Wei Kang then said, "I have been responsible for gathering information for His Royal Highness the Crown Prince. I have concealed many things from Your Highness before. I beg Your Highness to forgive me."

Liu Tan raised his eyebrows slightly: "You have spies planted in Jiaozhi?"

Wei Kang said, "Your Majesty and His Royal Highness the Crown Prince have long been concerned about Jiaozhi."

Liu Tan agreed. The location of Jiaozhi controlled the Han Dynasty's route to the south and southwest. If the Han Dynasty wanted to continue developing southward, it had to control Jiaozhi.

I thought there should be embroidered robe envoys here, but when Liu Che was not there, there was no one to command the embroidered robe envoys. It was also thanks to Liu Ju that he secretly sent people to collect intelligence.

Thinking of this, Liu Tan felt a little weird. It seemed that Liu Ju had been developing an intelligence system under Liu Che's nose for more than a day or two, and he didn't know whether Liu Che was aware of it or not.

He shook his head and put the matter aside, then looked down at the information.

After reading it, he couldn't help but raise his eyebrows: "Yuejun Outer Territory actually declared himself king?"

Wei Kang nodded and said, "That's right. In recent years, Jiaozhi and the outer regions of Yuejun have been fighting more and more frequently. Generally, they enter a truce in the summer. They just fought once a while ago, and both sides won and lost, but Jiaozhi still couldn't take over the outer regions of Yuejun."

Liu Tan was not surprised to hear this. The outer territory of Yue County at that time was Hainan Island in later generations. It was called the outer territory of Yue County because it was isolated now, but very close to Xuwen on the other side of the river. Therefore, the outer territory of Yue County was originally the territory of Jiaozhi Kingdom.

However, in this era, it is inconvenient for Xuwen to communicate with the outer areas of Yue County, and the outer areas of Yue County are gradually out of the control of Jiaozhi State.

Liu Tan flipped a page and glanced at it. "I was wondering why they were suddenly so easy to talk to. Turns out they were trying to kill two birds with one stone."

The so-called killing two birds with one stone means that Jiaozhi State is determined to keep the entire team of the Northern King of the Han Dynasty. They want gold, silver and treasures, and they also want to detain Liu Tan as a hostage to exchange for money from the Han Dynasty.

Originally, Jiaozhi State had received the news long ago. They informed Qielan State in advance and asked Qielan State to find ways to capture Liu Tan in the mountains. They also promised to provide assistance and were willing to divide the money into four parts and six parts, of course, Jiaozhi State would get four parts and Qielan State would get six parts.

The reason why Jiaozhi was willing to give so much money to Qielan was mainly because they did not want to offend the Han Dynasty. If Qielan took action, even if their shadow was behind it, the Han Dynasty would not suddenly attack them. At most, they would just vent their anger on Qielan.

Unexpectedly, the Northern King of the Han Dynasty turned out to be a fierce dragon crossing the river, who directly destroyed the Qilan Kingdom.

It is said that with the help of the mountain god, the entire city of Qilan was overturned.

The Jiaozhi Kingdom was afraid of Liu Tan but also coveted the money he brought and the things he could get later.

So Jiaozhi State secretly passed the news, which seemed true or false, to the outside of Yue County, and at the same time concealed the news of the mountain god's help.

There is a small island outside Yue County that is very short of resources, and they certainly don't want to miss this great opportunity.

The Jiaozhi Kingdom planned to wait until the King of the Northern Territory and the outer territory of Yuejun were both defeated, and then they would come forward to capture the King of the Northern Territory and take back the outer territory of Yuejun.

Isn’t this killing two birds with one stone?

As for whether the outer territory of Yue County can be a match for the King of the North, they are not worried. After all, the King of the North has the help of the mountain god on land. Could he have the help of the sea god on the sea?

It is also because of this that Jiaozhi State is very tolerant of any request from Liu Tan. After all, those requests are nothing compared to what they can get later.

Liu Tan sneered after seeing this and asked, "Do you know the distribution of ports outside Yue County?"

Wei Kang bowed and said, "There is a map, but it is very simple."

Liu Tan didn't care. It was not easy for Liu Ju to place spies here. The map of the Han Dynasty had not been completely updated, let alone the maps of other countries.

He thought for a moment and then shouted, "Send Wei Buyi over here."

At this time, Wei Buyi was directing people to patrol and guard privately, trying to prevent any Jiaozhi people from getting close to his prince's residence and the shipyard where the ship was being built.

After he came over, Liu Tan said to him, "I have a map here showing the distribution of ports outside Yue County. After our ship has finished testing the waters, you will take your men and blow them all up."

Wei Buyi was no fool. Upon hearing what his prince said, he immediately asked, "Does Jiaozhi have ulterior motives?"

Liu Tan laughed and said, "When did they stop having ulterior motives? How's Mo Shi doing now?"

Wei Buyi noted Liu Tan's instructions and said, "Mo Siping said the materials sent by Jiaozhi are all top-notch and have been processed. We can start the water test in half a month at most. If everything goes well, we can go out to sea in half a month."

Liu Tan asked again: "Where are the other ships?"

Wei Buyi explained, "He hasn't had the chance to explain to Your Highness yet. He thinks the boats can be modified from Jiaozhi's ships. We are few in number, and it would be difficult to build a fleet in a short period of time. So, it would be better to use existing ones. Jiaozhi's ships are pretty good, and with them around, they can guarantee that no matter what Jiaozhi does, they will be able to detect it."

