Funan Bay in June is the rainy season, the humid and sultry air always makes people wet, and the weather changes are always unexpected.

Sun Shao held the pen, looked at the smooth and smooth Donglai paper, but did not put down the pen for a long time, he was stunned for a moment, slowly put down the pen, raised his head, looked at the torrential rain outside the window, sighed softly, stood up, walked to the window, looked at the foaming sea, and was speechless for a long time.

"The King." Xiahou Hui, who was learning Funan and Tianzhu from Qin Sai next door, heard Sun Shao's sigh, walked over, leaned on the door frame, and looked at the background of Sun Shao standing in front of the window, with a flash of worry in his eyes.

Maybe it's because of the weather, maybe it's because the battle is delayed, Sun Shao's mood is also very bad. It has been almost ten months since the troops were dispatched in September last year, and they began to fight very smoothly, killing Fan Zhan one after another, and capturing Fan Jinsheng alive. Although Funan is very nervous at the moment, Sun Shao's heart is not easy.

More than 20,000 troops went on an expedition to Funan, and although there were a large number of merchant ships to help transport the baggage, the pressure was still very great. Now both sides are fighting for consumption, and his consumption speed is obviously much larger than Fan Man's consumption rate, relying on the foundation accumulated by the business in the past few years is relatively thick, this expedition is in the name of being angry for the businessmen, the businessmen are more supportive, and he is not stretched.

However, Sun Shao knows that he and Fan Man are now riding on the back of a tiger, and no one can get down, Fan Man will certainly have nothing if he loses, and if he can't take Funan and retreat in disgrace, then the prestige accumulated over the years will also be seriously hit, and all the deviant policies implemented on the basis of his personal charm will also be questioned, and the new Yue Kingdom is likely to collapse.

No one can retreat, but no one can eat anyone, Fan Man is not his opponent when he reaches the sea, and it is really difficult for him to attack Temu City. It is true that the more than 10,000 people he has on hand are elites, but it is definitely not easy to win the Special Mu City with more than 10,000 people. There is no waterway outside the city for big ships, large siege equipment cannot be transported to the city, and it is impossible for Fan Man to watch him drive outside the city, and the miracle of capturing Xiangping one day back then is difficult to replicate in the city.

This is all due to one person, Fan Man is not the incompetent Gongsun Gong. Although Fan Man, who has been fighting for decades, has always been at a disadvantage, he has not left much opportunity for Sun Shao to take advantage of, although the secret agents who infiltrated the Special Mu City in the early stage sent some news, but they are either seriously lagging behind, or they are not of much use. Most of the nobles of Funan are related to Fan Man, and most of them are military generals who fought on the battlefield, and they are not sure enough if they want to rebel or assassinate.

It is not easy for Sun Shao to train such a group of people, he doesn't want to risk their surnames, he doesn't want to do anything until he has to, although Sima Zhou Yi of the fifth battalion said that he can bear a certain price, but Sun Shao has not given the order to do it.

It hasn't reached that point yet, I can still hold on, Sun Shao said this to Zhou Yi, although his heart is no longer so sure, but in front of his subordinates, he can't waver no matter what. He must have wavered, even the slightest hesitation would magnify it level by level and turn into an irreversible collapse.

It's easy to cast a net, but it's not so easy to recycle.

"Yuanrong." Sun Shao glanced back, and a satisfied smile appeared on the corner of his mouth. Xiahou Hui was born intelligent, and he also had an innate interest in language, during this period of following him on the expedition, Xiahou Hui helped him deal with some confidential documents on the one hand, and learned Yi language from Qin Sai and others on the other hand, he wanted to conquer Funan, Xiahou Hui said that he would continue to learn Funan script, and the documents given to Funan were written by her own hand. "Done with today's lesson?"

