The Shu army withdrew from the Wuchuan River valley at the end of February, and the new Shu envoy, Sima Cao Gan of Yuzhou, arrived in Jinling again on March 16 by the order of Wang Jian, the lord of Shu.

It was March in the spring of March, the spring was bright and shining, and the thin Cao Gan was wearing a long robe, standing on the official ship, looking at the broken outer walls of Jinling City in the distance.

The repair of the entire outer city wall of Jinling City, compared to when he left Jinling, there was basically no progress, and he thought to himself, it seems that in order to prepare for the offensive against Chaozhou, the State of Chu has completely stopped the repair of Jinling City.

It's just that the Chu army has already completed its assembly in Shuzhou and along the south bank of the Yangtze River, but it has been delayed until now and has not attacked Chaozhou on a large scale, and Cao Gan is also puzzled in his heart, and he doesn't understand what kind of contradictions and entanglements within Chu have not been resolved.

Of course, Cao Gan couldn't guess that all this was caused by Emperor Chu's suspicion of Xuzhou.

Due to the fact that it was the Shu army that took the initiative to provoke the war before, the official ships of the Shu envoys were strictly forbidden to enter the Yupu Bridge wharf in the outer city wall directly through the water pass this time, but were ordered to dock at Shenjiaji outside the west city through the Xiaotang River from the Yangtze River waterway.

The Great Chu Rite Department and Honglu Temple only sent one director each, leading six or seven miscellaneous officials to Shen Jiaji to take charge of the reception.

What is slightly better is that the imprisonment of the Shu envoy Wei Qun is finally lifted.

Wei Qun has been confined to Dutingyi for more than four months, and he seems to have no worries about food and clothing, but his life is really difficult.

As the secretary of Shu Honglu Temple, his rank is naturally above Sima Cao Gan in Yuzhou, but when he heard that Cao Gan came to Jinling with Wang Jianxin, the lord of Shu, he also rushed to Shen Jiaji early to meet Cao Gan.

Besides, he and a dozen followers were also "invited" out of Dutingyi by the Great Chu Rite Department today, and he did not go out of the city to meet Cao Gan, and he had no place to stay in Jinling City for the time being.

The officials of the Great Chu Rite Department and Honglu Temple naturally did not have a good attitude towards the arrival of the Shu envoys, and took the credentials submitted by Cao Gan, in addition to designating an inn and asking them to live in and wait for news, they did not even arrange the official post for them, so they went back to the city early.

Cao Gan didn't care, after all, the two countries are still in a state of war, whether to accept Shu's peace, and when to enter the peace negotiation process, the monarchs and ministers of Chu have to weigh it first.

The officials of the imperial court department want to reflect the majesty of the Great Chu Shangguo this time, and they want to put on a proud and cold face, but the officials in the county dare not be too sloppy.

In addition to emptying an inn in Shen Jiaji early for Wei Qun and Cao Gan to live in with their entourage, the county also sent dozens of officials and county guards to disperse inside and outside Shen Jiaji. On the one hand, it is necessary to keep an eye on the Shu envoy attachés and prevent them from entering and leaving the place at will, and at the same time, it is also necessary to prevent Jiang bandits from flowing over.

If the Shu envoy really had to suffer any loss of personnel in Shen Jiaji, the local government would definitely not be able to bear this responsibility.

"Why did the lord of the country rashly decide to send troops to occupy the Wuchuan River Valley?"

Wei Qun, who had been confined for more than four months and had been completely cut off from the outside world, couldn't wait to pull Cao Gan into a quiet room in the inn at this time, and asked about the many things that happened in Shu during this time.

He also didn't care that Cao Gan was a close confidant of Changxiang Marquis Wang Yong, and he really had no friendship with him.

The quiet room is located on the second floor of the inn, and when you open the window, you can see the open water surface of the Xiaotang River.

