"Four hundred thousand?" Xiong Huai took a big breath of cold air, which was a lot more than the 300,000 Chu army he thought in his heart, so he looked at Zhao Ju hesitantly and said, "Sima, is the 400,000 army too much?" ”

"King, 400,000 troops are not only not much at all, but I'm afraid they are still a little small." Zhao Ju shook his head and explained:

"The place south of Huaishui has been notified by the Yue State for more than 200 years, even if there are still many Wu people who are not convinced, but the rule of the Yue State is also deep-rooted. The sudden occupation of Yue by our Chu State will inevitably cause dissatisfaction in all parts of Yue Country, and once there is interference by external forces, the Yue State will inevitably rebel en masse.

Just like the occupation of Yan by Qi a few years ago, when the countries decided to rescue Yan, the armies of various countries had not yet set off, and all parts of Yan had rebelled, containing many of Qi's troops. Therefore, even after we capture the Yue Kingdom, we need to leave heavy troops to suppress the Yue Kingdom.

At the beginning of the capture of Yue, the Chu army in the territory of Yue could not be less than 150,000. Within three years, it must not be less than 100,000, otherwise, the country will be repeated. ”

Saying that, Zhao Ju said very solemnly: "King, there is another very serious problem, that is, in the process of attacking the Yue Kingdom, it is necessary to first break the army of the Yue King and destroy the Qi Dynasty, and then comprehensively attack the Yue Kingdom. Otherwise, if we capture the Yue Kingdom, and the main force of the Yue army still exists, then the King of Yue will definitely take refuge in the Qi State, and then join forces with the Qi State to go south. In this way, even if there are 400,000 troops, it will be difficult to destroy the Chu State. ”

After Zhao Ju finished speaking, Jing Cui continued: "King, what Sima said is good, after leading the Yue army out of the Yue country, we must first break the main force of the Yue army, defeat the resistance of the Yue country, deter the whole country of Yue, make the people of the country panic, and quickly capture Wucheng, so that the country can be solved quickly."

Otherwise, the king of Yue led the main force outside, uniting with the Qi State on the one hand, and letting the cities inside the Yue State defend the city to the death, then this would be a disaster for my Chu State's plan to destroy Yue. ”

Xiong Huai nodded slowly, and said with a heavy face: "That is to say, after the Yue Kingdom sends troops to attack Qi, we will then have a decisive battle with the Yue Kingdom." ”

Saying that, Xiong Huai thought of another question and hurriedly asked, "Zhuguo, Sima, where is the location of the decisive battle?" If it is a sneak attack when the Yue State attacks the Qi State, once the Chu and Yue countries fight a decisive battle, then the Qi State that is close at hand will inevitably intervene, so it will be difficult for our Chu army to compete for complete success in one battle. And if there is a decisive battle in Huainan, then the Vietnamese army will be scattered to all parts of the country, which will undoubtedly increase the difficulty of our attack on the country. ”

Speaking of this, Xiong Huai was stunned, and asked himself: "In other words, the battlefield has been determined, and it can only be in Huaibei." ”

Jing Cui heard the answer from the King of Chu himself, so he nodded and said: "Great King, that's right, the battlefield can only be placed in Huaibei, and then use the water division to block Huaishui to prevent the Yue army from going south." ”

Saying that, Jing Cui arched his hand again: "King, in the decisive battle with the Yue Kingdom, it is best to completely annihilate the main force led by the King of Yue, which will greatly reduce the difficulty of attacking the Yue Kingdom." ”

Xiong Huai nodded when he heard this.

