warring states careerist

Chapter 873
After listening to Wu Qi's words, Sheng Chuo, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly asked: "What if... if the Mohists have completed the road from Nanzheng to Pingzhou first, and the momentum has been established, what will happen?"

Ping Zhou refers to a vassal state between Shu and Nanzheng. It is not orthodox. It should be called Fang State rather than a vassal. It was built by the descendants of Emperor Yan, probably in Guangyuan, which is Hanzhong On the only way to Chengdu Plain.

At this time, there is no stone cattle road, and Pingzhou is still Fangguo. If Nanzheng's Mohists repaired the road from Hanzhong to Guangyuan, Qinguo might lose the chance to seize Shuguo.

Hearing this, Wu Qi chuckled and said, "In the old days when Tang established the country in Shang Dynasty, maybe he knew about King Wu's defeat of Zhou? When Fu Chai destroyed Yue, maybe he knew about the story of lying on fire and tasting courage? When Goujian tasted courage in the past, can you be sure that you will be able to swallow Wu in the future?" ?”

"If you don't plan forever, it's not enough to plan for a while. If the Mo family wins Bashu, Sishang, and even destroys Chu, the general trend has already been achieved and is irresistible. At that time, no matter how many plans there are, what's the use?"

"That's why I said that we have to wait for the world to change before we have a chance of life. If the world changes, the Mohists will not be able to seize Shu, but we have no soldiers in Longnan. Wouldn't it be regrettable then?"

"If the world changes, and the Mohists conquer Shu and Chu in the south and force Taihang to the north, then we will have no power in the west of Zhuyeze, the ancestral temple will have no land to move, and the descendants will have no land to be king. Wouldn't you regret it then?"

"The only thing to do now is to seize Xihe first, and then plan for Bashu for the future."

"As Lai Zhishi said, if Qin wants to dominate, he must first take Xihe. If he wants to take Xihe, the best time is within ten years. One is that the emperor's ministers are all outstanding people at the moment, and the other is just like what Lai Zhishi said... ...I am old and the king is still strong, if I wait to die, who will the crown prince dare to use to take Xihe?"

That letter asked people's hearts directly, and said some secret so-called "emperor's mind skills" as a very common thing.

Master Ying nodded and said: "It should be so. In the battle of Yinyang, [-] soldiers from Wei and Han were destroyed. We can see how weak Wei is."

"Back then there were tens of thousands of military soldiers, and when the soldiers came to Beiluoshui, the Qin State trembled up and down, trembling left and right. Looking at the Wei State now, it has no longer the power of the past."

"If you want to win the West River, it all depends on your efforts."

After finishing speaking, he glanced at Wu Qi, hesitant to speak.

When Wu Qi went to Qin, he once said that if he didn't die, he would never personally lead troops to attack the Xihe pawns that he trained so hard.

This is a kind of promise, a kind of sentiment unique to scholars. Ying Shichao has been traveling in the Central Plains as a hostage for a long time, and he can understand this kind of sentiments of scholars.

Otherwise, it would be impossible for him to gather these momentary talents.

Wu Qi felt Qin Jun's gaze, got up and sighed: "Since I entered Qin, I knew that there would be a battle in Xihe. Xihe military soldiers, unless they are too old to hold weapons, they will serve as soldiers for life. I have only been in Qin for a few years. Still here."

He let out a long sigh and looked at the pillars of the palace, as if recalling an event from a long, long time ago.

After a long while, he said: "In the past, I was in charge of Xihe and was the general of Xihe. I wore the same clothes and ate the same food as the most inferior soldiers. I didn't lay bedding when I slept, and I didn't ride horses or carts when I marched. The food and the soldiers share weal and woe."

"There was a soldier suffering from malignant sores, and I sucked the pus for him with my mouth."

"But the soldier's mother burst into tears when she heard about it. Some people said: Your son is an unknown soldier, but the general sucked the pus for him himself. Why are you still crying?"

At this time, very few people know about this matter. Even in Qin, which has reformed its laws, this matter is still somewhat shocking.

Even if the law is reformed, centuries-old customs will not be overturned so easily, and the inherent inequality and hierarchy between people are deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and it is not so easy to be smoothed out.

Many ministers looked at Wu Qi in amazement, and found it inconceivable that the chief general of an army, who was also a figure like Doctor Qing, could suck sores on the bottom private soldiers?
Wu Qi half-closed his eyes, raised his head, seemed to be recalling things that he didn't want to recall, and said for a long time: "The mother replied: That's not the case. In the past, Wu Qi sucked the sores for his father, and his father marched bravely on the battlefield. , died at the hands of the enemy; now he sucks the sores for my son, I don't know how he will die, so I cry for him."

