Chapter 768: The Conflict of Xiong Qu in Chu's Civil Conflict
That night, Zhao Hongrun had dinner at Ningxiang Palace, and then fled with the girls, under the influence of Concubine Shen Shu, hoping to have her grandson in her arms as soon as possible.
After returning to Prince Su's Mansion, the girls each returned to their small residences in the North Courtyard of the Prince's Mansion, while Zhao Hongrun came to the study, took out the letter brought back by Zongwei Gao Kuo from his arms, and read it carefully again.
This letter was written by "Duan Jiu", a member of Shangshui Qingya who is still staying in Xiangcheng and Zhi County. When the Wei army evacuated, the Qingya people followed Zhao Hongrun's order and left about two or three people behind.
Ten people lurked at the junction of the three kingdoms of Qi, Lu, and Chu, and established a branch of Shangshui Qingya.
After all, Zhao Hongrun took away more than a million Chu civilians from the Chu State this time, leaving Xiangcheng, Zhi County, Qixian County and many counties south of Luohe River empty. This was the best result of Wei's careful deployment.
time, it is not easy to be discovered by Chu Fang.
The reason why twenty or thirty people were left in that area to establish the Shangshui Qingya underground stronghold was to find out the latest news about the three kingdoms of Qi, Lu, and Chu. After all, in Zhao Hongrun's view, after the national war between Qi and Lu
Turbulence is bound to occur. If first-hand information can be obtained in time, Wei may be able to further benefit from the civil strife between the two countries.
To take a step back, even if we cannot gain any benefits from the civil strife in the two countries, we can still understand the situation of the civil strife in the two countries.
For this reason, Duan Jiu was promoted to the leader of the branch and led twenty or thirty Qingya people to lurk at the borders of the three kingdoms of Qi, Lu, and Chu.
This can be regarded as Zhao Hongrun's first step in building an intelligence network.
"Your Highness, I will make you a pot of tea."
Zongwei Chief Wei Jiao said from the side.
He knew His Highness very well. One look at Zhao Hongrun's expression and he guessed that His Highness would probably stay in the study for a long time today.
"Hmm."
Zhao Hongrun nodded, walked to the desk in the room and sat down, laying the letter paper in his hand flat on the desk.
The letter sent by Duan Jiu was quite thick, but in fact it only contained one thing, namely the "civil war between the Xiong family and the Qu family", a major event that must have spread throughout most of the Chu country at this moment - Duan
The branch in charge of the Ninth Station is currently unable to spy on some secret information. At best, it can only report such a major event that cannot be concealed for Zhao Hongrun.
"Qu... hmm."
Zhao Hongrun hummed happily in his heart.
As far as Zhao Hongrun knows, the struggle for royal power between the Qu clan of Mi and the Xiong clan of Mi in Chu State goes back to who knows how many years. Although the two clans are from the same branch, in fact, even if they are called mortal enemies,
Pass.
As we all know, many years ago, the Qu family showed its ambition for the royal power of the Chu Kingdom. To be precise, even now, I am afraid that they have not given up their ambition to regain the royal power from the Xiong family.
I remember that not long ago, when Zhao Hongrun led his army to assist King Lu Xi of Qi in attacking the Chu State, nearly 70% of the domestic nobles of the Chu State participated in the war to a greater or lesser extent, and also to a greater or lesser extent resisted.
and contributed to the coalition's crusade.
For example, Ju Yangjun Xiong Li, even this king of Yi who was greedy for life and afraid of death, also contributed a large amount of food.
But there was only one big clan that stayed out, as if the Chu State's national crisis had nothing to do with them, and that was the Qu clan.
At that time, except for Qu Ping, Lord of Xiling, who responded to the national crisis and sent troops to assist, the rest of the Qu family was almost silent.
At that time, Zhao Hongrun had vaguely guessed that the Qu family might want to be profit-seeking fishermen and take advantage of the great fall in prestige of Chu King Xiong Xu after the war to launch an action to seize the kingship.
