The Three Kingdoms Voyage

Chapter 288 Pirate Empire Armistice Agreement
Cao Zhang's face suddenly darkened.

Sun Shao twitched his lips, shook his head and said, "Eagles fly in the sky, fish swim in the water. Although my warship is passable, it can't go ashore after all. When fighting on land, cavalry is the first, Your Highness." After fighting for a lifetime, you won’t forget this common sense, right?”

Liu Bei stroked his beard in embarrassment, turned to Guan Feng boredly, and said reproachfully, "Yinping, you are really strict with your mouth. You didn't tell me such important news in advance. Fortunately, there are still hundreds of steps away. , isn't it too late to even cover your ears?"

Guan Feng pursed her lips and smiled, and glanced at Sun Shao with pride in her eyes: "To tell you the truth, uncle, I just knew it not long ago. I thought the name was loud, but I didn't expect it to be like thunder. Uncle was surprised. Please don’t blame me.”

Liu Bei laughed, and pulled Guan Feng aside to gossip.Sun Shao is not interested in listening to what he has to say. He probably just wants to get some benefits from Guan Feng. Not so generous.

Cao Zhang's face softened a little, he glanced at Liu Bei's back, and was about to talk to Sun Shao, Zhang Zhao shouted loudly: "His Royal Highness, come here, His Majesty has something to ask His Highness."

Sun Shao quickly responded, and confessed to Cao Zhang. Cao Zhang was helpless, and said anxiously: "Your Highness, the foreign minister will visit His Highness later, please allow some time."

"Definitely, I've prepared sugar cane wine and I'll be waiting for you." Sun Shao waved his hands with a smile, then crossed his hands in front of his chest, and trotted all the way to the emperor.There is a hallmark of this way of walking, which is called tendon. All people can't walk swaggeringly in front of the emperor, but must pass by quickly.Not only in front of the emperor, but also in front of the elders. This is a kind of etiquette.Sun Shao is now the king of Yue, and he rarely sees the emperor. Generally speaking, only others stand in front of him. The Son of Heaven is placed high, so Zhang Zhao reminded and reminded this etiquette.

Seeing Sun Shao's respect, the emperor showed a satisfied smile on his face, and glanced at Zhang Zhao gratefully.Zhang Zhao was the teacher of the King of Yue, and he was highly respected. Sun Shao was so polite to the emperor. The emperor thought that it had something to do with Zhang Zhao becoming a captain, and his impression of Zhang Zhao was much better.He waved his hand to signal Sun Shao to relax a bit and not to be too tense.

Zhang Zhao stroked his beard, showed a reserved smile, and involuntarily glanced at Sun Quan who was opposite him.The corners of Sun Quan's eyes twitched, and he turned his head subconsciously away from Zhang Zhao's provocative eyes.

"Sun Qing, what does this steam engine... look like, can you show me?" The emperor asked curiously, but he was a little uneasy. This is a secret. Although Sun Shao is polite to him, it involves confidential things. It may not be possible for him to see it.

"Of course." To the emperor's surprise, Sun Shao agreed, and then looked at the gorgeous military uniform on the emperor's body, and said worriedly: "It's just that the cabin is dirty, does your majesty change clothes?"

The Son of Heaven was overjoyed, shook his head heartily and said: "The sailors in the cabin are all my people, and they are not afraid of getting dirty when they do things there all day long. Why don't I go and have a look? Sun Qing, lead the way."

Sun Shao smiled, and flattered: "Your Majesty loves the people like a son, and his love can be learned." Then he took the emperor down to the Fengyi. followed.The sailors of the Fengyi are busy. In the cabin, the black coal, the white steam and the fiery fire form a picture. The huge crankshaft roars, which is deafening. The naked sailors did not expect the noble emperor to come. When they saw the solemn emperor, they all opened their mouths in surprise, stood there stupidly, and even forgot to salute.

Liu Bei and the others showed gloating expressions on their faces.

"Presumptuous, the emperor is here, why don't you kneel down to meet him?" Zhang Zhao lowered his face, and reminded the sailors with a loud drink.

