The Three Kingdoms Voyage

Chapter 127 Set sail and pull the tiger skin as the banner
Cheng Jun, a Panyu sea merchant, took the ship pass, left the Naval Office, and looked back at the waters to the north.There are dots of sail shadows on the wide water surface, and the floating light jumps into gold. People in a hurry get on and off the boat, which is a busy scene.But what he looked at was not these. He looked at Panyu City, which was so far away that he couldn't see it at all. There was his family and his newborn son there.He travels between Panyu and Xuwen to do business, and every time he goes to sea, he feels that he may not be able to return, but for his livelihood and for the sake of his family, he has no choice but to go to sea without hesitation.

Not for anything else, just because the barbarians in Xuwen are cheaper than those in Panyu.

Xuwen is a county at the southernmost tip of Hepu County. It is adjacent to the sea and faces Zhuya across the sea.After passing Xuwen, the number of pirates increased suddenly, and the risk increased dramatically. Therefore, many barbarian merchants chose to trade in Xuwen for insurance, and after the pirates robbed the passing ships, some unusable or inexhaustible goods also chose to trade in Xuwen. In the Xuwen transaction, Xuwen has become a well-known market, known for its complex sources of goods and cheap prices, which is not far behind Panyu City and Jiaozhi City.

Cheng Jun took the risk of going to Xuwen just for the price difference, and running once or twice a year can keep his family fed and well-fed.Many people in Panyu City are engaged in this business. Of course, the profit is huge, and the risk is also high. Maybe one day you will encounter pirates, and you will be miserable. At least, the goods will be robbed, and at worst, even people will be robbed and sold. Many, as long as they don't resist, pirates generally don't kill people, and they are usually sold far away as slaves.

Cheng Jun has been running on this road for ten years and was robbed three times. Fortunately, none of them were life-threatening.Every time he goes to sea, it is a farewell between life and death for him.

He touched the bronze pendant on his chest. It was just begged by his wife from the Temple of the Goddess of the Sea, which is the most popular temple in Panyu City. The image of the Goddess of the Sea was engraved on it, and it cost [-] yuan. for a whole month.

Goddess of the Sea God bless me, bless me to return safely, and to see my wife and son.Cheng Jun carefully put the copper pendant back into his arms, walked down the stone steps made of bluestone slabs, and walked to the pier. Just as he was about to board the boat, a tall and strong young man cupped his hands at him, very politely Asked: "May I ask, are you a Panyu businessman who went to sea?"

Cheng Jun didn't answer, but looked at this person carefully.This person is not like a local. Although he has a kind smile on his face, he has a dangerous aura about him.Cheng Jun knew that there were many pirate spies here in Tuen Mun Mountain, and they would check in advance which ships were valuable, and then notify their accomplices at sea to attack.

He felt that the man in front of him looked a bit like him, because he had a daunting murderous aura about him.

"Hehehe..." The man saw his worry, and opened his collar, revealing the brown singlet underneath.Cheng Jun was taken aback. This is the costume only worn by the Jiaozhou Navy. How could it be on this person?Just as he was wondering, the man handed over another bamboo talisman: "I am the Jiaozhou navy under General Henghai Sun Jun, and I am ordered by General Sun to go out to escort the sea."

"Escort at sea?" After Cheng Jun carefully checked the bamboo talisman, although he had no doubts about the identity of this naval officer named Zhao Xiu, he still didn't know what an escort was. Could it be protection along the way?Cheng Jun felt that his idea was ridiculous. The navy only collected money and protected the people in the government. When will they come to protect the merchants.

"Yes, we have a team of warships that will go out to sea with you and escort you all the way to Xuwen." Zhao Xiu smiled gently, put away his badges, and then smiled again: "Because there is a certain fee, the general is afraid that it will be too late." You can’t afford more, so you need to gather a few caravans to go to sea together, so that you can pay less money.”

Cheng Jun curled his lips, but he believed it. This is not an escort, but another scrape.Although he didn't want to, he didn't dare to offend the sailors. Otherwise, the pirates might not be able to meet them, but the sailors would definitely wait for you.He bared his teeth in pain: "How much does it cost?"

Zhao Xiu smiled faintly: "Based on the size and quantity of the boats, each boat below [-] shi is [-] yuan, each boat from [-] shi to [-] shi is [-] yuan, and each boat above [-] shi is worth [-] yuan. Five hundred dollars."

