After receiving Qin Hao's order, Zhou Yu and Qi Jiguang had a dispute over who would lead the original Yellow River navy to the north.
Zhou Yu wanted to lead the army in person, but Qi Jiguang believed that Zhou Yu, the commander of the Qingzhou navy, should not move lightly, so he should lead the navy northward.
Since Qi Jiguang came to Qingzhou, he and Zhou Yu have cooperated very harmoniously and have never had any quarrels, but this time is different.
This time the Qingzhou navy goes north. If the navy can finally win the opportunity to take credit in the Battle of Hebei, it will be related to the selection of the navy commander in the future.
Qi Jiguang also wanted to compete for the position of Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, but he was inferior to Zhou Yu in terms of qualifications and military achievements, so he naturally did not want to miss this final opportunity to make a contribution.
In comparison, Zhou Yu's fundamentals are much more stable.
Zhou Yu's master is the Commander-in-Chief Bai Qi, and his father is a prefect-level official. He has a background in both military and political affairs, and his own military achievements are equally impressive. Even if he does not compete for the opportunity to personally lead the expedition north, he may become the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy.
Sex is also the biggest.
But Zhou Yu is not someone who will find trouble for himself, and will never cultivate a rival for himself. In order to ensure nothing goes wrong, he will naturally seize this opportunity to lead the army northward.
Zhou Yu and Qi Jiguang both wanted to lead the army northward, but they refused to give in. Neither could convince the other, and the fight was not over for an hour.
Although Zhou Yu is the commander-in-chief, Qi Jiguang is also the deputy-general, and his status is second only to himself. It is not easy for him to seize this opportunity by force.
Seeing that Qi Jiguang could not be mentioned, Zhou Yu sighed and pretended to be helpless and said: "Brother Qi, in this case, let's let everyone vote anonymously. Whoever has more supporters will lead the army north to the Bohai Sea. How about it?"
"
Qi Jiguang frowned slightly. Although Zhou Yu came to Qingbei not long ago, he came later than Zhou Yu. In terms of prestige, Zhou Yu must be higher.
Although Qi Jiguang knew clearly that Zhou Yu was digging a hole for him, he couldn't avoid it. In addition, he also wanted to know how many people would support him, so he nodded and said, "This is a good idea, so let's do it."
Zhou Yu felt slightly relieved and said: "Okay, now let's start the anonymous voting..."
Qin Hao was not the one who caused anonymous voting. The first person to do it was Wang Mang.
During the Beihai War, although Wang Mang was the commander-in-chief of the coalition forces, after all, the military power in his hands came from other forces. In order to better restrain his generals and avoid causing conflicts, he came up with the form of anonymous voting.
After being informed by the Qin Army at this time, Li Jing had never used anonymous voting when he was still in Qingbei, and the effect was indeed very good, so now Zhou Yu decided to carry it forward.
Except for Zhou Yu and Qi Jiguang, all generals above the rank of captain participated in the anonymous vote. In the end, two-thirds of the generals voted for Zhou Yu, and only one-third voted for Qi Jiguang.
After learning the result, Qi Jiguang felt disappointed and lost. He had made great achievements in suppressing Japanese invaders. He thought that the gap between him and Zhou Yu would not be too big, but he did not expect that Zhou Yu's supporters were twice as many as his own.
"Brother Qi,"
Although Zhou Yu won, he was secretly surprised. He didn't expect that Qi Jiguang would have so many supporters not long after he came to Qingbei. If he hadn't been in Qingbei for a longer time, Qi Jiguang might not have been able to win through anonymous voting.
Zhou Yu suddenly realized that the competitive pressure on the navy was not much less than that on the cavalry. Even if he became the governor, he still had to be careful not to make mistakes, otherwise Qi Jiguang and Han Shizhong would still replace him.
After Zhou Yu handed over the task of training the navy to his deputy general Qi Jiguang, he personally led the 5,000 Yellow River navy and sailed away all the large ships in Qingbei and some medium-sized warships to Bohai County.
Small ships cannot cross the sea, and their speed is still slow, so they are not suitable for transporting grain and grass. Therefore, only large and medium-sized warships can undertake the task of transporting grain.
Most of the Liangshanshui Army warships captured by the Qin Army were small and medium-sized warships. There were only three large warships. There were even more Japanese pirate warships captured, but there were only less than ten large warships.
