Chapter 216: Inspection of Taiwan (II)

Taiwan Island was originally named Xiaoliuqiu Island. After Li Weizheng returned from his expedition to Japan, he sent three thousand soldiers to occupy this rich treasure island abandoned by the Ming Dynasty under the pretext of preventing Japanese people and renamed it Taiwan Island. Of course, Li Weizheng took a fancy to Taiwan Island's extremely important strategic position. At the same time, he was also afraid that Japan would take it first. After all, the Ming Dynasty had given up Taiwan. Even if it was occupied by Japan, the Ming Dynasty would not take it seriously. In fact, more than a hundred years later, the agreement reached between the Ming Dynasty and the Dutch was to allow the Dutch to occupy Taiwan Island, and not allow the Dutch to get involved in the Penghu Islands. The Ming Dynasty only recognized that the Penghu Islands were the land of the Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, Li Weizheng must seize Taiwan before the Japanese and Dutch people, so that Taiwan can become his military and logistics base. According to Li Weizheng's plan, Taiwan does not build any factories, and the factories are all located in Liaodong. Taiwan's role is a military base and a grain base. If Taiwan can be mature three times a year, it can become a Liaodong military food base. After reaching an agreement with the Mongolian Duoyan Ministry, Li Weizheng said that he would transport Japanese rice and Duoyan Ministry to replace horses. In fact, his idea was to exchange Taiwanese rice and Mongolian horses.

After two years of operation, Li Wei's garrison on Taiwan Island has increased from the initial 3,000 to 10,000, half of which were Goryeo mercenaries and half of which were Liaodong Army. The defense was changed every year, and 5,000 troops were replaced each time. In two years, they, together with local residents, have reclaimed nearly 3,000 hectares of land on Taiwan Island, and are ripe every year, and can produce more than 400,000 stones of grain each time. Since this summer, Taiwan has become the main grain base in Liaodong, just like Goryeo.

After Li Wei was fighting Japanese pirates and letting Taiwanese fishermen go a few years ago, after several years of development, there were 20,000 fishermen on Taiwan. Not only did the fishermen on the island give birth to descendants, but more importantly, the news that there were Han fishermen on Taiwan went to the island spread across the coast of Fujian a few years ago. Some people began to yearn for Taiwan. Thousands of original fishermen who could not forget the sea began to secretly build ships and go into the sea to flee Fujian with their families. In a few years, more than a thousand families and five or six thousand people fled from all over Fujian. Like the fishermen who fled earlier, they began to go into the sea to fish, exchange for daily necessities with smugglers, and live a life without the constraints of the government.

In November of the 25th year of Hongwu, with the first army sent by Li Weizheng stationed in Taiwan, more than 20,000 fishermen began a new life. They fabricated their household registration and transformed them into Liaodong people. The army did not impose their taxes, nor did they oppress them. They just re-planned their lives, concentrated them in three places to live, and established three counties, Ping'an, Taipei and Tainan, so that they could also farm with the army while fishing, in exchange for food and the daily necessities they needed.

Similarly, the army also established three thousand households, Taipei thousand households, Tainan thousand households and Ping An thousand households.

Although Taiwan mainly focuses on military farming, Li Weizheng still built a shipyard in Ping'an County. This is the only industry on Taiwan Island. The purpose of building a ship is very simple. Taiwan faces the sea and transports rice and grain to Liaodong, strengthens its ties with Ryukyu Island. Even when a large number of immigrants are willing to come to Taiwan, there is no need to transfer ships from Liaodong anymore.

When the first three-masted ship of Ping'an Shipyard went into the sea, it became a major event for the Taiwanese military and civilians to celebrate, and this incident even alarmed Liaodong. A few months later, in late October of the 25th year of Hongwu, Li Weizheng's huge mixed fleet arrived at Ping'an Port in Taiwan.

Since Taiwan has no guards, Ping An, Taipei and Tainan, each of the three thousand households are responsible for their own jurisdictions. Ping An Qianhou House is about 4,000 people, which is the largest of the three thousand households. The thousand households are called Cao Anguo, who was originally a hundred households of Lushun Guard. He participated in the battle of the Eastern Expedition to Japan and was promoted to a thousand households. When the Liaodong fleet arrived at Taipei, the beacon tower built on the coast was lit, and three pillars of red smoke rushed straight into the sky, which means that people from Liaodong were coming, so Cao Anguo was ready to welcome him three days ago.

"General Qianhu, here we come! The Liaodong fleet is here!" Early in the morning, a lookout soldiers rushed into the barracks to report.

Cao Anguo was having breakfast in the military camp. He heard the news and immediately threw down his bowl and ran to the wharf. Ping'an Port was built with a natural port. The water was deep and the port was wide, and hundreds of sea boats could be parked. Ping'an Thousand Houses' military camp was located in the port area, only more than 200 steps from the wharf.

