Volume 5: Overlord of the Sea Chapter 538: Each Has Its Own Script
In the face of provocations from Wei and the Duke of Qi, Chu had always behaved very "modestly", and the only target of its resolute counterattack was the pirates.
As for the State of Wei and the Duke of Qi, he still mainly sent envoys to hold them accountable, showing that he did not want to go to war.
As for the reason... everyone generally believed that this was because the main naval force taken away by Gan Ning had not returned yet, so the State of Chu was unwilling to fight a decisive battle in the sea far away from the local logistics!
It is precisely because of this that Gongsun Kang had the courage to join forces with the three families to divide Bohai.
However, after thinking clearly about the relationship between Wei and the Duke of Qi, Gongsun Kang decided to send an envoy to the Duke of Qi...
After Liu Bei received Gongsun Kang's letter, he also discussed Gongsun's intention to form an alliance with Zhuge Liang and others.
"It seems that Gongsun Kang does not completely trust the State of Wei... He is not completely stupid." Zhang Fei, who had a slight beard, said frivolously.
"Yide, don't look down on anyone." Liu Bei advised seriously.
"I'm not looking down on you. I'm not looking down on you. If I hadn't known the military advisor's bad idea earlier, I might have been similar to this kid Gongsun. Hahaha." Zhang Fei laughed silly with a hearty smile when he heard this.
Liu Bei glared at him, then looked at Zhuge Liang apologetically, but Zhuge Liang just shook his fan and seemed not to care.
indeed.
From the beginning to the end, only Gongsun Kang believed in Wei and Qi, just for the sake of Bohai Sea and a few ports.
Although he was not so foolish as to trust Wei, he only saw through the fact that the Duke of Qi was also involved. However, both the Duke of Qi and the King of Wei were not thinking about a few ports or a few coastal counties...
Of course, if we could capture all five ports in the Bohai Sea enclave, namely Liaodong Port, Andong Port, Beiping Port, Donglai East Port, Donglai West Port, etc., it would be theoretically possible to kick the State of Chu out of the Bohai Sea without a naval battle.
After all, if all the ports were captured, we just had to be careful about the Chu State counterattacking by harassing the coast.
But there is actually one big problem...
Liaodong Port!
Not only is it the only ice-free port, but its geographical location makes it easy to defend and difficult to attack. For the defender, the coordination between land and water is very convenient and efficient.
If the Yan State wants to capture the country simply by land warfare, it may not be able to do it even if it tries its best. With land warfare alone... it cannot even penetrate the peninsula in the southeast of Liaodong. Especially in the south, the area is densely mountainous and the cavalry does not have much room to play.
Gongsun Kang has also discovered this now, and he often feels sulky about his father and his staff's decision to hand over Dajin...
As for the State of Wei and the Duke of Qi, they did not set their strategic goal on the port from the very beginning!
Indeed, just as Gongsun Kang, a man of ordinary intelligence, thought (after Liang Mao reminded him), there was an alliance between the King of Wei and the Marquis of Qi.
However, the content of the covenant was somewhat different from what Gongsun Kang had imagined.
After all, the Marquis of Yan still lacks top strategists to serve as his think tank. If Liu Yi were in the State of Chu, he would barely be able to be a palace attendant. Liang Mao has the talent to be a prefect, but he is not on the same page as the Gongsun family. He is only responsible for being "just the right amount of stupid", making Gongsun Kang believe him while misleading him, which would be considered a perfect job.
The main agreement between the King of Wei and the Marquis of Qi was that after the battle in Hanzhong, Wei would attack Yan with all its might, trying to annex this somewhat unsightly but also slightly fertile territory in the rear in the shortest possible time!
The basis for this alliance to take effect is that Ma Teng and Han Sui of the Western Liang faction, and Yang Feng and Zhang Yan of the Yellow Turban faction, have already pacified the rear of Liangzhou and Guanzhong respectively!
Ma Teng and Han Sui were preparing to join forces to attack Hanzhong. At this time, the princes of the Han Dynasty naturally did not want the Wei State in the north or the Chu State in the south to cause trouble for them.
By then, Yang Feng and Zhang Yan will be responsible for heading south to approach Wancheng, while Liu Bei will be responsible for guarding against the State of Wei - not seeking merit, but avoiding mistakes... Delaying the two until Hanzhong is captured and allowing the forces supporting Han to become one will be the greatest achievement!
From this point of view, it is in the interests of the Han Dynasty for Wei to go to war with Yan, and it may even involve Chu, which would be the best thing.
Of course, this was just an "agreement" between the King of Wei and the Duke of Qi.
In fact... What honesty can there be between Cao Cao and Liu Bei? Even if they were to go to the old fox in the mountains to eat vegetarian food, they would never believe each other's words! There is no point in signing a written agreement!
Cao Cao was indeed preparing to attack the State of Yan, but would he really "do his best"?
