Neon Clothes and Iron Clothes

Chapter 908: Handover
"That's good!" Suta laughed, "As long as you are greedy for these, that's good!"

Feng Sheng saw Xutuo's confident look. Although he was curious, he couldn't ask directly. The two chatted for a while. Feng Sheng stood up and said, "Master Xutuo, let's stop here today! I still have some trivial matters to deal with. Goodbye!"

"Please!" Sutuo sent Feng Sheng out the door before stopping.

Just like this, more than ten days passed. Feng Sheng was busy with government affairs every day. Although he sent people to keep an eye on Sutuo and his party, he only heard that they were just running around the market every day, purchasing various materials and making preparations before the trip. As time went by, Feng Sheng almost forgot about it. One day, he came to the government office early in the morning and arrived at a porridge shop next to the government office at 12:00 a.m. He ordered a bowl of fish porridge and was about to eat it when he saw a clerk running over in a hurry and said anxiously, "Mr. Feng, Envoy Yang is looking for you!"

"Looking for me?" Feng Sheng was surprised: "Is there something important?"

"Hmm!" said the clerk, "It must be an urgent report. The envoy is urging us to come. Please follow me!"

Feng Sheng didn't care about the fish porridge. He dropped a few copper coins at the counter and followed the clerk back to the yamen and came to Yang Quansheng. Before he greeted him, Yang Quansheng waved his hand and said, "Forget it. Take a look at these two documents first. It's really a coincidence that the two things happened at the same time!"

Feng Sheng responded, took the document and looked at it, and couldn't help but exclaimed: "How could this be? They really bumped into each other! How could this happen?"

"How should I know?" Yang Quansheng spread his hands. "The court appointed Wang Wenzuo's son Yuanbao as the governor of Jiaozhou and the governor of Annan Protectorate, but the governor of Jiaozhou died in battle before he arrived. There is at least a gap of two or three months in between! Who should be sent to fill this vacancy at this juncture?"

"Why not let that Master Xutuo go?" Feng Sheng said, "Anyway, he and the new governor of Jiaozhou are brothers. If brothers quarrel within the walls, we should defend ourselves from external humiliation!"

"That sounds good!" Yang Quansheng nodded. "But he has only been in Guangzhou for 20 days, and the weather in Annan is still very hot. If I send him there like this, and something goes wrong, I'm afraid the Prince of Hejian will use this to impeach me!"

Before Feng Sheng opened his mouth to speak, he saw Yang Quansheng clapping his hands lightly: "How about this! Secretary Feng, you go with Naxuta. Your family has lived in Lingnan for generations, and you are familiar with the situation in Jiaozhou. You and Naxuta have been getting along well these days, so it would be great for you to be his guide! Don't you think so?"

Looking at his boss's familiar smiling face, although it was still the end of September in Lingnan, Feng Sheng still felt a chill creeping up his spine. He realized that he had fallen into a carefully set trap, but he didn't know whether this trap had been prepared long ago.

"Mr. Feng, what do you think?" Yang Quansheng asked again.

"Your Excellency is right! I am willing to do it!" Feng Sheng heard his own answer. He didn't know how many times he had said "Your Excellency is right" but this time it felt so strange, as if it didn't come from his own mouth.

"Well! It would be great if you think so too, Mr. Feng!" Yang Quansheng laughed, "Don't bother two masters with one thing. Then you can go to Xu Tuo later and tell him about this matter so that he can prepare for the trip!" At this point, he paused for a moment, "As for the specific time of the troops! You can discuss it with him and pick an auspicious day, but no later than the 22nd of this month. Speed ​​is of the essence in war! Remember?"

"I'll remember that!" Feng Sheng bowed to Yang Quansheng and left. Looking at Feng Sheng's slightly hunched back, Yang Quansheng had a complicated expression on his face: "I don't want to be like this, but some things are beyond my control. You come from a noble family, so you should be able to understand my difficulties!"

Feng Sheng walked out of the yamen, like a walking corpse. After walking for more than ten steps, he heard someone calling him from behind. He turned around and saw that it was the owner of the porridge shop. The owner ran towards him and said with a smile, "Mr. Feng, you gave me money for the porridge this morning but you didn't eat it! This is a return to you!" As he said that, he took out a few copper coins from his sleeve and returned them.

