From the moment Ma Yin concentrated his energy on the southwest, he had the intention of giving up Hunan in his heart.

Although the degree of development in Hunan was also not high in this era, in any case, the local people were mainly Han people, and the degree of land development was relatively high, and the land near Tanzhou was fertile and suitable for farming, so it was an extremely important area.

However, it is precisely because of the relatively high degree of development there that Wu Guo covets it even more and is even more unlikely to give up.

In other words, if Ma Yin decided to concentrate his forces to defend Tanzhou, then he might have a decisive battle with Wu's army.

With the current strength of the Chu army, even if it can defeat the Wu army, it will have to suffer great losses.

This kind of loss can be easily borne by the Wu army, but the Chu state, which has few land and poor country, is unbearable.

Judging from Wu's determination to seize Tanzhou, it is obviously impossible for them to let Tanzhou go, and they will definitely continue to send troops to fight for Tanzhou.

If you continue to fight like this, Chu will obviously not be able to fight Wu, and eventually Tanzhou will be captured by Wu, so the price paid by Chu before will be in vain, and it is better to keep these strengths and continue to develop to the southwest.

Although this truth was not spoken, everyone present had a clear understanding in their hearts.

"The king, the minister thinks that the battle of Tanzhou must be fought, and it must be fought well, even if we lose Tanzhou in the end, it will not be easy for the Wu army to get, and they must be made to pay a sufficient price." Among the crowd, Gao Yu, who was Ma Yin's confidant, stood up and bowed to Ma Yin.

"Since you know that you will eventually lose Tanzhou, why bother to fight this battle? Isn't that an extra cost of casualties? Ma Hao asked with a frown.

"Zuo Xiang doesn't know, although Tanzhou is a must-win place for Wu State, no matter how much we hold on, I'm afraid that it will be difficult to hold Tanzhou in the end. However, if it is too easy for Wu to win, then they will think that we are easy to deal with, and will continue to attack the other states without giving us a chance to breathe. I'm afraid that in a few years, Hunan will not be owned by the king! Gao Yu said loudly.

"Well, what the High Judge said is reasonable! However, what if our army suffered too much loss in the first battle of Tanzhou? At that time, the enemy army will still be able to sweep Hunan, and our army can only retreat to Lizhou and other places! Ma Ma retorted.

Gao Yu frowned when he heard this, and before he could continue to refute, the right Xiang Ma Cun said: "Step back, step by step!" If according to your opinion, if you can't fight now, you will directly abandon Tanzhou, then when the Wu army captures Tanzhou and continues to attack Shaozhou and other places, will you have to give up these places again? ”

Ma Hao snorted coldly: "Since you can't beat it, then you naturally have to give up to save your strength!" The southwest land is extremely extensive, if the king is unwilling to submit to the state of Wu, then concentrate on continuing to develop to the southwest, why fight with the state of Wu? ”

Gao Yu saw that the two were arguing again, and couldn't help but smile bitterly in his heart, so he simply retreated to his position and watched the two quarrel coldly.

The others also knew that once the two of them quarreled, unless it was Ma Yin who came forward, it would be difficult for the others to stop it, so they all looked down at the ground as if there was something interesting on the ground.

"Third brother, why are you not thinking about surrendering to Wu all day long, or trying to escape to the southwest? Hunan, which took more than ten years of conquest by the king, could it be so easy to give up? ”

"How can you say that it is easy to give up? This is just to avoid casualties and concentrate on the southwest! ”

……

As they spoke, Ma Jia and Ma Cun quarreled again, and no one could convince anyone.

In the final analysis, it is still due to the fact that the national strength of the Chu State is far inferior to the Wu State, and in the great battle two years ago, the Chu army lost more than 40,000 people on the battlefield alone.

This was only the loss of his regular army, and his so-called "Zi Badu" soldiers who fought temporarily were a rabble of ordinary people who had just laid down their hoes, and the losses in the battle with the Wu army were also not small.

Before that, in the battle of Ivory Pond, the losses of the Chu army were also as high as more than 10,000.

Coupled with the loss of the civilian population in the war, and the heavy burden of immigration afterwards, it can be said that although it was only two years, the national strength of Chu at this time was far less than that of Chu two years ago.

They couldn't even compete with Wu two years ago, and now they are even less of their opponents.

At the forefront, Ma Yin frowned at the dispute between the two younger brothers, and couldn't help but feel upset.

