Great Song Super Scholar

Chapter 374 Boarding Suzaku Island

After leaving Bailongchuan, the ship continued eastward, and arrived at Suzaku Island two days later. Fan Ning originally wanted to visit Jingzhou and the racecourse, but he found that Zhu Yuanfeng was already tired. Considering that he was almost sixty years old, it was not suitable for a long-term sea voyage , then canceled the tour, only accompanied him to Suzaku Island, and then returned to Tang County as soon as possible.

"Grandfather, that's Suzaku Island!" Fan Ning pointed to Zhu Yuanfeng at an island about twenty miles away.

Zhu Yuanfeng seemed a little excited. Owning a piece of land that was completely his own was a dream he had dreamed of for many years. This was not the same as buying a piece of land in Song Dynasty and building a manor.

In fact, he is the king of this island, this is Zhu Yuanfeng's hidden thought deep in his heart, and when he saw this island, this idea grew uncontrollably.

"Father, is this the island?" Zhu Jie felt his father's excitement, and asked him in a low voice.

"It's here. The emperor gave me this island without any title deed. Do you understand what this means?"

Fan Ning didn't speak next to him. He felt that Zhu Yuanfeng was completely wrong. Zhu Yuanfeng thought that if the emperor gave him this island, this island would no longer be the territory of the Song Dynasty. In fact, this island is still the territory of the Song Dynasty. It's just that it has become privately owned, which is essentially the same as buying a manor in Song Dynasty.

Of course, the imperial court encourages private development overseas, and Zhu Yuanfeng's island will be exempted from taxes for decades. In terms of benefits, it is indeed different from that of the Song Dynasty.

Fan Ning didn't tell the truth about this cruel reality, but silently let Zhu Yuanfeng indulge in a satisfying fantasy.

When Fan Ning chose this island for Zhu Yuanfeng, the key was that this island had two good natural harbors, one in the south and one in the north, and the natural harbor on the south was affected by the Kuroshio Current, making it an ice-free port. This was an extremely valuable condition.
The big ship docks slowly at a good natural harbor in the south. The harbor is not big, just like Kunnan Bay. The surrounding capes surround the bay into a circle, forming a small bay covering an area of ​​tens of hectares, which can accommodate nearly a hundred large ships. , the wind and waves outside will not affect the calm in the bay.

Although Fan Ning has passed Suzaku Island many times, this is the first time he has landed on the island. It is midsummer and July, which is the hottest day of the year, but there is a breeze on Suzaku Island, which is extremely cool. Under the breeze, There is endless green in front of you, which is refreshing.

The vegetation and environment on the island are basically the same as those of Kunzhou. In fact, this is also an island formed by volcanoes. However, there are no cone-shaped volcanoes on the island. The volcano should be on the largest Xuanwu Island, which is the later Zhuze Island, Suzaku The island is formed by the accumulation of magma, but after tens of millions of years of weathering, the surface layer has become thick soil, the soil is very fertile, full of all kinds of berries, making it a paradise for seabirds to breed and inhabit .

"This one is really big!" Zhu Yuanfeng sighed.

Of course it is very big. The island covers an area of ​​260 square kilometers, which is equivalent to a large city. Fan Ning pointed to the low hills in the distance and said with a smile: "The terrain of these islands is similar to that of Kunzhou, and the middle is four weeks high. It is low, and the coastal area is flat, so livestock can be developed, and the south is close to the sea, which is very warm in winter, and cattle and sheep can spend the winter in the south.”

At this moment, Zhu Yuanfeng suddenly thought of an extremely important question, and hurriedly asked, "A'Ning, is there any fresh water on the island?"

"Of course there is! There is a river in the south and a river in the north. I heard that there is a rather large lake in the center. Grandfather, do you want to go and see it?"

Zhu Yuanfeng was tempted, and turned his head to his daughter Zhu Jie and said, "Ah Jie, I'm going to visit the center of the island, do you want to go together?"

Zhu Jie was a little apprehensive, and she said with embarrassment: "Father, I heard that there are poisonous snakes on the island, so I won't go."

Zhu Pei still wanted to go with her husband, but when he heard that there were poisonous snakes on the island, he was startled, and quickly said, "I'm not going either, my sister-in-law and I are going on the boat to rest!"

"Then you go on board, and Aning and I will go and have a look."

Zhu Yuanfeng and Fan Ning urged their horses towards the island, followed by more than a dozen cavalrymen.

There is a hilly area in the middle of the island, covered by a large area of ​​lush forest, mainly red pine, and precious amber wood can be seen everywhere. Zhu Yuanfeng pointed to the edge of the forest with great interest and said with a smile: "I can see thousands of trees just at the edge of the forest. Amberwood, if you give me this one, the imperial court will suffer a great loss."

Fan Ning smiled and said, "So much amber wood is put on the market, isn't it afraid that Da Song won't be able to digest it?"

