Shi Xie's meeting with Li Sheng took a whole day. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 info When he went in, he went in with his brother with a blank face, but when he came out, he came out with a spring breeze accompanied by Li Sheng and Zhuge Liang. Although no one really knew what the agreement between Li Sheng and Shi Xie and Shi Xie was and what they talked about, except for Li Sheng himself, Zhuge Liang, Han Xuan, and a few other people who directly participated in the meeting, they all understood that Shi Xie had taken refuge in Li Sheng.

"Quick! Fast! Quickly report the matter to Prime Minister Cao Cheng. Li Sheng has already achieved Jiaozhou, and his strength has been further improved. We should pay more attention to Li Sheng. In a house not far from Yulin Taishou's Mansion, a few very sneaky people said nervously.

"Yes!" One of them hurriedly answered. There was a sound of rummaging through the cabinets, as if they had their own solution to the problem.

At the same time, on another street not far from this intelligence base belonging to Cao Cao, several people who were also looking at this place said with a sigh: "Lord Li Sheng's movements are really fast. Time, we're running out of time. The agreement between Li Sheng and Shi Xie made us lose Jiaozhou. Alas, it looks like we'll have to wait a few years for a strategy here. ”

"I'm going to report the matter here to the lord right away." One of them suggested.

"Of course. But don't stop our actions. Jiaozhou, we must get it. Even if there is less Shixie, we can find other people to act as agents, and there must be not a few people in Jiaozhou who expect to get more. The third person finally made a decision.

"That's right!" They agreed, and then there was a rush of chickens and dogs.

Not to mention how busy the spies from all parties in Yulin City were, right now Li Sheng and Kong Ming were sitting opposite each other in the gazebo where they met Shi Xie and smiled. Today's events were very successful, which made Li Sheng and Kong Ming very happy. Although they are not afraid of fighting Shi Xie, it is a good thing to be able to get Shi Xie's refuge without fighting. Even if some benefits are lost and some concessions are made, it is tolerable.

"This is due to the blessing of the lord." Kong Ming said to Li Sheng with a smile.

"Where's the matter? You don't see it just now, but this thing is like a merchant bargaining, little by little. Well, the people of Jiaozhou, especially Jiaonan, all have the style of doing business. Li Sheng shook his head and smiled faintly, but he was noncommittal to Kong Ming's praise.

"Hehe, whether it is the anger of the lord that touches Shixie, or whether the interests of Shixie are satisfied by us one by one, in short, it is always a good thing for us to be able to obtain the land of Jiaonan so smoothly and complete the control of Jiaozhou. Since it's a good thing, you should laugh, it's too uncute for the lord to be like this. There was no one around, and Zhuge Liang made fun of Li Sheng without any scruples.

"Isn't it cute?" Li Sheng was choked up when he heard this, and suddenly burst into laughter: "Kong Ming, what you said is really amazing." However, it's not that I'm not smiling, it's that I'm thinking about the next steps. The future is uncertain, and obtaining Jiaozhou can only be regarded as the first step we have completed, and you still need to be responsible for the rest of the things together with General Xingba. As you know, the main reason why I want to go south to Jiaozhou is to build a naval army that can balance the power of Jiangdong in the future. And at the moment, there is no navy yet, and what we can get is the land that allows us to build a naval port. ”

"That's what I said." Zhuge Liang nodded slightly, but laughed again: "To be honest, I admire your foresight. Liang also saw the sea when he was a child, and naturally knew that compared with the sea, the river on our side can be regarded as affectionate. Jiangdong only relies on the navy that can control the Yangtze River, but I think that as long as we lead our navy trained at sea, Jiangdong's navy that can only be majestic on the Yangtze River is not worth mentioning at all. However, I estimated that the cost of this naval army on the sea was much more than that on the river. I don't know how this military spender plans to solve it? ”

"Well, that's a problem." Li Sheng groaned: "It costs money to develop a military port, it costs money to build a shipyard, and it costs money to train the army. Money, money, money, oh my God, I'm not afraid of tens or millions. I still have to support the more than 100,000 troops in Jingnan, where does this money come from? "Li Sheng was crazy, for the first time he found that he seemed to think things too good, and the shelf of the foundation he had built was too big." What to do? Kong Ming taught me. Helpless, Li Sheng had no choice but to lower his voice and earnestly ask his military advisor.