"Alright, you two don't fight. High Judge, you haven't finished talking about it before, you keep talking! What the other generals think, say the same, don't keep it in your heart! ”

"Yes, my lord! Please forgive the minister for bluntly saying that it is difficult for Wu Guoshi to compete with it, this is a fact, I believe that no one present will deny it, right? Gao Yu looked at everyone in the field.

"That's true!"

"The High Judge is right!"

"Wu Guo is powerful!"

……

Everyone nodded and sighed with emotion when they heard this, but no one came out to refute it, even Ma Cun, the right minister who wanted to rebel against Wu Guo, did not object.

"The minister will talk about the second point, now that the Central Plains, the power of the Liang State has begun to decline, and the emperor of the Chinese Dynasty is old, I heard that his sons are not very talented. If the emperor dies in the future, I am afraid that the strength of China and North Korea will further decline, and it is even more impossible to go south to support the king!

In short, under the control of the King of Jin, counting on the Liang army to go south to rescue our country, there is not much hope for this matter, I don't know if you agree with this! Gao Yu then asked.

Everyone present, including Ma Yin, Ma Jia and others, suddenly looked serious.

They know that Gao Yu is dissecting the current situation from a higher perspective.

Gao Yu is not only Ma Yin's confidant, but also the chief mastermind under Ma Yin, and his views are naturally valued by everyone.

At this time, for Gao Yu's question, everyone slowly nodded in agreement after thinking about it.

"What the High Judge said is very true. There is indeed little hope that the Liang army will go south again, even if they go south, I am afraid that the scale is not large, and it will not have a big impact on the situation! ”

"The last general agrees with the High Judge!"

"Please continue with the High Judge!"

……

Everyone nodded.

Gao Yu sighed: "That's right, our army and the Wu army can't fight and can't fight, and there are no reinforcements when they ask for help; What's more, this won't change for a long time! Therefore, if the king wants to find a way to survive, the only hope is to develop to the southwest to avoid the edge of the Wu Kingdom! ”

This time, without waiting for Gao Yu to ask, everyone nodded in agreement.

Even if Ma Cun was still unwilling in his heart, he also knew that this was the last hope and the only choice; None of the other ways to survive will be able to survive.

I only heard Gao Yu then say in his somewhat shrill voice: "King, please forgive the minister, even if the king gives up Hunan, if the king wants to gain a firm foothold in the southwestern states, he still needs to maintain peace with Wu. Therefore, the final way out for the king still needs to surrender to the Wu State! ”

"What, surrender to the state of Wu? How can this work? ”

"Our army has been at war with Wu for many years, even if you don't count the original campaign in Jianghuai, after the king took possession of Hunan, the two families have also fought many times, and the grudge is very deep!"

"Yes, even if we ask for surrender, I'm afraid that King Wu won't agree!"

……

Everyone was in an uproar when they heard this, and they all made a loud noise, obviously not expecting Gao Yu's final plan to be like this.

Only Ma Yu agreed very much, and came out again and again to help him speak.

In the face of everyone's doubts, Gao Yu did not refute a word, but closed his eyes and listened quietly.

When Ma Yin first heard Gao Yu's words, he was still extremely dissatisfied in his heart, thinking that Gao Yu had become a "surrender faction" when he had been.

But then he also understood that what Gao Yu said was indeed the best way out for them at present, and it was indeed not a way to continue to resist Wu Guo, and sometimes it was better to be soft.

With the strength of Wu, under the condition that it is difficult for the north to interfere, even if it can temporarily repel the attack of the Wu army, it is impossible to resist to the end after all.

He is already old, even if he doesn't think about himself and the generals, then at least he has to think about the way out for his children and grandchildren, so a certain degree of surrender is very necessary.

Of course, it is impossible to completely surrender the state of Wu, which is tantamount to completely giving up resistance and completely leaving one's fate to the enemy.

You must know that now that Wu and Chu have been at war for so many years, the grudge between the two sides is greater than the grudge between Qian Biao, the king of Yue, and Wu back then.

No matter what Qian Biao said at the beginning, even if he captured Huainan's generals on the battlefield, he didn't kill them directly, and he would generally use them to exchange with Huainan.

For example, Qin Pei, the current general of Wu State, was captured by Qian Biao back then, but in the end he was also exchanged back.