"I'm done." Xiahou Hui showed an innocent smile, holding a text he had just practiced with both hands, and jumped in front of Sun Shao: "King, look, have you made progress?" ”

Sun Shao took it and glanced at it, and nodded again and again: "Okay, very good, Yuanrong, you are indeed talented in this area." ”

"Hee-hee, thank you for the compliment." Xiahou Hui smiled playfully deliberately, and then stood beside Sun Shao, she is fourteen years old this year, she has developed very fast in the past two years, she is already six feet and one inch, and she looks like a woman when she stands next to Sun Shao. She tilted her head, looked at Sun Shao, whose eyebrows were slightly locked, and laughed softly: "Is the king worried about the war?" ”

Sun Shao hesitated for a moment and nodded: "Yes, what I expected is too simple, so far, there has been no civil strife in Funan, and it seems that there will be a stalemate." Our army is a guest army, and it is not a good thing that the stalemate lasts too long. I'm worried...... The financial endowment will not be able to sustain it. ”

Xiahou Hui smiled, but his demeanor was very calm: "20,000 troops, but after half a year, how can they not support it?" I think that when Emperor Xiaowu conquered the Xiongnu, before and after more than ten years, the wealth accumulated for 70 years was exhausted, and there were many bankrupt people above the middle class, and millions of displaced people. ”

Sun Shao looked at Xiahou Hui with some puzzlement, in his opinion, the amount of money consumed in this battle was amazing, enough to cause public resentment to boil, why did Xiahou Hui not think so?

"Your Majesty, you attach too much importance to the so-called public opinion." Xiahou Hui leaned on the window railing, stretched out his fingers and brushed a lock of green silk on his cheeks: "Those who win the hearts of the people win the world, this is not bad, but it is far less serious than the king thinks." Just as the king hoped that the people of Funan would rise up against Fan Man, the king was too worried about the disgust of the people of Yue. In fact, from the perspective of the concubines, the king went out to fight for the benefit of everyone, not just for his own selfish interests, not to mention that it is only half a year now, and the taxes can still be supported, even if the wealth is insufficient and the taxes need to be increased, the people may have some complaints, and it will not be out of control. The people of Funan may hope that the king will come to be the king of Funan and bring them some benefits, but if you want them to raise troops to respond to the king, it may be very small. ”

"So, the gains and losses of the people's hearts have nothing to do with the safety of the community?" The corners of Sun Shao's mouth were raised, revealing a mocking smile, and inadvertently, his somewhat irritable mood actually calmed down a little. Xiahou Hui smiled slightly: "King, you must be thinking about the Yellow Turban Army, or the matter of the Gaozu rebel army at the end of Qin?" Right? ”

Sun Shao nodded, he did think of such an example.

"However, the king must also know that Chen Sheng and Wu Guang started an incident, although there are reasons why they are unbearable to Qin's tyranny, but it is more of an accident, if they don't encounter heavy rain and can safely reach the border of Yuyang, will they still cause trouble in Daze Township? How many years has Zhang Jiao been in the civil society for the Yellow Turban Rebellion? The Han Dynasty's relatives and eunuchs were in power, how could it have only started in the Zhongping period? ”

Sun Shao was stunned, this was inconsistent with the concept he had always adhered to, but what Xiahou Hui said seemed to make sense, and he didn't know how to say it for a while. He turned around, leaned against the window, and said with a smile: "You go on, I think you have been holding back for a long time, and today you finally said it." ”

Xiahou Hui's face turned red, she had indeed been holding back for a long time, but Sun Shao had been walking very smoothly, and she wanted to remind him that he had no chance, and now that Sun Shao was in trouble, he must be able to calm down and listen to her opinions. She has never agreed with Sun Shao's concept of governing the country, she feels that Sun Shao is a little too sensitive to the people's feelings, and too lenient to the people. You must know that governing the country is easy and strict, if you are good to them, they will not be satisfied, they will want you to get better and better, satisfaction is only temporary, and if the superior is too lenient, the people are easy to indulge, and indulgence is easy to breed trouble, and when something happens, it will naturally arouse dissatisfaction. Yuan Shao's defeat is such an example, Yuan Shao has the land of four states and is strong, why did he lose to Cao Ying, who is far inferior to him, in the end? is not only because Yuan Shao's own ability is not as good as Cao Ying, but more importantly, he is not strict with his subordinates, and he is too indulgent to judge and match courtiers like Feng Ji, and as a result, the tail is too big, and he has no strength, but he can't be consistent with the outside world, and there is too much internal friction. Like Cui Qian's own assertion this time, it is clear that he can hit more with less, but in order to establish his authority, he wants to hit more with less, which is obviously a violation of Sun Shao's established plan and a sign of abuse of power, although Sun Shao was hindered by the impeachment of the imperial historians and did not promote Cui Qian, but he rewarded Cui Qian with an island, which is tantamount to encouraging the generals to make their own decisions in disguise, which is a very bad sign.

