"The King's benevolence."
"With the help of your Majesty, we and the tens of millions of people in the snowy plains are finally saved."
The five envoys below couldn't help but be overjoyed when they heard the promise given by Lu Yuan himself.
Some of them were so excited that they shed tears and fell to the ground directly.
No wonder they were so excited, it was really Chu State's help, which meant so much to them, the Snowfield people.
Lu Yuan's previous estimate was actually correct.
In the past four years of war, the Xueyuan people suffered extremely heavy losses.
But the slight difference is that the actual number of soldiers and people they lost was not as many as advertised by the outside world.
For example, Lu Yuan calculated the previous Zhou people's gains and concluded that the Xueyuan people lost more than 1.5 million soldiers, but the actual number was of course not that many.
You must know that the tribe of the Four Kings of Snowfield only has a population of one million.
If Xueyuan had directly lost 1.5 million warriors, their tribes would have collapsed long ago, and how could they have persisted until now.
In fact, in all the wars in the past four years, although the Xueyuan people suffered heavy losses, most of the soldiers and horses killed and annihilated in the battle were servant tribes or slave tribes, or even young slaves of the Zhou people captured when they attacked Zhou towns.
The above are the bulk of the soldiers and horses lost in previous wars, and the total adds up to more than 800,000.
Of course, although most of them were taken up by those cannon fodders, as the core of the war, the Four Kings tribe and the core tribe of the Tibetan people who were subordinate to them suffered considerable losses.
Take the Four Kings tribes who sent envoys in front of them. Each of their tribes lost 50,000, 60,000, or even 70,000 or 80,000 warriors. These are the strongest men of a tribe and are the true essence of a tribe. .
The loss of so many heroic warriors at once almost caused the Four Kings tribe to lose more than 30 to 40% of its strength.
As for the secondary core tribes other than the Four Kings Tribe, the worst thing is that 70% to 80% of the tribe's strength has been directly destroyed, and they are not far away from extinction.
The total number of soldiers and horses lost by the core tribes of the above-mentioned Xueyuan people is about 500,000.
Well, in the four years of war, the number of troops lost by the Tibetan people, excluding those Zhou slaves who were temporarily forcibly recruited during the invasion, was only about one million.
Compared with what was said in the Zhou people's battle report, even including those powerful Zhou people's servant army, it was far behind.
certainly.
Nowadays, in such a world of great strife, all countries advocate bravery. Soldiers are rampant everywhere. It is not uncommon to falsely report military achievements and kill good people for taking merits.
Even in the Chu State founded by Lu Yuan, in the wars over the years, although the military did not kill good soldiers and take credit for their merits, there were still many false claims of military exploits, but they were not that serious.
Everyone has selfish desires and wants to climb higher. This kind of thing cannot be solved.
At most, we can use a more standardized system and a stronger will to maintain the system and curb it a little.
In contrast, the Zhou people only falsely reported the number of 200,000 enemies killed in these four years. In fact, they were very upright and worthy of the Zhou emperor's court.
That's a bit far-fetched.
Regardless of whether there is corruption within the Zhou army, let’s just say that on the Tibetan side, the four-year war directly resulted in the loss of millions of men. This is almost equivalent to the Tibetan people with a population of less than 10 million. A devastating blow.
After a war, not only did every household wear sackcloth and every family wore filial piety, it can also be said that in every Tibetan family, a relative, a man, died in the war.
Reflected on the Tibetan society, the most young and powerful generation of men in their twenties and thirties have all died.
The rest are the old, weak, sick and disabled who are under 20 or over 30 years old.
At most, the Four Kings Tribe suffered relatively small losses and may still have some elite men in their twenties and thirties, but compared to the overall situation, it actually doesn't help.
The above are only the people who died directly in the war.
The weather has become colder in recent years, and the growing period of grass on the snowfield has been shortened from February to October in previous years to March to October now, which is a full month shorter.
Reflected in life, the time for cattle, sheep, and horses to be full has become less than usual.
Cattle and sheep often lose weight or even starve to death because they don't have enough grass to eat.
Without enough food, the number of cattle and sheep will naturally decrease.
When winter comes at the end of the year, each tribe has to store more hay to feed their cattle and sheep. But often the stored hay is simply not enough for all the cattle and sheep.
Finally, when winter came, the herdsmen had to reluctantly slaughter a group of thinner cattle and sheep to save hay and reserve an extra batch of food for themselves.
