Volume 4 is in the ascendant Chapter 490 Waterway
Qin Mi felt the difficulty of this mission from Zhao Yun, a "mere warrior"...
It’s not that Zhao Yun is so eloquent, but... the State of Chu doesn’t play by the rules at all!
To persuade the advantageous side to stop attacking, one has to start from two aspects: one is morality, the other is strength. That is to emphasize that one's side is not as weak as imagined, analyze the situation for the other side, and make the other side feel that it is "not worth it."
Moral persuasion also includes two aspects. One is to make the other party worry that an unjust war will affect the people's support and the opinions of celebrities. The other is to target the generals and leaders themselves and stimulate the other party's sense of shame.
However, the Chu army was now insisting that it was Yizhou that wanted to "destroy Chu". No matter what Qin Mi said, the other side was not embarrassed at all - and there was no need to be embarrassed. Anyway, the people of Chu believed in the theory of self-defense and counterattack, and the Chu army also firmly believed that they were saving the people from danger...
Even the most intelligent senior generals and counselors knew in their hearts that the State of Chu was lying about the reasons for the war, but they all believed in their hearts that the people's lives would be better.
The people's hearts and minds can be as stable as possible, and it is impossible to expect them to have a sense of moral guilt - you can't expect them to sympathize with Liu Zhang, right?
As for the opinions of the world's famous scholars on the State of Chu...
The Ministry of Rites of Chu State has now become a dominant force. The fighting power of a group of "Chu students" is definitely not lower than that of any Confucian scholars. The King of Chu himself has many righteous deeds and heroic deeds to protect him. There are also famous people who slander Chu State, but... they just attack each other and cannot form any decisive anti-Chu wave.
If it is said that it affects the influx of talents, that is even more nonsense - when it comes to talents, is there any country that can attract more talents than the State of Chu?
As long as everyone from the common people to the officials and generals believed that they were extremely correct, the State of Chu did not need "morality" at all. It was quite in line with what Lao Tzu said, "The great sound is silent, the great way is invisible."
Therefore, Qin Mi could only persuade the other party by making them think it was "not worthwhile"...
However, this also has a fatal problem!
That is, no matter what the Chu generals thought in their hearts, they always verbally claimed that Yizhou was very powerful and intended to destroy Chu, so they took the initiative.
In this case, how can Qin Mi prove the strength of Yizhou?
When it comes to bragging about Yizhou and Liu Zhang, Qin Mi has to say "admirable". It is really not easy to brag about Yizhou to make it stronger!
Can't we just try to prove to the other side how cowardly the Marquis of Shu is and how weak Yizhou is, so as to make the State of Chu give up?
Otherwise, not to mention how aggrieved she would be, Qin Mi also understood that she already knew everything in her heart and was just pretending to be confused...
If Liu Zhang really had the courage to fight to the death, Qin Mi could still be tougher, but now... he could only use Liu Zhang's conditions to temporarily appease Zhao Yun and order him not to continue fighting with Yizhou while he was in Nanjing.
As for whether a complete ceasefire can be achieved, it depends on the outcome of Qin Mi's trip to Nanjing.
Zhao Yun did not buy it, and only said that he had the military and political command of Badong, and no one could make him stop his troops unless there was an order from Nanjing.
Of course, Zhao Yun had actually prepared to temporarily stop and wait for Jinling's order, while observing whether there was an opportunity. Otherwise, he would just spend this year's harvest season and winter in peace, and take this opportunity to completely pacify the Badong area...
But no matter what Zhao Yun planned, there was no need to make any promises to Qin Mi.
However, Zhao Yun did not stop Qin Mi's request to go to Jinling, but instead sent someone to escort her!
Qin Mi also understood that the key to the matter was the outcome of the trip to Jinling, and the key to the trip to Jinling was precisely what he saw and heard along the way.
Qin Mi had some understanding of how difficult it was to transport grain upstream from Jingzhou to Ba County, but he did not have a direct understanding of it.
This time when Qin Mi entered Chu from Yizhou, he wanted to observe these things accurately. This was a more reliable bargaining chip than the conditions of Liu Zhang, the coward!
The State of Chu is much stronger than Yizhou Prefecture. The only way to "threaten" the State of Chu is to make the other party hesitate. Is it really worth it to put on such a huge logistical pressure for Yizhou?
It was not easy for the 1st Division of Wancheng and the 1st Division of Xinye to travel from Zigui to Kuimen. However, it was very easy to go to Jingzhou from Kuimen.
Li Bai has a poem that says, "I left Baidi in the morning amidst the colorful clouds, and returned to Jiangling a thousand miles away in one day"...
Of course, Li Bai's poems have always been famous for their exaggeration and rhetoric, but this alone does not seem to be enough to prove it. However, Li Daoyuan of the Northern Wei Dynasty also wrote in "Notes on the Classic of Waterways" that "depart from Baidi in the morning and arrive in Jiangling in the evening." This is highly credible, but the premise is "sometimes," that is, when the water flow is moderate.
But no matter what, if the goal is to hurry, as long as you don't get too lazy or encounter bad weather, it won't take more than three days to get to Jiangling from Kuimen, also known as Qutang Pass...
However, if the situation is the other way around, it will not be a matter of three to five days.
"Record of Entering Sichuan" by Lu You of the Southern Song Dynasty recorded his experience of entering Sichuan from Kuaiji. It clearly wrote that on the Double Ninth Festival on September 9, Lu You arrived in Shishou County near Jiangling. However, it was not until October 26 that Lu You arrived in Kuizhou, which is now the area of Kuimen.
And most importantly, Lu You's boat was a small, light boat that could "sail against the current" - that is, it could sail with the help of the boatman and trackers!
If we switch to cargo ships with large load capacity, the difficulty will increase dramatically. In fact, for many sections of the river, we can only use the mountain roads on both sides.
Because it was already August and the flood season was gradually over, Qin Mi traveled in a simple boat. He saw many Chu transport teams on both sides of the river and even passed by Chu transport ships several times.
It was precisely because of what she saw that Qin Mi felt even more uncertain...
Judging from its size , the land transport team had obviously mobilized a large number of civilians, but they were still full of energy. They shouted slogans and sang Chu songs, and there was no atmosphere of decadence or resentment at all.
Let’s not talk about this for now. After all, although morale is high, the efficiency is ultimately limited.
But the transport ship...
What the hell is this transport ship that has no "boatman" and no sails but can sail on the water by itself?
When Qin Mi saw it for the first time, because it was night, he even felt a chill on his back... Fortunately, the Chu army escorting him on the boat greeted the other side when they met - at least this proved that he was not the only one who saw it, and it didn't seem like they were here to take him away!
Later, Qin Mi mustered up his courage and observed it several times, and finally discovered some mysteries - it seemed that this kind of boat without sails or oars had wheels covered with wooden boards at the stern and on both sides, and it was the rotation of these wheels that drove the boat forward...
Qin Mi finally breathed a sigh of relief!
Although it looks magical, at least the principle is understandable. It's not some weird stuff. Moreover... no matter if there are no oars on the outside, the wheels inside the boat need to turn, doesn't it rely on human or animal power?
Indeed, this type of ship seems to greatly improve the efficiency of upstream travel, but the cost is definitely not small!
This is indeed the case. The only thing sailing on the river right now is the biologically powered Chu ship...
