If you traveled back to ancient times, while others ate Guanyin clay, you would actually have giant

When Li Zheng was brought ashore, he was already unconscious.

"Sir, he has already fainted, what should we do?"

Zhou Wu casually picked up the teacup on the table and splashed it on Li Zheng, instantly waking him up.

"I want water, water~~~"

At this moment, Li Zheng was no longer the arrogant man he had been at the beginning. He lay on the ground, reaching out to Zhou Wu for water, just like a beggar.

"Oh my, my Fourth Prince! You didn't even say you were coming. Someone, quickly serve the Fourth Prince some water."

Although Zhou Wu disliked Li Zheng, he still had to put on a good show.

After drinking a large pot of water, Li Zheng recovered and opened his mouth to eat.

"I want to eat."

"Someone come here quickly and cook a bowl of noodles for the Fourth Prince, a big bowl."

Zhou Wu warmly instructed his servants to cook a large bowl of noodles for the Fourth Prince, hoping his enthusiasm would infect the prince.

Li Zheng had no interest in arguing with Zhou Wu. He was grateful to have a bowl of noodles when he met Zhou Wu. After these past few days, he had come to understand that Zhou Wu was different from other officials. His status as a prince held no sway over him whatsoever.

Before long, a servant brought Li Zheng a large bowl of noodles.

"Fourth Prince, please sit down and eat. Don't be shy. I specially instructed the servants to cook noodles according to my taste. I don't know if they will suit your taste."

This was the first time Li Zheng had ever seen such a bright red bowl of noodles. The noodles he had eaten before were all in clear broth.

Without thinking twice, Li Zheng picked up a large mouthful of noodles and put it in his mouth. The moment his mouth touched the noodles, an unprecedented spicy sensation made him involuntarily spit them all out.

"Ah, so spicy, so spicy, water, water."

"Quick, quick, quick, give the Fourth Prince some water. So His Highness doesn't like spicy food. Why didn't you say so sooner?"

Well, so why didn't I say so earlier? Li Zheng was now cursing a thousand grass mud horses in his mind. Judging from the situation, he no longer expected to be able to seize military power from Zhou Wu. The only thing he could do now was to write a memorial to his father, admit defeat, and then use his father's order to obtain command of Zhou Wu's navy.

. . . . . . .

"Tell me why Li Zheng came back to us."

After settling Li Zheng in, Zhou Wu left and summoned several trusted confidants from the territory to discuss the current situation.

"Brother, I heard that Li Zheng was ordered to suppress bandits in the East China Sea, but now he's come here. The East China Sea has nothing to do with us."

Hearing Niu Er's words, Zhou Wu realized that this was exactly what he was worried about. Li Zheng had traveled all the way from the East China Sea to come here, so it was impossible that he was just passing by or by chance.

"My lord, I see that Li Zheng only has one warship. It seems that the battle with the pirates is already clear. As for his coming here, I guess it's for the navy under your command."

"what?"

Lin Niangzi's words were like a wake-up call.

"That's right. He bought twenty of our Bull Demon King ships, and now only this one remains, covered in damage. You can imagine what happened to the other nineteen. He's afraid of being punished when he goes back, so he came here to target our navy."

Zhou Wu explained his thoughts in detail, which greatly surprised everyone.

"No, we can't let this bastard get away with this. He's always thinking good things."

Niu Er was the first to stand up and object, and the others followed suit.

Zhou Wu naturally wouldn't agree, but he couldn't just send Li Zheng away now, since the other party was still a prince.

"Send someone to keep a close eye on him, and report to me immediately if anything happens."

"Yes."

There's no other way to carry it out now, so this is the only option. However, Zhou Wu still intends to tell Crown Prince Li Junren about the situation here. After all, although he himself doesn't intend to take sides, the Crown Prince is far better than Li Zheng in comparison, so he might as well do him a favor.

However, Zhou Wu did not expect that before he could even send his letter to the Crown Prince, Li Zheng could not hold back any longer.

"My lord, the Fourth Prince Li Zheng has sent someone to the capital to deliver a message."

Do you know who this is for?

"I heard from the people who take care of his daily life that it seems to be for His Majesty."

After listening, Zhou Wu began to ponder what was going on. Logically speaking, Li Zheng should be most afraid of his father finding out about this, but instead, he sent a letter to the emperor. Who knows what was written in the letter?

Thinking of this, Zhou Wu instructed his men to quickly deliver his letter to the Crown Prince in the capital. Since the Crown Prince was traveling by land, Zhou Wu arranged for his men to travel by water, so that they could reach the capital faster.

. . . . . .

The capital city, the Crown Prince's residence.

As expected, Zhou Wu's letter arrived in the capital before Li Zheng's. By this time, Li Junren already knew that Li Zheng was with Zhou Wu.

Combining this with the information from the Crown Prince's own palace, Crown Prince Li Junren had roughly analyzed the entire incident involving Li Zheng. After thinking for a moment, he went to the palace.

royal palace.

"My son, I pay my respects to my father."

"No need for formalities. How is the Crown Prince's health recovering recently?"

Seeing his son return to his former gentle and refined self, walking like a normal person, Li Tiancheng was overjoyed.

"Father, my body is no different from that of an ordinary person. Thank you for your concern."

"That's good, that's good. What brings you here today?"

"Father, I have received a secret report from Zhou Wu that my fourth brother has been defeated and is currently in Qingyang County. I am worried about his safety and beg Your Majesty to grant me permission to exchange him for my brother."

Li Junren had learned to speak more sensibly. He didn't say anything else or complain. He simply said that he was worried about his younger brother and wanted him to come home so that he could deal with the pirates.

However, Li Tiancheng remained silent. Li Junren looked up and saw that Li Tiancheng's face was as cold as frost.

"Was the message delivered by Zhou Wu?"

Li Tiancheng's tone at this moment was completely different from his tone when he was concerned about the Crown Prince earlier.

"Yes."

Since the message came from Zhou Wu, it was most likely accurate. Li Tiancheng now only wanted to know how much of the Royal Navy's resources, which had been built up at great expense, were left.

Just then, a eunuch outside the door reported that the Fourth Prince had made a secret report.

"Come in,"

"Yes."

After the eunuch respectfully presented the memorial to Li Tiancheng, he withdrew, leaving only the emperor and the crown prince in the main hall.

Seemingly to verify the truth of the Crown Prince's words, Li Tiancheng quickly opened the memorial and began to read it.

A moment later, Li Tiancheng threw the memorial on the ground, cursing angrily.

"Damn it, damn it, what a bastard! The Royal Navy, which the imperial court invested huge sums of money to build, has been squandered by this spendthrift so easily."

In fact, Li Zheng's memorial was written in a very tactful way, and he shifted all the blame to the pirates or his subordinates. His memorial to Li Tiancheng was simply an attempt to get Zhou Wu's navy to achieve new merits.

However, because the Crown Prince acted first, Li Tiancheng saw through Li Zheng's little tricks immediately.