Comeback (Five)

In the cold and wet wind, countless broken masts burned violently under the dark clouds. When talking about the past of the Ye family, Ye Feng sighed. About a hundred years ago, the monarch and ministers of the Southern Song Dynasty were forced to the ends of the earth by the Mongol Yuan. In Yashan (now Xinhui, Guangdong), Zhang Shijie led the Song Dynasty naval masters to make a lasting resistance in vain. The battle lasted for more than 20 days. The two sides invested more than 500,000 troops and used more than 2,000 warships. In the end, the entire Song army was wiped out. Lu Xiufu jumped into the sea with a nine-year-old emperor in despair. Zhang Shijie fled the battlefield on a boat, intending to find an opportunity to make a comeback, but he had nowhere to be found when he encountered a hurricane on the sea. He was killed by his subordinate Xie Wenzi and raised his head to receive a bounty.

The scholars in Jiangnan heard the bad news of Lu Xiufu and the young emperor committing suicide. More than 10,000 people went to the sea together and suffered national disasters. The whole Guangdong Ocean was floating in the clothes of the Han family. The map of the river on the Qingming Festival turned into a tomb and a pasture, and the ancient Chinese country fell into a curtain. Ye Fengsui's great-grandfather was one of the scholars who jumped into the sea to sacrifice his country. He was lucky enough to die and was washed on the beach by the waves. After he healed, he and a group of like-minded people planned to restore the country. He launched a rebel army many times to fight against the Yuan Dynasty.

After more than ten years, he failed due to his lone force. Lin Guifang, Li De, Zhao Liangcong and other heroes died in battle one after another. The surviving scholars "lived overseas, either in Champa, or in Jiaozhi, or in distant countries." Ye Feng gathered his brothers who were dispersed with his great-grain, vowed not to eat Yuan grains, plunder and sanitation at the sea, and gradually became the largest pirate gang in the South China Sea. The main village was set up on a large island in the north of Boni Country. Boni Country surrendered to Meng

Later, after a few times, the navy sent to conquer Dushayu and returned, they had to die. Slowly, the group of people were moored to mud and married and had children, and gradually forgot about their clothes and clothes in their hometown. It was spread until Ye Feng followed his father's generation. He heard that the Central Plains had returned to the hands of the Han people, and he was secretly happy. Before he could be happy for many days, his subordinate branch was picked up by Xu Huizu and Shao Yunfei (see the first volume of the Sea Song), and he fled.

The brothers who came back reported that the Ming Navy's artillery could be shot four or five miles away, and the pirates were no match at all. Ye Fengsui's father was shocked and immediately set rules. In the future, any merchant ships flying the Daming Sun and Moon Flag should not be robbed, so as not to get angry. In secret, Ye Fengsui sent back to the mainland several times to inquire about the situation and find opportunities to buy firearms, in case the Ming Dynasty gained the benefits of the Boni Country, and deal with it impartially, kill relatives for justice, and attack yourself.

"After I returned to the Central Plains, I bought several modified cargo ships from star-class ships and went back. My father loved them very much. They were specially used to moor mud to Zufa (Zofar in Oman) and their business value exceeded that of robbery at sea. However, last year, they were robbed by the cannibals at sea and suffered heavy losses. If the Ye family did not avenge this, they would no longer be able to control the thieves in the South China Sea. Therefore, they urgently needed to buy artillery equipment and warships. Ye was ordered to come to Peking to contact the smuggling artillery and met Brother Gao." After seeing that Ye Feng could not hide it from Guo Pu, he simply poured beans into bamboo tubes and explained his origin and purpose.

He looked at Gao Deyong apologically, and Ye Fengsui continued, "It just so happened that Brother Gao and the others were hoarding grain, so I bought some and took the opportunity to make some money. Later, when I saw everyone fighting against stocks together, I left. More than 20 days ago, Ye and the shopkeeper of the Di family who had previously sold grain together, I heard that someone wanted to rob Li Shanping to Mobei and quickly took his men to rescue him. Unexpectedly, he was one step late and was succeeded by the other party." Thinking of the tragic situation that night, Ye Fengsui kept shook his head. According to the Ye family, after the fall of the Song Dynasty, the Han people were dead, and a group of willing to be fourth-class slaves, saying that their ancestors' resistance to invasion was a person who was not destined to be destined, and they were not worthy of being called descendants of Yan and Huang. That night, what he saw was the unyielding fighting spirit and the same blood as Yashan a hundred years ago.