At this time, in the palace, Zhao Ju said again: "Great King, it is naturally a great good to be able to completely annihilate the army of the Yue King, but it is extremely difficult to completely annihilate it. If you want to annihilate the other party, you can only be effective if you are several times the enemy. However, this time, our strength in the decisive battle with the king of Yue cannot exceed 200,000. ”

Xiong Huai suddenly frowned when he heard this: "Sima, why is this?" ”

Zhao Ju replied: "King, the interface we lured the Vietnamese army to attack Qi in order to crusade against Qi and Chu, so these are two battlefields. Among them, the goals of Qin and Han are all Wei State, and if Zhao State can be persuaded to send troops, then Zhao State's goal is also Wei State. In this way, in order to let all countries rest assured to attack Wei, then our main direction of attack is Wei.

In this way, our forces attacking Qi cannot exceed those attacking Wei. Therefore, when we mobilize an army of 400,000 to attack the Yue State, with the strength of our Chu State, the army attacking the Wei State cannot exceed 200,000 at most. Otherwise, our Chu State will not have enough troops to deal with emergencies.

On the other hand, if there are too many troops in Vaqi, it will not only make other countries misunderstand, but at the same time, it will also make Yue Guo have a sense of defense. ”

After Zhao Ju finished speaking, Xiong Huai suddenly understood.

Now the deployment of troops in various battlefields has come out.

It's just that how to use 200,000 troops to annihilate the main force of the Yue Kingdom, Xiong Huai is not sure in his heart.

Take the last Qi-Chu battle as an envoy, the last time the Qi army was encircled and annihilated, under the condition of occupying favorable terrain, it used twice the number of troops, and still let the Qi army flee tens of thousands of people.

If the number of troops does not exceed 200,000, then the number of troops is basically about the same as that of the Vietnamese army.

In addition, the white rise that I don't know what age or where it is, it must be okay.

However, the current situation in Chu is probably not optimistic.

Thinking about it, Xiong Huai consulted the other generals: "I don't know what Zhu Qing thinks? ”

Jing Cui spoke first: "Great King, what Sima said is reasonable, but if we want to use 200,000 troops to annihilate the main force of the Yue Kingdom, then we must send these troops to all be composed of elites trained all year round. Otherwise, the minister was worried that it would be easy to defeat the Vietnamese army, and it would be impossible to annihilate the main force of the Vietnamese army. ”

Tang Yu continued: "The king, the minister seconded the proposal. ”

Xiong Huai saw that the three highest-ranking ministers in the Chu army all agreed, his heart was still a little heavy, and after pondering for a long time, he asked: "Since all the secretaries think that the main force of the Yue army should be annihilated with 200,000 Chu troops, then who is willing to take on this heavy responsibility and serve as the main general to defeat the king of Yue." ”

As soon as these words came out, the three people in the hall, Jing Cui, Zhao Ju, and Tang Yu did not immediately intervene.

The three of them stared at each other for a long time, and finally, Jing Cui's eyes were full of determination, and he replied word by word: "King, the minister is willing to go." ”

"Okay." Xiong Huai nodded, and asked Jingcui: "Zhuguo, the 200,000 army will fight a decisive battle with the Yue country, and defeating the Yue army is not what the widow wants, annihilating the main force of the Yue army, or even capturing the main force of the Yue army, this is what the widow wants." In order to achieve this purpose, the army from all over the Chu State can be called by the Qing at will, and the reserves in the treasury of the Chu State can also be called by the Qing at will, I don't know what the Zhu State wants? ”

Jing Cui nodded solemnly, thought for a while, and said: "There are only about 100,000 elite Chu troops stationed in Yingdu all year round, and the remaining elite Chu troops are distributed on the borders to guard against other countries. Therefore, in order to avoid a large-scale transfer of troops, I am afraid that it will arouse the vigilance of other countries, and all the 100,000 elite ministers in Yingdu must be taken away.

In addition, in order to guard against the Yue Kingdom, the 50,000 elites who have been stationed in Guangling Tuntian have all the ministers. Also, the 20,000 elites stationed in the cities of Huaibei to guard against the Qi State are all wanted. In the end, General Jing lacked the defenders on the front line of Fangcheng, and the minister wanted the most elite 30,000 soldiers among them. ”