Rebirth of the Four Seas Emperor

Hou Yao suffered a setback in the first battle, but after the princess sacrificed herself to comfort him, he finally resurrected with full health.

The frustration was gone, and he no longer struggled with whether he was better than Zhu Liang'ao.

In fact, no matter from which aspect, it makes no sense to dwell on this issue.

The wisdom of ancient people is no lower than that of modern people. The reason why modern people feel that they are generally wiser than ancient people is purely a matter of cognition.

As the saying goes: Sitting on an airplane and looking down, everyone is an ant.

Some things can only be known when they are truly faced. They are not as simple as imagined.

Commanding something like this requires half talent and half experience. No matter how high your cognition is, it will be useless unless the Baoan Army can completely abandon the constraints of the times.

But obviously, it is impossible to do it at present. Even if Hou Yao has laid the foundation for industrialization, he is only one person and it will be difficult for him to make big changes in this era in a short time.

Throughout history, it is common for humans to invent advanced things, but it is actually very difficult to fully promote and pass them on.

All because every war will lead to a substantial regression of social civilization.For example, the conflict between Chu and Han destroyed many of the great achievements of the pre-Qin Dynasty.

The chief culprit is Xiang Yu. This man's personal abilities are indeed impeccable, but his destruction of pre-Qin culture was also devastating.

Qin Shihuang's burning of books and humiliation of Confucians is just a fiction, but Xiang Yu's burning of the Qin Palace is an indisputable fact. He also burned Epang Palace, robbed and killed the soldiers and civilians of Xianyang, and killed everyone in the Guanzhong area, the richest area in the pre-Qin period.

The most ironic thing about the Chu-Han conflict is that Xiang Yu ultimately lost to Qin's legacy.

Why did Xiao He become the number one hero in the rise of the Han Dynasty?

Throughout history, among all the famous founding ministers of the country, only one person can achieve the highest feat of founding the country by staying behind. Why?

All because Xiao did something right, Liu Bang was finally able to defeat the powerful Demon King Xiang Yu with a weak army.

After the Han army captured Xianyang, all the soldiers were vying for property, and Liu Bang was intoxicated in the gentle countryside. Only Xiao He, the only one in the army who did not love money and beauty, ran to the Prime Minister's Censor's Mansion alone.

The books and files related to the Qin Dynasty's national household registration, topography, documents, etc. were inventoried one by one, classified into categories, registered, and collected.

When the Han army was forced to withdraw from Xianyang, he packed up all these documents and took them away.

As for the significance of these documents to the subsequent conflict between Chu and Han, let’s borrow Wang Chong’s original words recorded in the book "Lunheng Bietong":

"Xiao He entered the Qin Dynasty and collected documents. The reason why the Han Dynasty was able to control the nine states was because of the power of documents."

What does it mean now?

Xiang Yu is like a barbarian who maintains his brute strength. He is ferocious and cruel, and no one can be his opponent in a head-on confrontation.

Facts have proved that this is also the case. After the Chu-Han War kicked off, Liu Bang also suffered defeats again and again, and then finally won once and conquered the world.

Why?

This is the power of the Qin Dynasty documents that Xiao He brought back.

Before the Qin Dynasty, the enfeoffment system was adopted, and everyone only knew what happened in their own fiefdom.

The First Emperor adopted the system of prefectures and counties and kept written records of the land in the world.

Therefore, in the battle between Chu and Han, Xiang Yu could only rely on his own bravery to fight blindly and hit wherever he went, while Liu Bang seemed to have opened the whole map and ran away if he lost.

Then he found a place with resources to recruit troops and came back to fight again. He fought back and forth thirty times, and finally he won once.

Therefore, Liu Bang's defeat of Xiang Yu was inevitable and not accidental at all.

The only regret is that Xiao He did not take away Qin's scientific and technological documents, resulting in the loss of many black technologies that had been invented in the Qin Dynasty.

For example, weapons production assembly line technology, hardwood track technology that is several thousand years ahead of European railways, Qin Nu, etc.

The Han Dynasty replaced the Qin Dynasty, which was actually a huge setback for the Yanhuang civilization.

In particular, Dong Zhongshu's proposal to abolish all schools of thought and only respect Confucianism forcibly imprisoned the Yanhuang civilization for thousands of years.

In the entire history of China, this kind of thing has happened more than once.

After feeling refreshed, Hou Yao sent Ji Wenjun back to the city first. After returning, he organized his army and prepared to fight again.

The Europeans are a group of bandits, and he will never allow these bandits to leave Guangzhou safely.

Otherwise, sooner or later, the industrial base he has finally developed will be fatally damaged.

Hou Yao returned to camp and while arranging the army to prepare for battle, Ji Wenjun summoned Yu Xiuer, Chen Yuluoyan and others.

"Yu Xiu'er, Chen Yu, Luo Yan, I would like to ask you, do you dare to go into battle with me?"

She would not be too close to Yu Xiuer when outsiders were around.

Yu Xiuer was shocked and said:

"Your Highness, what do you mean? Go to war? What kind of war are we going to have?"

Chen Yu was also quite horrified and said:

"Your Highness, if a woman goes to the battlefield, she will be criticized, right? As a princess, you will be gossiped about."

Luo Yan didn't say anything, but he was a little eager to give it a try.

Ji Wenjun snorted:

"You are all highly skilled in martial arts. I have worked so hard to move around and piece together the weapons and equipment for 200 of you. Is it just for good looks?

