The Warriors of the Three Kingdoms

In the future, this place will be the famous Shenzhen.

Of course, now it is just a shallow beach with a few thatched huts and a fishing net hanging outside.

Liu Zheng didn't even let his ship anchor here, and continued sailing.

Because he is not familiar with the shipping route, and Liu Zheng also walks along the coastline, it is easy to get lost on the beach at night, so he stopped nearby to rest for a night, and then continued on the next day.

When the sky was about to darken the next day, I arrived in Xiamen. Of course, Xiamen is not called Xiamen at this time, but it is just a deserted island, and there are no people. Although it belongs to the border of Yangzhou at this time.

However, Yangzhou is not concerned about the jurisdiction of this area. It belongs to the land of Baiyue. Many different people live together and the population is not dense, so the imperial court does not care about this area.

After Liu Zheng made a mark here, he continued to send people to sail.

Another day later, the fleet arrived at the boundary of Houguan County, Jian'an County, Yangzhou.

This is the real central part of Yangzhou. It belongs to some people, and it is also a place gradually controlled by the imperial court.

Houguan County is close to the sea, and most fishermen make a living by fishing in the sea. They are not surprised to see ships passing by on the sea, but Liu Zheng is getting more and more excited about it, because he only has three days. , from Hepu County to Jian'an County.

Of course, it’s not called Jian’an now, it’s still under the jurisdiction of Kuaiji County, and Jian’an will be separated out more than ten years later.

But it also excited Liu Zheng, because at this speed, his idea of ​​doing business by sea is feasible.

Originally, relying on horse-drawn carriages to transport goods on land was much slower than sailing on the sea.

After all, goods are not the same as people walking. They need to use chariots and horses, which will be slower, but the fleet is different. Traveling along the sea, even if it is slower for a day or two, the time is much faster than traveling on land. .

And it also saves the tolls paid by various counties and counties, and the safety and cost are greatly reduced.

After stopping at Houguan for a day, Liu Zheng led his men to continue northward.

Two days later, Liu Zheng arrived at another important location in Yangzhou, which is the mouth of the Yangtze River.

When he got here, Liu Zheng knew that his destination was coming.

At the estuary of the Yangtze River, follow these currents and go upstream to reach Poyang Lake, and continue north along the coast to reach the Bohai Sea area. At that time, it will be easy to go to Youzhou.

"Here we are, this is our destination."

"Here, what is this place?"

Gan Ning is not familiar with this place, but Zu Lang frowned a little.

"Here, I seem to have heard people say that it is the mouth of the lower reaches of the waters of Poyang Lake."

After all, Zu Lang is from the water system of Poyang Lake. Zu Lang used to be in the water area of ​​Poyang Lake. He was a water thief leader of the generation in Jing County.

"That's right, this is the estuary of the waters of Poyang Lake, that is, the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. I heard that this is Yan Baihu's territory?"

Liu Zheng looked at Zu Lang, and asked Zu Lang a question.

Zu Lang nodded.

"Well, that guy Yan Baihu is active in the area of ​​Wu County, so he should have a stronghold here."

"To be precise, Yan Baihu is actually not a water thief in Poyang Lake, but a water thief in Taihu Lake."

Zu Lang still has some understanding of Yan Baihu. After all, they are collectively known as the four water thieves of Poyang Lake, and they still have some understanding of each other.

"Speaking of which, my lord, our ship was hijacked. I also doubted Yan Baihu at first, but this guy has been active in Taihu Lake, rarely goes to Poyang Lake, and he is also a person of dignity. Lay hands on our ships."

"The least likely person may be the most likely person. Don't jump to conclusions. We will know when we find out the truth of the matter."

Liu Zheng didn't argue with Zu Lang any more, and at the same time began to guide the boat upstream along the Yangtze River.

For this trip, they didn't want to go directly to Poyang Lake, but to go to Xuzhou first, find the Mi family, apologize to the Mi family first, then discuss the trade issue from Jiaozhou, and finally deal with the robbery of the ship things.

From here, it is also possible to go to Xuzhou, as long as the boat stops at Jianye City, and then walk to Xuzhou, it will not take a few days.

The reason why he didn't go directly by boat is that Liu Zheng's identity is not easy to reveal now, so he needs to hide his figure.

three days later.

Mijiawu Fort outside Xuzhou City.

Liu Zheng and his party disguised themselves and knocked on the door of Mi's house.

"Who is it!"

The caretaker of Mi's house impatiently came over to open the door. As soon as the door opened, he saw Liu Zheng and his party outside.

