readx;

Madurai, the capital city of Pandia. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Jiang Gan's waist is straight, and the forehead of the three-beam crown made of black silk is inlaid with a piece of white jade, which echoes his white skin, and it looks like a jade, and his demeanor is extraordinary, and some of the white hair on his sideburns has been carefully groomed by him, and he can't see it at all if he doesn't pay attention, plus he has carefully trimmed his beard, he is now radiant, and he looks a few years younger than his actual age.

"King, this is a little bit of my king's heart, please accept it." Jiang Gan bowed politely, but used the etiquette of the Han envoys to meet the princes, he pointed to the exquisite silk and brocade forging in the open boxes, and his tone was full of pride: "The king of my family said that in the past more than a year, your country and my country have seen frequent trade and happy cooperation, and I hope to make persistent efforts and develop together." ”

Arcade, the king of Pandia, couldn't understand what Jiang Gan was saying at all, and the interpreter was still waiting for Jiang Gan to finish, but Arcadi had already attracted his attention to the glittering silk in the box, he instinctively stood up, leaned forward, wanted to get closer and see more clearly, and then found that this could not solve the problem at all, so he simply left the throne, got up and walked to the box, stretched out his hands to hold up a horse of Shu brocade, and carefully held it in his hand, that cautious look seemed to be holding a weak baby, I am afraid that if I have more strength, the baby will be injured.

"This ...... Is this the treasure of the Silk Country? Arcades asked, staring at him with excitement in his eyes. The interpreter didn't need to translate, and nodded straight. This question is too simple, and there is no need to translate it to Jiang Gan.

Jiang Gan couldn't understand Tianzhu, but he smiled very gently, as if he was looking at his friends who had known him for many years, and he couldn't see the jerkiness and restraint of the first meeting. He was half a head taller than Arcades, and he was straight, so he looked at Arcades condescendingly. Arcades glanced at him, and felt that this posture was really inappropriate, and quickly straightened up, coughing, but still with a smile on his face.

The interpreter translated Jiang Gan's words just now, and Arkady listened to it, his brows trembled slightly, obviously not agreeing with Jiang Gan's words. After the Yue State occupied Funan, the spices, gems and other businesses in the South China Sea were monopolized by them, which had a great impact on Pandia, although later they found a new growth point: Yue merchants imported a large number of cotton and brocade fabrics, which made their suddenly tightened money bags and breathed a sigh of relief, but it was far from the happy cooperation as Jiang Gan said, in general, after Yue Guo took Funan, Pandia's tax revenue was much less.

However, the Yue people defeated the powerful Funan people, and in Arkadi's mind, the Yue people also belong to the kind of enemy who can not provoke as much as possible, and if they can coexist peacefully, it is of course the best, and now the Yue people take the initiative to negotiate, which is a good start.

"Your envoy is gracious." Arkady couldn't help but glance at the dozen or so boxes of beautiful silk, and said happily: "King Yue is brave, defeated the Funan people, he is really a great monarch like King Sanssouci (Ashoka), I feel very honored to be his friend." ”

Jiang Gan nodded reservedly, but without losing respect: "To be praised by the king, my king will be very happy, you appreciate each other, maybe you can become good friends and form a friendship as pure as jade." ”

Arcade listened to the translation, laughed, held his beard and chin repeatedly, as if he agreed with Jiang Gan's words very much, but Jiang Gan saw clearly, but Arkadi did not have a trace of smile in his eyes, it was better to look at the silk with kind eyes. He knew that Arcade was a Tianzhu after all, and he would not be deceived so easily by a few kind words, of course, he was not so naïve.

The two of them said kind words in a real way, and Arkady invited Jiang Gan to drink a few drinks that he didn't know what it was, and then arranged for the minister to negotiate with Jiang Gan. The content of the negotiation sounds complicated, but in fact, the analysis is very simple, Pandia hopes to obtain the right to trade spices as before, and then wants Vietnamese merchants to buy more of their cotton, in a word, hoping to get more benefits.

Jiang Gan secretly sneered in his heart, it seems that Pandia has received news from Zhu Luo and knows that the conflict between Yue and Zhu Luo is imminent, maybe Zhu Luo's envoy is in Madurai, and they want to take advantage of this opportunity to blackmail.

