Chapter 19 end

Sun Quan's enthronement ceremony began on April 30, and from then on, Wu State was upgraded from a separatist force to a formal empire.The three "countries" of Wei, Han, and Wu finally became worthy of their name on this day. On May 5th, Chengdu received a secret report from Dunmuguan; on May 6th, it received a second report forwarded by Dunmuguan, which included the minutes of Sun Quan’s meeting with Zhang Guan, the explanation of his position, and the compensation promised by Wuchang to Chengdu Then, on May 10th, I received the letter of credence officially sent by the special envoy of Emperor Sun Quan.

The court of the Shuhan Dynasty was shocked by this. Many ministers, like Quezheng, believed that diplomatic relations with Soochow should be severed immediately, and then send troops to attack the rebellious officials and thieves who pretended to be the emperor.However, as Xun Xu expected, Prime Minister Zhuge, who pursued pragmatic politics, finally persuaded these ministers and decided to accept this fait accompli and acquiesce in the legal status of the Soochow Empire in exchange for a stable international environment. On May 15th, Hanwei Wei Chen Zhen went to Soochow as a special envoy to congratulate him.He arrived in Wuchang on June 1, and received a very grand reception. Sun Quan said that this will open a new era of cooperation between the two countries...

May 20, Wuchang. Xun Xu stared curiously at the tall house in front of him.This house is similar to the style of Nanban architecture. The main building of the house is separated from the ground by dozens of upright wooden piles. The whole house is supported in the air by pillars, and there is a slope-shaped wooden staircase on one side. "It's rainy in Jiangdong, and the ground is too humid. This is a storage room specially designed to preserve silk and paper archives." Xue Ying, who was standing next to him, explained, Xun Xu nodded, still focusing on the gap under the house.The corner of Xue Ying's mouth twitched, and she said to Xun Xu in a deliberately embellished indifferent tone, "Boss Xun, can we go in?"

"Oh, oh, okay." Xun Xu rubbed his nose, a little embarrassed. The two walked up the wooden ladder to the door, Xue Ying took out a key from her waist to unlock the room, and pushed open the two doors.Just as Xun Xu was about to step in, Xue Ying stopped him with her hand. "Xun Zhubo, I must reiterate the principle to you before you go in." "All ears." "I personally don't want to open these files, but this is an order from above, so I can't help it. But please pay attention: first, you can only browse in this room, and you are not allowed to take a single piece of paper out; second, you You can only copy it yourself, and no other scribes are allowed to enter this room; third, I must be present when you read it, and I have the right to warn you which files are not allowed to be touched. Do you understand?"

"Just those that can be 'touched' are enough for me to copy for a lifetime." Xun Xu's cold joke only made Xue Ying's expression stiffer. It has been nearly a month since Sun Quan ascended the throne, and the two countries of Wu and Shu have not fallen into a military confrontation as predicted by some observers.The Shu Han recognized the legitimacy of Sun Quan's proclaiming himself emperor, while Soochow compensated the Shu Han in other fields-the sharing of intelligence resources between the two countries is one of them.On the surface, this is a fair deal, but in fact it is very beneficial to the Shu Han, because the Shu Han, who has been committed to the Northwest strategy, urgently needs the information of Cao Wei on the Jianghuai line in order to understand its overall strategic deployment; It is said that the Cao Wei situation in the Northwest is of little value.

The deal has been officially described as the first step in building a military trust system between the two countries.Xun Xu, as an intelligence officer of the Dunmu Museum, his job is to go to the reference room of the Soochow Secret Mansion, select the intelligence materials of Soochow over the years, and then extract the valuable parts to Shuhan and send them to Hanzhong. Xue Ying was very disapproving of this move, especially when he was defeated by Guo Xun Xu last month.But the king's fate was like a mountain, and he had to obey, so he had to treat Xun Xu with a passive and uncooperative attitude, and secretly cursed those high-level bureaucrats in his heart.

The two of them stepped into the room, and the number of data files placed inside could be said to be overwhelming.When Xun Xu thought that he had to read all the things here, he started to have a headache. He even hoped that Xue Ying would warn several volumes of files not to touch, so as to reduce the amount of reading. "Forget it, this is much more interesting than "Baihu Tongyi" and the like." While comforting himself, Xun Xu took out a pen, ink, paper and inkstone from his rucksack and put them on the table.He rubbed his hands, took a deep breath, and took out a volume from the rightmost side of the first floor on the bookshelf. He turned his head to see that Xue Ying, who was watching from the side, didn't respond, so he put it on the case table and started to read it. .