"Perhaps Qu Cheng also received help from the Qu family at that time..."
Licking his lips, Zhao Hongrun thought about this matter with a half-smile.
I still remember that at the end of last year, he built an ice city overnight in Juyang County.
At that time, Qu Cheng did not lead his troops to the Ice City, but what is strange is that Qu Cheng had thousands of troops under his command at that time, but they were not affected by the ice and snow at all.
Later, Zhao Hongrun learned that Qu Chengjun had found a village by "coincidence", and what was even more "coincident" was that there was enough food in the village.
Later in the year, Qu Cheng "happened" to learn of Shouling Junjingshe's action to send troops to Caixi, and he ambush troops and horses on the latter's only route in advance, and successfully defeated Shouling Junjingshe.
Caught off guard.
I have to say that this kind of coincidence is really a coincidence. It seems that someone deliberately wants to help the Wei army and contain the Shouling Junjingshe, so that the Wei army can attack the center of the Xiong clan of Chu State - Wang Chengshou.
Ying.
"Oh."
Zhao Hongrun shook his head slightly and focused his attention on the letter again.
At the beginning of the letter, Duan Jiu simply wrote about the matter of "the Qu family contacted the domestic nobles to force the king of Chu Xiong Xu to marry him", but Zhao Hongrun was still able to connect this matter with certain situations he knew.
.
He is now very sure that in the Battle of Shoying, King Xiong Xu of Chu secretly instructed Xiang Yan, a veteran general of the Xiang family, to deliberately attack the Wei army. This led to the Chu king's city of Shouying being captured by the Wei army in just a few days.
Zhao Hongrun had some clue as to why Chu King Xiong Xu did this - this is why Zhao Hongrun ranked Chu King Xiong Xu alongside such wise kings as Qi King Lu Xi.
He was extremely surprised that Chu King Xiong Xu actually had such courage and actually wanted to use the external cause of the coalition forces to defeat the Chu Kingdom and then re-establish it.
You must know that if this matter is not done well, the Chu State, which has defended tenaciously under the allied forces' crusade, will fall into pieces, or even perish in endless civil strife.
Regardless of Chu King Xiong Xu's reputation outside, Zhao Hongrun was convinced by this incident alone, because the former's courage was enough to shock the world.
After that, all the events were connected in series: King Xiong Xu of Chu began to clamp down on those aristocratic forces that had done nothing during the national war, executed a large number of nobles under clever pretexts, and confiscated the wealth accumulated by those nobles. This move made Chu
All the aristocratic forces in the country were in danger and united to resist Chu King Xiong Xu. However, the Qu family jumped out at this time, trying to take advantage of the God-given opportunity when Chu King Xiong Xu's prestige fell to the bottom to seize the opportunity from the Xiong family.
Take back the royal power and replace the Xiong family as the royal family of Chu.
It has to be said that this can be called a scene of a dragon and a tiger fighting, so much so that Zhao Hongrun secretly regretted that he could not witness this scene with his own eyes.
According to Duan Jiu's letters, the Qu family blamed Chu King Xiong Xu for "the great defeat of the Chu State" and accused the latter of being stupid and incompetent. Then, they cited various scandals about the Xiong family's children's extortion and extortion in the past, and
About half of the noble forces were included in their own camp.
The king of Chu, Xiong Xu, decisively judged the Qu family as rebellious officials, and sent three famous Chu heroes, Lord Shouling Jingshe, Lord Diyang Xiong Shang, and General Xiang Mo, to lead an army to encircle and suppress the Qu family.
The Qu clan also competed with each other. Their clan members sent out private troops who had stayed put during the national war, and openly went to war with the Xiong clan in the name of "Anti-Faint King".
As a result, the civil war in Chu State began.
It is a pity that the Qu family has great vision but low skill. The opponents of Shouling Jun Jingshe, Diyang Jun Xiong Shang, and General Xiang Mo, the three famous generals of Chu, were defeated in just twenty days.
