"King, it is certainly a good way out to develop westward, but the west is a place where barbarians are rampant, and those barbarians are not subject to education, even if they occupy those territories, it is not much use!"

"Yes, it's better to attack Lingnan, although Liu Yin's strength is good, they can't even do anything about a single Qianzhou, and until now Shaozhou is still occupied by Qianzhou people. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 infoFrom this point of view, it should not be difficult to lay Lingnan! ”

……

After the idea of surrender gradually died down, everyone began to carefully consider Ma Yin's strategy of developing westward.

The territory west of Shaozhou was still a standard barren land in this era, and the local development degree was much worse than that of Tanzhou and other places, and it was even worse than that of the Central Plains.

Although Lingnan is located further south, the degree of development of Lingnan is actually very high.

As early as in the reign of Emperor Xuanzong Tianbao of the Tang Dynasty, among the famous envoys of the Ten Sections, there were the envoys of the five provinces of Lingnan, who were responsible for the Suijing Bureaucracy, governed Guangzhou, and commanded the Jingluo Army and the Qing Navy, with 15,400 soldiers.

Throughout the Tang Dynasty, once a prisoner needed to be exiled, he was generally exiled directly to Lingnan.

Therefore, the degree of development in Lingnan is actually not low, and it is naturally much better than the barren southwest land now.

Ma Yin couldn't help but smile bitterly when he heard this, he naturally wanted to seize the territory of Lingnan as a foundation, but at this time, when the Wu army could attack again at any time, did he still have time to capture Lingnan?

Although Liu Yin's strength is not as good as him, it is not much worse, if Ma Yin wants to seize the land of Lingnan, he must use all his strength, and it is very likely to cause both defeats and make Wu Guo, a fisherman, benefit from the result.

Therefore, Ma Yin would not be stupid enough to start a war with Liu Yin at this time, and Liu Yin also knew that he should unite against Wu at this time, and he would not take the initiative to make an enemy of Ma Yin.

The barbarians in the southwest, although they have been fighting against the Chu army by relying on the obstruction of the deep mountains and old forests, the Chu army has never been able to help them, but in a head-on battle, the Chu army can easily defeat the army established by those barbarians.

Therefore, if you develop in the southwest direction, it will not be much difficult to seize those states and counties.

After explaining these truths, everyone frowned a little, but it is indeed not a wise choice to seize Lingnan now, so only by seizing the barbarian land in the southwest may be able to avoid the attack of Wu and gain space for survival.

"Although the southwest is barren, there are still many people after all. At the beginning, our army was defeated under the city of Xuanzhou, and everyone was panicked and did not know where to go, and finally wandered all the way, and finally re-established a foundation in Tanzhou, which laid the foundation for today. ”

"Although many of you brothers are old now, you still have children and grandchildren, and you also have children and grandchildren! As long as we work together, why can't we recreate a Tanzhou in the southwestern barbarian land? Ma Yin said loudly.

Everyone couldn't help but be brought up by him with some passion, and gradually accepted the strategy of developing to the southwest.

Many people are still thinking in their hearts, why didn't they think of developing to the west at the beginning, but thought about fighting Wu to the death, and as a result, there was a big defeat this time.

If they had concentrated their efforts to the west earlier, they would have already laid a large enough territory.

Of course, it is not too late to start developing to the west, this time the Wu army retreats, at least it will have to rest for a while before launching another attack, and this time is the best time for Ma Yin to develop to the west.

If you can't be the king of Chu, it's not bad to be a soil emperor in the southwest.

……

When Ma Yin decided to change his development strategy and began to expand his territory to the west, the other two major forces in the south, Liu Yin and Wang Xianzhi, were also planning for the future.

For Liu Yin, his original purpose was to divide Lingnan and dominate one side, without much ambition.

This is of course because Lingnan is too remote, but also because Lingnan's strength is too weak.

Liu Yin likes the Magi, and when the world was in turmoil, many of the Central Plains scholars fled to Lingnan to avoid the chaos; In addition, some ministers of the Tang Dynasty exiled Lingnan for their crimes, and many of the descendants of these people did not return to the Central Plains; In addition, there were also local officials who were unable to return to the Central Plains due to turmoil and had to live in Lingnan, and Liu Yin relied on the assistance of these three types of people, such as Wang Dingbao, Ni Shu, Liu Jun, Zhou Jie, Yang Dongqian, Zhao Guangyi, Li Yinheng and others, so that the Lingnan area could be at peace.

However, the excessive emphasis on civil rule also made the military generals in Lingnan suppressed, and the combat effectiveness of the army was correspondingly low.

In the head-to-head battle, Lingnan's army couldn't even beat Lu Guangchou's army in Qianzhou, and once Liu Yin personally led the troops to fight, they were almost wiped out by Tan Quanbo, and even Shaozhou is still in Lu Guangchou's hands.

As for the war with Ma Yin, Wang Shenzhi and other forces, it was even more difficult for the Lingnan army to gain the upper hand; The only thing that is commendable may be that Lingnan's cultural governance is doing well, and there are fewer cases of dictatorship among army generals.

