Everyone had a detailed discussion on the boat. Lu Yuxuan was familiar with water transportation, and he was intelligent and capable of strategy and planning. Everyone recommended him to be the military advisor of the Cao Gang. At that time, Lu Yuxuan made arrangements:
First, Hun Weiming and Yu Lanchu should return south as soon as possible. The Yangzhou water transport will start in April, so they cannot delay. After arranging the Jiangnan river water transport, they can then remove their manpower and go north to support;
Second, Jiang Shuo, Lu Yuxuan and Xiao Dayou immediately took Xu Lai's Bian boat to go north and directed the two groups to dredge the canal with all their strength. Jiang Shuo was in the middle and coordinated, with no real faction;
Third, Xie Yanchang went north with the ship. After arriving at Heyin, he took the land route to Tongguan and mobilized the Guanzhong boatmen to go eastward to help the Hebian boatmen.
Lu Yuxuan asked Jiang Shuo to show him. Although Jiang Shuo was good at martial arts, he had no access to river affairs. After hearing Lu Yuxuan's arrangements, he naturally agreed and only waited until Heyin to see what he could do.
After everyone's discussion, Yu Lanchu's boat sailed along the current and set off back to Yangzhou that night. However, Xu Lai's Bian boat needed to be stretched to take the Tongji Canal and could not sail at night, so it had to anchor overnight in Hongze and stay in Xuantong the next day. Jiqu goes north.
Jiang Shuo said goodbye to Hun Weiming and Yu Lanyan, and then followed Xu Lai to the boat on the Xiezhi River. Nan Jiyun planned to go north tomorrow and would still stay with Jiang Shuo tonight.
This Xieluzhijiang boat is a canal boat, so naturally it is not as exquisite and comfortable as a painted boat. Jiang Shuo can only squeeze into the same cabin with Lu, Xiao, Xie, and Nan. Fortunately, he is not a son of a wealthy family, lying on the The hard bed on the boat felt more comfortable and comfortable than the soft bunk on the boat. In the second half of the night, the snoring gradually started in the cabin, but Jiang Shuo couldn't sleep. When he was the leader of the Jianghu Alliance, he faced Cheng Ang's betrayal and rebellion. When Ge Ruliang was wronged, he was very confident that he could solve the matter by himself. At this time, the Bian Canal is blocked by hundreds of miles of siltation. No matter how strong a person is in martial arts, how many handfuls of sand can a person dig? The future is really uncertain.
Jiang Shuo couldn't sleep, so he simply sat up on the bed and closed his eyes to try his luck. The yin and yang in his qi sea had not yet been fully used for his own use. Although it was no longer a serious problem, his internal strength was still not at its peak. When he was practicing, the inner Qi dispersed into his limbs and bones, and it seemed as if his internal Qi had become higher. Once he collected the power, the two Qi returned to him. Only after breaking through a barrier, the two Qi no longer flowed back and were truly used for his own purposes. However, The more you practice the Jade Art, the more difficult it becomes, but it is even more difficult to break through a level of barrier.
The moment Jiang Shuo's luck reached the limit, his heart became clear, and there was no more distracting thoughts. Once the distracting thoughts were eliminated, his senses became sharper. He could clearly feel the difference in the breathing of everyone in the cabin. The breath behind Nan Jiyun Neigong was the longest. Although Xie Yanchang has good internal skills, his aura is a little impure due to his old age and weakness; Xiao Dayou practices external martial arts and therefore has heavy breathing; Lu Yuxuan appears to have received guidance from famous experts but has not yet matured.
Jiang Shuo kept pushing Erqi to rush through, and his senses continued to expand. Soon, he could clearly hear the breathing, murmuring, grinding of teeth of dozens of people on and off the ship, as well as the low voices of the night watchmen. He focused his energy on his ears to see how far he could hear. After a while, he could hear the sounds of swimming fish, returning birds, and neighboring boats in the distance... Suddenly a familiar human voice came into his ears.
