Chapter Seventy-Nine

The state of Chu officially declared war on Wei, and this matter was not trivial.

It is undeniable that in fact, in recent years, the Great Wei and the Chu State have not committed any crimes in the autumn, but in the final analysis, the local war in Yingshui County is just the arbitrariness of Xiong Tuo, the monarch of Chu Xuancheng, and does not represent the attitude of the entire Chu State towards the Great Wei.

After all, according to the information found by the detailed work in the territory of Chu State, Chu State still regards Qi State in the east as the most powerful enemy, after all, the hatred of the alliance forces of Qi, Lu and Song to attack Chu State was deeply ashamed, and then came to attract Xiong Tuo, the king of Chu City, to join Wei Tianzi to attack Song State.

If the hatred between Chu and Wei is mostly limited to the hatred of Xiong Tuo, the king of Chu Xuancheng, and Wei Tianzi, then for the entire Chu State, Qi is the enemy of Chu that swears not to share the sky, after all, the Three Kingdoms Alliance presided over by the latter has almost forced the King of Chu to move the capital, which is simply a great shame.

But then again, Wei is a big country with four counties after all, and if it can gnaw a piece of meat in this rich country, Chu will not absolutely refuse.

After all, Wei, Song, Lu, and Qi are the four countries bordering Chu, and Song has been destroyed, while Lu, a small country, has always been a vassal and ally of Qi.

Comparatively speaking, the strength of Wei today is not as good as that of Qi and Lu, which will undoubtedly be a relatively easy breakthrough for Chu to go north to compete for hegemony.

After all, if the current Chu State wants to continue to expand its territory, it can only find Wei or Qi.

Now, although it is not clear what is going on, it is a fact that the Chu envoy's team was attacked in the hinterland of Wei, which gave many important ministers in Chu who were inclined to expand abroad an excuse to send troops to attack Wei.

When the king of Chu declared war on Wei, this huge war machine immediately began to operate, and for a time there were many princes and nobles of Chu like Xiong Tuo, the king of Xuancheng, who gathered troops on the south side of Yingshui to launch an offensive against Wei.

Since it is a full-scale war of Chu against Wei, it is impossible to be confined to one place, according to the information learned by the Great Wei Army, this Chu offensive against Wei can be divided into two aspects.

The first is the Yingshui Battlefield, including the Yangzhai-Wei Fen Shensai-Shanshan section of the Great Wall of Wei used by Wei to resist the invasion of Chu, and to the east to Chendi, the confluence of Yingshui tributaries, this large border territory between the two countries will be reduced to a battlefield.

The second is the battlefield of Wei and Song counties, where Xiong Wu, another member of the prince of Chu, "Guling Jun", burned the flames of war to the Song county obtained by Wei to destroy the Song state, in an attempt to swallow this territory of the dead Song into the territory of the Chu state.

As for the "Liyang Jun" Xiong Sheng's heavy troops on the border of Lu and Qi, it was just to prevent Qi and Lu from taking advantage of his Chu State to declare war on Wei and waiting for an opportunity to attack his Chu State.

Launching a war with Wei and Qi at the same time, to be honest, with the strength of the Chu State, it can be done, but even so, the Chu people will not be stupid enough to face two strong opponents at the same time, as long as the King of Qi stands by and watches, the heavy troops of the "Liyang Jun" Xiong Sheng on the frontier are just decorations.

One after another urgent military reports were sent to the Great Liang of Wei almost without stopping.

Although the soldiers on the Wei frontier stubbornly guarded the border of Yangzhai-Wei Fen Shensai-Shanshan, Xiong Tuo, the king of Chu Xuancheng, bypassed the Xiongguan of Wei by boat, crossed Yingshui, and reduced the war to the territory of Wei.

Changping and Chenling were lost one after another, and then to the north is Yanling, which is the hinterland of Wei, once Yanling is lost, it means that the Great Wei has lost the geographical advantage of Yingshui.