Now Wu is the dominant state in the south, and after annexing Liangzhejiang and Jiangxi one after another, it has now further hit the power of Hunan, which makes the prestige of Wu further increased, and other forces are more difficult to resist.

"Third brother, now that the country of Wu is powerful, it has the potential to sweep the south, and all forces are not opponents when they join forces; The army of the Central Plains Liang was held back by the Jin King and other forces in the north, and was unable to go south to support us; If it continues like this, I am afraid that in a few years, we will see Wang Zhenzhi, Ma Yin and other forces wiped out by King Wu, and then we will wait for Lingnan to be remote, but I am afraid that it will be difficult to resist the attack of Wu State. ”

"If it is for my brother to ask King Wu to surrender before the Wu army has yet to fight, do you think this will keep our wealth and dignity?" In the Qing Navy's Jiedu Envoy's Mansion, Liu Yin asked his younger brother Liu Yan,

Liu Yin's father Liu Qian was originally the assassin of Fengzhou, Hejiang Town, with more than 10,000 soldiers, operating Fengzhou for nearly 20 years, leaving three sons after his death, of which Liu Yin is the eldest son, the second son Liu Tai, the ability is relatively mediocre, the third son Liu Yan, quite far-sighted, Liu Yin often asks this third brother about some government affairs, and he attaches great importance to it.

"Ask King Wu to surrender?" Liu Yan's face changed, of course he also knew that the Wu army was too strong to resist, but now the Wu army hadn't fought yet?

"If my brother wants to ask King Wu to surrender, I'm afraid it's not very appropriate, right? Since ancient times, the Central Plains have been orthodox, and what we are serving now is also the Great Liang Emperor who occupies the Central Plains, and the King of Wu is based on Jinling, but he is just a puppet dynasty, what qualifications do you have to let my brother surrender? ”

"Well, do you mean that you can't surrender to King Wu, but continue to fight against him? It's just that if the Wu army comes to crusade in the future, how can we resist it? Liu Yin frowned and said.

How could he be willing to surrender now, since his father started to run Fengzhou, it has been more than 20 years now, how can such a big inheritance be easily handed over to others without fighting?

"My brother's words are wrong, in my younger brother's opinion, my brother can ask King Wu to surrender, but it is not a real surrender, but like Lu Guangchou in Qianzhou, he only gets a name." Liu Yan said with a smile.

"Just getting a name? I'm afraid it's hard to satisfy King Wu, right? Don't you know the ambition of King Wu? It is said that when he attacked Jiangxi, he publicly said that 'the side of the couch will not allow others to snore'. If other forces are wiped out in the future, even if Brother Wei has already asked King Wu to surrender, I am afraid that he will not let me go of Lingnan at that time, as long as there is a chance, he will still send troops! ”

"Brother is right!" Liu Yan sighed: "But is there a better choice for me now?" If in the future, King Wu can really sweep away other forces and annex Fujian and Hunan one by one, and the Central Plains Liang can't free up his hands to support the south, then the elder brother will really surrender to King Wu. ”

"If there is any change in King Wu's career in the middle, such as a sudden civil strife in Wu State, etc., which interrupts the pace of Wu's unification of the south, then even if the elder brother has declared himself a vassal to King Wu, it is not a big deal." Liu Yan persuaded.

At this time, Liu Yan did not hold the power of Lingnan, and secondly, the strength of Wu State brought great pressure to Lingnan, so he not only did not have the arrogance and ambition to establish himself as the emperor, but was very pragmatic to put forward suggestions to his brother.

In his opinion, it is difficult to say that the things of the world are inevitable until the last step; Especially for such a big cause as the unification of the world, how many people have been able to do it since ancient times?

Those who can do it require not only outstanding talents, excellent courtiers, strong armies, etc., but also a certain amount of luck, or "destiny".

For example, before the Battle of Weishui, how strong was the former Qin Fujian's power? He commanded a million-strong army to attack the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and the world thought that the unification of the world was in sight, but it was defeated by 80,000 Beifu troops in the Battle of Weishui and fled, and the former Qin Empire also collapsed.

Now that Wu Guo looks at the momentum, it is difficult to say whether he can unify the world, but the momentum of sweeping the south is very sufficient; However, who can guarantee that there will be no variables in the future, for example, it is not impossible that Yang Wu, who now looks young but full of ambition, suddenly dies of illness, and as a result, the state of Wu is divided.

Therefore, until the last moment, Liu Yan did not think that it was the best choice to completely surrender to Yang Wu, the king of Wu, and first surrender to Yang Wu in name, and then wait and see the opportunity, which may be the best choice for Lingnan.

"Third brother, your proposal is good, then the elder brother will hand over the important task of sending envoys to the State of Wu and asking the King of Wu to surrender! If King Wu is willing to accept Lone's invitation to surrender, then Emperor Liang canonized the position of King Peng, Lone is naturally willing to give up, specifically, you can do it! Liu Yin finally decided.