A thousand-year-old family that began with the Battle of Makino

Chapter 544: Conspiracy to demonstrate Daxia’s national power, Xia Shui’s army encountered difficulties in the Bohai Sea

Before Zheng Xuan died, he learned about Yan's conspiracy and educated his son Zheng Zhong, asking him to lead a 300-man cavalry force, the most elite in his army, to break out of the encirclement.

Take this news back to Seoul and, most importantly, to North Korea.

He believed that with this news, the Zheng family would receive the greatest support from the Xia Kingdom, and the Zheng family would control the state affairs of North Korea for generations and become the uncrowned king of North Korea.

After hearing the news about Li Zaimin and Zheng Zhong, Bai Yu immediately realized that something was wrong. After promising to send reinforcements to Seoul, he immediately called back Ma Xie, the governor of Pingzhou who was stationed in Qingning.

February 13th

Ma Xie arrived at Chosun City without stopping.

The two exchanged views continuously, and finally decided to report to the court and request the court to send reinforcements to Pingzhou.

In order to prevent the Yan State from taking the lead, the two decided that Ma Xie would lead 7,000 men to garrison Anping and Qingning to consolidate the city defenses, recruit local Han people as soldiers, and start military training in advance, at least until the imperial reinforcements arrived.

On the other side, Bai Gu led 3,000 people to rush to the aid of Seoul. As long as Seoul was not lost and the Korean rebels who colluded with the Yan State were blocked to the south of the Han River, Pingzhou would not be attacked from both sides and the pressure would be much less.

March

Before the news from Pingzhou and North Korea came, Bai Shu had already foreseen some signs.

According to reports from the sword guards, the Zhao State has been mobilizing heavy troops to Leling recently. According to the details placed in Leling City, to this day, there are no less than 50,000 Zhao troops in Leling.

On the other hand, Murong Xuan, who was stationed at Linyu Pass, came to report that scouts from the Yan Kingdom kept appearing under the pass, and the frequency was getting higher and higher.

According to Murong Xuan's own understanding as a former general of the Yan State, this was a sign that the Yan State was about to go to war against Daxia.

The appearance of the scouts was because the Yan State was investigating Daxia's defense force against Linyu Pass.

There are various signs that an unprecedented war is slowly approaching Xia Kingdom.

March 21

Bai Shu summoned Lieutenant Liu Cheng, Prime Minister Su Zheng, Shangshu Ling Cui Wei, General Bai Lin and others to consult on domestic military affairs.

(Bai Lin has resigned from his post in Beijiang Prefecture and was appointed by Bai Shu as general, in charge of the daily military affairs of the Central Army.

And now the general manager of Beijiang Prefecture is Hu Yanying, the former governor of Youzhou. Only then does Beijiang Prefecture really begin to exercise his powers as a third-grade yamen. )
According to the explanations of several people, the Xia State's national strength is no longer what it used to be. It can pull out a maximum of 200,000 troops, of which 50,000 are cavalry. They have been trained for at least a year and are not farmers who have just left the farmland.

Su Zhengze said that although in recent years, he has built Huguo Temple, built Xuanhua City, filled six towns, cast sea ships, trained navy and so on.

However, because Xia State attaches great importance to water conservancy and diligently builds dams, even though Zhao State flooded the three states of Qing, Yan, and Henan last year due to the bursting of dikes, there was no flood in Xia State.

On the contrary, the domestic grain harvests and production increased one after another, and the maritime trade prospered. Through the two trade lines of Jinzhou-Qingzhou-Yangzhou and Jinzhou-Korea-Japan, a lot of gains were made.

The newly established Maritime Trade Department has increased its revenue every year, making the national treasury full, and most of the granaries in various places are full. If it is squeezed and some construction tasks are temporarily suspended, it can barely support the imperial court's large-scale military operations for a year.

Listening to the reports of the ministers, Bai Shu seemed to see the children he had worked so hard to feed grow up, and he was in a good mood.

In the past, I kept making small moves against Zhao and Yan, so I felt relieved.

“It’s really not what it used to be. In the past, when the country used more than 100,000 troops, it would break the muscles and bones, and it would take two or three years to recover.

Nowadays, an army of 200,000 can actually last for a whole year, which is extremely wonderful and kind. "

With national strength as the foundation, Bai Shu's arrangements for the two countries became increasingly bold.

First, 20,000 people were stationed in Pingyuan County and Bohai County each. Qingzhou garrison and Shanyang Wang Baiji were ordered to garrison in Pingyuan, and Jizhou garrison and Taiyuan Wang Baihai garrisoned in Nanpi were ordered to strengthen defenses to guard against Zhao's surprise attack.

Including the original 40,000 people in the two places, the Xia army guarding Leling had 60,000 people.

An additional 20,000 people were sent to Youzhou, of which 5,000 were assigned to Murong Xuan's command to garrison Linyu Pass, while the rest were assigned to the Youzhou garrison and the command of Guangning King Bai Tie.

In order to prevent local forces from overestimating themselves, Daxia reduced a large number of troops in counties where there was no threat of war. For example, in some counties in Jizhou, a county only had a standing army of more than a thousand people, while a county only had two to three hundred people.

Only counties located on the border or where bandits are infested will increase their garrison according to specific needs.

In order to better control the local area, the Bai family basically set up garrison in every state to control the military power of the state. They used clan members to guard the garrison in different places. Generally, they did not have the power to open a government. They were only used as generals and could be replaced at any time.

In this way, the military formations in the state were separated, the governor was in charge of administration, and the garrison was in charge of military affairs. The state Sima, who was supposed to control the military power of a state, became the secondary military chief to maintain local order.

April
The agreement between Yan State and Zhao and Jin is getting closer.

Yan State began to attack Xia State.