Cui Qian is prestigious, but whose prestige is he? Is it Sun Shao's prestige or his Cui Qian's own prestige?

Xiahou Hui knew that Sun Shao was very assertive, and he usually didn't listen to him much, when the two talked about political issues, most of them were Sun Shao talking, she was listening, she had been looking for an opportunity to remind Sun Shao, but because Sun Shao had been very busy, and he had won consecutive battles, he was even more proud, as soon as she mentioned such words, Sun Shao smiled and said nothing.

It is relatively rare to be able to listen to her quietly like today, but Sun Shao is worried about the war now, and she must be relieved for him, and it is not good to mention such unpleasant things.

"The Yue Kingdom has accumulated a lot of wealth in recent years, and the number of the king's army is not much, so it will not be too much of a problem to support it for a year or two with the strength of the Yue Kingdom." Xiahou Hui paused, and then continued: "Besides, everyone knows that if the king can take Funan, it will be beneficial to the country and the people. Even now, although they have not yet taken Funan itself, but after the annihilation of the Funan Naval Division, the South China Sea has fallen into the hands of the king, and the merchants have already felt obvious benefits from it, how can they be arrogant about the temporary attrition? The king might as well send someone to ask the merchants what their attitude was to the war. ”

Sun Shao nodded, and his heart was a little more relieved. Funan has not yet been taken, but his goal of monopolizing the South China Sea has been half achieved, and Deng Ai and Wei Wen have already sent good news, which gives him a little comfort in his uneasy heart.

Deng Ai and Zhang Zhao traveled all the way south, Xuanhua Zhuyi, along the last north wind to the Java Sea, their Xuanhua achieved good results, those Yi people's footprints have never gone too far, as soon as they heard that they are the legendary Han sent by the sailors, most of them showed their admiration for the Heavenly Empire, and Deng Ai They are the main purpose of establishing diplomatic relations with trade, not to force them to submit, they do not have too much resistance, especially after Deng Ai defeated the two Yi tribes who were angry at the goods they brought, The myth of the invincibility of the Han sailors became their most solid backing, and along the way, nearly 100 small islands, large and small, expressed their willingness to surrender to the Yue Kingdom.

Wei Wen's road is more difficult, if Deng Ai is a peaceful journey, then Wei Wen's road is more bloody. First wiped out the country of touching, and then attacked and killed four small countries loyal to Funan, which can be regarded as suppressing the dozen or so small countries, and after the news of the confrontation between the Funan army and the Yue State Navy Division in the area of Jin Chen spread, these small countries were cautious and wait-and-see, although they did not say that they wanted to respond to Funan to fight, but they obviously did not have any positive surnames for shaking the Yue country. At present, Wei Wen has gone around to the west coast of the peninsula, less than 100 miles away from Dunsun Port, and has already made contact with Cui Qian, and can attack Fan Jun's men from the west at any time.

The battle situation is changing step by step in the direction of Sun Shao, but the speed is very slow, before there is no qualitative change, Sun Shao still can't rest assured, the most disappointing thing for him is that after all kinds of efforts, the rebellion within Funan still did not appear, whether it was the people of Funan natives or the tribe, they all expressed their favor to Sun Shao, but it was a difficult thing for them to rise up and rebel against Fan Man.

Funan can't afford civil strife, and although Fan Man's life is difficult, it is far from being unsustainable.

