Chapter 52: Sneak Attack from Behind, Old Schemer Forces Sun Jian

"Guangling?"

Cao Cao's words made Ji Hao's eyes light up.

This is actually something that only cheats can do: During the late Han Dynasty, when the princes were fighting for hegemony, whether Cao Cao attacked the Eastern Wu or the Eastern Wu attacked Cao Cao, they did not take the sea route. That was because their naval warships were all river ships and could not enter the sea!
It's not that they didn't want to build sea-going ships. The Han Dynasty inherited many things from the Qin Dynasty, and there were blueprints for the large ship that Xu Fu used to cross the sea.

But the cost is really too expensive.

Moreover, ships are only suitable for the sea, but not very useful on rivers, and cannot be used as the main force in naval battles. Therefore, during the entire Three Kingdoms period, almost no one developed them, nor did anyone take precautions in this regard.

This creates a "blind spot".

As for Ji Hao, he had been developing in Qingzhou for many years, so he naturally would not miss out on sea vessels: through modern knowledge, he gathered skilled craftsmen and has built "land and sea" ships that are beyond this era.

It is similar to the treasure ship used by Zheng He during his voyages to the West during the Ming Dynasty, the only difference is that it does not have cannons on it.

It's not that it can't be made, but the power of the primitive cannon is somewhat disappointing. Its accuracy and power are not as good as the catapult. The Romance of the Three Kingdoms is a slightly cheating world, and cold weapons, ordnance, kerosene explosive tanks and the like are no worse than ancient hot weapons.

If the Qing Dynasty had fought with the Three Kingdoms, a group of "foreign war phantom gods" would definitely have beaten the little braided people to tears.

You can even skin a wild boar!
Therefore, unless something like the "Italian cannon" is invented, all kinds of cannons before the "Republic of China" will be of little use.

Let’s get back to the topic. Let’s get back to the present.

After deciding to attack Guangling, Ji Hao immediately gave the order, saying, "Xiahou Dun, I will leave you two armies, totaling 2,500 men, to guard this place. Is that okay?"

Upon hearing this, Xiahou Dun immediately knelt down on one knee.

"I guarantee with my life that I will never let Liu Bei set foot in the city!"

The city walls are built like that, how can they not be defended even if there is a cheat?

If he can't hold on any longer, Xiahou Dun should stop being a general and go home to farm!

"Very good!" Ji Hao nodded and said, "The rest of you, Meng De, Zilong, Feng Xiao, follow me out to sea, detour to Guangling, and raid Liu Bei's rear!"

However, before leaving, he went to the top of the city wall.

He deliberately said to Liu Bei: "Xuan De, our two cities are facing each other, and it is not a good idea to just keep wasting time like this. Why don't you withdraw your troops and give Xuzhou to me?"

Upon hearing this, Liu Bei, who was under the city, was immediately furious.

"Thief's wishful thinking!"

"Then let's wait and see!" Ji Hao said, "Let's see whether your logistics are better or mine, whether your city walls are stronger or mine!"

After hearing this, Liu Bei became even angrier.

He gnashed his teeth and said: "As long as I, Liu Bei, am still here, I will not let you take Xuzhou!"

"Okay, let's wait and see!"

After enough taunting, Ji Hao went down from the city wall and led his soldiers back to Qingzhou.

They marched hundreds of miles a day and arrived in Le'an in a few days.

Then they entered the water from the mouth of the Yellow River, boarded thirty large ships comparable to the "Zheng He Treasure Ship", and carried 28,000 people across the sea to the mouth of the Yangtze River.

The straight-line distance between the two places is nearly two thousand miles, and if you take a detour by sea, it is almost three thousand miles.

Equivalent to six Korean sticks.

It was far. Even if Ji Hao drove a big ship, it took him 20 days to finally reach the destination. He landed on an island in the middle of the Yangtze River at the mouth of the Yangtze River and began to build a camp.

"The river flows into the sea, from now on this place will be called 'Jianghai City'!"

He was not in a hurry to attack Guangling, but first built infrastructure in "Jianghai City", constructing docks, city walls and so on, making himself invincible.

In particular, find limestone in coastal areas and build cement production lines.

This process took more than a month.

"Guangling's coastal defense is extremely poor. We went there blatantly to mine lime without any soldiers checking us. They were all poor people, not even from humble families!" Cao Cao reported to Ji Hao, "On the other hand, the defense of Yangzhou is amazing. With our current strength, we may not be able to break in!"

Hearing this, Ji Hao was stunned.

Although he had no intention of attacking Yangzhou, he was still surprised to hear that the enemy's defenses were strong, and wondered, "Could it be that Yuan Shu's dead bones in his grave also have foresight and can think of sea defenses?"

After some investigation and finding out the reason, everyone was in a state of confusion.

It turned out that it was not Yuan Shu who was behind the attack.

It was Sun Jian.

The prefect of Changsha, who had a low presence in the original novel and only showed up when the eighteen princes were fighting against Dong Zhuo and was dismissed after obtaining the jade seal, had actually been preparing to split off from Jiangdong many years ago.

He secretly built a barracks in the "Yangtze River Delta" area, which later became Shanghai.

Build warships and train navy.

The scale is already very large, with at least 20,000 elite naval forces, plus hundreds of ships for naval battles, and an unknown number of land guards.

Ji Hao and his men are alone now, and if they attack, they may not be able to defeat them.

A landing battle is not a siege battle, and the shore is easier to defend.

Siege equipment cannot be used underwater.

"This old bastard has really accumulated a lot of wealth for his son. I will deal with him when I have the chance in the future!" Ji Hao smiled, turned his head and looked at Zhao Yun, and said, "We are now focusing on attacking Guangling. The Datong Army you lead is the main force to attack Xuzhou. How long will it take to capture Guangling County at the lowest cost?"

Hearing this, Zhao Yun smiled and said, "We will definitely take it down within half a month!"

"Okay, then I'll give you half a month!"

After arranging Zhao Yun to lead the attack, Ji Hao looked at Cao Cao and said, "Taking it doesn't mean it belongs to us. Guangling County itself has no city to defend, and your logistics cannot be slack. Within half a month, I want to see a cement production line that can produce 10,000 shi per day!"

Although a sneak attack from behind would most likely catch Liu Bei off guard, it was still not safe enough.

The key is to build the city wall, repair the five-meter-high county long wall, and make Guangling County an iron plate to ensure that nothing can go wrong.

The cement production line is the foundation for building the city wall.

"Don't worry, it's okay." Cao Cao said.

At this time, Guo Jia spoke up and said, "This time, we don't have the help of the people of Qingzhou, so the progress of building the city wall will not be fast. Guangling County is a large area, so it will take at least half a year - during this half year, I'm afraid there will be a hard battle!"

Ji Hao nodded in response.

If we are not close to Qingzhou, we will not be able to mobilize Qingzhou’s resources, which is indeed difficult.

But soon, he shook his head and said, "Not necessarily. We have always been following the mass line. So many 'Datong masters' have come to Xuzhou for several months. Maybe someone can surprise us!"

(End of this chapter)