warring states careerist

Chapter 176
At the end of April, the Chu army finally appeared outside Shangqiu City.

In fact, as early as half a month ago, the battle had already begun.

The spies and scouts of the two sides have already fought countless times in hand-to-hand combat outside Shangqiu City. There are also many warriors among the Chu people, but they are not dominant.

Many of the spies from Shangqiu were led by Mo Zhe, and they kept attacking the single or few Chu army scouts, and kept extending their eyesight outward.

Before arriving in Shangqiucheng, the king of Chu sent someone to enter Shangqiu city with a letter.

There are two letters in total, one to Mo Di and the other to Song Gongzi Tian.

In the letter to Zitian, he traced back the history of the friendship between Gonggong and Chu when he formed an alliance with Chu, jointly set up the office, and was hired by Chu.

He also talked about the battle of Huangchi and Yongqiu 20 years ago. The price paid by the Chu people to help the Song government against the Sichenghuang clan and the three Jins was accused of being ungrateful by the Song people.

Finally, I asked Song Gong why he did not abide by the original agreement and betrayed the Chu State. This is something that even the gods cannot tolerate, so he has to come to Xingshi to inquire about the crime.

I hope that Duke Song will remember the people of Shangqiu, surrender after the opening of the city, and enter the city together as the king of Chu, so that the Chu army can feast on Shangqiu.

At the same time, the people of Shangqiu were recruited to follow the Chu army northward to Daliang and build the city defense of Daliang as an apology for breaking the covenant.

In the letter to Mo Di, he said that he still has the same style for more than [-] years, and he also believes in Mo Zhe's art of defending the city.

But defending the city will inevitably cause damage, if you don't surrender, it will also make the people not suffer.

After the envoys of the Chu people entered the city and left the city, there was an undercurrent in Shangqiu city, and many people started to move around, but Mohist guarded the city very strictly, and some things were difficult to do.

Outside the city, the Chu army, who had traveled a long distance, got the answer from Song Gong not to surrender, and they set up an array in the city as a deterrent, and ordered the warriors to challenge in front of the array.

The king of Chu followed thirty elite chariots. This is the habit of Chu people. These thirty chariots are called Chengguang, which are divided into Zuoguang and Youguang.

The king of Chu rode on Zuo Guang's chariot. In the 12th year of Duke Xuan's reign, Jin and Chu fought. Because of convenience, the king of Chu violated the rules of Chu people who had always been right to Guang, and rode on Zuo Guang to start the war.

The king sees You Guang, and will follow him to take advantage of it.Qu Danghuzhi said: "The king starts with this, and he must end with it." Since Chu's Chengguang first left.

This habit has never changed.

The servants, vassals, royal family, etc. are all nearby, and the scouts have brought news from inside and outside Shangqiu City.

Some spies who had previously hidden in Shangqiu city had also passed on news from the city.

After hearing the news, the king of Chu was secretly startled, and said to his left and right: "The Mohist guards the city like no other in the world. The heroes of more than [-] years ago are even better than before."

There is a lot of news in the city, and it is also very unified.

Taking advantage of their ability to count and write, the Mohists collected materials, registered all households, selected archers, assigned the city walls to guard, and adopted the method of post responsibility system to divide the entire city walls of Shangqiu City into the hands of each centurion.

A toilet was excavated under the city wall. People on the wall and below the city wall shared one, and they were not allowed to go down the city wall without orders. Special personnel cleaned the toilet every fifty steps every day to prevent the breeding of mosquitoes and flies.

The women gather and assign a woman who cooks every thirty steps.

Men and women are separated. When walking on the road, men are on the left and women are on the right, and they must not be reversed casually.

Every household collects grain, and if they say they don’t have it and are found out, they will be fined heavily, but all the grain is registered, and after the harvest, the government will pay for it, and the Mohist will guarantee it.

All kinds of machinery and weapons to crack siege tools are also being manufactured continuously, and the Mozi uttered cruel words: the punching machine made by Mozi is dedicated to all kinds of punching cars, ladders, and high landings.

