The news that Xiong Tuo, Lord of Yangcheng, was defeated at the hands of Ji Run, King Su of Wei State, and that nearly 90% of the territory under his rule had been lost, finally reached the ears of King Xiong Xu of Chu.
The royal capital of Chu State was located in Shouying, that is, Shouchun. Because the Chu people had the habit of naming the capital "Ying", it was called Shouying.
Among all countries, Chu State is said to be the country that moves its capital most frequently. It has moved its capital seven times due to various reasons. A few years ago, the army of the Three Kingdoms Alliance of Qi, Lu, and Song attacked Chu State and almost forced Chu State to move its capital for the eighth time.
, because of this, the Chu State has a deep hatred for the Qi State.
But it is undeniable that even Chu State is reluctant to offend Qi State, a powerful country located in the east of Taishan. Even though Qi State is very wealthy, quite wealthy, and it is no exaggeration to say that it ranks first among all countries in terms of economic strength.
It is the richest country in the world. This has caused many princes and nobles of the Chu State to always look covetously at the Qi State, treating it as a piece of tender fat. Unfortunately, this piece of tender fat is not easy to swallow.
Compared with Qi State, Chu King Xiong Xu did not hate Wei State at all. On the contrary, he admired Wei State. After all, Wei King Ji Si once united with his Chu King's son Yangcheng Jun Xiong Tuo to attack Song State.
, disintegrated the Three Kingdoms Alliance of Qi, Lu and Song, and severely defeated the Three Kingdoms Alliance.
As for the Song Dynasty, King Ji Si of Wei finally tried to trap him, but King Xiong Xu of Chu had no idea. Anyway, in his opinion, as long as the Song State, which was dependent on Qi State, was destroyed, it would be enough for Chu State to be happy.
As for who owns this land, it doesn't really matter.
Of course, Xiong Tuo, Lord of Yangcheng, one of the sons of King Xiong Xu of Chu, obviously did not view this point that way.
But it is undeniable that the only person who holds prejudice and hostility towards Wei is Xiong Tuo, the king of Yangcheng. As for Xiong Xu, the king of Chu, he is more inclined to make Wei a country dependent on his Chu state. At least it is still strong in Qi.
Today, King Xiong Xu of Chu hopes that Wei will turn to his side. After all, the grievances between Qi and Chu are too great. Who knows when the two countries will use all their forces to attack each other because of a trivial matter.
, at that time, King Xiong Xu of Chu did not want Wei to take a trip into this troubled water.
In fact, he most hopes to create conflicts between Wei and Qi. In this way, he can win over Wei and destroy Qi and Lu first.
Of course, after the Chu State destroys Qi and Lu, there will be no need for the Wei State to exist. At that time, it will just raise its troops again to destroy the Wei State.
This is the grand plan in the mind of King Xiong Xu of Chu: first destroy Qi and Lu, then destroy Wei, then dominate the north and south with South Korea, and finally defeat South Korea and become the only country on the earth.
Unfortunately, Wei Wang Ji Si is not a mediocre person. He obviously understands that if he helps Chu King Xiong Xu to destroy Qi and Lu, he will undoubtedly push his own Wei State to a dead end. Therefore, Wei Wang Ji Si
He always criticized him for the "alliance matters" proposed by Chu King Xiong Xu in his letter of credence. In the end, Chu King Xiong Xu felt resentful, so he also criticized his son Yangcheng Jun Xiong Tuo for frequently sending troops to harass Wei Guofen in the past ten years.
I turned a blind eye to the Xingsai incident.
He wanted to teach the Wei State a lesson, force the Wei State to be obedient and obediently become the younger brother of the Chu State, although this younger brother would not survive being annexed by his Chu State in the end.
Just like this time when Chu State declared war on Wei State in response to the attack on its envoys, King Xiong Xu of Chu did not intend to take this opportunity to attack Wei State at first.
Firstly, although Wei's national strength is not as good as Chu's, it cannot be easily defeated; secondly, Chu King Xiong Xu knew clearly that once his Chu State did something that endangers Wei, then Qi King Lu
Xi is bound to send troops to intervene. Because if Qi King Lu Xi sits back and watches his Chu King Xiong Xu attack and destroy the Wei State, then his Qi State is not far away from being destroyed.
This is like King Xiong Xu of Chu, King Lu Xi of Qi, and King Ji Si of Wei. These three kings sit opposite each other and play chess. They all know each other's opponent's routines and strategies.
Therefore, King Xiong Xu of Chu wanted to attack Qi and Lu first, and then attack Wei. For this purpose, he wanted to win over Wei to prevent him from stabbing him in the back. However, Wei King Ji Si talked him around and prevaricated him many times.
, but would never make a promise to support Chu King Xiong Xu to attack Qi and Lu; as for Qi State, which had no room for relaxation with Chu State, Qi King Lu Xi also ensured the safety of his own country and his ally Lu State.
He will not sit back and watch as the Chu State really destroys the Wei State.
It has to be said that the relationship between these three countries is really complicated.
But it is undeniable that, just as Zhao Hongrun, Zhao Hongzhao, Qi King Lu Xi and others guessed, Chu King Xiong Xu did not send out all the troops. He only sent three sons and some nephews of the Xiong clan. Chu
None of the generals in the country who were really good at leading troops were dispatched, because the biggest purpose of Chu King Xiong Xu's visit was just to force the Wei State to obey, rather than really intending to destroy the Wei State.
After all, it would be too difficult to attack Wei State under the premise that Qi King Lu Xi would definitely send troops to intervene.
But what Chu King Xiong Xu never expected was that before the Qi State sent out a single soldier to interfere with the Chu State's attack on the Wei State, his son Xiong Tuo, the Lord of Yangcheng, who was attacking the Wei State, had already
They were defeated by the Wei people.
