At the end of Qin, I became a son of the plane

Chapter 242: The Demonic Kingdom of Dongchu

In the Eastern Chu Kingdom, Mo Ao had sole power, and the nobles co-governed the counties. Xiong Xin was much worse off than his ancestors. His ancestors also had fiefdoms belonging to the royal family, and the previous Chu kings were the most powerful feudal lords.

But Xiong Xin doesn't have a single county's territory. He is just a forced puppet. He has never had many rights. Naturally, he doesn't care about the life and death of Dong Chu Kingdom.

Xiong Xin still has some abilities and can see the situation clearly. In history, Xiang Liang died in battle. Xiong Xin found a way to stabilize the Chu State's regime, and he was able to break away from the puppet situation and gain power.

But he didn't expect Xiang Yu to be so fierce, and Zhao Gao to be an internal supporter. The powerful Qin State fell apart overnight. Without military strength, he could not display his political level no matter how high he was. In the end, he was killed by Yingbo in Chen County.

Xiong Xin asked: "A cautious person must be sent to this matter."

Song Yidao said: "My minister Song Xiang acts cautiously and can be the envoy of the king."

Xiong Xin nodded and said, "That's very good."

The conversation was divided into two parts. When Xiong Xin and Song Yi were discussing the betrayal of the Dongchu nobles, the Dongchu nobles also gathered together to discuss how to face the Han army.

"What qualifications does the Emperor of Han have to attack us? We have not recognized his identity as the co-owner of the world. Most of the land of his Han State belongs to our Chu State. We have not asked him for land. They actually have the nerve to come. Beat us." Mo Ao Dinggong of Xu County said angrily.

The most powerful nobleman who occupies a county is called Mo Ao, and he has the right to rule this county. There are 25 counties in Sishui County and 27 counties in Donghai. A total of 52 powerful Mo Ao were selected, and the two counties of Dongchu Kingdom were selected. Major matters are decided by the 52 Mo Ao through joint discussion. They also have a veto power without any knowledge. As long as one Mo Ao objects to the matter discussed at the Mo Ao conference, it will not be passed, preventing the majority of Mo Ao from doing so. Unite and oppress these few Mo Ao.

Instead of sending one wave of envoys, they sent six waves of envoys to Chen County, hoping to contribute to the anti-Qin cause, but they were all rejected by Zhou Zhang, the prime minister of Han at that time. Zhou Zhang has become the most scolded person in the entire Eastern Chu Kingdom.

But under this system, Chu King Xiong Xinzhen has become a decoration. Not to mention exercising the rights of King Chu, he just wants to live a better life. He can't get through the Mo Ao Conference even if he recruits several palace maids.

Therefore, Chu King Xiong Xin and Ling Yin Songyi didn't care about their status at all. It was really because the nobles of Chu State were too inhumane. They had had enough of this kind of puppet life.

Spending your own money to do things for the King of Chu, how can this be passed? Just make your archway look like yours. Spending an extra penny on you is oppression on us.

Those who can become Mo Ao are all human beings. How could they not know that when the Han Emperor did not accept them as one of the joint forces, it was because the Han Emperor was interested in their own land, but they were unwilling to accept the result.

Under this aristocratic co-governance system, the powerful powers of Sishui County and Donghai County were released to the greatest extent, and the entire country became theirs. The bills that could be passed were all things that were beneficial to them, and those that were unfavorable were vetoed with one vote.

So after deliberation, the nobles of Surabaya and Donghai counties decided to launch Song Yi and Xiong Xin as archways, and they would take care of themselves internally. But the sage system was created by Xu Fan after all. They didn't want to use the name of Xu Fan's system, so they looked through the history of Chu and created the Mo Ao system.

Dong Min said with an ugly face: "Because the Han Emperor did not allow us to join the coalition forces, the Han army could attack us unscrupulously. I have already said that the Xiang family cannot be kicked away, and the Xiang family cannot be kicked away. The Xiang family is in the Han Dynasty We are of high position and powerful. If we kick the Xiang family away, we will offend Chen Xiao. If we offend Chen Xiao, we will offend the King of Han. Now we will die without a burial place."

Several Mo Ao loudly agreed: "Yes, we want to protect our land. Since the Han army dares to come, we will go to war with them."

Mo Ao Jingsi also said: "We have no choice to surrender. As long as the Han army comes to Chu, he will definitely divide our land, take away our people, and use our land to seduce our slaves. How can we take refuge in such an evil person?"

