Chu and Han contend for the throne

Chapter 270
In short, relying on the 46 or so scholars in Taixue’s reserves will never solve all the problems. The Jiangdong gentry have long seen this. That is absolutely impossible, now I can only think of other ways, Xiang Zhuang asked: "Everyone, do you have a good plan?"

Xiang Ta, Xiang Tuo, Wu She and the others were relatively speechless, and Fan Zeng was helpless.

Bai Lixian shook his feather fan, and suddenly said to Xiang Zhuang and Fan Zeng: "Your Majesty, old military adviser, there are only two ways to go, one is to compromise with them..."

"No, absolutely not!" Bai Lixian was interrupted by Xiang Zhuang before he finished speaking.

Fan Zeng nodded lightly, and said, "That's right, I'd rather hand over the 46 counties to those county captains, rather than those big-headed soldiers to make a mess of the place, and never compromise with these bastards!" After a pause, Fan Zeng said again, "The old man said long ago that resistance to the law is an enemy of the Xiang family, and it must be suppressed!"

Bai Lixian sighed and said, "Then we can only borrow someone."

"Borrower?" Xiang Zhuang's expression moved slightly when he heard the words, and said, "Zi Liang, what do you mean by this?"

Fan Zeng's eyes lit up, and he said happily, "Ji'er, what Ziliang means is to borrow an official from the Huainan Kingdom!"

Borrow an official from Huainan? !Xiang Zhuang and Xiang Ta were shocked when they heard the words, but Xiang Tuo and Wu She were confused. Since ancient times, they only heard of borrowing soldiers and borrowing food, but never heard of borrowing officials?Moreover, although Huainan State has formed an alliance with Chu State, Yingbu may not be willing to lend the officials of Huainan State to Da Chu. It must be known that Chu State does not want to borrow a few officials, but hundreds of officials.

Xiang Zhuang stroked the bushy beard on his lips, and said, "Ziliang, how likely is it to succeed in this matter?"

Bai Lixian smiled slightly and said: "I think there are at least [-]% sure, there are three reasons: First, Huainan is also undergoing reforms, although the general direction of its reforms is not consistent with that of our Great Chu, but it helps the King of Huainan to control all aspects of the country. The purpose of the county is exactly the same as ours, so there are also conflicts between the King of Huainan and the nobles of Huainan."

"Well, that makes sense." Fan Zeng said happily, "Perhaps Yingbo would like us to borrow someone."

Bailixian paused, then raised his second finger, and continued: "Secondly, Huainan originally belonged to Chu, and most of the nobles in Huainan were from the old tribe of Chu. The interests of the gentry are damaged, and the king only needs a paper to seek merit, and it is entirely possible for these Huainan gentry to move their families to Jiangdong and be used by my king."

"En." Xiang Zhuang nodded, and said again, "What else?"

Bai Lixian finally raised his third finger, and continued: "The last and most important thing is that these Huainan gentry are all outsiders and have no roots in Jiangdong. If they want to gain a firm foothold in Jiangdong, they must rely on the help of the king Full support, because of this, these Huainan gentry will fully support the new law!"

After Xiang He heard this, he was still a little worried. He got up and said to Xiang Zhuang, "However, there are not many Huainan gentry who are really willing to move to Jiangdong. If they die, there are only a hundred or so. There are even more people who can rule counties and counties. Little, I am worried that this mere glass of water will not be able to extinguish the raging fire of the gentry in 46 counties."

"No." Bai Lixian retorted with a smile, "What Ling Yin said is true, but the Jiangdong gentry is not monolithic. Once the Huainan gentry intervenes in Jiangdong and takes away part of their official positions and rights, the Jiangdong gentry There will inevitably be a split, and some of the gentry who are not firm enough will change their ways immediately."

What Bai Lixian said is true, there are as many nobles as there are officials in Jiangdong, basically it is a carrot and a pit.

The reason why the Jiangdong gentry dared to fight against the royal power was because they had the confidence to retreat behind them, but once the Huainan gentry intervened, the situation would be different immediately. There would be a lot more carrots, but the pits would still be so small. , it will be difficult for the Jiangdong gentry to keep calm anymore, because if they keep calm, the pits will have been robbed long ago.

"Good!" Xiang Zhuang praised, "This means that foreign monks can chant sutras!"

"A foreign monk? Chanting scriptures?" Bailixian, Fan Zeng, Xiang Ta, Wu She and others immediately looked at each other when they heard the words. It must be known that Buddhism was far from being introduced to China in this era, so the word monk has never appeared at all, so even if it is Peerless wise men like Fan Zeng and Bai Lixian are also confused at the moment.

"Uh..." Xiang Zhuang quickly changed the subject, "Well, let's discuss the envoy to Huainan Kingdom first."

Bai Lixian shook his feather fan and said in astonishment: "Your Majesty, I'm afraid there is no need to discuss this again? Of course the doctor is the best candidate to go to Huainan Kingdom."

Wu She also got up and made a bow, "Your Majesty, I wish to go."

