In mid-May, Xiong Tuo, Lord of Yangcheng, led an army of hundreds of thousands and arrived at the current temporary capital of Chu State, "Hu Fang".
"Hufang" is located in the southeast of Shoying. The straight-line distance is about sixty miles. However, because there is a ridge of hills between the two cities, the actual distance between the two cities is far more than sixty miles.
The name Hufang comes from the ancient country "Hufang Country". Rumor has it that it was an ancient country that was good at bronze smelting.
Of course, this is just a rumor, but it cannot be denied that Hufang is a very important bronze smelting city in the Chu State. The bronze products produced in Hufang account for about 40% of the country's total, and the bronze equipment of the Chu State's army also has many products. From here.
Therefore, in general, Hufang is an extremely important smelting place in Chudong of the Chu State. Its scale is much larger than the Smelting General Administration of Daliang in the Wei State.
It is worth mentioning that in addition to being praised for its bronze craftsmanship, Hufang actually also has very complete clay craftsmanship. The famous Chu porcelain is not much inferior to Song porcelain.
But because the Chu State's bronze smelting technology was so perfect and amazing, Hufang's clay craftsmanship was inevitably overshadowed by the bronze craftsmanship.
It is no exaggeration to say that the bronze smelting technology in Hufang County may have reached its peak decades or even nearly a hundred years ago. At that time, the contemporary king of Chu relied on the sharp Hufang bronze sword. Defeating the Song State in the Central Plains, Chu State became the overlord of the Central Plains for a period of time until the rise of Qi State.
Having said that, in fact, at that time, the Chu State was already experimenting with iron smelting technology, but unfortunately, due to the poor iron smelting technology of the first generation, the forged iron swords were far less strong and sharp than bronze swords. Ever since, mastering the pinnacle The nobles of Eastern Chu, who had bronze smelting technology, blindly believed that iron swords were inferior to bronze swords and gave up investing in iron smelting technology. As a result, they later fell behind the iron smelting technology of the Lu State, and were therefore defeated by the Qi State army who received technical support from the Lu State. beat.
Of course, this is just a rumor from the outside world, but in fact, do the nobles of Chu Dong really never understand the reason why bronze wares are inferior to iron wares?
This is of course impossible.
To say the least, even if there was a momentary misjudgment, when the iron smelting technology appeared in the Lu State and the forged iron swords were far superior to the bronze swords of the Chu State, the nobles of Chu Dong still turned a blind eye to this?
Even if you are blind, you won't be so blind, right?
In fact, this is not the case. The real reason is that Chu State is very rich in copper mines, but there are much less iron ores.
Most of these copper mines are in the hands of the domestic nobles. In addition to using these copper mines to cast coins, these nobles also use them to forge bronze weapons and arm the army.
Although South Korea seems to have more nobles controlling the entire South Korea nowadays, in fact, the Chu State is a country where the nobles have always controlled the lifeline of the country. In the Chu State, it is common for the nobles to have private soldiers and control the army. Even in some places, the local county soldiers are actually equivalent to the private soldiers of a certain monarch.
In this case, there is no need for the King of Chu to call for it. The princes who own the fiefdoms will try their best to arm their own private soldiers. After all, the Chu nobles are not in harmony. The two princes lead their own armies to fight with each other to compete for face. Or grabbing land, this is not too unusual.
After years of accumulation, local nobles gradually owned many private soldiers equipped with bronze weapons.
Then the question arises: once iron weapons appear in the Chu Kingdom, what should we do with these bronze weapons? What should we do with the copper mines that the nobles hold in their hands? Will they rot in their hands? Or should they be melted and forged into bronze tripods, etc.
Utensils? Or cast into coins?
Furthermore, what should we do with the bronze smelting technology passed down from our ancestors?
For all these reasons, the nobles of the Chu State were reluctant to abandon the bronze smelting technology that had actually reached its peak. They still imagined that bronze smelting could be taken to a higher level, or that they could find another way to incorporate some other metal ores into the copper mines.
