Chapter 189 The East China Sea King’s Banquet
Zheng Wang walked the fastest alone, and was the first to leave the county and return home.
After arriving in the study, only a short while later, Zheng Hu, the son of the family, walked in.
He raised his head and glanced at Zheng Wang, who was deep in thought, and asked in a low voice: "Master, are you calling me?"
Zheng Wang looked at Zheng Hu and ordered: "Get ready. Go to the north once, find Guan Ju, ask him to prepare, and bring someone to Qu County to help me.”
Zheng Hu respectfully responded: "Yes, sir."
Zheng Wang continued to give instructions: "Tell Guan Ju that this matter is of great importance. If he doesn't help me, he will never get anything from me in the future. Supplies have been replenished, whether it is food, ordnance or ships, they are all gone."
Zheng Hu still responded: "Yes, sir."
"Go ahead."
< br>Zheng Wang finished his instructions and closed his eyes.
Unlike Wang and Gan, the old noble families, the Zheng family was a new rich. Zheng Wang's father's generation had just started selling salt through smuggling.
The Eastern Han Dynasty court did not discuss salt. In theory, there should be no talk of smuggling salt.
But in reality it is so absurd, because Zheng Wang’s father’s smuggling was not to avoid the government, but to avoid salt tycoons like Wang and Gan.
It was not until the Zheng family became stronger that they were qualified to sit on the table and become a new powerful person.
For this reason, the Zheng family's sense of touch is much sharper than that of the Wang and Gan families.
Although Zheng Wang looks like a reckless man, he is actually a reckless man with brains.
He looked deeper than Wang Yu and Gan Zhen, and was keenly aware that this time the state government was playing tricks. Even if Liu Gong, the magistrate of Qu County, gave in to the demands of the salt tycoons in Qu County and returned the state order, he could not stop the pressure from the state government.
In the end, both sides still have to speak with their fists.
Of course, this does not mean that Zheng Wang is confident that he can withstand the Xuzhou Army's attack and suppression.
From Zheng Wang's point of view, the state government's ban on them boiling salt is nothing more than trying to cultivate new salt merchants to replace them and then profit from them.
Therefore, Zheng Wang's mind was very clear. He clearly knew the combat effectiveness of Liu Bei's Xuzhou Army. The performance of Xuzhou Army in the past six months was almost completely different from what it was when Tao Qian was there. With his small stature, he probably wouldn't even be able to defeat Yihe.
But Zheng Wang was full of confidence, because the opponent he was looking for was not the Xuzhou Army, but the new salt merchants.
No matter who Liu Bei Prefecture wants to replace Zheng Wang and the others, these new salt merchants will always boil salt by the sea.
When the time comes, Zheng Wang will watch and kill these people, whether he kills them until they are scared and dare not continue cooking salt, or kills them until they die. As long as Xuzhou cannot supply salt, Sooner or later, the state government will have to invite them back to produce salt.
This is the perfect plan that Zheng Wang came up with.
Regarding whether to communicate with the Wang family and Gan family, or even join forces.
Zheng Wang thought it over carefully and felt it was unnecessary.
There are two reasons.
The first is that the two sides are not on the same journey. Zheng Wang and the Zheng family came up from the bottom, and their backers were pirates. The Wang family and the Gan family are the money bags supported by the princes, kings and dignitaries. The backstage of both sides are not the same, how can they talk about it together?
If I really discuss it with them but fail to reach an agreement in the end, my plan will be exposed.
Secondly, Zheng Wang realized that this might not be a good opportunity.
If the Wang family and the Gan family can convince the state capital with their backstage, then Zheng Wang will be happy to take advantage of it. But if they disagree with the state government, they will be the first to be unlucky.
You can hide behind and wait for the opportunity. Even if you can't annex the Wang family and the Gan family in the end, you can at least tear off a large piece of flesh from the other party.
No, maybe I can also use the Wang family and the Gan family as certificates of surrender.
Why is it that only the Mi family can seek refuge in the state capital?
Can’t you do it yourself?
Zheng Wang felt a little happier. Maybe this salt ban was a good thing.
The news that Gan, Wang, and Zheng threatened the county king and made Liu Gong oppose the state order soon spread to the Mi family.
According to Liu Feng's arrangement, Zhou Tai and Jiang Qin led a thousand navy troops to be stationed in the harbor on Duzhou Island, ready to respond to Qu County at any time.
Gan Ning added his troops to 500 people, and Dong Xi recruited more than 800 followers from his hometown to form a team and stationed in the harbor outside Qu County.
