Zhufan died.
In the words of the soldiers of the state of Wu, "A man of the state of Wu will never beg to surrender," in the tragic and loud shouts, in the face of Wu Ju's humiliation, Zhufan finally chose to draw his sword and kill himself.
Again, he couldn't live up to his "identity", let alone the centuries-old reputation of Wu State.
The people of Wu would rather die than surrender!
This is what Zhufan can think of, the best belonging he can have, and the best ending of his life.
Then, more than a thousand Wu soldiers picked up their halberds and committed seppuku. But seeing them fall one after another in the cold rain, the scene made all Chu people horrified.
When Sun Wu saw this scene, he couldn't help but feel admiration for his current opponent.
Perhaps many years later, he would still be able to think of everything that happened today, and of Zhu Fan's heroic spirit of preferring death to surrender.
In contrast, Li Ran's eyes were filled with endless anger at this moment.
Of course he knew that with Zhufan's strong temper he would never be able to withstand Wu Ju's ridicule and humiliation, which is why he asked Sun Wu to lead his troops to capture Zhufan alive.
But Wu Ju's sneaky arrival disrupted his entire plan.
Once Zhufan dies, the Central Plains countries with the surname Ji will definitely regard him as their chief enemy, and Zheng will also become the target of reviled by the Central Plains countries, so Li Ran's reputation in the Central Plains will inevitably plummet.
By then, if Shu Niu, Feng Duan and the forces entrenched in Qi State that have been secretly fighting with him are taken advantage of, how will he deal with himself in the future?
Therefore, for him, Zhufan cannot die!
Li Ran suddenly turned his head to look at Wu Ju, his sharp and sharp gaze as if he was going to chop Wu Ju alive.
"Hahahaha, Zhufan's son died here today. It is really a great blessing for our country of Chu!"
"Sir, you have accomplished this extraordinary feat, please accept it and pay your respects!"
But at this time, Wu Ju directly raised Li Ran up again.
Not only did he turn a blind eye to Li Ran's sharp and angry gaze, he even directly placed all the credit for Zhufan's death on Li Ran.
It was you, Li Ran, who killed Zhufan. It was you, Li Ran, who made this unparalleled contribution to our country of Chu!
You, Li Ran, are the great lucky star of our Chu country!
"doctor!"
Li Ran roared fiercely, and the anger in his eyes could no longer be hidden, and it burst out instantly.
"Oh? What's wrong, sir?"
Wu Ju frowned and looked at him pretending to be confused.
"What's wrong?"
"Why did the doctor appear here? And why did he say something to force the King of Wu to die? Doesn't the doctor know that my plan, Li Ziming, is to capture the King of Wu alive?!"
In Li Ran's original plan, "capturing Zhufan alive" was actually a lie, but letting him recognize the reality and let him stop fighting and go back to recuperate was the ultimate goal and his only goal.
"Haha, what you said is wrong."
"If King Wu doesn't die today, our country in the east of Chu will never have peace!"
"Shouldn't he die? How many people from our Chu country were killed in the Battle of Shujiu? Over the years, he has come to harass our Chu country again and again! If he doesn't die, do you still hope... Sir, please respect yourself, Sir now You are my guest from the Chu Kingdom! Since you are a guest, you should know what you can do and what you cannot do!"
How can you, a guest of Chu State, speak for Wu State? Or speak for Zhufan, the initiator of this war?
Isn’t this eating the inside out?
Wu Ju did not give Li Ran a good look, but used the sharpest words to fight back against him.
But this time, Li Ran was completely angered.
His expression suddenly turned gloomy, his eyes were filled with fire, and his whole person suddenly became filled with murderous intent!
"Today the doctor forced the King of Wu to death. The whole country of Wu will definitely regard Chu as its world enemy. In the future, if Chu is in trouble, Wu will take advantage of the chaos and rise up. The war between Wu and Chu will resume. I don't know how many Li chiefs will die, and no one will die." Knowing how many people are going to be displaced by this, is this what the doctor wants to see?"
