Summoning the Peak of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 2939 Daqin Double Standards

  Chapter 2935 Daqin Double Standards

The battle of Yingzhou can currently be divided into three stages.

In the first stage, the Qin and Shou coalition forces attacked.

The four kingdoms of Wei, Song, Ming and Wu, as well as the remnant of Japan Toyotomi Hideyoshi, jointly attacked Qin, while the Qin Dynasty responded passively.

It was also during this process that Daqin lost the eight counties of Xihai County in the western part of the state.

The eight counties of the West Sea do not have a large population, nor are they a very rich place, but they are where the Iwami Silver Mine is located. Together with other small and medium-sized gold and silver mines, the overall gold and silver mine output of Daqin has been reduced by two-fifths.

In this regard, the Qin Dynasty suffered heavy losses, but due to the chaotic situation and the inability to focus on Yingzhou in the short term, it was unable to recover the eight counties of Xihai County, which was really frustrating.

In the second stage, the Qin army defended in the east and attacked in the west, challenging five forces alone.

Wang Jian ordered Qin Zheng and Uesugi Kenshin to lead their troops to garrison Kansai County and Hokuriku County respectively to resist the coalition forces of eastern Honshu and Hokkaido, while he himself led a large army to launch a defensive counterattack. While invading Nobi and Kinki, he ordered Susanoo to lead his army to capture Shikoku Island, while Tachibana Dosetsu of Kyushu also marched north to capture Kyushu.

During this period, the Qin army won a great victory. Not only did it capture large territories of Nobi and Kinki, it also almost occupied the entire Kyushu and Shikoku, completely crushing its opponents in terms of strategic layout.

Even though the enemy had realized Wang Jian's purpose, the ship was too big to turn around, so they were unable to stop Wang Jian's encirclement plan. He almost realized his plan to unify Yingzhou first in the west and then in the east.

However, with the arrival of Wang Mang's reinforcements, Wang Jian's encirclement plan was completely declared a failure. Not only did the northern Kyushu and Shikoku be lost again, but the Qin army was once again put in a passive state of being beaten.

This was the third stage of the battle of Yin and Yingzhou, in which the Qin army fought on four fronts and Wang Jian challenged six kingdoms alone.

In fact, when Wang Jian launched the second phase of the operation, he knew that if the encirclement plan failed, the Qin army would be caught in the dilemma of fighting on multiple fronts and would be at risk of being defeated one by one.

But at that time, Wang Jian was confident that even if he could not win quickly, he could still nibble away at the enemy bit by bit and achieve final victory, so he ignored the risks of dividing his troops.

But Wang Jian did not expect that Wang Mang would wade into this muddy water, which not only destroyed his plan, but also made the sequelae of the failed plan fully manifest.

Now the Qin army is scattered in Kyushu, Shikoku, Kanto and Nobi, forced to fight on four fronts and besieged by six forces. Naturally, its military strength has become stretched.

In fact, at the beginning of the war, the Qin Dynasty had sufficient military forces in Yingzhou. Not only did it have 80,000 local regular troops, but there were also 160,000 Qin auxiliary troops, a total of 240,000 troops, which was definitely more than enough to defend the five counties of Yingzhou.

But no one expected that the situation in Yingzhou would change so quickly. Not only did all forces unite, but they also pulled in Wang Mang, an outsider, so that Wang Jian's 240,000 troops could not solve the problems in Yingzhou.

In addition, the Qin army has suffered heavy losses up to this point in the war. Not only has the local army lost 8,000 soldiers, but the Qin allied army has also suffered 40,000 casualties.

Faced with this situation, Wang Jian had to urgently recruit soldiers on the spot, but the newly recruited Qin auxiliary troops were definitely inferior to the previous ones in terms of combat effectiveness and morale. They could only be used to defend the city but not to fight in the field.

In order to maintain the current situation, Wang Jian decided to relax restrictions on local clans and allow them to recruit soldiers on their own to cooperate with the Qin army in battle. This led to the formation of the 25,000-strong coalition force in Southern Kyushu.

In fact, Wang Jian's actions were essentially not much different from the order to emancipate the Qiang issued by Yang Guang. The difference was that the Qin Dynasty did not do so out of necessity, but took the initiative to promote it.