"Who are you? Do you know where this is?"

Liu Zheng didn't speak, but Zu Lang stood up and glanced at the guard at the door, his face a little majestic.

"Tell your second master that Zu Lang is visiting."

"Zu Lang!?"

When the nursing home heard the name, there was some impatient expression on its face, but at this moment it immediately changed.

"You wait a moment, I'll go in and report!"

Chapter 300 Another visit

It didn't take long for the nurse to go in to report, and the door opened again.

Mi Fang came out of the courtyard in a hurry, and her eyes fell on Zu Lang as soon as she came out.

When seeing Zu Lang, although Mi Fang's face was a little anxious, she still looked calm.

"General Zu Lang, what kind of wind brought you here?"

Before Mi Fang finished speaking, her eyes fell on Liu Zheng behind Zu Lang.

Mi Fang knew Liu Zheng, after all, he had met Liu Zheng many times.

As soon as he saw Liu Zheng's expression, he immediately recognized Liu Zheng.

"Liu"

After Mi Fang saw Liu Zheng, she planned to speak to Liu Zheng, but before she could say anything, Liu Zheng stopped her with his hand.

"There are a lot of people here, let's go in and talk about it first!"

"Yes, yes, see how I forgot about this!"

Mi Fang immediately slapped her forehead and then made a way out, making a gesture of respectful invitation to let Liu Zheng and the others enter the mansion first.

Mi Fang led Liu Zheng and his party, and quickly walked to a side hall, and then entered a relatively quiet living room.

"Master Liu Zheng, why did you appear here?"

For Liu Zheng's appearance, Mi Fang felt very surprised. After leading Liu Zheng into the living room, after settling down, she immediately looked at Liu Zheng with a puzzled look.

Just when Liu Zhenggang was about to speak to Mi Fang about his visit, footsteps came from outside the living room again.

Liu Zheng didn't speak at all, but waited for the people outside the door to come in.

Soon, the people outside pushed the door and entered.

Liu Zheng fixed his eyes and saw that he couldn't see that it was Mi Zhu.

"Master Liu Zheng!"

Mi Zhu's face was in a hurry. After pushing the door and entering, his eyes scanned the room, and finally fell on Liu Zheng, and immediately restrained himself a little.

"Oh, it's Mi Zhu. It's just in time for me to come. I'm planning to tell Mi Fang the reason for my visit this time. Since you're here, let's listen together."

Liu Zheng responded to Mi Zhu, and then Mi Zhu nodded and stopped talking, but stood aside and waited for Liu Zheng to speak.

"Patriarch Mi Zhu, first of all, I want to say sorry to you!"

"Actually, I should have come to meet with you a long time ago, but I have been busy with the war in Jiaozhou before, so I have no time to take care of the affairs here. This time, the affairs in Jiaozhou have been almost handled, so I specially took the time to come here and talk to you guys. Tell me about the robbery of the merchant ship before."

After Liu Zheng finished speaking, Mi Zhu and Mi Fang's tense faces immediately eased a lot.

After all, for Mi Zhu and Mi Fang, the hijacking of a mere merchant ship is not a big deal.

In the past, the merchant ships of the Mi family often had accidents when they were sailing. Not to mention that a ship was robbed, it was normal for the entire fleet to be robbed of its cargo. Protection, the loss of holding merchant ships is minimized.

For the Mi family, this was simply unbelievable. Although a merchant ship was hijacked, the Mi family didn't take it seriously at all.

Although the Mi family didn't care, Liu Zheng cared a lot and wanted to find out what was going on.

"Liu Zheng, that's why you came here. It's okay. A mere ship was hijacked. I didn't take this kind of thing to heart at all. You don't have to pay a visit in person."

"No, the robbery of a merchant ship is not a trivial matter. For us, it is a rift in cooperation. If it cannot be handled properly, it will be a shame for me, Liu Zheng."

"And some people ignored Zu Lang's reputation and forcibly plundered ships. This is declaring war on me, Liu Zheng. If the loss is not recovered, how can Zu Lang hang around in this water? Where will my Liu Zheng's face go?"

Although Liu Zheng came to apologize, but it was more to get back the scene and let Zu Lang dominate the waters of Poyang Lake.

At this moment, Mi Zhu heard Liu Zheng say this, so he had no choice but to nod.

"Actually, speaking of these robbed goods, I have some clues here."

Mi Zhu knew that since Liu Zheng came here for this matter, he naturally tried his best to solve it for Liu Zheng.

