Spring and Autumn I Am King - Chapter 1208

In the spring of the thirteenth year of Zhaohou Wuxi and the thirteenth year of King Zhang of Chu (476 BC), in the Ying capital of the state of Chu, under the stage of Zhang Hua, Xiong Sheng, the “King of Chu” in armor, described as withered and was drinking boring wine. .

He is pouring his own failure with bitter wine.

A year and a half ago, Xiong Sheng was blocked because of the reform. He was afraid that the nobles of Chu State would deprive him of his territory and military power.

In the beginning, Xiong Sheng had the advantage in the military. He had experienced hundreds of battles and was an outstanding military commander. He was also very good at motivating his soldiers on the battlefield. The 5,000 “Chu Wuzun” soldiers built with all the financial resources of Huainan were unstoppable, and the clan soldiers of the Chu nobles could not compete with them.

In the battle of Ying, Xiong Sheng swept the Ying Zhi division guarding the King of Chu with a few attacks. Because of the sudden incident, most of the nobles of the Chu kingdom were captured by him in the capital. Using these hostages, Xiong Sheng forced many county magistrates in Jianghan to surrender. to him. As for the nobles who refused to surrender, he slaughtered them mercilessly. He successively slaughtered Yuncheng, Xia Lanyi, broken Yuncheng, and took Xiayi, forcing King Zhang of Chu to flee again. Victory, even the striker of Ye Gong was defeated, and Ye Gong himself did not dare to plunder his edge for a long time.

However, after sweeping Jianghan, Xiong Sheng’s victory began to stagnate. The mature and stable Ye Gong was not good at attacking but was good at defending. He traded space for time and kept half of Chu’s country. Wandi went south to Yancheng, and the two sides fell into a stalemate.

Xiong Sheng knew that, as a bottom-up challenger, he was far from his basic base, Huainan, and the food was not sufficient. The longer the delay, the more unfavorable the situation would be for him. Not to mention that Zhao Wuxi had already taken advantage of the internal strife in Chu to destroy Zheng and the Qin state in the west. As long as the Qin state was cleaned up, a divided Chu state would definitely not be able to resist the Zhao army going south.

But since Xiong Sheng killed his two uncles to become king, he can’t look back. Now, he needs a quick decision. As long as he can capture Yancheng, capture or kill Xiong Zhang, and leave the state of Chu with only one king, this civil war can be declared over!

To this end, Xiong Sheng assembled all his own troops, and forced the soldiers of Jianghan County Duke. A total of 40,000 troops went north to Yandi, and fought decisively with Ye Gong’s 50,000 Wan and Ye army.

However, the situation began to take a turn for the worse at that time. When Xiong Sheng and Ye Gong were at a stalemate in Yan, Suiguo, who had already sent envoys to surrender to Xiong Sheng, suddenly turned against the tide. Suiguo, directly behind Xiong Sheng. Under the attack from the north and the south, Xiong Sheng’s army of the county magistrate was the first to defect. Seeing that the situation was unfavorable, the newly recruited army composed of Yingdu evil youths and unemployed vagabonds also collapsed…

In the battle of Yandi, Xiong Shengshou suffered defeat. With his excellent commanding skills, he took 20,000 main force to withdraw to Yingdu, and kept his vitality. However, the offense and defense of the civil war in Chu had already changed. Ye Gong assembled the northern army of Chu State, and started to recover the lost ground. The battle line was pushed back to the vicinity of Yuancheng again.

The tree fell and the hozen scattered, and the armed forces of the county princes who had surrendered in fear of Xiong’s victory jumped back one after another. In the west, Kui Gong led the army of Yiling to attack, and in the east, Egong crossed the river, occupied the Hanrui Ferry, and cut off the The connection between Xiong Sheng and Huainan. Even Zhen Yingu, whom Xiong Sheng trusted very much, defected. He sacrificed Yingdu, so that the army of King Zhang of Chu and Duke Ye could go directly to the vicinity of Yingdu.

Now, Xiong Sheng has been betrayed and separated, and he is surrounded by Ye Gong and the old-fashioned aristocrats of Chu, leaving only the area around Yingdu, lingering…

To make matters worse, the bad news is still coming.

“Your Majesty…” Just as he was drinking to relieve his worries, Gao She, Xiong Sheng’s first adviser, came to see him and sent him a blood-stained silk book: “There is a reply from Huainan.”

“Huinan… That’s right, Huainan!”

As if seeing a glimmer of hope, he almost snatched the silk book from Gao She, and Xiong Sheng hurriedly opened it. Now that Ejun of Chu has occupied Hanrui, the communication between Yingdu and Huainan can only take a detour to Yangyue and Yuzhang. It took several months to go back and forth, and it was really not easy.

After unfolding the silk book, Xiong Sheng recognized that it was the handwriting of his son Yan. The bird and insect writing was excellent, and the wording was improved. However, he told a bad news: “Huainan is now unable to protect itself and cannot come to help…”

It turned out that since the news of Xiong Sheng proclaiming himself king in Yingdu spread, Yue Guo Goujian quickly made a clear statement in support of his grandson, King Zhang of Chu. He called Xiong Sheng a traitor, and the previous series of border demarcations between Huainan and Yue Guo did not work. Under the banner of helping King Zhang of Chu to quell the rebellion, Yue Guo sent a large army to start an attack on the land of Jiangdong held by Xiong Sheng. Now, the country of Yue has all taken over Jiangdong, and is governed by Huainan across the river, and even Jinling, which Xiong Sheng thought was “kingly”, has also been lost.