The King of Chu has heard of Chongji's name. When Gongshuban built a cloud ladder and Mozi came to Ying, he broke the cloud ladder by relying on Chongji. Gongshuban was helpless, let alone those disciples.

The city also said that comprehensive food control is implemented: fighting food, 36 stones at the end of the year; 24 stones at the end of the year for ginseng; Twelve stones old.Fighting food is five liters, ginseng food is half a liter, four food is two and a half liters, five food is two liters, six food is one and a half liters, and then eaten every day.When saving the dead, it takes [-] days for two days, [-] days for three days, and forty days for four days.

All officials with positions above Sima, their parents, brothers, wives, and children, must be taken as hostages, and they are not allowed to move around at will during the defense of the city.

As early as when the Chu army was hundreds of miles away from the city, all the officials, small military officers, and relatives of the rich and noble relatives had been gathered and hidden, and outsiders did not know where they were hiding.

On the low wall of the city, Feng Yuan lined up soldiers one by one to guard. The noble children had to go up the wall to be with the soldiers, and already killed a few unwilling ones.

The firewood in the city is not allowed to be pressed together, but is loosely piled up in some urgent places, so as to avoid ineffective fire rescue and easy access.

Bamboo sticks were planted in the moat outside the city, archery towers were built on the city gate, and banners were arranged to command...

One by one, one by one, it opened the eyes of the king of Chu.

He couldn't figure out the reason for many rules for a while, but after thinking hard for a few days, it often suddenly became clear, or it was only when they were connected with the rest of the orders that he could see clearly.

From basic necessities of life, to eating, drinking, and messing around, to sinister people, to the mentality of noble and humble...the whole set of order for guarding the city can be said to be irreversible.

The King of Chu finally understood in his heart that the debate more than 30 years ago was probably not only based on Mo Di's woodworking skills, but more on the rules of defending the city.

Sticking to the rules made those old nobles of Chu who had experienced court debates more than 30 years ago have lingering fears.

The scouts also brought another piece of news that made King Chu a little uneasy: Mo Zhe had destroyed all the wheat fields within [-] miles outside the city, and originally wanted to get food locally, but it seemed that he had to go around a long way .

When Zuo Yin met the king of Chu, he talked about the food problem. The king of Chu only said that he would scare the people of Song Dynasty first, and let them know that the Chu army was strong and camped at night.

There are indeed no wheat fields within thirty miles, but there are still some wheat fields thirty miles away, and people can be sent to drive the farmers there to harvest, and then send some troops to transport them for storage.

Within a few hundred steps outside the city, it has become bare. Wells have been filled, wheat fields have been burned, and all usable firewood has been burned to ashes. The view from the city is extremely wide.

As for where to set up camp, the Chu army also had an excellent choice. There stood a tall wooden tower, and under the wooden tower were some red brick walls.

These masonry walls are like a camp, with a wide view, and it happens to be on a small slope, which is suitable as a camp for the generals of the Chinese army.

The king of Chu, Cheng Guang, and the nobles drove to the wooden pagoda camp and asked the scouts, "What is this?"

The scout replied: "Mohists value ghosts and gods, and use them to sacrifice to meet the enemy. Drive away the people and build it for more than ten days, and it will be completed."

"When the enemy comes from the west, he will meet the altar at the altar on the west; choose nine people aged 90 to preside over the ceremony of offering the white flag; there are nine nine-foot-high white gods in the West, and nine archers each shoot nine arrows; the generals The military uniform must be white, and the sheep should be used as sacrifices.”

It's not just that the Mohists have a reputation for emphasizing ghosts and gods, the Chu people's habit of sacrificing witchcraft is no lower than that of the Mohists.

The people of Chu loved witches and wished prostitutes, and this has always been the case. The methods of these sacrifices were somewhat similar to those of the Chu people, so the king of Chu asked people to find the priests or witches accompanying the army.

