Chapter 85. Spring and Autumn, Warring States Period (24) 500,000 Chu troops attacked

      Unlike Lord Mingcheng, Lord Xucheng was a decisive lord. He had a plan to escape, so of course he would pack up and leave Yandu immediately, preferably to other countries.

 

     But there was still some time.

 

    First, considering that it would cause trouble for King Chusu, second, everyone’s escape would help him disperse the army, and third, there was some friendship between the same surname, so Lord Xucheng sent three guards to pass on the message to 40 lords with whom he had some friendship, including Lord Chuyang.

 

     Unlike He Shisi and the others, Lord Xucheng’s message to the lords of the fiefdoms was more straightforward: “King Chu Shu has issued an order that anyone who destroys the king’s corpse will be guilty of the crime involving three generations of the clan. Why don’t you run away? Are you waiting to die?”

 

     “!!!”

 

     The 40 lords were quite surprised to receive the warning from Lord Xucheng, but each of them reacted differently.

 

     Among them, there were 3 people who trusted him extremely, and like Lord Xucheng, they quickly packed up and left Yandu City. There were nearly 10 people who did not trust him, some of whom turned a deaf ear to him, and some of whom attended Lord Mingcheng’s party.

 

     The rest are in between, hesitating whether to run or not, such as Mi Wenjing’s cheap father Yangchengjun.

 

     Yangcheng Jun, in fact, is just like Xucheng Jun. They both don’t trust King Su of Chu. Moreover, they don’t necessarily have to kill Wu Qi. Furthermore, he can be good friends with Juzi Mengsheng. He also has a kind of condescending compassion for the people.”

 

    There were not many such people among the old nobility of the Chu State who had such detachment, yet this did little to mask the three fatal flaws that defined his character: indecisiveness, lack of initiative, and vanity.

 

     When all the nobles discussed shooting Wu Qi, the hesitant Yangchengjun was persuaded very quickly, and even in the shooting of Wu Qi, he was stimulated to the position of the leader, and he shot the first three arrows of King Dao of Chu.

 

     But because he remembered the admiration of Wu Qi by his own ministers, he felt that it was inappropriate. Like Xuchengjun, he could not accept the honey temptation of King Su of Chu. From a different perspective, he naturally felt that King Su of Chu had problems.

 

     Upon hearing the news from Lord Xucheng, Lord Yangcheng panicked, and was unable to make a decision. Fortunately, he had a good eye for people, and several of his retainers gave him various analyses and urges, and with the information the guards collected from Yandu, he finally made up his mind to escape.

 

     Running with his wife and son, he packed a little more casually. Not everyone was as well prepared as Lord Xucheng, so they had to discard a lot of things.

 

     Before Yandu closed the city, Lord Yangcheng left smoothly, but the direction they fled was not the closest way to Chuyang City.

 

     So far, among the 40 people notified by Lord Xucheng, only 12 Lords, including Lord Yangcheng, left.

 

     Another Lord was killed because he was a few seconds slower. The rest of the Lords were gathered or hesitated, and were surrounded by Zhaolie and Shigu. From monarchs to slaves, all were killed, and there was a mountain of blood and a sea of blood.

 

     For a while, the air in Yandu seemed to be filled with a strong smell of blood.

 

     Yandu was sealed, nobles died, soldiers patrolled the streets 24 hours a day, the people were panicked, even He Shisi and Yuan Shui who were hiding in the tailor shop and coppersmith shop were almost fired.

 

…

 

     King Su of Chu was not satisfied with the result. He was very angry about the escape of 13 Lords. In his expectation, no Lord of the fiefdom should escape from Yandu.

 

     The slaves of the Chu Palace were worried every day these days, and they might lose their lives if they were not careful.

 

     “Prime Minister Su, how is the investigation of the information leak going?”

 

     “The thief did not leave any traceable information. I am sorry that I am incompetent and failed to find out. Please forgive me, King Chu. I–” Prime Minister Su paused when he said this. He knew that King Chu was furious, but as the prime minister of Chu, he had to ask some questions, “I have something important to report.”

 

     King Su of Chu glared: “Speak.”

 

     Prime Minister Su first performed the monarch-minister ceremony, and then said: “The current situation in the world is chaotic. Small people are living in poverty, and big countries are eyeing them covetously. Qin, Qi, Yan, Zhao, Wei, and Han are all enemies of Chu. If Chu is in chaos at this time, it will be convenient for other countries and not conducive to the prosperity of Chu. I beg the king to regain his sanity.”

 

     Every word is sincere.

 

     After a long time, King Su of Chu finally gave up the decision to clean up the merchants from more than 70 fiefdoms in Yandu, and stopped venting his anger for no reason, which made all the ministers below breathe a sigh of relief.

 

     Su Xiang took the opportunity to talk about the people of Yandu. Chu State killed more than 70 nobles in its own family. This was the first time in Chu State and even in all countries from the Western Zhou Dynasty to the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.

 

     The people must be panicked. They need to appease the people, not let other countries take advantage of the opportunity, and not let King Su of Chu get a bad reputation for cruelty as soon as he ascended the throne.

 

     “If this continues, there will only be internal and external troubles. I beg the King of Chu to think twice.”

 

     “I beg the King of Chu to think twice.” ×n.

 

     King Su of Chu finally listened to most of it, including unsealing Yandu and appeasing the people of Yandu, but he must make the 13 criminals who escaped pay a painful price. Chu State is a victorious general. Fortunately, this matter has a legitimate reason, and Su Xiang and others can’t persuade him anymore.

 

     “Shi Gu.”

