Liu Tan looked at Liu Che with a dreamy look on his face, and could not believe that the tiger talisman had been stolen by these natives.

How could this happen? Such an important thing, even if Liu Che didn't carry it with him, he would have sent people to guard it strictly. How could the tiger talisman be stolen so easily?

Perhaps his expression was too obvious, and Liu Che felt a little embarrassed. He could only cough lightly and said, "When I first arrived on this island, there was some confusion. These natives appeared very suddenly, and many things were left behind."

His tiger talisman was also placed in the luggage. Normally, it was strictly guarded and no one was allowed to touch or approach it, but wasn’t that night special?

They experienced many days of drifting, and everyone was suffering. It was only because Liu Che was strong-willed that he became the backbone of the entire fleet. Otherwise, if it were someone else, the entire fleet would have been doomed.

Not to mention others, even if it were Liu Fuling, I'm afraid he would collapse on the spot.

If you think about it this way, after drifting on the sea for so many days and thinking that you are really going to die, you can imagine how excited everyone is when you suddenly see land. It is normal to be negligent when you are so tired.

What's more, the local natives were very cunning. During the day, Liu Che sent people to search for people here, but they didn't see any people at all, probably because they didn't go deep enough.

As a result, at night all these natives rushed out and launched a surprise attack.

Everyone finally reached land and naturally slept a little soundly. As a result, in the chaos, the natives snatched away some of Liu Che's gifts, which included the tiger talisman.

Liu Tan asked, "Haven't you already occupied their settlements? Could it be that they knew the importance of the tiger talisman and still carried it with them?"

When it comes to the latter sentence, Liu Tan finds it a little unbelievable. It shouldn't be possible. The people on this broken island probably don't even know which country the Han Dynasty is. How could they know the importance of the tiger talisman?

Liu Che sneered, "Where do those natives live? They just find an empty lot and build a house with leaves. The slaves even sleep on the ground with tents."

Although the Han people also had many slaves, most people would not be so harsh on them as to not even give them a roof over their heads. Even if they were made to sleep in a dormitory, they would not treat them arbitrarily outside.

Therefore, Liu Che looked down on these natives at all.

After mocking him, Liu Che added, "They just ran away with the looted items. Otherwise, why would I have to go to such lengths with them?"

Liu Tan muttered quietly, "Isn't it just for fun?"

Even if they really wanted to take something back from the natives, why would His Majesty the Emperor personally lead the troops? How many people were eager to lead the troops just to make a contribution?

After hearing this, Liu Che became furious and knocked Liu Tan on the forehead and said, "What are you mumbling about?"

After knocking, he felt a little distressed. He reached out and rubbed his son's forehead and said, "We'll discuss the next matter after we get the tiger talisman back."

Liu Tan sighed and said, "Alright, I've taken a look at the map. This forest is huge, and our men aren't good at fighting in it. It's unlikely we'll be able to force them out by surrounding them. The main thing is... they don't have to come out at all."

If they really want to waste time here, first of all, they can't afford it. Secondly, even if they can, people in the woods have food and drink. Moreover, those natives are accustomed to this kind of life and don't think there is anything wrong with living in the woods. What do you think you will do?

Liu Che raised his eyebrows and looked at him: "It seems that you have a solution."

Liu Tan was silent for a moment. "It's not a particularly good idea, but it might work. I've brought something new this time that should scare them out of the woods."

Liu Che was immediately interested when he heard it: "What is it?"

"Powder keg." Liu Tan said afterward, "I can't describe what it is. I'll demonstrate it to you in person when I get back."

Liu Che responded simply and said, "Then you go and arrange it."

Liu Tan said, "We need to make some arrangements first. If the natives really escape, Father will have to lead people to capture them all."

Liu Che has come and is obviously going to have a great time. How could Liu Tan let him go home disappointed?

Anyway, this is probably the only chance he has in his life. He can go out next time, but forget about going out to sea. Or he can just take a stroll on the beach. As for other places... haha, I'm afraid he'll need a bunch of old ministers to kneel down and persuade him.

Thinking about it this way, it is really hard to bear to let Liu Che go back with such regret.

After hearing this, Liu Che looked at Liu Tan with a smile. His son was really considerate when it came to details.

Liu Tan looked at the bamboo armor on Liu Che with disdain. Although the craftsmanship was good, in Liu Tan's eyes, his father was no different from wearing a bamboo mat. So he directly asked people to bring up the soft armor prepared for Liu Che, and by the way, he also asked people to distribute the remaining armor.

Liu Che was a little surprised: "You brought so many things with you?"

Liu Tan said, "I left from Xuwen, and I've been through a lot along the way. How could I have come here if I hadn't pacified the Baiyue people?"

