The naval battle on the first day was just the beginning. Next, the navy of the Yuan Kingdom continued to intercept the navy of the Yue Kingdom on the coast of "Langya".
The Vietnamese naval forces docked on the beach would sometimes come out to provide support, but time and again they were blocked by the former naval forces.
On land, both the enemy and ourselves knew what was happening at sea, and their moods were different.
Sima Ranju had already received the first-hand battle report and read out with a smile: "Nearly a hundred enemy warships, large and small, were sunk, no damage was counted, more than 600 were captured, the enemy was killed in battle, and more than 3,000 people were drowned; our own ships were sunk.
There were only twenty, and the casualties were less than five hundred."
Although it only sank about one-tenth of the Yue navy, it was the first battle between the Yue navy and winning it was actually quite crucial.
It's not a good start or anything like that, it's simply that the outcome of a new unit's first battle is very important and directly related to the belief in the next battle.
Let's put it this way, no matter how miserable the Yuan navy's victory is, as long as they can win, at least they won't be too timid when the next battle breaks out.
One sentence is right: fighting requires courage!
If the army loses the confidence to fight, no matter how good the equipment is, it will be useless, and it will even become a transport brigade delivering equipment to the enemy.
Another factor that makes Sima Ranju happy is that although the Yue Navy was not wiped out or severely damaged, at least the original Navy blocked the Yue Navy on the coast of "Langya".
Whether or not the Vietnamese naval forces were restrained is critical to this battle!
Although the Yue navy still had many ships, their whereabouts had been exposed and they were restricted to a certain area. It was impossible for them to quietly pick up Yue King Gou Jian and a large number of Yue troops.
On land, the original army has formed a pincer attack on the Vietnamese army from the north and southwest, especially since "Langya" is still in control of the original army.
In this case, nearly 100,000 Vietnamese troops were trapped in the northeast of the "Langya" battlefield. They were unable to break through the original troops in the west and southwest, and they could only retreat toward the northeast if they wanted to retreat.
Retreating from the sea? Not to mention that the Yue Navy has been trapped by the Yuan Navy in a bay more than ten miles north of the "Langya" port. Even if the Yue Navy can come to pick up the Vietnamese army on land, they dare to attack the Yuan Navy.
Are you going to take the sea route when intercepted and pursued by the navy?
"We are sure to win this battle!" Sima Rangju just said that was not enough, he put his right hand together and made a fist gesture.
The generals and colonels of the Yuan Kingdom who were present smiled happily when they saw Sima Ranju's appearance, and they all burst out laughing "haha".
Sima Ranju knew that arrogant soldiers will inevitably lose, but sometimes it is very necessary to motivate his subordinates, and he really cannot just suppress and restrict them.
The focus of this battle is on the city of "Langya". First, the Yue King Gou Jian led his army to try to recapture "Langya". Later, the remaining defeated generals of Wenzhong also gathered around "Langya", as well as nearly 10,000 Yue troops transported by sea.
After landing on the "Langya" coast, a Vietnamese army with a total number of about 20,000 came from the southwest to support them.
When Wen Zhong's Vietnamese army retreated to "Langya", there were less than 20,000 left from the original 60,000.
Gou Jian, the king of Yue, originally had 30,000 troops, but when he went to the east to campaign, his troops not only did not decrease, but on the contrary, his troops more than doubled, to about 70,000.
The State of Yue used maritime transport insurance to reinforce "Langya" with an army of about 10,000 people.
They originally garrisoned nearly 10,000 people in "Langya". After the fall, about 4,000 Vietnamese troops rejoined the main force.
So, even if the Yue King Gou Jian tried to recapture "Langya" and lost more than 10,000 people, the Yue army still had a strength of close to 100,000.
If we include the nearly 20,000 Yue troops in "Ji Zhang", there are still 120,000 Yue troops that have been put into the battlefield and still exist.
The Yuan Kingdom invested three legions in this battle. Each legion, including chariot crews, had a full strength of 37,500 men, which is 112,500 men.
Sima Ranju's headquarters fought with the Wenzhong Division. The number of casualties in the successive battles was about 20,000, including those killed and maimed, and about 2,000 people were seriously injured.
In fact, most of the casualties were injuries, and the majority of the wounded were minor injuries. Many of them did not lose their combat effectiveness and could continue to participate in the subsequent battles.
Therefore, when there are hundreds of thousands of casualties in a battle, it does not mean that hundreds of thousands of people were killed in battle. Records of repeated injuries to a single person will be added to the statistics. Hundreds of thousands of casualties may only be 30,000 to 50,000 or less killed in battle.
quantity.
The Wenzhong Division lost more than 40,000 combat troops. In fact, not all of them were killed. The vast majority of them were actually captured by the original army.
On the "Langya" side, Sima Ranju currently has about 65,000 troops, not counting the navy.
