The Three Kingdoms Voyage

Chapter 252
It is said that like a father like a son, like a king like his ministers, when Sun Shao was organizing the pirate assembly in Linyi, Cui Qian was also organizing a pirate carnival. The pirates issued a call, everyone, let's go to Funan Kingdom together, eat meat in big pieces, drink in big bowls, share money in big scales, someone contributes, powerful contributes, and finds the old man Fan Man together please go.

Wei Wenwen and Zhuge Zhi were puzzled by Cui Qian's claim to be the King of the South China Sea instead of the left general of the Yue Kingdom, and were even a little worried. If the king finds out about it in the future, maybe he will punish him?Cui Qian didn't take it seriously, he said to Wei Wenwen and Zhuge, the king is a man who has the world in mind, he knows that I, Cui Qian, are not that kind of person, I will be away, and the king's order will not be accepted, that is to say, I have to adapt to local conditions, I said I am more General Zuo of the country, how do those pirates know what General Zuo is?They may not even know the king of Yue. Do you know how many kings there are in this sea?And my old Cui's title as the King of the South China Sea is not built. If the king hadn't dug a hole back then, I, Old Cui, would still be the king of the South China Sea now.

Speaking of sadness, Cui Qian pretended to wipe away his bitter tears.Cui Yan exposed him mercilessly. It is true that you were the king of the South China Sea back then, but apart from your good name, whether it is strength or the enjoyment of life, which one can compare with what you are now?You are content!

Cui Qian blushed, and cursed unluckily, "A house thief is hard to guard against. Back then, you were the one who didn't make progress and was taken over by the king, so I was forced to fight to the death with the king. Otherwise, how could I lose?Cui Yan curled her mouth, I was turning away from the dark to the bright, otherwise I wouldn't be where you are today.

Zhuge Zhi and Wei Wen didn't know whether what the two said was true or not. To be on the safe side, they wrote a memorial to Sun Shao and told Sun Shao clearly of Cui Qian's plan, so as not to cause trouble in the future, and they would be unlucky .

Cui Qian didn't care too much, he continued to gather people with great fanfare, and within three months, more than 2000 pirates came to vote.Cui Qian told them that Lao Tzu is a reminder, and now he is General Zuo of the Yue Kingdom. Not to mention this piece of sea, all the seas in the world are the territory of my Yue Kingdom. This is sealed by the emperor himself—Cui Qian knows, These pirates may not know which onion the King of Yue is, but they have heard about the big man who has been in the country for 400 years-you have to know your senses, and now you can hang out with me and find trouble with Fan Man. to destroy you.

After Cui Qian finished speaking, he put the three large ships and more than 50 medium-sized warships they brought across the sea, and then put the warships captured from Fan Chang out. Those who are willing to hang out with Lao Tzu, these people from Funan The warship is yours now, if you don't want to, pack your luggage when you go back now, flee or fight, it's up to you.

The pirates were intimidated by Cui Qian's arrogance. Firstly, the title of the King of the South China Sea was not fake. A boat of 50 people is more than enough to deal with merchant ships, but when they encounter the warships of Funan Kingdom, they can only watch the wind and run away. But now they find that in front of Cui Qian, the warships of Funan Kingdom are just small The character, the big ship that can hold 2000 people is a giant.

Have you ever seen such a big ship?A pirate asked the fellow next to him.

No, the pirate shook his head and drooled, there's no way, since he glanced at Cui Qian's ship, his mouth hasn't closed.

The pirates live a desperate life, they don't know how to convince others with virtue, they believe in the natural law that the strong is king, whoever has the strength is the boss.They weighed their wrists, as if the gap with Cui Qian was not so big, their desire to compete for supremacy faded a bit, and then they looked at the warships in Funan Kingdom, and their desire to make a fortune together immediately gained the upper hand.It is good not to take advantage of the bastards, they may not know this sentence, but they understand the essence of it very deeply.

