Of course, the military reports about the southern pirates were not received on the spot.
According to Guo Ning's expectations, maritime trade is now one of the most important financial sources for the Great Zhou Dynasty, and may even be the most important financial source in the future. Therefore, there is more than one Zhou Keshan from Qingyuan Mansion who is responsible for daily management. For more than a month, every time there was a shipwreck, a special report was sent to the north without delay.
Instead, he and Li Yun teamed up on the spot. Out of an idea, the effect was very good. It really aroused the emotions of the soldiers, especially the emotions of generals such as Shi Tianni.
Guo Ning's way of judging people comes from the army.
An army of 100 people and an army of 1,000 people meet on a narrow road. The two sides are fighting. Having more people may not necessarily lead to victory, because how to use the troops is the key to victory. Only when every soldier is placed in a suitable position can the army have combat effectiveness. Otherwise, the crowd will be in vain and will only lead to death.
Now that his status is high, planning and employing people are gradually more important than specific troops, but the principles of both are still the same.
Since ancient times, the same rice has fed all kinds of people. Guo Ning's first batch of defeated companions all had similar experiences and backgrounds. Each of them was good or bad, each had their own strengths and weaknesses. What's more, as the king of a country, he ruled over hundreds of millions of people and two hundred thousand brave men?
It is very necessary to make targeted arrangements for different subordinates with different backgrounds.
For example, generals such as Shi Tianni, Li Shouzheng, and Yelu Kechou Baer all came from powerful local families and had the ability to lead troops in battle. If the chaos in the world continues, each of them can rise up and become a prince who controls a place.
But they all had a good sense of smell, and they all took refuge in Guo Ning at the right time. Over the past one or two years, their local power has continued to increase, their status in the military is not low, and they have real power in their hands. It is foreseeable that ten or twenty years later, they will continue to deepen their efforts and their influence will only be greater.
How should Guo Ning, as the emperor of the Zhou Dynasty, deal with the existence of such a group of people, or a large group of people?
If left alone, such out-of-control military aristocrats would be a danger to the country; if they followed the example of the Song Dynasty and released their military power over a glass of wine and respected culture and education from then on, it would be a waste of their military talents.
If they are suppressed with harsh punishments, there will be many people in the army who are in a similar situation to them. For example, what would Miao Daorun, Zhang Rou, Jing Anmin, etc. think? That would almost certainly be considered a waste of time and would cause turmoil in the military.
In the eyes of the warriors, the Great Zhou Dynasty was a political power obtained by the warriors who sacrificed their lives and fought hard. It is only natural that the soldiers rely on this political power to gain profits. After all, the emperor needs an army to work for his life! After all, there's no guarantee when those terrible gangsters will come back!
Under other regimes, it would be almost impossible to properly solve the problem.
But Guo Ning feels that the Dazhou he built can do it.
Yelu Chucai once praised that Guo Ning's talents were given by heaven. Guo Ning himself knows that talent is nothing; understanding of the world people live in is what is given by nature. After all, the state of being limited to the two countries of Jin and Song Dynasty is different from the state of looking at the world.
After the generals left happily, Guo Ning sat still.
After a while, Ni Yi led Shi Tianni back.
Shi Tianni saluted respectfully: "Your Majesty, do you have any other instructions?"
Guo Ning smiled and said, "Hefu, come, please sit down."
Shi Tianni is a smart man.
After Guo Ning defeated Genghis Khan, he surrendered many generals who had fought for the Mongols. Among so many generals, Shi Tianni was the strongest locally, had the most troops, and had the highest reputation. After that, Guo Ning first used him in Jinshan, and then used him in Songshan, Wuping, Huihe and other places on Beijing Road. Everywhere Shi Tianni went, he could use both soft and hard tactics to clean up the dissatisfied and restore governance.
But every time when they recounted their achievements, the other generals would blush and get angry, but Shi Tianni never participated. Some people laughed at him because of this, saying that when he was young, he claimed that if he had millions of people, he would be able to gain fame easily. But now if he continues to retreat humbly, he might die with only 10,000 Qingyue troops.
