With a light click, a chess piece gently landed on the board. A chess game was still a Go game, and it was about to be difficult to solve.

The chess players were Wu Haogu and his son, Wu Yijiu, the current chief veteran of the Great Zhou Republic.

Wu Haogu is now a little impressed by his precious son who studied law. A war with millions of people is in full swing. As usual, there should be a lot of troubles, and he, the head of state, has to make a decision. But Wu Yijiu is not very busy yet, and he can squeeze out time to be a filial son and accompany his father to play chess, drink, ride horses and hunt.

Moreover, the wars ahead, production in the rear, raising of military expenditures, production of weapons, transportation of logistics supplies, and overseas business... Oh, while fighting a civil war with the Song Dynasty, the overseas expansion business of Dazhou did not stop.

The south was a struggle between various franchise trade chambers, vassal states of the Song Dynasty and various indigenous barbarian states.

In the north, the desolate Daxi Khanate of the Heavenly Girl Khan was grandly opened!

Needless to say, the East is the Great Zhou Republic, the Bohai Kingdom, Japan, and various forces in Japan are entangled - the core of Japan's business is one, and every effort is made to expand the output and export of gold, silver, and copper!

In addition, the battles at sea have also increased since this spring. The battles at sea were not initiated by the navy of the Great Zhou Republic and the navy of the Great Song Empire, but by the sea merchants of the Zhou and Song dynasties.

By the way, the maritime merchants in both countries are not good people. Good people do not go to sea, only ruthless villains can make a fortune at sea.

Moreover, the Great Zhou Republic established the Raush-franchise Chamber of Commerce! It also gave these chambers of commerce great privileges (as a franchise), allowing them to hire mercenaries, purchase various firearms, and allow them to purchase sailing battleships retired from the Great Zhou Navy and form their own fleets.

The first to provoke maritime conflict was the joint fleet of the Java Chartered Trade Chamber of Commerce and the Golden State Chartered Trade Chamber of Commerce on the Great Zhou Republic.

They directly raided and occupied Xingzhou Island, the ruling center of the Song Dynasty in the South China Sea. They failed to capture the island's bastion, but they ransacked Xingzhou Market!

This action suddenly ignited the war in the Nanyang area - how could the Song Dynasty marshals who could establish commercial stations in Xingzhou be good people of the rules? They also have warships and artillery!

The Song Dynasty Maritime Trading Group, led by the Ji Family Chamber of Commerce, immediately launched revenge.

However, they were unable to capture the ports and fortresses controlled by the Zhou Dynasty's Chartered Chamber of Commerce. So in the Sanfoqi Strait, Java Island, Champa coast, Jiaozhi coast and Dasong coast, they launched a comprehensive "private battle" against the Great Zhou merchant ships with Wanfu Banners.

The Navy of the Great Zhou Republic later joined the war and sent a fleet to Zhongshan Island (Ryukyu Islands) under the jurisdiction of Antoni Province to escort the Zhou merchant ships traveling to Zhongshan.

At the same time, the Marine Corps was dispatched to attack the strongholds of Song merchants on coastal islands in Taiwan and Mingzhou.

Subsequently, the navy and maritime warships of the Song Dynasty court also launched a counterattack.

Although their warships are one generation behind the Great Zhou Navy, they currently only have hard sail gunboats similar to the "Truth" class, and there are no soft sail battleships like the "Beiyang" class. But they also have their own advantages!

First, it occupies a long coastline and is stuck on the necessary route for the Dazhou-Nanyang route!

After the outbreak of the maritime war in the Song and Zhou dynasties, the merchant fleet of the Great Zhou Republic could only go south by the route "Tianjin-Lushun-Goryeo-Japan-Zhongshan (Ryukyu Islands)-Annan Province-Anhui (later Da Nang, currently ruled by the Champa Chamber of Commerce)-Old Port".

Not only is it inconvenient, but it also missed the trade point along the southeast coast of the Song Dynasty and was in a low favorable situation.

The second is that it has support from nine major coastal commercial cities including Guazhou City (Yangzhou), Dantu City (Runzhou), Shanghai (Xiuzhou), Renhe City (Hangzhou), Dinghai City (Mingzhou), Chitong City (Quanzhou), Houguan City (Fuzhou), Fanyu City (Guangzhou), and Haikang City (Leizhou).

These nine major commercial cities are all autonomous commercial cities, and are the products of a huge loan led by the treacherous Ji Yi!

Among the nine autonomous commercial cities, the maritime merchants are all under power. Although most of the nine commercial cities are established based on the silk and porcelain industries, the one that really has a large amount of working capital and can be lent to the court is the maritime merchants.

So they gave the bulk of the loan of ten million. According to the rules set by Ji Yi during his lifetime, the right to speak in the market (council seats) was linked to the number of government bonds purchased in the Song Dynasty.

Therefore, except for "Liguo City", "Wujiang City" and "Kuaiji City" that are not based on the sea, all coastal port commercial cities are controlled by maritime merchants.

Therefore, after the outbreak of the naval battle of Song and Zhou, all of them stood on the side of the Song Dynasty and the Navy. This gave the Song Dynasty sea merchant warships and navy warships sufficient logistics and personnel supply, and could organize more warship fleets and mercenaries.