If the Han princes' attack on Hanzhong was successful, Cao Cao would indeed consider clearing his rear before Hanzhong was captured. However, once the battle situation in Hanzhong was deadlocked, Cao Cao would definitely release the "wolves" to tear apart the Yan State, while his main force would go directly south to Qingxu, or even south to attack Guanzhong!
As for Liu Bei...
If we agreed to fight each other, will we really fight each other?
As long as everything goes well in Hanzhong, Liu Bei will definitely take the opportunity to march north - Wei State seems powerful, but there is a very serious problem, that is, the source of Cao Wei's real elite troops are all in Qingzhou or Central Plains, and now a large part of them are no longer under Cao Cao's control.
They can only use the "manpower" from other sources of troops to recharge every year, which will undoubtedly reduce the elite level of these elite soldiers who have fought many battles, and because the source of troops is not under their jurisdiction, their morale is low...
That is to say, after training, encouragement and rewards, the morale of this part of the Wei army can be maintained at a high level, but... it is easy to collapse!
In fact, Bai Tu’s Bingzhou Wolf Cavalry and Xiliang Iron Cavalry had the same dilemma at the beginning, but... during the General’s Mansion era, Bai Tu also quickly developed a real local main force, and then got rid of the dependence on these starting cavalry.
The cavalry that was later added were all local soldiers from Jingyang.
As for Cao Wei’s current “main force”, they all come from Jizhou - the original territory of the Yuan family!
Although Cao Cao had been operating in many places for five or six years, he was not as successful in doing so as in the place where he started his business.
This is also one of the reasons why Cao Cao set his sights on the State of Yan...
In the original history, Gongsun was undoubtedly just a weak local warlord to Cao Cao, the super overlord in the north, so when he behaved submissively and sent the heads of the Yuan brothers to Cao Cao, Cao Cao chose to temporarily accept him as his vassal.
It was not until later when the Gongsun clan took the initiative to cause unrest that Sima Yi stepped in to pacify Liaodong.
However, the situation is obviously different now. The reason why Wei State accepted Gongsun clan as a vassal and even recommended them as the Marquis of Yan was more because facing the pressure from Han Dynasty, Cao Cao was anxious to win over a few allies - no longer becoming a vassal because of "weakness", but because they were "relatively strong" and worthy of becoming a "vassal-type ally"!
Such a relationship was undoubtedly untrustworthy during the warlord era at the end of the Han Dynasty, especially for Cao Cao.
After all, this was the relationship between him and Yuan Shao at the beginning.
Moreover, for the current Wei State, annexing the Gongsun clan would also be of great benefit to itself.
Especially after the Gongsun clan's trade with the State of Chu, their wealth grew stronger and stronger. More importantly, the potential of Liaodong was discovered.
Just talking about those thousands of sets of plate armor...that's thousands of plate armored cavalry!
Even though this thing has its limitations and is easy to be targeted, its power on a frontal battlefield is unquestionable.
For the State of Wei, although the State of Yan was far less powerful than itself, it already had the initial ability to stab it in the back!
And more importantly...
Isn't Wei State's apparent plan to seize Bohai Sea?
If the State of Yan could be destroyed, the State of Wei could then capture Buyeo and the Chaohai Peninsula by land. By then, would the ownership of Bohai still need to be decided by the navy?
The entire continent surrounding the Bohai Sea belongs to the State of Wei. What else can the State of Chu want with regard to the Bohai Sea?
As for Liu Bei, from beginning to end, he regarded Cao Cao as his biggest enemy - Bai Tu was the biggest stumbling block on the road to realizing his ideals, but not the biggest "enemy".
Cao Cao naturally knew this. The so-called alliance was just for everyone to set the tone first and then see how to break the alliance.
After all, there was no trade of necessities between Cao Cao and Liu Bei. How could a mere piece of paper provide any guarantee?
Currently, the only prince who can create "credible strength" with empty words is Bai Tu. After all, he still has some baggage of Chu studies.
If everything goes well for the Han Dynasty in the Battle of Hanzhong, Liu Bei will definitely take advantage of the situation to launch an expedition to the north. Regardless of whether he can inflict heavy damage to the Wei Kingdom, at least he will not let Cao Cao have an easy time!
Liu Bei's only worry was whether the Battle of Hanzhong would really go smoothly.
At the same time, what Liu Bei didn't know was that Zhuge Liang and Guan Yu were now worried about the exact opposite...
After Liu Bei received the letter from the Marquis of Yan, he and everyone else preliminarily determined the Marquis of Yan's IQ. After the meeting, Jian Yong specifically sought out Zhuge Liang and even casually invited him to ride in the same car - and he actually went to ride in Zhuge Liang's car!
Zhuge Liang would naturally not despise Jian Yong, a "senior" known for his favorability. After all, his so-called military advisor might not be as powerful as Jian Yong, an "old minister", in terms of actual power.
