Chapter 531 [Three Updates]

These native captives were initially under the control of Liu Fuling, and most of them were used to build the buildings they needed.

But Liu Fuling’s qualifications are limited, and he has never been exposed to these things before. How can he possibly do it well?

Liu Fuling didn't cause chaos because he had the help of others, but that was all. His efficiency couldn't be high, and these prisoners lived in a daze every day.

Later, Liu Tan came, and Liu Che hurriedly handed all the matters over to him. The reasons were all ready. Liu Tan had experience and was good at this. Look at Shuofang City, Tongda City, and the planning of Yiwulu County. Who would not be satisfied?

In fact, Liu Tan did make Liu Che very satisfied.

Even though Liu Tan used to just be a person who came up with ideas, then evaluated whether they would work, and ultimately let his subordinates complete the task, sometimes the key lies in coming up with ideas and making decisions.

After Liu talked about it, he looked at the messy thing and took over and modified it. Naturally, the captive let him take over as well.

To be honest, he was not someone who would not abuse prisoners. At least he would not treat the Huns well, but he would also let them live.

After he took over the native captives, he found that the things Liu Fuling had decided on were not to use the natives as animals, but to use them as disposable objects and kill them directly.

Many indigenous people have died because of this.

The indigenous people here have not created any civilization and don’t know many things, but things like emotions are innate and do not need to be learned or discovered.

The families of the dead prisoners must be very sad, and others will also feel grief for them.

Liu Tan couldn't stand it. The natives here did steal things, but it was said that they didn't seem to kill or injure the Han soldiers.

As long as the casualties are not too great, Liu Tan is willing to treat them nicely.

Therefore, the treatment of these captives was slightly better than that of the Xiongnu captives. After all, the supplies used were collected locally, or even collected by the captives themselves, so there was no need to feel bad about using them to feed them.

However, compared to their previous life, their lives got better after Liu Tan took over. At least they had enough to eat, and the food was decent. Everything was a comparison. It was like going from hell to heaven in an instant. These people were actually reluctant to leave Liu Tan.

Liu Tan said that these indigenous people were probably the first people to suffer from Stockholm syndrome.

However, this made Liu Che realize something. He wondered if there was something wrong with the feng shui of the palace. Why were his sons either idiots like Liu Bo or soft-hearted children like Liu Ju and Liu Tan?

Even if there was a problem with his education, Liu Tan was not taught by him, and it is really surprising that he and Liu Ju have some similarities in some aspects.

Liu Che's thoughts jumped again at this point, and he suddenly asked, "You said before that Xuwen Port was bombed, so where are we going this time?"

Given the power of the powder keg, Liu Che felt that Xuwen Port was really doomed and would probably not be rebuilt in the short term. Although Jiaozhi was not a poor country, it seemed to be far behind the Han Dynasty in construction projects.

Now that he has been blown away by Liu Tan... Oh, Wei Buyi, I'm afraid he won't be able to recover in a few years.

Liu Tan laughed and said, "If Xuwen isn't available, there's still Hepu. Well, I have to say, these two ports of Jiaozhi are really well built."

The two places are relatively close to each other, that is, Xuwen extends outward a part, so it is more suitable as a long-distance travel port, but Hepu is not bad either. The only thing we don’t know is whether the port there can accommodate their ship to dock.

Liu Che asked, "Is it really impossible to land in Qi?"

Liu Tan said, "It should be fine, but I haven't taken this route before, so I'm not sure. No one has even taken this route before. Next time, we can send someone to go that way, but... I still don't recommend it."

"But this is the port of Jiaozhi." Liu Che looked at Liu Tan sideways.

Liu Tan narrowed his eyes and smiled at him. Liu Che immediately said angrily, "I really should let those scholars who say I am warmongering see who is the warmongerer."

Liu Tan immediately said, "That's different. War costs money. If you can't make that much money in a short period of time, then it's naturally warlike. But if you can make money, how can it be called warlike?"

Liu Che sneered: "You always have a point."

Liu Tan made a face at him, and then Liu Che pinched his tongue: "I think you are becoming more and more presumptuous."

Liu Tan immediately grabbed Liu Che's wrist and tried desperately to retract his tongue. It was okay to have his tongue pinched because that was his father anyway, but the problem was that if he couldn't retract his tongue he would drool, wouldn't that damage his image?

