Liu Jun leaned against the soft couch and looked at a report in his hand.

There are clay fireworks under the floor of this room. The heat heats up the entire hall. Sitting inside is as warm as spring, you don’t have to be stimulated by fireworks.

However, the report in his hand made Liu Jun feel a little unsatisfied. The full-scale war in the South Ocean has begun, and the South Ocean sea and the Central and Southern coasts are in a state of war, which has seriously hindered foreign export trade. The maritime routes of merchant ships are no longer safe, especially the loss of supply points on the coast of South Vietnam.

In order to avoid losses, the imperial court issued several orders to let the maritime merchants not go out alone, but gathered a group and then escorted them to the sea by the naval fleet. However, although there were fleet guards, Anyue's business could not be done, and even Luzon, Java and other places could not be done. Moreover, the empire's navy could only ensure the security of the South Ocean area, and it was increasingly difficult to guarantee the Indian Ocean and other places outside the South Ocean.

Many maritime merchants originally had problems with orders from Luzon Spaniards, Javanese Dutch, Annan Vietnamese, Zhenla people, Dacheng people, etc. They had paid the money to organize the goods, and the ship had already paid the deposit, but now the goods were piled up in the customs port, but they didn't know where to ship?

Many businessmen have encountered great trouble because of this empty war. Some smaller companies have even experienced funding breaks. If they cannot solve this problem, they may go bankrupt.

This is actually just a chain reaction of war.

The cabinet's opinion now is that it cannot be ignored, but the only way to deal with it is to intervene in the court. The court will purchase these exported goods that have lost the seller.

But this is just a treatment of symptoms but not the root cause. Even if the merchants bought the goods by the court, they no longer continued to purchase goods. However, those who were originally engaged in the cultivation or processing of export goods in the local area would lose the buyer and the things they produced would be smashed into their hands.

What should I do if their losses are done?

One move affects the whole body. Economic integration has its benefits, but naturally it also has its disadvantages. The disadvantage is that the court is fighting in Southeast Asia, and the result is that foreign trade exports have a big problem.

There is only one solution before Liu Jun, that is, state intervention.

The imperial court will purchase those processed and exported goods, and then find ways to convert them into domestic sales or reserves. After the safety of the sea route is guaranteed, export them.

"The Portuguese remained neutral, which is a good thing for us. We must strengthen cooperation with the Portuguese, and establish trade cooperation with the Indian Mughal Empire, use India as the place for our goods to sell, and let the Portuguese serve as our European goods agents to deliver goods to Europe for us."

The Han Dynasty also had merchant ships to transport cargo to India, Persia, and even Africa, but in the past it was mainly transported to the coast of India, the Persian Gulf, and the Red Sea. Then the merchants there took over and transported the goods from land to the Mediterranean and spread to all parts of Europe. The Portuguese had many colonies and merchant stations along the coast of India and even the Persian Gulf, and had good control over this route. Letting them join in could help the Han Dynasty's export of goods a lot and improve the current dilemma.

"The war in Nanyang will not end in a year or two. Even if we can open up routes that guarantee passage through India, the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea, it will temporarily lose the export of goods from the countries of the Indochina Peninsula and various parts of the Southeast Asian region. This will undoubtedly shrink our foreign trade exports a lot, and we have to find ways to make up for this loss by expanding domestic sales."

In Liu Jun's view, war will bring export losses, but last year the court won North Korea, Japan, and the entire Northeast, which undoubtedly expanded a lot of domestic demand. It is the only way to make up for the share of export losses through the increase in domestic demand in these places.

However, the import of raw materials will also be greatly reduced, which is also a big loss.

"I have sent an order to Fu Shan. He asked him to find ways to build some ports along the Annan coast, build strongholds and fortresses, protect our export shipping and supply inbound ports."

During the imperial court's expedition against Annan, Liu Jun's strategic guidance was to make full use of the advantages of the navy, and also take advantage of the narrow and long territory of South Vietnam. Launch a multi-point attack from the sea, first capture some coastal ports, establish strongholds and fortresses, and form points one by one.

Then, using these points as a base, Annan was divided, and finally used dots to form lines, connecting them into pieces, and completely annexed Annan. Because Annan betrayed the Central Plains many times in history, the court was very worried about the southern barbarians and had already decided to adopt a completely different strategy of occupation and rule.

