Under the escort of a thousand cavalry, Yang Yuanqing ran westward, leaving the dusk and stars behind. When the second sunset came, he arrived in Lulong County. Looking around for miles, the sunset shone red in the county, bathing this ancient county in a magnificent halo.

The governor of Peking Dong Xi went out of the city to greet him. He couldn't help but feel excited, turned over and dismounted, knelt in front of Yang Yuanqing and cried, "Jia Qi meets the young master!"

Jiaqi was the number Yang Su gave him. Thirteen years have passed in a flash. He has gradually changed from a young general to a general on the side of the army. This loyalty that has withstood the test of time also moved Yang Yuanqing quite. He turned over and dismounted and helped him up, "Each of you has a good home, and this is the most gratifying thing for grandfather."

Dong Xi wiped away the tears and looked at Yang Yuanqing. Seeing that his appearance was mature, his eyes were full of confidence and indifference, and he had a temperament of being uneven and powerful, he couldn't help but sigh: "When I left the young master, the young master was only sixteen years old. Now the young master has become a real dragon among people. If the old master is still alive, I don't know how relieved he should be."

Yang Yuanqing smiled slightly and patted his shoulder, "If you don't talk about this, tell me what Gao Kaidao is doing."

"Young Master wants to attack Gao Kaidao?"

"That's not necessarily the case, I just want to know his situation."

Yang Yuanqing entered the county town all the way. Compared with Youzhou, Lulong County seemed dilapidated and poor, with a small city, with an estimated population of less than a thousand households. The streets were deserted, with low houses everywhere and bumpy streets, surrounded by groups of children with vegetables.

"When Gaokaidao retreated, nearly half of the county's population was taken away, and all the officials also took them away. The remaining ones were thousands of elderly, weak, women and children, and the food was exhausted. Fortunately, we came in time, otherwise the consequences would be unimaginable."

Dong Xi sighed, his heart full of hatred for Gao Kaidao. His wife was from Lulong County. His wife's brother was forced to join the army by Gao Kaidao and was taken to Liaodong. He wanted to launch a battle against Gao Kaidao tomorrow, but he also knew that the young master had already made plans in his heart.

Yang Yuanqing nodded and turned to the head of the Records Office to join the army, Pei Qingsong, said: "Immediately send a message to Taiyuan City, and order Ziwei Pavilion to immediately send a new Lulong County Magistrate. The prefect of Beiping County can be transferred to the chief of Yanmen County Liu Zigui, Leping Ling Gao Zhuwen as the chief of the chief of the Yong'an Wei Zhao Qiong as the Sima, and Wen Yanbo was ordered to quickly transfer 50,000 stones of grain to Beiping County."

Pei Qingsong bowed immediately and said, "I'll write it right away!"

The group came to the county government office. Yang Yuanqing sat down in the county government office. Two soldiers brought a map and hung it on a wooden rack. This is the map of Beiping County and Liaodong. Dong Xi picked up the wooden pole and pointed to Linyu Pass and said to Yang Yuanqing: "This is Linyu Pass. One of my subordinates pretended to be a herb collector and crossed Yanshan to the back of Linyu Pass. He found that Gao Kaidao had more than 10,000 troops stationed behind the pass, and summoned tens of thousands of craftsmen to chisel stones to build the city."

Linyu Pass was not the later Shanhai Pass. It was named after it was close to the Yushui River. To the north is a branch of Yanshan Mountain. Linyu Pass guarded the mountain pass and was also a dangerous place. In the ninth year of Daye, Yang Yuanqing had stationed in Linyu Pass for nearly a month and knew the terrain there very well.

But this time he came to Beiping County not to Linyu Pass, nor to attack Gao Kaidao. Now he does not consider Liaodong yet. He has to concentrate on seizing Hebei and dealing with Dou Jiande, which is his main enemy.

Yang Yuanqing walked to the map, looked carefully for a moment and asked, "Is there any on the map when Yuan Hongsi built a ship?"

Dong Xi scratched his head and said, "Young Master, the place where Yuan Hongsi built a ship is in Ruhekou."

Lulong County is close to the Ruhe River. Yang Yuanqing went south along the Ruhe River on the map and soon found the Ruhe mouth. From the map, it was about a hundred miles away from Lulong County.

"Is there a way to pass?"

"I specially built an official road back then, but I haven't walked through it for many years, so it's probably abandoned."

Yang Yuanqing immediately said to the left and right: "Let's go now!"

After leaving Lulong County, and extending the Ru River to the southeast, there was an official road built by Yuan Hongsi, the general manager of Youzhou. The official road was very flat and fine. Although it had not been used for many years, there was still no grass on the road. More than a thousand cavalrymen left the city and rushed to the southeast along the official road.

In the afternoon, Yang Yuanqing led his personal soldiers to the mouth of Ruhe. From a distance, he saw more than a dozen huge warehouses, like a dozen giants standing upright, standing on the shore facing the sea breeze.

At the end of the official road was an open land surrounded by high walls, and the warehouse was inside the wall. Since there were no people within dozens of miles nearby, the wall was not destroyed, and a rusty iron gate blocked their way.

Dozens of personal soldiers went up and knocked open the iron gate. Everyone rushed into the wilderness surrounded by high walls. The situation in front of them amazes everyone. There was a vast sea in the distance, and hundreds of huge ships were moored on the long shore, all of which were 5,000 stone sea ships, but most of them were invisible. These were obviously large ships that had not yet been completed.

