Chapter 16 Coconut Harbor On the second day, after Li Zhen left Wei Shuyu behind, he returned to the ship, and his inspection was about to officially begin.
Cheng Chuliang came up and reported: "Your Highness, the time is almost up, it's time for us to leave." ” "......" was in a bad mood yesterday by Li Mengling's incident, Li Zhen hadn't spoken all night, and after breakfast today, the sea breeze blew in the bow of the boat all morning, and the whole person exuded a breath of not messing with me.
Cheng Chuliang saw that the time was coming, and he didn't care about angering Li Zhen, so he hurriedly stepped forward to remind - of course, he also knew that Li Zhen couldn't be angry because of such a trivial matter.
"Let's go, then."
Li Zhen said expressionlessly.
"Yes......
Hey?
Your Highness, it seems that the King of Nanchang brought someone to see His Highness, should we go and meet them?
Cheng Chuliang was just about to give the order to set sail, when he saw a group of sedan chairs coming from the dock, and the first person was Li Xuan, the king of Nanchang, the assassin of Quanzhou.
Li Zhen said a little impatiently: "These red tapes are really troublesome, and we must carry out ritual reforms after we go back." ” "Forehead ......"
Cheng Chuliang didn't dare to accept it, etiquette reform?
This is moving the foundation of Confucianism, is His Highness going to war with Confucianism?
"Do we want to see them, then?"
Li Zhen sighed, thought for a while, and said: "You don't need to see it, there is nothing to say in this palace, you go and send them for this palace, and this palace will rest for a while." ” "Yes."
In fact, Li Zhen's handling of this is not in line with etiquette, after all, the prince is out on patrol, and it is etiquette for hundreds of officials to want to send it, and Li Zhen must at least meet him - but he is obviously in a bad mood now, and Cheng Chuliang did not dare to persuade him more, so he had to personally apologize to Li Xuan and others, which can be regarded as sending them away.
"Your Highness."
"All gone?"
Li Zhen asked while lying on the bed without opening her eyes.
"Yes."
"Let's go, then."
"Yes."
"Woo~" The fleet left the port, and soon formed a formation and entered the vast sea, Li Zhen didn't know how many people were watching him at this moment, and how many people were playing their own ideas, all he knew was that this trip to sea would definitely not be too calm - and he was ready to meet the storm.
Five days later......
"Your Highness, in one more hour, we will be at Coconut Harbor in Luzon."
Cheng Chuliang reported to Li Zhen.
"Luzon, it's been a long time since I've been here."
Relying on her strong psychological adjustment ability, Li Zhen had already adjusted her originally depressed mood, and when she heard that she was about to arrive in the Philippines, she couldn't help but recall the situation here.
The system of Luzon is different from other places, it is neither a colony nor a governor-general, and the system established here by the Tang Dynasty is the system of the Metropolitan Protectorate, which is biased towards the military, and the biggest manager here is not the Governor or the Metropolitan Governor, but the Metropolitan Protector, who has tens of thousands of elite soldiers in his hands.
And for the sake of Luzon's security, in addition to the Metropolitan Protectorate, another military force on Luzon Island is the Navy, although because of the Metropolitan Protectorate, so in order to avoid overlapping rights, there is no longer a naval district here, but there are also two fleet guardians, and although the nominal naval force belongs to the Metropolitan Protectorate, but in fact it also has considerable autonomy - the two fleets and the Metropolitan Protectorate have a clear division of labor and jointly maintain the stability of Luzon.
The reason why the Metropolitan Protectorate was chosen instead of the Governor-General's system was because the geographical location of Luzon was too important, the Yizhou Strait (Bass Strait) and Yizhou (Wanwan) were far away from each other in the north, the K Island was across the sea in the south, Borneo was in the southwest, the Pacific Ocean in the east, and the South China Sea in the west.
Isn't it just because this is the territory of Eagle Sauce?
If they want to control Southeast Asia, they can't get around Luzon, a bone that lies in their throats.
On the contrary, as long as they control Luzon, they can use it as a springboard to attack Southeast Asia.
Of course, such an important position must be treated with caution, and it is certainly not possible to hand it over to civilian officials who do not have a keen sense of smell in war, and it is more reassuring to hand it over to the military in person.
Coconut Port, which was later Manila, was the largest port in Luzon in the future, and of course the largest port in Luzon at this time.
Coconut Harbor is a natural excellent port, beautiful environment, suitable climate, there are only two seasons a year, the average temperature of the year is only about 28 degrees Celsius, very suitable for people's residence.
In addition, it is located in the middle of Luzon, so it is very close to both the south and the north, so you can react quickly if there is a problem.
When he was choosing a place for the Metropolitan Protectorate, Li Zhen fell in love with this place at a glance and placed the Metropolitan Protectorate here.
In fact, this is not the first landing place of the Tang Dynasty here, the place where Liu Renliang landed was located in the northern part of Luzon, and the first batch of merchants who came to Luzon to pan for gold also landed there, and even Rengang, the first port city in Luzon, was built there.
But later, some businessmen came to Coconut Port and found that the natural conditions here were better than those of Rengang, so they took root here, and then more people came here, and slowly gathered into a city - a large city with a population of 300,000, even if it is placed in the Tang Dynasty, it can be called a large city of scale.
After several years of development, it has become the largest city of the Tang Dynasty in Luzon, which can be called the crown jewel of the Tang Emperor.
Every year, countless merchants land here, transport all kinds of goods here or transport the local products here to Datang, earning a huge price difference, and a lucky ship needs to go on two trips, and the profits can basically be recovered.
This is the golden place in the mouth of the merchants, countless people with adventurous spirit come here to pan for gold, and even can see merchants from Western Europe or Africa here, countless people compete here, and jointly shape the prosperous situation of Coconut Port, just the port of Coconut Port, the annual number of ships docking is enough to tens of thousands, although it is not as good as Yuezhou, but it is almost the same as Quanzhou, and the annual tax paid is in the top five of Datang's overseas territories, second only to Fuchun Port and Malacca and other international waterways to bring benefits.