Liu Che didn't let his son embarrass himself too much. He just pinched him once and then withdrew his hand. He took the cloth from Bu Fan and wiped his hands with disgust, saying, "It's all saliva."

Liu Tan: ???

He calmed down, thought about it and decided not to argue with his father.

Liu Che stood on the deck and looked at the sea. His mood at this time was different from when he first went out to sea. He didn't find the immortal this time, but a little immortal desperately took him home. For a moment, the desire to find the immortal was not so strong.

He turned around and saw his son looking down at the sea intently. He couldn't help but ask, "Why? Are you so reluctant?"

Liu Tan thought for a moment and said, "It's not that I'm reluctant to leave, it's just... if I could communicate with His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, I could stay here for a while longer."

Liu Che raised his eyebrows: "Isn't it because you can't bear to leave? What's so good about this place that you don't want to leave?"

Liu Tan thought about it carefully and said, "Although it's relatively backward there, there are so many delicious foods in the sea. I came here in such a hurry and left so quickly that I didn't have time to get any to eat. What a pity."

Liu Che immediately became excited when he heard this: "What delicious food are there?"

There were so many delicious foods. Liu Tan was about to open his mouth, but then he thought that there were more than two thousand years between now and the future. Who knew whether those things existed now?

So he could only say very conservatively: "I don't know exactly what's there. I have to go out to sea to find out, but it must be delicious. Seafood, seafood, very fresh."

Liu Che glanced at Liu Tan deeply. How could he not have noticed Liu Tan's pause? Guessing that his son probably couldn't speak, he said generously, "No problem, come back next time."

Liu Tan gasped, wanting to slap himself right then and there. Could he really go to this shabby place whenever he wanted? This time, he'd been really lucky. Nothing serious had happened when he went to pick someone up, and now... the weather looked good too. But who could guarantee such smooth sailing forever?

It would be safer unless there were old sailors who were familiar with this route. However, now only Liu Tan and his group have traveled this route, and it is unknown how long it will take to fully understand the situation of this route.

He pondered, "Father, if we come here again, we'll have to board a ship from the port of Qi. I doubt anyone in your place can explain how we got there in the first place. So unless we have someone retrace that route, the problem is... it's too far. No one knows if we can even get there."

Liu Che looked at Liu Tan for a long moment before saying, "Since you are so enthusiastic, I'll leave Jiaozhi to you."

Liu Tan's face was about to turn green. If he wanted to deal with Jiaozhi, he had to deal with Baiyue first.

Previously, only the Qie Lan State stood in their path. With only one blocking nation, the other tribes were doing just fine, so why would they bother looking for trouble? Perhaps the nearby tribes all had some conflict with the Qie Lan State, and they were waiting for both the Han and Qie Lan States to suffer losses before swooping in to reap the benefits.

But controlling Jiaozhi was a different matter. Would officials be dispatched? Would troops be dispatched? But who could guarantee that the tribes along the way wouldn't cause trouble?

The most important thing is that Jiaozhi’s relationship with these tribes is not very good, and they fight from time to time. If the Han Dynasty wants to control Jiaozhi, it will have to face internal and external troubles.

Liu Tan decisively kept his mouth shut. He couldn't take on such a thing lightly. Furthermore, his fiefdom was in the far north, and if he went to the far south to fight, what would it mean to conquer it? The gap between them was too big. What if there was another Liu Qumao or something like that? How would he survive?

Thinking about it this way, he has actually crossed the line this time, but this time it was an emergency and no one should have to cause trouble for him at this time.

But he decided to send Liu Che back to Chang'an and then go back immediately.

Seeing that he was silent, Liu Che couldn't help but smile and said, "Why? You don't want to?"

This question was difficult to answer. Liu Tan pondered for a moment and then said, "How about I ask them to get a fishing net and catch something to see if it's edible?"

Liu Che reached out and pinched his face: "Have you learned to change the subject yet?"

Liu Tan decisively pretended to be dead. Fortunately, Liu Che had a great demand for delicious food, and letting Liu Tan be responsible was just a joke. No matter how much he doted on Liu Tan, he couldn't do this.

