Chapter 506: Seeing the Person in a Word

The "Pirate Empress" Boa Hancock only wanted to be a shut-in on Amazon Lily in the Calm Belt.

Apart from her hatred for the Celestial Dragons, she only went to sea when the Amazon Lily needed her.

Moreover, her Love-Love Fruit was very good at bullying the weak; when encountering those who couldn't control their lust,

one petrification would petrify a large area, but unfortunately, it was very weak in high-end matches.

After all, to become a top-tier powerhouse, who wasn't mentally tough and unmoved by beauty?

Even if someone still had lust, with the Haki of a top-tier powerhouse, they could largely offset the ability of the Love-Love Fruit.

The ability of the Love-Love Fruit was very awkward; it had no substantial physical attack ability, yet it didn't reach the level of the Rumble-Rumble or

Glint-Glint Fruit, which gave the user the advantage of being invincible in front of top-tier powerhouses.

Kuma, in order to save his adopted daughter Bonney and complete the mission of the Revolutionary Army,

paid the price with his own body and had been transformed into a combat weapon,

and the Five Elders hadn't found a suitable candidate yet; otherwise,

Zhang Jie suspected Kuma would have long since been removed from the Seven Warlords of the Sea.

Doflamingo, the Heavenly Yaksha, was ambitious,

wanting to destroy the world order established by the Celestial Dragons, but unfortunately, his strength couldn't keep up with his ambition.

In a head-on battle, he couldn't even take one Thunder Bagua from Kaido, becoming a clown.

And Crocodile and Gecko Moria were directly beaten into losing their fighting spirit by Whitebeard and Kaido.

One was plotting in Alabasta, wanting to defeat Whitebeard, who made him feel despair, with the legendary extreme warship.

The other was cowering in the mysterious Triangle Sea, playing with zombies,

attempting to build an "undead legion," completely becoming a fat guy,

defeated by Monkey D. Luffy, who hadn't been out for long, worthy of being called the shame of the Seven Warlords of the Sea.

Afterward, even the Five Elders, who had always been lenient toward the Seven Warlords of the Sea, couldn't stand it and directly removed him from the Seven Warlords.

To tell the truth, if the World Government hadn't been stirring the pot,

Zhang Jie didn't think the Seven Warlords of the Sea had the qualifications to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the Navy and the Four Emperors at all.

As for the Four Emperors, they fought their own battles and conquered each other, making it impossible for them to unite.

Big Mom and Kaido, those two ambitious guys, hated each other and wanted to kill the other Four Emperors,

becoming the supreme Pirate King among pirates from a pirate emperor who still had others standing shoulder-to-shoulder.

Even within the Navy, there were the hawks led by Akainu,

the doves led by Aokiji, and the neutral faction led by Kizaru.

Heh, compared to the Four Emperors and the Navy, the Seven Warlords of the Sea were even more of a scattered mess.

If their interests hadn't conflicted, they would have long since beaten each other's brains out.

Moreover, the policy of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, which condoned the legal plundering of great pirates,

directly led to a serious decline in the already low prestige of the World Government.

The main factor for Aokiji leaving the Navy afterward was his failure to compete with Akainu for the position of Fleet Admiral,

but ultimately it was the accumulation of disappointment in the World Government, the ruler.

After a series of events like Ohara, he realized that in the Navy,

and in the World Government, he couldn't find the justice he wanted.

Mocking the brain-dead policy of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, the Zhang Jies' conversation about their experiences came to an end.

"Brothers, which historical figure can you identify with just one word?"

With the business done, it was time for small talk, and Heavenly Dragon Zhang Jie opened a new topic.

"I know this one."

Zhuan Yi Tian Zhang Jie participated with great interest:

"Everyone knows who the word 'Zan' refers to, right?"

"Of course, Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang."

Pirate Zhang Jie nodded and stated the riddle.

After Zhu Yuanzhang ascended the throne as emperor, according to the custom of emperors through the ages, he was supposed to follow the First Emperor and refer to himself as 'Zhen'.

distinguishing the emperor from other subjects and commoners to show the emperor's supremacy and absolute authority.

