He needed to stay in Guangzhou, pacify Jiaozhi, and this was precisely the test to see if Li Fengji had the makings of a chief assistant.
In the year 939, after defeating the Southern Han army, Wu Quan declared himself king and established the Wu Dynasty, marking the first time Jiaozhi broke away from the control of the Central Plains dynasties. This move signaled the transition from China's prefecture to a local separatist regime in the Jiaozhi region.
Such a change is quite distressing.
This is because the people of Jiaozhi began to evolve their self-identity from the 'Huaxia lineage' of the Qin and Han periods to 'foreign nations' after the Five Dynasties.
In the original history, the Song Dynasty did not recover Jiaozhi. Instead, Zhao Kuangyin acknowledged its status as a vassal state, appointing it as the Prince of Jiaozhi County. It wasn't until the Ming Dynasty that it was briefly re-established under control. Throughout the Song Dynasty's history, the Central Plains lost bits of land here and there, and little by little, it was almost all gone.
Jiaozhi is also known as Jiaozhou, and during the Tang Dynasty, it was renamed to Annam Protectorate.
Wu Quan became independent after defeating the Southern Han army.
This piece of land, Duncan is determined to seize. However, any movement regarding Jiaozhi now will affect everything, so he can only rely on his subordinates.
Everything that was taken from me, spit it all back out!
Duncan wouldn't say he intends to take the entire Southeast Asia, but losing even Jiaozhou would be an embarrassment to the King of Kings, not to mention Vietnam is quite a productive grain region.
What the ancestors left cannot be lost; if Zhao Kuangyin didn't want it, he is determined to take it.
The night deepened.
Only after finalizing the strategy to conquer Jiaozhi did Duncan send Li Fengji and the others away.
Next to him, Lu Qiongxi glanced at his expression, seeing he was still interested, and she immediately understood, gently clapping her hands. Soon, palace servants brought Lady Li and Beauty Li over.
The show goes on, and the dance continues.
Continue the music, continue the dance.
By the time others learned of the news, the Annam Protectorate was likely already pacified, with Vietnam's strategic grain supply secured. Next year, they could move to conquer the Southern Tang, and after extinguishing the Southern Tang, they would face the great army of the Northern Song.
Duncan seemed to hear a noise. He looked up and saw two elegant and charming figures.
Lu Qiongxi has truly put me through a lot!
Pretending to be an ineffectual ruler is his true expertise.
Ever since the fall of the Southern Han, Duncan's reputation has been poor. Ignoring politics, heavily relying on eunuchs and palace maidens, indulging in beauty, slaughtering aristocratic clans, seizing the wealth of scholars, employing harsh methods, and executing families, collecting demonic remnants, his reputation increasingly worsened. Yet, the lives of the Southern Han people improved by the day.
From the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms until now, the land of Guangdong and Guangxi, which suffered severe damages, was recovering at an incredible speed.
No one knows when.
Some basic martial arts practices from the Jianghu began to spread among the people, especially in places like Foshan, where a folk tradition of practicing martial arts quietly formed.
As for the military, most of the Southern Han troops were mere decorations, except for one highly specialized elite force.
Because all of them were martial artists practicing both martial arts and military tactics.
Only after eating enough can you have the strength to practice martial arts.
Farming, farming.
Duncan gave a signal; Lu Qiongxi with refined elegance, went forward to strip off a palace dress and personally instructed the palace servants to remove his armor. Even as a feckless ruler, one must maintain a good physique, and this set of martial arts must still be diligently practiced.
Fan Huzi suddenly died on the twenty-seventh day.
Although Duncan still did not attend court, he brought people to the future port area of Guangzhou. The Southern Han navy was still quite strong, only that the money had been appropriated by Liu Chang.
Controlling Guangzhou, the Southern Han—once the world's largest port during the Tang Dynasty—had hundreds of tower ships, with main battleships being "Mengchong ships" (light warships) and "Haigu ships" (armored).
The naval strength could suppress surrounding small countries (such as Champa and Luoyue).
It is unknown when, but his reputation seemed to have shifted a bit. His behavior of not attending court and completely delegating power led some to praise him as 'ruling by doing nothing,' akin to the emergence of a Saint.
It's truly 'great Confucians arguing on my behalf.'
There's always been a phenomenon in this world, which is that truly capable talents often wish for minimal interference from above. As long as they're granted authority, they're willing to stake their lives and careers as guarantees.
Fortunately, this era has quite a few such individuals, some even capable of conquering a piece of Min Kingdom land with just a militia of fifteen hundred.
Central Plains truly is not lacking in talent, only lacking opportunities for these talents to showcase their abilities.
.........