After establishing a stronghold in Annan, the Southern Barbarians in the occupied areas were transported to the Central Plains and prevented them from staying there. These always unruly and difficult-to-dominated monkeys were sent to mines and workshops in various places to build roads. Then, the people in some poor areas with poor conditions in the Central Plains and poor arable land were immigrated to Nanyue as a whole. Although this cost would undoubtedly be very high, it was a one-time and for all. Just like the imperial court's rule in Japan, it is now shown that it is still good.

Annan.

The Han Dynasty was 180 miles northeast of Haimen Town, the largest military port on the coast of Annan Beibu Gulf. It was the newly established Guangning Port.

The west side of the port is a military port, and the east side is a commercial port, which is both military and civilian.

In the early morning of the dry season, the port is very quiet.

Guangning Port is not only a fishing terminal, but also a military and commercial terminal. The biggest output here is not fishing, but coal.

This port, which is only more than 500 miles away from Beihai Port, is located near the border of the Han Dynasty in the northeast of Annan, was quickly established because of the huge coal fields found nearby.

Before this, this place was just a small fishing village like Haimen.

But not long ago, a huge coal mine was found here, which was more than 200 miles long and 30 to 40 miles wide. The coal here is the best quality anthracite, and the coal seam is thick and the topsoil is thin, which is very conducive to open-pit mining. According to preliminary speculation, this newly discovered coal mine is a super-large coal mine, and its reserves are most likely the largest coal mine discovered by Dahan today.

This high-quality coal that is high-quality and easy to mine and is also very easy to ship through the port, and has extremely high value.

In recent years, Dahan has vigorously developed industrial and commercial manufacturing, and the demand for coal has also increased significantly. Not only is the prosperous commercial town extremely high for domestic coal, but the demand for industrial coal is even higher.

Foshan Town, one of the four major commercial towns in the Dahan Dynasty, is the most famous iron smelting town in the Dahan Dynasty, with countless iron ore iron plants. The annual iron production volume is quite amazing. As early as the Ming Dynasty, it was one of the four major commercial towns as famous as Jingdezhen and Zhuxian Town. Now, because of the steel mill established by the imperial court in Foshan, it has become one of the five major steel cities of the Dahan. Together with the four major steel cities of Hankou, Anshan, Zunhua and Fengzhou, it has become the largest steel base in the Dahan.

Steelmaking demands higher than iron smelting, especially large amounts of coke.

The distance from Guangning Port to Foshan is 1,200 miles, which seems far away, but Guangning and Foshan are both near the sea, and Foshan also has the Pearl River water system.

Not to mention, the coal from Guangning Coal Mine can also be supplied to Haimen, Dongxing, Beihai, Haikou, Guangzhou, Nanning, Fujian and other places.

Therefore, once this huge and high-quality coal mine was discovered, the court immediately took it seriously. The coal was named Guangning Coal Mine, and Guangning Port, which integrates military ports and commercial ports, was also built in nearby ports, and craftsmen were sent to build ports, build fortresses, and build forts.

A large number of exploration-ready mining workers also arrived here, and the mine was quickly established.

In order to save transportation costs, coking plants have also begun to be established here.

It was almost six o'clock, and in the gray fog, the first coal truck appeared at the port on time.

From the coal mines to the port, there are newly built carriage tracks, which greatly improves transportation capacity.

With the ringing sounds of the ringing around the neck of the horse pulling the cart, Guangning Port finally started a new day.

After the bell of the first coal carriage rang, the bells in the big bell tower in the port fortress also rang. The six bells of clanging sounds reminded the merchants and people of the port and awakened the city.

Guangning is also a port city that is enforcing a curfew. The six bells in the morning mean that the night of curfew has finally ended, and it also means that the 100th day of the Han Dynasty's recovery of the port has arrived.

Because of the importance of this coal mine, Guangning Port, which exports coal, has also become very important. It has become one of the ten most important ports of the imperial court on the coast of Annan. Here, there are always troops stationed by a cooperative, and the ports are full of forts, which can make any southern barbarians trying to break in.

At the beginning of a new day, the sentries standing guard lifted their cloaks. As the rainy season approaches, the weather is getting hotter and worse. Standing on duty at night is a difficult task. Even if a shift is only four hours, it is still very hard.

The six bells reminded everyone that the hard work of the night has finally ended. They can hand over the post, then take a shower, change clothes, and go to the cafeteria to enjoy seafood breakfast.

Halong Bay outside Guangning Port is a bay with a rich fishery product. The Han soldiers stationed in every day can enjoy very fresh and delicious seafood.

The seafood here is very cheap, so cheap that the quarantine officer in charge of logistics procurement can purchase a large amount of seafood every day to allow the garrison officers and soldiers to have enough food.