Xiang Zhuang said with a little shame: "That's okay, you go home and pack up, and leave today!" After saying this, Xiang Zhuang said again: "Oh, by the way, don't go empty-handed, go to the army horse farm to pick five hundred horses. Take the pony to Pengcheng together, even if it is a gift from the widow to King Huainan, by the way, say hello to the king of Huainan for the widow."

"Here." Wu She gave a bow, and took the order to go.

Speaking of short-legged horses, Xiang Zhuang suddenly remembered something and asked him, "Ziyi, Ge Sheng's fleet has been away from Dantu for about three months, right?"

Last time, the Chu boat supervised by the public transportation vehicle performed well in the trial voyage. Even in the face of strong winds and hurricanes, it could run safely. Xiang Zhuang then appointed Ge Sheng as the captain of the Chu boat, and led two thousand sharp men to take ten Chu boats and sail straight down to the South China Sea.

For this offshore voyage, the task assigned by Xiang Zhuang to Ge Sheng is actually very simple. The main task is to train a group of skilled sailors and train an excellent navy. If possible, bring back some local products from Nanyang , especially cotton, which is a good thing, and then explore the details of the South Vietnamese country.

Historically, Zhao Tuo should have established the Nanyue Kingdom by now, but the foundation should not be very stable.

If it is possible, Xiang Zhuang doesn't mind stirring up trouble in Nanyue. Even if Nanyue can't be overthrown, at least a dozen or 20 people should be brought back from South Vietnam. You know, they were trapped in South Vietnam by Zhao Tuo. The current Qin army has 50 people, and at least 20 of them are strong men from Chu. God, this is 20 strong men!
More importantly, the Huaxia people have had a strong homeland complex since ancient times. The 50 Qin troops trapped in Nanyue by Zhao Tuo never wanted to go home, but they were afraid of Zhao Tuo's prestige and high-pressure policy, so they did not dare to show it. , But once an external force intervenes in South Vietnam, it is hard to say what these Qin soldiers will choose.

In short, the Nanyue Qin army is a piece of fat, and Xiang Zhuang will never give up the opportunity to eat meat.

In the future, after the Jiangdong navy is strong, Xiang Zhuang's next goal is the Mesopotamia in the Middle East. Of course, Xiang Zhuang never thought about occupying and ruling the Mesopotamia by sea. The only purpose of Mesopotamia is to obtain Arabian horses from Mesopotamia, and then improve Mongolian pony horses.

As for the future, if Chu State really has a chance to unify the world, Xiang Zhuang does not mind building a larger navy, and then crossing the Pacific Ocean to Latin America to find sweet potatoes, potatoes, corn and other crops that can adapt to harsh environments and have high yields , Laying a solid foundation for the population explosion of the Huaxia people in the future.

However, this is all very far away. It is absolutely impossible to accumulate enough outstanding sailors in 50 years, and even if you have accumulated enough outstanding sailors in 50 years, you may not be able to cross the Pacific Ocean. The most extensive ocean on earth, in ancient times without a compass, to cross it was nothing more than a daydream.

Xiang He replied without thinking: "My lord, it has been three months and ten days since Ge Sheng left Jiangdong."

"Well." Xiang Zhuang nodded, and whispered to himself, "Three months and ten days, counting the time, it's almost time to come back from South Vietnam, but I don't know if Ge Sheng can bring the cotton seeds return."

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Xianyang, the official residence of Prime Minister Zuo.

When Xiangzhuang faced the threat of a "strike" from the Jiangdong gentry, Bai Mo, the left minister just appointed by Liu Bang, was also preparing for reform.

Compared with the state of Chu, which allowed Shiqing, gentry and common people to receive taxes together, Bai Mo's reforms were more drastic.

The new tax law that Bai Mo is about to introduce will not only allow the Shiqing, the gentry and the common people of the Han Dynasty to pay food together, but also convert the counting tax (head tax) and Yao service into the land tax according to Bai Mo’s regulations. With the new tax law, the Shiqing and gentry of the Han Dynasty not only have to pay taxes, but also have to pay more taxes because of the large amount of land!
There is no doubt that this will be an unprecedented drastic change, and its intensity is even greater than that of Wei Yang's reform during Qin Xiangong's period. Wei Yang's reform only weakened the interests of the old Qin family, while Bai Mo's reform is to Greatly weaken the influence of the major aristocratic families and noble families in Guanzhong, so as to strengthen the royal power to the greatest extent.

Such a drastic change cannot succeed without the backing of strong force.

In order to support the Baimo reform, Liu Bang even planned to appoint Zhou Guanfu as the general protecting the law, and fully cooperate with the Baimo reform. Since the death of Fan Kui, Zhou Guanfu can be said to be the number one general in the Han army. How determined, of course, Zhou Guanfu can only take office after returning to Xianyang.

As for now, Zhou Guanfu is fighting the Huns under the tent of General Hussars.

Two days ago, the Beidi Kuaima urgently reported that the [-] cavalry led by Lu Tai had left the Great Wall built by the First Emperor to the west, and were about to go deep into the hinterland of the Hexi Corridor. Shan Yu Maodun had already left the old camp of Jiuyuan with the Huns, most likely to attack the Yuezhi people.

The battle between the Han cavalry and the Hun cavalry was imminent.

(End of this chapter)