"Furthermore, with the death of Zhu Fan today, all the countries in the Central Plains with the surname Ji will definitely blame Chu State for this debt. However, 'In ancient times, a warrior would not be seriously injured, nor would he capture two hairs'! Now the Chu State has just Having obtained the position of alliance leader, but now forcefully forcing the king of a country to death, isn't this despicable means despised by the world?"
"Don't you know, doctor, that even though the doctor is enjoying his quick talk today, he has already caused a hundred years of disaster for the Chu country?! Not only has he caused a hundred years of disaster for the Chu country, even the doctor's family will not be spared by then!"
It is obviously impossible to speak for Wu Guo from Li Ran's perspective.
But speaking from the perspective of Chu State, or even from Wu Ju's perspective, it is natural.
Today's death of Zhu Fan seems to be the result of Chu's great victory. It seems that from now on, it will be difficult for Wu to gain power in the southeastern border of Chu.
But when I think about it, is it really that simple?
Yes, for the death of Zhu Fan, the countries in the Central Plains will definitely blame Li Ran and scold Li Ran, thinking that Li Ran betrayed the country with the surname Ji and extended his hand to help the country with the surname other than the barbarians.
But the monarchs and ministers of the Central Plains countries are not fools. Of course they know that the biggest enemy of the Wu Kingdom is your Chu Kingdom.
It was because of the great war between Wu and Chu that Zhu Fan died. This debt will be blamed on Chu over and over again.
As the leader of the world, it is okay to attack the enemy, but from ancient times to the present, I have never heard of someone who attacked the enemy's country and ended up killing the king of the other country.
After committing such an act, can Chu's position as leader of the alliance still be recognized by the Central Plains countries?
Let alone approval, they may not even believe anything you Chu people say in the future. If we don't unite together to boycott your Chu country, it's already considered a good thing.
Also, who can guarantee that nothing will happen to Chu State again in the future?
Once civil strife breaks out in Chu State in the future, will the Central Plains countries still sit idly by and do nothing? If they don't take the opportunity to knock you down, will they become the next kings of Wu?
What's more, there is now a feud with the Wu Kingdom. Will they just give up?
If you don't know how to "restrain oneself and return to propriety", the difficulties your Chu country will face will eventually follow one after another in the future, and even the foundation built over hundreds of years will probably be destroyed!
And this is exactly what Wu Zixu and Sun Wu will do in the future.
At this point, Li Ran finally understood Wu Ju's superficiality.
Originally, he thought that Wu Ju was cunning enough and could be said to be a leader in Yangmou.
But today, what Wu Ju did has completely put Chu State on the precipice of danger. It can be called extremely stupid!
"Sir, you are dedicated to the country of Ji, so why are you talking alarmist here?"
"It's just the Kingdom of Wu. In the future, the Kingdom of Wu can be destroyed with just a raise of hands!"
Wu Ju is so confident now that he has even forgotten the Battle of Shujiu that just happened not long ago, and even the painful experience of being walked like a dog by Wu in the Jianghuai River Basin.
Once Zhufan died, he even thought that the Chu State had enough strength to overthrow the Wu State!
At this time, he was even more conceited than Zhufan!
"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha……"
"This is the funniest joke I have ever heard in my life!"
"The doctor has not reflected on himself until now. The Wu family is in danger, and the Chu country is in danger!"
Li Ran said no more. He just had to wait for historical events to continue to happen, and then everything he said today would naturally become reality.
So, he and Sun Wu quickly left Chaoyi, cleaned up briefly, and hurried back to Yingdu.
Of course Wu Ju didn't know that what Li Ran said today would one day become a reality. Therefore, his reaction to Li Ran today is still attributed to Li Ran's heart towards Ji.
And he also deliberately mentioned this in his good news to the King of Chu, so that the King of Chu could give him a good beating when he met with Li Ran, so that Li Ran could completely stop these delusions.
After victory and triumph, the class teacher returned home.
At this point, Wu Ju has accomplished such extraordinary feats. It is natural that they and his party will receive congratulations from the kings and ministers of the Chu Kingdom.