Taishi Ci's fifty cavalry and Pan Zhang's five hundred armored soldiers were responsible for Liu Feng's safety, accompanying him and stationed in Mi Mansion in Qu County.
The three teams are in close contact with each other. They not only protect the most important Duzhou Shandao Saltworks, Quxian Harbor Shipyard, and Quxian County's Mi Mansion, but they can also respond to each other from a distance and support each other at any time.
More importantly, Duzhou Shandao and Quxian ports have been controlled, and entry and exit are controlled, and Taishi Ci, Pan Zhang and other people entered in batches mixed with the Mi family's caravan. Mi Mansion.
This also means that until now, Liu Feng has quietly arranged nearly 3,000 troops in Qu County, but these local snakes in Qu County know nothing about it.
Their biggest attention is on the seaport outside Qu County, trying to figure out the reason and purpose of the state government's blockade of the seaport. However, the forces within Duzhou Shandao and Mi Mansion are completely unknown.
"The actions of these people are like moths under a candle. It is ridiculous that they not only have no self-awareness, but also want to resist the state capital. They are really arrogant and ridiculous."
The speaker is Qin Song, in the original time and space Sun Ce's mastermind, assisted Sun Ce to win the sixteen battles in Jiangdong and capture the northern part of Danyang. Later, he also served as the second brother of Jiangdong's leader, a hard-core Erzhang faction, but he died too early and was Sun Ce's mastermind, so he disappeared from history.
At this time, he and Chen Duan, Sun Ce's other mastermind, were recruited by Liu Bei. This time he accompanied the young master to participate in the salt operation, which made both of them a little excited.
From the perspective of Qin Song and Chen Duan, this kind of action cannot be followed unless they are close followers.
Although they didn’t understand why the Liu family and his son trusted them so much, Qin Song and Chen Duan felt excited and secretly happy to repay them as national warriors.
"Mr. Qin doesn't know something. They each have their own cards."
Liu Feng had a smile on his face, but this smile was a bit cold: "The person standing behind the Gan family and the Wang family is the King of East China Sea. Behind Liu Gong was King Langya. Langya originally produced salt, and the Haiqu area was a very good salt production area. However, during Cao Cao's second expedition to Xuzhou, it was defeated by Cao Ren's partial army, and most of the remaining salt workers went south. Quxian has made Quxian Yanhao even stronger."
"More importantly, after losing Haiqu, King Langya also turned his attention to Quxian, wanting to get a share of it. Gan, Wang and other salt tycoons were worried that their backgrounds were not strong enough, so they naturally hit it off with King Langya. "For this reason, Liu Gong was transferred to Qu County as a middleman for the three-party cooperation. The salt tycoons of the county will protect us."
After Liu Feng finished speaking, he sighed leisurely: "Next, we have to see the progress on my father's side."
Liu Feng's idea was all right.
After Liu Gong took back the order from the state capital, Liu Bei in Tancheng immediately became busy.
The King of Donghai, who had turned a blind eye to Liu Bei at first, suddenly remembered his family ties. The palace doctor ordered Rao Zhi to come to the palace to ask for an audience and invited Liu Bei to a banquet at the palace.
In the Han system, the princes and kings regarded counties as their countries, and each country had one prime minister and one national minister.
The Prime Minister is in charge of foreign affairs, and the Fu is in charge of the internal affairs of the palace.
Both the National Prime Minister and the National Fu are high-ranking officials with two thousand stones. However, because the county system has become more mature, the status and strength of the National Fu are increasingly unable to keep up with the National Prime Minister, and they have been left far behind by the other party.
The Prime Minister of Donghai Kingdom is Xu Xuan, named Prime Minister, who is essentially the governor of Donghai Kingdom.
When the governor was originally the governor, the prime minister and the governor were still enemies. Although the governor was above the prime minister, it was only because the governor had the power to supervise the prime minister, and he relied on this to control the prime minister. In fact, there is no superior-subordinate relationship between the two parties.
Kezhou Mu is completely different. This is a high-ranking official formally appointed by the imperial court to be the prime minister or prefect. As for the imperial master, according to the system, he stayed in the palace all day long and degenerated into a butler.
As the Prime Minister of Donghai State, Xu Qiu does not need to pay attention to the King of Donghai at all. He only needs to be responsible for the state pastor Liu Bei. And with Xu Qiu's reputation as a celebrity, his overtures to Liu Zhi, the King of the East China Sea, were naturally genuine.
It is for this reason that the King of East China Sea did not find Xu Qiu, but directly found Liu Bei.
