Water Margin people

“How much spice does this take?”

Smelling the wafting fragrance, the merchants drooled. They were well-informed and had eaten all kinds of delicious food, but they were not so extravagant. Adding a little spice to the barbecue was the limit, but in Qi State, spices seemed to be free.

"Look, the spices are all scattered, all over the fire!"

Someone said with great sorrow that the reason why the aroma was so strong was because the spices were burned by fire, which completely stimulated the aroma.

"Where did they get all those spices? They cost a lot of money!"

A businessman said that spices are also expensive in the West.

"It should be from some place of origin! I heard that people in Qi love to use spices now, and the dishes they cook taste great!"

someone answered.

“If only we could be in the spice business!”

Some people have begun to suffer from hysteria.

The delicious barbecue was delivered to the ship. The sailors laughed and ate with relish. They had not eaten fresh meat for a long time.

For the sake of hygiene, there are no other animals on the ship except a few cats and dogs. The only meat they have is dried meat brought with them and fish caught from the sea.

……

Jerusalem.

"What did you say? Byzantium was defeated?"

Saladin looked at the person in front of him and asked in disbelief, although Byzantium was corrupt and incompetent, it was after all a descendant of the Roman Empire, and its foundation was still there. It was also the overlord of the Mediterranean, and now it has been defeated?

"According to those who escaped, more than 300 warships of the 80,000-man Byzantine navy were completely destroyed!"

The official spoke.

"Eighty thousand navy troops and more than three hundred warships?"

Saladin became even more unconvinced, wondering who in the Mediterranean could deal with such a large army.

"No, absolutely not!"

Saladin thought firmly in his heart.

"It is said to be an ironclad ship of Qi!"

The official spoke.

"Nonsense! Qi's ironclad ships are still in the Red Sea! Could it be that they grew wings and flew over there?"

Saladin spoke immediately.

"Who told you that nonsense? This man is dead! How dare he spread panic!"

Saladin glared.

"Sir, it was the Greeks who escaped who said that. I will let those people come up now!"

The official spoke immediately.

Soon several Greeks were brought up.

"Tell me, what did you see?"

the officer shouted as he looked at the Greeks kneeling on the ground in their ragged linen sailor suits.

"It's an ironclad ship! Qi's ironclad ship!"

"So many ironclad ships! So scary!"

"Poseidon, the god of the sea, doesn't even have such a guard!"

The Greeks talked at once.

"Do you all want to die? I want to hear the details!"

Saladin was furious, drew his scimitar and stepped forward, shouting.

Saladin has become very irritable recently, and he doesn't know why. He was not like this before. He was wise and rational. This is him, the sword of truth, Saladin.

"We are the escort ship of the Byzantine Navy. We follow them to Venice to exterminate the pagans. This is a holy war! The Third Holy War!"

A Greek was the first to react.

Saladin nodded slightly. Greece had declined and was now a vassal of Byzantium, so it was normal for it to serve as a follower ship.

"That day, we were following the fleet from a distance. We were at the back. Suddenly, the fleet ahead of us issued a warning. Then we saw the ironclad warship. It was a terrifying steel behemoth!"

"They were very fast and surrounded the fleet directly. No one dared to move. But after a while, the fleet began to break out, but they were all sunk. The ironclad ship was too scary. It could easily smash a ship!"

The Greek asked. "How did you survive?"

Saladin looked at the Greeks and asked, since they were surrounded by Qi, it was impossible for anyone to survive.

"We were at the back. We were outside when Qi surrounded us. We later fled to the islands near the Aegean Sea and took shelter. That's how we survived!"

The Greek explained.

"The ironclad ship really went to the Mediterranean? How is that possible! Did Qi find that route? Then why did Qi dig the canal?"

Saladin was a little confused, but he knew very well that Qi was serious about digging the canal.

“Is that road too difficult to walk on?”

Saladin had an idea. The Red Sea could not be connected to the Mediterranean Sea. The Arabs had also thought of a solution to this problem. Apart from digging a canal, they took a detour, starting from the Red Sea and heading south. However, no one had ever passed this route. Now it seems that Qi has succeeded.

"This... Qi State actually did it!"

Saladin couldn't believe it. It seemed that Qi could do everything. As long as they wanted to do it, there was nothing they couldn't succeed. This was unacceptable to him.

"Then why did you come here?"

Saladin looked at the Greeks and asked, since these people had fled to the Aegean Sea, which was equivalent to returning home, then why did they come to Jerusalem?

"A fleet of Qi State has gone to Byzantium and is heading for Constantinople! Qi State is definitely going to attack Byzantium. We can only come to Jerusalem to seek a way to survive."

The Greeks said that Byzantium and Qi had become completely hostile to each other and would definitely fight a war in the end. The result was obvious, Qi would win, and they would have no choice but to flee to the Arab Empire.

"The Qi fleet also went to Constantinople! How many ships?"

Saladin's face changed again and he asked quickly.

"About a dozen ships!"

The Greek replied.

"Only a dozen ships?"

Saladin frowned and thought, a dozen ships would not be enough to conquer a country as big as Byzantium.

……

Qi State, Liangshan City.

"Aqiu!"

Sun Lei sneezed loudly.

"Who is talking about me behind my back?"

Sun Lei looked at the scorching sun outside and said that he had been sneezing a lot in the past two days, and it was impossible for him to catch a cold in this sunny March season.

"Your Majesty, military report from the front line!"

An official walked quickly into the imperial study and handed over a military report.

The other officials all looked at the emperor; they were also concerned about the war on the front lines.

"Not bad, the fight went smoothly!"

Sun Lei looked at the military newspaper and laughed.

"The army officially started fighting the enemy yesterday morning. The 250,000 Crusaders from the West intended to win by using their numerical superiority. The navy used anti-ship guns to bombard the enemy, and the 200,000 enemies were wiped out... In this battle, our Qi State won a great victory."

Sun Lei looked at the officials and said.

"Your Majesty is victorious!"

All the officials shouted in unison that Qi had won another victory, and had killed 200,000 enemies in one go. This was a rare victory, even better than the Battle of Changping. After all, this battle was fought quickly and decisively, and the enemy's main force was destroyed in just half a day.

"Ha ha!"

Sun Lei accepted the officials' cheers with a smile.

"Let's announce the news of our victory to the world! Let everyone be happy!"

Sun Lei smiled and gave the order that since it was news of victory, it should be spread throughout the world as soon as possible to let everyone know that Qi had defeated the alien race and the army had once again expanded its territory ten thousand miles away.

After accepting the officials' congratulations, Sun Lei started to deal with the memorials on the table again.

After a while, Wen Huanzhang walked in.

"Your Majesty, this is the test question for this imperial examination!"

Wen Huanzhang handed over a memorial. (End of this chapter)