On the first day of the Poetry Competition, Liu Mang surpassed the other heroes, leaving Cao Pi and Sun Quan speechless.
Fortunately, Liu Mang released the news that he will not go out in the battle in the next few days, and even the people in Xiangyang City will go out on his behalf.
Seeing the opportunity to regain face, Cao Wei and Sun Wu naturally would not let it go.
Little did they know that Liu Mang had decided to go south and lead his army to take Yizhou!
"Mang'er, why are you so anxious about this?"
Liu Bei cared about his son and personally sent Liu Mang to the city gate.
"Dad, the city has been almost completely cleaned up. Cao Pi and Sun Quan are all focused on the Poetry Competition, so they have no time to go south."
"If we can take Yizhou as our own, we can threaten Soochow from the rear!"
"When the time comes, no matter whether we are advancing or retreating, I, the big man, will take the initiative!"
Liu Mang went on this expedition and brought with him the Jinfan bandits headed by Gan Ning, as well as Zhou Cang, Guan Ping, Tai Shi Heng and others who were good at naval warfare.
Generals such as Guan Zhang and Zhao Yun would attract the attention of Cao Pi and Sun Quan as long as they did not show up.
"Forget it! Be careful along the way, the sea is very rough, don't be anxious!"
His son traveled thousands of miles and his father was worried, especially because Liu Mang was going to sea this time, which made Liu Bei even more worried.
"Don't worry! Even if Cao Pi and Sun Quan win the Poetry Competition, our goal has been achieved."
"Only if I don't participate will they have a chance to win!"
Liu Mang smiled and led an army of 20,000 people to Jiaozhou. They wanted to go to the sea from Jiaozhou and then march eastward to take Yizhou.
Liu Bei looked at his son's back and felt relieved.
"Brother, let's go, there's no trace of you left!"
Zhang Fei slapped him with his big hand, causing Liu Bei to grimace in pain.
"Third brother, can your hands be any stronger? My brother was almost beaten to death by you!"
"sure!"
"No, no, no, don't come over!"
…
In the next few days, Liu Mang did not attend, but Cao Pi composed several poems in succession, truly surpassing the others in skill.
Sun Quan sat back and enjoyed his success, and occasionally wrote a few poems to cheer him up. Both Wei and Wu were very satisfied.
As for the Shu Han, they paid little attention to it, and even Zhang Fei attended to compose poems!
"One piece, two pieces, three or four pieces, five, six, seven, eight or ninety pieces. Thousands of pieces, countless pieces, not as good as Jingzhou grilled fish fillets!"
Zhang Fei gave up the song, causing everyone to laugh. Mr. Zhang didn't care, he was just having fun anyway.
The officials of the Shu Han Dynasty were even more calm. His Highness had already stolen the limelight in the past few days, so what if the two countries of Wei and Wu were allowed to regain some ground now?
No one would have thought that Liu Mang's real goal was to go south and seize Yizhou!
"Your Majesty, why doesn't Liu Changqing show up? Wei Chen feels something is wrong!"
Hua Xin reminded them in a low voice that they would leave Jingzhou tomorrow, and Liu Mang should come forward both emotionally and rationally.
"What? Do you still want to see him?"
Cao Pi said angrily: "It's best that this guy never shows up!"
Wang Lang nodded when he heard this. After all, Liu Mang could humiliate people in this way without using any curse words. It was really difficult to guard against him.
"Humph, Liu Bei also wants to recuperate now!"
"He can't let Liu Changqing do things too well!"
"Our Central Plains will have a good harvest this year. When winter comes, I will definitely take back Chang'an!"
Cao Pi would not miss the spring plowing and autumn harvest. He planned to delay for another year before taking the initiative to launch an attack.
Sun Quan was also not thinking at this time. Should he contain the Han Dynasty, or join Cao Pi's encirclement network and further encroach on Cao Wei?
It seems that no matter what we do, Soochow will suffer in the end.
If the alliance is too strong, the two countries will eventually have a war.