After hearing this, Shi Tianni was not angry when he was criticized. Instead, he withdrew some additional benefits and relied on his popularity to repeatedly persuade to calm the conflicts among his colleagues.
You know, this kind of competition for merit and reward is the most difficult to deal with. Guo Ning's rise is too fast, and he still needs to be tolerant to the generals. However, many factions in the army still exist. Once Guo Ning intervenes, if he is not careful in his handling, he may be considered unfair and favor one over the other.
Shi Tianni is really capable of relieving Guo Ning's worries in this regard. Although Guo Ning will not reward him for this, he pays more and more attention to him.
Hence the individual summons at this moment.
"Hefu thinks that the soldiers will be willing to go south? Will the soldiers be afraid of the storm on the sea?"..ne
"Your Majesty, I dare not say anything about the situation of others. There are many elite men under my command who are willing to die. Many of them have robbed homes and homes in their early years, and they are not that kind of fool. Since the country has had nothing to do this year, everyone has already been itchy. I just wish I didn’t have the opportunity to serve His Majesty. As for the storms on the sea... People who make money are not afraid, so why don’t they be afraid of those who are accustomed to killing and robbing? "
Guo Ning patted Shi Tianni on the shoulder, stared at him, and said in a deep voice: "This matter... the difficulty is not in the fighting. Don't ignore it. I'm not worried if just ordinary subordinates go."
Shi Tianni did not hesitate: "That's easy, I will lead the team myself."
"It seems too much trouble for Hefu to go in person? A while ago, there was a proposal from the imperial court to transfer you to the position of Jinzhou Linhaijiedu and deputy commander of the military and horse forces at Beijing Road. Once you go, I am afraid that your military position will be promoted, and we will have to discuss it again. "
"How can you be troubled if you work hard on the king's affairs? If you can follow your majesty to build a country, why worry about losing fame and fortune?"
Guo Ning laughed.
Just now, he and Li Yun worked together to stir up emotions. There were smart people among the generals present, and they should be able to guess a thing or two about Guo Ning's intentions.
Could it be that the trading company itself couldn't find the manpower to deal with things like pirates? It is obvious that Guo Ning wants to use this as an excuse to project power to the south. At the same time, Guo Ning does not want the local snakes under his command to always work locally. He wants them to go to distant places to see and gain insights.
At the beginning of the Great Zhou Dynasty, when all the civil and military ministers were in high spirits, no one thought that the emperor's ascension to the throne would be the end of the war. If you can focus on Xiangnan as soon as possible, it will be a good opportunity to make a contribution. From another perspective, this is also an affirmation of their talents and their status in the Great Zhou Dynasty.
Even so, after all, they are far away from each other by the vast sea. These leading generals now all have titles. Unlike the bachelors of the past, they were afraid that they would not be able to send out three or five groups of subordinates to explore the situation and fight for a few times before setting off in person.
This makes it more and more clear that Shi Tianni dares to do anything.
Guo Ning stood up and took out the map and books and spread them out: "Hefu, come and see. The Song Dynasty in the south has thousands of plans and has been cutting off maritime interests for hundreds of years. There are also wealthy merchants from hundreds of countries on the sea, with great wealth and power. The so-called pirates, They are just marionettes competing for carrion among huge forces. The Song people were unwilling to deal with these marionettes, so they pushed the problem into our hands. Now, I want people to exterminate the pirates, but the target is not just the pirates. I have an idea..."
The two discussed for a long time, and the next day, Guo Ning returned to Zhongdu.
Early winter, Fuzhou.
Under the setting sun, the blue sea surface shimmers with golden light, which complements the clear sky in the distance and almost merges into one.
The seagull hovered in the sky for a long time, finally descended, and folded its wings on the top of the sail of a lucky ship. The lucky ship sailed unhurriedly into the North Port of Minjiang River, slowly passed under the Jinshan Temple Pagoda, and gradually approached the shipyard gate.
After Wang Erbai and others killed Wang Ziqing, they rushed back to Qingyuan Mansion to report. Zhou Keshan left them to rest on the island for half a month, and then asked them to catch the last trade wind and pick up a group of northerners to Fuzhou.
