As expected, things went as Shen Bing expected. The next day, Shen Bing got news from Yang Duanhe, saying that the king had sent someone to envoy Anling.
As a result, Shen Bing was relieved and thought to himself that it was a good thing that Ying Zheng was not crazy enough to order the troops to send troops at all costs, otherwise he would not know how he died this time.
Shen Bing's side is not going well, and Xiang Yan's side is not much better either.
Xiang Yan sent a letter to Shouchun asking for an additional 50,000 troops, but no troops were sent for a long time.
Xiang Yan repeatedly sent people to urge him, but they just disappeared into the sea.
In addition, the grain, grass and arrows that were supposed to be sent from Shouchun were also coming in waves, so Xiang Yan had to go to Qi State to ask for grain.
Xiang Yan sighed, secretly thinking that she was still an outsider to Chu State after all.
In terms of origin, the Xiang family is indeed an outsider.
A hundred years ago, the Xiang family was originally a small country next to Mishui (Yanhe River in northern Shaanxi), named Xiang State.
The king of this country is a man who knows how to calculate. He believes that if his small country participates in the killings of other countries in the Central Plains, it will easily be destroyed without leaving any trace.
So he made up his mind to only defend his own one-third of an acre of land and not go to war.
As a result, when the Qi State called on all the countries in the Central Plains to jointly resist the foreign invasion under the banner of "respecting the king and rejecting the barbarians" for the overlord, Xiang State still did not participate.
It’s fine if you don’t participate in ordinary battles. In the Spring and Autumn Period, we still talked about “benevolence, righteousness, and morality,” and it was just that you were aloof from the world, so it was understandable.
But it is too much to not participate in the joint fight against foreign invasion.
So the secret alliance of Qi State made a decision to destroy this country.
It was easy to destroy Xiang. Duke Xi of Lu did it with tens of thousands of soldiers in the name of hunting.
Afterwards, all the captured Xiang clan were exiled to the wild lands east of the Yangtze River to live a life of fishing and hunting.
Only then did Xiang realize a truth: if you are not strong, no matter whether you wait and see or get involved in disputes, you will ultimately be just a foil to the strong.
From this time on, the practice of martial arts flourished in the Xiang clan, and the noble children became familiar with the art of war from an early age.
Then the State of Yue destroyed the State of Wu, and the State of Chu destroyed the State of Yue.
In order to control Baiyue in the east of the Yangtze River, Chu State recruited the martial Xiang clan to surrender. The condition was that the Xiang clan could retain their own fiefdom and build a city in Xiaxiang, a hundred miles northeast of Shouchun.
This is equivalent to naming the Xiang family as the fourth clan outside the three major clans of Chu State: Zhao, Qu and Jing.
But this is actually the fourth largest clan in name only.
There are three major Chu clans: the Zhao clan is in charge of state affairs, the Qu clan is in charge of military and political affairs of the royal family, and the Jing clan is in charge of customs defense and national military affairs.
The Xiang family... only summoned the enemy when there was an attack, and left them alone if there was no war.
So it's no wonder that Xiang Yan would think that the Chu State had always treated the Xiang people as outsiders.
After thinking for a while, Xiang Yan ordered:
"Send someone to ask for reinforcements."
The general responded and turned around to make arrangements.
After the generals went down, Xiang Yan called his third son, Xiang Bo, in front of him, and then explained this to him.
In fact, the king of Chu had his own difficulties in not sending troops.
If we talk about the number of soldiers, the Chu State has more than 300,000 soldiers. The entire Chu State has nearly 700,000 soldiers.
The soldiers of Chu State are generally divided into two parts:
One is the defenders scattered in various fortresses.
There are nearly 200 cities in the Chu State, and there are about 50 large fortified cities, with about 300,000 garrison troops.
The supply of these soldiers has always been half provided by the country and half by the cities and fiefs.
However, the fief often secretly gave benefits to the city defense officers. Over time, the city defense officers almost became the private soldiers of the fief, and it was difficult for the country and even the King of Chu to mobilize them.
The second is the army directly under the Chu King's command, totaling about 400,000.