Liu Che looked puzzled and asked, "What have you done to Baiyue and Jiaozhi?"

Liu Tan said, "Nothing serious, I just... destroyed the Qie Lan Kingdom. They went too far. I sent an envoy to negotiate with them, but they killed my envoy!"

Liu Che's mouth twitched: "So you destroyed the entire Qie Lan Kingdom?"

Liu Tan coughed lightly. "That's about right. But I haven't done much with Jiaozhi. They're probably scared by what happened in Qielan. Also, the outer regions of Yue County seem to be very unruly lately, and are very interested in independence. They were originally trying to take advantage of the situation."

Liu Tan immediately asked, "What did you do?"

Liu Tan blinked and said, "Nothing. I was anxious to go out to sea, so I ordered Wei Buyi to lead his men to blow up all the ports outside Yue County."

Liu Che laughed: "You still say you haven't done anything to them?"

Liu Tan curled his lips and said, "I've been very gentle. If I wasn't in a hurry, I wouldn't let them go so easily. However... Wei Buyi blew up Xuwen Port before leaving. I'm afraid we'll have to choose another port when we return."

Liu Che suddenly asked, "How did they explode?"

Liu Tan said, "It's a powder keg. It's quite powerful. Alas, originally, this thing... shouldn't have appeared. Unfortunately, the Lan Kingdom is pushing us too hard, and their geographical location is too good. Even if we can defeat you by force, I still feel sorry for our people, so we can only..."

In fact, he shouldn't have said these words, but he had to explain to Liu Che why he had never thought of taking out the powder keg before.

The manufacture of black gunpowder this time was different from the previous ones. In the past, his research and production process of those things were clearly laid out there. Although everyone suspected that he had the formulas for various treasures from the "fairyland", he insisted that it was just a sudden whim of his and no one could do anything about it. But this time was different. He had a finished product almost in one go.

The only process is to configure the usage, but this is hardly a problem.

So it can only mean that Liu Tan knew the recipe from the beginning and kept it tightly in his hand and never took it out.

The fundamental reason why Liu Tan didn't take it out was that this thing was not stable enough and was prone to accidents, and once an accident happened, it would be a tragedy.

The second is that once it is taken out, it would be fine to use it to deal with foreigners, but if it is used in a civil war, he would feel too sorry for the people.

Of course, it is not realistic to say that he felt the pain deeply. From the perspective of the King of the North, he felt that it would be a waste to use such a large population for war instead of developing it properly. Their country in the North was already short of people!

Now that it was brought out, he didn't know whether it was good or bad, so he decided to let his father worry about it.

Anyway, we can't just stop developing weapons just because they are too lethal. If Liu Tan can't grasp the right balance, he can leave the matter to someone who can grasp it well.

Liu Tan described to Liu Che the method and situation of using the gunpowder barrel. Then Liu Che took out the map and said, "These natives are very timid. If we make a big noise, we can scare them out."

Liu Tan was lying on the table, calculating where to bury the gunpowder barrel. His spineless look was so disgusting that Liu Che couldn't bear to watch him. He slapped him up and said, "Sit down. What a mess!"

Liu Tan yawned and said, "Please let me catch my breath."

Liu Che paused, and went over Liu Tan's timeline in his mind. He found that Liu Tan had indeed been running around all these days. He touched Liu Tan's head and said, "There's no rush for this matter. It's getting late. Go pack up and sleep here."

Liu Tan came suddenly and no tent was left for him. In fact, Liu Che was so short of resources that there were only a few tents left. That was why he did not bring too many people with him. Otherwise, the people below would have to sleep on the ground.

So there was no tent for Liu Tan now. Liu Tan did bring his own, but his tent could not be placed anywhere near Liu Che. After thinking that he would not stay here for too long, he let Liu Che direct people to add a bed for him in the tent.

Liu Tan first calculated a few points and said, "We need to move away from the gunpowder after burying it. We don't know if the natives will come over to check. Let's send a few people to observe from the trees."

After he finished, he didn't insist and went to wash up. When he came back, he didn't even have the energy to say a word to his father and fell asleep directly.

Liu Che watched him sleeping in a ball, hugging the quilt like a child. He walked out quietly, and called Miao Rui and Bigao, who had been following Liu Tan, over and asked, "What has been going on these days? Tell me in detail."

He asked not because he did not trust Liu Tan, but because he subconsciously felt that his son must have concealed something about himself. Liu Tan talked for a long time and all he talked about were major events or things related to Liu Ju. He rarely mentioned himself, even when he talked about the destruction of the rebels, he only mentioned it in one sentence.

Liu Che was really curious about what his son had done.