Today's breakfast was fried with shrimp, clams and rice noodles, which was not worn out for Luo Rong from Yushi, Fujian. The breakfast was good and he felt very happy all day long. Luo Rong came to a guardhouse in the port to take over the shift and change the guard. He was condescending here. As the blocker, Luo Rong stood here and could see the entire dock area clearly.

The military port on the west side of Guangning Port is the east side of the Shang port. Therefore, there is a shopping town on the east side, and a military fortress on the west side. The fortress is strictly guarded and idlers are not allowed to enter, but the East City is very prosperous and lively. The fishing companies, seafood processing companies in the port, as well as merchant ships for supply and trade, coal and coke ships for transporting coal.

Coal made the port prosperous from scratch, and it was also the first supply port for the Han merchant ships to go to Southeast Asia to Guangxi.

In the south, the Red River Basin and the coastal areas further south, wars continued. With the support of the navy, four foreign legions, Japan, North Korea, Jianzhou, and a total of 210,000 people, plus the Imperial South Ocean Fleet, they never stopped fighting before the New Year to the after-the-New Year, from the dry season to the rainy season coming soon.

The former Privy Councilor Fu Shan, who served as the governor of Annan and governor of Guangnan Province, personally stood on the front line. Although the four legions were far inferior to the Imperial Field Army in terms of equipment and morale, they were also large and powerful. In terms of quantity and equipment, they completely suppressed the army of the Later Li Dynasty. Until now, they are more like the robbery of the four major legions in Vietnam.

The person who robs money robs everything.

Every few days, ships full of spoils of the four major legions arrive at Guangning Port. Because Guangning coal requires a large number of miners, the young and strong southern barbarians captured by the four major legions are very popular. A young southern barbarian, tall and healthy, can even be sold for fifty silver dollars.

The Han Dynasty prohibited slavery, but the prisoners of war in the hands of the four major legions were sold to the court without hawking them, which was called cost expenses.

Guangning Coal has established Guangning Coal Company, not a state-owned mining industry, but a joint-stock company established by the emperor's investment and the majority is established through private equity, with tens of thousands of shareholders of large and small groups.

In fact, this is also a benefit the emperor gives to everyone. Many royal relatives, noble officials, even civil servants, teachers, etc., have the opportunity to earn a share as long as they are willing.

The company's registered capital is also quite strong, reaching 30 million silver dollars. From the beginning, it was planned to carry out large-scale projects, not only mining coal, but also coking, and even built tracks from mines to ports. Even the construction of ports was a large part of coal mines. They also directly formed a large fleet to transport coal by themselves.

It has been three months since the company was established to put into production, and it has more than 100,000 employees. Most of the miners are prisoners of war from the four major legions. A small number of prisoners of war are real soldiers of the Hou Li Dynasty, and most of them are people in the occupied areas. Of course, the four major legions claim that they are prisoners of war, and no one in the court denies that in order to recruit these indigenous employees of Annan, Guangning Coal paid the "intermediary labor fee" to the four major legions was as high as more than 5 million silver dollars.

But with sufficient labor, the company's mining results were also amazing. Orders from all parties continued. Guangxi, Hainan, Guangdong, even Jiangxi, Fujian, and Taiwan were all rushing to place orders. They would need as much as they produce. There were even long queues, especially high-quality coke, which was in short supply.

The general manager of Guangning Coal has decided to build a few more coking plants and add a few more mining areas, and prepare to place more orders to the four major legions and entrust them to "introduce" more Annan workers.

Mining, processing and transportation, is a labor-intensive industry. In the Ming Dynasty, many mines had nearly 10,000 laborers. Now, Guangning coal is integrated with mining, processing and transportation. It is extremely large from the beginning, and the labor required is like a bottomless pit.

With the current development of Dahan industry and the demand for coal in people's lives, Guangning Coal, a super-large coal that has large reserves, convenient mining, and convenient transportation and export, has extremely low mining costs and extremely high profits. Not to mention 100,000 people, it is not a problem to increase by three to five times.

No matter how much you pick, you won’t have to worry about not being able to sell it.

If you are in the Central Plains, you will have to worry about where to get so many miners, but here, this is not a problem at all. The Southern Barbarians have millions, and young and strong men have at least two million, and some are sufficient laborers. As long as the mine takes out the labor agency fee, the four major legions will get them as much as they need. It can also ensure that all young and strong men will never be mixed with the old and weak.

If the number of workers in the mine increases by two or three times, then this port based on Guangning coal will inevitably become more prosperous, and may become the largest coastal port city in Guangnan by then. (To be continued.)
Chapter completed!