No one expected such a result, including Ying Shichao, they all stared blankly at Wu Qi, recalling what the old mother said, their hearts softened after all.

These people may have killed many, many people for a certain purpose. During the Qin Reform, hundreds of heads were beheaded by the river, but that was just a number.

When these very concrete words form images in their minds, they are heavier than the hundreds of severed heads after all.

Wu Qi didn't look at the expressions of the crowd, just shook his head with a wry smile and said, "This is my way of training soldiers. As the Mohist said, I really have the heart of 'employing people' rather than 'loving people'."

"But... But in the end, I don't want to take my former enemies to slaughter Xihe soldiers. There are hundreds of thousands of people like the soldier whose sores I sucked. I don't want to kill them with my own hands, defeat them .”

This is the insistence of scholars.

Just like he killed many people for one sentence back then, this is the sentiment and character of a scholar, if you say you don't do it, you don't do it.

Wu Qi is very clear about what kind of person he is, because of his vow that I won’t come back, he didn’t even go back to mourn when his mother passed away; in order to become famous, he won’t be taken seriously by Wei Jian, and he can join Wei’s enemy Qin in a blink of an eye...

He himself knew that he was not a "good person", and he also knew that he sucked the sore for the soldier for "use" rather than "love".

But this does not prevent him from sticking to his original promise.

Qin Jun felt that Wu Qi was none other than Wu Qi in the matter of capturing Xihe, but he didn't want Wu Qi to directly express his refusal.

Just about to say something, Wu Qi said, "Your Majesty, don't worry. Judging from the situation of the Battle of Yinyang and my understanding of the soldiers, Qin's new army is enough to defeat the soldiers of Xihe."

"My talent comes from being a general to becoming a prime minister. Sun Wuzi said that a good fighter has no great achievements. In the past, when I entered the Qin Dynasty through Sishang, and observed the situation in Sishang, I wanted to understand one thing... the victory and defeat of the battle , Now and internal affairs, the last is the military system, and the last is the opportunity on the battlefield. Now that the military system has been changed and the reform has begun, as long as you are not mediocre, you can capture several cities in Xihe in a few years."

He might be afraid that Qin Jun would not believe him, so he said solemnly: "If the battle of Yinyang is like this, where will Chu win?"

Of course, everyone knows the whole situation of the Battle of Yinyang, which may have been just hearsay in the past, but since the rise of the Mohists, every battle will restore the tactics at that time in the newspapers, so as to avoid those who only talk about strategy but not tactics. .

Understand people, naturally understand.

Everyone thought for a while, and Sheng Chuo was the first to understand, nodded and said: "I got it. In the battle of Yinyang, the Chu people won within a quarter of an hour, and the reserve team can march to the left wing and spread out, blocking the Wei Han Pythagorean formation." .”

"In other words, the discipline, training, and military formation of Chu's new army won. If there is no such training and military system, even if Chu Sima made a decision at that time, so what?"

Qin Jun was stunned, and after thinking about it again, he felt more reasonable.

That's right, if the state of Chu is not a new military system, but a heavy-step formation or an even older formation of chariots and pawns, how can it be possible to block the left wing in half an hour, not to mention a quarter of an hour? ?If the left wing cannot be blocked within half an hour, even if the Mohist cavalry raided Wei's side, the Mo-Chu coalition would lose.

Chu State won by those Mohists who helped Chu State build up and train the new army, and won by the ten years of hard work before the Battle of Yinyang, not by the battle that took only half a day.

Wu Qi's words are very clear. In the current situation, as long as the Qin State wants to retake Xihe, if it is steady and steady, it can at least advance a hundred miles, so that the front line is no longer the last Weishui and Beiluoshui.

Slowly, every time Qin State seized a piece of Wei land, Qin State became stronger and Wei became weaker. When the real decisive battle came, Wei State was powerless to fight back.

As far as the Qin State is concerned, after the reform, every time a place is conquered, the local people can quickly turn into Qin's population, soldiers, logistics, and farmers who produce food.

Wei Guo... I'm afraid it won't work, because Wei Guo doesn't have a chance to completely liquidate the nobles. Foreign enemies are stalking and surrounded on all sides. If they dare to deepen reforms under such circumstances, it is better to burn their own ancestral temple in Lutai.

