"PS: I was too sleepy today. I took a nap after eating. I didn't expect that I overslept. I didn't have enough time. I can only send you a chapter of 4,500 words. Don't scold me, book friends--"
————The following text————
"I want to take charge of my chariot and fight in person. What do you think?"
When summoning the Prime Minister Xiong Sheng, Lord of Liyang, Chu King Xiong Tuo said to the former, which shocked the former with a look of astonishment on his face.
Xiong Sheng, Lord of Liyang, immediately asked: "Why did your Majesty have such thoughts?"
King Xiong Tuo of Chu was silent.
Judging by common sense, there has never been an example of a country's monarch going on a personal expedition, but such things usually happen under special circumstances.
For example, when "the nations attacked Wei", Wei's local defense power was empty and unable to resist the coalition forces of the nations. Wei King Zhao Run then went on a personal expedition and used himself to call on the Wei people to resist the coalition forces.
Another example is the state of Chu decades ago. Due to repeated defeats under the attack of the "Three Kingdoms Alliance of Qi, Lu, and Song", Xiong Xu, the late king of Chu, wanted to reverse the disadvantages of foreign wars and hoped to boost the morale of his country's soldiers through personal conquests.
Therefore, as the monarch of a country, he personally led the army to fight against the "Qi, Lu and Song Allied Forces".
Of course, when King Lu Xi of Qi went on a personal expedition against Chu, it was simply the monarch's own way of doing things. But generally speaking, unless a country is on the verge of life and death, a monarch will generally not lead an army in person.
After all, swords have no eyes on the battlefield. If a monarch encounters something unexpected on the battlefield, it will not only fail to inspire the soldiers, but will even accelerate defeat. It can be said to be a double-edged sword.
In the opinion of Prime Minister Xiong Sheng, although Chu State was attacked by the three armies of Wei State, it is too early to say whether it is a matter of life or death. After all, Chu State has a territory that is incalculably deep.
Ying cannot be saved, and the capital can be moved to the south for the time being. However, there is no problem whether the defeat of this war can be reversed in the future, or at least the war can be dragged out for a few years.
"Is it because of Master Xiong Hu's incident?" Liyang Jun Xiong Sheng asked cautiously.
After all, he was the prime minister of the Chu State. Of course, at this time, he also received the news that "Pingyu Lord Xiong Hu died in Pingyu County." Like Chu King Xiong Tuo, Xinyang Lord Xiang Pei, Ruyin Lord Xiang Xing and others, Xiong Sheng
After learning about this incident, he was also shocked. It was hard to imagine that Xiong Hu, who had always been greedy for life, would die in Pingyu County so heroically and tragically, and delayed Wei generals Shen Yu, Huan Hu and others for more than a month.
Month long.
"..."
After listening to the words of Liyang Lord Xiong Sheng, Chu King Xiong Tuo was silent again.
As Xiong Sheng guessed, the reason why Xiong Tuo had the idea of conquering the army personally was simply because of Xiong Hu's relationship.
In Xiong Tuo's view, his cousin Xiong Hu, Lord Pingyu, did not have any escape route at all. Instead, he 'chosen' to die in battle against Pingyu, fulfilling Xiong Hu's promise when the two were young to "die as a king and die well." However, he said
In the end, this was a sign that Xiong Hu was not optimistic about the outcome of this war - if Chu State still had hope of defeating Wei State, how could a life-loving person like Pingyu Lord Xiong Hu sacrifice himself so heroically?
I believe he has long since fled to someone unknown.
This is the only place where Xiong Tuo is angry with Xiong Hu.
He was angry that Xiong Hu looked down upon him and the Chu State. However, even when he concluded that the battle would be lost, Xiong Hu did not abandon the Chu State, betrayed Xiong Tuo, and died heroically as a minister of the Chu State.
, fulfilled the promise of "dying as a king and dying well" instead of surrendering to Wei. This is what moved Xiong Tuo the most - because Xiong Hu chose it when there was actually a better choice.
Martyrdom for the country.
