Chapter 653: The navy suffered a crushing defeat!

“I know the dose you used was very small, otherwise you wouldn’t be alive today…”

Facing Kobayakawa Takahide's sincere gaze, Akiyama Morie took another sip of the fragrant tea and said lightly:

Hearing his sister say this, Kobayakawa Takahide finally breathed a sigh of relief, and then said with some curiosity:

"In that case, my dear sister, why are you asking this question?"

Akiyama Morie was silent for a while after hearing this, and then said quietly under Kobayakawa Takahide's puzzled gaze:

"Do you have the red medicine from the Ito family?"

Although Akiyama Morie did not reveal more information, based on his understanding of her, Kobayakawa Takahide also realized that this matter was not simple, and the thing that made his good sister so concerned could only be about that man.

After thinking for a while, a gleam of light flashed in Kobayakawa Takahide's beautiful eyes, and he seemed to understand something and asked Akiyama Morie:

"Mori Hui, do you suspect someone gave him the Ito family's red medicine?"

In response to Kobayakawa Takahide's question, a hint of helplessness flashed across Akiyama Morie's eyes, but she still said nothing.

Seeing that Akiyama Morie didn't say anything, Kobayakawa Takahide was very tactful and didn't ask any more questions. Instead, he said:
"The red medicine of the Ito family is the best red medicine of Inazuma. It can make people fall ill without them taking it. The effect is very rapid and it also dissipates easily without leaving any handle. Therefore, this kind of red medicine is deeply loved by Inazuma, and many dignitaries will collect some!"

“However, due to the high cost and precious raw materials, the Ito family only produces three bottles of red medicine every year. If you want to get this kind of red medicine, you need to make a reservation at least three years in advance. As far as I know, the Ito family’s red medicine is consumed internally by Inazuma every year and rarely flows overseas…”

Kobayakawa Takahide wanted to continue speaking, but was interrupted by Akiyama Morie and asked:

"do you have?"

Under his sister's sharp eyes, Kobayakawa Takahide hesitated for a moment, then said helplessly:
"After that damned guy died, his brother found some stuff from somewhere and wanted to use it on me, but I found out in advance. After I gave him a lesson, I confiscated the stuff from him!"

Akiyama Mori Hui heard this and stretched out her hand and said calmly

"I don't care how you got it, just give it to me!"

Looking at his sister's outstretched hand, Kobayakawa Takahide said helplessly:
"Why would I carry this kind of thing with me? If you really want it, I'll have someone send it back to your old place later!"

Akiyama Morie withdrew his hand and said:

"it is good!"

Looking at his cold sister, Kobayakawa Takahide, who had been suppressed, wanted to fight back and said with a smile:
"My dear sister, do you know why I came to Yijing this time?"

Upon hearing this, Akiyama Morie looked Kobayakawa Takahide up and down. Feeling her gaze, the smile on Kobayakawa Takahide's face suddenly became more meaningful, and she even deliberately showed off her strong capital. However, just when she was very proud, a word from Akiyama Morie made the smile on her face completely freeze.

“He let you escape last time? Do you think he will let you run away again after you’ve come thousands of miles to see him off…”

After the words fell, Akiyama Morihui took out a small medicine bottle from his sleeve and placed it on the stone table, and said with some pity:
"Giving this to you can help you, my sister, to suffer less. He rarely shows mercy to wild women! Women have to take care of themselves!"

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Huainan, Shouchun.

In the Governor's Mansion, Liu Chaohu handed a memorial to Xu Zhaojie carefully, bowing and saying:

"Governor, this is the battle report sent by General Zhao!"

Looking at the handed memorial, Xu Zhaojie nodded slightly, then waved his hand to signal Liu Chaohu that he could leave. Looking at Xu Zhaojie's raised arm, Liu Chaohu quickly lowered his head and dared not look directly at him, and quickly retreated with his body bent. In the assassination that happened in Tianquan Pavilion a few months ago, although Xu Zhaojie managed to escape with his life, he had two fingers blown off. This incident undoubtedly made Xu Zhaojie, who was already violent, even more cruel and bloodthirsty.

Although he knew clearly that the Fengwu Army was responsible for this incident, for the sake of his own prestige, Xu Zhaojie could not openly seek revenge on the Fengwu Army. This great frustration made him extremely cruel. In order to vent his anger, Xu Zhaojie killed more than 10,000 people in Shouchun, and for a time the Huai River was dyed red.

