In the Song Dynasty, there was no law or order. Chapter 272 of the main text shows that the ocean-going fleet has returned to the era of smoothbore guns, and it is not yet the case that firearms are king.

But the rifled gun greatly increased the range, and the accurate range was already around 100 meters.

During the Civil War, there was even an incident where a rifle was used to blow off the head of an enemy general from 500 meters away.

Therefore, since the Song army could already produce rifles in batches through mold manufacturing, it was inevitable that they would move towards the era of firearms in the future.

As long as firearms are mass-produced, the steel industry flourishes, and productivity is greatly improved, it is expected that in ten years we will be able to fully enter the steam power era.

So this is the general trend and cannot be changed.

However, what Zhao Jun himself did not expect was that his wife's family was also involved in backward industries and operated several handmade weapons manufacturing workshops in Bianliang City.

As vested interests, they might naturally oppose it. For this reason, he had to talk to Cao Cong.

But before that, he still needs to investigate the intelligence.

Know yourself and your enemy, and you will never be defeated in a hundred battles.

Now we have to start with the three redundancies problem, and naturally we have to investigate clearly which stakeholders are involved in it before we can formulate corresponding tactics.

In the blink of an eye, it was already August.

On the morning of August 14, navigation along the Bian River was temporarily stopped. It cannot be said that it was stopped, but the government ordered that all ships must stop at the dock in front to make way for the ships behind.

The Grand Canal is a great project, but unfortunately its average width is only 20 meters, and the speed of the water flow is comparable to that of a turtle pulling a mill.

Therefore, ships often sail by relying on wooden oars and the pulling of trackers on the shore.

In the early morning, all the ships coming from Yingtian Prefecture had been stopped for a day. Although this would cause certain fluctuations in business, it would not be a problem if it was only for one day.

I saw countless canal ships sailing slowly from the direction of Datong Gate. Pulled by at least thousands of trackers, they slowly entered Datong Gate and headed towards the dock.

The commercial trade in the southern city of Bianliang was prosperous. In addition to the prosperous economy of the Song Dynasty itself, the most important thing was that the southeast corner was the entrance to the Bian Canal, and all the ships passing through would unload here. Therefore, there were many warehouses, including Guangji, Guangying, Fuguo, Wanying and other large warehouses.

At this time, the dock was crowded with people because many people heard that this was a fleet returning from overseas, and it was from a place even farther away than Japan and Goryeo. No one knew what they had experienced, and everyone was very curious.

At this moment, the yamen runners of Kaifeng Prefecture slowly opened a passage, and a carriage, protected by many Imperial City Guards, went straight along the passage towards the dock.

Everyone knew that this was the carriage of Zhao Zhiyuan, who was praised by the world in Bianliang, so everyone made way to let the carriage pass smoothly.

Soon the carriage arrived at the dock.

Zhao Jun got off the carriage and looked towards the dock.

At a glance, there are already countless ships on the canal, and it is almost impossible to see the end.

Then we saw more than 200 canal transport ships being slowly dispatched, filing in and entering the berths one after another.

Since the ships used in the ocean-going fleet are all large sea-going ships, although they are not like the treasure ships used by Zheng He, the largest of which can reach 151.18 meters long and 61.6 meters wide, they are definitely not small.

They are all ocean-going ships that are 120 meters long and more than 30 meters wide. There are six or seven masts on the ship alone, representing the highest level of sailing ships in the Northern Song Dynasty and even the entire world.

It was impossible for such a large ship to enter the canal, so when they arrived in Mingzhou, they changed to canal ships. The original twenty or so ships were replaced with more than two hundred canal ships. How much stuff could they carry?

While Zhao Jun was watching in a daze, Cao Xiu had already led his men over. The boat in front docked and lowered the wooden planks. Walking in front was an official with a weathered face and dark skin.

He was wearing a brand new official uniform with a patch on the cuff, and he walked down with his head held high.

In fact, when the fleet arrived in Mingzhou from Tsushima Island last month, local officials of the Mingzhou Maritime Customs had already reported the situation.

The fleet sent by the Song Dynasty was lucky. They had the map given by Zhao Jun and used the latest sailing Fu ships, which were powered by paddle wheels and oars. Each ship carried more than a thousand tons of grain and hundreds of tons of tea, and they sailed north in this mighty manner.

They encountered danger in the East China Sea, hit reefs in the Kuril Islands, ran aground in Siberia, even encountered a storm while crossing the Bering Strait, and were attacked by Indians.

Some crew members died at sea, some ships disappeared in storms, and some people died in sudden battles.

Like this official named Chen Haizhong, he came from a merchant family and once followed his father to trade in Goryeo and Japan. Later, he took the imperial examination and became an official, ranking fourth in the class and becoming a minor official in the Maritime Customs.

Five years ago, he was selected by the court as an official to go to sea, and since then he has represented the face of the Song Dynasty court. Every time he meets local people along the coast, he will take out the official uniform that has been properly stored in the box in the cabin and communicate with the local natives on behalf of the Song Dynasty court.

The patch on his cuffs was from when he was suddenly shot by an arrow when he arrived in the American continent. Fortunately, the arrow only pierced the wide cuffs and did not cause any casualties.

But another official was not so lucky. He died of an illness. In the extremely cold weather, he had a high fever and eventually died of the illness.

Chen Haizhong walked down the wooden board and Zhao Jun walked over slowly.

Cao Xiu said to him, "This is the prefect."

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