Both Publius and Marcus agreed that in the future, if there was another war with the Han Empire, I was afraid that the navy of the Han Empire would put great pressure on Rome, and even if Rome started to build new ships now, it would probably be difficult to make up for the gap between the two sides.

It takes time to build a new type of warship, and it takes more time for a new type of warship to form a combat force, and there are new tactics corresponding to the new type of warship, all of which take time, but God knows how much time the Han army can give Rome?

As soon as their canal is opened, there will be an unknown and powerful Han navy coming to the Mediterranean, and the road ahead is long, and the blessings and disasters are unpredictable.

The most effective way to do this was to sabotage the Han Chinese's efforts to dig canals, to delay time, and to buy time for Rome.

Caracalla sent envoys to the Egyptians to incite hatred of the Han Chinese, sabotage the canal and delay the construction of the canal.

Sima Yi adopted an iron-blooded policy of repression, caught the hostile elements, resolutely punished the saboteurs, and applied to Lü Bu and Fa Zheng to transport a large number of slaves from the Western Regions and Central Asia, some from Xiancai, and some from Jiankun and Ding Ling.

It is better not to use the Egyptians to help dig the canal, than because they affect the progress, as Lu Bu's henchmen, Fa Zheng and Sima Yi both know Lu Bu's wishes.

Lu Bu's last wish is to be able to personally conquer the last powerful opponent in this world in his lifetime, this year Lu Bu is fifty years old, in this era, fifty years old is already considered an old man.

Therefore, Lu Bu has a strong sense that time is not waiting, he is constantly supervising the progress of the excavation of the Suez Canal, and even does not hesitate to ask the Ministry of Communications to send a part of their engineering troops to speed up the excavation of the canal together with the engineers of the Wehrmacht.

However, in any case, in this ancient world without the help of modern construction machinery, everything had to rely on manual labor, and the only good news was that there was a large amount of explosives that could be used for blasting.

The large-scale use of explosives also made the canal as straight as possible, reducing the length and the amount of work.

Time passed quickly, the Romans were busy preparing for war, the Han were busy digging canals, the Persians were busy expanding their territory, and the Kushans were busy with civil war.

The expansion of the Persians proceeded quickly, and the Central Asian allies Khorasan and Sistan joined the Persian Empire, and only Khorezm remained independent.

However, the attitude of the Persians towards the Han Empire was still very humble, and Ardashir I and the crown prince Shapur always maintained sufficient respect for the Han Empire.

Prince Shapur was very fond of Oriental culture, and he even worshipped Fa Zheng as his teacher and studied Oriental culture with Fa Zheng.

The Persians learned from the Han Empire in many aspects of their statecraft and military governance, establishing their own centralized system of power, and gradually abolishing slavery and transforming it into a feudal system.

In March 216, news came from Yizhou that the monarch of Eastern Wu, Wu Wang Sun Quan, suddenly fell ill and could not manage the government, and the government was handed over to four auxiliary ministers, and the crown prince Sun Deng was too young to supervise the country.

The four auxiliary ministers were Zhang Zhao, Lu Xun, Cao Pi, and Pan Jun, among which Cao Pi was very much used by Sun Quan after abandoning Wei and joining Wu, and was entrusted with the important task of raising the army as a general.

Moreover, Eastern Wu fled to Yizhou, and Cao Pi and other former Wei ministers also followed Sun Quan to Yizhou to pioneer the land, but they never gave up.

Pan Jun was far away in the Philippines and was responsible for taking care of Wu's colony in the Philippines.

What is really said in the court is Zhang Zhao and Lu Xun, especially Zhang Zhao, the veteran of the two dynasties, is the most powerful, Lu Xun is less qualified than Zhang Zhao, and more has prestige in the Wu ** team.

Cao Pi was a supporter of Zhang Zhao, and he and a group of former Wei ministers supported Zhang Zhao, but they disagreed with Lu Xun and others.

Long before Sun Quan fell ill, Cao Pi put forward a proposal to win over the Liaodong warlord Gongsun clan as an ally to involve the energy of the Han Dynasty.

Although Sun Quan was seriously ill and ignored the government, Cao Pi believed that this work should not be stopped, but should be continued, after all, under the current Han Empire, only the Gongsun clan of Liaodong still retained considerable independence.

Zhang Zhao was also supportive of this idea, while Lu Xun did not, believing that even an alliance with the Gongsun clan would have no impact on the overall situation, and that the Han Empire would categorically not tolerate the emergence of a disobedient local government in its northeast.

In the end, Zhang Zhao and Cao Pi were still more important than Lu Xun, so the plan was continued, and Zhang Zhao authorized Cao Pi to operate it specifically.

Now ruling Liaodong is Gongsun Kang's younger brother Gongsun Gong, who should have been succeeded by Gongsun Kang's son Gongsun Yuan, but because Gongsun Kang died when Gongsun Yuan was not yet sixteen years old, Gongsun Gong took over the Gongsun clan.

But now that Gongsun Yuan has reached the age of eighteen, Gongsun Gong has no intention of returning to power at all, and Gongsun Yuan has long been full of dissatisfaction with Gongsun Gong.

Cao Pi had long been eyeing the Gongsun clan in Liaodong, and he sent Cheng Yu to Liaodong to have a private relationship with Gongsun Yuan, and to help Gongsun Yuan give advice.

With the support of a large amount of gold and silver treasures in Eastern Wu, Gongsun Yuan gradually bought off the civil and military officials of Liaodong, and some of Gongsun Kang's old subordinates also supported Gongsun Yuan.

In July, while Gongsun Gong was on his way to inspect Goguryeo, Gongsun Yuan, who had stayed in Xiangping, staged a coup d'état, took control of all civil and military officials loyal to Gongsun Gong, and confiscated the weapons of Gongsun Gong's subordinates who remained in Xiangping.

Then he joined forces with Gongsun Gong's guards, and captured Gongsun Gongsheng alive in Xi'anping's army.

However, Gongsun Yuan rejected Cheng Yu's proposal and did not behead Gongsun Gong for public display, but put him under house arrest.

Subsequently, Gongsun Yuan sent an official document to the central government in Chang'an, stating that he overthrew Gongsun Gong's rule out of helplessness, and listed a series of Gongsun Gong's misdeeds below.

He said that he was in line with the will of the people, and that he was also the legitimate heir of the Gongsun family.

Moreover, in the document, Gongsun Yuan emphasized his loyalty to the Han Empire, resolutely defended the territorial integrity of the Han Empire, and guarded the eastern Liaodong frontier for the Han Dynasty for generations.

Now Lu Bu's mind is on the Suez Canal and the Roman Empire, and he doesn't care about such a change of power in a corner of Liaodong, and the only sphere of influence that the Gongsun clan of Liaodong can really influence now is Xuansu and Liaodong counties.

Other counties such as Lelang and Liaodong have long been taken over by officials appointed by the central government, and even in Liaodong and Xuansu counties, half of the local garrisons are directly under the central government, and the power of the Gongsun clan has long been much weaker.

The Ministry of Intelligence has long paid attention to the recent series of changes in the Gongsun clan, but according to Lu Bu's meaning, he is worried that he can't find a reason to take back the power in the hands of the Gongsun clan in Liaodong, and Gongsun Yuan is willing to jump out, so satisfy him.