After listening to Li Bao's words, Han Mo directly waved his hand, driving away the guards around him to the stern of the ship, and took Li Bao alone to the bow.
"You should have a clear idea of the situation now. I don't have much time for you to train and familiarize yourselves with the equipment. I need a word from you: do you dare to do what I said before?"
"My lord, if it's just naval warfare, I, Li Bao, will have no problem at all, but if it comes to..."
At this point, Li Bao himself fell silent.
Although he had not fought against the Jin people, he had heard some battle reports. At this moment, asking him to go deep into enemy territory alone with a navy to raid the Jin people's lair made him feel a little inexplicably apprehensive.
"You are only responsible for naval warfare. The Mingzhou and Quanzhou navies currently have a total of two hundred and twenty thousand-ton warships. I will give them all to you! I will also assign you three thousand elites from the sailors recruited from the East India Company. The landing operation will be handled by Yue Fei and his 5,000 elite soldiers. You and your 15,000 sailors will be responsible for support. Do you have any other problems?"
"No problem!"
Hearing Han Mo say this, Li Bao felt a great relief.
As a military general, no one dislikes fighting. He had also competed with Yue Fei before, and he certainly understood Yue Fei's capabilities.
Although he had always believed in his own immense strength, he had never gained any advantage from Yue Fei.
If Yue Fei had not intentionally let him win, he might have made a complete fool of himself!
Now that he heard Han Mo had handed over all the land combat tasks to Yue Fei, he was immediately at ease.
"Since there are no problems, then prepare yourself! I will have someone deliver their supplies today, and I will personally send you off the morning after tomorrow!"
"Yes!"
"This matter rests on your shoulders. I have only one requirement: you must return the way you came. You don't need to worry about anything else. Just act according to circumstances and cause panic in all the coastal cities of the Jin people, and that will be enough!"
"What if their navy pursues us?" Li Bao asked with some excitement.
"If their navy dares to pursue, are the things on your ships merely for decoration? The Liao navy has lacked strategy for many years and has no deep-sea experience. What should you do? Do I still need to teach you?"
"Thank you for your grace, my lord!"
Hearing this, Li Bao's heart bloomed with joy.
As Han Mo said, the Liao navy had not been trained for many years, and the Jin people themselves originated from tribes. Their cavalry was indeed powerful, but their navy was really the worst.
If they were fighting on land, with the command of the Jin generals and the watchful eyes of the Jurchen soldiers, the Liao defected soldiers might not be at a disadvantage when fighting the Song army.
However, it was completely different at sea. Naval warfare and land warfare were fundamentally different.
"Southern ships and northern horses" was the most normal thing in this era. Those Jurchen people were not skilled in naval warfare, and many would even get seasick after boarding a ship.
No matter how powerful they were on land, once on board, they would have to rely on the Liao defected soldiers to fight!
The Song Dynasty's shipbuilding technology was the best in the world, and this was a fact. The speed of Song Dynasty warships was far faster than that of Liao Dynasty warships.
Both the Mingzhou and Quanzhou navies currently possessed warships that were mainly thousand-ton vessels, supplemented by smaller warships.
In contrast, the Jin navy's warships were mainly accumulated by the Liao army over the years.
More than half of them were not even sea-going vessels, but riverine ships used for fighting on lakes and rivers.
These could barely be used for coastal operations. If they were lured into the deep sea by Li Bao and his men, Li Bao might not even need to fight; a strong wind would be enough to send them to the bottom.
After discussing the warships, let's talk about the soldiers.
Some of Li Bao's soldiers had been trained on the Japanese battlefield, while others had reaped a bloody harvest in the South China Sea.
At this moment, both the morale and the individual quality of the soldiers were at their peak.
Whether it was the size of the warships, their combat performance, or the individual quality of the soldiers, they had an absolute advantage. If, under such circumstances, he could not deal with the Liao army's dilapidated ships, Li Bao would look down on himself.
"I've given you the opportunity. Whether you can seize it depends on you. If you can thoroughly defeat the Jin navy, I will personally go to Bianliang to request merits for you!"
"Yes!"
After heavily patting Li Bao on the shoulder, Han Mo turned and disembarked from the warship.
As soon as Han Mo and his men left, Yue Fei began to lead people to transport supplies onto the ship.
"My lord, are you preoccupied with something?" In Han Mo's study, seeing Han Mo lost in thought again, Shao Bowen suddenly asked softly.
"You must have seen the intelligence from Bianliang, haven't you, sir? Our official is truly ruthless. Four prime ministers were impeached simultaneously, and he, as the official, actually ordered the impeachment memorials to be read out in court!"
After hearing Shao Bowen's words, Han Mo rubbed his temples with a headache. Fan Zhengguo was too naive!
Although the follow-up intelligence had not yet arrived, he could already guess that, given Fan Zhengguo's temperament, he was most likely writing his resignation letter at this moment.
"Actually, if you ask me, this is good news for you, my lord!" Seeing Han Mo looking worried, Shao Bowen suddenly smiled.
"Good news? Where is the good news? I don't see it?" Hearing him say this, Han Mo looked up curiously.
"Haven't you heard that in times of national crisis, the king seeks wise ministers? Although these prime ministers have made great contributions and reached their current positions through their own abilities, compared to you, my lord, they are merely mediocre!"
"So you are flattering me?"
"No, no, no, I didn't mean that. I'm just telling the truth! If it were a peaceful era, with your current status, my lord, it would take at least ten years to advance further. However, if Li Bao and his men can truly throw the Jin people's lair into chaos, or even destroy the Jin navy, it's not impossible for you to advance further!"
"Advance further? At my current age?"