Thank you for your kindness, thank you for your red envelopes!

After writing the 100,000-word chapter and sending someone to Chang'an in an ordinary post station, Li Chao temporarily left the matter behind. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 info He knew that his recitals were at most lifting a lid in the middle of the court.

There is still debate about how this thing is going.

Li Chao finally left Ningyuan, and in mid-May, he set off for Zhenyuan City.

The Shuofang Town Water Division dispatched more than 100 boats to carry Li Chao and the first army of tooth soldiers. Behind this army of soldiers and horses, there were nearly 300 large and small merchant ships, loaded with a large number of merchants' goods to Zhenyuan.

Zhenyuan City is located on the south bank of the Yellow River, facing the south branch of the Yellow River across the Tungen River from Fengzhou Jiuyuan City, and backed by the Kujiesha Desert. Along the line of the Yellow River, there is the fertile alluvial plain of the Yellow River. There are more than 100,000 acres of plain land that can be developed and cultivated along the riverbank plains, and there are many grasslands suitable for grazing.

Zhenbei City is also a newly built city, and it is also one of the border cities of Shuofang Town and the Turkic treaty port.

It's just that the population of Shuofang Town is small now, and after the Turks withdrew to the north bank, the south bank is not very populated. Li Chao moved some government soldiers to garrison the north of the town, and some immigrants moved in, but the entire vast area of several hundred miles here still only needs a total population of less than 10,000.

Although it is close to Toyosu Castle, it is also close to the front set.

However, the border market here is not as prosperous as Ningyuan. The main reason is that it is inconvenient for Han merchants to come.

By land, from Chang'an to Xiazhou, and then from Xiazhou to Zhenbei.

From Chang'an to Xiazhou, there are nearly 900 miles. And Xiazhou is almost so far away from Beicheng, and the more important thing is that the road is difficult to walk.

All the way to pass through many Gobi, desert, high slopes, grasslands, the road is sparsely populated, supply is difficult, especially to pass through two deserts, there are more than 100 miles through, once you miss the fresh water replenishment point, it is very dangerous.

Therefore, although Zhenbei City is closer to the Turkic Hetao and across the river from Fengzhou, it is inconvenient for Han merchants to come here. It is much more convenient to go to Linzhou than to the north of the town.

However, Linzhou was not as convenient as the north side of the town to trade with the Turks.

It is still the best in Ningyuan, and the transportation is convenient.

Zhenbei City has now almost become an extended acquisition station in Ningyuan City. Many merchants in Ningyuan have set up branches in the north of the town, but their goods still have to be transported from the Yellow River through Ningyuan.

Basically, there are few merchants who are willing to take the land route from Xiazhou to the north of the town.

As the envoy of Shuofang Festival, the north city of Zhenbei has been built for a long time, and the city north of the town has also been established for a long time, but Li Chao is still the first time to come to the north of the town.

It was very easy to take a boat all the way down the river from Ningyuan.

However, Li Chao felt that the boat was a little too small, and it still used hard sails. Generally speaking, inland river boats, hard sails also have their advantages, but Li Chao always feels that soft sails are also very good, and the biggest advantage of sails is that they can make the ship build very large. Hard sails will not work, the bigger the ship, the bigger the sails, to pull the big ship, the hard sails have to be very big, and the mast is also very big, so big that the ship can not bear it at all.

Of course, this unbearable degree, the ship is actually very large, and the average ship is no problem. What's more, not only sails are used in the Yellow River, but also pulp and wheels can be used.

But judging from the direction of the ship's development, there is no doubt that the use of sails is king.

Using a sail can solve a large number of people, and at the same time, it can be faster.

In Li Chao's eyes, there are many problems with the warships of this Shuofang Naval Division. Lacking a functional classification, it is basically a ship type, but the size is different.

As for the sailors, the biggest function of the sailors' warships is, of course, for combat, not for transportation. Therefore, this warship has to highlight a combat function, and it is not enough to decorate the ship with eight-ox crossbows.

It also has to be graded, what kind of combat ships, gunboats, assault boats, frigates, patrol boats, etc., according to different functions, develop different forms, and cannot do training, such a naval fleet is qualified.

Every day, Li Chao had to pick some questions about the sailors, and then at night, in the flagship cabin of his own ship, he would give lectures to the officers of these sailors.

This can be regarded as Li Chao's beginning to teach the officers in advance.

These officers were basically government soldiers, and they were considered to be in the army. A few grew up on the riverside and knew some water, and most of them couldn't even swim before, so they could be selected as sailors, and their only assessment condition was that they didn't get seasick when they got on the boat.

Therefore, the professional skills of this group of naval division officers are very poor.

Li Chao had to talk to them about the tasks of the sailors, the different combat methods on land and water, and even some advanced shipbuilding technologies such as the use of sails and watertight cabins.

Most of the officers of the naval division said that they could not understand what the commander was talking about at all, a few people seemed to understand it or not, and only a very small number of people understood it a little.

Li Chao can't do anything about this, he only plans to go back and pick some smart past from these people to teach them well, and he still has to start from the source. Let the shipyard build a new batch of warships from scratch, build ships with different functions, and then write some tutorials on the tactics of sailors yourself, and teach them slowly.

At present, the officers and men of these naval divisions themselves only regard themselves as convoys of land troops.