"It is enough to supply the army of Jingnan with the gift of Jingnan. As for this Jiaozhou land, the lord still has to find a way to be self-sufficient and contribute food here. Kong Ming smiled slightly, but he didn't understand the answer to Li Sheng, but vaguely suggested a way for him.

"Self-sufficiency here? How is this possible? Originally, I wanted to train another infantry army here in addition to the navy. Li Sheng shook his head and said.

"Infantry Army?" Zhuge Liang was slightly stunned and then thought of something: "Does the lord want to accept local people for my use?" ”

"yes. Although these locals are smaller, they are quite strong and very good at fighting in the jungle. I'd like to assemble about two armies here, one for mobilization and one for garrison. Li Sheng directly told Kong Ming his thoughts: "In the future, we will march into Xichuan." The middle of the river is mountainous, and its army is quite accustomed to mountain warfare. If our army hunts in the mountains, I am afraid that our army will not be defeated. Therefore, there is a need for such a team that specializes in refining in the mountains. ”

"Well, that's the case." Zhuge Liang thought for a while and nodded affirmatively: "Since this is the case, let's form a team of about 40,000 people." With 20,000 of us as the backbone, and some new soldiers to join, I think this team will be able to form an army in a year at most. The local people of Jiaozhou, this body is not covered. ”

"And ...... money?" Li Sheng hesitated slightly, he still hadn't thought of how to solve the problem at hand.

"The land of Jiaozhou, the road leads to the three states, and the South China Sea is exhausted, how can there be no money?" Zhuge Liang said with a smile and winked at Li Sheng gently, but it was unknown what it meant.

"yes." Li Sheng suddenly slapped his head: "The land of Jiaozhou, the road leads to the three states, and the South China Sea is exhausted, how can there be no money?" Hehe, not only are they not without money, but they are very rich. After all, Jiaozhou's prosperity is now based on commerce. And what among the world's farmers, industrialists, and industrialists can make money faster than doing business? Li Sheng thought about it and let out a long breath, and his head, which had just been a little distressed by money, quickly turned: "Money, no one will be too much." Well, although Jiaozhou's current prosperity depends on commerce, compared with the big states in the Central Plains such as Jingzhou and Xuzhou, Jiaozhou is still a little barren, and it still has a lot of room for development. For example, in the business of Jiaozhou, I think it is possible to turn the navigation business that was originally controlled by the big families into a community organized by the government and contributed by the wealthy families? At that time, my navy will develop, so that they can escort merchant ships to sea, first, they can exercise the ability of the navy, and second, they can also share tens of thousands of soups from the merchants' business. Okay, great. It's wonderful. I heard that there seemed to be people going to India at this time, which shows that our sea ships are still good. Since we can already go to India, we can go a little further west to Daqin, and a little further east to Goryeo, where we can go to the Wa Kingdom. Haha, this is a weak and good place, I remember that it is produced with silver and gold, which can be used as currency. As long as I can do a good job in this seafaring trade, not only will there be no problem in raising such a naval army, but even if I expand the army of 100,000, there will be no problem. The future is bright. Thinking about it, Li Sheng couldn't help laughing, and Kong Ming, who was beside him, was a little inexplicable.

"Why is the lord laughing?" Zhuge Liang had to ask with some concern.

"I thought of a way to make us rich?" Li Sheng said with a smile, a smug expression appeared on his face, making people always feel that he was very arrogant.

"A way to make a fortune?" Zhuge Liang looked at Li Sheng curiously, and couldn't help but feel a little worried in his heart, "How did the lord become like this?" The eyes are there, but they are abnormal. When he said that just now, his eyes simply changed into the shape of Brother Kong Fang. Didn't you fall for some evil spirit? He couldn't understand Li Sheng's excitement.

"yes." Li Sheng nodded heavily: "Now that we have the land of Jiaozhou, we can build an excellent deep-water port." This will not only be of great benefit to our development of the army, but will also play a very important role in the financial development of our army. 'The land of Jiaozhou, the South China Sea' is not wrong at all. Jiaozhou people are good at going to the ocean, and they can go to the southern countries in the near distance, and they can also go to places such as body poison in the distance. These places are very fond of the things we have, such as silk, porcelain, and so on. Although it takes a long time for each transaction fleet to come and go, the profit of the transaction is tens or hundreds of multiples, which can be described as a huge profit, and it is far from reaching the degree of saturation, there is a lot of room for development, which can make up for the needs of our development. ”

"Tens or hundreds of times the profit?" When Zhuge Liang heard Li Sheng say this, he couldn't help but stretch out his hand and want to touch Li Sheng's forehead: "Dozens or hundreds of times the profit, how is that possible?" Isn't the lord thinking about money and dizzy? Although he never looked down on merchants, he basically didn't know much about merchants, so naturally he didn't understand the benefits of ocean-going trade.

