The Ezhou delegation stayed for one day, and the water transport fleet was responsible for transporting them back to Ezhou early the next morning.
All counties in Ezhou, including Tongcheng, Puqi, and Chongyang, have waterways leading to the Yangtze River.
The water transport fleet sent five boats this time.
In addition to sending people away, we also transported a lot of supplies to them.
Any excess bamboo, wood, and porcelain produced recently in Jiangzhou City will be shipped to them.
It is regarded as free support for construction.
"Your Majesty, everyone is sent away."
After seeing off the people from Ezhou, Fang Zhe came to report to Song Yang about various things about this contact.
Wang Ran had come to see Song Yang last night, and Fang Zhe also gave a general report, which was no different from Wang Ran's report.
The matter in Ezhou is settled for the time being.
The aftermath of the war in Jiangzhou Fucheng is still unfinished.
There are so many prisoners that it will take another day to register them.
There was also a lot of supplies seized. Yu Ming's side just calculated that there were more than a dozen tank boats.
The bandits had a lot of food and various supplies, especially the cloth that Jiangzhou was in urgent need of, so they loaded two full ships.
Of course, there are three ships of gold and silver, but these things are dispensable to Song Yang.
He is not ready to implement currency trading now, at least not before the autumn harvest.
The prisoners were still being registered, and Song Yang, Fang Zhe, Yu Ming, and Ma Cheng sat together.
They are going to hold a post-war summary meeting.
This meeting was supposed to be held yesterday, but it was delayed for a day by the Ezhou inspection team.
It's not too late today, and the prisoners haven't been registered yet, right?
"Your Majesty, our battle was overall very successful. Both the navy and the Renaissance Army showed good combat effectiveness."
"However, the training of the Fuxing Army is also obviously insufficient. If this battle is done by the Guards, the effect may be better."
Yu Ming first concluded his speech.
"It's already very good. The training period for the Renaissance Army is still short, so there's no need to be too demanding."
"Let's just do everything step by step."
Song Yang nodded and said to everyone.
"Fang Zhe is in charge of the placement of the prisoners and the seizure of supplies."
"The mission of both of you is to establish a stronghold in Jiangbei."
Song Yang looked at Ma Cheng and Yu Ming and said.
Song Yang thought about establishing a stronghold in Jiangbei for two days.
The battle with the rogue bandits revealed the importance of the Jiangbei stronghold.
At the beginning of Hai hour that day, the rogue bandits launched a cross-river operation.
But Song Yang only discovered the clues at 3:30 pm.
If it weren't for the bandits' poor boat handling skills, they might have landed long ago.
This is a problem of poor information.
There is no stronghold in the north of the Yangtze River, and we only rely on the south bank of the Yangtze River to watch the wind. The control of the situation in the north of the Yangtze River is always somewhat poor.
That's why Song Yang thought of establishing a Jiangbei stronghold.
He planned to follow Jiayu's example and establish a stronghold in Jiangbei where only the Fuxing Army or Minzhuang would be stationed.
Then leave a few communication speedboats there. If there is any emergency, you can get the news immediately.
Song Yang expressed his thoughts and was immediately unanimously approved by everyone.
"Your Majesty, in fact, we can build a stronghold on Jiangzhou Island, which will make transportation from north to south more convenient." Ma Cheng suggested.
The Jiangzhou Island he was talking about is a small channel at the mouth of Poyang Lake, in the center of the Yangtze River not far northeast of Jiangzhou.
Although it is said to be a small island, it is not particularly small at all, nearly fifteen miles from east to west.
There are four villages on the island. After the natural disaster, the islanders were taken back to Jiangzhou City.
Now that the issue of strongholds has been addressed, Jiangzhou Island has the possibility of being reused.
Taking out the map, Song Yang looked at it and found that the location was good.
To the south of Jiangzhou Island is the exit of Poyang Lake, and to the north is the exit of Longgan Lake.
If a stronghold is established on the north shore of Longgan Lake, Longgan Lake, Jiangzhou Island, and Jiangzhou City can be connected in a straight line.
The four people studied the map for a while and then decided on the plan.
"Your Majesty, it is temporarily inconvenient to build large-scale fortifications in Jiangbei, but it is best to clear the exit of Longgan Lake." Ma Cheng suggested again.
The passage between Longgan Lake and the Yangtze River was originally inaccessible to large ships.
After the natural disaster, the waterway was widened due to earthquakes, so boats could barely sail.
And now is the flood season, the water level is high.
When the water level drops during the dry season, large ships will no longer be able to use the Longgan Lake waterway.
After hearing about the water channel dredging plan, Fang Zhe immediately agreed and proposed implementation measures.
"Your Majesty, Manager Ma can do this. We have more than a thousand prisoners!"
"The waterway can already be used for boats. This time it is just dredging. More than a thousand people can definitely finish it in a month or two."
These prisoners were originally refugees, but they were unlucky enough to join the bandits.
But essentially they are still ordinary people in Daqian.
Besides, if you don't find something to do for them, just enclosing them and killing them is a waste of manpower.
It would be better to just provide them with meals and let them go to work.
It should be done as work-for-relief work.
And while working, it can be regarded as a kind of isolation.
Once all the work is done, the quarantine will be over.
Song Yang thought about it and realized that this was indeed feasible.
"That's it, you two will coordinate this matter."
"Yu Ming is in charge of the affairs of the stronghold, and Ma Cheng is assisting."
"We will find out more about the situation on Jiangzhou Island. If conditions permit, we can move some people to live on the island."
"The island is not small. Since we want to occupy it, just pointing to a stronghold is definitely not enough."
"There are islanders on the island. They came to the island to avoid disasters. Now if we let them go back, they can be considered as going home."
"Fang Zhe is in charge of this matter and will come up with a plan as soon as possible."
After passing the base, I thought of dredging waterways and developing Jiangzhou Island.
There was no need for any discussion, Song Yang just made a decision and it was done.
After discussing this, Song Yang thought of another thing.
He turned to look at Ma Cheng and said:
"Manager Ma, the water transport fleet has to work hard and walk along various waterways, especially along the Yangtze River."
"Tow all the available ships back."
"Did you notice during this fight with the bandits that they actually have so many boats?"
"Although there are no big ships, there will be a lot of trouble for us if there are too many small ships."
"So all boats along the river must be put away as much as possible!"
"Don't give opportunities to people with ulterior motives anymore."
Song Yang's move belongs to Jianbi Qingye.
Tow all the boats away. If the thieves from Jiangbei come again, there will be no boats available.
Ma Cheng immediately clasped his fists and said, "Don't worry, Your Majesty. I will give the order tomorrow."
"Your Majesty, I plan to go to Jiangning for a visit in a while. There might be a big ship there."
Speaking of Jiang Ning, Song Yang nodded and said:
"Go. Take more people with you and take a long trip to see the situation in the various capitals in the south of the Yangtze River."
"Jiangning is the southern capital after all, so it shouldn't be completely destroyed."
"Especially Jiangning Shipyard, if we can find some shipwrights, we will bring them back."
"See if anyone is in charge of Jiang Ning. If so, report my name to the king and ask them to send someone to see me."
Song Yang has decided to reach out to Jiangning.
Jiangning is actually not too far away. Xuanzhou is just across the road from it.
I had no time to take it into consideration before, but now it has initially stabilized.
It’s time for people to visit the political center of Jiangnan.