Under the candlelight, Fei Hu's eyes were fixed on the Xisha Islands on the map on the table.

  After the fierce battle of Ji Yang, the thirteen families of Donghai Alliance not only suffered heavy casualties, but their morale was also severely damaged.

  One side declines, the other rises. The Ninghai Town naval forces were not thoroughly defeated, and their morale was actually boosted. Gu Wu Dun's prestige greatly increased, his position stabilized. Ninghai Town's six naval camps commander Xiao Tao Yuan intentionally tried to curry favor with Gu Wu Dun, even though his relationship with Lin Xue was extremely bad. If the Xi Sha Islands are attacked again, Jun Shan Zhai may not stand idly by this time.

  That is to say, they will not have the opportunity to pull out this nail of Yongxing Island in a short time.

  Xisha Island is located inside the Yangtze River estuary, with Ninghai Town's Junshan Village adjacent to its west. Controlling Xisha Island would lock up the entrance of the Yangtze River. Although Junshan Village may not be a concern, Lin Rong's attitude is unusually strong and proactive. If Xisha Island were to fall completely under Lin Rong's control, it would be extremely painful for the Eastern Sea Army to enter or exit the Yangtze River in the future.

  Forcing the attack on Xi Sha Island would result in unbearable casualties; not attacking Xi Sha Island and entering Yangtze River, the rear route will be threatened. Being threatened by others is one thing, but with the rear route falling into Lin's hands, how can anyone feel at ease?

  "Whether it's the Zhoushan Islands or our side, we need to send someone to secretly investigate the situation on the Xisha Islands before we can rest assured..."

  Qin Zitan furrowed her brow, sending someone to sneak in would be easy, but the surrounding area of Xi Sha Island was over a hundred miles wide, and it was impossible for Lin Xie to guard every inch of it. However, under the current circumstances, it was difficult to have in-depth contact with the islanders, without contact, just using one's eyes was not enough to obtain accurate intelligence.

  In the prison island, many of the officials were local people from Jiangning. Lin Tie's control was even tighter, and they could still hear some news. Xisha Island, on the other hand, was like a dark and mysterious place shrouded in black fog, with no other forces able to penetrate it. Almost all contact between Xisha Island and the outside world was controlled by Jiyun Society, and the island's refugees rarely had any contact with outsiders. How could anyone else possibly hear any news?

  Qin Zitan thought that for now, she could only analyze the situation on Xisha Island from the news released through official channels of Chongzhou County. But would Lin Lian honestly report every single detail about Xisha Island to the local government of Chongzhou County? Qin Zitan didn't even need to think with her toes to know that Lin Lian was not such an honest person.

  Qin Zitan didn't mention the intelligence gathering, and instead changed the subject: "Lin Xie left Yun Wei and others on Xi Sha Island, but Hu's family, who directly controls the island's rural areas, is hard to see through... The Hu family was originally a small clan in Chongzhou, and Lin Xie only occasionally saved Hu Zhi Cheng in Jiangzhong. On the surface, it seems that he cannot directly intervene in Xi Sha Island affairs, and must use the Hu family to ease tensions with the local government of Chongzhou. However, the Hu family has little influence in Chongzhou and lacks resources. Wouldn't using Li Shuyi's Li family be more suitable? Lin Xie owes a debt of gratitude to the entire Li clan."

  "Perhaps it's easier for the Hu family to control..." Song Jia said, "Besides, Li Shuyi of the Li family is also an official directly responsible for registering refugees from Xi Sha Island in Chongzhou County."

  "This is where it gets hard to see through," Qin Zitan said, "Does Lin Xie have ambition or not?"

  Xue Fei's eyebrows furrowed deeply as he pondered the question Qin Zitan had raised, which also left him perplexed.

  Lin You has ambition, he can take advantage of Lin's family being in a precarious situation in Jiangning to seize power.

  Lin Jie himself was a Lin family member, with high prestige among the younger generation, and had the support of important Lin family figures such as Lin Mengde. During the Hong Ze Pu rebellion, he also had the opportunity to overthrow Lin Tingli without any restraint, and in Jiangning, the Lin family's main household were all orphans and widows, no one could rival him. With control over the Lin family and their private army, Gu Wu Chen couldn't exclude him while organizing the Dongyang militia. With his methods, the Lin family's wealth, and his connections and influence in Dongyang, given time, the Dongyang militia would naturally fall into his hands.

  At that time, no matter what his official position was, he had the qualification to wait for a price and sell.

  In comparison, for the small and weak Hu family from Chongzhou to control the refugees on Xi Sha Island in order to achieve his ambition is a road that is several times more difficult.