When the sailors heard this, they panicked and threw away the tools in their hands in a hurry. Regardless of whether it was coal or water on the ground, or what it was, they turned over and fell to their knees.At this moment, Sun Shao suddenly said:
"Wait a minute!"

Although the sound was not loud, it was clearly transmitted to everyone's ears. These sailors were very familiar with Sun Shao's voice, and they followed orders without thinking about it. Those who knelt quickly also stood up instinctively.

"Your Highness?" Zhang Zhao looked at Sun Shao very unhappy, with a gloomy expression.

"Oh, Father Zhong, this is Fengxian's warship, let Fengxian say something first." Sun Quan put on a very reasonable look, and persuaded in a harmonious voice: "Although subjects should kneel and worship the emperor, Fengxian Since it is not allowed, there must be his reason."

Sun Shao sneered in his heart, but the smile on his face remained unchanged.These people are really boring. At this time, they still want to pick something up.He turned to the emperor, cupped his hands and said loudly: "Your Majesty, although these sailors do not fight on the deck, since they are on the warship, they are the soldiers of the navy. There are military rules in the army, only military salutes are not allowed, and they are not allowed to bow down. Even seeing the Son of Heaven is no exception, and please give your Majesty a lesson."

The emperor's eyes flickered, then he smiled again, and said magnanimously: "Sun Qing is right, and it should be true." He turned around and looked at each of them, although they were pitch black, only the whites of their eyes and teeth could be seen. But the sailor, whose eyes were clear and bright, nodded gently.

The sailors who were excited by Sun Shao's words immediately stood up straight and punched their hearts with their black right fists. A well-built captain shouted loudly: "Your Majesty, wait for Feng Yi of the Yue Kingdom Funan Fleet of the Great Han Navy!" Sailor number, pay homage to Your Majesty, long live Your Majesty! Long live the King of Yue!"

More than 100 sailors yelled in unison. The sound was orderly and powerful. It echoed in the narrow cabin, and the sound waves were rolling, even covering the sound of the steam engine.The Son of Heaven was taken aback, then calmed down again, stood up straight, and replied loudly: "Everyone is flat."

"Thank you, Your Majesty!" The sailors responded in unison.

The emperor walked forward slowly, carefully looked at the sweaty but excited men, and was deeply moved.Accompanying him, Sun Shao walked past the sailors one by one, seeing which one the emperor looked at more, he immediately stepped forward to introduce the sailor's birthplace, service age, military title, and inspected the clumsy steam engine at the emperor. At that time, he asked the sailor standing aside to introduce it to the emperor.Those sailors never thought they would have such an honor, their voices trembled with excitement, and the words that were supposed to be simple were rolling in their mouths, and they couldn't articulate them clearly.Fortunately, the emperor was not in a hurry, spoke slowly, looked at them with a smile on his face, and patiently waited for them to calm down his excited mood.

Turning around in the cabin, the emperor inspected several steam engines, full of praise, and finally left the bottom cabin reluctantly.Sun Shao accompanied him out of the cabin, and at the door of the cabin, he said to the captain who was following behind: "Go back and tell the brothers, you have performed well in front of the emperor today, you will be awarded three ranks of honor every year, and you will celebrate your achievements at night."

The captain's eyes lit up immediately, and just about to thank him loudly, Sun Shao raised his finger to his lips, pointed to the emperor who was climbing up, and signaled him to keep his voice down.The captain nodded again and again, and sent Sun Shao away with his arms folded. He turned around with a sullen face, and called all the sailors to him.The sailors didn't know why, but when they saw the captain's serious face, they thought they had mishandled and caused trouble, and they all became uneasy.Nothing could be heard in the cabin except the roar of the steam engine.

The captain coughed, then smiled, and said loudly: "His Royal Highness has an order, and it is very appropriate for the gentlemen to welcome you. Each of you will be rewarded with three ranks, and you will have a big breast tonight."

The sailors were silent for a while, and then roared excitedly.

The Son of Heaven, who was standing on the cabin and was watching the torsion ballista that launched the shocking thunder, heard the cheers in the cabin below, and said with a smile: "Sun Qing, you are really good at controlling people. It’s rare to be in such a good mood.”

