At the end of Qin, I became a son of the plane

Chapter 171: You can only rely on the old Qin people and the undercurrent of southern Xinjiang

May 37, the 5th year of the First Emperor's reign, Zhangtai Palace, Xianyang City.

Zhao Gao read from a scroll of bamboo slips and said: "The rebel stone cannons are extremely powerful, their sound is powerful, and their sound shakes the heaven and the earth. It destroys everything they hit. It penetrates seven feet into the ground, and the sound is like thunder. It shakes the city. The city is fierce. Many generals overtake the city and surrender." , if we don’t rescue, Xingyang will not be saved!”

The First Emperor looked expressionlessly at his close ministers, the left and right prime ministers Feng Quji, Li Si and the imperial censor Yao Jia.

Then he said slowly: "This is the content of the letter written by Zhao Rong in Xingyang asking for help. When did our Da Qin soldiers become so incompetent? 5 elites cannot defend a Sanchuan County, but the rebels are really so powerful!"

The Central Plains has been in chaos for two years, and now no matter how bad the news is, it can't make the First Emperor angry. Instead, he began to feel refreshed. He no longer thought about seeking immortality, no longer favored beauties, and was no longer interested in building palaces. He even stopped working on imperial tombs and did not care about his own affairs. Think about it.

After having enemies like Xu Fan, the First Emperor seemed to have returned to his youthful state, and began to stare at the court and Qin officials. The Great Qin court has finally improved its operation speed, but there is still more bad news than good news.

The young master Hu Hai sitting next to the First Emperor was full of excitement. After his eldest brother Fusu was demoted to Shangjun, his father began to pay special attention to him. He often asked him about his studies and even gave him some minor government affairs. deal with.

Fortunately, he had the secret assistance of Zhao Gao, the commander of the CRRC, and all these government affairs were handled to the satisfaction of his father. Today, he was even asked to attend the high-level meeting of Daqin. This was the step to establish him as the prince. How could he not feel in his heart? Excited.

Hearing his father's question, he just wanted to get up and show off in front of the ministers, but he saw Zhao Gao shaking his head at him, indicating that he should be silent. Hu Hai immediately obeyed and sat down again. CRRC ordered Zhao Gao to teach him, so he had great trust in Zhao Gao.

The Zhangtai Palace was inexplicably quiet, and no one answered the First Emperor's question.

Now even the First Emperor has to admit that his empire is already in an extremely dangerous situation, which is more dangerous than the six-nation coalition forces jointly siege Guanzhong decades ago, but he is confident that he can put things right.

But even the First Emperor did not expect that a remnant of the Mohist family would bring such big trouble to his empire.

"The situation is not good. The south of the Yellow River is no longer the territory of the country. Even though General Meng Tian has 30 troops, he has to face hundreds of thousands of rebels and is blocked on the north bank of the Yellow River. Now he not only rescues Xingyang City It’s a problem, even the 30 Northern Xinjiang troops are in danger.”

Zhao Gao immediately replied: "General Meng Tian led 30 Northern Xinjiang troops south to Chaoge, but the rebels have occupied Dongjun and Hanoi counties, cutting off General Meng's way to support Xingyang."

Now the rebels have divided General Feng Jie and General Meng Tian into two groups. It's okay that General Feng Jie has all the ground, but General Meng doesn't even have a stable rear. If we are not careful, our Qin army will lose these 300,000 troops. The crisis is over, even Great Qin will be in danger when the time comes. "Feng Quji said heartbrokenly.

After looking at the map for a long time, Yao Jia said: "The only solutions are two. One is to defeat the rebels besieging the Sanchuan Army and open up the connection between Aocang and General Meng. The rebels will not be a concern sooner or later. They will be wiped out by General Mongolia’s 30 Northern Xinjiang Army.”

Yao Jia changed the subject and asked: "Where is General Meng now? Can he support Xingyang?"

Feng Quji thought for a while and whispered: "I heard that the Mohist giant Qin Bo is among the rebels. This powerful stone cannon was made by the remnants of the Mohist family."

The First Emperor said: "I have ordered the entire army to support the Northern Xinjiang Army with food and grass. There will be no problems with the army in a short time."

It's a pity that the Mohist family was not of the same mind as him. They actually regarded him as a great danger to the world and dared to assassinate him. So the First Emperor became angry, and the Mohist family, which had been extremely influential for hundreds of years, was destroyed by the First Emperor.

I wonder what happened to Qin these years? It has been in an unfavorable state. The more they suppressed the rebels, the stronger they became. Now they have reached Xingyang. Originally, this was nothing. Most of the rebels were still inferior to the Qin army in combat effectiveness. Even in the A state of collapse.

