Xiong Huai thought about it, then shook his head and said: "Xue Di is rich, although Xue Cheng is not as good as Tancheng, but under the management of Xue Gong's father and son for two generations, it is also not optimistic, and it cannot be conquered in a short time." Therefore, if they wanted to attack Xuedi, the widow wanted to borrow 500,000 stone grain from the king of Song for military use. ”

"After all, the Song Kingdom is close to Xue Dili, and the Chu State is far away, and it is very troublesome for the Chu army to replenish it."

King Song was stunned when he heard this, he thought that the king of Chu would increase the price and ask for more cities, but he didn't want the king of Chu to want food.

500,000 stone of grain, a month's ration for the Chu army, is not much, and it is also not a lot.

Food, although important, is not as important as the land, the land is gone, if you want to fight back, it will be very difficult, but the food is gone, and you can plant it again.

King Song estimated that there had been basically no war in the Song Kingdom in recent years, and the grain was sufficient.

Thinking about it, he immediately responded: "Okay, then it's a word!" ”

Seeing that King Song agreed, Xiong Huai also spoke: "A word is a certainty." ”

After the two countries negotiated, Xiong Huai immediately hosted a banquet for King Song.

······

After the King of Song left, Jing Cui hesitated for a moment and saluted the King of Chu: "The king, the minister has doubts, and the matter of cutting Qi is in Yue but not in Qi. If we join forces with the Song State to attack Xue Di this time, then the Yue State will need to contain the Qi army in the east this time. ”

"In this way, it is our Chu State that is strong in attacking the city, and the Yue State is watching from the sidelines. The strength of our Chu State has been damaged, but the strength of the Yue State has not been damaged, which is not good for the Yue Dynasty. ”

When King Song opened his mouth before, Jing Cui thought that King Chu would discuss with his ministers again, but he didn't want King Chu to directly agree to Song Guo's request.

Although he was puzzled by this, in order to maintain the majesty of the King of Chu, Jing Cui did not speak, and now that the people of the Song Kingdom had left, Jing Li asked.

After Jing Cui finished speaking, Xiong Huai had not yet spoken, Tang Yu shook his head and said: "Otherwise, compared to Xue Cheng, Tancheng is stronger, and attacking Tancheng with Yue Guo, although it can consume the strength of Qi and Yue at the same time, it is unknown whether it can defeat Tancheng." If the Chu-Yue coalition army runs into a wall in Tancheng, and the prestige of the Qi State is greatly boosted, and then the countries see that the Chu State is in a state of exhaustion, and take the opportunity to unite the Qi State and the Chu State to confront the Chu State, then wait until next year, let alone the Yue War, I am afraid that the Chu State will take care of itself. ”

"Therefore, the purpose of this battle is not only the Qi State, but also Zhao, Wei, Qin and other countries, as long as the Chu State wins a big victory, it can deter all countries, so that they will not dare to dream of the Chu State easily, and buy time for the next year."

Jing Cui retorted: "Although Xue Cheng's defense is not as good as Tan Cheng, it is not so easy to overcome. Seeing that we are mainly attacking Xuedi, and the army of Yue is responsible for containment, Qi will inevitably transfer troops from Tancheng to aid Xuecheng. At that time, the difficulty of our attack on Xue Cheng was probably even more difficult than that of Tan Cheng. ”

Saying that, Jing Cui saluted Xiong Huai and said: "King, in the matter of attacking Xue Di, compared to not being able to conquer Xue Cheng, the minister is more worried that the Qi State will take the opportunity to bribe the King of Yue with a lot of money, not only will he calmly transfer troops from Xue Di, but he will also make good friends with Yue Guo." ”

Listening to the argument between Jingcui and Tang Yu, Xiong Huai coughed lightly twice and interrupted the two.

Regarding the question of attacking Tancheng or Xue Di, in fact, there is no unified understanding within the Chu State.

The primary purpose of this battle was to weaken the Qi State, followed by the weakening of the Yue State, and thirdly, to induce the Yue State to follow the Chu State next year to attack Qi.

Now that the former goal has been accomplished, the secondary goal is the next goal.

Previously, when Xiong Huai and the generals discussed, Jing Cui and Tang Mo insisted on their own words, which seemed to make sense.