  Moreover, Xi Sha Island is located at the mouth of the Yangtze River. When the Eastern Sea Army recovers from their defeat in the bloody battle of Jianyang, they will inevitably attack Xi Sha Island.

  Not to mention the outcome of the next battle, even if Lin had a very strong confidence, who would lay the foundation for realizing his ambition in the most turbulent region with better options?

  Xue Feihu and Qin Zitan previously thought that Lin Xie would not withdraw from the Xi Sha Island, mainly to grasp this key point, assist Gu Wuduan in stabilizing the Jiangdong situation, and also believed that Lin Xie's personal ambition was mainly for advancement in his official career.

  Since Lin Xie to Jiangning, many things have happened, although not excluding private hearts, but mainly assisting Gu Wu Chen in Jiangning to stabilize his footing and grasp the initiative.

  If Lam Nhat does not withdraw from the Paracel Islands without any other thoughts, using Hu's family but not Li's family cannot be explained.

  Song Jia looked at the two men under the lamp, frowning and looking worried, and stood up with a stretch, saying: "Why can't Lin Wei have a stone that kills two birds? Are you sure you'll be able to take back the Xisha Islands smoothly in the future?"

  "Lin Xie has ambition, why would he let go of the opportunity to control the Lin clan?" asked Fei Hu.

  "A useless man would only think of infighting," Song Jia covered her red lips with her hand, blew a raspberry, and said with a charming and coquettish expression, "The Lin family's assets are so small, it's possible that Lin Xuan doesn't even care about them; when the Lin family retreated to Jiangning, if Lin Xuan had taken advantage of the situation and fought for power, wouldn't the result be better than now? I think you men have all been poisoned by the desire for power and only know how to scheme, and can only use your own narrow-mindedness to speculate about others... it's no wonder your eyes are not blindfolded. I won't bother you anymore, go ahead and get a headache, I'm going to sleep, I can barely hold on. Oh, by the way, in two days, Zhao Shuhan, the head of the Ministry of Punishment, will be lecturing on prison studies at the Bamboo Hall in Hekou, I want to go and join in the fun, will it be inconvenient?"

  He smiled wryly, now that Li Zhuo and Wang Xueshan had both sent people to keep an eye on this side, he was not happy to go out and move around. He nodded and said: "You want to go for a walk to clear your mind, then go." As he watched his wife leave, his gaze returned to the map.

  Xisha Island has no fertile land for settlement, and it is already difficult to accommodate one or two hundred thousand refugees, let alone have surplus wealth to support troops.

  According to the data reported by Chongzhou County to the Prefectural Government, after two major disasters and dispersals, the remaining population of Xisha Island was less than 10,000 people.

  This data is somewhat smaller compared to the intelligence they had previously obtained, but considering the undeveloped state of Woody Island, it would be extremely difficult to settle tens of thousands of people within two or three years. Lin Liguo really didn't have a need to conceal the population.

  At the height of the luxury family, there were more than two million people under control and nearly 100,000 soldiers; Lin Tie controlled a population of that size, with an army of only 1,000 being the limit. Even if he had ambitions, his ambitions were still too small compared to controlling the Lin clan.

  Qin Zitan held the candlestick and moved to the map, couldn't help but glance at Song Jia's back as she was about to leave; Song Jia seemed to have a feeling and turned her head back, saw Qin Zitan's eyes had already moved to the map, with a faint smile on his lips and left.

  **********

  Dispel the rank promotion to one level to from seven products Lang, Lin Fu himself did not have any feeling, in his view, the Great Yue Dynasty was windy and rainy, the big house was about to collapse, being an official of the Great Yue Dynasty really had no future. Although the rank is improved, the salary will be improved, but it is not equal to the official position and the actual power held.

  During this period, Lin was recuperating at the river mouth and had nothing special to do. He spent most of his free time hanging out with Zhao Shuhan, Ge Sixu, and others.

  After dinner, Lin Xie invited Zhao Shuhan and Ge Sixu to the thatched cottage to drink tea and discuss the manuscript under the copper oil lamp.

  Ge Fu and his son Ge Sijiu were writing the "Annotations on the Classic of Works"; Zhao Shuhan, after thoroughly losing hope in his official career, began to compile the magnificent and grandiose encyclopedia-style work "Zhao's Dictionary" under Lin Xiang's suggestion and support.

  In the past, scholars and officials considered it shameful to engage in practical production, viewing miscellaneous skills and crafts as strange or obscene. However, later generations, even a junior high school student, can say things like "technology is the primary productive force" and "the economic base determines the superstructure".

  Ly Th??ng Ki?t believed that the root cause of ??i Vi?t's inevitable downfall was not the external enemies, but rather the country's finances were on the verge of collapse, making it difficult to find a good strategy to recover.