"But ......" Zhuge Liang shook his head lightly and glanced at Li Sheng's face that was almost crazy with excitement, but he still didn't say the words of questioning after all. He coughed heavily, cleared his throat, and then put the topic aside: "My lord, whether it is to develop ocean trade or build our navy, we need a port to turnover, I don't know what plan my lord has for this?" ”

"Plans? That's there. Hearing Kong Ming mention this realistic matter, Li Sheng was slightly stunned, the excitement on his face stopped, and then he ordered someone to take the topographic map of Jiaozhou, and pointed to the locations of Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Haikou, Xuwen, Qinzhou and other places known to later generations on the map and said: "I plan to set up ports in Nanhai, Zhuya, and Hepu counties, of which Nanhai County will set up two ports, Zhuya County will set up two ports, and Hepu County will set up two ports. As far as the reality is concerned, the ports of Zhuya County and Hepu County, and the Shixie who ruled their places have developed them to a certain extent. The South China Sea alone has to start from scratch. ”

"Well, that's a big plan. Is it just necessary to spread the shelves so big in the first place? Zhuge Liang looked at the places that Li Sheng had compared on the map and asked noncommittally.

"Huh." Li Sheng smiled faintly: "The shelf is very big, but it is necessary. At the very least, it was necessary to open two ports in Nanhai County - one for military and one for commerce. In fact, the best military port in my mind is not at the southern end of Nanhai County, but on the other side of Zhuya County. However, there is no way around it now. Zhuya County is still Shixie's territory, and the island opposite it is too close to Xuwengang, but it is not easy to manage. Now we can only use this port in Nanhai County first. Well, I've already thought of the name of this port, so let's call it Hong Kong. When Li Sheng said this, his eyes turned to the south, and he was distracted for a while, and no one knew what he was thinking in his heart.

"Since you have said so, my lord, then I have no choice but to agree. Fortunately, there are still some balances left over the years, otherwise it would be really difficult to start two ports at once. Zhuge Liang felt that what Li Sheng said was very reasonable, although he was a little distressed about the expenses here, but for the sake of Li Sheng's plan, that is, to ensure his dominant and strong position in the alliance, he still quite agreed to develop a navy that was far stronger than the navy.

"Don't worry, don't worry!" Li Sheng patted Kong Ming's shoulder lightly and said with a smile: "The two ports really want us to start from scratch and completely pile up money is just that place in Hong Kong." As for the port outside Nanhai County, I have my own way of building it with the least amount of money. ”

"What's the solution?" Kong Ming asked curiously.

"Merchants!" Li Sheng smiled mysteriously and spit out these two words gently.

"Merchants?" Kong Ming pondered these two words silently.

*****

During the three days from 16 July to 19 July in the 15th year of Jian'an, Li Sheng discussed with Kong Ming, Han Xuan, Lai Gong, and others how to build a military port in Hong Kong. At that time, Li Sheng and Kong Ming thought that the dispute in Jiaozhou had reached the point where it could be over. The success of the meeting with Shixie made them all let go of their worries about the south. In this era when the patriarch can basically decide everything, they only need to wait for Shixie to return from the south, and they can actually carry out their own development plans. This is a very ambitious plan, and Li Sheng plans to develop the few ports he has designated into the largest ocean-going ports in the entire south within 10 years, and try to develop a large ocean-going navy with about 40,000 people and about 100 warships.

"As long as we have such a navy, we can go to the whole east." Li Sheng looked forward confidently. He believes that at a time when everyone only attaches importance to the army, and at most only carries the navy, the navy he has developed can undoubtedly become a unique and surprising terrifying existence.

