The Three Kingdoms Voyage

Chapter 243 The Pirate Empire Doing Business with a Sword
The Prime Minister's Mansion is not far from Yue Wang's Palace. Yu Fan returned to the Prime Minister's Mansion and sat in the study, restless. After a cup of ginseng tea came in, he suddenly thought of the reason.

Why did Sun Shao leave Lu Ji behind?

Sun Shao has always treated him and Lu Ji equally, and most of the things are agreed with them, unless one of them is not around, leaving one person alone like today has never happened.Yu Fan couldn't help muttering in his heart, why did Sun Shao leave Lu Ji behind?
"A Weng?" Yu An yelled, and Yu Fan responded, and then he came back to his senses, let Yu An sit down, and told what happened just now.Yu An smiled: "There's nothing else to say, it must be something related to the duties of the Censor. A Weng, don't forget that the Censor is called the Deputy Prime Minister and assists the Prime Minister in handling affairs, but The most important duty of the imperial censor is to supervise the officials, including prime ministers like A Weng. Of course, A Weng should be avoided in such matters."

Yu Fan nodded, but he was a little uneasy. He took a sip of ginseng tea: "Shi Ping, what do you think he can report?"

"What else can there be?" Yu An raised his eyebrows, and the corners of his mouth twitched: "It must be the transaction between those few companies and Wei Wu. They thought it was a secret, but there is no impenetrable wall in the world. The king's men have secrets. Bing, how could you not even know these things?"

"No way, the account was checked twice last year, but no problem was found." Yu Fan was a little unwilling to believe Yu An's words, and retorted thoughtfully.But Yu An glanced at Yu Fan, and raised his eyelids: "Ah Weng, do you really believe that the fake accounts they made can be hidden from people?"

Yu Fan didn't say anything, but his face was a little ugly.Yu Fan has been an official for many years, and he is very clear about those twists and turns. In the past, when he encountered such a situation, he would definitely scold him without saying a word. Now he is still like this. He got angry, and if he really wanted him to report to Sun Shao, he would inevitably have some concerns, so he dealt with some small things by himself, and some big ones, he also privately ordered those responsible to wipe their butts clean immediately, and try not to be discovered by Lu Ji.Fortunately, Lu Ji is a bit bookish, knowledge is good, but his political experience is limited, he is not very clear about those private activities, and these things have never been exposed.

But Yu Fan knew that it was easy to hide these things from Lu Ji, but it was not easy to hide them from Lu Shan. How could that little girl who is so powerful in mental arithmetic find problems from irrelevant accounts, so how could she miss so many clues?What's more, in addition to Lu Shan, there are also Sun Shao's secret soldiers.

"This...isn't that serious?"

Yu An didn't say a word, he knew that his father didn't know how powerful he was, but he was involved in too many interests, and he couldn't extricate himself from it.The Yu family is now the fastest-growing family in Yue County. His elder brother Yu Ying is currently in charge of the Donghai Shipyard, and his second brother Yu Ge is Nanhai Captain. It is said that he will soon be transferred to Yizhou Captain. As an assistant by my father's side, I think his official career will be smooth sailing in the future. The Yu family can develop so fast, of course, has a lot to do with the support of those aristocratic families. It is simply impossible to accomplish such a task.

"Ah Weng, Your Majesty is a good king who advises you well, but you are also a shrewd King. Don't underestimate him just because he is young." Yu An sincerely advised, "The embankment of a thousand miles was destroyed by an ant nest. , Those people are too greedy, and sooner or later they will drag you into the abyss. During the trip to Zhuya, didn’t Ah Weng feel the King’s displeasure? Seeing the details, Ah Weng, this is the essence of Yi Xue.”

Yu Fan's hand holding the cup trembled in the air, and his eyes were obviously flustered. He sat quietly for a long time before silently nodding his head.Yu An breathed a sigh of relief, stopped disturbing Yu Fan's thinking, got up and walked out quietly.Standing on the porch, he looked at the bright sunshine and showed a relaxed smile.Yu Fan, who has always had a rough official career, became the prime minister of the Yue Kingdom. He was also happy with the prosperity of the Yu family, but he was very worried when he saw his father, who had always been straightforward, getting lost in power day by day. I was afraid that my father would make a wrong move and his reputation would be ruined.

