Volume 5: Overlord of the Sea Chapter 588: The Lean Camel
No one knows a son better than his father. Cao Cao actually understood that given Cao Zhi's temperament and the current situation in Wei, if Cao Zhi succeeded to the throne...
Cao Cao did not want to leave such a Wei Kingdom to Cao Zhi!
However, Cao Cao's headaches have become more and more serious in recent years...
Since Cao Cao had his first attack when the news of "Han Emperor fleeing to Xu Du" came, he had attacks several times every year, and they became more and more frequent.
In history, Cao Cao actually had twelve years left to live.
However, because of the white rabbit effect, Cao Cao's first illness occurred much earlier, and... Hua Tuo was still in Nanjing!
In fact, Bai Tu and Hua Tuo both welcomed Cao Cao to go to Jinling for medical treatment, but Cao Cao himself was unwilling to go, so there was nothing that could be done.
Cao Cao knew that the current Wei Kingdom was not suitable for Cao Zhi at all, but he had no better solution.
Firstly, Cao Pi was far away in Jinling and he hadn't seen him for many years, so he didn't know whether he had grown up or not. As for the other sons, regardless of whether they were legitimate or not, the key was that they were too young. Secondly, making Cao Zhi the crown prince did ease the conflicts in Wei State a lot, but the way of easing them made Cao Cao very uneasy.
"Marquis An Wei...ha." When Cao Cao was alone, he thought of this and smiled with amusement.
He did not act so angry outside. After all, Cao Pi was his son. His unwillingness at this time was consistent with Cao Cao's understanding of him.
In comparison, the State of Chu is much more harmonious now.
…
The State of Chu had also made preparations for Wei's formal declaration of war, and the palace and the Privy Council had already reached an agreement on military arrangements.
Although there are disagreements in the court meeting now, it is actually just a "small matter".
Because of Wei's military action, all the overseas students sent by Wei's government have been expelled...
However, the Wei officials had different opinions on the follow-up procedures.
Some people think that they should be detained first and treated as prisoners, while others think that the traveling Tathagata envoy should be sent back.
Because the condition for opening the application to foreign students is to maintain cooperation with the State of Chu. Now that Wei has torn up the agreement first, Chu will have good reason to detain them.
In the end, it was Bai Tu who made the final decision to send them back to Wei State , and he also counted the students who wanted to leave in all the universities, and then all of them were sent back by ships from Chu State.
At the same time, the Wei students who had not left were required to sign a letter of guarantee that if they worked for the Wei before the end of the Chu-Wei war, they would be charged with undermining the security of the Chu once discovered.
According to Bai Tu, most of the students from the Wei Kingdom who have not left yet do not have a strong background, otherwise they would have returned to their country a few months earlier...
Besides, the Chu State would not teach them the technology that it really wanted to keep secret, so it would be better to leave a good impression. In the future, when the north is unified, these students who have received "Chu learning" will be needed to make the north return home faster.
What’s more, the “Enlightenment Department” already has undercover agents among these students!
…
In June of the eighth year of the Chuli period, Wei's attack on Liaodong Port was blocked. The terrain of Liaodong Port was too easy to defend but difficult to attack. After the mountain roads were blocked by barbed wire and trenches on land, it was difficult . The sea attack also had to face the artillery blockade on the cliffs facing the sea!
With less than 20,000 men, the Wei State mobilized five or six times more troops, horses, and ships, but could hardly gain anything...
The Wei army had no choice but to encircle Liaodong Port without attacking it - after all, Liaodong now belonged to Wei, and the sea route was completely blocked. No matter how much supplies were stored, they would run out one day.
Even the Wei State did not simply surround the point and attack its reinforcements, but also attacked Donglai at the same time, and planned to advance to Donglai East Port and Donglai West Port!
At this time, Liu Bei's main force had already gone to Longyou, preparing to join Ma Teng and Han Sui to seize Hanzhong, so he had little reaction to the naval battle that took place right under his nose.
And what gathered in the Bohai Sea was a super fleet that included most of the privateering ships of the Wei State...
Although the ships are relatively old, the quality of the sailors varies, and they may not obey orders completely, but what cannot be ignored is that there are more than 50 warships with more than 300 people, more than 400 warships with more than 100 people, tens of thousands of small warships, and a terrifying scale of more than 200,000 sailors in total!
Eighty percent of them were "civilian fleets that loved the State of Wei."
At this time , in the central and northern parts of the Bohai Sea, except for the blocked Liaodong Port, there were almost no fleets of the Chu State. Only the southeastern part could hold out because of the existence of the Donglai Port...
However, Donglai East Port and Donglai West Port do not have the natural Jedi-like terrain of Liaodong Port. If they really want to resist, even if many of the basic service warships are already equipped with guns, they are still like an egg against a mountain facing such a large number of Wei troops.
Anyone with a discerning eye could see that Wei had deliberately made such a large-scale assembly, rather than engaging in a quick battle and making a quick decision. It was probably because it was waiting for support from Chu's elite navy and then annihilating it. It was almost an open conspiracy.
However, the State of Chu obviously did not want to give up the port of Donglai, because that would mean that the State of Chu would completely withdraw from Bohai, and then the ports of Zhouhu and even Danzhou would be under direct threat from the State of Wei!
As a "skinny camel", Chu State, under the strong pressure of Wei State, blinded by greed, sent out the last 30,000 naval elites, including 8,000 exhausted "sea-going losers"...
The number of ships in the fleet was even more appalling. As the absolute main force of the Chu Navy, there were less than thirty ships that could be considered "big ships". If other small boats such as torpedo boats and escort boats were included, there were less than two hundred ships. It was simply appalling!
Upon learning of the tragic expedition of the Chu navy, the Wei and Han dynasties were even somewhat happy, especially the latter...
On the one hand, they wished that both sides would suffer heavy losses, and on the other hand, if the State of Chu backed down, perhaps they would be able to catch their breath later.
The State of Wei was already preparing for two contingency plans: a narrow victory and a complete victory...
Needless to say, if it was a narrow victory
And if we win a great victory...
Although the chances are slim, you should always have a dream!
If a complete victory is achieved, we can consider taking over the East China Sea as well, completely destroying Chu's maritime combat capability, or at the very least... pushing Chu's maritime power back to Yizhou and Tiannan.
Of course, if it really comes to this, the navy of the Duke of Qi might not be able to help but jump up and down, not wanting Wei to have all the credit.
Bai Tu could probably understand the thoughts of Wei and Han, but...
Anyway, for the State of Chu, at least gunboats of a hundred tons were considered "big ships", and torpedo boats and escort boats of ten tons were considered "small ships". As for the iron-clad and wooden ships smaller than that... there was no need to count them, as there were indeed not many of them.
The Chu State's trump card is indeed its 30,000 elite navy and less than 200 warships.
"If Wei can really win, I will have no choice but to accept it. Bohai will be left to them!" Bai Tu said seriously while looking at Hai Tu.
But the others in the palace ignored him...
