Fifteen young officials sat neatly in the lobby, some of them were from Tongjinshi, some were graduates of Taixue, most of them had been transferred overseas in the past few years, and they had been sitting on cold benches for at least two years.

The Overseas Economic Strategy Mansion was like a wastebasket, and the Ministry of Officials stuffed these young alternate officials with no background and from poor backgrounds, and dozens of people came in just two years, and most of the officials had nothing to do in these two years, and when they were about to despair, Fanning took office.

Among the fifteen people, there are five eighth-rank officials and ten ninth-grade officials, all of whom are twenty-three or four-year-old, full of vitality and energy.

"Everyone, you must have heard that the Ryukyu Prefecture will expand the county, the indigenous people who threaten the security of the Ryukyu Prefecture have been completely annihilated, there is no obstacle to the expansion of the county, according to the latest decision of the imperial court, the imperial court will move 20,000 families from Shaanxi Road and Hebei West Road to Ryukyu for resettlement, then in addition to the current Penghu County and Ryukyu County, we need to build five more county seats, including four on Ryukyu Island, the main island of Little Ryukyu Island, that is, Liuli Island to build one, each county needs a county order, a county commander and a county lieutenant, That's exactly 15 of you. ”

When Fanning said this, everyone began to fidget a little, their eyes revealed deep anticipation and surprise, and they all had a thought in their hearts, and they finally got through it.

Although he is an overseas county official, it is much better than sitting in the Jingluo Embassy and doing nothing and wasting his time.

Fan Ning said with a smile: "It is very hard to serve as an overseas county official, and the effort is also very large, at least one term before you have the opportunity to become a Beijing official, I hope you must be mentally prepared, if you don't want to go overseas to serve, you can bring it up now, I will return to the ministry and find another job." ”

Fifteen people didn't speak, just kidding! If you return to the ministry, your life will be over, and now you have to go even if you don't want to go, not to mention that everyone is willing to go overseas to take up real positions.

Fan Ning saw that there was no objection, so he smiled and said: "I will read the list below, and then go to Gongsun Xuance and Zhang Bo, they will give you counseling, how to prepare for the establishment of a new county, in addition, Quanzhou Su Governor and the city of Bo Si Li Tiju will also help everyone, they are the second batch of officials in Kunzhou, Su Governor has participated in the preparation of Han County, and served as the county governor of Han County, Li Tiju is preparing for the establishment of Jin County, and served as the first Jin County Governor, they are very experienced, they will come to communicate with everyone." ”

After speaking, Fan Ning took the roster and read aloud: "Xia Yu, the county order of Liuzhong County, Zhang Wenhua, the county order of Lunan County, ........."

In the following time, Fanning was extremely busy, handling all kinds of accumulated government affairs one by one.

Nearly a month has passed, preparations are ready, and the day of going south is finally coming.

On this morning, Fanning came to the port with a few entourage, and the wharves of Quanzhou Port are mainly distributed on both sides of the Jinjiang estuary, with a total of ten wharves, of which the No. 9 and No. 10 piers are the private wharves of Fan's Commercial Bank.

This is the first time Fan Ning has come to inspect the wharf of Fan's firm, and Mingren complained a little: "Father fiddles with those broken stones all day long and refuses to come to help, you are simply a hands-off shopkeeper, don't forget, you still have thirty percent of Fan's firm, you don't care about anything, let our brother be tired like cattle and horses all day long." ”

Fan Ning smiled: "Didn't I bring Ming Xuan here?" To help you lighten your burden, the textile workshop will give him a share, so that he will be willingly tired like a cow and a horse. ”

"You don't need to remind us of this, we know in our hearts, Mingxuan is our own brother, and we will give him a share of the textile workshop, but we still need people!"

Fan Ning thought for a while and said, "Isn't Old Man Zhu also a part of Yicheng?" Let him also do something and send someone to manage it. ”

Mingli sighed, "He is also very helpful, besides, he himself has opened a business house in Quanzhou, which is managed by his grandson Zhu Lin, and he doesn't have the energy to help us anymore." ”

"What does the Zhu family's firm do?" Fanning asked.

"To make porcelain and tea cakes, there is a great demand for tea in Persia, and their tea is mainly sold there."

"Then does the Zhu family have a fleet?" Fanning continued to ask.

"Not yet!"

"That's simple, merge the Zhu family and the Fan family, the Zhu family is responsible for the internal procurement of materials in the Song Dynasty, the Fan family is responsible for export sales, you are responsible for overseas, and you don't have to worry about the procurement of materials."

Mingren and Mingli shook their heads at the same time, "We have considered this plan, but it is not appropriate, this is the property of the Fan family, each of the three brothers has three components, this is the most ideal state, in fact, there is one component, we want to give it to the third and fourth uncles, but it was taken away by the Zhu family, to be honest, we have already regretted this matter, if the Zhu family is involved, we will not be able to make a decision on many things." ”

Fan Ning also knew that the two brothers had strong opinions, and it was not easy for him to impose his opinions on them, so he thought about it and said: "Then you will find the fourth uncle to sit in the business house, and I will tell the old man that the Zhu family is a component, and he will return it, that component has no meaning to him." ”

The two brothers were overjoyed, if Zhu Yuanfeng was willing to return the ingredients, it would be great, and if the third and fourth uncles were given half of each, the family's big business house would be supported.