While Sun Shao gritted his teeth at Fan Man, he also began to reflect on his mistakes, and after a series of successes, he seemed to think things too idealistic. Taking advantage of Huayi's distinction to attempt to launch the so-called people's war is very wishful thinking at this time. Be kind to the people of Funan, they are very welcome, but it would be too unexpectedly for them to risk their lives to fight against Fan Man. What's more, this communication is not developed, and as soon as thousands of captives are scattered into the huge Funan country, they are almost equivalent to disappearing, and the spark is sown, but it will take time to set the prairie on fire. Fan Man announced a one-year reduction in taxes, which basically offset Sun Shao's efforts.

Sun Shao became a little impatient, very worried that if he could not take Funan as soon as possible, it would cause dissatisfaction among the people, and now listening to Xiahou Huiyi, he also realized that his idealization had two aspects, on the one hand, he overestimated the role of the people of Funan, and on the other hand, he was too sensitive to the reaction of the people of Yue. In fact, with the current system, even if the Vietnamese businessmen are dissatisfied, they will not have any radical reaction in a short period of time, and the contradictions will always accumulate to a certain extent before they erupt, of course, at that time, it will be too late to find a way.

Sun Shao is not a person of this era, he has always demanded himself with standards beyond the times, in addition to winning a good reputation and popular hearts for him, it also made him too sensitive to the people's hearts, but he didn't know that the current people did not have the consciousness of the people at that time.

Sun Shao was thinking about Xiahou Hui's opinion, and there was a sound of footsteps outside, although the footsteps were not urgent, but they still revealed a trace of urgency. Sun Shao raised his head and saw Zhou Yi walking in with an urgent letter.

"King, Fan Man is out of the city!"

Sun Shao was stunned for a moment, then stepped forward to take the urgent item in Zhou Yi's hand, quickly swept it, then raised his head, stroked his forehead and sighed, and breathed a long sigh of relief, Fan Man finally couldn't support it first, he wanted to recapture Jin Chen Kingdom, open up the road to the south, and finally came out of Temu City.

"Tell the generals about their deliberations." Sun Shao waved his hand and said loudly.

"Whoa." Tu Hu responded in a rough voice and walked out happily. It didn't take long, Yue Hai, Zhuge Zhi and others arrived, they listened to the news that Zhou Yi had just received, and they were also very happy, although the Yue Guo Sailor was elite, but if they wanted to attack the city, it would be too difficult, and Fan Man was out of the city, then they were fully confident to fight with him.

However, on the question of how to fight, there were differences of opinion. Yue Hai said: "Fan Man led an army of 10,000 out of the city, although there are less than 10,000 guards left in the city, but they have a city to rely on, but there is no strong siege equipment on the other side, if you go to attack the city, you can only use the most primitive ant attachment method, the casualties must be very large, so it is better to follow Fan Man." Although Fan Man has 10,000 people, the combat effectiveness of the Funan soldiers is not strong, and he has a greater chance of victory. After defeating Fan Man, it will be much easier to take the Special Mu City again. ”

As soon as Yue Hai's words fell, Zhao Sleeve shook his head again and again, and he said: "Although Fan Man only has 10,000 people, and the combat power of the Funan soldiers is indeed not as good as ours, but they have elephant soldiers and are familiar with the terrain, if we want to fight with them in the jungle in this weather, there is no sky, no location, who is sure that we can win?" Although there is a city in Temu City, it is more difficult for us to attack the city, but with Zhou Sima's people in the city, if we can cooperate with the outside world, it is not impossible to break the city. ”

The two insisted on their own words, and no one could convince anyone, Ma Hui agreed with Zhao Sleeve's opinion, while Dunwu agreed with Yue Hai's opinion, Sun Shao was undecided for a while, and set his eyes on Zhuge Zhi. Maybe he feels that he is not Sun Shao's cronies, and his brother Zhuge Jin is the left general of Wu State, Zhuge Zhi has always been relatively low-key, and when he was deliberating, he was mostly listening and rarely spoke, and it was the same today, but it could be seen from his face that he had different opinions.

"Ji Gong, if you have any ideas, just say them, let's discuss them." Sun Shao casually named Zhuge Zhi's name.