The current situation in the world is really too difficult for Great Qin. No matter what choice they make, it is wrong. It seems that there is no right path for them to choose. The Great Qin Empire, which was a good empire, suddenly became so precarious.

You must know that even if the Xianyang court knew that the puppet King of Han led an army of more than 20 to attack Sanchuan County, they were confident that they could defend Xingyang, but Zhao Rong's letter asking for help was a slap in the face.

He also discovered the danger of the Northern Xinjiang Army. It can even be said that after Sanchuan County was blocked by the rebels, even though Aocang was still in the hands of Da Qin, it could no longer support the various armies of Da Qin's huge empire.

The First Emperor glanced at Zhao Gao.

The First Emperor asked: "My dear friends, what can you do to change the bad situation in the country?"

However, Xingyang, which had 5 defenders, began to ask for help within three days of fighting. When would the rebels become so powerful?

Hearing this, the First Emperor felt a little angry in his heart. He actually admired the Mohists for their talents and ability to do things. Mohists were involved in a large number of projects in the Qin State. Usually, they were not as dry-tongued as Confucian scholars and made comments about political affairs. Opinions, not to mention arbitrarily criticizing him as the emperor, it can be said that he is one of his most assured ministers.

Li Si asked a little anxiously: "Handan City has not been captured?"

"Your Majesty, this is just a short-term solution. There are Tian Heng and Xiang Liang tribes in Qi, and there is also a rebel named Peng Yue in Xue County. It is already very difficult for General Feng Jie to deal with several groups of rebels by himself. Now we have to let him It is really difficult to protect General Meng's food route.

Then Li Si walked to an extremely huge map of the world in Zhangtai Palace, pointed to the location of Meng Tian and said: "Handan has not been captured, Hanoi County in the East County has been occupied by the rebels, and the food routes of the Northern Xinjiang Army have been completely destroyed. The more troops General Meng Tian has now, the faster he will consume food and grass. If the road to Aocang cannot be opened, General Meng Tian will be in danger!"

The First Emperor shook his head and said: "It can be seen from the letter of Zhao Rong, the guard of Sanchuan County, that they have been frightened by the stone cannons of the enemy rebels. They have more than enough defense but not enough offense."

"Your Majesty, the only rescue point is Hanoi County. It is blocked by the Taihang Mountains. In addition, Handan is still in the hands of the rebels. It is difficult to support grain and grass to General Meng. If Hanoi County is opened, grain and grass can also be transported to Meng Tian through Hanoi County. General."

"It's unrealistic. This grain road is also under threat from the rebels. It would be better to attack Handan directly. This would be more effective."

Li Si said to the First Emperor: "The situation in the world has developed to this point, and Da Qin and the rebels are already in a decisive battle.

Your Majesty, please see, the puppet king of Han and the puppet king of Wei have all gathered in the middle of the Yellow River. The rebels Xiang Liang and Tian Heng have led the main force to gather together. The situation at this time is extremely dangerous for our Daqin, but it can also be said to be extremely favorable. In such a state, all the rebels will be attracted out of their lair. As long as the rebels on both sides of the Yellow River are wiped out, the heroes of the six countries will be slaughtered by your majesty, and the world of Great Qin will be as stable as Mount Tai. "

Li Si's statement indeed attracted the First Emperor. He walked to the map and saw dolls representing Xu Fan's forces, Wei Jiu's forces, Tian Heng's forces, and Xiang Liang's forces. More than 50 rebels appeared on both sides of the Yellow River and were annihilated. They will annihilate all the main forces of the rebels, and the world of Qin will be as stable as Mount Tai.

But Feng Quji smiled bitterly and said: "Although what Prime Minister You said is reasonable, we can no longer find soldiers in Guanzhong. In the past two years, soldiers in Guanzhong have been constantly mobilized to the Central Plains, but the rebels in the Central Plains are fighting more and more. The entire Central Plains region has The number of troops exceeds 50, which is far beyond the limit that the imperial court can support."

Since Xu Fan's uprising, the Qin army in the Central Plains has become extremely unreliable. Not only did they have poor combat effectiveness when deployed to encircle and suppress the rebels, but they also often rebelled. The most helpless thing was that they turned against the Qin army and their combat effectiveness was extremely strong. The imperial court The soldiers who were painstakingly trained became the most determined core force against Qin.

When the rebel Xu Fan attacked the army of Li You, the governor of Sanchuan County, there were 30,000 soldiers who were originally soldiers of the Qin State. The rebel Xu Fan dared to recruit them in the prisoner of war camp, and it was also such soldiers who fought the Qin army most violently. In this situation This was something the First Emperor and his bureaucrats had never encountered.