Except for a few pirates who valued freedom more than life and quietly left, most of the pirates stayed and were willing to make a fortune with Cui Qian.Cui Qian immediately appointed them officials according to their original strength. Those with more than 300 people were military commanders, those with more than a hundred people were military marquises, and those with only a few dozen people were all named generals of a hundred people.Then Cui Qian ordered them to attack the nearby ports and villages. He led a large army to sit in the rear, and the pirates swarmed forward. Cui Qian from behind dealt with it.

The pirates didn't dare to approach Funan before, it was because they were not as strong as Fan Man, and when they met Fan Man's sailors, they had to escape for their lives, not because of their friendship or compassion with Fan Man, it's different now, With the support of the great pirate Cui Qian, especially after witnessing Cui Qian overturning several Funan navy warships once or twice, their confidence suddenly rose, and at first they just hit the coast , and robbed villages and ports, and later became bold enough to directly attack the county seat, and finally started to rob fifty miles away from Temu City.They appeared and disappeared, and their whereabouts were erratic, which made Fan Chang, who was in charge of this area of ​​the sea, very anxious.

Is it tolerable, which is unbearable?Fan Man, who was on fire, broke out uncontrollably. He summoned all the generals to discuss matters, and several capable generals arrived. The eldest son Fan Jinsheng, the second son Fan Chang, general Fan Xun, Fan Jun and more than a dozen people gathered in Temucheng.

"Tell me about the situation first." Fan Man asked Fan Chang to talk about the situation with a sullen face.Fan Chang blushed, talked about the recent pirate rampage, and finally emphasized that these pirates are not scary, but the Yue State Navy behind them is scary. According to the captured pirate prisoners, Cui Qian has a fighter as tall as a mountain. The boat, which can hold thousands of people, is as fast as flying on the sea, and it is impossible to resist. Therefore, they have suffered a few small encounters.

As soon as Fan Chang's words fell, Fan Jinsheng sneered unabashedly: "A boat like a mountain? Can hold thousands of people? Do you believe such nonsense? Could it be that you lost the battle and used the captive's mouth to cover it up?" Right? My Funan navy has sailed across the sea for hundreds of years, starting with Pharaoh, when did I encounter a ship bigger than us?"

Fan Jinsheng is the eldest son, and he accused Fan Chang, directly treating Fan Chang as a synonym for incompetence, the meaning of which is self-evident.Fan Man is just their two sons, both of whom have strong subordinates, and Fan Man is over 60 years old, and has never designated who is the crown prince. At this time, it is very important who is more capable.Fan Jinsheng has always been in charge of the sea area in the northwest of Funan, while Fan Chang is in charge of the sea area in the south of Funan. The oil and water in the South China Sea are thicker than those in the northwest. Fan Jinsheng has always been dissatisfied with this arrangement. This time, he seized the opportunity, so why not be sarcastic reason.

Fan Chang was very annoyed, but he had to say that although what Fan Jinsheng said was harsh, it was basically the truth.From Lao Wang, the founding monarch of Funan Kingdom, came to Funan by boat from Motuo Kingdom, defeated the queen Liu Ye at that time, and became the king of Funan Kingdom. The warships of Funan Kingdom have always been very advanced. Fan Mancheng After becoming the general of Funan, he also attracted the strengths of the Han and Yi merchant ships who came and went. After presiding over the construction of a warship capable of carrying hundreds of people, Funan's maritime strength is second to none. They have been able to dominate the Zhanghai (South China Sea) for decades. It was blown out, but it was played out by strength.

Now Fan Chang suddenly said that the invading navy of the Yue Kingdom had a ship as big as a mountain, could hold thousands of people, and could walk like flying, who would believe it?Not to mention that Fan Jinsheng didn't believe it, even Fan Chang himself had some doubts.Up to now, he has not seen this kind of mountain-like ship with his own eyes. All he met were pirates driving the Funan Navy warships captured by the Yue Kingdom Navy.These pirates are very skilled in fighting and fighting, and with the same warships as the Funan Navy, they are even more powerful. Just them are enough for Fan Chang to have a headache.

However, Fan Chang must not just admit defeat like this, he sneered: "Brother, don't forget, Fan Zhan's [-] sailors were completely wiped out."

