Chapter 30 Pull the tiger's skin to make a big flag

Cheng Jun, a sea merchant in Panyu, led the ship, went out of the Marine Department, and looked back at the waters in the north. The sails on the wide water are dotted, and the light is floating gold. One by one, people in a hurry get on and off the ship, which is a busy scene. But that's not what he saw. He looked at Panyu City, which was so far away that he couldn't see it at all. There were his family members and his newborn son. He did business between Panyu and Xu Wen. Every time he went to sea, he felt that he might not be able to come back, but for the sake of his livelihood and the sake of his family, he had to go to sea without hesitation.

For nothing else, it's just that the barbarian goods in Xuwen are cheaper than Panyu.

Xu Wen is the southernmost county in Hepu County, adjacent to the sea and across the sea from Zhuya. After Xu Wen, the number of pirates suddenly increased and the risk increased greatly. Therefore, many Yi merchants chose to trade in Xu Wen for insurance. After the pirates robbed the past ships, some useless or inextinentless goods also chose to trade in Xu Wen. Xu Wen has become a well-known market, with complex sources of goods. It is famous for its cheap price, which is much better than Panyu City and Jiaotong City.

Cheng Jun went to Xu Wen for the price difference. He ran once or twice a year to ensure that his family was full of food and clothing. Many people in Panyu City do this business. Of course, the profit is big and the risk is also big. Maybe one day they will be miserable when they meet pirates. If they encounter pirates, the goods will be robbed, and the heavy ones will be robbed and sold. There are not many people. As long as they do not resist, pirates generally do not kill people. They are usually sold to far away to be slaves.

Cheng Jun ran on this road for ten years and was robbed three times. Fortunately, his life was not in danger. This is good luck, but he doesn't know when his good luck will come to an end. Every time he goes to sea, it's a life-and-death farewell to him.

He touched the copper pendant on his chest, which was just asked by his wife from the most fragrant temple of the Sea God in Panyu City. It was engraved with a statue of the Sea God, which cost 1,200 yuan. His wife also burned incense for a whole month.

The Sea God bless me, bless me to return safely, and I can see my wife and son. Cheng Jun carefully put the copper pendant back in his arms, went down the stone steps made of bluestone slabs, and walked to the dock. Just as he was about to get on the boat, a tall and strong young man arched his hand to him and asked politely, "Do you dare to ask if it is a Panyu merchant who goes to sea?"

Cheng Jun did not answer, but looked at the person carefully. This person is not like a local. Although he has a kind smile on his face, he has a dangerous atmosphere. Cheng Jun knew that there were many pirate detectives in Tuen Mun Mountain. They would see which ships were valuable in advance and then inform their accomplices at sea to do it.

He felt that the man in front of him was a little similar, because he had a murderous atmosphere on his body.

"Hehehe..." The man saw his worry and opened his collar, revealing the brown clothes inside. Cheng Jun was shocked. This is the dress worn by the Jiaozhou sailor. How could it be on this person? He was wondering, and the man handed over another bamboo charm: "I am the Jiaozhou sailor under General Sun Jun of Henghai. I was ordered by General Sun to escort the sea."

"Escoting to the sea?" After Cheng Jun carefully checked the bamboo charm, although there was no doubt about the identity of this sailor named Zhao Xiu, he still didn't know what escort was. Is it protection along the way? Cheng Jun felt that his idea was too ridiculous. The sailor only collected money and protected the people of the government. When will he come to protect the merchants?

"Yes, we have a team of warships that go to sea with you and escort you all the way to Xu Wen." Zhao Xiu smiled gently, put away his waist card, and then smiled again: "Because there is a certain fee, the general is afraid that you can't afford too much, so you have to gather a few caravans to go to sea together, so that you can pay less money."

Cheng Jun curled his lips and believed it. This was not an escort, and he came to scrape oil again. Although he didn't want to, he didn't dare to offend these sailors. Otherwise, the pirates may not be able to meet, but the sailors will definitely wait for you. He sniched his teeth with some pain: "How much does it cost?"

Zhao Xiu smiled faintly: "Calculated according to the size and quantity of the ship, each boat under 100 stones is 100 yuan, each boat from 100 to 300 stones is 300 yuan, and each boat with more than 300 stones is 500 yuan."