——
Chapter 253_The teacher returns to the court
Zhufan was the first king of a country to die on the battlefield in history.
His death will also directly cause Wu State to not dare to touch Chu State again in the next ten years.
In this way, Chu King Xiong Wei could relax and continue to develop his grand hegemony, and no longer had to worry about the Wu Kingdom in the southeastern border.
For the King of Chu, this is a happy event, a huge happy event!
When the news came back to Yingdu, the king of Chu, who was already very concerned about the war on the front line, was overjoyed when he heard such good news. He issued three royal orders to inform the whole country that the guilty should be pardoned.
His King of Chu, Xiong Wei, had only been on the throne for one year, but he had severely damaged the powerful enemy in the east, the State of Wu, and even took the head of Zhu Fan, the king of Wu State!
What kind of magic is this? !
And how could he, the King of Chu, not show off?
Of course, this must also mean that the King of Chu wanted to frighten the old nobles who secretly opposed him.
After all, he was not in the right position. Some of the old nobles in the country, such as the Jiang family, which he suppressed severely, and the remnants of the Ruo'ao family, still have some objections to him on the grounds that the death of the late king Jia Ao was unknown. A lot of slander.
This time he was able to achieve such great achievements when he first came to the throne. How could it have been so smooth without the blessing of destiny?
Since he has a destiny, he should be able to silence these people!
With the announcement from the King of Chu, everyone in the Chu Kingdom knew that King Wu Zhufan was dead, so they were full of praise for Li Ran, Wu Ju, and Sun Wu. Everyone thinks that with these three people in Chu State, it will be easy for Chu State to dominate the world.
But what they didn't know was that Li Ran, who was on his way back to Yingdu, was in an extremely depressed mood at this moment.
With Zhufan's death, all his plans came to nothing. He had never felt such a sense of defeat.
In the past, his calculations were always accurate and his plans were always right.
But this time, his strategy fell short, and even directly affected the situation of the entire world.
This traumatized him, who had always insisted on maintaining stability in the world, and made him sleepless and uneasy for a long time.
"Chang Qing, now that things have come to this, am I still too smart for my brother's sake? Or am I too smart for my brother's sake? Or have I underestimated the others?"
Li Ran can now understand why Zhufan committed suicide and why the Wu soldiers followed their leader to death. After all, in this ancient era, human dignity was their focus, and as for their own lives, they seemed so insignificant.
But what Li Ran couldn't understand was why Wu Ju had to force Zhu Fan to death?
At that critical moment, if Wu Ju could bend down and be consistent with him and Sun Wu, Zhufan would not commit suicide even if he thought about it.
At that time, if Zhufan stops his troops and makes peace with Chu, wouldn't that be much better than the current situation?
Why did Wu Ju drive Zhu Fan to death so recklessly?
Just for military exploits?
Li Ran couldn't believe that Wu Ju was familiar with "Zhou etiquette" after all. Could it be that he really didn't understand the wonderful effects of these "self-denials and restoration of etiquette"?
However, it didn't matter whether he believed it or not at this moment. What mattered was that Wu Ju might really think so.
Because the life and death of Wu King Zhufan is the biggest bargaining chip for the Wu family to establish their clan!
As mentioned before, Wu Ju recommended himself to fight in order to obtain military exploits, improve the status of the Wu family in the Chu State, thereby consolidate the power of the Wu family, and even become a super family like the Chun family. In order to His children and grandchildren paved the way.
Therefore, when faced with Zhu Fan's head on his neck and such unparalleled achievements, Wu Ju, who had always been scheming and well versed in Zhou rites, would become so eager for quick success and become more reckless.
From this, it is not difficult to see, what is the culprit of the "corruption of etiquette and collapse of music"? When the immediate vested interests are powerful enough to drive people crazy, those "invisible and intangible" but often real "foresights" will become as if they are in vain and no longer attract people's attention.
This was the case with Wu Ju. He did not consider at all what kind of disaster Zhufan's death would bring to Wu and Chu, and what kind of hidden dangers it would bring to his Wu family.
Just because Zhufan's head is too important to him now.
