In the Chu Palace in Shouchun, there is a lotus platform with a pond of lotus flowers under the platform. It is June and the lotus flowers in the pond are blooming under the platform, and the light fragrance is refreshing.
"We make lotus to make clothes, and gather hibiscus to make clothes. We Chu people love lotus very much. At that time, the last king of Chu often let his concubines wear lotus as clothes and play together in the water."
Cai Ci was walking here and murmured to Fan Zeng who was much older than him behind him: "I remember that thirteen years ago, the Qin army broke into the city. It was also in May and June. As a minister of the King of Chu, I could only witness it.
The city was destroyed and the country was destroyed. Princess Ji Mi was not willing to be humiliated. She jumped down from the high platform with the raccoon slave she loved in her arms, and died instantly..."
"It's also ironic that even though the country was destroyed, this pond of lotus flowers did not fail and has continued to grow until now."
While talking, Cai Ci suddenly realized that there was no one around him. When he turned around, Fan Zeng was sitting by the pond, staring at the fish in the pond and smiling: "It's a good place for fishing, not worse than Chao Lake."
Seeing this old man acting like this, Cai Ci stopped beating around the bush and walked back and asked: "Mr. Fan, where did you find that 'great-grandson of King Huai of Chu'? I have been in the palace for many years.
I even served as the deputy of the Sanlu doctor, specializing in the family genealogy, but I have never heard of it!"
Cai Ci had been suspicious for a long time. At the end of May, just after they broke Shouchun, Fan Zeng found an orphan who was sixteen or seventeen years old, saying that he was the "great-great-grandson of King Huai of Chu" and forcibly promoted him to the position of King of Chu.
, still called King Huai of Chu.
Cai Ci had some objections to this, but he had no say at the time. Recently, with the black Qin flag falling to the ground and the red Chu flag flying high, all the systems of the former Chu State were restored.
The official system of the Chu State was different from that of Qin, Yan, Qi, and the three Jin Dynasties. This was because the Chu State did not obey the Zhou Dynasty and developed its own system. The official system was more complicated and had unique names. For example, the prime ministers and ministers of Qin and the other five kingdoms were called prime ministers of the Chu State.
As "Ling Yin".
Fan Zeng strongly recommended Cai Ci for the position of Ling Yin, because Cai Ci was once the "Fang Lord", a noble nobleman who had always been highly virtuous and highly respected, and was the only remaining court official with great achievements. Therefore, he was promoted to Ling Yin, and Fan Zeng himself only did a small ""
The position of “Left Disciple”.
Although he knew that the other person was just using his reputation and had no real power at all, Cai Ci still wanted to ask clearly, otherwise he would never feel comfortable with it.
Facing Cai Ci's question, Fan Zeng only stared at the lotus and said: "I heard that only one lotus seed was planted in this pond full of lotus. After hundreds of years, the pond was filled with beautiful colors. Dare you ask your Majesty?
, which one in this pond is the direct descendant of the ancestor of the lotus?"
Cai Ci shook his head: "In the past few decades, it has grown and spread, and it has changed several times. How can you tell the difference?"
Fan Zeng held up his palms and smiled: "Yes, the so-called direct descendants are difficult to find, but all lotus flowers are descendants of the ancestors. Although they are not the great-great-grandchildren of King Huai of Chu, the descendants of Mi cannot be fake..."
In the Chu land, there were not ten thousand but eight thousand descendants of the Mi family. Fan Zeng frankly admitted that there was something wrong with the identity of the so-called "great-grandson of King Huai of Chu", and Cai Ci was greatly worried.
Little did he know that Fan Zeng was also in trouble. More than ten years ago, he had hidden a real person. His name was Xiong Xin, the great-great-grandson of King Huai of Chu. He sent him to his friend Ban Yi. Unexpectedly, the Qin Dynasty issued a migration order, and Ban Yi
When Yi Bei moved to Yanmen, Xiong Xin followed him as a shepherd boy. Fan Zeng had no choice but to find a Xibei product.
Old Man Fan could only say: "Ling Yin feels that now that the severe winter has passed, the most important thing is to find the direct line of lotus? Or try to keep the flowers in the lotus pond blooming longer? At least once the banner of King Huai of Chu was raised, people from all directions
Yunji responded, if Ling Yin feels that something is wrong, what if he waits until he recovers Chu and annihilates the violent Qin, and then slowly searches for the real descendants of the royal family?"
"The overall situation is the most important thing, and...that's all we can do."
