In the end, Liu Tan couldn't persuade Princess Yangxin. The main reason was that an elder had asked him to do so, and he had no choice. What's more, the Wei family had already decided that as long as they could leave a descendant for the Wei family, it would be enough. So what else could he say?
After returning, he asked Liu Chuan with a puzzled look on his face, "Why on earth did Wei Kang have to go with me?"
Does he also have a heart that yearns for the sea?
Liu Tan really couldn't understand.
Liu Que said, "You're likely to run into conflict with the Baiyue people. Given your personality, you're not one to suffer a loss. Perhaps they all think they can gain military merit."
Liu Tan: ???
He took a deep breath to calm himself down and said, "No, my father has been unable to deal with the Baiyue for so many years, so what can I do to them? I'm not going there to fight a war with them this time. I'm just asking for permission to use the road and port. If they're willing, I'll pay for it."
Liu Que said, "That's even better. Let them follow you and gain some experience."
What else can we do?
However, it is not known whether Wei Kang had set a good example, but many people subsequently tried to find a way to follow the King of the North.
Liu Tan was so annoyed that he simply moved the date forward.
The sooner they could bring Liu Che back, the sooner the better. The main problem now was that they could not contact Liu Che at all and could only passively wait for Liu Che to give them news. Since those pigeons came back with the simplified version of the map, no more pigeons came, and they didn't know if they had no more pigeons.
If this is the case, perhaps Liu Che and others are also worried now.
Moreover, it is not known whether there are any humans on Luzon Island. If there is no one, it is not a big deal. But if there is... the ship prepared by Liu Fuling probably cannot accommodate too many people. It is not a place to go to war. The lack of carrier pigeons may mean that they were detained by the locals.
Thinking of this, Liu Tan couldn't sit still for a minute.
After he set the date, he set off directly with his elite regiment and logistics troops.
On the day of departure, Chen Ajiao and Liu Ju personally escorted him to the outskirts of the city.
Liu Ju was deeply worried but he couldn't show it. He held Liu Tan's hand and said, "Be careful on your journey. If you encounter any trouble, send someone to report it immediately and I will help you solve it."
Liu Tan smiled slightly and nodded, thinking that even if something really happened over there, there was nothing you could do, and telling you would only make you anxious.
But he couldn't say these words, because if he said them, Liu Ju might not let him go.
Compared to Liu Ju, Chen Ajiao was more straightforward: "If you can go, then go. If you can't, forget it. No one knows what the emperor's situation is right now. I can't let this get you into trouble. You must take care of yourself, understand?"
After hearing this, Liu Tan looked at Liu Ju, and they both coughed a few times at the same time - Liu Tan was convinced. Although you think so in your heart, you can't say it out loud, after all, you are the queen.
Fortunately, the people who came out to see her off were all her own people, otherwise Chen Ajiao would be in big trouble.
But Chen Ajiao probably doesn't care.
Liu Tan tried to pull his hand away but failed. He looked at Liu Ju helplessly, but Liu Ju frowned slightly, as if he was making a difficult decision.
Helpless, Liu Tan had to forcefully pull his hand out and said, "After sending you a thousand miles, we must finally say goodbye. Everyone, go back and wait for my good news in Chang'an."
It has to be said that the look in Liu Tan's letter did put many people at ease.
After he said that, he mounted his horse and turned it around. He rode off while waving to everyone with his back in a very casual manner.
The sunlight fell on him, and at that moment Liu Ju felt that the light seemed to be emanating from Liu Tan.
Liu Ju subconsciously took two steps forward. The eunuch serving beside him said hurriedly, "Your Highness, the spring wind is strong. Go back."
Liu Ju glanced at Liu Tan's back with some reluctance. For some reason, at that moment, he always felt that his brother's back seemed to have traveled enough in the human world and was about to return to the fairyland.
For a moment, he even wondered whether Liu Tan would return to the fairyland while going out to sea this time?
However, he thought about it and thought that Liu Tan must be concerned about this place. Apart from anything else, Lu Xuan was still in the Wusun Kingdom. For him, Liu Tan would have to come back, right?
Liu Ju returned to Chang'an with all these thoughts in his mind, and the atmosphere among those who came to see him off along the way was a bit depressing.
Compared to them, the Wei brothers beside Liu Tan seemed much more excited.
Wei Kang and Wei Buyi followed Liu Tan. They did not gallop but did not slow down either.
Liu Tan glanced at the baggage train behind him and asked, "Can they keep up?"
Wei Kang quickly said, "It doesn't matter if they can't catch up for a while. When we set up camp or stay at the inn, they will catch up before we set off."
Liu Tan was slightly stunned after hearing this: "Then how do they rest?"
Wei Kang said, "Take turns to rest. There's room on the baggage cart."
Liu Tan nodded. Although he felt that these people had a hard time, he couldn't stop at this moment because of these difficulties.
When he heard Wei Kang mention the posthouses, he said, "We may not be able to pass by many posthouses this time."
Wei Kang was a little surprised: "Your Highness means..."