This is the main force that Xiang Yan can use.
However, the beam used by Xiang Yan was flooded and damaged by 100,000 yuan, and now only 300,000 yuan was left.
Xiang Yan took one hundred thousand in Caozhou, his son Xiang Liang took one hundred thousand in Chencheng, and Shouchun only had one hundred thousand left.
At this time, Xiang Yan asked for another 50,000 yuan... Then Shouchun only had 50,000 yuan left?
So if the Qin army reaches Shouchun, who will defend the city?
So the King of Chu did not dare to send troops for a while, but hoped to mobilize soldiers, horses, food and grass from various fiefdoms and cities to collect 50,000 before sending troops to Xiang Yan.
The king of Chu gave the order, and the nobles responded with joy, then packed their luggage and rode out of the city.
This time, King Chu was very moved and secretly said:
"But the truth is true in times of crisis. With so many virtuous ministers and good generals helping me, why worry about the Qin army coming to attack?"
However, within a few days, the King of Chu couldn't cry anymore after carrying the cud... Those noble sons did not go back to move troops. They were worried about being held hostage in Shouchun and took this opportunity to escape.
Afterwards, the King of Chu ordered them to send out troops, but the answer they received was that they were either still preparing or that they had insufficient food and grass.
A few days passed and all the fiefs, without exception, sent out a single soldier.
The King of Chu originally wanted to send the Shouchun garrison to Xiang Yan first.
But at this time, he received a secret letter that made him stop this idea.
It turned out that someone from the Zhao family, the largest family in Chu State, came to report that the Xiang family was gathering private soldiers in the east of the Yangtze River and plotting to cause rebellion with the Yue tribe and establish themselves on their own.
The king of Chu did not believe it at first.
But then I thought about it:
"Yan repeatedly led troops to fight against Qin but failed. Is he worried that others will blame him?"
"Or maybe Xiang Yan has been frightened by the Qin army and knows that there is no hope of resisting Qin and wants to take this opportunity to stand on his own feet?"
This idea makes sense.
Because the Xiang family is located in the water network of Jiangdong and has many mountains and dense forests, and the Xiang family has been based in Baiyue here for many years, it is very likely that if they unite Baiyue to fight against the Qin Dynasty, they will be able to stay in a corner as before.
So the King of Chu hesitated again.
Just then someone came to report:
"Your Majesty, General Xiang Bo wants to see you."
King Chu was shocked, but he still managed to calm down and said, "See you."
Xiang Bo came into the palace in a hurry, bowed to the King of Chu, and then asked straight to the point:
"Your Majesty, I heard that someone reported that my Xiang family was plotting rebellion. Is this true or false?"
It turned out that Xiang Yan knew that Shouchun's delay in sending troops must have something to do with it, so he ordered Xiang Bo to go to Shouchun in person to find out.
Uncle Xiang was also impatient. After finding out the news, he immediately went to the palace to question the king of Chu.
The King of Chu was so frightened that he almost broke into a sweat. He calmed down before answering:
"Someone did tell the truth."
"But don't worry, general. If I am suspicious of the Xiang family, how can we not first remove the Xiang family's military power?"
The murderous intent in Xiang Bo's eyes was fleeting, and he raised his head and said:
"If the Xiang family plots rebellion, it will be an opportunity for the Qin army to go south! Why should we resist Qin and hurt ourselves?"
"But if someone is determined to force the Xiang family to rebel against Chu, then the Xiang family may not not rebel!"
"The Xiang family rebels against Chu. The first thing to do is to kill those who force me to rebel!"
"The country is in crisis, and the royal family does not care about the safety of the Chu State. Why should the Xiang family bother themselves for the Chu State?"
The threatening tone of these words was very obvious.
If this were normal times, King Chu would probably have to punish Xiang Bo or even punish Xiang Yan for treason.
But now... Xiang Yan has a lot of troops and has made his words clear:
Don't push me, Mr. Xiang. If you push me any further, it will be really counter-intuitive.
So the King of Chu could only answer:
"The general's words are serious. The army and food have been prepared, and the general can take them away."