He was angry at Xiong Hu's suicide, but also moved by Xiong Hu's unyielding friendship. These complicated feelings gave Xiong Tuo, the King of Chu, the idea of conquering the army himself. In fact, he couldn't even figure out what he was doing. What was the purpose of Yujia's decision to go on a personal expedition - to recapture the body of Lord Pingyu Xiong Hu? Or to defeat Shen Yu and Huan Hu's Wei army who 'forced to death' Xiong Hu along the way? In other words, it was Don't want to be 'underestimated' by the late Xiong Hu?
Or maybe it was just a matter of pure chaos, and the death of Pingyu Lord Xiong Hu gave King Xiong Tuo of Chu the idea of "I must do something."
After several verbal tests, Prime Minister Liyang Jun Xiong Sheng finally figured out what the monarch in front of him was thinking at this moment.
He shook his head and said: "Your Majesty, with all due respect, I am afraid that you are just acting out of emotion when you propose a personal expedition..."
"Is it motivated?" King Chu Xiong Tuo glared at Xiong Sheng in annoyance.
Seeing this, Xiong Sheng, Lord of Liyang, did not panic and asked calmly: "May I ask, Your Majesty, if you want to personally conquer the army, do you have a strategy to repel the Wei army?"
These words hit the nail on the head and immediately left Xiong Tuo speechless.
He didn't have any strategy to repel the Wei army, it was just because the death of Pingyu Lord Xiong Hu stimulated him.
Seeing that Xiong Tuo was silent, Liyang Lord Xiong Sheng said seriously: "Your Majesty, don't think too much. Lord Xiong Hu died in the battle simply because he died for the country. Cheng is a role model for the children of my Xiong family. It is definitely not because of this. He committed suicide due to loss of confidence..."
Although he said this, in fact, deep down in his heart, he actually had similar thoughts to Xiong Tuo, that is, he believed that Pingyu Lord Xiong Hu had probably 'judged' that it would be difficult to defeat Wei in this battle, so he gave up the meaningless battle. He fled and chose to die in battle to serve his country loyally. But at this time, he could not say that.
He had to say that Xiong Hu's heroic death bought him Chu State more than a month of time - objectively speaking, Pingyu County alone could hold back hundreds of thousands of Wei troops on the west route for more than a month. Yue, looking at the whole of Western Chu, for the time being, there is indeed no one who can achieve such 'results' as Xiong Hu, because even Xiong Tao, the king of Xiying, actually only faced the Wei army. General Wu Ji led only 20,000 to 30,000 people.
Therefore, even if Xiong Hu's death in battle actually means "disappointment with this war", Liyang Jun Xiong Sheng also believes that Xiong Hu has done a good enough job, at least to make most people who understand this Yi Jun's character People are impressed by it.
But this cannot be the trigger for Xiong Tuo Yujia, the king of Chu State, to go on a personal expedition.
This is a double-edged sword. If used properly, for example, by defeating the armies led by Shen Yu, Huan Hu, Sima Shang and other Wei generals, this can greatly stimulate the Chu army to resist Wei. But on the other hand, if Xiong Tuo Yujia's personal expedition was defeated by Wei generals such as Shen Yu, Huan Hu, Sima Shang, etc., or even unfortunately injured and died on the battlefield, then this would also greatly increase the morale of the Chu State. 's demise.
In the view of Xiong Sheng, Lord of Liyang, there is still "room" for his Chu State, and there is no need to use the double-edged sword of "imperial conquest".
After persuading Xiong Tuo to calm down, Xiong Sheng, Lord of Liyang, said to the former: "If Shouying cannot be saved, I suggest moving the capital to "Pengli"."
The "Pengli" in his mouth refers to the fiefdom of Xiong Yi, Lord Pengli. It is located in the "Fanyang (Poyang)" area of Jiujiang County, Chu State. There is Daze (Poyang Lake) in the north of the city and a tributary connected to the river.
To the east of the city is "Panyi", which is surrounded by hills to the north, east and south. Only the west side is connected to "Panyang", which can be said to be easy to defend but difficult to attack.
"...Pengli has a large marsh, which is connected to the river. It can be used to supervise the construction of warships and train the navy. After moving the capital, cities can be built on the east and west banks of the mouth of the river to guard the waterway, so that the Wei army cannot pass through the waterway.
"If the Wei army attacks from the land, the entire Pengli County will be surrounded by hills, making it easy to attack but difficult to defend." Xiong Sheng, Lord of Liyang, analyzed calmly.
