A light breeze blew across Yang Yan's forehead, bringing a strong salty and wet smell. The air and sea sparkle in the early morning sun. In the distance, the boundless horizon connects the azure waters with the pale blue sky.

Yang Yan turned around and looked at the various ships of all sizes neatly moored at the mouth of the alley, the flags were waving, and the masts of the forest almost obscured the sky in front of him.

After capturing Xinzhou and Huizhou, Yang Yan immediately set out for Guangzhou to discuss with Li Gongzuo, who was stationed in Guangzhou, about marching by sea. When he arrived at the boundary of Guangzhou, Yang Yan did not even enter the city of Guangzhou, and the first stop was to rush to Tuen Mun, where the navy was stationed, to inspect the navy, and now he is accompanied by Li Gongzuo to take a large Shenzhou to inspect the navy in Guangzhou.

Since the Jin army's southern invasion began, Yang Yan rushed to Lin'an. Later, with the increase in the southern invasion of the Jin army, the men and horses also left Guangzhou one after another and went to the front line of Longxing Mansion to resist the invasion of the Jin army. The naval forces of Liangguang and Guangzhou, even the military affairs of Guangzhou were handed over to Li Gongzuo to manage. Now Li Gongzuo's official position is to be the head of the water army of Guangnan East Road and West Road, and the supervisor of Guangzhou Soldiers and Horses.

Before Yang Yan left Guangzhou, among the three major pirates in the South China Sea, Meng Heng, the most powerful, was wiped out, and Meng Heng himself died in the war. The other two pirates, Xu Hai and Meng Lanjun, both surrendered to the Great Song Dynasty and are now generals under Li Gongzuo. The former situation of pirates in the southern sea is finally gone. The safety of merchant ships going to sea has also increased considerably.

However, although the large pirate groups have been wiped out, there are still many small-scale pirate gangs, most of which are three or four hundred people and more than ten ships, and as few as more than 100 people, two or three ships, as many as dozens. In the past, they were all attached to the three pirates, but now the three pirates no longer exist, and they have all begun to operate independently, still operating at sea from time to time, and do not dare to rob small-scale merchant ships against large-scale merchant fleets. After Yang Yan left, the work of completely clearing out the remnants of pirates in the South China Sea was all completed by Li Gongzuo alone.

Fortunately, Xu Hai and Meng Lanjun both surrendered to the Great Song Dynasty with scriptures, so Li Gongzuo ordered the two of them to come forward and persuade these small groups of pirates to surrender and recruit security one by one, and for the stubborn and stubborn pirates to the end, they will be requisitioned and suppressed by force, and they will not be spared.

After more than three months of effort, thirty-one small groups of pirates were recruited and fourteen were exterminated. Although it cannot be said that the pirates in the South China Sea have been eliminated by the Scriptures, at least a pirate gang of more than 100 people will definitely not exist on the surface of the South China Sea. As for those pirates with only a few dozen people, or a dozen people, it is almost impossible to completely wipe them out, and no one can do it otherwise.

However, during this period, the southern invasion of the Jin State was in full swing. After Li Bao was defeated by the Jin army in Donghai County, he first retreated to Jin Shanhai in Jiaxing Prefecture and was stationed. The Jin army landed in Pingjiang Province, and then captured Lin'an and Jiankang in succession. Li Bao led the remnants of his navy and the Zhejiang navy guarding Lin'an to the coast and went south to Guangzhou to join Li Gongzuo.

After the change in Tianlin Mansion and Zhao Chen's succession to the throne, the Guangdong region immediately responded and recognized Zhao Chen's throne. Later, Li Bao served as the envoy of Jiangnan East Road, went to Jiangzhou to take office, and left all the naval troops and warships in Guangzhou, under the command of Li Gongzuo.

After Yang Yan finished inspecting the navy, he was in the boat and discussed with Li Gongzuo. Yang Yan first asked: "Manager Li, how many warships can be dispatched in Guangnan now, and what is the combat effectiveness?" ”

Li Gongzuo said: "My lord, now there are 580 large and small warships in Guangnan, and nearly 40,000 sailors. Among them, there are six large Shenzhou, 28 small Shenzhou, 417 warships of more than 1,000 materials, and 20 tortoiseshell ships. ”

Yang Yan nodded and said, "If you let you lead the naval army to send troops from the sea to attack the Jin State naval army, and then land in the area of Jiaxing Mansion and cooperate with the army on the shore to capture Lin'an, do you think it is feasible?" ”

Li Gongzuo said: "Regarding this point, the last general has already thought about it. And for some time now, he has also been sending people to explore the strength of the Jin State Naval Army. And from my father, I also learned some about the combat effectiveness of the Jin State Naval Army. I was about to explain it to an adult. ”

Yang Yan smiled: "You can talk about it." ”

Li Gongzuo turned around and took down a map from the shelf, attached it to the table, and said while pointing at the map: "Now the total number of warships of the Jin State Navy is about 1,000, and about two or three hundred sailed into the Yangtze River from the mouth of the Yangtze River and are stationed in Jiankang Mansion. At sea there were about seven hundred to eight hundred warships. Now it is divided into two parts, one is stationed on the coast of Zhoushan Island in Qingyuan Prefecture, with about four or five hundred warships, and the other part is stationed along the coast of Sanmenwan in Taizhou, with about three hundred warships. If the troops are sent by sea, they can first land in the Fuzhou or Wenzhou area, occupy a stronghold, and then go north, first attack the Jin army fleet in Sanmenwan, if the Jin soldiers from Zhoushan Island come to help, they can set up ambushes in the area of Sancao Mountain, Tantou Mountain, and Dafo Island to ambush the reinforcements of the Jin army, and if they can annihilate the Jin army in one fell swoop. Then above the sea, you can let my Great Song Dynasty sailors cross and fly, not only can you land in Jiaxing Mansion, but you can even continue to go north, land in Shandong, and go straight into the territory of Jinguo. ”

