.“ It's here, it's here, it's here, it's here. This chapter is available online from the web [to read the book just away. Reading. With the shouts of the people, countless sails appeared on the first line of the sea and sky, although it was still far from the shore, but with countless foot strength, porters flocked to the dock, I was afraid that I would be late and did not take the work. After a while, there was a long queue.

Since Meng Heng announced the ban on the sea, there have been far fewer merchant ships entering and leaving the port of Guangzhou than usual, and it is not only the overseas businessmen who have suffered damage, but also those who rely on the wharf to buy physical strength and food, and porters have also become a new group of victims. In the days when Meng Henggang announced the ban on the sea, there was hardly a single merchant ship coming in and out, and there were many people who couldn't earn a penny in those days, and not only those foot forces and porters, but also those taverns and restaurants by the dock, there were also several that were not open for several days.

Fortunately, at this time, the government came forward to escort the merchant ships, which finally made the atmosphere in Guangzhou a little more lively, and a month and a half after the first batch of merchant ships went out of the alley, the fleet escorting the merchant ships returned to Guangzhou, and at the same time brought back more than 30 merchant ships, and finally restored a little bit of the vitality of the wharf that had become very depressed.

Many merchants saw that the first escort of the official army was not only very successful, but also protected a number of merchant ships that sailed back, and it seems that this time the government is really working hard, and it is not a perfunctory businessman. Thinking of the previous execution of pirates, the merchants could not help but re-evaluate the determination and ability of the government to eliminate pirates.

Therefore, when the envoy put up a notice to recruit the second batch of merchant ships to go to sea, this time there was no need for people to mobilize, and many merchants signed up one after another. After all, after a delay of more than a month, there are many small businesses with few reserves that cannot afford to lose. However, there are still some powerful and large merchants with more storage at this time, and they are still waiting to see what happens.

The second voyage consisted of a total of 112 merchant ships, almost twice as large as the previous one, and the Song army's navy was still under the command of Li Gongzuo, but with the experience of the previous voyage, the sailors of the merchant ships were trained before the voyage, and they were able to maintain formation during the voyage. This time he set sail with only 78 warships, and according to the experience of the previous voyage, Li Gongzuo also designed a set of sailing formations, arranging the merchant ships in a compact manner according to the large ships on the outside and the small ships on the inside, and connecting the sterns of the merchant ships with iron locks, a total of six columns, in case any ships leave the group, 60 official ships will protect the merchant ships at the outermost, and the other 18 warships will be used as a mobile fleet to deal with sudden unforeseen situations.

A month and a half later, when the fleet returned to the docks in Canton, it brought back a total of 83 merchant ships, most of which were first-time merchant ships.

However, this time the return voyage also fought with the pirates on the way, this time the pirates dispatched a fleet of about 30 ships to attack the Song army, but Li Gongzuo responded calmly, 60 warships protecting merchant ships were facing the frontal attack, and the other 18 warships were divided into two ways, from the left and right flanks of the pirate fleet, breaking the pirates. The battle took more than an hour to end, and under the near-perfect command of Li Gongzuo, the Song army sank six pirate ships and wounded more than a dozen pirate ships, only one of them was sunk, and three other official ships were injured, while four merchant ships were slightly damaged, but they could follow the fleet back to Guangzhou.

The wharf of the whole Guangzhou is boiling again, the merchants have goods coming in, the merchants have money to make, and the foot force, porters, and hotels have business to do, naturally everyone is happy, and many people also set off fireworks on the wharf, just like celebrating the New Year. All the merchant ships that returned to the sea witnessed this battle, and after returning to Guangzhou, they exaggerated the Song army's defeat of the pirates, so the confidence of the merchants in Guangzhou in the Song army's fleet was greatly increased again. Everyone thought to themselves, maybe the era of pirates dominating the seas had come to an end.

And at this time, Yang Yan moved from Jiaozhi to Guangzhou in victory.

After signing the peace treaty with Jiaozhi, Yang Yan immediately led the Song army to withdraw from the territory of Jiaozhi and return to Jingjiang Mansion first. Xin Qiji, who was in charge of Jingjiang Mansion, led the officials of the province out of the city to greet him, at this time, the officials of the prefectures and counties of Guangnan West Road took office, and their respective administrations began to operate normally.

Yang Yan was also very happy to see this scene, Xin Qiji really had a strong ability to administer and govern the local area, and in just one year, Guangxi Road showed a prosperous scene.

Yang Yan first sent someone to escort Wangpu and his entourage to Lin'an, and then distributed the rewards obtained from Dali and Jiaozhi to the soldiers on the expedition, and then registered other things such as ivory, elephant bones, elephant skins and other things in the treasury, and then brought them back to Lin'an after pacifying the pirates in the South China Sea. The elephants he brought back were also handed over to Zhang Shiyan for training. Wei Chang also urged the craftsmen brought to speed up the transformation of the elephant's back crossbow.