"Brother Ye wants to show kindness, so he deliberately delayed the critical moment before taking action!" Gao Deyong said sarcastically with dissatisfaction, "Hehe, I didn't expect the other party to have a tough idea, you burned your clothes with fire!"

"You..." Ye Feng looked at Gao Deyong's cunning gaze, and knew that he was deliberately showing stupidity, so he pretended to be more similar, grabbed the edge of the table with both hands, and looked angry.

Guo Pu smiled and stopped the two of them from attacking each other, "Don't act for Guo, please add some more to you. Mr. Gao has also hired a lot of workers, probably because he couldn't buy artillery, so he was going to Hezhong to build artillery for Timur, but he may not be able to find suitable steel in the river. Mr. Ye learned from Mr. Gao to pay off his debts for others, and also deceived twenty or thirty workers to go to Nanyang to develop with you. I wonder if you have bought the drawings of the blast furnace, and there are still things I don't know. Do you need to transfer some students from Peking Academy to explain it to you?"

The air in the pavilion condensed again, and Guo Pu, who could not even have any martial arts, exuded a striking momentum, pushing Gao Deyong and Ye Fengsui into a dead corner. Any one of the two could control Guo Pu, but he just didn't dare to take action. Guo Pu not only had the majesty of an official, but also had a sense of righteousness that people dared not look at him.

Found that there was really no trump card to play, Ye and Gao put away their disguise and said embarrassedly: "Sir, it's great"!

"It's not a clever thing. I'm rolling in the officialdom and lying all day long. Of course, I should be careful to prevent being deceived. I advise you to put all the workers back and I will pay the money I owe you. The emperor has already ordered the smelting and casting books of the Academy of Sciences to be issued to the world. It is available in any library of the Ming Dynasty, but without the guidance of the people of Peking, the steel refined may not be qualified. When you think through it, all the important matters will be delayed. Do you want to buy artillery? The Marquis of Pingliao has a Shangfang sword and can make an independent judgment. When he comes, I will tell you what to do on your behalf."

"Master General, this is true"? Gao and Ye couldn't believe their ears and looked at Guo Pu in a daze. Who doesn't know that Wu Anguo and Guo Pu have a life-long friendship? Guo Pu agreed to speak in front of Wu Anguo, which is equivalent to eight points of the transaction being successful. The remaining two points are to see if Guo Pu and Wu Anguo have the things they have in their hands.

Guo Pu picked up the cup and drank a sip of tea, and asked calmly: "At this time, do I still need to lie to you?"

If you take a step back, the sky will be wide open, and you will take a step back, and the prospect will be more than just a broad sky. Gao Deyong is not a fool, so he immediately bowed and said, "In this way, Gao has several warehouses of grain in Zhending Mansion. He will be allocated by the adults. Gao will no longer act within a year. If the adults think it is too little, Gao will raise 400,000 taels from money houses in various places and borrow it for the adults to free of charge."

Guo Pu nodded to Gao Deyong with a cheerful look. Although the merchant in front of him looked at the money more seriously, he was very smart enough to make a little bit clear. No wonder he could do business all over the Central Plains and the Western Regions, and never suffered any losses. "I wouldn't let Brother Gao save his money. That 400,000 taels of money is the deposit for me to buy artillery and ammunition. You know how much a cannon is sold to the Pingnan Army. In addition, the 100 shells carried by each cannon, 20,000 taels of silver is not high. How much does it cost to buy food? I will give me more money to sell it. We can agree that it can only be sold to the people, not to those bad merchants. I will send someone to supervise at any time. If something goes wrong, don't blame me for not keeping my word and not fulfilling the contract."

"Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, sir." Gao Deyong kept bowing happily. He thought that the deal would not be settled, and he might even have his life here. Who knew that there would be such a perfect ending in the end. He was happy and secretly regretted it. If he had known that the governor was opened like this, it would be better to have a plan from him from the beginning and find Li Shanping to take that corner.

"Sir, he wants to resell the cannons to the Mongols." Ye Fengsui was concerned about the Han Dynasty. Although this trip was the same as Gao Deyong's goal, he still couldn't help but remind Guo Pu at the critical moment.

"It might be better, others will learn this artillery manufacturing method sooner or later. If you want to gain an advantage forever, you can only rely on continuous improvements to hide it. Moreover, the descendant of the Golden Family of Lame is self-proclaimed and will not be recognized by Tugustimur at all. The emperor is unhappy to see him stabbing the Mongols behind the Mongolians. Mr. Gao, please write a book to Lame and ask him to send someone to the capital to offer the country's letter as soon as possible. As for whether to be complacent or be granted, you can do it yourself. Anyway, it is so far away that the emperor cannot really take care of him."

"Yes, yes, I'll do it tomorrow, and tomorrow." Gao Deyong is so impressed by Guo Pu now that he is so impressed by him that he agrees with everything the other party says.

Guo Pu looked at his ecstatic appearance and knew that this person would basically no longer play tricks. He turned his eyes to Ye Feng and said, "It's okay if you want to equip your ship. But there are too many long-range artillery on the warship, so Peiping can't give you so many. So, I promise you twenty cannons first, the same number as Mr. Gao, so that you don't think I'm favored one or the other. When the matter is over, I will compile a book to Marquis Jinghai and ask him to send a small fleet to help you to Mangjiao Nuer (now Mengalore on the west coast of India), Guli, Zufa'er, and by the way, he will take the old nest of the pirates who have served the great food pirates to destroy the might of your enemies, but the Ye family will bear the expenses along the way. Also, don't make any more ideas about the Ming ships. In addition to the star-rated ships, Marquis Jinghai also has moon-level and Japanese-level. If you force him to kill the descendants of the Han people, it will not look good."

"I'll thank you for your father and the Song Dynasty for your family's remains." Ye Feng stood up, respectfully gave Guo Pu a new gift, and agreed readily: "I'll give all the money I earned from playing stocks in Peking this time. Outside Tianjin Port, there is a ship of crude gold transported by the Ye family from Zufa'er. Tomorrow, I'll send someone to serve as a deposit for artillery and fleet supply. I'll refer to Mr. Gao's method and sell the food directly to the people at the original price. In the future, if anyone dares to make the Ming merchant ships, my Ye family will be the first to not let him go."

"It's refreshing. Brother Ye is worthy of being a descendant of a hero. There is no wine here. Guo uses this tea to thank the leader of your village for the Ming Dynasty merchant ship. Nabo Ni Kingdom is still under the orders of Mongolia, and the king is also a descendant of Mongolia. Your Ye family has been in Bo Ni for so long. Are you satisfied with being a pirate leader? According to Guo, it's better to be the king yourself. After all, your ancestors are also from the Central Plains, and they always like the Tartars in the emperor."

"Thank you, Lord Buzheng"! Ye Fengsui could not hear the meaning of this sentence. With the support of the governor of the four provinces, he provided some new muskets and ammunition openly and secretly. With the strength of the Ye family, not to mention the country of Poni, or those small countries in Southeast Asia, no matter which one is easy to capture. It seemed that he saw the flag of the Song Dynasty flying on various islands in the South China Sea. Ye Fengsui was convinced by Guo Pu, and his grievances that had been under house arrest for more than 20 days were instantly swept away.

Seeing that Ye Fengsui's matter was almost over, Gao Deyong thought about it, took out a string of things from his sleeve bag, handed them to Guo Pu, and said with a smile: "I'm sorry, Lord Bu Zheng, I've been disturbing him for many days, and I haven't thanked for his teachings. I hope you can accept this gift with a smile."

