Family Rise: Beginning with Grandfather.

Chapter 531 A coincidence that is not a coincidence

What else could Zhang Ruifu say? He could only agree repeatedly and hurriedly went to write a letter to Wang Lu.

After he left, Yang Zhengshan looked at Zheng Yang from the Ministry of Revenue again, "Money and grain, we need one million taels of silver and one hundred thousand dan of grain!"

"Ah!" Zheng Yang was stunned. "My Lord, didn't we bring 300,000 silver coins and 50,000 shi of grain when we came here?"

Yang Zhengshan's face darkened. "Then look at what Zhaowuwei has. Doesn't it cost money to build the camp and the port? Don't so many civilians have to eat?"

"Fifty thousand shi of grain was originally intended for the soldiers to train, but as you know, this amount of grain won't last long given the current situation!"

Originally, the silver and granaries provided by the Ministry of Revenue were only enough for the training needs of the four naval forces. Even if there was a shortage, they could requisition grain from nearby official granaries.

But now Yang Zhengshan has resorted to the method of throwing money around in order to build the camp and port as quickly as possible, and this amount of money and food is simply not enough.

"This!" Zheng Yang was about to cry, "My Lord, the Ministry of Revenue doesn't have that much money and grain!"

"This is not something I should consider, but something your Ministry of Revenue should consider!" Yang Zhengshan said dissatisfiedly.

How come the Ministry of Revenue is out of money?
The Imperial Commercial Bureau can provide the Ministry of Revenue with millions of taels of silver every year. He only wants one million taels, and there is no way the Ministry of Revenue cannot provide it.

If the Ministry of Revenue could not come up with the money, Yang Zhengshan would have reason to suspect that the officials of the Ministry of Revenue had embezzled the money and grain from the national treasury.

It is different now than before. In the past, whether he was in Tenglongwei or Chongshan Town, he was mostly self-sufficient in money and food. But in Zhaowuwei, he is simply unable to be self-sufficient, and there is not enough time for him to develop slowly. He can only ask the Ministry of Households to provide money and food.

Zheng Yang didn't dare to refute Yang Zhengshan and could only reluctantly agree to this matter.

After leaving the matters of weapons, armor, money and food to Zhang Ruifu and Zheng Yang, Yang Zhengshan focused his energy on training his soldiers.

It just so happened that he brought a hundred guards with him who could serve as instructors for the soldiers. At the same time, he also sent Yang Chengye, Yang Chengmao and a few other guys to the military camp to serve as instructors.

Outside the camp on the coast, five thousand soldiers were divided into hundreds of small square formations and were receiving training from the guards.

There is no need to explain much about the Yang family's basic training methods. The main training contents are formation and physical training. The guards have already mastered the specific training methods, so Yang Zhengshan doesn't need to worry about them at all.

What Yang Zhengshan has to do is to provide spiritual spring water.

For several days, Yang Zhengshan was either running around the temporary training ground or running between the camp and the port.

Time quickly came to the tenth day of October. It was still very hot in the southeastern waters in October, and it was unbearably hot even on the sea.

However, starting from October, the wind direction in the southeastern waters will change from southwest monsoon to northeast monsoon.

Yu Tonghai led the Tenglong navy and it took three days to reach Dongyang Island against the wind.

When they arrived near Dongyang Island, the island immediately fell into chaos.

The geographical location of Dongyang Island is very important. For Dihuo Island, Dongyang Island is also an extremely important source of wealth.

There are no special products on Dongyang Island, but it is an important supply base for fleets traveling east and west. The small town and market on the island are places for passing ships to dock and rest.

The pirates on Dihuo Island are not ordinary pirates. Although they sometimes engage in looting, they are extremely law-abiding on Dongyang Island. After all, Dongyang Island is a continuous and stable source of income for them.

At this time, in an exquisitely decorated courtyard on Dongyang Island, Zhu Ming, the manager of Dihuo Island on Dongyang Island, was sitting under the shade of a tree, leisurely drinking tea.

Dihuo Island is different from Xingyue Sect. Xingyue Sect is more like a sect, while Dihuo Island is a family force.

Dihuo Island is the exclusive territory of the Zhu family, and all the industries on Dihuo Island are also the industries of the Zhu family.

However, Zhu Ming is not a member of the Zhu family. He is just a servant of the Zhu family and a house-born child raised by the Zhu family.

Zhu Ming is in his forties. Although he is a servant of the Zhu family, he is highly regarded by the masters of the Zhu family because of his outstanding cultivation and abilities. As the manager of Dongyang Island, he leads a very comfortable life.

However, this guy likes to pretend to be cultured. Although he is a warrior, he likes music, chess, calligraphy and painting, and he especially likes the tea ceremony.

He was sitting under the shade of a tree, leisurely making tea, when at that moment an attendant came running over in a hurry.

"My lord, something bad has happened!" the attendant shouted.

"Shut up!"

