Chu and Han contend for the throne

Chapter 282 Want to use troops against Bashu?

After offering sacrifices to the ancestral temple, it will be the beginning of the year!

At the beginning of the year, the grand court was unprecedentedly grand. All county magistrates and county magistrates in the 68 counties of the five prefectures under Jiangdong’s rule were required to participate in the court meeting, and all military officers above the county lieutenant and above were also present. In the main hall of the Chu Palace, in addition to the twenty or so civil and military ministers who had seats However, the remaining more than 200 civilian and military generals can only stand in the left and right shifts.

Among the civilian and military generals in the left and right classes, there are many new faces.

However, several familiar faces were missing. After his father Fan Zeng, Shu Sunguan, the prefect of Wu County, Qu Yi, the prefect of Danyang, and Wu Qi, the prefect of Kuaiji, also died of illness one after another. Up to now, all the prefects of the counties are from Taixue. The young students who came out are all beneficiaries of the new law, and they are also staunch supporters of the new law.

The ministers reported several auspicious omens symbolically, and the court at the beginning of the year was over, followed by a grand state banquet.

This is actually similar to the corporate annual meeting of later generations. The civil servants and military generals who participated in the great dynasty at the beginning of the year are corporate employees. They have worked hard for a whole year and made a lot of achievements for the Great Chu Kingdom. The boss of Xiangzhuang should spend some money to invite everyone to get together , have a good meal, so as to encourage these employees to work harder next year.

When the banquet was presented like flowing water, the civil and military generals couldn't help cheering loudly.

In the past ten years, the population of Chu State has increased year by year, the grain harvest has increased year by year, the national power has become stronger year by year, and the state feast has become more abundant year by year. Even this year, even the county magistrate Petty officials like county captains and county lieutenants can also eat delicacies from mountains and seas, and drink the five-year-old liquor stored in the palace's cellar.

In the past ten years, although the overall situation of Chu State has been stable, it has not been peaceful.

On two occasions, Chu State and Liang State almost came to the brink of war because of the border friction. Behind these two incidents were all the pushers of the Han army. Considering that Chu State is in a critical period of political reform, the government soldiers have not been trained. If a full-scale conflict broke out with Liang Guo at this time, it would inevitably affect the reform process, so Xiang Zhuang chose to compromise.

For this matter, generals such as Huan Chu, Ji Bu, Gao Chu, and Pang Yu were sulking for a while, because the incident was obviously provoked by Liang Jun first, and it was Chu Jun who suffered the loss, but the final result was that the superior The doctor Wu She came forward and took thousands of good horses and five hundred altars of wine to Dingtao to apologize to Liang Wang Pengyue.

Of course, Xiang Zhuang has not been idle in the past ten years. Before waiting for the results of the reform, Xiang Zhuang also used Wumuya to create "auspicious omens" in Qi State twice. Ri Shibu tried to instigate Han Xin to proclaim himself emperor, Han Xin was indeed a little moved, but in the end he gave up the idea of ​​proclaiming emperor under Lou Jing's persuasion.

With Qu Bucai's efforts, Wumuya also successfully infiltrated the Nanyue Kingdom.

After careful preparations, Qu Bucai instigated the former Qin generals of the Nanyue Kingdom to launch a mutiny. Although they failed to overthrow Yuetuo's rule in the end, it was not without success. More than 20 strong men from the Chu Kingdom broke through the Hengpu Pass and returned to Jiangdong , The return of more than 20 strong men has greatly alleviated the shortage of strong men in Jiangdong.

You know, because of the successive years of wars at the end of the Qin Dynasty, the ratio of men to women in Jiangdong has exceeded one to two. With the return of these 20 strong men, and the fact that Chu State imitated the Han State and implemented the national policy of uniform Yao service and equal calculation of taxes, the vast majority The burden on the people of Lishu has been greatly reduced, and the women of childbearing age in Jiangdong will soon have a childbearing orgasm.

