Summoning the Peak of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 2933 Wang Mang: Is Qin Zheng the First Emperor of Qin?

Chapter 2929 Wang Mang: Is Qin Zheng the First Emperor of Qin?

Ashina Isshin's crazy assassination attempt caused great headaches for the four countries of Wei, Song, Ming and Wu. They all wanted to solve this trouble, but they could not lock down his location. They had no choice but to increase their efforts to hunt down Ashina Isshin.

Under the joint pursuit of many masters from the four countries of Wei, Song, Ming and Wu, Ashina Isshin, who had no way to escape, had to flee to the territory of Daqin to avoid being hunted, but he was also targeted by Susanoo.

Although Ashina Isshin hated the Han tyranny, he also knew that the Qin Dynasty was the overlord of the Han people, and the number of its masters was more than the four countries of Wei, Song, Ming and Wu combined, so he naturally did not dare to provoke it easily.

He had never committed a crime in the Qin territory before. If he had not been forced to do so, he would not have fled into the Qin-ruled area and encountered Susanoo, the former most powerful general in Japan and now the most powerful general in Yingzhou.

Although Ashina Isshin was able to fight against Grand Master Cao Qiumichi in a short period of time, the gap in strength was still too big compared to Susanoo, who was able to defeat Grand Masters across levels. Naturally, he was ultimately defeated miserably by Susanoo.

Susanoo naturally couldn't bear to kill a hero like Ashina Isshin. He took action only because it was his duty, so he finally chose to capture him alive.

After learning about Ashina Isshin's deeds, Yingzhou Governor Qin Zheng also felt that Ashina Isshin was a talented person with excellent character, so he wanted to persuade him to surrender and serve the Qin Dynasty.

After Qin Zheng's repeated attempts to persuade him to surrender and Susanoo's repeated persuasion, Ashina Isshin finally gave up his hostility towards the Qin Dynasty. After truly understanding the strength of the Han countries, he also realized that the Han rule in Yingzhou could never be overthrown.

After the Han people tasted the sweetness of Yingzhou, it was impossible for them to leave. Even if one of them was overthrown, it would soon be replaced by another. In essence, it didn't make much sense. Moreover, the major forces in Yingzhou were deeply bound to the Han people.

Since we are destined to lose, we might as well join actively.

This is also the true thought in the hearts of a group of doves such as Susanoo, Tsukuyomi, and Uesugi Kenshin.

After witnessing the Qin's rule over Yingzhou with his own eyes, Ashina Isshin realized that it was indeed not as brutal as the four kingdoms of Wei, Song, Wu and Ming. He gradually began to understand the mentality of the doves and decided to join the Qin, the most powerful force among all. The Ashina people led by him also joined the Qin.

Although the Ashina clan suffered heavy losses under the siege of the Wei, Song and Ming kingdoms, their continuous actions made them famous in the underworld and they easily recruited many new members, so their strength is still not weak.

Of course, the most important point is the surrender of the Ashina people, which greatly reduced the resistance of the common people in Yingzhou to the rule of the Qin Dynasty.

After all, the Ashina people have a very high reputation as chivalrous people in Yingzhou, and they represent justice and fairness in the hearts of many civilians. Even they have defected to the Qin Dynasty, which in a certain sense also shows that the Qin Dynasty is more popular.

The fact that Ashina Isshin and the Ashina people defected to Qin also made the remaining forces in Japan, led by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, furious. It was not that they had not thought about rescuing the Ashina people, but they were worried that it would arouse the vigilance of the Han people, so they did not take any action and instead watched Ashina Isshin struggle.

It was not until Ashina devoted itself to the Qin Dynasty that Toyotomi Hideyoshi and others began to regret, because they missed not only a great general, but also the hearts of a large number of grassroots people.

There were actually quite a few native people of Yingzhou who truly surrendered to the Qin Dynasty, such as Ashina Isshin, Maeda Keiji, Shimazu Toshihisa, and Shimazu Tadatsune. However, the composition of the people was too mixed, and it was difficult to distinguish the loyal and treacherous among them, so most of them were still in the probation period.

