Upon hearing this, Ruan Fang immediately became happy and said:
"Then I'll have to trouble you, sir. With your help, we're confident we can invite Mr. Sima here, but..."
Ruan Fang hesitated, as if she wanted to say something but then stopped.
Seeing this, Shan Jindou knew that Ruan Fang was worried about Yu Jie's safety, so he spoke up:
"Master Ruan, there's no need to worry. I will return to Haizhou in a couple of days and accompany Mr. Yu to invite Mr. Sima."
As for safety, Master Ruan, there's no need to worry. I have a security escort agency in Haizhou with several skilled guards; protecting Mr. Yu's safety is not a problem."
"That's wonderful, thank you, Manager Shan. I'm at ease knowing that Mr. Yu will be traveling to Haizhou with you."
Two days later, Yu Jie boarded Shan Jindou's carriage and headed to Haizhou to invite Sima Gang.
Haizhou is more than 800 li away from Shuixian Village. If all goes well, it will take more than ten days to return.
During this period, Yu Jie entrusted Yu Qianwen to Ruan Fang, who took care of his daily life.
Yu Jie and Shan Jindou traveled eastward and arrived at Haizhou Prefecture a few days later. They stayed in Haizhou for one night and then headed to the village where Sima Gang lived the next day.
For safety, Shan Jindou arranged for several bodyguards from the escort agency to escort him all the way.
Yu Jie often encountered refugees on the road, and he couldn't help but worry that if the people in Sima Gang's village had all left, would he also leave?
Fortunately, when they arrived at Sima Gang's village, they found that he was still at home. However, there were not many people left in the village at this time. Most of them were elderly people living alone who had no choice but to stay because they could not leave.
Upon seeing Sima Gang, Yu Jie had a sense of déjà vu. Sima Gang was in his early forties, slightly overweight, and had a refined and scholarly demeanor.
When Sima Gang saw Yu Jie, he was somewhat surprised to see so many people escorting him.
Yu Jie quickly introduced himself and explained his purpose, inviting Sima Gang to teach at the Wufang Academy in Shuixian Village.
Upon hearing this, Sima Gang hesitated and found it difficult to make a decision.
Normally, he would refuse without hesitation; he doesn't want to leave his homeland.
Ke Yujie came all the way from Shuixian Village, which was 800 miles away, to invite him to be a teacher.
Sima Gang didn't know about Wufang Academy, but he did know about Shuixian Village. No one in the Great Northern Dynasty was unaware of Shuixian Village. Since Wufang Academy was located in Shuixian Village, this academy must be extraordinary.
Upon learning that Wufang Academy had produced four successful candidates out of ten in last year's provincial examination, including one who achieved the highest rank of Jieyuan at the young age of eleven, Sima Gang was astonished.
Sima Gang no longer hesitated. He agreed to let Yu Jie go to Shuixian Village to be a teacher, and he also recommended two learned and talented friends to Yu Jie, which was exactly what Yu Jie wanted.
Next, Sima Gang took Yu Jie to visit his friend, a gentleman named Bai Qianli, who was willing to teach at Wufang Academy.
Another gentleman was unable to go because his mother was in poor health and he needed to stay and take care of her.
Although it was a bit of a pity, Yu Jie still managed to invite two more teachers, bringing the total number of renowned teachers at Wufang Academy to seven.
The two gentlemen quickly packed their belongings, took their families, and followed Yu Jie to Narcissus Village.
As time went on, banditry in the coastal areas became increasingly serious, severely impacting the normal lives of the local people.
Due to the inconvenience of transportation and the lack of information at the time, people in inland areas were unaware of this situation.
In that era, the Great Northern Dynasty did not yet have a proper coastal defense system, and coastal defense affairs in various regions were basically the responsibility of each locality.
When pirates appeared in coastal areas, the local authorities would handle the suppression, and the imperial court would generally not interfere, unless a naval war broke out, in which case it would be a different matter.
Judging from the current situation, frequent pirate incidents in coastal areas have seriously disrupted social stability and shaken the foundation of the Great Northern Dynasty. Local officials are no longer able to solve this problem.
During this period, the Emperor received many memorials, all from coastal areas.
These memorials all contained similar content, reporting that the coastal areas were suffering from severe banditry, covering a stretch of thousands of miles of coastline.
Pirates are rampant and increasingly unscrupulous, causing great suffering to the people, who are forced to leave their homes and flee to the interior for refuge.
Just when things were starting to get a little better, this happened again. If it were only one or two places, it wouldn't be so bad, but the area affected by bandits is too wide, involving most of the sea areas of the Great Northern Dynasty.
The Emperor could no longer sit still and immediately summoned his ministers for a meeting. The rampant piracy had endangered the country's security, no less than a foreign invasion, and a serious matter had to be dealt with.
The sudden appearance of so many pirates in the coastal areas was no accident; these pirates generally came from three types of people.
The first type is relatively simple. They come from local criminal gangs and make a living by robbery, targeting both land and sea.
The second category consists of rebels, most of whom are remnants of the previous dynasty. After their defeat, they fled overseas, occupied islands, and became bandits, harassing the coast or the interior in order to survive and seek revenge.
Since the Northern Dynasty had lasted for more than a hundred years, there were not many remnants of the previous dynasty, so there were relatively few of these kinds of pirates.
Another type is what people call Japanese bandits. They came from Japan, which was separated from the Great Northern Dynasty by the sea.
Due to the complex situation in Japan, with frequent wars and famines, a large number of people fled to the sea to plunder.
The long coastline and coastal areas of the Great Northern Dynasty were all places where they robbed.
Given this situation in the coastal areas, it can be determined that these pirates came from overseas; they are the abhorrent Japanese pirates.
The shadow of Japanese pirates can be seen along thousands of miles of coastline, and their numbers must be considerable, at least tens of thousands.
These Japanese pirates were equivalent to the entire military force of an ordinary country, no less than launching an invasion against the Great Northern Dynasty.
After several days of discussion, the Ministry of War was to take the lead in combating pirates. Since this involved specific matters of coastal defense and the suppression of pirates, people naturally thought of the Panzhou Lake naval force.
Panzhou Lake is connected to the sea, so in the event of war, naval vessels can enter the sea to conduct combat operations.
Two years ago, the three northern kingdoms invaded the Central Plains, and 100,000 Jin soldiers invaded the Panzhou Lake area. With the help of Li Guang and Meng Liang, the Jin soldiers were defeated, but Ding Tong's navy also suffered heavy losses.
After more than two years of development, the strength of the Panzhou Lake naval force has basically recovered to its original level. This time, no one but the naval force is allowed to go to sea to suppress the Japanese pirates.
The navy was mobilized, with a large number of warships patrolling the sea, which served as a deterrent to pirates, but that was all.
Because the coastline of the Great Northern Dynasty stretched for thousands of miles, the navy could not cover it completely.
Although the navy has a strength of 50,000, a portion of the troops still need to be left to guard Panzhou Lake.
Ding Tong left 10,000 soldiers at the Shuizhai camp and mobilized 40,000 troops to go to the coastal areas to carry out the mission of eliminating sea pirates.
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