Chapter 186: The confrontation between Wei and Han (2) [two in one]
"Shen Xiang."
"Shen Xiang."
Just when Han Wangran was dealing with government affairs, the Prime Minister of South Korea, Shen Buhai, came to the palace in person, causing the palace people who came in and out of the palace to quickly salute the old prime minister.
Hearing the movement, Han Wangran raised his head and saw Shen Buhai walking to the imperial cabinet, bowing his hands and saying, "Your Majesty."
"..."
Han Wangran glanced at Shen Buhai a few times and saw that the old prime minister was hesitant to speak, so he said knowingly: "Please step aside for now. I have important matters to discuss with Prime Minister Shen."
"Yes, Your Majesty." The palace servants in the palace bowed and retreated.
"This is a diligent and virtuous king..."
After taking a look at the various memorials placed on Han Wangran's imperial case, Shen Buhai sighed with emotion. Then he calmed down, cupped his hands and said, "Your Majesty, I heard that you just ordered the treasury to allocate a sum of money to use
To build war weapons..."
"It's true."
Han Wangran stood up from behind the court case and raised his hand to signal the old prime minister to sit down at the seat on the side of the palace. He also sat down on the opposite side, nodded and said: "According to the news from Julu City, Wei Guo has made a new transfer.
The Yanling Army, two elite divisions of 50,000 soldiers, were stationed in Yecheng and Feicheng... Yesterday, a letter from General Le Yi was sent to Jicheng. In the letter, he said that Wei will send a large number of iron armor
Chariots and huge trebuchets were transported to the border..."
When talking about "iron-armored chariots" and "giant trebuchets", Han Wangran couldn't help but recall the last Wei-Korean war.
In that war, Wei's infantry and armored chariots formed a torrent of steel, crushing the Korean army with an unrivaled momentum. Even though the Handan army tried its best, it could not resist it.
As for the giant trebuchet, when the Wei army put pressure on Handan later, they only tried to throw one or two stone bombs. The scene at that time was really shaking the earth. Not only the people in Handan City were frightened by it, but even the soldiers
The general, even Han Wangran and the court officials were also shocked by it: that was really a terrifying weapon.
Perhaps it was out of fear of Wei's war weapons that Han Wangran made a decisive decision to increase military spending after receiving the letter from General Le Yi.
"I see."
After understanding the details, Han Xiang Shen Buhai nodded slightly. In fact, he had known for a long time that the Korean monarch in front of him had always been careful about the money in the treasury and would never waste it needlessly. He was just surprised that this monarch was so careful.
Fan actually had to spend such a large amount of money to replenish military expenditures, so he came to ask what happened, or maybe the two of them could sum it up to see if there was a better solution.
But after understanding the situation, Shen Buhai also believed that the judgment of the young monarch in front of him was completely correct: Wei was obviously deliberately putting pressure on them. If he, Korea, retreated and surrendered to Wei, then he would not be able to achieve the goal.
It played a role for Chu State in containing Wei State.
However, Shen Buhai felt really distressed to allocate such a large sum of money from the stretched national treasury, because all this money was saved by South Korea with great difficulty and planned to be used for domestic construction-such as in the fishing industry.
Yang County dug irrigation canals, increased cultivated farmland, etc.
If all this money is invested in military spending, where should we raise funds for domestic construction in recent years?
He raised this issue with Han Wangran.
Hearing this, Han Wangran couldn't help but feel a little melancholy.
To put it in detail, the three Wei-Korean wars actually caused great losses to Wei. However, as a victorious country, Wei made up for a certain amount of losses through war profits and dividends. However, as for South Korea, after losing three consecutive battles, its national power plummeted, and even more so.
Not to mention that after the third Wei-Korean war, the Wei state was very
The Qin State was despicably used to continue to consume South Korea, denying South Korea the opportunity for stable development in order to recover from the trauma caused by the war. This forced South Korea to continue to increase military spending in order to resist Qin's attack, so that in
In terms of restoring national strength, progress has been quite slow.
