Chapter 229: Naval Talents

When Liu Hou heard Cai Ban's words, he couldn't help but feel moved in his heart, and asked: "This son heard that Lord Cai Mao Cai is the governor of the navy that Zhou Yu is afraid of, and he is very good at the affairs of the navy, since you are Cai Mao's nephew, do you know about water warfare?" ”

"Back to Gongzi's words, the villain has been following his uncle in the naval camp since he was a child, and he knows some about the training and strategy of the naval army." Cai Bandao.

When Liu Hou heard it, there is a door, people in this era are more modest, saying that they understand a little, but in fact, they may be proficient, so just listening to his answer can't know his true level at all, and you have to try to know.

"Oh? How many of you in the Cai clan are familiar with water warfare? Liu Hou continued to ask. The reason why Liu Hou asked like this was because of the idea of the Cai clan, all the time, the naval army of Eastern Wu was the most powerful, and although the Shu State had developed super warships equipped with cannons, there were only two so far.

The number is so small, in addition to the fact that the shipbuilding industry of Shu is not developed enough and it is difficult to build large warships, there is also a very important reason that sailors are rare.

Although Liu Hou also set up a water division major in the college to cultivate water division talents, however, a hundred years of trees, ten years of people, to cultivate a qualified talent is not an overnight thing, the college graduates every year of the talent in short supply, at this rate, want to establish a water army that can compete with the Soochow naval army, I don't know that it will be the Year of the Monkey.

Therefore, when Liu Hou heard Cai Ban say that he was Cai Mao's nephew, he wanted to try his luck to see if he could find some naval talents from the Cai clan and quickly expand the ranks of the naval army. After all, if you want to clean up Soochow in the future, you still need to implement the water war.

"Childe, in the past, there were no less than 100 Cai's sons and nephews who followed the clan uncle De Juegong and served in the water division, but now, it would be good to be able to find twenty or thirty people, alas!" Cai Ban said with emotion.

Hearing that there were only twenty or thirty people, Liu Hou couldn't help but feel a little disappointed, what is the use of so few people, the disappointment in his heart, blurted out: "Oh? There were only twenty or thirty people, which was a shame. ”

When Cai Ban heard this, his heart was also moved, and he asked: "Gongzi asked people who understand water warfare, is it because he wants to recruit naval talents for Shu Kingdom?" ”

"Exactly, my emperor has always wanted to establish a powerful naval division comparable to the Eastern Wu Naval Army, but unfortunately he has been suffering from a lack of naval talents, I don't know if you are willing to go to the Shu Naval Army to serve our emperor?" Seeing that the words had already been said for this part, Liu Hou simply opened his mouth to solicit them.

When Cai Ban heard this, he bowed his head and said gratefully: "The Cai family has fallen so far, I didn't expect to have the opportunity to be prominent for a long time, if I can get the recommendation of the son today, so that His Majesty can revive the Cai family, the villain will definitely remember the great kindness of the son." ”

"That's no problem, my son is very familiar with the emperor, so let's go back with us today, and settle down the clansmen outside you first, so that you can rest assured that you can go back to help the emperor find your clansmen who know the navy." You go back and tell them that as long as they are willing to serve the emperor, the emperor will definitely not treat them badly. Liu Houdao.

"Thank you, Childe, oh, by the way, Childe, after the Battle of Chibi back then, in addition to the Cai clan, there were other soldiers in the Jingzhou Navy scattered among the people, I wonder if Childe is interested in them?" Cai Bandao.

Liu Hou was overjoyed when he heard this, why didn't this guy say it earlier, and he disappointed himself for a long time. Why didn't I think of it before? Back then, Zhou Yu burned Chibi with a plan, and the Jingzhou Navy Army incorporated by Cao Cao was annihilated, saying that the entire army was annihilated, but it was impossible for hundreds of thousands of people to all die, and most of them should have been scattered.

Among them, a considerable number of people should have deserted and hidden, the number of these people must be much more than the people in the Cai clan who know how to fight water warfare, the Cai clan people may only be able to find dozens of water army talents, but these people may be as many as hundreds or even thousands, with these people, the strength of the Shu State Navy can be greatly enhanced.

"Okay, very good, Cai Ban, if you can find these people to come over and serve my emperor, this son will be a great merit for you." Liu Hou said happily.

On this day, Liu Hou was very happy, not only learned about the situation in Fancheng from Cai Ban, but also harvested some soldiers of the Cai family and the former Jingzhou Navy. After that day, Cai Ban ran around for Liu Hou, looking for the lost Cai clan on the one hand, and the navy talents on the other.

A few months later, he found hundreds of sailors for the Shu army, although some of them were a little old and no longer suitable to continue to fight in the navy, but they were experienced and could be used as the head of the Sailor Academy to train sailors for the Shu army.

In the end, more than 300 of these people were conscripted to serve in the Shu State Naval Army, and the remaining 200 people went to Chengdu and entered the Naval Academy as a teacher and teacher. And Cai Ban became the captain of the third super battleship.

The third supership is still under construction, but it is planned that it will be launched in a few months, and then it will be time for Cai Ban to show what he can do. These are all later words, which will not be shown here for the time being, and it is said that after Liu Hou and Sima Yi discussed and agreed that day, Sima Yi would be responsible for the specific implementation of the plan of pretending to flood the Seventh Army.

This plan seems simple, but in fact it is not simple to do at all, the key is to grasp the problem of a degree, not only to do something to convince the Wei army that the Shu army is bent on digging the embankment and releasing water to flood the city, but it cannot really flood the city.

It is necessary to give the Wei army enough psychological pressure to abandon the city and flee, but not to make the pressure too great, forcing them to resist to the end regardless of a single thing. This kind of problem involving the grasp of people's hearts and delicate intrigues, Liu Hou is weak, after all, he is still young, and the time has not yet come, so he leaves it all to Sima Yi, the old fox, to do.

Therefore, Sima Yi kept sending people to dig the embankment, and he worked very hard to dig the embankment. Of course, this kind of hard work is for the Wei army, if the Shu army is really determined to break the embankment, it will not be digging at all, but blasting.

The Wei army suffered the loss of Guan Gong many years ago, and to this day, it is still fresh in their recollection, and they are also very worried that the Shu army will repeat its old tricks, so fierce debates have broken out in the upper echelons of the Wei army these days. The main battle faction represented by Xiahou Ba advocated following Cao Ren's example and defending Fancheng and waiting for reinforcements.

The escape faction represented by Zhu Ling advocated abandoning Fancheng as soon as possible and looking for a better city to hold. They believed that the terrain of Fancheng was too low, and once the Shu army dug the embankment, Fancheng would inevitably be flooded, although it would not be completely annihilated, but it would definitely cause certain losses.

Moreover, after flooding Fancheng, it is not conducive to fortification, because many city defense facilities will be washed away, and the movement of the soldiers will become inconvenient.

In this case, it is better to take the initiative to abandon this big quagmire that you know will cause huge losses, and fight a decisive battle with the Shu army in a more favorable terrain.

The two sides disputed, and for the time being, Xiahou Ba's main defenders had the upper hand, but there was no way, Xiahou Ba's status was far higher than Zhu Ling's, and he had more soldiers and horses, so Zhu Ling had no choice but to listen to him.