It only took less than half a year for Xianyang City to go from being crowded with people to being like a dead place.
When all the princes left Xianyang, Xianyang was almost in ruins. All the resources in Xianyang City were snatched away by the princes and transported to their own fiefdoms.
Another round of competition in the world has begun, and everyone knows it, especially the seventeen princes who were sealed away by Xiang Yu.
But some were happy and some were sad. Liu Ji didn't know what Xiang Yu thought, and Liu Ji didn't know what the other sixteen princes thought.
He sat in his palace and sighed.
Among the eighteen kings, his fiefdom may not be the smallest, but it is definitely the most desolate and barren. It is an undeveloped land, surrounded by four princes, with a plateau to the west and a difficult-to-reach area to the south. The vast rain forest was like a cage, completely sealing Liu Ji inside.
The King of Guanzhong is gone, and now he has ended up like this. This makes Liu Ji, who was so high-spirited just a few days ago, how to keep his spirits up.
What's more, this place is far away from home and there is no way to go back. Not to mention Liu Ji, even the soldiers under his banner are feeling doubly painful.
They can only look eastward, to the old Chu land, which is their hometown.
Although it's my hometown, I'm afraid... I won't be able to go back.
Liu Ji summoned his generals to drink and have fun in his mansion, but he never thought that a group of people would gather together and sigh. The warm atmosphere in the past was completely different.
"What can I do..." Liu Ji looked at the empty seat on the lower right, feeling sad and letting out a long sigh.
That's Zhang Liang's position.
As Liu Ji's loyal minister, Zhang Liang was regarded as a threat. Under Xiang Yu's order, Zhang Liang followed Han Cheng to South Korea and did not know when he would return.
Xiao He, Peng Yue and others were all drinking wine and no one spoke.
Liu Ji looked at the room full of people. Xiao He, Li Shiqi, and Fan Hui were all capable people, but...
If you want to fight outside, these powers are definitely not enough.
Even if Zhang Liang is included, it is not enough.
The land of Bashu is surrounded by natural dangers on three sides, and the only north side leading to the Central Plains is heavily guarded by the two Qin princes. They clearly do not want him to come out, and he only has fifty thousand soldiers under his command. It is difficult to enter the Central Plains. It’s not an exaggeration to reach heaven.
Zhang Liang is talented in diplomacy and possesses magic skills. Li Shiqi is a strategist who can lobby the world. These two are enough to face enemies with the possibility of easing. Xiao He is a great talent in internal affairs, and Xiao He can organize everything related to internal affairs without fail. Most of the others, headed by Fan Hui, are generals. If you let these people charge into battle, it's okay, but if you let these people make plans, that's nonsense.
Liu Ji knew very well that he lacked someone who could lead the troops and command the three armies.
Without such a person, he would not be able to get out of this desolate Bashu, let alone formally enter the game and compete for world hegemony.
After the wine party dispersed, Liu Ji and his old friend Xiao He walked along the streets of Nanzheng City, seemingly walking around in the cold wind, which could dissipate some of the sad mood.
"Old Xiao, do you think we still have a chance?" There was no one around him, and Liu Ji himself was not a person who particularly cared about the distinction between monarch and minister. He asked Xiao He beside him, with strong self-doubt in his tone.
Xiao He didn't say anything. He could be regarded as an old man who had followed Liu Jiqian not long after Liu Jimang's Dangshan uprising. Liu Ji encountered many crises along the way, but there had never been any time like this. It seemed as if heaven and earth were locking Liu Ji in In Bashu, one is locked up until death.
"I don't know..." After hesitating for a long time, Xiao He held back such a sentence. Telling the truth now is almost the same as making sarcastic remarks, and he can only make vague remarks.
"The Ronin Begins with Douluo"
Liu Ji looked at the dim sky, and white mist could already be seen in the air he breathed out.
"Counting the days, it's going to snow soon." Liu Ji picked a leaf from the tree on the roadside, held it in his hand, and smashed it in his mouth.
Suddenly, he gritted his teeth.
"We have to fight! We have to find a way to fight!"
Liu Ji's eyes suddenly burst into flames of fear.
"He Xiang Yu wants to trap me to death? Impossible!"
"He was the first to break his promise, how could I let him humiliate me!"
"If I am allowed to stay in this land of Bashu and be the King of Han for the rest of my life, I, Liu Ji, will never rest in peace!"
"Even if we don't talk about the king of Guanzhong, who was the first to break into Guanzhong? Who was the one who received the seal of Ying Ziying?"
"Is it Xiang Yu!?"
"Is it him? I'm Liu Ji!"
Liu Ji hammered the evergreen tree on the roadside hard, and a hole was made in the big tree that was as thick as one person's arms.
He gritted his teeth and continued: "We have to fight, we must fight!"
"This world should have been mine, but Xiang Yu took it from me, insulted and threatened me in Hongmen, and now he imprisons me in Bashu Lake to tease me!"
"I want his life!"
"good!"
"Fuck!"
Suddenly, a loud shout came from behind the tree, full of agreement with Liu Ji's words.
However, Liu Ji and Xiao He were both shocked.
The two of them were stunned when they saw a man wearing a gray robe and carrying a small bag walking out from behind the tree.
"You -" It was dark, and Liu Ji couldn't see clearly who the person was, but he only felt familiar.
"Who are you!?" Xiao He pushed Liu Ji one step back, protected Liu Ji behind him, and watched the person who came out from behind the tree warily.
"King of Han, Mr. Xiao, it's been a month since we left Xianyang, how are you?" The man bowed slightly, neither humble nor overbearing, with a sigh in his tone, and greeted Liu Ji and Xiao He.
"I remember your name is...Han Xin? That confidant next to Xiang An?" After thinking about it, Liu Ji remembered who the person appeared in front of him, and couldn't help but frowned and looked Han Xin up and down. , "You...why are you here? Could it be that King Chu sent you to monitor me?"
As he spoke, he put his hand on the sword at his waist.
Shaking his head, Han Xin showed no fear on his face.
"Please rest assured, King Han. Xin's coming here this time is not based on the will of King Chu or Xiang An, but on Xin's own will." Han Xin said as he cupped his hands.
"Then you are...?" Liu Ji was a little confused, and Xiao He was even more confused. They both looked at the upright Han Xin, and they were both a little confused.
"Xin has left Xi Chu, like a bird leaving its cage. Now he comes to Nanzheng to defect to the King of Han." Han Xin sighed, looked at Liu Ji's suspicious eyes, sank his legs, and knelt down. on the ground.
"The King of Chu was unkind and divided the world. The King of Han returned to Bashu and could not leave Hanzhong. Xin thought that among the eighteen kings in the world, if he could choose a leader who could conquer the world, the King of Han would be the most suitable. However, Xin came naturally and did not do it for The King of Han... just put his heart and soul into believing in me, and I also ask the King of Han... to give me a clear warning!"