Or maybe it was because he doted on Liu Tan that he wanted to protect him.

After Liu Tan was released, he immediately slipped over to find someone to get a fishing net, ready to see if he could catch any fish in the sea. Although the possibility was slim, what if?

As long as no sharks are caught, everything is fine.

Believe it or not, the fishing net actually caught some fish, and all those colorful little fish were released. According to Liu Tan's memory, these colorful fish are generally poisonous.

As for the remaining ones that are not so good-looking, we can only use some pheasants on the boat to test the poison.

At first, the people below wanted to use a silver needle to test the poison. After the test, they found that the silver needle did not change color, so they thought it was not poisonous. When Liu Tan found out, he was scared to death.

Silver needles can only detect a limited number of poisons, how can it detect everything?

In the end, he still insisted on using pheasants and rats to test the poison - yes, although he always emphasized hygiene, the sanitary conditions in this world were already worrying, and rats were basically unavoidable.

But it's not without benefits. He vaguely remembered that people in later generations liked to use mice for experiments because their genes were similar to those of humans and the cost was not high.

After confirming that there were no problems with several types of fish, Liu Tan started to work.

In fact, things caught from the sea do not require special cooking methods. Even simple steaming will taste good. After all, the purpose of eating is to make them delicious.

But there is also a problem, that is the delicious taste. The first bite feels great, the second bite is okay, but by the third and fourth bites, it is really not interesting.

So, after steaming the biggest fish, he made tofu fish soup with the other small fish - well, he had prepared enough when he went out to sea, including a lot of soybeans. At that time, he thought that soybeans were the cheapest thing to supplement protein, and the most important thing was that if there was a shortage of vegetables, he could grow bean sprouts or something. As a result, didn't this come in handy?

As for rice... there was no more rice left, so Liu Tan saved it with a clear conscience and prepared to go back and experiment with planting it. If he could grow it in the north, then... Liu Tan seemed to hear the sound of money again.

Liu Che never asked what Liu Tan cooked. Anyway, his son remembered all his dos and don'ts very clearly. As for the taste...how could the food his son cooked be not delicious?

Because there were a lot of fish caught, many of them were non-poisonous, and Liu Tan didn’t recognize many of them. But he didn’t need to recognize them, as long as they were edible.

He directly gave Liu Che more sea fish to eat. He steamed it on the first day, had fish porridge on the second day, braised it on the third day, and made fish sauce on the fourth day. In short, he ate fish for many days in a row. The most surprising thing was that Liu Che didn't get tired of it.

Liu Tan felt very sorry that he didn't find any peppers or other crops this time. If he could wander around the island a little longer, maybe... Thinking of this, Liu Tan even had an urge to send Liu Che ashore and then go back.

However, his reason stopped him. First, Liu Che would need his escort when he returned, and second, he might not be able to find much if he went there.

The only things he could find now were natural minerals that did not need to evolve and were no different from their later shapes. As for plants and animals... it really tested his eyesight. Take rice for example, he really didn't know that freshly harvested rice was light yellow.

As they gradually approached Hepu, Liu Tan directly asked Wei Buyi to take people to the shore to negotiate first.

Well, the so-called negotiation is actually to clear the way, and let him bring Mo Shi and others with him. If anyone wants to make trouble, just set up a powder keg on the spot and send them all to the sky.

However, before Wei Buyi left, Liu Tan warned him repeatedly, "When you throw the gunpowder barrel, you must watch it carefully. If you blow up the port again, I will hang you on the city wall for three days!"

Seeing Wei Buyi's eyes widen, he added: "The kind without clothes."

Wei Buyi immediately ran away, clutching his chest. Liu Che, who was standing beside him, couldn't help laughing. He patted Liu Tan on the shoulder and said, "It won't hurt to walk for a few more days."

After all, he felt that he had been living a good life these days. Although the food was not as varied as on the shore, Liu Tan had many varieties, and Liu Che still felt a little unsatisfied.

So it doesn't matter if he wanders around for a few more days, just let him satisfy his craving.

Unfortunately, Liu Che's wish was not fulfilled. Wei Buyi left quickly and came back quickly, and brought a piece of news that shocked Liu Tanju: His Royal Highness the Crown Prince personally brought people to welcome His Majesty!