Two hours later, when the Huling Wei army, who had just tried their best, returned with satisfaction, the Song general Li Huo also led the navy back to his water stronghold.
After returning to Shuizhai, Li Huo rushed to Tengcheng without stopping and reported to the Prime Minister what he saw today - the three tiger-class warships of the Wei army in Huling.
"Is it Wei Jun's new warship?"
After listening to Li Huo's report, Xiang Ding was silent for a moment.
Once upon a time, when talking about craftsmanship, the world would immediately think of the State of Lu, because at that time the State of Lu possessed the top craftsmanship technology in the Central Plains; but now, the State of Wei has gradually replaced the State of Lu.
In particular, Wei's military industry has become more and more influential in the Central Plains. To put it bluntly, even the soldiers of the Beibo Army believe that the knives and weapons forged by Wei are better than those made by Lu.
"Is it amazingly powerful?"
Xiang Qian asked coldly.
"Uh, yes." Li Huo was stunned for a moment, and then said quickly: "Those three 'giant ships' are bigger than the fifty big ships before, and they are more stable when traveling on the lake... The two armies are fighting.
At that time, the trebuchets carried on those three huge ships were within a short distance of our army's attack.
It can attack from outside, and the stone projectile thrown is about the size of a millstone. If it is unfortunately hit by it, it can destroy our large ship in one shot... At that time, there was a loud bang, and the hull of the ship was destroyed.
Once it was shattered, water from the lake immediately poured in, making it impossible to repair it.”
"..." Xiang Ding subconsciously raised his head and glanced at Li Huo, feeling a little weird.
You must know that the big ship Li Huo talked about, that is, the building ship, is already the largest warship that the Lu State can build. It is also the absolute main force of the Song State's navy, with only about thirty ships in number - although the Song Dynasty
Mo Zidi also assisted the Beibo Army in imitating this kind of warship, but the construction speed was only a few ships a year. It can be said that they are very precious warships.
However, the catapults on the three newly arrived "giant ships" from the Wei State were able to destroy a Song State ship at one time. This was an absolute disaster for the Song State navy.
"Isn't it possible to use fire attack?" Xiang Qian asked.
Li Huo took a long breath and said in a low voice: "The effect is minimal... Today, after the general ordered the fire attack, only one of the three giant ships had its sails on fire, but the fire did not expand.
The fire arrows that hit the hulls had almost no effect. Later, the general ordered people to lead the sterns to get closer. Only after taking a look did he realize that the outside of the hulls of these three warships seemed to be wrapped in iron, and fire attacks... could not burn them.
"
"In other words, even a giant ship like this is helpless?" Xiang Ding asked with a frown.
Li Huo nodded and said: "The cockroach...can't get close at all. When our army's cockroach approaches those three giant ships, the Wei Liannu on those three giant ships can easily smash the hull of our army's cockroach..."
Xiang Ding frowned deeply when he heard this.
"...The general thought that this matter should be reported to the Prime Minister immediately. Although the Wei army currently only has three such giant ships, with the strength of the Wei state, I believe that there will be a steady stream of such warships coming to Wei in the near future.
Mountains and lakes, when the time comes..." Li Huo glanced at Xiang Xuan, but he stopped talking.
Xiang Ding forced out a smile, nodded and said: "You are right, you can go back to the water village first and let me... think about countermeasures."
"yes!"
Li Huo clasped his fists and retreated, leaving Xiang Dian alone in the study again.
Think of countermeasures?
What else can be done to counter this?
Xiang Ding walked melancholy to the window and let out a long breath.
If the Wei army used some clever tactics, then he could still find a way to crack it. But the current problem is obviously the gap in the basic equipment of the two armies. What countermeasures can be taken?
Want countermeasures? Yes, as long as the Beibo Army can get a huge ship like the Wei Army, the question is, can it get it?
In fact, Xiang Yu also knew in his heart that the fall of his Song Dynasty was only a matter of time - or it all depended on the mood of King Wei.
If the King of Wei is in a good mood, he will continue to use them as sparring partners for the Huling navy of Wei State; if the King of Wei is in a bad mood, he will destroy his country with just one hand.
In the face of absolute power, any conspiracy is useless.
Of course, although he clearly understood this in his heart, his duty forced Xiang to hold on to the last inch of Song Dynasty's land.
So, he immediately contacted Song Mo.
The so-called Song Mo, that is, the descendants of the Mohist family in the Song Dynasty, are all from the same branch as Lu Mo, Qi Mo, and Wei Mo. Xu Ruo, the current great son of the Mohist family in the Wei State, is actually the former great son of the Song Mo family, but Xu Ruo defected to him later.
When I came to Wei State, I just chose that Wei Gongzi Run.