, even the original family fiefdom was lost a lot.
At this time, Qu Ping, Lord of Xiling, had not yet sent troops to assist his people.
On one side is the loyal king, and on the other side is his family. Qu Ping, Lord of Xiling, who has always been loyal to the king and patriotic, is caught in the middle, and he is in an extremely difficult situation.
He had no choice but to send someone to deliver a message to King Xiong Xu of Chu, begging the king to take back his order to "pacify the Qu clan".
Unfortunately, the current King of Chu, Xiong Xu, is already planning to pave the way for his successors in the future. How can he keep disobedient nobles like the Qu family?
In desperation, in order to protect his people, Qu Ping, Lord of Xiling, finally chose to send troops to confront Shouling Lord Jingshe's two armies, and started a protracted battle with the latter.
This was also one of the most exciting battles in Chu's civil strife.
There is no need to elaborate too much on who Shouling Jun Jingshe was. All you need to know is that he was a famous general of the Chu State who could not even defeat Zhao Hongrun.
And what about Qu Ping, Lord of Xiling?
Although he did not appear in front of Zhao Hongrun during the National War, Zhao Hongrun also heard about his great contribution during the National War.
Without Qu Ping, Lord of Xiling, Lord Shouling Jingshe might not have been able to quickly defeat the West Vietnamese rebels. Naturally, he would not have been able to rush to Juyang County before Zhao Hongrun captured Juyang County, which made the Wei army ultimately unable to capture the rich city of Juyang.
.
More importantly, without Qu Ping, Lord of Xiling, the general of East Vietnam, Wu Yue, could have broken through Jiujiang County and delivered a fatal blow to the Chu Kingdom's city of Shouying from the south. Together with the allied forces that surrounded Shouying to the north, west, and east, they could completely defeat Shouying.
Seal Shou Ying and seal the way for the nobles of the Chu Kingdom's city to escape to the south.
Because at that time, "Peng Lijun Xiong Yi" and "Zhangyang Jun Xiong Zheng" were unable to stop the Dongou army led by Wu Yue's general Wu Qi.
It is conceivable how huge the role Qu Ping, Lord of Xiling, played during this national war.
It is a pity that such a rare loyal and virtuous man has now been judged by King Xiong Xu of Chu as "one of the rebellious ministers".
"Self-destruction of the Great Wall, hahaha..."
Although he felt very sorry for Qu Ping, Lord of Xiling, Zhao Hongrun still couldn't help but laugh with gloating.
As a Wei man, he wished that the civil war in Chu State would be as fierce as possible. Unfortunately, apart from Qu Ping, Lord of Xiling, there seemed to be no one worthy of attention in the Qu family, but on the side of King Xiong Xu of Chu, there was
There are three famous generals: Shoulingjun Jingshe, Diyangjun Xiong Shang, and General Xiang Mo.
It is not difficult to guess that when the Jing clan and the Xiang clan both stood firmly on the side of King Xiong Xu of Chu, the war in which the Qu clan attempted to regain the royal power from the Xiong clan was actually destined to end.
Because of this, he fell in love with Qu Ping, Lord of Xiling.
In fact, Duan Jiu's letters only recorded the confrontation between Shouling Lord Jingshe and Xiling Lord Qu Ping, but Zhao Hongrun felt that if there were no accidents, the defeat of the Qu family would only be a matter of time.
"Should I have a hand in this?"
Putting down the letter, Zhao Hongrun frowned and thought.
At this moment, there was a loud knock on the study door.
"Why is it so late?...Come in." Zhao Hongrun couldn't help but complain, because Wei Jiao had promised to make tea for him, but he never came back.
However, to Zhao Hongrun's surprise, the person who walked into the study carrying the tea set and tray was not Wei Jiao, but Yang Yanxing, who was respectfully called "Little Madam" by the servants in the palace.
"Husband..."
Yang Toixing called timidly, her pretty face flushed.