But as a result, the tribes on the grassland naturally have fewer and fewer cattle and sheep every year.
With fewer cattle and sheep, the amount of milk, goat milk, beef, and mutton that can be provided to the tribe will naturally decrease.
In addition, due to the cold weather, highland barley rice that could have been grown for two seasons can now only be grown for one season, which further contributes to the scarcity of food.
To this day, the food produced in the snowfield every year is only enough to sustain 60% of the current Tibetan population. The remaining more than 40% are in a situation where they do not have enough food and may starve to death at any time.
And this hungry population is still growing year by year with the advent of the cold wave.
Almost every year, more than 500,000 to 600,000 old and weak people from the Tibetan tribes on the grasslands are selectively expelled and abandoned by the tribes, and directly freeze to death and starve to death on the snowy grasslands.
In more than four years, more than two million Tibetan people, old and weak, have died due to this reason.
In addition, the Zhou people also sent some light cavalry from time to time, deep into the snowy fields, to attack and massacre the Tibetan tribes, which also caused heavy losses to the Tibetan people in the snowy fields, losing 300,000 to 400,000 people.
Adding up all the above, wars, hunger, and massacres, the entire Xueyuan people have lost about 3.5 million people due to natural and man-made disasters in the past four years.
This is equivalent to 20% of the original total population of the snowfield.
Although there are still about 12 million remaining Xueyuan people, after losing a large number of adult men and the elderly and weak, their strength is less than 60% of their original peak.
And the remaining 60% are still weakening at an extremely fast rate.
Judging from this situation, I am afraid that as the Zhou people expected, as long as the war continues for another two or three years, these Snowfield Tibetan people will not be able to hold on and will be completely defeated and exterminated.
Let me ask, the danger of extinction is right in front of us. How can these Tibetan people not be anxious, how can they not be desperate, how can they not be afraid?
So.
When the Fan people found out that the Chu State was conducting grain trade with the Zhou State, they seemed to be preparing to support the Zhou people in their war against the Fan people.
At the same time, on the other side of the snowfield in the river valley, a small group of Tibetan people who were attacked by the Chu State fled to the core of the Tibetan people in the snowy plains through the dangerous trails, and brought the news that the Chu Kingdom's military frontier had bordered the Tibetan people.
Under the oppression of the Zhou people, the Tibetan people, who were defeated steadily, could no longer sit still.
Just facing a Zhou country has almost wiped out their clan.
At this time, if another Chu country comes, which is said to be not inferior to the Zhou people, the Tibetan people will no longer have any hope, and the annihilation of the tribe is already a certainty.
Fortunately, the Tibetan spies sent back to Zhou reported that the relationship between Zhou and Chu was not actually good.
Ten years ago, the two sides fought a war.
Four years ago, in Hanzhong County of Zhou State, the two countries almost came to war.
At that time, there had just been a war between the Fans and the Zhou State, which made the Fans in the snowy plains feel very sorry after learning about it.
If there had been a Chu State to help them deal with Zhou State at that time, how could they have been defeated so miserably now, almost on the verge of annihilation?
Fortunately, at this time, they learned about the existence of Chu State and learned that the relationship between Chu State and Zhou State was not as good as it seemed on the surface.
It is still too late to win over the Chu State to deal with the Zhou State.
They Xueyuan Fan people still have hope of conquering Longxi and Hexi counties and surviving this disaster.
Alliance, must be an alliance.
This is the consensus reached by many senior officials of the Xueyuan Fan people after comprehensive information from all aspects and an in-depth assessment of their own strength and that of the Zhou people.
And in order to promote alliances.
All tribes contributed money and efforts together, collecting 100 million taels of silver and 500 magic pills.
In order to ensure the stability of the alliance and to close the relationship with the King of Chu, he also persuaded the spirit girl of the Damo Sect to agree to marry the King of Chu as his concubine for the future of the Xueyuan people.
In order to win over the Chu State, these Tibetan people spent nearly half of their family fortune.
Of course, some people may wonder why the Tibetan people, who have so much money, don’t go to someone to buy food and use the bought food to survive the snow disaster?
Instead, for four consecutive years, he risked such a huge loss and insisted on attacking Hexi and Longxi counties of Zhou State. He vowed not to give up until he conquered this place.
This has to start from reality.
Question: before the war started, what was the original population of the Tibetan people?
Answer, the total number of Tibetan people in the entire snowfield is about 15 million.