This is a very difficult job. Xun Xu not only has to read a lot of boring reports and data, but also thinks about what is useful to the Shu Han; if he finds any valuable information, he has to transcribe it.What's more troublesome is that Xue Ying only allows him to enter here alone, and no one can help him.The only good thing is that the scribes in Soochow generally write relatively well, neatly and easily recognizable. After a month like this, Xun Xu spent nearly four hours a day in the reference room. After a long time, he felt his back, eyes and wrists began to ache.Although Zhang Guanhe sympathized with him very much, he was helpless.

On June 20th, Xun Xu stepped into the reference room as usual, and Xue Ying leaned against the door as usual, with her hands folded on her chest, staring at this Shu Han official who dared to flip through the documents in the secret place of Soochow. "Then thank you for your hard work today." "The responsibility lies." After the two exchanged the daily routine, Xun Xu took out a stack of new files from the place where he left off yesterday, spread them out on the case, and began to look at them.About an hour later, Xun Xu's hand flipping the file suddenly froze, his face flushed with excitement, and his heart beat involuntarily.

Noticing his abnormal expression, Xue Ying quickly asked, "Xun Zhubo, what's wrong with you?" Xun Xu didn't answer him, but took out a page from the book and handed it to Xue Ying, trying to restrain himself. Zhu excitedly asked: "Do you remember this page?" Xue Ying was taken aback, and took the hemp paper from Xun Xu's hand.This is a report on the six years of Wu Huangwu—that is, the fifth year of Jianxing in the Shu Han Dynasty, two years ago—as an envoy to Cao Wei, and the drafter was Xue Ying herself.Xue Ying remembered that it happened that Wei Wendi Cao Pi died at that time, and his son Cao Ruixin took the throne.Although Soochow has officially broken off diplomatic relations with Cao Wei, it still maintains some contact in private.So Sun Quan sent Zhuge Ke to express his condolences, and Xue Ying followed him as a secretary.After returning, Xue Ying wrote a report on what she saw and heard, which is the one Xun Xu is holding in her hand now.

"Here, look here." Xun Xu pointed to one of the words with his finger.Xue Ying saw that her own sentence was written like this: "I may have heard that Wei Yu had an inner room in the middle of Shu, and the official title was very high, but I haven't heard about it in detail." "Is there any problem with this paragraph?" Xue Ying felt very strange. This sentence was just an interlude in the middle of the report. Why did Xun Xu react so strongly. "Do you remember the scene at that time? Who heard it from? What else do you know?" Facing Xun Xu's eager inquiries, Xue Ying began to try to recall the situation at that time, and his good memory helped a lot this time.It was at a banquet held by General Cao Zhen, and sitting next to him was Cao Cao's son-in-law Xia Houmao.Until now, he still remembered the vulgar pure gold chain hanging on Xia Houmao's chest and his vulgar laughter. He was a typical dude. "He is a high-ranking person in the military." Xun Xu added. "Then he is a high-ranking dude." Xue Ying coldly corrected her speech, and then continued to recall. At that time, Cao Rui had been sending people to lobby Zhuge Ke, hoping that Sun Quan could resume diplomatic relations with Cao Wei.So at the banquet, the people of Wei always wanted to show their strength intentionally or unintentionally.After drinking for three rounds, Xia Houmao began to talk more when the wine was hot, and he kept pulling Xue Ying's sleeve to talk non-stop; at first, he boasted about the strength of the Wei army, and then he laughed at the state of Shu since Liu Bei died. Just nothing.Later, Xia Houmao suddenly came up to Xue Ying and said triumphantly: "We have long had large eyes in the Shu Han, and Zhulong will tell us what they want to do. They are transparent in our eyes..." "So, did he say anything else on the subject?" "No, he was helped down by two servants next, probably because Cao Zhen was afraid that he would talk too much. I always thought it was just that guy's ramblings, so I didn't think about it seriously, just incidentally in the report I mentioned something." Xue Ying changed her tone when she said this, "This is all I know, does this help?" Xun Xu didn't answer, his heart was now filled with countless thoughts that bloomed in an instant. Undoubtedly, the "Candle Dragon" that Xia Houmao talked about was the "Candle Dragon" that lurked inside the Shu army, assisted Mi Chong in stealing the crossbow information and killed him afterwards! It was the "candle dragon" that completely defeated Xun Xu. This unforgettable name brought Xun Xu's thoughts back to Shu Kingdom, to Hanzhong, to the land where he had fought; his sense of failure that had been soothed now began to ache again...