I am Li Shen and Li Shimin, the free kings of the Tang Dynasty

Li Shen didn't know much about the history of Japan. He only knew that Japan also had the Warring States Period, which seemed to be this time.

He also knew that the King of Qin sent Xu Fu to the east to search for the elixir of life, and that the destination was Japan.

The 500 boys and girls they brought with them married with the local indigenous people and gave rise to the Wa nation.

He knew nothing else.

"Your Majesty, Japan is in turmoil right now, and it probably won't be stable for a long time.

According to our plan, we should be able to conquer Japan in a few years by slowly nibbling away at it.

However, Japan is far away from our Tang Dynasty, so even if we occupy it, it probably won’t make much sense.

Even with our clipper it would take twenty days to make the round trip.

If we go to their eastern capital, it will probably take even longer."

Wang Xuance expressed his thoughts.

Li Shen certainly knew what Wang Xuance meant. Indeed, given the inconvenient transportation during that period, even if they occupied Japan, it would only be a piece of enclave for the Tang Dynasty.

Maybe Japan will rebel at some point, and it will be inconvenient to pass on information at that time.

But Li Shen didn't think so, because he had traveled through time.

"Xuan Ce, I understand what you mean, but you have to know that this world is changing. Maybe there will be a way to quickly reach Japan in the future.

Ten years ago, you wouldn’t have believed that people could fly with the help of external objects.

But now our hot air balloons are already very advanced and can fly short distances, but the research institute is still conducting unsuccessful research.

I believe that maybe someday we can build a big hot air balloon and fly from Chang'an to Japan.

And it only took a few days.

You forgot that the research institute of Prince Ji's Mansion is now manufacturing steam engines. It has been more than ten years and there are already some promising results.

Maybe we will succeed in a few years?

It will be of great use then.”

Li Shen's eyes were full of longing. He wanted to build steel battleships to dominate the entire ocean. Then he could go to Europe, America, or anywhere he wanted to go.

Wang Xuance was completely shocked by Li Shen's words. Flying from Chang'an to Japan is more than a thousand miles away.

Is this something that can be done by human power?

However, Prince Ji's Mansion invests a lot of money in the research institute every year.

"Your Majesty, if this is true, then our conquest of Japan would be meaningful. I heard from Di Renjie that the nobles there all use silver and gold.

The people bartered with each other.”

"Haha, that's right, gold and silver, these are what this king wants. When we conquer the country, we will rob all the wealth of those so-called famous families.

Take their land, take their money, take their...money."

Li Shen laughed out loud. The more he thought about it, the more excited he became. He almost said something wrong and ruined his image.

However, it would be a bit unfair to the students in the future as they may not have the learning materials to study.

"By the way, is the Hizen area big? Should we consider buying more land?

It's nothing more than giving them some more mid-quality porcelain and ordinary silk."

The place where Hizen is located was carefully selected by Li Shen. It is very close to Silla, and the first stop from Silla is Hizen.

Li Shen only knew that the island where Hizen was located was called Kyushu Island in later generations.

But Li Shen didn't know what it was called during that period.

"My Lord, the island where Hizen is located is called Chikushi Island. There are nine regions on the island, and each region has many counties.

It's pretty much the same as our state and county system.

But they have daimyo and noble forces in each region.

Although Chikushi Island nominally belonged to the Japanese imperial court, it had almost no control over it.

Each region operates independently and fights each other for resources all year round.

There are even some areas like Hizen where there are two factions. I heard that Hizen was once a country. "

When Wang Xuance first heard the news, he was really shocked. Such a big place could actually become a country.

However, Li Shen was not shocked. He had heard that during Japan's Warring States Period, there were more than a hundred countries fighting each other.

It would be great if we could reduce it by more than half now.

“Do you know which two forces Hizen are and how strong they are?

Our first step in the future will be to start with Hizen. It is necessary to understand the opponent's strength. How are you doing with the intelligence I asked you to collect?"

Li Shen asked, knowing yourself and your enemy will ensure victory in every battle.

He had already asked Wang Xuance to collect intelligence.

"Your Majesty, Hizen is now controlled by two daimyo, the Nabeshima family and the Saga family.

The local county magistrate was helpless.

My Ji Wangfu was able to purchase a large piece of wasteland so smoothly again. According to my analysis, I think it is because they want to rely on the power of our Tang Dynasty to intimidate the Nabeshima and Saga families. "

"Nabeshima? Saga? What are these names?"

Li Shennian thought that the two names were somewhat different from the names he remembered.

"Your Highness, these two names are direct translations from the local indigenous people we developed, so they should be correct."

Wang Xuance explained.

"How strong are these two families?"

"Haha." Wang Xuance smiled contemptuously.

“Your Majesty, each of their families has nearly 10,000 generals, and together they only have 20,000.

As for strength...it's acceptable in Hizen.

The Hizen court had only 20,000 to 30,000 troops.

But in terms of combat effectiveness, let alone our army, even the 5,000 slave soldiers sent there by the prince can wipe them out.

Their smelting technology was backward, resources were scarce, and most of their shields were made of wood.

Only generals of the first level have armor.

Our five thousand slave soldiers were all wearing iron armor and weapons.

Although they are not as good as our Tang Dynasty soldiers, they are more than enough to deal with those barbarians."

In the words of Di Renjie, they are just farmers, a group of rabble, with nothing good except their iron weapons.

"Well, that's good. By the way, the weapons and armor we made for the five thousand slaves all came from Liaodong, so we must not let anyone know.

Otherwise, I will be guilty of treason.

Although the weapons they were given were made of ordinary iron, the charges were the same.

Tell the people over there to keep a close eye on the remnants of Goguryeo."

Li Shen instructed that the soldiers he sent to Japan were secretly sent by Xue Rengui, and that their weapons and equipment were all made in a workshop in Liaodong.

Li Shen occupied several large iron mines there.

Taking advantage of the opportunity to deliver fine iron bars to the Tang Dynasty's City That Never Sleeps, they secretly resold the weapons and shipped them to Japan.

Although they were all made of ordinary iron, they were still privately made weapons and armor, which was tantamount to treason.

“Don’t worry, Your Majesty. The people who made the armor are all from Goguryeo. They will never be able to enter the country.

The transporters were also transferred to the mining area and they would not leave.

If Your Majesty is worried, I will personally send someone to deal with them."

Wang Xuance made a gesture and Li Shen shook his head.

“No need, there are too many people, and I don’t want to commit more sins of killing, which will be bad for future generations.

Besides, after killing so many people, I still have to train a new group of people to do the work. I don’t have that much time.

Just keep an eye on them."