"It has been nearly a year since Liu Shijun came to Xu, and His Highness has not met him yet, just because he was not feeling well before and it was not convenient. Now that His Highness's health has improved, we have set up a banquet to invite you. Please don't refuse the banquet at the palace."
After listening to Rao Zhi's words, Liu Bei agreed: "Yes, go back and tell your highness that you will be on time for the appointment."
< br>Rao Zhi was a little surprised. He had actually prepared Liu Bei to refuse, but he didn't expect that the other party would agree directly. But this is a good thing, at least he can go back to work.
Two days later, Liu Bei went to the Donghai Palace for a banquet.
Contrary to Liu Bei's expectation, the King of East China Sea turned out to be a thin and elderly man.
Throughout the Eastern Han Dynasty, Xuzhou was a heaven-sent treasure.
Xuzhou, which only has five counties, has four feudal states, one is the first prince of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and the other three are all sons of Emperor Ming of the Han Dynasty.
The most amazing thing is that these four vassals all have longevity.
One of the most iconic features of the Eastern Han Dynasty royal family was the emperor's short life.
When Emperor Guangwu lived to sixty-three, he was already the longest-lived emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty.
The entire Eastern Han Dynasty was spent in a cycle where the emperor died suddenly in his prime, a young boy succeeded to the throne, the general assisted the government, the young emperor relied on eunuchs to kill the general, and then died suddenly in his prime.
It is no wonder that the emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty was close to the eunuchs and alienated the scholars.
What were you scholars doing when I was bullied by the general?
Corresponding to the royal family, in the Xuzhou Guangdonghai King lineage, there are only two people who have held the title for more than 40 years. They both became kings in their prime, and their life spans were at least sixty or seventy years old.
King Langya's lineage is more viable than King Donghai, and there is one who reigned for fifty-four years.
And Pengcheng King Liu He reigned for sixty-four years, exceeding the life span of Emperor Guangwu.
The most successful one is the lineage of King Xia Pi. Liu Yi lived for a full ninety years in one breath. If it had not been for the Yellow Turban Rebellion, he would have lived for a few more years.
Therefore, fat heads and big ears are relatively rare in Xuzhou clans. After all, diabetes, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia are all terminal diseases in this era, and they die very quickly.
At this banquet, Liu Zhi was very courteous to Liu Bei. He sent his state minister Wanze to greet him at the gate of the palace early, and he himself took his sons Liu Wan and Liu Xian to greet him at the inner gate.
Liu Bei's face was calm and gentle, he was courteous and attentive, and he did not appear domineering at all, which was recognized by all the officials in the palace.
Liu Zhi also quietly breathed a sigh of relief. He actually regretted not making friends with Liu Bei earlier. Who would have thought that this guy could be so capable. In just over half a year, he managed to organize the complex and broken Xuzhou into order, and he also repeatedly The battles have been won repeatedly, which is really amazing.
After seeing Liu Bei, Liu Zhi hurriedly stepped forward to hold his hand and said: "I heard that Liu Shijun is also a clan member of my Han family. We are not allowed to meet each other in the past. It is because I am not feeling well. Please help me." Don't blame Liu Shijun."
Liu Bei replied: "Why did the king say this? Bei is the son of Emperor Jing of Han Dynasty. Officials, your Majesty is the King of the Donghai Sect, and you should welcome your Majesty. For personal reasons, your Majesty is the elder of the clan, and you should handle your duties as a junior. If you have anything to do, please do so as long as it is reasonable. , Be prepared to comply with everything.”
Liu Zhi's eyelids drooped to cover up the displeasure in his eyes.
Liu Bei's words were obviously flattering him, but secretly he was setting a trap for him.
Every word is a sect king, the king, but in fact he is really beaten.
The Eastern Han Dynasty treated the princes and kings very differently from the Western Han Dynasty, and they were very strict.
It is a sin for local officials to even have close friendships with the king.
A relationship like that between King Chen Liu Chong and Luo Jun would have been sent to Luoyang long ago if they had been released twenty years ago.
At the same time, the Eastern Han Dynasty also strictly prohibited the clan from interfering with the local area. Therefore, the power of the state Fu, who has dual attributes, will become smaller and smaller. While the power of the state is expanding, he is completely separated from King He Zong. The master-slave relationship has completely become an official in the court system.
Liu Bei is also warning Liu Zhi, if you become your clan king, I will naturally support you and treat you with courtesy.
But if you get out of the circle, don’t think I will listen to you.
The last sentence directly made it clear to the other party that any request must be reasonable and reasonable, otherwise don't blame me for being rude.