"Shi Ping, is the prime minister there?" Lu Ji hurried in, and asked quickly when he saw Yu An standing in the corridor.Seeing him walking in a hurry, Yu An thought of Yu Fan's uneasiness, was startled, and hurried to the steps to meet him: "Grand Lu, what are you?"

"You're welcome, take me to see Yu Gong." Lu Ji waved his hand, and stepped up the steps in two steps at the same time. Yu An was surprised when he saw it. He had known Lu Ji for so long, and it was the first time for him to see it. This is how I walked to Lu Ji.

"Gong Xu, what's the matter?" Yu Fan who heard the voice came out of the room to greet him, and when he saw Lu Ji's appearance, he immediately twitched twice involuntarily, and immediately welcomed Lu Ji into the room without saying a word. He closed the door smoothly.

"Duke Yu, the king is going to kill someone." Lu Ji's first words made Yu Fan's hands tremble in fright, and he stood there for a long time without recovering.After Lu Ji told the story, Yu Fan had regained his composure, and his thick black sword eyebrows, which did not match his age, were twisted into a pimple, and his puzzled expression was undisguised: "What is the king thinking, since he is going to fight against Funan , why is it still necessary to suppress corruption at this time, doesn't he know that doing so will cause chaos?"

Lu Ji chuckled: "The internal affairs are uneasy, why can we conquer? The king needs to get rid of the internal cancer first, and then he can go out with peace of mind. Yu Gong, the two of us..." Lu Ji shook his head: "I am ashamed of my trust in the king. .”

Yu Fan stroked his beard in embarrassment, and lowered his head in shame.Sun Shao respected and trusted them very much, and he almost handed over all the internal affairs to them. Apart from firmly grasping the military power, he basically did not interfere with government affairs.His prime minister is the most powerful prime minister at present. Zhong Yao of Wei State, Zhuge Liang of Shu State, and Sun Shao of Wu State do not have such great power as him, but he failed Sun Shao's trust.

"Three gentlemen just sit and talk, the king did it, we didn't." Lu Ji sighed, "I have already blamed the king and resigned, and I will take all the responsibilities. Yugong, you can let go and do it. Don't have any more scruples, Otherwise, it will only be a matter of time before the story of the prime minister being suppressed repeats itself."

Yu Fan looked at Lu Ji in astonishment, rushed to Lu Ji in two steps, and held Lu Ji's hand in surprise: "Gong Xu, why... have you resigned?"

"For such a big matter, someone has to take the responsibility. I didn't like being in politics at first, so I resigned. I went to Zhuya College to study Yi." Lu Ji patted the back of Yu Fan's hand with his backhand, smiling a bit reluctantly: "Listen After leaving Zhuya College, a man named Li Ze ground out a big lens, which he set up on the top of Wuzhi Mountain, specially for stargazing. I see Lie Xinxi, and I’m going to see it first.”

"Then who will take over as Doctor Yushi?"

"I don't know." Lu Ji's eyes flickered for a moment, letting Yu Fan look away.Yu Fan nodded silently, retreated to his seat, and did not say another word.Lu Ji and him took office as Sangong, and now Lu Ji resigned and took all the responsibilities away, then he is safe for the time being, but if he doesn't rein in the precipice, then Lu Ji will be the next Lu Ji, think about Zhu Ya's sinking Xuan, Yu Fan's heart is heavy.

"I've been wronged." Yu Fan bowed respectfully.

"It's good to do it for yourself." Lu Ji smiled, stretched his arms, and made a relaxed expression: "I have no official status now, and I can study Yi with peace of mind, but you have to work harder, my lord. I have high hopes for you."

Yu Fan didn't smile, but nodded solemnly. After seeing off Lu Ji, he sat alone in the study for a whole night. The next morning, he wrote a letter to the King of Yue, asking the King of Yue to postpone the expedition, and first investigate the violations of laws and disciplines of the great families. of smudges.

There was an uproar in the country for a while.