But at this point, Li Ran's plan was completely in vain, and the storm he had to face next was obviously more serious than the military disaster between Wu and Chu.
Sun Wu obviously knew this, so he was very clear about the question Li Ran asked.
"Why do you say this, sir? Your plan is perfect. If Wu Ju hadn't been reckless and stepped in, the matter would never have developed to this point!"
"If you want to blame it, you can only blame Wu Ju for being too ignorant. He turned Wu State into Chu State's old enemy. From now on, the world may not be stable."
As a direct participant in the whole thing, Sun Wu saw it most clearly.
However, Li Ran smiled self-deprecatingly.
Just listen to Sun Wu continue:
"At this moment, if you continue to think about blaming yourself, I'm afraid it will be useless."
"From a military perspective, sir, you should think about how to respond to the accusations from Dr. Zichan and the other countries in the Central Plains."
"The death of King Wu will definitely implicate Sir and become the reason for those people to criticize Sir!"
Sun Wu frowned, obviously thinking about this issue as well.
After all, Zhufan's death was irreversible. How to face the verbal and written attacks from the monarchs and ministers of the Central Plains countries was what Li Ran needed to consider most at this time.
But who would have expected that Li Ran let out a long sigh, opened the car curtain and looked outside.
The cold and rain-drenched Chu Land was filled with smoke, and the surroundings were gloomy and silent. There was no rooster crow, no dog barking, and few people.
Looking at the world like this, Li Ran remained silent.
He originally thought that with his thousands of years of historical experience and modern people's logical thinking, he would be able to deal with anything in such a world with ease.
So when he first attended the rural school assembly in Qufu, he regarded everyone as "a scumbag".
In short, in Li Ran's opinion, no one in this era can be his opponent.
But now, he realizes how stupid and arrogant he was back then.
In any era, there are characteristics that cannot be changed. Even if Li Ran is a latecomer and the first person to gather five thousand years of historical experience, he cannot change the characteristics of this era.
Moreover, in such an era, there are still many things that he cannot do, that he cannot accomplish through the channels he wants.
As the saying goes, only by never forgetting your original intention can you achieve success.
But now, Li Ran was very doubtful about the correctness of this sentence.
He is always just one person.
A person who is also made of flesh and blood is not a saint who does not eat the fireworks of the world.
What is ordinary to him is what is ordinary to all living beings.
…
After half a month of turmoil, Li Ran and Sun Wu finally returned to Yingdu together.
What awaited them was the King of Chu's suburban laborers.
Under Zhang Hua's stage, the King of Chu made a rare appearance and came down from hundreds of stairs. He led a group of civil servants and generals of Chu State to personally greet Li Ran and Sun Wu.
This scene is truly spectacular.
Thousands of the Chu King's bodyguards surrounded Zhang Huatai. All the ministers and officials from the Chu Kingdom stood in two rows behind the Chu King. The Chu King wore a crown on his head, dressed in gorgeous clothes, and had a majestic face. The excitement that has not faded yet is hanging on my body.
"We sincerely welcome Mr. Ziming back after his victory. Your Majesty and your ministers are respectful. I would like to express my gratitude to Mr. Ziming for his merits in Chu!"
As Prince Qiji's voice sounded, in front of Zhang Hua's stage, the kings and ministers of Chu State simultaneously bowed to Li Ran.
Even Prince Qiji was envious of such honor, his gloomy eyes full of inexplicable expressions.
When Li Ran faced the courtesy of the King of Chu, he naturally wanted to return the courtesy. He quickly came to the King of Chu and knelt on the ground.
－－－－－－Digression－－－－－
original:
In the twelfth month, Wu Zi and his followers attacked Chu in retaliation for the battle of the boat division. The door is in the nest. Chao Niuchen said: "The king of Wu is brave but light. If you open the door, you will marry him. If I get shot, I will die. This king will die, and his country will be safe!" Follow him. At Wu Zimen's door, Niu Chen hid behind a short wall to shoot at him, but he died. ——"Zuo Zhuan·The Twenty-fifth Year of Duke Xiang"
