Volume 5: Overlord of the Sea Chapter 543: Chu's Response
"Wenruo, Fengxiao, the new news from the State of Chu...what do you think?" Cao Cao asked Xun Yu, Guo Jia and others.
At this time, apart from Xun Yu and Guo Jia, there were only three or five people in the hall, including Man Chong and Cheng Yu, making it seem much more "deserted" than before.
It’s not that the Wei State’s talent pool has shrunk, but after the King of Wei “changed his mind”, untied the shackles and started the mad dog strategy, although Cao Cao was enough to suppress these aristocratic families, his credibility was undoubtedly greatly reduced.
Therefore, Cao Cao's real "staff" also shrank significantly...
Of course, this is very different from Bai Tu’s “Palace and Pavilion System” - in the Palace and Pavilion system of the Chu State at that time, the university scholars were not only think tanks, but also served as the glue of interest groups.
Just like Chen Gong succeeded Lu Bu, Yu Fan succeeded Lu Kang, and even the person who succeeded Huang Chengyan was Jiang Wan, who was also from Jingzhou.
Now, the few people in front of Cao Cao can only play half the role of the "Palace" - think tank.
Because none of them could coordinate the radical aristocrats, or the new wealthy families, who accounted for a large proportion of the Wei State's power!
As the workshopization in Wei was carried out in a savage and crazy manner different from that in Chu, the division of the northern gentry became increasingly obvious. Some conservative gentry could not accept this approach of giving up everything, including increasing the risk of interruption of inheritance, just to get "immediate benefits".
In this land where the saying "Are kings, princes, generals, and ministers of different races" has been heard for four hundred years, using slavery and extreme exploitation of the vast majority of people to gain benefits makes them feel unreliable...
Money is an attractive thing, especially when human productivity improves greatly and creates more surplus value.
However, in the land of China, the roar from the lower-class farmers and even slaves four hundred years ago, and the continuous roars during that time, which at the least caused chaos in a village or a county, and at the worst, like the Yellow Turban Rebellion twenty years ago, directly shook the foundation of the Han Dynasty, always reminding the great nobles that we are all human beings.
It is not a seriously wrong idea to regard the lower-class people as those who can be oppressed, humiliated , and fooled, and who need to be disciplined and served by oneself. However, when you feel that the lower-class people are no longer the same species as yourself and that there is a fundamental difference between you... you are basically not far from defeat.
Therefore, there are many different voices among the gentry, which is one of the reasons why Cao Cao can still calm down the mad dog situation!
Among some conservatives, there are even reformists, also known as the "Chu School", who propose to fully emulate the Chu State and promote Chu learning. Of course... this group of people does not account for a large proportion of the conservatives, and except for the most radical part, others dare not promote this blatantly.
The representative of the conservative faction is undoubtedly Xun Yu...
Therefore, even Xun Yu could not represent the radical aristocratic families who accounted for a large proportion of the Wei State's strength.
However, precisely because of this, Xun Yu would not consider their interests, but only their influence. This is just Cao Cao's "head", not a place like a "palace" to weigh the pros and cons of all parties.
"Lü Bu led 50,000 troops to serve as the governor of Wangjing Road; Sun Ce was appointed as the governor of Jinghu North Road, and Huang Jun was appointed as the governor of Jinghu North Road, assisting in the government affairs of Jinghu North Road... It seems that the State of Chu has also made preparations to deal with the subsequent changes, and it seems that the decision of the King of Chu is still in favor of us."
Xun Yu skipped the first of the three new pieces of intelligence from the State of Chu and started analyzing directly from the second one, without saying much about the third one.
Indeed, the Chu State's layout of Jingzhou North Road and Wangjing Road posed a greater threat to the Han Dynasty no matter how you look at it.
Jingzhou North Road refers to the northern part of Jingzhou in a narrow sense with Jiangling as the center, and Wangjing Road refers to the northern part of the real "Jingzhou" from Xiangfan in the south to Wancheng in the north!
Lu Bu personally put on armor and led 30,000 Chu troops, including most of the Chu cavalry, into Wangjing Road... After a hundred miles of march, they would be able to reach Xu County!
No matter whether it is Zhang Yan, Marquis of Zheng, Yang Feng, Marquis of Sai, or Liu Bei, Marquis of Qi, they all have to be on high alert at this moment!
The reason why it is called "group cavalry" is actually a concept that has only emerged in recent years. The Chu State divided the cavalry into small groups of 100 to 150 people, called "cavalry companies". Generally, only a "brigade" of 3,000 people would be equipped with a cavalry company.
The other is the arrangement of the animal-powered horses responsible for carrying heavy objects...
Cavalry armies consisting solely of cavalry were extremely rare in the State of Chu. The largest of these was the Wolf Cavalry Brigade of 3,000 men, led by Zhang Liao, and now following Lu Bu!
Three thousand cavalrymen should not be underestimated on the battlefield, but for the princes of all parties, it is not a large number - when Bai Tu just worshipped his adoptive father, he "worshipped" more than four thousand cavalrymen...
Naturally, the various lords would not ignore such a large-scale cavalry military system reform by the State of Chu. However... they did not quite understand the thinking of the State of Chu. They could only understand that the State of Chu had fewer horses, so such arrangements were made.
On the other hand, because of the trade with Liaodong and the previous persuasion of the Marquis of Shu to open up the trade channel in Yizhou, Chu had quite a few horses. Just look at the military transport horses and you will know that the elite infantry can completely rely on animal power to transport baggage, and with the official roads within the Chu territory, the speed of transporting troops is astonishing!
Moreover, even in terms of war horses, the number of cavalry displayed by the State of Chu is nearly 20,000 - which cannot be compared with the State of Wei and the State of Yan in the north. But even if it is Yonghou Ma Teng and Dihou Han Sui, if only regular cavalry is counted, neither of them has such a number.
Of course, Ma Teng and Han Sui also "hired" a large number of Qiang cavalry and even some Xiongnu tribes. If you count them all, the number is too large...
However, the way Chu used its cavalry was puzzling. After Zhang Liao's initial training, all of them were scattered among the 300,000 Chu troops - Chu usually kept the number of regular troops at around 120,000, but some of them were rotated for training and farming. After all of them were mobilized, there were 300,000 regular troops!
Compared with other princes, the number of troops in Chu has always been "restrained".
The Chu State has only mobilized about 200,000 troops now, and a quarter of them went directly to Wangjing Road. Moreover... You should know that Zhang Xiu already had a division of troops in Wancheng. Now, nearly one-third of the Chu State's main combat forces are stationed in Wangjing Road!
Moreover, there were at least three divisions of navy in the northern Jinghu Road. Huang Chengyan was also specially sent to the northern Jinghu Road to help Sun Ce coordinate with the gentry of Nanjun...
Starting from Wancheng, Xu County is not far away. Even though Xu County is no longer the "Xu Capital", once Xu County and even Yingchuan are lost, the situation in the entire Central Plains will be greatly affected. After all, this is the "slender waist" of the princes who assisted the Han Dynasty.
Once interrupted, Qingxu State and Guanzhong would be directly divided into two.
On the other hand, although it is difficult to travel from Jiangling to Badong in Yizhou, the facts have proved that... if the State of Chu is really determined, it is not impossible!
When Chu mobilized its troops, the Han Dynasty immediately became nervous. There were many excuses for mobilizing troops, but everyone knew that Chu's move was specifically aimed at the recent plans of Yong Hou and Zhai Hou to attack Hanzhong...
