Vol 2 Chapter 2526: Five-nation game? No, it's the Seven Kingdoms

Chapter 2526 Five-Nation Game? No, it's the Seven Kingdoms

Chapter 2526 Five-Nation Game? No, it's the Seven Kingdoms

 Today is different from the past. Due to the popularity of homing pigeons, information transmission is much more convenient, and allied countries basically have embassies.

Just as the State of Shu had an ambassador to Chu, the State of Qin also had ambassadors to Wei, Song, and Wu in its embassies in the three states of Wei, Song, and Wu, and the ambassador to Wu was Xiang Tiao, the son of Xiang Lang.

Although Xiang Lang's presence in Da Qin was not high, because he had followed Ying Hao early, he had always been loyal, diligent, and had good political achievements, so he was named one of the 108 uncles after the founding of the People's Republic of China.

 Xiang Lang was originally from a Jingzhou family. Now he holds a post in Jingzhou, assisting the governor Zhang Jiuling in governing Jingzhou. His status is second only to Zhang Jiuling and Xue Rengui, and on the same level as Biejia Guan Zhong.

Although Xiang Lang was on the same level as Guan Zhong in terms of official position, his title was higher than that of Guan Zhong.

 Xiang Langna was an earl, while Guan Zhong was a viscount, not among the 108 founding uncles of the country.

As the son of Xiang Lang, since Xiang Tiao can be sent out to serve as the ambassador of a country, it is enough to prove that he has real talent and learning.

After receiving the letter from Guan Zhong, Xiang Tiao immediately asked to see Sun Jian, the king of Wu, and followed Guan Zhong's instructions to lobby the king of Wu.

After learning that the 50,000 Qin troops from Sizhou had set off and that Wei had agreed to send troops to aid Qin, Sun Jian basically decided to send troops to Jiangxia.

Wu and Chu are fighting to the death. If we send troops at this time, we can not only benefit from Da Qin, but also seize Jiangxia County and weaken Chu.

 If you do one thing and get three benefits, what reason does Wu have for not sending troops?

Although Sun Jian was eager to send troops to attack Chu immediately, he couldn't show it too obviously.

After dismissing Xiang Tiao, Sun Jian summoned Sun Ce, Sun Quan, Sun Jing, Wu Jing, Sun Wu, Sun Bin, Zhang Zhao, Lu Su, Bu Zhi, Pang Juan, Tian Ji and others overnight to discuss whether to send troops and the specific matters.

 The senior officials of Soochow naturally supported sending troops.

In the past two years, Soochow Wu has followed the pace of the Qin Dynasty, disarmed internally and developed internal affairs, and attacked the Japanese countries across the sea.

In addition, Sun Jian also listened to Sun Bin's suggestion and relocated Han, Shanyue, and Japanese people to develop the newly established Yizhou County and alleviate domestic land conflicts.

With all kinds of big moves, the national power of Wu State can be said to be rising slowly.

According to the current development speed of Soochow, Chu State, which is trapped in the land of Jingjiao, is definitely far behind. If things go on like this, the gap between the two countries will definitely widen.

 Hence, the whole country of Wu was confident in defeating Chu and unifying the south of the Yangtze River.

What the top leaders of Wu State did not expect was that when Wu State was striving to develop, Chu State also did not stand still and found a way to quickly increase its national power.

 While Chu State was developing internal affairs internally, it also sent out troops to plunder the Annan region.

Chu State had no intention of occupying Annan at all. It only used the resources and population of barbarian forces to develop its internal affairs as funds for the development of its own internal affairs. However, the development speed was no slower than Soochow.

 So far, except for Ruan and Yue, all the small forces in Annan have been wiped out by Chu.

The two countries Ruan and Yue have also formed an alliance to jointly resist Chu's aggression.

Chu State doesn't care at all about the alliance between the two countries. After all, no matter how much the ants jump around, they can't defeat the giant, so they have no intention of increasing their troops, and the focus of development is still domestic.

The Chu State's contempt also relieved the Ruan and Yue countries. They both actively sent envoys to ask for help from the Qin Dynasty, exchanging resources and wealth for the Qin Dynasty's sophisticated equipment to increase the combat effectiveness of their armies.

 Soochow obtained resources to develop its own country by sucking blood from the Japanese state, while Chu State sucked blood from Annan.

 The two countries have developed in the same way and at about the same speed. Naturally, the gap in national strength is not that big.

 If things continue like this, the two countries will fall into a stalemate again.

The state of Wu was eager to break this balance, so in addition to sucking blood from the Japanese state, the state of Wu also wanted to draw blood from other channels, so it naturally focused on the Nanyang region, but it was not Annan, but Siam.

