Chapter 2318: Fight wherever you go, the second Chu-Vietnam war
The various countries in Tianzhu were conquering each other, and the scale was getting bigger and bigger. Ye Qingmei was worried that Da Qin would be involved, so after selling some prisoners of war and captured ships at a low price, he decisively chose to return.
When they came to Tianzhu, Ye Qingmei's ship was only loaded with various goods, but when it returned, it was loaded with gold and silver wealth, local specialties from South Asia, plants and fruits, and 10,000 Tianzhu female slaves.
What Ye Qingmei didn't know was that not long after her fleet left Tianzhu, the Shurasena Kingdom was destroyed.
The strongest force in the Shurasena Kingdom was the navy, but it was destroyed by Qi Jiguang in one battle. Without the protection of the navy, it was naturally difficult to resist the invasion of foreign enemies.
In the end, most of the territory of Shurasena Kingdom was occupied by the Gupta Kingdom, and the remaining territory was wiped out by other forces.
The return trip was naturally much smoother than when it came. After all, the fleet had already sailed once. The countries and pirates along the way had either been defeated or destroyed. Naturally, no one dared to provoke the Daqin fleet.
After more than half a month of sailing, Ye Qingmei's fleet docked at Port Magellan to replenish water and fresh vegetables, only to learn that a civil war had also occurred in Myanmar, and that it was getting worse.
The reason was that Anuruddha, the king of Bagan, after buying equipment from Daqin, felt that the combat power of his country's army had surpassed that of the other two countries, so he used profit as a temptation to unite four small countries and proactively provoked a war. To complete the unification.
The two major kingdoms of Toungoo and Gonbang, as well as three other small kingdoms, were obviously unwilling to be annexed by the Bagan Kingdom, so they formed a coalition to fight against Bagan.
Although the Myanmar region is in chaos, all parties are still rational, and the war has not affected Port Magellan.
Ye Qingmei didn't care at all about the outcome of the Burmese civil war. What she wanted to do most now was to return to the Central Plains. So after replenishing water and supplies, she was ready to set off immediately and continue her return journey. However, before leaving, envoys from various countries came one after another. Goodbye.
After meeting these people, Ye Qingmei found out that they had come to place new orders with Da Qin, and what they bought were naturally all kinds of equipment.
You must know that ordnance is a consumable item. The more intense the war, the faster the ordnance will be consumed.
Now that the civil war in Myanmar has begun and is getting more intense, and we don’t know when it will end, countries of course need to buy more ordnance and store it just in case.
The total number of orders placed by various countries in Myanmar can already equip an army of 150,000 people. This is a big business. Ye Qingmei naturally has no reason to refuse and makes an appointment to trade during Da Qin's second voyage to the West.
After the supplies were completed, Ye Qingmei returned directly. After another sailing, the fleet successfully arrived at Jiguang Port. When they docked to replenish supplies, they learned that the capital of the Ayutthaya Kingdom had been conquered by the Eight-Power Allied Forces.
After hearing the news, Ye Qingmei was so happy. The most disgusting people she met on this voyage were the King of Ayutthaya and the Fourth Prince. Now that Ayutthaya has been conquered, the Eight-Nation Alliance of Siam has also been defeated. She let out a bad breath.
Ye Qingmei originally thought that the Eight-Nation Allied Forces would take this opportunity to directly eliminate the great trouble of Ayutthaya, but the result was completely opposite to what she thought.
Not only did the Eight-Power Allied Forces not destroy Ayutthaya, but because of the uneven distribution of benefits, internal strife broke out and they fought violently. Ayutthaya, which was on the verge of annihilation, miraculously survived.
This result left Ye Qingmei extremely speechless, but this was the choice of the Siamese countries, and she had no choice.
After learning that Ye Qingmei was back, various countries in Siam also sent envoys to Jiguang Port to ask for a meeting. The purpose was naturally the same as that of other countries in Myanmar, which was to place new ordnance orders with Da Qin.
The number of orders placed by various countries in Siam was also large, and could equip a total of about 130,000 troops. Naturally, Ye Qingmei refused to accept anyone who came, and also agreed to trade during his second voyage to the West.
After leaving Siam, Ye Qingmei returned to Qingbei, leaving only the last transfer station, Annan Qingmei Port.
When Ye Qingmei left Annan before, there was no war in Annan, but when she returned, she didn't expect that Annan was also at war.
Ye Qingmei herself had some doubts. Was she cursed? Why was she beaten wherever she went? It's all weird.
The war in Annan was not a civil war. After all, the threat of Chu State came again, and the major forces in Annan simply did not dare to fight among themselves, and this time they were fighting Chu State again.
On October 10, the first year of Shenwu, Lin Fengxiang, the governor of Jiaozhi of Chu State, led 5,000 Jiaozhou troops and took the initiative to invade Annan.