"Forget it!" Feng Sheng pushed the shopkeeper's hand away: "Although I didn't eat it, you brought the porridge, so why should I take the money back? Let me say it again--"

"What else are you talking about?" The shopkeeper also noticed that Feng Jishi, who was always cheerful on weekdays, seemed a little bit off today: "What's wrong with you? Are you not feeling well?"

"Forget it!" Feng Sheng took out a handful of copper coins from his sleeve and stuffed them into the shopkeeper's hand: "From now on, I'm afraid it will be difficult for me to come to your porridge shop to eat porridge. If you remember my kindness, please offer me a bowl of thin porridge every year during the Ghost Festival!" After saying that, he left without a care.

Feng Sheng ran wildly on the street for a long time, and then he slowed down his pace when he felt his breath was short. The despair and excitement in his heart had been mostly vented while he was running wildly, and now he had gradually calmed down. He decided to go to Xuta's residence first to convey Yang Quansheng's order, and deal with the rest of the situation as the situation dictates.

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Suta's residence.

"So, I have eight days at most before I set off?" After hearing what Feng Sheng said, Xu Tuo asked, "Mr. Feng, are you going to go with me too?"

"That's right!" Feng Sheng was unusually calm at this moment: "Envoy Yang asked you to pick an auspicious day to send out the troops, but no later than the 22nd of this month!"

"Well, then let's go on the 20th! Reserve two days to avoid unfavorable winds and make it difficult to go out to sea!" Sutuo said with a smile: "I didn't expect that Mr. Feng would also go with us. It's a pleasant surprise!"

"Although I am a member of the Feng family, I don't know the art of war, so I'm afraid I can't help Master Xutuo!" Feng Sheng felt like throwing away all hope. "Besides, the death of the governor of Jiaozhou shows that the enemy is probably much stronger than we originally expected. I'm afraid we won't be able to come back from Jiaozhou this time!"

"There's no need for Feng Jishi to worry about things on the battlefield!" Sutuo smiled and patted his chest: "We archers are born to defeat the enemy. There's nothing to be afraid of even if there are many enemies on the battlefield, right? Ayun?" He turned his head and asked Heba Yun on the side.

"That's right!" A confident smile appeared on Heba Yun's face: "Brother, please leave the matter of charging into the battle, beheading the generals and seizing the flags to me!" At this point, the two laughed in unison.

The hearty laughter of the warlike young man drove away the haze in the room. Feng Sheng looked at the two people in astonishment: "You don't know how many enemies there are!" "The victory or defeat of a war has never been determined by the number of troops, but by wisdom and courage!" Sutuo said: "The side with more people will often observe each other, hoping that their companions will go up first, and they will fall apart if one place is defeated; while the side with fewer people can fight against a hundred with ten, and a hundred against a thousand with a hundred if everyone is united! Mr. Feng, I don't know what your plan was in the past. But since you are going with us this time, we are all people in the same boat, and we must be of one mind!"

Feng Sheng was overwhelmed by the words of the young man in front of him. He nodded subconsciously: "Okay, I will naturally be of one mind with you!"

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In the next six days, Feng Sheng was as busy as a spinning top. Although he was not good at military affairs, he lived in Lingnan for generations and was familiar with the situation in Jiaozhou and the preparations to be made there. With his busy running, Xutuo's eight ships were filled with all kinds of supplies for the sea and Jiaozhou: dry biscuits, tea, vinegar, oranges, ramie cloth, straw hats, etc. Feng Sheng also saw Xutuo's generosity and wealth. He paid for every item he bought in cash or Jiaozi - a special voucher that has appeared in Guangzhou in recent years. Merchants can use this voucher to pay large sums of money, and the other party who gets the voucher can also go to a specific place to exchange the corresponding amount of copper coins. Compared with heavy copper coins, this special voucher is much more convenient to use. Feng Sheng was surprised that Xutuo could come up with such a fashionable new thing.

"What's so strange about this?" Xu Tuo looked at Feng Sheng in confusion: "Don't you know? The real boss behind the operation of Jiaozi is my father!"

"The big boss behind Jiaozi is the Prince of Hejian?" Feng Sheng was surprised: "Really?"

"Of course it's true?" Suta laughed. "Don't you know? The biggest fear of a guarantor is that someone will come to redeem the money with the voucher. My father has the most gold, silver and copper mines in the world. In other words, my father has the most gold, silver and copper in the world. Who else do you think can come up with this thing except him?"

"Is this actually the case? I never thought of it!" Feng Sheng said with a wry smile, "The Prince of Hejian actually came up with this!"