"What's the use of talking about this now? Let's think of a way to get the Han Emperor to accept us. Otherwise, we must surrender to the Han Emperor and recognize him as the common master of the world. As long as the Han Emperor does not change the system of Sishui County and Donghai County, it will be fine anyway. King Xiong Xin of Chu is of no use, and Emperor Han can protect us better," Fu Li Mo Ao Zhu Wu said.

But there is no single powerful noble in Surabaya and East China Sea. It is very difficult to choose a leader that everyone can believe in.

Zhu Wu said angrily: "Without going through our Mo Ao Conference, what qualifications does Xiang Yu have to sell our territory?"

Dong Min is also a smart person. He initially defected to Qin Jia, but after Qin Jia's defeat, he decisively defected to Xiang Liang. Although Xiang Liang confiscated his military power, he gave him land and official positions. He was transformed from a small tycoon. After advancing to become a petty bureaucratic aristocrat, his life became better.

"This is a good proposal. As long as it does not infringe on our land and rights, it doesn't matter if Ah Mao or Ah Gou becomes the king of Chu." Suddenly a large number of Mo Ao agreed with Zhu Wu's idea.

After Xiang Liang died in battle, everyone in Sishui County and Donghai County was panicked. He wanted to seek refuge with Han King Xu Fan, but was rejected by other nobles in Sishui County. Xu Fan's attempt to equalize land was something that the powerful nobles of Sishui County could not tolerate. They fled to Surabaya because of the matter of equalizing land, so naturally they would not allow Surabaya to seek refuge with the King of Han again.

Dong Min said helplessly: "It's not that we are unwilling to surrender, but that the King of Han is unwilling to accept us. At first, Xiang Yu had sold Sishui County, Donghai County, and Kuaiji County to the Han Emperor. Now the Han Emperor has taken care of these three counties. It has become our own territory, and even if we wanted to join the coalition, we were rejected by the Han Emperor. "

As soon as Jing Si finished speaking, thunderous applause and cheers erupted in the conference hall.

And just when they were in a stalemate, the sage association created by Xu Fan came into their sight. After these Surabaya nobles had a thorough understanding of this system, they were pleasantly surprised to find that this was a system tailor-made for them. Everyone wants to have rights, but they can't dominate one party. Just unite.

Zhu Wu's thought changed very quickly. After more than a year of Mo Ao's system, he had deeply realized that the King of Chu was just a brand and a decoration. As long as it did not harm his own interests, it would be fine to replace the King of Chu with the Emperor of Han. Not a bad idea.

These applauding Mo Ao's territory is close to the Han Kingdom. The reason why they are so excited is because the two sides have irreconcilable conflicts of interest and can even be said to be life-and-death enemies.

Mo Ao, who controlled the land of a county, began to become lawless without the constraints of the upper class. The land of local people was annexed by them with their power. What if there is too much land but not enough serfs?
Then find a way to turn the peasants into their own slaves. Da Qin has given them a good example of turning people into slaves. Why did you step on the master's land and pick two leaves from the master's family? In short, People were beaten into prisoners on various unfounded charges, and they, like Mo Ao, bought the prisoners to become their own serfs.

The nationalization of land that Xu Fan had always wanted was carried out in another form on this land. There were fewer and fewer homesteaders in Sishui County and Donghai County.

The nobles of the Eastern Chu Kingdom used more land to create serfs, and when they had more serfs, they found ways to annex the land. This formed a perfect closed loop. In this way, there were fewer farmers, and the most exaggerated one was a place in Tong County. , only twenty-seven households in the entire county owned land, so that the people in the entire county were either their slaves or their tenants.

There are not many people in Tong County anymore, and it has become a commodity distribution center. Instead, there are twenty-seven docks in the wilderness of Tong County. The area of ​​each dock is larger than the county seat, and it is more prosperous than the county seat. Wubao is A self-sufficient small world, and the owner of Wubao is the master of this small world.

But the people below are not fools either. These nobles of the Chu Kingdom oppressed them so cruelly. Do they still want the local people to be slaves in peace and peace of mind? Of course they must find a way to escape from the territory of the Chu Kingdom.

The places where these people fled were all from the Han Dynasty. The prefects and magistrates of Han Dynasty's counties felt that their territory had a small population and a lot of wasteland, making it difficult to achieve political achievements.

