Kai Fu Han

Chapter 600 The Southern Zhao Moved
"The Southern Zhao officials are really stupid. With steam engines and artillery, the number of ships can't make up for the difference." Deng Zhou sneered.

"So I said that the Bohai may be needed to go into battle. I want to block all the ships in Nan Zhao south of Haizhou Bay."

Haizhou Bay is located in the north of Yuzhou Island.

Gao Yuan planned to use Yuzhou Island as a base to block the ships from Nan Zhao from going north.

"Okay, I will finish loading the Bohai's weapons as soon as possible. Who will you arrange to receive it?" Deng Zhou asked.

Gao Yuan lowered his head and thought about it. In terms of merit, the Second Fleet is the most outstanding among the four fleets at present. Logically speaking, it should be the Second Fleet to take over. However, the Second Fleet is currently tied up in Liuqiu and has very few manpower. Due to the shortage, it is impossible to squeeze out 600 more people to operate this new ironclad ship.

"I'll have the Fourth Fleet pick it up."

Gao Yuan finally decided to let Ruan Xiaoqi take over.

The Fourth Fleet now only has two mountain-class battleships, but the personnel are almost fully equipped, and there are enough manpower to take over the Bohai.

"Row!"

When he received Liu Xinyuan's intelligence, Gao Yuan immediately notified the First, Third and Fourth Fleets to return to Penglai. According to estimates, the Fourth Fleet should arrive within three or four days.

"I'm going to Jiaozhou Bay now. You have to adjust your manpower and maintain all the warships of the three returning fleets to prevent them from going wrong on the battlefield." Gao Yuan explained.

"Don't worry, I'll arrange it now."

Without even staying in Penglai for a day, Gao Yuan took a boat around the peninsula and headed for Jiaozhou Bay.

The Xinghan Alliance and Nan Zhao had previously reached an agreement that troops could not be stationed on Yuzhou Island, so Gao Yuan planned to concentrate all the troops in Jiaozhou Bay first. As long as Nan Zhao dared to make any changes, he would immediately move south in large numbers and rely on Yuzhou Island for defense.

……

time flies.

The four brigades heading west, under the command of Liu Xinqi, raced against time to regain the prefectures and counties occupied by the remaining forces of the puppet Qi.

All kinds of means are exhausted.

Beheading tactics, which were previously scrupulous, were frequently performed.

The Yan'an Prefecture garrison organized more than 1 people to defend the city. Wu Nan sent a reconnaissance team in, and their command system was completely paralyzed within an hour.

Xianyang relied on its strong city walls to block Liu Xinqi's westward advance, but three rounds of heavy artillery directly destroyed the city gate tower. Xinghan League soldiers armed with muskets filed in.

……

On April [-]th, the day before the arrival of leap April, news of the Xixia army's march south finally reached Hangzhou.

Song Gou, an official of Southern Zhao who did not know the outcome of the Xixia Army, directly launched a military operation against the Xinghan Alliance.

More than 20 imperial troops gathered in Hangzhou and headed north along the canal.The ships on the canal provided logistical supplies. The Nanzhao soldiers were lightly armed and marched very fast, with a distance of forty to fifty miles in a day.

In addition to attacks on land, more than 1000 large and small ships gathered in Quanzhou at sea set sail northward at the same time, gathering ships from Fuzhou and Ningde along the way. Finally, outside the outlet of the Qiantang River in Hangzhou, all ships preparing to go northward were gathered together. The scale It reached two thousand ships.

Liu Xinyuan, who had been staring at Hangzhou Bay, felt a little sad when he looked at the large number of ships covering the sea outside the bay.

"Still can't find any trace of Nan Zhao's official family?"

The intelligence officer on board the ship who was asked about it replied: "I communicated with Di Ting yesterday. Not only could the officials not find it, but even the Prime Minister had hidden it well, not giving us any opportunity to take advantage of it."

"It's ridiculous. They in Southern Zhao think that hiding a few 'leaders' can ensure that the command center is not destroyed? Don't you know that the real and important ones are the middle-level officials and military officers." Liu Xinyuan looked disdainful.

"Let Zhao Nan start executing the plan as planned." On April [-], the replenishment progress of the ships gathered outside Hangzhou Bay was slow. These ships will be fully replenished in Hangzhou Bay and then go all the way north.Because after crossing Hangzhou Bay, it is possible to engage in battle with the warships of the Xinghan League at any time.

At noon, an official responsible for organizing grain merchants to replenish grain for seagoing ships was walking home.

No matter how busy you are, you still have to eat.As the clerk walked, he was thinking about what dishes would be available for lunch.

In the recent preparations for war, officials in key positions like them have had a full stomach and used their hands to do their best, which is beyond words.

Suddenly, the official found a strangely tall coolie walking in front of him.

Being tall and tall has now become the symbol of the assassins of the Xinghan League, and the officials were immediately alert.

But soon, he relaxed again, smiled, and thought to himself: "What kind of role do I play? The Han thieves sent people to assassinate them. If they want to kill them, they also need to kill those high officials. Besides, why do the assassins keep walking around?" In front of me, there may be people passing by."

The man was probably tired from moving cargo at the port, so he was walking very slowly. The official quickly reached his level.

Curiosity drove the official to look sideways at the burly man. Unexpectedly, the man was also looking at him with a smile on his face.

"I'm sorry, brother."

"What?" The official was confused and realized that something was going to be bad.

Sure enough, the man's left hand sword flashed, and the official immediately felt a chill in his chest, followed by a sharp pain. Before he could shout, the strong man's right hand followed up and covered his mouth. .

Sobbing and unable to utter a complete sentence, he was supported by a strong man and leaned against the wall in the alley, slowly falling to the ground.

"Why! Why do you want to kill me?" This was the last question in the official's mind, but he would never be able to ask it.

The same assassinations occurred in every corner of Hangzhou.

Di Ting did not have enough information on the upper echelons of the Southern Zhao court, but he had a very clear grasp of the lower levels.

Who is messing around, who has a backing, who is cheating, who is really doing real things, etc.Di Ting knew better than the officials of Southern Zhao.

Those who were assassinated this time were those officials who really did practical things.

If it weren't for the fact that there was nothing he could do, Liu Xinyuan would also feel sorry for these hard-working officials, and they would just be good "laborers" if they were taken home. It would be a pity to kill them.

However, compared to the population of Hangzhou, there are too many such people. In the end, we can only kill some and kidnap some according to actual conditions.

Song Gou, who was hiding, never expected that the Xinghan Alliance would use such despicable methods.

For a time, the supply work of sea ships in the port and the logistic supply work of the land canal were paralyzed.

Without these hard-working officials to coordinate and work in succession, the rest of the army would simply not be able to support such a large-scale military mobilization.

Southern Zhao's military campaign to the north was directly strangled.

"It turns out that the enemy can be so weak." Zhao Nan, the commander-in-chief of the operation, was very touched.

Zhao Nan had been holding back his energy since he failed to assassinate Song Gou before.

He always wanted to find an opportunity to hang Song Gou's head to make a name for himself, but he didn't expect that this time, inspired by Liu Xinyuan, he achieved an effect that even killing Song Gou could not achieve.

The emperor can be changed at any time, but if there are fewer officials working under him, there will be no stalemate.

"He is indeed the most adept general in special operations in the Xinghan Alliance. He is worthy of his reputation."

(End of this chapter)