Yang Yuanqing narrowed his eyes. He had heard Cui Hongsheng say that there were hundreds of unfinished sea ships in the shipbuilding station in Beiping County. It was built by Yuan Hongsi, the then general manager of Youzhou, at that time. However, Yuan Hongsi was transferred away and the shipbuilding station was suspended. Yang Yuanqing had no time to come to inspect. Until today, it was only after nearly six years that he had come to this shipbuilding station in Youzhou for the first time.

Although the Sui army had tens of thousands of ships of all sizes, those ships could only sail in the inland rivers and could not go out to sea. If they wanted to go to Goryeo, they had to build large sea ships to fight against the wind and waves on the sea.

Yang Yuanqing couldn't help but think of the navy's general Hu'er. When Yang Guang died in Yangzhou, he was building ships in Danyang County under the order. Later, it was said that he surrendered to Xiao Xian and became Xiao Xian's general of the navy. This made him a little regretful. He lacked the general to command the navy.

"Report to the Chief Executive, we have found many people living here." A personal soldier ran up to report, interrupting Yang Yuanqing's thoughts.

Yang Yuanqing saw the soldiers bringing more than twenty people, including men and women, and a large group of children followed behind. Everyone was timid and their eyes were filled with fear.

This made Yang Yuanqing feel a little strange. There were still people living in the shipbuilding station that had been abandoned for several years. He walked up to ask these people and said, "Who are you?"

Everyone was so scared that they knelt down and stuttered that most of them had the accent of Qi County. After talking for a long time, Yang Yuanqing probably understood what they meant. They were all from Donglai County. They were originally craftsmen from the shipbuilding station. After the craftsmen stopped working, they returned to their hometown in Donglai County. However, the bandits there were too fierce, so they fled back to the shipbuilding station, growing grain and vegetables here, and there were cloth to make clothes in the warehouse. Dozens of them regarded this place as their home and had lived there for five or six years.

At this time, Yang Yuanqing remembered something and ordered his personal soldiers to say, "Let them all go and find two leaders to talk to me."

The soldiers found a clean room and placed a couch on it. Yang Yuanqing sat down. The personal soldiers brought two middle-aged men in. They knelt down in front of Yang Yuanqing in fear. Seeing that they were strong and strong muscles, Yang Yuanqing could see that they were physically doing physical work, he smiled and asked them softly: "What are your names? Are you from Donglai County?"

A slightly older man said, "Report to the general, we are brothers. My name is Zhang Long, and his name is Zhang Hu. Both of them are from Huang County, Donglai County. The ancestors make a living by building ships."

Yang Yuanqing pointed to the hundreds of large ships on the coast and asked them: "It seems that those ships have not been completed. Can they be repaired?"

"It can be completely repaired. We often go up and the ships are very strong. As long as there are enough materials and boatmen, they can be completely repaired in a few months. We repaired a ship ourselves and often drove the boat to sea and fished."

The reason why Yang Yuanqing asked them was that there were not many shipbuilding craftsmen in Youzhou area, and most of his craftsmen had no experience in building sea boats. He needed a large number of craftsmen who could build sea boats. At that time, Yuan Hongsi recruited 3,000 shipbuilding craftsmen from Donglai County. These shipbuilding craftsmen from Donglai County gave him an idea. Yang Yuanqing nodded and asked, "Can you go back to your hometown recently?"

"Report to the general, we returned to our hometown to visit our parents' graves last fall."

"Then do you have shipbuilders in your hometown? I mean the craftsmen who build sea boats."

The two brothers looked at each other and nodded together, "There are still many, but now there are no one to build ships. Everyone has changed their careers and farms and does some small business. Xu Yuanlong has heavy taxes over there, and everyone has a difficult life."

Yang Yuanqing pondered for a moment, pointed at himself and asked, "Do you know who I am?"

The two brothers shook their heads timidly, and Yang Yuanqing smiled slightly, "Have you heard of Yang Yuanqing? I am!"

No one in the world knows the name of Yang Yuanqing. When the two heard that the general in front of them was the famous King of Chu Yang Yuanqing, they were so scared that they kowtowed, "The villain has no eyes and does not recognize Mount Tai. Please forgive your highness."

Yang Yuanqing waved his hand to stop them, "I am not trying to scare you, but I just want to tell you as the King of Chu that I plan to recruit a large number of shipbuilders in Donglai County to build ships here and give the most generous amount of money and grain. Every month, I can give each shipbuilder fifty hang money and one stone of rice. You brothers will recruit shipmakers for me. Every time I recruit one person, I will reward you with one tael of silver. In the future, I can still make you an official. How about it, do you do it?"

Under the temptation of officials and interests, the eyes of the two brothers were lighted, which was easy for them. They had repaired a large ship and could directly drive the boat across the sea to recruit people. More importantly, the other party was a dignified King of Chu and would not break the trust with the common people like them. They nodded together, "We will go back to our hometown tomorrow and recruit ship craftsmen for Your Highness. We are sure of at least one thousand people."

"Okay! Then we'll make up for it."

.........

[Note: Historically, the shipbuilding site of Yuan Hongsi should be in Donglaihaikou. For the plot, it was changed to Beiping County. The mouth of Rushui River is in today's Leting County, Hebei, and the hometown of Li Dazhao.] (To be continued)
Chapter completed!