The weather was very good today, the sea was calm and cloudless. Cao Anguo led several deputy thousand households and a group of hundreds of officers to wait on the dock for two quarters of an hour, and finally saw dozens of small black dots appearing on the distant sea. Soon, a huge fleet appeared in front of them, and the crowd waiting at the dock immediately cheered. Cao Anguo immediately took the first warship built by Ping'an Shipyard to greet him.

At the bow of the treasure ship, Li Wei was also looking at the dock with a small cliffhanger. When he was about five miles away from the dock, he saw a warship sailing towards him. He immediately turned around and ordered: "The fleet slowed down and stopped the ship!"

The treasure ship in front slowly slowed down and finally anchored on the sea. The three escort warships around the treasure ship immediately came up in a font. After a moment, a ship led the warships from Ping An Port to approach.

Li Weizheng had seen this brand new warship for a long time. He knew that this was the first warship built by Ping An Shipyard. From the appearance, it was built very strong and well-made, which was also related to the wood of Taiwan. Taiwan Island is located in the tropical area and is fine and suitable for building large deep-sea ships.

At this time, dozens of soldiers led Cao Anguo onto the treasure ship. Cao Anguo took a few steps quickly, half-kneeled in front of Li Wei, and loudly reported: "Cao Anguo, the Thousand Houses of Ping Anguo, met with the General!"

"General Cao asked him to get up." Li Weizheng quickly helped him up and comforted him: "Gen. Cao has been stationed on Taiwan Island for many years, thank you for your hard work."

"The last general dared not. The general went thousands of miles to visit the Taiwan military and civilians. The 4,000 officers and soldiers of the Heping Security Institute were extremely moved."

Li Wei was laughing and patted his arm and said, "This is what you should do. You are all my subordinates. It has been two years since we built Taiwan Island. I don't come and see how I can explain it."

Li Weizheng pulled Cao Anguo to the side of the ship again, pointed to the sea in the west and said, "Then is the jurisdiction of the Fujian Navy. I have always been worried that the Fujian Navy will find you. Tell me first, are there any ships in Fujian coming to discover you?"

Cao Anguo bowed and said, "Reporting to the Lord, the Fujian Navy mainly focuses on defense and rarely comes to patrol the sea. Even if you go to sea by chance, the farthest is only to the Penghu Islands. Therefore, the Fujian Navy has no idea about our operations on Taiwan Island, but...

"But what?" Li Wei was hearing the concerns in his tone.

"However, Taiwanese fishermen mainly go fishing in the sea to make a living. Many fishermen ran to the Penghu Islands to catch fish. They also went to the island to build temporary houses. I was worried that the Fujian Navy's patrol boat found someone on Penghu Island, and caught them and finally they confessed us. Things were not good."

Cao Anguo's concerns are not unreasonable. A few years ago, the Fujian Navy discovered that there were fishermen on Taiwan Island because they caught fishing boats that went out to sea to catch fish, so they learned that Li Wei was letting the fishermen on Taiwan Island go, and impeachment almost cost him his life. Afterwards, the court ordered the Fujian Navy to come and arrest the fleeing fishermen. The fishermen hid in the mountains, which made the matter ended up in the end.

Although Li Weizheng is no longer afraid that Zhu Yuanzhang will kill him again, he is also worried that the Fujian military will know his business on Taiwan Island and send a navy to encircle and suppress it. Even if his army can fight, it will definitely affect his Taiwan strategy and destroy Taiwan's development.

Li Wei was raising his eyes and looking west. He could not see anything on the vast sea. Cao Anguo hurriedly said, "Sir General, we have a large eyes and a few eyes on our whistle. I guess we can see the Penghu Islands today. May I follow me to see it."

Although there were large clairvoyances on the treasure ship, Li Weizheng nodded and agreed. He came to inspect the situation on Taiwan Island, and the visiting whistle was also one of them.

The sentry of Ping'an Qianhushou is located on the remnant of Ping'an Mountain that stretches into the sea. One cliff is dozens of feet high. The waves under the cliff hit the stone wall, stirring up surging white waves, and the sound is like thunder. The sentry is at the highest point of the cliff.

The fleet has already docked at the dock, and thousands of soldiers are moving and unloading the supplies on the ship. This time, two thousand soldiers will be replaced by the Ping'an Thousand Household Institute. The soldiers who have expired are all excited when they are about to go home.

Cao Anguo and a group of officers accompanied Li Weizheng to the whistle from the sidewalk behind the cliff and came to a huge Milestone. This was one of the fifty large Milestone eyes made of high-quality crystals on Danluo Island after Li Weizheng re-occupied Danluo Island. Milestone eyes were about three feet long, and the shell was made of pure copper and installed on an iron frame. This Milestone eyes were a weapon for peace to defend and their treasure. Therefore, it specially built a pavilion to hide the rain. Through Milestone eyes, you can see the sea surface dozens of miles away. When the weather is good, you can even vaguely see the Penghu Islands.