"Is there anything unexpected about this?" Suta said with a smile, "The benefit of Jiaozi is that it is convenient for transporting large sums of money, and my father may be the person who spends the most money in the world! Building ships, transporting military pay, building ports, constructing roads, factories, and making military equipment, he spends at least tens of millions of coins every year. If he didn't come up with this thing, it would be a lot of trouble just to transport the copper coins!"

Hearing Xu Tuo say this, an idea suddenly flashed through Feng Sheng's mind: "Sir, with this Jiaozi, can't you just bribe——"

"Do you want me to bribe those rebels with money?" Suta said with a smile.

"Yes, I was talking nonsense before. I didn't know your father had such financial resources!" Feng Tang said with a smile: "If you can come up with 300,000 or 500,000 strings of cash, no, 700,000 or 800,000 strings of cash, you can definitely divide and disintegrate those rebels and resolve the rebellion in Jiaozhou without bloodshed!"

"Hahaha!" Xu Tuo laughed. "Mr. Feng, I have so much money in my hand, and I believe you can do it without bloodshed. But if I really do it, I will never be able to hold my head up in front of my brothers in this life! Don't you think so? Ah Yun!"

"That's right!" Heba Yun said with a smile, "I would rather use this money to reward soldiers than to bribe rebels!"

"Ayun said it well, you are worthy of being my father's son-in-law!" Xutuo patted Heba Yun on the shoulder and said, "Mr. Feng, I know you have good intentions, but leave the military operations to us!"

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At noon on the second to last day before the deadline set by Yang Quansheng, Feng Sheng boarded the barge after lunch and climbed onto the deck of the "Long Tailed Whale". Then there was the sound of sharp suonas. The infantrymen lined up in two rows at the side of the ship. They stood straight, holding a rather strange-looking short spear in their hands. Sutuo came up, and the soldiers raised their short spears. The sharp spear tips flashed coldly in the sun. Sutuo nodded to the soldiers, walked to the stern, and said to the captain: "We can raise the anchor!"

"Weigh anchor!"

Following the first mate's loud voice, the sailors turned the wheels in rhythmic commands, and the iron chain covered with waterweed and moss floated to the surface, and finally the heavy iron anchor. The two sampans paddled long oars, the towing ropes were stretched straight, and the slender hull of more than 40 meters began to move slowly into the river, and then the sails gradually rose. Feng Sheng could feel the deck under his feet swaying with the wind and waves. About half an hour later, he could already see Dahu Mountain gradually rising from the horizon. The "Long Tailed Whale" and the seven ships behind it were already rushing towards the sea under the push of the tide.

"We can go into the sea before dinner!" Suda said in a relaxed voice, "It will be much more convenient there!"

"What do you mean?" Feng Sheng asked puzzledly.

"Our ships are all seagoing ships!" Suta said, "They have a deep draft and can withstand wind and waves, so they are more suitable for sailing in the sea. If we enter the inland river and run aground on an underwater sandbank, it will be troublesome!"

Feng Sheng looked at the boat under his feet and said, "It is indeed a little different from the boats I usually see, but those overseas merchants' boats are also seagoing ships, so why are they different from your boat?"

Heba Yun, who was standing nearby, laughed when he heard this. "Those are also called sea vessels? Hahaha, they are just some larger rafts. I don't even know how they got to Guangzhou! Mr. Feng, you don't know where Brother Xutuo has been by boat. Compared to him, these are just stinky loaches flopping around in the ditch!"

"Forget it! Ah Yun, don't say such nonsense!" Xu Tuo stopped Heba Yun and said to Feng Sheng, "It's too hot on the sea, let's go under the shed!"

Facts have proved that Heba Yun was not bragging. Feng Sheng sat under the awning of the stern and saw Sudatta giving orders skillfully. The fleet lined up in a column, took advantage of the favorable wind from the land, stuck close to the river bank, passed through the pass later known as "Tiger Gate", and headed for the yellow-green offshore. Feng Sheng could even see a group of lively dolphins chasing and playing on the sea not far from the ship.

After entering the sea, the ship had to conduct drills twice a day, and both sailors and soldiers had to participate. The sailors practiced shooting crossbows. Feng Sheng took it and tried it out curiously: the crossbow was made solid and delicate, and the crossbow arm was about two feet and seven inches long. In order to wind the crossbow, a special capstan must be used.

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　　(End of this chapter)