warring states careerist

Chapter 844 Second Cooperation

For Chu State, starting a war with Wei and Han is different from attacking Sishang in an all-round way.

A war with Wei and Han is a negotiable and controllable war; but if there is a full-scale war with Sishang, judging from the attitude of Shi Shi personally running to Shangqiu, it will be an uncontrollable endless war.

Chu State is not ready yet.

The behind-the-scenes of the Mohist negotiations who are in charge of intelligence are also very clear about the bottom line of this negotiation, that is, to force Chu to send troops, at least to make the relationship between Wei, Han and Chu tense.

If you want to persuade Chu to send troops, you can't just rely on some empty promises, but also need some substantive things.

There is no shortage of troops in Chu State. Although the quality is not good, those who are really capable of fighting are those few county lord legions and the king's new army of the king of Chu. Thirty thousand, so there are not many troops sent by Wei and Han, and Chu State is enough to deal with it.

What Chu State lacks are some superior arms on Sishang.

For example, cavalry, artillery and engineers are what Chu State lacks.

Chu State has few horses, and compared with the Central Plains, it is not good at chariot warfare, nor is it good at attacking and defending cities.

In the era of chariot warfare in the past, all the countries in the Central Plains used one chariot with four passenger chariots, plus a maximum of one hundred disciples.

In the state of Chu, there are two hundred disciples attached to one chariot.

Chu's ability to attack and defend the city is also very average. Historically, it was not until after Wu Qi's political reform that the defense system of Chu's capital was improved and kept up with the city defense systems of other countries in the Central Plains.

In the previous Prince Ding Rebellion, the Mohists also sent engineers to cooperate with the King of Chu in order to cut off the State of Wei. Both parties have experience in cooperation.

Therefore, the bottom line condition given by the Mohists is to send a division of irregular cavalry, four artillery companies, and an engineering brigade, plus some infantry knights, as auxiliary forces, to cooperate with Chu State in the war against Wei and Han.

In addition, the Mo family can also launch an attack against Chengyang, which is the enclave of Wei State, and it is also an open space next to Wei State and Sishang State without a buffer.

In addition to Chengyang, it also includes a series of former Qi cities such as Linqiu, which became famous in the past.

Regarding those cities, the Mohists have no intention of encroaching on direct control, at least not for the time being.

Because the overall strategy is to defend from the north and attack from the south, land such as Chengyang is a very bad salient for the Mohists.

On the back is Jishui, on the left is Wei State, a vassal state of Wei State, on the right is Qi State, which has hatred for the Mohists, and on the side is Onozawa. It can be said that if there is no intention to take the initiative to attack, it is not necessary to occupy this place, but it is very easy. Easy to be dumpling.

The troops are insufficient, and it is impossible to attack the north while stabilizing the situation in Chu State, so such a prominent part should not be controlled as much as possible.

But since it is necessary to deceive the Chu State and induce the Chu State to believe that the Mohists will develop northward in the next few years, instead of preparing to copy Sun Wuzi's conspiracy, then attacking Chengyang is also an attitude.

Against this background, the negotiation with King Chu was quite smooth.

The king of Chu must first talk about the truth. First, he talked about Zheng Guo's acceptance of Prince Ding and Si Ziyang's war against Chu. Han hands a piece of the pie to carve up Zheng Guo and lay the groundwork.

In addition to those great principles, the Mo family also talked about the battle of Jinyang that year, "the lips are dead and the teeth are cold" to divide Wei Hanzhi and the like.

Time waits for no one, there is no time for too much nonsense, and the two sides quickly got to the point.

After some negotiations, the Mo family expressed their willingness to fight against Wei and Han for their injustice and undeclaration, and they were willing to punish Wei and Han together with Chu.

It's just that after the person in charge of negotiating in the Mo family used the word "restraint and punishment", the Chu people were a little unhappy.

These two characters come from "Ode to Lu". The original text is "Rong Di means anger, and Jing Shu means punishment". vassal state...

People in Chu don't like to hear the word "punishment" because although they say that I am a barbarian, they are still very honest physically.

In fact, the word "punishment" in history was often used by later generations to have some associations with Mohism. For example, after Su Shi was demoted, Zeng Zuoyao and Tao Yuanming said in a poem, "You should be far away from Yang Mo, and I want to punish Jing Shu a little bit." Punishment of barbarians and criticism of Yang Mo are regarded as two equal things—one is to criticize heresy culturally, and the other is to attack barbarians by force.

It’s just that the world is still undecided, and Confucianism is still being defeated by the three schools of Yang Modao. It has not yet become orthodox. Now it is not clear who is orthodox and who is heresy. That is to say, the word "restraint and punishment" is because of some historical reasons. Chu people don’t like to hear it. .

Now the Mohists want to grasp the right to speak. As Mohists who negotiated with the King of Chu, they still have this level of education. Unrighteous things are as politically correct as attacking barbarians and can be punished.

The Three Jins once punished Chu, but now Chu can also punish the Three Jins.

Although the king of Chu didn't want to start a full-scale war, he also knew that if the Mohists sent troops, it would be best to have a limited war to obtain the benefits Chu wanted.

