Of course, Zhuge Dan didn't know that when he left Chengdu, Ma Su's messenger had just left Chengdu with a horse, traveling day and night, and rushed all the way to Jiaozhou... He had just arrived in Wuling leisurely and had Wei Ba's reply back to Chengdu.
When Mrs. Xi arrived in Xiangyang, Wei Feng had already received a urgent letter from Wei Ba.
Two letters have the same meaning: watch the changes.
What Zhuge Liang was thinking was expected from the beginning. When he heard that Zhuge Liang was still holding troops at Hangu Pass, he felt even more confident.
It sounds profound and actually is not mysterious at all. The competition between the two sides is still psychological. Zhuge Liang bets that Li Yan Chen cannot hold back and wants to compete with him for merit, but he forgot one thing, Li Yan Chen
It’s useless to not hold back, Wei Ba is so calm. As long as Wei Ba doesn’t let go, Li Yan is so anxious that he doesn’t dare to act rashly.
Because he has a killer move, as long as he doesn't give Li Yan the fire bullet, Li Yan will not dare to provoke Lu Xun easily.
In his opinion, the fire bomb actually has limited effect and cannot really control the outcome, but in Li Yan's opinion, it is not the same thing. In Wancheng and Kunyang, many wars have proved the important role of the fire bomb.
.When the Wu army had fire bombs, Li Yan would not send troops to attack Wu rashly, and he would be bored by himself.
In the final analysis, in the face of real strength, all conspiracies are in vain.
If Wei Ba remained safe, Li Yan would not dare to move. If Li Yan did not dare to move, Zhuge Liang's leverage to fight the force would inevitably fail.
Just like saving Ma Su, you can take action, but it depends on the timing. If the opportunity is not right, the effect of taking action is very different and far away.
Li Yan was nervous in Chengdu, Zhuge Liang didn't know, but the Shu Han army in Nanyang did not move, which was real. Meng Da did not move lightly. After Lu Xun conquered Yingchuan, although the main force had already arrived in Henan, he had to leave 10,000.
Many people were guarding Kunyang to prevent Meng Da from catching his retreat. He was determined to do so, so he naturally could not do his best. The Han and Wu coalition seemed to have surrounded Luoyang, and the situation was very good, but anyone with a discerning eye knew that this must be a battle.
It is still unknown who will win the battle for a long time.
Wei Ba hopes that the longer they fight, the better. If they fight for one more day, they can sell more fire bombs. This is absolutely huge profit. As Zhuge Dan said, he is now making money. If they fight until the beginning of spring
If it affects spring plowing, it would be better. The food prices in autumn will inevitably rise sharply, and the tide of people in the north fleeing south will be even more fierce.
He now lacks nothing, but people. Whether it is Jiaozhou or Wuling counties, there are not many people. Zhuge Liang prepared for war in Guanzhong for a year, and nearly 200,000 people fled south, providing Wei Ba's development of Jiaozhou.
Excellent opportunity. If they fight like this for another year, there is no doubt that even the people of Jizhou will flee to Jiaozhou for refuge.
It is not enough to expand territory. The key is to cultivate people. Only when the people have established a firm foothold can this land be truly included in the territory. Otherwise, it will have to be thrown away sooner or later, just like giving up.
Like Zhu Ya. Although Wei Ba has only sent less than 300 soldiers to Zhu Ya, tens of thousands of Guanzhong people who have brought their families to treat Zhu Ya as their new home and are doing their best to build houses and open up wastelands.
.
In this case, how could Wei Ba be willing to help Zhuge Liang conquer Luoyang quickly? He was willing to let Zhuge Liang get 500,000 stones of rice and one million fire bombs by shooting white strips. It was not that he hoped that he would fight quickly, but that he would win the battle quickly, but that he would not be able to do so quickly.
I hope he can send troops firmly. If Zhuge Liang does not send troops, how can he make profits from it?
Now, Zhuge Liang and Lu Xun surrounded Luoyang, and Cao Rui held on his own in Luoyang City. For the final victory, even though they knew that Wei Ba was drinking their blood, they could only wash their necks and send them over.
...
Donghai County, Qu County, about five miles from the coast.
More than a hundred Wu army warships of all sizes are striving to catch up with five merchant ships.
General Wei Wen of Henghai was standing on the bow of the ship, staring at the five sea boats that were desperately fleeing, and gritting his teeth in anger. These five merchant ships were all from Jiaozhou, and no matter what they were loaded on them, they were all
Wei Wen wanted to capture the general of the auxiliary country, and surrounded Luoyang, but for a while, he did not have enough strength to win. The reason was that Wei State spared no expense and purchased a large amount of food and fire bombs from Jiaozhou.
The fire bombs were too expensive. Sun Quan bowed his head to the Jiangdong family, but he only raised 40,000 to 50,000 yuan and purchased a million fire bombs from Wei Ba. The last batch of 300,000 yuan had not been paid yet, so he couldn't get it.
When the goods arrived, Lu Xun, who was waiting for the fire bomb to attack the city, was extremely anxious and sent people to ask for it almost every day.
Sun Quan had no choice but to have the idea of robbing the road.
Wei State was also buying supplies from Jiaozhou, but they could not transport them by land, so they had to go from sea. Long-distance shipping on sea was originally a very dangerous thing. Once they encountered great storms and waves, they did not have time to enter the port for a temporary escape, and they would probably have a boat.
Destroyed people and died. Therefore, the Wu State did not take this transportation channel seriously at first, but only thought that the people of Wei were squeezed by the door, and were in a hurry to seek medical treatment, and wanted to give money to Wei Ba and the Sea God.