Now there is a group of young and strong labor force falling from the sky. As long as we accept them and give them equal land, we can generate profits in the second year. Faced with such a good thing, the bureaucrats of the Han Dynasty were overjoyed and naturally tried their best to accept the people who had escaped from the disaster.

Mo Ao of the Chu State had already recognized his slaves among the people in this land. Now that the slaves had run away, they were of course not convinced and sent people to ask the Han officials to hand over their slaves.

But most of the prefects and magistrates of the Han Dynasty were soldiers. They were so arrogant that they would obey Xu Fan if they refused to obey anyone.

Who are you, Dong Chu State, to show your teeth to Naigong? You must be in need of punishment.

Most of these Han officials were from the lower classes, and they sympathized with the suffering of the people of the Eastern Chu Kingdom. In addition, taking in the people could improve their political performance. Whether it was in terms of conscience or profit, they could not take away the people who had escaped. Hand it back.

So when faced with these Mo Ao's thugs, the Han officials usually beat them out.

But there were still a few hot-tempered Han county magistrates. They directly mobilized all the soldiers under their rule, leading thousands of troops, and sent troops into the territory of the Eastern Chu Kingdom. Mo Ao was so frightened that they hid in their own forts. .

While the powerful nobles could hide in Wubao, the people under their rule could not hide. The county magistrates of the Han army first found the nobles who had not hidden in Wubao, hanged them all, and fiercely punished the local people. tone. Then all these people were rescued and resettled in their own territory, leaving only the empty territory on the border of Eastern Chu State.

Therefore, Mo Ao, who lived on the border of the Eastern Chu State, hated these big Han people. The Han officials killed their relatives and took away their slaves. This was a life-and-death hatred. If it weren't for their lack of strength, they would have wanted to fight back. Now that someone has finally said what they want to say, of course they must support and welcome it.

Dong Min slapped the table with his hand angrily, suppressing the cheers around him and said angrily: "Are you crazy? The million-strong army of Qin Dynasty was destroyed by the Han Emperor. Do we have a million people in Chu State in total? ?”

"If you want to fight, how can you win? Don't you know the consequences of not winning?" Of course they knew, they knew exactly how the Han Emperor treated Qin officials.

"You guys can find a way to win, so what if I give up my family property?"

Dong Min's roar made other Mo Ao wake up. They were originally an alliance composed of a group of defeated dogs. If they could beat Xu Fan, they would have beaten them.

"What should we do in this situation now? Are we just waiting to be hanged by the Han officials?"

Dong Min said: "We'd better formulate a good surrender condition. The best is to do what Zhu Wu said. We surrender to the Han Emperor. The Han Emperor will not change the system of Sishui County and Donghai County. The worst is to keep our land. "

The other Mo Ao discussed quietly with each other for a long time, and found that what Dong Min said was the most practical, so they unanimously agreed to the surrender plan, knowing that they could not win.

But soon Jing Si asked: "If the Han Emperor is not even willing to leave the land to us and must equalize the land, should we continue to surrender?"

Other Mo Ao also felt that given the tyranny of the Han Emperor, this was really possible, so they looked at Dong Miao, wanting to hear his answer.

Dong Min said with a solemn face: "The Emperor of Han must equalize our fields, so the only option we have is to fight to the death."

"When we send envoys to negotiate with the Han Emperor, we must also start recruiting troops. Only with strong power in our hands can we propose better surrender conditions."

After the discussion, Mo Ao of the Eastern Chu State sent Dong Min and Zhu Wu as envoys to Chen County to discuss the terms of surrender. At the same time, other Mo Ao began to recruit a large army to prepare for a decisive battle with the Han army.

It was March 13th in the third year of Han Dynasty.

Dong Min and Zhu Wu came to Chen County as envoys, entered the Han army camp, and met Han Xin, the general who was attacking the thief.

Dong Min and Zhu Wu were both surprised. They didn't expect that Han Xin, the commander-in-chief of the Han army, would be so young. The supervisors Chen Xiaodao and Jing Tao beside him were also young and looked to be in their twenties. The King of Han was really big-hearted. , actually letting three such young people control an army of 5.

Han Xin looked at the two of them and said, "We are now in a hostile relationship. Why did you two come to our army camp?"

Dong Min immediately said: "We have always admired the Han Emperor and sent envoys many times to join the United Army. However, there are traitors around the Han Emperor. Our envoys have never seen the Han Emperor. There will be countless casualties in the battle between the two armies. I will wait here. It’s about peace.”

Han Xin calmly pointed to the core and said: "Do you want to surrender?"

