Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1358 Blind Spot
It has been more than a year since Cao Pi ascended the throne, and it is already late autumn, but Sima Yi still cannot feel a bit of coolness.

He was really sweating profusely, because he could now see that Jin had not used its full strength in its recent attacks on Wei, but had instead equipped itself with a large number of light and mobile war machines that could cooperate with the cavalry.

Moreover, the soldiers of Jin State were replaced several times. This was not because the previous soldiers died in battle, but because Jin State adopted the tactic of old leading new to train new recruits.

According to Jin army prisoners captured by Wei army, they called this action "rotational warfare" and its purpose was to consume the manpower of Wei soldiers.

But Sima Yi knew very well that the other side was like this, and he had no good countermeasures. He could only try his best to reduce the losses in battle after battle. But he sadly discovered that the other side seemed to be constantly improving their equipment during the battle.

Among them, Sima Yi felt that the most disgusting one was something called a smoke blower. The Jin army lit wet firewood in the back to generate smoke, and then used a hair dryer to send it to the front of the formation to deal with the Wei army's vanguard.

Under this pungent smoke, the fighting spirit of the Wei soldiers was greatly reduced. If there was a favorable wind, the smoke could even drift to the center of the army, causing chaos in the entire Wei army formation.

The Jin army, on the other hand, wore a full set of smoke-protective masks and equipment on their heads and faces, and moved freely in the smoke. As the Wei army gained strength while the Jin army lost, they suffered heavy losses repeatedly when the smoke appeared. How could they fight a war like this?

There were endless new things of this kind. Sima Yi heard that this was because Jin State favored craftsmen and rewarded the invention of tools, which led to most of the craftsmen in the world going to Jin State to work. Sima Yi had no good countermeasures for this. He could only respond as he saw fit.

But after all, Sima Yi was very smart, and he really found a lot of folk solutions. For example, although the Wei army did not have cotton cloth to block out smoke and could not make protective masks, Sima Yi asked someone to study it and quickly made some substitutes with crushed linen and broken charcoal. Although the effect was average, it was at least much better than the previous situation where they were helpless.

But these were still acceptable. Sima Yi was helpless against the complex equipment of the Jin army. He once spent a large number of soldiers to snatch a steam engine from the Jin army and wanted to imitate it, but he gathered all the craftsmen and spent several months, and finally sadly discovered that it was impossible.

From the stamping process of the metal cylinder to the linkage system of the closed cabin, everything is so precise that it fits perfectly. If the craftsmen make the slightest mistake, the entire steam engine will not start. If the whole country works together, it is possible to make a few similar ones. After all, the principle is not complicated. But the key problem is that it cannot be mass-produced.

These things actually deplete very quickly, but the Jin army replenishes them quickly as well. Sima Yi suspects that the other side has a workshop capable of mass-producing these kinds of things, so they can replenish them continuously. This is the most essential difference between Jin and Wei. Even if you have the drawings, it is impossible to convert them into physical objects with the same efficiency.

This was determined by the economic power gap between the two countries. It involved the wisdom of too many people, and it was not a gap that could be made up by a few smart people on Sima Yi's side. The Jin State also knew this, so they openly tested new inventions on the battlefield.

This is called an open strategy in military strategy. Zhuge Liang of the Jin army, through repeated battles, put the craftsmen's inventions into the battlefield to test their effects, then brought them back for improvement, and finally perfected them to the point where they could be put into daily use.

For example, the wooden ox and flowing horse invented by Zhuge Liang recently used steam power. It did not use wheels, but four supports to carry goods in order to adapt to the complex mountain environment.

This thing was almost a failure in the beginning, and it couldn't even stand steadily. But after several years of technological iterations, Zhuge Liang had found several ways to keep it stable, and finally made a real thing that could be put into use.

Although Zhuge Liang's ultimate idea was to miniaturize it, the finished product was still quite bulky due to the weight of the steam engine. Zhuge Liang was quite dissatisfied with this and believed that there were still many redundant parts in the wooden ox and horse. So when he was free from commanding military affairs, he would discuss ways to improve it with the craftsmen.

The more Zhuge Liang studied it, the more he felt that it contained profound principles. He thought that if the world was at peace, it would be nice for him to be a craftsman even if he didn't govern the country.
If Yuan Xi knew the structure of the wooden ox and flowing horse that Zhuge Liang was making, he would be extremely surprised. The principle behind it is quite similar to that of the robot dogs of later generations. Although it does not have an intelligent stabilization system, it uses the original mechanical balance principle to achieve a similar effect. This is not only the wisdom of Zhuge Liang alone, but also the wisdom of all craftsmen and the result of China's knowledge accumulation over thousands of years.

Many of these achievements were lost due to wars, but with the establishment of charity schools and workshops, many lost technologies were recovered, especially subjects such as mechanical principles in civil engineering. After Yuan Xi wrote them down, they were learned and absorbed by craftsmen, and they reconstructed a set of practices suitable for current productivity, which laid a solid foundation for technological innovation.

It can be predicted that in the near future, the State of Jin will usher in technological progress again and again, and by then the State of Wei will be unable to fight back.