In ten years, a total of nearly one million women of childbearing age in Jiangdong gave birth to at least 300 million infants, and more than 200 million infants survived in the end. In addition to the sudden return of more than 20 strong men, the total population of Chu State has grown from Ten years ago, there were more than 260 million people, which has surged to nearly 500 million people now, but there are still only a few million young people.

A million strong men have to feed 500 million people, so the pressure on Chu is still quite high.

The only good news is that the handicraft industry and commerce in Chu State are quite developed, so they can plunder food from countries in the Central Plains and South Vietnam through trade to make up for the food shortage in the east of the Yangtze River. He has accumulated more than one million shi of rice and grain, which is enough to support a large-scale war!

In addition, Xiang Zhuang also successfully provoked a war between South Korea and Zhao, but after Liu Bang intervened, the two countries soon ceased fighting. It can be seen that Liu Bang is still very prestigious in the hearts of the princes and kings from all walks of life. Even Han Xin, before Liu Bang passed away, did not dare to proclaim himself emperor rashly.

Because of Xiangzhuang's crossing, a series of changes have taken place in history.

Liu Bang in history only lived to be 62 years old, but Liu Bang in this time and space is already 69 years old, and according to the information provided by Wumuya, Liu Bang is now in good health, able to eat and drink, and he is not old at all. It seems that Liu Bang The old man has at least ten years to live!
In the past ten years, the Han Dynasty was also in a critical period of political reform.

Therefore, Liu Bang also ignored the bad luck of looking for Xiang Zhuang for the time being, but followed Zhang Liang's suggestion and acted as a behind-the-scenes pusher twice, trying to provoke a war between Liang State and Chu State, but in the end he failed.

In addition, in the past ten years, the Han Kingdom has also been continuously invaded by the Huns, and there are deep grievances between the Han and the Huns.

Last winter, Jiuyuan and Mobei suffered a once-in-a-century snowstorm, and countless cattle, sheep and livestock of the Huns froze to death.

Wumuya just sent back the news yesterday, saying that Liu Bang had listened to Zhang Liang's suggestion and decided to use troops against Jiuyuan this spring when the Huns were dying. General Lu Tai also recruited Hu cavalry from Yuezhi, Xiutu, Hunxie and other tribes in Hexi.

It seems that Liu Bang is going to recover Jiuyuan and completely remove the threat of the Huns.

This gave Chu the opportunity to take advantage of it. Once the Han army started a war with the Huns, the scale of the battle would not be small, and it might not end in a short time. In this way, the Han army would not have much spare energy to take care of others Now that the reform of the Chu State has come to an end, and the soldiers of the prefectures have basically been trained, it is time to send troops to the outside world!

At this critical juncture, Xiang Zhuang had to make a good calculation with several confidant ministers.

Therefore, Xiang Zhuang only showed his face at the state banquet and then disappeared. Xiang Zhuang is also very knowledgeable. He knows that these civil servants and military generals will not let him go at all, and how many ministers dare to lose their composure in front of Xiang Zhuang. ?It's better to leave and let these civilian and military generals who have been working hard for a whole year open up and have a good time drinking and making fun.

You must know that these civil servants and military generals are really suffering, and the reform cannot be achieved by talking about it. It requires a large number of officials to go down to the grassroots to do a lot of specific work, including important officials like Xiang He and Bai Lixian. He has to deal with official duties, especially the protector of the law, General Zi Che, who has lost two laps of weight, but his wife is very distressed.

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The palace hall and the square in front of the hall were full of people, and more than 200 officials were drinking to their heart's content.

In the west side hall, however, the atmosphere was dignified. Whether it was Xiang Zhuang who was the top leader, or Xiang Ta, Xiang Tuo, Bai Lixian, Bi Shu, Wu She and other important officials, all of them looked dignified.

Xiang Zhuang's eyes suddenly fell on Bi Shu, and said: "Learning swords, all the soldiers in the government have mastered it, right?"