In contrast, the number of maritime merchants in Zhou State was originally small (the population was small and the port cities were smaller), and the navy was not huge. So it was trapped in a situation where the number of people was small.

Of course, the number of Zhou State is small, but the quality is very high.

Not only did the navy have a large number of "Beiyang" and "Truth" battleships, but even the maritime merchants also have many armed merchant ships similar to the "Truth" class - this is because Zhou Guo maritime merchants often take Japanese routes, and there is no coastal route to go to Japan, and they must cross the sea.

Moreover, after leaving Japan, Dazhou maritime merchant ships often took the "fast route" of "Zhongshan Island-Anhui Port-Paukang" to arrive at the old port before the end of the "trade wind" in the south.

In this way, they can go north when the south wind is strong this year!

Therefore, the "Shunfeng"-class armed merchant ship evolved from the Truth-level hull plus soft sails became the favorite ship type of the Great Zhou maritime merchants.

The fast sailing fleet composed of the "Beiyang" class and the "Shufeng" class will certainly not be afraid of the hard sails and galley fleets of the Song Dynasty in the distant seas.

However, once you enter the offshore with complex hydrological conditions and relatively variable wind direction, hard sailing ships and sand ship types have certain advantages. You can deal with the Zhou Clippers based on their number and favorable hydrological conditions.

Therefore, there is no sign of one-sided conflict between the Southeast and the South China Sea.

At the same time, the maritime forces of the Song Dynasty and the Zhou Dynasty also ignored the existence of the East China Sea Kingdom.

Haizhou Bay and its nearby waters have now become a special "peace zone". Neither the navy of the Song and Zhou dynasties will enter this "peace sea". The armed merchant ships of both sides will no longer attack each other after entering the near Haizhou Bay.

Therefore, the trade between the Song and Zhou dynasties can still be carried out through the small vassal state of "East Sea Kingdom".

In short, the Great Zhou Republic is now engaged in an unprecedented "three-dimensional" war, with unprecedented broad battlefield and complex situations.

Wu Yijiu, who is only 25 years old, can handle it easily and have free time to accompany Wu Haogu, the good father. It seems that his ability to do things is beyond his predecessor.

Wu Yijiu is good at cooking official business, and he is even more skilled in playing chess. Even if Wu Haogu two "three consecutive stars" were allowed to win this game.

Wu Haogu left the blackzi in his hand and smiled bitterly: "I lost another game. I am so old. My mind is slow. I can't compare to you, the younger generation. It seems that the next veteran can ignore the choice, let it go."

Wu Yijiu smiled faintly: "Sir, you are the treasure of the mountain in our Senate. Without you, I wonder how many people are going to come out to compete with their children for the position of the head of the head!"

Wu Haogu laughed: "I have become a magic weapon?" He looked faint, and seemed to turn his attention to the chessboard again. "I have discussed the military newspaper of my elder brother at the government meeting today? What do you think about the peace talks?"

Wu Yijiu smiled: "Sir, my Great Zhou Republic pays the most attention to the great title and will not negotiate with the rebels..."

Wu Haogu smiled bitterly: "Sanlang, what kind of heart do you have? You can't stand the harmony between father, son and brother? Now that Zhao Huan has robbed the throne, he will never hand it over even if he dies!"

In fact, Wu Haogu already knew the result of the government meeting today discussing the peace talks between Song and Zhou. To his expectations, Wu Yijiu actually questioned Zhao Huan's "legality".

He believed that Zhao Huan was a rebel minister who came to power by inciting military chaos and coup! He was not a legal king of the Song Dynasty, so he was not qualified to propose peace on behalf of the Song Dynasty.

And the only one who is qualified to negotiate peace with the Great Zhou is currently the Supreme Emperor Zhao Ji of the Song Dynasty!

This move is really sinister! You can kill three birds with one stone!

Zhao Huan himself is of course one of them - the Great Zhou Republic does not recognize his throne, which means that Zhou may support Zhao Ji's restoration!

Zhao Kai from Donghai Kingdom is undoubtedly the second bird. If Zhao Ji's throne could be restored, Zhao Huan, as a rebellious minister, would certainly not be the crown prince again. The crown prince naturally should be Zhao Kai, the king of Donghai!

The third bird is Wu Yiyong - Wu Yiyong's goal is always Kaifeng Prefecture, and he does not have enough strength to break through Kaifeng Prefecture. Therefore, he can only find a way to force Zhao Huan to leave. If Zhao Huan wants to leave, the premise is that Zhao Huan's throne will not be threatened.

Now that the Zhou Kingdom does not recognize his throne as legal, Zhao Huan will not dare to leave Kaifeng Prefecture, the capital of the Song Dynasty.

Because as soon as he left, the Great Zhou Republic might invite Zhao Kai or Zhao Ji to Kaifeng Prefecture to be the emperor.

By then, the two rulers of the Song Dynasty, whoever owns Kaifeng Prefecture will undoubtedly be the more legal emperor.

Wu Yiji smiled: "If Zhao Huan really handed over the throne, he might die. If he didn't want to die, he had to defend the throne. If he wanted to defend the throne, he had to get our support."

Wu Haogu shook his head slowly: "The Song Dynasty is probably not something that Zhao Huan can decide in one sentence... If you force him like this, you may force him to death. When he is about to die, it is time for Zhao Kai to be the emperor.
Chapter completed!