Zhuge Liang was very clear about this, and Sima Yi also saw it. The memorial he wrote now began with an apology for his ineffective combat performance, and the latter was an admonition to Cao Pi, requesting him to emulate the State of Jin, make use of craftsmen, and speed up the corresponding technological research.

Moreover, Sima Yi keenly discovered the key point in the memorial, that is, the gap between the two countries was all-round, but the decisive gap was the gap in fuel.

Sima Yi believed that the steam engines of Jin State almost all used something called coal, rather than the charcoal and firewood commonly used in Wei State. The difference in heating power between the two was simply a world of difference.

Sima Yi tried every possible way to get some coal. After experimenting, he became even more desperate. With the same volume and weight, the heating efficiency and temperature of coal far exceeded those of charcoal. What's more frightening is that it is said that in Jin State, coal has been produced on a large scale and is less affected by weather than dry firewood.

Sima Yi had a premonition that if Wei was defeated in the future, a large part of the reason would be the fuel gap between the two sides. He emphasized this repeatedly in his memorial and then ordered people to rush to Chang'an.

It was half a month later when Cao Pi received this military report. He was in a good mood because the war was going well this year and the advance of the Jin army was blocked from three directions.

He saw Sima Yi apologized at the beginning of the memorial, so he smiled to Queen Guo beside him and said, "Sima Yi is quite modest. He performed the best among the three routes. Is he afraid of my punishment?" Queen Guo said, "Military Advisor Sima is now the pillar of Wei. He became famous at a young age, so he is naturally worried about his fame. It is normal for him to keep a low profile."

Cao Pi continued reading the memorial, and when he saw Sima Yi's suggestions, he frowned, because many things in it were beyond his understanding.

He handed the memorial to Queen Guo and said, "I sent him out to fight, not to compete with the enemy in weapons. The Yuan family is already unique in weapons. Why does the Wei Dynasty have to use its own weaknesses to attack the enemy's strengths?"

Empress Guo finished reading it quietly and said, "I am an outsider and cannot understand what is going on here. Your Majesty, why don't you find someone you trust to discuss it with?"

Cao Pi thought about it and summoned Wu Zhi, Zhu Shuo, Chen Qun and Dong Zhao into the palace.

After the four men came to pay their respects to Cao Pi, they took Sima Yi's memorial and read it carefully several times. They could not help but look at each other in surprise. This involved craftsmanship, which was still a little unfamiliar to them, the aristocratic family who had studied classics since childhood.

Zhu Shuo probed, "Is it because the pressure on Military Advisor Sima is too great that he thinks these things are the key to determining the outcome of the war?"

Wu Zhi said nonchalantly: "We should try. Although Jin is strong, its strength lies in its large territory and large population, which is why it can do these strange things."

"These tricks and ingenuity are very expensive. Wouldn't it be better to plant more crops and have more children with these manpower and material resources?"

"I hope that Jin will continue like this. Maybe they will bring themselves down sooner or later by doing these inexplicable things."

Zhu Shuo also agreed, "That's right. In previous years, the Jin army's offensive was extremely fierce, but this year it has eased off. Is it because they have invested all their financial and human resources in these crooked ways, so they have not made any achievements on the battlefield?"

"If we follow Jin in doing these things, I'm afraid we won't achieve anything, and will first bankrupt Wei's treasury. Taxes are not abundant recently, so it is most important to harvest more food as soon as possible."

Cao Pi turned to Chen Qun and asked, "What do you think of the long article?"

Chen Qun hurriedly said, "What you two said makes sense. The strength of a country still depends on its food and population."

"Now that Your Majesty has reappointed officials from the aristocratic families using the Nine-Rank System, they have willingly given up a large portion of their tax burden. If we can stop the offensive of the Jin State, the Wei State will be able to recover within three years and have hope of counterattacking the Central Plains."

"If we continue to employ craftsmen and look for minerals at this time, I'm afraid there will be criticism among the nobles."

"It's not that this measure is not possible, but it is not suitable for the current Wei Dynasty. If we can unify the world in the future, it will naturally be suitable."

Cao Pi nodded slightly, and finally turned to Dong Zhao, "Gong Ren, what do you think?"

Dong Zhao bowed slightly and said, "Your Majesty, I am not proficient in this matter and I don't quite understand it, so I can't comment on it."

Cao Pi laughed and said, "Gong Ren, have you been in jail for half a year for no reason, so you have been holding a grudge against me?"

Dong Zhao said quickly: "I dare not. I really know very little about craftsmanship. I am afraid that if I tell you, I will be laughed at."

The other three people all blushed. Actually, they didn’t quite understand what Sima Yi said in the memorial, but they couldn’t admit it in front of Cao Pi, right?
By saying this, isn't Dong Zhao implying that people like him are pretending to know everything?

Cao Pi did not force it, but took out another piece of military information and said, "There is also news from Jingzhou that before winter this year, the Jin army and the Hannan army may join forces to launch an attack on Nanyang along the Xiangyang and Jiangling lines."

"Zixiao, who was stationed in Maicheng at the same time, said that Yu Jin was still imprisoned in Xiangyang."

"Whether Yu Jin was captured or surrendered privately is still undetermined. What do you think?"

(End of this chapter)