"The whole army was wiped out?" Fan Jinsheng dismissively said: "How did he get the whole army wiped out, who knows? However, he had [-] infantry and [-] war elephants were eaten by the Wu army in Changshan. It is not impossible to be eaten by the Vietnamese army."

Fan Chang was speechless.Although Fan Zhan is not their brother, he has won the trust of King Fan Man. He has been in charge of the junction of the east of Funan Kingdom and Rinan and Linyi. He is also an important figure in Funan Kingdom. The object of common defense, I didn't expect that none of the 7000 people escaped back this time. It can be said that they have experienced countless storms and waves, and they didn't climb up the ditch the last time.

Fan Chang blushed, and protested: "When Fan Zhan was here, you didn't say that he was incompetent. He was defeated, and you just slandered him like this? Be careful that he will turn into a ghost and come to you in the future. Sailor of Yue Kingdom Even if Fan Zhan can't tell us how big the warship is, Fan Xun has been to Yue State, so he must have seen it. Fan Xun, tell me, is the Yue State Navy as big as a mountain? Battleship?"

Fan Xun's expression was a little unnatural. He stayed in Zhuya for a few days, but he was intoxicated by Sun Shao's warm hospitality during those few days. He was directly kicked out of Zhuya by Wei Jing, and only asked Sun Deng on the way, but Sun Deng obviously meant to intimidate him at the time, and what he said was only half-truth, and now Fan Chang asked him to tell, what did he say? ?
"This... From what I know, the Yue Kingdom Navy is indeed very powerful." Fan Xun picked his words carefully so as not to let people find the problem: "It is of course an exaggeration to say that it is as big as a mountain. , but it should be possible to say that there are warships larger than ours."

Both Fan Chang and Fan Jinsheng snorted in dissatisfaction. Fan Xun rubbed his hands in embarrassment, turned to Fan Man who had been silent all this time, and said, "My lord, everyone knows the strength of our Funan, and the Yue Kingdom also knows it. The provocation from thousands of miles away, of course, will not be impulsive. Your Majesty, among other things, there are thousands of ships from various countries passing through Dunxun every year, which country is the largest ship from?"

Fan Man's eyes flashed, and she nodded silently.As Fan Xun said, although he didn't believe that there was a ship as big as a mountain that could carry thousands of people, among the merchant ships he saw, the merchant ships of the Han Dynasty were undoubtedly the largest and the best in quality.Although a merchant ship is not a warship, it can also represent a country's shipbuilding strength. With such a merchant ship, it is not impossible to build a powerful warship.

What's more, Fan Zhan's [-] sailors disappeared quietly, which made him have to be vigilant. Now the navy of the Yue Kingdom can swallow his [-] sailors in one gulp, how powerful is the Navy of the Yue Kingdom?
Fan Man felt a headache for this conjecture, so she was also very upset with Fan Xun, and sent him to Zhuya to inquire about his strength, but he went there for a few months, and the news he came back from inquiring turned out to be hearsay.Although Fan Xun didn't say anything, who is Fan Man?He has dealt with all kinds of people for decades, and he can tell the authenticity of anyone who passes before his eyes.

Fan Zhan, who had ten war elephants and [-] elite soldiers, was killed by the Wu people just like that, and his youngest son Fan Chang, who was not bad in ability, was also beaten by the Yue people until his nose was blue and his eyes were swollen, and he was helpless. Is Yue's strength so strong?Fan Man was hesitant and somewhat regretful. If he had known about these situations earlier, he would never hastily agree to Ou Lian's request to help him invade Nichinan.However, the matter has reached this stage and has nothing to do with Linyi. If Funan Kingdom swallows this breath, the mighty Funan Kingdom will soon collapse.

A kingdom conquered by force still has to surrender and perish in the face of stronger force. Is there a third option?