Zhuge Zhi raised his head a little embarrassed, glanced at Sun Shao first, and then looked at Yue Hai and the others with some restraint, and then slowly said, "Minister...... I thought it was inappropriate to besiege the city. ”

"Why?" Zhao Sleeve snorted a little displeased.

Sun Shao frowned, Xiahou Hui was right, these generals under him seemed to be a little too aggressive. It's okay to be arrogant to the enemy in normal times, why don't you have a bad attitude towards your own people?

"Ji Gong, tell me, why is it not appropriate to attack the city?" Sun Shao laughed deliberately.

"Chen thinks that it is not easy to attack the city, Fan Man has been running the Special Pastoral City for nearly thirty years, although he is now forced to leave the Special Pastoral City to rescue Jin Chen, but how can he not make arrangements? Although Fan Man has left the city, Fan Jinsheng has returned to Temu City, he has not only been on the battlefield for a long time, but also fought with us, knows our tactics and strength, and having him in the city has increased the difficulty of our siege. Zhuge didn't speak quickly, but he spoke fluently, and it was obvious that he had thought it through. Speaking of this, he paused, looked at everyone, especially Sun Shao's face, and saw that Sun Shao's face was calm and thoughtful, so he relieved himself, picked up a cup of tea and took a sip of tea, and then continued: "Besides, what if we can't attack the city, and Fan Man kills it back, then what should we do?" ”

When Zhao Sleeve heard this, he was speechless, he opened his mouth, and said unconvinced: "Then you mean to say that we are going to chase Fan Man?" ”

"I think it's more certain to chase Fan Man." Zhuge Zhi nodded, and before Yue Hai spoke, he said again: "However, I don't approve of tailing Fan Man. As General Zhao said, fighting with Fan Man in the jungle, we not only do not occupy the time, but also do not occupy the land. Besides, it was obviously not a wise move for our army to abandon the boat and go ashore and travel long distances in the jungle. The minister thought that he should follow Fan Man with a boat master. ”

Zhuge raised his head and looked at Sun Shao with blazing eyes: "We know that no matter which way Fan Man goes, he will definitely go to save Jin Chen, in that case, why don't we intercept him directly by sea?" ”

"By sea?" Yue Hai and Zhao Sleeve glanced at each other, and suddenly laughed in unison, Zhao Sleeve smiled: "Yes, we forgot, this is what we are best at." They walked, we took boats, waited for work, and chose the opportunity to fight, this is the best policy. ”

Sun Shao smiled slightly: "Fengying, I haven't heard you praise people for a long time." ”

Zhao Sleeve was a little embarrassed, arched his hand, and didn't dare to say anything. He was not stupid, of course he heard what Sun Shao said.

"Ji Gong, you have a good idea." Seeing that everyone had no objections, Sun Shao immediately made a decision: "That is, set off to pursue Fan Man, everyone should pay attention, it is now the windy season, the storm can come at any time, and the Funan Navy Division is gone, we can rest assured that we can boldly sail near the sea, and once the weather is not right, we will enter the port and dock, so as not to cause unnecessary casualties." ”

"Whoa." The generals stood up and took orders.

…… Fan Man sat in the big tent, looking at the thin and capable scout in front of him, supporting his chin with one hand and stroking the hilt of the knife with the other.

"The Yue people are chasing after you?"

"Yes, my lord, they are chasing after them in a boat." The scout nodded repeatedly: "They're fast, and they're not far away from us. ”

"How many are there?"

"There are five big boats, and about fifty small boats." The scout muttered: "They don't go ashore, we can't get on the boat, and their scouts are very brave, we ...... We can't catch prisoners. ”

"I see." Fan Man nodded happily, "Have you seen King Yue's battle flag?" ”

"See." The scout relaxed a little and nodded again and again: "King Yue's warship is the largest, and there is an eagle in his bow, which is very recognizable." ”

"It's good to be here." A fierce smile appeared at the corner of Fan Man's eyes, "It seems that this kid is not stupid, he actually didn't attack Special Mu City." However, this jungle is more dangerous than Temu City. It's good, this king wants to see how he swallowed this king's army of 40,000. ”

(To be continued)