Zhu Yuanfeng turned his head and looked at Fan Ning with a smile, "Then you are wrong. It takes thousands of pieces of amber wood to make a set of amber wood furniture in the rich mansion. Zhang Yaozuo used amber wood to build a rosin pavilion. You can imagine how much amber he used. Wood, with the financial resources of Song Dynasty, you can digest as much amber wood as you want.”

"If that's the case, the third grandfather really got rich!"

Zhu Yuanfeng raised his head and laughed, "Do you think I still care about this kind of small fortune? It's just that I'm happy to see so many rich resources!"

After speaking, he urged the horse to run forward, Fan Ning smiled wryly, and urged the horse to follow.

After bypassing a large forest, they rushed their horses to a high ground, and their eyes suddenly lit up, and they saw a deep blue lake in front of them. This is a freshwater lake covering an area of ​​thousands of acres, as calm as a mirror. Like a pure deep blue gemstone.

The gazes of Fan Ning and Zhu Yuanfeng seemed to be immersed in the water of the lake. A dozen soldiers were also stunned by the magnificent lake water. For a while, no one spoke. How wonderful Song should be!"

Zhu Yuanfeng's heart was full of regrets, he probably would seldom come here again in the future, this heart-wrenchingly beautiful lake made him nostalgic.

"Go and have a look!" Zhu Yuanfeng urged his horse to run towards the lake.

When the crowd approached, they found hundreds of deer drinking water by the lake. The sound of horseshoes disturbed them, and the deer ran away in shock. The soldiers raised their bows and arrows, and Zhu Yuanfeng shouted anxiously: "Don't shoot the deer!" , show mercy!"

The soldiers put away their bows and arrows and looked at Zhu Yuanfeng in puzzlement. Zhu Yuanfeng shook his head and said, "This is my first day on the island. I don't want to leave bloodstains on the first day of landing. Everyone, please help!"

The soldiers put away their bows and arrows in embarrassment. At this time, Fan Ning shouted from a distance: "Grandfather, look over here!"

Zhu Yuanfeng urged the horse to go forward, and saw Fan Ning squatting in front of a stream, Zhu Yuanfeng got off the horse, stepped forward and asked with a smile, "What did you find?"

Fanning stood up and spread his palms with a smile, "Grandfather, what is this?"

"Gold grains!" Zhu Yuanfeng's eyes widened, and he saw five or six gold grains the size of soybeans on Fan Ning's palm.

"Is there gold here too?"

Zhu Yuanfeng quickly took a closer look at this small stream, which flowed down from the height of the hills and poured into the lake. There were at least twenty such small streams around the lake, and they became the source of the lake water.

Zhu Yuanfeng squatted down and took a closer look at the stream, and saw the golden particles clearly visible in the clear stream water. Zhu Yuanfeng was surprised and happy, and a little worried. The surprise was that there was also gold dust on his island, and it was in large quantities. The worry is that the existence of these placer gold will make the imperial court regret it and finally take back this kind of island.

"Want to see another stream?" Fanning asked with a smile.

Zhu Yuanfeng shook his head, "It's getting late, let's go back to the ranch again!"

Everyone left the lake, Zhu Yuanfeng took one last look at the lake that made him intoxicated, sighed softly, and urged his horse to cross Gao Gang.

There is a large grass field by the sea, covered with all kinds of weeds. After walking for more than ten miles, Zhu Yuanfeng couldn't help asking: "The grass here should be the same as Kunzhou, but it feels different. What is it?" reason?"

Fan Ning said with a slight smile: "The pasture in Kunzhou has been remodeled. We sowed a lot of alfalfa seeds and vetch seeds the year before last, and prevented manpower from pulling out many poisonous grasses. After doing this for more than two years, the pasture gradually became more and more mature. In a few years, the pastures will be further optimized, and most of the grasslands will be alfalfa and vetch, and the useless weeds there will gradually be marginalized."

"So that's the case, then I would like to ask Aning to prepare more alfalfa seeds and vetch seeds for me. My pasture here also needs to be remodeled."

"There is no problem with this. When does grandfather plan to send people to the island?"

Zhu Yuanfeng thought for a while, "Today is too late, let's go to spring tomorrow! After the spring, I will ask my grandson A Lin to bring a group of people, and then I will hire some Japanese laborers from Kunzhou."

"These are small things, it's getting late, let's go back!"

As soon as Fan Ning finished speaking, he saw Jian Meizi galloping towards her on horseback in the distance, as if there was something wrong, Fan Ning hurried up to meet her, "Sister Jian, what happened?"

"There are soldiers coming to you, it seems that some important person is coming, you go and have a look!"

Fan Ning was taken aback, who could it be?He hurriedly urged his horse to run towards the port, only to see another small boat moored at the port, and some soldiers were looking anxiously at this side.

Fan Ning rushed forward and asked, "What happened?"

The soldier knelt down on one knee and reported, "Report to Zhizhou, Privy Envoy Han Xianggong has arrived in Kunzhou, and is currently waiting for Zhizhou at the Qun Mu Si, please go and meet Zhizhou!"

Fan Ning was shocked, why did Han Qi come here?His thoughts were anxious, did he come here for the matter of Deyu Kingdom?
(End of this chapter)