Now, due to the pressure from Wei's troops stationed on the border, South Korea has no choice but to allocate funds from its stretched national treasury. This is also a helpless move.
After thinking about it, Han Wangran said rather short of breath: "If it really doesn't work... we can only find another way to get some help from the nobles."
It has to be said that Han Wangran did not have the confidence to speak even if he had no money. If it were Zhao Run, the king of Wei, he would definitely not be so passive. After all, he held a lot of wealth in his hands - of course, even if Zhao Run had no money in his hands, he would not be so passive.
With his strength, no one can violate the policies he wants to implement.
To put it lightly, Zhao Run is a tyranny in which those who obey me will prosper and those who go against me will perish. But to put it more lightly, this is the true and inviolable will of the king!
A king cannot stand without people, and a country cannot prosper without a king. The benefits that a 'suitable' hero brings to the country are irreplaceable.
Compared with Wei Wang Zhao Run, Han Wangran's various actions seemed too cowardly.
Of course, this is also caused by the limitations of South Korea's national conditions: in the Wei State, since the time of the late king Zhao Si, it has been gradually strengthening the royal power, weakening the clan, and the influence of domestic aristocratic forces on the court. Waiting for Wei Wang Zhao Run to succeed to the throne, the royal power
It has completely expanded to the point where no one can limit it; but in South Korea, it is the princes and nobles who control the lifeline of the country. Although Han Wangran regained the royal power, this royal power was not enough to make the subjects of the country bend and obey orders.
.
In the final analysis, Han Wangran's reputation - whether it is good or bad reputation - is not as good as that of Wei Wang Zhao Run. Looking at Zhao Run in Wei, even if there are still many branches of the royal family and aristocratic forces cursing in private, when Zhao Run withdraws
When new policies are implemented, these people still have to obey orders.
Because if they don't obey, there is no need for the "tyrant" who says "those who obey me will prosper and those who go against me to perish" to come forward. Zhang Qigong, the most criticized "cruel official" under his king's rank, will find a way to get rid of these people.
Unfortunately, Han Wangran does not possess these favorable conditions.
After weighing the pros and cons, Shen Buhai finally agreed with Han Wangran's decision. The topic they discussed gradually shifted from "increasing military spending" to another issue, that is: if Wei really attacks South Korea, will South Korea
Can withstand attacks.
Regarding this matter, Han Wangran is still a little confident.
Because he had told Le Yi a long time ago, after leading his army to Julu City, Le Yi immediately mobilized all his forces and began to build defenses in the Wu'an, Bairen, and Julu areas, on any route and on any mountain.
Passes were set up in the pass, and the entire northern Handan County was premeditated to be used as a local battlefield when Wei invaded the country.
With appropriate preparations made in advance, local operations still have great advantages.
After the king's order was issued, many military workshops were immediately added in Yuyang County. After each workshop was completed, it was quickly put into use for forging weapons, making war weapons, etc.
It has to be said that although South Korea suffered three disastrous defeats in succession, resulting in a great loss of national power, the country's foundation is still there, and its craftsmanship and technology have been largely preserved - after all, this was the country with the strongest comprehensive strength in the Central Plains.
When these workshops began to operate, Han Wangran took the rare opportunity to leave the palace where he handled government affairs and personally inspect the weapons and war weapons forged in the workshops.
But to be honest, South Korea's current technology is mainly based on imitating the Wei State, such as the three-sided arrow cluster.
The three-edged arrowhead was originally designed by Wei Wang Zhao Run. Compared with the traditional two-edged arrowhead, it not only has higher shooting accuracy, is more stable, and is more powerful. Later, after improvements by the Smelting Bureau, in the arrow cluster, or arrow
Barbs are added to the shaft, making this kind of arrow even more sinister. Once it is shot into the human body, it will quickly cause bloodletting. What is terrible is that due to the presence of barbs, this kind of arrowhead is difficult to remove. If
If you forcibly remove it, it will inevitably take away a piece of skin or flesh, or break the internal organs, which will cause the person to die from pain.
South Korea has suffered a lot in this regard.
