Now that the political situation in Luzon is stable, the law and order are good, and the people live and work in peace and contentment, Zheng He and the tower can leave with peace of mind, and the fleet sets sail for the country of Sulu (present-day Sulu Islands in the Philippines).

Before leaving, Xu Chai Lao sent a few more jars of Fu Shouquan, and while eating happily, the iron tower said enviously: "Lord Zheng, this friend you have made is really interesting, we eat and take all the light from you." ”

Zheng He was not happy, "King of the Iron Tower, you can't laugh at me like this. Who doesn't know that you have the most credit for this incident? This is specially given to you by Xu Chai Lao, in the final analysis, it is me and Lord Wang who take advantage of you. ”

"You two don't give in to each other, I don't have any credit, but I still eat happily, because the purpose of my life is to eat without eating for nothing." Lord Wang was not idle in both hands, holding a hoof in his left hand and a piece of sea cucumber in his right hand, "But to be honest, Lord Zheng really knows all over the world, and he has a good relationship with the King of the East of Sulu, so we will definitely be warmly welcomed by him this time." ”

Tie Ta smiled: "Since there is an East King, then there must be a West King, a South King, and a North King!" ”

"You're half right." Zheng He explained, "The power of the Sulu Kingdom is held by three princes, namely the King of the East, the King of the West and the King of Dong, and the strongest is the King of the East. This guy is very righteous, you must be able to talk to him. ”

On this day, a harbor appeared in front of the treasure ship, and the only wharf was crowded with ships loading and unloading goods, and the shore was dusty and gray, and a few dilapidated wooden houses were crumbling in the sea breeze, which was really worrying.

"This is the only port in Sulu, Dongshan Port." Zheng He couldn't help frowning, "The port is so dilapidated, why doesn't Dongwang repair it properly?" ”

After waiting for most of the day, the queue of boats finally decreased, and Zheng He squeezed ashore with great effort.

A port official greeted him and said enthusiastically: "Hello, Lord Zheng, my name is Badu. Thanks to the East King, I am in charge of managing this port, and according to the custom, your fleet needs to pay some fees, and I know that you and the East King are good friends, so I have given you a lot of discounts. ”

Zheng He said boldly: "I understand your kindness, you should give as much as you want, how can you mess with the rules?" ”

"Thank you, Lord Zheng, if you don't dislike it, please come to me for a while, I have already sent someone to invite the East King, I believe it will be there soon."

"Okay, then excuse me." Zheng He nodded, and walked towards the official office with Badu.

This is the official office? Looking at the small wooden houses that are ventilated everywhere, the tower is a little puzzled, the business of the port is not bad, there is no need to save so much, right?

"Run! The officers and soldiers have come to make trouble again. The stool was not hot, and suddenly there was a scream outside.

"This group of bastards really didn't go to the house for three days." Badu threw away the tea tube in his hand and hurried out of the wooden house.

The tower also ran out, only to see two teams of officers and soldiers rushing in from outside the port, one in white and the other in black. The two leading officers were menacing, completely ignoring the crowd in front of them and the mountains of goods, and with a flick of their whips, they galloped wildly.

The frightened crowd hurriedly dropped the goods and fled, the sound of "crackling" came and went, the rouge shop burned, the fruit stall fell, and the porcelain shop was smashed...... All of a sudden, chickens and dogs jumped, and it was a mess.

Badu quickly blew his whistle, and a group of heavily armed soldiers in red clothes ran out and stopped the two groups of soldiers who had broken in.

"Mana, Bardin, this port is under the jurisdiction of the king of the east, and you are the people of the king of the west and the king of the mountain, what qualifications do you have to come here?" Batu ran over and shouted at the two men on horseback.

"In two days, it will be the annual competition, and at that time, the port will not be the king of the east alone, the king of the west and the king of the mountain will also have a share, and we will come here now just to familiarize ourselves with the situation." The man riding the jujube red horse said proudly, this guy is Mana, a confidant of the King of the West.