What Xu Fan did to Great Qin was not that he annihilated tens of thousands of troops, but that it destroyed the trust between the senior officials of Great Qin and the people of the six countries, causing Qin to lose more than half of its soldiers.

Now the First Emperor and the officials of Xianyang City no longer trust the soldiers of the Six Kingdoms survivors, so at this time most of the soldiers of the Qin army were mobilized from Guanzhong, but after several years of consumption, plus the 50 troops from the Central Plains. Even the densely populated Guanzhong has a shortage of troops. Now even if the First Emperor wants to mobilize troops to support Meng Tian, ​​he can only mobilize the Forbidden Army stationed in Xianyang, but the Emperor is unwilling to mobilize this army. An army means that Da Qin is in the most dangerous situation, and all the people in Guanzhong are required to be soldiers.

Li Sidao: "Your Majesty, the only way to break the situation now is in southern Xinjiang. If we can mobilize the army in southern Xinjiang and attack the puppet Han Dynasty, which is the main force of the rebels, the rebel coalition will definitely collapse, and General Meng Tian's army will pour in." Down, enough to wipe out the rebellion in the Central Plains."

Feng Jie said, "The southern Xinjiang army is not in chaos. The imperial court asked them to prepare the army for more than half a year, but they are still dispatched. Now the southern Xinjiang coach Ren Xiao has died of illness. I'm afraid the imperial court will soon be able to rely on them." Southern Xinjiang Army.”

The First Emperor's face darkened when he heard this. To him, Ren Xiao was an insignificant minister. To his empire, Southern Xinjiang was just a place where officials were sent into exile. It was a place of no importance to the empire.

In charge of four counties, hundreds of thousands of army officers are just a captain. In contrast, Meng Tian, ​​who is also in charge of 30 northern Xinjiang troops, is already a general. It can be seen that the senior officials of Daqin do not pay attention to this area.

But such a minister from an area that was not taken seriously was the only one who dared to contradict him in the past few years. This feeling made him very dissatisfied. Only then did Hei Bingtai be ordered to contact other captains in southern Xinjiang to assassinate Ren Xiao.

But there was something that the First Emperor did not expect. Even if Ren Xiao died and was replaced by ministers who were loyal to him, they still said it would be difficult to send troops to the Southern Xinjiang Army. Moreover, at this time, water from far away could not quench the thirst from near.

"Allocate another 50,000 forbidden troops to support Xingyang, and we must open up the connection between Xingyang and the Northern Xinjiang Army." After thinking deeply for a moment, the First Emperor could only trust the old Qin people.

"No!" Feng Quji and others said.

The First Emperor, who still counted on the army in southern Xinjiang, didn't know that southern Xinjiang was already in chaos.

In the middle of May of the 37th year of the First Emperor's reign, Fan Yu died.

Outside the Panyu Station, dark clouds were covering the city, heavy rain was pouring, and among the black clouds there were constant rumors of fierce thunder that shook the world.

Seeing such weather, Lu Jia cursed secretly: "With such bad weather, no wonder this place is so wild. I really don't know how you have spent the past ten years."

When Lu Jia arrived in southern Xinjiang, he was imprisoned by Ren Xiao in a post station. He didn't want too many people to know that the rebel envoy was here, but even he didn't expect that he would die so quickly and suddenly.

Zhao Tuo, who was beside Lu Jia, changed his face slightly when he heard this and said, "Just get used to it."

In fact, he didn't want to stay in Nanhai County all the time, but there was no way. The First Emperor wanted them to suppress the southern Xinjiang region, so they had no choice but to stay in this barbaric land.

After the First Emperor unified the six kingdoms, he began to pacify the Baiyue Land in the Lingnan region.

In the 28th year of the First Emperor's reign, the First Emperor sent Tu Sui as the chief general and Zhao Tuo as the deputy general to lead an army of 50 to pacify Lingnan.

Tu Sui was killed by the locals because of his indiscriminate killing of innocent people, which aroused strong resistance from the locals.

The First Emperor re-appointed Ren Xiao as general, and together with Zhao Tuo, he led the army to pacify Yue. After four years of hard work, in the 32nd year of the First Emperor, Lingnan was finally successfully included in the territory of the Qin Dynasty.

Then the First Emperor appointed Ren Xiao as a county lieutenant, in charge of the politics, military, and supervision of a county, and administered four counties: Panyu, Longchuan, Boluo, and Sihui. The geographical location and military value of Longchuan are extremely important, so Zhao Tuo was appointed as the magistrate of Longchuan County.