As soon as the thing was taken out, it immediately turned out to be a green room. Looking closely, it turned out to be a string of jade chains, with an jade gourd hanging on one end. What is rare is that the chain is the same color as the gourd, without any dust, and is clearly carved from a whole piece of jade. It is said that "gold is pricey and jade is priceless." Even though the Ye family has been in Southeast Asia for so many years, they have collected countless treasures. Ye Fengsui has also seen such a dazzling object for the first time.

Guo Pu shook his head, did not accept Gao Deyong's gift, and sighed and said, "You two have been dating Guo for so many days. Do you still know what Guo wants to buy you?"

"This...", both of them were stunned. I don't know how to answer. Gao Deyong's jadeite was not collected, nor was it not collected. They hung in the air in embarrassment.

Guo Pu snorted, and a dark cloud appeared on his face: "If it weren't for Mr. Gao's incident before he reminded Mr. Li that he had tried his best to save him that night, how could Guo allow you to live here for many days? You should know that Guo is a governor's yamen, and he can only talk about the life and death of the people and the safety of the country, and he cannot think about the spirit of the world. Besides, you two spit out the food today, and have offended people, and they still want to be able to do everything."

"This..." Gao Deyong took a breath again. He turned his back on the face when the governor said that he turned against him. His face became faster than the businessman he was thinking about how to answer, but Ye Fengsui had already given the answer first.

"Reported to you, I really don't know where Mr. Li has been. But that night, the three gangs of people were hijacked by Mr. Li, one group of Japanese pirates, one group of Mongolian Tartars, and the other group of Han people. I heard that they called themselves the orthodox Han family. Since the adults said it, I will give you an explanation sooner or later."

Gao Deyong knew that today was a critical moment when he had to take the team. He put away the jade and answered in a regular manner: "Return to the words of Master Gong, those who reselled grain and suppressed stocks, except for the small vendors who were scrambling to fish, mainly Wang, Xie, Xu, Yu, Di, and Bai. Of course, my brother Ye and I were also fucked. The Wang family and Xie family were born traitors, and they colluded with Japanese pirates and Mongolia. The adults did not have to show mercy to them. The Xu family and Xu Jibiao number had nothing to do with them. Although Xu Jinru had worked as a doctor in Chinese studies for a few days, he was a bastard who called her mother when he was given milk. Yu Si and him colluded with him and were also a scoundrel literati. He read books all the way to the dog's belly. Only Di and Bai families had strange origins, as if they had an official background. I guess some officials who were disliked by the new policy of Peking were taking the opportunity to make trouble."

Anyway, it’s better to sell it cleanly. Gao and Ye no longer hesitated and talked about what they knew.

"The Ye family helped them transport food. Boss Di said that his master not only wanted to make some money, but because the emperor cherished the people today. Once the food price rose, the emperor would naturally realize the disadvantages of the new policy. In their words, this is called an extraordinary person and an extraordinary thing. The younger generation sent people to touch their bottom and where they hid food. Even though the adults sent people to follow my men to search for it. But I don't know where the money they earned in the stock market has been transferred. Those guys never told me who their master is, but judging from their expressions, their master's official position seems to be very big."

"Absurd"! Guo Pu angrily threw the teacup on the table, scaring the two of them to shut up. After a while, Guo Pu recovered and asked tiredly: "Don't they know that without the new policy of Peking, they will never have any place to make money?"

"I have advised them not to fish in the dry pond," Gao Deyong replied carefully, but they said something that made me fight a cold war after hearing it. They said, "Let the new policy continue to develop is the end of everyone. As for the life and death of the people now, it is just a number from the Ministry of Revenue and has nothing to do with them."

"Enough", Guo Pu waved his hand and didn't want to listen anymore. The literati was shameless because of the national humiliation. The Southern Song Dynasty had just been destroyed for a while, and the new literati had forgotten why the Southern Song Dynasty died. The people had nothing to do with you, how could you ask the people to be responsible for your life or death? "Song Zhang Hongfan destroyed the Song Dynasty here", I don't know whether the bright red words carved on Yashan were more satirized by Zhang Hongfan or the Southern Song court.