Although there are only two hundred cavalry, it is the only cavalry unit that can be gathered in Guangzhou.

If used well, it can become a decisive force that affects the overall situation on the battlefield. Now that men are useless, we are the only ones to help. "

Yu Xiuer thought for a long time, and finally nodded, knelt down on one knee with the etiquette of a military commander:

"General Yu Xiu'er will only follow the princess' orders."

Chen Yuluoyan also knelt down and said:

"I will obey the orders of Her Royal Highness the Princess."

Ji Wenjun slapped his thigh:

"Okay, I am waiting for your words. Now the Spanish army's most lethal force against our army is the eight artillery pieces. However, the price the infantry has to pay to rush into the artillery pieces protected by layers of troops is too high. So I want you to complete this mission. As long as there are no eighteen artillery pieces, our army can easily destroy the enemy."

When Yu Xiuer heard this, she immediately said excitedly:

"Your Majesty, please give me an order. If the general is willing to go through fire and water, he will do so without hesitation."

Chen Yuluoyan also said loudly:

"The final general is willing to be the pioneer for His Highness."

Ji Wenjun nodded proudly:

"Okay, my lord orders you immediately to prepare your troops and horses before sending out troops..."

……

The two armies faced each other, and this time, both sides were afraid.

After just a few tentative attacks, they withdrew their troops and returned to their camps.

This time the Spanish army did not use artillery, but only pushed the artillery to the front of the formation at the critical moment.

Hou Yao was afraid that the tragedy would happen again, so he had no choice but to withdraw his troops.

That night, the one-eyed dragon arrived at the military camp. Because the rain the previous two nights was so heavy, the boat grabbing operation downstream was greatly affected.

Fortunately, Hou Yao asked Jiang Hong to follow Liu Chengfu that day and counted the number of ships at the dock.

The next day, someone was sent to check the quantity with the one-eyed dragon.

After this check, I found that half of the ships were missing. The small ships didn't matter, the main thing was the big ships, and none of them could be missing.

It just so happened that big ships were not easy to stop, so most of them escaped, so he had been leading people and horses around to look for missing ships these past few days.

Fortunately, the Haima Gang had a large number of people, and the troops were divided into dozens of groups. In addition, they were all equipped with binoculars. They conducted a blanket search at the seaport and found all the ships.

However, while clearing the remaining defenders on the ship, there were some casualties.

After so many days of delay, the one-eyed dragon hurried over to report the results of the battle to Hou Yao.

"Sir, we have finished counting the food on the ship. There are about [-] thousand dry stones. What should we do with this food?"

Hou Yao was shocked when he heard there was so much food, but then he remembered the Chen family's granary.

Ji Qizhen told him at the beginning that the Chen family swallowed up a total of [-] shi of grain stored in the Guangzhou Mansion's granary.

This disaster relief food is a reserve food and is generally not allowed to be used at will, so the quantity will not be small.

If this was the food on board, then there would be at least four kilograms of food missing, and these must have been moved to the military camp.

Four ganshi of grain is only about 240 tons, which sounds like a lot, but compared to [-] dan, it is only ten days' worth.

An army of 25 consumes almost 240 tons of food a day, so [-] tons cannot last for more than a few days.

However, due to the severe attrition, food consumption has been reduced a lot, but even so, it probably won't last a few days.

After Hou Yao learned about this situation, he was so excited. Is this a plan that will not defeat the enemy?

I don’t want to play with you anymore. Anyway, I have guaranteed logistics and can afford it. No big deal, just play slowly and see if I starve you to death.

No matter how powerful the cannon is, it means it is strong in defense. If it is really used for offense, it actually has little meaning.

Just like in a siege, it didn't have much effect.

At this point, Hou Yao began to play delaying tactics and set up defensive offensives at various traffic arteries to prevent the Spanish army from escaping to other places.

The tactics had only been carried out for two days, but Ji Wenjun was very angry.

Since the one-eyed Jiao went to the military camp to report at night, Hou Yao arranged to go back and transfer the food back.

These are life-saving food for the people of Guangzhou. He cannot embezzle them and must return them to the Guangzhou government.

The boats will definitely not be returned. With these big boats, the Squid Gang can finally come out.

However, it's not appropriate to let them come out now. After all, the war is still going on. After the war is over and the rewards from the court come down, it won't matter.

After all, these ships are actually trophies. If the court shamelessly said that the trophies must be confiscated, there would be no place to cry.

Hou Yao still understands the principle of keeping a low profile to make a fortune.

After Hou Yao blocked all the Spanish army's retreat routes, he began to play defensive tactics, intending to use hunger to annihilate the enemy in one fell swoop.

……

At the same time, Li Fengjing, who had disappeared for several days, finally returned to the Spanish military camp.

Diego Longquillo was already very anxious. Hou Yao guessed correctly that the Spanish army was really going to be short of food.

In fact, what they left behind was four thousand tons of grain plus part of the original Chen family's granary.

It was enough to feed an army of [-] for almost twelve days, and more than half of it was consumed in seven days of siege. However, after successive losses, it lasted for a while longer.

But until now, there is basically not much food left.In three days at most, the army will be without food.

"Li, you're finally back. How about it? Can we escape?"

Li Jingfeng nodded confidently and said:

"Everything is ready. Tomorrow night, the boat will come to the river to pick us up. However, there are not many boats. It is impossible for all the [-] troops to leave. At most, only half of them can leave..."