  Ying Hao, who himself was born into a noble family, was very aware of the dangers of noble families. He also adopted a strict defensive attitude towards noble families in other countries, but why was he so tolerant towards the Yingzhou noble families?

The reason is actually very simple. Although the Japanese Empire established by Oda Nobunaga lasted for a short time, it was unanimously recognized by all Japanese people, just like the Yuan Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty established by Genghis Khan and Nurhaci, thus giving birth to national consciousness.

The three countries of Yuan Dynasty, Mongolia, Qing Dynasty and Japan all have their own history, writing and civilization, and will naturally reject foreign civilizations, even the extremely similar Qin civilization.

Therefore, before complete unification, even if the Qin Dynasty implemented a series of assimilation policies, it was obviously not an easy task to completely assimilate Yingzhou. It would require a lot of time and even the efforts of two or three generations.

This is the price that must be paid for aggression. Without such a long period of assimilation, it is impossible to completely assimilate a nation.

Yingzhou is a mountain of gold and silver. The Qin Dynasty, which has tasted the sweetness, naturally cannot give up this precious land. However, the assimilation process is too long. As the emperor, Ying Hao wants to shorten this period. There are actually two best ways:

The first one is naturally to unify Yingzhou, but it is obviously impossible before the unification of the Nine Provinces. The Qin Dynasty must first complete the unification of China before it can free up its hands to complete the unification of Yingzhou.

As for the second method, it is to imitate the policy of the Qing Dynasty when it entered the Pass and support a group of Japanese traitors. The speed of assimilation by Japanese ruling Japanese is obviously much faster than that by Han ruling Japanese.

As for how to support a group of Japanese traitors and completely tie the Yingzhou family to the chariot of the Qin Dynasty, it can be summed up in nine words: the Qin Dynasty and the family jointly govern Yingzhou;

Since the Qin Dynasty has not yet unified Yingzhou, there are still many enemies in Yingzhou. Naturally, it cannot treat the Yingzhou families according to domestic standards. Therefore, there is no need to completely control the territory under its command. It is only necessary to control the majority of the population and the most essential land.

As for those places that Daqin could not control, as well as the population hidden by the noble families, they were all handed over to the Yingzhou noble families for management. At the same time, they took the initiative to give up some of their interests and completely tied up their interests, making the Yingzhou noble families the basis for Daqin's rule in Yingzhou. For example, if Yingzhou is a listed company, Daqin is the chairman, and the major noble families in Yingzhou are all small shareholders.

This is also the main reason why after the Yingzhou War broke out, the ones who rebelled against the Qin side were all small families, while none of the big families rebelled.

Under this strategy, the Yingzhou family not only controls the local area, but also has military power, which is almost equivalent to a small warlord. But this is exactly what the Qin Dynasty wants to see. After all, they still have to rely on them to fight against the coalition army.

In fact, even if Wang Jian did not lift the restrictions, the Yingzhou families who had money, food, and people in the local area would still expand their strength in secret to protect themselves, and lifting the restrictions would only make them more open and aboveboard.

As for after these families have their own armies, will they join the coalition forces in rebelling like the local families in Shikoku and Kyushu?

This possibility is naturally impossible to completely avoid, but the facts have proved that in the end, it was the small and insignificant families that rebelled, and no major family chose to rebel.

This also shows that the policy of bundling interests between the Qin Dynasty and the Yingzhou family was extremely successful.

It is precisely because the interests of the Yingzhou clans have long been closely related to Daqin, and the coalition forces will not only fail to bring them greater benefits, but will instead take away power from them, that they will ignore the interests of their country and family, just like they joined the Qing Dynasty in exterminating the Han clans in the late Ming Dynasty, and will do their utmost to help Daqin fight against the coalition forces.

Because opposing Qin is opposing themselves, they naturally cannot oppose themselves.

However, the policy of Daqin and Yingzhou's aristocratic families jointly governing Yingzhou caused quite an impact after it was reported back to the country.

  After all, the Qin aristocratic families only have economic dominance, but not local control and the right to recruit private soldiers. However, they have given the Yingzhou aristocratic families so many privileges. Isn't this a complete double standard?

Why can those barbarians from a fallen country in Yingzhou enjoy higher treatment than the noble families in their own country?

