Early the next morning, Li Ming, who couldn't wait, asked the boatman to set sail, ride the wind and waves in this cool and cool autumn weather, and return quickly. In the evening, the fleet stopped at Fenshui Island, where they had some rest and stayed overnight.

Li Ming, Zhao Xun, the commander of the Fenmi Island garrison, still remembers Li Ming. Although nearly half a year has passed, the things that night still linger in his heart like nightmare. That night, in order to investigate the moment when Li Ming was assassinated, he personally led his troops to search the dark night all night. That night, not only did he have to pay attention to search, but he also had to worry about what punishment the prince would punish him the next day. In that heart, it was really a big deal. Although the prince did not punish him the next day, he often had to suffer from insomnia at night. Now, the key figure that night appeared in front of him again, how could he not recognize him?

Water, the commander of the army is a senior officer among the leading military generals. Commanders like Zhao Xun who have important responsibilities can reach the third rank, so important palace newspapers in the court will be delivered to him regularly. Of course, he will pay great attention to the rewards of Li Ming. Therefore, when Li Ming took out his identity fish talisman from the fish bag, Zhao Xun did not show much surprise.

Although Li Ming's Zhongyong Marquis was only a scattered rank and had no real power, he was much higher than Zhao Xun in terms of grades. Moreover, judging from King Kang's reaction that day, Li Ming was definitely King Kang's favorite general. Therefore, Zhao Xun now flattered Li Ming and not only arranged him to the largest and most luxurious independent courtyard, but also specially allocated a thousand garrisons to be stationed around the courtyard to prevent something like that night from happening again.

Li Ming, who had to stay in the prison car last time, officially set foot on other parts of Fenshui Island. The island was not as desolate and deserted as he imagined. On the contrary, except for the palace of King Kang, which is in a quiet valley with few people, most of the other buildings are in a noisy downtown. Entering the downtown, it seems to have entered a very prosperous city. There are shops on both sides of the wide streets and people coming and going on the streets. Although it is already very late and the night in late autumn is already very cold, there are still groups of people strolling around the night market with interest.

Li Ming, who was riding on a horse, looked at the scene in front of him that was no different from ordinary towns, and couldn't help but feel confused. Logically speaking, as a military important place in the Mid-mountain Lake, so many people should not be allowed to live on the island. After all, there are many military secrets that cannot be known to ordinary people. However, judging from the current situation, it seems that there is no need to take necessary precautions here.

After hearing the doubt raised by Li Ming, Zhao Xun, who was wandering around, couldn't help but smile. It was obvious that he attributed Li Ming's curiosity to the ignorance and curiosity of the civilians after they rose to prominence. Of course, this was also a good time for him to curry favor with the new crown. So, while riding a horse and walking around the streets, he pointed to the bustling crowd around him and explained to Li Ming in detail: "The Marquis doesn't know anything. The location of Fenshui Island and the surrounding archipelago is very special, just like

God specially selected this location to place this island here. The island group with a radius of dozens of miles was firmly stuck to the waterway from Mid-Shan Lake to Songjiang. You also know that in the south, land transportation has been degraded to a very degraded place. Except for a few places without rivers, almost everyone will choose to take waterways, including government transportation. Therefore, the road conditions in this place are very poor, and water and land transportation is very developed.

In this way, Songjiang has become the main channel from the north to the imperial city, and it can even be said to be the only channel. Through Lanjiang, Hongshui River passes through Banshan Lake and enter Songjiang is a necessary channel from the north to the south. So you know that all ships passing here must dock on the Fenshui Island to replenish supplies and spend the night. Some people even use Fenshui Island as a trading base for north-south trade. In this way, the island is of course very lively. In addition, all officials from the north to the Imperial City have to rest here, so the inns on the island is indispensable and the scale is quite large, because when it comes to the spring report, officials of all sizes must rush into the imperial city. If the inns are not enough, it will cause trouble. The place I will take you to now is the most beautiful and luxurious one of these inns. Apart from the prince's palace on the island, it is the best here. I hope the marquis can like it."

Although I know that Zhao Xun is not necessarily currying himself, most of the reasons are probably due to the relationship between King Kang, Li Ming still showed a very grateful expression and said to Zhao Xun: "So General Zhao has taken care of this Marquis (I really don't get used to it for the first time when he said this title). He really took good care of meticulously. I am here to thank the general first, and I hope it won't cause too much trouble to the general. In addition, I have a question in my heart, you know, before.