Jiang Gan, who was talking and laughing, stopped negotiating, was silent for a long time, and suddenly asked: "Can the Zhuluo people give you so many benefits?" ”

Minister Pandia, who was talking happily, did not answer him, but the smile on his face was obviously retracted, and he put on a look of ignorance, and pretended to smile mysteriously. Jiang Gan's heart suddenly brightened, the Zhuluo people must be in Madurai, and they promised a lot of benefits.

"I have a question that I would like to ask for clarification." Jiang Gan bent down respectfully.

"You say." The minister said arrogantly.

"What country was Ceylon originally from, and which country is it now?"

The interpreter listened, and glanced at Jiang Gan with some embarrassment, Jiang Gan nodded and motioned for him to translate literally. The interpreter was helpless, so he had to speak softly, his expression was a little nervous, and sure enough, before he finished speaking, the originally arrogant minister suddenly blushed and became angry.

Ceylon, that is, present-day Sri Lanka, originally meant a bright and rich land, began with the Aryans from the north founded the Sinhalese dynasty, the Mauryan Dynasty, Ashoka sent his son to promote Buddhism, so that the Sinhalese people gave up Brahmanism and converted to Buddhism, Sinhala also became a vassal country of the Mauryan Dynasty, later, Tianzhu fought for many years, the southern Tamils began to move to Ceylon, and occupied the upper hand, although the Sinhalese dynasty is still there, but most of the island of Ceylon was occupied by the Tamils, specifically, It's the Pandians now.

But now, Ceylon is not Pandiaan, but Chola. The reason is simple, the Chola had a strong naval division, and when fighting across the sea, they had an advantage, and thus took the island of Ceylon from the Pandians, and to some extent, most of the business between the East and the West.

This is a pain in the hearts of the Pandians, who have always wanted to retake the island of Ceylon, but their sailors are not as good as Cholo, and they cannot take it hard. Now that Jiang Gan has broken the discord between them and Zhu Luo in person, this minister is very angry. He slapped the case and glared at Jiang Gan angrily.

Jiang Gan was unmoved, slowly tidied up the hem of the green silk robe, and after a while, he raised his head to meet the minister's gaze and said: "You can't beat the Zhuluo people, so you have to listen to their blackmail, we are kind enough to talk to you about business, but you are not sincere, are you willing to be like a lowly woman, don't want to marry a good husband, but like to be forced?" ”

The interpreter was speechless, his eyes widened, and he didn't dare to translate a word. When the minister saw the interpreter's appearance, he became even more angry, and yelled loudly for him to speak quickly, and when the interpreter stammered, he yelled angrily, kicked over the carved case in front of him, and pointed at Jiang Gan and yelled loudly.

Jiang Gan stood up, the smile on his face had disappeared without a trace, he looked directly at the minister who was like a mad bull, and said lightly to the interpreter: "You tell him that the sailors of the Zhuluo people look very powerful to them, but in front of us Yue people, they are just children's toys." Think about Fan Man, Fan Man's sailors beat the Zhuluo people to the ground, but they were completely annihilated by our Yue Guo's sailors with fewer victories. You only know that you are worried about the strength of the Chola, but you do not know that our force is stronger. Now we have come with peace, and you do not accept it, and we have nothing to lose, and when the king of my house has defeated Chola and comes to Ceylon with his fleet, then we will see who this Ceylon will be. You go back and report to your king, I'll wait here for another day, and if you're still not sincere, then we'll leave." When I come here again, it will definitely not be as friendly as it is now. ”

After speaking, he waved his hand and motioned to the deputy envoy Lu Mao to see off the guests. Lu Mao stepped forward with two sturdy warriors and politely and resolutely invited the angry minister out. It wasn't until the minister disappeared outside the door of the post house that Lu Mao returned to the room, Jiang Gan had already boiled the tea with taste, and was concentrating on putting tea leaves into the rhino horn cup he brought with him.

"My lord, will this anger the Pandians?" Lu Mao sat respectfully opposite, picked up a book, and fanned the fire even more.