Cheng Jun was a little bit reluctant, but he didn't dare to disobey, calculated in his heart, and took the money chain from his entourage Cheng Yuan: "I have three boats in total, two for 250 shi, and one for 350 shi. It's one thousand and one hundred dollars. This is the receipt for the tax payment just now, you can have a look at it."

Zhao Xiu took the receipt and looked at it. It was a certificate issued by Shuiguan, so there would be no problem.Sure enough, one is 350 shi and two are 250 shi.He returned the receipt to Cheng Jun, but did not take his money.Cheng Jun looked at him in surprise, and Zhao Xiu smiled: "We will collect money after we reach Xuwen safely. If we encounter pirates on the way and we cannot complete the task, we will not collect any money."

Cheng Jun wondered if he heard it wrong, and really wanted to escort him to Xuwen?If it is true, then the thousand and one hundred dollars is really worth it.

"If you want, let's go quickly. We already have more than 300 boats. If we didn't see you just now, we have already set off." Zhao Xiu said with a smile, turning around and leading Cheng Jun forward.

Cheng Jun and Cheng Yuan glanced at each other, both felt that they were very lucky, and hurriedly followed.While they were hesitating for a while, Zhao Xiu had already boarded a small warship with only ten soldiers on board. As soon as Zhao Xiu got on board, they untied the cables and rowed to the open sea. Zhao Xiu waved his hand: "You guys Come on, our fleet is not far ahead."

Cheng Jun didn't dare to be negligent, and immediately returned to his boat, followed closely, and walked a short distance, which was about five miles away. In a hidden bay, more than 300 boats were ready to go, seven or eight The medium-sized warships were parked somewhere outside the port, and there were no battle flags on them, but from the standard of the ships, it could be seen that these were indeed warships of the Jiaozhou Navy.

"Zhengping?" A familiar voice came from a boat opposite.Cheng Jun followed the sound and saw that it was his old friend Ouyang Fu.Ouyang Fu is also a businessman in Panyu, but his family business is bigger than Cheng Jun's. They have had some business contacts and have a good relationship.

"Brother Yuan Zhong is here?" Cheng Jun was very surprised, and hurriedly asked the boat to pull over, and jumped on Ouyang Fu's boat to say hello.

"Yes, I've been waiting here for a whole day." Ouyang Fu took him by the hand, took him into the boat, and said with a smile, "Are you going to sea too?"

"That's not true." Cheng Jun looked around and found several familiar faces. He greeted them and asked, "You also invited that General Sun to escort you?"

"Guard the ass." Ouyang Fu glanced around, lowered his voice, and said disdainfully: "It's not like you don't know that General Henghai only has fifteen ships under his command, and he can deal with small groups of pirates just fine. If we really have to deal with the bigger ones, he simply doesn’t have enough food for others. If it wasn’t for the fear that he would make trouble and only collect money when we reach the destination, I would have ignored him, and it would have wasted my day.”

Cheng Jun smiled and said: "Brother Yuan Zhong, your Ouyang family is a big merchant in Panyu, do you know who this General Henghai is?"

"You don't know?" Ouyang Fu smiled a little smugly: "His background is not small. He is the son of the rebellious general Sun Quan, the most respected son, and the serious Sun family. But Well, his status as a prince is a bit embarrassing, that's why he was driven to the South China Sea. The majestic General Henghai has only fifteen boats under his command, so he can't get along. He wants to scrape some oil on our heads. You see "He waved his hand, pointing to more than 300 ships of all sizes in the harbor, and said, "This trip, once in a while, in just over a month, he can get twenty or thirty gold from us, That's not counting the expenses on the way. It's smart enough to use the water master to earn money for yourself?"

"Is there any expenses on the way?" Cheng Jun's eyelids twitched.

"Of course there is." Ouyang Fu smiled and said, "The food and drink of the hundreds of people under him all fall on our heads. Of course, Zhengping, don't worry, he doesn't like your boats. Then our ships will pay more."

Only then did Cheng Jun heave a sigh of relief, it would be better if he didn't like it, otherwise it would be really uncomfortable.

"But then again, if he didn't ask for money around corners, I'd be willing to spend the money." Ouyang Fu clapped his hands and said disapprovingly: "It's not bad for us to do business safely. How much money, do you think so?"

"That's that, that's when Brother Yuan Zhong cared about the money." Cheng Jun echoed.

"Everyone, we are leaving soon. Please leave the port one by one." Zhao Xiu stood at the bow of the boat and smiled loudly at Ouyang Fu and Cheng Jun: "So you know each other."

