Prince Li You of the Great Tang Dynasty begs the noble families to their deaths!

That evening, Li You was teaching his younger cousin, Yin Shaojue, the multiplication tables.

Li You's bodyguard, Wang Sanwa, was also reviewing his notes beside him.

Yin Shaojue is now twelve years old. He studied under the guidance of teachers at his family school in Chang'an and Luoyang.

The child is quite talented; he can recite the Four Books and Five Classics fluently, and his calligraphy is even better than Li You's.

But when Li You produced Arabic numerals, the multiplication table, and the four basic arithmetic operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division), Yin Shaojue was dumbfounded.

Mathematics is a nightmare that almost every elementary school student has to face.

When this nightmare descended from the 21st century into the 7th century, the sense of horror it brought was truly terrifying.

"...Three times three equals nine, three times four equals twelve, three times five equals fifteen, three times six...three times six equals eighteen, three times seven equals twenty-one, three times eight...three times eight...three times eight equals twenty-four, three times nine...three times nine...three times nine...three times nine..."

"Little cousin, cheer up, don't be discouraged! Think about it, what exactly is 'Sanjiu' (the coldest period of winter)?!"

Li You cheered him on relentlessly, but Yin Shaojue's little brain simply couldn't recall how many of these incantation-like nonsense words there were.

Just as Li You was about to reveal the answer, someone knocked on the door.

Wang Sanwa opened the door, and a suicide squad member entered.

This assassin looked like he had traveled a long way, as he was covered in dust.

Li You gestured for the assassins to find a place to sit, then said to Yin Shaojue, "Little cousin, go back and study hard. Once you've memorized the first four nines, I'll tell you what Sun Wukong's staff actually looks like."

Yin Shaojue, who was feeling listless from being tormented by the multiplication tables, perked up again upon hearing the words "Sun Wukong".

My cousin's story about the "Journey to the West" was really interesting.

"Sanwa, you take your little cousin back."

"promise!"

After the two children, one big and one small, left, the assassin immediately stood up, took out a letter from his pocket, and handed it to Li You.

After receiving the letter, Li You said to the assassin, "Wu Hong, go back and rest first, and come find me again tomorrow morning."

"promise!"

Li You took out the letter and began to read it under the light of the copper lamp.

After reading the information written in the letter, Li You pondered for a long time.

Then, he walked to the simple wooden cabinet next to him and took out a large sheet of Xuan paper.

The paper depicts not flowers, birds, fish, and insects, but a map of the Tang Dynasty drawn by Li You using information from various sources.

The rulers of the Tang Dynasty divided the country into ten circuits and more than 360 prefectures.

Li You is currently in the area of ​​Suizhou, Guangzhou, and Xiangzhou, which belongs to Shannan Circuit.

Of the more than 360 states, only more than 90 have been marked on the map by Li You, which is quite a lot of errors and omissions.

At that time, the most authoritative expert in map surveying within the Tang Dynasty was Li You's fourth elder brother, Prince Li Tai of Shu.

The "Kuodi Zhi" compiled under the supervision of Li Tai took five years to complete and consists of 550 volumes, plus 5 volumes of preface and brief introduction. It can be described as a monumental work in the field of geography at that time.

However, Li You did not have the "Kuodi Zhi" on hand, nor did he dare to write to Li Tai to borrow it, so the only thing he could use now was the sketch he had drawn himself.

"Hongzhou... is here, Jiangzhou... is here, Raozhou... isn't marked..."

Li You marked Hongzhou and Jiangzhou on the map.

Raozhou should be near these two places; we'll confirm its exact location later.

The reason we need to find these three places is because of the intelligence sent by that assassin named Wu Hong.

Wu Hong was one of the loyal followers who had fought alongside Li You since the beginning of the uprising, and he was quite capable.

Two months ago, Wu Hong and four other assassins were sent by Li You to the Jiangnan region to gather intelligence.

During their investigation, they encountered a group of merchants from Hangzhou and took the opportunity to chat with them.

Merchants travel all over the country and know a lot.

Wu Hong and his group obtained much of the useful information they had through casual conversations with merchants.

From these Hangzhou merchants, Wu Hong learned that in preparation for the war against Goguryeo in the north, the imperial court issued an edict to send the chief craftsman Yan Lide to build 400 large warships in Hongzhou, Jiangzhou, and Raozhou in the south to carry military supplies and personnel to accompany the army on its expedition.

These Hangzhou merchants were all in the grain business. Their journey was to Yangzhou to sell their stored grain to the Tang army and then unload it and store it in Yangzhou's granaries.

At that time, the same operation was being carried out in granaries at important nodes along the Grand Canal, such as Yangzhou, Huai'an, Xuzhou, Jizhou, and Bozhou.

Once Yan Lide's 400 warships are completed, they can sail north along the Grand Canal, loading grain and supplies from various prefectures and counties along the way onto the ships, and finally transporting them to Laizhou on the coast of the Shandong Peninsula, from where they can set sail and head straight for Pyongyang.

Yan Lide was then serving as the Chief Craftsman of the Ministry of Works.

Yan Liben is his younger brother.

Both brothers were renowned painters and engineering experts during the Zhenguan era, with the younger brother, Yan Liben, being more famous.

The large ship that Yan Lide was ordered to build was not an ordinary civilian vessel, but a massive warship that needed to be adapted to both inland waterway transport and cross-sea operations, requiring extremely high shipbuilding technology.

The reason for cross-sea transport was that the Liaodong Peninsula was no longer in the hands of the Tang Dynasty, but was controlled by Goguryeo.

If naval personnel, supplies, and provisions are transported from the Shandong Peninsula across the sea, they can directly penetrate Liaodong and launch a surprise attack on the heartland of Goguryeo, achieving twice the result with half the effort.

The navy, in coordination with the army, launched a pincer attack from both sides—this was the annihilation-level war plan devised by the Tang Dynasty's decision-makers.

The plan is undoubtedly a good plan.

But now, this good plan has run into a problem.

That is: Li You, as a time traveler, knew about this plan.

If Li You's strength had been too weak at the beginning of the uprising, he would not have been able to influence the plan.

Now, Li You has caught his breath and established a base area and Huang Chao's army.

Jiangzhou is only 800 li away from Suizhou, and most of the distance can be reached by water.

You, Yan Lide, want to build a ship right under my nose without even asking if I agree.

What the enemy wants, we must never let him get; it's best to destroy it so he'll regret it.

What is poison to one is honey to another.

The war between the Tang Dynasty and Goguryeo was protracted.

This war of annihilation lasted from the reign of Emperor Taizong to the reign of Emperor Gaozong, imposing a severe economic burden on the Tang Dynasty at that time.

Historical records state that the war against Goguryeo was extremely costly, causing "chaos throughout the land."

However, the Tang Dynasty's national policy was extremely rigid. As for the surrounding small and barbarian states, as long as they dared to show their heads and cause trouble, no matter what the cost or how much manpower and resources were spent, the Tang Dynasty would suppress them.