But is it okay to let the fourth uncle come over? The two brothers had a deep prejudice against the fourth uncle Fan Tongzhong, and that guy was a lazy bastard back then, and the two looked at Fan Ning suspiciously.

Fanning shook his head and said: "Although I don't know much about his situation, but now his restaurant has changed from the original one to three, which shows that he is not defeated, or he is working hard to start a business, he has never borrowed money from me, nor has he reached out to the second and third uncles, has he borrowed money from you?" ”

Mingren and Mingli both shook their heads, Fanning smiled: "This was unimaginable when he was young, it shows that he is very good, he was just ignorant when he was young, and now he understands things, if there is no outside capital support, it is really not easy to open a restaurant by accumulating capital on his own, expanding from one restaurant to three restaurants, you can imagine the hardships, he now has two sons and two daughters to support, and the pressure is very high, we will help him once, let him be the big shopkeeper of the business house in Quanzhou, and be responsible for the internal." ”

Mingren and Mingli discussed for a moment, and finally nodded, "If he really understands the matter, then he will be in charge of the trading house, of course, it is best, and then we also bought two kilns and a tea farm in Dehua, which can be handed over to Mingxuan to take care of, and the fourth uncle will be responsible for dispatching the goods of the trading house." ”

Seeing that both of them agreed to the fourth uncle's coming to Quanzhou, Fan Ning said: "I will write a letter to the fourth uncle and invite him to come to Quanzhou, and Mingli will go to Wu County and invite him to come in person." ”

"What about the fourth uncle's restaurant?"

Mingren glared at Mingli, "Don't rely on A-Ning for everything, can't we handle this kind of trivial matter?" ”

Fan Ning smiled: "This is really not a trivial matter, if it is not handled well, the fourth uncle may not be willing to come, so be it!" The restaurant can be handed over to the Gu chief steward of the Mudu Restaurant, and the third uncle will take care of it together. ”

The three brothers embarked on the main ship of the fleet, which was also their largest sea vessel, a large ship of 30,000 stones, as far as the country of Magnolia Pi in West Africa, with a load of about 2,000 tons, which looked extremely large, like a mountain anchored on the dock.

"This is our largest ship, and it is currently the largest open-sea merchant ship in the Great Song Dynasty, called the Mulan Boat, with a load of 30,000 stones."

Fanning patted the side of the ship and asked, "How many people can this ship carry?" ”

"The ship will have five hundred sailors, four hundred oarsmen, a hundred other crews, five hundred archers, and about five hundred merchants, and at least one year's worth of grain stored in it, and a small bazaar with thirty prostitutes on board."

"How much does it cost to build a ship like this?"

"This big merchant ship has a very cumbersome process, and the shell is made of pine wood, and then soaked in tung oil for a year......"

Fan Ning glared at the unobtrusive Mingli and said, "I'm not asking you how to build a ship, I'm asking how much it costs to buy it?" ”

Mingli scratched his head and said: "There are two kinds, one is sixteen sails, the other is twelve sails, we have sixteen sails, we spent five thousand yuan at that time, and four thousand yuan for twelve sails is enough." ”

"This shouldn't be too expensive!"

Mingren grinned, "The timber is the red pine we transported from Kunzhou, and it is the shipyard of the old man Mingli, only the labor money is charged, of course it is not expensive, if it is the market price, this ship is at least 10,000 yuan, and the 12 sails are 8,000 yuan, this is only the price of the ship, and more importantly, it can be afforded, not necessarily afforded." ”

"Then how many crews do you need for your hundreds of 10,000 stone ships?"

"Not every boat has to paddle, you have to use oars to go to the Persian Gulf, but you can use the monsoon to go to the South Seas, you don't need oarsmen, but you can only go twice a year, just like going to Kunzhou, eighty sailors are enough, we currently only have fifteen oars, once we go to the Persian Gulf or even more distant Mulan Pi country, not only five hundred oarsmen, but also five hundred archers, there are too many pirates over there."

Fanning thought for a while and said, "Are there any overseas merchants who order such a big ship?" ”

Akihito shook his head, "Wanshi Shanghai ships are basically not sold out, it's not that the imperial court doesn't allow it, there are not many shipyards that can mainly build Wanshi sea ships, and the Great Song Dynasty is too busy inside, where can I take care of overseas merchants, anyway, so far, I haven't seen overseas merchants have Wanshi cargo ships." ”

Fan Ning pondered for a long time and said: "This time I go to Luzon, I need fifty oarboats, can Quanzhou raise them?" ”

Mingli thought about it and said: "Fifty ships are not, thirty ships should be fine, we have fifteen ships, my father-in-law has five ships, and the major commercial houses have another ten ships, when will you go to sea, we will help you inquire." ”

"When I go to sea in three days, I really don't have thirty ships, but twenty ships are fine."

"Then there will be no problem, there must be twenty ships!"