He picked up the teapot in front of him, and Guo Pu poured his mouth into his mouth and poured his mouth a few wildly, sighing and said, "They used the rules to snatch money from Peking. It is not illegal. Guo can't do anything to them. But if Guo takes the money back according to the rules, who can help Guo? If the two have the courage, they might as well gamble with Guo and see who will laugh to the end"?

Gao Deyong and Ye Fengsui looked at each other and thought to themselves: "Do we still have a choice now? Is this gambling just a comparison of who has enough capital?" He stood up together and bowed to salute.

"I wish to listen to the orders of the Lord"! For the first time in more than twenty days, the two of them spoke so righteously. An unknown wild bird was so scared that it flew up from the bamboo tips and flew into the sky. The sunset was already burning red in the air. Tomorrow, I wonder if it was sunny or rain?

"In this way, rely on two people." Guo Pu looked at the two of them and felt a little better. He stood up and straightened his back and said, "It's not just for you to take risks. Several major merchant groups in Peking are on our side. Wuhan Da God of Wealth still has enough money to buy half of the silver from Peking. We may win this battle in a very high position."

"Sir, we will do our best to do our best. His grandmother's, Lao Gao hasn't done such a risky business for a long time. Today I'll have an addiction." Gao Deyong replied with a smile, and the fat shaking on his face also looked a little cute.

After discussing the specific details, it was getting late, and Ye and Gao were not good at knowing that the governor was busy with official duties, so they dispersed. Guo Pu slowly thought about his thoughts and returned to the inner house. The food was already set, and Guo Feng went out to play with a group of classmates and friends as usual, but he did not return. Mrs. Guo was alone in front of the candle on the table, so that Guo Pu did not notice it even when he came in.

"Man'er, what are you thinking about? Are you thinking about Yangzhou again?" Guo Pu gently held his wife's shoulder and asked gently. He had been away from home for many years until he became a governor. Guo Pu felt guilty about his family.

"No, Master, I heard about your transaction today. I'm typing to sell you cannons to them. What will the emperor and the ministers say to you when they know about it?" Mrs. Guo put her hand on her husband's big hand and slowly moaned. After so many years, the hands and hearts of both of them were no longer soft.

Guo Pu felt the coldness in his wife's hands, and felt a warmth in his heart. "I only agreed to tell them whether to sell or not, then Wuhou or the emperor would make the decision. At worst, the merchants in Peking will return the money to them afterwards. Man'er, you are the person who was hiding behind Zhu just now."

The lady looked back at Guo Pu and nodded. "I was afraid that they would jump over the wall with their wrecks, so she brought a few people to wait next to her with muskets. If they dare to touch you, I will beat them into sieve first."

"Silly girl, am I that stupid? If I don't have absolute certainty, I will negotiate with them." Guo Pu tightened his arms and hugged his wife's soft and boneless shoulders. After decades of storm, these shoulders have been under too much pressure and too much sorrow.

"Master, it's an old husband and wife, so it's not good for the servants to see," Mrs. Guo patted her husband's hand gently, "Do you think the emperor will sell it? If not, will it damage your reputation?"

"It may not be sold in the future. Now 80% of them can set fire behind the Mongolians. No matter how high the price is, the emperor will support him. As for reputation, it is beneficial to the country and the people, but why should I add a false reputation to me?"

"Master" Mrs. Guo looked back at each other with a look of expression, "But now you have martial arts to deal with these people!"

"What martial arts, hum," Guo Pu snorted from his nose, "I'm still a martial arts master, but a swordsman who is bullshit, a big brag. He really has martial arts. What did the sons do when the Mongols invaded? He's calculating the money in the pockets of ordinary people all day long. What's the difference between the hooligans and gangsters on the streets? Don't insult the word "heroine"! Eat, eat,! Man'er, don't worry too much about me, you have your own competencies for your husband!"

"I know you are a real great scholar, so I don't hold you back, but if anyone wants to hurt you, I will naturally fight him to the death. Don't laugh at me as a fool. This is my responsibility as a wife."

The candlelight swayed, reflecting the two tightly embraced bodies on the lime wall in the house. The night at this moment was so quiet and gentle.
Chapter completed!