Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

Because of the severe drought, the capital city is not short of manpower. Yuan Keli has organized the victims to carry out water conservancy construction and repair roads and city walls.

Zhu Youjian included the construction of a martial arts hall and a stadium in his work-for-relief project plan, but due to insufficient money and grain, these projects had to be put on hold.

Considering that many martial arts talents would be recruited by the princes, Zhu Youjian set his sights on them and encouraged the nobles in the capital to establish martial arts clubs and martial arts halls.

And let the martial arts association hold team competitions in addition to individual competitions, and invite martial arts clubs to participate as a group.

Most of the nobles in the capital were bored and interested in the new thing called martial arts competition. Some dandy boys even found a new way to have fun. They spent money to recruit martial artists and set up martial arts clubs.

The families of these people were also happy to see this happen, because according to the emperor's attitude, they were likely to get the opportunity to establish a fiefdom. Even if some nobles were unwilling to leave the capital and go overseas, it did not prevent them from making some preparations, so as not to be unable to provide people when the time came to establish a fiefdom overseas.

Those princes and princes who came to Beijing, with the emperor's explicit encouragement, also spent a lot of money to set up their own martial arts clubs. They also bought houses and transformed them into martial arts halls according to the requirements of the martial arts association.

These martial arts halls have formal training facilities, competition arenas and spectator seats. Every martial arts hall competition attracts many people to watch.

The martial arts atmosphere in the capital was getting more and more intense. In this drought year, it attracted many people to participate.

Whether it is the reconstruction of martial arts halls or the recruitment of martial arts apprentices, the emerging sports industry provides many job opportunities, allowing more people to have a meal.

However, no one has taken the initiative to build a large-scale stadium. Due to the lack of money and grain, Zhu Youjian only asked the Wensiyuan Construction Research Institute to make plans, but did not start construction.

Fortunately, this situation was soon alleviated. At the end of the month, more than a dozen cargo ships sailed north from Yuegang, Fujian, carrying the food needed by Zhu Youjian and successfully arrived in Tianjin.

Some of these ships belonged to the Zheng family, and some were sent by other people from Shibazhi alone or in partnership. The main purpose was to find out the emperor's sincerity and see whether what he had said before, that they would be allowed to open up fiefdoms in Nanyang and purchase unlimited grain in the capital, was true.

If this is true, these pirates planned to seize the islands with their men, recruit refugees from Yunyang and other places, and let them go to Southeast Asia to farm.

After all, the price of seven coins per stone of grain offered by the emperor was too high in their eyes. This was an industry that could generate stable profits, far better than robbery.

The team leader was still Zheng Zhihu. As soon as he arrived in Tianjin, he learned a piece of good news:

The emperor granted vassal states to the King of Han, the Duke of Jiangling, and the Earl of Ningyuan, and allowed them to open up fiefdoms overseas.

The three princes have all sent personnel to Tianjin to purchase ships and recruit sailors, intending to open up sea routes while exploring the land route.

They all offered high prices to recruit people who dared to take risks at sea. Zheng Zhihu and others came with their ships and were also recruited.

Upon hearing that the vassal state of King Han was a thousand square miles, and the smallest Ningyuan Earldom was three hundred square miles, with an additional viscount fief of two hundred square miles, Zheng Zhihu was so surprised that his mouth opened wide and he exclaimed:
"How big is Fang Qianli's place?"

"Your Majesty is so willing to do this!"

There was no longer any doubt about the emperor's sincerity in granting fiefs.

The emperor can divide thousands of miles of land into vassal states and grant hundreds of miles to those who are good at sailing. Is there any doubt about that?
In fact, he had communicated with the emperor twice and had long been impressed by him. He had no doubts about the emperor's sincerity in granting him fiefdoms.

But after he returned to Fujian, some people felt that the conditions given by the emperor were too generous and unreal. So this time, the 18 Zhis joined forces to form a fleet to transport grain to Tianjin.

Some brave ones even followed the fleet north to meet the emperor.

Li Guozhu, as the son of the former pirate leader Li Dan, is also a representative of a group of people. He has always been disobedient to the Zheng brothers. This time, he went north and took the risk to follow Zheng Zhihu.

After all, in his opinion, no matter what, he had the status of a knight, and he came to deliver food to the emperor. The emperor would not directly kill him as a pirate like he did to Wang Zhi.

After hearing Zheng Zhihu's sigh, he also tutted his lips in surprise and said, "Fang Qianli is probably as big as North Korea. If it is managed well, it can be enough to build a kingdom."

"The 300-li barony is a little bit inferior to Dongfan Island, or Dongning Island, but with the 200-li viscount territory, it's about the same."

"The emperor is so generous to them. He has sealed it right away!"

Thinking of how he talked about the hereditary knight's fiefdom of Fang Shili with great relish, he couldn't even believe it. Li Guozhu wanted to slap himself twice, thinking that his vision was too low.

For an emperor who owns the whole world, what is a piece of land of ten li? The emperor dares to give away a kingdom of a thousand li.

This made Li Guozhu realize that the current emperor was really different from the past and was a generous emperor.

If you can make meritorious contributions, there is a chance that your title and the size of your fiefdom will be raised!

At this moment, he no longer had any doubts about the emperor, and even wanted to send a ship south immediately to tell Liu Xiang and others the good news, asking them to prepare and send a ship to the South Seas to grab the islands.

However, he had just arrived in Tianjin and the grain had not yet been unloaded. No matter how anxious he was, he could only continue to wait.

Fortunately, he didn’t have to wait long. After hearing that Zheng Zhihu was heading north again, Yu Zigao came to meet him in person.

After learning that Zheng Zhihu was transporting food, he was delighted and said immediately:

"Brother Zheng is really a timely help!"

"The capital has been dry for two months. The summer harvest didn't yield much food, and now there is famine."

"In order to control grain prices, Yuan's military department has already killed a group of people, but there are still unscrupulous merchants who sell grain at high prices in private."

"If you bring this batch of grain here, the grain price problem can be solved!"

The amount of food shipped from the sea is not important, but what is more important is its significance.

In addition to the grain transport, the capital city now had another source of food.

Those who were eyeing the grain on the canal and manipulating the grain prices in the capital could no longer follow the old ways. Otherwise, the grain shipped from overseas could make them lose all their money at any time.

This is a victory for maritime transport, and as the admiral of the navy, Yu Zigao should naturally be proud of it!

In order to prevent people from finding out how much food Zheng Zhihu had brought, he specially arranged for naval officers and soldiers to unload the food overnight. He also asked Zheng Zhihu to send someone to quietly leave the port and come back, pretending that the food brought from the sea was continuous.

After learning of Yu Zigao's method, Li Guozhu realized the food shortage in the capital and knew that this was a good opportunity to show off in front of the emperor.

After finding out the emperor's policy on enfeoffment, he wrote a letter overnight and sent a speedboat south to deliver it.

Zheng Zhihu did the same and asked his brother Zheng Zhilong to send more food as soon as possible.

They all wanted to take this opportunity to make the emperor pay more attention to them.

Yu Zigao, who wanted to share the credit, sent orders to the coastal garrisons, asking them to set up shipping companies as soon as possible and to open and maintain shipping routes.

The route between the north and the south was quickly opened up and improved without regard for casualties and losses. (End of this chapter)