But at that time, there were still some Mohist disciples in the Song State who were unwilling to leave the Song State and move to the Wei State, so the Song Dynasty and Mohism split. Xu Ruo, the original Song Mohist disciple, led some of his disciples to defect to the Wei State, forming Wei Mo.
Of course, the split in the Mohist family was just a matter of different internal ambitions, and did not mean turning into enemies or anything like that. In fact, Xu Ruo, the most powerful son of Wei Mo, still maintains contact with Song Mo.
However, the current king of Wei, Zhao Run, is too powerful. When the king personally issued an edict to define the Song Dynasty as a "pseudo-Song Dynasty", even Wei Mo's great son Xu Ruo did not dare to resist.
After all, that king was the perfect example of the saying "Those who obey me will prosper, and those who go against me will perish" - those who obeyed him, from nobles to commoners, were all regarded as relatives and friends; and those who disobeyed him were regarded as relatives and friends.
, are all enemies!
On that day, Fang Bi, who is now Song Mo's great son, was invited to meet Xiang Xuan.
When Xiang Ding mentioned the three giant ships of the Wei army in Huling, Fang Bi was silent for a moment, and then said: "I have already known about this...the three warships of the Wei State are tiger-class warships.
When the Guoye Manufacturing Bureau was building these three warships, Wei Mo also contributed."
"Do you still have contact with Wei Mo?" Xiang Qian asked in a low voice.
Fang Bi nodded and said: "I, Xu Ruo, the former great prince of Song Dynasty, is now the great prince of Wei Mo. He is highly regarded by the king of Wei. He has a high status in Wei State, so he knows more information than ordinary people..." said
At this point, he raised his head and glanced at Xiang Xiang, as if he had guessed Xiang Xiang's thoughts, shook his head and said: "The King of Wei will never let go of the Song Dynasty. That is his father's achievement. The world says that Zhao Run and his father
Zhao Si's relationship is not good, but that is not the case... If the Song Dynasty wants to stand on its own, then it is destined to be an enemy of Zhao Run."
Xiang Qian was silent for a while, then smiled bitterly and said, "Are you also trying to persuade me to surrender to Wei?"
Fang Bi shook his head and said seriously: "Last year, I had a quarrel with Wei Mo's great son Xu Ruo in letters. I wonder if the Prime Minister would be interested?"
"Xiang Diao is all ears." Xiang Diao said, clasping his fists.
Seeing this, Fang Bisui said: "At that time, Xu Ruo persuaded me to lead Song Mo to defect to the Wei State. He said that the new king of the Wei State, Zhao Run, was a monarch who loved everyone, but in my opinion, this was not the case... Zhao Run, the king of Wei,
It is undeniable that he is one of the few enlightened masters in the world, but his universal love is only for the Wei people. Well, to be precise, he is those who are willing to defect to the Wei State and regard themselves as Wei people. As the name suggests, "those who obey will prosper."
This is not good...Furthermore, Wei Wang Zhao Run is also the person who frequently provokes wars. The chaos that spread across the world three years ago was also because of him that Qin and Chu joined in..."
When saying these words, Fang Bi couldn't help but think of Lu Mo and Qi Mo: During the Chu State's attack on Qi and Lu, the Mohist disciples of these two countries suffered heavy casualties - mainly because of the Mohist doctrine.
Teach the disciples of Momen not to abandon the weak and helpless. Therefore, countless disciples of Momen unfortunately died while protecting the people of Qi and Lu.
"...But Xu Ruo retorted to me that if we, the Mohist family, want to realize our long-cherished wish of universal love and non-aggression, we can only rely on the State of Wei. He said that there was a minister named Jiezi in the State of Wei who discussed Taoism with him and talked about the world.
The chaos is only due to the numerous countries. Only by unifying the Central Plains can unjust disputes (i.e. wars of aggression) be stopped... First put an end to troubled times, then bring peace. This is Xu Ruo's current point of view."
"Unify the Central Plains?"
Xiang Xuan opened his mouth in surprise. It had to be said that this was a question he had never thought about - mainly because he had not yet reached the level to think about it.
He shook his head and said to Fang Bi, "Do you think Xu Ruojuzi's ideas are wrong?"
Fang Bi glanced at Xiang Xiang, as if he had guessed the latter's thoughts, and said in a deep voice: "I also know that if you want to achieve great things, you must make sacrifices at all costs. If we, the disciples of Momen, want to realize the ideal of universal love and non-aggression, no matter how heavy it is,
There is no hesitation in making sacrifices. But... Wei Guo cannot do that."
"Do you think Wei cannot unify the Central Plains?" Xiang Xuan asked in surprise.
"No!" Fang Bi shook his head and said seriously: "In today's world, only the Wei State is most likely to unify the Central Plains. However, the Wei State is destined to be unable to implement the ideals of our Momen... The Wei State governs the country with Confucianism and law.
The Chinese people are divided into different classes..."