The garrison of the sentry was a hundred households. There were not only Mili's eyes, but also beacon towers and cannons. When the general arrived, the soldiers knelt down and saluted. When Li Wei was instructing the soldiers to get up, he came to Qianli's eyes and had already adjusted the angle and vision. From Qianli's eyes, Li Wei Zheng really saw a faint mountain shadow on the sea. There was the Penghu Islands. There were indeed some small black spots on the sea, which were the fishing boats that Cao Anguo was worried about.

Li Wei was thinking for a moment and asked Cao Anguo Road: "Is there any way to prevent fishermen from going out to sea? Or not to fish near Pingpenghu."

"It is impossible not to go near Penghu, it is a traditional fishing ground for fishermen."

Cao Anguo sighed and said, "As for not going to sea, there are certainly ways to not go out to sea, either forcing fishermen to go out to sea, or just evacuate and change their way of making a living. In fact, these fishermen have nowhere to sell fish. In the past, smugglers came to collect fish in exchange for a little daily necessities, but now there are troops stationed on Taiwan Island, and smugglers dare not come. The fish caught by the fishermen have no sales. In the end, they are made into dried fish and eaten slowly by themselves, or our army buys a little. What I fear most now is that they go to the coast of Fujian to sell fish, so that someone will definitely be caught by the Fujian government."

"No! Fishermen are not allowed to go into the sea again." Li Weizheng resolutely made up his mind, "Compulsory and guidance must be carried out at the same time. I will find a new way for Taiwanese fishermen to make a living."

Li Weizheng immediately ordered Cao Anguo to take him to Ping'an Shipyard. Ping'an Shipyard is located in the south of the bay. It is not large in size and has only two docks. It can only build two large sea boats at the same time. In addition, some small fishing boats are also built on land. The main shipbuilders of Ping'an Shipyard are all from Ryukyu Island. In the 24th year of Hongwu, that is, when Li Weizheng became the commander of Weihaiwei, Zhu Yuanzhang agreed to Zhongshan Kingdom's request and sent more than 400 people from 36 Fujian shipbuilding families to settle down in Ryukyu and teach Ryukyu man-made ships. However, after Li Weizheng liberated the slaves of Ryukyu Han, the 36 Fujian shipbuilders also lived with other Han people. At the end of last year, Li Weizheng ordered the 36 shipbuilders and their families to move to Taiwan and established the Ping'an Shipyard. The shipyard was quickly completed and the first military ship was built in April this year.

In addition to a group of officers including Cao Anguo, who accompanied Li Weizheng to visit the shipyard, there was also an old craftsman in his sixties. The old craftsman named Lin Zhiyang, a native of Zhangzhou Prefecture, Fujian. Among the thirty-six Fujian shipbuilders, he had the highest skills and richest experience. Before the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, his family owned a private shipyard. Later, the Ming Dynasty banned the shipyard, and his family's shipyard was changed to a tofu shop.

Now, because Lin Zhiyang has the most experienced experience, he was appointed as the factory director of Ping An Shipyard. While he was taking Li Weizheng to visit, he answered his question: "It is entirely possible for adults to expand the shipyard. There are more than 400 shipmakers in thirty-six surnames, and everyone is very skilled. Each of them can bring several apprentices. In this way, the shipyard can expand to 20,000 people. According to a ship built with one hundred people, our shipyard can start construction of twenty or thirty large ships at the same time. The construction period of a large ship is three to four months. I can build one hundred large ships that year. The key is that the funds and materials are insufficient, and we cannot expand the scale."

"You don't have to consider the funds. I will set up the Taiwan Shipbuilding Agency to supply various shipbuilding materials and allocate enough money and grain. I will give you half a year to expand the scale. I will meet all the conditions you need."

Li Weizheng just made a decision to close the two shipyards to be opened in Kaijing and Busan in Koryo and only one Lushun Shipyard in the entire Liaodong region was left, and the shipbuilding base was moved to Taiwan. This was not only because the wood quality in the tropical areas was good and suitable for shipbuilding, but more importantly, when he banned Taiwanese fishermen from going to sea to fish, the fishermen could have another way to make a living.

Li Wei carefully considered that among the more than 20,000 fishermen in Taiwan, women, elderly people who can work, and another part of young and strong people participated in the military farming, and there were about 5,000 fishing boats and more than 1,000 fishing boats. After fishing was banned, more than 5,000 young and strong people would have nothing to do. The expansion of the shipbuilding base can solve the livelihoods of at least 2,000 fishermen. As for the others, he was planning to join the army and incorporate them into the Taiwan Navy. After the establishment of the Shipbuilding Agency, he would leave twenty large ships in Taiwan and consider developing Luzon's timber to transport ships to Taiwan.