As the saying goes, don't employ a person you doubt, and don't doubt a person you employ. Liu Tan didn't say much when listening to Mo Shi because he had his own thoughts. He just nodded and said, "Leave this matter to him."

Before leaving, Wei Buyi turned around and glanced at Wei Kang, obviously a little surprised at what his brother was doing here.

Wei Kang asked, "Your Highness, do you need any other information about Jiaozhi?"

Liu Tan thought for a moment and said, "Not for now. Jiaozhi Kingdom... let my father take care of it."

If he was not mistaken, what Comrade Liu Che encountered this time must have made him extremely angry and depressed, and Liu Fuling would definitely not get any benefits, but Liu Fuling probably did not want such a thing, so he could not really kill his son.

Originally, he and Liu Ju did not deal with the prisoners in Chang'an in order to vent Liu Che's anger. Now it seems that Jiaozhi State is the most suitable place to be the vent.

So all he needs to do is ensure his own navigation.

After more than half a month, the construction of the fleet was basically completed. The small boat had already been tested in the water without any problems. On the day when the main ship was tested in the water, Liu Tan directly ordered the elite group to start a massacre - no matter how indifferent the Jiaozhi Kingdom was, they could not be unaware of the appearance of this giant ship.

It was precisely because of this that the people of Jiaozhi were very surprised from top to bottom. They knew that the Han people's tower ships were very good, but their shortcomings were also obvious. Now this ship looked similar to the tower ship but was very different. It was much larger than the ships they had recorded, even larger than the best ships of Jiaozhi!

Originally, Jiaozhi State was still taking a wait-and-see attitude. However, after they found that the speed and stability of the ship were very good during the water test, they wanted the blueprints of the ship more than money.

After all, Jiaozhi relied more on sea routes to trade with neighboring countries. If they had such a ship, they might be able to go further.

Such urgency even made them a little impatient. They found an excuse for themselves that they were worried that the King of the Northern Territory would fight with the outer territory of Yue County, which would lead to the loss of the ship's manufacturing method. They began to send people to inquire and even wanted to kidnap the Mohist disciples.

Finally, Liu Tan got fed up and ordered his men to lead all the spies from Jiaozhi to a place where there were not many people. He just threw a powder keg into the air and the world became quiet in an instant.

After a number of spies died in Jiaozhi State, the information about the King of the North was updated - it was not the mountain god who helped, but the land god.

After knowing this, Liu Tan sneered, turned around and started asking people to get ready to leave.

While Mo Shi was waiting for the ship to be built, his other men were not idle either. They started preparing various canned foods, including meat, fruits, and even some vegetables.

The vegetables definitely don’t taste that great, but they are better than dried vegetables. Anyway, the main ship’s cargo hold is basically full of these things.

What he didn't expect was that Wei Kang and others even brought some living creatures on board - for fear of mistreating their prince.

Liu Tan didn't know whether to laugh or cry, but he didn't say anything. After the second water test, he found Mo Shi and asked, "Did you originally plan to test the water three times?"

Mo Shi nodded seriously: "That's right."

Liu Tan pondered for a moment and said, "Were there any problems with the two previous water tests?"

Mo Shi replied: "There were some problems the first time, but they have been repaired. There were no problems the second time."

Liu Tan decisively said, "Then let's go directly for the third time."

Mo Shi was immediately shocked: "But the third test is a night flight, Your Highness..."

Liu Tan waved his hand and said, "It's okay. Night flight is perfect. Let's get out of this shabby place quickly to avoid any more trouble."

After using the powder keg as a warning, Liu Tan discovered that Jiaozhi State was beginning to stir again. If it were in the past, he would definitely fight these people to the death, but now that he was about to go to sea, he still wanted to go and bring Liu Che back first.

Mo Shi felt a bit stressed: "Okay, I'll do the final inspection."

Liu Tan asked them to inspect the situation while he slowly evacuated everyone, leaving only the outermost guards to act as usual.

When night fell, the guards quickly evacuated to the ship.

Taking advantage of Jiaozhi's inattention, the Han Dynasty's first fleet began its voyage.

At this moment, everyone in the outer regions of Yue County was cursing—all their ports had been destroyed overnight, and most importantly, they had no idea who had done it. How immoral was that?!

However, Liu Tan was very at ease. Not long after he left, he discovered that an explosion had also occurred in Xuwen Port.

He stood on the stern deck and frowned and asked, "What's going on?"

Wei Buyi rubbed his hands and smiled, "Did the people from Jiaozhi send ships to chase us?"

Liu Tan slowly turned his head and looked at him: "Have you ever thought about where we will land when we return?"

Wei Buyi: !!!!!!!!!

Liu Tan was so tired that he didn't want to say a word. The port was not a shipbuilding site. Even if Jiaozhi had not given the green light for this shipbuilding, many things would have been finished products delivered, and they would not have been able to do it so fast.

His only hope now was that there would be no more trouble on this trip.

In fact, perhaps even the sea was afraid of him, so there were indeed no problems on this journey.

When he saw the land, he even wondered if this was the place he was looking for, or another island?

Because there was no port, the main ship could not dock, so people had to be sent ashore in small boats.

Not long after, the boat returned, and not only did the people who were sent out come back, but they also brought back Liu Tan’s old acquaintance - Bu Fan!