Although the repair of Jinling City has been completely interrupted, the prosperity of the south of the Yangtze River has not been hit hard, and it can be seen from the boats anchored in Shenjiaji that it can be seen that after a year of recuperation and recuperation inside and outside Jinling City, it has also been restored one after another.

Faced with Wei Qun's question, Cao Gan certainly would not answer from the bottom of his heart.

Before handing over the credentials to the officials of the Great Chu Rite Department and Honglu Temple, Cao Gan also showed the credentials to Wei Qun.

Cao Gan came to sue for peace this time, and the credentials submitted to Da Chu naturally explained and explained the matter of the military provocation and the subsequent internal disposition of Shu.

At this time, Cao Gan also roughly followed the national letter, and told Wei Qun in more detail about some of the situations that happened in Shu during this time.

In the Shu Kingdom, from the very beginning, it was Huang Zongcheng, the squire of the military department, and Wang Xiaoxian, the marquis, who were strongly opposed to sending troops to recapture the Wuchuan River valley and waiting for the opportunity to control the passage of the Qianjiang River, and their reasons were also very high-sounding.

Wuchuan has always been subordinate to the old county of Ba County and Jiannan Province, and the Wu people, as a branch of the mountain tribe, have been the subjects of the local government of Bashu for a long time, and there have been some voices to recover Wuchuan in the past.

It's just that this voice was not strong at the beginning, and it was not enough to cover up the overall situation of the Shu-Chu alliance.

Large-scale civil unrest broke out in Sizhou, and at the same time there was news that a number of salt-brine salty springs were newly discovered in the mountains on both sides of the Wuchuan River Valley, and Sizhou's defense in the Wuchuan River Valley was like a fictitious defense, considering that once the Wu people regrouped to recapture the Wuchuan River Valley, it would directly affect the suppression of the Shu army on the southern Sichuan mountain bureaucratic people, led by Huang Zongcheng and Wang Xiaoxian, the Marquis of Shu and others, and the voice of Shu supporting the occupation of the Wuchuan River Valley suddenly became louder.

At that time, it was also expected that Chu's internal and external troubles were unresolved, and Chu's interests along the Qianjiang River were far less than those of Shu, as long as the Shu army was decisive, it could eventually force Chu to compromise.

However, Chu Ting's new attack on the Wuchuan River valley and the frequent attacks launched by the Wu people on both sides of the Qianjiang River were unexpected by the Shu army.

Considering the signs of the Liang army assembling in Guanzhong, the lord Wang Jian finally decided to break the wrist of the strong man and ordered the Shu army, which had suffered heavy casualties, to withdraw from the Wuchuan River valley and restart peace talks with the Chu state.

"Is there really a new salt spring discovery in Wuchuan?" Wei Qun knew that it was impossible for Cao Gan to talk to him, but he couldn't help but want to ask in more detail.

"But in the mountains near the Wuchuan River Valley, two salty springs were found, but the amount of brine is not as good as the two existing salt wells in Wuchuan." Cao Gan said.

"Why bother with this!" Wei Qun couldn't help but shake his head and said bitterly.

At present, Shu has a total of nearly 400 salt wells that can produce salt brine, with an annual output of more than 400,000 quintals of salt from wells.

Wei Qun believed that during the occupation of the Wuchuan River Valley, the army should have carefully surveyed the mountains on the left and right, and finally found only two salty springs, which was too much to lose.

Even if there are five or six brine wells in Wuchuan in the end, and even if it can boil five or six thousand quintals of salt per year, the scale is far less than that of the Banan area, where there are more than 30 salt wells, and it is even only enough to supply the consumption of people and animals in one county.

"Yes, after tossing like this, the monarchs and ministers of Chu State are resentful, and I don't know if there will be a good result on this trip!" Cao Gan also sighed.

Cao Gan would never admit that after this incident, not only the power of the prince Qingjiang Marquis Wang Hongyi in the court was hit hard, but also not only the power of the prince in the Zuoqingjiang army was hit hard, but they could also clear out the prince's cronies and generals in the Zuoqingjiang army when they were held accountable for the defeat in the war in the future.