Under the threat of the Chu State, the Ruan and Yue countries in Annan, who were frightened by the attack, had already surrendered to the Qin Dynasty and became vassal states of the Qin Dynasty.

Qin and Wu are allies. It is difficult for Wu to deal with Qin's tributary countries clearly, so it can only shift its target to the Siam region further away.

In addition, Wu State also made contact with Ruan and Yue, and under the guise of helping the two countries fight against Chu, they did business with the two countries and seized part of Qin's arms market in Annan.

Now the state of Wu has done everything possible to weaken the state of Chu. Now that Qin and Chu are at war, the state of Wu has an opportunity to make a profit, and naturally it is impossible to let it go.

Sun Jian was completely relieved after receiving the support of his ministers. He immediately decided to appoint Sun Ce as the chief general and Sun Wu as the deputy general, and command an army of 80,000 to conquer Jiangxia.

Sun Jian made Sun Ce the commander-in-chief, which naturally paved the way for Sun Ce.

As he grew older, Sun Jian increasingly felt that he lacked energy and was no longer able to deal with the heavy government affairs and deal with the increasingly complex situation.

Coupled with the fact that this year he suffered a serious illness due to the recurrence of an old injury and almost died, this also gave Sun Jian the idea of ​​​​letting his eldest son Sun Ce succeed to the throne while he abdicated early to recuperate.

He knew that his second son, Sun Quan, was unconvinced by his eldest brother Sun Ce and had always been dishonest. He was secretly developing his own small group in an attempt to replace his eldest brother Sun Ce as the crown prince of Wu.

Sun Jian did not want his two sons to kill each other, so he beat Sun Quan and made it clear that Sun Quan was not allowed to compete with his eldest brother for the throne, but the effect was obviously not good.

Sun Quan agreed on the surface and showed that he had never coveted the throne, but secretly he still went his own way.

Sun Jian became increasingly disappointed with Sun Quan, but he had nothing to do. After all, although Sun Quan was ambitious, he really had not done anything, so he could only remind his eldest son indirectly. Sun Ce thought that his father was telling him that he should treat his brothers well even if his father was gone, so he agreed on the surface, but in his heart he still did not regard Sun Quan as a threat.

Sun Jian’s decision to appoint Sun Ce as the general this time is paving the way for Sun Ce. If he can win, no matter how hard Sun Quan tries, he will not be able to shake Sun Ce’s position.

After finalizing the candidate for the commander-in-chief and the number of troops to send, Sun Jian told Sun Ce not to go to war with Chu yet, but to station at the border between the two countries, in order to mislead the Chu army and Wu to come only for containment.

 When Wei's reinforcements arrive in Jingzhou and the Qin and Wei armies officially fight with the Chu army, Wu will have greater confidence in starting a war with Chu.

Sun Jian wanted to be a fisherman, but he didn't know that when he agreed to send troops, he had already been taken advantage of by Guan Zhong.

The King of Wei, Cao Cao, originally did not want to send troops. He did not care about the conditions promised by Da Qin for sending troops. He even wanted Chu to occupy Jingzhou to weaken Da Qin's strength. After all, being a neighbor to Da Qin was too painful.

However, Wei was greatly influenced by Da Qin. In recent years, due to the increase in national power, its reliance on Da Qin has gradually decreased, but it still has not been able to completely get rid of Da Qin's control. In addition, it is nominally an ally of Da Qin, so There was simply no way to refuse Da Qin's request.

If the State of Wu does not send troops, then the State of Wei will have an excuse not to send troops, so Cao Cao prepares to secretly contact Sun Jian and agree that neither country will send troops.

What Cao Cao didn't expect was that before his message was sent out, he received news that the Wu State had sent troops. Although the war had not yet completely started, this also gave the Wei State no reason not to send troops.

Cao Cao had no choice but to send troops. He appointed his clan brother Cao Bin as the chief general and the newly recruited general Zhang Guifang as his deputy general. He led an army of 30,000 from Yingchuan and went to Jingbei to support the Qin Dynasty.

Before the army set off, Cao Cao told Cao Bin that sending troops this time was only out of necessity, so he would not fight if he could, but the benefits of this battle must not be missed.

To put it bluntly, I don’t want to contribute but I still want benefits. But in fact, as long as 30,000 Wei troops enter Jingbei, it will be the biggest benefit to the Qin army.

Nanyang County and Yingchuan County bordered, and Da Qin took the initiative to open the pass to the Wei army, so Cao Bin's 30,000 Wei army quickly entered Nanyang County, and then went south to Zhangling County.