In addition, Cheng Ji under the command of Qian Biao, after being captured by Huainan, also returned to Liangzhejiang through the exchange of prisoners.

And what about Ma Yin? In the course of previous wars with the State of Wu, as long as the generals of the State of Wu were captured, they were generally directly killed, and none of them were released.

In addition, in the era of Sun Ru, their army, under the leadership of Liu Jianfeng, as the elite soldiers under Sun Ru, also slaughtered in Jianghuai, and killed the generals under Yang Xingmi when they fought with Yang Xingmi.

After so many years and so many grudges, it is indeed difficult for them to completely unravel their hatred with Wu State.

Therefore, it was impossible for Ma Yin to completely surrender to Wu, and he could only accept nominal submission at most.

It's a big deal that he removed the title of King of Chu, removed the title of Admiral Tiance, and asked Yang Wu to give him an official in the name of King Wu, but his relative independence. The status cannot be affected.

"Silence! The king didn't speak, what are you arguing about! Seeing that everyone in the audience was still noisy and arguing, Ma Cun hurriedly scolded loudly and stopped everyone.

After everyone calmed down again, Ma Yin said in a deep voice: "High judge, you continue." Since you think that Gu will inevitably defect to Wu in the end, why do you still advocate a decisive battle with Wu's army in Tanzhou? Doesn't this further anger the people of Wu? And if Gu Ruo directly gave up Tanzhou and then sent someone to make friends with Wu Guo, wouldn't it be better? ”

"The king must also know that even if the king wants to make friends with the state of Wu at this time, the country of Wu will still invade when it should come, and it will still attack if it should attack, and it will not be soft at all because of the king's goodwill. In that case, why did the king give up on Tanzhou? Gao Yu asked rhetorically.

"On the other hand, if the king fights the next battle, let the people of Wu know the strength of the king, let them know that our Chu country is not easy to mess with, and then the king takes advantage of the situation to ask Wu to surrender, maybe he can still succeed."

"In the final analysis, compared to the south, the Central Plains is the most important area."

"Now that the king occupies the barren land in the southwest, presumably King Wu will not pay too much attention to it."

"As long as the Great King shows enough strength to make King Wu feel that it will take too much time and a heavy price to continue attacking our country, then he will definitely retreat and start to develop towards the north instead. Only then will the king get a real respite! Gao Yu completely said his thoughts in one breath, causing everyone to bow their heads and ponder.

In fact, Gao Yu's proposition is very simple, it is nothing more than a trick that many heroes have played in the past dynasties: first defeat a strong enemy to show strength, and then take advantage of the victory to seek peace, so as to avoid the other party being annoyed and angry and continue to deploy troops to fight a war of attrition in the future.

Of course, Gao Yu also knew that areas such as Tanzhou, Shaozhou, Langzhou, Hengzhou and other areas that had been developed, it was impossible for Wu to give up.

As long as Ma Yin continued to occupy these areas, then even if he asked Wu to surrender, it would be impossible for Yang Wu, the king of Wu, to agree.

Therefore, Gao Yu will advocate that after this battle is fought and the strength of the Chu army is shown to Wu, no matter whether it is victory or defeat, Tanzhou and other places must be abandoned, and in the end, only "barren land" such as Lizhou and Chenzhou in the southwest will be left.

Only then will Yang Wu retreat from the difficulties and seek other territories, especially in Lingnan, Jingnan, Shuzhong in the Central Plains, Guanzhong, Hebei, etc., so many lands are not unified, Yang Wu is more likely to let them go temporarily.

As for the future, if Wu unifies the world, go back and settle accounts with them, but no one can say for sure what will happen in the future, and it is not so easy for Wu to unify the world, at least although everyone present feels that Wu has the hope of unifying the south, but none of them think that Wu has the possibility of unifying the world.

After all, since ancient times, there has been no example of unification from the south to the north, and now the northern Liang Kingdom, Jin Kingdom, Yan Kingdom, Qi Kingdom, Shu Kingdom, etc., none of these are easy to mess with.

Wu was able to run rampant in the south and easily defeat one force after another, but when he returned to the north, he might not have this strength.

In addition, even if Wu was able to unify the world, it would be many years later.

Many of the people in the field are veterans from the Sun Ru era, and they are also not young, and they don't have many years to live.

They can't arrange things when they're alive, and they can't manage things after they're dead in the future.

Future generations have their own posterity, so it is better to take one step at a time, and get through the current difficulties first.