After killing tens of thousands of people, Xu Zhaojie's resentment had dissipated somewhat, but the two fingers missing from his left hand became a permanent scar in the heart of Xu Zhaojie, who had always been conceited. During this period of time, he would be very sensitive whenever someone looked at his left hand. Five servants and three maids had paid with their young lives for this...
After taking the memorial, Xu Zhaojie immediately began to check it. However, after just a quick glance, Xu Zhaojie angrily threw the memorial in his hand directly to the ground.

Although he occupied the prosperous Huainan, this did not make Xu Zhaojie feel satisfied. While digesting the results of victory in Huainan, he was also eyeing the neighboring Jiangnan with a covetous eye. Xu Zhaojie knew very well that as long as he took Jiangnan, he would no longer have to worry about financial and logistical supplies and could devote all his energy to fighting.

Although Xu Zhaojie had been trying his best to hide his ambitions in order not to arouse the vigilance of Jiangnan, it was a pity that his greed was too ugly. The governor of Sannan directly made Jiangnan realize his ambitions, and they began to seek to buy firearms from the Fengwu Army.

Although Fengwu Army and Jiangnan wanted to keep a low profile on the arms purchase and did not want to make the matter known to everyone, the arms purchase contract of 1.35 million taels was too huge, and it would be difficult to cover up the news even if you wanted to.

Soon Xu Zhaojie got the news and realized that the fat piece of meat he had been talking about had been in contact with his mortal enemy, the Fengwu Army, and was about to be armed with Fengwu Army's firearms. The first thought that flashed through his mind was to quickly take over Jiangnan while the two sides were still negotiating!
However, although Xu Zhaojie had this idea, the Zhennan Army under his command had experienced more than half a year of war, and everyone was exhausted. Everyone wanted a warm bed with a wife and children and a good rest for a while. In addition, it was the middle of winter and the ground was freezing cold, so Xu Zhaojie had no choice but to give up this idea...
After being forced to give up the use of force, Xu Zhaojie wrote another letter to the Governor of Jiangnan, Lu Jianchao, telling Lu Jianchao that the military procurement contract between Jiangnan and the Fengwu Army would disrupt regional peace and bring war and disaster to the people of Jiangnan.

Lu Jianchao originally bought firearms to guard against Xu Zhaojie, so he scoffed at Xu Zhaojie's threats of war and did not buy into them at all.

In response to Lu Jianchao's contempt, Xu Zhaojie wanted to send troops immediately, but was dissuaded by his generals. Just when Xu Zhaojie was at a loss, his mentors came up with two ideas for him. The first was to instigate Jingchu Inspector Sun Liangyu to extort huge tolls from Fengwu Army and Jiangnan.

The second is to write a letter to the Luoan court, asking the Luoan court to denounce Lu Jianchao's military purchase plan in the name of the little emperor, exert pressure on Lu Jianchao in public opinion, and force Lu Jianchao to give up the military purchase with the Fengwu Army.

It has to be said that these two moves are indeed much more effective than Xu Zhaojie's military threats. The first move directly forced both sides to change from land to water routes, delaying the delivery plan of military purchases and delaying the delivery by two months.

The second move was even more effective. Because the court was worried that the Fengwu Army would gain strength after obtaining the wealth of Jiangnan, the Luoan court was very diligent in responding to Xu Zhaojie’s request. It directly issued seven imperial edicts to Lu Jianchao in the name of the little emperor. The powerful public opinion offensive made Lu Jianchao, who was born as a civil servant, want to give up the military purchase...

However, feeling Xu Zhaojie's eager eyes, Lu Jianchao finally gritted his teeth and persevered. Seeing that his conspiracy had failed, the Fengwu Army's firearms were transported along the coastal area to Jiangnan. Xu Zhaojie naturally would not sit idly by and watch the fat piece of Jiangnan being armed with the Fengwu Army's firearms, so he quickly ordered the Huainan navy to intercept the Jiangnan navy in the coastal area.

However, Xu Zhaojie's idea is good, but the reality is cruel!

