Late Ming sea owl

Chapter 339: Stockpiling Food, Expanding Territory and Expanding the Army (Part )

Lin Hai wanted to send a ship to Tokyo to buy food, not only to solve the food problem of Li Zhongguo's troops, but also for this year's immigration plan.

To this end, he wanted more than just to go to Annan to buy grain once, but to continuously buy large quantities of grain from the Red River Delta, a large granary. This required him to deal with Zheng Zhu, the ruler of the Later Le Dynasty.

Lin Hai originally did not want to have anything to do with Lord Zheng, mainly because he did not want to affect his relationship with Lord Nguyen, especially at this critical juncture when he was about to send troops to Cambodia.

This is why he wanted to borrow Li Zhongguo's ship. The frigate of Huiyou Company was too conspicuous. There must be many spies of the Nguyen Lord in Thang Long City.

"Takahashi, please take Mr. Li's ship to Tokyo." Lin Hai called Takahashi Uemon, who was the person with the most trade experience around him.

"Yes, sir." Takahashi Uemon agreed, "What is my main task?"

"The main purpose of establishing a direct trade channel with Lord Zheng is to buy as much grain as possible from Beihe." Lin Hai said, "But don't use the company's name. Just say that you are the captain in charge of maritime business under the new Yazhou Qianhu Yang Ce. Beihe does not attach as much importance to overseas trade as Guangnan, but they are very short of copper coins, which can be your breakthrough point."

"Please rest assured, sir. I have heard about this matter." Takahashi Uemon said, "Last year, Lord Zheng wrote to the shogunate, asking to sell them more copper coins, but the shogunate felt that the other party's words were rude, so they refused."

"Very good." Lin Hai nodded when he heard this. Takahashi Uemon is indeed Li Guozhu's right-hand man. It seems that he is very familiar with the situations in various countries overseas.

After arranging the personnel for the Beihe trade, Lin Hai did not stay in Yulin Port for long. He told Li Zhongguo not to go to Annan to plunder slave laborers for the time being, and continued to sail east the next day.

Five days later, the Dingyuan arrived at Magong Port in Penghu. The Penghu garrison had been cut down before Lin Hai went to Guangdong. This isolated archipelago had become Lin's independent kingdom, and Yang Lu was currently in charge.

Accompanied by Yang Lu, Lin Hai inspected the garrisons in various places and asked him to build more houses there. He planned to set up the Penghu Islands as a transit station for immigrants so that those infected with the disease could be screened, controlled and isolated in advance - this was very necessary, after all, a major disaster would inevitably lead to a major epidemic.

After staying in the Penghu guerrilla office for a few days, Lin Hai returned to Tamsui in mid-April. Zhu Niang got the news in advance and came to the palace in Guandu City from the Wanhua White House to greet him.

"Why are you here when you're pregnant?" Lin Hai took Zhu Niang into his arms and gently stroked her slightly bulging belly.

"I miss you. It's only been four months. What's the big deal?" Zhu Niang said, "Besides, I have Xiu'e to help me now. I'm not as busy as before."

"So, Xiu'e did a good job?" Lin Hai asked.

"Very good. Xiu'e is very organized and attentive. She will draft several different opinions on all the documents of the Civil Affairs Bureau, explain the reasons, and then ask me for my decision." Zhu Niang said, "I think it's too tiring for her to do this, so I told her not to ask for my approval on everything, unless she really can't make up her mind, then she can make her own decision."

"Very good, Xiu'e just lacks confidence, but she is a strong-willed person at heart. It's right to encourage her to let go." Lin Hai suddenly changed the subject and asked, "Is there anyone who is dissatisfied with her?"

"When a woman is in power, there will naturally be a lot of gossip. This is unavoidable. I didn't go through this in the beginning." Zhu Niang said, "But overall it's not bad. Xiu'e is on the board of directors after all. At least the directors of various departments are relatively cooperative in their work."

Lin Hai asked again: "What about Lun Diyi? Didn't he compete with Xiu'e?" Zhu Niang said: "Lun Diyi was indeed a bit competitive at the beginning, but Xiu'e went to find him once, and she has never been upset since then. Now the two of them cooperate very well, and the Economic Development Department is doing a great job."

"Oh? It seems that this kid has made great progress!" Lin Hai was a little surprised. Lun Diyi's contribution to the company was obvious to all. He was recognized as the second best person in the civil affairs system. He didn't expect that he would so easily accept Fang Xiu'e's catching up.

Little did he know that Xiu'e had already firmly grasped Lun Di Yi with just one sentence: "Brother Lun, if you are unhappy, then go and ask for marriage from you and your wife. Xiu'e is willing to resign from her position for you and stay at home to take care of your husband and children wholeheartedly from now on."

Lun Diyi also knew that Zhu Niang was pregnant, and Xiu'e's role in connecting the inside and outside was irreplaceable, so of course he couldn't propose marriage at this critical moment...

It has to be said that Lun Diyi and Fang Xiu'e are both workaholics. Their secret love affair is hidden so well that almost no one knows about it except Lu Tiedan. Even Lin Hai and Zhu Niang know nothing about it.

"Isn't it? It's also because he and Xiu'e have known each other since childhood that he can listen to her words." Zhu Niang nodded in agreement.

"Very good, very good." Lin Hai was very pleased to hear that. Although Lun Diyi was keen on power, he was essentially as simple as Chen Yaozu and had no bad intentions. There was no need to doubt his loyalty.

The only thing is that this person likes to play tricks, but his scheming is too shallow and can be easily seen through. Now it seems that these shortcomings can be corrected as his experience grows, so Lin Hai dares to let him take charge.

"Then are there any difficulties in the recent civil affairs work?"

"There is one thing. The immigration process has been so fast in the past two months that our land will soon be divided up."

"Huh? The immigration speed in Zhangzhou and Quanzhou is so fast?" Lin Hai was a little surprised when he heard this. When he mentioned the layoffs in the Engineering Bureau before going south, Zhu Niang said that there were plenty of wastelands. He didn't expect that they were almost divided up now.

"It's really fast. I didn't expect the people of Zhangzhou and Quanzhou to be so willing to immigrate. Six thousand households have come in just two months. This speed is comparable to the initial recruitment of immigrants in Zhejiang and Chongming at the same time." Zhu Niang said, "There are only 30,000 acres of land left in Yilan now, and it will be distributed in half a month."

Before the resumption of immigration, Jinhe Kingdom had a population of 100,000, and excluding those who did not participate in the land distribution, there were more than 20,000 households in total.

According to the policy of 20 mu per household, the land distributed was about 450,000 mu. The 150,000 mu of land in the Taipei Basin, which was developed the earliest, had already been distributed, and 300,000 mu of land in the Yilan Basin. Before the Linhai moved south, there were still 150,000 mu left. However, in just two months, only 30,000 mu were left...

"Then what are you going to do?"

"What else can we do? After Yilan has been divided, we can only divide it in Taoyuan." The natives of Taoyuan, west of the Taipei Basin, have been cleared out several times by the Vanguard Bureau. There are still some Dokas villages remaining in the farther areas of Hsinchu and Miaoli, but the agricultural conditions in these places are not very good.

Zhu Niang then said, "Xiu'e also proposed another method, which is to migrate to Wanggang. That area has been developed for a long time. The original residents were abducted to Tamsui by the Navy last year. However, Wanggang is too close to Tainan. I dare not make a decision on this matter. I am waiting for you to come back and decide..."

(End of this chapter)