"Lord Earl," Richard and Joanna both stood up and greeted him when they saw Zhang Fan coming over.

"You don't have to be polite," Zhang Fan said, "It's late at night, why don't you go back to your room to rest?"

"The night is long, and I don't want to sleep, so I come here quietly and quietly," Richard replied, coming to the strange country of Daming for so many days, he has learned a lot of Chinese, and he is also proficient in a lot of Chinese, but he still speaks with a strong European accent on weekdays, but these two sentences, he speaks extremely proficiently, and his voice also has a standard Beijing film.

When Zhang Fan heard his words, a smile appeared on his face, and he said, "It seems that the two of you are also very bored in your hearts,"

"This ......" Richard didn't know what to say, he was naturally worried that the war was about to break out here, and his life was in such danger, but at the beginning, when Joanna offered to stay and watch the battle, he agreed after all, and now he said that he wanted to leave, firstly, to thin his face, and secondly, he also felt that this would make Zhang Fan look down on them, which would have a bad impact on his motherland.

"Lord Earl, Richard, he misses his relatives at home a little," Joanna said, she naturally knew what Richard was worried about, but after all, the two of them came from the same country, and they naturally wanted to help cover up in front of outsiders, even if she had a good impression of Zhang Fan in her heart, but this matter could not affect her patriotic feelings.

"Oh, that's it, it's been half a year since you left your country, and it's natural to be homesick," Zhang Fan nodded, with a very understanding expression, and then asked suspiciously, "In that case, why did you refuse when I asked you to go to the capital with my uncle and them a few days ago, you know, if you meet my Emperor Majesty of the Ming Dynasty as soon as possible, your task can be completed as soon as possible, so that you can go back as soon as possible," Zhang Fan asked the doubts in his heart in this euphemistic way, He still didn't understand why the two men had stayed.

"Lord Earl, it was my request to stay and watch the battle," Joanna said, "Although I am a woman, my colleague is also a soldier, so naturally I want to see the war in the East that can only be described in books or by oral hearings, and I ask the Earl to forgive me, this is my idea as a soldier, if the Lord thinks there is anything wrong, my companion and I can leave here now," Joanna said this to ask Zhang Fan on behalf of Richard if he could leave, after all, Richard is a man of letters, Not a soldier, the fear of going to war is understandable; Second, she actually wanted to stay and see, but she was afraid of seeing something that Zhang Fan felt needed to hide, so now she really asked Zhang Fan.

"I have already said it," Zhang Fan said, "Although the two of you are on the land of my Ming Dynasty, but the two of you are not my Ming people, and they are also my honored guests, I will never restrict the actions of the two, whether you want to leave or stay, it is all up to the two of you of your own will, absolutely no one will force the two,"

After listening to Zhang Fan's words, both of them were very happy in their hearts, Richard was naturally happy to be able to leave this place of right and wrong without losing face, although he understood that if he really left, Zhang Fan was very likely to despise him in his heart, but he didn't care about these anymore, if someone mentioned it in the future, he could say that he was in a hurry to go to the capital to meet the Ming Emperor, which is not unreasonable.

And Joanna is naturally happy that she can legitimately stay and watch the war, for her, after visiting this mysterious country in the East, many things make her feel new and mysterious, but only the Eastern war she has not seen yet, she wants to stay and see what is going on.

Richard looked at Joanna with extremely eager eyes, hoping that she could make a request to leave here, but Joanna seemed to not see it at all, and only cared about talking to Zhang Fan, which made Richard very uncomfortable in his heart, although he had now gotten Zhang Fan's words and knew that his behavior would not be regarded as a coward, but as a foreign minister who had to take care of etiquette at all times, he still had no way to open his mouth himself.

Since they are embarrassed to speak, let's stay and see, this is the choice made by Richard, anyway, they are just staying as spectators, and they don't have to go to the battlefield, the danger factor is naturally much smaller, and their identity is after all the envoys of foreign envoys, thinking that Zhang Fan will definitely send someone to protect their safety.

"By the way, Lord Earl, there is one thing that I have been unable to understand all along, and it is about this ...... Dwarf...... Enemy...... "I heard that these would-be robbers came from Fuso Island, where our merchants had been there and had done a few deals with them, but I have mentioned from the mouths of those merchants of our country that there is a war going on that island now, and many people are fighting with their men for the dominance of that island, so it seems that they do not have the energy to attack your country, and I have heard that the people there are very short, and I think that there are no soldiers who have returned to the country.

