After all, Li Guodong helped Zheng Zhilong a lot of help. The Zheng family army relied on the red cannons that Li Guodong helped him cast to expand its fleet and built a large number of large and medium-sized warships. Relying on these warships, Zheng Zhilong achieved a huge victory over the Liu Xiang Pirate Group.

In fact, without the naval guns that Li Guodong cast for Zheng Zhilong, the Zheng family army could win the victory of destroying Liu Xiang. However, Zheng Zhilong soldiers did not understand this and attributed a large part of the credit to Li Guodong helping him cast the red cannon.

Since Shi Fu was not in sight, Li Guodong boarded his boat.

I heard that it was not for the "Along the River During the Qingming Festival", Shi Fu was relieved that he had just raised his heart: "I don't know what's wrong with Mr. Uncle coming to find a senior official?"

Li Guodong replied: "Li wants General Zheng to do a favor, and hopes that General Shi can help Li pass the message."

“What’s the busy thing?”

"Li wanted to build a shipyard by the Yangtze River, and did not need too many ships. As long as he could cross the Yangtze River and resist the Huguang Navy. I hope the Zheng family army could help. Li asked if General Zheng could build a large ship like the Red Barbarian Plywood?"

Shi Fu frowned: "Boye wants to build a navy to block traffic in the Yangtze River? Could it be that Boye wants to rebel?"

"No, I am a loyal minister of the Ming Dynasty. How can I rebel if I eat the king's fortune? It takes five years to build a ship, because in five years the world will undergo a great change and Jiannu will arrive at the riverside. Therefore, the navy needs to resist Jiannu's crossing the river."

"Will Jiannu arrive at the riverside?" Shi Fu was startled, "This is an alarmist statement!"

Li Guodong bowed and said, "No, Li has already said that the world will change drastically in five years. General Shi, this time Jiannu invaded and plundered, and the soldiers fought bravely to repel Jiannu. However, the court could not even pay military pay. His Majesty was forced to sell his family, which solved the problem of military pay. This could His Majesty do such a thing once and twice, but can he continue like this forever? When the things in the palace were sold out, could he still sell the imperial city? If there is no military pay, I am afraid that the officers and soldiers will mutiny! General Shi, wouldn't the world change drastically?"

Shi Fu was shocked: "I didn't expect the court to be so short of money? The lord thought that when the items sold in the palace must be a treacherous slander in the court to instigate His Majesty to sell the items and make friends with wealthy businessmen in the world. Unexpectedly, the court lacked silver. Someone was walking in Jiangnan, with prosperity and peace in the world. It was impossible to tell that the court lacked silver."

Li Guodong sighed: "The south of Jiangnan can be said to be rich in the world. Even Huguang is rich. Who can tell that the court is short of money? However, the court has increased its salary every year, and the people who cannot survive in the northwest become thieves. During the Jisi change, the court owed the military pay for the army to serve as thieves, and the army mutiny and became thieves!"

"Mr., this matter is of great importance. Please go to Fujian in person and have a detailed discussion in person after meeting with your lord." Shi Fu did not dare to make decisions without authorization, so he invited Li Guodong to Fujian.

Li Guodong bowed: "Okay, Li is about to go to Jiangnan, so why not go to Fujian. Then thank General Shi first!"

Shi Fu bowed and returned the gift: "Then please ask my uncle to go to Jiangnan with me and then to Fujian."

Li Guodong asked Zhang Shuheng on the boat and more than 20 relatives who served as relatives, to board the Zheng family's ship and head south to Jiangnan together.

The fleet passed by Huai'an, and Li Guodong invited Shi Fu to visit the Douhu Village in Huai'an. In fact, this was also to show his strength to the Zheng family army. Zheng Zhilong was a smart man, but he was too smart. Why did Zheng Zhilong surrender to the Qing Dynasty in real history? It was because the Qing Dynasty occupied Jiangnan, and if Zheng Zhilong's maritime merchant group wanted to make profits, it needed Jiangnan as the backing. Take a look at the goods exported by Zheng Zhilong, and you will know that most of these goods are produced in Jiangnan, especially the silk that accounts for the largest number.

The saying that Huguang is well-versed is that because Jiangnan has changed a large number of paddy fields into mulberry fields and tea forests, the grain output produced in Jiangnan has decreased year by year. From the supply of grain produced in Jiangnan in the early Ming Dynasty to the north, it has become that Jiangnan grain can only be self-sufficiency, and the grain transported to the capital all comes from Huguang.

Porcelain and tea. Although porcelain is produced in Jingdezhen, Jingdezhen porcelain is an official kiln for the capital. There are also a large number of porcelain kilns in Jiangnan. The quality of porcelain produced in Jiangnan is not worse than that of official kilns. Tea, Fujian and other places also produce tea, but Japan and North Korea in that era still like green tea in Jiangnan, and oolong tea produced in Fujian is not popular overseas.

In that era, the destinations for tea export were mainly Japan and North Korea, as well as the South China Pig Kingdom, and had not yet begun to export black tea to Europe on a large scale. Europeans only drank black tea, and the black tea was only Wuyi tea, with very little production. It was not until the fall of the Ming Dynasty that the Portuguese spread tea to the UK, so the British liked this kind of item. From the end of the 17th century, Britain began to introduce a large amount of tea.

Before Fujian's tea became the most important export goods, silk, ceramics and tea in Jiangnan were the most important maritime trade goods. Nanming lost Jiangnan. It was precisely because of the loss of Jiangnan that Zheng Zhilong went to the Qing Dynasty for his own interests.

Who knew that the Qing Dynasty wanted to suppress the Haishang Group. Because the Haishang Group was not easy to control, Zheng Zhilong was under house arrest after the Qing Dynasty, and later was sent to Ningguta and finally killed.

The Qing court suppressed the maritime business group, interrupted the germination of capitalism, and brought China, which was about to enter capitalism, back to the slave society.

As long as Jiangnan is in hand, Zheng Zhilong will be able to surrender to the Ming Dynasty.

The group changed boats in Huai'an and went upstream along a small river. After arriving at the Gaojiayan embankment, the fleet entered the lock.

Ship locks are not rare. There are many ship locks on the canal. From the Yangtze River to the canal, the canal passes through the Yellow River, all of which have ship locks. Moreover, the canal is not on the same horizon, and there are also ship locks between Huaian and Huaiyin. However, the Gaojiayan ship lock is not very meaningful in Shifu's eyes. This is not a busy water transportation route, and there is no gate fee to be charged for this ship lock, which is purely a loss-making transaction.

Li Guodong made Wang Quan use a lot of manpower to build the Gaojiayan ship lock, which was naturally not for commercial purposes, but for a military purpose. Once the Qing army entered the pass and headed south, the Huai Army Navy could enter the canal through the lock at any time. When the situation was unfavorable, the navy could return to the castle through the lock, and then the Ming army opened the Gaojiayan water gate to release water to flood the Qing army.

The water attack strategy was to burn both jade and stone. Huai'an, Muyang, Andong and other places downstream of Hongze Lake would become a country of terrain, and even Yangzhou would be flooded by floods. The people in the entire Jianghuai area would be destroyed. Therefore, unless absolutely necessary, Li Guodong would not use the bald water flooding strategy.
Chapter completed!