But I never thought that this sea route had become a life-saving road for Wei. Ships of food and ships of fire bombs were transported from Jiaozhou to Luoyang, and finally hit Wu Jun's head.
For Sun Quan, robbing these merchant ships was a killing of two birds with one stone. It could not only cut off Cao Rui's hope, but also get it for nothing, and no longer have to be exploited by the greedy Wei Ba. So he sent two generals, Wei Wen and Zhuge Zhi, to lead three thousand
The navy was waiting for these Wei merchant ships in the East China Sea.
Sure enough, they were waiting for it. Shortly after they arrived in the East China Sea, they met the fleet of five merchant ships head-on. Wei Wen and Zhuge Zhi flew separately, preparing to catch all the five merchant ships in one go.
But something strange happened, and their warships could not catch up with these huge merchant ships. When the other party saw them, they turned around and sailed deep into the sea. They only saw the water splashing behind the ship, the white waves rolling, and running fast,
Can't keep up.
This surprised Wu Jun, who had rich experience in water warfare, that the warship could not catch up with the cargo ship?
"General, you can't chase after him anymore." The scout who watched the wind shouted loudly: "The wind blew, and within half an hour, the storm will come."
Wei Wen was shocked. He knew that these scouts had grown up by the sea since childhood and had rich experience in wind and waves. Although the wind and waves on the sea are not big now, as long as they say there are strong winds and waves within half an hour, then half an hour will definitely be on the sea.
It will be turbid and turbulent.
The swelling waves, his tower ship can't afford it, and it will definitely overturn.
"Dang to shelter from the wind!" Wei Wen quickly ordered that he did not dare to take risks. He glared at the sea boat in the distance, spitted, and cursed: "Let all these Wei dogs be eaten by the sirens."
The horns of Wu Jun were heard everywhere, and the chasing warships gradually gathered and headed towards the shore.
On the sea boat in front, Cao Fu laughed loudly, spitted hard into the sea, and laughed loudly: "Suncle, why don't you chase me? Come and chase me, let's see if you can pick up the fart."
The soldiers on the boat laughed, let go of the bowstrings, put away the arrows on the strings, and looked relaxed.
Cao Fu patted the railing and said proudly: "I'm doing this business worth it. When I go back and unload the goods, I will sell this ship to the navy. If I don't have to lose it, I have to sell it for 200 yuan. I can still make money.
One person came and sent someone to Luoyang to prepare to pick up the boat.”
"Here." A personal guard responded loudly and issued an order with the colorful flag in his hand. In the distance, a small boat was put down and rowed towards the shore. However, the five large boats still pulled all sails in the distant sea.
Go urgently in the north.
...
Lu Lan hurried into the big tent, leaned into Lu Xun's ear, and whispered a few times.
Lu Xun's face darkened, he turned his head and said to Hu Zong: "The king hasn't paid the final payment yet?"
Hu Zong was stunned for a moment: "Did the general say the batch of fire bombs I bought recently?"
"Of course." Lu Xun snorted unhappily: "Ten thousand troops are stranded under the city. How much food is consumed in a day? The first month is about to end, and spring plowing will be in two months. Why has the fire bomb not yet been transported?"
Hu Zong smiled bitterly: "General, you don't know. Now the king really has no money. In the end, he is still missing four thousand gold. Wei Ba is determined not to make any payment. He must get the money before delivery. Xia Hou is the person in charge of the accounting.
Hui, she is from Wei, and she is obviously favoring the Wei people. We really can’t do anything about it.”
"If you can't help, just grab it?" Lu Xun was really angry: "Even if you go to grab it, you have to be prepared. The navy will fail when he robs five cargo ships. What's going on? Are you robbing it now?
I rushed and wasted more than half a month in vain. Who is the responsibility?"
Hu Zong was shocked. "No, that's the three thousand navy."
"No?" Lu Xun took a piece of paper from Lu Lan's hand and threw it in front of Hu Zong: "Look, this is a manifesto that the Wei people laughed at us."
Hu Zong took the paper, glanced at it, and his face turned pale. The robbery failed, and the Wei army entered Luoyang with a large number of grain and fire bombs. How could he fight in Luoyang? He couldn't figure out how this was possible? That was three thousand waters.
Division. The Wu Navy may suffer a little loss when encountering the Han Army Navy. When will it encounter a cargo ship be so incompetent?
"Please tell the king immediately that our army is ready, and we will wait for the fire bomb to arrive to start siege." Lu Xun sighed and slowed down again: "I know the king is nervous now, but now that things have come to this, is he going to let go halfway?
Is it? In any case, please pay the last payment and transport the fire bomb as soon as possible. Otherwise..."
Lu Xun paused and said in a gloomy tone: "...I had to withdraw my troops, so as not to break the lives of tens of thousands of soldiers here in vain."
"Here." Hu Zong did not dare to refute, so he quickly got up and hurriedly walked out.
The tent was silent, and Zhuge Ke looked elsewhere and remained silent. Lu Lan sighed, Lu Xun's face was as deep as water, Zhu Ran, Pan Zhang and others sighed repeatedly. A thought came to their minds at the same time, although Luoyang gathered close together inside and outside.
The 200,000 army, but it was not them who really decided the direction of the battlefield, but Wei Ba who was thousands of miles away. No matter who won this battle, there was only one winner. Whether it was Wei or Wu,
Shu Han was exploited by Wei Ba. Just the fire bomb, Wei Ba sold at least three million pieces and made a profit of more than 100,000 gold, which was equivalent to the total tax amount in the Wu Kingdom in two years.