Wu Qi looked at Sheng Chuo, and bowed to the Lord of Qin, saying: "In the old days in Lu, Sheng Chuo once fought against me, and he was able to resolve it. Attacking Wei is no problem. Uncle Cuo, although he has the wisdom of court , but without the ability of a general. Our army is fighting steadily, three miles today and five miles tomorrow, exhausting the people of Wei."

"Wei Renxin was defeated by Yinyang, and he dared not fight decisively, because he still had Mo and Zhao Hushi, so he could only back down. A few years later, when Wei was exhausted, he could win in a single battle."

He is giving up the achievements of Xihe to Shengchao.

Sheng Chuo was overjoyed, and Wu Qi said again: "Your Majesty, since I have talked about the westward march, it is better to entrust the westward expedition to me."

The Western Expedition is not a simple military issue.

It also involves a series of issues such as internal affairs, taxes, systems, laws, colonial policies, and assimilation.

If the Western Expedition is based on military theory, it is only the work of the five great officials, but to turn the western region into the depth and territory of the Qin State, it is necessary to have people with great talents who "come out of the generals and into the prime minister".

Moreover, entrenched nobles cannot be killed.

Looking at the court, there is no better candidate than Wu Qi who can grasp the military, internal affairs, taxation, system, decree, and assimilation.

It is not difficult to open up thousands of miles to the west.

The difficulty is that the thousands of miles of land can be transformed into the land and power of the Qin State, collecting taxes, producing soldiers, producing horses, and stabilizing the rebellion.

Ying Shichao was also a man who dared to employ others. Moreover, Wu Qi was already old and had few descendants, and everyone in the court opposed him—when he built Xihe, most of the Qin nobles died in his hands.

That's why he was overjoyed when he heard the words, and said, "Shan, what happened in Anxi can't be done without you."

Ying Shichao has no doubts about employing people, and there are various restraints, Dang even decided to hand over various powers and responsibilities for the Western Expedition to Wu Qi.

Of course, the matter of dispatching officials has to go through the king, and the official system of Qin State is monopolized by those rebels, and it is not in the same system as Wu Qi.

This matter has been decided, and Master Ying asked again: "After the Battle of Yinyang, the Mohists must form an alliance with Chu, Wei, and Han. The Mohists have been saying that eliminating troops is not a matter of attacking the League of Nations... How should we deal with this matter?"

Sheng Chuo laughed loudly and said, "This matter is easy to hear."

"In the battle of Yinyang, Wei and Han were powerless, and the matter of eliminating troops belonged to Qin, not to Wei and Han. Since the reform of the king, Qin has become stronger and stronger, and in the past there was the hegemony of Duke Mu. Without Qin, what is the League of Nations? "

"Just send someone to join the alliance, and say: Xihe is an inseparable place in Qin since ancient times. It is a land of size for relatives and ancestors. If you don't take it back, you will be ashamed of your ancestors."

"If you want to become the League of Nations, you must first return Xihe. If the people of Wei dare to return Xihe, the people of Qin can join the League of Nations, otherwise there will be no discussion."

"If the people of Wei don't return it, our army will fight to take it. If the Mohist really wanted to attack, why bother to use rulers to 'rebuke' Qin for wanting to get Xihe for being unjust? The Mohist will definitely mediate, I'm afraid it will The people of Wei will definitely not agree to the theory that Xihe is half Wei and Qin half."

"If the people of Wei refuse, then the League of Nations will fail to eliminate the troops. If the elimination of the troops fails, the Mo family can only stand neutral. The Mo family will stand, and the Wei people in Yinyang have been defeated. Our army will take it on its own. Who can stop it?"

Speaking of this, Sheng Chuo smiled when he thought of that nasty Shi in Shangqiu City who kicked him out of the Mohist family when Shanggang went online.

"Neutrality is not offensive? There is no battle of Yinyang, and the Mo family is truly neutral. The battle of Yinyang has been decided, and the Mohists are neutral and non-aggressive... How is it different from a strong man beating a young child, and the person next to him is neutral and non-aggressive?" Don't help either?"

"The neutrality of a strong man beating a young child, is it neutral and non-aggressive?"

"So, just stick to two things. First, Xihe should return to Qin, otherwise we won't talk about the Alliance of Soldiers; Transform into invisible. Based on Xihe and Zheng, use the technique of specimen leverage to stir up this situation."

(End of this chapter)