You have truly caused me great suffering!

By the time of the New Year, it was already freezing cold in the north.

However, it was still very warm in Guangzhou Port.

Wu Qian stood outside the city gate, looking at the confluence of the two Pearl Rivers. He saw many large ships anchored and moored on the nearby river.

The craftsmen accompanying the army, along with artisans transferred from Guangnan and other routes, worked day and night to repair the ships.

The ships moored on the Pearl River were not badly damaged, mostly in the masts, decks and superstructures, which could be repaired and reused.

After the ships were largely repaired, they carried various naval units away from the Pearl River Estuary and regrouped on the sea.

The weather was great, with several sunny days in a row. Guangzhou was very warm, making it impossible to feel that it was the twelfth lunar month.

This is especially true for people like Wu Qian from the Northwest.

The boats on the distant water, bathed in the afternoon sun, appeared even more magnificent, their surfaces shimmering with a pale yellow hue.

The battle ahead was unexpectedly intense, not because the enemy was difficult to defeat, but because there were simply too many areas to occupy.

Moreover, every time an island is occupied, it requires surveying, building a port, and merchants to bid for it and build houses.

After investigation, the government submitted reports in batches, requesting the construction of a city, the appointment of officials, and the establishment of government offices.
Busy people are overwhelmed.

The men of the South China Sea Navy, especially the military officers, are all short-tempered.

If you went to Shangguan and said you wanted to go home for the New Year, you'd probably get slapped twice.

It's true that I made a fortune, but it was incredibly tiring.
It was the court's foresight that led to this; His Majesty is wise, powerful, and insightful. Otherwise, why would he have thought of mobilizing troops from various regions to come to the South China Sea in batches?

If you catch a troublemaker, even the toughest soldier will be worn out.

Just then, he heard Tang Yao, the newly arrived military officer beside him, speak, "We've been resting here for a month now. When will those people from the front be back?"

"What's the rush? Warships are coming and going so frequently these days, and the wear and tear is enormous. If we speed up the rotation of troops, who will repair the ships!"

Wu Qian withdrew his gaze from the distance and turned to look at Tang Yao. Immediately, a strong smell of alcohol hit him in the face, which was extremely unpleasant.

I heard that today is the New Year's Day celebration for the troops, and many merchants have donated wine and meat. The central military command has also issued an order allowing drinking during the New Year.

Wu Qian did not drink it because he had not yet finished the herbal medicine prescribed by the physician, who also advised him not to drink alcohol or overwork.

Although he cursed loudly when he heard that he was not allowed to work hard, he still obeyed and did not drink alcohol, although he could not avoid working hard.

Do you think I want to work hard?
Wu Qian, who used to be a river pirate on the Yellow River, once thought there was no hardship in the world he couldn't endure, but now he is completely convinced.

After this battle is over, I will take two jugs of good wine to General Han's residence and beg him to transfer me back to Jinling to enjoy a life of luxury.

I can't keep going!

It's true that the Dingnan Army is happy to fight, but they didn't say they would fight like this, and the key point is that it's not just about fighting.

There's still the accounting to do! There's still the auction to do! Sometimes the land even needs to be measured. The intricacies involved are terrifying. Land is divided into fertile fields, dry fields, paddy fields, and residential land. It's all incredibly complicated.

In the past, people didn't like having civil officials command battles, but now everyone is eager for more civil officials to be appointed.

In fact, even the civil officials were somewhat apprehensive. Fortunately, the imperial court had taken note of this, and the Ministry of Personnel was organizing personnel to coordinate the effort.

Wu Qian glanced at Tang Yao; if it were before, he would have already started cursing.

But at this moment, he just said lazily, "It's a matter of national importance, how can you complain here? If the higher-ups hear you, they'll transfer you to Ryukyu to garrison. At that time, you'll be helpless."

Tang Yao smiled, then suddenly slapped Wu Qian on the shoulder. He had probably been drinking, because the slap made Wu Qian stagger.

"General, that's not fair of you. We fought together in Wei County back in Yanmen."

Wu Qian laughed angrily, and was about to make a move when he suddenly saw the sound of drums and horns coming from afar.

He froze, his eyes wide as he stared at the ship's flag.

When he saw the approaching ship with a large flag bearing the character "Guo," Wu Qian wept with joy.

finally come!

The imperial court promised him that Guo Hao, who was stationed in Japan, would replace him. And Guo Hao has finally arrived!
I want to go back to Nanjing! I want to go home for the Chinese New Year!

Wu Qian raised his hand and waved vigorously, his lazy and listless demeanor long gone.