For this reason, many officials from aristocratic families wrote letters to the emperor, ostensibly opposing the Qin Dynasty's policy of bundling interests, but in reality wanting to gain the same status for their local aristocratic families.

But this is obviously impossible.

At a court meeting, Ying Hao was furious about this and dismissed 16 opposing officials in succession. Only then did he suppress all kinds of opposition voices inside and outside the court.

But Ying Hao also knew that this could only suppress the situation temporarily. If the fundamental problem was not solved, those aristocratic families would not give up.

As for what the fundamental problem is? It is essentially one country, but there are two different systems. The Qin Dynasty's blatant double standard behavior makes many people feel unwilling and lucky at the same time.

Ying Hao naturally attached great importance to this. After all, if this trend was not suppressed, there would be endless troubles in the future. So he held eight court meetings in succession to specifically discuss the policy issues of Yingzhou.

After a series of heated discussions, the ministers finally came to the conclusion that if they wanted to completely incorporate Yingzhou into their territory, they would have to rely on the power of the Yingzhou family, and that if they wanted the horse to run, they had to feed it.

Ying Hao knew that many people were still unwilling to accept this, so he made a statement, clearly stating that the policy of co-governance was only a transitional policy before the unification of Yingzhou. After the unification of the entire Yingzhou and complete naturalization, the policy would be changed back to the same as that of the Qin Dynasty. This would completely stop this unhealthy trend.

Ying Hao also knew that the co-governance policy had many hidden dangers, but it was indeed the most suitable response strategy for the Qin Dynasty under the current situation. Moreover, he did not think that he could not do what even Dorgon could do.

As long as the Qin army continues to grow stronger, even if the Yingzhou family has some ulterior motives, they will never dare to reveal them, but this bomb has been planted.

Ying Hao estimated that even if he unified Yingzhou later, the co-governance policy would still continue for a long time. After all, it is not that easy to assimilate a nation.

There is a high probability that he will not be able to completely assimilate Yingzhou during his reign, and he can only leave it to his son to abolish this co-governance policy which has great hidden dangers. The Yingzhou aristocratic families will certainly not be willing to give up the power in their hands, and forcibly taking it back may cause another wave of twists and turns. However, he believes that Ying Sheng's wisdom will be able to solve this problem perfectly.

As for Wang Jian, although he also knew the hidden dangers, compared with Ying Hao, he did not think as far ahead.

In Wang Jian's view, the Qin Dynasty had not yet completed its unification, and Yingzhou was in crisis. It might be a good idea to rely on the power of the Japanese to overcome the difficulties, so he lifted the restrictions so readily.

  As for what will happen to Yingzhou in the future? Wang Jian didn't know, nor did he want to know. He only knew that during his tenure as Grand Commander, he must not let Qin lose the five counties of Yingzhou, even if he had to use any means to do so.

When Wang Jian lifted the restrictions, the Yingzhou families were overjoyed. If there were still some concerns before, they no longer had any concerns. After all, the Qin Dynasty's policy of co-governance was not just talk, but real action. Naturally, they were determined to follow the Qin Dynasty to the end.

The Yingzhou aristocratic families actively recruited soldiers and horses, and at the same time sent people to express their loyalty to Wang Jian and strongly support Wang Jian's wise decisions.

In response to this, Wang Jian could only sneer in his heart, looking at these people as if he were looking at dead people. He knew that these people were already dead bones in the tomb, and their only use was to be squeezed dry of their remaining value by the Qin Dynasty.

Although Wang Jian was strong and his command ability was the best in Yingzhou, he was just one person after all and could not take care of the entire Yingzhou. Therefore, even with his presence, the Qin army fighting on multiple fronts was still at a disadvantage.

However, with the addition of local coalition forces such as Oda, Tokugawa, Uesugi, Hojo, and Shinomiya, the Qin army greatly made up for its disadvantage in military strength, and finally withstood the joint counterattack of the five forces of Wei, Song, Ming, Wu, and Toyotomi at a very low cost.

Looking at the map in front of him, Wang Jian couldn't help but sighed: "Alas, it all depends on the governor of Qin Zheng. If we win the battle of Jiuzhou, the encirclement and annihilation plan can still be implemented. If we lose, we will have to fight the battle of Yingzhou."