Just as Zhou Xian was advocating his future ambitions, Gu Yanwu and Lu Ming walked into the backyard together. He hugged Li Yan and then handed a letter to Zhou Xian, "Supervisor, something happened to Nanyang. Han Shen's letter said that he would not be able to draw enough ships to Lu in a short period of time."

Zhou Xian frowned and picked up the letter to look.

According to his original plan, he should have increased troops from Liaodong after the beginning of spring. But later, because there were too many things, he delayed it again and again, so he had to let Yang Zhen lead the soldiers of the Third Battalion to southern Liaoning first.

Not long ago, Kai Li sent his troops to seize Juehua Island and began to repair and expand the original city on the island.

Because Juehua Island is less than twenty miles away from the coast of Liaodong, only a hundred miles away from Xingshan, Tashan and Songshan, and within two hundred miles away from Jinzhou and Shanhaiguan, the important towns in Liaodong.

By sending troops, the road from Shanhaiguan to Liaodong can be cut off at any time.

This made the Qing army very worried, and thus transferred many soldiers around Ningyuan, especially Tashan and Xingshan, where the total number of defenders in the two places exceeded 10,000.

Because they had no ships, they could only passively build forts along the coast to defend, which was undoubtedly beneficial to the defenders of Juehua Island. There were many troops stationed there, resulting in a reduction in the defense force in other places.

Not long ago, Li Dingguo also captured Phoenix City and pointed directly at Tongyuan Fortress, which made the Qing army's troops in the southern direction of Liaoning less, at least more than 30% reduced from before.

Zhou Xian felt that this was an opportunity. If he took the opportunity to send troops to capture Gaizhou and Haizhou, he could enter the hinterland of Liaodong.

The land of the two places is vast and fertile, suitable for farming.

Take them down, build forts based on the two places, and garrison troops to defend. Gather the Han people who were dissatisfied with the Manchus, implement military farming in the local area, increase land tax and grain production income.

At that time, we will no longer have to transfer grain from other places to Liaodong, so that we can completely gain a foothold in Liaodong.

However, most of the two states are plains, suitable for cavalry to charge, while most of Zhou Xian's subordinates are infantry. For this reason, Zhou Xian must maintain an absolute advantage in military strength, which is why he ordered Han Kuo to send a ship north. He was preparing to lead 20,000 elite soldiers to go to southern Liaoning in person.

In fact, Zhou Xian had called some merchant ships before, but the number was not enough. He detoured Japan to transport troops to Nuergandusi, and most of the supplies were used. The remaining ones could only transport one battalion of soldiers at most at a time.

Originally, Han Kuo should have sent at least half of the warships and merchant ships to the north. But for now...

Seeing Zhou Xian frowning and not speaking for a long time, Li Yan asked, "Wang Zi, what's wrong?"

Li Yan handed him the letter, "In the past, I said that I would use 600,000 taels of silver to buy the Strait of Malacca to allow Yaqi and Johor to jointly deal with the Duiyi. At the same time, I connected the Madara Kingdom to threaten Batavia where the Duiyi gathered. But Yaqi and Johor were too useless and were defeated by the Duiyi, so I could only ask for help from South Korea. However, Madara Sultan Agong died of illness not long ago, and his subordinates fought for power for several of his troops. The great power with 200,000 troops under his command had fallen apart. The Duiyi won over one of them and attacked the other troops. Our army's situation in the local army became increasingly difficult."

Li Yan didn't know this, he asked with confusion: "Are these all Nanyang countries?"

Zhou Xian nodded, "The Dutch Yi is far away from the other end of the ocean, and is a small country. However, relying on ocean shipping, it has developed rapidly. It currently has large merchant ships and more than 20,000 warships around the world. Its overseas colonies have hundreds of times more than its territory."

Li Yan said in confusion: "Land is territory, what is overseas colony?"

Zhou Xian explained to him: "According to geographical division, there are seven states in the world, called Asia, Europe, Africa, South America, North America, Antarctica and Oceania. Our location is convenient for Asia, South China Sea, Japan, and North Korea. Antarctica is an extremely cold place, covered with ice and snow all year round. It is sparsely populated during the day and half a year of night."

At this time, there was no concept of seven continents, and Oceania and Antarctica had not been discovered. However, in order to give Li Yan a general idea, Zhou Xian introduced this in advance.

Li Yan said: "Six years of daytime, half a year of night, really is there such a place?"

Zhou Xian nodded, "The world is so big, everything is strange. Brother Li reads a lot of books and should have heard of Kunlun slaves in the Tang Dynasty! They are as dark as ink, and their hometown is Africa. South America and North America are roughly the same color as ours, but they are primitive and backward, and their development is not as good as the Warring States Period in my country. Oceania is the closest continent to my country in the southeast of the South Yang Mada Blue Sultanate, but it is more than 4,800 miles away. It has a vast area and a sparse population. Its development is even more backward than that in the south and North America, with only a group of primitive tribes. Most of its areas are mainly deserts and most places are not suitable for cultivation. However, its mines are rich, especially the iron ore on the west coast of the Oceania continent. It has more iron ore than the entire Ming Dynasty, and its iron content is higher, making it easier to smel and make various iron tools."

Li Yan asked: "Is this Oceania big? Why haven't you heard of it before?"

Zhou Xian replied: "It's very big. If it is only considered to be the land within the Great Wall, it is even larger than the Ming Dynasty. However, the entire continent of Oceania is sparsely populated, and all of them are equivalent to the population of the Ming Dynasty."

Li Yan frowned slightly and nodded gently. "Then Europe is Heyi's hometown!"

Zhou Xian smiled and said, "Yes, Europe is full of white people, with high nose bridges, blue eyes, and different hairs. Although we call Du Yi red-haired ghosts, their hair is actually not only red, but also white, black, yellow, etc. The countries above the Ming Dynasty regard themselves as barbarian countries, but in fact these countries in Europe have surpassed the Ming Dynasty in many ways. For example, firearms, the various artillery they made are even more advanced than the Ming Dynasty. For example, sailing, they can sail tens of thousands of miles, come to the Ming Dynasty to preach and hunt treasures. For example, the ringing bells they made are complicated in the process and the advanced technology are no longer comparable to those of the Ming Dynasty craftsmen. For example, astronomy, geocentric theory, and celestialism also surpass most of the existing stargazers. And..."

Li Yan moved his body and said unnaturally: "Forget it, you are a little too arrogant to see these sages!"

Zhou Xian had not answered yet, and Gu Yanwu, who was sitting next to him, said: "Mr. Li, I didn't believe it before, but after reading the works they brought, I found that these Baiyi really have advantages. Now there is a pastor named Wells in Jinan College. As a master, he teaches some astronomy, medicine and some European situations. If Mr. Li has free time, he can date him, and I believe he will have some different feelings."
Chapter completed!