Ouyang Fu hastily returned the gift. He has fifty ships this time, and he is the richest among these people, so he became the leader of course. Zhao Xiu spread the news to all the merchant ships through him, and it is also true for him. Be extra polite.

"Ouyang Jun, for everyone's safety, we are going to change the flag later, please tell everyone, don't panic. The general will never break his promise to you. If you don't reach Xu Wen, you won't get a cent."

Ouyang Fu smiled: "It's okay, it's okay, the general is willing to escort us, we are very grateful, this amount of money is really not a respect, if it wasn't for the general's insistence on not taking it, how would we dare to take this money?" humiliate the general."

"Hahaha, Ouyang Jun was joking." Zhao Xiu turned the bow of the boat with a smile and waved away.Ouyang Fu kept smiling sincerely, until Zhao Xiu walked away, the smile on his face turned into contempt, he spat in the river with disdain, and ordered people to spread what Zhao Xiu said to all the boats.Not long after, more than 300 merchant ships slowly sailed out of the harbor, lined up in an irregular line, and headed west along the coastline.

Cheng Jun looked at the warship in the distance, and sure enough, it had been replaced with a pirate's battle flag. He looked it over carefully, and suddenly smiled: "Brother Yuanzhong, this General Henghai is interesting."

"Why is it interesting?" Ouyang Fu answered absently, raised his head and looked at Cheng Jun's fingers, and smiled: "Well, it's interesting, he actually used the tiger skin of the reminder to scare people, and he is a bit smart. Once this flag is hoisted, a ship of pirates really dare not come looking for trouble."

The smile in Cheng Jun's eyes became more and more intense, he turned his head to look at Ouyang Fu: "Brother Yuan Zhong, maybe we can really go to Xu Wen safely this time, the money is well spent."

"It's worth it." Ouyang Fu also clapped his hands and sighed: "With this flag, other than the sign himself, ordinary pirates would not dare to come, maybe even the subordinates of the sign would not dare to do it."

"This man is a bit smart." Cheng Jun touched the copper pendant on his chest again, and his nervous mood relaxed a lot.With the sailor escort with the pirate flag, the safety is greatly increased. Although it is impossible to escape the death sign, but without them, there is no way to escape when the death sign is encountered. When the time comes, they will still pay according to the old rules. That's it, the fact that the navy risked pirates has nothing to do with them.

There are quite a few people who hold this idea. They didn't have much confidence in the dozen or so naval warships, but once the pirate flag was hoisted, they felt much safer. That is much more deterrent than the Jiaozhou Navy.

"Brother Yuan Zhong, don't you want to talk to this General Sun?" Cheng Jun suggested: "I think this person is much better than Shi Wei who only knows how to blackmail us, and there may be more opportunities for cooperation in the future. "

Ouyang Fu hesitated for a moment, shook his head and said, "I'm tired and want to take a rest. If you are interested in Zhengping, you might as well go and have a look and tell me when you come back. I heard that General Sun is young and knowledgeable. But he is quite popular, and he has no prejudice against businessmen, and many people in Yishi know him."

Cheng Jun didn't force it. He knew that Ouyang's family was not a small family like him. When the situation was unclear, he would not take the initiative to set up a line with the Sun's family and offend the Shi's family for nothing, let alone a Sun's family who was in an embarrassing situation.And he didn't want to miss the opportunity, so he was allowed to take the lead.

"Then I'll go and see it." Cheng Jun didn't force it, and returned to his ship, and asked people to drive the ship to the flagship with the pirate flag, and sent someone to pay tribute.Soon, Zhao Xiu came out of the cabin and cupped his hands modestly: "What advice does Mr. Cheng have?"

Cheng Jun pointed to some wine and food prepared on the boat behind him, and said with a smile: "Thank you generals for escorting us, I am very grateful. I came here to meet the generals, thank you in person, and send some wine and food to quench your thirst."

Zhao Xiu shook his head again and again: "I am very ashamed to trouble you to bear our daily expenses. We dare not accept Cheng Jun's gift. The general is planning military affairs and has no time to meet Cheng Jun. I will definitely forward Cheng Jun's kindness. Please ask Mr. Cheng to cross the boat when you have time."

Cheng Jun hit a soft nail and had no choice but to return disgruntled.Zhao Xiu returned to the cabin, and Sun Shao, who was sitting around with everyone, glanced at him and said with a smile: "Those people still don't have confidence in us."