Jiang Shuo opened his eyes suddenly, but the sense of his ears quickly deteriorated, and he could no longer distinguish the human voices in the distance. Seeing that everyone was still sleeping soundly, he stood up gently, moved the hatch, and jumped onto the deck. The night watchman knew He was the new gang leader. He was about to salute and say hello when he stopped him. Jiang Shuo lightly jumped onto the ship's mast and looked around. There was a strange large ship at the anchorage in the southeast, and human voices seemed to be coming from that ship.
The ship was more than a hundred feet away from here. Other ships stayed close to each other when mooring at night, but the ship was parked alone on the other side of the anchorage. Jiang Shuo lightly jumped ashore, walked around from the land, and waited. As he got closer, he saw that the ship was surrounded by open space and there was nothing else but a few large willow trees.
Willows are widely planted along the canal. It is said that they were planted under the order of Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty. These trees are hundreds of years old, very strong and have dense branches and leaves. Jiang Shuo jumped on one of the willows and hid in it, watching carefully. Boat.
The whole body of the ship was painted black. If there were no lights on the ship, it would be difficult to spot it at night. The bow and stern of the black ship were curved up like a crescent moon, with three masts on it. The boatman was pulling the rope to lower the sail. It looked dark. The ship had just entered the anchorage not long ago, and the sail was also black. What was even more strange was that the sail was actually triangular. All Tang Dynasty ships had square sails, but Jiang Shuo had never seen this triangular sail.
Taking a closer look at the boatmen coming and going on the ship, they all have dark eyebrows and high noses, beards and sideburns, and black scarves wrapped around their heads, revealing curly hair. They are all Persians.
The Persians had been sailing ships to trade as early as the Han Dynasty. In fact, Persia had already been destroyed by the Great Food in the Tang Dynasty, but the Tang people did not know it. They still called these merchants who came by sea Persians and called the businesses they opened to sell jewelry in various places. Persian mansion. The merchants on the sea route before Tianbao were Shang Bai, who wore white clothes, white robes, and white turbans. The ships that came in were all white boats with white sails. Because they called themselves "the country of big food", the Tang people called them "white clothes and big food" , for some reason, some ships coming from Persia after Tianbao were black ships with black sails, and their people were also dressed in black robes, so the Tang Dynasty people called it the "Black-Clothed Dashi". This strange ship with curved ends was a black-clothed big ship. Food merchant ship.
Jiang Shuo naturally didn't know this. Although the boat was noisy at the moment, he could hear the sound of people talking in the poop. The familiar voice could be vaguely heard, but the boatmen on the boat were still busy, but Jiang Shuo couldn't help it. After boarding the ship, he saw that the stern of the ship was raised high. He came up with a plan. He jumped down from the tree and walked around to the stern of the ship. The ship was still a few feet away from the shore, but this distance was not difficult for Jiang Shuo. He mentioned As soon as he was angry, it was like walking on the water, and he stuck directly to the stern plank. The plank was painted with black paint and was extremely smooth, but it was not difficult for Jiang Shuo. He used the skill of a gecko to swim on the wall, following the The seams and nail heads climbed up the outer wall of the poop, and the sound of voices came from inside. He swam on the board wall, looking for a slightly wider seam, and used his fingers to gently pull out a small piece of wood. Just be able to look inwards.
I saw that the poop building was quite different from that of the Tang Dynasty ship. There were no windows below, but the upper half was empty, but there were high windows. The top was not wooden boards, but covered with oilcloth. The wind leaked from all sides, but it was cool. I guess it was the merchant ship coming from the south where the heat was so hot. Because of the place. There is a rug on the floor. The rug is extremely beautifully woven, with complicated and gorgeous patterns woven on the dark red background. Everyone in the building is sitting cross-legged on the rug. All the plates and wine utensils are inlaid with jewels. Gorgeous gold and silverware.