Just like the iron smelting process.
If Zhao Hongrun was born in Chu State, he would tell these nobles bluntly: Stop dreaming. Chu State's bronze smelting technology is already at the pinnacle of bronze smelting and cannot be improved any further.
But it is a pity that the nobles of Chu State did not understand this truth and still clung to bronze smelting.
Not to mention, the craftsmen in Chu State successively improved the bronze smelting process, and they really achieved some gains, such as gorgeous red copper and red copper. But it is a pity that these things are not only good-looking in appearance, but they are actually useless. Chu State
At most, they were forged into bronze tripods or utensils and sold to other Central Plains countries at a high price.
It is precisely because the nobles of the Chu State have never given up the bronze smelting technology that there are many copper smelting technology cities like "Hu Fang" in the eastern part of the Chu State, and "Hu Fang" is the largest one among them.
Therefore, since the Chu State lost its royal city Shoying in the "Battle of Qi, Lu, Wei and Yue Four Kingdoms against Chu", King Xiong Xu of Chu transferred the royal palace to Hu Fang in an attempt to use Hu Fang's perfect copper smelting technology and equipment to build armaments and expand
Army, recapture Shouying.
I just didn't expect that when the Chu State ended the civil strife of the Qu family and was preparing to recapture Shouying, and even took the opportunity to counterattack the Qi State, civil strife suddenly broke out in the Wei State, so the Chu King Xiong Xu discussed with some Chudong nobles -
—First destroy the Wei State, which is about to replace Qi State as the overlord of the Central Plains!
After all, Shou Ying can be recaptured at any time, but the God-given opportunity that can severely damage the Wei State, or even destroy the Wei State, does not come at any time.
Unexpectedly, things backfired. Wei resisted the pressure "with one against five" and actually defeated Shouling Junjingshe's million-strong army, almost completely annihilating it.
Stealing the chicken but losing the rice, instead of severely damaging the Wei state, caused heavy losses to oneself, which was very embarrassing.
Of course, for the vast and densely populated Chu State, losing a million troops in one battle was not a big problem. At most, it would delay the time to recapture Shoying, and in addition, it would miss the opportunity to take advantage of the civil strife in Qi.
It's a chance to counterattack Qi.
In contrast, Lord Shouling Jingshe committed suicide on the banks of the Chu River, and Lord Diyang Xiong Shang died in the battle at Yongqiu in the state of Wei. This is what makes Chu King Xiong Xu most heartbroken - he lost two "three" in one battle.
"Tianzhu", now that's good, and with the addition of Qu Ping, Lord of Xiling, who committed suicide in a river in anger, all the "Three Pillars" of Chu were dead.
Just when King Xiong Xu of Chu was worried about which three people should replace the "Three Pillars", someone suddenly came to report that Xiong Tuo, Lord of Yangcheng, had led hundreds of thousands of troops to the east of Chu.
Hearing this news, the nobles of the Xiong clan in Chudong couldn't help but panic. Although most of them were content with enjoying themselves and had ordinary abilities, they were not stupid. How could they not have guessed that Xiong Tuo, the Lord of Yangcheng, was leading his army this time? The purpose of coming? - When Chudong was at its weakest, Xiong Tuo, the king of Yangcheng, led hundreds of thousands of troops to come to Chudong. Isn't his intention obvious?
Among them, the ones with the ugliest faces were none other than the eldest son Jingyun and deputy general Yangyou of Shouling Junjingshe.
After all, Yang You personally experienced the days when Pingyu Jun Xiong Hu refused to save Shouling Jun Jingshe, and Pingyu Jun Xiong Hu was the cousin of Yangcheng Jun Xiong Tuo who had a very good relationship.
In the tense atmosphere in Hufang, Chu King Xiong Xu led a group of ministers and nobles to the tower of Hufang City and watched the dark army of Yangcheng Lord Xiong Tuo outside the city.
Looking at this well-equipped and well-trained army, everyone in Hufang City didn't look very good.
