To achieve immortality, I cultivate using Qi Luck-Chapter 846 - 361 Under Nanhai City_3

Chapter 846: Chapter 361 Under Nanhai City_3

Central State is where the future lies.

…

After exchanging greetings and pleasantries, Qingyunzi welcomed Lan Cai’er and the others into the camp.

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Once everyone was seated in the conference hall, they naturally started discussing the current situation in Nanhai City.

“In recent days, I have sent troops to challenge them several times, but the Ning Army has shrunk back within their camp, and the Nanhai Army is even less courageous, not daring to come out of the city to fight.

So, luring them into battle is mostly impossible,”

...

Qingyunzi introduced the intelligence he had gathered to everyone, “However, in the past few days, a Ning naval force arrived at the water fort pier outside Nanhai City from the north, with a fleet of more than a hundred ships and nearly ten thousand men.

This Ning naval force joined the Nanhai Country’s navy and their momentum inevitably soared, directly shielding the entire coastal area and controlling the sea routes outside the city.

Aside from blocking the sea surface, the navies of both countries had no unusual activities, except for occasional patrols. Most of the time, they hid at the pier and the water fortress.”

Nanhai Country had a navy too, or rather, a sea force.

As a nation bordered by the sea, the Nanhai Sect’s initial rise was through maritime trade.

Rumor has it that from Liang State to the north, to the numerous island nations of Southsea and the barbarian tribes in the rainforest, the Nanhai Sect had business dealings.

Being able to conduct such large transactions meant that the Nanhai Sect controlled a substantial fleet of warships.

Even when they were just a Jianghu sect, with a claimed strength of a hundred thousand disciples, most of them supported themselves with this bowl of maritime rice.

In the domain of Southsea, basically everyone at sea, once aboard a ship, would fly the Nanhai Sect’s banner and claim an identity of a Nanhai disciple.

This accounted for the number of a hundred thousand disciples.

It included the lowest-ranked sailors on the ship; anyone conducting business on the sea, as long as they recognized the Nanhai Sect, could call themselves a Nanhai disciple.

Otherwise, how could a mere regional sect like the Nanhai Sect support a hundred thousand disciples?

Filling the numbers with inadequacies was inevitable.

Later, when the Nanhai Sect transformed into a nation, the fleets that belonged to the sect simply changed their banners, transformed their identities, and directly became the naval forces of Nanhai Country.

This navy was not small in scale, continuing the heritage of the original Nanhai Sect. They started with a force of twenty thousand and, after the expansion efforts of the Nanhai Sect, now have a navy of forty thousand.

However, most of this forty thousand-strong navy doubled as a merchant fleet, plying the seas all year round, trading in all corners of the earth, and they didn’t often stay in Nanhai Country.

The ones who did stay in Nanhai Country long-term were about ten thousand or so.

Now, these ten thousand and another ten thousand sent by Ning have merged, forming a force of twenty thousand and over two hundred ships. In the absence of the Chu State navy, they were enough to dominate at sea.

At the very least, the Chu army currently outside the city could do nothing against the naval forces of the two countries strutting their stuff at sea, only watching as they blocked the maritime routes.

“Ning has suddenly deployed a navy?”

After listening to Qingyunzi’s introduction, Lan Cai’er frowned, “Right now, the battle for the Yangtze River is at its height, and the Ning navy has been defeated repeatedly, already losing their control over the waterways in the Jiangxia battlefield.

Ning has spare naval forces, yet they are not sent to support the front line in Jiangxia. Instead, they’ve come all the way to this remote corner of Lingnan to support Nanhai Country, which faces no naval threat. It’s rather suspicious.

Could it be that they intend to use this place as a way for Ning Army and the people of Nanhai Country to escape?”

Lan Cai’er made this realistic conjecture.

Qingyunzi nodded, affirming the speculation, “According to the situation in the city and the information I’ve collected from various sources, the navy deployed by Ning does indeed intend to be ready to evacuate the Ning Army inside the city at any time.

But they’re still holding onto the desire to struggle, wanting to defend Nanhai City, so they’ve only sealed off the sea to maintain an open water route and haven’t directly evacuated the people.”

“The Nanhai Army and Ning Army inside the city have this route of retreat, which is why, even as the situation becomes increasingly unfavorable, they have no thoughts of surrender.

Because they can leave at any moment, that’s why they are so stubbornly defending the city,”

Qingyunzi said through gritted teeth.

In fact, Ning’s intentions are not hard to guess.

The purpose of those cultivators staying at the water fortress pier outside Nanhai City is clear to any observer.

Isn’t it obvious they’re planning to escape at any moment?

That is indeed the case.

Previously, Bai Yian had suggested sending a naval force to Lingnan to evacuate the forces of Nanhai Country, Su Country, and Song Country, among others.

This strategy, of course, could not escape revision by Shen Qiu’s moderate principles, ultimately transforming in its presentation.

For example, Shen Qiu’s original suggestion was to dispatch at least thirty thousand naval forces southward and to conscript a large number of civilian ships from within the country, so they could move the numerous armies and supplies of the three nations in Lingnan.

By the time it got to Shen Qiu, it changed to dispatching ten thousand naval forces southward without conscripting civilian ships, and even after arriving in Nanhai Country, they didn’t directly evacuate the armies of the two countries from Nanhai City. Instead, they joined forces with the Nanhai navy and began watching from the sea.

The underlying motives here clearly remained Shen Qiu’s obsession with his own strategy of balancing power in Southsea, believing that his surprise attack on Chu State had a great chance of success and that he might be able to keep the three allies in Lingnan to contain Chu State.

With this mindset, it was naturally impossible to withdraw the army of allies like Nanhai Country at such a critical juncture.

The ten thousand naval forces that were now sent only intended to evacuate the remnants of Shangguan Ming’s Ning Army should the plan truly go awry.

With cooperation from the Nanhai navy and over two hundred warships, plus the conscription of some Nanhai Country civilian ships, it would be enough to evacuate the remaining forty thousand plus Ning Army along with some of the Nanhai navy and take away the local elite of Nanhai Country.

That way, Ning could profit from over ten thousand navy forces and two to three thousand of Ning’s elite forces, while also taking away a significant amount of wealth accumulated by Ning. Even if Nanhai Country was lost, they wouldn’t consider it a loss.

Moreover, with the Nanhai Royal Family in hand, perhaps they could even attract a portion of the dispersed Nanhai Country navy doing business in various countries to come and join them, which would make it an even greater gain.

Thus, victory would mean keeping Lingnan safe, and defeat would still guarantee some return on their investment.

Shen Qiu’s path of moderation was indeed refined to perfection.