Chapter 112: 112. Navy Plan

chapter 112: 112. navy plan lie fan doing all of these things and silently a month passes by, the preparation for the night market is going well and the trial can be started anytime. yu yan visited a monk in the temple and asked for 2 auspicious days for lie fan's marriage, she was told that the 26 of the next month and the 6 the month after that were his auspicious days. yu yan informed lie fan of this and told him to immediately send his invitation to the guest he chose and announce it so everyone would know that lie fan would marry. fortunately, cai yong has drafted up the marriage announcement, it only needs to be copied and spread across xu province. the invitation has been drafted, only need the date of the wedding will be held. lie fan has entrusted jia xu with the wedding invitation, using oriole will be faster than ordinary envy as oriole's endurance is much higher, and trained mentally to be less fatigued. when the invitation was being sent, cai yong spread the announcement papers saying that lie fan would hold 2 weddings with separate dates to inform the people of xu province of this matrimony. the people of zu province were happy to hear that lie fan going to marry, they were talking about who are the 2 women lucky enough to catch lie fan's eyes. the nobles and merchants of xu province were boiling when they heard the news, they began to prepare gifts to be sent for people who were not invited, and for people who were invited other than preparing gifts also bought new clothes to be used on the wedding. ying yue and diao chan also began to be taught by yu yan, for them to always remember the three obedience and four virtues. she also told them to be patient and understanding when lie fan is busy, as he is the most powerful man in xu province. lie fan is also barred from meeting ying yue and diao chan before the wedding of yu yan, lie fan can only laugh in bitterness at being barred from meeting his future wife. as to the condition of ying yue and diao chan's family, some of their marriage steps were skipped. like the proposal and birth dates, lie fan thought that this would only hurt the feelings of the two women. even though in truth hua tuo can substitute for ying yue's father, he also thinks that it's troublesome as he thinks it's unnecessary. lie fan persuaded yu yan for some time before she agreed, lie fan also felt to not need a matchmaker as he already matched with his wife-to-be. as for the bride's wealth (betrothal gifts) and the wedding gifts, lie fan has ensured that the money he got from his business for almost 3 months of profits is included. now these 3 months of profits are not only from the xu province area, luoyang, and some parts of yan province and qing province but also sent their profits so it was a massive amount of money. the businesses he had in yan province and qing province were built by oriole members under his permission of course. they have begun to infiltrate these 2 neighboring provinces, so they need a safe house to hide which is why serenity inn and dragon's fang tavern were built beside from collecting money. due to being barred from meeting ying yue and diao chan, lie fan spent most of his time in his office where he either read reports or proposals from his subjects. mi zhu, chen deng, and wang lang requested to meet him when he was in his office, he allowed them to enter the room and ask why do they want to meet him. is there a problem with the night market project because they were always conducting something at this time. mi zhu: "no it's not like that my lord, we wanted to inform you that the night market project is ready to enter the trial phase and it can be done tonight. i wonder if my lord wants to inspect it personally with us?" lie fan: "that's great! i will go with the three of you, i want to see with my eyes if this project is successful with the amount of resources we have put into it. by the way, have the people been informed of the changes in curfew and about the night market being held?" mi zhu: "yes they have been informed my lord, this morning i have sent some of the messengers to put the announcement on the city board across xiapi." lie fan: "that's good, then let's meet at my residence and we inspect the night market together in my carriage." chen deng: "then master mi zhu and master wang lang can follow my lord, i will go and lead some city guards to supervise the security in the field to see what needs to be improved or changed." lie fan: "good initiative chen deng! then you can do that if you need any help the soldiers outside the city can also be used for this. xiapi city guards need a new training plan, master chen deng can also help inspect their combat skills, and if they are not up to the task, then i will assign chao bo or ze rong to become their temporary leader." chen deng agrees with lie fan's order, he promises to inspect it personally and will send the report to him. before mi zhu, wang lang, and chen deng leave lie fan's office, lie fan gives a reminder that the night market preparation has to be perfect as tho is their only chance to change something that was being held for centuries. a mistake and everything they had worked hard for a month would be gone in just a day or less, so he hoped that he see it work perfectly or just normally so they could have a chance to back their claim. mi zhu promised that everything would be perfect, he used the mi clan's influence to stabilize the other merchant's clans and make sure that no scamming or