"But why do they dare to attack the country so vigorously now, this is really unreasonable, in Europe, only those countries that are unified dare to attack the country, and the country they choose is also about the same strength as their own, isn't this Fuso country now doing this self-defeating,"

After Zhang Fan listened to his words, he was about to say something, but he suddenly stopped, he suddenly thought of a question, Fusang's place, since a thousand years ago, has been a kind of existence as a subject country of the Celestial Empire, but this land of Shenzhou has experienced many wars and regime changes since the year before last, and the relationship between that side and this side has never changed, and it is still a master-subordinate relationship, but why do people over there dare to make a move, dare to attack a country stronger than them, this question seems to have never been thought about, In the past, they harassed the same way, and now they are attacking from behind.

And what makes Zhang Fan feel the most strange is that in the face of foreign attacks, compared to the danger of the imperial court from the north, the infringement of the Japanese invaders can be regarded as ignoring it at all, if it were not for the previous decades, the trouble of the Japanese invaders is getting worse and worse, and the imperial court will not ask, and now, it seems to be back to the way it was before, in fact, Zhang Fan understands in his heart that the main credit for this is Qi Jiguang, it is precisely because of his existence that it has been so stable here for so many years, and it is precisely because Qi Jiguang is so capable, the imperial court seems to be a little unguarded against the Japanese again.

Zhang Fan couldn't help but think in his heart, could it be that those people standing in the court are stupid to read and read, can't they think of a reason, no matter how powerful a person is, he can fight again, but people will always get old, and in the end they are all loess, Qi Jiguang can be said to be in the prime of life now, not to mention the marching formation, even if he goes into battle to kill the enemy, he is definitely more brave than those military men in their twenties, but he is now forty-three years old, and he has passed the age of not being confused, and he will not be as good as fifty years old after that, The so-called time flies by in a hurry, and when Qi Jiguang dies, who else can support the defense of the southeast coast of the Ming Dynasty.

Of course, if Zhang Fan said this concern in his heart, someone would definitely stand up and say something immediately, what is the vast territory of the Celestial Empire, is it not easy to find the talent of a mere general, or what two-legged toad is not easy to find, there are many people who are right, and someone will naturally take on this important task at that time.

But they didn't think that Qi Jiguang's current prestige was not innate, but through his resistance to the Japanese Invaders again and again, accumulated over decades, and then pushed up a person in the future, although his ability to command the army was very, even more clever than Qi Jiguang, but the Japanese Kou did not know this, at that time they would only know that Qi Jiguang, who was the biggest threat to them and what scared them the most, was no longer there, and the Japanese Kou would inevitably be rampant again. In that case, it will take another few decades to make that person's prestige known before he can once again make the Japanese feel afraid, but by that time, it is estimated that the person's age should be quite small.

We must think of a way to eradicate this scourge, either to make Fusang fully aware of the authority of the Ming Dynasty, so that whether they are rulers or ordinary people, when they talk about the Ming Dynasty, they must have a sense of awe in their hearts, but Zhang Fan knows that this method is really difficult, very difficult, so there is one left.

"There is actually a reason for this," Zhang Fan said to Richard, "First, Fusang is still friendly with my Ming Dynasty, and every year they will have envoys come to me to pay tribute to His Majesty, and second, those Japanese are all Fusang people who have died or fled, and to put it bluntly, they are people who have been expelled from their own country, so although I have also warned Fusang about this matter, the reply I got is that those people are not within their jurisdiction,"

"This ...... Is this simply a scoundrel," Hearing Zhang Fan's words, Joanna said in surprise, "Lord Earl, you must know that this is just a pretext for them, to this kind of people who dare to rob other countries, for so many years and can still have such a large scale now, they must have the support of the state behind them," Joanna said is the trend of piracy that is now rising in Europe, and many pirates have the tacit approval of their countries behind them, or even blatantly support them.

"Such a person, such a country, should not be merciful to them at all if they have done such a thing," said Richard, "especially a country of such power to your country, and you should not condone such an act of the people, but only go to war against them."

Richard said that he was impassioned, but Zhang Fan knew in his heart that it was very difficult to do this, but Zhang Fan agreed with Richard's words very much in his heart.