Although the northwest wind prevailed in the East China Sea in winter, Sun Xing's huge fleet successfully returned to the East China Sea along the Ryukyu Islands as scheduled by virtue of the excellent performance of the ships, during which it temporarily stopped at Yidong, Ryukyu Oshima, and Tanegashima in Yizhou.

When he crossed the strait between Hai'an Island (Tsushima Island) and Qinjin to the waters near Zhenhai Port, it was already the eighth day after the New Year, and along the way, he encountered many merchant ships in the East China Sea still hanging colorful flags, which were usually not removed until after the Lantern Festival.

Sun Xing stood at the bow of the tall boat, the cold wind blowing from the side froze his face and nose red, and he felt his nose itch in less than a quarter of an hour.

"It's only been a long time, and I'm a little uncomfortable!" Sun Xing said with a wry smile, "When we were in the West and the South Seas, our big guys were too hot, but this time it's going to be cool enough!" "Nowadays, the hottest place in the South China Sea is still in the 30s, and the Zhenhai Port at this time is nearly minus 20 degrees.

Such a large temperature difference made Sun Xing, who had just returned from Nanyang, and many soldiers a little uncomfortable.

Zhong Likai stood beside Sun Xing and said with a smile: "General, this is because the temperature has warmed up during this time, I heard that last month, the weather was much colder than now, and the rest of this Zhenhai is good, but it is too cold in winter!" It's really hard to have a hard time! ”

Sun Xing sighed and agreed: "Indeed, when we stayed in Weihai County, it was also snowing heavily, and we didn't feel too sad to come to this Zhenhai, but this time I came back directly from Nanyang, but I couldn't stand it, let the brothers put on winter clothes, don't freeze!" ”

In fact, without waiting for Sun Xing's order, the sailors on the ship had already put on these winter clothes, the weather was too cold, but Zhong Likai still conveyed the order, in case the guy with brain cramps had to wait for the order, wouldn't he freeze?

"Hey, you see a lot of people on the shore!" When the ship was only more than ten miles away from the town harbor, because the weather was clear, there were many soldiers with good eyes and some things that could be seen on the shore, but now it was not the environment of the imperial capital of the Heavenly Dynasty in the future, and the air was very good.

Sun Xing, Zhong Likai and others also immediately picked up their binoculars and looked at the port from afar, and sure enough, they found that there was a sea of people on the shore, and they didn't know what a good day Zhenhai was today.

"Look, there is His Majesty's banner over there, it seems that His Majesty should know that we are coming back today!"

Unexpectedly, His Majesty even deliberately came to greet him in advance, thinking of this, Sun Xing couldn't help but be moved, he hurriedly summoned Zhong Likai, Pu Hong and other officers and ordered that everyone must dress up neatly and give a good impression to the crowd who greeted them on the shore.

"Put on all our armor! We must make a good impression on the big guys, we are the heroes of the expedition to the South and the West! Sun Xing was already a little happy at this time, although the winter was still so cold, but this did not affect Sun Xing to put on a cold armor.

"General, most of our armor is worn in summer, and now our brothers are wearing winter clothes, but they can't put on leather armor!" Zhong Likai hurriedly persuaded, "Besides, it's winter now, and most of these leather armors are shrunk because of the cold weather, and some of them are not easy to wear!" ”

"That's it, it's okay, just let these brothers dress themselves neatly, but you must know that there are so many beautiful women staring at the shore, if you don't wear armor well, you will be favored by a beautiful little lady, don't blame me if you don't wear armor at that time!"

As soon as Sun Xing said this, many sailors on the ship who were not very willing to wear armor were vying to wear armor one by one, and it seemed that attracting the attention of the beautiful little lady was also a very important thing for them.

When the fleet came to Zhenhai Port, there was already a finger thick ice on the sea, and the more the sea ice went to the shore, the thicker it looked, but because there were several icebreakers sailing day and night on the Zhenhai Harbor side to break the ice, and Zhenhai was warmer than Jiangkou and other places, so there was no problem with the navigation of Sun Xing's fleet.

Because there are enough icebreakers, and Zhenhai is the capital of Xia in the East China Sea, there are constantly ships coming and going, so from the open sea ten miles away, a waterway nearly 20 zhang wide extends to Zhenhai Port, and most of the hundreds of berths here are not frozen because of the moored ships, and the other berths that were originally frozen were also cleared up at this time.

There is a thick layer of snow falling on the ice near the shore, but it may have been a little long, and some of the snow has frozen, looking white and blue, and along the snow-covered land, you can also see the walls of Zhenhai Castle in the distance, and the dense forests on the mountains near the castle are very conspicuous in the ice and snow.