At first, the Korean soldiers were surprised: They were all arrowheads, so why were Wei's arrowheads so lethal?
It wasn't until they gave the Wei arrowheads they picked up on the battlefield to domestic craftsmen for study that they came up with the answer.
Since then, Korean craftsmen have begun to try to forge this kind of triangular arrowheads. Although there will inevitably be failures during the period, fortunately, South Korea has a relatively deep foundation in iron smelting and forging, and gradually they have figured out how to forge this kind of arrowheads.
method.
In addition to the three-edged arrowheads, the main thing South Korea forged after the Wei State was the chariot.
It's funny to say, because in the "Battle of Shangdang" decades ago, it was South Korea who used the cross-era cavalry to eliminate Wei's old chariots, so that Wei, which used chariots as its national symbol, lost its
Faith. But now, South Korea has to follow the example of Wei in building chariots, and let chariots reappear on the stage of war in this era.
I have to say, this is also an incredible thing.
But having said that, Wei's new tanks are indeed too threatening on the battlefield.
Once upon a time, cavalry was the king of the plains. Except for cavalry, any other arms would be frightened when encountering cavalry.
Especially infantry. On the plains, cavalry has a hundred ways to kill infantry easily.
It wasn't until the State of Wei built a new type of chariot, namely the iron Wugang chariot and the tortoise-shell chariot, that the State of Wei equipped its infantry with such chariots, so that when the infantry of the State of Wei encountered the enemy's cavalry in the wild, they would
As long as these chariots are closely connected to form a defense line, the enemy's cavalry will be unable to do anything against this iron lump.
At this time, the Wei infantry could use sniper crossbows to kill the enemy's cavalry from long range without any danger.
This severely challenged the status of the cavalry, the king of the plains.
Some people may think that equipping Wei's infantry with chariots that can withstand Korean cavalry must cost a lot, but in fact, this cost is far less than that of Korean cavalry.
After all, the cost and difficulty of training a cavalry is far higher than that of training an infantry. In addition, the cost of a light cavalry is almost as much as three to five infantrymen.
Although you can eat a lot of food, you can't feed the war horse harshly, right? Otherwise, if the war horse is thin and weak, what good will it do?
The cost gap between the two is enough to make up for the forging cost of the armored chariot, and there is even a surplus.
Soon, the first turtle-shell chariot was successfully built by Korean craftsmen.
This is not surprising. After all, whether it is a tortoise-shell chariot or a Wugang chariot, the technical content of these chariots is not that high. It is nothing more than hanging iron plates on the outside of the chariot's frame. As long as you understand roughly, Korean craftsmen
They can imitate it.
In comparison, Korean craftsmen encountered technical difficulties when they followed the example of Wei in building the "giant trebuchet".
A giant trebuchet is not simply a magnification of an ordinary trebuchet. It involves many problems, the most critical of which is the toughness of the throwing rod: soft materials cannot throw heavy objects, and
The material is relatively hard, but it is easy to break the throwing rod when throwing stone projectiles.
Korean craftsmen have been studying this problem for a long time, but they still haven't gained much yet.
They were very troubled: What kind of wood did the craftsmen of Wei choose?
The failure of trying to build a giant trebuchet made Han Wangran a little disappointed. After all, in his view, this giant weapon was extremely threatening. Even if South Korea was the defender this time, if there were a certain number of giant trebuchets,
In the position or in the city, it can also greatly boost the morale of one's own soldiers and dampen the arrogance of the Wei army.
Otherwise, you can only watch the Wei army use this giant trebuchet to launch attacks again and again. Even if this war weapon hits low ground, it will greatly affect the morale of your own soldiers.
"...What should I do?"
After once again witnessing the failure of a giant trebuchet to drop bombs, Han Wangran looked solemnly at the trebuchet with a broken throwing rod, thinking deeply in his heart.
Suddenly, he had an idea.
Yes, although the imitation of this giant trebuchet has actually failed so far, the Wei people don't know. In this case, why not build some and put them on the border to put pressure on the Wei army?
