The destiny of all heavens begins in the Red Chamber

"Huan-ge'er, I doubt the Prince of Nan'an has such grand ambitions!"

At this moment, Lin Ruhai also spoke up, saying, "Managing the southwest region alone is enough to exhaust all of the Prince of Nan'an's energy. How can he have the mind to care about the affairs of neighboring countries?"

Back then, the founding emperor of the Great Qian Dynasty assigned the territory of the Prince of Nan'an to the southwest region, following the example of the Ming Dynasty, because the southwest was simply too difficult to manage.

Haven't you noticed that the Prince of Nan'an's lineage spent a hundred years and still couldn't completely pacify the southwest?

According to traditional thinking, the Prince of Nan'an would naturally not easily launch a major attack!

Not to mention that once the army moves, the consumption of food and supplies will be like flowing water, and the financial resources of the Prince of Nan'an's mansion will not last long. The loss of personnel during wartime alone is something that the Prince of Nan'an cannot accept.

With soldiers and generals, the Prince of Nan'an can steadily reign as the King of the Southwest!

If his elite troops are lost too much in the national war, who will take him seriously?

"What I fear is that the Prince of Nan'an is too ambitious and eager for glory!"

Jia Huan shook his head and said, "Nobody knows what kind of secret dealings he has with the current leader."

"If you have the time, sir, you might as well inquire more about it, so that our Ning and Rong mansions won't be caught off guard and become too passive!"

Master Zheng nodded in agreement, though he was also feeling somewhat uneasy.

Lin Ruhai did not stay at the Rong Mansion for long. He was about to leave the capital to take up his post in a local area, and there were still many people he wanted to see.

After all, he's about to be promoted to a high-ranking official, and he needs to manage many relationships and connections carefully. Even if it's not for his own sake, but simply for his daughter and son-in-law to have a better future, he can't afford not to take some action.

Jia Huan followed along and, at Lin Ruhai's invitation, boarded the same carriage.

"You little rascal, did you have something else to say?"

Lin Ruhai asked directly, chuckling, "Can you tell me about it?"

"There's not much to say, let's just wait for the specific situation in the southwest to come through!"

Jia Huan said irritably, "If the Prince of Nan'an really can't hold back and takes the initiative to start a war, then we must be prepared to clean up the mess and not let the current emperor kill him with one blow!"

"You brat, you really don't think much of the Prince of Nan'an? He's a regional lord, after all!"

"Judging from what the Prince of Nan'an's mansion has done in the southwest, I simply cannot be optimistic about it!"

Jia Huan spoke quite bluntly, sneering, "With such good resources, they still couldn't completely control the Southwest. I wonder how the previous Princes of Nan'an managed to do it?"

"I think the Prince of Nan'an's residence has done a very good job!"

Lin Ruhai, however, had a different opinion, saying directly, "At least in the hundred years since the founding of the nation, there have been no major rebellions in the southwest region, which is quite good!"

"With the successive Princes of Nan'an in charge, the imperial court doesn't need to spend any money or effort!"

This reflects the traditional scholar-official mindset: stability is paramount!

In fact, the southwestern region of the Great Qian Dynasty was much more peaceful than during the Ming and Song Dynasties. This is an indisputable fact and an achievement that the Prince of Nan'an is proud of.

Jia Huan scoffed at this, sneering, "After a century of operation, and controlling all the trade routes in the southwest, you still can't replace all those chieftains with your own people? That's a failure!"

"..."

Lin Ruhai was stunned and looked at Jia Huan with a speechless expression.

Listen to what Jia Huan is saying, it's utterly outlandish!

Jia Huan simply smiled calmly and didn't explain anything. After all, with his memories of his past modern life, his thoughts were too different from Lin Ruhai's, and they didn't have many things in common.

In fact, in his view, with absolute military superiority and a monopolistic business channel, it would not be difficult to manage the entire southwestern frontier into an impenetrable monolith over a century.

To be honest, the current Nan'an Prince's Mansion has a rather shallow understanding of the southwest region.

If Jia Huan were willing, he could easily disrupt the peace of the southwest simply by relying on his own merchant caravan and the Xue family's caravan, which he could influence. He was confident of that.

It wouldn't be difficult to replace all the chieftains in the southwest region with our own people through force and commercial inducement; it just would take a long time.

A century is enough time to accomplish all of this!

In Jia Huan's view, the resources controlled by the Prince of Nan'an and the powerful productivity of the Central Plains could make it the local tyrant of the entire Southeast Asia.

As long as there is money, food, and sufficiently flexible commercial channels, there is no need for one to painstakingly lead an army into battle. There are plenty of uncivilized barbarians willing to serve as loyal servants.

