The next evolution of the Bashu land did not go beyond the predictions of the two conspirators, Zhang Qigong and Bei Gongyu.
On July 16, in compliance with the agreement with the commander of the Qin army, Changxinhou Wangjian, the leader of the Xiang clan, Xiang Bin, brazenly sent troops to attack Langzhong of the Fan clan.
In the end, of course, they failed to capture Langzhong. After all, Xiangbin was not a fool, and he was still wary of Qin's new ally - just in case Qin stopped caring about the life and death of his Xiang family after acquiring Langzhong.
So what should we do?
Not to mention, Bei Gongyu has returned to Langzhong and reminded Fan Lie that Fan Bu and his son should be wary of the Xiang clan.
In fact, even if Bei Gongyu didn't remind him, Fan Lie, Fan Bu and his son would not relax their vigilance against the Xiang clan. After all, they had received the news that "Xiang Bin secretly communicated with the Qin army" a while ago, and successfully succeeded in
He killed the Qin envoy. Although the battle situation at that time was too chaotic, Fan Bu never figured out who killed the Qin envoy.
But it doesn't matter. The subsequent actions of the Xiang clan have fully proved that this clan has indeed colluded with the Qin people.
So in the melee that day, the old patriarch Fan Lie cursed Xiang Bin on the battlefield and said he was not worthy of being one of the five surnames of the Ba clan. In fact, Fan Lie was also aware of Xiang Bin's ambition to replace the Ba clan, but he was just too lazy to do so.
It's just a matter of joining forces. After all, Ba Qian and Xiang Bin are both cowards in his eyes.
Therefore, if the Xiang clan really annexed the Ba clan, Fan Lie would not say anything because of it.
But what the old patriarch couldn't accept was that Xiang Bin actually let in the hungry tiger of Qin for his ambition.
You must know that in these days, Bei Gongyu has been instilling thoughts similar to the "Qin State Threat Theory" to Fan Lie, Fan Bu and his son, and has been talking about the Qin State as if it were a scourge. This made Fan Lie deeply understand that the Qin State was a scourge.
What will be the consequences if a tiger is released into Bashu?
But it is a pity that Xiang Bin, a member of the Xiang clan who was blinded by the powerful order, chose to collude with the Qin army after all.
A few days later, the news of "the failure of the attack on Langzhong" came back to Wang Jian, the commander-in-chief of the Qin army.
Since the army assisting the Xiang clan in attacking Langzhong also included Qin soldiers, the lieutenant general had already reported the conflict to Wang Jian.
Wang Jian didn't care about this.
With Wang Jian's strategy, how could he not see what Xiang Lin was thinking? He just wanted to rely on "Langzhong" and try to use the strength of his Qin army to help him defeat the other tribes of Ba and become the king of Ba.
And what does this matter?
In Wang Jian's view, since Xiang Bin wants to replace Ba as the king of Ba, he must annex and defeat the other four major tribes of Ba. And his ultimate goal of Qin is to devour the three kingdoms of Bashu, Shu and Ju.
In other words, the other tribes of Ba are actually enemies of Qin's army. If they attack early or later, what difference does it make?
As for Xiang Bin who was playing tricks in front of Wang Jian, Wang Jian did not intend to expose him for the time being. However, after getting rid of the Fan clan, Ba clan and other four tribes, will the Ba Kingdom belong to the Xiang clan or the Xiang Bin clan?
If he is the Qin State, then it is his King Jian who has the final say.
Because of this, when Xiang Bin, the leader of the Xiang clan, sent someone to tell him apologetically that the Fan clan had been on guard for a long time and hoped that Wang Jian could help the Xiang clan to attack the three clans of Luo, Zheng and Ba first, Wang Jian
I readily agreed.
In early August, after confirming that they could get assistance from the Qin army, the Xiang clan attacked the Zheng clan.
The Zheng clan lives in the hinterland of the Bajun Basin, right in the middle of the three tribes of the Ba clan, the Fan clan, and the Xiang clan. It is the most powerful clan among the five surnames of the Ba clan.
Due to the lack of vigilance against the Xiang clan, in the first three days of the war between the Xiang and Zheng clans, the Zheng clan lost nearly half of their territory and retreated steadily in front of the "Qin Xiang Alliance".
In fact, the Zheng clan would not have suffered such a tragic defeat. After all, after the "Battle of Langzhong", the Fan clan sent people to the Zheng clan's territory and told the leader of the Zheng clan, Zheng Shang, to be more vigilant.
