Compared with the ancient cities in the Central Plains, which have a history of hundreds of thousands of years, Mingzhou is a very young city. In the twenty-sixth year of the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, Cheng County, which had been established as a county for more than 1,000 years, was redivided into four counties of Cixi, Wengshan, Fenghua and Cheng County by the central government at that time, and Mingzhou was added to govern it; The place name of "Mingzhou" appeared in the long river of history. At that time, the state of Mingzhou was located in Cheng County. It was not until more than 80 years later, in the first year of Changqing of Tang Muzong, that the state was moved to the Sanjiangkou New City of the Yongjiang River, which was now Mingzhou City, where the Yao River and the Fenghua River merged.

During the Tang Dynasty, Mingzhou was a large port alongside Yangzhou, Quanzhou, and Guangzhou. In May and June, when the southeast wind blows, countless ships loaded with porcelain, tea, silk, clothing, books, pen, ink, paper and inkstone and other stationery depart from Mingshu to the Korean Peninsula and the Japanese archipelago. They will stay in the area for about half a year, until November and December every year, when the northwest wind is raging, and then they will be loaded with furs, medicinal herbs, wood, blister copper, gold and silver, and local specialties such as morning brocade, morning silk, fish tooth silk, and even slave people, and return across the sea. Because of the developed overseas trade, Mingzhou during the Tang Dynasty was a famous and wealthy place in the world, and its reputation was so great that it even spread to thousands of miles away through foreign maritime merchants. Even the Holy See knows that in the East, where gold and precious stones are everywhere, there are several cities of great abundance, one of which is a city made of gold called "zaitu".

(Thorn tree)", which belongs to a group called "Diamo."

DS (Don)"; There is also a city made of silver called "

ie

i (Ming)", it is at the same time

ie

the means of the i-country; There is also "Ha", which is famous for "Silk".

(Han Dynasty)", defeated the powerful Huns' "Mu."

hia

(Han Dynasty)", and CaelestisKha, which has the same majesty as the main god on Mount Olympus

(Day Khan)" one by one legend, this CaelestisKha

can turn a city of hundreds of thousands of people to dust overnight. Deus (my God), to destroy a city of hundreds of thousands of people overnight? Co, the largest city in Christendom

sta

ti

Opoli (Constantinople) is only a few hundred thousand people......

However, the current Mingzhou City is far less prosperous than it was more than a hundred years ago. After the opening of the Yuan Dynasty, the national strength of the Tang Dynasty gradually declined, and the control of the frontier areas was inadequate, and the Tubo took the opportunity to annex the Longyou region and the Hexi Corridor. At the beginning of the founding of the Great Zhao Dynasty, although the Tubo people retreated to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau due to internal reasons, the Tuyi Ci had already sat on the throne and firmly controlled the grasslands in the north. For more than 100 years, Da Zhao and the Buyeo people have been fighting and stopping, and the war has never really stopped. In order to maintain the strategic advantage over Buyeo, during the reign of Taizong, Dazhao closed the port of Laizhou, an important port in the north, and ordered that all localities should not trade with Buyeo. and those who are in surplus shall be given eighty days of scepter and ten days; Those who pass through the five years will be imprisoned for one year; The ten penetrators are equipped with troops to defend the border. Although this ban on the sea was only for Buyeo, the Goryeo Kingdom bordered Buyeo, and the appearance was similar and the language was the same—the official language of the two countries was the Central Plains dialect of Chang'an, so it was difficult to distinguish who was a Goryeo and who was a Buyeo, so the trade between Dazhao and Goryeo was also greatly affected. Before the ban on the sea, there were no less than 200 large boats of more than 1,000 stones and countless other small boats to and from Goryeo every year, and the number of large boats dropped sharply to dozens of boats every year in less than three years after the implementation of the sea ban. After that, the number of ships going to Goryeo decreased year by year, and by the time of Heonjong, there were only a dozen or so sailors that traveled between Myeongju and Goryeo all year round. Qianshi's sea ships no longer sailed north, and Baishi's small sea ships naturally did not have the courage to embark on this dangerous route alone, and this once busy sea trade route from Mingzhou and Yangzhou to Goryeo finally fell into depression. In the bleakest 10th and 11th years of the Eastern Era, for two consecutive years, there was not even a single ship registered in Myeongju City to go to Goryeo.

The route to the north was no longer busy, the trade route was almost cut off, and the imperial court transferred the original ship division yamen in Mingzhou to Quanzhou, and set up a new city ship department yamen in Guangzhou, and only one city berthing department was set up locally responsible for registering the entry and exit of ships and collecting goods tax, and the city berthing envoy was no longer concurrently served by the eastern Zhejiang transit envoy as in the past, but by the transshipment envoy appointed another official from the eighth grade, and the noisy maritime trade suddenly plummeted. Although many maritime merchants turned south to open up new shipping routes and wanted to go to Zhenla to do trade, Zhenla and the places west of Zhenla were the traditional spheres of influence of maritime merchants in Quanzhou, Guangzhou and Fuzhou. Therefore, with the exception of a few well-capitalized maritime merchants, the others were all in a state of disarray, and they had to turn their gaze from the sea to their own country, from the lucrative overseas trade back to the land that depended on the sky; Or, it is to take advantage of the convenient local water and land transportation conditions, running back and forth between the southern ports and the hinterland of the Central Plains to do some spread trading, relying on the leftovers leaked from other people's fingers to earn some hard-earned money. With these changes, the once prosperous city of Mingzhou gradually declined......

