Ji Han Grand Commander

Chapter 451 445. Influence
Feng Xi's order was soon spread from Jiangling, causing chaos in Jingzhou and Jiangdong. After all, Feng Xi, as the Grand Commander, was going to fight again, and this time he was officially going to fight in the name of the Han army, attacking another country, which naturally caused an uproar.

Chengdu had received Feng Xi's message long ago, so naturally there was nothing surprising about it. Instead, Liu Chan personally issued an imperial edict in the name of the emperor, which meant that Chengdu had been informed of Feng Xi's actions. Moreover, Chengdu also very much agreed with Feng Xi's altruistic behavior and supported him in avenging the former vassal state of the Han Dynasty.

The Dahan Daily, which Feng Xi had established long ago, also came in handy. Feng Xi sent an attendant with an order to the newspaper office, and the next day, the Dahan Daily spent a page to write about the situation on the Japanese island in detail.

First, there was the visit of Wakoku during the reign of Emperor Guangwu, who bestowed the golden seal on the country and conferred the title on it as a vassal state. Now, Wakoku has long since disappeared, and "rebels" are ruling various places.

Finally, the "Dahan Daily" still encouraged people's hearts, saying that when everyone heard the news, the beloved Grand Commander was immediately filled with righteous indignation and vowed to fight against the rebels and avenge the vassal states of the Han Dynasty.

In this way, the people in the Han Dynasty understood what had happened and the reason why Feng Xi sent troops overseas again. The people of the Han Dynasty at this time still had a strong sense of ownership. Since their own vassal state was in turmoil, it was normal for them to send the Han army to restore order.

For a time, the Han Dynasty became more united, but the news was inevitably known to Cao Wei.

However, Cao Wei is now powerless to deal with such matters. It is well known that Cao Wei is not good at naval battles. In the past, Cao Cao dug the Xuanwu Pool next to the Bronze Sparrow Tower in Yecheng to train sailors, hoping to use it to counter the naval battles that the South is good at.

When Cao Pi ascended the throne and Feng Xi led his army to pacify the Eastern Wu, Cao Pi also remembered these sailors. As the saying goes, it takes a thousand days to raise an army and only one day to deploy it. Without saying a word, Cao Pi immediately transferred these sailors from Hebei to the Jianghuai area and handed them over to Cao Xiu for use.

When Cao Xiu heard that it was Cao Cao who personally ordered the sailors to train, he did not doubt it and immediately ordered them to set out from Chaohu Lake and enter the Yangtze River to prepare for a battle with the Han navy.

However, imagination is beautiful, but reality is very cruel. What kind of ability can these sailors who are trained in the pool have? When they arrived at Chaohu Lake, a group of them became seasick due to the almost negligible wind and waves of Chaohu Lake, and their combat effectiveness dropped significantly.

When they reached the Yangtze River, they were even more flawed. Unfamiliar with the hydrology and climate, they were blown by strong winds for several days, and the people on the boats were tottering. Then they frequently ran aground on reefs, causing damage to the boats... This "Da Wei Navy" did nothing, but lost hundreds of people and sank more than a dozen ships because of accidents.

This loss gave Cao Xiu a headache, and he lost all confidence in their abilities. However, the general of the navy patted his chest and assured Cao Xiu solemnly, saying that these ridiculous situations had occurred because they had just arrived and were not familiar with the local conditions.

Now that they have been in the Yangtze River for some time, they have become completely familiar with the local conditions and what happened before will definitely not happen again.

Although Cao Xiu was a brave general of the Cao family who guarded a region and was proficient in both civil and military strategies, he knew nothing about naval battles. Hearing the other party say this, he could not refute it. After all, he was an outsider and did not understand these things, so he simply left it to someone who "knew the business".

It has always been a taboo for amateurs to command experts, and Cao Xiu naturally knew it. However, this Xuanwuchi navy soon gave him a big surprise. The Han army naturally heard about this Wei navy that came from nowhere, and it didn't take long for Ling Tong and Zhu Yi to be sent by Zhang Nan to patrol the river with more than 10,000 navy to defend against possible sneak attacks from the Wei army.

As a result, the two sides met unexpectedly in the area of ​​Ruxukou and engaged in a naval battle.

Needless to say, how could the Wei army's sailors, who could barely stand on the river, confront the elite Han navy? Under the leadership of Ling Tong and Zhu Yi, the Han army was like gods descending from heaven. When the two ships met, they boarded the Wei army and killed them directly on the deck.

The Wei army's navy had never been trained in these things during training. They thought that the so-called naval battle was just a matter of both sides shooting arrows. How could they have conducted special training in hand-to-hand combat on the deck?

Soon the situation on the battlefield became one-sided. The Wei sailors were beaten so hard that they cried for their parents. The navy general who had once made a promise to Cao Xiu was also beheaded by Ling Tong and taken away as a military merit.

The Jianghuai navy, which was trained with the help of the Xuanwu Pool, completed the process from naming to demobilization in less than a month. Cao Xiu could only shake his head and sigh, and after Cao Pi knew about this, he never mentioned the training of the navy again.

Therefore, now that Feng Xi has made a big fuss about going on a sea expedition, Cao Wei can only watch. Otherwise, what can they do? The Xuanwuchi Navy, which can't even stand on the Yangtze River, can't go out to sea from the Yellow River to intercept Feng Xi and his men? That would be pure wishful thinking.

However, this news made Cao Wei feel a little relieved. Although they didn't know what the Han army was up to, marching south and east, as long as it was not a northern expedition, it was good news for them.

Cao Pi had discussed this with many ministers before, and they felt that it was not surprising that Ji Han was now strong in both men and horses and could launch a Northern Expedition at any time. Cao Pi even felt that the Han army would launch a Northern Expedition this year or next year. As a result, the nominal second-in-command in the army, but the actual number one, the Grand Commander Feng Xi, had actually gone out on an expedition to Japan, which was even more incomprehensible to him.

After all, no one could have imagined that there was a person in the world who could predict the time of his own death. Feng Xi did not want to march north, but he wanted to wait until Cao Pi died suddenly before marching north.

Now Cao Wei does not dare to take the initiative to provoke a war. After all, Cao Ren is dead. Cao Pi still knows Xiahou Shang's level. There is no problem with defense. Relying on him to fight against Xu Shu and Feng Xi is pure suicide.

When the two sides were in a stalemate, Feng Xi took the initiative to leave, which made Cao Wei relax his vigilance a little. In addition, the central Sichuan has been particularly peaceful recently, and Zhuge Liang did not mobilize or transport food and grass, so Cao Wei just thought that the Han Dynasty had gone crazy and wanted to support its vassal state.

As for the tactics of anticipating the Han army's landing on the coast? Cao Wei could not have thought of it at all. None of the northerners were proficient in naval warfare, and the navy was not well trained, so how could they think of strategies and actions at sea?
In this era, most ships were still used simply to transport troops and supplies. Water warfare technology like that of the South was rare, otherwise it would not have become a characteristic of the South alongside the cavalry of the North.

(End of this chapter)