhao Bufan smiled bitterly: "What can I do? Xue Ling's martial arts are so high, and she doesn't recognize her six relatives, except for me and your father, who can calm her down? Now that the Northern Expedition is imminent, I can't get out, and my father-in-law is in the capital." ”

Hu Sanniang hurriedly continued: "Brother Fan, Zhang Jiaotou has ordered the people of Juxianzhuang to pay attention to it as much as possible, and Shang Kunyang also returned to the beggar gang, saying that he wanted to mobilize his gang to find it. ”

"That's fine, for the time being, wait until they find Xue Ling's traces. ”

Zhao Bufan's mood became not very good, and he hastily settled Hu Sanniang and Fei Fengwei, and walked to the study alone, intending to continue to improve his strategic deployment, although he had already made a simple allocation of troops when he was in Jiangnan earlier, and all troops and horses were now assembled in a predetermined position, that is to say, the general route of the troops had been set, but the specific strategic deployment had not been decided after all.

After all, the stakes of this Northern Expedition are very high, and there is really no room for mistakes.

If it suffers a fiasco, the elite soldiers and horses of the Great Song Dynasty will lose at least one-third, even with the financial and material resources of the Great Song Dynasty, it will be at least five or six years to slow down, after all, the elite soldiers can not be trained in a year and a half, and the weapons and equipment can not be replenished in three or five months.

Most importantly, this is also the first time he has commanded such a super-large-scale operation, although in the past few years, he has speculated countless times about what to do in the Northern Expedition, but when it comes, it is not as simple as imagined, a total of 400,000 people are in the hands of life and death, bringing mountains of pressure.

He deeply knew that if he made a mistake, it was likely that in just a few days, these 400,000 people would turn into a sea of corpses and blood, and the entire Great Song Dynasty would be covered with snow-white paper, and he would also become a sinner of the Great Song Dynasty.

Therefore, he did not make a specific strategic deployment for a long time, until he came to Dongxian Port in the past few days, he gradually calmed down, put aside all distracting thoughts, and then gradually began to draw a specific concept, and devoted himself to the Northern Expedition next year, and the plan he had been thinking about for many years gradually became a military deployment map.

At this moment, he quietly walked into the study, locked the door with his backhand, and slowly walked to the table in front of him.

Suddenly, his eyes froze.

Huh, what's wrong with the position of the chair? Who came into my study?

Am I not not allowing anyone to come in?

In an instant, Zhao Bufan's face changed, and he walked quickly to the table, looking at the messy maps and annotations in a daze.

Fuck! Someone stole my military deployment map!

"I'm the !!! of his ancestors for eighteen generations"

Zhao Bufan felt angry like never before, angry that he hadn't had for many years, and he couldn't stop scolding because he was rarely rude.

Soon, Zhu Lian and Hua Sanniang heard his roar and hurriedly rushed into the study.

Seeing him sitting on the chair with a blushing face, and the two looked at each other, Zhu Lian couldn't help but ask, "What's wrong?

Zhao Bufan took a deep breath and looked at Zhu Lian angrily.

"Lian'er, didn't I say that no one is allowed to come in, not allowed to come in! The key to this study is only for you and me, what's going on?"

Zhu Lian's eyes widened in astonishment: "Did you lose something?"

Zhao Bufan was so angry that he couldn't help but say angrily: "Important? Is military deployment important? If my deployment map falls into the hands of the Liao people, then the Liao people can almost immediately know where our troops and horses are gathered, who are the generals leading the troops, how many troops there are, what are the types of troops, do you say it is important? There is even a Northern Expedition strategy that I have been planning for many years, do you say it is important?"

"This ......"

Zhu Lian panicked instantly, anxious, and ashamed, his beautiful face was twisted into a ball, and he was almost about to cry.

"Extraordinary, I'm sorry! I just thought that your study hadn't been cleaned for several days, so I asked the henchman girl arranged by Wei Chengfeng to clean it for you, I thought she was Wei Chengfeng's henchman, so I didn't think much about it, and I didn't know that there was such an important thing hidden in your study. ”

"What's the point of explaining, what can be saved? You don't have long ears? Didn't I tell you again and again that no one should be allowed to enter my study, and you should all be on the sidelines? If you do this, you may bury the lives of 400,000 troops at any time, you ......"

Zhao Bufan was so angry that he scolded loudly, but seeing Zhu Lian pursing his lips and holding back his tears, he couldn't bear to continue to scold, knowing that scolding was useless, he sighed heavily: "Little Sister Hu, you quickly send Fei Fengwei to control everyone in the mansion for me, and then send someone to Wei Chengfeng to let him quickly martial law Dongxiangang, this military deployment map must not be lost." ”

"Good!"

Hu Sanniang didn't care about saying more, so she answered, turned around and ran out.

At this time, Zhu Lian was already a little choked, looked at the angry Zhao Bufan, and said aggrievedly: "Can it be redeployed?"

Zhao Bufan looked at her, and couldn't bear to scold her again, but he couldn't stop worrying in his heart, shook his head and said: "It's too late, this war involves the three major areas of Hedong Road, Hebei West Road, and Hebei East Road.

Lian'er, this 400,000 army doesn't say a word to turn to the right, everyone can turn to the right, and the military resources and food are not to say that they will go east, then they can go east immediately, it is already winter, and there will be a northern expedition in two or three months.

Not to mention anything else, just the logistics materials, if you want to change now, then you must immediately report to the capital to Cai Jing, and then wait for Cai Jing to convene all departments and governments to coordinate, and then send people one by one to recover the armor materials that have been transported to the halfway, and even redistribute them before sending them to various places, so come and go, it is often thousands of miles away, people walk with their feet, not with wings, do you understand?"