However, even if the state of Chu lost two pillars in a row in just one month, this is not the end.

It seems that within the nine years of Shenwu, the heavens deliberately targeted the Chu State.

On the 10th day of the eighth month of the ninth year of Shenwu not long afterward, news came from the southwest.

Since Jihui's death, the three feudal states in the southwest and the two kingdoms of Nanzhao and Dali have frequently mobilized troops and horses, and there seems to be some changes.

In the southwest, war could break out again at any time.

In such a critical time, Qianzhong County must have a sufficient number of men and horses to guard it, so as to safeguard the interests of the Chu State over there.

So under the grief, Lu Yuan could only send Lan Cai'er to use him as a pacification envoy for the three countries in the southwest, and replace his kings with the dignity of the queen and the position of the innate one, so as to stabilize the southwest and comfort the place for the Chu State.

Subsequently, on the 19th of the same month, the news of Ning's army expansion reached the Chu State.

In the face of the actions of this mortal enemy in Yangzhou, it naturally aroused the vigilance of the Chu State.

So after arranging state affairs a little, Lu Yuan ordered Sun Siwen, Cui Changqing's son-in-law, who was also the right minister of the court.

Let this current leader of the civil officials of the Chu State integrate the domestic officialdom and smooth out the political chaos after Cui Changqing's death.

With the identity and status of the other party, as well as the qualifications that are not inferior to Cui Changqing, it won't be long before good news can come.

The friendship between the monarchs and ministers of the Chu State, especially between Lu Yuan and Sun Siwen, Zhou Qing, Cui Changqing and others, is definitely far beyond the imagination of outsiders.

They thought that the state of Chu might need to stabilize for several months and a half after experiencing a series of shocks.

But in essence, this time may only take one or two months to completely stabilize the Chu State.

As for the Northern Expedition of the State of Chu.

But when the plan has been formulated a long time ago, the death of a Zuo Prime Minister who has long been idle at home and does not interfere much in national affairs can have little impact.

Even on the day of Cui Changqing's departure, the mobilization of soldiers, horses, grain and grass in Chu was carried out in an orderly manner.

After more than 20 years, under the efforts of Lu Yuan, Sun Siwen, Cui Changqing and others, the efficient bureaucratic system created is not comparable to those countries that have been established for hundreds of thousands of years and have long been decayed.

This nascent form of government is enough to burst out with brilliance that attracts the attention of the world.

And after Lu Yuan also made these many arrangements, he mobilized his troops and led the army to the Baqiu camp on the border of Chu Ning, where he inspected the defense, practiced the soldiers and horses, and guarded the Chu State.

However, when leading the army to Baqiu, taking advantage of this opportunity to mobilize troops and horses in an open and honest manner, a forbidden army of Chu State rode the fleet of sailors, and silently, went up the river and headed for the land of Xiangyang.

This was hidden in the large-scale mobilization of troops and horses in the Chu State, and no one was aware of it, including the Zhou State.

Opposite.

After seeing the successive deaths of heavyweights in the Chu State, and the southwest and east borders, there was great turmoil and threat.

Even the right prime minister of the country and the king of Chu himself were dragged in two places, and after the court of the Zhou State learned the news, the only remaining vigilance in their hearts also completely dissipated.

After accepting these successive setbacks, the state of Chu was entangled in such a big trouble, and it was not enough to stabilize the country at this time, and it must have no spare strength to use troops abroad.

And Zhou Guo can also completely lift his defenses.

The people who were originally preparing to mobilize in Hanzhong County also canceled the mobilization order at this time.

Now that the Zhou State is short of food, mobilizing 200,000 people in one go, even if it is only temporary, the consumption of grain and grass is also very large.

At this time, you can save a little, for Zhou Guo, it is all good.

So in this way, in this grain trade, the Zhou State, which should have been on guard, was finally completely canceled after the news came back from the Chu State one after another.

Even seeing the chaotic appearance of Chu State now, among the many ministers of the Zhou State court, there was also a question of whether to take advantage of the good opportunity of the stability of the southern border to transfer the general of the Nanzhu State in Hanzhong County to Longxi County to deal with the increasingly fierce war over there.

However, the war in Longxi County is important, but Hanzhong County, as the southern frontier of the Zhou State, is also extremely important.

