Volume 5: Overlord of the Sea Chapter 595: Raid
Lu Bu's grand strategy was in line with the goal this time, but he encountered some "minor troubles".
That is the State of Wei... not defenseless!
In fact, before his death, Guo Jia's last memorial entrusted to Xiahou Dun to be delivered to Cao Cao, as well as his entrustment to Xiahou Dun himself, was about the "upcoming sea attack."
When Guo Jia was in the Wei navy and was being chased and bombed by the Chu navy, he had already guessed that Chu would not let go of this opportunity...
Therefore, from the very beginning, what Lu Bu faced was not the Wei army that was ambushed or exhausted, but the land defense line that had been prepared.
When the news reached back to Nanjing, Bai Tu and other think tanks were filled with regret and emotion... Guo Fengxiao, the cunning strategist, was indeed an unparalleled national hero.
The Battle of Bohai was indeed a disastrous defeat at his hands, but Guo Jia had done everything he could, the reason he still lost... was because his basic strength was too far behind!
Before his death, Guo Jia sounded a crucial alarm for the State of Wei.
Although Lu Bu went there very quickly, at least by sea, which was faster than transporting troops within the Wei State, and he did capture the city of Beiping, which was the seat of Youbeiping, the reinforcements from Yuyang and Liaoxi came in time, limiting the influence of the Chu Army to the area from Beiping to Tuyin Port, and failing to "cut off" it.
In response to this, the instructions that Jinling passed on to Lu Bu were merely general words such as "ensure safety", "do not engage in long-term attacks", and "do not worry about the established strategy".
After all, there is still too much "delay" in transmitting messages at sea. At this time, we still believe that Lu Bu's judgment on the front line is the most correct.
And Lu Bu did not disappoint everyone's expectations. As the commander-in-chief, he would not wait in vain for news from the rear, nor would he continue to stick to the original strategy when the situation had changed.
They actually evacuated from Peking before the State of Wei could react, and then... took advantage of their maritime mobility to wage a "touch and run" guerrilla war along the coast of the State of Wei.
Compared with the guerrilla warfare behind enemy lines in later generations, Lu Bu's current approach is more like a cavalry raid tactic.
Lu Bu doesn't know much about naval battles, but he has been craving for cavalry raid tactics for a long time, and now he finally has the chance to satisfy his craving.
Different from cavalry on the tactical level, but close to cavalry on the strategic level!
Moreover, transporting troops by sea is not only faster than the other side, but also safer and more convenient...
Every time they attacked a city, they mainly plundered the treasury in the city, supplemented by blowing up the city walls. It was somewhat difficult for the attacking party to blow up the city walls, but for the State of Chu, it was not too easy to tear down the walls when the attacking party was stationed in the city.
In addition... there was the massive work of liberating slaves.
The densely populated workshop areas of the Chu State were basically distributed in the various key developed "prefectures", the largest of which was undoubtedly the Jinling Prefecture.
Firstly, there is policy support, secondly, it is the center of the imperial court, and thirdly... the location of Jinling itself makes water transportation very convenient, not to mention that a tram has been built.
To meet the needs of most workshops, there is one thing that is not cost-effective... that is, the land is expensive!
However, the situation in Wei was completely different. After all, the most "efficient" and "competitive" workshops in Wei were basically sweatshops that employed slave labor.
The Wei court also had to save face. Theoretically, they "were not aware of" these things, and it was even less likely that they would give any policy preferences. In other words... leaving it alone was the greatest privilege they could receive.
Moreover, the Wei State itself did not build any roads, and land transportation entirely relied on the North’s own foundation, so most workshops were concentrated in coastal areas!
On the one hand, it is because of transportation, and on the other hand, it is because of the "family" behind these workshops, which are basically those supported by the Wei State for its maritime power, so the coastal areas are safer for them.
But now he has become Lu Bu's target...
If the workshop is really placed inland, it may not be cost-effective for Lu Bu to attack it alone!
Regarding the enemy's workshops, Lu Bu was very principled. He did not destroy all of them, but... only destroyed the workshops where slave laborers were found!
However, so far, Lu Bu has not found any workshops with slave labor in Wei State - after all, Wei State did not have the Eight Strategies for Founding a Country, and it also left a back door for the development of the aristocratic families. How could someone open a workshop in Wei State that abides by the laws of Chu State?
Instead, they discovered some "evidence" of crimes committed by the domestic nobles...
Bai Tu was discussing the matter with the palace ministers at that time. When Jia Xu and others saw Bai Tu's expression, they knew that the king did not want to settle the matter peacefully this time!
"This is outrageous! What do they want to do? The imperial court has repeatedly forbidden cooperation with illegal workshops, especially those that employ slave laborers, regardless of whether they are at home or abroad... I think they just want to rebel!" Bai Tu was so angry that he called himself "Immortal".
Jiang Wan, Yu Fan, and Chen Gong had immediately confirmed the weight of the "Jingzhou nobles", "Jiangdong nobles", and "foreign nobles" on the list...
In their view, these people were indeed going too far - not to mention the moral issue, it was not unfair to call them "rebellion" for them to privately cooperate with enemy workshops or even open their own factories.
In general, the number of people involved is not small, but the proportion is not large.
In addition to the attitude shown by Bai Tu... ...no one was willing to tolerate any criticism.
After all, the State of Chu has been restricting this kind of "restlessness" since its early stages of development, and has always been strictly guarding against any interest-seeking behaviors that destroy all morals. Therefore, those who "make mistakes" now basically cannot be brought to the table.
At most, there are bigger issues behind the scenes, such as some "suspects" being branches of the great noble families...
Of course, Bai Tu doesn’t think that there is any family that is determined to test the bottom line. It is more like a “minority” within the gentry who want to “forge ahead”.
This is exactly the analysis that Jiang Wan and Yu Fan gave to Bai Tu.
After all, those who can add the word "big" in front of the word "aristocratic family" usually would not do such a thing. Even with the current actions of the Wei court, the so-called aristocratic families are more likely to be transformed from wealthy families and... split from aristocratic families.
Among those who can be considered as aristocratic families, there are always some people who, out of caution, morality or self-esteem, at least some of the core members will not participate in it "openly". The more harmonious ones will also make obvious cuts, and the disharmonious ones will even split up in a feud.
In the State of Chu, only a "minority" participated in it.
Just for the sake of preventing problems from happening again, all the lists of evidence are not only strictly verified, but also the convicted persons are investigated and dealt with strictly one by one on the charge of "illegally investing in other countries' non-performing assets".
In addition...Zhang Chunhua privately gave Bai Tu an idea.
It is impossible to implicate others collectively, as there is no basis for such punishment in the laws of the State of Chu.
However, in the following months, the State of Chu specially organized a series of severe crackdowns from production safety to tax audits, trying to be as "blatant" and "reasonable" as possible, and being extremely strict with all "backers" who had interest transactions but no evidence of guilt!
It is not only a warning, but also a force to strike at those guys with evil intentions within the noble family to the greatest extent possible.
In addition, after Lu Bu's "rushing" tactics began, even though Wei was fully prepared, it began to feel exhausted...