Fan Man didn't want to surrender, let alone perish. He had to choose the third way, defeat him, and use every possibility to reverse the situation.Isn't it said in the military books of the Han people that first you can't win, and then you can win.That wise man called Laozi also said that the weak can overcome the strong, why can't I?
"Okay." Fan Man's voice, which was not too loud, was majestic enough to make the generals who were mocking each other instantly quiet down, hold their breath, and listen to Fan Man's instructions. "In this battle, we lost before we even fought." Fan Man showed the piece of paper that Fan Xun brought back in front of everyone: "The enemy knows us very well, they even know our writing, but what do you have? One who can read these Chinese characters smoothly?"

Fan Jinsheng and the others looked at each other. They were good at fighting, and they were average at reading. It would be good if they could understand their own characters. They could also understand one or two characters of the Han people, but the requirements for smooth reading were obviously too high.

"You are satisfied that our Funan is the overlord here, and you are satisfied with your illustrious military exploits, but you never come here and are willing to open your eyes to see what else is outside." Fan Man said slowly, hating iron and steel: "See Han people, Tianzhu people, and Xiyi people, you only see their exquisite goods, their beautiful maids, and their bulging pockets, but you never pay any attention to understanding their countries. Now, You have to pay the price for this. The Wuyue people are coming to your door. They want to occupy your land, take your women, and empty your pockets. You don’t even know the size of the warship, and you still have the face to yell and blame each other here?”

Fan Jinsheng and others lowered their heads, and Fan Xun was even more ashamed. He should bear the main responsibility for this problem.

"Don't you know Fan Zhan's ability? Do you think it's an honor to humiliate a compatriot who died in battle?" Fan Man suddenly stood up, looking around angrily, and her angry voice made everyone's ears buzz : "Is it possible that the warriors of the Southern Kingdom only have the courage to slander the dead?"

After saying this, Fan Jinsheng and the others all raised their heads. The people of Funan respected bravery and were most afraid of being regarded as cowards, not to mention that these were warriors who had fought with Fan Man for many years.As the eldest son and important general, Fan Jinsheng was the first to shout loudly: "I am willing to fight to the death with the king!"

"Willing to fight to the death with the king!"

"Annihilate Yue and destroy Wu, and avenge Fan Zhan."

"Revenge for Fan Zhan!"

The roars continued one after another, and Fan Man nodded, signaling to the generals to be calm, and her voice returned to her usual calm: "We didn't expect these Han people to change their temper and actually come to compete with us for a few damn businessmen. It’s not terrible to be unprepared and lose the wind, this is our land after all, we are the masters here, they are powerful, and we are not betel nuts to be chewed.”

Fan Jinsheng and the others nodded silently. They lost the spirit and impetuosity just now, and just listened quietly to Fan Man's explanation.

"So, our most important task now is to find out how strong these people are." Fan Man said lightly: "Fan Xun, if you go to Nichinan again, you need to find out a few things: first, How many troops do Wu and Yue have, how are their armaments? , Wu Yue..." Fan Man paused for a moment, and slowly twisted the red sandalwood beads in his hand. After a while, he said slowly: "Are they in the same group? How did Fan Zhan die? Whose handwriting."

"Yes, Your Majesty, I must fulfill your Majesty's mission." Fan Xun raised his head and looked at Fan Man who was as immobile as a mountain: "My Majesty, shall we... agree to their conditions first?"

"Let's talk first, he's asking for a lot of money, of course I have to sit back and pay back the money." Fan Man said lightly.

"Yes." Fan Xun replied and stepped back.

"Jin Sheng."

"Here!" Fan Jinsheng stood up in response.

"You go to the Shan Kingdom and Linyang Kingdom first, stabilize them, and then come here to join forces with you, Chang, to test the weight of the Yue Kingdom Navy. Be careful, don't fall into their trap , if the situation is not right, you will retreat. They come from afar, which is good for quick battles. We can afford to wait, but they can't. We should take this opportunity to see who are the real ones and who are the fake ones, and if necessary, kill a few people to stand up."

"Yes." Fan Jinsheng replied and stepped back.