He was defeated by Ji Run, the eighth son of Wei King Ji Si, who was only fourteen years old.
What was even more unexpected was that Ji Run, King Su of Wei who defeated his son, was not enough to regain the cities that Wei had lost in the past few months. He actually led an army to counterattack the territory of Chu and captured his son Yangcheng Jun.
Xiong expanded nearly 90% of his territory and city.
When the news reached the ears of King Xiong Xu of Chu, he could not believe it.
You must know that Xiong Tuo, Lord of Yangcheng, is the most promising son of King Xiong Xu of Chu. Because of this, King Xiong Xu of Chu placed his son in the west far away from the capital of Chu King Xiong Xu and made him responsible for the governorship of the western part of Chu State.
In the wars against Ba and Wei in the territory, who would have thought that the son he had high hopes for would be defeated so miserably this time.
This is trouble...
King Xiong Xu of Chu was very anxious.
After all, not long after the news that his son Xiong Tuo, Lord Yangcheng, was defeated and fled back to the Chu Kingdom, reached the royal capital Shoying, Chu King Xiong Xu received the news again that Ji Run, King Su of Wei, who had defeated his son Xiong Tuo, Lord Yangcheng, was furious.
He led his army to defeat the Wei State and captured Chu State's territory equivalent to more than half of Yingshui County with lightning speed.
To say that Ji Run from the Wei State was too presumptuous, in fact, he only took the name of "Crueling Yangcheng Lord Xiong Tuo" and did not directly target the entire Chu State. From this, we can see that
This kid still has some room to spare, and has no plans to completely break up with his country of Chu.
It can be said that that boy left some room, but the army under his command showed no mercy. In a short period of time, they successively captured Shangcai, Suiping, Runan, Pingyu, Xiangcheng, Chen County,
Queshan, Xincai, and Zhengyang were forced to land in the cities of five big clans, including the Peng, Lu, Zhang Bo, Ziche, and Hua clans, and plundered countless wealth from those big clans.
It was this merciless leeway that made King Xiong Xu of Chu feel in a dilemma.
Come to think of it, if Zhao Hongrun had no mercy at all and openly raised the slogan of "crusade Chu", then Xiong Xu, the king of Chu, would have raised an army to teach this ignorant boy a lesson. After all, the cause of this incident was the Chu envoy in Wei
was attacked within the country, so the Chu State had an absolute moral advantage.
But the problem is that the boy did not put forward the slogan of "Crunt against Chu", but cleverly pointed the finger at his son Xiong Xu, King of Chu, who killed many Wei people, Xiong Tuo, Lord of Yangcheng, in a situation like this
, Chu King Xiong Xu had to think deeply: When the other party did not intend to completely break up with the Chu State, was it necessary for the Chu State to continue to expand the war?
You must know that Qi State, which has not made any movement so far, and Qi King Lu Xi have not yet sent anyone to submit credentials to Shou Ying, accusing him of Chu State's attack on Wei State, but Qi State's army has been sending troops.
On the border between Chu and Qi, there was no telling when a surprise attack would be launched.
In other words, after understanding the attitude of King Su and Ji Run of Wei, King Xiong Xu of Chu was actually more worried about the attitude of Qi. He could not guarantee whether King Lu Xi of Qi would be defeated after Chu's defeat.
So he took the opportunity to attack his country of Chu.
This factor has made King Xiong Xu of Chu dare not send troops to support his son Xiong Tuo, Lord of Yangcheng, because at this stage, once he sends troops to fight against King Su of Wei, it means that he, the Chu Kingdom, is extremely powerful.
It is possible that we will be at war with Qi and Wei at the same time.
It is true that there is widespread rumor in the world that the Chu State has the foundation and strength to fight on two fronts with Qi and Wei at the same time. Even the King of Chu Xiong Xu thinks so, but the problem is that what is mentioned here is fighting on two fronts with two countries at the same time.
, will seriously damage the foundation of Chu State.
Yes, Chu State can even recruit an army of four million men, all composed of young and strong men in the country. I believe that this force can be enough to fight Qi and Wei at the same time.
But what about after the fight?
It will be difficult for the Chu State to recover its vitality for at least several decades.
When the time comes, South Korea, a powerful country in the north, will send its army southward, first conquering Qi, Lu, Wei, and Wei, and then destroying Chu. It will be effortless to accomplish great things.
This is simply marrying someone else!
Therefore, unless it was a critical moment, Chu King Xiong Xu would never drain the Chu country's wealth, just for a war.
Unless there is a danger of annihilation of the country.
"What do you two think?"
After being immersed in his own thoughts for a long time, Chu King Xiong Xu finally noticed that there were two important ministers in the palace.
One was a trusted scholar-bureaucrat, Huang Er, who was from a noble family; the other was Xiang Xuan, a member of the Xiang clan who happened to be one of the several generals who happened to stay in Shouying.
Huang Er and Xiang Xuan respectively stated their respective opinions. In summary, the former suggested to stop the army, while the latter believed that troops should be sent to attack Ji Run, the Su king of Wei.
While the two were arguing about this, an eunuch hurriedly entered the palace and handed a slip to the King of Chu.
"Your Majesty, you'd better take a look at this first."
"..." Chu King Xiong Xu frowned and glanced at the eunuch, took out the letter and glanced at it briefly, then frowned deeply.
"Your Majesty, what's wrong?" Huang Xu, a scholar-official from Chu, asked in a low voice.
King Xiong Xu of Chu silently put the letter in his hand on the table in front of him and let out a long breath.
"King Xi of Qi... It seems that he is going to use troops against our great Chu!"
Huang Er and Xiang Xuan looked at each other and were both moved. (To be continued.)