Three days later, King Sun Shao of Yue issued a notice to the people. In his short article, he raised a question, that is, what is the role of the army?He said that the role of the army is to protect the life, safety and wealth of the people of the whole country. The country of Yue respects business and builds the country with business. Now the businessmen of the country of Yue are innocently killed by the people of Funan and their goods are taken away. This is against the country of Yue. Provocation is a blatant contempt for the soldiers of the Yue State. If there is no conquest, the merchants of the Yue State will be uneasy, the Yue State will be uneasy, and the big men will be uneasy.Then he changed the subject and said that the soldiers of the Yue State were defending the interests of the merchants with their own blood, the farmers were using their sweat to water the grain for the merchants to eat, and the craftsmen were using their wisdom and hard work to provide the merchants with a large amount of goods. A small group of businessmen indulged their greed, unscrupulously evaded taxes, evaded taxes, and sold various controlled materials privately.Although the number of such businessmen is very small, they have greatly hurt the enthusiasm of other people and the interests of other law-abiding businessmen. Such moths and black sheep should be condemned by the whole country and will not be tolerated.

This letter to the people quickly spread in the country of Yue, and everyone was arguing about who was doing this kind of thing that both people and gods were angry with. The status of businessmen in the country of Yue was the highest in history, and almost the entire country of Yue was surrounded by businessmen. In turn, the king still wants to do business with a sword, and he wants to crusade against Funan Kingdom for the sake of a few merchants, but why are these merchants still not satisfied?
Not only the craftsmen, farmers and soldiers, but even the merchants themselves couldn't help themselves. They all speculated and accused these lawbreakers of destroying the good situation. They were very afraid that Sun Shao would lose confidence in the merchants and thus give up the national policy of emphasizing commerce. Restore the old way of emphasizing agriculture and suppressing business. In that case, these businessmen will be miserable.So they are more urgent than others to find those moths.

For a while, Qiantang City and even the whole Yue Kingdom became lively.

General Zuo Cui Qian strode into the palace of the Yue Palace. As soon as Sun Shao's letter to the people was issued, they, the soldiers, received a lot of attention, which Cui Qian did not expect.In the past, soldiers had two functions, one was to deal with foreign enemies, but the other or the main one was to suppress the people internally, so soldiers were not good people in the eyes of the people, even more hateful than bandits, now Sun Shao emphasizes Mentioned the external role, clearly defined their responsibility as protecting the lives and property of the citizens, and declared that they wanted to seek justice for several businessmen killed by Funan Kingdom, which naturally aroused the favor of ordinary people, and those who originally The businessmen who enjoy the benefits of naval escorts are even more reassured. They were a little unwilling when they were originally stipulated to sell goods to soldiers and could only make a limited profit. Although they are still unwilling now, their psychological balance is much better. To protect himself, he should give them a little discount. These days, Cui Qian often encounters happy and cheap subordinates who come to him and ask for a fight, all of them seem to be beaten.

"Your Majesty." Cui Qian knelt down in front of Sun Shao from the bottom of his heart.

"Jianzhong, come here." Sun Shao, who was sitting in front of the case, beckoned, called Cui Qian to him, pointed to the map of the South China Sea on the case, and tapped his fingers on the location of Lin Yiguo: "Do you remember this place?"

"Remember." Cui Qian glanced at it and smiled. This was originally his sphere of influence and tax collection area. His first contribution under Sun Shao's command was also because he killed Ou Chu, the crown prince of Linyi Kingdom. How could he not remember.

"This time the Funan Kingdom invaded Rinan, Linyi Kingdom was the vanguard, and they clamored the most vigorously." Sun Shao patted the map and said with emotion: "I originally wanted to raise an army, but you have also seen that some people can't deal with it now. Well, if a minor illness is not cured, it will become terminally ill, and I want to nip this bad sign in the bud before they have formed a climate, so I can only leave the matter of the South China Sea to you first."

Hearing this, Cui Qian's eyes lit up, he took a step back, and prostrated himself on the ground: "I dare not obey your orders." After a while, he raised his head in doubt again: "Your Majesty, this minister...is not suitable. Bar?"

"Hahaha..." Sun Shao raised his finger and pointed at Cui Qian, "I said, you pirate leader, don't play tricks with me. If you are not suitable, I will not come to you. You can go at ease and let it go. Make the coasts of Linyi and Funan Kingdom as muddy as possible for me, I will make them regret it for the rest of their lives."

Cui Qian blinked his slender eyes, grinned, and smiled: "That's fine, since Your Majesty is not worried about other people's gossip, then I will be a pirate again. Your Majesty, if I do well this time, next time I go Xiyi can still let me be the vanguard."

