After unification was complete, Great Wei could scarcely find an evenly matched opponent anywhere around it.
The same was true for Cao Mao now.
There was virtually no one Great Wei could truly call an opponent. The strongest on the surface was the Tuoba, and the Tuoba could not withstand a beating at all.
Historically, Wei Guan had bribed their ministers and caused them to disintegrate from within, sending Tuoba Liwei straight to his death.
Such institutional flaws were fatal when fighting a great power.
As for the others-Goguryeo, Buyeo, the Three Han, Sushen, Wusun, Kangju, Funan...
They had all been defeated before by Former Han, Later Han, or Wei.
Not one of them could put up a fight!
Cao Mao now asked about the situation in Jiaozhou.
After successive campaigns by Qin, Former Han, Later Han, and Wu, Jiaozhou had grown immense, its territory encompassing present-day Vietnam.
Nor was there anything nearby that could be called a threat.
There was the Funan Kingdom, which had originally been fairly peaceful, its realm tranquil and its people secure, without contact with the outside world. Then a general named Fan Man appeared, a man who had long admired the culture of the Central Plains.
He began earnestly and actively studying the excellent governing abilities of the regimes of the Central Plains.
The good news was that he learned.
The bad news was that usurpation by powerful ministers was in vogue among the regimes of the Central Plains at the time.
And so this Grand General usurped the throne. The Funan Kingdom remained the Funan Kingdom, but its royal lineage changed from the Hun clan to the Fan clan.
Fan Man left the throne to his son, instructing him not to appoint outsiders as generals. His son Fan Jinsheng did indeed follow this