The journey of the heavens starts from the underground transportation station

Eight years later, on the edge of Taihu Lake, it was the weather in March, with peach blossoms on the path, green willows hanging over the lake, and warm wind blowing on the body, making people drunk.

In the peach blossom forest, an old man and a young man were sitting by the lake, holding bamboo poles in both hands, fishing comfortably. The old man was dressed in blue Confucian clothes, with a few strands of hair exposed under his head mixed with gray; the young man was dressed in a neat fish-white brocade.

Robe, python hidden on the material

pattern, wearing a jade pendant around his waist, with a bun on his head, and a jade hairpin stuck sideways; not far behind the two, dozens of handsome men in brocade clothes carrying crossbows on their backs and hanging embroidered spring knives on their waists vaguely formed a protective shield.

The circle seems to be protecting the two of them.

A breeze blew gently, and a peach blossom broke free from the branches. With the breeze, it gently fell on the shoulders of the young man by the lake.

The young man gently stretched out his hand and brushed the fallen peach blossoms down. At this moment, the fish float on the water surface shook slightly, and then quickly sank to the bottom of the water. The young man lifted the fishing rod, and a white fish weighing four or five kilograms with an upturned mouth jumped out.

Coming out of the water, the young man caught the hooked fish, caught it in his hand, and showed it to the old man.

"Mr. Dongpo, the fish in Taihu Lake are not worse than the fish in your West Lake, right?"

"It's very good. The fish is so plump. Add condiments and stew it in one pot. It must be delicious." The old man was Mr. Dongpo, who now knows Yangzhou, and the great writer Su Shi. Seeing him, he narrowed his eyes slightly and seemed to be smiling.

In the aftertaste: "If you want to talk about the freshest food in rivers, lakes and seas, it has to be the puffer fish. Dr. Taichang Zhang Buyi said in "Kuo Yi Zhi": "Every late spring, the willow flowers fall.

, this fish is very fat, and the Jianghuai people consider it a treasure, and even give it to each other as bequeaths. Peel the meat, mix it with mugwort and get the teeth, and make a soup. Even if you are not very familiar with it, it can also harm people, and some people will die from poisoning in the south.

People don’t like it

"That year, I passed through Changzhou. A local family cooked dolphin soup and presented it to me. I tried it and it tasted so delicious that it was worth dying for!"

"That's all, I don't dare to eat it. I'm satisfied with this pouty mouth." The young man waved to the back, and a big man in rich clothes walked over quickly. The young man handed the white fish to him and ordered: "Take it back to Zhuangzi and stew it."

Come on, get some fresh side dishes, pack them all up and bring them to the lake."

"Yes." The big man left with the fish, and another big man in brocade hurried over, stood behind the young man, bowed, and reported respectfully: "Your Highness, you asked your subordinates to stare at those monks and young men.

I just left Suzhou City and am heading to the lake. It will take more than an hour to get here."

"I know, go tell your commander, and when they arrive, send them to the lake."

"yes."

After the big man in robes withdrew, the young man stood up, stretched his muscles, sat down again, turned around and smiled playfully: "Mr. Dongpo, there are two more distinguished guests here. They are Duan Yu, the crown prince of Dali Zhennan, and Tubo Hu."

French Master Jiumozhi, the abbot of Dalun Temple, I wonder if you would be interested in meeting Xiao Wang with me?"

"You," Su Shi stroked his beard and said with a smile, "you have no good intentions. That's all. Since you are the Tubo Dharma protector, you must have profound Buddhist knowledge and be worth meeting."

"Thank you, sir." The young man turned around and smiled, it was Li Yu.

It is now March of the eighth year of Yuanyou (1093). It has been eight years since Li Yu left Bianliang and came to Liangzhe Road.

For eight years, Li Yu lived in seclusion on Liangzhe Road, in Prince Wu's Mansion in Hangzhou, and in Prince Wu's Villa on the edge of Taihu Lake outside Suzhou City. The court was busy dealing with the new party, and party disputes continued. Regarding the original King Cao,

Zhao Kai, the king of Wu who was renamed in the first year of Yuanyou, seems to have forgotten about it. We only know that in addition to traveling and cultivating his sentiments, he seems to have also participated in maritime trade, and his business was quite large.

