The next morning, the fleet arrived at Nan'ao Island Pier.
After saying goodbye to Lin Zhongcheng, Master Zhao got off the boat and yawned as he watched the governor's fleet leave the dock and head south.
Judge Shu Tong, who was standing next to him, was also listless, with dark circles under his eyes, and his eyes were as red as a rabbit's.
"Why, you didn't sleep all night either?" Zhao Hao asked curiously, "Why are you staying up late at night to be a door god?"
"No, no, I went to bed a long time ago. I'm just old and I'm used to my bed." Shu Tongpan was hit on the spot and smiled awkwardly. He then moved closer and asked, "Brother, didn't you say a few good words to Lin Zhongcheng about me?"
"Uh..." Zhao Hao was stunned. He really hadn't thought about this. But how cunning is this guy? He nodded and said, "Yes, yes, of course."
"Oh, thank you so much." Shu Tongpan immediately became energetic, and the fatigue and depression of the night disappeared without a trace. He was overjoyed and bowed to thank him, and then asked: "What did you say?"
"He said you are good, you have a good heart, in short, you are good in every way..." Mr. Zhao had no choice but to talk nonsense. He was used to lying... He crossed it out and changed it to "I have always been honest and reliable", so no one could tell the truth from the false.
"How can I be so good..." Shu Tong covered her face shyly and asked shyly, "What did the Zhongcheng say?"
"The chancellor said so." Zhao Hao patted his shoulder and imitated Lin Run's tone, saying, "Tell Shu Tongpan to follow Zhao Sima Gan. He has a bright future ahead of him!"
"Yes! I will definitely live up to the high expectations of the Prime Minister!" Shu Fu nodded excitedly. Suddenly, his whole body was filled with strength, and he wished he could grow wings and fly back to the city to work hard with Master Zhao.
"Come on, brother, let's go back quickly and don't make your father wait anxiously!" Shu Tongpan's voice rose eight octaves.
"Oh, I have something else to do, so I won't reply." Zhao Hao said with a smile.
His first stop was Ryukyu, but he was worried about his troublesome father, so he hurried to Chaozhou. Now Mr. Zhao is out of danger, has a firm foothold, and has a good situation. All that is left is to implement the achievements made during this period. These things can be handled by his father's management team, so he doesn't need to worry about them anymore.
The day before yesterday, Zhao Hao received another report from the garrison, saying that the southbound task force had completed its supply and had weighed anchor and set sail. It would take ten days to reach Ryukyu. So it was time for Master Zhao to turn back and look for trouble with King Shangyi of Zhongshan.
Watching Shu Tongpan, who finally felt relieved, return to Hanjiangkou by boat, Zhao Hao also stepped onto the first blood account.
~~
On the first blood account, Wang Rulong and Tang Baolu had been waiting for a long time.
"Oh, I'm so tired..." Mr. Zhao threw himself on the lounge chair under the parasol. Don Paul encouraged him and offered him a fresh coconut.
"Oh, what a rare thing!" Mr. Zhao's eyes lit up, and he couldn't wait to take a deep sip of the refreshing coconut water, and suddenly felt that the fatigue of the past few days had dissipated a lot. "Comfortable... Where did it come from, Penghu?"
"No, I got it when I came from Xiawei." Tang Baolu laughed. "There are a few coconut trees in Penghu, but they don't bear fruit."
"So it came from Qiongzhou Prefecture?"
"It shouldn't be that far. The shell is still green." Tang Baolu scratched his head and said, "It's more than 2,000 miles from Qiongzhou. It can't be so fresh."
"Oh?" Young Master Zhao suddenly became interested and sat up straight and asked, "Are there any more? The kind that haven't been peeled."
"I knew you would like it, so I prepared a lot of it." Tang Baolu nodded with a smile, turned around and left.
After a while, he took out two large green coconuts from the cabin.
"Why is this sold in Xiawei?" Zhao Hao asked Wang Rulong to take out his knife and split a coconut to see. Sure enough, the fiber layer under the green skin was still very fresh and tender, and it must have been no more than ten days since it was picked.
It takes at least half a month to travel from Qiongzhou to Chaozhou with smooth sailing, so this option can be ruled out.
"Tell me in detail what happened when you bought the coconuts." Zhao Hao asked in a thorough manner.
"Yes." Tang Baolu didn't know why the young master was so concerned about such trivial matters. Could it be that coconuts were poisonous? This thought frightened him, and he quickly explained everything:
"It was yesterday afternoon, when I left Xiawei Port, I saw a boat that had just arrived at the port, piled with a lot of young coconuts. I have eaten this kind of coconut in Luzon and Qiongzhou, and I know that this kind of young coconut is juicy and fresh, and is a great product for cooling off in the summer. When I thought that my beloved uncle had never tasted a coconut, my heart ached, and I felt that I was so unfilial..."
"First, don't be sentimental. Second, I've even eaten durian, let alone coconut." Young Master Zhao laughed and scolded, "Who are you looking down on, you little brat?"
"Young master, you are really knowledgeable. You have even eaten durian? Oh no, you dare to eat it?" Tang Baolu was stunned and thought to himself, what's the difference between that and eating shit?
Of course he never dared to say that.
"Let's get down to business. Don't go off topic." Zhao Hao glared at him, as if he had guessed what he was thinking. "Durian is both fragrant and smelly, and it's not just smelly!"
"Alas," Tang Baolu said hurriedly, "I'll ask someone to buy all the coconuts on that boat."
Zhao Hao sat cross-legged on a bamboo chair, sipping coconut juice and asking, "What kind of boat is it, how is it stored, in the open air or in a cellar?"
