On the same day, Yang Yan rushed back to Dezhou, and Tan Shimai's two thousand-person teams would then go directly to Linqing.

Liu Konghe went to Jining and discussed with Wu Yuanji about selecting water soldiers. He didn't need to go in person. His purpose was mainly to row some of the ships on Jining and the banks of the Yellow River for him to command.

The Yellow River flows at this time completely different from the current ones. It is to enter the Huai River from the east of Henan, pass through Xuzhou and Pizhou, and finally enter the Yellow Sea, rather than enter the Bohai Sea from the direction of Jinan.

Now that Liu Konghe is in charge of Xuzhou, his requirements are reasonable to a certain extent.

However, Jining is an important transit station on the canal, and requires certain ships and navy to maintain local order. The Dingtao garrison faces the rebel army in eastern Henan, and also needs certain ships to intimidate them.

Zhou Xian did not directly agree to Liu Konghe's request, but asked him to talk to Wu Yuanji, Hou Fangyu and Zhao Qin first, and they would decide on their own.

A few days later, the reports of Liu Konghe and Wu Yuanji were successively sent back to Jinan.

In addition to retaining some of the ships, Wu Yuanji handed over most of the ships to Liu Konghe. At the same time, the number of 1,000 water soldiers provided to Liu Konghe that Zhou Xian originally requested to expand to a whole battalion. More than 3,000 people and more than 1,000 boatmen were handed over to Liu Konghe.

Liu Konghe handed over the two infantry under his command to Wu Yuanji to enhance the defensive power of Dingtao and Caozhou.

It was precisely because of this replacement that the power of the navy in Huaidong was quickly expanded.

Liu Konghe relied on his army of infantry and thousands of water soldiers to quickly quell the trouble of the Jiang bandits and firmly controlled the waterways of Huai'an and Yangzhou prefectures.

After Wu Yuanji obtained the infantry of the two battalions, he also made up for the problem of too many new soldiers and lacking veterans, and his strength was enhanced. Later, the army went north to aid Daming Prefecture, which played a great role in the subsequent wars.

Of course, these are all later stories.

It was about to disperse in public, and Yu Qi followed Huang Zongxi into the governor's office.

This is not Zhou Xian's private residence, but the place where he works. The original Prince De Mansion. Some of the houses were handed over by Zhou Xian to Zhu Mei to open a girls' school. The rest were used as offices for each department, including the Governor's Office.

Zhou Xian was originally discussing with Wan Ji, Xia Yunyi, Chen Zilong, Gu Yanwu, Chen Mingxia and others. When he heard that Yu Qi was coming, he asked Wan Ji to continue to preside over the negotiations and asked Song Yingxing to come out with him.

Seeing that the outside was turning black, Zhou Xian ordered the guards outside and said, "Tell the kitchen to get some food and bring it over. This meeting will last a long time."

After the guard left, Zhou Xian turned to Song Yingxing and said, "Mr. Song, your blast furnace is almost built. Are your students capable of taking over this matter?"

Song Yingxing nodded gently, "The purpose of building a blast furnace is to refine the purity of iron and forge iron ingots with higher hardness. It is not too difficult for ordinary craftsmen. Even if the commander-in-chief is not talking about it, I am also going to hand it over to them."

Zhou Xian nodded and said, "That's good. I'm planning to add a mining department under the original several departments to specialize in exploring and mining various ores. Please ask Mr. Song to take this matter!"

Song Yingxing frowned and said, "General, we have talked about this matter. I come to Shandong to only do things, not officials."

Zhou Xian sighed and said, "You guys! I don't understand. Is the minister's integrity really that important to you? Is it so important to only do things, not to be an official, and then even if you keep the minister's integrity? Mr. Song, if you are an ordinary person, I will definitely not force it. But there are probably few people in the world who have learned what you have learned. Your talent should not only be sold to the imperial family, but also seek some benefits for the people of the world."

Seeing Song Yingxing hesitating, Zhou Xian continued: "Mr. Song, to be honest, the situation in Shandong is not good now. Recruiting soldiers, resettling refugees, and opening a college requires money. In the past, there was basically a little surplus through maritime trade and salt tax. But now the expenses are too large and it has reached the point where Shandong's financial resources cannot be supported. Although Huang Zongxi's local tax reform has achieved some results, it will take time to turn those into silver. I opened this mining bureau just to ask you to get me some money."

Song Yingxing looked shocked, "Master General, are you joking with me? Although I have a wide range of knowledge, I have never learned business skills!"

Zhou Xian shook his head and smiled, "Isn't you let you do business? Let me tell you two things first! One is the Qixia Gold Mine, which I want to acquire as an official. The mining efficiency is too low now, and the purity of refining gold is not enough. If you can improve these, will the silver come naturally? In addition to making various weapons, there are still a lot of residual iron ore that is refined now. I think you can use what you are good at, invent some easy-to-use farm tools, and then recruit craftsmen for mass production. Some of this is distributed to those refugees who fled into Shandong, and some are directly priced to ordinary farmers. This is another way to make money."

Song Yingxing lowered his head and pondered for a while, saying, "Mr. Governor, I can do both of these things, but you should let me think about the matter of an official."

Zhou Xian did not force him anymore, "Okay! Then let's meet Yu Qi first!"

Looking at Yu Qi who was kneeling on the ground and without saying a word, Zhou Xian stepped forward and helped him up. "I read Yu Chenglong's letter. This matter has nothing to do with you. Everything was done by your two brothers without permission."

Yu Chenglong was the chief officer of the Inspectorate Department and was responsible for supervising the administration of officials in various parts of Shandong. He set out from Jinan and visited several governments in succession, and he dragged more than a dozen corrupt officials and mediocre officials down.

When he arrived in Laizhou, hundreds of miners' families blocked the road and complained. He asked carefully and found out that a mining accident occurred in the Zhaoyuan Gold Mine some time ago, killing and injured nearly a hundred people.

However, Yu's family, led by Yu San and Yu Si, refused to give pensions to the injured. When the families of the victims complained to the local government, even though the servants committed evil, the Yu family beat three people to death in public and dozens of people.

Local officials were limited to Yu's local forces and Yu Qi's identity, so they were left home without any disposal.

After hearing this, Yu Chenglong was furious and immediately led his troops to the county government to dismiss the Ye County Magistrate and reported the matter to the prefect of Laizhou and the governor of Denglai.

Yu San and Yu Siyan saw that the matter was exposed, and actually sent an assassin to assassinate Yu Chenglong.

When Yu Jackie Chan caught the assassin and led his troops to the Yu family to arrest the two, they actually incited the miners to confront the government.
Chapter completed!