I, the prince, only want to be deposed.

Chapter 404: One man against a country!
Dongfang Yu will never know.

Almost all of his reactions were within Liu Ju's calculations, and he had already been completely controlled by Liu Ju.

This time he was arranged to continue his mission to the Kingdom of Kucha in the west, firstly to achieve the strategic goal of "making friends with distant countries and attacking nearby ones", and secondly to make Dongfang Yu give up the idea of ​​speaking well of himself in front of Emperor Liu Che after returning.

There are not many records about Dongfang Yu in history books, and the focus is on his father Dongfang Shuo.

Although Dongfang Shuo had many unkempt and even immoral flaws, no one had to admit that he was actually a minister who dared to speak and knew how to speak. He tried his best to persuade Emperor Liu Che throughout his life, talking about the pros and cons of governing a country, and strategies for strengthening the country through agriculture and warfare. Before his death, he left behind the allusion that "a dying man's words are good."

It’s a pity that Emperor Liu Che only regarded him as an actor. Although he occasionally listened to some of his suggestions, he never entrusted him with important tasks, let alone trusted him politically.

What is there to say?

You can never wake up someone who is pretending to be asleep.

Liu Che was the kind of person who pretended to be asleep, but he knew many things very well.

At the same time, he is also a person who listens to advice, but he only listens to his own advice.

It took a lot of courage to be a minister of remonstrance in his dynasty. Although Dongfang Shuo was able to read people's expressions and give advice tactfully, he also took considerable risks as he had his own ambitions and the country in his heart.

The son he educated would naturally not have too many deviations in moral character, and at least he would know how to repay kindness.

During his previous contacts with him, Liu Ju had already seen some clues from some details, so he could conclude that after Dongfang Yu took the credit for the Kingdom of Yanqi, he would definitely find a way to repay him after returning to Beijing.

But Liu Ju didn't want him to do that.

He needed some people who were grateful to him from the bottom of their hearts but also had some resentment towards him to stay by Liu Che's side.

Such people do not need to speak well of themselves in front of Liu Che on a daily basis, because Liu Che does not buy it at all. Too many similar compliments will cause them to develop a rebellious mentality or even a taboo mentality, which is not a good thing and can easily harm others and themselves.

Such people only need to remember to lend a helping hand at the most critical moment, even if it is just to stand on the side on key issues.

In this way, although Liu Ju was in the Western Regions, he still had connections in the court.

Sometimes there is always someone who can cover for him and hold the final bottom line, preventing Liu Che from completely breaking off with him, which would eventually lead to an unfavorable situation where he was unwilling to split the Han Dynasty, but Liu Che was stubborn and insisted on "rebelling" himself.

Besides.

Liu Ju was plotting against many other people.

Zhao Po Nu, Wang Hui, Sima Qian, Su Wu, Han Zeng... These people are all under his control, and each of them is unaware that they are acting according to the established goals assigned to them by Liu Ju.

……

The royal city of Loulan.

A graceful figure stood on the city wall, facing the scorching sun and hot wind, looking worriedly towards the north upstream along the Peacock River.

According to the people of Loulan, that is the direction of Yanqi.

"Sister, you should go down and rest. More is in bad shape."

Han Zeng came behind the beautiful figure at some point and advised her with some heartache but helplessness.

Han Ling had followed Liu Xijun and her group to Loulan for three days. During these three days, although she followed Liu Ju's instructions and assisted Han Zeng in coordinating the military garrisons in Loulan every day, as soon as she had a moment of free time, she would immediately go up to the city wall alone and do nothing but stare blankly to the north, hoping that the familiar figure would appear by the Peacock River.

This time, she did not blame Han Zeng.

Because Han Zeng only learned on the second day after Liu Ju set out with the Dongfang Yu delegation that Liu Ju had secretly followed them to the Yanqi Kingdom.

Han Zeng originally wanted to order the Jianzhang cavalry to give chase, or inform Zhao Po Nu and Sima Qian about this and ask them to lead their troops to cooperate. However, the personal soldiers who stayed in Loulan City to cover Liu Ju conveyed Liu Ju's warning, which finally calmed him down and did not ruin Liu Ju's plan.

"Second brother, my gentleman will definitely be fine."

Han Ling just pursed his dry lips and turned back to force a smile.
"He is extremely intelligent, courageous and careful, and he is calm in the face of danger. Even the emperor cannot do anything to him, let alone a mere King of Yanqi."

"Yes, yes, my brother-in-law has more than just these merits. You have never seen him shoot and kill an enemy general with a single blow of his halberd... Let's put it this way. It was not until that moment that I truly understood why you were so in love with my brother-in-law. If I were a woman, I would also be tempted to give myself to him."

Han Zeng nodded repeatedly in agreement, but thought to himself, if you have such confidence, why do you have to stand here and wait every day?
"But it has been more than ten days, and General Zhao's live-arrow military exercise is about to begin. Why hasn't my gentleman returned yet?"

Han Ling said again.

"It's almost there. The capital of the Kingdom of Yanqi is more than 600 miles away from the Kingdom of Loulan. It takes 20 days to go back and forth. If we ride faster, it should be even faster. We can be back in the next few days and it shouldn't be a problem to catch up with the real arrow military exercise."

Han Zeng also continued to comfort Han Ling.

Today, the military farming and garrisoning affairs of Loulan Kingdom are going quite smoothly. After all, the farmland used are all from the good farmland of the former Loulan King Qibuchu. Not only is there sufficient water, but the land is also relatively fertile.

The most important thing is that Liu Ju was well prepared.

It is not known whether he did it intentionally or not, but before leaving Chang'an, he privately found Zhao Guo, the current Minister of Agriculture, and asked for the Daitian planting technology. He also brought several drawings of Zhao Guo's latest agricultural tools and experienced old farmers.

These things and the old farmer's experience played a big role this time, allowing Han Zeng to achieve twice the result with half the effort in promoting military farming.

At the same time, it also made Han Zeng have to doubt.

Did Liu Ju already think about establishing military farms in Loulan before he set out? But is this something he should have thought of?

You must know that before this, neither Liu Che and the inner court, nor generals such as Zhao Po Nu, were sure that the Battle of Loulan would go so smoothly, and the plan to attack Gushi was only a backup plan after taking Loulan, which depended entirely on the losses of the Han army in the Battle of Loulan.

After all, the Han Dynasty knew too little about the Western Regions.

In everyone's eyes, this expedition was just a test. Apart from the 800 Jianzhang cavalry led by Liu Ju, the 700 vassal cavalry led by Zhao Po Nu and Sima Qian, the 1,000 northern troops and the 1,000 border county soldiers, the remaining 30,000 county soldiers had a very complex composition. They were more than capable of transporting food and fodder, but were lacking in ability to fight.

It was for this reason that Liu Che and the inner court only set their targets on Loulan and Gushi.

Both of these countries have a population of more than 10,000. They are said to have thousands of soldiers, but this is basically exaggerated. The number of real young and elite soldiers is quite limited.

As for the matter of farming and stationing troops, there was not even a hint of it.

However, Liu Ju's target was to first target Yanqi, which was more powerful than Loulan and Gushi combined, and he even conducted an unprecedented military exercise with real arrows...

Can this really work?

And what was he planning to do when he followed the delegation to Yanqi? Did he really think that one person could defeat an entire country?
(End of this chapter)