The first is to attack Xia's navy, cut off Xia's hand to North Korea, and prevent itself from being attacked from both sides again.

Murong Huang appointed Prince Murong Jun as the commander of the navy and asked him to annihilate the Xia Navy in the Bohai Bay before the 15th.

Because not only does the war begin on this day, but the Jin Navy, which was agreed with the Jin State, will also come to help on this day.

April 14

Early morning
The heavy fog appeared in the Bohai Bay. The Xia Kingdom fleet, which had just set off to Daifang County to transport supplies, was breaking through the layers of fog and sailing forward along the established route.

The fleet consists of dozens of large ships for transportation and a dozen warships for combat.

The ship carried a variety of items that Daifang County and others urgently needed that could only be made in the Central Plains, such as pens, inks, paper and inkstones, refined salt, iron ingots, etc., as well as affordable grain from the Central Plains.

Because the land on the Korean Peninsula is not as developed as in the Central Plains, the grain production is not high, and the price of grain is naturally more expensive than in the Central Plains. Therefore, the troops stationed in North Korea mostly eat low-priced food shipped from them, rather than local high-priced and bad-tasting food.

When the fleet returns, it will carry North Korea’s unique furs, noble woods, ores and other raw materials.

As for the dozen or so warships that were escorted, it was because since the Yan Kingdom established its navy, it often went out to plunder the harbor, so the Xia Kingdom's navy had to send warships to escort them.

Fortunately, in order to conceal his own strength and achieve the purpose of surprise attack, Murong Jun strictly prohibited warships from going out to sea, so those who came out were only people looking for food privately and did not dare to damage the warships, so as long as they saw warships escorting them, they would not get close. .

Therefore, Xia State only sent a few warships each time to drive away Yan State's plundering squad.

The low-intensity naval battle made Xia Jun think he was a pirate.

In the Xia Kingdom's fleet, on the first big ship, as the first ship, the lookout is doing his duty faithfully.

"Captain, there is a warship approaching us ahead."

On the observation deck, specially selected crew members with good eyesight vaguely saw the warship in the distance.

The experienced captain of the large ship immediately asked the messenger to hold a torch and report to the Xia army warship escorting him through a secret message.

The warship lookout not far away received the secret message from the big ship and reported to the warship officer and the military envoy.

In order to facilitate command, Xia State modeled its naval organization on Jin State, with a warship as the basic unit, and the "Guanjunshi" as the highest officer, that is, the captain.

With ten ships as a unit, there is a commander, followed by two deputy commanders.

With a hundred ships as a unit, there is a capital commander, and there are a number of military commanders, as well as soldiers and so on.

Above are the Navy Commander, the Navy Deputy Commander, and the larger Navy Commander.

When Li Yi, the envoy in charge of the military, heard the report from the sailors, he thought it was another pirate and asked the envoy for instructions.

Soon, the commander of the fleet sent an order for Li Yi to speed up and step forward to expel them.

"Send the order, left rudder twenty, add two sails, increase speed, and approach the pirate ship ahead!"

"Twenty left!"

"Add two sails!"

As the order was issued, the sailors on the ship became busy.

The distance is getting closer and closer, and the full picture of the enemy ship gradually emerges. Not only that, but there are also densely packed warships with similar appearance behind them.

"Sorry, Commander, that's not one ship, it's many ships."

Li Yi looked at the "Yan" flag hanging on the opposite warship and said in horror:
"I saw it. This is the Yan Kingdom's fleet. Oh my god, where did they get so many ships?"

"Turn, turn quickly."

Following Li Yi's urgent voice, the warship fled towards its own fleet.

Xia Jun was in charge of the commander of the fleet. When he saw Li Yi's boat coming back, he thought the danger was over and was about to return to the cabin to continue resting.

"Commander, something is wrong. The signal from A and B is extremely dangerous."

The commander took a closer look and saw that on the bow of Li Yi's ship, he was waving a torch, constantly conveying danger signals.

"Is there any danger on the Bohai Sea? Could it be that the Jin navy is coming? Send an order to the transport team to stop and the entire army to assume a battle formation."

Although the commander did not believe it, his good military quality enabled him to prepare for battle in advance.

As the commander's order was issued, the escorting ship in the middle continued to slow down, while a dozen warships on both sides gradually protruded, forming an inverted U-shaped war.

As they got closer, a huge fleet composed of hundreds of warships from the Yan Kingdom appeared in front of the commander.

The commander knew that he could not go back this time.

"Send orders to A and B to speed up without stopping, abandon all the baggage on the ship, and return directly to Jinzhou dock to report the arrival of a large number of naval forces from Yan State. It is visually estimated that the enemy can use no less than a hundred large warships."

The ordering soldiers took the fast boat launched from the ship and quickly sailed to the warship where Li Yi was.

Li Yi fished the messenger onto the ship and listened to the messenger's orders. He couldn't stop crying, but he knew the importance of intelligence to naval battles.

With a heavy heart, he ordered to dump all the heavy objects on the ship, spread all the canvas, all the people rowed, and sailed to Jinzhou at full speed.

As he got further and further away from the war waters, Li Yi could no longer hear the sounds of naval battles. Only the sound of waves lapping on the bottom of the ship and the sound of his men's oars rowing neatly were heard.

The setting sun seems to be falling on the land.

Team Li Yi, who was speeding all the way, finally arrived at Jinzhouwu.

He reported what he saw and heard to the superior officers, and after passing it through layers of communication, it finally reached the ears of Xiahou Bo, the naval commander who lived in Jinzhou City.

Xiahou Bo stood up in shock, knowing that if he did not act quickly, the Yan army would be blocked in the port, and the Xia army's navy would annihilate the entire army in Jinzhou.

He immediately ordered people to report to the court and issued an order to go to sea.

(End of this chapter)