Volume 4 is in the ascendant Chapter 429 Return to Jinling
In late October of the first year of the Chu Dynasty, Bai Tu returned more than a month later than planned and almost missed the palace examination of the imperial examination.
Of course, if it was slower, even Lu Bu would urge Bai Tu to go first out of his responsibility as the King of Chu, rather than accompany Lu Lingqi on the journey slowly.
Although there was no need to inspect each county on the return journey, the speed of the carriage slowed down after it was discovered in Jiyang that Lu Lingqi was pregnant, and it took three months to return to Jinling.
Lu Lingqi, who is already four months pregnant, is also showing signs of being slightly pregnant...
When they returned to Jinling, as usual, many people lined the streets to watch. Bai Tu was secretly worried about whether the noisy environment was bad for the fetus. At the same time, he hinted to Zhang Chunhua to remove the bastard who wrote "The great King of Chu returned to Jinling, which is loyal to him, today" on the front page of today's official newspaper...
When entering the city, Bai Tu got out of the car and supported the pregnant Lu Lingqi, and Xiahou Juan was also by his side.
That’s right, I just want to show it off!
It's not to tell the whole world that Bai Tu is a scumbag...
It was to tell the folks of Jinling that it was Lu Lingqi who was pregnant, not Xiahou Juan.
Otherwise, after "Lady Xiahou left Chu because she was pregnant", it was immediately followed by "The Queen of Chu was pregnant"? How could it be such a coincidence? This is even more difficult to explain than the shadow of a candle and the sound of an axe...
In the future, after ten months of pregnancy and the day of delivery, who knows how many stories of replacing the prince with a cat will be imagined!
So now letting Xiahou Juan appear next to Bai Tu in women's clothing is not because Bai Tu wants to be a cheating scumbag during pregnancy, but because he must show that Xiahou Juan is not pregnant.
At the same time, it also acquiesces to some of the previous rumors about "Madam Xiahou" to prevent further spread of false information in the market.
Of course, based on Bai Tu's experience, doing so would only work for a few hundred years, or even a few decades at most. After a few hundred or a thousand years, it would still be written nonsense by some two-dimensional history writers...
By now, the State of Wei had already known about Xiahou Juan's affairs, and Liu Ye was already on the way - basically Liu Ye's route this year was "Yecheng-Jinling-Yecheng-Jinling".
It can be called the first Chu purchasing agent in the Wei Dynasty (fog)...
After Yang Xiu saved himself and others, he was unanimously favored by the top leaders of Wei State as expected. His identity was completely "cleared" in the Wei court, and he got rid of the influence of "Yang Biao's son", and went further into the core circle of Wei State.
Naturally, Cao Cao would not have any aversion to the marriage between Xiahou Juan and the King of Chu, and although Xiahou Yuan was still somewhat dissatisfied with the issue of marrying far away, but... things had come to this point, what could he do?
As early as when Bai Tu was still the governor of Yangzhou, Cao Cao proposed a marriage alliance, but was rejected by Bai Tu.
Later, as the situation evolved, if the Han emperor and the court had not been out of control, Cao Cao might have hesitated - after all, if they were about to "get married", the significance of the marriage would be too small.
If it was Cao Cao's own daughter, he would not feel too distressed, but in the case of Xiahou Juan... he had to consider Xiahou Yuan's thoughts!
But now the auxiliary Han forces have created an "iron chain connecting the rivers". With Xu County being completely captured, the distance between Chu and Wei on land is as great as "the distant Altair and the bright Vega". There is no point of conflict, unless... one of the sides goes to war with the auxiliary Han forces first.
This time Liu Ye went to Chu and also chose the sea route...
It is obviously not as convenient to go out to sea from Jizhou as from Qingzhou. However, Qingzhou is now the territory of the auxiliary Han forces, or more precisely, Liu Bei, Marquis of Lu, while Mouping Port, Chengshan Port, and several counties between them are all under the control of the Chu State.
In fact, several excellent locations for accessing the sea were under the control of the State of Chu, including the newly built Andong Port and Da Port in Youzhou.
As for the Liaokou Port built by Gongsun Du himself, it was somewhat inferior in both scale and location, but Gongsun Du himself did not realize this.
Because from the perspective of land power, the distance from Liaokou Port to Xiangping is very flat, so from this point of view, its geographical location is indeed the most important...
It seemed that Youzhou had no intention of sending envoys again, but only proposed the demand to increase the trade volume of weapons and armor.
Gongsun Du does have this kind of profoundness - after all, it's just a transaction, doesn't the buyer have any dignity?
However, four months ago, after the plate armored cavalry made a brief appearance in Xu County, Gongsun Du finally heard the news more than a month ago. After hearing some battlefield rumors, Gongsun Du immediately fell in love with this simple and rough heavy cavalry!
Liaodong has no shortage of horses, or even iron ore, but the limited forging and smelting technology makes it uneconomical for Gongsun Du to form a heavy cavalry on his own - it is expensive and impractical.
However, purchasing weapons and armor from the State of Chu was much cheaper than smelting them on their own, especially if they were exchanged for iron ore, there were additional discounts.
At first Gongsun Du was still wondering if this would make the State of Chu too fat, but after a few transactions...it was really great!
On the one hand, he tasted the sweetness, on the other hand... Gongsun Du calculated that his ambition in Liaodong, even if his children and grandchildren were taken into consideration, was nothing more than crossing the Liaoze Lake to the west and completely conquering Liaoxi, as well as Shanggu, Yuyang, Youbeiping, the eastern part of Youzhou, and completely subduing Goguryeo to the east.
The State of Chu is far away in the south. Can it cross the sea and destroy me?
Therefore, Gongsun Du began to act without restraint, especially after hearing about the heavy cavalry in plate armor, hoping to make a deal for this "latest equipment".
In Gongsun Du's opinion, this heavy plate cavalry should be the strongest "weapon" of the Chu State, and it would not be sold easily. Simply submitting a normal transaction application would not work, so less than a year later, Liu Yi was sent again...
Considering the distance between the two sides and the time required for the diplomatic missions, sending diplomatic missions twice in less than a year does seem a bit too attentive.
But... the fragrance is enough!
In the north, Cao Cao had already established his capital in Yecheng, and was about to force Yuan Tan into a desperate situation. In particular, Yuan Shao's nephew Gao Gan, although he was the Governor of Bingzhou appointed by Yuan Shao and controlled the eastern part of Bingzhou, began to frequently contact the Wei State out of selfish motives at this time, and watched Yuan Tan die without any help.
Cao Cao is no longer as aggressive as he was after the Battle of Guandu. The forces supporting the Han Dynasty have united together, making him feel constrained. Therefore, Gongsun Du also wants to "progress". Especially among the Gongsun clan in Liaodong, the heir Gongsun Kang is still a hardcore hawk. Under his instigation, the Liaodong forces began to move across the Liaoze Lake...
He didn't dare to provoke Cao Cao directly, but wanted to tear some rotten meat from the "remains" of the Yuan family to strengthen himself!
This also made Liaodong very covetous of the plate armored heavy cavalry that could quickly improve its strength - from the rumors, it seems that there is no need for any operation or battle formation, just a happy charge and it will be done?
It’s a perfect match with the Liaodong Army!
Even though Liu Ye came here nominally to discuss a marriage, he might have had other ideas in this regard, and Cao Cao now had plenty of horses.
In addition to these two, many other "old acquaintances" also reappeared in Jinling less than a year later...
