The defeat of the coalition of princes led by the Jin State directly caused the Huai State to once again dominate.
The overlord position of the Jin State was unstable. This defeat resulted in the Jin State having the position of Fang Bo, who was conferred by Emperor Zhou, but no actual overlord.
The originally prosperous Jin State came to an abrupt end. Over the years, Jin State annexed a large number of small vassal states, which has made many vassal states panic. Seeing this, many vassal states began to pay tribute to Huai State and regard Huai State as their overlord.
After Song and Wei saw Jin's defeat, they immediately sent envoys to Huai to pay tribute, bringing a large amount of property and tribute. They were afraid that if they arrived too late, Huai would kill them to scare the monkeys.
When the envoys from the Song Dynasty came to the Huai Kingdom, they directly regarded themselves as the small sect of the Yin Shang Dynasty, and regarded the Huai Kingdom as the large sect of the Yin Shang Dynasty.
In the end, more than thirty princes and states came to pay tribute to the Huai Kingdom. This number was actually more than the number of princes and states that came to pay tribute to the Emperor Zhou when he ascended the throne. Many princes almost thought that Huai'an was Luoyi.
The reality is like a black humor. Is Bang Zhou orthodox in Huai'an?
After some rest and recuperation, the Huai State army finally had its hands free the next year, preparing to teach Yue and Chu a lesson.
The country of Yue is located in the south, filled with smog, rugged roads, and numerous poisonous insects, making it unsuitable for northern soldiers to travel there. Wang Yue issued an edict to mobilize an army of 30,000 troops in Wu, and sent 2,000 feather forest guards and 2,000 vine armor soldiers there.
The Huai State, with Gongzi Min as the commander, Chen Yi as the vanguard, and Xu Yong as the sacrificial wine, recruited an army of 34,000 men, known as one hundred thousand, to attack the Yue State in April.
When the people in the Yue Kingdom heard that Huai's army was attacking, everyone in the court was panicked. Last year, the Chu-Vietnam coalition was defeated, and the Yue State lost more than 10,000 people. The overwhelming momentum of the Huai Army greatly shocked him.
Even now, when he returns to his dreams at midnight, he is often awakened from his dreams, which makes him fearful and makes him extremely angry.
He is a descendant of King Yu, how can he be intimidated by a mere soldier?
When the Huai army came, Yuejun immediately summoned his ministers to ask for advice.
"My lords, a hundred thousand troops from the Huai Kingdom are coming to attack. What can you do?"
"Your Majesty, the Huai State is strong and powerful, and our Yue State is far outnumbered. Why not send envoys to the Huai State to profess vassalage and pay tribute in order to preserve the country?" one of the officials said.
"Professing vassalship and paying tribute may not work. Last year, our Yue State and Chu State took advantage of the war between Huai State and Jin State to launch a sneak attack. Huai State was extremely angry. This time a hundred thousand troops came, how could they just come for a patrol?"
"Your Majesty, why don't you ask for help from Chu State? Chu State is a country two thousand miles away and has great national power. If Chu State helps, Huai State can't do anything to us?"
"The Chu State was defeated by the Huai State last year, how could it send troops again?"
"Your Majesty, why don't you send the prince to Huai as a hostage..."
For a while, there was a quarrel in the court. It was not yet decided whether it would be war or peace. Both sides insisted on their own opinions and refused to give in to each other.
"Okay!" Seeing the chaos in the court, Yue Hou was very irritable.
Seeing the Lord's words, everyone quickly stopped.
"Your Majesty, although the Huai Kingdom borders us, most of the Huai Kingdom's troops are from the north of the Yangtze River. The land north of the Yangtze River is different from our Yue Kingdom. The Yue Kingdom has many rivers, a hot and dull climate, and a smoky atmosphere that the Huai Army is not familiar with. Regarding the environment and roads, our army is waiting for work, and it is not without the strength to fight!" said Dr. Wen Jiang.
"If we are to seek peace without fighting this time, with the power of Huai State now, even if we agree to cross the border to seek peace, the conditions will definitely be extremely harsh. Why not seek peace with war?"
After hearing what Wen Jiang said, everyone felt it made sense and agreed. The Marquis of Yue also thought this strategy was good, so he agreed with Wen Jiang's strategy.