The main reason is that Hu You's legion is still fighting the Vietnamese army in "Ji Zhang", and there will be no winner for a while. Otherwise, Sima Ranju's troops could reach more than 100,000.
A country dispatched more than 100,000 troops to fight on the front line. Similar things happened most in Jin and Chu. In addition to the two overlord-level powers, Qi and Wu were also in "Ai Ling"
More than 100,000 troops were invested in the battle.
This time, Vietnam joined the "100,000 Club" for the first time, but the situation it encountered was terrible!
Now, Sima Ranju was not in a hurry to launch a decisive battle. Firstly, Huyou's troops had not arrived yet, and more importantly, the Vietnamese army was the trapped party.
"A hundred thousand troops, fed by men and chewed by horses, consume a huge amount of grain every day..." Sima Rangju laughed again.
Originally, the Yue State had hoarded a lot of grain and grass in "Langya", but now they have all become the spoils of war for the former army.
The materials seized alone are enough to last 100,000 people for half a year. You can imagine how much the quantity is.
There is just one thing: a large number of the weapons of the Yue Kingdom are made of "US dollar gold", and only a small amount are made of "evil gold".
U.S. dollars are bronze, gold is iron.
The Yue Kingdom also used iron weapons? This is simply a strange question.
Some of their iron weapons are products from the original country, and most of them are made in the country.
In fact, the Chu, Wu, and Yue countries have been using iron for a long time. However, due to smelting and forging, and naturally the correct formula has not yet been developed, the hardness of the iron is up to standard, but it is very brittle and not suitable for making.
It has become a weapon and a stomach, and is mostly used on agricultural tools.
Of course, their farm tools are not all iron structures, they are simply wooden farm tools covered with iron sheets.
In terms of related metal formulas, Chu, Wu, and Yue have actually been ahead of the Central Plains for a long time, but it’s not clear why Chu, Wu, and Yue can create very sharp swords but fail to mass-produce them.
Among the batch of trophies seized were weapons produced in the original country. They were purchased by Wu or Yue in small batches over many years and then stored in reserve. This can be seen from the serial number on the weapons, which shows the year and month of production and who they were.
Which manufacturing supervisor inspects it.
Of course, the original country will sell weapons to the outside world. In the early days, the number was relatively large, but later it gradually reduced the sales to external parties. This was because the Chi family needed to accumulate wealth in the early stage, and later it opened its fangs because it did not want the weapons produced in the country to be swung at the former soldiers one day.
Sima Ranju intends to continue to delay with the Vietnamese army. The longer the delay is, the more beneficial it will be to the original army.
Now, the 100,000-strong army under the command of King Gou Jian of Yue has become a drag to some extent, and it will become more obvious as time goes by and their food consumption increases.
To put it bluntly, the Vietnamese army's supply line has been cut off. The more people there are, the greater the consumption, and the shorter the support time will be. Once there is a shortage of food, there is no need for the original army to attack again. They will choose to surrender unless civil strife breaks out.
Of course, there is another situation, such as the Vietnamese army desperately trying to break through?
Just now, Sima Ranju had finished discussing with the generals and sent envoys to the Vietnamese army to persuade them to surrender.
"There is absolutely no possibility for the King of Yue to surrender." Fan Li knew about this in ancient times and said something very confident.
Sima Ranju asked seemingly casually: "Why?"
Fan Li said with some emotion: "The King of Yue has long had the courage to lie down on the firewood, who in the world doesn't know about it?"
That is to say, even if the Yue King Gou Jian sincerely wants to surrender, there is a high probability that he will not be believed. Once captured, he will be closely guarded and even secretly killed soon, and it is impossible to give him another chance to stage a comeback.
Thinking back to the beginning, Fu Chai might have humiliated Gou Jian in some matters, but in general, he still treated Gou Jian in a manner consistent with his status.
At that time, Gou Jian had other plans. He was willing to taste Fu Cha's feces and ask about his illness, sleep in a woodshed, etc., all of which were to temper himself.
Fu Cha, who was obviously very cruel and brutal, did not kill or imprison Gou Jian, which was not in line with the behavior of the Wu people at all.
Later, Fu Chai even released Gou Jian back. As a result, after the Wu army went north, Gou Jian stole his nest.
Whether it's about lying on the firewood to taste courage, or about three thousand Yuejia swallowing Wu, the relevant allusions actually only teach people in the future generations one truth: Those who want to do great things must never be merciful!
Fan Li said to Sima Ranju very carefully: "General, the Vietnamese army is afraid that they will be willing to fight to the death."
In the past few days, the Vietnamese army has just been unable to retreat.
The original army was wondering whether the Vietnamese army was timid or was gathering strength to break out.
