Chapter 466 This is the autumn of sincerity and danger
On the third day of the Chu calendar year.
This year should be the most unstable year for the people of Jinling, and even the entire Chu State, in recent years!
Originally, the people of Chu State had lived a good life for several years due to the rapid increase in land production and productivity, taking advantage of the substantial increase in population density. Even the grassroots people in Jingzhou had eaten a lot in the past two years.
The gentry in Jingzhou were also slightly suppressed by the dividends from the development of Chu State.
In order to attract people's hearts and occupy the market, Yangzhou's emerging workshop gentry even gave a lot of benefits to the common people in Jingzhou...
However, just recently, bad news came!
The Marquis of Shu and the Marquis of Yong have joined forces to target Chu! There are even conspiracy theorists claiming that there is the shadow of the Han Dynasty court behind it...
Many people of the Chu State originally had strong confidence in the Chu State's court and the Chu State's army. At first, everyone did not pay much attention to this matter.
But at this time, many "experts" who often published situation analysis in Di newspapers began to put forward some speculations that made the people of Chu uneasy...
For example, some historians, from the perspective of pre-Qin wars and the absolute geographical advantage Qin had over the pre-Qin Chu State after occupying Bashu, have argued that once the Shu lords occupied Chu, they actually had great geographical advantages;
For example, there are experts in martial arts schools. From the perspective of Xichuan general Zhang Ren, who is suspected to be Tong Yuan's eldest disciple, and Zhang Xiu and Zhao Yun are both his junior disciples, they argue that Xichuan's fierce generals are actually 50-50 equal to those of Chu.
Slightly better;
For example, Gan, an anonymous businessman who travels between Yizhou and Jingzhou, actively argued that Yizhou has great advantages in trade with Chu from the perspective of Yizhou's trade blockade against Chu, and that Chu's commodity economy is stable.
, it may be difficult to protect oneself in the face of the attack from the Lord of Shu;
For example, Fa Mou, an anonymous official who entered Chu from Yizhou, analyzed from the perspective that Yizhou has been at peace for a long time. Yizhou's strength is not even inferior to that of Chu. The only thing weaker than Chu... is that the army and people of Chu are united and the people are united.
These humanistic strengths espoused;
For example... the official even hinted that the reason why more than ten generals who were guarding various places suddenly returned to Jinling this time was because of the Shuhou's intention to destroy Chu!
It doesn't matter if one or two people talk nonsense, but if a group of people talks nonsense, how can the people not believe it?
There were even some officials who wanted to refute the rumor angrily at first - what kind of nonsense was this?
However, it seemed that everyone had received some kind of warning, and they all stopped.
For a time, the Chu Kingdom was about to be hit by a storm, and the people even imagined that the King of Chu and the princes in the court were worried...
If it were other princes, whether it was the King of Wei or the Marquis of Qi, if this kind of argument appeared among the people, they would definitely be in panic all day long, their hearts would be unstable, and they would even want to change, and all aspects would be debuffed!
However, in the State of Chu, after the argument that "this is the time of crisis for our country's survival" emerged, whether it was the old place of Yangzhou or the new capital of Jingzhou, the enthusiasm of various places to respond to the conscription increased significantly...
There are even young men who have not returned to their hometown this year in order to support their families. They take the initiative to go to the official workshop where iron and steel are made, hoping to do volunteer work. It would also be good to make more steel for the Chu State.
As the center of Chu State, Jinling is the most sensitive to all aspects of reaction. After a month of fermentation, the people have obvious mood to fight!
What's more, they began to criticize the Ministry of Rites' attitude towards the Han Dynasty and demanded a complete break between the Chu State and the Han Dynasty.
In the end, the city guards had to arrest a group of radicals, but they were released within a few days...
The Han Dynasty has been in power for four hundred years, and the people are nostalgic for the past.
But...the best catalyst for nostalgia is "the present is not the same as it used to be", and vice versa!
If we had experienced decades of turmoil, when life was worse than that of a dog, the common people would surely miss their old dynasty, and temporarily block the exploitation of the powerful and ruthless officials of the Han Dynasty, and the emperor's injustice from their hearts.
However, when everyone's lives seemed to be improving and they were preparing to enter the prosperous age, someone jumped out to destroy Chu?
Old dynasty? What old dynasty? They are all enemies!
Although the State of Chu originally did not emphasize that it was a vassal state of the Han Dynasty, the people of the State of Chu actually recognized the Han Dynasty to a certain extent, so the State of Chu would never deny this openly, at most through opera and so on.
Means, subtle influence.
For example, I would like to tell you about "The Legend of Jianghou" to give you a glimpse of the ending of the Jianghou family. For example, I would like to tell you about "The Controversy between Chu and Han" to popularize Gaozu's classic operations. For example, I would like to tell you about "Farewell My Concubine" to wake up.
Xia Chudi’s remembrance of the King of Chu...
Different story telling angles can tell different stories.
The essence of Confucianism and the Spring and Autumn writing style are nothing more than this.
Of course, stories are stories, and the people will not have any sympathy for the princes and nobles for no reason. As long as the people get benefits, killing brothers and fathers is not a problem.
Basically, it was still under the rule of the Chu State. The continuous improvement of living standards and the continuous improvement of social status made ordinary people's recognition of "Han" less and less.
And this time it was an even more epic plunge...
Originally there were some intellectuals who commented on Chu's dramas and smeared the Han Dynasty too much, but from now on... they can only talk about it secretly.
As a farming civilization, people are not willing to fight. Fighting is not as enjoyable as farming.
