The ministers were not surprised that the emperor would draw up strategic plans himself. After all, Liu Dan was well known for his fondness for military affairs.
But producing a strategic plan outright meant that the emperor had intended to move against the Southwestern Yi all along. Quite a few people had even begun to suspect that he had been in contact with the Great General.
Amid the somewhat subdued atmosphere, several senior ministers who had participated in the previous Southern Kingdom Campaign slowly unfolded the sheets of paper. Seated above them, Liu Dan said with considerable feeling, "The military treatises speak of guiding events according to their momentum. I could not agree more.
"When I campaigned against the Hu People in Liaodong and the Yi and Di on the Peninsula, I likewise encountered difficult mountain terrain that cavalry could not enter.
"Once the Yi and Di hid in the mountains, they would descend to plunder whenever the season came, or harass and destroy. They were an endless nuisance, impossible to guard against.
"You are all senior ministers of the court, so you must know that some years ago, my Imperial Elder Brother told me he wished to turn Lelang Commandery into a kingdom, making it a feudal shield for Han. That was because the court no longer wished to pour vast sums of money and resources into maintaining those barren, unproductive commanderies and counties.
"I bring up this old matter now to tell you, my ministers, that the war against the Southwestern Yi is no different.
"The southwest has a hundred thousand great mountains, cut off from one another, with rivers winding between them. Its terrain is far more complex, and its mountain country far more treacherous, than the Peninsula's.
"If even the Peninsula could not be subdued, could