Gudou Village, ninety miles east of Panyu City, the Nanhai Temple on the south side of the village is noisy, Wang Yuwenwen of Xiyang of Zhou State is presiding over the ceremony, celebrating the temple repair, the government and the people pray together, praying that the gods will bless the people who go to sea to return smoothly and safely. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

Sailing was a risky activity, and even in the Age of Discovery, which later generations talked about, more than half of the death rate of sailors on long voyages would have been willing to take the plunge of profit.

Ships sail in the vast sea, diseases, storms, tsunamis, reefs will cause ships to sink, and once shipwrecked, few people can survive, so whenever the ship is about to open to the sea, the crew will burn incense and pray at the Nanhai Temple in Gudou Village, hoping that the gods will bless them with a safe return.

Gudou is about 90 miles away from Panyu, why do the ocean-going ships have to anchor here, so that the crew has the habit of going to the temple to burn incense and pray?

Yu Wenwen couldn't understand this question at first, because there were a large number of ships moored in Panyu Port outside Panyu City, why there was no temple there, but the temple incense in a small village ninety miles away was so vigorous.

The reason is very simple, because Gudou is the outer port of Panyu, because of the different hydrological conditions, Gudou Port has become an important auxiliary port of Panyu Port, and most of the sea ships entering and leaving Panyu Port will dock here.

The place where Panyu is located is Guangzhou in later generations, because the river brings a lot of sediment into the sea, the water level of its port area is relatively shallow compared to Gudou Port, and some sea ships are extremely inconvenient to enter and exit Panyu Port if the draft is too deep.

Sea ships enter Panyu from the open sea, before the Gudou waters are from south to north, the channel is wide and the water is deep, to the waters between Gudou and Panyu, the channel is from east to west, and there is more inconvenience if you want to use the wind.

The waters from Panyu to Gudou are funnel-shaped, the tide is urgent, and the waters east of Gudou are more than twice as wide, the river surface is suddenly wide, and the tide is weak, so the waters of Panyu are called "small sea", and the waters of Gudou are called "sea".

Every spring and summer, when the southeast wind rises, the sea ships that sail from distant Persia, Tianzhu, Lion Country and other exotic lands sail to Panyu with heavy loads, and the draft of the ships at this time is quite deep, so many shipowners choose to berth in Gudou Port, and then sail to Panyu after unloading part of the goods.

Or simply trade here, so Gudou as the outer port of Panyu, from the Jin Dynasty has been accompanied by the prosperity of Panyu Port, although it is only a village, but in fact, merchants from all over the country gather, the shops are lined up one after another, and the popularity is very strong.

And every autumn comes the north wind gradually rises, the sea ships that are about to return to China are full of goods, sail away from Panyu Port to Gudou Port to anchor, wait for the arrival of the wind hyacinth, once the north wind or northwest wind is strong, then set sail into the sea, is to release the ocean.

The starting point of Tonghaiyi Road is Panyu, but strictly speaking, the port of departure is not Panyu Port but its outer port Gudou Port, so the Nanhai Temple of Gudou will be full of incense, which is also the reason why Yuwen Wen allocated manpower and material resources to repair the Nanhai Temple.

This temple was probably built in Liang, and the local people called it "Polo Temple", Polo is Brahmin, and Liang was called Polo, that is to say, this South China Sea temple is dedicated to exotic gods.

Most of the seagoing ships are boats, of course, there are a lot of crew members in Lingbiao, they worship the gods to bless themselves to go to sea safely, whether there is any effect is not known, but the so-called "faith is spiritual, do not believe is not spiritual", the crew actually needs a kind of spiritual sustenance.

In this era, there is no belief in the god of the sea of Mazu, because Lin Moniang, the prototype of Mazu, was a figure in the Northern Song Dynasty, so Yu Wenwen understood the behavior of the crew to worship the gods.

The style of the statue is very different from the style of the local statue in the Central Plains, the image is a person who covers his forehead with his hand and looks south, Yuwen Wen wants to poison his tongue when he first sees this statue, but considering that this statue is respected by the crew as a god, in order to avoid causing adverse effects, so he gave up.

However, there was more than one person who had the same opinion as him, not to mention the soldiers who accompanied him on the southern expedition, even the local people felt that this idol was very special, so they gave it a nickname, called "Fan Ghost Wangbolo".