Hearing the call from his followers, Zhu Ming shouted in dissatisfaction.

The attendant interrupted him while he was making tea.

The attendant immediately fell silent. Zhu Ming did not care what the attendant was doing and continued to make tea calmly. When a bowl of tea was ready, he took a sip and said, "What happened?"

The follower held it in for a long time, and finally got the chance to speak. He said very quickly: "Sir, a large number of warships appeared on the sea, and they seem to be heading for us!"

"What!" Zhu Ming was shocked and stood up quickly. "How many warships are there?"

"Hundreds of ships, including two large Fu ships!" said the attendant.

Zhu Ming shuddered suddenly and kicked the follower over. "Fuck, why didn't you say so earlier!"

"..."

The follower was kicked more than ten feet away by him, but he was also a warrior, so he was not seriously injured. He just felt a little short of breath due to the pain. Not only did he feel a little short of breath due to the pain, but he also felt a little short of breath.

Damn it, wasn't it you, an idiot, who told me to shut up?
Zhu Ming didn't care about his followers' complaints and ran hurriedly towards the pier.

When he arrived at the town's dock, he saw warships of all sizes floating on the sea.

Warship, not merchant ship!
Under the bright sunshine, the sharp arrow flashed with a cold light.

Even from a distance, he could see the shining crossbow arrows.

"Crossbows! Lots of crossbows!"

"Is this the navy of Dayong?"

Zhu Ming only took a glance and he guessed where these warships came from.

Large crossbows are not unique to Dayong, but in the entire southeastern waters, only Dayong has the ability to equip a fleet with so many crossbows.

"What's going on?" he asked the panicked sailors beside him.

"Sir, we don't know either!" said a group of sailors with pale faces.

Zhu Ming took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down.

What did Darong come to Dongyang Island for?
Attack Dongyang Island?
probably not!

Their Dihuo Island did not provoke Dongyang Island!
"It's not for Dongyang Island, but for the route!"

In just a moment, he figured out the key.

He had also heard about Dayong's plan to attack Xingyue Island, and he also knew that Dayong was gathering navy in Zhaowuwei. He originally thought that this matter had nothing to do with their Dihuo Island, but now it seems that their Dihuo Island might also be implicated.

"Someone, send a small boat over to ask!" Just as Zhu Ming finished speaking, he saw a small boat approaching the dock. "Forget it, someone from the other side is coming!"

Seeing a small boat coming, he was no longer so panicked, but felt a lot more at ease.

The arrival of a small boat means there is room for negotiation.

Xue Ping took a small boat to the dock of Dongyang Island. He looked at the alert sailors on the dock and shouted with a grin, "Xue Ping, the commander of the Darong Tenglong vanguard, has come to ask to see the manager of Dongyang Island. Please pass on the message!"

"I am the manager of Dongyang Island. What can I do for you?" Zhu Ming replied quickly.

Xue Ping also saw Zhu Ming, clasped his hands and shouted, "We need to patrol around Dongyang Island in the next few days, I hope you can help us!"

"Inspection?" Zhu Ming's mind moved slightly, "No, you here will affect our business!"

He didn't want to cause any more trouble, and Dihuo Island didn't want to get involved in the battle between Darong and Xingyuemen.

His idea was very simple, which was to maintain a neutral stance, neither helping Darong nor Xingyuemen.

Xue Ping looked at him and shouted, "Sir, if you help others, you will also help yourself. If you help us today, we will help you tomorrow!"

Zhu Ming was a little panicked at first, but now he has calmed down.

Read the error-free version at 69shuba! 6=9+shu_ba is the first to publish this novel.

In his opinion, since Dayong has already gone to war with the Xingyue Sect, it should not go to war with their Dihuo Island.

"This Dongyang Island is the territory of our Dihuo Island. It would be better for you to retreat as soon as possible! As long as you retreat, I will pretend that what happened today never happened!"

Xue Ping frowned. This manager was a bit stubborn!

I told him I was just doing you a favor, but this guy still refused.

Yang Zhengshan did not say that he wanted to occupy Dongyang Island. He and Yu Tonghai did not think of taking the initiative to provoke Dongyang Island. However, if they wanted to patrol here, they must have a place to rest. They could not just drift on the sea forever!

Just when Xue Ping was about to persuade him again, a dull horn sounded suddenly in the distance.

woohoo~~
The sound of a horn with a long tail sounded, Xue Ping was startled and quickly looked behind him.

This is an order to prepare for battle!
That’s not right. Didn’t Lord Yu say that he should come over to persuade first?

Why is he launching an attack when he hasn't even returned yet?
Hearing the horn, Zhu Ming also became nervous. Although he was not clear about Darong's order, he felt that it was definitely not a good thing.

"What do you mean?" he asked sternly.

Xue Ping ignored him and took out a telescope to look in the direction of the Dafu ship. He soon discovered something was wrong because the flag order on the Dafu ship was a clear order to attack, but the direction of attack was not Dongyang Island, but the east.

