The sea was filled with wind and rain, and the sea boat was bumping in the waves like a small boat. Fortunately, the storm was not very big. Li Zhang had long been used to the wind and waves on the sea. At this time, he was still sitting steadily at his desk and looking through what he had seen and heard recorded during this period.

The coastal trip was over. Li Zhang and his team arrived in Quanzhou from Guangzhou for a few days. Then Dong Qing got off the boat. He wanted to start planning the task assigned to him by Li Zhang, while Li Zhang continued to go north to prepare to return to Beijing.

However, this coastal trip also gave Li Zhang a lot of gains, including two main points. The first point is the sea trade situation in the Song Dynasty. In the past, Li Zhang only knew that sea trade was profitable, and a large number of goods were in and out of each port every day, but he did not know the detailed situation. This time, he not only went to Quanzhou and Guangzhou, but also to Mingzhou and Hangzhou. The investigation of these large ports also allowed him to grasp many detailed information about sea trade.

In general, the Song Dynasty mainly exported handicrafts such as silk and porcelain, and imported them either precious gold, jewelry and other items, or spices, ore and other agricultural products or raw materials. In particular, Li Zhang knew for the first time that because the Song Dynasty lacked copper, he had been importing copper ore from overseas.

According to Li Zhang's preliminary statistics, the import and export of goods from various ports in the Song Dynasty was estimated to be more than 400, and the quantity was extremely wide. However, in general, the Song Dynasty had always been in a trade surplus with foreign countries. After all, the export of the Song Dynasty was mainly handicrafts, with labor value, and most of the imported goods were valuables such as gold, silver and jewelry, or other very basic raw materials.

In addition, Li Zhang also discovered a very interesting phenomenon, that is, the copper coins of the Song Dynasty are also an important export commodity. Because the copper coins of the Song Dynasty are exquisitely shaped and endorsed by the national strength of the Song Dynasty, they are also a common currency overseas, which is equivalent to the status of the US dollar in later generations. Especially in countries around the Song Dynasty, they like to use the copper coins of the Song Dynasty very much. Therefore, some overseas merchants would exchange goods for copper coins and ship them overseas to sell, which would make a huge profit.

However, this also caused the loss of copper coins in the Song Dynasty. After all, the Song Dynasty was short of copper, which led to the import of copper ore from overseas, but it still could not meet the demand for copper coins. Fortunately, money has developed very rapidly in recent years and has become popular in southern ports, which has greatly alleviated the shortage of money. It has even been said that merchants have begun to use money overseas.

"Maybe we need to put the matter of starting a Qianxing overseas on the agenda!" Thinking of Qianchao, Li Zhang couldn't help but whisper to himself. Although Qianxing is still his private property in name, it has actually been handed over to the court step by step. Especially after Douzi passed the Jinshi, Qianxing already has a semi-official background. It is estimated that in a few years, Qianxing will be officially renamed the Royal Qianxing of the Song Dynasty.

However, under the prosperity of sea trade, there are also many dark and crises. For example, because of the huge profits of sea trade, many dark professions have also emerged. Among them, the most representative of them are pirates, and even many famous sea merchants are pirates. These people do everything they want to kill and set fire at sea. The sea is a place beyond the law, and there is no law that can punish them. This also makes the pirates develop rapidly, and many pirates even dare to go ashore to rob.

If this situation is allowed to develop, there will probably be a pirate king on the coast of the Song Dynasty in the future. This situation has not happened. In fact, as early as the Tang Dynasty, the pirates on the coastal areas had annexed each other and finally formed some considerable forces. However, the Tang Dynasty was strong and pirates did not dare to go ashore. However, the Song Dynasty was different. Now pirates are still in the separatist position, so some of them dared to go ashore.

When thinking of pirates, I have to say that Li Zhang's second gain was that the military discipline on the coast of the Song Dynasty was corrupted. This corruption was not just the navy. At the beginning, Li Zhang was very annoyed by the military discipline of the navy. However, when he saw the infantry stationed in various parts of the coast, he found that the situation of the navy was quite good, and the infantry was even worse, and even to the point where it was useless.

In fact, this cannot be blamed on the corruption of the military discipline of the coastal garrison. The main reason is that the military focus of the Song Dynasty was in the north, and the threat was mainly the Liao Kingdom and the northwest, so they never attached importance to the south. Both officials and the people in the south also had a mentality, that is, they felt that the south was far away from danger and that the north would face anything, so they were not worried about the invasion of the enemy at all.

Under the above mentality, not only the coastal areas, but also the entire southern garrisons are almost completely corrupt. Not only are there insufficient soldiers, but the soldiers are almost not very trained. It is okay to ask them to maintain public order and set up checkpoints and collect taxes. But if they are allowed to fight, it is better to let a group of sheep go to the battlefield. At least the flock of sheep may hurt several enemies. If these Southern Army go to the battlefield, they may collapse without attacking them.

This is not because Li Zhang underestimated the garrisons in the south. In fact, the south has not been peaceful in recent years. Especially Li Huan of Jiaozhi seized the Ding Dynasty regime and established the former Li Dynasty. Li Huan was extremely ambitious. On the surface, he surrendered to the Song Dynasty and often sent people to pay tribute, but in fact he often sent troops to harass the borders of the Song Dynasty. However, the garrisons in Yongzhou could not even stop the small Jiaozhi, and even wanted to ask for help from Guangzhou. However, even if the reinforcements arrived, they still lost more than defeat, which was a shame to the Song Dynasty.

Fortunately, the military power of the Song Dynasty has been greatly enhanced in the past two years, and it defeated Dangxiang and Liao Kingdom in one fell swoop. This has also made Jiaozhi in the south much more honest and dared not harass the Song Dynasty for the time being. However, if the corruption of the military discipline of the southern garrison troops did not change, Jiaozhi would definitely not watch the fat meat on his lips without leaving his mouth.

Thinking of the situation of the army in the south, Li Zhang couldn't help but sigh. He looked through the records in his hand a few more pages, but the more he looked, the more he frowned. It was definitely not an easy task to change the situation of the military discipline in the south, but there were still ways. For example, the task he assigned to Dong Qing might be able to remove the threat of Jiaozhi from the sea, and there was also a rectification of the navy. If an elite navy could be built, then Jiaozhi's threat would not be a concern.

Just as Li Zhang was pondering, the wind and rain on the sea slowly passed. In fact, it is very common to encounter such passing rain on the sea. Sometimes you can even see the magical scene of heavy rain on the right side of the boat. In addition, there are many creatures in Shanghai. Whales have basically rarely been seen in the East China Sea in later generations, but it is extremely common in this era, but ordinary fishermen dare not provoke these giants.
Chapter completed!