When speaking, everything Fang Bi showed showed that he looked down on Confucianism. This is no wonder. After all, Confucianism emphasizes that "love is differentiated" - that is, benevolence must distinguish between objects.
Promote the social class system in disguised form.
Even the Wei State is not exempt from this. The "monetary ransom" in the Wei State's criminal law is actually protecting wealthy and powerful groups.
Momen's universal love advocates love without distinction between levels and relatives. "The author's words: The ideological realm is too high to tell the truth."
Therefore, Confucianism and Mohism are naturally incompatible. "Note: Interested readers can learn about it on their own. To put it simply, Mohism is similar to that of a communist society. The ideological consciousness is too high and too idealistic, but it is almost
It is difficult to achieve. - Especially in ancient times, you, a common people, still want to be on an equal footing with the royal family? Are you crazy? This is not the era of Yao and Shun. Therefore, the Mohist family was eliminated. Similar to the "peasant family", they advocated that the king should be the same as the common people.
He cultivated it himself, so now we can only see this scholarship in literature.』
After listening to Fang Bi's words, Xiang Dian nodded slightly.
To be honest, Xiang Qian didn't pay much attention to the dispute between Fang Bi and Xu Ruo, because it was due to the ideological differences between the Momen disciples.
What he cared more about was whether Song Mo would continue to help them.
Is that why you declined Xu Ruojuzi’s invitation?”
"Yes." Fang Bi said seriously.
"...and are you willing to continue to provide help to our country, Song?"
"Yes." Fang Bi said seriously again.
After receiving this guarantee, Xiang Shen was quite moved.
But what made Xiang Xuan a little disappointed was that Fang Bi soon told him that although Wei Mo and Song Mo continued to maintain contact, their ideological differences meant that the two sides no longer communicated on key matters - such as Wei's
Wei Mo did not reveal the specific details of those Tiger-class warships to Song Mo.
Maybe it was because he was afraid of Wei King Zhao Run, or maybe it was because of something else.
"Can it be imitated?" Xiang Qian later asked Fang Bidao.
Fang Bi thought for a while and could only say that he would do his best. After all, Wei's Tiger-class warship was not just about building a large area. It also involved various technical issues, such as draft, balance, and other things that are conducive to combat.
Design, etc., without any drawings, it would be too difficult for Song Mo to imitate Wei to build a tiger-class warship.
After a while, Fang Bi said goodbye.
Looking at Fang Bi's leaving figure, Xiang Qiao's impetuous heart calmed down a little.
But what he didn't expect was that at this moment, his Song Dynasty general "Chen Si" hurried to his study.
Chen Si was also a general of the Bei Bo Army. When the private armies of the nobles in the Wei State violently recaptured Song County, it was this man who led the army to attack and kill the second son of Pingcheng Hou Li Yang and his family general Bu Ying. He was a rare
A brave general, like Li Huo, was Xiang Ding's right-hand man, and was now responsible for the defense of the entire Tengcheng.
"What's wrong?"
Seeing Chen Si coming over anxiously, he frowned and asked.
I saw Chen Si glance at the few soldiers outside the study. After dismissing them, he said to Xiang Xiang: "Prime Minister, Your Majesty, he... he wanted to escape. When he passed the city gate, he was accidentally killed by one of my subordinates.
The taxi soldiers stopped..."
"..."
Xiang Xuan opened his mouth, dumbfounded.
To be fair, in today's Song Dynasty, although Xiang Ding is handling all affairs, big and small, as the prime minister, he is by no means a powerful minister. It's just that Song Wangzixin does not pay that much attention to the restoration of the country.
In fact, at the beginning, Zixin just couldn't resist Xiang Xuan's persuasion. Otherwise, how could the former be willing to be the fearful monarch of the Song Dynasty? He might be beheaded by the Wei army at some point.
"Your Majesty, where is he...?"
Xiang Qian asked in a deep voice.
Chen Si clasped his fists and whispered: "The last general has secretly sent the king back to the palace."
After hearing this, Xiang Shen immediately went to the palace, and Chen Si quickly followed.
The so-called royal palace is just the largest mansion in Teng City.
In the study room of this mansion, Xiang Qian met their prince of the Song Dynasty, Wang Zixin.
Unlike in the past when she wore royal robes, today's Song Wang Zixin is wearing the clothes of ordinary people and holding a package in her arms. At first glance, it is obvious that she is trying to pretend to be a commoner and sneak out of the city.
"Your Majesty..."
Xiang Ding called out with a complicated expression.
"Prime Minister, Prime Minister..."
Compared with Xiang Xiang, Song Zixin's expression was more complicated, including embarrassment, shame, and more of a loss.
He waved his hand to signal Chen Si and the soldiers guarding Zixin in the room to retreat together. Xiang Dian sighed deeply and asked, "I heard that your Majesty... you want to escape... from here?"