Huainan and Jiangnan are full of waterways and have been important naval bases since ancient times. After Xu Zhaojie conquered Shouchun, the navy of Huainan surrendered to Xu Zhaojie. However, Xu Zhaojie was a cavalry general, so he did not attach much importance to the development of the navy and let his confidant Zhao Hanshu take over the navy.
In addition, following the assassination at Tianquan Pavilion, Xu Zhaojie raised his butcher knife and slaughtered dissidents in Shouchun. Although this massacre stabilized Xu Zhaojie's rule, it also made everyone in Huainan feel insecure. In such an environment, and in order to seize power in the navy as soon as possible, Zhao Hanshu dismissed many generals in the Huainan navy based on nepotism, which aroused dissatisfaction among many people in the navy, and they defected to Jiangnan one after another.

The Huainan navy was not as strong as the Jiangnan navy to begin with, and now with so many of its backbone forces defecting, its strength has declined very quickly. In addition, in order to seek credit and reward from Xu Zhaojie as soon as possible in this order given to Xu Zhaojie, Zhao Hanshu committed a military taboo: an amateur leading experts and using his infantry experience to command the navy...
Therefore, in the near-sea battle, the Huainan Navy not only failed to prevent the Jiangnan Navy and the Fengwu Army from purchasing weapons, but was ambushed by the Jiangnan Navy. The Huainan Navy suffered thousands of casualties and dozens of large and small ships. Even Zhao Hanshu himself was almost killed by the bows and crossbows of the Jiangnan Navy. In the end, he barely escaped back to the shore under the desperate protection of his guards.

After this battle, the Huainan Navy was severely damaged and would no longer be able to interfere with the military purchases of the Fengwu Army and Jiangnan in the short term. Zhao Hanshu originally wanted to cover up this disastrous defeat, but the casualties were too heavy, with half of the Huainan Navy's strength lost, so Zhao Hanshu could only report the losses truthfully.

However, as Xu Zhaojie's confidant, he was well aware of Xu Zhaojie's temper. In order to avoid being killed by Xu Zhaojie, he exaggerated the situation in the battle report to Xu Zhaojie, clearing himself of responsibility and shifting the blame for the defeat to the generals of the Huainan Navy, saying that the soldiers of the Huainan Navy disobeyed orders and were afraid of the enemy and did not advance. Although he personally went to the front line to supervise the battle, he was still powerless to turn the tide.

Although Zhao Hanshu had tried his best to clear himself and hoped to get away with it, he seemed to have underestimated Xu Zhaojie!

Since Xu Zhaojie sent him to take over the Huainan Navy, he naturally understood what kind of person he was, and could also see the true situation in his battle report!
"Chao Hu, go to the navy and bring back Zhao Hanshu's head for me..."

Liu Chaohu was also stunned when he heard Xu Zhaojie's order. He had heard something about the navy's disastrous defeat. Although he knew that Xu Zhaojie would never let Zhao Hanshu go easily after such a disastrous defeat, he still felt a little surprised that he would kill Zhao Hanshu directly!
Facing Xu Zhaojie's order, Liu Chaohu hesitated for a moment, but still advised carefully:

"My Lord, Zhao Hanshu has been with you for decades and has always been loyal to you. Although Zhao Hanshu is responsible for the disastrous defeat of the navy, can you give him a chance to explain?"

Hearing Liu Zhaohu's words, Xu Zhaojie immediately turned his gaze to him and said lightly:
"I know you have a very close relationship with him, and you are also his cousin's husband. That's why I asked you to go instead of others. Take this opportunity to say goodbye to him properly!"

Liu Chaohu's last glimmer of hope was completely shattered after hearing this. Although he wanted to persuade Xu Zhaojie to see if there was a chance to save Zhao Hanshu's life, his reason told him that since Xu Zhaojie had said so, there was no room for maneuver. If he didn't know what was good for him, not only would he fail to save Zhao Hanshu, but he might also bring disaster upon himself. Therefore, after hesitating for a while, Liu Chaohu finally chose to give up and accepted the order in a very depressed mood:

"Yes!"

Looking at Liu Chaohu’s lost back, Xu Zhaojie sighed secretly in his heart, although he was cruel and ruthless, but no one is heartless. As Liu Zhaohu just said, Zhao Hanshu had followed him for decades and had always been loyal and devoted to him. Xu Zhaojie trusted him very much, otherwise he would not have let him take over the navy. If it was other matters, he might have spared his life, but this time it was not possible...

(End of this chapter)