Then he quickly looked towards the east, and suddenly black shadows appeared in the telescope. The distance was too far and the view was not very clear, but he could be sure that they were ships.

"It can't be such a coincidence!"

"Turn around and go back!"

Xue Ping quickly ordered the soldiers accompanying him.

That’s right, it was such a coincidence that the ship coming from the east at this time was exactly the ship of Xingyue Sect, which was two of the four flag armies of Xingyue Sect, the Crescent Flag Army and the Upper Flag Army.

The two large flag armies were coming in a mighty force, preparing to go to Songhe Prefecture to plunder the city.

It was such a coincidence that the two parties met unexpectedly on Dongyang Island.

Of course, this is not entirely a coincidence. Yang Zhengshan asked the Tenglong Vanguard to come to Dongyang Island because the Secret Guards said that there were unusual movements of the Crescent Flag Army and the Upper Flag Army. Now that the Crescent Flag Army and the Upper Flag Army have come to Dongyang Island, it just proves that the information provided by the Secret Guards is accurate.

On the Dafu ship, Yu Tonghai looked at the enemy ship which was becoming clearer and clearer through a telescope, with a bright smile on his face.

"Hahaha, good come! Good come!"

He didn't expect the battle to come so soon. To be honest, he was not ready for the battle yet.

But since someone came to his door, he didn't mind swallowing the other person.

"Report, the enemy has two Dafu ships, ten Haicang ships, and more than 300 small boats!"

"Report, the enemy's big ship is a converted merchant ship, and the mast is only three meters high!"

"Report, the enemy has discovered our army and is stopping its advance!"

As reports came in one after another, the general situation of the enemy army had already appeared in Yu Tonghai's mind.

In terms of the number of warships, the enemy has many more than the Tenglong Vanguard, but most of the enemy ships are small, and there are only ten medium-sized Haicang ships.

The most important thing is that the enemy's Dafu ships were converted from merchant ships. Although both warships and merchant ships are Dafu ships, there are big differences between the two.

For example, Dayong's No. 1 Dafu ship had a mast 48 feet high, a larger sail, a faster sailing speed, and most importantly, a mounted crossbow. Merchant ships may also have mounted crossbows, but they are far inferior to those on warships. Whether in terms of the number, range, or power of mounted crossbows, they are far inferior to warships.

Here we have to talk about Dayong's shipbuilding technology and crossbow technology. Among the many forces in the southeast waters, Dayong's shipbuilding technology and crossbow technology are definitely the most powerful.

Even most of the forces in the southeastern waters were unable to build large ships and could only build small and medium-sized ships. Only the Lu Sheng Dynasty was able to build large ships, but the Lu Sheng Dynasty's large ships were far inferior to Dayong's large ships.

Most of the ships of the forces in the southeastern waters are hijacked merchant ships, so most of their warships are also converted from merchant ships.

At this time, Yu Tonghai was full of excitement, but Li Chengzhang and Wang Mingjian on the opposite side were full of depression.

They were full of confidence when they set out to sea from their respective bases to plunder Songhe Prefecture. Such a good thing was definitely a rare opportunity for them. For this reason, the two of them fought with Han Changshun and Cheng Wuji for a long time before they got this task.

But they never expected that they would run into Dayong’s navy shortly after they set out.

"What should we do?" Li Chengzhang looked at Wang Mingjian beside him and asked.

Wang Mingjian's face was a little distorted, as if he had swallowed a fly.

"To fight or not to fight?" Li Chengzhang asked again.

Wang Mingjian felt the wind direction and said, "We are upwind, we can give it a try!"

They were not completely in the upwind position. Today the wind was from the northeast and the wind was not very strong, but compared to the Tenglong Navy on the opposite side, they did have a slight advantage in wind direction.

"Then let's give it a try. If the situation is not right, retreat immediately!" Li Chengzhang felt it would be embarrassing to run away now, so he planned to fight a battle first to see the situation.

However, they seemed to have underestimated the Tenglong Navy. When they were preparing to send the vanguard fleet to fight, Yu Tonghai had already ordered the fleet to disperse.

If you look down from the air, you will find that the Tenglong navy that had gathered together has now split into three teams, one team sailing to the northeast, one team sailing to the southeast, while the main warships are heading straight for the enemy ships in the east.

The warships sailing north are trying to occupy the upwind vantage point. The so-called upwind vantage point does not necessarily have to be consistent with the wind direction, but rather depends on the angle between the wind direction and the sail.

In fact, a sailboat can also sail against the wind, but it needs to adjust the hull and sails at the same time to change the headwind into a crosswind. After the wind direction changes to a crosswind, the boat can start, but the boat direction has deviated from the target direction, so after sailing for a distance, the boat needs to adjust the boat direction and sails again to make it go along a zigzag route. This sailing method is called "wind-fighting".

Taking advantage of the crosswind is a simple task for the soldiers of the Tenglong Navy.

(End of this chapter)