I have never been an official, so I don’t know much about the affairs in the court and the affairs in the officialdom. If there is anything that should not be asked, please ask the general to raise it. As far as I know, Fenshui Island is a military important place. After all, as you said, it is the key place to enter and exit the imperial city. So how many garrisons are there on the island? The general rank of the general seems to be General Yunhui. According to the organization of our dynasty, you must have at least 20,000 soldiers under your command, but why haven’t I seen so many?"

Zhao Xun smiled slightly and said with a little pride: "To be honest, the young general is indeed a general of Yunhui, but due to the special nature of the Fenshui Island, I have more troops. Now there are 45,000 people in the water and army under my tent. Some of them are distributed on more than 20 islands of large and small sizes that can be stationed in the surrounding areas. How can the other part be stationed here? For military confidentiality, the military camp is stationed on the other side of the island, which is a special dock for officers and soldiers. Ordinary people are not allowed to dock there. Because you are an imperial official and a confidant of the prince, the young general let you dock there. Otherwise, ordinary officials will also have to land at the civilian dock here, and that military one

The dock is much larger than here. After all, soldiers, horses, weapons, and food must pass here from the south to the north, or from the north to the south. Think about it, there is a war-time standard, so that the troops, horses, and food transported from the south or the north to the battlefield will not be blocked here. Think about it, what throughput does it have to be? The transit granary on a single island can store 10 million dans of food! Otherwise, there will be emergency situations such as water leakage in ships and sudden heavy rain, there will be no enough places to store them. To be honest, there are still five million dans on the island now, but that is a war-time reserved grain, and no one dares to move without the order of the Ministry of War."

Li Ming was moved after hearing his introduction. He used to know the importance of Fenshui Island, but he did not expect that this small island would be more important than he imagined. According to Zhao Xun, if he controlled Fenshui Island, he would not only completely strangle the country's north-south water transportation, but also prevent the southern naval warships from entering the Banshan Lake. If he really had a day when all preparations were about the same, if he wanted to start a riot from Biquan Island, he had to control it. Otherwise, if he let the south of the navy army enter the Banshan Lake, he would not be able to withstand it. Moreover, from Zhao Xun's story, Li Ming could also get a message that if he controlled this place, most of the state institutions would fall into a semi-paralyzing state. After all, officials, military, horses, food, and intelligence had to pass through here. This was like an important acupoint on the human body. Once it was hit, it would cause a person to be paralyzed.

Realizing this, Li Ming didn't care about watching the night market in front of him. After finally having a free military investigation, how could he miss it? So, he hurriedly pretended to be careless and said to Zhao Xun: "When he said goodbye to the emperor this time, he gave me a very important decree, that is, to develop Biquan Island. You also know that Biquan Island was the prince's palace before, so most of the land had not been developed before. Now that the emperor has given this island to the marquis, I will make good use of him. You can also see this year's flood.

When we arrived, 70% or 80% of the people died of life, and the rest were still surviving. So the emperor ordered me to call these victims to develop the island on Biquan Island, and allocated three million dans of military rations for this matter. It was so great that the emperor's kindness was so great. But now I have a very big problem, that is, the problem of the militia on the island. You know, I am a doctor and I know nothing about this. I am worried about this matter these days, but today I am fortunate to meet a general, haha, so, this busy general must help me."

Zhao Xun hurriedly clasped his fists and said, "Hou is too polite. The matter of forming a militia is too simple. If the Hou can trust me, the young general will send a few capable subordinates to follow you and ask them to help you do this, and ensure that you will not disappoint you. What do you think?"

Li Ming said with a happy look: "This is great! I will feel relieved if I have the general's words. If the general has the opportunity to visit my island in the future, I will definitely be regarded as a guest of honor. Now it's completely solved. While it's not too late, the general might as well take me to the military camp. What if I want to go to the military camp? To be honest, when I think about me, I will have my own troops soon, so I can see what your troops are like. I can ask them according to this standard in the future."

Zhao Xun laughed loudly and shook his head and said, "The Marquis thinks things too complicated. The militia is just a semi-sponsive team to maintain local public security. It is far from the professional army. If the Marquis ask for the militia according to the requirements of the army, they will probably be in chaos. Okay, Prince, don't worry. As long as you need it, the young general will immediately send someone to help you form and train your militia. You don't have to worry about this. Since you are so interested in the young general's army, you will take you to visit while it's not too late."

Li Ming was so happy that he almost screamed. He didn't expect Zhao Xun to agree to his request so easily. Although it was too late now, the bright moonlight in the sky was still firing light for his exploration, making him feel that this trip was worth it.

Under Zhao Xun's leadership, the group of people rushed to the whip and ran on a straight avenue on the island for nearly an hour. Only in front of them did the lights and black barracks appear. This distance, judging from the time when the horses ran, Li Ming estimated that it was about twenty kilometers, which was not much different from the length of the island he estimated.