Sun Shao said with a smile: "It is His Majesty's grace that made them so happy. I believe that they will engrave today's scene in their hearts forever."

"Really?" The Son of Heaven held a thunderbolt in his hand, and after a moment of silence, he said lightly, "Actually, I didn't do anything."

"Your Majesty, the common people don't ask for much. They only ask for three meals a day. Years of hard work can ensure food and clothing for the family. If the superiors can still treat them as human beings, they will be very satisfied. Condescend like Your Majesty , and get in close contact with them without fear of filth, they will regard this as a great gift."

"Yes." The Son of Heaven sighed softly, he hesitated to speak, obviously feeling something in his heart.He weighed the Thunderbolt in his hand, and said with a smile, "Can I see the power of the Thunderbolt with my own eyes?"

Sun Shao nodded, motioned to the crossbowmen to put Zhentianlei into their net pockets, and directed the emperor to put his hand on the crossbow, and stood next to Zhentianlei with a kindling rope in his hand. He smiled and said to the emperor: "I light the Zhentianlei Finally, within one breath, His Majesty will pull the crossbow and launch this thunder, otherwise, a dozen of us monarchs and ministers will die to serve the country."

When Sun Quan and the others nearby heard this, their expressions changed immediately.Zhang Zhao and Gu Yong hurriedly rushed forward, softly dissuading the emperor not to mess around with Sun Shao, in case of any accident, wouldn't it be all over?The emperor thought for a while, but shook his head resolutely, and pushed Zhang Zhao and others aside. Gu Yong was better, although he had a sullen face, but his voice was not loud, but Zhang Zhao became angry, and pulled him in front of the emperor, resolutely not Let him get close to the crossbow, as if you can go there if you want, but you have to step on me.

The Son of Heaven looked at Zhang Zhao, who had a beard and hair, and suddenly smiled: "Mr. Zhang, you are Sun Qing's teacher, don't you still have confidence in him? Although he is young, when did he do such an unsure thing?"

Zhang Zhao was stunned for a moment, but before he could react, the Son of Heaven had already bypassed him, walked up to the crossbow machine, reached out to hold the crossbow machine, and nodded at Sun Shao: "Light it on."

Sun Shao nodded and ignited the fuse of Zhentianlei.The fuze chiseled, and a puff of green smoke came out, burning rapidly.Zhang Zhao originally wanted to go up to hold the emperor, but he didn't dare to move when he saw the scene. If he interfered with the emperor's movements and the sky-shattering thunder exploded on the boat, it would be a tragedy.

The dozen or so most powerful people in the Han Kingdom all cast their nervous eyes on the emperor.The emperor gritted his teeth and pulled the crossbow forcefully.The crossbow machine made a loud "hum", and Zhentianlei flew out with a "swish", drawing an arc in the blue sky, and fell to the sea two hundred steps away. Just as he entered the water, he heard a dull sound. Suddenly, a tall water column rushed up on the surface of the water.Even though it was far away, it still looked amazing.

Sun Shao was stunned for a moment, sweating profusely, this is too damn hot, this thunderbolt must be a flowering thunder, and there is a lot of gunpowder, if it really blows up on the boat, it will be a tragedy.It seems that when I go back, I have to formulate a standard for the amount of charge with them, so I can't help but be so casual.

The emperor was surprised and delighted, looking at the sea in the distance, and nodded again and again.

Sun Quan and the others had complex expressions, they didn't know that this thunderbolt was an accident, they just thought it was the same for every one of them, each of them weighed the difference in strength between them and Sun Shao in their hearts, and their hearts sank involuntarily , looking at Sun Shao with a little more fear.

The emperor was secretly happy. Anyway, with the support of a powerful and loyal courtier like Sun Shao, Luoyang is small, but it can still be maintained. Even Cao Cao had to think twice before acting.He looked at the vast sky, breathed a long sigh of relief, and secretly prayed to the sky in his heart.