You must know that the purpose of South Korea is not to go to war with Wei, but to contain Wei and let Wei turn its attention to South Korea. And in the situation where this goal is expected to be achieved, the King of Han actually does not want to fight with Wei.
A real war.
In this case, there is only one way, and that is to make Wei State surrender and not dare to start a war easily.
Thinking of this, Han Wangran already had an idea in his mind.
Under the king's order, Korean craftsmen began to build giant trebuchets, which could only be displayed for viewing. After the construction was completed, they were dismantled and transported by carriage and horse to the front lines in Wu'an and Julu.
Probably in August of the seventh year of Wei Xing'an, when King Zhao Jiang of Yan had nothing to do, he was personally training his Shanyang army outside Handan City. Suddenly, the Nanyan cavalry under his command came to report that there were a large number of chariots and horses in South Korea.
The transportation team is heading towards Wu'an from the north.
King Yan Zhaojiang didn't care about this. After all, in the past two months, South Korea had been transporting grain and grass, and heavy carriages and horses, transporting large quantities of materials to the three cities of Wu'an, Bairen, and Julu. In addition to this incident,
In addition to King Zhao Jiang of Yan being informed of the situation, Qu Cheng of the Yanling Army and Pang Huan of the Suppression Army were both aware of the situation. However, they did not order a sneak attack due to their own king's orders, which triggered this war.
But by the next day, King Yan Zhao Jiang was a little dumbfounded.
Because the Nanyan cavalry who came to report told him that in the Han army camp outside Wu'an City, there were many more war weapons like the giant trebuchets of Wei State. In addition, there were many other Wei soldiers who also imitated them.
Wugang chariots and turtle-shell chariots built in China.
"That's unreasonable!"
King Zhao Jiang of Yan was furious. Even when he was having dinner with his wife and his concubine, he cursed South Korea angrily, cursing South Korea for being shameless and plagiarizing his Wei State's chariot.
To be fair, if he had not kept in mind the true strategic intentions of Wei Wang Zhao Run in that letter, he might have led his army to fight in anger.
After thinking about it, he summoned General Cao Yan, and after describing the general situation to the latter, he gave instructions: "Expand the military camp outside the city for me and pull out all the chariots!"
Cao Yan, as the chief of the imperial clan of Yan Wang Zhaojiang, of course also knew the true intentions of Wei Wang Zhao Run and the court. Hearing this, he smiled and said: "Don't worry, my lord, the general will be putting pressure on Wu'an in these days."
"It's good, but it's not enough!" King Yan Zhao Jiang said with anger still lingering.
On that day, the Shanyang Army barracks outside Handan City began to expand to the southwest, and the defensive line also advanced about three miles to the southwest.
To the southwest of Handan, Wu'an is located. After learning about this incident, Jin Wu, the guardian of Wu'an, felt a little uneasy and quickly invited Xu Li, the guardian of Shanggu, to discuss with him.
Xu Li, the governor of Shanggu, was a lieutenant whom Ma She, the former governor of Shanggu, relied heavily on. He was both civil and military, mature and prudent. After thinking about it for a while, he said: "Although this move can easily cause friction with the Wei army and then trigger a war, the king has his destiny."
, our country must not show weakness at this time... As long as we do not take the initiative to start a war, no matter what Wei does, we will retaliate!"
With Xu Li's support, Jin Mao felt more confident. On that day, he also ordered the expansion of the military camp to the southeast, and at the same time, he also advanced the defensive line three miles toward Handan to compete with the Wei army.
It has to be said that the violent temper of King Yan Zhao Jiang is no less than that of his brother Zhao Run - in fact, after Zhao Run inherited the throne, his flamboyant character has been tempered.
But King Zhao Jiang of Yan did not. After all, he was always an upright person. When he saw that the Wu'an Han army dared to be so provocative, he angrily cursed: "How unreasonable! How unreasonable!"
However, since the Wei army also had a strict order from Wei King Zhao Run to "not initiate a war", Yan King Zhao Jiang could only suppress the anger in his heart and sullenly gave an order to the patrolling Nanyan cavalry: if they encounter the Han army's sentry cavalry, attack immediately
, no need to show mercy!