If this is the case, it will be fine. Misfortunes do not come singly. The tens of thousands of troops of the Zhao State stationed in Huaibei also took advantage of the fire and looted, capturing Yihu (Hefei) and bringing troops to Chaohu Lake.

Huainan elites have all come to the west, unable to resist, they can only barely protect themselves under the cracks of Zhao and Yue, reinforcements? That is absolutely impossible.

“This is not a letter, it’s a poison that will kill me!” Crushing the silk book into a ball, Bai Gongsheng was furious, and his originally gloomy mood became worse after reading these angry words.

Since Huainan was unable to send troops to rescue, Xiong Sheng only had more than 10,000 people left, while Ye Gongqing’s entire country’s divisions came to encircle and suppress them, with a total of 60,000 or 70,000 people…

Coupled with the panic inside Yingdu, Xiong Sheng was sure that Duke Ye would conquer this city as easily as killing his son Xiziqi himself.

He is defeated!

“Hahahahaha!” On the Zhang Hua stage, Xiong Sheng, who had experienced ups and downs, burst out laughing.

“Why did I get to this point?”

“Gao She, you say, why is this?” Xiong Sheng asked angrily, pointing to Gao She, who had urged him to rebel and become king from the very beginning.

Xiong Sheng’s regime was in a desperate situation. All the counsellors and officials who were rushing to get ahead and relying on him were all in a panic, but Gao She was still indifferent and still fulfilled the order calmly. At this moment, he folded his hands and said: ” Your defeat is not a crime of war.”

“Yes, it’s been a year and a half since I started the uprising, and I have experienced more than 20 battles. The ones I dealt with were defeated, and the ones I attacked were subdued. I haven’t been defeated, so I became the king of Yuying.”

Xiong Sheng is also very confused. In all, his army has only lost once in Yandu, and the other small battles are invincible, but the strange thing is that his territory is getting smaller and smaller, and the situation is getting worse and worse. The more, the more enemies he has.

“Since it’s not a crime of war, why is that?”

Gao Amnesty paid his respects again, and said eloquently: “You have three defeats, one of which is that Yingdu and Jianghan are regarded as Huainan, and the implementation of the new law is too radical, which has attracted the hatred of the clan and the county of Chu. One glory and one loss are all losses, and they have become the mortal enemy of the monarch. Even if he is forced to submit to the situation, once the monarch suffers a small defeat, he will inevitably turn his back again, and this is a defeat.”

“Second, you underestimated the position of King Chu Zhao and his son in the hearts of the common people. King Chu Zhao was tolerant, and his legacy continues to this day. Many people in Chu hate nobles, but they have never heard of anyone who hates King Chu. Wang, it was not right, and because of his own anger, he killed Ling Yin and Sima, who were highly respected, and forced his daughter-in-law Ji Mi to death. In this way, the people of Chu regarded you as an unkind and unkind wolf son. Who would dare to serve and be close to a person with a heart? Before the emperor introduced new laws and severely punished the nobles, the little people’s hearts won’t survive…”

Although the internal contradictions in the state of Chu were sharp, it was far from the point where the people could not bear the oppression of the nobles two hundred years later, and they rose up with Zhuang Qi to directly oppose the king of Chu. What’s more, the memory of Master Wu’s entry into Ying 30 years ago is still fresh, and the people’s minds are settled. Because the rule of the Chu kings in the past dynasties has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and the generosity of the Chu King Zhao, the people also pinned certain hopes on the Chu King Zhang, thinking that this might be possible. Will be a wise man. But Bai Gongsheng broke this peace and made the people of Chu involved in civil strife.

“These two defeats are also…”

Xiong Sheng was a little stunned, while Gao She was still gushing about the reasons for his defeat.

“Thirdly, since you have already turned your back, if you don’t do the two, you will kill all the nobles of Chu who cannot be subdued, and distribute all their land to the poor who have no place to stand, so that everyone has good fields. In order to keep these fields, Naturally, a group of supporters can be obtained. However, the monarch has both sides, and he cannot eliminate evil. Naturally, the people of Chu who are willing to follow him to do something big also have doubts. Therefore, they have repeatedly recruited troops in Ying and Jianghan, but very few responded. Over the past year, most of the people who have joined the army are the leftist proletarians and wicked teenagers. These people are of bad nature and come purely for the bounty. They can only fight against the wind. Heart. Although your Chu Wu pawns are strong, after all, there are only a few thousand, and the more you fight, the fewer you will be, and these three defeats are also…”

Gao She spread his hands: “With these three defeats, it is not surprising that you will be trapped here.”

“Shuzi dare!” Xiong Sheng was furious, drew his sword and pointed at Gao She.

“It was you who urged me to rebel and become king~www.mtlnovel.com~ It was you who advised me! Since you all know my shortcomings, why didn’t you persuade me earlier?”

“You were very ambitious at the time, and other people’s persuasion may not be useful, not to mention…I have one more thing to do, and I didn’t tell you clearly.”

Facing Xiong Sheng’s anger and sharp sword, Gao She did not change his face, but knelt down, solemnly bowed his head to his lord, and said loudly, “This minister is unfaithful.

“Zizhi, you…”

Xiong Sheng looked at his cronies in disbelief, some things that he couldn’t figure out before, but he understood a little bit, but up to now, he still can’t believe it’s true.

He restrained the thought of stabbing him with his sword, and his teeth rattled: “Then who are you?”

Gao She raised his head, and after concealing it for many years, he finally revealed the truth: “This minister once entrusted to Zhao Hou, he is a spy of Zhao State!”

PS: Chapter 2 is at night