Diqin Designer

Chapter 276 Restraining Xiou (Two in One)

The banquet was over, Tu Sui and the others had left, the aroma of wine and food was still in the hall, but it was no longer as lively as before. King Xiou asked, "What do you think of today's event?"

Some of the drunken leaders have now regained their sobriety. They no longer look as drunk as they did just now; they were just pretending.

He Lao sighed, "I knew the Qin people were greedy, but I didn't expect them to be so greedy. They not only want to control us, but also other tribes. They want to be the country above us. What a big ambition!"

He Lao hadn't finished his words, but the others knew what he hadn't finished saying: The Qin people have great ambitions, and it is really possible for them to come true!

Hu Suo asked aloud, "Is there any solution?"

He Lao shook his head and said, "No, now it is us who need the Qin people, not the Qin people who need us. And even if we don't agree to the Qin people, there will always be someone who agrees..."

This is the crux of the problem: First, they need the Qin people; second, the Qin people do not necessarily need them.

This was not only a problem faced by Xiou, but also by other Baiyue tribes. However, it was almost impossible to solve it because it required all the Baiyue tribes to work together and advance and retreat together.

The Qin people obviously understood that the Baiyue tribes were loosely organized and could not unite, so they made this plan.

After He Lao finished speaking, the hall fell into silence until King Xiou spoke up: "No, there is another solution, that is, we become stronger than the Qin people and also master the method of curing malaria!"

This is indeed a solution, but unfortunately it is also difficult to implement.

Because their territory is too small, their population is too small, and their skills are not as good as those of the Qin people, how can they become stronger than the Qin people?
Moreover, will the Qin people give them time to become stronger and let them learn advanced technology?

King Xiou's words did not improve the silent atmosphere in the hall, but think about it, they are still better than the other Baiyue tribes that came later. At least they can be accomplices of the Qin people, and the Qin people will definitely treat them differently from the other Baiyue tribes.

It is better to be an accomplice of the Qin people in persecuting other Baiyue tribes than to have other tribes be accomplices of the Qin people in harming them.

If Li Nian knew what these Xiou people were thinking, he would definitely shake his head: What accomplices and running dogs, how unpleasant! This is called an agent. If you don't want to be the agent of Daqin in this area, then Daqin will have to support others...

After King Xiou's words, everyone lost interest in continuing the discussion. Even the usually active Hu Suo didn't want to talk, and even lost interest in the competition three days later. Even if they beat the Qin people in the competition, what would it matter? They would still be tied up by the Qin people!

While King Xiou and the other leaders were feeling heavy and depressed, Tu Sui and others held a small three-person meeting at their residence to review what had happened that day.

Tu Sui said: "The task that your majesty and the young master have assigned to us has now been almost completed. Once the anti-malaria drug is confirmed, we can put a rope around the Western Ou people. Once the rope is put on, it will not be easy to break free."

"But I still don't understand why you insist on asking the people of Xiou to accept the currency of the Qin Dynasty and send people to Xianyang... to study abroad?"

Ren Xiao said: "Sir, you have foresight, there must be a deep meaning. This is also happening to the Xiongnu, it must be a move by you against them."

This is also quite new. It is a strategy for dealing with other countries that they have never seen before. They really want to know to what extent the young master can achieve with this method and what he can turn the Xiongnu and Baiyue into?
Tu Sui said: "The Western Ou people are preparing to send envoys to Xianyang to congratulate Your Majesty. This matter has not been explained by Your Majesty and the young master. It is a decision I made privately. If there is any accident, I will bear the responsibility alone."

Hearing this, Ren Xiong and Zhao Tuo shook their heads: "Although this matter was decided by the ambassador, we believe that it is the most appropriate decision under the circumstances at the time. I will write to His Majesty and explain the truth!"

Although it is said that "when one is on a diplomatic mission, one is not bound by the emperor's orders", after all, that was a decision made on behalf of His Majesty the Emperor. Even if His Majesty the Emperor was magnanimous and did not care, there were always hidden dangers.

Ren Xiong and Zhao Tuo were willing to clarify the truth for him, which in turn weakened this hidden danger. Tu Sui bowed to them and said, "Thank you, both of you!"

After the ceremony, Tu Sui continued, "There are two main things to do next, verifying the anti-malarial medicine and competing with the Xiou people. We all know why the Xiou people want to compete. They want to prove that they are not easy to bully, so they will send out the best soldiers in the tribe."

The competition with the Huns was initiated by the Qin Dynasty, while the competition with the Xiou people was proposed by the Xiou people. The choices of the two sides were also different. The Huns sent a group of miscellaneous soldiers, while the Xiou people sent real elite troops.