Liu Tan said, "Try to go in a straight line, passing Qie Lan, and then to Jiao Zhi."
Wei Kang frowned slightly: "Qie Lan... they have intercepted and killed Han envoys several times. If possible, it would be best to take a detour."
Liu Tan raised an eyebrow. "Is Qie Lan so bold? Even after Yelang was destroyed, they still haven't learned their lesson?"
Qilan and Yelang were basically countries that existed in the south at the same time. At the beginning, Liu Che wanted to win over Yelang first and then attack Nanyue, also known as Jiaozhi, through Yelang.
Then he sent envoys with money and treasures to the Yelang Kingdom. The king of Yelang believed that his country was far away from the Han Dynasty, so he pretended to obey but actually rebelled after accepting money and treasures.
Could Liu Che tolerate this? He couldn't, so he sent people to destroy Yelang Kingdom directly, and he even passed through Qilan when destroying Yelang Kingdom.
In other words, the Qilan Kingdom basically witnessed how the Yelang Kingdom was destroyed by the Han Dynasty. Logically, they should have been very clear about the strength of the Han Dynasty. However, in this situation, they dared to intercept and kill the Han envoys. They were really bold.
Wei Kang said, "Qilan is different from Yelang. They are mountainous, easy to defend but difficult to attack, and the terrain is high. Our people may have had some difficulty acclimatizing to the local climate, so we have not been able to conquer Qiilan over the years."
After hearing this, Liu Tan asked someone to get a map to look at when he set up camp.
Today, the map of the Han Dynasty is quite detailed for the areas within its territory, but the south is still relatively vague, with only an approximate direction given.
Liu Tan gestured in his mind and realized that the location of Qielan State should be the Guizhou area in later generations, and to be more certain, it might be Guiyang.
It is true that Guizhou is mountainous and located in the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, so it is normal that soldiers from the north could not bear it.
Soldiers in those days were generally not in good health. In later generations, most people would not suffer from altitude sickness in the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, but it is hard to say at this time.
Thinking of this, Liu Tan quickly gave orders, asking people to pay attention to the situation of the people below.
The most important thing is his 1,000 elite regiments. As for the baggage regiment... well, everyone can only wish them good luck.
Wei Buyi smiled and said, "Don't worry, Your Highness. We brought some medicine with us before we left. It's said to be very effective against the miasma in the south."
Liu Tan shook his head. "The dangers in the south aren't just the miasma, but... never mind. Let's just walk slowly."
In fact, he couldn't go any faster even if he wanted to. In Liu Tan's opinion, it would be best to go in a straight line, after all, the straight line is the shortest distance between two points.
But the problem is that the roads we can travel on now, especially the ones where baggage carts can pass through, are not straight lines.
Especially if they want to go south, they must enter Shu. It is okay not to enter Shu, as that would be a big detour, which is more difficult than entering Shu!
This trip to Sichuan was also a revisit to Liu Tan's old place. The Land of Abundance has been an important place for various historical and archaeological sites since ancient times. He had been here before when he was traveling to experience the humanities.
Transportation was convenient at that time. Except for Chongqing, where he couldn't find the way even with a navigation system, he didn't find other places difficult.
However, this time I really suffered a lot.
During the Tang Dynasty, Li Bai was still muttering that the road to Shu was difficult, harder than climbing to the sky.
Not to mention now, riding a horse is not allowed in some places. If you are not careful, you may fall off with the horse.
The narrowest place was only wide enough for one person. Liu Tan was very glad that this time he was determined not to have a carriage and left all the carriages and other things in Chang'an.
It’s useless even if I bring it here!
It took them half a month to walk from entering Sichuan to leaving Sichuan. When they were about to leave, they stayed in the local area for a while to buy horses.
The horses they brought with them before had to be taken back because they could not cross the mountain road. Now they had to buy new horses. However, the good thing was that after leaving Shu, the road became easier to travel, and they arrived at the Qilan Kingdom not long after.
Although Liu Tan felt that the Qielan Kingdom was not much better than the Yelang Kingdom, because he came out to pick people up instead of fighting, he sent people with gold, silver and jewelry to negotiate with the Qielan Kingdom first.
When attacking Yelang Kingdom, warships once stopped in the river area of Qilan Kingdom. At that time, Qilan Kingdom did not react at all. I guess it will be the same this time. They just want to borrow a passage.
Liu Tan chose a place to set up camp and waited for the messenger's reply.
However, what he didn't expect was that after waiting for two days, the envoy didn't come back, and there was no word of success or failure, and no one from the Qielan Kingdom came out to communicate.
Liu Tan frowned, and this time he directly sent dozens of elite regiments to inquire.
However, what surprised him was that everyone in the elite group returned with injuries.
Liu Tan had never suffered such a loss since he formed an elite regiment. He was shocked and angry at the same time: "What's going on?"
A captain clutched his injured shoulder and said angrily, "Your Highness, they've already killed the envoy. They left us money and refused to let us pass through. Now they want to kill us too. If we hadn't escaped quickly... I'm afraid we would have died there."
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