The boat is small, but the speed is not slow.

However, the fleet is large and the cargo is large, so it is no longer possible to sail at night. It's not like just a boat, but if it's just a boat, an experienced veteran boater can sail on this relatively gentle river. But there are too many boats, so I am afraid of hitting them.

At night, the ship builds the shore and anchors, and then lights a lamp, and some people are left on the boat to watch the ship, and the rest are mostly to go ashore and camp. On a night when the weather was full of stars, I didn't even bother to set up a tent, set up a fire, and then gathered around the fire.

Grill fish, boil tea, and cook some rice.

The fish is freshly caught in the river and fresh. The most caught is always the Yellow River carp, and there are also a lot of crucian carp. The crew is generally good at making fish, and they are generally relatively simple in making fish, and there are not many tricks.

Either boiled, stewed, or eaten with slices of sashimi.

Li Chao likes to make those white strips that the crew dislikes.

The white stripes are generally not long, only one or two fingers wide, less than the length of a palm, very small, and the body is white and the back is green. This fish seems to be seen everywhere, in rivers and ditches. It's the most active, and the anglers hate this kind of fish the most.

He will make trouble when he beats the nest, and he will rob him when he bait, which is big and not big, and the bones are not small.

But Li Chao likes it, and there are small ways to eat it.

After the belly is washed, it is hung with flour and then fried in oil. The smaller the fried the better, or directly simmer it slowly and burn, the charred and fragrant moon crispy, sprinkle some pepper, or thirteen spices, bite down, crunch, crispy, even the bones are completely crispy.

With wine, it is the most refreshing.

The night in May is very cool, and it is really nice to gather around the fire, eat grilled fish and drink wine.

The merchants were very happy, and they followed the army, and the security aspect was greatly improved. In particular, Li Chao's military discipline is very good, and the sailors or tooth soldiers in Shuofang Town have not extorted the slightest.

The businessmen also elected a few shopkeepers, wanting to send some goods to thank the army, but Li Chao confiscated them. Traveling on the water, it is easy to carry supplies.

Li Chao went to Zhenbei City this time, mainly to meet with Yu Sheshe.

The two sides had already made an appointment for this meeting, and Li Chao estimated that Yu Zhan was in a hurry to get his 20% tariff when he saw that Ning Yuancheng's trade was so hot.

Originally, it was a good season and a knot, but Yu shot those who were anxious, and Li Chao planned to send him the first half of the month. Always let him repay the sweetness, and then he can feel at ease.

The tariffs in the first half month were also quite a lot, more than 50,000 yuan. This is only two percent, and Yu Shotsha is very happy and satisfied after knowing this amount. However, he said that he did not want money, but wanted to purchase a batch of goods from Li Chao.

More than 50,000 guan were exchanged for silk, tea, flour, salt, wine, perfume, porcelain, gold and silver jewelry, etc. This is also a person who will spend money, and he ordered all the commercial goods with such a large amount of income as 50,000 yuan.

Li Chao did not refuse this request.

In fact, he still wished that Yu Zhan would exchange it for commercial goods, so that in fact, Li Chao paid him a lot less. After all, the commercial goods in Ningyuan City are not cheap.

However, this time Li Chao was willing to come to Zhenbei City to meet, in fact, it was not just for the sake of meeting.

A Yu shot is not enough for Li Chao to pay so much attention to it.

Li Chao's visit to the meeting this time was actually to discuss further strengthening cooperation between the two sides. Li Chao planned to propose that the two sides not only open border markets, but also open the border, so that merchants from Han and Hu could freely go deep into the Tang Dynasty to purchase, or let Han merchants go deep into the grassland to trade and trade.

On the surface, this is a matter of trade, but in fact, Li Chao plans to take this opportunity to send more spies to the grassland, go deep into the grassland, and collect detailed intelligence on the Turkic steppe.

Mountains and rivers, geographical routes, where there are rivers and where there is water, these are all very important. If you complete these things in detail, it will be very helpful to launch another attack next time.

Of course, for powerful merchants, going out of the border market and going directly to the grassland with the goods will certainly make more profits.

The premise is that it is safe and has the strength to do so.

"These merchants are really unknown. In Ningyuan, he easily made a lot of money, but he was not satisfied, so he had to go to the grassland, and even went to Mobei to trade with the Tiele people. ”

Cheng Chumo held a handful of fried crispy little white strips in one hand, and said with a head and a sigh.

"Businessmen are always profit-seeking, and in their eyes, they don't accept such words when they see a good thing, but they want to chase the maximization of profits. A pound of tea tablets, they are here to change a sheepskin, but if they go to Monan, they can change a sheep, maybe when they go to Mobei, they can change a sheep from the hands of the Tiele people. Even if the road is longer and the risk is higher, the same benefit is greater. ”

"If these people are a little smarter, such as selling tea to the Mobei people, and then exchanging the calves, ponies and lambs of the Mobei people, and then giving the Mobei people a little tea, let them help raise them, and when the next year, the calves, ponies and lambs grow up, and they will take it back, then the profit will be even greater."

"Is that okay?" Cheng Chumo was stunned.

After a long time, he said slowly, "Dashuai, if you go into business, you will definitely become the richest man in the world!" ”

(To be continued.) )