"This kind of slut, what can you do if you don't have a face and anger him?" Jiang Gan didn't raise his head, all his attention was focused on the tea leaves, as if counting them one by one, and the elegance was in stark contrast to the foul words that came out of his mouth.

"Aren't adults worried about safety?" Lu Mao smiled.

"How dare he touch one of my hairs?" Jiang Gan was dismissive: "If they are really so courageous, will they still be frightened by the Zhuluo people?" The king is right, these Ah San believe in Buddhism is stupid, you tell him well, he won't listen, he is used to talking about business after being slapped in the face. ”

Jiang Gan said, pushed away Lu Mao's hand, lifted the kettle that had just been boiled, opened the lid and left it to dry, then poured half of the water into the rhino horn cup, held the rhino horn cup in one hand, twisted his beard in the other, and said slowly: "My Han merchants come and go between Tianzhu and Funan, they must have heard that the cause of the king's expedition to Funan is just the death of two Yue merchants. If he wants to kill us, he must consider whether he can stop the king's might. Can they be stronger than Fan Man? Hmph, borrow his two guts, he doesn't dare. ”

"But it is impossible for the king to send troops to Ceylon, and my lord must know this."

"I know, but the three don't know." Jiang Gan squeaked and took a sip of tea, as if he had drunk the most beautiful taste in the world, and narrowed his eyes pleasantly: "Zizhang, do you know the difference between a hero and a coward?" ”

Lu Mao didn't speak, just looked at Jiang Gan.

"The difference between them is that even if the hero knows that the opponent is strong, he will give his life for the sake of dignity. And cowards are often intimidated by the enemy before they even see it, although the enemy may only look strong, but they don't even dare to try, how can they have the courage to go head-to-head? ”

Lu Mao smiled. He found that this Jiang Gan now knew that the other party was very strong, and he could also make a stronger posture than the other party to overwhelm the opponent in momentum. Although he has not had a very close relationship with Jiang Gan for most of the past six months, he has also verified with his own eyes that Jiang Gan's aura is flourishing day by day, and the down-and-out middle-aged debater has long been gone, replaced by this lobbyist who looks down on the heroes of the world.

The reason is nothing more than a change of monarch.

"You just said the wrong thing." Jiang Gan put down the cup and looked at Lu Mao with his eyelids raised: "It's not that the king won't send troops to attack Pandia, if it's just Pandia, the king is sure enough to take them, what the king is worried about is that we are too aggressive, and we will let the Tianzhu countries unite, and at that time, with the strength of my Yue Kingdom, it will be a little difficult to ride a tiger." Zizhang, we came to Tianzhu this time, not to make one or two friends, nor to set up one or two enemies, what we want is to unite most of the Tianzhu countries, as long as the connection between them is severed, even if there are one or two people who don't know each other, it will not affect the overall situation, and it will even become a springboard for me to step into Tianzhu. ”

Lu Mao's eyes tightened, and he nodded slowly. He took a cup, poured himself a cup of tea, tasted it, and said, "So to provoke Pandia, there is only good for us, and no harm?" Adults have planned it for a long time, right? ”

Jiang Gan smiled: "It's just a two-handed preparation, no matter what, no matter what method is used, we will take Ceylon Island." Zizhang, keep more heart, you are a steady person, maybe you will be the first governor of Ceylon. ”

Lu Mao glanced at Jiang Gan, a smile flashed at the corner of his mouth, and said lightly: "My lord said that I was joking, how dare I hope to be promoted so quickly, I will be satisfied if I can follow my lord across the country and see it for a long time." ”

Jiang Gan stroked his beard and laughed, and said angrily: "I have been suffocated for half my life, and now I can follow the king, I am finally angry, and I am about to do a vigorous career, in order to live up to the trust of the king, I can have Zizhang to help, it is what I can't ask for." ”

The two looked at each other and smiled, but Jiang Gan smiled boldly, but Lu Mao smiled gently.

