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

"Zhou Wu, do you think we can defeat the pirates with this?"

"Your Highness, please don't joke around. Others may not know, but I know. Let me tell you about the strength of the pirates we are facing."

"All ears."

Li Junren naturally wanted to understand his opponent's strength, as the saying goes, "Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated."

"Our opponents are the White Skull Pirates, one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, and their leader is called Black Dragon..."

Zhou Wu and Li Junren talked for at least half an hour. Li Junren, whose morale was already low, became even more apprehensive after learning about the White Skull's strength.

"I never expected our opponent to be so strong. It seems the world has underestimated pirates."

Originally, Li Junren was considered to be quite concerned about pirates in the imperial court, but after hearing Zhou Wu's introduction, he realized that he had underestimated them.

The Black Dragon Pirates are only ranked in the middle among the Seven Warlords of the Sea, yet they have already caused chaos along the Great Dragon's coast. If they were ranked first or second, wouldn't they be even more powerful?

"Your Highness, now we can only trouble you to ask the imperial court for support."

"Don't worry, I know that even a skilled cook can't make a meal without rice. I'll go to the Ministry of War to reason with them."

With the Crown Prince stepping in this time, I believe they will receive some support.

Because of Li Junren's appearance, all of the navy's original warships were hidden away, so now they can only conduct training on land. Li Junren was very anxious about this. When he left the capital, Li Tiancheng gave him a death sentence, insisting that he must return victorious.

Three orders were sent from Niujia Town to the Ministry of War in the capital. Li Tiancheng also received the Crown Prince's letter and learned that Zhou Wu's navy was actually like this. He immediately summoned the Minister of War to the palace, gave him a good scolding, and ordered him to immediately raise funds for the Imperial Navy as military expenses.

Ministry of War.

"Call everyone here."

Upon returning to the Ministry of War, Minister of War Zhang Zuo angrily ordered everyone to be summoned.

The council chamber quickly filled with people. Everyone could see Zhang Zuo's anger, although no one knew why. At this moment, everyone tried to keep their heads down as low as possible.

"Who is in charge of the Zhouwu Empire's navy?"

Zhang Zhuo glanced around and brought up the topic. The veterans naturally knew that today's anger probably came from Zhou Wu's navy.

"Reporting to Your Excellency, it is our second group that is in charge."

The Ministry of War was divided into many groups to handle different matters. Zhou Wu's naval formation was handled by the second group. The people in the other groups secretly breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that today's events had nothing to do with them.

"See for yourselves."

Zhang Zuo simply threw the naval roster that Li Tiancheng had given him in front of the other party.

The men in Group Two didn't dare to look through the documents, nor did they need to, because they knew very well that when Zhou Wu came to the Navy to ask for military funds, they deliberately hid from him. In the end, they just grabbed some old, worn-out stock from the warehouse. As for the warships, they simply transferred a few small sampans from the navy and that was it.

Originally, it was thought that Zhou Wu would come back to cause trouble, but unexpectedly, Zhou Wu went straight back to Qingyang County.

"I need an explanation from you."

Zhang Zuo knew that these people didn't have the guts, and there was no need for them to. Although Zhou Wu was not well-liked in the court, he had no grudges against the Ministry of War. The only possibility was that someone was interfering behind the scenes.

"You guys step back first."

Zhang Zuo realized what was happening and told everyone else to leave, leaving only a few people from Group Two.

What follows is likely to involve some scandals, so to avoid rumors spreading, Zhang Zuo asked all unrelated people to leave.

"Go ahead."

With no outsiders in the council chamber, Zhang Zuo asked the head of the second group to tell the truth.

"Your Excellency, actually, actually, this matter..."

"You've already done it, why are you too embarrassed to say anything?"

Seeing that the other party was still stammering, Zhang Zuo looked impatient.

"Your Excellency, we had no choice. Someone told us to do this."

Seeing that their leader was truly angry, the members of Group Two immediately feigned pitifulness, expressed their grievances, and then recounted the events that had transpired.

"My lord, this was all ordered by the Right Chancellor to be done."

"Right Chancellor".

Zhang Zuo was originally prepared to teach these people a lesson, but the person behind them was actually the Right Chancellor, which was quite intriguing. To be honest, he was also in cahoots with the Right Chancellor Ji Gaojie, but why would the Right Chancellor bypass him and deal with Zhou Wu this time? Was there some inside story that he didn't know about, or was it just an unintentional act?

"Besides instructing you to tamper with military supplies, what other orders does the Right Chancellor have?"

"No more, no more."

So, Zhang Zuo believes that the Right Chancellor may just want to deal with Zhou Wu. At least in his view, Zhou Wu is just a minor character who is not involved in any earth-shattering secrets, so the Right Chancellor is not deliberately targeting Zhou Wu behind his back.

"Alright, His Majesty is already in charge of this matter. Make up for any deficiencies for Zhou Wu according to the requirements and standards."

Fortunately, His Majesty only inquired about the matter and did not say he would hold anyone accountable, so Zhang Zuo thought that it would be enough to fill the gaps. However, after he finished speaking, no one below reacted.

"What are you doing standing still?"

"Sir, weapons and armor are manageable; we can allocate some from the warehouse. But where do we get the money to buy warships for him right now?"

The officials below looked bitter. The Ministry of War wasn't the Ministry of Revenue; where would they get so much money?

"No money~~~~"

Zhang Zuo also realized that the Ministry of War had indeed not had much money in the past two years. Wait, something's not right.

"No money? How did you manage to bring back the Fourth Prince's fleet?"

Upon hearing this, the subordinates thought to themselves, "So it's coming to an end. It seems we won't be able to keep the secret of secretly exchanging strategic materials for warships any longer."

Zhang Zuo was a seasoned veteran of officialdom; he could tell there was more to the story just by looking at the expressions on the faces of his subordinates.

"Oh, so you're hiding something from me. Hurry up and tell me."

"My lord, we obtained the Fourth Prince's warship by exchanging it for strategic materials from our warehouse."

"What?! You have some nerve!"

Zhang Zuo was trembling with anger. His own men had become so audacious, and he hadn't even known about it. Trading strategic materials for warships—they really dared to think and act like that.

"Minister, please don't worry. The shortage of supplies has been accounted for in the losses incurred by the Fourth Prince during his campaign."

"If you had used all that wickedness in your heads for good, would you have ended up like this?"

Upon hearing that the deficit had been attributed to the Fourth Prince, Zhang Zuo immediately breathed a sigh of relief. No matter who it was attributed to, as long as he wasn't held responsible, it was fine.

"I don't care what methods you use to provide what Zhou Wuhai needs, just hurry up and make up for it. His Majesty is pressing you hard, and the Crown Prince has also sent someone to say the same thing. You can handle it yourselves."