Of course, Li Weizheng has longer-term considerations, and Taiwan will shoulder more important responsibilities in the future. At this time, personal soldiers came to report, "The magistrate of Ping'an County and the county magistrate have arrived at the dock and are waiting for the adults to receive him."

Cao Anguo knew that Li Wei was about to meet the local officials, and he happened to say goodbye. However, Li Weizheng waved his hand and smiled: "You go to the treasure ship with me, and there are also a few deputy Qianhu. I have a major announcement to you."

In the conference room of the treasure ship, seven or eight military and local officials sat with solemn expressions, waiting for Li Weizheng to announce the major news. The magistrate of Ping'an County was named Liu Yu. He was in his early thirties. He was originally a clerk of the Liaodong Metropolitan Division. He decided to establish a county in Taiwan the year before yesterday, so he was appointed as the first magistrate of Ping'an County. He has been here for two years. He has also changed from a fat white man to black and thin. When Li Weizheng saw him at first, he almost couldn't recognize him...

"Everyone, I don't want to say much about the ban on fishing by Taiwanese fishermen. Expanding shipyards and recruiting troops is a way to arrange their lives. The military can take out a thousand hectares of land as compensation for them. They can tell them that banning fishing is just a matter of rights and interests, and I will let it go in the future. However, after the fishing ban is issued, the military must strictly prohibit anyone from going to the sea again. If there is another violation, they can kill one to warn them."

Cao Anguo stood up and said, "Sir, can I confiscate their fishing boats for the time being?"

"Yes!" Li Weijing nodded and said, "I'll leave this matter to you."

He looked around and said, "Secondly, I want to tell you a big thing. I am going to move 5,000 families from Ryukyu Kingdom, and about 20,000 people came to Taiwan and all of them will be placed in Ping'an County."

As soon as Li Weizheng finished speaking, Cao Anguo and Liu Yu stood up at the same time. Liu Yu took the lead and said, "Sir, Ping'an County is too small to accommodate so many people."

Cao Anguo also said: "Sir, I just ordered me to be responsible for the ban on fishing. This is not only Ping'an County, but also Tainan and Taipei. Now there are so many people coming at once, I'm worried that I can't control it."

Li Wei was smiling and waved his hand, "Don't worry, listen to me after I finish it. Among the three counties in Taiwan, Ping'an County is the best in terms of conditions, fertile land, and a large area of ​​arable land. It is more important that I plan to move Taiwan's center of gravity to Ping'an County, so I decided to place them all in Ping'an County. Of course, it will not be called Ping'an County in the future, but Ping'an Prefecture. Three new counties are established below. Liu County was officially promoted to Ping'an Prefecture, and as for Ping'an Thousand Houses."

Li Wei smiled at Cao Anguo and said, "After more than 20,000 people from Ryukyu Island immigrated, the Ping An Office was officially upgraded to a guard, called Ping An Guard. Tainan and Taipei are still two independent thousand-household offices, and they may also be upgraded to a guard in the future. However, I will first consider Ping An Guard. After the fishing ban, the army of Ping An Guard will also increase from 4,000 to 7,000. It is completely possible to build a guard. General Cao is the first commander of Ping An Guard, and the rest of the officers are all promoted to one level."

Cao Anguo immediately led several thousand households to salute Li Weizheng half-kneel, "The subordinates will never let down the expectations of the adults."

Li Wei nodded, then smiled at Liu Yu and said, "Where are you! What are the difficulties?"

Liu Yu was promoted to prefect, and he had nothing to say, so he could only sigh and said, "The only difficulty is that there are too few officials, and Jianxin County may be unavailable."

Li Weizheng smiled and said, "Don't worry, I brought ten Tai students from Liaodong and selected more than a dozen capable and well-versed people from Ryukyu immigrants. These twenty young people are future officials of Ping'an Prefecture and will assist you in building a prefecture and county."

Liu Yu gave a deep blessing and thanked: "Thank you for your kindness, my subordinates will do their best to do their best to do the work of Ping An Mansion."

Seeing that they could accept it, Li Wei once again reminded them: "I know whether it is Ping'an Mansion or Ping'an Guard, it is very chaotic now. You have a lot of things to do. The army needs to train naval troops, cultivate land, farmland, be responsible for escorting grain northward, and monitor Fujian and defending Taiwan. Ping'an Mansion is also busy, resettling immigrants, building new homes for them, and running schools to encourage farmers, helping the widows, and organizing the people to reclaim fertile land and plant tea. You have to do all the things that mainland officials have to do, and you have to do too many things that mainland officials do not do. You will be very hard, but I believe you will definitely do well."
Chapter completed!