This time the Mohists were full of sincerity, unlike when the King of Chu attacked Prince Dingping and Dingchen Cai, they only sent engineers and soldiers, this time it can be described as a big fanfare.

A division of irregular cavalry, a certain number of field artillery, full-time engineers for siege and fortification, and some elite cavalry infantry, these are the forces that Chu State urgently needs.

The cavalry of Chu State is very poor.Chu's artillery is not strong.Chu State spoke highly of Sishang's engineers after the battle of Chencai was put down.

All these made the king of Chu think that it was enough to start a small-scale battle with Wei and Han, so as to gain some benefits.

As for how far this battle will go, the King of Chu avoided talking about it.

Because the Mo family only sent some cavalry and field artillery to cover the flanks, if the king of Chu didn't want to fight at that time, the Mo family had no choice but to retreat in despair.

Besides, all the supplies and supplies need to be provided by the Chu State. Although the Mohists will give some of the money, it is not the Mohism who make overall arrangements for the logistics.

In addition, the fact that the main force of the Mohist school will go north to attack Chengyang Linqiu, in the view of the King of Chu, is not only support for the state of Chu, but also a verification that the Mohist family has the heart to go north in the future.

In fact, the Mohists did not talk about how far this battle will be fought and what kind of result will be achieved - is it to restore the territory of Zheng State three months ago?Or restore the territory of Zheng State 15 years ago?Or is it on this basis to promote Zheng Guo's reform?
They didn't talk about it, or pretended to avoid it carelessly.

Because the Mohists don't want to get too involved in this matter.

If Chu State wins, and wins very well, then it can restore the territory of Zheng State three months ago, and make the situation in the Central Plains more chaotic as a neutral country.

If Chu State also wants to carve up Zheng State and does not want to continue fighting, then the Mohists will withdraw their troops angrily: It’s not that we don’t want to uphold justice, it’s because our teammates are too pitiful, and we don’t want to fight anymore. Cavalry, artillery, engineers, and engineers have no infantry. This battle cannot be fought. down.

After the two sides had a full exchange of opinions with their respective purposes, the Mohist negotiators talked about the Mohists who were detained in Chu State and those responsible for surveying and mapping.

The premise of the cooperation between Chu and Mo is that Chu recognizes that Shangqiu is a reasonable and legal coup, not an unreasonable coup that requires intervention.

Under this major premise, it is quite unreasonable for some nobles of Chu State to detain and put those Mohists and surveyors under house arrest.

The King of Chu himself didn't want to stimulate the Mohists too much, especially in the past few years, the connection between Chu's economy and the Mohists was getting deeper and deeper, and Chu itself didn't want more troubles and a full-scale war with the Mohists, so that the reforms would be in vain.

Just like the state of Qin, when the state of Qin reformed, it went to war to the west by the way. With the help of stirrups, firearms, and bronze cannons, the Xi Rong fled with their heads in their arms, expanded the population, improved the prestige of the monarch, and made the bottom get military merits and be loyal to the emperor of Qin. conducive to change.

But if it is said that when the reform is the most critical and violent, all the troops and national powers are still dispatched to fight Wei and Han to snatch Xihe, then there is something wrong with the brain.

The same is true for the state of Chu. A small-scale war is conducive to the centralization of power and the authority of the monarchy; a large-scale national war that will never die will not change.

So the king of Chu allowed a small-scale war, and as far as it looks now, this war is doomed to be a big deal, it can only be a local war.

Without him, it is possible to fight the second Central Plains war with the Mohists, which is actually Wei Han Chu Qi vs Qin Mo Song; and Wei Han is likely to develop into Qin Zhao Mo Song Chu vs Wei Han Qi, Wei Han dare not fight Total War.

Of course, if there is no war, it would be best to rely on diplomatic activities with Mohist and Qin to force Wei and Han to sell part of their interests.

Therefore, the king of Chu happily agreed to the request of the Mo family, and repeatedly stated that the detainment of the Mo family in Chu had nothing to do with him, and it was all done by those nobles.

He also vomited bitterness with the Mohists, and only said that the reason why Chu State is big but not strong and the people are not rich is because of the power of ministers and too many emperors.

The Mohists had always supported the reform of the Chu State before, and they had maintained a close relationship with the Chu State because the Wei State was too strong in the early stage. It can be said that there was no money, weapons, or Mohists who were approved by the central government to serve as officials in the Chu State. Talent, the reform of Chu State will not proceed to this point.

Now the Mohists actually support Chu’s reforms. Only with reforms can the bottom be more powerful, the legal principles of the old system will be looser, and the contradiction between the old aristocrats and the new aristocrats and the monarchy will be more serious.

The state of Chu after the reform is completed will of course be very powerful. However, the top Mohists never prepared to wait for the complete reform of Chu state before going to war with Chu state. When the reform is about to succeed but the old nobles are not yet victorious, that is the state of Chu. At the weakest time.

As long as the opportunity is seized, all the things that helped the Chu State reform before are actually helping the Mohists themselves.

Superficial support is also a kind of support.

That's why the king of Chu vomited the bitterness of ministers' weight and too many titles in front of the Mohist envoys, in order to form a good relationship with the Mohism, so as to ensure that there is no environment for external interference in the reform of Chu.

(End of this chapter)