But it is a pity that Zheng Shang did not pay attention to it. After all, although the five surnames of the Ba clan had been in constant internal strife, they rarely attracted outsiders to participate in their internal strife. Zheng Shang thought that his clan could resist the Xiang clan alone.
It was precisely because they did not listen to the warning of the Fan clan that when the Qin Xiang coalition forces appeared in the Zheng clan's territory, the Zheng clan was defeated by the Qin Xiang coalition forces and lost half of their territory in just a few days.
.
What's even worse is that the warriors that the Zheng clan is proud of are no match for the Qin soldiers on the frontal battlefield.
In desperation, Zheng Shangwei ordered his clansmen to flee to "Pingdu" and handed over the hinterland of Bajun Basin to the Xiang clan.
However, even after gaining the hinterland of the Bajun Basin, the Xiang clan continued to march and attack the Zheng clan's capital "Pingdu". The Zheng clan had to send two envoys, one to Jiangzhou to attack.
The Ba family asked for help, and a group of people crossed the river to "Zhi City" to ask for help from the Zhao family living in the south of the river.
But unfortunately, the Zheng clan failed to wait for the reinforcements from the Ba clan and the Zhu clan. Wang Ling, Wang Ben and other generals under the command of the Qin army commander Wang Jian captured Pingdu in only three days.
The Zheng family became the first victims of this war.
In desperation, Zheng Shang, the leader of the Zheng clan who became a prisoner, had no choice but to accept Xiang Bin's surrender and merge the Zheng clan into the Xiang clan.
The news of Xiang's annexation of Zheng's family reached Jiangzhou, and Ba Wangkai was greatly shocked.
In fact, when he received the request for help from the Zheng family a few days ago, Ba Jin had ordered General Baman to gather soldiers and prepare to go to Pingdu to support the Zheng family. Unexpectedly, in just three days, Pingdu was destroyed by the Xiang family.
A clan - to be precise, it was captured by Qin's army.
Ba Jin, who was a little panicked by this, quickly summoned his ministers to discuss countermeasures, but after repeated discussions, he could not come up with a feasible strategy.
So at Ba Man's reminder, Ba Jin summoned Pingyu Lord Xiong Hu, hoping to gain the latter's support.
Of course Pingyu Lord Xiong Hu would not refuse Ba Jin. After hearing this, he immediately agreed with his chest and Xiong Hu also reminded Ba Jin that he could announce to the outside world in the name of King Ba that the Xiang clan would be labeled as rebellious and call on all Ba people.
Come to resist the Xiang clan.
Ba Jin was overjoyed when he heard this and immediately ordered his people to follow the advice of Pingyu Lord Xiong Hu.
Afterwards, Zhang Qigong learned about this and secretly laughed in his heart.
After all, the suggestion put forward by Pingyu Lord Xiong Hu to Ba Chen was the most commonly used strategy among the Central Plains countries. However, Zhang Qigong was not very optimistic about whether this strategy would be effective.
The reason is very simple. In the Central Plains, the royal power of all countries is supreme, especially a monarch with incomparable prestige like King Zhao Run of Wei. Once someone is labeled as a traitor, it will be useless no matter how innocent the person is.
But the national conditions of Ba are different. Ba is a country composed of the five surnames of the Ba ethnic group and some other small tribes. Although Ba Yi is nominally the king of Ba, his influence does not actually apply to other tribes——
Just like the Xiang clan, the warriors of the Xiang clan are loyal to the leader of their clan, Xiang Li, but they never think that assisting their leader Xian Li to attack other tribes is an act of rebellion.
If Ba Yi's personal charisma and prestige in the Ba Kingdom were great, it would be like Zhao Run, the king of Wei during his princely period. Even if he was not even the prince at the time, his words would still be enough to influence a large number of people in the Wei Kingdom.
But unfortunately, the reason why Zhao Run had such high prestige at that time was because he, the "Wei Gongzi Run", swept across the Central Plains and made great military achievements, and Ba Qi was obviously not enough to compare with the King of Wei in this aspect.
As expected, the public opinion offensive suggested by Pingyu Lord Xiong Hu did not achieve the desired results.
A few days later, the leader of the Xiang clan, Xiang Bin, officially broke up with the Ba clan, openly accusing Ba Jin of being weak and unworthy of becoming the king of the Ba kingdom.
ambition.
But again, the national conditions of Pakistan are different from those of other countries in the Central Plains. Although Xiang Bin’s actions would be considered an act of rebellion in the Central Plains, in Pakistan, the Pakistani people do not think there is anything wrong with Xiang Bin’s actions.