But Old Zhu was a beggar after all, and was very unaccustomed to this,

repeatedly calling himself 'Zan', which triggered remonstrances from imperial censors.

After being remonstrated many times, he came up with a perfect solution

—let the ministers hear his 'Zan' as 'Zhen'.

Replacing 'Zan' with 'Zhen', the dilemma was solved.

"I think this is probably a joke. Before we transmigrated,

there was no solid historical record proving that Zhu Yuanzhang kept 'Zan' on his lips all day.

This impression largely comes from later novels,

folk legends, and artistic processing in film and television dramas like the Hu Jun version of *Zhu Yuanzhang*."

After Pirate Zhang Jie finished speaking, Water Shui Hu Zhang Jie came out to clarify.

"Whatever."

Heavenly Dragon Zhang Jie waved his hand indifferently: "Whatever history is like, it will eventually be judged by later generations.

According to the records of our Great Qing, Old Zhu still had a pig-kidney face.

Even if his refusal to call himself 'Zhen' and insisting on 'Zan' is an adapted story,

it also highlights his image as a 'commoner emperor', unconstrained by small details, and close to the people."

"Makes sense."

Water Shui Hu Zhang Jie agreed with this and proposed a word of his own:

"Zhao."

Just after he finished speaking, Heavenly Dragon Zhang Jie got the answer:

"The only female emperor in Chinese history, Wu Zetian.

Before she usurped the Li Tang dynasty, ascended the throne, and established the Wu Zhou,

she felt her name wasn't domineering enough and couldn't show her imperial majesty as she ruled the world,

so she ordered people to create this character, meaning the sun and moon in the sky, illuminating the world, and ruling all nations."

After Zhuan Yi Tian Zhang Jie and Water Shui Hu Zhang Jie finished speaking, everyone looked at Consumption Zhang Jie, who hadn't said a word.

Consumption Zhang Jie smiled without saying a word, just using his internal energy with his index finger to write a character on the Eight Immortals table with a flourish.

"Kuo?"

Pirate Zhang Jie looked closely and took in the character on the table.

Water Shui Hu Zhang Jie's thoughts turned, and he got the answer: "A typical representative of being clever but being misled by cleverness, Yang Xiu."

Yang Xiu's connection with the word 'Kuo' comes from the famous allusion "Yang Xiu Dismantles the Gate" during the Three Kingdoms period.

The cause was that Cao Cao once ordered people to build a gate for the Prime Minister's mansion.

When the rafters of the gatehouse were just built, Cao Cao went to inspect it himself.

After Cao Cao saw it, he did not express an opinion directly; he simply had someone write the character "Huo" on the gate and then left.

No one understood Cao Cao's intention, only Yang Xiu, after seeing it, immediately ordered the craftsmen to dismantle the gate and rebuild it.

The crowd was still puzzled by the meaning, so Yang Xiu explained: "Adding 'Huo' inside 'Men' makes the character 'Kuo'."

It means the Prime Minister thinks this gate is built too wide and doesn't fit his wishes."

The craftsmen followed his words and rebuilt the gate narrower. When Cao Cao came to inspect it again, he was indeed very satisfied.

But when he learned that it was Yang Xiu who had guessed his thoughts, although Cao Cao praised him on the surface, he began to fear Yang Xiu's cleverness in his heart.

This story first appeared in *A New Account of Tales of the World: Quick Wit* written by Liu Yiqing of the Liu Song Dynasty of the Southern Dynasties.

Later, in Chapter 72 of Luo Guanzhong's *Romance of the Three Kingdoms*, "The Death of Yang Xiu,"

it was also cited as the first thing Yang Xiu did that "offended Cao Cao's taboos repeatedly."

This was the beginning of Yang Xiu being "clever but misled by cleverness." He repeatedly showed off his small cleverness in front of Cao Cao,

such as writing "One person, one bite of crisp" on the tribute crisp that Cao Cao had written "One box of crisp" on,

sharing it with Cao Zhi and others; and there was also the allusion of "Chicken Rib." ===== CHAPTER 507 =====