"Is your brain watering? Don't forget that we are the final victors in every competition, even with you scumbags, dare to come and grab the port with us? Ba said disdainfully, and the red-clothed soldiers behind him all laughed.

"Presumptuous!" Bardeen on the side was annoyed, "You are just a small tax collector, you dare to speak out insultingly? The horsewhip in his hand snapped.

A soldier of the Eastern King couldn't avoid it, and was whipped on his head and face, and he was not to be outdone, and slashed at the horse's leg with a swing of his broadsword.

The powder keg was ignited, and the soldiers on both sides scuffled, and from time to time some people fell to the ground wounded and screamed.

A porter came over with his head bowed and bent over with two bags of goods, he had just been moving goods in the warehouse, and he didn't pay any attention to the fight in front of him. Suddenly, a steel knife fell from mid-air, and it happened to be stuck in the waist of the worker, and he fell to the ground with weak legs, and he was still pressed with more than 100 catties of goods.

The tower hurriedly ran over to move the goods, turned over his body and looked, his heart stopped, his pupils dilated, where could he be saved?

Zheng He was so angry that he dared to make trouble unreasonably in Dongwang's territory, and even caused the innocent deaths of the workers, which really made sense, and turned his head and shouted: "Ding Erniu!" ”

The tower persuaded: "Why bother to mobilize the people? I'm going to separate them. He combed his slightly messy hair, walked up and shouted, "Stop it all!" ”

The two sides are at war, who cares to listen to him? Even if you hear it, what kind of green onion are you?

Don't give me face? Tie Ta shook his head helplessly, "I'm a Sven, and I hate dancing knives and guns the most, so if you don't listen to your kind words, you have to force me to be rude." Rushing into the crowd, grabbed a black-clothed soldier and threw it out, then grabbed it with both hands, throwing it like a straw, and the figures flew in mid-air and screamed again and again. The situation was quickly brought under control, with the white clothes lying in the coal heap and the black clothes lying in the sand, except for the red ones.

"Where did the brute bull come from, dare to spoil the good deeds of the uncle?" Ma Na was so angry that he rushed towards the tower, seeing that victory was in sight, but he didn't expect to bite the gold halfway, how could this not make him annoyed?

Not to be outdone, Bardeen stepped forward and went hand in hand with Mana, and the two of them swung their knives left and right towards the tower.

The tower stretched out his hands and pinched the blade tightly with his two fingers, and the two powerful knives stopped in mid-air, unable to cut any longer.

Mana and Bardeen used their strength to regain it, but where did they move?

The iron tower smiled, suddenly let go of the knife, the two people riding the horse were caught off guard, the back of the knife rebounded and just smashed on their foreheads, fortunately they have helmet protection, otherwise the head must bloom, but even so the injury is inevitable, the two of them fell off the horse with gold stars in their eyes.

"Get out of here! Later, when the East King comes, don't even think about leaving. Badu scoffed.

Mana and Bardeen didn't say a word, and left with their men in disgrace.

Badu said gratefully, "Thank you to the King of the Tower for his help, otherwise the port would have made them uneasy." Alas! The most pitiful thing is still the worker. ”

Zheng He asked puzzledly: "Why did the people of the King of the West and the King of the Shan come here to make trouble?" Did the king of the east let them do whatever they wanted? ”

Ba Du smiled bitterly, "This kind of national event is not something that people of my level can comment on, you better go to the East King to understand the situation!" ”

At this moment, there was a rapid sound of horses' hooves outside the port, and more than a dozen tall horses ran over, and one of the first people did not wait for the war horse to stop, and a harrier turned over and jumped down, hugged Zheng He and laughed, "Lord Zheng, don't come to harm!" ”

"King Dong, I haven't seen you so vigorous in a few years." Zheng He was also very happy, "This is the King of the Iron Tower, how close you are." ”

Tie Ta looked at the East King in front of him, in his forties, with thick eyebrows and big eyes, and a resolute face, he was indeed a man, but it was a pity that there were a few more strands of white hair between his sideburns, and he looked a little haggard.