Upon hearing this, Xiong Tuo, the king of Chu, immediately ordered someone to fetch the map and look at it carefully. Immediately, he frowned and said to Xiong Sheng: "Moving the capital to Pengli is tantamount to abandoning Changsha and even the entire western Chu..."
Xiong Sheng, Lord of Liyang, nodded, and then said: "If you lose today, you will be able to make a comeback in the future... Wei is so powerful now that we, the great Chu, cannot resist it. We can only avoid its sharp edges to see what happens in the future."
"Looking at the future...?"
King Chu Xiong Tuo frowned.
He understood what Xiong Sheng, Lord of Liyang, meant. It was nothing more than to have the courage to cut off his own strength, abandon those undefendable lands, use his vast territory of Chu State in exchange for breathing time, and wait for the opportunity. To put it bluntly, he wanted to see whether the Wei Congress would succeed in the future.
There will be a possibility of making mistakes.
If the Wei State made no mistakes from beginning to end, then moving the capital to Pengli would actually be just a slow suicide.
Think about it, if you give up other large areas of Chu State and only defend Jiujiang County, and it is half of Jiujiang south of the river, how can Chu State compete with Wei State? How can it compete with half of the county alone?
The Wei State that annexed other counties of Chu State?
Only if the Wei State makes major omissions in the future, such as the sons of Wei King Zhao Run fighting against each other in order to seize power, then the Chu State will still have the opportunity to regain the lost territory. Otherwise, Liyang Jun Xiong Sheng's proposal to move the capital is just to let him
The state of Chu changed from "immediate death" to "chronic death". Fundamentally speaking, there was not much change.
But no matter what, "slow death" is better than "immediate death". At least this way there is still a glimmer of hope, as long as the Wei State makes any mistakes in the future.
The question is, will Wei really commit any mistakes?
When thinking about this problem, Chu King Xiong Tuo couldn't help but feel a little confused.
You know, although he is six or seven years younger than Pingyu Jun Xiong Hu, he is still over fifty after all, and his cousin-in-law, Wei Wang Zhao Run, is not even forty now. If you want to compare him with two
Who among people can stay up longer? To be honest, Xiong Tuo has no confidence.
But the key point is that if King Zhao Run of Wei does not die, how can the Wei State make any major omissions?
Even the King of Chu, Xiong Tuo, must admit that his cousin-in-law, Zhao Run, was one of the rare wise men and heroes in ancient times. Compared with King Jian of Han, King Xi of Qi and other heroes, he was even better.
After thinking for a long time, King Chu Xiong Tuo sighed and said: "This is the only thing that has happened so far..."
The implication is that he acquiesced to Prime Minister Liyang Jun Xiong Tuo's suggestion to "move the capital to Pengli".
Of course, although the capital has been moved to Pengli, this does not mean that the Chu State has given up the remaining large areas of territory in one fell swoop. In this case, it will not have the effect of gaining breathing time. Therefore, the battles that should be fought must still be fought.
In late May of the ninth year of Wei Zhaowu, Wei general Wu Ji captured "Xi Ying (Jiangling)". Seeing that the situation was over, Xiong Tao, the king of Xi Ying, led his troops to surrender to the Wei army and begged to avoid death.
In view of the fact that Xiong Tao, the king of Xiying, was one of the rare wise kings in the Chu State, rather than the extortionate and extortionate king like the former Ju Yangjun Xiong Li, Wei general Wu Ji accepted Xiong Tao's surrender and took over as usual.
He defeated the remnant troops under Xiong Tao's command and sent Wei soldiers to escort Xiong Tao's family to Luoyang to meet with Zhao Run, the king of Wei.
Wu Ji himself stationed troops in Xiying. On the one hand, he followed the orders of Tiance Mansion to blockade the river area and cut off the water transportation connection between Chu and Ba. On the other hand, he was thinking of crossing the river to attack "Qianzhong" and "Changsha" on the other side of the river.
Two places.
Even the Ba Kingdom, Wu Ji wanted to try to see if he could capture it. After all, Ba Wangcheng was now in his Wei Kingdom, which meant that his Wei Kingdom had the right to seize the Ba Kingdom - no, he couldn't.