Zhao Tuo built a city in Longchuan and opened up land for his administration. Zhao Tuo not only tried to prevent the Yue people from resisting, but also adopted the policy of "harmonizing the Han and Yue people" to appease the Yue people. He persuaded the soldiers to raise their children locally and promote the assimilation of Han and Vietnamese; he also wrote to the emperor requesting that the Central Plains residents be sent to move to South Vietnam to spread the Central Plains culture.

Over the years, he has begun to adapt to the climate of Nanhai County, but if he has a choice, he still wants to return to the Central Plains.

"What is Magistrate Zhao thinking about? Now that the Central Plains is in chaos, do you want to be a small magistrate under the Qin State, or do you want to be a prince? You must know that the opportunity must not be missed and don't come back. Now that the Central Plains is in chaos, no one can care about it. Regarding the matter in southern Xinjiang, once the overall situation in the Central Plains is decided, neither the anti-Qin coalition nor the Qin State will let you go."

Zhao Tuo looked at Lu Jia coldly and said, "You are not worried that I will kill you."

In fact, Zhao Tuo didn't want to make a choice. He and Ren Xiao wanted to quietly watch the battle between Qin and the anti-Qin alliance, and join whoever won. Although the bottom of the Southern Xinjiang Army were all survivors of the Six Nations, most of them Some of the captains are nobles of the Qin State. They are on the side of the Qin State, so no matter what choice he makes, it may intensify the conflict.

But as soon as this Lu Jia came, the conflicts in southern Xinjiang intensified. Ren Xiao was assassinated by the old Qin captain, but now he can't even avenge his big brother. People like him at the top can't He is one of the few. If he dares to come up with his own ideas, he will definitely end up like Ren Xiao.

Lu Jia smiled and said: "Of course I'm afraid. If we die miserably before we have made any achievements, how can we leave our name in history?"

"But it's useless for Magistrate Zhao to kill me. How did my Han king get started? Magistrate Zhao knows that the land of Nanjun is full of Chu people. My general only needs to send a few troops into Southern Xinjiang and call on the Chu people. To fight against the Qin Dynasty, my King of Han once said that a single spark can start a prairie fire, but I don’t know if a few sparks from our rebel army entering southern Xinjiang will ignite the beacon fires all over the place."

Zhao Tuo broke into a cold sweat when he heard what Lu Jia said. He would not believe it when others said such things. But when King Xu Fan of Han said such things, he understood that this was not a threat, but something that would actually happen.

In the past two years, he also collected information about King Xu Fan of Han. The more he collected information, the more he admired Xu Fan, the King of Han. He repeatedly defeated the strong with the weak, and his ability to win over people was like a myth. He was worthy of being a hero who dared to rebel while the First Emperor was still alive. . If Xu Fan applied the tactics of the Central Plains to southern Xinjiang, he couldn't imagine how many people the King of Han would win over.

Seeing Zhao Tuo's fear, Lu Jia laughed and said: "This is where you are inferior to the King of Han. When the King of Han was imprisoned, he heard that the Qin people wanted to send the King of Han to build the imperial tomb in Guanzhong. He knew that this was a dead end, so he immediately took 800 punishments with him. The disciples revolted, and now the Han army can fight against the First Emperor, but Magistrate Zhao, even if the opportunity is in your hands, you dare not seize it."

"Now there is an undercurrent surging in southern Xinjiang. The people and officers at the bottom do not want to sacrifice their lives for Qin. Now everyone is just waiting for a hero to raise his arms and kill these confidants of the First Emperor. By then, the people of southern Xinjiang will definitely support this person as the leader of the south. The king of territory.”

"Magistrate Zhao, please remind me that this person may not be you. You must know that the opportunity will never come again. If you don't make up your mind, I will find someone else."

"I did it!" Zhao Tuo was worried that Lu Jia would join forces with others and might as well take the initiative after all.

But he still said: "There are a total of 5 captains in Southern Xinjiang. In addition to the late brother Ren Xiao, there are also 4 captains who are committed to the Qin Dynasty. They are scattered all over Southern Xinjiang. They have tens of thousands of troops in their hands. With our With the power of my subordinates, it’s very difficult to get rid of them?”

Lu Jia smiled and said: "What's so difficult about this? Didn't Ying Zheng always want to send troops from southern Xinjiang to attack our Han country in the north? You just said that the food and grass were ready and summoned these captains to discuss how to fight."

Zhao Tuo frowned and said: "But they will come with their personal guards. The four personal guards are not a small force. It is impossible to kill these four captains with my strength alone."

Zhao Tuo understood that this matter was no joke. Lu Jia could still go to Han if he failed. If you dare to look for it, the news will be leaked, and he may be the one who dies, but Zhao Tuo only has a few hundred such soldiers.

(End of this chapter)