The water of Han River flows continuously.

The ship was still going upstream, and the table in the cabin was shaking slightly, and it was covered with drawings.

On the map, the winding lines represent the mountains, and the names of the passes are written in the boxes, such as Hangu Pass, Wuguan, Sanguan, Xiaoguan...

Messy arrows outlined with cinnabar ink crisscross the map. People at that time were taboo about writing names with red pen, but there are a lot of them written on this map.

A writing brush hung on the map. For a long time, due to the rocking of the ship, ink dripped from the tip of the pen, and it was dripping on a red name below.

"Liu Heima?"

Li Xia looked at the stained map for a long time, put down the brush, put the map aside, then picked up the drawings on the side and looked at it again.

He likes to formulate strategies first when doing things. The strategy he made at this time is divided into two parts - internal cultivation and external struggle.

Internal cultivation is mostly about people's livelihood and economics, using the old laws of the past dynasties and then appropriately supplementing the experience he knows.

The thinking in this regard is quite clear.

But it is foreseeable that even if we add in the experience of later generations and operate for three to five years, the growth rate of our strength will be far less than that of Kublai Khan.

It’s the growth rate. No matter how hard you work, the gap in strength will get wider and wider.

Why?

Politics, talent, geography, population, economy...even Li Xia's personal abilities are inferior in all aspects.

Kublai Khan had proclaimed himself emperor and had enough name and power to carry out his governance strategy in a bold and vigorous manner. He had the power to reorganize various prefectures and counties, issue Chu coins, and conduct trade.

Although Li Xia deceived Zhao Yu that they were brothers, there were still troubles, and he was still controlled by the central government, so it was impossible to make a drastic move.

He is far from being able to completely occupy Sichuan and Shu. He can only be said to be an ambitious Shu commander. In essence, most of the officials in Shu are still Song officials.

The population of Shuzhong was 12 million before the war between Song and Mongolia. But over the years, tens of millions were slaughtered.

After killing tens of millions, and then getting rid of the refugees, how many people will be left?

The imperial court was unable to make statistics at all, the books were burned, and wars continued. The only thing that could be checked was that 1.4 million people were slaughtered in Chengdu overnight, and the rest of the corpses were not even collected.

Li Xia couldn't even think of a way to completely count the population of Sichuan and Shu.

The fleeing people fled into the mountains and forests, and were afraid that their place of origin would be changed and they would have to pay taxes. This alone involves the appointment of officials, taxes, land distribution... a variety of political experiences.

Kublai Khan had twenty years of political experience, but Li Xia only had fencing experience. This was a gap in personal ability.

These all belong to the current "base" of both sides' forces.

Of course, we need to cultivate internally, but the gap between the bases is too big. If we only cultivate internally, we will still die after three to five years.

Therefore, Li Xia kept tapping the map today, thinking that he must make up as much as possible to make up the difference in base numbers between Kublai Khan and Alibaba when they competed for the throne.

The best way is to occupy Guanzhong and completely occupy the four fortresses in Guanzhong. Only then can it be defended.

And then realize the trade-off between the two parties.

However, the total military strength of Sichuan and Sichuan is only more than 40,000, and they have to be defended in various places.

Regardless of money and food, they tried their best to mobilize thousands of people, but they were all foot soldiers with no ability to fight in the field.

Drag these poor little infantry to the thousand-mile plain in Guanzhong...

It's like a little kid squeezing into a battlefield and not knowing how he's going to be trampled to death.

This is where the dead end lies.

Without strength, it cannot occupy Guanzhong and expand its base. Therefore, the gap in strength becomes wider and wider, and it will eventually perish.

…

"If we want to break the deadlock, we can only conquer Liu Heima or Wang Weizheng, but this is almost impossible."

Looking at the name stained by ink drops on the map, Li Xia whispered to himself.

He closed his eyes and couldn't think of any thoughts for a long time...

Behind him is a screen, dividing the cabin into an outer room and an inner room.

In the back room, Nian'er fed some porridge to Tang An'an who was suffering from seasickness. He looked over the screen for a while and saw that Li Xia was not moving.