This is the fourth time Wang Erbai has come to Fuzhou, but this is the first time he has sailed south alone without a southern ship to lead the team. Fortunately, the sailors had not practiced in vain in the past few months and knew the route well. The ship was empty and there was no danger of running aground.
At this time, he was sitting on the bow of the boat, looking into the distance leisurely. The leader at the back led a dozen sailors to climb up and down the cables to inspect the cables. At the beginning, he led a few people to carry the empty buckets onto the deck.
The busiest person was Naoku. He was running around, urging the crew to hand over the weapons that were too conspicuous around them and hide them under the cabin.
Fuzhou is not a sea trade port officially allowed by the Song Dynasty in the Southern Dynasties, so there are no patrol ships from the Municipal Shipping Department at the port. Most of the nearby inspection departments also understood the situation and did not dare to block the ships traveling to Shanghai. But the crew members themselves have to be more cautious and there is no need to embarrass themselves.
The crew was busy, and the passengers also went on the deck one after another, overlooking the scenery of Fuzhou.
These passengers claimed to be merchants and dressed up as seafarers, but they had no hint of maritime merchants in their bodies. Wang Erbai could tell at a glance. These people are generally tall and strong, and half of them are a bit bow-legged, which is caused by long periods of riding horses.
They were also obviously not used to the narrow aisles on the deck. They kicked the cables and sails at every turn. They were cramped no matter how they walked, and they inevitably staggered when they stood on the side of the ship.
Not to mention that everyone carries a variety of sophisticated weapons. As the bow of the ship, Wang Erbai has a few good weapons in his hands, but none of them can compare with the weapons they carry.
But it doesn't matter, Zhou Daguan has said hello, they are absolutely reliable. That Shi Dalang went south on His Majesty's secret order, and everyone in the trading company must give their full assistance.
Wang Erbai stood still holding on to the side of the ship and raised his hand to signal: "Look, Shi Dalang, behind that is the shipyard where we ordered this ship. A dark crowd of people gathered on the shore to take advantage of the high tide to launch the new ship. Please follow the ceremony, oh, there are at least five hundred people beating gongs and drums! What is being launched is a real big ship!"
The shipyard directed by Wang Erbai was the largest that Shi Tianni had ever seen in his life. There are seven or eight pontoons connecting several ponds and sluices.
At this time, many people on the pontoon cheered, and a floodgate slowly opened. Amid the violent roar, sea water suddenly poured into the pond, lifting a large ship worth two thousand people.
If a giant boat of this size is used as a military ship, it can carry 500 soldiers and requires 150 crew members to operate it smoothly. It is like a city on the sea.
At this time, the sea water was turbulent, and the huge bow of the ship was rising and falling, suddenly crashing into the sea, and then being lifted up by the waves. On both sides of the giant boat, there is a huge dragon eye as a decoration. Each dragon eye is as tall as a person. They are painted bright red and protrude from the side of the ship. As the ship rose and fell violently, the dragon's eyes seemed to come alive, as if the entire ship was also swaying and about to fly through the waves.
Shi Tianni stared at the big ship for a long time. Because both sides were heaving, he suddenly wanted to vomit. It was seasickness, which is inevitable for people from the north who are sailing for the first time.
He was almost used to it, and the situation was much better than that of his subordinates who were still lying in the cabin. One of his subordinates was a fat man before going south, but now he is skin and bones. I have to thank the ship's doctor for this, otherwise I would really have died.
His stomach was getting more and more turbulent, and he was holding back the discomfort. Shi Tianni simply leaned out to the sea outside and vomited twice.
Wang Erbai glanced at it and said worriedly: "Shi Dalang, did you vomit out your intestines?"
Shi Tianni said angrily: "Where are these my intestines? It's the sea intestines I just ate! Didn't you fry that big pot? Did you forget?"
"It's always right to ask more. If what you vomit is really your intestines, the ship's doctor will be there to give you first aid."
Dr. Chen was coming out of the cabin and only heard how his intestines were and how the first aid was. He was startled, came over to take a look, and then rolled his eyes at Wang Erbai.