Question: Due to the snow disaster, about 40% of the Tibetan people are short of food. How many people are there in the 40% of the 15 million Tibetans?
Answer, about six million people.
Question: How much food is needed to feed six million people a year?
Answer, even the most basic starvation state requires at least 50 million to 60 million shi of food a year.
Then the problem arises.
Even if we consider the current grain trade between Chu and Zhou, a pound of grain costs six cents, which is about a mid-range price during a relative famine.
Ten million stones of grain would cost about six million six hundred thousand taels of silver.
To buy 50 million stones of grain, it would be 33 million taels of silver.
In other words, to maintain the most basic survival needs, the Zhou tribe in the snowy plains had to spend 33 million taels of silver every year to purchase food from the outside world.
And judging from the growing number of hungry people among the Xueyuan people, the money spent on buying food every year will continue to grow.
One hundred million taels of silver can only last three years at most.
How much money can the Xueyuan people have?
With their poverty, even if they emptied their family resources, they would only be able to buy food for six or seven years at most, and then they would be completely out of money.
After running out of money, wouldn’t we have to starve to death?
not to mention.
There is enough food for six million people, and this number is growing rapidly. Which force around can provide it?
Lu Yuan's Chu State only had a population of eight million. In addition to the food produced for the people's consumption every year, at most, it could only have a surplus of food rations for more than one million people.
Except for part of the grain sold to the Su State, all of it has been stored in the grain depot. The total amount of grain stored is only 40 million shi.
This small amount of savings is not enough for the hungry Tibetan people in the snowy plains to need it for a year.
And although Chu State borders the snowy plains, there are no major roads connecting them. There are only some winding and rugged areas and even trails that are difficult for ordinary people to pass through.
Even if the Chu State had food, it would not be able to transport it to the snowy plains.
Therefore, this path of Chu State is considered to be cut off.
Well, Chu State can't do it. Outside of the snowy plains, the only ones that can provide them with food are Xiliang State and Zhou State.
Xiliang Kingdom is located in the western border of Yongzhou. The land is mostly grassland and windy sand. It is not much richer than the snow plains. The total population of the country is only more than 3 million. It is a truly barren land.
And like the Xueyuan people, the Xiliang Kingdom also fell into a food shortage situation due to the snow disaster.
Although they are a little better than the snowy people and will not be forced to starve to death, they are still far away from this step.
At the same time, the people of Xiliang are fierce and brave, even more so than the Zhou and Tibetan people.
If they don't come to rob Zhou Kingdom and Xueyuan, both sides should burn incense.
How stupid must the Tibetan people be to rob these poor and tough guys?
Therefore, the road to Xiliang Kingdom was also cut off.
Neither Chu nor Xiliang can do it. The only way out for the Tibetan people is Zhou.
But it's the same as the Chu State. The Zhou State has a population of about 20 million, and the food surplus it can produce every year can supply food rations for up to three million people.
Out of this extra three million people, Zhou still had to support an army of one million. In the end, what he could save was only food rations for less than two million people.
But these saved rations, let alone whether Zhou Guo is willing to give them to the Tibetan people, to support a powerful enemy in the southwest.
Even if the Zhou State is willing, the food rations for two million people are far from enough for the six million Tibetan people.
In the end, there were still four million Tibetans, nearly one-third of the total population of the Snowfield tribe, who could not escape starvation.
So the problem now is that the Tibetan people's money is not enough for them to buy food for a long time.
The surplus grain in the Zhou Kingdom was far from meeting the needs of the Tibetan people.
This is simply an unsolvable situation.
And if both sides want to survive, then there is only one final result.
war.
Taking advantage of the fact that they still had some wealth, the Tibetan people came out in full force and used war to plunder the food rations that originally belonged to the Zhou people.
At the same time, the excess population is consumed through war to save food for export to the remaining people.
In four years, the original 6 million hungry people of the Fan tribe had been consumed by 3.5 million people.
Just because of the continued cold and the impact of the war, the remaining 2.5 million hungry people not only did not continue to decrease, but now have increased.
Today, there are still about three million hungry people in the Fan tribe, and the solution is far from being seen.
As for Zhou Guo.
Because of the wars in the past few years, countless people have died. In Hexi and Longxi counties, every family wears linen and wears mourning.
Everyone who survived had a blood feud with the Tibetan people.
A large number of troops gathered from all over the country died in the war with the Tibetan people.