Finally, it got dark.

The young man stepped forward gently and lit the candle.

"Mr. Lang, reading documents at night hurts your eyes."

This was what Li Xia said. During these days on the river, he spent time with her at night.

Li Xia likes to tie Nian'er's hair on both sides, which is a rare hairstyle nowadays and adds a bit of cuteness.

She was dressed like this today, and she spent a long time getting water to freshen up, hoping to have a more conversation with Li Xia.

"When you think the other person is extremely powerful, it's because he only shows his powerful side..."

Li Xia suddenly murmured to himself.

Nian'er was stunned and looked around, only to see that his eyes were still closed.

"In any game, the opponent will have flaws, as long as they can be found..."

"Mr. Lang?"

Li Xia opened her eyes, picked up the pen on the table, and started writing.

When I started writing, I realized that the ink had dried.

When Nian'er saw him, he quickly changed his pen, dipped it in ink and handed it to him.

Knowing that he would continue to attend to official duties, she quickly added a few more candles, sat aside and began to study ink.

This time, Li Xia wrote very quickly. Nian'er added some tea from time to time and dried the paper he had written on. When he turned around, the ink in the inkstone was almost used up, so he continued to grind.

It was a cold night in the twelfth lunar month, and her hands and feet were extremely cold, but occasionally she looked up and saw that Li Xia's serious look was so handsome that she forgot about the cold.

…

When the sky was dim, Li Xia put down his pen, still feeling that something was not enough.

The whole strategy is not detailed, but since we haven't returned to Hanzhong yet and there is insufficient information, we can only do this one step for the time being.

Turning around again, I saw Nian'er lying on the desk and falling asleep, still holding the ink stone in his hand. Maybe it was a little cold, and his feet were curled together.

Li Xia then picked her up and moved her to the inner room.

The cabin was not big, but the inner room was temporarily divided into two sides. In the small room on the left, Tang Anan was lying on the couch, his eyebrows tightly knitted together, obviously still very uncomfortable.

Li Xia didn't intend to let Nian'er pass, so he turned around and walked to the right.

Some random items were placed on the small table beside the couch, daggers, breast guards, flints...

Then, there is an amulet, a jade pendant, and a colored paper.

Li Xia glanced at them, laughed to himself, hugged Nian'er into the quilt, and put her cold little hands into his arms.

"Um...Lang Jun?" Nian'er murmured, "The inkstone hasn't been washed yet..."

"No more washing. I'm done. I'll do the rest when I get home."

"Great, you must be too busy after sailing for so many days."

"We won't arrive until three or two days later. I can accompany you well."

"That's great." Nian'er was very happy and pressed her body closer, "You feel so warm...Does Madam really like the girl and Nian'er?"

"Yes." Li Xia said, "You tied your hair today? The dress is also very beautiful."

Because these things were noticed, Nian'er couldn't help but feel even happier.

"Look at Nian'er, this is the one you like..."

~~

Tang Anan woke up in a daze and heard the sound from the other side of the cubicle.

At first, Nian'er was still suppressing her voice, but gradually she couldn't hold it back anymore...

Tang Anan raised his heavy eyelids and saw that the sky was already bright. For a moment, he didn't know if they had played all night again or if they had just started.

She turned sideways, complaining that she was too useless.

The nearly month-long journey back to Hanzhong from Lin'an was supposed to be a time for her to spend more time with Li Xia, and he didn't reject it. Even Nian'er privately said that he couldn't stand the husband who was diligent in practicing every day.

It happened that she fainted only two days after boarding the ship.

Counting the time, we are almost arriving in Hanzhong, and I don’t know what to do from now on...

The ringing in his ears continued, and Tang Anan turned over again, muttering in his heart.

"Don't you feel hungry?"

After much thought, she decided that even if she was not recovering from her illness today, she still had to dance for him.

Then, she suddenly realized something, frowned, and finally stretched out her hand several times before pulling out a box from the table next to the couch and pulling out a thickly sewn piece of cloth.

After doing this, Tang An sighed in relief, finally crying because of himself.
To be continued...