On the other hand, Wang Mang did not have as many concerns as the Qin Dynasty. As long as the people came from Yingzhou, he would accept anyone who surrendered to him. The reason why he chose to send troops to Kyushu this time, in addition to being forced by Jin Qing to expand the territory, was also to recruit talents from Yingzhou.

Wang Mang knew very well that war depends on talents, but even though the Three Korean Peninsulas had been unified, there were not enough talents for him to command. On the contrary, the density of talents in Yingzhou, across the sea, was no less than that in the Central Plains.

  In fact, this is very normal. The talents accumulated by Japan for thousands of years are concentrated on one island at the same time. How can the talent density not be high?

However, although there are many talents in Yingzhou, their quality is much worse. Most of their attributes are between 50 and 80. Those who can reach 90 are already top talents, and those who can exceed are even rarer, let alone gold-level talents.

  However, Wang Mang had no right to be picky. He had no other choice. It was better to have the Japanese than to have none, right?

Since he was destined to fail in terms of quality, Wang Mang could only overtake others in terms of quantity.

After listening to Yeon Gaesomun's story, Wang Mang suppressed his anger and asked, "So, you suffered another defeat after the defeat at Hitoyoshi Castle because you encountered Ashina Isshin and suffered even more injuries?"

Although Wang Mang had made sufficient preparations before traveling through time, he had no impression of Ashina Isshin as he did not play games much, so he just thought that he was an overlooked local figure and did not have much fear in his heart.

"Well, that's not the case..."

Yeon Gaesomun looked embarrassed and after some hesitation, he truthfully recounted another disastrous defeat he had experienced after the defeat at Hitoyoshi Castle.

In short, although the injured Yeon Gaesomunwa was defeated by Ashina Isshin, he also served to cover the defeated army's retreat. However, after the war, he was clever enough to come up with a plan to lure the enemy in an attempt to turn the tide.

Yeon Gaesomun deliberately announced to the outside world that he was seriously injured in the previous battle and the morale of the army was shaken because of it, in order to show weakness to the enemy and lure the Qin army to attack, and he joined forces with the Japanese general Shibata Katsuie to set up an ambush.

That’s right, it was the Oda clan’s chief general Shibata Katsuie who was destroyed along with Uramoto Castle and 100,000 troops by Wu Qi’s fire during the war against Japan.

Even Wu Qi thought that Shibata Katsuie was dead, but in fact, the fire did not burn Shibata Katsuie to death. He noticed something was wrong in advance, but he could not stop the Qin army's fire attack. He could only escape from Puyuan Castle with a few confidants through the secret passage, thus avoiding the fate of being burned to death. As for Shibata Katsuie after escaping, why didn't he go to Toyotomi Hideyoshi? Instead, he followed Wang Mang instead of seeking a distant place? The reason is actually very simple. The two had a deep grudge.

I don't know if it's historical inertia, but these two were mortal enemies in the original history. After being defeated in the Battle of Kanegasaki, Shibata Katsuie would rather ignite explosives and commit suicide than surrender to Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

The two still had a lot of conflicts in this life, but the real reason why Shibata Katsuie chose Wang Mang was that after the fall of Japan, Toyotomi Hideyoshi's attitude towards the Han people was too weak, which made him see no hope of restoring his country, so he chose Wang Mang over the near one.

Shibata Katsuie was not the only one who defected to Wang Mang. After learning that he had defected to Wang Mang, some people who were also dissatisfied with Toyotomi Hideyoshi also came to defect to him, such as: Goshin Koji, Momochi Santaifu, etc. This also made Shibata Katsuie the head of the Japanese generals under Wang Mang.

Although Wang Mang only had the tiny territory of the Three Han, with his formal occupation of northern Kyushu, his subordinates could be divided into four major factions: Han, Korean, Japanese, and foreign.

The first three are naturally divided according to the ethnic group, while the last foreign ethnic group is all foreign ethnic groups except the three Wa tribes in the Han Dynasty.

Although Shibata Katsuie was the head of the Japanese faction, Yeon Gaesomun was also a prominent figure in the Korean faction. He took the initiative to come to seek cooperation, and Shibata Katsuie naturally found it difficult to refuse.