Zixin lowered his head in shame, but then he raised his head again and said sincerely: "Prime Minister, I respect your character. Although there are rumors in the world now that Prime Minister you want to restore the country, but you have other agendas, but I think
It must be clear, Prime Minister, you are a true loyal minister of our Song Dynasty! But... human beings have their own destiny, and God's will cannot be violated, so why should you always stick to the past?"
After a pause, he continued as if he was complaining: "When the Prime Minister came to me, I didn't want to be the king, because I knew that the Song Dynasty had been destroyed, but Prime Minister, you said that there are still people in the Song Dynasty.
The opportunity came back, and I was persuaded by you, Prime Minister; but now, Wei has defeated South Korea and defeated Qi. As the prime minister said last year, Wei's crisis has never come, and Wei is getting stronger and stronger."
Having said this, he took a long breath and said with a wry smile: "Ever since Wei defeated Korea and since Wei King Zhao Run came to the throne, I have been unable to sleep all night long, for fear that I would be in this palace before going to bed and wake up again.
He opened his eyes, but he has become a prisoner of the Wei army..."
"..."
Xiang Ding opened his mouth, but was speechless.
It has to be said that when he heard that Zixin wanted to run away with his family and children, he was very angry.
After all, everything he did was for the Song Dynasty and the Song royal family that he had loyal to for generations. Unexpectedly, before he, a minister, gave up, the descendants of the Song royal family abandoned their country one by one, preferring to remain anonymous.
He wanted to live the life of a wealthy man and was unwilling to shoulder the burden of restoring the country. Even Zixin, the only courageous descendant of the Song royal family, has now shrunk.
But when he heard Zixin's sincere words, the anger in his heart disappeared, and what was left was only disappointment.
"Your Majesty...have you made up your mind?"
Licking her dry lips, she asked bitterly.
Perhaps out of shame, Zixin did not dare to look directly into Xiang's eyes, but nodded slightly and whispered: "Prime Minister, now I just want to live my life in peace..."
Xiang Ding looked directly at Zixin, nodded after a while, and asked with a bit of bitterness: "Where does your Majesty want to go?"
Zixin raised her head and saw that Xiang Qian had no intention of sarcasm, so she whispered: "I have family property in Xuedi..."
Xiang Qian shook his head and said: "Xue Di has been occupied by Huan Hu, so it is not a suitable place to settle down."
"Then..." Zixin secretly glanced at Xiang Xuan's expression and said tentatively: "Now, I'm afraid Wei is the most stable country? I heard that Wei does not exclude outsiders."
"..."
Xiang Ding's face stiffened for a moment, then returned to its original state, he smiled and nodded, and said as if he didn't care: "Indeed, now, the Wei State is indeed the most stable..."
That night, Xiang Xuan sat alone in the study room of his Prime Minister's Mansion.
At this time, his desk was still full of official documents waiting to be processed. On normal days, he would definitely handle these official documents diligently, but today, he had no such interest.
The country's fall was second to none. As a monarch and a descendant of the Song royal family, Zixin only wanted to escape from this place and survive in the world.
This left Xiang Ding deeply confused: What is the meaning of everything I have done in the past twenty years?
"Man has his limits, but God's will cannot be violated..."
After muttering something to himself, Xiang Qian swept the documents on the desk aside, picked up a pen and wrote the following words on a piece of paper: "The person the King of Wei hates is Xiang Qiao, not others..."
It was written eloquently and filled up a piece of paper.
Immediately, Xiang Dian put the letter into a wooden box, called his close guards, and told him: "You must cross the river overnight and hand it over to the Wei general in Huling."
The confidant guard nodded, turned around and left holding the wooden box.
At this time, Xiang Xuan poured a packet of powder into a jug, shook it a few times, and drank the wine in one gulp.
"Father, brother..."
When he was dying, Xiang Ding seemed to see his father and brother. They were eagerly greeting him to get on the chariot and fight to the death with the Wei army.
"It would have been nice if I had died on the battlefield with my father and brother..."
Whispering, Xiang Dian's hand dropped weakly.
"Pah——"
The ceramic wine bottle in his hand also shattered on the ground.
When the guards outside the house heard the commotion and rushed in, they were shocked to find that Xiang Ding had been sitting on a chair, his head drooped, and he was no longer breathing.
"Prime Minister, Prime Minister?!... Someone is coming! Someone is coming quickly!"
There was a lot of noise in the Prime Minister's Mansion in Tengcheng.
On the eighth day of September in the third year of Wei Xing'an, Xiang Fang, the youngest son of Xiang Ju, the hero of the former Song Dynasty, and the last loyal minister of the Song Dynasty, died at the age of forty-five.
Xiang Xuan's death represented the true fall of the Song Dynasty.