Officials at all levels in Guangxi knew that Yang Yan had returned to Jingjiang Mansion victoriously, and they also came to Jingjiang Mansion to congratulate Yang Yan. Yang Yan also comforted these officials with good words, and urged them to be able to be fair to the officials, not to meet the expectations of the imperial court, and to benefit the people. A few days later, Yang Yan was still worried about the situation in Guangdong, and even said goodbye to Xin Qiji, and rushed to Guangzhou with Chen Liang, Wei Chang, Ling Xiang, Huang Mingxia and others.

When he arrived in Guangzhou, he was just in time for Li Gongzuo's fleet to return home. Therefore, as soon as Yang Yan arrived at the system, he immediately joined Zhao Qianru and invited Yue Lin, Zhao Ruyu, Chen Liang, Gao Zhen, Li Gongzuo and others to gather together to inquire about the affairs of Guangzhou during this period of time. Yue Lin and Zhao Ruyu gave a detailed explanation to Yang Yan about the things in the past few months.

Yang Yan was also very happy to see that the two escorts of the official army had been successful, and that they had defeated the pirate fleet on the way, which at least showed that the Song army had the ability to protect the merchant ships. It seems that during the time when he was not in Guangzhou, Zhao Qianru, Yue Lin, Zhao Ruyu, Li Gongzuo and others did a very good job.

When Li Gongzuo said that there had been pirates attacking the fleet during this return voyage, because this was the first time that the Song army had fought with pirates head-on at sea, Yang Yan was also very concerned about this, and immediately asked Li Gongzuo about the details of this battle.

Li Gongzuo said: "This time, the pirates only dispatched more than 30 ships in total, and as soon as they saw that the battle situation was unfavorable, they immediately retreated. The whole battle only took a little more than an hour, so according to the general, this is just a tentative attack by the pirates, probably just to test how effective our combat power is, I think they may have a big move next, and we can't take it lightly because of the success of these two voyages. ”

Yang Yan said: "Commander Li, you have sailed twice with the scriptures, and you think that we can protect how many merchant ships to go to sea at one time now." ”

Li Gongzuo said: "According to the experience of the last general's two voyages, each voyage, seventy to eighty official ships must be dispatched to defend against pirates, but eighty official ships can only protect one hundred and twelve merchant ships at most, and I am afraid that it will not work if there are more, not only because they can't protect them, but also because there are too many ships to be dispatched." ”

Zhao Ruyu said: "Yang Zhizhi, according to the lower officials, due to the success of these two voyages, the next time the merchant ships go to sea will never be less than 120, now the fleet under the command of Li has a total of 1670 large and small warships, the local navy in Guangdong has more than 50 warships, and there are 40 ships stationed on Gulang Island, so the current fleet can be divided into two groups to go to sea, which used to be once every month, but now it can be changed to once every 20 days." ”

When Yue Lin heard this, he frowned slightly, and said, "But in this way, wouldn't all the sailors be used to escort merchant ships?" So what should be done in the coastal areas of Guangdong? Isn't there a need for warships to fortify? ”

Zhao Ruyu was also very embarrassed, and said: "In the past, there were at least ten merchant ships arriving at Guangzhou every day, but now it is changed to a trip every 20 days, which is far less than the previous number of merchant ships. ”

Yang Yan said: "To provide escort for merchant ships, it was only an expedient opportunity, the ultimate goal is to completely eliminate the pirates in the South China Sea, and when the pirates are eliminated, the sea will be too peaceful, then there is no need for the official army to escort the merchant ships, so at present, it is still necessary to maintain the stability of Guangdong, I think that for the time being, according to Lord Zhao's words, the voyage will be changed to once every twenty days, if the number of warships here is insufficient, then first transfer twenty or thirty warships from the Guangxi Navy to use, and there are still troops to garrison along the coast of Guangdong." As long as we are vigilant, there should be no major problems. ”

Yue Lin said again: "Yang Zhizhi, the cost of one voyage is very large, the first two voyages to the sea, it cost nearly 10,000 yuan, according to the lower officials, it should be as discussed before, like the merchant ship that sails to charge." Otherwise, the government will not be able to afford it. ”

Zhao Qianru also said: "Yesterday, Xie Yuanqing also came to me on behalf of the merchants in Guangdong, saying that the merchants had also discussed this matter together, if the government can provide such escorts for a long time to protect their safety, they are also willing to bear the cost of the voyage, just want to ask the government to show its attitude, and determine a reasonable price for the merchants." ”