When Arcadi the king of Pandia heard the report, he was also very angry, but he was a king after all, and knew that anger would not solve the actual problem. Jiang Gan said that there is some truth in what he said, although Zhu Luo's sailors are very powerful, but that is relative to them, and for the Yueguo sailors who completely annihilated the Funan sailors in the first battle, it is really difficult to say how much chance of victory. He hesitated again and again, and asked the envoy of Zhu Luo to come and inquire in detail about the situation of the Yue Guo Naval Division. In fact, the Zhu Luo envoy did not see the Yue sailors at all, he only heard the envoys of the Huren people say that there were about 10,000 Yue sailors, although the ships were large, but the number was not much, there were less than 50 warships, and there were a large number of merchant ships with them, as long as the Yue sailors were defeated, those merchant ships would be their trophies. This is the impression of the Chola people on the Yue Navy, and they are very puzzled about how big the ship of the Yue Sailor is, how can there be less than fifty warships for more than 10,000 people? They calculated that either there would be no 10,000 sailors in the Yue Kingdom, or the warships of the Yue Kingdom would be twice as large as their warships, in which case, they would be able to hold exactly 10,000 people.

The Chola people themselves have more than 8,000 sailors, and if they want to deal with the Yue sailors alone, the chances of winning are not great, so they have to drag Pandia and Zheluo to do it together, these three countries are all close to the sea, and they are most affected by the control of the South China Sea by the Yue State, and there is a basis for cooperation, and if the three countries join forces to go on the expedition, even if they are conservative, they can gather 15,000 to 20,000 sailors, so that the chances of winning the Yue Navy Division are greater.

With this purpose, of course they will not tell the truth to the Pandians, in their mouths, even if the Yue Guo Water Master is a little stronger than the Funan Water Division, the strength is limited. The reason why Fan Man lost to the Yue people was because he was too light on the enemy, otherwise, it would be impossible for the Yue people to take Funan. Now that the Vietnamese people have left the Funan expedition, they are waiting for work with ease, and they are outnumbered by the crowd, is there still a reason for them to win?

After listening to the boasting of the Chola people, Arkady was not gullible, if the Yue people were really so unbearable, he believed that the Chola king would not put down his shelf and invite him to send troops together. After careful consideration, Arcades decided that no one should be offended, and on the one hand promised the Chola people to help, and on the other hand, he sent someone to negotiate with Chiang Gan again. He wanted to curry favor with both ends, but Jiang Gan was not a fool, he soon learned about the Pandians' double-faced tricks, accused the Pandians of being insincere, and then walked away.

Arkady didn't care, although the Yue Kingdom was strong, but after all, it was too far away, and in comparison, it was still Zhu Luo's threat that was more real. Jiang Gan left, he was not embarrassed, on the contrary, he politely sent out of the city. As soon as Jiang Gan turned around, he went to Zheluo and re-explained the conditions for Pandia to Zheluo. Although Chola's envoy also arrived in Jero, there was a Pandia in between, and Jero's attitude towards Chola was much tougher. Zhu Luo had no choice but to raise the price and give Zheluo better conditions. Like the king of Pandia, Divya, the king of Zheluo, also wanted to raise the price on both sides, but he did not expect that as soon as he brought it up, Jiang Gan turned his face, scolded again, brushed his sleeves away, and turned around to find the king of Sinhala Nimar on the island of Ceylon. Nimar was overjoyed, now he only wants to recapture the island of Ceylon from the Tamils, who is willing to help him, he will promise everything, the Vietnamese will build a city in Ceylon as a transit point? Okay, the Vietnamese people are really coming, and I'm safer.

Soon, the Sinhalese king Nimar and Jiang Gan jointly announced that Ceylon and Yue had formed an alliance, and when they heard the news, Pandia and Jero were on fire, and without saying a word, the sailors were divided into two parts, most of them followed the Chola to fight against the Yue sailors, and the remaining part surrounded the island of Ceylon, claiming to cut off Nimar's head and occupy the island of Ceylon.

Nimar was not afraid, whether it was the Chola or the Pandia, he had been fighting with them for more than a day or two, although he was getting more and more nervous day by day, but no one could catch it, and it was a big deal to hide in the depths of the jungle. However, since he had formed an alliance with Yue, of course, he could not form an alliance in vain, and he always had to make some benefits, so he consulted Jiang Gan about what kind of gift King Yue liked the most.