To put it bluntly, it's the 'proxy war' that almost everyone in modern times knows about!

Of course, Jia Huan couldn't voice these thoughts and ideas, lest they be too shocking.

But that's really what he thought, so naturally he looked down on the useless Prince of Nan'an.

He ruined a perfectly good hand, playing it terribly. He's the biggest spendthrift ever.

Lin Ruhai was naturally unaware of Jia Huan's specific thoughts, only assuming that he was dissatisfied with the actions of the Prince of Nan'an, so he didn't take it too seriously.

If we're talking about dissatisfaction, Jia Huan isn't the only one.

These trivial matters did not affect Jia Huan's mood.

He had not forgotten Lin Ruhai's request for him to help look after Lin Daiyu.

Just as Lin Daiyu was temporarily staying at the Rong Mansion again, on the third day, Jia Huan sent someone to deliver a huge, exquisite sand table and a box of related materials.

"Wow, what an exquisite model! What place is this?"

Lin Daiyu was naturally delighted to receive the gift. While carefully examining it, she quickly invited the three sisters and Li Wan to come and discuss the items on the sand table together.

She already has experience!

When she was at the Lin family's house, Jia Huan had given her several sand tables, all of which were models of the Ning and Rong mansions' estates outside the city, for her to play with and give pointers on the landscape, and to improve the functions of the models on the sand tables.

What was delivered this time was the territory and towns of Jeju Island, which is located overseas.

When Lin Daiyu saw the sand table model and the accompanying text description, she felt overjoyed; she had something she liked to do again.

The three sisters, including Xue Baochai who came to visit, as well as Li Wan and Wang Xifeng, were quite surprised when they saw the sand table model, their eyes wide open.

They were even more shocked when they learned that the sand table model was a condensed version of the real outside world.

Overjoyed, they gathered around the model as usual, discussing the rationality of the town and village buildings and trying to improve upon any shortcomings.

Even elderly women were drawn to the sand table model!

"Grandma, the buildings and fields on the sand table were built by Huan-ge'er's fleet of ships in the open sea. Do you think there's anything that needs improvement?"

Lin Daiyu said with a smile, "I never expected that there would be so many arable fields on the islands in the outer sea. If Huan-ge'er hadn't attached a detailed description, I wouldn't have believed it!"

The old lady's eyes flickered, and she chuckled and nodded, "Yes, this old woman was quite surprised too!"

Privately, however, they couldn't help but wonder how Jia Huan had managed to build such a business empire on an island in the open sea!

If this kid hadn't revealed it on his own initiative, everyone would probably still be in the dark!

Chapter 307 Secret Meeting (Please Subscribe)

This deliberate exposure was clearly intentional on Jia Huan's part!

Currently, the territory on Jeju Island has been developed quite well, and the population is over five thousand.

Jia Huan felt it was time to increase the population of the territory in preparation for further development of the outer sea territory.

Working alone still has many shortcomings and inconveniences!

The process of simply transferring people is quite costly!

After all, the people he sent out had been trained over a period of time with considerable resources, and had already gained a certain degree of credibility.

They recruited refugees, trained them on the farm, and sent them to the open sea once they reached a certain level of proficiency.

This process did not go smoothly!

Even among the refugees who were taken in, very few were willing to go too far to start anew.

The expenses and effort expended during this period were a considerable burden for Jia Huan.

Now that the territory on Jeju Island has been developed to a certain extent, it's time to bring in 'partners', and clearly, families are the best help.

You can't write two "Jia" characters in one stroke!

In clan society, clan members are generally considered more reliable than outsiders.

Furthermore, only by mobilizing the entire clan can the overseas territory be managed more quickly and effectively.

The sandbox given to Lin Daiyu for play was also given with ulterior motives.

Lin Daiyu must have sensed something, but she didn't take it to heart and continued to enthusiastically point out the landscape on the exquisite sand table, thoroughly enjoying herself!

The opportunity to participate in the planning and construction of an offshore territory is also very attractive to her.

Previously, the farm sand table model that Jia Huan gave her to play with was already quite interesting.

The current model of the offshore territory even forced Lin Daiyu to seek out relevant books for reference.

Not only her, but also the three sisters, Li Wan, and Xue Baochai were very interested!

Wang Xifeng was no exception, but she needed to deal with matters in the East Courtyard, and her son was still young and she couldn't get away for the time being, so she could only regretfully say that she couldn't participate in it in depth.

These girls are all extremely intelligent!

Previously, I had seen those farmhouse models at the Lin family's residence, so I already had experience with them.

But the current offshore territorial model is hundreds of times more important than the farm model.

It's impossible for Jia Huan not to feel envious and jealous when he was willing to give it to Lin Daiyu.