Gu Hua was dressed as a middle-aged Confucian scholar. If Xie Cang hadn't stepped forward to salute respectfully, who would have thought that this man would be the most powerful person in Nanzhou.
If you really regard Gu Hua as a scholar, even if it is a big mistake, it is not an exaggeration to say that everyone who serves as a state pastor of a state is a feudal official.
If you underestimate it, you will only suffer the consequences.
At this time, Su Qi'an stepped forward and saluted with the same respect. For no other reason than that he was able to manage Nanzhou so well, it was enough for Su Qi'an to salute.
Gu Hua waved his hand and motioned for the two of them to take a seat. He looked at Su Qi'an and said with a smile.
"Haha, I have heard about the name Dongshan Marquis for a long time. When I saw him today, he is really a talented person. It is indeed not unfair for Li Kang to be defeated by you."
Su Qian'an shook his head at Gu Hua's praise and said, "Li Kang's failure was entirely his own fault. Su just complied with the people's wishes and with the support of local officials, he was lucky enough to overthrow Li Kang."
"In this battle, the local priest alliance contributed the most. Su just followed suit. Here, he also has to thank Gu Zhoumu for sending troops to support. Without Gu Zhoumu's reinforcements, even if Li Kang was solved, Jiaozhou Short I’m afraid time will be thrown into chaos.”
Su Qi'an's voice was very soft, neither humble nor arrogant in his words, and there was no trace of arrogance at all.
Gu Hua nodded, with a smile on his face and a slightly satisfied look in his deep eyes.
"Well, in general, Marquis Dongshan put in a lot of effort to pacify Jiaozhou. Apart from anything else, he was able to peacefully coexist with the priest alliance in Jiaozhou and even reach an agreement. Li Kang couldn't do this."
"Even in the southern border of this state, these priests spent a lot of effort to bring them to submission."
"If Dongshan Hou cooperates with the situation and makes good use of it, these priests will be a big help to Jiaozhou."
Gu Hua's words coincided with Su Qi'an's thoughts. If used properly, the priests' alliance in Jiaozhou would not become a major scourge, but would be a great help to Su Qi'an.
Gu Hua said this not just casually, but to give Su Qi'an a direction.
Su Qi'an naturally had no intention of refusing and nodded repeatedly.
At this time, Xie Cang couldn't help but speak, "Sir, Brother Su has finally come to Nanzhou, and the journey has been very dusty. I think we should discuss these gossips in private."
"I have already invited people. Don't you have something important to discuss with Brother Su? If you are chatting like this, Brother Su won't have time to have a good rest tonight."
Hearing what Xie Cang said, Gu Hua was startled, then laughed loudly and said with a smile that Xie Cang was impatient.
Xie Cang's casual attitude made Su Qi'an a little surprised. Xie Cang was probably the only one who dared to talk to the governor of Yizhou like this without any rules.
Although Su Qi'an didn't know this Nanzhou shepherd, he could clearly see from the conversation between the two that Gu Hua's love for Xie Cang was like an elder treating a younger generation.
If it were anyone else, Su Qian believed that Gu Hua would never be so disrespectful.
After all, he is Nanzhou Mu, no matter how friendly he is, he will still attract people. If he has no real skills, how can he control Nanzhou and develop Nanzhou to such a prosperous level just by being friendly.
Then I thought about it, Xie Cangneng and Gu Hua were so unruly, regardless of Gu Hua's identity as a public student of Chu State, he would take care of Xie Cang, the righteous son of Chu State.
What's more, Xie Cang is also capable. In Nanzhou, Xie Cang's reputation is no worse than that in Jiaozhou.
Along the way, the county guards, county magistrates, and local soldiers who passed by Xie Cang were all very respectful when they saw him, especially some soldiers, who showed a little admiration in their eyes.
What makes these people so respectful is Xie Cang's strength in Nanzhou.
Xie Cang came to Nanzhou for three years. In just three years, he not only reorganized the Split Mountain Army that was crippled at the beginning, but the Split Mountain Army was present in every major and minor war that took place in Nanzhou.
Whether it's bandits or the rebellious Nanzhou priests, as long as the Splitting Mountain Army takes action, there will be no trouble.
It can be said that the current Split Mountain Army is the most powerful army among the 70,000 Nanzhou soldiers.
It was precisely because of his high regard for Xie Cang that Gu Hua acquiesced in Xie Cang's Mountain Splitting Army and expanded its strength to 15,000 men.
If it were placed in other states, Xie Cang would have been impeached long ago, but in Nanzhou, to put it bluntly, as long as Gu Hua serves as the shepherd of Nanzhou for one day, Xie Cang's mountain-splitting army can maintain such a scale. Naturally, he is The hottest rising star in Southland.
Therefore, no matter what era you are in, as long as you have outstanding strength and meet a good Bole, you can use all your talents.
Now it seems that Xie Cang's transfer to Nanzhou three years ago was a very correct thing.
Seeing that Xie Cang was living well in Nanzhou, Su Qi'an, as a good friend, was naturally happy for him.
After a while of fun, Gu Hua did not go around in circles, looked at Su Qi'an and said softly.
"Dongshan Hou, this state invites you to Nanzhou this time because of someone's entrustment."
Su Qi'an's eyes flashed and he said nothing.
"You also know this person, Marquis Dongshan, he is the Sixth Prince Su Kang."
When these words came out, Su Qian was a little shocked. In his impression, he and Su Kang had only met once.
