Volume 5: Overlord of the Sea Chapter 593 Reunion
On August 16, a company sent back by Gan Ning had sent Xiahou Yuan to Jinling - of course, he had been untied when they docked near the port.
He must be tied up beforehand, and he will not be let go even when he goes to the bathroom. He is only fed compressed biscuits for meals, because if he runs away, military law will have no mercy on him. When escorting a powerful general, even if the military order has been issued, there must be no negligence.
As for the nearby ports, they are already in the territory of Chu State, so there is naturally no need to be so cautious.
Even if Gan Ning didn't specifically remind them, they knew Xiahou Yuan's identity...
As an important captured enemy general, he would have received certain treatment, not to mention that Xiahou Yuan and "Princess Cao Juan" were father and daughter. These grassroots generals did not know that Xiahou Yuan had "adopted" the daughter of his deceased brother, but they also knew that the "Cao" in Cao Juan's name was changed later, and that she was actually Xiahou Yuan's "daughter."
Therefore, we had to give him some face. Besides, Xiahou Yuan didn't cause any trouble along the way.
Being sent all the way to Jinling, Xiahou Yuan was filled with mixed feelings...
At first, it was just the shame after being captured, and the embarrassment of meeting his "daughter and son-in-law" under such circumstances.
But later, from Jinling Port, he took the "Qi Car" directly on the rails, and in just two hours, he arrived in Jinling from the port!
And... after "arriving" in Jinling for another half an hour, he finally arrived at the familiar Jinling City!
When Xiahou Yuan came to Chu six or seven years ago, Jinling City was already surrounded by a large number of workshops, and now... the siege is even more exaggerated.
The original Jinling City was already inconspicuous in terms of area, but its level of "liveliness" and prosperity was even greater than before.
Familiar, unfamiliar, understandable, and incomprehensible... there are many more "strange" infrastructures than before.
The Qi tram only started operating more than a year ago, with major cities as hubs .
Although the coverage was not very developed, the entire Chu State had "only" less than 5,000 miles of railway tracks, half of which were relatively lightweight, but it was no problem to scare the generals of other princes who had "never seen the world".
This data is not surprising. After the defeat in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, the late Qing Dynasty built more than 20,000 miles of Han-style railways in the last 30 years, which shows that the steel production was more than enough...
Although the population of Chu was only 5% of that of the late Qing Dynasty, in terms of national strength, it was only inferior to the top powers in terms of accumulation. At the same time, France had railways equivalent to 100,000 miles of railways in the Han Dynasty.
Five thousand miles is far from being well connected. Basically, there is a small cross drawn in Jiangdong, a small cross drawn in Huainan, and another small cross drawn in Jingbei...
In addition to these important areas of transportation, there are some small railways for short-distance transportation of ore.
However, even so, for Xiahou Yuan, it was already a miraculous skill.
After all, he saw that those who came to Jinling with him also included countless pounds of stones, which were also loaded into cargo boxes and arrived in Jinling in two hours.
If he wasn't a prisoner and couldn't ask for the sake of dignity, he would really like to know what kind of beast "trained" this thing.
Could it be the Qilin from Jiaozhou or the beast from Nanyue?
Although I heard that there are giant beasts with long necks and long noses in South Vietnam, but... they can't be this big, right?
Or... like the Qi ship?
The Chu State had prepared its railway tracks for a long time, but the Qi vehicles were only "dug out" in the past two years, after its relations with other princes further deteriorated.
Therefore, even Xiahou Yuan did not know the details - Ma Jun of Wei did know, after all, the technology of Chu had always been the focus of investigation.
But it is useless to know. Ma Jun can simulate the structure of the Qi Car, but there are still two difficulties with the "Qi Machine".
One is the production of a core that can store a large amount of true qi, and the other is...how to obtain a large amount of true qi!
The former was a technical difficulty that Pang Tong had spent a long time to overcome. Although Wei had the example of Chu , no matter how hard it tried to block the technology, some of it would leak out, which reduced the difficulty for later comers. However, Wei had too few talents, and Ma Jun was not very good at these things...
As for the latter... the principle is very simple. It is a universal Qi cultivation method known to the entire Chu State. It should not be easy to find out about it.
However, this is meaningless to the State of Wei. Both farmers and laborers are still struggling to make ends meet. Where does the real energy come from?
However, now that he is in the "center" of Chu, after seeing what is happening in Chu, Xiahou Yuan begins to question Wei's decision-making—not questioning Cao Cao, but questioning Wei!
As the core of Wei, Xiahou Yuan naturally knew that in the current situation of Wei, although Cao Cao could suppress the court, he could no longer control it as he wished...
Before popularizing true Qi, the biggest obstacle to the various measures that benefit the people, or are more beneficial to the middle and lower classes, was definitely not Cao Cao!
But now Xiahou Yuan no longer needs to think about these things. He knows that Bai Tu will not let him go back. When he thinks of this, he even feels a moment of relief... but only for a moment.
Sure enough, when Xiahou Yuan met Bai Tu again, Bai Tu still seemed to respect him. He called Xiahou Juan and Bai Ningning, pointed at the latter and said, "This is also Xiahou's child."
However……
Xiahou Yuan's situation is obviously very different from that of his son Xiahou Ba in history.
Xiahou Ba was forced to Shu Han by Sima family. In addition, Liu Chan's queen was born to Zhang Fei and Xiahou family. Naturally, Xiahou Ba could join Shu Han without any psychological burden. After all, Wei State had been controlled by Sima Yi, and both Cao family and Xiahou family were targets of suppression, especially the latter, which was a naked liquidation.
However, Xiahou Yuan was only defeated and captured, so using the "relative relationship" as an excuse for surrender seemed too weak.
Not to mention that his whole family is doing well in Yecheng, and his adult sons are all high-ranking officials with generous salaries. Besides, Xiahou Yuan's character is not the kind of person who would surrender just for this reason.
"Although the Mid-Autumn Festival has passed, the moon on the 15th and 16th is full, and General Xiahou is not late to return. Let him have a good reunion with Juan'er." Bai Tu did not force it... or he did not expect Xiahou Yuan to surrender.
"...Thank you, King Chu." Xiahou Yuan was of great integrity and did not try to get close to him.
As for being more principled... Bai Tu can't be blamed for that.
After all, the dispute between Wei and Chu was simply a dispute over interests. The direct fuse of the Bohai War was Wei's attack on Chu. There was no national hatred or family feud between the two before. If there was any... it was only just started!
And although Chu attacked ruthlessly this time, it also dared to speak frankly to the world - after all, most of those privateering ships were in the slave-catching business, and when the news of Wei's defeat reached the north and the Peninsula, the local people would probably only be grateful to the Chu army.
even……
Xiahou Yuan also vaguely felt that although this would do more harm than good to the Wei State, it was also not without "benefits". After all, the annihilation of the navy would obviously hurt the aristocratic families more!