Jingzhou's senior officials, led by Xue Rengui and Guan Zhong, knew very well that the Wei army was only prepared to wave the flag and shout, and did not want to go to war with the Chu army. They did not expect the Wei army to contribute much, as long as they could help Da Qin contain the Chu army.

Xue Rengui ordered Huang Feihu to lead an army of 5,000. After joining Cao Bin's army of 30,000, the army of 35,000 was stationed in Zhangling to contain the Chu army in the Jiangxia direction.

 Subsequently, Xue Rengui asked the governor Zhang Jiuling to lead 10,000 troops to defend Xiangyang, while he and Guan Zhong each ordered 15,000 troops to garrison Yicheng and Enguocheng respectively to face Deng Yu's 550,000 Chu troops head-on.

That's right, Xue Rengui not only did not wait for help, but chose to take the initiative, because he knew that if he chose to defend, even if he could defend Xiangyang City, the southern cities would probably fall.

Without the help of Wei and Wu, Xue Rengui might have abandoned several counties to concentrate his efforts on ensuring the safety of Xiangyang.

But since both Wei and Wu have sent troops, Xue Rengui can naturally be bolder and take the initiative to confront Deng Yu.

After King Liu Xiu of Chu learned that Wei and Wu had sent troops to help Qin, he was so angry that he smashed three Qin-made glass bottles.

 That's right, even now, various countries have still not been able to crack Da Qin's glass-making technology.

As for the reason, in addition to Daqin's too strict protection of technology, there is also the fact that Daqin has not popularized glass technology. The number of workers who master this technology is not too many, which naturally greatly reduces the possibility of technology leakage. .

“My lord, both Wei and Wu have sent troops. I’m afraid it will be difficult to succeed in attacking Qin this time.” Pang Tong said solemnly.

"I thought that Xue Li would recall Han Xin to temporarily expand the army, or transfer troops from Sizhou, but I did not expect that Xue Rengui would borrow power from Wei and Wu."

At this point, Liu Xiu's face was full of resentment and he cursed angrily: "Are Sun Jian and Cao Cao fools? I don't know that Da Qin is getting stronger and stronger. Once it is ready to unify, sooner or later they will also be the same." Did you clean it up together?"

Sun Jian and Cao Cao naturally knew this, but under Guan Zhong's actions, they had no hope of Chu winning this battle.

Since the Chu State is destined to be defeated, it is better to let Wei and Wu take the opportunity to gain some benefits and strengthen themselves. It is better than not being able to fight back when the Qin army attacks in the future.

Chu State is now in a very embarrassing situation. Wei State has sent troops to help Qin, and Wu State is watching covetously. If Chu State continues to attack Qin, the outcome is unpredictable, and there is even a risk of being attacked by Wu State.

Liu Xiu was also a little worried. After some thought, he decided to temporarily recruit 50,000 people just in case.

 He did not dare to recruit more people. After all, recuperating and strengthening national strength was the mainstream now.

If it is a large-scale military expansion, it will definitely trigger a chain reaction and stimulate all countries to expand their military. Once it reaches the extreme level of military expansion, this will not be a good thing for all countries.

After all, the total population of the Qin Dynasty is 38 million. If the army is expanded to the extreme, the six kingdoms of Shu, Chu, Wei, Wu, Sui, Song, and Ming combined will still be unable to match the military strength of the Qin Dynasty.

Therefore, the wisest approach is to adhere to the strategy of elite troops and use excess troops to develop national strength.

Liu Xiu was not willing to withdraw his troops like this. He ordered Deng Yu's troops to continue marching, but Wei Zhang's troops stopped their march and confronted Huang Feihu and Cao Bin's troops. After all, starting a war with Wei would only benefit Qin.

As for Sun Ce, who was eyeing Jiangxia, Liu Xiu sent envoys to Wu to explain his interests to him, hoping to persuade the Wu army to retreat. At the same time, he sent an additional 50,000 troops to Jiangxia from Jingnan and went to Jiangxia himself to take charge.

In order to support Liu Xiu and fight against the Qin Dynasty, Liu Yu really tried his best. Not only did he expand his army before the battle, breaking the rest strategy that the Chu army had insisted on for two years, but he also went to the front line to guard Jiangxia.

The first Yangpingguan battle between Qin and Shu really affected the whole world. In addition to Qin and Shu, the three kingdoms of Chu, Wei and Wu were also involved. The five kingdoms were in endless chaos due to the war in Hanzhong.

But it was actually more than that. The Sui and Song Dynasties were also involved later. This war actually involved seven countries, and only the Ming Dynasty was excluded.

 (End of this chapter)