However, just when they all thought they could breathe a sigh of relief for a while, a shocking news came: "Shihui is dead!" ”

"Shihui is dead?" Li Sheng, who heard the news, stood up from his position, and stared at Kong Ming, who reported the news to him, in surprise, "How did you die?" ”

"On the 16th, on the day Shi Xie met with us, Shi Hui wanted to lead his troops to Huai'an City, and in a valley three miles south of the city, he was ambushed by Yang Lei, the lieutenant of Huai'an County, Shi Hui died on the spot, and all 500 of his army fled." Zhuge Liang frowned tightly and read out the military newspaper that came, the more he read it, the more strange the look on his face became, obviously he had also thought of the article behind this military newspaper.

"Five hundred soldiers?" Li Sheng shouted, and he immediately felt the strangeness in it: "I heard that when Shi Xie came, he had already handed over his army on the front line of Hepu to Shi Hui. This part was originally used by Shixie to attack Yulin, and its total number was roughly about 6,000. In other words, Shihui can control so many people, how could he only take this 500 soldiers to attack Huai'an City, which has already stopped with soldiers and horses? ”

"I don't know." Zhuge Liang shook his head gently, "We only control Anguang City, where the Northern Governor is located, and we didn't send anyone over to Huai'an, which is east of Andong. The defenders there are still Han Xuantai's men. All we can know is such big news. As for what the problem is, I'm afraid we can only know when the information from Huai'an comes over. ”

"Trouble." Li Sheng patted his head with a headache and looked at Kong Ming with a bitter face: "What do you say is going on with this?" We've just had a good talk with Shi Xie, and we'll be subduing him soon. As a result, such a thing happened. Killed Shi Xie's son, and this doesn't make Shi Xie find us desperately? Alas, everything is over. And no matter what this matter is, we should hurry up and prepare for war now, I don't want the three counties that have already arrived to be disturbed by the Shijia army who only want to avenge their son. You know, when this war of revenge starts, there is no rationality. ”

"I understand." Zhuge Liang nodded heavily: "I will let General Huang handle it." ”

"That's good." Li Sheng let out a long sigh of relief, and his frowning brows relaxed slightly, but he didn't fully relax after all: "What happened?" ...... over there in Huai'an? Li Sheng has been pondering this question.

The stopped army began to move again. Li Sheng didn't want to fight this battle, but the situation was so critical that he had to prepare early. Because it was a full-scale war with the south, considering the kind of ruthlessness that the other party might have when he took revenge, Li Sheng not only mobilized the original Jiaozhou army that was originally trained in Cangwu, but also wrote to Pang Tong again and again, asking him to pay attention to the situation in Jiaozhou, and prepare all the troops that could be mobilized, ready to go south at any time, and let Luo Zhao, who was in charge of intelligence, carefully detect the situation in Jiangdong. After all, for now, the only person who can meddle in the affairs of Jiaozhou is Jiangdong. Although the Jiangdong side was still arguing with Cao Cao in the north in Huainan, it was not impossible for him to really make a big effort to meddle in his own affairs.

After a few days of being so busy, the entire Jiaozhou was busy under the war clouds. Not only did Li Shengjun desperately mobilize the army to prepare for battle, but even Shi Xie, who was saddened by his son's death, immediately ordered to reorganize his army and fight to avenge his son. In the south, he began to desperately recruit men and horses, not only all the private soldiers of his own family were organized into the Jiaozhou army, but also recruited about 20,000 men and horses from those families in Jiaozhou who were originally dissatisfied with Li Sheng because of the Yulin trial incident, expanding his army to 50,000. For a time, the white cloth in the entire Nanjiaozhou territory was bullish, weapons were in short supply, and all war-related trades, such as grain, iron tools, horses, etc., were completely popular. War is on the verge of breaking out, and it is impossible to avoid it.

Information was sent one after another, including the transfer of Shixie's soldiers and horses and his declaration that he was clamoring for a bloody bath in Yulin County, all of which were sent to Li Sheng. With the arrival of one intelligence information after another, Li Sheng had a clear understanding of why that happened-"Shihui, this unlucky guy, is definitely looking for his own death!" Alas, it's a pity for the people here in Jiaozhou. Li Sheng gritted his teeth and cursed the man who had long since died, while sighing at the war that should not have happened.