After hearing such words, Liu Zhi could not be happy.
It was Liu Zhi’s fault that he didn’t fall out on the spot.
However, Liu Zhi was not too disappointed, Liu Bei's reaction was within his expectation.
After all, for Liu Zhi, what he wanted was money, not power. He himself felt that there was no essential conflict with Liu Bei.
He just wanted Liu Bei not to torment the salt tycoons so that they could continue to pay tribute to him.
Strictly speaking, even if this matter was brought to Luoyang, the court would not blame Liu Zhi.
If the world hadn't changed now, otherwise Liu Zhi would still have looked at Liu Bei's face?
A memorial was sent to Luoyang a long time ago, directly reporting him that Liu Bei had plundered money, harassed the local area, and forced the local nobles.
Then Liu Zhi started the banquet.
Liu Bei was very considerate. He drank the wines offered by Liu Zhi and his son, as well as the toasts offered by the master of the country, Lang Zhongling and others. Fortunately, Liu Bei had a good capacity for drinking. He drank more than a dozen drinks in one go without changing his color.
However, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei were not seated. They stood behind Liu Bei, like two door gods, awe-inspiring and inviolable.
The eyes of Liu Zhi and others frequently fell on Guan and Zhang. Liu Zhi and others had never seen such warriors, let alone such a fierce warrior who was as loyal as a hunting dog. Qin, the guard is here.
"These two are Bei's confidants, brothers and sisters."
Liu Bei noticed that Liu Zhi and others had been peeking at Guan and Zhang, so he introduced: "This is the second brother. Guan Yu was from Jieliang, Hedong, and his third brother Zhang Fei was from Bei's hometown. The two of them had followed Bei in the Yellow Turbans and fought in all directions. "
"They are really tigers and wolves. Scholars.”
Liu Zhi was very envious. If there were such warriors in the palace of the King of the East China Sea, he would probably be able to sleep more comfortably.
Not to mention the Yellow Turban rebellion a few years ago, even Cao Cao's attack on Tancheng last year was frightened by Liu Zhi.
Although he was the king of the vassals, Cao Mengde, the butcher, had his eyes set on killing him. God knows whether he would spare his life.
"Such a strong man, I should give him fine wine to enjoy."
Liu Zhi wanted to give wine to Guan and Zhang. Firstly, he was really happy to see the hunter, and secondly, it also gave Liu Bei face. Add glory.
The state master Wanze naturally understood Liu Zhi's intentions. As a senior official with two thousand shi, he personally picked up the two wines and walked up to Liu Bei, wanting to give him the wine.
What I didn’t expect was that no one, no matter Guan Yu with a red face and narrow eyes, or Zhang Fei with a leopard head and ring eyes, paid any attention to him.
This made Wan Ze a little unhappy. After all, he was also a high-ranking official with two thousand stones. In terms of status alone, he should be the third person in Xuzhou in theory, second only to Liu Bei and tied with Xu Qiu.
As a result, he was ignored by the two warriors.
Until this moment, Liu Bei seemed to have just heard Wan Ze's words. He opened his eyes and said, "Since the king of Zong has given you wine, you should accept it."
As soon as Liu Bei finished speaking, Guan and Zhang took action.
The two of them each took a few steps, walked around Liu Bei's case on two sides, and grabbed the wine baron from Wan Ze.
Next, what made Liu Zhi and Wan Zeyi even more indignant was that after Guan Yu and Zhang Fei drank all the wine in their hands, they actually thanked Liu Bei at the same time: "Thank you, my lord, for the wine! "
Liu Bei scolded lightly: "Don't talk nonsense, this wine was given by the King of Donghai and poured by the masters of all countries. Why don't you two thank them quickly? "
< br>Guan Yu and Zhang Fei then stepped forward and bowed their hands in salute: "Thank you, Your Majesty, the Master."
What can Liu Zhi and Wan Ze say?
The two looked at each other and could only force a smile to reveal the matter.
After two trials, Liu Bei's feedback was quite blunt and did not give much face, which made Liu Zhi and Wan Ze very unhappy.
The two looked at each other and decided to stop beating around the bush and be more direct.
"Your Majesty, I have heard that the state has issued an order to Qu County, ordering the county magistrate to rectify the salt industry and suspend the cooking of salt."
Wan Ze was the first to speak: "This matter has been aroused recently, and even the king has heard about it. Qu County is the center of salt production in Xuzhou. If the salt boiling is suspended, it will definitely affect the supply of salt in the state. The king is also very concerned about this. It’s about caring.”
(End of this chapter)