"It's the red-headed boat commonly seen in Chaoshan, no different from other boats at the dock. Coconuts are not valuable things, so of course they are piled in the open air, without even a mat to keep out the rain, otherwise I wouldn't be able to see them, right?" Tang Baolu replied with a smile.
"Well, what did they say to you?" Zhao Hao asked in detail. "Also, how many people are there? Can you tell where they came from?"
"It's normal, about a dozen sailors. As for their skills... You can tell from the looks of it that they go to sea all year round, living on the edge of a knife." Tang Baolu scratched his head and said, "But who would go to sea these days? Are there any good people who go to sea?"
"What nonsense are you talking about?" Wang Rulong, who was chopping coconuts nearby, waved his machete. "Aren't we good people?"
“Haha, I guess so.” Tang Baolu smiled perfunctorily, thinking to himself that if you, the King of Hell with Bloody Hands, count the good people, then this world would be a beautiful place.
He went on to say, "We had Lin Daoqian's men to see us off. They were quite polite and said that the boss had disembarked and they had no say. Besides, we weren't selling them, we were giving them as a favor. But since we asked for it, they didn't want to let us go back empty-handed, so they gave us a dozen or so."
"So generous?" Zhao Hao frowned and said, "It's such a big one, giving you three or four would be enough, right?"
"Lin Daoqian's men knew the sailors and said that he was the general's distinguished guest, so they sent more." Tang Baolu laughed and said, "I also said it was too much, too much, but a sailor said, it's okay, this was originally for the general to entertain guests..."
"Yeah." Zhao Hao nodded, and asked Lin Daoquan some details. He tapped the coconut palm with his fingers and fell into deep thought.
Tang Baolu and Wang Rulong didn't dare to speak, for fear of disturbing the young master's thoughts.
After a while, Zhao Hao suddenly slapped the coconut leaf hard and said loudly, "I know!"
"What does uncle know?" Tang Baolu asked hurriedly.
"I know where those people that Lin Daoqian recruited went!" Zhao Hao laughed excitedly, "They went to the place where the coconuts are produced!"
"Really?" Tang Baolu's eyes widened in surprise. His trading station was Zhao Hao's main source of intelligence in Guangdong, so he naturally knew that Lin Daoqian had been using pyramid selling methods to poach people from Chaozhou, Zhangzhou, and even farther away for many years. But the strange thing was that Xiawei City had a small population, and Lin Daoqian had not lost many people, so it was obvious that he had another nest.
How could Master Zhao allow the man he chose to have any secrets? He had to have a clear view of every inch of his skin and every groove!
So the task of finding the truth fell on Don Baolu's shoulders. But before he could even start, Mr. Zhao found it first by using a coconut!
'Is it really that amazing? ' Tang Baolu couldn't believe it, but he looked surprised and said, "Uncle, you can see the big picture from the small details. You are really a shining light for thousands of miles! How come I am so confused?"
"It's normal for you to be confused, because in addition to intelligence and wisdom, this also requires a little scientific knowledge." Young Master Zhao said arrogantly.
"Please give me some advice, uncle." Tang Baolu hurriedly said.
"First of all, you need to know where the nearest coconut producing area is." Zhao Hao waved his hand, and without him even saying a word, Secretary Ma handed him a marching map.
Ma Rulong hurriedly helped Tang Baolu to spread out the map in front of the young master.
Then Zhao Hao said, "Coconut is a tropical light-loving crop. It can only grow well under the conditions of high temperature, high rainfall, sufficient sunshine and sea breeze. Specifically, the annual average temperature must be above 24 degrees, the temperature difference between the four seasons is small, and there is no frost throughout the year. Only then can coconuts bloom and bear fruit normally. If the average temperature is too low for one month in a year, the yield will drop significantly. If it is lower, it will not bear fruit."
"So let alone Chaozhou, even Guangzhou doesn't have the right winter temperature. So we have to go south, such as Leizhou and Qiongzhou, to get coconuts. But they are too far away to be transported." Zhao Hao first pointed to the Leizhou Peninsula, then slowly moved his finger eastward and said:
"Besides, there is only one place in Ming Dynasty where coconuts grow, and that's here!"
The two followed his pointing and their eyes fell on the southern tip of Taiwan Island.
"Chicken cage?" Wang Rulong asked. This was the name given to Taiwan by the Ming Dynasty.
"Takao?" said Tang Baolu. This is the name of the southernmost tip of Taiwan.
"Yes, it's here." Zhao Hao laughed out loud, "No wonder Lin Daoqian is trying so hard to recruit people, it turns out he wants to develop Taiwan!"
The two men looked at the straight-line distance between Xiawei and Takao, which was about 350 kilometers, a maximum flight of three to five days.
"But it seems that Takao is not much further south than Chaozhou, right?" Tang Baolu asked, scratching his head.
"But the climates of the two places are different." Zhao Hao explained with a smile: "Chaozhou has a subtropical monsoon climate, while Pingtung... oh no, Takao, has a tropical monsoon climate. The continuous mountains in the north block the cold air from the south in winter, so the temperature is high all year round with little temperature difference. It is also close to the sea, so coconuts can grow there."
Mr. Zhao silently thanked Brother Xian for his program "Food Crossroads" that year, which made him know that in addition to betel nut beauties, there are also coconut beauties in Taiwan.
Heavy fog, crossed it out and changed it to, I know Pingtung is at the southernmost tip of Taiwan, and it produces coconuts - although there is Kenting to the south, but the area south of Pingtung is all mountainous and does not have the conditions for large-scale cultivation.
So, Brother Xian is the hero who helped my Ming Dynasty unify Taiwan ahead of schedule!
Brother Xian, stay safe and sound forever!