"Everything is difficult at the beginning." Zhao Xiu sat down and said calmly: "It is unprecedented for a navy to escort a merchant ship. It is normal for them to have doubts. General, will we continue to do this in the future?"

"Do you think this is good?" Sun Shao asked back, his eyes swept over everyone's faces.

Zhao Xiu thought for a while, and said cautiously: "The daily expenses are borne by the merchant ship. The amount of water and food we need to carry is greatly reduced, which can free up space for arrows and increase the speed. However, the navy Merchant ship escort, spread the word..."

"Have a bad reputation?"

"En." Zhao Xiu muffled in response, not daring to say more.Merchants are untouchables, sailors are officers and soldiers, officers and soldiers have always only collected taxes from untouchables, and there has never been such a saying as guards for untouchables, but Sun Shao is going to do business himself, and Zhao Xiu dare not speak in front of him.

Sun Shao also saw this mentality on the faces of other people, he smiled faintly, and did not discuss this issue any more, you told them that merchants are taxpayers, and the navy should escort merchants, this sentence is simply bullshit. Tanqin, right now is not the time to do ideological work, but to fight pirates and make meritorious service. Only by winning battles can one make meritorious service, gain trophies, and make money while training the team.He patted the nautical chart on the deck, and pointed at the entrance of the cliff: "The fleet will stop outside the entrance of the cliff to supply food and drink water, and that is where pirates are most rampant, so we will fight the first battle there. Everyone, I'm not Bole, so I don't know which of you is a thousand-mile horse, but I know that a real thousand-mile horse must run faster than a donkey. In this battle, I want to see who is the best horse and who is the donkey."

He selected 13 people from the elite of the Guan family. This time Bu Zhi gave him ten medium-sized warships, and he arranged a leader on each of them. Cultivate and select talents who are worthy of great use.

"Don't worry, general, we will live up to your expectations." Zhao Xiu and Cai Ping, another personal guard, said in unison.They were originally good at martial arts, and they were also familiar with water warfare. In the past few months, Shen Xuan taught them the art of war, and they often practiced formations together. They all felt that they were reborn, and their desire to fight was already strong. There is nothing not to be excited about.

"It is a good thing to have fighting spirit, but you have to be clear that the sea here is not a big river. Compared with the sea, a big river is similar to a small river ditch. Qingxu Navy is used to Surabaya and Huai River, and when it comes to the big river, my Jiangdong Navy is beaten The nose is blue and the eyes are swollen, and if the Jiangdong navy comes here, I am afraid that the combat power will be greatly reduced. Everyone, be careful, it is not easy to train the most powerful navy in the world, I hope everyone will have a good understanding of this Enough mental preparation."

Everyone looked at each other and agreed in unison: "Here."

"Okay, on the voyage from here to Yamenkou, Zhao Xiu will be the flagship, and Cai Ping will be the flagship for the next section. They will take turns in charge of military affairs. Everyone, please be careful. Opportunities are always given to those who are prepared."

Everyone promised again, then went out of the cabin and returned to their respective boats.

The journey was uneventful, and a few small pirates appeared in the distance, but when they rushed to the side excitedly, they were very disappointed when they saw the pirate flag flying high.Generally speaking, pirates don't easily meet people of the same kind, unless there is an enmity between the two sides, but if the disparity in strength is too great, and the prey is very attractive, it is not ruled out that there are people who want to cheat, at least they have to meet each other to get some light .So some people obviously saw that there were fellow ships here who attacked first, but when they saw so many ships in such a mighty state, but the strength of the fellow ships was not very good, they couldn't help being jealous and wanted to share a piece of the action, but when they finally found out that this group of fellow ships Although there were not many of them, they were under the commanding sign with a very vicious reputation. After weighing their own strength, they left obediently.

The peace of the road dispelled the merchants' last doubts. According to this trend, as long as they didn't encounter the reminder himself, they could reach Xuwen safely.

The next afternoon, when the fleet arrived at Yamen, Sun Shao informed the merchant ship to rest at Yamen today, replenish food and fresh water, and set off early tomorrow morning.After Ouyang Fu and others got the news, they went to make arrangements.In the evening, the fleet entered the gate of the cliff and got off the anchorage to tie the cables. Sun Shao took Shuai Zeng, Ao Lei and others ashore, and went straight to the official residence of the Jiaozhou Navy here.

(End of this chapter)