When Li Miao and his party arrived at Chengzikou Port, there was no lively welcome scene at the port. Only the guards were heavily guarded, and Chengzikou Port was rare and solemn. One hundred and fifty elite guards guarded the road.
Fifty of the guards are on-duty guards, and a hundred guards are mobile guards all year round. The leader of these hundreds of mobile guards is Ding Chunsheng, Qiu Sheng's brother. As the commander of the mobile team, he usually trains just to deal with emergencies.
Now, the guard commanders of Lingshan Island do not report to each other, they only accept the dispatch of Li Miao, and all the family members of the guards also live on Lingshan Island. This is also Li Miao's way to reassure the guards and protect Lingshan Island with peace of mind.
Ding Chunsheng's parents still live in Li Miao's hometown. If even Ding Chunsheng cannot be trusted, then there are not many people that Li Miao can trust. Besides, Li Miao uses interests to win people's hearts, and common interests are the most secure relationship.
Ding Qiusheng followed Li Miao and saw his brother from a distance, already showing extraordinary fighting prowess. But compared with Ding Qiusheng, he is still far behind. But Ding Qiusheng felt that the combat power of this group of guards was quite astonishing.
Qiu Sheng felt that she could deal with three or five at most. But if she left, they still couldn't keep her. Qiu Sheng gradually began to understand why the young master kept a low profile.
No matter how powerful one's personal force is, when seeing a well-trained army, one can only avoid its sharp edge. Although he could escape, the young master had to take care of his family. A monk who can run away cannot run away from the temple.
Qiu Sheng didn't know that elite guards like this, even the most elite soldiers in the army, had many disadvantages. This is Li Miao's elite.
Li Miao now has to spend more than 100,000 taels of silver a year just to support this group of elites. It is impossible for this group of guards to stay on Lingshan Island forever, but they have no place to use them yet.
Each of these guards was fully armed. In the era of cold weapons, Li Miao felt that the equipment of his guards was definitely the best in this world. The weapons research institute on Lingshan Island is far ahead of this era.
The Ordnance Research Institute is only a branch of the Lingshan Island Research Institute. The Lingshan Island Research Institute mainly studies smelting, shipbuilding, new agricultural tools, and even the development of gunpowder.
The institute has gathered a large number of skilled craftsmen, with advanced technology that Li Miao obtained from the Hanlin Academy Library. Coupled with some of Li Miao's later experiences, breakthroughs were made in various technologies in just one year.
In particular, smelting and shipbuilding technology were far ahead of this era. As for the research on gunpowder, there was not much progress. Li Miao also has some understanding of gunpowder, but the power of gunpowder in this world is limited.
Not as powerful as a bow and arrow. And it still works sometimes. Very poor stability. Often causing huge losses to people and property. The Great Zheng Dynasty simply gave up the research on gunpowder.
Li Miao himself is also very conflicted. After all, he is an enlightened person and knows that gunpowder can harm the world. If he can break through the power of gunpowder, his strength will definitely be greatly improved.
At the same time, Li Miao's luck will be seriously weakened. At that time, he may lose more than he gains. Besides, once gunpowder technology breaks through, it will also be a huge threat to him. Therefore, Li Miao's development of gunpowder was kept under absolute confidentiality.
If he is not threatened by gunpowder, insist on never actively using gunpowder weapons. Now Li Miao's large and small ships are all equipped with gun mount bases, but no artillery is installed.
At present, even installing artillery on ships of all sizes is not very useful. The power of gunpowder itself is limited, and the stability is not high. Li Miao mostly thinks about the future.
He is still worried about those Western countries, once they master advanced navigation technology, if their gunpowder power breaks through. It will pose a huge threat to the Great Zheng Dynasty.
If Li Miao does not respond, he will have no choice but to wait to be bullied by Western powers. This was also his original intention to develop maritime transport.
In later generations, around this time, Western countries took advantage of navigation and gunpowder to begin their process of plundering the world.
How could Li Miao not make some preparations in advance? Although he is still unable to speak in the Great Zheng Dynasty, he believes that he will become a giant in the Great Zheng Dynasty sooner or later.
Arriving at the Guest House, after the group settled in, Li Miao and Wang Yonggui started a long conversation after more than a year apart.
Wang Yonggui first reported on the seed promotion situation in Qingzhou over the past year. In short, the situation is good. The Qingzhou area has basically been fully rolled out. Laixi County and Pingdu County have not been promoted enough due to geographical reasons. Transportation becomes the biggest obstacle.
High-quality seeds from the north are also well promoted in the coastal areas of Rizhao and Yantai. Maritime transportation has promoted the promotion of high-quality seeds from the north in coastal areas, which was also expected by Li Miao.
In Li Miao's view, as long as high-quality seeds are promoted, he will get the same luck no matter whether it is in the Qingzhou area or other areas.
Qingzhou Shipyard can now build ten double-sailed small seagoing ships every year. At present, two boats have been sold to the outside world, and the Li family now has seven double-sailed small sea-going boats. In addition, this three-sailed large ship was about to be put into use, and the guard manpower began to be insufficient.
After all, Li Miao required the use of guards he could trust. Now a small two-sail ship requires 60 sailors and guards, while a large three-sail ship requires 300 sailors and guards. Suddenly, the sailors and guards provided by Li Miao's industry began to be scarce.
The only option is to sell a small two-sail boat. Li Miao had no choice but to buy a farm to train guards. The impact would still be too great, so he could only find a solution from the south.
Northern guard, except coastal areas. The inland guards cannot board sea ships. Basically a landlubber. At present, farms in coastal areas still have to buy in small quantities.
Li Miao's Qingzhou Port Shipyard produces small, double-sailed ships that are in short supply. A small sea-going ship that cost 150,000 taels of silver was sold for 300,000 taels of silver. It's simply not available. This also led to the rapid development of the shipbuilding industry in surrounding coastal areas.
This is what Li Miao wants to see. After all, it’s not enough on your own. How can the flames be high when everyone adds firewood? Besides, with his skills and strength, who can threaten him? It can also develop maritime power more covertly.
"Proprietor, our Qingzhou Agricultural Tool Factory is in great trouble right now. The agricultural tools we produce have been in short supply since the second half of last year." Wang Yonggui was also rarely excited.
"We don't have to be too showy. We can contact agricultural tool factories in other places to cooperate. We will provide the rough embryos." Li Miao also nodded.
The promotion of advanced agricultural tools also has a luck bonus. With advanced smelting technology, it would be difficult for agricultural tools not to be advanced.
The rough iron used by the Qingzhou Agricultural Tool Factory to make agricultural tools is not much different from the refined iron used in weapons manufacturing at that time. The farm tools are manufactured to be durable. At the same time, it also greatly reduces the labor intensity of farmers.
For this reason, Li Miao also received a wave of luck. The luck gained is incomparable to seed promotion, but mosquitoes are still meat no matter how small they are. Besides, Li Miao would still do it even if he had no luck. Li Miao was still happy to do something for the poor farmers.
The three-sailed ship will be launched soon, and will undergo a trial voyage for more than half a month. If all goes well, the three-sailed ship will conduct its first sea trade with Korea this summer. Currently, the Southern Bureau is preparing sea trade supplies.
This sea trade is not only for making money, but also for training troops and testing the waters to open the ocean era. If it succeeds, the money will definitely be earned, and Li Miao will not be dissatisfied with the money. After all, the more people he has on hand, the more money he will earn. Come more and more. Strength cannot be separated from money.
