The Six Arts of the Gentleman in the Bright Moon of Qin Dynasty

Chapter 1223 The Three Great Rivers [Please Subscribe*Please Vote for Monthly Tickets]

As for Yingzhou Island, Lord Yanchun sat quietly in the newly built palace hall, waiting.

Fan Yuqi also told him everything about Luzon Island and the subsequent arrangements.

They could only wait quietly for the attitudes of Qin and Bingzhou; this powerlessness of being at the mercy of others was something they could not change at the moment.

“Your Majesty…” The young talents of Yan looked at Lord Yanchun with trepidation.

After all, such powerlessness would anger even an ordinary person, let alone a monarch.

They both wanted Yan Chun Jun to vent his frustrations and were afraid that he would vent them indiscriminately.

When the ruler is distressed, the minister is disgraced; when the ruler is disgraced, the minister dies.

This was the character of the scholar-officials of this era, but they were facing two enormous empires.

"Let's wait!" Yan Chunjun sighed.

At least for now, there's nothing they can do but wait.

"Your Majesty, a letter has arrived from Bingzhou!" Soon, a physician burst into the hall.

"Speak!" Yan Chunjun immediately stood up and asked anxiously.

"Bingzhou has abandoned its struggle for Luzon, only saying that it will send craftsmen and laborers there to be placed under the jurisdiction of Doctor Qin Lang," the doctor hurriedly said.

"Good!" Lord Yanchun finally breathed a sigh of relief, which meant that Bingzhou had tacitly agreed to their path of becoming a maritime empire.

As long as Bingzhou doesn't interfere, Qin is unlikely to intervene easily.

They have taken the first step toward maritime hegemony, and emerged from their darkest hour.

As for what happens next, that depends on how they choose to go about it.

Without the constraints of the two great empires, if they still can't find their own way, then they should just stay on Yingzhou Island for generations to come and stop thinking about counterattacking the mainland.

Let's just wait for the day when it's swallowed up by Qin or Bingzhou and returns to the embrace of China.

On the other side, in Shouchun, Fusu looked at the incoherent letter from Xianyang and was also a little confused. What did it mean to prepare a "big fat sheep" for him?
How could someone who was called a "fat sheep" by the emperor be ordinary?
"Father, you don't want me to go and fight against Bingzhou, do you?" Fusu hesitated, looking at his subordinates and advisors.

Having a system makes no difference to him as to whether he has one or not. As the crown prince and heir of the Great Qin Dynasty, the loyalty of his advisors is unwavering.

After all, nobody's stupid. Adding flowers to brocade is nothing compared to providing charcoal in the snow. Anyone with a sound mind knows what to do.

“No, no!” Meng Yi and Wu Rui shook their heads decisively.

Bingzhou was a fat sheep; back then, it was a pack of wolves on the grasslands.

"Could it be Luzon?" Ji Bu offered his opinion, but then shook his head.

It was no secret to them that Fan Yuqi had captured Luzon, and they also knew the attitudes of the Northern Palace and Xianyang.

Moreover, given Qin's current size and future development, Luzon is not yet qualified to be called a "fat sheep".

"Is it possible that the fat sheep His Majesty the First Emperor was referring to was the Yan Kingdom, which had retreated to Yingzhou?" Banbu said uncertainly in a low voice.

When the State of Yan retreated to Yingzhou, the State of Qin did not pursue them. This shows that the State of Qin left Yan with a way out and did not intend to completely destroy the State of Yan.

It's somewhat unfair to allow the Yan state to develop only to then completely suppress it.

If the State of Yan were to be destroyed by the State of Qin without seeing any hope, that would be Yan's fate.

But to give people hope and then tear that hope apart with your own hands is a bit too cruel.

"If nothing unexpected happens, it should be the Yan Kingdom!" Meng Yi and Wu Rui nodded. The Qin Kingdom did not pursue them to Yingzhou because at that time, the Qin Kingdom had not yet completely unified the country and had also witnessed the terrifying combat power of the Great Wall garrison.

Before unification, everything was still uncertain. The Qin state dared not engage in a direct confrontation with the Great Wall garrison, which would affect the unification plan.

Even now, none of Qin's elite troops dare to say they can easily defeat Yan's Great Wall garrison.

Therefore, it is highly likely that Ying Zheng would pass this problem on to Fusu as a test for him.

As for whether it was too cruel for the Yan state?
This was not within the Qin state's considerations; backwardness invites aggression, and weakness invites suffering.

I'm not hitting you today simply because I don't want to.

Unless you can rapidly develop and rise to become another Bingzhou during this brief window of opportunity given by Qin, a place where Qin has to consider whether it can afford to attack you.

“It is indeed a fat sheep. The current Yan state is like a chicken rib, tasteless to eat, but a pity to throw away. But the Yan state may not be like that after it forges its own path,” Wu Rui explained.

If Qin truly wanted to destroy Yan, it would spare no expense and disregard the consequences; Yan would not be able to stop it. However, this was not in Qin's interest, so the plan was abandoned.

However, once Yan became wealthy, it became a piece of fat meat in Qin's mouth.

Especially since the Yellow River has not yet diverted into the Huai River and flowed into the sea, and the Huai River still has an estuary that directly faces Yingzhou Island.

It would be incredibly easy for the Qin state to wage war across the sea.

"Therefore, the Huai River is the key!" After all, Fusu was unfamiliar with military tactics in the primitive space and learned military skills in Bingzhou first.

If the goal is to restrict and curb the development of the Yan state, then the Huai River is the key.

Although the Huai River is not as famous as the major rivers, it still firmly holds the position of the third largest river in China.

Moreover, the Huai River is neither as turbulent as the Yellow River nor as wide as the Yangtze River, but it is the most suitable for training naval forces.

As long as a large naval port is built at the mouth of the Huai River and a powerful navy is stationed there, the development of Yingzhou will be controlled by this navy.

"We really need to pay more attention to the Huai River!" Meng Yi nodded.

The reason why the State of Chu moved its capital to Shouchun was because of the Huai River, a fact verified by numerous feng shui masters.

Instead of developing the Huai River, they went to develop the Yangtze River, where floods can be fatal. This seems like taking a roundabout approach.

Almost every river in history has a record of flooding, except for the Yangtze River.

The Yellow River represents the mother river of China and will punish any ruler who neglects water management by finding sacrifices for him. But this is a lie; those who do value water management will still die.

The Yangtze River is different; there are no historical records of it overflowing, not because it is gentle and does not overflow.

The fundamental reason is that once the Yangtze River floods, no one will survive!

Everyone is dead, so what is there to record, and who would dare to record it?
How to record it?

On a certain day of a certain month of a certain year, a certain monarch witnessed the Yangtze River overflowing its banks, and no one survived along its banks or downstream.

Which historian would dare to record this? Wouldn't that be implying the incompetence of the ruler and the ministers?
Therefore, compared to the unpredictable Yellow River and the Yangtze River, which can wipe out entire groups at the slightest provocation, the Huai River is a gentle and easy-to-tame little cutie.

"The banks of the Huai River could become a granary far surpassing Guanzhong and Chengdu!"

Wu Rui continued.

"Following the footsteps of our ancestors, retracing the path of Yu, and opening up the Huai River!"

Fusu also spoke up, saying that Ying Zheng had entrusted them with governing the Chu region, and what could be easier to win the hearts of the Chu people than governing the Huai River?

(End of this chapter)