Weiyang Palace.
Lü Zhi said pensively, "Young Master, there are so many Worthies at court. Why not let someone else go to Lingnan?
"The mountains are high and the waters distant along that journey, and Lingnan is said to be rife with miasma. I truly worry.
"It is only a mere Lingnan. Great Han holds the Central Plains. Given time, with canals opened for irrigation, river systems connected, and straight roads built, it will sooner or later submit completely.
"If anything should happen to you on this journey, I truly would not know what to do.
"Besides, who knows how much time this journey will take? It really would be a waste of your talents."
Why had Liu Bang and this cohort of Great Han ministers shown so little reaction to Zhao Tuo being invested as King of Lingnan?
Because in this age, when Lingnan was still a place where not even birds would shit, it was simply too remote. Even the former lands of Chu State, closer to the Central Plains, still had vast swamps, wastelands, and mountain forests that remained undeveloped.
No one would pay any attention to Lingnan. Occupying a place like that would only drain the central court's resources for nothing.
But Lü Zhi was different. When Luo Xin taught her, he often spoke through figures.
So Lü Zhi had done the calculations, then discovered to her surprise that, provided straight roads and great canals were built afterward,
the journey from Chang'an to the most distant cities in Shandong, such as Linzi and Ji City, would take about as long as the journey to Lingnan.
She immediately realized that, so long as generation after generation pressed onward, Lingnan could be governed directly by the central court. It simply could not be done yet, so her attitude