 

     “Your servant, at your command”

 

     “You will immediately dispatch 13 elite guards to hunt down Xucheng Jun, Yangcheng Jun and other 13 criminals.”

 

     “I will obey your order.”

 

     “Zhao Lie.”

 

     “Your servant, at your command”

 

     “You will lead 600,000 troops to recover the fiefs of all criminals, kill all the three clans, soldiers and officials of the criminals, and the rest will be made slaves. Those who disobey will be killed without mercy!”

 

     “I will obey your order.”

 

     Su Xiang opened his mouth and met the wolf-like fierce eyes of King Su of Chu, and swallowed the advice that was about to come out of his mouth.

 

…

 

     Yandu was finally unsealed.

 

     King Su of Chu first took a series of actions to appease people’s hearts. Even the rewards for soldiers recruited in Yandu this year were increased, and there was a tax reduction policy for merchants, which finally made the people of Yandu feel at ease.

 

     However, in addition to these good news, King Su of Chu also announced the crimes of the Lords of more than 70 fiefdoms to the world. They killed loyal people and destroyed the king’s corpse. They were disloyal and unjust people, and everyone could kill them.

 

     The hunting orders of Xucheng Jun, Yangcheng Jun and others were announced. Those who reported them would be rewarded, those who sheltered them would be killed without mercy, those who helped them escape from Chu would be killed without mercy, and those who knew about it but did not report it would be killed without mercy.

 

     Previously, those who came out of more than 70 fiefdoms were counted, but as of today, those who escaped from more than 70 fiefdoms were guilty people, and they would be killed without mercy or serve as slaves. There would be rewards for reporting, but if they accommodated criminals, helped criminals escape, or knew about it but did not report it, they would be punished by the crime.

 

     These orders were applied to the entire Chu State.

 

     The people of Chu were in an uproar. Some of them had relatives in these 70-odd fiefdoms and could not help crying.

 

     Yuan Shui and He Shisi looked at each other in the crowd. The two of them had escaped from the battle to defend Chuyang City, but this meant that they had lost many tasks related to Chuyang City.

 

     From now on, their future is in their own hands. I also wish the 13 comrades peace and safety in the next month or so. See you in the real world.

 

…

 

     Zhao Lie and Shi Gu set out immediately after receiving the order. They have different goals and methods.

 

     Shi Gu focuses on searching for people, uniting other cities in Chu, and strictly checking the border. He must not let the 13 city lords escape from the border of Chu, because once they escape from Chu, things will become complicated.

 

     Zhao Lie’s goal is to recover the city. No one will be willing to be killed, and the people will not be willing to serve as slaves, because slaves are almost dead, and war is inevitable.

 

     But fighting also requires skills.

 

     Most of the fiefdoms have lost their Lords and are leaderless. It is a good opportunity to recover them. Zhao Lie sent two deputy generals, each leading an army of 150,000 to quickly recover these fiefdoms.

 

     He led an army of 300,000 to recover the thirteen fiefdoms where the Lords ran away.

 

     The reason is that, first, some Lords may return to their fiefs, making it more difficult to recover them, second, King Chu Su obviously hates these fiefs more, and recovering them earlier will make his superiors more satisfied.

 

     Zhao Lie planned to start from the periphery. The closest to Yandu was Chuxin City, the closest to Chuxin City was Chuyang City, and then Chusheng City, Chuyun City, and Chuxu City.

 

     Because they were close to the old capital of Chu, Jingshan, the names of the fiefs all had a “日” character. The reason why Xucheng Lord notified them was that these cities had frequent exchanges on weekdays, and even had closer in-laws.

 

     Outside Yandu City, Zhao Lie was fully armored, rode on a warhorse, picked up his iron hammer and swung it twice: “Send troops!”

 

     The 300,000-strong army set off in the direction of Chuxin City. 

 

……

 

     After Yandu was unsealed, spies from various fiefdoms, cities, and countries began to take action.

 

     Chuyang City was no exception.

 

     The spies from Chuyang City finally found a chance to slip out of Yandu, and tired a horse to death. Finally, before the dawn of Yandu’s unsealing, they rushed back to Chuyang City, which still knew nothing.

 

     “Report! There is something important to report!”

 

     The soldiers at the door may not know the spies, but they know the spies’ tokens, which are tokens that only appear when something is quite important, usually a battle.

 

     Half of Yangcheng Jun’s military tokens were in the hands of Juzi Mengsheng. Immediately, a team of soldiers escorted the spies to Momen. Soon after the spies entered Momen, the officials of Chuyang City also received an emergency notice and rushed over.

 

     The moment they stepped into Momen, a palpable sense of dread washed over them. The Juzi Meng Sheng’s stern countenance and furrowed brow spoke volumes of his inner turmoil.

 

     “But what if Qin, Qi, and Han come to attack? Chuyang City has a total of 80,000 soldiers, and we can only send out 50,000 to battle!”

 

   “The new King of Chu hasn’t been officially crowned yet. Could there be some trouble in the state of Chu? Maybe the Lord will need to delay his return.”

 

     “Mr. Juzi, what happened?”

 

     Facing the crowd of questions, Meng Sheng sighed, “Chuyang City is going to fight, but not with Qin, Qi and Han, but with the 35 Chu armies.”

 

     “!!!”

 

     “???”

 

     Others were still puzzled, and the spy told the details of what happened in Yandu again, starting with Wu Qi’s death.

 

     The whole audience was silent.

 

     After a long time, an official asked, “Yangcheng Jun hasn’t returned to the city yet, what should we do?”

 

     As soon as the voice fell, a female voice sounded at the door: “The Lord father are not here, but Mi Wenjing is here!”