On the Da Jing 'Jinshan' warship, Guo Hao was even more excited than Wu Qian.

He put one hand on his hip and used the other hand to look at the distant port through a telescope newly invented by the engineering institute.

It's finally my turn to take the stage.

Although I can't accompany Commander Qu to the desert, I heard there aren't any tough battles there, so there's no chance to gain any merit.

Now it's the Southeast naval battle, where you can gain merit and make money.

Having guarded Japan for His Majesty for so many years, I have finally gained His Majesty's favor.

Hard work pays off!
Huh?
Isn't that a 'water monkey'?

Guo Hao was smug. "What qualifications do you, Wu Qian, have to compete with me?"

When I was beating Richard in Hengshan, you were still a bandit on the Yellow River.

If I come, you're out of here! Understand?

When Wu Qian was a river pirate on the Yellow River, he was nicknamed "Water Monkey" and had a notorious reputation in the area.

Later, feeling that there was no future in this line of work and no way to get ahead, he led his men to join the Dingnan Army.

When he first joined the Dingnan Army, he was transferred by Yang Cheng, who was in charge of repairing the Wuding River, because he said he was good at swimming. He then followed Yang Cheng to dig the river.

Yang Chengxiu's river repair work was notoriously harsh, but no one dared to say anything.

Because he pushed himself, his son, his son-in-law, his nephew, and even his elderly second uncle to the riverbank to dig mud.

The old man was so angry that he would curse after finishing his work every day.

Wu Qian was working under Yang Cheng at that time and developed a complete work phobia.

It wasn't until Chen Shaobing attacked Nuanquan Peak and Wu Qian, the water monkey, finally got rid of his aggrieved master, Yang Cheng.

He was fearless on the battlefield and never tired of running a hundred miles, but he couldn't stand bending over and digging in the mud for even a quarter of an hour.

At that time, Wu Qian thought digging mud was the most tiring thing in the world, until he went to Java.

After the "Golden Mountain" docked, Guo Hao disembarked with a group of his personal guards and laughed, "Wu Monkey, why are you crying?"

"Guo Liu, you scoundrel, you've finally come!"
-
Inside the Funing Palace, Chen Shao read through the numerous reports from the southeast, one by one, carefully observing them.

Beside him, Yuwen Xuzhong and others were also carefully studying and taking notes.

Write down all the problems they face first, and then discuss countermeasures.

Taking down an island in Jianyi is different from taking down Xixia, Yunzhong, and Youyan in the past.

Here, once you conquer a place, you'll have a ready-made city, fertile land, and if you're lucky, you might even get a complete household register.

Even without these, simply bringing in some officials to conduct population and land surveys would suffice.

However, this expansion into the southern wilderness was tantamount to creating something from scratch, a groundbreaking undertaking. This required a large number of talented individuals of all kinds.

Although it was extremely complicated and required a huge amount of manpower, financial resources and materials, Chen Shao insisted that not a single island was superfluous.

No matter how much money or how many people are involved, he will support it to the end.

Moreover, after occupying the territory, they would continue to deepen their rule, relocate Han people there, and establish a firm foothold.

Fortunately, the imperial court has accumulated considerable experience in expanding its territory over the past few years and has a sufficient reserve of talent in terms of personnel.

Even so, the imperial court was still extremely busy.

Especially as we enter the twelfth lunar month, everyone realizes the enormous opportunities in the South China Sea.

Ultimately, the escalation of this matter stems from the progressive tax system.

Without a progressive tax system, everyone's accumulated wealth would definitely be used to buy land.

The most secure way is to buy land for your descendants.

Now that this money can't be spent in the Central Plains, it can only go overseas.

This indirectly enhanced the pioneering spirit of the gentry in the Central Plains.

It's like forcing them to go out and make their way in the world.

The Southern Wilderness is a great place. Once those islands are occupied, they can be left unused and used as transit points in the future.

Moreover, there are many products that are scarce in the Central Plains. The imperial court has promised that those who settle in the southern wilderness will have priority in bidding for mining rights.

If the Song Dynasty government had said this, the merchants would have ignored it. When did mining rights become something that ordinary people had to bid on?

Even if an ordinary merchant wins the bid, they will only be a puppet of the powerful officials in the court.

But when the Jing Dynasty's court spoke, everyone was willing to believe it. Putting aside everything else, the Jingquan incident alone established the court's credibility.

Around noon, Chen Shao felt a little hungry and looked up to see that they were still busy.

"Everyone, take a rest. I'll have the Imperial Kitchen prepare some food."