Cheng Jun was a little reluctant, but he did not dare to disobey. He estimated from his heart that he took the chain of money from his entourage Cheng Yuan: "I have a total of three boats, two two 250 stones, one 350 stones, a total of 1,100 yuan. This is the receipt for the tax payment. You can have a look.

Zhao Xiu took the receipt and took a look. It was a certificate issued by Shuiguan, which would not be a problem. Sure enough, it's one with three hundred and fifty stones and two of two hundred and fifty stones. He returned the receipt to Cheng Jun, but didn't accept his money. Cheng Jun looked at him with some surprise. Zhao Xiu smiled: "We will collect the money after arriving at Xu Wen safely. If we meet pirates halfway and we can't complete the task, we won't collect any money."

Cheng Jun doubted whether he had heard it wrong and really wanted to escort Xu Wen? If it's true, then this 1,100 yuan is really worth it.

"If you want, then go quickly. We already have more than 300 ships. If we hadn't seen you just now, we would have set out." Zhao Xiu said with a smile and turned around to lead Cheng Jun forward.

Cheng Jun and Cheng Yuan looked at each other and felt that they were too lucky and quickly followed. After a moment of hesitation, Zhao Xiu had already boarded a small warship. There were only ten soldiers on this ship. As soon as Zhao Xiu got on the ship, they untied the cable and rowed to the sea. Zhao Xiu waved his hand: "Follow up. Our fleet is not far ahead."

Cheng Jun did not dare to neglect. He immediately returned to his ship and followed closely. He walked not far forward, that is, the appearance of a five-mile road. In a hidden bay, more than 300 ships were ready to go. Seven or eight medium-sized warships were parked outside the port, and there was no war flag hanging on it, but it can be seen from the format of the ship. These are indeed the warships of the Jiaozhou Marine Division.

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

"Brother Yuan Zhong is also here?" Cheng Jun was very surprised. He hurriedly asked people to lean the boat over and jumped into Ouyang Fu's boat to say hello.

"Yes, I've been waiting here all day." Ouyang Fu took his hand, took him to the boat, and said with a smile, "You also go to sea?"

"It's not." Cheng Jun looked around and found several familiar faces. As he greeted them, he asked, "You also invited General Sun to escort you?"

"Protect your fart." Ouyang Fu took a look around, lowered his voice, and said disdainfully, "It's not that you don't know that General Henghai has only 15 ships in size. It's okay to deal with small pirates. If you really want to deal with the bigger ones, he is not enough for others to eat at all. If I hadn't been afraid that he would find trouble and say that he would not collect the money until the destination, I would have ignored him and delayed me for a day.

Cheng Jun smiled and said, "Brother Yuan Zhong, your Ouyang family is a big merchant in Panyu. Do you know what the origin of this General Henghai is?"

"Don't you know?" Ouyang Fu smiled proudly: "He is not small. He is the son of the rebellious general Sun Quan, the supreme relative son, and the serious son of the Sun family. However, his public identity was a little embarrassed, so he was driven to the South China Sea. General Henghai had only 15 boats under his men, and he couldn't get along anymore. He wanted to scrape some oil on our heads. You see," he waved his hand and pointed to more than 300 large and small ships in the harbor and said, "This trip, back and forth, but in more than a month, he can get 20 or 30 gold from us, which is not the cost on the way. Isn't it smart enough for a buffaloman to make money for himself?

"Is there still a cost on the way?" Cheng Jun's eyelids jumped.

"Of course there is." Ouyang Fu smiled and said, "The food and drink of the hundreds of people under his command all fell on our heads. Of course, Zhengping, don't worry, he doesn't like your boats, and we have paid for them all.

Cheng Jun was relieved. It's better not to look at it, otherwise it would be really uncomfortable.

"But then again, if he didn't ask for money around the bush, I would be willing to spend it." Ouyang Fu clapped his hands and said disapprovingly, "If we can do business safely, we are not short of these money, don't you think so?"

"That's right. When did Brother Yuan Zhong care about these money?" Cheng Jun echoed.