The most uncertain steam engine and thunderbolt achieved unexpected good results. Sun Shao was very satisfied and struck while the iron was hot. He asked the emperor to inspect the more than 1 sailors assembled at the mouth of the Yangtze River. Quantity, focusing on quality, developing large ships, reloading ships, and increasing the power of the naval development policy, the emperor nodded repeatedly, and Sun Quan and others showed a relieved smile.From Sun Shao's development route and the size of the navy in front of him, it can be seen that Sun Shao's goal has always been at sea, and he has no plans to enter the Yangtze River and inland rivers. For them, this is good news.

In a harmonious atmosphere, the highlight of the Navy Review successfully lowered the tent.That night, the emperor held a celebration banquet on the building boat that Sun Shaoxin gave him. After drinking for three rounds, after watching the exotic singing and dancing, Sun Shao got up and gave high fives.

"Your Majesty, I have something to say." Sun Shao bowed.

"Sun Qing is so solemn, it must be something important." The emperor said with a cheerful smile.He is in a very good mood today. This trip to the East China Sea was originally forced to do so. Due to the military power of Sun Shao and Cao Cao, he dared not not come. With such a solid backing, Sun Shao also obtained a large amount of property. The four-story ship and the goods on it that Sun Shao gave him are worth a lot.Among other things, the quilts in the cabin are made of thick and warm Indian cotton, which is much better than the silk quilts filled with silk wadding.There are also hundreds of sets of cotton clothes, which are very comfortable to wear.Such a thing was something that the emperor did not even dare to think about before.More importantly, with Sun Shao's support, Sun Quan and his like would not dare to renege on taxes that they wanted to renege on.At this time, no matter what Sun Shao said, the emperor wanted to hear it, and he was willing to listen.

"Your Majesty, gentlemen, Shao has a question to ask you." Sun Shao raised the wine glass in his hand, looked around, and asked with a hint of drunkenness. "Do you know what I regret most in recent years?"

Everyone looked at each other in blank dismay, not knowing what Sun Shao wanted to say, he has flourished in the past few years, and he has done so well, is there any regret?Don't be full of fat and smell of oil, or deliberately make fun of us, right?

"My biggest regret is that I was born 40 years late." Sun Shao raised four fingers, tilted his head, and slowly swept his eyes from everyone's faces: "Who can remember what happened 40 years ago?" ?”

After a while, Liu Bei stroked his beard and said calmly: "40 years ago, the demon Zhang Jiao instigated the refugees to make troubles, and the world was in chaos. Since then, I have been fighting continuously for years, until the 25th year of Jian'an to eliminate soldiers."

Everyone looked at him, then looked at Sun Shao, Sun Shao nodded: "The king of Shu has experienced this personally, and he is deeply impressed. Everyone, the most regretful thing I have in the past few years is that I was born 40 years late. In one catastrophe, the vitality of the Han Dynasty was severely injured, Emperor Xiaoling passed away, Dong Zhuo entered the capital, and then there was the Luoyang Rebellion, the princes fought in chaos, and the lives of the people died for 40 years. Everyone, I have 6000 million people in the Han Dynasty, how many people are left now?"

Sun Shao suddenly lowered his face, raised his voice, full of grief and indignation: "Cao Gong has poems, his bones are exposed in the wild, and there is no rooster crowing for thousands of miles. It can be said that every word is blood. You can think about how many people I have today. In total, less than 3 million, more than [-]% of the people died in the battle, think about it again, which family has no one died in this catastrophe." He clenched his fist and shouted loudly: " My regret is that most of these people died not at the hands of foreigners, but at the hands of our own Han people. Up to now, I have conquered Yizhou and Funan, but I found that what I lack is people. If there is no In this catastrophe, why did I conquer Funan with more than [-] people?"

He turned around sharply and faced Cao Zhang: "If I have Duke Cao's 15 troops to conquer Jingzhou, I'm afraid I have already captured Tianzhu at this moment. I don't have time to sit here with you and sigh the rise and fall, and discuss success or failure."

