Wang Xuance followed Fang Er, watching the massive amount of supplies fill the entire aircraft carrier. He had grown numb to such spectacles.
As the two returned to the deck, he scratched the back of his head and reminded from the side.
"My lord, your humble servant still feels something is missing."
Fang Er looked at him with confusion. "Food, daily necessities, and clothing are all here. What else is missing?"
Wang Xuance said, "Money. As the saying goes, money makes the world go 'round."
"With so many people gathered together, if we want to avoid trouble, besides suppressing them with force, your humble servant believes the best method is to use money to distract them."
Hiss~~
Hearing him say this, Fang Er felt there was some truth to it.
It was difficult for ancient people to travel. Apart from scholars, merchants, and soldiers, ordinary people might never have left their county in their entire lives.
It was precisely because of this that most of the displaced civilians could find their families.
For these people, as long as they were offered enough enticements, they would be too preoccupied to consider whether they could return to Song, which would be enough to stabilize the current situation.
As for those civilians who were separated from their loved ones, they could be handed over to the civil affairs officials, who would help them search.
As long as the person is alive, they would surely be found, although this would be a lot of work!
With this thought, Fang Er had an idea.
After filling the other two aircraft carriers with supplies, he asked Wang Xuance to bring Li Ji and Li Xiaogong over.
On the helicopter, the two were initially curious why Fang Er had left first and then sent someone to pick them up.
But as they neared their destination, seeing the three aircraft carriers floating on the sea, both were awestruck by these massive sea monsters.
Before, the largest ships they had seen were those three Bell Tasman fishing trawlers. But compared to these three colossal ships before them, those so-called largest fishing vessels of the future, known as "horse carts of the sea," were merely toddlers!
Seeing them from the air was one thing, but landing on the deck and experiencing it firsthand was another.
That feeling was one of insignificance!
Compared to these ships, all the ships they had seen before were trash!
"Holy shit, it's so big!"
"Holy shit, it's so wide!"
"Holy shit, it's so tall!"
Li Xiaogong exclaimed thrice. Li Ji looked at him with disdain. "Can't you use a different word?"
Li Xiaogong shrugged at him. "Go on, you say one and let me hear it!"
Li Ji took a few steps forward, surveyed his surroundings, then stopped with his hands behind his back, looking up at the command tower at a forty-five-degree angle.
He remained silent for a long time.
Just when Li Xiaogong thought he was racking his brains for a word, he saw him suddenly close his eyes and open his mouth.
"Ah~~"
"Ah~~"
"Ah~~choo!"
Li Xiaogong: ???
"What the heck, after all that build-up, you're just showing this to Ninth Lord?"
"What did you think?" Li Ji rolled his eyes at him matter-of-factly.
Fang Er, seeing the helicopter return from the command island, knew that the two had arrived and walked out.
As the three met, Li Xiaogong grabbed Fang Er's arm tightly, pointing at the aircraft carrier beneath their feet with excitement.
"Brother, in such a short time, where did you get these three behemoths from?"
Fang Er put on a fearful expression, shaking his head and saying, "You have no idea, my lords. As soon as Wang Xuance and I flew over here, these three ships just fell from the sky~"
"They almost crushed us into the sea!"
"When we got up to look, there wasn't a soul on these three ships, so, I picked these ships up~"
Li Xiaogong almost choked to death, feeling deeply insulted as he pointed at Fang Er. "Are you fooling a ghost?"
"Come, come, if you say you picked up these ships, then finders keepers, give me one!"
"Let's see if you're willing to part with it!"
Fang Er smiled. "These ships, I picked them up!"
How could Li Xiaogong believe his explanation? So, he continued to provoke him. "If you're willing to give me one, then I'll believe you picked them up!"
Fang Er smiled again. "These ships, I picked them up!"
Seeing him repeat the same sentence, Li Xiaogong became impatient and put his arm around Fang Er's neck. "I know you picked them up, but dare you give me one?"
Fang Er: "These ships, I picked them up!~"
Li Xiaogong: ........
Li Ji, on the side, was about to burst out laughing like a donkey. He never expected Fang Er to use such a rogue method to conceal his secrets.
Holding his still convulsing abdomen, he stepped forward to mediate. "Alright, Ninth Brother, with such a huge ship, could you even sail it if I gave it to you?"
After pulling Li Xiaogong away, he asked Fang Er, "Fang brother, you had us brought here, it's not just to look at the ships, is it?"
After all, being a strategist, he knew what questions he could and could not ask.
Fang Er finally stopped smiling and continued, pointing at the command island and the deck below.
"The supplies on these three ships are enough to last for a while."
"To stabilize these civilians and prevent too many people from causing trouble, I must return to Shenyang."
Li Ji pondered for a moment and nodded with a bitter smile.
"Alright, you have your own ways of doing things. We'll watch things here, and there shouldn't be any major disruptions."
"By the way, since you're going back, talk to Old Fang and the others about this and have them send some officials over."
"Otherwise, relying solely on these temporarily selected civil affairs officials might not last long, as these people have no prior experience in officialdom."
Fang Er nodded in agreement. The matter of officials was also one of his reasons for returning.
After bidding farewell to Li Ji and glancing at Li Xiaogong, who was wandering around the deck, touching and tapping everything, Fang Er shook his head with a smile and walked towards the helicopter.
Having come from the navy, he couldn't resist large ships. It seemed he would never break this habit in his life.
Only when he heard the buzzing sound of the rotors did Li Xiaogong realize Fang Er had left.
He complained to Li Ji, "You just let him go like that?"
Li Ji rolled his eyes at him. "What else can we do? Are you really going to force him to tell us where these ships came from?"
Li Xiaogong was displeased that he couldn't get Fang Er to offer him a ship. Seeing him roll his eyes at him, he immediately got angry. "Holy shit, you dare to look down on me!"
"Heh heh~"
Li Ji, with his hands behind his back, uttered two syllables and walked towards the command island without looking back.
Li Xiaogong: ???
"Holy shit, Ninth Lord, stop!"
Saying this, he leaped up and kicked at Li Ji.