The Moon in the Qin Dynasty

Chapter 692 Proclaiming himself king
There is another problem in front of Xiong You that makes him hesitant, that is, Xiong You’s current team is full of Xiong Han’s men.

These people and those in Jiangdong can now be said to be incompatible with each other.

The most important point in uniting these people is that Xiong Han promised that after he conquered Jiangdong, he would wipe out all the rebels and divide the entire Jiangdong among the heroes.

If we compromise and negotiate peace now, the nobles of Jiangdong will certainly always be on guard against the central court, and our own people will be even more dissatisfied.

As a king, it is even more difficult for him to do things.

Xiong You still wanted to use the suppression of the Jiangdong rebellion as an opportunity to thoroughly train his own trusted team.

With all these concerns and considerations, Xiong You and Li Yuan discussed it many times but still could not make up their minds.

Fu Chu also received news from a kind-hearted person and learned that Xiong Youyou was thinking of surrendering Xiong. Now Fu Chu was really anxious.

Because this trick might really work.

Jiangdong was able to be held thanks to the concerted efforts of nobles of all sizes and the well-built natural defense line of the Yangtze River.

So the problem lies here. If the internal unity is not good, it will be broken in a blink of an eye. As long as there are two or three places that lose the chain and break through the natural barrier of the Yangtze River, the rest will be smooth sailing.

There is only this one line of defense in Jiangdong. If it can hold off the enemy, everything will be fine. If it can’t, then everything will be over.

But Fu Chu had no way to deal with this. At present, Fu Chu no longer had any sense of justice, and the reason of clearing out the emperor's side was too weak.

Xiong You was the legitimate heir and occupied most of the State of Chu. He had strong hard power, but he did not have the reputation of being hated by everyone like Xiong Han.

This is not something that Fu Chu, who is hiding in a corner of Jiangdong and is only known for his rebellion, can resist.

As for Ying Zheng, he was very satisfied with the actual division of the Chu State, but after learning that Xiong You wanted to appease the people, he also felt it was quite difficult.

This rebellion in the State of Chu was not a class conflict, nor was there any irreconcilable contradiction. It was essentially just an internal strife within the highest ruling class.

The most fundamental reason for this civil strife was that Xiong Han, the supreme ruler, was unkind, causing dissatisfaction among everyone from top to bottom, which gave Fu Chu the opportunity.

Originally, Fu Chu's rebellion was likely to succeed, and the entire Chu State would only experience a small turmoil at the top level, which would not have much impact on the overall national strength.

But due to Ying Zheng's interference, this rebellion, which was originally limited to the supreme ruler, turned into a major turmoil that was almost divided.

The external and internal troubles have completely damaged the State of Chu, and its vitality has been severely damaged, and it has not ended to this day.

But now the most fundamental contradiction has disappeared.

Xiong Han is gone!

However, after a fierce attack, Xiong You found that he was unable to defeat the enemy. Under Li Yuan's persuasion, he actually wanted to appease the enemy and solve the problem of Jiangdong by compromise.

If he really did that, there was a real chance that he could solve it.

Ying Zheng is now thinking about how to add fuel to the fire and make them continue to fight to the death instead of thinking about a peaceful solution.

Killing Xiong You would not work. Not to mention the difficulty of assassination nowadays, Xiong You has already appointed a crown prince, and his son is already fifteen or sixteen years old. If Xiong You is killed, the young master will succeed to the throne, and peace talks will have to be negotiated.

It would be even worse to kill his son as well, because then only Fu Chu could succeed to the throne, which would be like making wedding clothes for Fu Chu.

Moreover, we cannot always resort to assassination. It is better to use this kind of shameful method less often. Otherwise, it will not only damage our reputation, but also corrupt the political atmosphere.

The best way now is to destroy Xiong You's reputation, make the nobles who follow Fu Chu lose their trust in Xiong You, and make them believe that even if they surrender, they will surely die!
Only in this way, with no way to retreat, can they fight to the death.

Ying Zheng rolled his eyes and decided to offer assistance and muddy the waters.

Since it was Li Yuan's idea, let Li Yuan take it back!

Ying Zheng sent people from Jiangdong to Shouchun to spread rumors, using the voice of Jiangdong nobles, saying that the former king Xiong Han had passed away and that the people of Jiangdong all recognized the new king.

The reason why we have not yet paid homage to the new king is that the treacherous officials around the previous king and the new king have not yet been eliminated.

Now everyone is raising an army in Jiangdong just to purge the emperor's side. If the new king kills the treacherous Li Yuan, all the subjects of Jiangdong will surrender and take the initiative to pay homage to the new king and apologize.

They did not ask the new king to completely pardon the sins of their subjects, nor did they even ask for a pardon for the death penalty. They only asked for a pardon for the sins of their families. The leaders all volunteered to die.

The rumor that Ying Zheng was trying to retreat in order to advance did work.

Fu Chu didn't know how the rumor started, but he soon realized the viciousness of this move and immediately began to add fuel to the flames.

Whoever proposed the idea will be asked to take it back. The person who takes it back for his own safety will inevitably cause dissatisfaction from the king, and this can also provoke the close relationship between Xiong You and Li Yuan.