Xiong Huai was initially persuaded by Tang Wu's friendship and wanted to stand on Tang Wu's side, but Jing Cui's statement also made sense.

If Yue Guo saw that Chu State had obtained a rich harvest from Xue Di, and Yue Guo did not get anything, and as a result, Yue Guo took the opportunity to make friends with Qi State, then the gains outweighed the losses.

Regarding the question of whether Yue Guo will make friends with Qi State, Xiong Huai knows in his heart, it is not impossible.

Now that King Song has given this great gift, Xiong Huai thought of a notice.

Thinking about it, Xiong Huai spoke: "What Zhu Guosi said is reasonable, but the fact that the King of Song sent out the eight cities has already shown the determination of the Song State to attack Xue. If we don't agree to the King of Song, the widow is afraid that the King of Song will postpone sending troops, which will deal a blow to our morale. ”

"As for the attack on Xue Di, the Yue Kingdom worked in vain, and the widow planned to take out five cities from Huaibei to bribe the Yue Kingdom, so that the King of Yue could contain the Qi army. Moreover, the widow also planned to tell the king of Yue that this time the Chu and Song coalition forces would attract the main force of the Qi army, and when the eastern part of the Qi country was empty, although the Yue country attacked north, it was best to recover Langya City, the capital of the Yue country. ”

This...

When the ministers saw the king of Chu speak, they paused, and saluted: "Only! ”

······

Three days later, the king of Yue rushed to Zhongwu City with a large army.

The next day, the high-level leaders of the three countries gathered in Zhongwu City to discuss the matter of defeating Qi.

In a few days, the deployment of Qi State's troops has been investigated by the Chu State spies, and after summarizing the information of Chu and Song, Tang Wu walked to the middle of the hall, saluted King Song of Yue, and then pointed to Tancheng on the map in the hall and said: "According to the spies, the main force of the Qi army is currently led by the Qi general Kuang Zhang, and the 150,000 Qi army is stationed in Tancheng, and there are tens of thousands of Qi troops distributed in the counties near Tancheng, and the King of Qi is in Jucheng in the north of Tancheng, Jucheng has no less than 50,000 troops, and the Qi army on the first line of Tancheng Jucheng is about 250,000, And all of them are the elite of the Qi army. ”

After a pause, after everyone digested the news, Tang Mo pointed to the west of Tancheng and said, "As for Xue Di, King Qi only gave Tian Wen 50,000 elite Qi troops. However, according to the report from the spies, Tian Wen had already requisitioned all the males over the age of 14 and under the age of 60 in Xue Di, with a total of about 50,000 or 60,000 people, plus reinforcements sent by Lu and other countries, a total of 150,000 troops, intending to defend Xue City. ”

After Tang Yu finished speaking, none of the people in Chu and Song reacted, the two countries had already known about this situation, and the introduction at this time was just for the monarchs and ministers of the Yue Kingdom.

King Yue nodded, what Tang Yu said was similar to what Yue Guo himself heard, but King Yue had a doubt in his heart.

"Tang Zi, the two famous generals of the Qi Kingdom, Zhang Zi is in Tancheng, and the other famous general Shengzi, if he is not in Xue City, then where is he?"

Although the spies of the Yue Kingdom also found out the whereabouts of the son, the whereabouts of the sound were erratic, which made the king of Yue very puzzled.

Tang Yu responded: "King Huiyue, according to the report of the spies, after repeated confirmation by the two countries of the Chu Palace, Shengzi had arrived in the north of Qi before and presided over defense matters, half a month later, Shengzi arrived in the plain, and then went to Gaotang, and now, Shengzi is in Pinglu City. It seems... The king of Qi planned to defend the three kingdoms of Yan, Zhao and Wei with his son, in case the three kingdoms saw the emptiness of the Qi country and took the opportunity to attack. ”

Shengzi's journey along the way is the defensive point in the western and northern parts of the Qi Kingdom. And Pinglu City is an important city to defend the Song and Wei countries, and where is the sound, it is obviously to defend the Song State.

King Yue nodded when he heard this, the Three Kingdoms of Yan, Zhao and Wei had also put pressure on the State of Qi not long ago, and it was natural for the State of Qi to be worried about this at this time.

Thinking about it, Yue Guo stopped asking.