We only met him once in Kyoto, and we have never interacted with him at all. Besides, he is now in the three southern states. How could the sixth prince find him, and why did he find him? Could it be that he traveled thousands of miles from Kyoto to Nanzhou? ?
Su Qi'an's shock was unexpected by Gu Hua. He explained, "Dongshan Marquis should have forgotten one thing. When I, the Prince of Daliang, become an adult, I will have my own fiefdom. Like the second prince Su Zhe, who was granted the title of Jin King, the fiefdom is in Jinzhou, the fourth prince Su Tai was granted the title of King Zhao, and the fiefdom is in Zhaozhou."
"And the sixth prince was granted the title of King of Yue, and his fiefdom is naturally in Yuezhou, which is the Yuezhou of the three southern states."
When Gu Hua explained this, Su Qian was shocked at first, and then showed a look of understanding.
He really didn't pay too much attention to this matter. He didn't expect that the sixth prince's fiefdom was in the south. This was probably destined.
But from a certain perspective, the sixth prince is indeed not very favored. Judging from the fiefdoms of the three princes, we can know that His Majesty currently favors the other two princes more.
Whether it is Jinzhou or Zhaozhou, one is to the southwest of Kyoto and the other is to the northeast of Kyoto. Only Yuezhou is to the southeast of Daliang and is separated from Kyoto by at least two or three states.
Moreover, Yuezhou is close to the sea and is subject to heavy rains all year round. The land is barren and the annual harvest is only in Pingshun years, which is similar to that of Jiaozhou. If there are floods and heavy rains, it will be at the bottom, and sometimes it will have to rely on Nanzhou for relief. .
Such a barren place, regarded as a fiefdom, was indeed a bit shabby among the three princes.
Su Qi'an can't worry about these. These are fights between princes and have nothing to do with him. What he wants now is to develop Jiaozhou with peace of mind and accumulate strength until he returns to Xizhou and settles accounts with Tang Feng.
Su Qi'an looked at Gu Hua and said, "If Mr. Gu has anything to say, just get straight to the point. Since the Sixth Prince has something to do with me, as a member of the royal family, if Su can help, I will definitely help."
"Haha, Dongshan Hou is really quick to talk. Now that I have said that, Honshu will no longer hide it. This time, I am entrusted by the Sixth Prince to ask Dongshan Hou to go to Yuezhou to help the Sixth Prince exterminate the pirates."
"Pirates?" Su Qian was startled, and then thought of something.
The territory of Daliang is close to the sea in the southeast, and the only states close to the sea are Dongzhou and Yuezhou.
The people in these two states basically make a living by fishing. Although they don't make much money all year round, they can still make ends meet.
But I don’t know since when, fishermen who went out to sea to fish unexpectedly encountered pirates.
At first, the scale of these pirates was not large. In addition, the focus of Great Liang at that time was to defend against Da Rong in the north. The so-called pirates were not taken seriously at all.
This was not only the case for the Great Liang royal family, but also for the governors of the two states, who sent troops to encircle and suppress them in the normal way of suppressing bandits.
At first they achieved some success, killing more than a hundred people and destroying more than a dozen small fishing boats.
This gave the soldiers during the encirclement and suppression campaign great confidence. Under the instructions of Zhou Mu, they directly dispatched 5,000 men on ten warships to prepare for the encirclement and suppression.
Defeat their home base of Black Wind Island in one fell swoop.
According to the information obtained, there are at most a thousand pirates remaining on Blackwind Island, and there are no large warships in hand.
Compared with them, it can be said that they are crushed. This attack was thought to be a sure thing.
As a result, when they arrived at Black Wind Island, they found that Black Wind Island had long been deserted. When they reacted, they found that they had been fooled. The island was surrounded by at least more than 5,000 pirates.
A fierce battle broke out immediately between the two sides, but it was only after the fight that they discovered that these people were not pirates, but well-trained soldiers. Moreover, during the fight, they found that these people were speaking some incomprehensible words.
At first glance, they were not pirates at all. The soldiers who landed on the island immediately retreated. However, during the retreat, they encountered strong winds and the warship ran aground on the rocks.
The five thousand soldiers who finally landed on the island, except for those who were good at water, were lucky enough to be washed back holding the broken ship plank, and were found and rescued.
According to statistics from this battle, only more than 200 of the 5,000 people were rescued, and the rest were all killed on Black Wind Island.
Later, after questioning, I found out that these pirates were supported by an island country on the other side of the sea.
This island country was recorded in many ancient books of sages. Because they were generally short in stature, they were called Japanese slaves and later called Japanese pirates.
During the heyday of Daliang's founding, we had dealt with these Japanese pirates. They were not Daliang's opponents at all, but a former tributary of Daliang.
But hundreds of years later, these guys had the audacity to support pirates and invade Great Liang, which made the two state shepherds very angry.
Form a navy immediately and prepare to teach these guys a lesson. The idea is good, but the ending is shocking.
The navy fleet of 40,000 people fought fiercely with the Japanese navy on Blackwind Island for half a month, and the two sides ended in a draw.
This kind of draw is not a simple one to one, the battle loss ratio has reached two to one.
During the Black Wind Island War, only 10,000 Japanese pirates and 10,000 pirates were dispatched.
Moreover, their warships cannot be compared with the Great Liang Navy at all, but they have the advantage of soldiers and huge warships. In the end, they were tied, with a loss of one to two.
This battle was known as the Shame of Black Wind Island. From then on, the Japanese pirates became more unscrupulous and recruited pirates from nearby islands. After so many years of development, they are said to have 70,000 pirates.