After all, the Ba Kingdom has always been a country where "the king is judged by force." The reason why the Ba clan became the orthodox of the Ba clan was only because the ancestors of the Ba clan defeated the leaders of the other four tribes with force.
Because of this tradition, neither the Zheng clan, which was annexed by the Xiang clan, nor the other scattered small tribes, joined the Ba clan to fight against the Xiang clan, as Ba Hao had hoped.
It was Qin's army that aroused great suspicion among the Ba people.
It has to be said that the difference between 'with internal support' and 'without internal response' is reflected here. If there is no internal response, once the Qin army attacks Ba, it will undoubtedly be regarded as an enemy by all the Ba people; but the current situation
Next, the Qin army appeared as an "ally of the Xiang clan" and repeatedly stated that they were in Ba Kingdom only to help their ally, the Xiang clan, become the king of Ba. This greatly resolved the resistance of the Ba people to the Qin army.
And this is also the "righteous honor" that Qin Army coach Wang Jian most hopes to obtain.
Although for now, the Qin army under Wang Jian seems to have completely become the thugs of the Xiang clan, Wang Jian does not care.
He saw far ahead: when his Qin army killed half or more of the people of Ba in the name of "righteousness", even if the leader of the Xiang clan, Xiang Bin, finally broke the agreement between the two parties, his Qin army
It is still capable of killing the other half of the Pakistani people and completely seizing the entire territory of Pakistan.
This is much more cost-effective than the Qin army rushing to attack Pakistan and being boycotted by all the Pakistanis.
As for why Wang Jian is sure that Xiang Bin, the leader of the Xiang clan, will eventually tear up the agreement, that is even simpler, because even if Xiang Bin does not tear up the agreement, Wang Jian will find a way to tear up the agreement when the time comes.
Xiang Bin thought he could drive the tiger away and devour the wolf, but he probably never thought that the tiger would also swallow him together.
In late August, the Qin army and the Xiang clan launched a two-sided attack on the Xiang clan. Fortunately, at this time, Fan Lie, the leader of the Fan clan, listened to Bei Gongyu's suggestion and sent troops to support Jiangzhou and interact with the Ba clan.
The support finally temporarily blocked the Qin army's attack.
But unfortunately, this situation cannot be maintained for a long time, because the Qin army that entered Ba to assist the Xiang clan only numbered tens of thousands. In Hanzhong to the north, there are still hundreds of thousands of Qin troops watching eagerly.
In early September, Qin general Wang Ben led the Qin army to attack the Zhao clan across the river. The Zhao clan could not resist the Qin army's offensive on the frontal battlefield, so they had to retreat to "Zhi City", hoping to use the city wall to block the Qin army's attack.
offensive.
It has to be said that whether it is the Zheng clan or the Zhu clan, they made serious mistakes in their strategy against the Qin army. You must know that the armies of the Central Plains countries are best at frontal combat and siege warfare, and the Qin army
The same is true.
However, the warriors of the Zheng clan and the Zhu clan gave up their best tactics of harassment and sneak attacks, and went in groups to try to defeat the Qin army on the frontal battlefield. How could they remain undefeated?
Except for Wei and the former South Korea, there is almost no third country in the world that can withstand the Qin army on a frontal battlefield.
Including city defense.
It was also a weak country, so why could Lu resist Chu's attack in the first place?
In addition to the excellent commander-in-chief Huan Hu at that time, the more important reason was that the Lu State had a large number of war weapons. This led to the defeat of Xinyang Jun Xiang Pei and General Xiang Mo, the old and new three pillars.
In the state of Lu.
But what does Pakistan have?
The long-term peace has caused the strength of Bashu and Shu to lag far behind that of the Central Plains.
When the bows and arrows of the Ba warriors were unable to penetrate the armor of the Qin soldiers, the outcome had actually been decided in advance between the two sides.
In just seven days, the capital of the Zhuo clan, "Zhi", was also captured by the Qin army and the warriors of the Xiang clan. In order to save the people of their tribe, the leader of the Zhuo clan had to surrender to Xianglin.
So far, among the five surnames of the Ba clan, only the Fan clan, the Ba clan, and the unprecedentedly powerful Xiang clan are left.
Fortunately, at this time, the monarch of Shu, "Dulu", sent people to support the Ba family and the Fan family.
Dulu is a very young monarch, even now he is only in his thirties. Because of his youth and vigour, he is extremely dissatisfied with the state of Ju trying to get rid of his subordinate status of the state of Shu. He even threatened him a few years ago.
