Zhao Yan and the others naturally didn't know the battle in Guangzhou, and Xu Yuan didn't know that the Luosha army under his command had been treated unfairly, so they did not rush to rush, but instead played in Hangzhou for a few more days, and then rushed to Quanzhou, another large seaport along the southern coast of the Song Dynasty. Speaking of which, Quanzhou's reputation in later generations may not be comparable to Guangzhou, but in the Song Dynasty, Quanzhou was the only harbor city in the Song Dynasty that could be compared with Guangzhou. Ships from south to north would be moored here. Zhao Yan saw many overseas merchants at Quanzhou Port. ←,

Although the natural scenery of Quanzhou is not as good as Hangzhou, it is even better than Hangzhou in terms of prosperity. Moreover, because of the harbor, the city has received many exotic feelings, such as fair-skinned Persian Hu women, tall and majestic temples of worship, and even Kunlun slaves with dark skin. Zhao Yan and the others are very curious about this, so they stayed for a few days before leaving reluctantly.

Not far from Quanzhou is Liuqiu Island, which is the foundation that Xu Yuan built after working hard for many years. It just so happened that Zhao Yan also attached great importance to this later Taiwan island. Therefore, after leaving Quanzhou, they did not go south to Guangzhou immediately, but took a boat to Liuqiu Island to inspect.

Xu Yuan was also very excited about returning to his hometown this time. After all, Liuqiu Island was built with a lot of effort. When he asked the Song Dynasty to entrust the island, the population of the island was nearly one million, the farmable fields were increasing every year, and the grain output was almost self-sufficiency, and he no longer had to rely on the supply of the mainland to survive.

Quanzhou and Liuqiu Island are only separated by a strait, which is the Taiwan Strait in later generations. However, now it should be called Liuqiu Strait. Zhao Yan and his ships left Quanzhou and sailed southeast. They soon saw the coastline of Liuqiu Island, and even some buildings on the beach. At this time, Xu Yuan introduced excitedly: "Third brother, Liuqiu Island is the most populous place near the Song Dynasty. Many people who immigrated from land settled here. When I left, many towns had formed here, and according to our navigation direction. What we saw in the distance should be a place called Ping'an Town."

Seeing that Xu Yuan even remembered the name of a small town very clearly, Zhao Yan and others looked at him in surprise, but it was not surprising to think about it. Before Xu Yuan came to Liuqiu Island, in addition to the natives, there were only some half-fishermen and pirate Han people on the island, and there were not many. Only when he occupied Liuqiu Island did he start to formally build this big island. It can be said that he was planning the entire island by himself, and it was normal to be familiar with it.

However, as Zhao Yan and his fleet approached Ping'an Town, Xu Yuan's brows gradually frowned. Zhao Yan and his friends did not notice this, because they were only concerned about looking at the scenery of Ping'an Town on the coast. They saw a small port built beside the town, with many large and small fishing boats moored. In addition, Zhao Yan was surprised to find that the scale of this Ping'an Town is not small. From a distance, the whole town's houses stretch for more than ten miles. This is not a town, it can be regarded as a county town.

"Xu Yuan, I didn't expect that you have achieved such a result in just a few years on Liuqiu Island. It's really rare to see just a small town with such a scale!" At this time, Su Shi looked at Ping'an Town and smiled at Xu Yuan beside him. He used to be a good friend of Luo Kong, so he naturally knew that Xu Yuan was the Luo Kong thing, but he knew that he knew, but he never told him about it. Even Su Che and Li Gonglin were tacitly aware of each other.

"No, how could Ping'an Town become like this?" But at this time, Xu Yuan said with a puzzled expression. He saw his eyes looking at Ping'an Town in front of him in surprise, as if he didn't know this place.

"What's wrong? Is there anything wrong here?" Zhao Yan also heard the conversation between Su Shi and Xu Yuan at this time, and asked immediately. In his opinion, everything in Ping'an Town was normal. Although it was a bit far away, you could vaguely see people coming and going on the dock. There were also many fishing boats fishing on the nearby sea. It looked similar to the fishing villages along the coast of the Song Dynasty, but Ping'an Town in front of him was bigger and more prosperous.

"No, it's a bit abnormal. When I left Liuqiu, I passed by Ping'an Town. At that time, it was just a small fishing village with less than 100 households. It was said to be a town, but it actually didn't look like a town at all. But it only took a few years to do so. How could Ping'an Town develop so fast? Look at the size of this town, it can be called a county town." Xu Yuan said with confusion at this time. It took only a few years to develop from a small fishing village to a county town. With his understanding of Liuqiu Island, it was really abnormal.

"What's so strange about this? I guess it should be that after Liuqiu Island was attached, local officials began to migrate people to the island, so it developed so quickly." Li Gonglin said first when he heard this. His guess was very reasonable. Zhao Yan and the others nodded after hearing this.