On the other hand, Xiong Wu, the "King of Chu Guling", also waved his army to attack Song County, breaking through Xinling and Huacheng, the only fortunate thing is that Suiyang, a heavy city, is still in the hands of Wei Generals, like a nail in front of Guling Jun Xiong Wu, making this prince of the Xiong clan of Chu inevitably hesitate: whether to spend a lot of energy to conquer Suiyang, or ignore Suiyang, and directly attack the hinterland of Song County.

But in any case, the current situation is extremely unfavorable for Great Wei.

After all, the state of Chu is arrogant, and it can not consider the attitude of the state of Qi, but the state of Wei has to take into account their fierce rival in the north, South Korea, and carefully consider whether Korea, the old enemy of the north, will take advantage of the fire and loot when the state of Chu attacks the state of Wei, and send troops to swallow the Shangdang county of the state of Wei in Hebei.

The news spread, and the entire Great Liang also turned the sky upside down, and I don't know whether it was the meticulous work of the Chu State or the careerists in the Great Wei itself, who spread the rumor that the "Chu army is about to attack the Great Liang", which caused the people of the Great Liang to panic, even the ministers of the court and the central government, they couldn't help but panic.

Although Wei Tianzi promptly banned the spread of rumors in the city, and asked the criminal department to lead soldiers and guards to strictly investigate the source of the rumors, which finally curbed the spread of this rumor, it still seemed to be useless.

Now, there is no point in discussing the question of "who attacked the Chu envoy team", what needs to be considered is how to face the attack of Chu, whether to "fight" or "not fight"?

For this reason, Wei Tianzi once again invited the ministers of the court and the central government who participated in the discussion last time to the vertical arch hall.

Some people may think that this kind of discussion is very ridiculous, obviously the Chu State has attacked the country, and they still have to consider whether to fight or not? Giggles, of course!

But in fact, it's not an easy decision to make.

You must know that the territory of Wei is only about a quarter of that of Chu, and the size of the territory determines the number of citizens and the source of troops.

The territory of Chu is vast, four times that of Wei, and the total number of domestic troops is also several times that of Wei, so they can take out more than 200,000 troops to fight against Wei without care, and they don't care how many Chu soldiers will be sacrificed in this battle, but Wei can't, once Wei sacrifices too many soldiers in this war, there is no doubt that South Korea, a strong enemy in the north, will come to take advantage of the fire.

"What a mistake......

Sitting on the dragon chair, Wei Tianzi rubbed his head tiredly.

He originally wanted to take advantage of Princess Yulong's affinity with the Chu State to improve the relationship between the Wei State and the Chu State, so that people like Xiong Tuo, the monarch of Chu Xuancheng, would reduce the threat to the Great Wei, but he didn't expect that this move would give some people an opportunity to take advantage of.

Looking at the courtiers in the hall noisily, Wei Tianzi was also very annoyed.

To be honest, Wei Tianzi didn't want to go to war with the behemoth of Chu, because the territory of Chu was too vast and the population was too large, even if more than 100,000 or 200,000 soldiers were killed in a year's war, it would not be fatal to Chu, but for Great Wei, if more than 100,000 or 200,000 troops were killed in a year's war, it would be a catastrophe.

If you finally get even South Korea in the north to join in, it is possible that even the country will be destroyed.

"Don't make any more noise!" Wei Tianzi was distraught and stopped the dispute between the ministers in the palace, and after a long breath, he said in a deep voice: "I summoned you to wait here to discuss a countermeasure, not to see you wait here to quarrel!" …… Li Man, you are the secretary of the military department, you come first! ”

"Yes." Li Man, the secretary of the military department, knelt in the middle of the seat and arched his hand towards the Son of Heaven, and said in a deep voice: "The minister thinks that my Great Wei does not have the national strength to start an all-out war with the Chu State......

Yu Ziqi, the right of the middle book, couldn't help but say with disdain when he heard this: "Li Shangshu, don't you mean to ask for peace?" ”

Seeing that he was interrupted, Li Wei, the secretary of the military department, frowned, but because Yu Ziqi was the minister of Zhongshu and a member of the Inner Dynasty, his status was not inferior to that of them, so it was not easy to have a seizure, so he had to ask patiently: "Yu Youcheng, in your opinion, if my Great Wei declares war with the Chu State, what are the odds?" ”

"......" Yu Ziqi frowned and was silent.