"Get lost! Do you dare to negotiate terms with me?" Sun Shao stared, "If you don't want to go, I'll call Chen Hai and Yue Hai here now."

"Don't! Don't! Don't!" Cui Qian said repeatedly: "They are all serious sailors. I'm the best at this kind of pirate robbery. Well, I don't negotiate with the king. Anyway, the king has clear rewards and punishments. You won't treat me badly either. Your Majesty, when are you leaving?"

"The sooner the better." Sun Shao rubbed his chin and smiled sinisterly: "You go quietly, don't make too much publicity, first take the opportunity of training to move to the mouth of the sea, and then rush to the South China Sea. I will Wei Wenwen and Zhuge Zhi will also be allocated to you, there are about 8000 people, should it be enough?"

"It's enough, I obey." Cui Qian understood, discussed the details with Sun Shao, got up and left.

Sun Deng stood at the gate of the post house, looking at the bustling Qiantang street. Although the sun was shining brightly, his face was so overcast that water dripped out.Originally, he wanted to go to the South China Sea with Sun Shao to fight, but first, Sun Quan transferred Bu Zhi away from Jiaozhou, which cut him off. Now that Sun Shao is busy fighting corruption again, it seems impossible to go to war in a short while. , what should he do?Do you stay here and wait for Sun Shao to go with you, or go to Jiaozhou first?If Sun Shao doesn't leave, what's the use of him going to Jiaozhou alone?

Sun Deng was in a dilemma and in an awkward situation.He looked at the Yue Palace not far away, feeling somewhat regretful.He remembered that he had made a verbal agreement with Sun Shao that Wu Yue would not attack each other. Although Wu Yue did not start a war now, there were many open and covert fights, and the close relationship between him and Sun Shao also faded inadvertently.Thinking of Sun Shao's care for him when he was in Liaodong, Sun Deng missed him very much. He believed that if their relationship had not deteriorated, such a problem would definitely not have arisen, and even if it did, Sun Shao could help him solve it.

All because of Zhou Yu.Sun Deng secretly lamented that he had been paying attention to Zhou Yu's whereabouts these days. Everyone in the Zhou family often went in and out of the Yue Palace, but Zhou Yu had never been there. Sun Shao had not met her so far. There seemed to be a cold relationship between the two of them. It's a bit unimaginable.Sun Deng couldn't figure it out. Could it be that he was too sensitive and misunderstood Sun Shao?
"Shu Fa, do you have any news from Your Majesty?"

Xie Jing shook his head, hesitant to speak.Sun Quan seemed to have forgotten about Sun Deng's son. He neither ordered him to rush to Jiaozhou, nor ordered him to return to Jianye.

"Just say what you want to say, don't say half a sentence and leave half a sentence." Sun Deng suppressed his displeasure, turned his head and glanced at Xie Jing, Xie Jing's expression was not good, his eyes flickered, obviously he was hiding something from him.

"I... I heard that Mrs. Wang has appeared in front of the king several times recently." Xie Jing raised his head and looked at Sun Deng: "Mrs. There is only one son of the prince.”

Sun Deng's eyelids trembled, and he nodded: "What's so strange about this, the father is not in good health, and he will feel better when he sees his children in front of his knees." After a while, he seemed to feel that those words were convincing As if it wasn't enough, I added another sentence: "When I was in Jianye, my father often came to see me. It's nothing serious, just chatting."

Zhuge Ke came in from the outside, just in time to hear Sun Deng's last words, he glanced at Sun Deng, walked up to Sun Deng, stood still, and sighed softly: "Your Majesty's health seems to have improved a lot, and he recovered quickly. , It’s unimaginable. Prince, don’t take it lightly.”

"Yuan Xun, you think too much." Sun Deng's eyelids twitched, and he turned and entered the room: "Yuan Xun, come, tell me what you have seen."

"There are so many things to see." Zhuge Ke smiled wryly: "Prince, the speed at which the farmers were resettled is amazing. We underestimated the financial resources of the Yue Kingdom and their determination. won't go back."

"Yuan Xun, are you exaggerating?" Xie Jing smiled unnaturally.