"Guys, we are about to leave. Please leave the port in order." Zhao Xiu stood in the bow of the boat and smiled loudly at Ouyang Fu and Cheng Jun, "So you know each other."

Ouyang Fu hurriedly returned the gift. He had a total of 50 ships this time, which was the richest among these people. Naturally, he became the leader. Zhao Xiu spread the news to all the merchant ships through him, and he was particularly polite to him.

"Ouyang Jun, for everyone's safety, we will change the flag later. Please tell everyone not to panic. The general promised you earlier that he would not go through his promise. If you don't get Xu Wen, you won't get any penni.

Ouyang Fu smiled and said, "Let's do whatever you want. The general is willing to escort us. We are very grateful. This amount of money is really not respectable. If the general didn't insist on taking it, how dare we use this money to insult the general?"

"Hahaha, Ouyang Jun joked." Zhao Xiu turned around the bow with a smile and waved away. Ouyang Fu kept smiling sincerely. It was not until Zhao Xiu left far away that the smile on his face turned into contempt. He spit into the river disdainfully and ordered people to pass on what Zhao Xiu said to each ship. In a long time, more than 300 merchant ships slowly sailed out of the harbor, lined up in an irregular line, and drove west along the coastline.

Cheng Jun looked at the warship in the distance and had indeed changed into the pirate's battle flag. He looked at it carefully and suddenly smiled and said, "Brother Yuan Zhong, this General Henghai is interesting."

"How is it interesting?" Ouyang Fu answered absently, raised his head and looked at Cheng Jun's fingers smoothly, and also smiled, "Well, it's a little interesting. He actually scared people with the tiger skin that urged him to sign, which is also a little brainy. As soon as this flag is hung, a ship of pirates really dare not come to look for trouble.

The smile in Cheng Jun's eyes became stronger and stronger. He turned his head and looked at Ouyang Fu: "Brother Yuan Zhong, maybe we can really go to Xu Wen safely this time. This money is worth it."

"Value." Ouyang Fu also stroked his palm and sighed: "With this flag, except for the person who urged me to sign, ordinary pirates certainly dare not come, and maybe even the men who urged me to sign did not dare to do it."

"This man has a way." Cheng Jun touched the copper pendant on his chest again, and his nervous mood was much more relaxed. With the escort of the sailor with the pirate flag, the safety surname has greatly increased. Although it is difficult to escape death when encountering the reminder, but without them, no one will run away when encountering the reminder anyway. At that time, they will pay the money according to the old rules. The sailor's risk of the pirates has nothing to do with them.

There are many people with this idea. They did not have much confidence in more than a dozen sailor warships, but when the pirate flag was hung, they felt much safer. Although it was a fake, the name of urging the order was much more deterrent than that of the Jiaozhou sailors.

"Brother Yuan Zhong, aren't you going to talk to this General Sun?" Cheng Jun suggested, "I think this person is much better than Shiwei, who only knows how to blackmail us. Maybe there will be more opportunities for cooperation in the future."

Ouyang Fu hesitated for a moment, shook his head and said, "I'm a little tired. I want to take a break. Zhengping, if you are interested, you might as well go and have a look. Tell me when you come back. I heard that although General Sun is young, he has a wide range of knowledge and has no prejudice against businessmen. Many people in Yishi know him.

Cheng Jun did not force. He knew that the Ouyang family was not a small family like him. When the situation was unclear, he would not take the initiative to get on the line with the Sun family, which would offend the scholar's family, not to mention an awkward Sun family. And he didn't want to miss the opportunity, so he let him take the lead.

"Then I'll go and have a look." Cheng Jun did not force himself. He returned to his ship and asked people to drive the ship to the flagship with the pirate flag and send people to greet him. Soon, Zhao Xiu came out of the cabin and arched his hand humbly: "What advice does Cheng Jun have?"

Cheng Jun pointed to some wine and food prepared on the ship behind him and said with a smile, "I am very grateful to the generals for escort me. I specially came to see the general, thanked him in person, and sent some wine and food to quench your thirst."

Zhao Xiu shook his head repeatedly: "I'm very ashamed to bother 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 for the time being. I will definitely forward Cheng Jun's beautiful intentions. I will ask Cheng Jun to talk about it when I have time.