Although he didn't want to admit it, he had to admit that with the national strength of their Wei State, it was still very difficult to deal with the entire Chu State.

"What if we add North Korea?" Li Man, the secretary of the military department, asked.

"......" Yu Ziqi's brows furrowed even tighter.

You must know that in the world today, you can face two countries at the same time, I am afraid that only the Chu State has the most extensive territory, even if the Chu State is regarded as the strongest enemy country, the Qi State, also needs the help of the vassal ally Lu State to defeat the Chu State repeatedly.

Seeing that Yu Ziqi was silent, Li Man, the secretary of the Ministry of War, said with emotion: "It's not that I don't dare to fight, but I can't fight." …… Unless my Great Wei achieves a great victory, it is deterred by Han. Otherwise, even if the Chu army is expelled, it will usher in the Korean army, and instead of being attacked by Han and Chu and shaking the foundation of our Great Wei, it is better to sue for peace with the Chu State now. ”

"Do you want to make peace if you don't fight?" Zhongshu Zuo Cheng Lin Yuyang frowned and asked.

"Fighting is to fight, but you can't fight the anger of the Chu army, just to show the Chu State that my Great Wei is determined to defend the territory......" Speaking of this, Li Fei, the secretary of the military department, turned his head and suggested to the Son of Heaven: "Xiong Tuo, the king of Chu Xuancheng, what he wants is only Song County, and for Song County, His Majesty also knows that the Song people are still obsessed with the death of the country, and there are many people who plot to make chaos and intend to restore the country, and the former Song State surrendered to Nangong, this person is an excuse to protect himself and support the army, although there is no clear evidence, but the minister does not trust this person...... The minister thought that it was better to cede some cities in Song County that were far away from my Great Wei, and cede to the Chu State, so that the Song people's dissatisfaction with my Great Wei would be transferred to Chu. ”

"Song Di ......" Wei Tianzi's eyes struggled a little, after all, the destruction of the Song State was the most proud thing he had since he became the emperor, how could he give it up easily?

Seeing the hesitation on the face of the Son of Heaven, Li Man, the secretary of the Ministry of War, persuaded in a low voice: "Song land, almost all exposed under the nose of Chu State, and bordering Lu State, although Lu State and Song State did not agree in the past, but after all, there is a three-kingdom alliance of Qi, Lu and Song, Your Majesty joined hands with Chu Xuancheng Jun Xiong Tuo to attack and destroy Lu State, obviously the King of Qi also has hatred for my Great Wei, over the years, I have instructed the Lu people to make trouble in the Song Land, and instigated the Song people to be dissatisfied with my Great Wei, and the minister thinks that it is better to cede the cities bordering the Song Land and Lu to the Chu State, First, it can transfer the Song people's dissatisfaction with our Great Wei to Chu, and second, the Chu State has cut off the connection between Qi and Lu and the Song Land, which may reduce the influence of the two countries on the Song Land. ”

"That's right." Zhou Yan, the secretary of the Criminal Department, also spoke: "The Song State descended to the Nangong, relying on the Great Wei to rely on him to govern the Song Dynasty and reduce the Song people's dissatisfaction with my Great Wei. …… If you keep this person, I am afraid that it will become a disaster in the future, so it is better to eradicate it by the hand of the Chu State...... With the state system of the Chu State, they can't tolerate the blood of the Xiong clan to hold power, let alone military power...... It was categorically impossible for Nangong to switch to the state of Chu. ”

"But it's also possible to take refuge in the Qi country." Xu Guan, the left attendant of the military department, said.

"Probably not." The Ministry of Rites Shangshu You shook his head and said: "In the past, Nangong descended to my Great Wei and forced the Song King to abdicate, which has long been despised by the Song people. …… He has betrayed the lord once, if he betrays my Great Wei again and turns to the king of Qi, I believe that the king of Qi will not trust him. ”

The courtiers nodded their heads.