Jiang Gan thought about it very solemnly, and said, we have a lot of land and resources, and we don't want to get any benefits from Ceylon, you give gifts, just get your heart, there is no need to care too much, to be honest, we are not inferior to you. Nimar's nose was so sour that he almost burst into tears, he was really poor now, and it was not easy to come up with some decent gifts. However, although Jiang Gan said so, he couldn't really go empty-handed, and finally Jiang Gan said, our king likes beautiful women, your Sinhalese women are different from Tianzhu people, they are very beautiful, if you can send a few beautiful women, our king will definitely be very happy.

When Nimar heard this, he was relieved, there was nothing else, there were still a lot of them in the Beauty Palace. He asked Jiang Gan to preside, selected twenty fourteen or fifteen-year-old beautiful virgins, decorated them with silk sent by Jiang Gan, and sent them to Yueguo, and at the same time did not forget to thank Jiang Gan and others, and sent Jiang Gan and Lu Mao two each, one for each of his guards, and the ten guards who were responsible for protecting Jiang Gan and others came out with their back molars.

Chiang Gan did not live up to Nimar's kindness, and he immediately sent a notice to the merchants passing by along the way, the three kingdoms of Chola had become enemies of the Yue Kingdom, and it was difficult to guarantee their safety when they entered their territory at this time, and the Sinhalese State was an ally of the Yue Kingdom, and they could guarantee their safety. With just a notice, a large number of Vietnamese merchants flocked to bring a large amount of supplies to the Sinhalese country, which was actually very down, and there were some samurai escorting the ships in the fleet, all of whom were gathered by Chiang Gan to form a small detachment of about 300 people to assist Nimar in fighting against Chola's fleet. About a month later, a group of about 800 pirate rangers appeared on the island of Ceylon with orders from Sun Shao, who were temporarily commanded by Lu Mao to assist Nimar in resisting the Chola and Pandia.

Lu Mao was overjoyed, he never expected that he would become a Shangguan of 800 people all of a sudden, although it was temporary, but this showed Sun Shao's trust in him. He was refreshed and immediately communicated with Nimar. He conveyed Sun Shao's meaning to Nimar, we are friends now, and my Yue country will never treat my friends badly, you can rest assured, the Yue Guo Navy will soon be able to defeat the combined fleet of Chola and other three countries, and the island of Ceylon will be safe at that time.

When Nimar got the news, he burst into tears with joy, Yue Guo helped him so much that it came faster than he imagined, and this friend was worth it. He gathered his remaining 3,000 guards, and cooperated with Chiang Gan and Lu Mao to fight against the Chola and Pandia, and achieved some small victories, although the results were not large, but the morale of Sinhala rose at once, and they began to take the initiative to attack, using their familiarity with the terrain to strike at the enemy out of nowhere.

There are not many sailors of the Chola Three Kingdoms who surrounded the island of Ceylon, and they still have some advantages to deal with the Sinhalese who basically have no sailors and can only retreat in the jungle, and now more than 1,000 Yue people, especially the eight hundred pirate special forces who use war as a means of livelihood have joined, and the situation of the war has suddenly been deflected, the pirates do not pay attention to the rules, only the victory is the goal, all the tricks are used, the flexibility of the battle, the ferocity of the attack, far from those sailors comparable, after defeating the Pandia sailors in several encounters, even began to harass the Pandia coast, Arcade was so angry that he scolded, and wanted to sue for peace again, but he couldn't even see Jiang Gan's face, so in desperation, he had to increase his troops while begging for peace with Jiang Gan in a low voice.

Chiang Gan finally received them, but he made a very excessive demand, not only drastically reducing the conditions originally agreed, but also adding an additional clause demanding that the Chola, Pandia, and Jero people withdraw from Ceylon. While inexplicably grateful to Nimar, Arcadi and Divya were very annoyed, and they unanimously rejected Chiang Gan's request, sent a large army, and vowed to exterminate the Sinhalese and the Viet Nak, and occupy all the island of Ceylon.

The fighting on the island of Ceylon is getting more and more intense.

(To be continued)