In the Cantonese language of later generations, foreigners are called "ghosts", which is similar to the word "ghosts" today.

"King, the smell of this jackapple is really unbearable, can you not eat it?"

"Don't eat? The pineapple tree in front of the Polo Temple, eaten to ensure that the boat is calm, the most rare treasure of the crew, give you a copy of the don't eat? ”

"Uh, my lord, it's really hard to swallow."

"Alas, everyone is watching, you, the head of Guangzhou, dislike jackapples so much, let the majority of the crew see it in their eyes and hurt in their hearts!"

Yang Ji swallowed the jackapple in the plate hard, and his expression looked like he had just eaten a bubble of, or the kind that was fresh and steaming, and Yu Wenwen immediately ate his share in one bite.

The smell of jackapple fruit is somewhat special, and it polarizes diners like durian, those who like it are full of praise for eating, and those who don't like it want to vomit, Yang Ji belongs to the latter, and Yuwenwen belongs to the former.

After talking with the local elders for a while, Yu Wenwen walked out of the temple, looked at the sea more than a hundred steps away, and sighed with great hope, Yang Ji walked to the side, saw that there was no one next to him, and asked in a low voice:

"King, what's the situation in Yecheng?"

"There is nothing in Yecheng, but the Qingyan area is a little unpeaceful, and some people want to be Liu Ju or Li Hong." Yu Wenwen sneered, and changed his words: "How, that nursery rhyme, what do you think of it?" ”

"The Maitreya Sect, as well as the White Lotus Sect, has lasted for thousands of years, but if the current situation is based on the current situation, it is just a disease of ringworm, but I don't know what the situation is in the north, if it can involve the energy of the prime minister, it is not bad."

"Since Anturo has specially informed him that it is worthy of our attention, I really hope that this person surnamed Liu or surnamed Li can attract the attention of the prime minister and let us buy more time."

Yu Wenwen took out a note from his arms, crumpled it into a ball after reading it, and threw it into the copper incense burner in front of the temple to burn it, this is the news that was just delivered to him last night, spanning a distance of nearly four thousand miles.

The carrier pigeon that took off from Yecheng flew to the pigeon loft in Xiyang, Huangzhou on the same day, and the carrier pigeon that took off from Xiyang the next day also arrived in Nanchang, Jiangzhou on the same day.

But the next journey to deliver the news was not so easy, because it was all dependent on the messenger to ride a horse or take a boat, so it took 13 days to get from Nanchang to Panyu, considering that more than half of the distance between the two places is a rugged road, which can be regarded as fast.

The news from Yecheng, in addition to the important news that the princess and the prince were safe in Yecheng, carried the news revealed by the Sogdian Anturo, accompanied by a nursery rhyme.

Yu Wenwen was a little speechless after reading this nursery rhyme, and after pondering with Yang Ji, he felt that there were people in Qingyan who had bad intentions and "mattered to me", but what made him worry about his wife and children.

I haven't seen each other for almost a year, if it weren't for the miasma raging in Lingbiao, he really wanted Yu Chi Chi Fan to come to Panyu for a reunion, but the princess went to Yecheng, and Yu Chi Chi Fan just accompanied the other party to visit relatives by the way.

In Yecheng, there is his mother's family to take care of, and Wei Chi Chifan's mother and son are very safe, but Yu Wenwen feels that since An Tuluo has specially reported the news, I am afraid that this matter cannot be underestimated, and he is worried that his wife and children will encounter large-scale chaos on the way back to Xiyang.

After all, those ill-intentioned careerists are expanding their power through cult means, and some people have already wanted to engage in auspicious rui in Xiyang and say that "Maitreya is born", and Huangzhou at the southern foot of Dabie Mountain is like this, so can Yuzhou on the north side, that is, the boundary of Henan, be spared?

"Don't worry, the king, now the control of the government is acceptable, the garrisons in various places are very strong, there are no natural disasters in Henan, and there is still basic order." Yang Ji persuaded, "It's just that I'm afraid there will be incidents in the Qingyan area." ”

"Let's not talk about it." Yuwen Wen retracted his thoughts and turned to Yang Ji: "Panyu is a big port of maritime trade, and there are many people from all over the world who have settled in the city, and the widow wants to prosper the sea trade, but I don't want the story of Quanzhou Pu to repeat itself, have you formulated a countermeasure?" ”