I

Li Quan squatted down suddenly, picked up a stone and drew a map.

Pointing to a simple map, he said: "If there are maritime merchants going to America, merchants from Fujian and Zhejiang can start from Taipei and take the current route of the Spaniards. Maritime merchants from Jiangsu can choose the north-south route according to the trade wind, or they can take risks. The road goes directly east to Japan. In fact, the two north-south routes, after passing Japan, will converge into one, and the Spaniards call it 'Western Wind Flow'."

"When the population in the north is booming in the future, the northern route will have a greater role. Hebei, Shandong, and Liaoning can all use Japan to go to America."

"And here! This is the Tumen River (Tumen River) at the junction of our country and North Korea. Colleagues of the Imperial Academy should know that it was originally an inland river in China. In the early Ming Dynasty, Li's North Korea expanded and occupied a large area of ​​our country. Territory, set up six towns south of the Tumen River."

"Now, Baozhou on the south bank of the Yalu River has been re-occupied by our Celestial Dynasty. The next step is to take back the south bank of the Tumen River. At that time, the vast land east of the Liao Great Wall can enter the sea through the Tumen River. Whether it is selling Merchant goods, or transporting troops and food, can be closely connected with Shandong, Hebei, and Liaoning. If there is a rebellion there (Jilin), one can march troops from Liaoning, and the other can take the Tumen River from the sea to quell the chaos. The Northeast is stable."

"If you want to develop the two sides of the Tumen River, the northern air route must be developed. The development of the northern air route can also deter North Korea and Japan, so that these two vassal states dare not have any disagreements."

"The first stop to open up the northern sea route is to go to Japan to explore and get in touch with the lord in eastern Japan. The Tokugawa shogunate does not allow the lord to communicate with foreign businessmen, so the remoter the supply port, the better. But it can't be too far away, otherwise There is not much food and water to replenish at all.”

"Therefore, the first step for me to open up the Northern Sea Route is to open the joints in the east of Japan. It would be best if His Majesty can let the shogunate open the port in the east. If it is not possible, then go to fight and fight to make the Japanese shogunate open the port!"

"Japan opened the eastern port, and the initial network of the northern route was formed. The mouth of the Tumen River, the eastern port of Japan, Nagasaki, Japan, various ports in North Korea, Tamna County (Jeju Island), Shandong, Hebei, Liaoning... All can be connected by sea, and my army of the Celestial Dynasty can go to any place by boat at any time."

"Your Majesty, please issue two decrees. One is to order Japan to open the eastern port, and the other is to emigrate to the mouth of the Tumen River. The immigration does not need to be too much, the first batch of 2,000 people is enough."

After thinking carefully, Zhao Han said with a smile: "You are not on a sailing expedition, you are planning the future strategic layout of Northeast China, North Korea and Japan. The Tumen River is not marked on folk maps, how do you know that?" ?”

Li Quan replied: "I consulted the Northeast survey map of Qintianyuan. Both sides of the Tumen River were full of Jurchens in the early Ming Dynasty. After North Korea invaded the south bank, they drove the Jurchens to the north. The Jianzhou Tartars rebelled, and Tumen Hebei Many of the Jurchens on the shore were transferred to fight, and now the situation is sparsely populated. We just took the opportunity to immigrate, and first firmly occupied the mouth of the Tumen River."

"The idea is good, but the court's energy is limited." Zhao Han said.

The imperial court really has a lot of things to do. The Monan Grassland that was just confiscated needs to be consolidated, and the three Protectorate Houses are continuing to consume money and food. The cabinet and the Ministry of War are planning to conquer Myanmar and Vietnam. In this way, the troops and money and food in the north and the south are being mobilized and collected on a large scale.

It seems that there is no war, but in fact it has not been idle.

Li Quan said: "Immigrants at the mouth of the Tumen River only need to move 2,000 people and distribute weapons to them, which is enough to gain a foothold there. As for Japan, first issue an imperial edict to test the reaction of the shogunate."

Zhao Han smiled and said, "I'm a bit reluctant to let you go on a sailing adventure. Where have you been?"

Li Quan replied: "Jinling, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Guangdong, Fujian, Yunnan, have gone to Taiwan and Luzon Island."

"What a great son, with ambitions everywhere!" Zhao Han praised.

The emperor's favor for Li Quan was envied by everyone present, even Feng Qizhi wanted to go to sea.

Li Quan's eloquent talk and the emperor's admiration already made the princess's eyes shine, and Zhao Furong became more and more enamored of this heroic young man.

Zhao Han said: "I agree to all your requests, including emigrating to the Tumen River and ordering the Japanese shogunate. I will give you five more boats and a quota of 1,000 soldiers. But you need to recruit 1,000 soldiers yourself. Recruit from veterans, peasants and soldiers. Whether you can persuade them to go to sea depends entirely on your own ability. Well... I will give you one hundred thousand taels of silver as funds. If you feel that the money is not enough, you can do business along the way, anyway, you have to first Get through Japan, and just ship the goods and sell them to the Japanese lords.”

"Thank you, Your Majesty, for your grace!" Li Quan was overjoyed.

Zhao Han asked, "Does the mouth of the Tumen River have a name?"

Li Quan replied: "That large area, including the entire lower reaches of the Tumen River, is called Hunchun, Xunchun, etc., and they are all transliterations of Jurchen."

"Let's call it Hunchun from now on." Zhao Han finally understood where it was.

Hunchun here is next to the sea.