It can be said that the entire Zhou Kingdom has formed a blood feud with the Xueyuan Fan people, and it can be said that it will never end.
It was also due to the influence of this hatred that even if the Tibetan people wanted to cease war and negotiate peace, it was impossible for the entire Zhou Kingdom to agree.
Too many people have died and too much has been paid.
If the Tibetan people cannot be destroyed, washing them with the blood of these people in the snow plains, and making up for it with the profits plundered after the victory of the war, it will not be able to soothe the hearts of the Zhou people at all.
The Tibetan people and the Zhou state were destined to fall on one side, and then use their own corpses as nutrients to allow the victor to recover from his wounds and become stronger.
No one wants to be the one who falls.
At this time, Chu State became an outsider affecting the situation of this war.
Chu State helped Zhou State, and with Chu State's food aid, the Tibetan people who had no successors would undoubtedly die.
The Chu State helped the Tibetan people, and the Zhou State, which had tried its best, was unable to stop the knife stabbing its chest from the south, and could not escape the fate of losing the war.
It is precisely to understand this point that we understand the importance of Chu State.
So when they heard Lu Yuan's personal promise at this time, these people in front of them were so happy and so embarrassed.
Because this represents the continuation of the race, the survival of the tribe, the life and death of yourself and your tribesmen...
It means so much, how can you not shed tears of gratitude?
Lu Yuan was naturally happy to see this happen.
The more grateful a Fan is to himself and the more dependent he is on himself, the easier it will naturally be for him to manipulate the other person in the future.
He just agreed to unite with the Tibetan people and launch the Northern Expedition to attack the Zhou Kingdom.
But he didn't agree. The attack was on a Hanzhong County or the entire Zhou Kingdom.
Chu State just wanted to capture Hanzhong County and improve the defense in the northwest.
Before unifying Yangzhou, Lu Yuan had no idea of continuing to expand to other states, nor did he intend to fight with Zhou.
Therefore, after capturing Hanzhong County, his most likely choice was to continue to support the Tibetan people, so that these people driven by hunger would continue to trouble the Zhou people and bleed the Zhou kingdom continuously.
This lasted for eight, nine, or ten years, until both sides were drained of blood and strength.
The Chu State also eliminated the Ning State and unified Yangzhou.
At that time, the troops can be divided into two groups.
Along the way, he went up from Hanzhong, contacted the Tibetan people in Xueyuan, went out of Longxi, Pinghexi, and occupied two counties in the western part of the Zhou Kingdom.
Along the way, we can go out of Xiangyang along the Han River and conquer the two counties of Xiangyang and Nanyang of the Zhou Kingdom.
With two armies coming out together and a million-strong army heading for the Northern Expedition, what could the Zhou State do to resist it, as it was already extremely weak due to years of war?
And if the Chu State can seize the Longxi County and the Hanyang County of the Zhou State, relying on these two strategic locations and continuing to the north, it can destroy the Zhou State and dominate Yongzhou.
If we direct our troops to the east, we can cooperate with the Jiangnan Navy and the two Southwest Routes to attack the Liang Kingdom and march towards Qingzhou.
Regardless of the above points, Chu will have an absolute advantage in the future struggle for hegemony among the nine states.
Zhuge Liang's Longzhong pairing in the previous life was nothing more than that.
And unlike Liu Bei who only had one city in Xinye, Lu Yuan now had much more capital.
Five counties and three kingdoms, millions of soldiers, six innate people, the foundation of hegemony.
With this strength, the Shu Han could not complete the Longzhong match, but the Chu State could easily do so.
"What I have to do at this time is to conquer Hanzhong County and then go down the river to completely destroy the Ning Kingdom in the east of the Yangtze River, completely unify Yangzhou, and solve this worry.
In this way, I don't have to worry about others crossing the river in white clothes. I can only rest assured and go north to compete with the heroes of Kyushu. "
Lu Yuan thought this in his mind, then looked at the messenger below and continued to discuss further details of cooperation.
For example, when can the benefits promised by the Tibetan people be delivered?
The Chu State is about to send troops. Should the Tibetan people also cooperate and send out some troops to help attract the Zhou State's firepower?
All of the above are debatable as they relate to core interests.
Even if they are allies, they must not give in an inch.
For a time, after the alliance was formed in the palace, the ministers who were summoned by Lu Yuan to meet the envoys began to quarrel with the Tibetan envoys.
Lu Yuan also quietly retreated during this period, leaving this spit-filled place in time.