"This competition will not be easy. Although we have trained in the mountains for a period of time before coming here, the time is too short. Moreover, the mountains and forests here are different from those in Daqin. They live here and are more familiar with them, but we are very unfamiliar with them."

Tu Sui looked at Zhao Tuo and said that Zhao Tuo would lead the army to compete with the Western Ou people in mountain warfare. "Before coming, the young master had anticipated this kind of thing and told us that it would be best if we could win, but it would not matter if we could not win. This would not affect our diplomatic strategy towards Baiyue."

Zhao Tuo was not quite convinced. What did "Winning is the best, but not winning doesn't matter either" mean? Although it was a competition, everyone knew that it was a rehearsal for a battle between the Qin and Western Ou people in the mountains, so he naturally wanted to win.

In a flash, three days had passed and the King of Xiou and his leaders were not in a good mood.

Because in all the competitions that had been held, they only won in small competitions, but lost in all large competitions. They were defeated by the Qin people in wrestling, running, shooting, and swordsmanship without exception.

Although we have long known that the Qin people are very powerful and that the Qin troops who can accompany the Qin delegation are the elite among the Qin troops, we did not expect that the Qin people would be so strong.

Those who competed with the Qin army were the most capable and brave warriors in their tribe, but only a few of them could win small battles.

This is actually normal. How many people are there in the Qin army and how many people are there in theirs?

The elite troops selected from the Qin army may not be stronger than all the Xiou warriors, but they are stronger than most of them.

This was not good news for the King of Xiou and the other leaders. They hoped to have a big victory over the Qin army in all competitions, not even a small victory. Now they were defeated by the Qin army, which was even more difficult to accept.

This means that the quality of the Qin army surpasses theirs, so their victory in the final mountain combat competition is of little significance.

Because the quality of the Qin army was there, they lost to them only because they were not familiar with the mountains and forests and mountain warfare, but these things can be gradually mastered. In other words, as long as the Qin people are familiar with the mountains and forests and master the methods of mountain warfare, they will no longer have an advantage over the Qin people.

Some leaders have been thinking that perhaps they should not propose a competition with the Qin people. If they don't compete, they won't be exposed. Instead, a competition will let the Qin people know their true colors.

Under such circumstances, it would be strange for the King of Xiou and the other leaders to look happy, but unfortunately, once the arrow is shot, there is no turning back. Now they can only win this last competition and make the Qin people a little more afraid of them.

This competition was led by Zhao Tuo and Hu Suo, each of whom led a hundred people to lurk in two forests. The winner was whoever eliminated the opponent's number first or captured the opponent's flag.

The final result of the competition was that Hu Suo won, but he was not very happy, because although he won, it was not the complete victory or big victory he wanted. Instead, he paid a considerable price and lost more than half of his troops.

If this happened on a real battlefield, it would mean that to destroy a Qin army of 100 people, they would have to pay the price of more than 50 casualties, which was difficult for them to accept.

First, there were fewer people in Xiou and more people in Qin, so they could not afford such consumption; second, they had the advantage of geographical location, but still paid such a price. If they lost the advantage of geographical location, how high would the price be?

Third, only wooden weapons were allowed in this competition, which actually restricted the Qin people more than they did. The Qin people's armor and weapons were definitely superior to theirs.

The combination of these aspects will evolve into a consequence that if they really go to war with the Qin people, even if they can win, it will definitely be a miserable victory.

However, the Qin State was larger than theirs and there were more Qin people than them. If they kept fighting, they would eventually be defeated by the Qin. Their country would not be destroyed, but there would definitely be countless casualties.

After getting this result from the competition, King Xiou and the other leaders felt even more depressed. They were not afraid of the Qin people, but they had to admit one fact: they were really no match for the Qin people!
The Qin envoys were not happy either. Although they had expected to be defeated by the Western Ou people, the failure still made them feel disappointed. They had destroyed the six kingdoms, but now they were defeated by the Baiyue barbarians?
Zhao Tuo led a hundred Qin soldiers to Tu Sui. Tu Sui patted Zhao Tuo on the shoulder and said to the hundred Qin soldiers: "You have tried your best in the competition. The failure is not your fault."

"Master Li Nian once said, 'Failure is the mother of success.' When you go back, you can carefully recall and ponder this competition, draw lessons, and avoid failure next time!"

After hearing Tu Sui's words, Zhao Tuo let out the anger in his chest. If it weren't in the mountains, Hu Suo would not be his opponent at all. He said, "There won't be a next time!"