After following Zhao Xun into the military camp, Li Ming could truly realize the true level of this elite soldier stationed on the island. Although it was getting late and it was almost time to go to bed, these soldiers were still energetic. Except for the soldiers who were mostly in the barracks, each soldier who was walking outside maintained a neat military posture and military appearance. No sounds of fighting or noise were heard in the entire camp. During their walk, whenever they met a pair of soldiers patrolling the night, the other party would have to look up their orders in detail. Even if they saw Zhao Xun, the leader, they would also be meticulously matched the orders. This made Li Ming feel a special impression of this good at flattering Zhao Xun. If all this was done by him, Zhao Xun would undoubtedly be a very competent and very skilled general.

While following Zhao Xun's casual repetition of his words, Li Ming looked around and memorized the various guardhouses, posts, and camp locations. Although it may not be useful in the future, the principle of collecting information is that the more it is, the more it is better. If he decides to forcefully occupy the place in the future, this information can still help him a lot. Of course, Li Ming still received a lot of information from his uninterrupted conversation with Zhao Xun.

First of all, the 40,000 garrisons on this island did not belong to King Kang's troops, but were directly under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of War. Li Ming did not know this before. He always thought that all the garrisons in Jiangzhou, Huzhou and Pingzhou were directly under King Kang's troops. But today, he realized that except for the 30,000 royal guards stationed in Linpenang, all the garrisons in other places did not belong to King Kang's jurisdiction, but were directly under the Ministry of War. From this point of view, Li Ming saw the cleverness of this dynasty that had not stood for thousands of years in military management. If there were no such regulations, this dynasty would have been dragged down by civil strife. It seems that thousands of years of experience was still quite useful in managing the government.

Secondly, although the garrisons in the fiefs of each prince do not belong to any prince, in fact, the garrisons still rely on the help of the prince. For example, according to the court's regulations, the garrisons are set up to maintain the security of the garrisons, so half of their military pay is taken out from the local prince, which gives these princes a lot of opportunities to control the local garrisons. It can be said that if the prince is willing to spend money, it will be very easy to install their own confidants in these garrisons and bribe the highest commander of the army. Therefore, from the current actual situation, it is estimated that most of the garrisons in the fiefs of each prince have become privately owned by the princes. Perhaps the Huangdi who established this regulation was to reduce the financial pressure of the court, but he did not expect that this might lay a great hidden danger to the safety of the world.

However, Li Ming was very happy after getting this information. He was still worried that King Kang's strength would increase significantly after he received the emperor's favor, which would cause a significant change in the strength of the three princes. But now, since each prince can control the garrison in his fiefdom, Li Qing and Li Jiao must have a certain ability to resist. In this way, he would have the opportunity to provoke a dispute among them.

After wandering around the vast military camp for about an hour, Li Ming still seemed to be unwilling to do anything about his personal feelings. This made Zhao Xun feel embarrassed. It was hard to see that it was almost midnight. The marquis was still wandering around the camp with great enthusiasm. In desperation, he had to go up and persuade him, "Marty, it's almost midnight, and you have to rush back to the inn, so let the young general accompany you back."

Li Ming had already remembered the locations of important places such as the military base, such as the post, horse shed, granary, etc. If he gave him another half hour, there would be no secret to him. Moreover, Lin Long, behind him, deliberately left the brigade and acted alone from the beginning. If he had been entrusted with him for a longer time, he would give him more opportunities. But at this time, Zhao Xun came to urge him. In desperation, he had to put away his regret and return to the inn with Zhao Xun.

Because he slept very late at night to draw the base layout diagram of the memory in his mind, it was very late the next day, Li Ming got up from the bed, hurriedly finished washing, gathered people to rush to the dock. Zhao Xun had been waiting in the inn front hall for a long time. When he saw Li Ming bringing people out, he hurriedly greeted him and accompanied Li Ming and others to rush to the military dock.

During the downtown city on the way, such a large group of people would certainly be very eye-catching, so many passers-by stopped their work and watched here. Li Ming, who had never liked this scene, certainly did not stop too much like this, so he issued an order to speed up the officer leading the team. However, at this moment, a white-bearded old man forced himself to squeeze through the crowd and rushed towards Li Ming. Zhao Xun was obviously stunned for a moment, but his high vigilance still made him pull out the sword from his waist, and looked at the old man who was running over to ask, but he saw the old man kneeling on the ground with a plop, and two lines of old tears flowed down his eyes, shouting loudly: "The sky has eyes, today I finally let me wait until the master comes back!"
Chapter completed!