After the order was issued, the Nanyan cavalry immediately obeyed. If they encountered the Han army's sentry cavalry in the wild, they would immediately launch an offensive.
As for the Korean sentry cavalry, they obviously had no intention of showing weakness. Once attacked by the Nanyan cavalry, they would immediately fight back.
After a few days, both sides were hurting each other.
Of course, this was just a friction between the sentries of the two armies and did not affect the main forces of the Wei and Korean armies.
On the side of the main forces of the Wei and Korean armies, they still abided by the king's order "not to initiate war", so that later, the positions of the Korean army on the Wu'an side and the Wei army on the Handan side had advanced to a distance of only a few inches from each other.
It was only six or seven miles away, and even when the weather was good, you could vaguely see the opposite position. But even so, the main forces of the Wei and Han armies did not break out. Instead, they strengthened their defense and each built many defensive horses.
, antlers, placed at the front of the position.
At the same time, Wei King Zhao Run, who was in Luoyang, also received the latest letter from Yan King Zhao Jiang.
When Zhao Run saw his brother Zhao Jiang's letter saying that many armored chariots and giant trebuchets appeared in the Korean military camp in Wu'an, even he was a little surprised.
The armored chariot did not have much technical content, so Zhao Run was not surprised, but the giant trebuchet was not simply an enlargement of an ordinary trebuchet.
"Korea...has overcome the problem of casting rod materials?"
Zhao Run was very surprised.
In fact, even the giant trebuchets in Wei State have not completely overcome the problem of the material of the throwing pole. Therefore, a giant trebuchet can try to throw one or two giant stone bombs at most, and then it will
There were signs of cracking of the throwing pole - its role was more in deterrence, making the Koreans mistakenly believe that their Wei army could use this giant trebuchet to easily conquer any city.
"Han Ran...couldn't he be thinking about the same thing as me?"
Zhao Run touched his chin with a strange expression.
He never believed that South Korea could overcome the problem of the material of the giant trebuchet poles in such a short period of time. In this case, the giant trebuchets that were transported to Wu'an City should also be similar to the Wei army.
The ones placed in Handan area are similar.
But it was this kind of appearance that made the soldiers on both sides tremble with fear. To be honest, it was really interesting.
After thinking about it, he sent an order to the General Administration of Metallurgy and Manufacturing, asking the General Administration of Metallurgy to step up the casting of repeating crossbows, chariots, trebuchets and other war weapons, and transport them to the border front lines, even giant trebuchets.
If you like the goods that are not useful, make more of them.
Faced with the urging of King Zhao Run of Wei, Wang Fu, director of the General Administration of Metallurgy and Manufacturing, expressed his sorrow.
Because the Smelting Bureau and the Weapon Casting Bureau are already saturated at this time, where can they speed up?
But due to the Wang Ling, Wang Fu had no choice. After thinking hard for a long time, he gritted his teeth and issued an order to the Smelting Bureau to speed up the casting.
As a result, the Smelting Bureau forged war weapons faster. In just one or two months, a large number of Wei Liannu, turtle-shell chariots, Wugang chariots, as well as various weapons and baggage were quickly transported to northern Xinjiang, and
As for the three Wei generals, King Yan Zhao Jiang, Qu Cheng, and Pang Huan, after receiving this batch of armaments, they seemed to set up a street stall, clearly placing them in front of the position to exert force on the Korean army on the opposite side.
pressure.
The Korean army on the opposite side took a look: Wow! There are so many war weapons coming from the Wei army again? Report it to the king quickly!
Immediately, Han Wangran gritted his teeth and once again allocated funds from the stretched treasury to invest in military expenditures.
But at this time, Han Wangran had already realized something: Wei Guo was obviously planning to bring down South Korea's economy by forcing him to increase military spending.
But at this point, both South Korea and Han Wangran are already riding a tiger and are unable to get off.
He could only grit his teeth and persevere, hoping to overcome this difficulty.