Regardless of the "Yangyi Army" under the command of Xiong Tuo, Lord of Yangcheng, the weapons and armor of the soldiers seem to be a bit old, but everyone knows that these weapons and armor were obtained by Xiong Tuo, Lord of Yangcheng, from Ji Run, the Young Master of the State of Wei. The equipment obtained by the Wei army, even if it was eliminated, was not comparable to the bronze weapons and leather armor of Chu.
More importantly, it is rumored that Xiong Tuo, Lord of Yangcheng, also purchased a batch of hand crossbows eliminated by the Shang Shui Army and the Yanling Army from Wei Gongzi Run.
For the Chu army, which is generally equipped with leather armor, this is a great weapon.
Not to mention that Xiong Tuo, Lord of Yangcheng, built a cavalry force using the war horses purchased from Ba.
After a long silence, King Xiong Xu of Chu stood on the city tower and shouted to Xiong Tuo, Lord of Yangcheng below the city, and asked: "My son, why did you bring so many troops here?"
At this time, Xiong Tuo, Lord of Yangcheng, was sitting astride his horse. Hearing the call from his biological father who had little family ties to speak of, he smiled calmly and said: "Father, I heard that Master Jingshe was unfortunately defeated, so... Come quickly to protect the king, my father, please quickly order someone to open the city gate."
Seeing this, the ministers and nobles around King Xiong Xu of Chu tried to dissuade him one after another, and Lord Xiong Wu of Guling was so anxious that he was sweating profusely.
"Your Majesty, don't be gullible!"
"Father, Xiong Tuo has no good intentions!"
"Your Majesty, please don't open the city gate!"
As if he heard the words of the nobles in the Hufang City Tower to dissuade Chu King Xiong Xu, Xiong Tuo, the Lord of Yangcheng, snorted coldly and said angrily: "Who dares to slander me and alienate the relationship between my father and my son?!... ...Father, please stay away for now. Today, my sons and ministers want to clear the emperor's side and punish the evildoers!"
After that, he waved his hand and pointed at Hufang City. Tens of thousands of crossbowmen in his army raised their crossbows and pointed them at the city gate tower. The ministers and nobles on the tower were shocked. Even the king of Chu, Xiong Xu, was tightly protected by the soldiers with a look of horror on his face.
At this time, the veteran general Xiang Yan said to King Xiong Xu of Chu: "Your Majesty, you can first send the "Tiger Army" in the city out of the city to fight, and then send someone to ask General Xiang Kuan to lead his army to serve the king."
King Xiong Xu of Chu turned a deaf ear to this.
Unless absolutely necessary, he would never mobilize General Xiang Juan, who was stationed at Zhaoguan, because once Xiang Juan was mobilized, Wu Yue leader Shaokang, who regarded Chu as his enemy, would send the "Eastern Ou Army" to take advantage of the situation. And enter.
Back then, Qu Ping, Lord of Xiling, commanded the war and defeated the Dongou Army, but what about now? The Chudong side still has combat effectiveness, with an army of more than 100,000 people, and only General Xiang Juan is left. In this situation Under such circumstances, how could Chu King Xiong Xu dare to mobilize Xiang Kuan so easily?
He had to admit that Xiong Tuo's son had seized the opportunity at a very good time. It happened to be when Chu Dong was at his weakest. Even if it was only a month or two later, Chu Dong would be able to raise another army.
Of course, in fact, Chu Dong did not completely lose the ability to resist. In fact, as long as King Xiong Xu of Chu gave an order, Chu Dong's army could actually gather tens of thousands of regular troops, and some temporary soldiers were recruited. , an army of more than 100,000 or even nearly 200,000 people was roughly formed.
The question is, is it really going to get to this point?
"..."
Seeing his high-spirited son Xiong Tuo, Lord of Yangcheng, sitting astride a war horse, King Xiong Xu of Chu fell into deep thought.
He knew very well that his decision would affect whether the civil war between Chu Xi and Chu Dong that had not started more than ten years ago would break out today.