"Exaggerated?" Zhuge Ke sneered: "I saw it with my own eyes, I didn't just stay in the city and speculate randomly. Shufa, why don't you go outside the city to have a look? As long as you see the small courtyard they built for those farmers , the grain stored in the small yard, you will know if I am exaggerating. I roughly calculated that the expenses of these farmers’ settlement can be worth their output for five years, that is to say, what did they go to Vietnam I didn't do it, I got a great benefit first, although I left my hometown, it is definitely better than living in my hometown, who would want to go?" He paused, sighed again, and pointed to the direction of the palace outside the door: "Prince, Shufa, have you seen such a palace? Have you seen such an official office? To be honest, it's no better than those small courtyards outside the city."

Sun Deng remained silent, and Xie Jing did not speak either.King Yue is the richest king among the four kings, but the palace of King Yue is the most shabby palace among the four. I am afraid that the Luoyang Palace rebuilt from the ruins is much better than him.Sun Deng couldn't understand why Sun Shao was so hard on himself. The most beautiful place in the world of the big man is the imperial palace, then the Sangong Mansion, and then the government offices at all levels. The greater the power, the more beautiful the house is. It seems natural, but the Yue Kingdom did the opposite. The Yue Palace is very simple, and the Prime Minister's Mansion and the Yushi Doctor's Mansion are slightly better, but they are not so good. In a word, the most beautiful ones in Qiantang City The house has absolutely nothing to do with the government office, and the main hall where Sun Shao lives can only be regarded as a middle-of-the-road in Qiantang City.

Emperor Xiaowen, who is known as the most frugal, is no more than this, right?Emperor Wen created the rule of Wenjing, why couldn't Sun Shao create a prosperous dynasty that belonged to him?Sun Deng remained silent. The more he thought about it, the more he regretted it. It was too impulsive and reckless to turn against Sun Shao for a woman.

"Yuan Xun, I want to meet the King of Yue." Sun Deng suddenly raised his head, and his calm face showed the bewilderment that should have been at his age: "Yuan Xun, I think...we can no longer be with the King of Yue like this We can't afford to wait until the stalemate continues."

Zhuge Ke shook his hands together, and he was a little flustered. His original ambition was slowly wiped out in front of the endless waiting.They originally wanted to discuss conditions with Sun Shao, but they didn't expect to see Sun Shao at all now, not only Sun Shao, they couldn't even see Prime Minister Yu Fan, so they could only listen to the old master Kong Zhu's lectures on morality, but how could this be? God is a head.

"Prince, I heard that the princess is in Feihuying. Would you... want to visit?"

Sun Deng was stunned for a moment, thought for a long time, and nodded: "Alright, I have heard the name of the Flying Tiger Camp for a long time, but I have not seen it with my own eyes, so let's open our eyes and see what the first female army in history is. What does it look like?"

Xie Jing smiled silently.Among the three of them, he is the oldest, and he has already passed that kind of youthful heart. The regretful expressions of Sun Deng and Zhuge Ke fell into his eyes, but he would not expose their self-deception. Moreover, Zhuge Ke is also a person with a strong personality, no matter whether it makes any of them lose face, it is not a good thing for him.

Seeing that there was no objection, Sun Deng, who had been waiting anxiously for a long time, seemed to have caught a straw, and immediately drove straight to Feihuying.Feihuying's barracks and Defengying's barracks were next to each other, close to Qiantang Wharf, and the barracks of General Yuehai were in charge of guarding the periphery.As soon as Sun Deng and the others arrived at the pier, they were stopped by Yue Hai's subordinates. A school captain with thick eyebrows, big eyes and a fierce face shook his eyebrows and bared his teeth at Xie Jing: "Prince Wu? Since it's Wu Guo Prince, what are you doing in the barracks without the people of Da Honglu Kong Gong? Do you want to spy on the military situation of my country of Yue?"

"No." Xie Jing hurriedly laughed along, and stuffed a handful of money from his sleeve: "My prince is the son of the fifth general of Feihuying, and he came here to observe the heroic appearance of Feihuying."

Before he finished speaking, the captain's face changed, he raised his hand and knocked the money in Xie Jing's hand to the ground, and shouted: "You dare to bribe me? Come, take it!"

With a sound of "哗啦", fifty soldiers in full armor surrounded them all at once. Before Sun Deng understood what happened, the fifty soldiers had already lined up in five rows and surrounded them from four directions. Ten knives, twenty halberds, and ten crossbows stared at each other.

Sun Deng broke out in a cold sweat.

(End of this chapter)