Shibata Katsuie had never dealt with Qin Zheng before, so he didn't know how powerful Qin Zheng was. Although Yeon Gaesomun's plan was a bit crude, it was still very feasible. Moreover, even if it was discovered, at least they would not be defeated with him around.

With this idea in mind, Shibata Katsuie decided to cooperate with Yeon Gaesomun to implement a strategy to lure the enemy. However, he did not expect that not only did he fail to outwit Qin Zheng, but he was ambushed by Qin Zheng instead. Moreover, the casualties were even greater than in the previous battle, reaching nearly 8,000 people.

Yeon Gaesomun was first tricked by Qin Zheng's counter-espionage plan, and then by a series of tricks, which made Wang Mang so angry that he was speechless.

You should know that since the march into and occupation of Northern Kyushu, the total casualties of Wang Mang's army were less than one thousand, while Yeon Gaesomun's two consecutive defeats caused him to lose a full 11,000 troops.

The total military strength of the Kingdom of Korea was only 160,000, and the loss of one-sixteenth of it in one go, how could Wang Mang not feel distressed? At the same time, his fear of Qin Zheng reached its peak, even reaching a level second only to Ying Hao.

At first, Wang Mang did not take Qin Zheng seriously, thinking that he was just a man of mediocre ability but from an aristocratic family with excellent background. However, after learning about Qin Zheng's specific experience, he found that Qin Zheng was far from being as simple as he seemed.

Ying Wen's adopted son, he joined the army at the age of 18 and rarely suffered defeat. His achievements cannot be said to be top-notch, but they are definitely not bad. However, the most crucial thing is his political achievements.

Qin Zheng successively served as the governor of three states, namely Jingzhou, Yongzhou, and Yingzhou. During his tenure, these three states had their own problems, but he not only solved them all, but also governed each state in an orderly manner, especially Yongzhou and Yingzhou.

During the time when Qin Zheng was the governor of Yongzhou, the Li Tang Dynasty had not yet been destroyed, and Li Shimin was constantly making moves of all sizes, but Qin Zheng was able to counter each move and hold on.

As for the position of Yingzhou governor, it was an even hotter potato. After all, there were so many forces in Yingzhou and the situation was so complicated that even Wang Mang was not 100% confident that he could handle it. However, Qin Zheng handled it like a fish in water.

There are not many people in history who have such political response capabilities, so even Wang Mang had to doubt Qin Zheng's identity.

Could it be that Qin Zheng is really the equivalent of Qin Shi Huang? Wang Mang thought to himself.

  There are three reasons why Wang Mang never regarded Qin Zheng as the first emperor:

First, although there aren’t many people named Zheng, there are some.

  Second, among the natives of this era, there are indeed many buried talents, such as Isshin Ashina and so on;

Third, he didn't think that a figure like Qin Shihuang would be inferior to anyone.

Among these three reasons, the third one is the most important, but this is actually due to Wang Mang's inherent thinking. He didn't think from the bottom of his heart that Qin Shihuang would be inferior to anyone, so naturally he would not think about it in this regard.

But in fact, if Wang Mang only needed to think about it, he would know that the biggest reason why Ying Zheng could become the first emperor was because he was the eldest son of King Zhuangxiang. Without this identity, no matter how strong Ying Zheng's personal ability was, he could not become Qin Shi Huang.

Qin Zheng is Ying Zheng who lost his inheritance rights. His father in this life is not King Zhuangxiang, but Ying Wen's younger brother. Although he is Ying Wen's adopted son, Ying Wen has his own son, and Ying Hao also has his own son, so Qin Zheng has no legal qualifications for inheritance.

Reality is often so cruel. Without the support of legal legitimacy, even Qin Shihuang can only abide by the law and be an honest subject.

After realizing that Qin Zheng might be the next Qin Shi Huang, Wang Mang knew that Jiuzhou might not be so easy to conquer. Even though Qin Zheng did not have any strong generals under his command, he had to put all his strength into dealing with it seriously. After all, Qin Shi Huang deserved such treatment.

Wang Mang was looking forward to it. If he could defeat or even kill Qin Zheng in the next battle, he wondered if Ying Hao’s expression would be very ugly.

When Wang Mang thought of this, he immediately summoned all his civil and military officials to discuss ways to deal with the Qin government.