The so-called Fubing refers to setting up a Zhechong Mansion in each county, and the Zhechong Mansion selects strong men from among the best men in each county, and then divides them into four divisions for training in quarters.

During the military training period, all rations will be provided by the national treasury, but the weapons and armor of the military soldiers must be prepared by themselves. Although the selected military soldiers have to spend an extra sum of money to buy weapons and armor, they have to spend three months every year. Time for training, but few soldiers complained, and no one was willing to quit voluntarily.

The reason is simple, that is to reward military homework.

The reward army homework clearly stipulates that if you kill a soldier, you will be awarded a rank of [-] rank!
Under the temptation of military exploits and titles, all the government soldiers are eagerly looking forward to the war.

As early as ten years ago, Bi Shu had started to reform the military system and fully implemented the military system in Chu State. Up to now, the military system of Chu State has basically taken shape!
At that moment, Bi Shu cupped his hands at Xiang Zhuang, and replied: "Reporting to Your Majesty, all the soldiers in the counties have been trained. There are more than [-] infantry troops in the five battalions, including [-] shield soldiers, [-] spearmen, and flying spearmen." [-], [-] archers; [-] cavalry, more than [-] horses; [-] water troops, more than [-] large and small warships!"

Among them, flying spearmen are a unique unit of the Chu army, and they are actually Western spearmen.

When facing the cavalry, the spearmen can't play a big role, but when the main force of the two sides in the war are infantry, and the battle situation has fallen into a stalemate, the spearmen can play an unexpected role. Anyway, the close range of the javelin The lethality is far better than the longbow and hard crossbow.

Xiang Zhuang did the math, 26 forbidden troops plus 30 government soldiers, almost [-] troops.

In addition to the necessary garrisons in each county, about 25 people can be mobilized. The 25 army is not too much, but it is also a lot. You must know that this is a well-trained regular army of 25, not Xiang Yu and Liu Bang. For the people who were temporarily recruited, the combat effectiveness of the two sides was not at the same level at all.

As soon as Bi Shu's words fell, Xiang Ta said worriedly: "My lord, even if more than 20 soldiers have been trained, and even if the senior doctor can really persuade the king of Linjiang and the king of Huainan to send troops together, the road to Shu is difficult and dangerous, and the army is marching. It’s not easy, and it’s even more difficult to transfer food, fodder and supplies, and the expedition to Bashu is really difficult.”

According to what Xiang Ta said, Xiang Zhuang seems to intend to use troops against Bashu?

Xiang Zhuang pondered for a moment, then asked Baili Xian, "Ziliang, what do you think?"

Bailixian shook his feather fan, and said calmly: "If the Han army really wants to go to war with the Xiongnu, I think this is an excellent opportunity for us, the Great Chu, to seek Bashu." After saying this, Bailixian said again, " Bashu has a radius of thousands of miles, with criss-cross ditches and fertile land, it can be called a land of abundance, if we don’t take it now, when will we wait?”

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PS: Recently, many people in the book review area are saying strange things. I didn’t want to pay attention to them at first, but after thinking about it, in order to prevent readers who have just read this book from being misled by these people with ulterior motives, let me say a few words.

It is true that there is a large time span between the fifth and sixth volumes, but this was originally in the outline.

Because the fifth volume of the reform has basically explained clearly, and it is absolutely impossible for the reform to come up with results within ten or eight years. For such a long period of time, if you only write about poaching people in South Vietnam, and then go to Nanyang Looking for cotton and finding Arabian horses in the Middle East is too boring, so I skipped it directly and skipped to the completion of the reform of the Chu State and the completion of the military reform. At this time, the reform of the Han State was also completed, and the countries of the Central Plains were basically completed Rest and recuperate, so that the war will be fierce, and it will be more conducive to the performance of the swordsman. Next, there will be continuous war scenes.

(End of this chapter)