The reason why Lin Fengxiang took the initiative to send troops to Annan was very simple, just to grab money, people and resources.
The State of Chu was also recuperating and wanted to develop its internal affairs, but the treasury was tight and Liu Xiu couldn't come up with the money, so he asked the governors of each county to find their own way.
Although Lin Fengxiang was the governor of a county, he was a military commander after all. In his opinion, robbing was the fastest way to make money.
Previously, Annan's 100,000 coalition troops were defeated by Chu's 10,000 Jiaozhou County. Those Annan prisoners captured by Chu's army were either used for mining or farming, but they created a lot of wealth for Chu.
Now that Lin Fengxiang's Jiaozhi County is short of money, the only quickest way he can think of to get money is to rob it from these Annan barbarians, so the neighboring Annan forces will naturally suffer.
Although Annan's local forces bought equipment from Da Qin, their equipment was not much worse than Chu's, but in terms of army training and troop formation, they were still very different from Chu's army.
In the end, the 5,000 Jiaozhou Army led by Lin Fengxiang achieved a record of killing 8,000 enemies in one battle, while suffering less than 800 casualties.
Then, with lightning speed, Lin Fengxiang directly destroyed a small local force in Annan, grabbed a large amount of wealth, and captured 50,000 Annan people, returning home with a full load.
Ruan Yue and other major forces in Annan were in a collective uproar after learning the news. In anger, they once again thought of forming a coalition to avenge Chu.
After purchasing equipment from Da Qin, Annan's army has replaced its guns with cannons, and its self-confidence has grown to an unprecedented level.
Even if Lin Fengxiang led an army of five thousand and easily destroyed a local force in Annan, they still felt that it was because of Lin Fengxiang's sneak attack that they could not win with force.
Under the leadership of the Ruan and Yue countries, the Annan anti-Chu coalition was established again. The major forces totaled 120,000 troops and were divided into two groups. The Ruan and Yue groups each led one group to attack Jiaozhi County and Jiuzhen County respectively.
At the same time that Annan was forming the coalition forces, major events also occurred on the Chu side.
After Lin Fengxiang returned victorious, he seized a lot of weapons and equipment of Yanzhao standard. He instinctively realized that something was wrong, so he reported the news to the governor's office, who in turn reported it to the king of Chu, Liu Xiu.
After Liu Xiu learned about it, he immediately summoned his ministers to discuss whether weapons from the destroyed Yan and Zhao countries would appear in barbaric places like Annan?
The Chu State still had no shortage of capable people. Military advisor Pang Tongyi could tell at a glance that it was the Qin State that sold these weapons to Annan through the navy, thereby turning waste into treasure.
The navy of Qin State was able to sail across the sea. Liu Xiu had known this for a long time, but to be able to cross the seas of Qing, Xu, Yang and Jiaozhou and sail all the way to the Annan area was greatly exceeded. Liu Xiu, and even everyone in Chu State was surprised.
Since ancient times, ships in the south and horses in the north have sailed.
The navy of Chu State was the Neihu Navy, and later it was changed to the Yangtze River Navy. But even so, it still did not have the ability to sail.
And the Great Qin in the north not only has an elite navy, but it can also sail to Annan. Is there anything more outrageous than this in the world?
The civil and military officials of Chu State were unwilling to accept that Da Qin had surpassed Chu State in naval warfare, but at least in terms of shipbuilding technology, there was no doubt that Da Qin had surpassed Chu State by far.
Liu Xiu always believed that Chu's only advantage over Qin was the natural danger of the Yangtze River and its navy.
Now the shipbuilding technology of Great Qin has far surpassed that of Chu, and in terms of water warfare, warships are the most important factor.
Therefore, even if the navy of Chu is stronger than that of Qin, can Chu defeat Qin in a naval battle when its warships are far behind?
This is obviously difficult.
Liu Xiu could not tolerate that Chu's navy was inferior to Qin's, so he invested a lot of money to improve shipbuilding technology, not to surpass Qin, but at least to shorten the gap.
The improvement of shipbuilding technology does not happen overnight.
With Liu Xiu's strong support, Chu's shipbuilding technology has indeed improved a lot, reaching the level of offshore navigation, but there is still a huge gap compared with Da Qin.
Liu Xiu saw that independent research and development was not feasible, so he wanted to steal Qin's shipbuilding technology by buying off Qin's shipwrights.
But it is a pity that the Qin State has extremely strict control over shipbuilding. There are no shipwrights who have complete shipbuilding technology, and they implement militarized management of shipwrights.
Even if Chu State could bribe people, it would be difficult to bring them back to Chu State. Even if it could bring people back, it would only be part of the technology, and it would still be unable to build ships to rival the warships of Great Qin.