  In the end, it all came down to "money". Lin Xie twisted the pages of his manuscript, lost in thought under the lamp.

  Lin Youyi deliberately rooted his foundation on Xi Sha Island, and he wasn't too worried about arousing other people's vigilance. The main reason was that the terrain of Xi Sha Island was open and flat, with no danger to defend against, and it was located at the forefront of the East Sea pirates' invasion. Anyone with a bit of ambition wouldn't set their sights on Xi Sha Island.

  Even without considering the restrictions of terrain and power conflicts, the area around Xisha Island is about 200,000 mu (approximately 13,333 hectares), with only about half of the land being arable for grain fields. Producing 200,000 dan (a unit of measurement) of grain per year would already be the limit.

  The Xie family was at its peak, controlling more than half of the counties in Eastern Min Prefecture, with a population of over two million people. When they mobilized nearly 100,000 troops, they were already on the verge of financial collapse and eventually had to accept surrender and retreat back to Jin'an Prefecture to rest and regroup.

  With Xi Sha Island's limited productivity, even if it is developed well, supporting 20,000 islanders and organizing more than a thousand militiamen would already be the limit.

  Lin Xie ordered Lin Mengde and Hu Zhiyong to strictly control the total number of new households and floating population on Xi Sha Island, finally reporting more than 2,100 households and a population of over 9,800 people. The local authorities in Chongzhou County, Hailing Prefecture, as well as the Jiangdong Xuanfu Si (a regional military commission) did not suspect this data. They could not have suspected it either, after all, considering that Xi Sha Island was still in an undeveloped state at the time, it would have been extremely difficult to settle more than 9,800 people within two or three years.

  Even if Lin Liguo accidentally reveals his ambition to control the Xisha Islands at this time, perhaps more people will only mock him for being arrogant and ignorant of economics.

  Lin Liguo knew that controlling the Paracel Islands was a great opportunity.

  The difference in production modes determined the fundamental gap in the population base and military organizational capabilities that can be supported on the same land.

  Since Chongzhou County's good fields can yield over 5 shi per mu, Lin Xian also has confidence in transforming the barren land of Xi Sha Island into good fields that yield 5 shi or even more per mu.

  The prison island raised pigs in pens to fertilize the vegetable gardens, and the vegetables produced were much better than those from the surrounding good fields.

  More efficient and larger-scale manual workshops than traditional handicraft workshops can accommodate more surplus population and produce more surplus wealth.

  He adopted a large spinning wheel on the prison island that was operated by six or seven people together to spin cotton yarn, with each person's spinning quantity increased by more than four times compared to before.

  Before, Lin Zexu used Dongji Island as his experimental field. Now that he has the Xisha Islands, all the farming and production organization models that have been tested on Dongji Island can be vigorously promoted there.

  However, the knowledge grasped by Lin Xiangru's later generations was seriously disconnected from the handicraft production techniques of his time.

  Later generations were accustomed to using bolts for fixing and assembling objects. According to Lin's requirements, the craftsmen on the prison island could also make usable bolts, but making one bolt required a skilled craftsman to work day and night for seven or eight days, at an astonishingly high cost.

  Lin tied finally just put that bolt on the desk as a handicraft to appreciate, and never mentioned the matter of the bolt again.

  Based on this, Lin Xie was even more eager to have a comprehensive and thorough understanding of the handicraft production techniques and technologies of his time, so he asked Zhao Shuhan to compile "Jiangdian".

  Zhao Shuhan's learning and knowledge were superior to those of ordinary people. Moreover, Jiangning was the southern capital of the empire, where culture and art converged and all kinds of artisans gathered, providing many conveniences for compiling "Jiangsu Craftsmanship Standards".

  Lin Xie also wanted to attract more skilled craftsmen to participate in the compilation of "Jiangdian" by publicly promoting miscellaneous skills and techniques at the river mouth, and recruit some craftsmen to directly enter the workshop set up by Jiyun Society at the river mouth, and then transport them to Xiasha Island.

  Lin Tingxun did one thing that benefited the Lin family before his death, which was to run a free school and provide financial assistance to the Lin family and the children of Shanglinli to study. The purpose was very simple, it was to cultivate clerks and accountants who could read and write for the Lin's warehouse, and some talented young people were also trained with the goal of taking imperial examinations.

  The Gu family has declined for ten years, and the younger generation is almost useless. The young sons of the Lin family can easily hold their own against any opponent. This is also a key reason why Gu Wudu cannot help but rely on the Lin family.

  After the Lin family withdrew to the river mouth, Lin Xie took the initiative to take on the responsibility of running a free school. The purpose was also very simple, in addition to recognizing characters and arithmetic, basic miscellaneous studies were added.

  ***************

  P.S: Looking for red envelopes.