In order to be able to explain to the state of Chu, the lord Wang Jian decided to dismiss Huang Zongcheng, the squire of the military department, and Wang Xiaoxian, the marquis of comfort, and other officials, and demoted them to the Liangzhou army to listen to the effect.

Regardless of whether the two countries can restore relations between Shu and Chu this time, the two countries' garrisons in Qianjiang will be difficult to eliminate the anger in their hearts, and considering the threat of the comeback of the Wu bureaucrats, Changxiang Marquis Wang Yong naturally needs to continue to stay in Yuzhou, and he will be transferred to Liangzhou rashly.

"The Chu army will probably officially launch an offensive against Chaozhou in the next few days, and it should be down the stairs." Wei Qun said.

He was about to ask about other things that had happened in Shu recently, but he saw that Cao Gan's attention seemed to be attracted by the things outside the window at this moment, and asked curiously: "What is it that makes Lord Cao so fascinated?" ”

Wei Qun turned his head to look in the direction where Cao Gan's eyes were looking, but saw that it was a three-masted sailing ship with an estimated capacity of about 3,000 stones, which was slowly heading towards the Shenjiaji Wharf, and it seemed that it was also going to dock at Shenjiaji.

"These three-masted sailing ships should have been built in Xuzhou." Cao Gan said.

Hearing Cao Gan say this, Wei Qun understood why Cao Gan was distracted.

He looked carefully and noticed that the mast of this big ship was slightly shorter, but the transverse was very wide, and it was indeed a soft sail unique to Xuzhou.

At present, the large ships built in Xuzhou are mainly supplied to the naval forces in Yueyang and Jinling and the interior of Xuzhou, whether it is the clan lords in other places, the ship gangs, the merchant gangs, and even the local government cannot directly purchase large ships from Xuzhou for the time being.

After all, the production capacity of the Xuzhou shipyard is also limited, and it was also given priority to build large warships to supply the military.

Now on the river outside Jinling City, this kind of large three-masted galleon has appeared, which means that it is very likely that this is a civilian merchant ship that departed directly from Xuzhou.

Wei Qun said with emotion: "I was imprisoned in Jinling, listening to the discussion of the officials of the Chu State, Jinling seems to suspect that Han Qian has colluded with my Dashu, and also suspects that the civil unrest in Sizhou was secretly instigated by Han Qian. However, the two sides fought so fiercely in the Wuchuan River Valley a few days ago, and Han Qian probably didn't need to worry about any more suspicions, so the merchant ships in Xuzhou sailed directly to Jinling to make profits, right? ”

At present, except for those who really know the details, or have a comprehensive grasp of the information of Chu and Shu, no one else can question the collusion between Han Qian and the Shu army from any aspect.

No matter how you look at it, it is a military adventure taken by the monarchs and ministers of Shu State when they saw the outbreak of civil unrest in Sizhou and saw that there was an opportunity to completely control the Qianjiang Passage, and mistakenly thought that the Chu State would not particularly care about the gains and losses of the Qianjiang Passage under the unresolved situation of internal and external troubles.

If there is no collusion between Xuzhou and the Shu army, it is difficult to doubt that the Sizhou civil unrest was secretly instigated by Xuzhou, after all, before the Shu army entered the Wuchuan River Valley, Xuzhou maintained great restraint on the situation in Sizhou.

"Perhaps." Cao Gan said perfunctorily to Wei Qun, but he really knew the inside story, but he knew that the entry of the Xuzhou cargo ship into Jinling was by no means as simple as Wei Qun said.

It should be that Han Qian, the Marquis of Qianyang, wants to extend his hand back to the center of Great Chu after forbearance for a while, right?

Cao Gan also didn't know who Xuzhou would send to Jinling this time, and whether he would take the initiative to contact him, or find a way to contact the county lord of Qingyang......