It's called seizing, but should be called recovering.
But having said that, even Wu Ji knew that the possibility of regaining Pakistan was slim.
It has nothing to do with the tens of thousands of Chu troops led by Chu general Doulian in the Ba Kingdom. The key lies in the Qin Kingdom. The commander-in-chief of the Qin Kingdom, Chang Xinhou Wang Jian, is still attacking the Shu Kingdom. If he learns that the Chu Kingdom is disrespectful, I believe that the Qin Kingdom will be in danger.
The Eighty-Ninth Society tore up the previous agreement with the Chu State and immediately occupied the Ba State.
At that time, as long as the Qin army defends "Yu Fu" and "defends the pass", it will be almost impossible for Wu Ji to break through the Qin army's defense from land.
After all, the Qin army is not as weak as the Chu army. Even the generals of Wei must be extremely vigilant when they encounter the Qin army.
"The only option is to try a water attack."
Wu Ji scratched his head and seemed a little powerless.
After all, he is a powerful general on land, but when it comes to warships and water battles, Wu Ji honestly knows nothing about it.
But no matter what, he still ordered the construction of warships at the port of Xiying County to prepare for the future recovery of Pakistan.
It is worth mentioning that during this period, Wu Ji wrote a letter in his own hand and sent it to the Chu general Doulian who was stationed in Ba.
Wu Ji warned Dou Lian in this letter: If the Qin people find out about Chu's current defeat, they will tear up the agreement and attack your army fiercely. Then your army will not be able to protect Ba. Instead of trying to survive in the cracks when the time comes, why don't the general bring Qin with him at this time?
Ba Guo surrendered to Wei?
Therefore, Wu Ji is actually not a foolhardy person, he just...maybe really not suitable for commanding on the spot.
But it is a pity that Dou Lian, a veteran general of Chu State who was stationed in Ba State, did not follow Wu Ji's advice. When Dou Lian learned that Xiying County had been captured by Wu Ji, he immediately mobilized troops to leave Ba State and tried to recapture Xiying County.
Ying.
After all, as far as he knew, Wu Ji didn't have many troops under his command, only twenty or thirty thousand men.
At this time, Wu Ji's fierce general Ran Teng had captured Wu County. He wanted to fight Doulian for a while, but Wu Ji stopped him.
Wu Ji believed that engaging Chu general Doulian at this time would only benefit Qin, so he ordered Ran Teng to abandon Wu County and return to Xiying County.
At the same time, Wu Ji wrote another letter and sent it to Dou Lian, warning Dou Lian and asking Dou Lian to be careful about the Qin army.
Dou Lian, a veteran general of the Chu State, was not a fool. He certainly would not think that his reputation scared the Wei army into withdrawing from Wu County.
In contrast, Wu Ji's calm response made Dou Lian feel even more admired and fearful.
What I admire is that Wu Ji can take the overall situation into consideration and is not limited to the gains and losses of one city or one place; but what I am afraid of is that Wu Ji's move is clearly to use Qin's army to put pressure on him and force him to make a choice. What is the choice?
Qin, or choose Wei.
But in the end, Chu general Doulian still chose "Chu", that is, resisting Qin general Wang Jian and Wei general Wu Ji, relying on his own army to defend the Ba Kingdom from being occupied by Qin and Wei.
The question is, how long can he keep it?
The Qin general Wang Jian had an army of more than ten to two hundred thousand men, while the Wei general Wu Ji, although he had a small number of troops, could not withstand Wei's huge overall advantage. The thirty or forty thousand troops under Dou Lian's command alone could
It is extremely difficult to defend Pakistan in the struggle between these two parties.
At the moment, he only prays that the news of "Chu's defeat in the local battle" will be known to the Qin army later, so that he can still defend Ba - as for Wei General Wu Ji, he believes that Wu Ji will never take the initiative to release the news to
It belongs to the Qin State. After all, the Qin State will immediately occupy the Ba Kingdom once it learns of this, and this is equivalent to cutting off the possibility of the Wei army entering Ba. Dou Lian believes that Wu Ji will not do such a stupid thing.
The question is how long can it be hidden?
"If we can no longer hide it anymore, we will simply let the Wei army enter Ba, and let the Qin and Wei armies fight to the death in Ba!"