"Don't drink it for nothing." Sun Chuanting sat down on the seat, reached out and picked up an untouched cup of tea on the table, put it to his mouth and took a sip.
Tsk tsk. Pursing his lips, Sun Chuanting said: "The tea is not good, and the water is not good either."
"It doesn't matter if the tea is almost there. If you have a chance to come to my place in the future, I have some good tea." Hong Chengchou said with a smile.
Sun Chuanting put down the tea cup in his hand and said, "There is no need to persuade him, I will not be a thief."
"Yes, with Sun Boya's ability, there is no need to become a thief." Hong Chengchou said. After hearing this, Sun Chuanting looked at Hong Chengchou in surprise.
Suddenly, he had the feeling that Hong Chengchou was a spy placed by the imperial court inside the Tiger Flag.
"Don't look at me like that, I'm telling the truth." Hong Chengchou said. Sun Chuanting hesitated for a moment and asked tentatively: "Aren't you afraid that the tiger thieves will hear it and punish you later?"
"Why do you want to punish me for offending me?" Hong Chengchou spread his hands and said immediately,
"You Sun Boya should know very well what a rebel looks like. Do you think the Tiger Flag is a rebel? Which rebel will really care about people's livelihood. Real rebels will only destroy, such as the religious rebellion in Shandong." Sun Chuanting frowned He frowned and said: "The tiger thief betrayed the Ming Dynasty. Isn't this a rebel?"
"No." Hong Chengchou shook his head and said,
"Perhaps in the eyes of most officials in the imperial court, the Tiger-Character Banner was a rebel, but in the eyes of the people of Shaanxi and Shanxi, the Tiger-Character Banner was never a rebel, because Ming Dynasty was the one who made it impossible for the people to survive, and the Tiger-Character Banner What we do is to enable the people to live." Sun Chuanting said nothing, holding the teacup and sipping the tea in small sips.
"Actually, I'm not here to persuade you to join the Tiger Flag." Hong Chengchou said. After hearing this, Sun Chuanting looked at Hong Chengchou in surprise.
"Don't look at me like that, I'm telling the truth." Hong Chengchou said,
"My lord asked me to come here this time, but I have no intention of persuading you. If you, Sun Boya, don't want to do anything, I don't think others can do it, and even if you do, you won't listen." Sun Chuanting took a sip from his teacup. He took the last sip of tea and said, "I didn't expect that I would be so valued. Even Liu Heng would personally send someone to persuade me to surrender."
"Do you think this is a good thing? Do you think you can be complacent?" Hong Chengchou asked.
"Isn't it?" Sun Chuanting asked back.
"It's a good thing to be taken seriously, but have you ever thought about what will happen to you when the news of your rejection comes back? The more important a person is, the less he likes to be refuted." Hong Chengchou said.
Sun Chuanting said with a gloomy face: "In the worst case, kill me. From the day I was captured, I never thought I could still be alive."
"Then why didn't you die? You had plenty of opportunities to kill yourself before you were captured, instead of being locked up in such a small room like now." Hong Chengchou glanced around.
After hearing this, Sun Chuanting's expression was dark and uncertain. Hong Chengchou picked up the teapot on the table and refilled the teacup in front of Sun Chuanting. At the same time, he said: "Since you have chosen to stay, it means that you don't want to die, Boya, and still want to live, even if you know that you will not end up badly after being captured." Okay, I still don't dare to commit suicide." Sun Chuanting's face became increasingly ugly.
Recalling the time when he was captured, it seemed that as Hong Chengchou said, he never thought of committing suicide and serving the Ming Dynasty.
"Bo Ya, do you know why the Tiger Character Banner attacked Shandong?" Hong Chengchou asked. Sun Chuanting hesitated for a moment and said: "By taking Shandong, the Tiger-Character Banner can completely surround the capital and control Shandong's water transportation. The fall of the capital will be a matter of time."
"Bo Ya is only right about one thing, and I think Boya's intelligence should be able to think of another thing." Hong Chengchou said with a smile.
Sun Chuanting said: "It's for the entrance to the sea where Denglai is located. I heard that the Tiger Character Banner also has a navy, which is always out there. As long as Denglai is captured, the connection with the navy can be opened."
"That's right." Hong Chengchou nodded and said immediately,
"But Bo Ya knows that Lushun has now completely fallen into our hands."
"Lushun?" Sun Chuanting frowned.
"Capturing Lushun is not a good move. For you, taking Lushun will require you to face the slave thieves in Liaodong. The slave thieves are not as easy to deal with as the Ming army."
"Haha!" Hong Chengchou suddenly laughed and said,
"Bo Ya, do you know that a large army of the Tiger Flag once fought a battle with the slave chief Tai Chi on the grassland, and finally ate the slave chief's two red flags, and killed Yue Tuo, the owner of the red flag, and Zheng Hong Qi. Beizi Shuotuo.”
"It turns out this is true." Sun Chuanting sighed. The fact that the Tiger-Character Banner defeated the slave chief Taiji on the grassland had already been reported back to the Ming Dynasty through various channels, but many officials in the Ming Dynasty did not believe it and thought it was false.
After all, the Ming Dynasty had so many soldiers and horses in Liaodong that could not do something like destroying two red flags at once. How could a traitor from Tiger Character Banner do it?
They believe that the tiger-character flag is an exaggeration, self-promotion, and a way of putting gold on their face. Hong Chengchou said: "Of course it is true. Not only that, we also fought a battle with slave thieves in Lushun. Even now, the slave thieves Da Beile Mang Gurtai is still leading an army outside Jinzhou City."
"Are you trying to trick me?" Sun Chuanting couldn't believe that at the same time that the Tiger Character Banner was at war with the Ming Dynasty, it was actually at war with the slave thieves in Lushun.
Even the Ming Dynasty did not agree with the two-front battle. A force like the Tiger Character Banner that had only existed for a few years could actually achieve two-front battle with the help of its three provinces.
Hong Chengchou said: "I don't need to lie to you about this matter." Sun Chuanting suddenly became speechless. He found that the Tiger Flag was more powerful than he had imagined. Unknowingly, this small business had turned into a behemoth.
Maybe one day we can really replace Ming Dynasty. Even officials loyal to the Ming Dynasty knew that no dynasty could last forever.
The Ming Dynasty lasted for more than two hundred years, and many people knew that it was approaching the end of the dynasty. Without the Holy Emperor to continue the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty might not last many years.
Especially in the Ming Dynasty, there were constant natural disasters everywhere, which made many people see the end of the dynasty. Even Sun Chuanting had to admit that if the Ming Dynasty could not change the current situation, it might really perish.
However, in fact, even if they know that a dynasty is at its end, not all officials can abandon the dynasty. Years of Confucian brainwashing still make some people willing to perish with the dynasty.
When Hong Chengchou saw that Sun Chuanting was silent, he knew that he had been hit hard and needed to give him time to think.
Immediately, Hong Chengchou stood up and said, "I won't disturb you today. I'll come back tomorrow." With that, he left the room without waiting for Sun Chuanting to speak.