Everyone was silent, thinking about their own thoughts, and they all felt a little uncomfortable. Of course, the most uncomfortable one was the emperor.The biggest victim of this catastrophe was the royal family. The Yellow Turban rebellion, state shepherds and prefects from all over the country supported their own troops, which became the start of the melee among the princes later. The court lost control of the local area. In fact, the root cause of all the tragedies that followed was the chaos in the first year of Zhongping. Since that day, the big man has stepped into the road of no return.Thinking of this, the emperor's eyes became wet.

"I hereby implore all of you, stop looking at Luoyang and your compatriots who are also big Han people. Stop killing each other. There are less than 6000 million left from [-] million people. Ladies and gentlemen, the surrounding Sibari combined There are more than us. If we continue to kill each other, the vitality of the big man will be lost. I worry that this land in the Central Plains will become the pasture of the Hu people one day. The proud Han people will become the slaves of the Hu people. At the beginning, the backbone of the Han people, built with the flesh and blood of tens of thousands of compatriots, will also be trampled off by the barbarians."

Sun Shao said word by word, thinking of the later chaos in history, he couldn't help being a little emotional, his eyes overflowed with crystal tears, and he bowed to Sun Quan, Liu Bei and Cao Zhang in an almost pleading tone: "All gentlemen He is a hero of the time, and he is extremely heroic. I would like to ask all of you to be merciful, to save a little blood for our Han people, and stop killing each other, and stop pointing the sharp sword at your own people."

The three were silent. Cao Zhang first put down the cup, stood up, picked up the ivory chopsticks from the case, broke them with force, and said loudly: "I, Cao Zhang, swear by breaking the chopsticks here. If you start a war, if you violate this oath, you will have such chopsticks."

Liu Bei and Sun Quan glanced at each other, a look of relief flashed across their faces.They were two of the weaker ones. If Yue and Wei didn't take the initiative to start a war, it would be great news for them. How could they still be unwilling.If you don't take this opportunity to kill this matter, maybe Sun Shao will join forces with Cao Zhang to destroy them first as soon as he turns his face.

Without thinking too much, they immediately stood up, and neatly picked up the ivory chopsticks to swear as they had demonstrated.However, their strength is not comparable to Cao Zhang's. It is not easy to break the ivory chopsticks. Sun Quan is in his prime, but he is better. Blushing, he finally broke a pair of ivory chopsticks.

However, no one laughed at him.

Yang Biao got up, walked in front of the emperor, bowed to the ground, followed closely by Zhang Zhao and others, and knelt down together, saying in unison: "God bless me!"

"God estimates that I'm a big man!" The emperor burst into tears and couldn't make a sound.He got off his seat, helped up Yang Biao and others who were also in tears, and finally came to Sun Shao and Cao Zhang with a wine glass, bowed and saluted.Sun Shao and Cao Zhang hurriedly avoided, saying they did not dare.The emperor pulled them, with tears in his eyes: "I am not virtuous, and I am in the position of the emperor, and I am in danger of losing my big man. There was Cao Gong before, and now there is Sun Qing, who helped the big man to fall, and turned the tide. I am a big man who has the grace of reinvention. Xie dares to use this wine to thank Er Jun for his great kindness."

Sun Shao glanced at Cao Zhang, still hesitating, but Cao Zhang said with emotion: "Your Majesty's words are serious. Since you are Han officials, you should serve the great man. However, your Majesty has already said this. In the past, the sage blamed Zilu for not being grateful. I don't dare to be humble, and I will harm the righteousness by becoming selfish. I am not talented, and I am willing to encourage Sun Jun."

Seeing everyone looking at him eagerly, Sun Shao knew that although they had different ideas, most of them could accept his idea of ​​not wanting another civil war, so he was a little excited. It is enough to comfort my life.He and Cao Zhang looked at it knowingly, bowed to the emperor, and said loudly: "Your servant will be rewarded." After speaking, they drank the wine.

Everyone congratulated the emperor again, and then laughed happily, as if they had accomplished a great event.Yang Biao was so overjoyed that he carried his wine glass and respected the emperor first, then Sun Shao and the other four people, and then he drank with Gu Yong and others until he was very drunk.

(End of this chapter)