Chapter 88 Qun Shu
What Shi Mai said made sense, at least Yun Chang quite agreed with it.
Judging from Qingji's attitude, he is determined to kill Wu Zixu at all costs to vent his hatred!
Wu was strong and Yue was weak. Yun Chang thought it was not worth it to gamble the fate of Yue just to save Wu Zixu.
After all, if Kuaiji City was destroyed and the Kingdom of Yue was destroyed, why would Yunchang still need such a great talent as Wu Zixu?
What is its use?
"Your Majesty, please think twice!"
Lu Ming sighed and said, "Qingji has threatened the king again and again, which is really too much. If the king indulges Qingji to do whatever he wants, I am afraid that Qingji will go too far and make more excessive demands!"
"this……"
Yun Chang became hesitant again for a moment and could not make a decision.
Grand Marshal Shi Maijin said, "Your Majesty, in my opinion, what's the harm in handing over one Wu Yuan?"
"The Wu army is approaching the border and is about to destroy Yue. If Your Majesty sacrifices tens of thousands of soldiers just for Wu Yuan, how can you be so unjust?"
After all, Shi Mai thought it was not worth it.
In addition to this reason, Shi Mai also has his own selfish motives!
Selfishness at work!
This is because Wu Zixu was a man of great talent, especially good at commanding the army and fighting wars. If such a person served Yue, how could Shi Mai, the Grand Marshal, not lose favor?
How could Shi Mai still have a place in the Vietnamese army?
For this reason, Shi Mai would never let Wu Zixu fulfill his wish to defect to the State of Yue and be reused by King Yunchang of Yue!
"Oh! Whatever!"
Yun Chang sighed, and finally nodded, saying: "I will tolerate Qingji once more. Pass on my decree to hand over the bodies of Wu Zixu and Ji Guang to the people of Wu together, without any mistake!"
"Your Majesty is wise!"
Shi Mai lowered his head, a smile of relief appearing on his face.
If they knew that Qingji was determined to attack Chu instead of Yue, and that the Wu army heading south had only 8,000 soldiers, I wonder if they would be so angry that they would vomit blood?
The Wu army that attacked Yue claimed to have 30,000 soldiers, but in fact there were only 8,000 soldiers and horses, with just some civilian men and able-bodied women mixed in, making it difficult .
It is worth mentioning that in this era, the number of soldiers and horses on both sides of the war was often identified by flags and fires , and there was no concept of false claims.
For example, during the Three Kingdoms period, an army of 230,000 people was claimed to be an army of 830,000, and an army of 30,000 people was claimed to be an army of 100,000. This did not exist!
After all, the saying that all is fair in war has not yet been deeply rooted in people's minds.
…
Just as the two countries of Wu and Yue were preparing to make peace, 20,000 Wu troops led by General Sun Ping advanced both by land and sea, using Zhenzi as a springboard to cross the Yangtze River.
Sun Ping originally planned to capture the impregnable Zhaoguan first, and then divide his troops to capture Shudi. However, Fan Li suggested that Sun Ping take the easy ones first and then the difficult ones, so as to avoid being unable to capture Zhaoguan for a long time, which would lead to a counterattack by the Chu army and failure at the last hurdle!
Sun Ping chose to adopt Fan Li's idea, so he led his army south and conquered the three riverside cities of Que, Yongpu and An of the Chu State.
The Wu army advanced at an extremely fast speed. In addition, the defenses of the cities on the eastern border of Chu were basically non-existent. Therefore, in less than two days, 30% of the cities along the river of Chu changed their flags and became cities !
Afterwards, the Wu army did not stay on the river bank for too long, but marched straight in with an unstoppable force, and successively captured the cities in Shu.
It is worth mentioning that the Shu land of the Chu State does not only refer to the city of Shucheng.
Shudi is a vast territory that includes nine cities: Shu, Shuliao, Shuyong, Shujiu, Shulong, Shuhong, Shubao, Zong and Chao. It covers an area of about 200 miles and has a large population.
These nine cities were originally countries with the surname Yan, also known as "Qunshu". They were all descendants of Gao Yao with the surname Yan!
However, like most of the vassal states in the south, they were either destroyed by the State of Chu and retained their ancestral temple sacrifices, or they voluntarily submitted to the State of Chu and became a vassal state of Chu.
The Shu countries were vassals of the Chu State. Their original kings became feudal lords of the Chu State and retained a great deal of autonomy.
Apart from paying tribute to the State of Chu on time, the Qunshu were actually not much different from ordinary vassal states!
Of course, once the State of Chu went to war or recruited troops internally, the Shu people had to respond and send a certain number of soldiers or food and fodder.
Therefore, Qunshu is equivalent to a country within a country in Chu.
During the more than 60 years of mutual conquests between the Wu and Chu states, the Wu army once invaded Shu and captured several cities, but they were always unable to hold out for long before being recaptured by the Chu people.
The method used by Sun Ping and Fan Li to deal with the Shu people was also very simple, that is, to rely on the powerful military force to intimidate the Shu people and to use courtesy before force.
The frightened Shu people naturally did not dare to resist the Wu army, so when the Wu army arrived, they all opened the city walls and surrendered, and took the initiative to offer wine and meat to reward the Wu army.
This actually saved Wu Jun a lot of trouble.
The only drawback was that the Shu people were unwilling to accept the defeat and did not allow the Wu army to be stationed in the city. This, to a certain extent, put the Wu army in greater danger of being attacked from all sides.
Because no one can guarantee whether the Qun Shu will counterattack the Wu army when the Chu army counterattacks.
Shucheng, the camp of Wu army.
Inside the central army tent, Grand Marshal Sun Ping was sitting opposite the military advisor Fan Li!
"Grand Marshal, the nine cities of Shu have basically changed their ways and joined our Wu Kingdom. However, in my opinion, the Shu people are not really sincere in their allegiance."
Fan Li shook his head and said, "The Grand Marshal ordered Qun Shu to provide troops and supplies, but so far, our army has only received 1,500 soldiers, most of whom are old and weak!"
"There are less than 3,000 cotton-padded clothes for winter, more than 600 bows, and barely 5,000 arrows! The rest of the rice and millet is only 2,000 dan."
"From this, it can be seen that Qun Shu is still trying to play both sides between Wu and Chu, and he is caught in two dilemmas!"
Hearing this, Sun Ping chuckled and said, "It's not surprising that the Qunshu are like this. The Qunshu were vassals of the Chu State and had surrendered and rebelled from time to time. If it weren't for the strong force of the Chu people, the Qunshu would have long since established themselves and left the Chu State."
"Many years ago, part of the Shu people were once under the rule of the Wu Kingdom. But it didn't last long!"
"If our Great Wu wants to completely conquer the Shu people and turn Shu land into Wu territory in the true sense, it will be a long and arduous task as people will want it."
Fan Li nodded slightly and said, "Grand Marshal, although that is true, we must be on guard against the Shu people. Your Majesty's intention is to take Shudi and Zhaoguan. Shudi is easy to take, but Zhaoguan is difficult to take!"
"I heard that the Chu army has been gathering in Qianyi and preparing to counterattack. If our army wants to defend Shudi, we must defeat the Chu army in Qianyi to intimidate the Shu people."
"With the current troops of the Wu army, we may not be able to defend against the Shu people and defeat the Chu army at the same time."
Upon hearing this, Sun Ping couldn't help but frown and said, "Shao Bo, do you want the king to send more troops?"
"It has to be this way."