Even before the Chu State, it had been working to improve the sense of honor of the army, that is, using modern thinking and "feelings" to maintain the cohesion of the army - for the first time, all grassroots generals were elevated to the category of "honor".
However, the people of Chu State are still not warlike. This is a common feature of farming civilization...
However, as a civilization that has engraved "Princes, Generals, and Ministers would rather have their own kind" in its bones, it does not want to be wary, but it does not mean that it will always be averse to war.
On the third day of the Chu calendar year, Bai Tu was routinely participating in the float parade in Jinling City during the day, and while he was having fun with the people, a riot broke out - countless people ignored the Chu State's promotion of chairs and had already advocated the abandonment of the kneeling ceremony.
With this set of tactics, they all fell in front of Bai Tu’s chariot and asked to fight against Yizhou!
At this time, in the understanding of ordinary people, if Hanzhong is destroyed, the next target of the princes of Shu is Chu...
The reason why the Chu State did not strike first was because the King of Chu was benevolent and kind, and because there were still people in the government and the public who favored the Han Dynasty.
If this continues, the princes of Shu will have a huge advantage when facing Chu and will show their fangs!
Therefore, countless people spontaneously asked the King of Chu for a battle, hoping that the King of Chu would hear everyone's voices and know that the people of Chu were not afraid of a battle...
Of course, it can actually be seen that the Han Dynasty still has some status in the hearts of the people, even if it is only a few straws away - at least at this moment, the general target of the war is still the "Shuhou".
Although some people are clamoring that once the Chu State and the Shu State go to war, the Han soldiers will definitely fight off Xuzhou. We should attack both sides first to regain the Chu State’s old capital during the dispute between Chu and Han... Bai Tu estimates that these
You should be a fan of the drama "The Conflict between Chu and Han".
But these are not considered universal consensus. The most unified argument among the people is that they must go to war with the princes of Shu. If they seek common ground while reserving differences, this is the most common will.
For the safety of King Chu, the guards originally wanted to disperse the surrounding people, but were stopped by King Chu...
Bai Tu bowed his head to the people ninety times in return, and made it clear that he was unwilling to use his sword lightly.
A few excited people took the lead in wailing, as if tomorrow the prince of Shu would lead Yizhou's elite soldiers and generals down the river with all their teeth and claws, to capture the king of Chu alive and punish the people of Chu...
Other people also cried and bowed again, Bai Tu returned the courtesy again, the people bowed again, Bai Tu returned the courtesy again...
Three times later, Bai Tu, under the request of the people to fight, pulled out his sword with tears in his eyes, cut off a corner of his own sword, and promised the people that since the King of Chu was "ordered by the people", he would never allow it.
Anyone destroys the peace of the people of Chu!
The people of Jinling then surrounded King Chu and continued their parade with cheers.
Even if the common people were like this, the Chu army in various places became even more excited. Fortunately, because military discipline had always been emphasized, this was just anger.
Of course, the more important reason is that the real high-level generals in the army were confused at first, but now... they finally came to their senses.
What are they talking about?
Is Yizhou going to give us a 50-50 lead?
There is an article that uses the population numbers of Yunnan horses and Shu horses in Yizhou to infer that there are 100,000 cavalry in Yizhou Prefecture?
All kinds of data are well organized, but there is no brain...
It was only now that senior generals from various places finally began to understand that the imperial court had allowed these rumors to go unchecked, and even promoted these rumors, and all of them tacitly followed suit!
Of course, their request for a fight was also sincere.
But it's not because of "anger", but another kind of excitement and urgency...
Although they all understood that since it was just a momentum building and the Privy Council did not take any action, thinking about it...the imperial court probably did not intend a big fight, but they all thought that without a big war, a small move would be better than suppressing the bandits.
Awesome, right?
What's more, even the bandits are almost gone now...
And what if the Lord of Shu is really as ferocious as the rumors say, takes the initiative to fight back, and eventually starts a full-scale war?
Well, let’s not talk about anything else. While blowing the Lord of Shu, I invite you to fight!
At the New Year's Eve banquet in the evening, more than a dozen high-ranking generals in Jinling also asked Bai Tu to fight. However, except for some who were mature and solemn, their expressions could hardly be controlled. Sun Ce tried not to laugh...
Their request for a fight was just their attitude. After Bai Tu appeased them a little, no one mentioned it. After all, due to their level, even Bai Tu wouldn't believe them if they insisted on pretending to "have full faith in me"!
Even if Yizhou can fight, it won't really fight a tough battle.
After all, the narrowest place in the Wu Gorge, Jianping, and Yiling areas is only Zhang Xu... No, it's only a few meters - pay attention to the official terminology.
In the Romance, Liu Bei took this road to attack Jingzhou, with an army of 700,000, and set up a company camp of 800 miles. In the official history, it was also 50,000, and the camp was spread out over 200 to 300 miles.
You can see how bad the terrain is!
Even in the Chengji World, there is still a stretch of several meters wide along the coast, which often stretches for dozens of miles or hundreds of miles. If there is a real battle, the cost of attacking one side will be too high.
The only break is that if the Yizhou side has strong backing, works hard, builds warships, and trains sailors, it will indeed have an absolute geographical advantage over Jingzhou, and the "experts" are not lying about this.
It's just that the current Yizhou Prefecture doesn't pay much attention to the navy. There are only a few warships. Even if they want to train, they don't have generals. They have no money. What's more... Liu Zhang doesn't want to train any sailors at all, and the sailors can't help him guard the sword pavilion.