Cheng Jun touched a soft nail and had to go back. Zhao Xiu returned to the cabin. Sun Shao, who was sitting with everyone, looked at him and smiled, "Those people still have no confidence in us."

"It's hard to start." Zhao Xiu sat down and said calmly, "It is unprecedented for the sailors to escort the merchant ships. It is normal for them to have doubts. General, do we still have to do this in the future?

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

Zhao Xiu thought about it for a moment and said cautiously, "The usual expenses are borne by merchant ships. The amount of water and grain we need to carry has been greatly reduced. We can make room for arrows, which also improves the speed. However, the sailor escorted the merchant ship and spread out..."

"Is it a bad reputation?"

"Hmm." Zhao Xiu answered sullenly and didn't dare to say anything more. The merchant is a barb, and the navy is an officer and soldier. The officers and soldiers have never collected taxes from the barb, and have never been a guard for the barb. However, Sun Shao himself was going to do business, and Zhao Xiu did not dare to speak in front of him.

Sun Shao also saw this mentality on other people's faces. He smiled faintly and did not discuss this problem again. You told them that merchants are taxpayers and sailors should escort merchants. It is simply talking about Niu Tanqin. At present, it is not the time to do ideological work. At present, it is time to fight pirates to make contributions, only to win. Only by fighting can we make contributions, have trophy, and make a fortune while training the team. He patted the chart on the deck and pointed to the door of the cliff: "The fleet has to stop outside the door of the cliff to supply food and drink water. It is also the place where pirates are most rampant, and we fight the first battle there. Gentlemen, I'm not Bole. I don't know which of you is a thousand-mile horse, but I know that the real thousand-mile horse must run faster than a donkey. In this battle, I want to see who is a thousand-mile horse and who is a donkey.

He picked out thirteen people from the elites of the Guan family. This time, Bu Qian gave him ten medium warships. He arranged a leader on each ship, and now he gives them a fire, hoping to cultivate and select talents who can be useful through actual combat.

"General, don't worry, I will live up to your hope." Zhao Xiu and another guard, Cai Ping, said in unison. They were originally good at martial arts and were familiar with water warfare. In the past few months, Shen Xuan taught them the art of war and often practiced the formation together. They all felt that they were reborn and had a strong desire to fight. How could they not be excited to be picked by Sun Shao.

"It's a good thing to have fighting spirit, but you should also be clear that the sea here is not a big river. Compared with the sea, it is similar to a small river ditch. The Qingxu sailors were used to the Sishui and Huaishui rivers. When they arrived in the river, they were beaten by our Jiangdong sailors, and if the Jiangdong sailors arrived here, I'm afraid their combat strength would be greatly reduced. Ladies and gentlemen, be careful. If you want to train the most powerful sailor in the world, it is not a matter of overnight. I hope you have enough psychological preparation for this.

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

"Good, the voyage from here to the gate of the cliff is from Zhao Xiu as the flagship, and in the next section, Cai Ping as the flagship, take turns to preside over military affairs. Everyone should be careful. Opportunities are always given to those who are prepared.

Everyone agreed again, and then left the cabin and returned to their respective ships.

All the way, there were several small pirates from afar, but when they rushed to the side, they saw the high pirate flag and were very disappointed. Pirates usually don't easily go to meet their peers, unless there is a feud 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 eat black, at least they should meet and get some light. Therefore, some people clearly saw that there were peers here, but when they saw that there were so many ships with poor strength, they couldn't help but be a little jealous and wanted to get a piece of the pie. But when they finally found that although there were not many fellow ships, they were the men who were very famous, and weighed their own reality. Li still left honestly.

The peace along the way has dissipated the last bit of doubts of the merchants. According to this trend, as long as they do not meet the order to sign themselves, they can reach Xuwen safely.

The next afternoon, the fleet arrived at Yamen. Sun Shao informed the merchant ship to rest at Yamen today, replenish food and fresh water, and set off tomorrow morning. After Ouyang Fu and others got the news, they went to arrange it. In the evening, the fleet entered the gate of the cliff and lowered the cable. Sun Shao took Shuai Zeng, Ao Lei and others to the shore and went straight to the official house of Jiaozhou sailors here.

(to be continued)