Dashi is different from the customs of the Tang Dynasty. The master sits carelessly in the middle, blocking the front of Jiang Shuo, so he cannot see his face. All he sees is that the master is tall and wears a fat black robe. This black robe grows up and will be His whole body was wrapped up, but the edges of the robe were embroidered with gold threads. Therefore, although the black robe was simple in style, it still looked rich. On his head, there was a large bag wrapped in layers of black turbans, studded with gems. , it looked quite heavy, and Jiang Shuo couldn't help but worry about his neck.
There were guests sitting on both sides of the host. The first guest on the right was a young man in rich clothes, who was chatting with him. He was a few years older than Jiang Shuo. Next to him was a capable old man. The old man had his hands in his sleeves and his eyes were open. Looking at his nose and mind, he seemed to be refining his energy and refining his mind, but underneath the old man was a young man who looked like a scholar. Jiang Shuo couldn't help being surprised when he saw these three people. It turned out that these three people were An Qingxu, Yin Ziqi, and Yan Zhuang of the Pinglu Army.
But there are two monks sitting on the left. The monk is of medium build, has deep eyebrows and wide eyes, a high nose, and a rather unkind appearance. He is wearing a white robe and a white high crown. He turns around and listens attentively to Anqing with one hand. Threads speak.
Another monk also wore a white robe, but his hair was disheveled and he didn't wear a hat. The top of his hair was pulled back, revealing a shiny scalp on top of his head, with a big cross tattooed on it. One leg of the cross extended down until There is a lotus pattern tattooed on his forehead. This monk is not very old, and his appearance alone can be called a talent. However, he has a tattoo on his head and a strange pattern, which makes him look quite vicious and weird. . He was holding a string of beads in his hand, and there was a small ten-shaped object hanging under the beads. The man's eyes were slightly closed, and he was mumbling words as if praying, with a very pious expression on his face.
An Qingxu laughed loudly and said loudly: "King Naowen, it's been hard work traveling thousands of miles to be an envoy to the Tang Dynasty." He saw Yan Zhuang sitting on the side with Wuli Wutu not knowing what to say. , like a witch blessing, Jiang Shuo was startled and said: We haven't seen each other for two years, how come Yan Sheng became a witch?
But after listening to Yan Zhuang's words, the owner named "Naowen" also started to talk nonsense. Only then did Jiang Shuo realize that this "King Naowen" didn't understand Chinese, and Yan Zhuang was translating for him. Sure enough, when Nao Wen finished speaking, Yan Zhuang said to An Qingxu: "King Nao Wen said that I would like to say hello to the King of Yaluoshan. I heard that King An was appointed as the envoy to Hebei Province last year and visited Fan Yang. Now he is in charge of the Fan Yang and Pinglu armies. I am very happy for your grandpa because he knows the Northeast and is far away in Dashi."
When Jiang Shuo heard this, An Lushan actually claimed to be the king in front of foreign envoys. His disobedience was very obvious. Such a treacherous person actually moved to the right for many years and now he has all the two towns of the Eastern Army under his control. After all, it is really infuriating that the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty behaved like this.
An Qingxu said: "I heard that the Black-clad Dashi has taken over Tochara in the past few years, and all the nine countries in the river have surrendered. It is really gratifying."
Yan Zhuang translated it to King Naowen, but King Naowen shook his head and said a lot. Yan Zhuang said: "King Naowen said that the Hu people with the nine surnames of Zhaowu were intimidated by the despotic power of Gao Xianzhi, the deputy governor of Anxi. Not completely surrendered to Dashi.”
An Qingxu spat: "The people of the Tang Dynasty have been bullying the Hu people with nine surnames for a long time. My father was also a Sogdian Hu people, so he was almost killed as a sheep thief. One day, I, the Hu people, will take away the flowers and mountains of the Tang people from him. Live the land of the Central Plains."