Although Chu State failed to obtain technology from Da Qin, it did obtain it from Wu State. Although it was not as good as Da Qin, it was still better than Chu State's own shipbuilding technology.
Liu Xiu saw that there was no way to bribe the shipbuilders, so he came up with the idea of capturing a Qin warship and then imitating it.
After having the sample of the ship, although it does not mean that Chu State can imitate it, it will definitely be much easier than developing it by itself.
Liu Xiu didn't know why the Great Qin navy would come to Annan again, but since Great Qin would sell discarded ordnance to Annan once, it would definitely sell it a second time. He just had to wait and see.
The navy of the Chu State was basically concentrated on the Yangtze River. The river between Jingnan and Jiaozhou was not connected. The navy of the Chu State could not go directly to Jiaozhou by water, nor could it go around the Yangtze River and into the sea to go to Jiaozhou. After all, it would pass through the State of Wu. Will be intercepted by the Wu navy.
Liu Xiu saw that he could not transfer the navy to Jiaozhou, so he appointed Gan Ning as the commander of the navy in Jiaozhou, and asked him to take a large number of shipwrights to Jiaozhou, build a shipyard in Jiaozhou to build warships, and recruit 10,000 sailors.
Isn’t Liu Xiu excellent? Naturally excellent, but due to the limitations of the times, he, and even everyone in Chu State, focused their attention on Qin State's shipbuilding technology, but did not pay attention to Qin State's maritime trade.
Liu Xiu thought that Great Qin was just using waste by selling weapons to the barbarians, or that it was using the Annan barbarians to contain the Chu State. He was not aware of the huge profits of Great Qin's sea trade.
When Liu Xiu realized it, it was already too late. Da Qin had unified the Central Plains, and its troops were pointing directly to the south of the Yangtze River. All the energy of the Chu State was used to defend Da Qin, and how could there be any spare energy to share the big cake of sea trade.
For Liu Xiu, the biggest opponent was Da Qin. As for the local forces in Annan, he simply ignored them for no other reason than that they were too weak and backward.
Even if the major forces in Annan had purchased weapons from Da Qin, they still couldn't get into Liu Xiu's eyes.
In Liu Xiu's view, the Chu State only needed to dispatch an army of 30,000 to 40,000 people, which was enough to sweep away all the forces in the Annan region, but he never thought of occupying Annan at all.
It is easy to occupy Annan, but direct management and development are not easy.
That land is still an undeveloped primitive jungle. Even the land of Jiaozhou in Chu State has not yet been fully developed. What is going to do with such a wild land?
Although Liu Xiu had not thought about occupying Annan, Annan's population and other resources were also a wealth for Chu State, so he agreed to Lin Fengxiang's sending troops to Annan.
As for the major forces in Annan forming a coalition and sending 120,000 troops to attack Jiaozhou, Liu Xiu naturally knew about it, but he still didn't care.
In Liu Xiu's view, the 40,000 defenders in Jiaozhou, as well as generals such as Li Xiucheng, Lin Fengxiang, and Li Kaifang, were enough to repel the Annan coalition.
To Liu Xiu's expectation, he received a request for help from Zhennan General Li Xiucheng shortly afterwards.
Li Xiucheng would ask Liu Xiu for help, not that he was unsure of winning.
After the Annan countries changed to new equipment, their combat effectiveness was no longer what it used to be. In addition, they had an army of 120,000. Li Xiucheng felt that even if he could win with the Jiaozhou Army, he would probably have to pay a high price, so out of caution For the sake of safety, we hope that the domestic elite will continue to come to support us.
Liu Xiu felt that what Li Xiucheng's memorial said was reasonable, so he appointed Guo Ziyi as the chief general and Chai Rong as the deputy general. They commanded 3,000 elite Chu troops and went south to support Zhennan General Li Xiucheng.
Guo Ziyi and Chai Rong were very excited when they learned about it. They had just surrendered. However, they had just arrived and had no merit, so they were entrusted with important tasks by Liu Xiu. Therefore, many soldiers in the Chu army refused to obey them.
Guo Ziyi and Chai Rong also wanted to perform meritorious service to prove themselves, but the Chu State was also in the process of self-cultivation and had even carried out disarmament, so there was no war, so naturally there was no chance for the two of them to perform meritorious service.
This time, leading the army south to Jiaozhou to support Zhennan General Li Xiucheng, it was not only Guo Ziyi and Chai Rong's first battle after surrendering to Chu, but also their best opportunity to prove their capabilities through meritorious service.
The only fly in the ointment is that their opponents are only Annan barbarians. Even if they win this battle, the two of them will not have much sense of accomplishment.
Yesterday's chapter
(End of chapter)
