Volume 5: Overlord of the Sea Chapter 531: Small Defeat
"Your Majesty... cough cough cough... Bohai has already tested the Chu navy enough. From now on, we should guide the fleets of the major families further, cough cough... to work together to compete with the Chu navy. In addition, the shipyard in Qiaojiangying should also increase investment, which will not only support each family, but also increase the control over the maritime forces of each family. We must not let them raise funds to build ships on their own." Guo Jia instructed Cao Cao.
"Fengxiao, you take a rest first. There won't be any large-scale wars for now. When the time comes to fight a real battle between Han and Chu, I will need your help." Cao Cao quickly pushed Guo Jia back.
Originally, Guo Jia was sick, and Cao Cao came to see him today. However, as soon as Guo Jia saw Cao Cao, he started talking about official business again.
"Don't worry, Your Majesty. I have this old illness every year... I can get through it, it's nothing serious." Guo Jia said with a pale face.
In history without the white rabbit effect, Guo Jia died this year - on the way back from Cao Cao's northern expedition against the Wuhuan, Guo Jia, the most important adviser of Cao Wei, died of illness.
However, not only did Cao Cao not take the initiative to attack the Wuhuan in the north, but the slave-hunting teams of the major aristocratic families turned the Wuhuan upside down, and... The separation of the Han court and Cao Cao's destiny, although it brought considerable trouble to Cao Wei, also saved Guo Jia from having to bear the pressure of "fortune grafting".
Even though Guo Jia had used "the general trend" against Bai Tu before, guiding Bai Tu's forces to be more likely to be at a disadvantage and Cao Cao's side to be more likely to be at an advantage in seven aspects, which also greatly overdrew his lifespan, but overall, after the two offset each other, Guo Jia's current health is better than the same period in history.
Although I don't look very healthy now because I'm sick, it doesn't look like I'm going to die this year...
As soon as he saw Cao Cao and made his suggestion, Guo Jia even looked quite energetic - a month ago, in mid-May, a flagship of the Chu navy was sunk!
The State of Wei expressed regret on the surface, but was secretly very excited.
This is the first time in the two years since the chaos in Bohai that the Chu Navy has lost personnel on its main ship.
The result of this battle was that five pirate groups supported by the Chen, Xun, and Zhong families "ambushed" Ling Tong in the sea area between the entrance and exit of Bohai Sea and the East China Sea, that is, between Donglai and the middle of the Chaohaixian Peninsula!
There was naturally nowhere to hide on the sea, but when Ling Tong discovered that the fleet was surrounded, it was too late.
Initially, Ling Tong led a 1,700-man navy to chase a large pirate group supported by the Zhong family, but ended up being besieged ...
As fleets backed by top families, several pirate groups not only had well-equipped ships, but had also developed tactics similar to battle lines - although they used the inconvenient "improved version of the white bus" as a means of long-range attack, the principle was the same.
In contrast, the "new" main ship of the Chu Navy mainly uses giant crossbows for long-range attacks.
In the end, the combined fleet of pirates, using the tactics of "wolf pack siege", achieved the result of sinking one main ship and four frigates of the Chu Navy and capturing three frigates.
Ling Tong had no choice but to lead his troops to break out and retreat to the vicinity of Donglai Donggang.
Although they encountered the North Sea Fleet on the way and there was some hostility towards the Chu Navy, after seeing the flag clearly, Lu Meng immediately sent troops to guide them and there was no direct conflict with the North Sea Fleet.
They were all flagships. There were no less than thirty pirate flagships that sank in the Bohai Sea, one third of which were the Huanglong warships that were "plagiarized" and improved by the Wei State.
The major aristocratic families in Wei State felt the pain the most, and Wei State even changed its policy from charging high prices to giving "subsidies" to the fleets of each family.
In the beginning, Wei State made a profit from selling ships, but now... it has to make a small loss to trade with various companies.
For example, the Huanglong warship, as a new flagship, would be very painful to buy even for a first-class family, unless they were financially wealthy and had a lot of liquid funds, and they might even have to use land taxes as collateral.
Other warships of different levels are also very expensive...
However, the Chu Navy's "meddling" in Bohai Sea caused a significant drop in the pirates' profits, and it even became worse to directly organize "plate armor mercenaries" to cause trouble in the north.
In order to maintain its influence at sea, Wei State has not only lowered prices all the way, but has even started to provide subsidies and loans to maintain the influence of "Wei people" on Bohai Sea.
It seemed that the State of Wei suffered some losses, but in fact, the huge profits from these pirate fleets eventually flowed into the State of Wei, indirectly strengthening the national strength.
What Guo Jia said was exactly this - in addition to strengthening the control over Bohai Sea and obtaining considerable profits, it was also because...if the profit margins of the pirate supporters continue to be suppressed by high prices, I am afraid that soon someone will boldly start the plan of "privately building warships" again.
This grand strategy of mobilizing the northern noble families and transforming them into a pack of wolves was originally thought up by Guo Jia and Cao Cao. However, today, Guo Jia had to admit that he could see the drawbacks more and more...
Moral flaws are one aspect, or perhaps...the essence?
Even though there was an idea of "respecting the king and expelling the barbarians" as a moral basis for plundering foreign races, this fig leaf was too far-fetched and caused a lot of criticism among the major families in the Wei State. Some families even split because of it.
On the other hand, perhaps because of this manipulation of morality, many aristocratic families... especially the newly rising powerful families, began to become increasingly difficult to control.
Guo Jia had never imagined that there would be such crazy people who dared to gamble with family inheritance, and this madness was still spreading. More and more aristocratic families were beginning to gamble with family inheritance for higher profits.
Therefore, Guo Jia also began to remind Cao Cao to pay attention to control in this area!
…
After Ling Tong's battle report of apology was sent to Nanjing, Bai Tu discussed the matter in detail in the court.
Although a main ship was sunk in this battle , from the perspective of losses, the Chu Navy was actually not seriously injured.
It's just that they had been beating the pirates before, but now they were surrounded and beaten and one of their main ships was sunk. Although it was the result of outnumbering the enemy, it also made people feel that the situation in Bohai Sea had entered the next turning point.
In the court, the Chu State even made a "cowardly" decision and ordered the navy to be more "cautious" in Bohai Sea. To a certain extent, it made concessions in the control of Bohai Sea and even the Chaohai Peninsula. This also made the pirates more excited and even had more "ideas" about the Chu State Navy...
Of course, in order to save face, the State of Chu would not simply admit defeat, but would also impose further sanctions on the "culprit"!
As the "culprit", Liu Zhang paid a heavy price to calm the "anger" of the Chu State...