overpriced would happen. lie fan trusted mi zhu, but this was the young mi zhu and not the mi zhu who had served tao qian so lie fan promised mi zhu that if this could work perfectly then the endorsement he and his clan waiting for would be given to him immediately. mi zhu and his group left lie fan's office, lie fan continued his work approving or rejecting proposals that were submitted. lie fan feels his eyes tired, he never read this many words in his entire life in one day. lie fan works for 3 hours before he decides to stop, seeing that it's already noon he calls for a servant to bring him lunch. lie fan opened his book of knowledge while waiting for lunch, he decided to research the type of ship that was advanced but could be made in this era. han dynasty developed a ship design called a junk, which further evolved to represent one of the most successful ship designs in history. this design was later adopted by western countries, the dutch and portuguese around 1570. lie fan began to copy the most advanced design it had, he took seven designs from admiral zheng he's expedition from the largest to the smallest. zheng he can be called one of the most famous chinese navy admiral, he alone commanded seven naval expeditions sponsored by the ming government to establish a chinese presence and extend the tributary system to the maritime nations in southeast asia. while looking at the designs, his lunch was served by the servants. he put down the book of knowledge and ate his lunch first, he will need the energy when he begins to copy some of the designs. lie fan also takes note to begin hiring shipwrights and send them to huai'an, where it will become his dockyard hidden from the eyes of others. all of the ship's designs he copied were ocean-worthy, so his naval power in this era was unmatched at least in terms of ship endurance and capability. he took the treasure ship the ship used by admiral zheng he which would be used by commanders of his navy, horse ships for carrying tributes and repair materials, supply ships for supply, troops transport ships, fuchuan warship, patrol boats, and water tankers can hold fresh waters worth a month. 2 hours passed by after he finished copying every design, and he felt that his hand would fall off after doing all that. he will give time to let his shipwright experiment, for now, he can use the ships of this era as he does not need to expand to wu. lie fan called for jia xu and xun you, from all of his advisors he put these two on the highest level so he will always call them. jia xu and xun you were working in their offices when servants came and told them that lie fan ordered them to come to his office. jia xu and xun you come to his office, there lie fan tells liu pi to close his doors as this conversation is top secret. lie fan gives jia xu and xun you the ship's design and begins to speak. lie fan: "jia xu, xun you i have bought some ship designs from a traveling caravan in huai'an in the past. now that xu province is going on the right track, economically and logistically i think it's the right time to begin our plan to make huai'an our secret dockyard." jia xu: "my lord, i'm not a master at this kind of thing but just from the design i can see that it's very advanced and only a genius can make this. but, are you truly sure to begin our dockyard plan in advance?" lie fan: "of course, i have heard of rumors among the fishermen and ship captains that harbor in huai'an before that southeast of yang province (wu) there's a mysterious island. if our ships managed to be built, i was planning to send expeditions there and build a navy base there." xun you: "my lord is planning to make it a secret navy town, i think that's a feasible plan as we can train and build ships secretly there. that's if this island is truly there and not a myth among the fishermen and ship captain." lie fan: "xun you is truly keen on military matters, yes that's true a secret navy base there can help us attack yang province whenever we want. but the expedition will be sent when everything is 100% ready, medicines and logistics will be needed as we are exploring an unknown frontier where maybe there will be people living there." jia xu: "looks like my lord has already made a vision for the future of our navy, then i and xun you will help my lord to the best of our ability." lie fan nodded his head, he then ordered jia xu to send oriole members to contact and poach shipwrights from jing province and yang province. xun you were afraid that they would offend the newly appointed governor of jing province liu biao, while he is not afraid, the risk of their plan now is higher. jia xu's response to xun you says that liu biao's control over jing is still not absolute. oriole is trained to do this kind of thing, so xun you can rest assured that they will choose death over betrayal. jia xu assured lie fan that it could be done, but he needed time as their reach in jing province and yang province were very small with the concentration on yang and qing province right now. lie fan told him that he had given him 1 and a half years to do it, as more than that would set back some of their navy plans. [at: new chapter for today! ?? what does everyone think of the ships that i chose?] ________________________ name: lie fan title: yellow heaven subjugator age: 18 years old (186 ad) level: 14 next level: 412.000 renown: 185 cultivation: yin yang separation (level 1) sp: 711.700 attribute points str: 567 vit: 267 agi: 273 int: 294 chr: 93 wis: 249 will: 197 atr points: 0