"When Kongming was in Qingzhou before, he got along well with Yunchang, which was beyond our expectations." Jian Yong said in a seemingly complimenting manner.
Zhuge Liang did go to Qingzhou for a period of time before, mainly to appease Guan Yu and calm his restless heart - otherwise Guan Yu might have already gone to war with Lu Meng.
"I am young and uneducated, but I am good at being humble." Zhuge Liang said modestly.
However, what Jian Yong wanted to say was obviously not this.
"No, Kong Ming is naturally easy to get along with, but Second Brother Guan...hahaha, even I don't dare to joke with him." Jian Yong said with a smile.
"A man of pride is naturally proud." Zhuge Liang praised Guan Yu.
Seeing that Zhuge Liang was just talking in official language, Jian Yong also pointed out: "Second brother is usually serious with me, but...if there is anything, he will still discuss it with me...Well, although he basically won't listen to my opinions."
Zhuge Liang then stopped fanning himself and said, "Oh? It seems that Brother Xianhe should be someone General Guan trusts... What do you think, Brother Xianhe?"
Seeing that Zhuge Liang was not panicked at all, as if he was sure that he would not tell Liu Bei, Jian Yong could not help but say helplessly: "Kong Ming's plan is indeed dangerous and clever, but it is not good not to tell the lord, right?"
"Xianhe, do you think the lord will agree?" Zhuge Liang asked back.
"this……"
"If Xianhe is not sure of convincing the lord and still goes to report, then any missed opportunities in the future will be Xianhe's fault! When it is the turn of the historians of Wei or Chu to record history, Liang will definitely tell them to write down today's conversation." Zhuge Liang threatened in a playful and half-joking manner.
Jian Yong rolled his eyes upon hearing this, and had no choice but to spread his hands and said, "Forget it, I don't know about your business."
Yes, Liu Bei and Cao Cao had their own "scripts", but even Zhuge Liang had a script that Liu Bei didn't know about...
That is, if the Battle of Hanzhong still turns into a tough fight, especially if the State of Chu intervenes and puts the situation in jeopardy, Guan Yu can then firmly volunteer to go for support, and Zhuge Liang will also ask to follow. As for the purpose... it is not for Hanzhong, but to take the opportunity to seize the military power of Ma Teng and Han Sui!
After observing the court for several years, Zhuge Liang has deeply felt that the current situation of the Six Marquises Assisting the Han Dynasty is a great burden to "supporting the Han Dynasty."
His own lord is the only one who has hope of supporting the Han Dynasty. Although he is the strongest among the princes who support the Han Dynasty, his influence is limited.
Just like now, the reason why Liu Bei was "assigned" a task to keep an eye on the Wei State was also the result of Ma Teng and Han Sui's report - the two men from the Xiliang faction were also wary of other princes who assisted the Han Dynasty!
If Zhang Yan, Yang Feng and Liu Bei had nothing to do, they would not dare to attack Hanzhong.
Otherwise, not to mention being stabbed in the back by an allie, even if an ally "suddenly has an idea" to take on more responsibilities and control the court, wouldn't that be a big trouble?
What made Zhuge Liang feel even more urgent was that the Han emperor's thinking was now very vague. Even if he really had to be on guard against all the princes, he should at least be more inclined towards his own lord and the one in Yizhou, right?
With the current distribution, doesn't it give the opportunity to eat meat to Ma Teng and Han Sui, while restricting Liu Bei?
Therefore, Zhuge Liang felt that in order to support the Han Dynasty, he must first increase his lord's voice in the Han Dynasty, even if... ...some disputes arose, it would be worth it.
Liu Bei had never told anyone else about the fact that several royal relatives wanted to make him emperor, but Zhuge Liang could guess some of it.
Although Zhuge Liang would not take the initiative to promote anything in this regard, he did his best to strengthen Liu Bei's influence within the Han Dynasty.
Of course, he could "conspire" with Guan Yu, but he couldn't tell Liu Bei openly.
Jian Yong actually understood this point, so he just tried to persuade Zhuge Liang not to go too far, but he had no intention of ruining the matter.
Zhuge Liang's "threat" was just a joke, but as Zhuge Liang said, if his lord doesn't work harder, it will be the turn of the historians of Chu and Wei to be the orthodox ones in the future!
…
At this time, Bai Tu also received letters from the King of Wei and the Marquis of Qi.
Cao Cao informed Bai Tu that Liu Bei and Gongsun Kang were plotting against the State of Chu. Liu Bei informed Bai Tu that Cao Cao and Gongsun Kang were plotting against the State of Chu.
Bai Tu remained calm in the face of the increasingly turbulent situation, and immediately decided to put more pressure on the culprit, the Marquis of Shu.
The only thing that worries Bai Tu now is the situation of Gan Ning and the Sailing Army...
