Chapter 687 Wang Ben sends troops, targeting the granary!

Chapter 687 Wang Ben sends troops, targeting the granary!

Gaoyao's situation is indeed very special. Nowadays, no matter what aspect of food, clothing, housing and transportation, the southern border is far superior to other places. For example, the wine in the southern border is the best in the world and has a great reputation; the same is true for cloth. The cloth in the southern border is of high quality and unparalleled.

If he wanted to send money, the South Territory would have already changed its currency, unless he sent gold directly. But Wei Bao obviously didn't have the confidence to do so, because gold was not something that ordinary people could afford. Wei Bao was also reluctant to give it away, and as for some jewelry, I'm afraid no one could have more than Gao Yao.

Therefore, after careful consideration, Kuai Yue decided to take a different approach to solve the current dilemma. He knew that traditional methods might not work in this complex political situation, so he began to think of some unconventional strategies.

After repeated thinking, Kuai Yue came up with an idea - using women to break the deadlock. This is not a rare method. In the ancient political arena, it was common to send beautiful women to the other party to establish relations or express friendship.

Specifically, Kuai Yue planned to select some singers and dancers with outstanding looks and talents and send them to Gao Yao. Then, he would select the most outstanding one among these women and disguise her as Wei Bao's sister. In this way, he would consolidate the relationship between the two parties in the name of marriage and show their sincerity and friendship.

In ancient political exchanges, sending hostages was also a common means to make the other party feel more at ease. However, for Kuai Yue, it was obviously inappropriate to directly propose sending hostages. After all, Wei Bao was the monarch, and he was just a minister. Even for the sake of long-term stability, peace talks or disguised surrender were acceptable, but directly contributing the son of the King of Wei was undoubtedly an insult to the monarch.

Naturally, no minister would take the initiative to mention such a thing. It could only be that Gao Yao made the request first, then Kuai Yue conveyed it to Wei Bao, and finally Wei Bao decided whether to send a hostage. This process was more reasonable.

After hearing what Kuai Yue said, Wei Bao thought about it for a while and nodded without hesitation. What Kuai Yue said was indeed reasonable and there was nothing out of the ordinary. His purpose was also for the long-term stability of Wei Bao. In this way, the matter was temporarily settled. As for the problem of Zhao Shuo, no one mentioned it again for the time being, which to a large extent protected Wei Bao's face.

At the same time, the situation in Hanzhong became increasingly tense. With the fall of Wuding Pass, the entire Hanzhong was completely exposed to the attack range of the Southern Border Army. Not only that, when the news of the capture of Wuding Pass came, rebellions broke out in various counties in Hanzhong. Hanzhong was now seriously short of troops, and it was difficult to even gather 5,000 troops. How could it resist the tidal offensive of the Southern Border Army?

When Hanzhong was in chaos, Wang Ben led more than 15,000 people to bypass Nanjun and quietly entered Bajun. Coincidentally, Ying Bu's army also happened to pass by Wang Ben's troops.

The reason for this is that the two sides have different goals. Ying Bu firmly believes that Wang Ben will definitely choose to go to Wu Rui without hesitation at this moment. However, Zhang Liang holds a completely opposite view. He believes that Wang Ben will never give up the near to seek the far. In the end, it was Zhang Liang who accurately guessed Wang Ben's mind.

The journey to support Wu Rui was too long, and the round trip was extremely disadvantageous for Wang Ben. Although Wu Rui had no reason to attack Wang Ben at this time, as the saying goes, it is better to be safe than sorry. Wang Ben could not afford any loss at all.

When Wang Ben entered Ba County, he did not rush to launch an attack, but kept his troops in place and waited for the right time. His eyes were always fixed on the issue of food and grass supply, because this was his real goal. Wang Ben knew very well that if he faced the Southern Border Army head-on, his chances of winning would be slim. After all, the gap between the two sides in terms of manpower and weapons was too great, and these were disadvantages that could not be made up.

Although Wang Ben was dissatisfied with Gao Yao, he still highly recognized the elite level of the Southern Border Army.

Therefore, Wang Ben's goal from the beginning to the end was not to invade Ba County, nor to force the enemy to return to defend. His real intention was to choose a remote path and send a large number of scouts to inquire about the location of the grain transport troops along the way. Once he found the grain transport troops, he would follow them closely with only one purpose - to find the location of the granary.

The food and grass of the Southern Border Army is the rations of tens of thousands of troops! No matter how rich the Southern Border Army is, it is impossible to quickly gather such a large amount of food and grass in a short period of time. Although Gaoyao and Hanzhong took the initiative to carry out commercial activities, they must have their own back-up plans in secret. Wang Ben knew this very well, and he was also actively collecting various news about Gaoyao.

After all, this kind of thing is often mutual, but the two sides have different purposes. After all, the two counties of Bashu were only incorporated into Gao Yao's command later. Compared with Gao Yao's most fundamental three counties of Nanhai, they are far behind in terms of policy implementation and recuperation. Therefore, it will take a long time to gather enough food and grass.

This was actually Wang Ben's real intention. When the army went out to fight, food and grass were extremely important, but usually, food and grass were not placed together with the main camp. After all, doing so was too risky and could easily become the enemy's primary target. Therefore, Wang Ben chose to keep his troops in place and even divided his troops into four groups. This way, he could not only reduce the chance of being discovered by the enemy, but also secretly find the specific location of the Southern Border Army's granary.

For Wang Ben, as long as he could successfully seize the food and grass of the Southern Border Army, he could accept some losses in the process. However, at this moment, Wang Ben had a distorted understanding of the current situation due to his long journey and detour. He did not know that Wuding Pass had been conquered by Zhang Liang, and still mistakenly believed that Wuding Pass was still under his control, which inevitably caused a time difference.

Fortunately, after careful deployment and the unremitting efforts of scouts, Wang Ben finally succeeded in finding the exact location of the Southern Border Army's granary. The location of the Southern Border Army's granary is not far from Wuding Pass, only about five miles away, and it is a natural defensive place, with one side close to the river and the other side close to the mountain stream. There is no location suitable for launching a full-scale attack.