After seeing some of the Qin army's strength in the competition, King Xiou and the other leaders became more "welcoming" towards the Qin army. After the tribesmen they had found with malaria were cured by the medicine brought by the delegation, they became even more "enthusiastic" and had almost no objection to the conditions proposed by the Qin army.

The news of the successful mission to Xiou was sent back to Xianyang by Tu Sui.

In Zhangtai Palace, Li Nian took the document from a eunuch and quickly glanced through it. Before he could speak, Prime Minister Wang Wan smiled and said, "Minister Li has made great contributions to this matter. Without the method of curing malaria proposed by Minister Li, Baiyue could not be controlled."

"The Baiyue are different from the Xiongnu. They are not afraid of the Qin. In the past, it was difficult to make them open their borders and be influenced by the Qin except by direct conquest. Now, the threat from the Qin in the south has been temporarily alleviated, and they can rest and recuperate and develop the country at ease!"

With the nod of the other important officials in the hall, Xiou, the most powerful among the Baiyue tribes, was put on a rope without any soldiers being used. It was also made into a minion of the Qin Dynasty, helping the Qin Dynasty to deal with the other Baiyue tribes.

Wei Liao said: "But the Baiyue people are not stupid. They know that they have suffered a loss and will not want to be tied to the Qin forever. They will definitely find a way to get rid of it, such as sending people to the Qin to steal the Qin skills, or secretly colluding and agreeing to fight against the Qin together..."

Li Si continued Wei Liao's words and said, "That's right! In the short term, the Qin can use excuses to shirk responsibility and not teach them skills, but as time goes on, they will no longer accept these excuses and will only think that the Qin wants to tie them down forever, and thus rebel in their hearts."

Li Si looked at Li Nian, "The strategy for Baiyue was initiated by the Shangshu. Does the Shangshu have any solution?"

The essence of this issue is how to effectively control the vassal states in the long term so that they cannot rebel against the control of the suzerain state.

Li Nian did not answer immediately until the First Emperor said, "Li Nian, tell me what you think!"

Li Nian then said: "What you are worried about will definitely happen. The actual question is how to effectively control other countries in the long term and make it difficult for other countries to resist Daqin."

"To solve this problem, the best way is naturally to transform other countries into the land of Daqin and make the people there become citizens of Daqin."

"To achieve this, there are two ways: one is to use force, to conquer them through the military might of the Qin Dynasty; the other is to assimilate them, to make them loyal to the Qin Dynasty and willing to become its subjects."

"But if we conquer them by force, even if we can subdue and scare them temporarily, they will only obey verbally but not in their hearts. They will be afraid of the power of the Qin for a period of time, but when this fear subsides, they will still rebel against the Qin."

Everyone understands this. Just like the nobles of the six kingdoms, the Qin Dynasty destroyed the six kingdoms with its powerful military strength, but the old nobles of the six kingdoms were not convinced and still had the idea of ​​resisting the Qin Dynasty.

"Military conquest will eventually lead to assimilation, unless the Qin Dynasty can always maintain absolute military dominance over the conquered people, or if the Qin Dynasty wipes out all the local people when conquering those places. Without people, there will naturally be no contradictions and conflicts."

"Maintaining absolute military dominance is not a matter of whether it can be done. In fact, it does not stabilize the local area, but it can quickly suppress the local resistance. As for wiping out all the locals, it is also difficult to do. Even if Daqin can do it, it will have to pay a price."

In a place like Baiyue, the Baiyue people would hide in the deep mountains and old forests and fight guerrilla warfare with the Qin Dynasty. Even if the Qin Dynasty could win in the end, it would still be a headache.

Hearing this, Wang Ben asked with great interest: "Does the Minister think that conquering by military strength is unacceptable?"

Li Nian smiled and shook his head: "Of course not, military strength is the foundation. If the military is not stronger than others, no matter how strong other aspects are, they are just flowers in the mirror and the moon in the water. Li just said that we can't rely on military strength alone!"

Wang Ben did not say anything else. Li Nian continued, "Therefore, in addition to military strength, we must also deepen our control over other countries in other ways in order to maintain long-term control. Jiao Li, Chen Ping and others were sent as envoys to the Xiongnu, and Tu Sui, Zhao Tuo and others were sent as envoys to the Baiyue. They already had some of these purposes in mind."

"For example, in trade with the Xiongnu and Baiyue, it was stipulated that the currency of the Qin Dynasty must be used as the settlement currency. This may seem insignificant, but it is actually a means of control."

Li Nian asked the ministers a question at the right time: "You can think about it, what is the currency used for?"

(End of this chapter)