So this matter was just put forward by someone with such an opinion, but it was quickly rejected by more people, but it was not really done.

Just a peek at the leopard.

This kind of proposal can appear, which shows that under the layers of fog in the Chu State, the Zhou State has been completely blinded.

Lu Yuan's plan to hide from the sky and cross the sea, under this sudden arrival of heaven and earth, can be described as a great success.

……

Time flies slowly.

is disturbing outside, and the surrounding countries are all holding the mentality of watching fun, and the Chu State of Chu who is watching continues to calm down the successive setbacks.

In the late autumn of September, the armies of the Chu State to be mobilized for this expedition also arrived in Xichuan and Xiangyang counties one after another when various places mobilized to sell the grain and grass of the Zhou State.

At this time, there is only one month left before the date of trade between Zhou and Chu.

However, the grain and grass in various parts of the Chu State have not yet been fully mobilized, and they are mixed in the grain and grass, and the materials needed by the army for the war have not yet been prepared at this time.

At the same time, Zhou Guo's side has not yet fully raised the money for the purchase of grain and grass this time.

Although the Zhou State is a hegemonic country, it has eight counties, a land of 40,000 li, and 20 million people, and the annual financial income is enough to have hundreds of millions of taels of silver.

But Zhou Guo has a lot of income and a lot of places to spend money.

A standing army of one million per year, even in peacetime, the annual military salary expenditure is more than 60 million taels of silver.

Now that it is even more war, it is normal for military salaries to be increased by 50% or even doubled.

Therefore, just the standing soldiers and horses, the current military expenditure of the Zhou State is about 90 million taels of silver.

But in addition to the standing soldiers and horses, the Zhou State also requisitioned about one million people.

Even if these people don't need to pay money, you have to prepare some weapons for them and provide them with daily food, right?

These millions of people can't afford to raise them if they don't have 10 million taels of silver in a year.

In addition, the expenses of the court of the Zhou State, the expenses of the local government of the Zhou State, the expenses of the royal family of the Zhou State, and various other additional expenses......

To put it bluntly, the financial expenditure of Zhou Guo in a year is definitely more than 120 million taels of silver.

Compared with the annual income of 100 million taels of silver in the Zhou State, the direct annual deficit is 20 million taels of silver.

Of course.

The specific scale of the deficit is certainly not so rigid, and it will definitely fluctuate up and down.

There may be years with more deficits and some years with less.

But no matter what, Zhou Guo is now taking out more than 10 million taels of silver every year to subsidize the financial losses every year, which is certain.

So here's the problem.

How many years has it been since Zhou fought this war with the Snow Plains?

If Lu Yuan remembers correctly, the invasion of the Snow Plains began with the flood in the sixth year of Shenwu and the summer.

Now it is the late autumn of the ninth year of Shenwu, and after careful calculation, this battle has lasted for more than three years.

For more than three years, the annual subsidy was 20 million taels of silver, and 60 million taels of silver were taken out of the treasury of Zhou State.

With such a large amount of expenses, no matter how thick Zhou Guo's foundation is, he can't bear such bleeding.

There are so many places where money is used, three battlefields, local counties, and various departments of the imperial court, which one is not screaming for money, and they are all crying and saying that they are poor.

Now Zhou Guo buys 10 million stone of grain, even if it is bought at the price of 6 cents per catty of rice, according to the silver price at this time, it will cost 6.6 million taels of silver.

This amount is almost equal to one-third of the annual subsidy given to the treasury by Zhou's treasury savings.

After more than three years of bloodletting, even with the background of Zhou Guo, it is a little difficult to come up with such a large sum of money in a hurry at this time.

At this time, we had to raise money in many ways in the country, save a sum from various expenses, or donate a sum of money, and then raise a sum of money from the ministers of the world, during which various interest exchanges and conspiracies were indispensable......

Under the entanglement of many parties, Zhou Guo couldn't come up with so much money for a while.

So, just like the state of Chu, he pinched the March period and slowly went to prepare the money.

As for this matter, Lu Yuan is happy to see it come to fruition.

Because according to the original agreement, the date of the grain trade between the two countries should be on the third day of October this year.

I've mentioned it before.

Nowadays, the weather is celestial, it is a year of cold and a year.

According to the trend of the past two years, by the end of October, the first snow will fall in the south of the Yangtze River.