Cai Ci's face was uncertain, and he reminded: "But Fan Zuotu must also be careful. The Chu land is so large and there are many nobles and nobles. I am not the only one who has doubts, such as those three families..."
Fan Zeng smiled: "Although the young general took the post of Shangzhu State by himself, Mo Ao may have given it to Long Qie, but many official positions in the Xinbang State, such as Grand Sima, Left and Right Sima, Right Disciple, Sanlu Doctor, etc., were all given to Zhao
, Jing, Qu San’s family is keeping it.”
"I'm afraid they still don't like these positions."
Cai Ci was still worried. Firstly, there were not as many responders as they imagined, and many counties still needed to be captured by force. Secondly, the Qin government was far from "collapsed". It had been four months since Heifu's uprising, and Xiang Ji
It has been almost three months since the incident took place, but the "Chu State" has only occupied Jiujiang County and crossed the Huaihe River to seize several counties in Chen County. Among the forces, there is already some debate about where to develop in the future...
Just when I was thinking about it, a descendant of the Xiang family came to report: "Ya Fu, Ling Yin, and the young general have returned from Shangcai. They are invited to discuss it. People from Chen County happened to come to submit their orders, and they received another letter from Huaiyang.
The letter comes from a man who claims to be Zhang Er or Chen Yu. Hearing that the Major General raised the flag of rebellion to restore Chu, he sent a special envoy to make an appointment. He is willing to cooperate with the outside to seize Huaiyang and Chen County!"
…
"Huaiyang was the capital of the ancient Paoxi family, and was called the ruins of Dahao. In the early Zhou Dynasty, Empress Shun was granted the title of Guiman here, and became the state of Chen. Chu destroyed Chen and made it a large county. Several decades ago, King Xiang Xiang came from Jiangling.
I moved here and thought I was the capital of Chu..."
"Huaiyang is on the verge of a chasm. It is the key point between north and south, controlling Cai, the suburbs of Ying, Wanliang, and the road of Song Dynasty. With fertile fields and flowing water, it is actually the gateway between Chu and the Central Plains!"
The new arrival, Long Qie, was quite knowledgeable. He sat down for a while and in a few words, he explained the importance of Huaiyang one by one.
He looked at Xiang Ji: "As for Zhang Er and Chen Yu, I have heard their names before. They are both from Daliang in Wei State. Zhang Er is from Waihuang Ling. After Lord Xinling, he is the most famous hero in Liang.
Chen Yu is more famous in Zhao land, and the two of them are close friends."
"When Qin destroyed Wei, Zhang Er resisted to the death. A few years after Qin destroyed Wei, he heard about these two famous people in Wei. He bought Zhang Er's thousand gold and asked for Zhang Er's remaining five hundred gold... Unexpectedly, the two of them were actually...
Hidden in Huaiyang City."
In the past ten years, the survivors of the Six Kingdoms have really racked their brains to avoid being hunted down by the Qin government. Some like Xiang Ji fell into the trap of bandits, some like Zhang Liang fled overseas, and some like Zhang Er and Chen Yu hid themselves in hiding.
There were not many people in the city, which proved the courage and insight of the two of them. They wrote a letter saying that they wanted to dedicate the city, which seemed to be somewhat sincere and sure.
Xiang Ji is a little interested in Huaiyang. It was the place where Lord Changping fought during the first war. Three thousand people in the city raised their arms and defeated the Qin army. If he could capture it, it would definitely shock the world!
So he said: "My father, Yu Fanjun, Chen Sheng and others who have recently defected from Chen County have also asked me to give them an army to take Huaiyang from the north and capture the Chen area, so that they can go north to the Central Plains!"
Unexpectedly, Fan Zeng disagreed: "What are you going to do when you go north to the Central Plains? To be attacked head-on by the main force of the Qin army?"
Yingbu, who was watching, said matter-of-factly: "When I go to the Central Plains, I naturally want to kill the violent Qin..."
Fan Zeng glared at him: "The restored Chu State is no larger than a county in Jiujiang and has less than 20,000 soldiers. Even if it goes north, how can it fight against Qin's hundreds of thousands of troops?"
He laughed and said: "Fortunately, Heifu is the leader, and he keeps saying that he wants to conquer Jingnan in the north, which attracts the attention of the Qin court. Now all the arrangements and troop deployments in Xianyang are to eliminate the big problem of Heifu. The army We gathered in Nanyang to confront the Nanjun side and did not care about the 'group of thieves' like us."