"By the way, we should also ask for help from Chu State."
"Here!"
After the discussion, Yue State immediately mobilized. Although it lost more than 10,000 troops last year, Yue soon recruited 30,000 troops.
At this time, the total population of Yue State was only five or six hundred thousand, and this recruitment almost reached the limit.
...
The army of Huai State set out for an expedition and soon arrived at Meili of Wu State. Huai'an was 800 miles away from Yue State. This expedition
The war against the Yue Kingdom was based in Meili, where they stocked up on food, grass and weapons.
The army recruited 30,000 civilians from Wu in Meili to cooperate with the army in the expedition against Yue.
The Huai army and the Yue army fought against Li. The State of Yue used the condemned prisoners as the vanguard to attack the Huai army fiercely. The Huai army faced the enemy in a wild goose formation, with Tengjia troops and Yulin guards on the two wings, and ordinary soldiers in the middle.
The central army of the Yue Kingdom attacked fiercely, and the Huai Army retreated, surrounded by two armies. The Tengjia Army and the Yulin Guards were both powerful armies of the Huai Kingdom. They were the best in the world. They launched on both wings. It can be said that they were overwhelming. The Yue Kingdom was invincible and suffered heavy casualties. The army retreated. , Huai soldiers surrounded Kuaiji.
Kuaiji City was high and deep, with crisscrossed waterways and tight defenses. The Yue Kingdom was united and their morale was high. The army attacked several times, but was blocked by the Yue Kingdom.
It was the rainy season at this time, the weather was humid and hot, and there were many mosquitoes. Even though the Huai Kingdom had paid great attention to hygiene and water sources, a large number of soldiers still fell sick. After wearing the armor of the Huai Kingdom, the heat was unbearable, and the skin often ulcerated when wearing the armor.
What makes people even more uncomfortable is that at most five days out of ten days are sunny, and the sun is shining brightly, and the rain is steaming on the ground. It is even more unbearably hot and humid, and the leather armor is soaked and rotted. Only the rattan armor is convenient, but even so, Even the soldiers of Wu could not wear armor to attack the city.
After seeing this situation, Gongzi Min and Xu Yong discussed it and decided to try to lure the snake out of the hole and lure the Yue army out. As a result, the army retreated, but the Yue army still could not come out.
At the same time, Chu State once again stationed troops on the border. Seeing this situation, Gongzi Min and Xu Yong gave up and continued to attack Yue State.
The State of Yue was relieved to see that Huai State would no longer attack, and then sent an envoy to sue for peace, expressing its willingness to treat Huai State as its overlord and pay tribute every year.
The prince sent the envoy to Huai'an with pity. Wang Yue agreed to Yue's request for peace and asked him to donate 100,000 stones of grain and grass and 5,000 slaves.
The State of Yue had no choice but to agree. After receiving the grain, grass and slaves, Prince Min led the army back to Wu.
This attack on the Yue State was unfavorable. The Huai State realized the advantages of the Yue State. Therefore, in order to deal with the Yue State and to better rule Wu, Sun Shuao ordered the construction of a new city in Gusu. Prince Min led the army to return, while Xu Yong Wudi built a city.
Because the Yue Kingdom donated 100,000 stones of grain and grass, plus the grain and grass hoarded by Meili, Xu Yong conscripted 100,000 hard labor and the Yue Kingdom donated 5,000 slaves, all of which were used to build Gusu City.
Xu Yong built a large city on the bank of Taihu Lake, facing the water on one side. The city foundation was raised, located on the turtle's back, and the waterway was repaired to allow the river to pass through the city. There are lakes and hills to the west of the city as a barrier, which is not conducive to attack. There are fertile fields and fertile fields around it, a land of plenty and plenty, which is convenient for farming.
Ditches were built in the city to facilitate drainage, and river channels were renovated and dredged. Since the terrain was the highest in the surrounding area, there was no need to worry about people digging embankments to flood the city. There is a water source in the city. In addition to building the big city, Xu Yong built an acropolis near the big city.
The two cities are in the shape of horns.
In order to facilitate the transportation of stone, Xu Yong also dug a canal locally. This canal can also be used for irrigation and transportation of grain and grass in the future.