Zheng He told him everything he had just done, and then told him with concern: "Old friend, state affairs are important, but you must also pay attention to your body, don't get tired." ”

Dongwang's face was full of sorrow, "Lord Zheng, you don't know! In the past few years, I haven't slept a single day, and it's no wonder that my body doesn't collapse! ”

"Oh? What do you mean by that? ”

"Alas! Everything is caused by this port. ”

Several people came to the official office, and the king of the east told the story of the incident. "Although Sulu is an island country, there is only a small wharf, and the big ships cannot dock at all, which seriously hinders the development of the economy, so I proposed to build a deep-water port, which was also approved by the king of the west and the king of the mountain, and the three of us jointly contributed money and efforts, and finally built this port. The ideal is beautiful, but the reality is cruel, we have spent a lot of manpower, material and financial resources, almost all the family resources have been taken out, but unfortunately we have not received the due return. At that time, there were very few ships passing by, there were not enough taxes, and the port was losing money year after year, so the two of them turned their faces and accused me of a bad idea, and asked me to compensate them with a large sum of money, and the port was a mess thrown at me. Rather than the three of them complaining to each other, it would be better for me to do it alone, so I agreed to their request, but I didn't have that much money at the time, so I promised to pay them in installments. I cut back on food and clothing, no matter how hard I lived, I never lost a penny from them at the end of the year, and no one knew how hard I worked. Heaven and soul will, everything is over, as long as I hold on for another three years, the money I owe them will be paid off in full. The East King sighed, and those hard days boiled out the gray hair of this man in his prime.

Zheng He patted him on the shoulder and said admiringly: "You are so powerful, now you are finally bitter." ”

"At the time, I thought the same way, thinking that good days were coming, who knew that it was just my own wishful thinking." Dongwang smiled bitterly, and then continued, "After several years of persistence, more and more ships enter and leave the port, and of course the tax revenue has increased, and the most important thing is that the agricultural products of the common people can be exported to the countries of the South Seas through the port. At this time, the king of the west and the king of the mountain were red-eyed, and informed me that there was no need to give the money for the remaining years, and the two of them together accounted for half of the port. How can there be such a cheap thing in the world? They were the ones who took the initiative to quit at the beginning, and now they are the ones who forcibly join, they can come when they want, they can leave if they want, I am also a prince of one party, how can I let others tease me like this? So I didn't hesitate to refuse their request. In order to fight for this port, the former close and good friends have become rivals in life and death, and even fought several battles, and my heart aches faintly when I think of those innocent soldiers who died in vain. The East King's eyes moistened unconsciously.

"Although I was the strongest of the three, the two of them joined forces to deal with me, and the two sides were evenly matched. It was not an option to fight like this all day, so I negotiated with them, and they agreed to decide the ownership of the port through a contest, and if they won, the port would give them half of it. I have a guard chief martial arts master, these two years all rely on him to win by luck, but just a month ago he suddenly had a serious illness, until now he is bedridden, seeing that the day after tomorrow will be a martial arts competition, but I have not found a suitable candidate. I've made up my mind, and I'll go into battle myself, and I won't raise my hand to surrender even if blood is splattered on the spot. ”

Zheng He smiled: "It shouldn't be a problem to win with your skills, I'm optimistic about you." ”

King Dong shook his head and said: "In the past year, King Xi and King Dong have spent a lot of money to invite a lot of strange people, in order to be able to make a shame in this year's competition, they have recently recruited two masters, one is Sumo wrestling from Fuso Kingdom, and the other is a strong man from Goryeo Kingdom. I'm not afraid of death, but I'm also self-aware, and my chances of winning this tournament are very slim. At this point, his face became solemn.

Dongwang is a friend of Zheng He, that is, a friend of my tower, and he did not hesitate to stick a knife in his friend's ribs, and the tower volunteered to say: "Don't worry, I will go to the competition for you and promise to help you win." ”

Zheng He also comforted: "King Dong, there is the king of the iron tower, you can sleep well tonight!" ”

"Okay, let's have a good drink tonight, and we won't get drunk and go home." The East King smiled for the first time in a long time.