As soon as Liu Zheng was mentioned by Mi Zhu, he immediately became interested.

"Oh? What clues? I'm currently investigating the robbers. If Mi Zhu Patriarch, you have clues, it would be great. Only by catching those robbers can we maintain the gift operation of this trade line." go down!"

Mi Zhu spoke immediately.

"Actually, I didn't know who hijacked our ship at the beginning, but recently a commercial firm in Jianye City next door took away some of our goods, and our people accidentally heard their servants say that they bought goods from other The place received a batch of silk and porcelain."

"Those people are old customers of our Mi family, and they suddenly took less of our goods, silk and porcelain again, which immediately alerted me, because the merchant ship we hijacked was loaded with silk and porcelain! "

As soon as Mi Zhu told Liu Zheng about his clues, Liu Zheng immediately understood.

"You mean you suspect those cargoes, the ones on our stolen merchant ship?"

After Mi Zhu finished speaking, Liu Zheng immediately understood.Although there is no certainty about this, it is still a clue. If we continue to trace it, it may be possible to find something.

After all, it can be guessed.The merchant ship that the Mi family was hijacked was more than a month ago, and now there has been no news about it for so long, it should be deliberately delaying time in order to prevent leaks.Those goods were not immediately cashed out.

Now that more than a month has passed, those who hijacked the merchant ship should also feel safe, so they sold those goods at this time.

And the Mi family has a lot of shops around here, once there is an unknown item, they can immediately receive the news.

"Alright, Patriarch Mi Zhu, please tell me the address of that shop, I'll go over and check."

At this time, Liu Zheng happened to have no clues. With the information provided by Mi Zhu now, he could directly follow this clue to investigate first.

After talking about the robbery of the merchant ship, Liu Zheng opened his mouth and looked at Mi Zhu again.

"Okay, Patriarch Mi Zhu, now that I've finished talking about the robbery of the merchant ship, I actually have another purpose for coming here. Maybe Mi Fang should have mentioned it to you before."

"Master Liu Zheng is talking about doing business with Jiaozhou?"

When Liu Zheng met with Mi Fang in Changsha before, he told him that Liu Zheng now occupies Jiaozhou.

Thinking about it, Mi Fang, who is back in Xuzhou now, should have a chat with Mi Zhu about what Liu Zheng said in Changsha.

Now being questioned by Liu Zheng, Mi Zhu naturally remembered what his younger brother told him before.

Liu Zheng nodded.

"Jiaozhou is in need of a lot of waste now and I am in Jiaozhou, so I can open the door for you. All the businesses of your Mi family in Jiaozhou are tax-free, and the profits from trade will not be much less than those of surrounding states and counties."

Liu Zheng told Mi Zhu about some situations in Jiaozhou.Briefly describe it to him.I hope that Mi Zhu can agree to operate in Jiaozhou in the past.

Although Liu Zheng said it lightly, Mi Zhu showed a trace of hesitation.

"Lord Liu Zheng, it's not that we don't want to send people to Jiaozhou to do business. In fact, we had this idea a long time ago and tried to send people there, but the distance between Jiaozhou and Xuzhou is too far, although there are huge benefits in doing business. , but because there are too many variables in the long distance, the risk is too great, but the benefits cannot fully bear the risk, so"

Mi Zhu didn't finish the rest of the sentence, because he knew that he had already expressed his intention of not going to Jiaozhou to do business.

But Liu Zheng asked a rhetorical question after listening to him.

"Patriarch Mi Zhu, are you worried that the journey from Xuzhou to Jiaozhou is too far away?"

"It's mainly because of this. After all, I sent someone to go there once before. Even if I hurry up from Xuzhou to Jiaozhou, it will take at least two months to go there."

"However, at the same time, you can go to Jingzhou or Yangzhou twice. The benefits you earn are greater, and the risks are relatively smaller."

Mi Zhu explained something to Liu Zheng, and Liu Zheng nodded lightly after listening.This is what he thought too.He had already guessed that Mi Zhu would say that.

"Master Mi Zhu, if I can shorten the time you travel from Xuzhou to Jiaozhou to every half a month, and at most it will not exceed 20 days, then do you think it is feasible to go to Jiaozhou to do business?"

As soon as Liu Zheng's words were said, Mi Zhu's expression changed drastically.

"Travel every 20 days? It's impossible. The two places are separated by several states and counties, and the mountain roads are difficult!"

"Don't worry, what I Liu Zheng said is definitely not a lie."