However, Xu Yuan still shook his head stubbornly and said, "Impossible. After I occupied Liuqiu Island, I tried my best to immigrate from the Song Dynasty. However, the local officials of the Song Dynasty had strict management of this aspect, and the people were not large and unwilling to leave their hometowns. Therefore, I have worked hard for many years and only moved hundreds of thousands of people. A considerable number of them were surrendered natives, which were not conspicuous on the entire island. However, according to the scale of Ping'an Town, the population on the island has increased too much."

Zhao Yan and the others also showed a meditative expression when they heard Xu Yuan's words. Among the Song Dynasty's assessment of local officials, one was the population of the people under their rule, so ordinary local officials were indeed unwilling to let the people under their rule lose them. Therefore, even if the Song Dynasty occupied Liuqiu Island, it would be impossible to migrate the people on a large scale. Moreover, if this is true, the court should know it, but Zhao Yan knew nothing about it, so there must be reasons why the population in Ping'an Town in front of them increased.

Zhao Yan also attaches great importance to Liuqiu Island, and even regards it as an important transit station on his island, otherwise he would not have come to watch it in person. Now the situation on Liuqiu Island is abnormal, so Zhao Yan cannot ignore it. He immediately directed the fleet to dock near Ping'an Town, and then sent people to ashore to indicate his identity and let local officials come to see him.

In fact, Zhao Yan didn't need to send people. People in Ping'an Town were very curious when they saw such a large fleet of Zhao Yan. Local officials immediately rushed to the dock, worried that they would encounter pirates or something. However, when they saw that it was an official ship from the Song Dynasty, they felt relieved. When the boat sent by Zhao Yan was docked, they immediately stepped forward to ask. When they found out that it was His Highness of Yue of the Song Dynasty, they immediately scared the officials, and then got on the boat and came to pay homage to Zhao Yan.

The official who boarded the boat was a middle-aged man in his forties. He probably was at the beach and his skin was darker. When Zhao Yan looked at his official uniform, he knew that the official in front of him was a county magistrate. In this way, Ping'an Town should have been promoted to a county-level administrative agency, otherwise there would be no county magistrate here.

Sure enough, after the middle-aged official got on the boat, he immediately bowed to Zhao Yan and said, "The lower-ranking official Ping'an County Magistrate Zhou Ju, pay homage to His Highness the King of Yue!"

"No need to be polite. Isn't this place called Ping'an Town? When will the town be changed to a county?" Zhao Yan first asked the other party to stand up, and then asked.

"Your Highness King Yue, this place was indeed called Ping'an Town a year ago. However, as the town became larger and larger, so Dong Zhizhou reported to the court and upgraded the town to a county. The subordinate officials were sent to Ping'an County as the county magistrate a year ago." Zhou Ju said respectfully. He was a Jinshi in the third year of Zhiping. When he was taking the exam in Beijing, he had been to the Academy of Sciences for a while, so he admired Zhao Yan very much.

Speaking of which, since Xu Yuan attached himself to the Song Dynasty, Liuqiu Island has officially become the territory of the Song Dynasty. Because the island is vast and sparsely populated, Liuqiu Island was directly classified as a Liuqiu State. It has seven or eight counties under its jurisdiction. The Dong Magistrate in Zhou Ju's mouth is probably the magistrate of Liuqiu State.

"But a few years ago, Ping'an Town was a small fishing village with less than 100 households, but now it has become a county. How is this possible?" Xu Yuan couldn't help but speak at this time. He was very curious about the changes in Ping'an Town, and he also wanted to know what had happened on Liuqiu Island in the past few years he left.

"This is..." Zhou Ju looked at Xu Yuan who was talking and asked in confusion.

"Oh, this is my brother-in-law, that is, the former master of your Liuqiuda Island, Xu Yuan, leader of the Rakshasa Army!" Zhao Yan introduced for them with a smile.

"It turns out that it is Xu's prince consort. The subordinates have long admired Daming. Speaking of which, Liu Qiu Dadao can achieve today, thanks to the son-in-law's merits!" Zhou Ju was an official in Liu Qiu, so he naturally heard of Xu Yuan's name. In fact, some of his Tongliao were Xu Yuan's former subordinates, so he had also heard of Xu Yuan's deeds.

Xu Yuan and Zhou Ju were polite and then asked anxiously: "Zhou Zhi County, why has Ping'an Town increased so much population?"

Seeing Xu Yuan so anxious to figure out this matter, Zhou Ju didn't say politely anymore. He immediately explained the reason for the explosion of the population in Ping'an County. There are two main reasons. The first reason is very simple, because a gold mine was found in a mountain southeast of Ping'an County. Although the scale of the gold mine was not large, it also attracted many people to come to mining. The mining promoted the economy of Ping'an County, causing a large number of people to settle here.
Chapter completed!