Kings always like to talk about the overall situation. Is your life as important as the overall situation?
Li Yuan wanted to stop this move. Unless he was not afraid of death and took the initiative to ask Xiong You to use his head to pacify Jiangdong and put his life and death in Xiong You's hands, Xiong You would most likely not do such a thing.

However, Li Yuan could not be such a person. He would never gamble his own life on Xiong You's wisdom and his feelings for him as his uncle.

After the rumors spread from Jiangdong to Shouchun, Li Yuan was really shocked. Although he knew Xiong You would not believe such things, the emperors were the most ruthless since ancient times. What should he do if Xiong You was really tempted? Jiangdong took the initiative to talk about surrender, and only asked for his own head as a stepping stone. The king would be much more respectable.

Li Yuan decisively stopped talking about appeasement and compromise and decided to peacefully take over Jiangdong.

He did not directly withdraw his plan, but sent other trusted ministers to advise Xiong You from the side, telling him the various reasons why those nobles should not be trusted even if they were willing to surrender, and he himself did not refute them.

Xiong You, who was already hesitant, was actually tempted after hearing the rumor about borrowing Li Yuan's head, but he still suppressed the idea.

After listening to several ministers talk about the disadvantages of accepting the surrender of the Jiangdong nobles, Xiong You did not give up the idea of ​​recruiting the Jiangdong nobles.

Seeing that Li Yuan was acting out of character and remained silent, he knew that he had changed his mind because he heard rumors.

I was indeed dissatisfied.

At this time, it was suspected that Jing's clan secretly sent an envoy to tell Xiong You that as long as he was willing to kill Li Yuan and promised not to implicate his family, he would be willing to offer Fu Chu's head and the entire Jiangdong would surrender.

This completely confirmed the rumor.

This is not a rumor, it is a fact.

This time, Xiong You was really tempted.

Coincidentally, Xiong You's favorite ministers advised Xiong You not to believe it for the time being, but to secretly send people to Jiangdong to test whether the nobles were real or fake, and whether the Jing family could represent everyone, and then make a decision.

Xiong You secretly persuaded himself that it was just a matter of quietly confirming it first, and it was not necessary to do so.

Moreover, since Jiangdong has the idea of ​​surrendering, the initiative is already on our side, and the conditions can be negotiated.

Then Xiong You secretly sent envoys to test some important nobles in Jiangdong, especially Fu Chu's core supporters.

Naturally, this rumor was known to all the nobles in Jiangdong, both big and small. Everyone was worried about this rumor, but the strange thing was that no one tried to stop it or clarify it.

After Xiong You's envoys came into contact with many nobles, many of them did not give a definite answer at the first time, but they did not refuse either.

It was at this time that Fu Chu convened a banquet and invited all the important noble officials in Jiangdong. After eating and drinking, everyone had their own ulterior motives and pointed out that many people had contact with Xiong You.

Many people's faces changed drastically, thinking that Fu Chu was going to take action, but Fu Chu was just stating a truth.

The new king had just ascended the throne, and in order to achieve his own goals, he was willing to sell out the old minister who was loyal to the previous king and himself, the prime minister, and his own uncle. Such a heartless and ungrateful person is just the second Xiong Han!

Facing such a person, will there be a good outcome if you surrender?
In order to train his own team, wouldn't he do something later? By then, everyone would be scattered and would only become lambs to be slaughtered and defeated one by one.

Moreover, the Queen Mother was still alive. How could she not feel hatred when her own brother was killed?
By then, the new king will have no choice but to dig up old issues and look for scapegoats, either for his own sake or to appease the queen mother's anger.

Since ancient times, treason has either resulted in success or failure.

Those who never compromise, never admit defeat and seek lenient punishment, and who hope for a peaceful solution, will inevitably die without a burial place.

Not to mention hoping to save his life, even if he died, his family would definitely not be able to be saved in the end!
Fu Chu's words were like a bucket of cold water poured on everyone's head, instantly making those who were hoping for a lucky break see the reality.

If the rebellion fails, how can you expect to land safely or keep your family's wealth?

If we resolutely fight on now, life will be harder, but we can still survive in the end. And we may not lose victory if we wait for the opportunity. There is still hope.

But if I vote now, the outcome will be extremely tragic.

Fu Chu struck while the iron was hot and immediately announced that he would declare himself the King of Chu.

Declare Xiong You a fake king and formally re-establish the court!

Previously, he was advocating the slogan of clearing out the court of corrupt officials, but now he has completely given up on pretending and wants to tie everyone to his boat.

Jing Jie of the Jing family supported it without hesitation, and even Fu Chu and several of his close confidants who had been communicated with in advance also came out to support it.

In this situation, everyone had no choice, and for a moment, everyone supported Fu Chu to be the king.

Fuchu immediately proclaimed himself king, appointed Jingjie as prime minister, and then conferred titles on all his officials. Everyone was promoted, and the court was established, and for a time, everyone was very happy.

As for the future, we’ll talk about it later.

Now we can only rally people's hearts and minds, and use the current high-ranking positions and beautiful expectations for the future to rally people's hearts and fight.

As for how to recruit officials and nobles from outside Jiangdong in the future if all the senior central officials are expelled now, we will talk about it later.

Now we must completely stop everyone from wavering and leave them with no way out, otherwise there will be no future.

(End of this chapter)