What Sun Quan hopes most is that the three countries maintain a balance of power. Once one country is destroyed, the balance will inevitably be broken.
"King Wu, we can't afford to offend both countries now, so we might as well wait and see what happens."
"No matter who wins, I, Soochow, will be able to profit from it!"
Lu Meng reminded in a low voice and said with a smile: "I have contacted Gongsun Kang of Liaodong. If this person can become a vassal of my great Wu, he will definitely become a pawn to contain Cao Pi."
Unfortunately, Lu Meng didn't know that Liu Mang quickly took Gongsun Kang under his command and even asked Wang Fu to assist him.
"With Ziming here, I can rest assured!"
Sun Quan sighed with emotion, and then exchanged cups with everyone.
…
Liu Mang went all the way south, and everyone was full of expectations for this trip to sea.
But he didn't expect that Zhang Xingcai and Guan Yinping would secretly follow him.
"You two... why are you following me?"
"I am here to open up territory for the Han Dynasty, not just for fun!"
Faced with Liu Mang's scolding, Zhang Xingcai pretended to be weak, and her watery eyes secretly glanced at him.
Guan Yinping was not so gentle, "We both defeated Xu Huang back then!"
"Brother Liu Mang, aren't you happy that we can accompany you on the expedition?"
"If there is no woman around, there will be no magic in using the sword!"
Seeing that everyone was about to arrive at the port, Liu Mang was worried about driving them back to Jingzhou at this time.
"Forget it...I told you in advance that the boat will be bumpy and life will not be easy."
Seeing Liu Mang relent, the two girls had cunning looks on their faces, obviously they had planned it in advance.
Liu Mang also smiled jokingly: "Ha! When I get seasick, I will feel better with you!"
Under the governance of Xu Shu, Jiaozhou flourished.
Even Zhuyazhou (Hainan) was already garrisoned by Han troops.
Liu Mang planned to go directly to Zhuyazhou this time, and then go all the way eastward, directly towards Yizhou.
When they learned that Liu Mang had entered Jiaozhou, Xu Shu led Man Chong and Yu Jin to wait for a long time.
"Sir, you're welcome and safe!"
Liu Mang paid homage to Xu Shu and directly bowed to him as a disciple, which moved Xu Shu quite a lot.
"Your Highness, please don't be so polite. Everything is fine with me in Jiaozhou!"
"By the way, there is also an old friend who has helped a lot in Jiaozhou!"
Xu Shu clapped his hands and saw Zhang Lu leading the disciples of Tianshi Dao to come to see the ceremony.
"Your Highness, long time no see!"
"Master Zhang's style remains the same!"
Liu Mang couldn't help but his eyes lit up, and Zhang Lu was a little confused. After all, being stared at by His Highness like this would never do anything good!
"Master Zhang, do you want to go somewhere else to preach?"
"Preaching? That's great of course!"
Zhang Lu was extremely excited when he heard the word missionary.
Liu Mang renamed him Tianshi Dao, and as expected, the number of followers increased a lot.
However, after the implementation of compulsory education in Jiaozhou, it is obvious that there are many fewer religious believers. After all, who is willing to believe in Jesus if he can study?
Liu Mang's abacus was loud and clear. The land of Yizhou had not yet been civilized. To win over people's hearts as soon as possible, Tianshi Dao's methods were indispensable.
After all, Zhang Lu is just right for dealing with these uncivilized people.
"Greetings to Your Highness!"
"Mr. Boning has gained a lot of weight, haha! It seems that the food in Jiaozhou is good!"
Man Chong is now broad-minded and fat. He only needs to take care of the internal affairs, and he will have no worries.
"Yu Jin pays homage to His Highness!"
"Wen Ze trains troops, the more the merrier! When I go to Zhuyazhou this time, I have to do a routine inspection."
Yu Jin felt warm in his heart, at least Liu Mang was really reusing these subordinate generals.
"Okay, let's go to the banquet first. We will repair for three days and then head to Zhuyazhou!"