Money! The imperial court had so much money that they didn't even look down on what they thought was King Wu's "three melons and two dates". Empress Dowager Gao didn't comment on the behavior of her youngest son, so she could do whatever she wanted.

But privately, Li Yu has not been idle in the past eight years. He lives in seclusion, but he is actually not in the country at all!

The title of the pacifying ambassador of the Shuai Mansion of Liang Zhejiang Road was just a false name. Li Yu did not take care of the military affairs of Liang Zhejiang Road at all. He first spent two years building his own territory, Suzhou Mansion, like an iron barrel, with everything from top to bottom.

He is from Prince Wu's Mansion.

Then vigorously expand overseas.

Gu Qi

The first one to bear the brunt was Liuqiu Island, also known as Wanwan. In this era, the huge Liuqiu Island was not taken seriously by the imperial court at all. It was only nominally subordinate to the imperial court and nominally under the jurisdiction of Fujian Road, Quanzhou Prefecture and Penghu County. Its level

Equivalent to township, li,

In fact, there are not even any minor officials from the imperial court on it. It is just a spontaneous settlement of maritime merchants in the south of the big island. It is not much bigger than a village. To the north, it is the territory of the natives. Chaoti doesn't even bother to educate them.

, this is cheaper for Li Yu.

People were recruited aggressively from the Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures in the northern Liao Kingdom and Liaodong. They also recruited poor farmers, fishermen, and craftsmen from Jingdong Road, Hebei Road, Guangnan East, and West Road, and shipped them all to Liuqiu.

For fear of alarming the imperial court, Li Yu privately imitated the Ming Dynasty's private "Jin Yiwei" to handle matters, a small number of times, many times, and did not cause much commotion.

Colonization is not without bloodshed.

Eliminate the natives, divide the land, build workshops...

In order to keep it secret, Li Yu even sent people to pretend to be natives and massacred all the maritime trade strongholds in the south.

Before coming to the plot world, Li Yu paid to download a large amount of materials from the library, and these materials were slowly transformed into productivity.

Traditional silk, tea, porcelain, various exotic products newly created by Li Yu, various spices from overseas, gold, gems...

In just three years, the sea trade fleet of Prince Wu's Mansion has become one of the largest maritime merchants in the Jiangnan region. On the one hand, it has fed the officials in the court, and on the other hand, it has united a bunch of people who rely on Prince Wu's Mansion to earn a living.

Small and medium-sized maritime merchants.

With Jin Yiwei as the backbone, he organized and trained private armies overseas, privately manufactured crossbows, armor, muskets, and artillery, purchased huge trees in Liaodong, built treasure ships, Galenic ships, and established a private navy.

Then, using Liuqiu as a base, they invaded Mayi from the south, occupied the big island of Luzon, bypassed the Southeast Asian countries that had close tributary exchanges with the Song Dynasty, occupied the big island of Australia, slaughtered and civilized the natives, immigrated, and mined...

Li Yu's overseas forces developed rapidly like a snowball.

In the current eighth year of Yuanyou, Li Yu has three overseas bases in Liuqiu, Luzon and Australia. He has more than one million people under his rule, including natives, and a private army of more than 60,000 people, including the navy.

Because there are data and drawings, Li Yu has already set the technology tree to the stage before the industrial revolution. You can tell something about it from the equipment of the private army.

Front-loaded Napoleon cannons of various calibers, firing solid bullets, explosive shells and shotgun shells; rear-loaded flintlock muskets, using paper shell fixed powder bullets (non-fired paper shell bullets); grenades, similar to a swarm of rocket launchers, with strong protection

Armor, crossbows, melee bayonets... It is a completely modern and ancient army. Except for the smaller number of troops, it already has the initial strength to devour the world.

The only drawback is that there are no cavalry.

Li Yu couldn't get horses, and the Song Dynasty's cunning horse administration resulted in an acute shortage of war horses. The Liao State also took a close look at war horses and banned large-scale trading.

After eight years of dormancy, Li Yu felt that it was time for him to take action.