Beside Yuwen Xuzhong, a young scholar said without looking up, "Your Majesty, just make a few meat pies."

Chen Shao was a little embarrassed, "There's no rush."

Yuwen Xuzhong raised his head and smiled, "Your Majesty, we need to finish organizing these today, as we will need them when we discuss matters with the ministers tomorrow."

Chen Shao stopped insisting and told Chen Chong to instruct the imperial kitchen to prepare some meat pies so they could eat while they worked.

He secretly got up and slipped out, because he was feeling quite dizzy.

Through this incident, he became even more aware of the future shortage of various artisans.

Our school reforms are absolutely correct.

This large-scale infrastructure construction in the southern wilderness and the Indochina Peninsula is just the beginning; there will be many more waves like this in the future.

Moreover, putting everything else aside, the places we currently occupy will take at least ten or twenty years to build up.

The thought of cities rising up on the southern islands still excited Chen Shao.

Chen Shao knew in his heart that he might never have the chance to visit that place in his lifetime, but he was still very proud.

As an emperor, Chen Shao would not go to sea unless there were special circumstances.

Even his long-held plan to tour the country and see his new policies has been repeatedly postponed.
-
The capital of the Zhenla Kingdom was Angkor.

Suryavarman II was sitting on his throne at this moment, in an extremely bad mood.

Twenty years ago, he seized power through a coup, ending the struggle for the throne.

Then it expanded rapidly: westward to conquer Champa, northward to control Laos, and southward to the Mekong Delta.

Once he had fought enough, he felt his achievements were great enough, so he stopped expanding and focused on overseeing the construction of Angkor Wat as the state temple and his mausoleum.

This was indeed the perfect life of a powerful ruler of the Indochina Peninsula.

Unfortunately, the Jing people arrived. They were then called the Song people, and they discovered a mine here.

They carried an imperial edict from the emperor of the Central Plains, requesting that he cooperate with them in mining.

Why!
Suryavarman II had been making constant underhanded moves over the years, until one of his subordinates went too far.

They killed too many miners.

Outside the royal palace, the blazing sun beat down, making the castle bricks scorching hot; inside, the sunlight streamed through the windows, and dust swirled in the air.

This place used to be spotless.

In the past, when there were only servants and maids, they walked on tiptoe.

Because of the constant stream of battle reports, people are coming to this palace.

Martial artists don't care about any of that.

The envoy from Jianyili entered and looked at the king sitting on the throne. This king was similar to their ruler in Jianyili; both were extremely decadent.

Simply because the battle situation was just too difficult.

Both Zhenla and Jianyi, which were at the peak of their national power, faced the moment of national demise, and the reason was simply because of a few miners.

The situation in Zhenla was even worse, because they were adjacent to Dali and Annam on land, making it easier for the Dajing to deal with them.

Furthermore, Suryavarman II, a follower of Vaishnavite Hinduism, consistently suppressed traditional Shaivism and Buddhism, which provoked discontent among the monastic community.

There was no problem before, after all, he was powerful enough, but after the external enemy appeared, those who were suppressed in the country began to turn to Da Jing.

The king sat silently on his high chair. A ray of sunlight made his clothes appear resplendent with gold, but it did nothing to dispel the gloom on his face.

"What use is it for your king to send people at this point? We are all at our wits' end."

Like Khabul of the Mongol tribe, Suryavarman II also performed rituals, hoping Vishnu would bless the Jing people's fleet to burn, and let their corpses fill the forests and riverbanks. He also wanted to personally skin the Jing emperor and put him in the forest to feed the mosquitoes.

He even often sees such scenes in his dreams and wakes up laughing.

The messenger from Jianyili shouted, "We haven't lost yet! We can lure the enemy deep into our territory and use the hot, rainy jungle to harass them day and night, making the people of Jing wish they were dead!"

Suryavarman II looked at him as if he were a fool, and didn't even want to argue with him.

Don't you see who the people Jingjun brought are? They are Wuman and Champa people, who have lived in the mountains for generations.

Especially those Champa people, who were born inferior, and who had been bullied by him at will in the past. If it weren't for the construction of his mausoleum, he would have wiped them out long ago.

Instead of being grateful, they took advantage of the power of the Jing Kingdom to seek revenge!
The messenger from the angel of the angel was very anxious when he saw that Suryavarman II's will to resist was not strong.

His purpose in coming here was extremely despicable and insidious.
His intention was to keep Suryavarman II resisting, so that Kajri would surrender before them.

They are currently negotiating with the Jing people, but they fear that Suryavarman II might also surrender, which would put them in an extremely difficult and passive position. (End of Chapter)