The Song Dynasty on the Sand Table

Chapter 342 Launching the Ship
Early autumn, 1131 AD!

A man who should have returned to the Southern Song Dynasty last year has been left stranded in the Jin Dynasty due to the arrival of Yue Wenxuan, a change in history.

This person's name is Qin Hui.

Qin Hui, now 40 years old, was a staunch advocate of war in his youth. However, during the Jingkang Incident, he was captured by the Jin Dynasty and taken north with the two emperors. He received several years of "education" in the Jin Dynasty, and now he has become completely transformed into the Jin Dynasty from head to toe.

At this moment, Talan, the Left Deputy Marshal of the Jin Dynasty, was standing in front of Qin Hui with a strange smile on his face: "Mr. Qin, are you homesick?"

Qin Hui immediately shook his head from side to side: "No, no, the Great Jin Kingdom is so prosperous and wealthy, we are so happy here that we do not miss the Song Dynasty."

Talan: "Don't you miss home? If you miss home, I can let you go back. Since you don't, then I won't let you go."

Qin Hui replied with a resolute expression, "I really don't miss home at all."

Talan stared at him intently for several seconds before saying, "Sigh! I have an important mission that no one but Mr. Qin can accomplish, so even if you don't miss home, I have to let you go back."

Qin Hui let out an "Ah," revealing a sad expression: "I want to stay here and don't want to go back... But Marshal Talan has taken good care of me. If you have any mission, I will risk my life to complete it for you."

Talan: "Our country now intends to negotiate peace with the Southern Song and join forces to attack the Northern Song. We need you to return to the Southern Song court to make some moves."

Qin Hui put on a thoughtful expression, and after several seconds said: "To unite with the Southern Song to attack the Northern Song is a brilliant plan."

Ta Lan said, "Sir, you are a smart man. I don't need to tell you what to do after returning to your country, do I?"

Qin Hui bowed and said, "Understood."

Thus, in the autumn of 1131 AD, Qin Hui, who had been imprisoned by the Jin Dynasty for several years, finally regained his freedom.

Qin Hui, along with his entire family, boarded the large ship prepared for him by Talan and left the Jin Kingdom, sailing along the coastline towards Jiangnan...
-
Early in the morning, before Yue Wenxuan was fully awake, the alarm clock rang.

Today is the day to go to the "Dafeng Naval School".

After a period of operation, Dafeng Naval School was basically back to normal, so Gong Erniangzi decided to visit it.

Her position was Privy Councilor, which was the highest military commander in the Northern Song Dynasty. It was reasonable for her to want to visit the military academy, so Yue Wenxuan agreed to accompany her.

Yue Wenxuan quickly put everything into his lifelike figurine...

Stepping out of his room, he saw that Lady Gong Er was already waiting outside.

"Wait for a long time?"

"No, just arrived."

"Let's go!"

The two men didn't bring many people with them, only a thousand of their old brothers, before leaving Chuzhou and heading towards Yancheng.

It's over two hundred miles, but I'll treat it as a trip.

Along the way, we observed people's lives, farmland, and the development of Chuzhou, chatting with farmers by the roadside. Time passed quickly.

Agricultural production in the areas surrounding Chuzhou is recovering.

Although the population has decreased significantly, the income from one mu (a Chinese unit of land area, approximately 0.165 acres) of land is equivalent to that of three mu before, thanks to the adoption of new planting methods. The grain production in Chuzhou has essentially recovered to pre-Song-Jin war levels, but population recovery will take time. With the total grain output unchanged but the population decreasing, the grain cannot be consumed in its entirety. Therefore, many merchants come to buy grain and resell it to the Southern Song Dynasty.

There were also caravans transporting salt from Yancheng to sell elsewhere. This salt was also refined using new methods, and its quality was excellent. It was in high demand even in the Southern Song Dynasty.

The merchants weren't afraid when they encountered Gong Er Niangzi's group. They all knew that Young Master Yue valued commerce and that the Northern Song Dynasty was known for its "harmonious governance and peaceful society," so they wouldn't wantonly rob merchants of their goods. Therefore, instead of being afraid of the army, they would actively approach Gong Er Niangzi and Yue Wenxuan to pay their respects. Yue Wenxuan waved back, his attitude gentle.

The merchants stood even straighter, feeling that they had followed the right person.

A few days later, Yue Wenxuan and Gong Erniangzi arrived at the seaside of Yancheng, where the Dafeng Naval Academy stood before them.

There were guards at the school gate. When they saw Gong Er Niangzi and Yue Wenxuan, the guards quickly came over to greet them.

Yue Wenxuan glanced at the school gate and saw a couplet posted there: "The earth shakes the high hills, a landscape of streams and mountains eternally beautiful. The gate faces the sea, where three rivers converge and flow for ten thousand years. Hmm? This couplet..."

The gatekeeper quickly said, "True Lord, this is a couplet written by Marshal Tianpeng."

Yue Wenxuan: “…”

Okay, the Heaven and Earth Society was founded by Chen Jinnan, who followed the Zheng family. Maybe this couplet existed when Zheng Chenggong was still alive, and the Heaven and Earth Society just borrowed it later.

I'm not going to dwell on it anymore!

Just as Yue Wenxuan was about to step into the school, the gatekeeper said, "True Lord, if you enter the school at this time, you probably won't see anything."

Yue Wenxuan: "?"

The gatekeeper said, "Marshal Tianpeng has taken Li Bao and the other students to the sea to teach them how to handle sails and helms."

Yue Wenxuan: "Oh? I see."

There's a saying that goes, "What you learn from books is never enough!"

Teaching ship handling in a classroom is clearly not very scientific; teaching it at sea is the right way to go, no problem there.

Yue Wenxuan laughed and said, "Where did they get their ships? Our shipyard can't ship ships out to sea that quickly, can it?"

It turns out that the Northern Song army has just started building a shipyard. There is a Dafeng Shipyard not far from the Dafeng Naval School, which is under construction. However, it takes a long time for a seagoing vessel to be built from the time the project is initiated. Where can they get one now?
The gatekeeper said, "A few days ago, a wealthy salt merchant named Gao came in and donated a small merchant ship to the school."

Yue Wenxuan smiled and said, "He is very thoughtful."

Gong Erniangzi said, "Then shall we just wait here for them to come back?"

Yue Wenxuan laughed: "What are we waiting for? Let's go find them at sea. I reckon they're not too far from the shore."

He took Gong Erniangzi by the hand and they arrived at the seaside.

The people around him were all old brothers under Gong Er Niangzi, so Yue Wenxuan no longer needed to hide. He said directly, "Wait a moment while I go and see if there is a boat that can be moved here."

After saying that, he looked out of the sand table and returned to his bedroom.

There are enough cabinets in the house to hold a boat. Yue Wenxuan had tried putting boats in them before, but modern warships were out of the question. The command capacity was simply not enough. In the past, he couldn't even fit a sailboat in there.

However, now that we have a lot of territory, our command capabilities have far surpassed those when we first got the sand table.

Yue Wenxuan could also try putting some large weapons inside.

I won't show you the huge Spanish galleon; a beginner definitely couldn't handle that.

Yue Wenxuan took a small sailboat with only three sails, a Chinese-style hard sail, a Ming Dynasty warship, and placed it in the sand table. As he expected, this thing did not require much command ability, and he put it in easily.

(End of this chapter)