It is said that he ordered the establishment of the king of Ju State, which caused the relationship between Shu and Ju to fall to a low point.
Perhaps it was for this reason that the leader of Ju State agreed to allow the Qin army to use the road to attack Shu.
In Dulu's heart, both Ba and Ju were enemies of Shu. The former was a feud, while the latter was a disobedient subject. The Ju State was originally created by the Shu State in order to restrict the Ba State.
Supported subject state.
A few months ago, when the troops defending Jianshan reported the news of the Qin army's entry, the monarch of Shu, Dulu, was stunned for a moment.
At that time, he was still thinking that between Qin and his country of Shu, there was a country of Ju in Hanzhong. Why didn't the country of Ju ask for help from his country of Shu when it was attacked by Qin's army?
You should know that no matter how angry he was with the State of Ju for secretly colluding with the State of Ba against his State of Shu, Dulu would still send troops to support the State of Ju if he learned about the Qin army's attack on the State of Ju.
This is not for the country of Ju, but for the country of Shu.
However, the information obtained through inquiring made Dulu, the king of Shu, so angry that he almost vomited blood.
He never expected that the State of Ju was not attacked by the State of Qin at all. This shameless and unsubordinate state actually lent a road to the army of the State of Qin, allowing the Qin army to pass through the dangerous terrain of Hanzhong without any hindrance.
The Shu Kingdom was completely betrayed by the Ju Kingdom!
After realizing this, the king of Shu, Dulu, cursed the king of Ju and immediately sent troops to strengthen the defense of Jianshan and defend Jianmen Pass (Jiange).
Regarding the natural barrier of Jianshan Mountain, Dulu was actually quite relieved. In contrast, he was more worried about the "Langzhong" direction.
After all, the Fan clan of the Ba Kingdom living in Langzhong is the most hostile to the Shu people among the Ba clan. Dulu is very worried that the Fan clan will act like the Ju Kingdom in Hanzhong and provide a way for the Qin Army to pass through.
direction to attack the Shu Kingdom.
However, the information obtained by inquiring made Dulu unbelievable.
The Fan clan of Ba State, who had always hated Shu State the most, not only refused the Qin army's request to use the road, but also defended Bashan to prevent the Qin army from entering the country. They even sent envoys to negotiate with him and agreed on a temporary truce between the two sides.
It has to be said that Dulu simply couldn't believe this: Ju Guo, who also had the Kaiming family surnamed Du, betrayed his Du family and the Shu State. Instead, the Ba people, who had hated the Shu people for generations, faced him.
In the face of the external force of Qin, they took the initiative to temporarily stop fighting with other Shu people and jointly fight against Qin.
In Dulu's opinion, this is really ironic!
A few days later, the monarch of Ba, Ba Qi, the leader of the Ba clan, also sent an envoy to negotiate with Dulu. The envoy stated the threat of Qin and hoped that Bashu and Bashu would put aside their differences and join hands to defend against the enemy.
Of course, Dulu would not reject Ba Chen's suggestion.
After all, the current situation seems to be that Ju State has betrayed. If Bashu and Bashu still hate each other, they will eventually be defeated by Qin one by one. Du Lu also understands this truth.
As a result, under the threat of Qin, Bashu and Bashu, two countries that had hated each other for hundreds of years and had attacked each other for more than a hundred years, finally temporarily put aside their prejudices and hostility at this moment.
Unfortunately, despite the tacit understanding between Bashu and Bashu, the Xiang clan of Ba still introduced the Qin army into the territory, resulting in the destruction of the two large Ba tribes of Zheng and Zhuo as well as several other small tribes.
, only the Fan family and the Ba family are still struggling to support themselves.
"The Qin army is so powerful?"
Dulu, the monarch of Shu, was shocked when he heard the news.
Previously, because the main force of the Qin general Wang Jian was blocked by the Shu army at Jianshan, Dulu had not yet realized how powerful the Qin soldiers were. But now, watching the Qin army generals Zheng and Zhuo, they were unable to advance.
The clan was beaten to pieces, and Dulu was inevitably panicked.
After all, once the Ba Kingdom is finished, the Shu Kingdom will not be able to escape the fate of being destroyed by the Qin army.
Therefore, Dulu immediately sent troops to support the Fan clan and the Ba clan, and finally helped the two clans to fend off the attacks of the Qin army and the Xiang clan.
But how long can this situation last?