Sima Ranju was more inclined to believe that the Vietnamese army was preparing to break out, and knowing that the Vietnamese navy was trapped in a certain bay, he believed that the Vietnamese army would choose the southwest direction once it launched a breakout.
Now, someone who had served Gou Jian for more than ten years said that the Vietnamese army would fight to the death, which only made Sima Ranju more firm in his conjecture.
After all, the Yue Navy was trapped on the beach and would definitely send someone to contact Yue King Gou Jian.
Then, the news that the Yue navy was blocked must have reached the ears of King Gou Jian of Yue. They had lost their retreat at sea. It was not impossible to break out towards Donglai in the northeast direction. The problem was that there was no navy after retreating to Donglai.
Answer, how to get back to the mainland of Vietnam?
When we retreated to Donglai, there was no strong city to hold on to, and there was no dangerous terrain to rely on. There was no hope of supplies in Donglai, which was vast and sparsely populated.
In this case, instead of losing more vitality by going around in circles, it is better to break through to the southwest with a will to die.
There is a more important point. It is true that the original country has invested three legions, but it does not mean that the original country only has three legions that can participate in the war.
Even if the Yuan country still needs to defend against Song, Chu or other forces, it can always have the troops to send out another legion to directly invade the mainland of Yue, right?
Thinking in a worse direction, if the Yuan Kingdom did not invade the mainland of Yue State, would it be possible for Song and Chu to invade? That is not a possibility. It should be said that Song and Chu knew what kind of situation Yue was facing.
Under certain circumstances, they will definitely take action!
The main force of the Yue Kingdom is trapped in a corner of "Langya". If it continues, the hometown of King Goujian of Yue will be lost. If King Goujian of Yue does not lead his army to fight, there is really no other way out except waiting for death.
Fan Li asked more suddenly: "I wonder what the relationship between Chen and Yue is like. Have they been in frequent contact recently?"
Sima Ranju has already considered this, but it is difficult to verify it.
Even if some of the ministers of the Yue Kingdom were bribed by the Yuan Kingdom, or if they saw that the ship of the Yue Kingdom was about to sink and bought the Yuan Kingdom, they really could not deliver the news just because they wanted to.
To put it harshly, it is impossible for Sima Ranju to believe all the news from the people who were bribed in Yue Kingdom or whoever it is. What to do based on the news is a question that the Central Committee of the Yuan Kingdom must consider. Their main task is to
Eliminate the main force of the Yue Kingdom.
When Fan Li saw that Sima Ranju didn't respond, he said in a solemn voice: "The Chen State has no shortage of sea-going ships when it migrates across the sea. If the Chen State's monarchs and ministers had a choice, how could they sit back and watch the Yue Kingdom perish?"
There is really a possibility that Chen Guo sent a fleet to try to meet the Vietnamese army, or tried its best to rescue the Yue King Gou Jian.
As for how Chen Guo will deal with Yue King Gou Jian after they rescued Yue King Gou Jian, it depends on whether the Yue State will survive in the future.
If the Yue Kingdom can continue to exist, Chen Guoguo will ask the Yue King Gou Jian to return to "Kuiji" to continue resisting.
If the Yue State had been destroyed soon, Chen State would have taken the head of King Goujian of Yue to claim credit from the original state.
Sima Ranju knew that Fan Li had been following the fleet for too long, and the information he knew was somewhat out of line. He thought about it and said: "Song State sent an envoy to form an alliance with Dayuan to carve up the Yue Kingdom."
"Is it a scam?" Fan Li's first thought was this.
Sima Ranju made no comment, only stated the facts he already knew, and said: "Twenty thousand Song troops have crossed the border after passing through the 'Pi' area."
Fan Li felt that the Song State's deceit was purely out of hesitation. Hearing the last sentence of Sima Ranju, he couldn't help but smile bitterly and commented: "The kings and ministers of the Song State...are so greedy for profit?"
Let's put it this way, no matter how much advantage the Song State took over the Yue State in this wave, it would only make the Chu State distrust the Song State from now on, and the Yuan State would make a lot of money.
Not to mention the fact that the Yuan army trapped the main force of the Vietnamese army, but the Song Kingdom took advantage and angered the Yuan Kingdom.
Fan Li actually wanted to comment on the stupidity of the monarchs and ministers of the Song Dynasty. From the standpoint of the original country, he couldn't say that.
Sima Ranju knew that Fan Li still had feelings for Yue and was unwilling to make any comments.
In fact, it is normal for Fan Li to have feelings for the country of Yue. He helped the country of Yue turn from a weak country into a strong country. He was afraid of being killed by Gou Jian before resigning and left. He certainly did not want the country that he had worked hard to become bigger and stronger to become so useless.
Already.
Sima Ranju smiled and continued: "There are also 60,000 Chu troops heading east to invade Yue."
Fan Li asked a key question: "Has Dayuan formed an alliance with Song and Chu?"
