Chapter 823: Ba City
Bazhou, Bacheng.
This mountain city, neither rich nor barren, became noisy due to the arrival of the kings and ministers of the state of Wu.
After deciding to move the capital to Bacheng, Liang Kai arrived here with his ministers, concubines and princes half a month ago.
After that, Xie Duan, Han Zheng and Wang Zi'an, who were ordered to evacuate from Su City, and the children of the powerful clan also came to Bacheng one after another.
Also coming with him were Luther and his six thousand mercenaries.
In the battles between Niutoutan and Jinling, more than half of his mercenaries were lost.
The indigenous soldiers seemed to have suffered almost all casualties, and the Western soldiers also suffered losses of more than 2,000 people.
"Ambassador Brooke, King Yan did not fall into the trap. The royal troops who went south were huddled in Jinling City and did not pursue our Wu army. On the contrary, he transferred his troops to Jianguan and Zhongling Pass, and they were very likely to seize these two passes. The meaning of pass.”
In Bacheng Palace, Liang Kai frowned.
King Yan always used troops unreasonably. Although he cooperated with Brooke's strategy, he was always cautious.
Sure enough, he was still disappointed.
In this way, their plan to lure the enemy deeper and annihilate the royal army failed.
In the pavilion of the palace, Xie Duan, Han Zheng and Prince An sat on the side, and opposite Liang Kai sat Brooke and Luther.
The two looked at each other, and Brooke smiled and said: "You should thank me. Although King Yan did not fall into the trap, at least his attention was attracted by the people of Nanliang and Beidi, right?"
Hearing this, Liang Kai suddenly understood. He picked up the wine glass and thanked him again and again, "Ambassador Brooke, General Luther, I am stupid, thank you, thank you very much."
Obviously, in the current alliance, Nanping is close to Frank, Nanliang is close to Beidi, and Beidi is close to Rus.
The relationship between Britain and his country of Wu is firm.
Brook's plan was undoubtedly secretly biased towards his country of Wu.
"But Dou Wei is an old fox, he must be aware of this, but why did he..." Xie Duan suddenly felt that something was wrong, so he asked.
"Nan Liang has no choice. The Wu Kingdom will be destroyed. It will be Nan Liang's turn next. This is also the sincerity of Nan Liang. They have betrayed you and they should compensate you." Brooke said, "Of course, the most important point is that Beidi We can get muskets and artillery from Britain. They have to cooperate with our actions. Beidi will cooperate, and Nanliang will naturally have to cooperate. "
Liang Kai and others suddenly realized.
Han Zheng clapped his hands and laughed, "Yes, Nanliang owes us, otherwise we would have agreed to the battle to defeat Yan. How could it be as miserable as today? It's time to let them bleed."
Hearing this, Wang Zi'an and Xie Duan sighed at the same time.
Now they really have nothing but the remnants of their troops.
"Brother Han, Brother Xie, Brother Wang, these things have passed. Now our families are back together. In order to deal with King Yan, I understand in my heart, but we can't mention this matter outside." Liang Kai saw the three of them with serious expressions. Angry, immediately persuaded.
Brooke said: "Your Majesty is right. Let Nanliang and Beidi take action this time. Although on the one hand, it is taking care of your Wu country, it is also a strategic need. In the future, your powerful clans must cooperate fully."
Han Zheng and the other three nodded slowly.
It is said that as soon as Liang Kai arrived in Bacheng, Nanliang shipped a large amount of grain and grass. This first batch of grain and grass did not even accept money.
It can be seen that the Dou family is really trying to make up for it.
Otherwise, with Dou Wei's temperament, he would not do anything to suffer a loss even if he was beaten to death, let alone take the initiative to attack at Jianguan and Zhonglingguan.
After all, this means that they will be attacked by King Yan.
"Brook and His Majesty said yes." Han Zheng's eyes were firm, "Let bygones be bygones, King Yan is our real enemy."
After that, he drank the wine in one gulp.
Strategically speaking, Brooke's approach was not wrong at all.
King Yan's march southward was as turbulent as the Jiujiang River and was unstoppable.
If it is allowed to continue moving south, the entire Jiangnan will fall within half a year.
Now, the Nanliang army and the Ashur tribe of Beidi are facing Jianguan and Zhonglingguan.
Although King Yan did not follow their plan, they achieved half of their goal.
King Yan was now forced to stop going south, and the battlefield was pulled from the south back to the north.
In this way, they will have time to breathe.
"That's right." Brooke smiled with satisfaction.
He actually hopes that there will be conflicts between powerful families.
In this way, after destroying King Yan, he can take advantage of the conflicts between powerful clans to benefit Britain.
However, in the current situation, these contradictions must be covered up and they must concentrate on dealing with King Yan.
"By the way, Ambassador Brooke, when will this imitation musket arrive? I'm afraid that Nanliang and Beidi won't be able to hold on. If King Yan captures Jianguan and Zhongling Pass, King Yan will take the initiative again and will definitely continue to go south. In my opinion, we have to let our army have the same muskets and artillery as King Yan's army in order to deal with them." Liang Kaidao said about King Yan's change of deployment.
Brooke frowned, "Our factory in Tianzhu is not large and cannot expand production in a short time. However, the Governor has reported the imitation muskets to Parliament. Based on the steam industry in Britain, within two to three months, thirty or forty Ten thousand muskets are absolutely no problem, but it will take a year to meet your needs."
Liang Kai was a little disappointed, a year was too long.
I don’t know what will happen during this period.
But for now, he can only place his hope on Britain's workshop in Tianzhu. He said: "Then please give us Wu State priority. Even if the money is more, it doesn't matter."
"Your Majesty, you forgot again. Now you must unite as one. The muskets that can be freed up should naturally be used in the most important places." Brooke did not agree with Liang Kai.
Although they prefer to support Wu, they cannot be too biased when facing the issue of King Yan.
Moreover, the muskets produced must naturally satisfy their British army first.
Only the surplus can be bought to them.
According to his estimate, within two months from now, they will provide a total of 30,000 imitation muskets to the powerful tribes and the Northern Di.
"Yes, yes, yes." Liang Kai smiled awkwardly and stopped talking about it.
Then, everyone discussed how to make corresponding deployments again after King Yan changed his deployment.
This time, their confrontation with King Yan was like the change of military formations on the battlefield.
If the other party changes the military formation, they will naturally change the corresponding military formation.
"At present, Muller Hongzhen is pulling the northern defense line, and Nanliang and Ashur are pulling the western defense line. We need to cooperate with them to disperse the forces of the King of Yan. In this way, we can concentrate our forces at one point and gain an advantage." Luther said.
After a pause, he continued: "Since the King of Yan is not chasing us, we will make trouble for him. We should order the Wu army to advance to the south bank of Jiujiang and create more illusions of crossing the river, so that he has to deploy troops on the north bank of Jiujiang for defense."
Everyone nodded when they heard it.
The fewer troops the King of Yan used for Jianguan and Zhonglingguan, the less likely it was to capture Jianguan and Zhonglingguan.
The muskets dragged to Britain arrived, and the advantage would be theirs.
For the first time, they felt that victory was within reach.