Volume 5: Overlord of the Sea Chapter 544: Uneasy
In front of Cao Cao, Xun Yu and Guo Jia analyzed the pros and cons of Chu's move to Wei from both righteous and treacherous aspects.
In general, this is undoubtedly good news for the State of Wei - even if the State of Chu wants to make a feint to the east and attack in the west, it is undeniable that it is now in the "feint to the east" stage, which is better than directly intervening in Liaodong!
At present, although Chu has not responded directly to Wei, its actions show that it is using the time Wei spends on conquering Liaodong to conquer Xichuan...
In other words, both sides left the Han Dynasty aside and stabilized their own "rear" - because of the Yangtze River waterway, Xichuan should be regarded as the "rear" of the Chu State to some extent.
It's fine that Liu Zhang is weak now, but once Hanzhong is lost, the princes who assisted the Han Dynasty will unite and own Xichuan, which is upstream of Jingchu. With Guanzhong, Longyou and most of the Central Plains as backing, the State of Chu will be in great trouble!
That is why the State of Chu reacted so "violently" when the princes of the Han Dynasty wanted to move Hanzhong - this is the current analysis of this move by Guo Jia, Xun Yu and others.
As for the possibility of "making a feint to the east and attacking in the west", it cannot be said that there is none, but at least they did not see what benefit would it bring to the State of Chu if they allowed Hanzhong to be conquered by the Han Dynasty and competed with the State of Wei for Liaodong. The only thing to guard against should be the possibility of Chu's "expansion" of a two-front war!
Cheng Yu and Man Chong also echoed the opinions of Xun Yu and Guo Jia. Man Chong also mentioned that recently, some "disobedient" new wealthy families in Wei State had something to do with them. He hoped that Cao Cao would allow him to be more "ruthless"...
But at this moment, Ma Jun, who usually didn't talk much in such occasions, suddenly said, "Wait! King, what exactly is the marble crossbow mentioned in the third message? If it really covers the entire Chu army, it is likely to have a great change in the Chu army's combat mode. We have to be on guard!"
There was nothing surprising about Ma Jun's strategy. The reason he appeared here was generally because if there were any important new inventions in the Craftsmen Camp that would have any strategic impact, others might not be able to predict it, so he had to be present to remind people of this matter.
In addition, if a certain strategy requires the cooperation of the Craftsmen Camp in large-scale production or development of something, it is necessary to consult Ma Jun to see if he can do it.
But this time Ma Jun couldn't help but ask a question that had nothing to do with the Craftsmen Camp, but was related to the Ministry of Industry of the Chu State!
Indeed, among the three most important pieces of news from the State of Chu, the last one was the full-scale training of the "marble crossbow".
Suddenly spreading to the entire army and training a new weapon is naturally important news.
Theoretically, this was also a military secret in the State of Chu, but because it had been extended to the entire army, it could no longer be kept secret. In fact, when it was extended to the captain level, almost all the princes had heard about it, but the news was very vague. After it was truly extended to the entire army, even the people of Chu now knew something about it...
I just don’t understand what the “Qi Crossbow” is, but many people have vaguely heard of some similar rumors.
For example, the State of Wei received the news two years ago.
Bai Tu did not expect that the secret could be kept for long, as long as the other party could not get the samples for the time being. Even if some of them were witnessed by spies, unless there was detailed data and evidence to support it, the news received by the princes of all parties would inevitably be distorted to a certain extent!
After all, the spies at this time were very inefficient in transmitting information to each other due to the lack of means of communication.
The princes of all parties knew this themselves, so they took the intelligence from the spies with a pinch of salt.
Especially when it comes to evaluating new weapons, it's not like there's a flood somewhere, a rebellion somewhere, or a place being attacked... "Evaluation" itself is very flexible and subjective.
For example, although the Wei State also had spies who described the "grand occasion" of collective training, descriptions such as "the sound was like thunder, the force could penetrate metal and stone, and the enemy's life could be taken from a hundred steps away..." were of course just a look when it came to Cao Cao.
However, Ma Jun paid special attention to this matter by equipping the entire army and being sensitive to the new weapons of the Chu State...
"Deheng, don't be too nervous. Although there are no samples yet, judging from the description, it must be some kind of long-range military crossbow, and... it seems to shoot only marbles the size of finger joints? Moreover, if this thing is really a crossbow with sophisticated equipment, how can it be equipped for the entire army? And if it can be equipped for the entire army, it should just be a cheap substitute for bows and arrows." Liu Ye persuaded Ma Jun without much concern.
"Ahem... Deheng's worry... ahem, Jia had it before... but in fact, there are some small pieces of information in the intelligence... ahem, Deheng may not have obtained it... This equipment change does not involve middle-level officers. In terms of the military rank of the Chu State, the colonel-level generals are basically still using the new version of the Qi crossbow improved the year before last. Ahem, they did not switch to catapult crossbows..." Guo Jia Mingtian said a little uncomfortably.
But his complexion was better than before. After he finished speaking, he had already caught his breath.
Just as Guo Jia said, the reason why they did not show too much vigilance against the Chu State's major change of equipment was actually because of the previous intelligence support - this new "crossbow", although very special, is obviously just a cheap product!
In terms of power alone, it is not as formidable as the Qi crossbow of the Chu State, otherwise it would not be equipped only among Ji Zao's soldiers.
This time, however, Ma Jun was very brave and directly refuted Wei's chief strategist Guo Jia: "No, military advisor, the Chu's Qi crossbow, when in full Qi state, is completely designed to snipe and kill generals. The latest Qi crossbow is even comparable to the bed crossbow in terms of pure penetration. It is naturally not comparable to ordinary military equipment, but if the entire army is equipped with it, even if it is only slightly stronger than the standard ordinary bows and arrows, it is enough to bring about a qualitative change on the battlefield!"
As for reaching the level of the Chu State's Zhenqi Crossbow, if it can be assembled on a large scale... then the other princes can just forget about it.
"Well, we need to urge the spies on this matter. Even if it means some losses, we must get the samples as soon as possible." Cao Cao interjected at this time.
This can be regarded as the final conclusion of the matter - we cannot judge too much for the time being, let alone react. At least we need to know what exactly happened first.
But... what made Ma Jun a little uneasy was that other people in Wei State were still very surprised about the great improvement in equipment.
If he were to put himself in other people's shoes, Ma Jun asked himself, what kind of equipment would make him give up swords and spears and completely replace the Wei army's equipment with the intention of using long-range weapons as the main weapons?
Thinking of this, Ma Jun became more and more uneasy, but he could not raise any more alarms and could only wait anxiously for the samples to be delivered as soon as possible!
As for the latest big news from the Chu State, the last piece of news was, of course, the official completion of the Han River Weir. They had already started dismantling and filling the previous diversion project, and were starting to use the Han River Weir to store water and raise the water level...