But that's not enough. Just a month ago, in mid-April, the imperial court suddenly sent an official document ordering that all counties under the jurisdiction of Mingzhou should not sail into the sea. This immediately made the locals nervous. Five days later, an even more stringent document was issued, saying that ships from both local and foreign ports were not allowed to leave as long as they docked, and those who violated the law were punished as collaborators. Immediately after that, the garrisons of Zhedong Road began to move in the direction of Mingzhou, and in the middle of ten days, the land passages leading from one city and four counties to other places were all tightly blocked. Not only that, but the unlucky sailors who were blocked at the dock and could not go back also said that they saw at least 100 warships shuttling back and forth on the open sea, including not only the local sailors in Mingzhou, but also the sailors in Quanzhou and Fuzhou. The last few ships that have been driven into the harbor have even sworn that they have seen the flag of the Canton sailors. This has caused even more panic. In just a few days, all kinds of rumors spread in the market. Some people say that there are people in the south who rebelled, some people say that there are large-scale rogues in the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River, and some people say that this is because the imperial court wants to learn from Emperor Yang of Sui to cross the sea to conquer Goryeo, and some people say that this is because the Son of Heaven wants to go overseas to find Xiandao for immortal medicine...... It wasn't until a new plaque of the Sanjiang Command Yamen was hung outside the Yamen of the City Bo Division that the newly appointed commander posted a notice to calm the people, telling everyone that there was no need to panic, this was the imperial court holding a joint military exercise on land and water; Only then did the increasingly bizarre rumors stop. The notice also said that all boatmen, sailors, fishermen, and other ordinary people who rely on the sea for food will be paid 35 wen per day for lost work, which can also be converted into grain at market price, and the local government will register and distribute it uniformly. As soon as the notice came out, the panicked people gradually settled down. The compensation of thirty-five dollars made the faces of the sailors and fishermen smile. However, the merchants whose goods were overstocked cried, especially some merchants who had contracts and contract periods, felt that life was worse than death. But the commander of the yamen said that they were acting on orders, and there was no way to do such a thing, and it was absolutely impossible to compensate, at most they would help them issue a document, and after the ban on the military exercise was lifted, they would bring it up themselves to explain to the other party.

Of course, there are also some people who feel that it doesn't look like they are going to perform martial arts, and the evidence is that the soldiers who have just arrived on Wengzhou Island don't seem to be from the sailors, and they don't look like southerners at all. These soldiers were not officers and soldiers of the sailors, because the sailors did not have horses at all, and these soldiers brought hundreds of healthy horses, and carried them on the sea every day. The command yamen requisitioned a large number of sea boats of more than 1,000 stones, together with the large ships of the sailors, a total of about 100 ships, and hired a lot of people at the wharf to carry grain and ordnance to the boats. These people who worked hard under the dock said that there were two or three large sea boats loaded with copper coins, and they were also Yongning Tongbao, which was very rare on the market. Speaking of which, perhaps, these people really went to sea to find Penglai Immortal Island!

Ask for the medicine of immortality, this is a sign of the destruction of the country! Qin Shi Huang did just that, and Qin II died; Li Shimin did the same, and then Wu Zhou usurped the Tang Dynasty. As a result, some scholars began to criticize the stupid measures of the Eastern Yuan Emperor behind their backs, and some people were running to contact and publicly write to dissuade the Son of Heaven. But after all, there are only a few people who have read books and understand these truths, and the vast majority of Mingzhou people are indifferent. Because the martial arts didn't affect them too much. In addition, the martial arts performance is too far away for them, so far away that they can only be heard in the storytelling and the ancient language, so they have an attitude of watching the excitement, eagerly looking forward to the day when the water and land martial arts will come as soon as possible......

In an atmosphere of anticipation, life does not go by quickly.

It was a late May day. It was a very big day, and it was not yet noon, and the bright sun scorched the earth like an upside-down steamer, and there was a heat wave rolling everywhere. In such a hot day, people can hardly do anything, and can only sit in the shade of the sun to cool off. Even so, sweat still flows like a stream down people's sideburns, neck, chest, and backbone. There was no one to be seen in the streets, only to know that they were still singing tirelessly. Even the hawkers who walked the streets and alleys selling herbal tea and sour plum water with their burdens did not have the strength to solicit business, and it took a long time to shout "Sell herbal tea soup and sour plum water". The proprietress of the street food bar sat on a bench, leaning against the door frame and napping, unaware that someone was walking in front of her. But her old watchdog was awakened by the shouting of the tea seller, and he tried to open his eyes and look, curled his tongue and yawned a long time, and then lazily lay on his two front paws. It was so hot that it didn't even have the strength to do its part. It didn't even turn its head to get a closer look at the one-wheeled carriage that had just turned into the street.