When Sun Xing's ship had just entered the not too wide waterway, he found a sea fox clipper coming out of the town harbor, but this sea fox ship was not the same as the sea fox boats made in the past, the hull was slightly larger and longer, with a displacement of six or seven hundred stones. Cow Bar Literature Network

After Sun Xing saw the person standing at the bow of the boat, he was also slightly taken aback and said: "Why is it that Captain Zhao came to greet him in person, hehe, this is too polite!" Sun Xing didn't expect that Wang Ze would arrange for Zhao Qin of the Zhenhai Fleet to greet him personally.

But Sun Xing didn't notice that when Zhao Qin on the sea fox boat saw that it was Sun Xing, he was also slightly surprised, it seemed that he had never expected Sun Xing to come back, but he was still relatively witty, and immediately smiled: "Yes, yes, Your Majesty heard that General Sun was back, so he was very happy, and specially asked me to welcome General Sun into the port!" ”

After saying that, Zhao Qin said a few words to the soldiers around him, and then said to Sun Xing: "General Sun, why don't I get on your ship first and lead the way for you!" ”

"Oh, that's so embarrassing!"

Although Sun Xing was full of embarrassment, there was no refusal on his face, but after seeing Zhao Qin's merchant ship, he realized why the sea fox boat that Zhao Qin was riding before ran so fast? At this time, it could be seen that this sea fox ship was a little faster than the sea fox ship of Sun Xing's first fleet.

Because Sun Xing's fleet is relatively large, and the ship of nearly 10,000 stones is too large, the speed of sailing all the way is relatively slow, and when Sun Xing's ship docks, Zhao Qin's sea fox ship just now has already been moored in a remote berth.

After the fleet landed, Sun Xing stood at the bow of the ship and saw clearly that there were seventy or eighty thousand people on the shore, in addition to a large number of people, there were more than 10,000 soldiers of the Chinese Guardian to maintain order, and there were also cavalry of Yulinwei patrolling on horseback in the distance, it seemed that Wang Ze had really come here.

Before Sun Xing could see where Wang Ze was, he heard loud music playing on the shore, and the cheers on the shore also sounded in bursts, which was to welcome the arrival of himself and others, Sun Xing did not dare to delay more, and hurriedly beckoned everyone to get off the boat.

When he walked to the dock, he immediately found that Wang Ze had already led people to wait on the dock, and when he hurriedly walked over, he saw clearly that in addition to Wang Ze, Liu Xin, Yang Ku, Lu Wen, Xiao Jing and others were all here, and a little outside there were Zhao Yong, Guo Erlang and others from the Central Guard Army who were closely guarded.

What surprised Sun Xing the most was that in addition to these official figures, even the Taoist priests of Haotian Daomen also came, not to mention anything else, Lu Wangzhi, who presided over the affairs of the Great Shrine here in Zhenhai, did not say that Zhou Cheng, who had been wandering in the Jiangkou before, also came.

"Our grandson shouldn't have such a big face!" Sun Xing couldn't help muttering a little after seeing such a grand lineup, although he had also told Wang Ze about an approximate return time before, but the sea voyages were frequent, how could Wang Ze pinch the time so accurately?

"General Sun has worked hard this time!" Before Sun Xing could figure out what was going on, he heard Wang Ze laughing in the distance and greeted him.

Wang Ze was generally satisfied with the two wars in Nanyang and the West this year, although many soldiers were killed or wounded during the period due to various reasons, and even the Yizhou garrison division that was seconded for combat training also sacrificed a school captain, but all this did not affect the overall strategic victory.

It's just that when he saw that He Liang didn't come back, he suddenly asked strangely: "General Sun, why didn't my eldest brother He come back with you?" ”

Sun Xing glanced back at the group of Roman envoys who were disembarking, and then smiled at Wang Ze: "Your Majesty, you see, it's not because that group of Great Qin people don't want us to occupy the island at the mouth of the Red Sea, so He Liang didn't care about coming back after knowing this from Wu Meng's mouth, so he went directly to that island, saying that he wanted to completely occupy it." ”

Wang Ze nodded and said, "It's a pity that the eldest brother couldn't come back together, but to be honest, this place is really very important, and it's a good thing that we can occupy it early!" ”

After Wang Ze finished speaking, Liu Xin and other civil officials next to him, as well as a group of Taoist priests like Zhou Cheng, came forward to greet him, speaking of which, for the whole year last year, Sun Xing was fighting outside, and it was really not easy to finally come back at this time.

After meeting with everyone, Sun Xing finally couldn't bear the doubts in his heart and asked Wang Ze: "Your Majesty, how do you know that I am coming back today?" ”

Sun Xing's question really stopped Wang Ze, he thought about it in embarrassment and finally decided to tell the truth: "Actually, everyone didn't know that you could come back today, yesterday we received a letter from Ling Cheng, saying that the fleet that sailed to Fusang has returned, and it will be there before this afternoon, don't everyone think that they will be gone for several years, and they will come to greet them!" ”

Speaking of this, looking at Sun Xing's somewhat depressed face, Wang Ze couldn't help but persuade: "Actually, everyone is still very happy that you have returned safely, you see that everyone will welcome you all in a while!" ”