Fenghou

Chapter 1299 Debriefing
Chen Qing's fleet sailed across the river outside Zhenjiang Mansion. The river was full of waves, only sporadic fishing boats, and occasionally a merchant fleet appeared, but there were no court warships or patrol boats, nor the Western Army's patrol boats. It also did not appear on the river, this is also to avoid irritating the court, maintain a peaceful atmosphere, or create an illusion of peace, so that the south bank of the Yangtze River does not feel threatened, and naturally there is no pressure to build ships. and motivation.

Chen Qing's fleet turned north again and slowly sailed into the canal. After more than an hour, the fleet arrived in Yangzhou.

At this time, Zhang Jiayun, the commander of the Western Army stationed in Yangzhou, and Luo Ji, the prefect of Yangzhou, rushed to the dock to welcome the arrival of King Yong. Chen Qing will rest in Yangzhou for two days, inspect Yangzhou by the way, and then continue north to Haizhou.

After meeting with the crowd, accompanied by officials, Chen Qing entered the city in a carriage.

"My lord, this city is very prosperous!"

Through the window of the car, Yao Mei could see the bustling traffic on the street outside, the flow of people like weaving, and the sound of hawking one after another, a scene of steaming.

Chen Qing smiled slightly: "This city was also devastated in the past, and now it is gradually recovering. This is the frontier of the south of the Yangtze River, and the business transfer is very prosperous. Many merchants open stores here, and transfer at the same time. If there is demand, it will develop quickly."

"Has your lord been here before?" Yao Mei turned around and asked with a smile.

Chen Qing shook his head, "Actually, it's also my first time here."

"Can we go for a walk?" Yao Mei asked expectantly.

Chen Qing apologized: "Walking around the street is the same as now. Sitting in a carriage, you have to wait for the guards to deploy and investigate which store you want to go to, and you can only enter after ensuring safety!"

"let it go!"

Yao Mei is very smart, she knew that going to the streets would cause a lot of trouble for the guards, so she gave up.

Seeing a look of disappointment in her eyes, Chen Qing smiled slightly and said, "Take a rest! It's actually quite tiring after sitting on the boat for so long. I'll ask some female guards to accompany you out for a walk later, to buy some makeup or something." , if I don’t follow, there won’t be so many troubles.”

Yao Mei was overjoyed, "That's great! I'll go out with Sister Zhang and the others."

Chen Qing's residence is in the expensive hotel, and there is no one living there at present. The guards have packed up. Yao Mei took two female guards out for shopping. Chen Qing was about to go out when the guards came to report, "The king's office of Lin'an "Beijing News" See you, Lord!"

It turned out that it was Wang Mu who came, Chen Qing smiled and said, "Please wait in the living room!"

Wang Mu went to Jingzhao the year before last, and Chen Qing met him. Hu Yun and Wang Mu have done very well in the past two years, fighting the court with wits and courage, and won Chen Qing's appreciation. Chen Qing has already listed Hu Yun as a backup Counselor, of course, Wang Mu is also good, and he can completely handle it alone.

When Chen Qing came to the living room, Wang Mu quickly stepped forward to salute, "See Your Highness!"

"Why is the owner of the palace in Yangzhou?"

Wang Mu smiled wryly and said, "Something happened in Lin'an, I came to Yangzhou to contact Zhizhi."

"Sit down and talk!"

Chen Qing asked Wang Mu to sit down, and asked with concern, "What happened in Lin'an?"

"After we published His Royal Highness's call to crusade against Hebei, it aroused strong reactions from Lin'an and even Jiangnan. The people came to the newspaper to donate 33 guan, but it aroused the jealousy of the imperial court. They did not dare to attack the newspaper, so they set it on fire. Our largest paper supply workshop, the paper workshop in Xiaoshan, attempted to cut off the raw materials of newspapers by cutting off the bottom line. This move was indeed vicious, and our paper suppliers in Lin’an were gone.”

"There is such a thing!"

Chen Qing said displeased: "Then how should Hu Yun deal with it?"

"Hu Yun arranged for intelligence spies to burn down the Palace of the Son of Heaven by the West Lake the next night. It is said that it was burnt to ashes. He also threw the kerosene skin on the spot and told the other party clearly that it was we who burned it."

"and then?"

"I don't know what happened later, I don't know, I left Lin'an to find papers!"

"did you find it?"

"Beizhi first found a batch of paper in Pingjiang Mansion, enough for us to use for five days, plus our inventory, it can last for about [-] days, and then came to Yangzhou, where there are several large paper-making workshops, consider In the future, I will buy paper from Yangzhou and Pingjiangfu."

Chen Qing nodded, "Is the paper resolved?"

"Reporting to Your Highness, it is basically resolved. The combined paper supply of Pingjiang Mansion in Yangzhou can increase the daily printing volume of our newspapers by another [-]%, but this [-]% is considered to be printed and sold in Pingjiang Mansion and Yangzhou."

Chen Qing said lightly: "Yangzhou can be let go, and Changzhou, Zhenjiang Mansion and Jiangning Mansion are given priority."

"Humble job understands!"

Chen Qing said again: "Go back and tell Hu Yun that the imperial court can't pay the salary, which has a great influence. He should pay attention to those officials and civil servants who live in distress and help them. Many times, it's not that they don't want to come to Jingzhao to seek jobs, but they have Don't discriminate against them, but help them when they are in trouble."

"Remember the humble job, I will definitely tell Hu Yun!"

"In addition, the 30 yuan donated by the people is used to give back to the people of Lin'an. I suggest that you build a few porridge sheds in Lin'an and other cities to help the elderly, weak and orphans. These things are small things, but they will subtly change people's thinking .”

"The humble job must do it!"

Wang Mu immediately got up to say goodbye and left.

After resting for two days, Chen Qing's fleet set off again, continuing northward, sailing from Chuzhou to the New Yellow River, and then northward to Donghai Island.

The original role of Donghai Island was to attack the Shandong Peninsula from the sea route. Now that the Shandong Road Peninsula has been taken, the role of Donghai Island has changed. Its current role is a transit supply station. Sea ships going north from Quanzhou and Guangzhou cannot After receiving supplies in Mingzhou and Lin'an Prefecture, they can only continue northward to replenish supplies on Donghai Island. Many seagoing ships will unload the goods on Donghai Island for distribution, and then other ships will transport them to Shandong Road, from the New Yellow River to the Central Plains, Or take the Yangtze River to transport to the hinterland.

Chen Qing only stayed in Donghai Island for half a day. After inspecting Donghai Island, he continued to go north. Five days later, the fleet arrived at the destination of the trip—Penglai County, Dengzhou.

Dengzhou Penglai County was an extremely important port in the Tang and Song Dynasties. Both the Sui Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty envoys landed in Penglai County and headed for Chang'an in Guanzhong. The commercially developed Song Dynasty maritime merchants also set off from Penglai to go to Korea and Japan to do business. .

Just last month, Zheng Tongquan and Ryukyu envoy Chao Kun led [-] Wanshi ships loaded with pig iron and armor to Japan for silver trade, and they also departed from Penglai Port.

Now, Penglai Port has become a naval base again, where hundreds of warships and [-] naval troops gathered here, preparing to launch an offensive against Hejian Mansion.

Chen Qing's trip is to inspect the combat readiness of the navy, and then go to Licheng County, Jinan Prefecture. This time, the king's tent for attacking Hebei is located in Jinan Prefecture. Chen Qing will lead an army of 20 to contain the [-] Jurchens in Daming Prefecture. military.

(End of this chapter)