.
In addition to the Qin army's own warships, Zhou Yu took a total of twenty large warships and thirty medium-sized warships, for a total of fifty warships to the Bohai Sea.
Large warships can each carry five thousand stones of grain and grass, while medium-sized warships can only carry one thousand stones. In other words, fifty warships can transport 130,000 stones of grain and grass from the Bohai Sea to Youbeiping in one trip, which is enough for Youbeiping.
The Qin army spent a month.
The Bohai Sea is hundreds of miles away from Youbeiping. It takes at least ten days to transport grain by land, but it only takes three days by sea. The Qin army and navy can make five round trips in one month.
Therefore, for the current Qin army, transporting grain by sea is indeed better than transporting food by land.
When Zhou Yu's navy arrived at the Bohai port, they found that the port was full of grain and grass.
Gu Yong, the governor of the Bohai Sea, was very concerned about transporting grain by sea. He mobilized 30,000 strong men to carry grain and grass and help Zhou Yu carry it onto the ship.
Under the unremitting efforts of 30,000 strong men, it took only one day to carry 130,000 shi of grain onto the ship. However, the port still pushed 40,000 to 50,000 shi of grain, which was too much to hold.
"Gong Jin, why did you only bring fifty warships?" Gu Yong said with a look of complaint. In his opinion, the war in Youzhou was so big that all the warships from the Qingzhou Navy should be transferred here.
grain.
"I do think so, but the foundation of the Qingzhou navy is too weak. There are not enough sailors and helmsmen to control the warships." Zhou Yu said with a bitter smile.
He and Gu Yong have known each other for a long time. Both of them are from Jiangdong families, and there are few Jiangdong people in the Qin army's political circles, so they are naturally more united. The two are natural political allies, and there are not so many exchanges.
concern.
"Well, it seems that training navy troops is also a hard job." Gu Yong joked with a smile.
"How can you compare with Yuan Tan, the governor of Bohai?" Zhou Yu said angrily.
Gu Yong smiled and did not continue talking. He was not in his position, did not seek political advice, and did not know the hardships. Everyone thought that he, the governor of Bohai, had unlimited glory. Only he himself knew the difficulties and dangers involved.
It’s really hard to be a Qin official! Gu Yong sighed secretly in his heart.
"By the way, Yuan Tan, I see those strong men have been carrying goods."
Zhou Yu pointed to another port where strong men were carrying goods back and forth and asked, "What are they moving?"
"The ordnance is to be sold to Wei, Song, Wu and other countries. They were captured by South Korea and Zhao. Our army cannot use them. It is better to sell them in exchange for funds to develop Hebei."
Gu Yong couldn't stop talking once he started talking, and complained to Zhou Yu: "Gong Jin, you don't know that life for us prefects is hard.
The county doesn't have much money on its books, but everything costs money, so it can only rely on selling ordnance to ease its finances."
Zhou Yu saw that some of the warships looked familiar, so he pointed at them and asked, "Which of the Three Kingdoms is this warship?"
"That's not a warship from the three kingdoms of Wei, Song and Wu. It's a warship from Wang Mang of Three Han Dynasties."
"Who?" Zhou Yu asked with wide eyes and a look of shock.
"Wang Mang, this Wang Mang is really powerful. After the defeat in Beihai, he only led thousands of remnant troops to flee to the three Koreas. However, he destroyed several effects in the three Koreas and established his power again. Now he is still fighting with our army.
Started a business..."
After listening to Gu Yong's words, Zhou Yu suddenly took a breath. He had been training troops in Qingbei. He didn't know that Wang Mang and the Qin army were doing arms trading, and he didn't know that Wang Mang had fled to Sanhan. It was too early for Sanhan to be established again.
He had conquered a powerful force, and even dared to buy ordnance from the Qin army.
Zhou Yu participated in the Battle of Beihai, so he naturally knew that the Qin army had a blood feud with Wang Mang, but now that Wang Mang had fled overseas, even the Qin army was beyond his reach.
"This Wang Mang is really difficult to deal with, but after my 50,000 navy troops are trained, I can't destroy him easily." Zhou Yu said confidently.
After bidding farewell to Gu Yong, Zhou Yu led fifty warships loaded with grain and grass and headed straight to Youbeiping, completely solving the problem of unstable grain routes for the Qin Army on the fifth route.