In the carriage sat an official in a green uniform. It was much hotter inside the carriage than outside, and even though he had left the curtain of the carriage open, he was still sweating profusely. Right now, the front chest and back of his official uniform are soaked with sweat, but the buttons of his clothes are still meticulously fastened; He didn't even take off the veil he wore on his head because of the heat. It wasn't until he wiped his neck with a handkerchief that it looked like it had been flooded, that it was discovered that he didn't have an official belt around his waist. Obviously, this is just a last member who has not entered the stream at all, and is not yet a real court official; His status is a little higher than that of the scribes and soaps in the yamen. In fact, this person couldn't have worn this green official uniform, but the people around him were either too lazy to remind him, or they didn't know it at all, so he mixed in a civilian official with the martial arts position of a martial artist.

This person's surname is true, and the other words are straightforward, and he is the person who speaks of the Fang family in Mingzhou at the moment.

Fang Qu's appearance is not very similar to his brother Fang Xuan. He is much older than Fang Xuan, not only has deep wrinkles on his forehead, but also has gray sideburns, and people in their thirties look at least fifty years old. Like many people who eat by the sea, his face is tanned by the sun, his chin is planted with some unshaven stubble and sideburns, and his beard has been tarnished by the merciless years at sea.

At the beginning of the month, when he was promoted to martial arts by the new commander, he also received a letter from his brother Fang Shu, who was brought by the commander. Only then did he know that his brother was already an official in the court, and he also knew that the imperial court was about to send troops to the Eastern Wa Kingdom to help the Wa King quell the rebellion of the Fujiwara clan.

Although Fang Ji's letter was very short, in addition to explaining his whereabouts and the measures of the imperial court, it was just two words to report peace and greeting home, but there was no doubt that Fang did know what to do. For the next ten days, he has been running for the army, recruiting sailors and hiring seamen, raising food and arranging supplies, and he is simply too busy to touch the ground. This morning, he borrowed five large sea boats that had just arrived in Hong Kong from the hands of the two local maritime merchants, and after he returned, he registered and made careful arrangements for competent people to inspect and repair them, and heard that one of the Qin family's 8,000 stone sea boats and two 3,000 stone ships had arrived in the sea off Wengshan, so he hurried to the Qin family to discuss. Now, while sitting in the carriage sweating like rain, he was still thinking about what kind of price would make the Qin family willing to lend the three big boats......

He wiped his sweat again, trying to poke his head out to see what time it was. But as soon as he stuck his head out, his eyes were immediately dazzled by the white sun. He quickly retracted and blinked his eyes a few times, but he still couldn't see what was going on around him for a long time.

He knocked on the carriage and asked the groom, "What time is it?" ”

"It's noon, right?" The coachman was also not sure.

"Is it noon?" Fang asked.

The groom set up a pergola with his hand and looked up at the sun, and said firmly, "There is still a quarter and a half before noon." One by one, you see, hasn't the Baitian Temple over there not yet struck the noon bell? ”

Following the coachman's words, Fang did involuntarily look in the direction of the Baitian Temple in the distance. There are still several neighborhoods here from the Baitian Temple built by the Hu Jas, and the twisted dome of the temple's square hall has been painted with yellow paint, and countless glasses have been pasted, and when the sun shines, the white expanse shines brightly into a ball of light, and nothing can be seen clearly. He retracted his gaze and thought he hadn't heard the bell. It does not seem to be yet noon.

He was blinking his eyes, which had just been dazzled by the white light of the dome of the Worship Temple, when a hurried sound of horses' hooves came from behind.

The speed of the horse was extremely fast, and in the blink of an eye it caught up with the carriage, and in the distance someone was heard shouting, "Is it true ahead?" ”

Fang did quickly ask the groom to park the car on the street. Even if he didn't have this official robe on his body, the people who dared to call him by name in one acre and three points of land in Mingzhou could be counted with a slap, and none of these people would ride a horse to chase him. There is no need to ask, the only thing that can be chased is the military men in the newly established Sanjiang Command Yamen.

As soon as he got out of the carriage, the war horse had already leaned in, and the petty officer on horseback tied the horse in a circle, and the saddle did not even get off the head and asked: "You are Fang Zhen?" ”

Fang Qu bowed down on the wheel, and said in his mouth: "The next official is Fang Qu." He recognized it, it was a small colonel in the yamen.

The junior colonel didn't bother to correct his various mistakes, and only said: "Pass the military order of the commander: order, and return to the command yamen immediately!" ”

Fang Cheng bowed down and agreed, "The next official receives the order." Ask the messenger one by one, and the commander will make the lord look for me for something? Aren't you still at the pier outside Wengzhou Island......"

The little colonel was impatient to talk to him about this, turned his head with a whistle, and rode away.