Yang Yan nodded, looked at the map again, sighed lightly, and said, "But now that Fuzhou is in the hands of King Deng, I'm afraid I can't use Fuzhou as a stronghold." ”

Now that Zhao Chen and Zhao Kai are hanging on the sun and the moon, Li Gongzuo is naturally clear, although he uses the scriptures to express his respect for Zhao Chen as the king, but because he is a military general and a foreign minister, he doesn't dare to say anything more on the issue of the dispute between the two monarchs, but he just said: "What the last general just said, Fuzhou or Wenzhou can be, if Fuzhou can't do it, Wenzhou is located at the mouth of the Yongjia River, which can also be used as a stronghold." ”

Seeing Li Gongzuo say this, Yang Yan didn't want to continue the topic, and said: "But now that the Jin army has seven or eight hundred warships at sea, more than us, are you sure to defeat them?" ”

Speaking of the issue of war, Li Gongzuo immediately perked up and said, "This point is about to be considered. According to my father, although the combat effectiveness of the Jin Navy has improved a lot compared with before, it is still far inferior to our Great Song Dynasty, and the firearms used in naval battles are far inferior to those of our Great Song Dynasty. Although my father was defeated, it was actually because the number of troops at that time was too large and too different, and if my father could have had 300 warships under his command at that time, the result would not have been like this. Not to mention that we still have ironclad ships now. If you want to defeat the Jin State Water Army, it is not difficult, but it is just ......" Speaking of this, Li Gongzuo's face was embarrassed.

Yang Yan said: "Just what? What are the difficult places, you just say it bluntly. ”

Li Gongzuo said: "Among the current Guangnan naval army, in addition to the more than 150 warships brought by the last general, there are also more than 150 warships brought by my father. The performance, size matching, weapon assembly, and quality of the soldiers of these more than 300 warships are the best in the Great Song Dynasty, and they are also the strongest in the Quang Nam Navy at present. The second is the warships brought by Xu Hai and Meng Lanjun who surrendered, there are about more than eighty of them, the performance of the warships and the soldiers are good, but there is a lack of particularly large warships, after these months of training, they also have strong combat effectiveness. Thirdly, there were more than 70 warships and more than 130 newly surrendered pirates in Quang Nam. The combat effectiveness of this group of people is somewhat worse, and it still needs a period of training. However, the firearms in the army are only enough for the more than 300 warships, and the other warships are not enough, if there is a decisive battle with the Jin State at sea, at least 100 warships should be equipped with enough firearms, then they can win the game. ”

Yang Yan thought for a moment and said, "I will find a way to solve the matter of firearms, if all the conditions are ready, when can you start attacking." ”

Li Gongzuo said: "Everything is ready, at the latest in a month, the last general can attack from the sea, but then the land will need to cooperate with the army." ”

Yang Yan nodded again and said, "Okay, within a month, I will try my best to provide you with firearms." As for the cooperation of the troops on the shore, you don't have to worry, I will naturally make arrangements when the time comes. ”

Then the main generals in the navy, including Meng Lanjun, Xu Hai, Xu Jiang, Zheng Sihai and other generals, all came to this Shenzhou, see Yang Yan. Yang Yan also encouraged the generals. Only then did the boat dock and rush to Guangzhou.

Li Gongzuo is now also the commander of Guangzhou's soldiers and horses, usually in Guangzhou to govern the public, Tuen Mun's military affairs are managed by the deputy Zhang Yuan, Meng Lanjun and Xu Hai after the old surrender, also put their families in Guangzhou, usually live in Guangzhou, this time is to welcome Yang Yan, only came to Tuen Mun, so after the end of the inspection of Tuen Mun, everyone also went to Guangzhou with Yang Yan.

Before arriving in Guangzhou City, the newly appointed Guangnan envoy Zhao Ruyu and the transfer envoy Yue Lin led the officials of Guangzhou out of the city for ten miles to welcome Yang Yan into the city.

(After entering the city of Guangzhou, almost every house put up lanterns, set off firecrackers, greeted Yang Yan, and many people burned incense and prayed along the street.) Everyone rushed to the streets, and at one time, Yang Yan's demeanor was almost crowded on the street. Because Yang Yan rescued the soldiers in Guangzhou several times and pacified the trouble of pirates, he won the hearts of the people, and the people were grateful for Yang Yan's kindness to Guangdong, so they would be treated like this. Even Zhao Ruyu sighed on the side: Justice is at ease in the hearts of the people.

After arriving at the state office, everyone sat down, and Zhao Ruyu and Yue Lin immediately asked about the current war. Yang Yan briefly introduced to them the plan of the sea march, and then said: "Now I am afraid that the war will be protracted, so we must prepare enough money, food and materials, I came to Guangzhou this time, one is to discuss the matter of the sea march, and the other is to understand how much food and materials Guangdong can supply to the imperial court now?" ”