"Ah Chang." Fan Man opened his eyelids and looked at the somewhat embarrassed Fan Chang: "Don't be nervous, Han people often say that victory or defeat is a common matter in military affairs, and a general who has never been defeated is not a qualified general. For my father Back then, I fought with the king in the north and south, and suffered a lot, but I finally survived for my father, and those who have defeated me are now all defeated by me."

Fan Chang breathed a sigh of relief.

"However, you can't relax, you have to observe your opponent carefully." Fan Man's thick gray eyebrows twitched twice: "The king of the South China Sea? A reminder? I've heard of this person. He was the biggest pirate in Zhanghai back then. Insidious and cunning, with vicious means, and now he actually obeys the orders of the King of Yue. It can be seen that the King of Yue does have some tricks. You can ask those pirates carefully to see what conditions this reminder promises them. If they can accept it, so can we. One friend is better than one more enemy. As for the future...let's talk about it after defeating King Yue."

"Yes." Fan Chang nodded quickly in agreement.

"Go." Fan Man waved his hand: "From today on, treat those Yue businessmen kindly, tell them that we are going to have peace talks with the King of Yue, and let them not be nervous, and do business safely. But don't forget to send more People are staring at them, I always feel that King Yue is so familiar with our situation, it has a great relationship with these businessmen."

Everyone agreed with a loud bang, and then exited the palace one by one.Fan Man sat alone on the throne, without moving for a long time, only his slack eyelids trembled from time to time, and the prayer beads under his hand slowly turned. After a long time, he murmured: "Brahma God, please bless me!" .”

……

Fan Xun rushed to Rinan as quickly as possible. First, he paid a visit to Sun Deng, Prince of Wu, and expressed his respect to Sun Deng. He told Sun Deng that this time it was a misunderstanding. Ou Lian did not assist him in quelling the civil strife in Linyi Kingdom, he invaded Nichinan, and now he is defeated and killed, it is his own fault.The King of Funan is willing to stop fighting with the state of Wu and reconcile with the state of Wu.Although Sun Deng didn't believe Fan Xun, he apologized on his own initiative, so of course he wouldn't refuse because of his character.Fan Xun stayed in Xijuan City for a few days, presented a large number of gifts to Zhuge Ke, Lu Dai and others, and took every opportunity to get close to them. They inquired about the course of the war.The captives said all kinds of things, but one thing was consistent with what Fan Xun had inquired from the Wu generals, that is, the King of Yue did not send a single soldier into Rinan County from the beginning to the end, he just helped the Wu army transport troops and food. .

Fan Xun was relieved, said goodbye to Sun Deng, and rushed to Linyi, saying the same thing again, expressing that the King of Funan was willing to negotiate compensation with the Yue Kingdom, but the conditions were too harsh, and the King of Funan could not explain it to the people. You can't ask the king of Yue to reconsider.

Sun Shao is very talkative this time, and his attitude is very good: "Since this is the case, that's fine. The compensation will be less, but the cost of dispatching my army will be added. We came all the way, but it cost a lot. Less money. In addition, you, the King of Funan, have to promise me that if a businessman from our country of Yue commits crimes in your Funan again, you should not kill him on your own initiative. Don’t worry, if he is really guilty, he should be killed and punished. Punishment, I will never tolerate it."

Fan Xun sneered secretly, Sun Shao said it beautifully, he cut the compensation in half, but in addition to military expenses, what kind of concept is this, it is thousands of times the compensation.However, he got a message from it that the Vietnamese army only had 1 people, and all of them were sailors.

Fan Xun suppressed his anger, and humbly agreed to go back to ask for instructions, and then asked to see the military appearance of the Vietnamese army.Sun Shao politely asked Shi Bao to show him around. Of course, he just let him take a look at it from a distance. Fan Xun was very surprised that he didn't see any warships like mountains.He raised a question cryptically, and Shi Bao, who was showing him around, pointed to a huge supply ship and said, "Of course there are ships that are as big as mountains. Hey, isn't that ship that transports grain as big as a mountain?" .Of course, just hills, hills."

Looking at Shi Bao, who was humble on the surface but full of arrogance in reality, Fan Xun complimented him while secretly heaving a sigh of relief.

(End of this chapter)