Dulu, Ba Yi, and Fan Lie did not have much confidence, because the Qin general Wang Jian who was stationed in Hanzhong also sent more Qin troops into Ba after learning that Shu sent troops to support Langzhong.
And just when the Ba clan and the Fan clan were about to attack and destroy the Qin army and the Xiang clan, their reinforcements finally arrived.
This supporting army is the troops of Xiong Hu, Lord of Pingyu, one of the Three Pillars of Chu State, and the army under "Xiong Tao, Lord of Xiying".
Xiying (Jiangling) was one of the old capitals of the Chu State. Once upon a time, the "Chu-Ba War" took place when the Chu State used this city as its capital. However, later on, the Ba people fled to Ba County and defended Wushan.
, taking into account various factors, the Chu State finally gave up its westward advance and expanded eastward. After a few years, it gradually moved its capital to what is now Shouying.
The former "Ying" city was also renamed Xiying.
Precisely because it was the former capital of Chu State, Xiying is one of the few prosperous cities in western Chu. In the past ten or twenty years, whether it was Xiong Tuo, the former king of Yangcheng, or Xiong Hu, the current king of Pingyu, Trade with Pakistan was carried out through Xiying.
But having said that, although it was under the rule of Western Chu, the kings of Xiying in the past dynasties rarely intervened in the wars in the Central Plains. First, Xiying was too far away from the Central Plains, just like the several wars between Chu and Wei. Although Wei Gongzi Run was known as They defeated Chuxi, but in fact they only captured Xiong Tuo's feudal city "Yangcheng" at that time, and Yangcheng was still at least a thousand miles away from Xiying.
The area was too remote, so Xiong Tao, Lord of Xiying, did not participate in the previous wars with Wei. Of course, the more important reason was another reason, namely the attack on Bashu.
When the Chu State expanded eastward, it was reluctant to give up the land of Bashu, so it handed over the task of advancing westward to Xiong Zhang, the first king of Xiying.
Therefore, the several Chu-Ba wars that broke out later during the expansion of the Chu Kingdom to the east were actually wars in which the Xiying lords of the past dynasties attacked Bashu. Unfortunately, the Xiying lords of the past dynasties failed to cross Wushan and invade Bashu. In the end, The good result was that they only captured half of Wushan and established a "Wu County" there as the front line for the Chu State to attack Bashu.
Later, the successive Chu kings who moved their capital to Shoying were committed to competing with the Central Plains countries for dominance, and gradually downplayed the attack on Bashu. After all, compared with the vastness of the entire Central Plains, the land of Bashu was too small. .
To put it bluntly, if the struggle with Wei for the Central Plains hegemony had not failed and the Chu State's momentum in the Central Plains had become weak, otherwise the Chu State would not have gone back to the old path of its ancestors and thought of attacking Bashu.
In late September, Xiong Tao, Lord of Xiying, led tens of thousands of Chu troops to march out of the pass "Dian (Tong'Han') Pass" in Wu County, which had been used to resist the Ba people, and attack "Yufu".
At that time, the main force of the Qin army and the Xiang clan were attacking Langzhong and Jiangzhou. Although Chu Shuijun predicted in advance that Pingyu Lord Xiong Hu was likely to summon the Chu army to assist the Ba clan, he reminded Xiang Li to garrison Yufu. , but the Xiang clan’s army stationed in this city was eventually defeated by Xiong Tao, Lord of Xiying.
After that, Chuxi's warships sailed up the river and together with the land infantry attacked Linjiang, the capital of the Xiang clan.
The Xiang clan could not withstand the Chu army's attack. After Linjiang was captured by the Chu army, they hurriedly asked for help from the Qin army.
In early October, the Western Chu army, led by Xiong Tao, Lord of Xiying, occupied "Linjiang". Under the instruction of Xiong Hu, Lord of Pingyu, they crossed the Bajun Basin in an attempt to support the Fan clan.
After learning about this, Qin General Wang Jian immediately mobilized another 50,000 elite troops to garrison the Bajun Basin to prevent the Chu army from destroying his Qin army's strategy of attacking Langzhong.
The armies of Qin and Chu met in the territory of Ba.
Compared with the previous wars, the confrontation between the Qin and Chu armies can be said to be evenly matched.
A war is about to break out in the land of Bashu. However, the real owners of this land, such as the Ba family, the Fan family, the Xiang family, and the Shu Kingdom, seem to have been reduced to supporting roles and spectators.
I believe everyone knows that this battle between Qin and Chu will ultimately determine the final ownership of this land.