According to historical records, during the reign of Emperor Guangwu (Liu Xiu), a group of Japanese pirates came to the Han Dynasty to pay tribute and offer congratulations. Because they were short in stature, Emperor Guangwu named them the "Dog Slave Kingdom" and also granted them official seals.

(That seal seems to still be in the past.)

During the reign of Emperor An of Han, the Kingdom of Gou Nu also sent envoys to pay tribute.

Therefore, in the eyes of the Han Dynasty, the Kingdom of Dog Slave had always been a vassal state of the Han Dynasty, but because it was separated by the sea, the Han Dynasty had never paid attention to it.

But now that he heard that the Kingdom of Dog Slave had become a vassal state of Yamatai, Li Ying's fiery temper flared up immediately.

Nowadays, apart from officials like Hu Guang, Yuan Feng, and Cao Song who are busy developing industry and agriculture, most of the other bureaucrats are definitely hawks.

Li Ying, who served as Grand Commandant, was one of the representatives of the hawkish faction.

In his eyes, once a vassal state of the Han Dynasty, it would remain a vassal state of the Han Dynasty for life. Although the Dog Slave Kingdom had not been in contact with the Han Dynasty for more than a hundred years, it was still a vassal state of the Han Dynasty. Anyone who touched it was an enemy of the Han Dynasty and had to be eliminated.

Seeing Li Ying's excited state, Hu Guang, Cao Song, and the others shook their heads helplessly, unsure of how to comment on this increasingly belligerent fellow.

Then Liu Hong looked at the Imperial Guard and asked, "What is the scale of the internal strife in Yamatai, their fighting methods, and the status of their weapons and armor?"

Yu Linlang thought for a moment and then said, "I have heard that the scale is not large. In the most intense battle, the total number of participants on both sides was only a little over two thousand."

Ironware was scarce there, and armor was practically nonexistent. Their weapons consisted mostly of short wooden spears, wooden bows, and bamboo arrows, with bone arrowheads.

Upon hearing this, Cao Song, who was standing to the side, couldn't help but burst out laughing.

Chen Fan couldn't help but reprimand him: "Grand Minister of Agriculture, how can you be so disrespectful in front of His Majesty?"

Cao Song suppressed a laugh: "Your Majesty, please don't be offended, I really couldn't help it."

Liu Hong waved his hand dismissively: "Laugh if you want to, but what I'm curious about is, why is the Grand Minister of Agriculture laughing?"

Cao Song laughed and said, "Your Majesty, just imagine, a bunch of short men, no more than four feet tall, fighting with a few broken wooden sticks..."

According to this theory, the armed conflict between our two villages was far more intense than their national war.

"You call this war? That's clearly just monkeys fighting..."

Upon hearing this, not only Liu Hong, but even the usually serious Chen Fan couldn't help but twitch his lips and almost burst out laughing.

Liu Hong laughed and said, "What the Grand Minister of Agriculture said is not wrong. The war over there is basically just a fight between several villages."

Li Ying stepped forward and said, “Your Majesty, since that is the case, I believe that sending an army at will would be enough to destroy the Yamatai Kingdom and demonstrate the might of the Han Dynasty.”

Liu Hong smiled and said, "There are many ways to demonstrate the might of the Han Dynasty. Besides, the area is now so poor that all that's left is people. Sending troops there would be a losing proposition."

It would be better to capture them all and bring them to the Han court as slaves. Although they are shorter, they are not useless. Let their men dig canals and mine.

As for women... the soldiers can have them if they want, or they can be servants to help them with laundry and cooking.

In this way, we can also wipe them out, and wipe them out even more thoroughly.

Moreover, the land there is very suitable for living. Completely eliminating those Japanese invaders will leave a place for our future generations to live on.

Upon hearing Liu Hong's words, Li Ying and the others nodded in agreement, finding nothing amiss.

The Han Dynasty is currently short of manpower. If we could capture hundreds of thousands of slaves, it would speed up the excavation of the canal and save a large amount of money, food, and labor.

In Liu Hong's view, with the development of agriculture and medical technology in the Han Dynasty, the population will definitely increase dramatically in the future. At that time, every piece of land will be extremely precious, and the good things will naturally be left to his descendants.

Furthermore, the accumulation of capital is nothing but bloody plunder. Given the current development of the Han Dynasty, it won't be long before the domestic market becomes saturated, accommodating all goods, thus forming a closed economic system.

If they want to develop further in the future, capital will treat the domestic people as objects of plunder, which is unacceptable to Liu Hong.

Now, domestic capital development has completed its initial accumulation and is ready to plunder from abroad.

Just like in 17th-century Europe, they acquired enough capital through the frenzied plunder of resources from Asia, Africa, America, and Latin America, thus embarking on the path to becoming a great power.

Like the United States later on, it gained its dominant position by plundering the whole world.

In terms of historical comparison, aside from their advanced weaponry, the Han Dynasty at that time possessed a greater capacity to dominate, and even unify, the world than the United States of later generations.

However, due to the limitations of transportation in this era, it was not possible to rule the whole world. But it was still possible to plunder global resources through capital and achieve cultural unification.

Just like in the Western Regions, in the future, people all over the world will speak Chinese, write Chinese characters, and wear Hanfu. Wouldn't that be amazing?

Thinking of this, Liu Hong couldn't help but smile with extreme pleasure.

"Your Majesty, what's wrong...?"

Seeing the emperor suddenly laugh for no apparent reason, Cao Song couldn't help but ask curiously.

Liu Hong waved his hand: "Ah, it's nothing. I just thought of something happy."

Hu Guang's eyes lit up: "Oh? Could it be that the Empress is pregnant with a prince?"

"Ahem, no...no, it's not about that."

This chapter is not finished yet. Please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content!