Dong Min immediately said: "It is to seek refuge with the Han Emperor. We have always wanted to seek refuge with the Han Emperor."

Han Xin said: "This is easy to handle. You hand over your army and take your property to Guanzhong. I, the great man, keep my word and will ensure your safety."

Dong Min asked in disbelief: "That's it. General, there is nothing else you want to say?"

Han Xin said: "No."

When Zhu Wu heard what Han Xin said, he couldn't help but angrily said: "The Han Emperor is famous for his benevolence and righteousness. If you bully the weak like this, you have to have a limit. You are not afraid of ruining the reputation of the Han Emperor."

"Bullying the weak?" Han Xin said a little puzzled: "You didn't come here to discuss surrender. Why are you bullying the weak? If you are willing to accept these conditions, then surrender. If you are not willing to surrender, then we will fight."

Dong Mou grabbed Zhu Wudao and said: "We are willing to depose King Xiong Xin of Chu and surrender to the Han Emperor. We only have one request, that is, the Han Emperor retains our Mo Ao system, which is the same as the sage system established by the Han Emperor. . We are also following in the footsteps of Emperor Han, and we can all be considered our own people.”

Chen Xiaodao sneered and said: "Our sages did not force them to rebel against the people. You Mo Ao are worthy of being called sages. They are simply evil ghosts. Your majesty's good system has been ruined by you."

Han Xin likes to collect sufficient intelligence information before going to war, so Han Xin sent hundreds of spies to Surabaya County and Donghai County to detect intelligence before the army went to war.

It turned out that these nobles of the Eastern Chu State, Mo Ao, did more than the Qin officials. In many counties of the Eastern Chu State, in addition to slaves, they were nobles. The farmers of the Eastern Chu State were almost wiped out by these Mo Ao. Such a great social regression , it’s simply jaw-dropping.

When Zhu Wu heard this, he said angrily: "Why is it that your Sage Society of Han is good, but our Mo Ao Society has become an evil spirit? And can you make the final decision on such a big thing? Are you not afraid of the punishment if Emperor Han knows about it?" you."

Dong Min also persuaded: "The war will result in countless casualties. The Han Emperor is a benevolent and righteous man, and he will definitely not want to see ordinary people die in battle."

Han Xin was unmoved and said: "If you want to surrender, then you must surrender unconditionally. If you don't want to surrender, I will beat you until you surrender. As for whether I have this right, don't worry. Since Your Majesty has asked me to command the army, I will." Full authority to deal with everything in this war."

Chen Xiaodao even mocked: "Don't worry, my big man will not only abolish the Mo Ao Conference, but also divide all your land and give it to the people who have no land. You'd better run away faster. For people like you, Those who harm the people and do evil things, our Han army will lead the people to hang you to make you pay for the sins you owe to the people."

Dong Min and Zhu Wu almost went crazy after hearing this. These three young men were sure to defeat them.

Zhu Wu said angrily: "Our Chu country has millions of people, so it may not be that we don't have the strength to fight."

Han Xin said calmly: "Two envoys, please excuse me. It just so happens that I also want to see your strength in a battle."

The two left the Han army camp.

Zhu Wu said angrily: "The Han army has defeated us."

Dong Min shook his head and said: "This battle is inevitable."

March 16, the third year of Dahan

The envoy from Dong Chu came to the Han army camp again.

Although Han Xin found it strange, he still received him.

"Song Xiang, the envoy of the King of Chu, has met all the generals." Song Xiang bowed his hands and saluted.

Chen Xiaodao mocked: "Didn't you leave yesterday? Why are you here again today?"

Song Xiang understood what Chen Xiaodao meant and immediately said: "Yesterday's envoy represented the Mo Ao Conference, and a certain person represented the King of Chu and Ling Yin."

"The Han army is coming to attack. My king understands that Chu is no match for Han. My king is willing to surrender to Han. He even tells the Han army the information about the army. I just ask the generals to help me and give my king a good word in front of the Han Emperor."

Jing Tao and Chen Xiaodao both looked at him in shock. This minister wanted to fight to the death, but the king surrendered first.

Only Han Xin thought of the system of the Eastern Chu Kingdom and understood Xiong Xin's thoughts: "As long as the King of Chu can make contributions, we will naturally not bury the contributions of the King of Chu. With your majesty's generosity, not only will you forgive the King of Chu, but maybe I can also give the King of Chu a piece of land."

(End of this chapter)