Hanzhong County is located in the Hanshui Basin, which is the junction between the north and the south of the Yangtze River, and even because of the isolation from the mountains in the north, the climate is actually close to the south of the Yangtze River.

Therefore, if the trading time is delayed until October, then by the time Lu Yuan launches a surprise attack, by the time the Zhou people react, it will already be snowing in the north for half a month.

Hanzhong County, which is located in the south of the Yangtze River, is also about to usher in the first snow.

When the snow is heavy and the cold wind blows, the sky and the earth will be white.

In such a cold season, heavy snow sealed the mountain, and even if the Zhou State in the north wanted to transfer troops south and send people to support Hanzhong County, it was no longer possible.

In the face of layers of wind and snow, even if the Zhou people could gather hundreds of thousands of soldiers, they could only stand on the north side of the mountain, looking at the ice and snow that had closed the road, and sighed.

In the end, he watched the Chu State calmly capture Hanzhong County and completely lose this southern territory.

At that time, there will be a buffer for the whole winter, and after the Chu State conquers Hanzhong County, it can also take this opportunity to calmly deploy defenses, send men to occupy various checkpoints, and rely on natural dangers to block the enemy from abroad.

After two or three years of confrontation like this, no, with the current embarrassment of the Zhou State, it may be that in this half a year, the Zhou people will have to give in and admit the occupation of Hanzhong by the Chu State.

The state of Chu can also complete the great harvest of defeating the overlord and expanding a county at a slight cost.

It was just perfect.

So with such a big vision in front of him, Lu Yuan is naturally happy to see the delay of time.

And a slower time for the war is actually beneficial to the Chu State.

In the domestic court, after nearly a month of rectification, Sun Siwen really lived up to Lu Yuan's expectations.

When he led his troops to inspect the frontier, good news came from Baling's side.

After a combination of grace and power, long-sleeved dancing, and with Lu Yuan's support, Sun Siwen has completely stabilized the court and eliminated the impact of Cui Changqing's death.

And once the court is stabilized, there are some local governments left, and it is only a matter of time before they return to stability.

The officialdom of Chu State can be regarded as stabilizing its position.

Now that Sun Siwen, who has completely taken over all the power, has begun to mobilize all kinds of materials from the court and the local government according to the original plan, and began to cooperate with Lu Yuan in this Hanzhong conquest battle.

The most important of these is food, ordnance, medicine and other materials.

Without these, a big battle would have been lost forty percent by nature.

As for money, it is not so important to the state of Chu.

This time, the Zhou State raised 6.6 million taels of silver to buy grain, such a large sum of money, enough to support the consumption of a war in the Chu State.

It's all going to turn the other cheek anyway.

When the time comes, there will be a direct raid, and the grain raised by the Chu State and the silver raised by the Zhou State will just be used.

It also saves the hassle of hard handling, which can be described as the best of both worlds.

Lu Yuan sometimes thinks about it, and he can't help but feel complacent about his plan.

……

The preparations of the state of Chu are becoming more and more perfect, and the start date of the battle of Hanzhong is also approaching.

In the midst of the decline in the outside world, because of Lu Yuan's deliberate concealment, no one noticed that a war was about to begin.

Even many people within the Chu State, including those heads of the imperial court, except for a few people who came into contact with specific things, were kept in the dark.

There is a cloud in the Book of Changes: If the king is not secret, he will lose his minister, if he is not secret, he will lose his body, and if he is not secret, he will be harmed.

Although Lu Yuan's plan is the art of war and warfare, the principles are all the same, and military secrets must not be lightly divulged.

The importance of intelligence is clear to all.

After more than 20 years of fighting, he has always attached great importance to the confidentiality work and has not neglected it.

It was only when everything was about to be prepared that at the end of September, on the snowy plateau, a group of sudden visitors entered Hegu County, and soon descended the mountain, crossed Xichuan, and came down by boat to Baling City.

Inside the royal palace.

After receiving the report, this group of guests on the snow field had just arrived in Baling, and Lu Yuan, who had just returned from the border with his army, approached them.

"A few people came from the west, thousands of miles away, trekked through the snowfields, and came to Baling to find loneliness, I don't know what the so-called thing is?"

After reporting their identities to each other and seeing each other, Lu Yuan asked in a calm tone.

While speaking, he also looked at the five people below.