"If the Chu army goes to Huaiyang at this moment, it will undoubtedly remind Qin Ting to let other people divide their forces to attack, but it will share the pressure on Heifu. Major General Long Mo Ao, the Chu country can do such a thing that harms itself and benefits others. What's the matter?"
Cai Ci echoed: "In the past, when King Wu Fu Chai's country was not stable, he hurriedly went north to fight for hegemony. As a result, the whole country fell. How can we follow suit? Zuo Tu is right. Only by first gaining power and regaining the old land of Chu can the violent Qin be destroyed. ."
Fan Zeng nodded: "Huaiyang is important, but at this moment, Chu State must not capture it! For the current plan, we must capture the land of Dong Chu as soon as possible!"
The so-called Dongchu refers to Donghai County and Kuaiji County in Jiangdong, so there are three places in Zhang County.
Fan Zeng talked eloquently: "Donghai County blocks the Huaihe River from the sea, connects Qiju to the north, and Wuhui to the south. In the Spring and Autumn Period, Fu Chai wanted to connect to China and went out of Jianghuai, so he engaged in this. There were tens of thousands of households in Donghai County, no less than Jiujiang, coupled with abundant grain, fertile fields with capital for colonization, and Ark's canal transport, can alleviate the shortage of Chu State."
"And Jiangdong is the place where Chunshen Lord Huang Xie has been operating for a long time. The people of Jiangdong are strong and brave. If they can help, Chu's military strength will be doubled! After the major general has captured these two places, he will send a general to the north to capture Surabaya. After the county is connected to Qi and Lu, the power of the Chu State has been established. It is not too late to sit back and watch the two tigers of Qin Ting and Hei Fu fight to take advantage of it!"
Xiang also lost no time in making suggestions: "Young General, Donghai County is also our hometown. When I came here, I heard that Uncle Xiang Xiangzu and Uncle Xiang Sheng were leading the old troops of Xiang's descendants to fight fiercely with the Qin army. Why not Strike it!"
"That's it."
Xiang Ji stood up and after some deliberations, the future strategic direction of the restored Chu State was finalized.
"Your Majesty, Yafu, and Zhongli Mei stayed in Shouchun to train the 10,000 newly recruited soldiers."
"Long Qie and I led an army of seven thousand to Donghai County and crossed the Huaihe River to support the Prime Minister!"
"Yingbu, take three thousand people, cross the river on rafts, and capture Jiangdong!"
…
Time flew by so fast that in late June, Cai Ci and Fan Zeng, who stayed behind in Shouchun, received the good news from Xiang Ji:
He led his army to march eastward for only ten days, because under the banner of Chu and Xiang Yan, Xiang Yu had already conquered Yi (Jiangsu? Yi), and the young heroes from Dongyang County responded (Jiangsu Tianchang), and they successfully crossed the Huaihe River. Engaged with the Prime Minister's rebels.
Xiang Ji also learned that Xiang Juan and the Korean aristocrat Zhang Liang had made trouble in Xiapi and had seized the area.
The rest of the army gathered thousands of people to punish the Qin officials for their rebellion. There are countless people. The situation in Donghai County is excellent!
But there is also bad news, coming from Surabaya County.
Qin Jia from Ling County, Dong Xiao from Zhi County, Zhu Jishi from Fuli County, Zheng Bu from Qilu County, Ding Ji from Xu County, etc., before and after Xiang Ji raised his army, also started revolts one after another, each occupied the county in his hometown, and then joined forces to form an army. They attacked Pengcheng with 5,000 or 6,000 men. I don’t know whether they had not received the news of the "restoration of Chu" or had other plans. They openly supported Jing Ju, an old noble of Chu, and called him the King of Chu!
At this time, two kings of Chu appeared in the Chu land...
"not good!"
Fan Zeng secretly said something was wrong. Xiang Ji was furious in the letter and wanted to lead people to attack Qin Jia and Jing Ju in Pengcheng.
But what's going to make matters worse is yet to come.
A few days later, Yingbu, who had captured Guangling County (Yangzhou, Jiangsu), sent Xiang Ta to report: "There is a boat division crossing the river! Chu soldiers cannot cross!"
"Captain? Where did the boat master come from from Jiangdong?" Cai Ci was stunned, but Fan Zeng understood. He calculated the distance and time with his fingers and sighed:
"It's really fast, but we are still one step behind him..."
Sure enough, Xiang Ta said: "Those buildings and ships are under the banner of the Northern Expeditionary Army!"