Hundreds of years later, Hunchun is bounded by Russia to the east and North Korea to the west, and the estuary is divided between North Korea and Russia. As a result, the border of Hunchun is only 30 miles away from the sea, but it has to borrow ports from other countries to go to sea. Jilin Province will forever lose its own seaport.

At that time, Cheng Qi, the imperial envoy of the Manchu and Qing Dynasties, was completely unaware of the importance of the estuary, so he handed over all the boundary survey work to representatives of Tsarist Russia. The Russians drew the border however they wanted, and finally drew the Chinese border 20 miles from the sea.

Even so, Tsarist Russia was still greedy and kept moving the boundary markers secretly.

When Wu Dacheng from the Procuratorate came to inspect the border, the boundary marker was already 88 miles away from the coast. Wu Dacheng argued hard, and finally re-established the boundary marker, 30 miles away from the coast, thus regaining 10 square kilometers of land.

The two sides almost used force in the end, because Wu Dacheng was still not satisfied. The Russians transferred warships from Vladivostok and turned on the xenon headlights to show off their force. But Wu Dacheng transferred to the Beiyang Fleet, invited the Russians to visit the Dingyuan ship, turned on all the headlights in response, and finally took back the Heidingzishan area, which was later Jingxin Town, Hunchun City.

At this moment, the south bank of the Tumen River is the territory of North Korea, but the north bank belongs to China and must be firmly occupied.

Occupy there, Jilin will have an outlet to the sea.

Zhao Han pointed to Li Quan and asked Li Zicheng, "What do King Chuang think of this son?"

Li Zicheng praised: "He is a rare talent."

Zhao Han asked again: "Can you ride a horse?"

Li Quan replied: "The horses that have ridden the Yunnan Datong Army are much shorter than your Majesty's BMW."

"Pick up the bow and arrow, and go hunting with me. Drive!" Zhao Han galloped his horse.

Li Quan was so angry that he asked for a bow and arrow from the sergeant, picked a good horse, and followed the emperor to the Zijin Mountain hunting ground.

Seeing her daughter staring at Li Quan obsessively, Fei Rulan sighed and said, "You know that once you go out to sea, you may not return for three to five years, and you may even hide in the belly of a fish at any time."

Zhao Rongfu was silent when he heard about it.

Fei Rulan said: "My daughter has a good eye, and she can immediately fall in love with a hero. But such a young hero pretends to be a world in his heart, and he can't take care of his family. If you recruit him as a son-in-law, you will be a widow." Even more rare than the Cowherd and Weaver Girl."

Zhao Rongfu still didn't speak.

Fei Rulan continued to persuade: "If you don't like others, then wait a little longer and see if there is a good match in the civil and military family of Manchu Dynasty."

"Um."

Zhao Rongfu agreed softly, she knew how dangerous going to sea was, but she still felt quite uncomfortable.

But that's all. After all, we met today for the first time, and we don't have a deep emotional foundation.

Fei Rulan already had an idea, the selection range of the Imperial Academy and Qintian Academy was too narrow. It must be expanded, while searching in the official's home, and at the same time selecting at Jinling University. Especially those who have just entered university, many of them are not yet engaged, so they will surely find someone with both ability and political integrity.

"call out!"

Li Zicheng shot an arrow, which hit the wild boar's front face.

The wild boars continued to run wild. Compared with previous years, the guards were much more professional. They beat the gongs and drums to frighten the injured wild boar away, preventing it from blindly rushing in the direction of the emperor. The hounds have already been released to round up the unlucky wild boar.

Li Zicheng chased after him on horseback, endured the old pain, and shot the wild boar in the rear with another arrow.

Zhao Han praised: "King Chuang is good at archery!"

The wild boar lost a lot of blood, ran for a while, and finally stopped, grunting and facing the humans. Li Zicheng fired arrows in succession, and all the arrows hit him. The wild boar fled again, and gradually fell down.

The hound chased another elk out, and Zhao Han said, "Try it!"

Li Quan bent his bow and nocked an arrow, and the arrow passed by.

"You are not good at archery, you need to practice more in the future." Zhao Han joked, and directly raised the flintlock.

"boom!"

The running elk fell down in response, then stood up again, took a few steps forward and lay down again.

Not dead, the hounds swarmed up, mouthed at the neck, and finally bit the elk to death.

Li Zicheng turned his horse's head when he heard the gunshots, and when he saw the emperor hitting the elk with a firecracker, he suddenly felt a little helpless: Is this called hunting?

Zhao Han casually threw the flintlock to the guard, and the guard next to him immediately handed over another loaded one.

Zhao Han shouted at Li Zicheng: "It's a competition between Chuang Wang, who has killed more prey today?"

Li Zicheng said: "Your Majesty uses the blunderbuss while I use the bow and arrow. It's not fair."

Zhao Han said: "I can hunt with guns, which is also a manifestation of strength, and it is the same reason to compete for supremacy in the world."

Li Zicheng seemed to think of something, but nodded and said, "That's true."

Emperor Zhao's ability to shoot a gun has become more and more refined, even if he is on the battlefield, he can still be called a sharpshooter. After hunting, there were very few misses, which made Li Zicheng quite admire.

After returning from hunting, Fei Rulan personally led the horse for him, and said as she walked: "My daughter has fallen in love with Li Quan, and the rest are not. I have already persuaded him, and I have to choose again. Why don't we go to the civil and military family of the Manchu Dynasty? Or Jinling University to choose a son-in-law."

"It's all right, you can arrange it," Zhao Han said and added, "After you are selected, bring me to have a look."