After listening to the Mohist's sacrificial methods, the master said: "The nine white gods of the West, the Mohist's sacrifice is correct."

"But we are camping in the south. We can use the same method to sacrifice to the seven red gods in the south. The generals must wear red attire and slaughter dogs as sacrifices."

"A good archer is selected again, and shoots arrows made of basil to the four directions of heaven and earth, and the soldier with a spear stabs the air three times with the spear, and then the archer shoots into the air."

"Choose a hundred people, stand on the left side of the altar, and dance the witch dance called 'Yi', and you will be able to decipher the sacrifice of the Mohist."

Since these witches were able to decipher the Mozhe's Enemy Shrine, the King of Chu also knew that it was mainly for the sake of peace of mind, so he asked, "Can this altar be used?"

Wu Wu said: "This can be used. If you want to suppress the witchcraft of the Mozhe, you need to build it higher than the Enemy Temple of the Mozhe. After it is built, it can be used as a lookout."

"That's why people need to find a way to raise this altar on the rammed earth."

King Chu got out of the car, looked around at the towering wooden tower, and the small fortress-like camp surrounded by brick and stone walls, and couldn't help admiring.

It is said that Qin bricks and Han tiles, in fact, bricks have appeared at this time, but most of them are expensive green bricks that need to be steamed to reduce heat, while Mohist people use red bricks that are more convenient and fast.

At that time, cement was always used as the bonding material, so the bonding of the masonry structure was a big problem. Simple lime clay was used as the bonding material, which solved the important problem of the masonry structure.

The king of Chu thought of the report from the envoy who came back from Pei County, looked at the brick wall, and praised: "I have heard that the ink masters are talented, and this wall is very well built."

"If Shangqiu can be conquered, I would like to use a thousand gold as a hire, or recruit less people from the Song Dynasty, and let the Mohists help build Yuguan City."

Zuo Yin pushed the brick wall, which was regarded as a sacrificial building, and praised: "That's right. The rammed earth wall is easily broken by water, and Daliang City is adjacent to the river, so it is most forbidden to attack by water. If this brick is used as a wall, it must be tough. "

The rammed earth city wall is most afraid of water attack.Rammed earth is easily loosened by blisters and can easily collapse.

Brick walls are not afraid of flooding, even if they are covered with bricks, they can not be afraid of flooding.

However, because of the backward bonding and brick making methods, there has been no chance to use it.

The King of Chu looked up at this tall wooden pagoda. All of them were built with mortise and tenon structure. military.

All the wood outside the city has been burned by the Mozhe, leaving only the Enemy Shrine, all of which are made of high-quality wood, but the altar for offering sacrifices cannot be destroyed, and the Mozhe has a reputation for being heavy on ghosts and gods, so everyone did not Doubt him.

The best carpenter accompanying the army, the disciple of the Gongshu class, looked up at the tower and praised as a carpenter: "Such a skill, I have only seen him with this skill in my life." Mister weak, now only Mo Di himself can build such an exquisite wooden pagoda."

The king of Chu asked, "Can you build it?"

The craftsman walked around and said, "Although I can't build it, if I take it apart, I can put it back together."

The witch also said: "Since the altar should be made of the seven gods of the south and the nine gods of the west who broke the ink, it must be two feet higher. You can have people dig sand and pile up two feet of rammed earth, and then build the altar again by craftsmen for sacrifices. Afterwards, you can watch from above and send orders."

With only a wooden pagoda and a brick wall, Mo Zhe showed enough skills to make the King of Chu's heart flutter.

Whether it is Yingdu, or Yuguan and Daliang at the border, if the Mohists can help build the city, it can greatly increase the defensive strength of the Chu people's northern line.

There is still a gap between Chu's city-building technology and the Central Plains.The city walls of the capital of Chu were rebuilt to reach the level of the capital of the Central Plains, and it would take more than ten years for Wu Qi to enter Chu.

(End of this chapter)