It's no wonder that Li Sheng is so angry, just look at what the son of the Shihui and Jiaozhou Shixie did, and you can know why he died: At the beginning of the matter, it was also very old-fashioned, but it was just a story of a gentleman who wanted to occupy a beautiful woman. Because Shixie's northward movement eased the confrontation between Nanjiaozhou and Beijiaozhou, Shihui's army was stationed in Changping County, north of Hepu, which was only separated by a river of water to Anguang, and only about fifty miles away from Huai'an, which was an important place that could attack the two counties at will. At the beginning, Shixie's army attacking Yulin attacked from this Changping to the north, and although the situation has eased somewhat because of Shixie's northward movement, both Shixie's side and Li Sheng's side have stationed large armies in their respective points. Li Sheng arranged 15,000 of the 20,000 people who followed him south in Changping. As for Huai'an, which is as important as Changping, Li Sheng did not interfere, but just let Yulin Taishou Han Xuan be fully responsible. Han Xuan handed over Huai'an to his general, Yang Ling, and stationed 1,500 people there.

Originally, the two sides were so far apart, and they were both heavily garrisoned, so they were cautious in their hearts, and as long as they guarded each other's cities, there would not be too much conflict. However, this so-called too big conflict is only based on the fact that the generals on both sides have a deep understanding of the other party's situation and deliberately restrain their own soldiers. Originally, Shi Xie let his older brother Shi Yi lead the army, and it was naturally easy to do this. But now Shi Yi followed his brother Shi Xie to the north, but left all this to the young Shi Hui, and all this changed.

Shihui is a young man, a young man who has all the shortcomings of a gentleman's son and the talents of the elite of the scholar's family. His shortcomings are in his personality, while his talent is in his abilities. His father, Shi Xie, only valued his abilities and tolerated his shortcomings, which made him more and more proud. After taking over the army in Changping, he naturally thought that "Lao Tzu is the best in the world". Soon Changping became the place where he was arrogant and domineering. Although as far as he is concerned, he just enjoyed a few moving women and a few breaths of anger for his little brother, but it has lowered the morale of the entire Changping people a lot. Originally, this was just him making a fuss in his own territory, and it had nothing to do with Huai'an, but on July 15, everything was .......

On the 15th, the day of the market, the people of ten miles and eight townships rushed from their villages to the county seat, and soon the county town, which was already a little crowded because of the presence of the army, became more dense. Due to the strong distance between Changping and Huai'an, although the two counties belong to two counties, most of the usual fairs are handled together, but they only take turns between the two counties according to the different months. A few days ago, because of the confrontation between the south and the north, the market in the two counties was forced to be interrupted, but now with Shixie's northward movement, the tension between the two sides has eased, and naturally this market has been reopened. The excitement is far from being comparable to the fairs that were often held before.

Because of the excitement, there are many characters who have never appeared in ordinary places, including a woman named Wu Shao. This is an extremely beautiful woman, only twenty-eight years old, and she is a beautiful appearance. She is a native of Huai'an, and she came to Changping with her father that day. Maybe it's because he's naughty and shopping, but he was separated from his father in the crowd and met the sergeant's emblem. Shi Hui was a little suspicious when he saw her. Immediately swept it to the house, the girl was fierce, and she bit her tongue and committed suicide on the spot. And Shihui couldn't have fun, so he was angry and ordered the girl's body to be thrown outside the city, where the girl's father found her. Originally, he came to the market with joy, but such an incident happened, and the girl's father was immediately grief-stricken. He hurriedly rushed back to Huai'an City with his daughter's corpse and told Yang Lei, the county magistrate of Huai'an, about the matter. This Yang Lei was originally the girl's cousin, and at this moment, he suddenly heard that his cousin had suffered such a misfortune, and of course he was thinking about revenge. He persuaded his cousin Yang Ling to lure Shihui to come under the pretext of offering Huai'an City. Originally, Shihui wanted to take all the men and horses with him, but because all the generals in the army were opposed, Shihui was annoyed, so he only took 500 men and horses from his own headquarters to the north, and was led by Yang Lei to ambush a thousand people's troops in the valley to gather and annihilate them, cutting off the head. This led to the current troublesome situation.

……

"There is no forgiveness for sin, and the blame is self-inflicted." Li Sheng gently put down the information and said expressionlessly: "Since the fault is no longer on our side. Wars are not caused by us either. Then I had to say sorry to the Shixie in the south, 'I'm sorry! The current situation does not allow me to back down. Since you want to fight, then I have to fight. Saying that, he looked at Zhuge Liang with a firm expression: "Kong Ming, are our Shamoke's men and horses ready?" ”

"Alright." Zhuge Liang's answer was very concise.

"Then let's leave tomorrow." Li Sheng gave an order lightly.