Water Margin people

Chapter 1446 Abnormal Ship

"Prefect Huang, this place has been governed by us barbarians since its establishment. The emperor of the previous dynasty never intervened. Why does the government have to intervene today?"

A curly-haired foreigner looked at Huang Zhongfu and asked, they have already asked everyone to register, and those who are inconvenient to register have been sent overseas, so why is the government still so aggressive?

"Snapped!"

A loud whipping sound was heard, and Deng Fei swung the whip in his hand directly, hitting the foreigner hard in the face.

"You miss the previous dynasty so much, do you want to rebel?"

Deng Fei looked at the foreigner viciously, his blood-red eyes full of murderous intent, like a man-eating evil ghost.

All the Tibetans were shocked. Most of the Tibetans have religious beliefs. In all religions, red eyes mean bad things such as demons, ghosts, and evil spirits.

The fear of the Red Eyes was ingrained in the bones of these believers. No one dared to look Deng Fei in the eye. They all bowed their heads and silently recited the names of the gods they believed in.

"continue!"

Seeing that those people were scared, Deng Fei looked at Huang Zhongfu and said.

Huang Zhongfu also smiled helplessly. These barbarians were really cunning people. They could only use violence but not reason.

After Huang Zhongfu read out the official notice, he officially abolished the autonomy of the Fanfang and warned the Fan people that if they broke the law, their crime would be more severe.

After Huang Zhongfu and others left, the barbarians began to curse with gnashing teeth.

"Devil, devil, tyrant!"

However, the barbarians' ability to express themselves verbally is limited, and they only repeat a few meaningless words over and over again.

"Chief, are we really being oppressed by the barbarians?"

Several barbarians looked at the chieftain whose face was marked with a hideous bloody mark and asked.

"Of course not! Since these barbarians are unreasonable, let them see how terrible we Arabs are!"

The chieftain spoke in a low voice to the people around him, and they all nodded silently in understanding.

News of what the prefect did in the foreign quarters soon spread, which made the local people in Guangzhou celebrate. They had been fed up with these foreigners for a long time, but they could do nothing about them. Now that the government had taken action, those foreigners would no longer be able to act arrogantly.

Compared to the celebration of local people, the Tibetans were unusually silent, as if they had accepted their fate. The whole Tibetan quarter was quiet, but the shops were still open for business.

Deng Fei was boasting in front of the children in a vivid manner about how he could scare those curly-haired barbarians like quails with just a glare.

"Your Majesty, these Arabs should not dare to have any ulterior motives. After all, they also know about the Quanzhou incident."

Chai Jin looked at Sun Lei in confusion and asked, "We just killed a chicken to scare the monkeys, the Arabs should be very honest now."

"How can we use common sense to judge a group of people who only care about profit? You have to know that they have traveled thousands of miles away from home and have gone through a lot. They may look like merchants now, but they may actually be fierce bandits on the sea!"

Sun Lei shook his head and said that those who could go out to sea to make a living were not good people.

Everything remained normal for the next two days. On the third day, Huang Zhongfu received a document from Fanfang.

"Merchant ships requesting to dock? One hundred? So many?"

Huang Zhongfu looked at the document in his hand in surprise. All merchant ships entering and leaving Guangzhou Prefecture had to be registered in advance, and the ship's origins, cargo types and quantities had to be reported in advance.

However, it is still somewhat unusual to report a hundred large ships at one time. If ordinary merchants work together to trade, a few dozen ships are the maximum.

"Not only these one hundred ships, but there are also documents for dozens of ships! They will all dock in a few days."

Zhai Hui, who was in his fifties with some gray hair, spoke.

Zhai Hui was a famous official in Guangzhou Prefecture. He passed the imperial examination and served as an official in Tokyo. Later, he could not stand the treacherous officials in power, so he resigned and returned to his hometown, living in Dongguan.

When Huang Zhongfu first came to Guangzhou, he was short of manpower, so he searched for learned people in the local area, and Zhai Hui was chosen by him, but it was not easy to invite him out. "Aren't there two hundred ships in total?"

Huang Zhongfu frowned even more tightly.

"More than that. According to a rough estimate, there will be more than 300 ships arriving at the port in five days!"

Zhai Hui spoke.

"so much?"

Huang Zhongfu realized that something was wrong. The sudden arrival of so many merchant ships must be a problem.

"What do you think?"

Huang Zhongfu looked at Zhai Hui and asked, the gentleman in front of him was also very knowledgeable. Dongguan was close to the coast, and the Zhai family was a wealthy local family, and they also had sources of information among the people.

"There is something wrong with these ships! The excuse of these merchant ships is that your Majesty came to Guangzhou and made the local business extremely prosperous. The goods are in short supply, so they transferred a large amount of goods to fill the market gap."

"Your Majesty's arrival has made Guangzhou prosperous, but it's a bit too much to say that the supply is insufficient to meet the demand. Merchants from other places will have to wait until at least next month to come here."

"Besides, there is always enough cargo in Guangzhou Port. Even if there are many merchants coming, there is no need to worry about supply and demand. There is no need to transfer so much cargo at once. What if it cannot be sold? Merchants will not hold back goods!"

"And the most important point is, Your Majesty has only been here for a few days, how come they have shipped so many goods? The goods in Guangzhou Port are mainly elephants, rhinos, tortoises, pearls, glass, agate, exotic incense, pepper, etc. Most of these must be shipped from India."

"Your Majesty has only been here for a few days, and the news has only just been passed on, and their 300 ships of goods have already been loaded and shipped? The only places that can ship goods in such a short time are the Ly Dynasty and Champa."

Zhai Hui spoke in a deep voice.

"Hmm? That makes sense!"

Huang Zhongfu nodded, Zhai Hui’s analysis made a lot of sense.

"Allow these ships to enter the port!"

Huang Zhongfu finally signed his name on the document and stamped it with the official seal.

"Sir, knowing that there is a problem, why do you let them enter the port? His Majesty is in the city, we should give priority to His Majesty!"

Zhai Hui hurriedly said that he had analyzed the matter so clearly, why did Huang Zhongfu still insist on going his own way? This was very risky. If the emperor made a mistake, the whole Guangzhou would be buried with him.

"Don't worry, everything is under control!"

Huang Zhongfu smiled.

"The prefect has known about this for a long time?"

Zhai Hui looked at Huang Zhongfu with some surprise. He had just delivered the news, so how come Huang Zhongfu was already prepared?

"How would I know? Your Majesty has everything under control. Look at this!"

Huang Zhongfu took a piece of intelligence and handed it to Zhai Hui.

"What? The chieftain is here again? And there are tens of thousands of people here?"

After Zhai Hui read the intelligence with confusion, his face was instantly filled with panic. There were only 2,000 garrison troops in Guangzhou Prefecture, and with the government servants, there were no more than 2,500 garrison troops. The navy brought by the Emperor had all gone out to sea to suppress pirates, and they would not be able to return within half a month. If tens of thousands of chieftains surrounded the city at this time, Guangzhou City would be in danger.

"Well, after being defeated last time, the chieftain was still unwilling to give up. This time he contacted the local tyrant Nong from Guangnan West Road, and this time he is coming with great force."

Huang Zhongfu said.

"Nongshi!"

Zhai Hui could not sit still anymore. The rebellion of Nong Zhigao had spread to more than a dozen prefectures and even established a Great Southern Kingdom. It was not until the arrival of the famous general Di Qing that the rebellion was put down.