There are five people below, four men and one woman, all with braids on their heads, dressed in leather clothes, dressed as grassland herdsmen.

About half a month ago, these five people led a team of 100 people through the rugged path between River Valley County and the snow field, and entered River Valley County.

After arriving at the place, he directly reported to his home, saying that he was the four kings of the snow field on the snow plateau, such as the Huyan Department, the Tieli Department, the Zhenyan Department, and the Duosi Department, as well as the messengers of the Great Mo Sect.

This time I came to envoy Chu on the order of the four kings and the spirit girl.

The four kings of the snow field are all the lords of the big tribes on the snow plateau, with more than one million people, counting the vassals, each of the snow kings can influence the snow field people, there are millions.

Combined, the four kings can influence the ruling people, directly exceeding 10 million people.

As for the Da Mo Sect, this is the most widespread and longest-standing sect on the snowy plateau.

More than ninety percent of the Tibetan people on the entire snowfield believe in the god Damo, and respect him as the creator god of the snowfield, the bloodline source of all the Tibetan people, and the ancestor of all souls.

In the Da Mo Sect, the dual spirit system is implemented.

That is, the spirit lord and the spirit woman.

The spirit master, the head of the sect, is also responsible for all the miscellaneous things in the sect and dealing with worldly things.

The spirit woman, the soul of the sect, is also responsible for sacrificing to the god of Damo, dedicated to the Tao, except for faith, nothing else, and the status is respected.

Now that the Four Kings of the Snow Plains and the Great Mo Sect are united, they can almost represent the entire Snow Plains Fan people, and they sent envoys together, which naturally attracted the attention of the government of Hegu County.

After receiving the news, the local county guard almost immediately sent 1,000 county soldiers to escort the mission to Xichuan.

Later, after hearing this, Huang Xuan, who was guarding the local area, also invited these envoys to meet him for confirmation and temptation.

But these messengers were very tight-mouthed.

When facing Huang Xuan, no matter how tempted, they refused to let go of their breath and said their intentions.

In the end, Huang Xuan had no choice but to contact the ontology through divine thoughts after confirming that their identities were true.

Then he continued to send soldiers and horses to escort them to Baling.

This is also the reason why Lu Yuan was originally on the border of Chuning, patrolling the defense and training soldiers and horses, but at this time he hurried back to Baling.

Because of this mission, the identity of the representative behind it is really important, symbolizing the power of the entire Snow Plains, so he can't ignore it.

Inside the main hall.

Hearing Lu Yuan's inquiry, the five envoys glanced at each other, and finally the female Fan in the middle, who represented the Great Mo Sect, stood up.

I saw her salute Lu Yuan slightly, and then spoke: "Respected King Chu, I came here this time to unite with you and deal with the hateful Zhou people together. ”

"Dealing with the Zhou people?"

Lu Yuan was not much surprised when he heard this, after getting the news these days, he had already guessed in his heart about the intention of these envoys, and at this time it was just confirmed.

It's just that although he confirmed the other party's intention, he just smiled at the other party's request and asked with interest: "Your envoy doesn't know if you have heard that my Da Chu has just reached a deal with Zhou Guo and is about to sell them 10 million stone grain.

Now Zhou and Chu, although they are not allies, they also have good relations.

In this case, why did Lone turn his back on Zhou Guo and not do good business, but instead help you to deal with the strong enemy of Zhou State together? ”

The world is bustling, all for profit. The world is crowded, all for profit.

Although the state of Chu has long planned and has completed its preparations, it is about to launch a war against the state of Zhou.

Even if these people don't come, they have to do something to the Zhou State.

But before he started, if he could take advantage of the opportunity to extort a sum of money from these people, this would undoubtedly be an additional gain for Lu Yuan.

These Tibetan people have traveled thousands of miles, trekking through mountains and rivers, and they are not so naïve as to think that they can say that they can move the Chu State to send troops.

They must have a lot of benefits in their hands, and they are confident that they can move themselves.

Lu Yuan expressed his expectation for this.

He wanted to know what these people were going to use to convince him.

Before the start of the war, it was really a surprise that there would be such a windfall.

Hearing Lu Yuan's question, the envoy of the Great Mo Sect looked solemn and said solemnly: "Gold and silver, elixir, women, as long as the King of Chu is willing to join forces with us, I, the Snow Plains, are willing to offer these treasures." ”