Wang Kan ascended the throne and inherited the throne of the king.
The death of Wang Pu made the states of Zhou Dynasty breathe a sigh of relief. When Wang Pu was in charge of the Huai Kingdom, even the Chu Kingdom was destroyed, which put great pressure on the states.
Not long after Wang Pu passed away, Wu Qi also died of illness. In just two months, the Huai Kingdom lost two of its pillars, which made all the countries in the world ready to take action.
All the countries in the world want to weaken Huai State, after all, Huai State is too strong.
Western Chu, Jiangdu.
After King Chu Que learned that both King Huai and Wu Qi had passed away, he was so excited that he almost jumped up in the palace.
Since the Chu State moved westward, the King of Chu has been worried that the Huaiguo State will attack Kuimen with all its strength and destroy the Chu State. It was also this sense of crisis that made King Chu not dare to slack off at all.
It has been more than twenty years since the Chu Kingdom moved westward. Twenty years of reforms have greatly improved the strength of the Western Chu Kingdom. Among the states of Zhou Dynasty, the states with the most thorough reforms were Chu and Qin.
The reason for Chu was because there were very few aristocrats after the westward migration, while for Qin it was because the Marquis of Qin strongly supported it, and the nobles of Qin did not dare to object.
Twenty years was enough time for a generation to grow up. After the reform, the Chu State waged a long-term war against the surrounding barbarians in the land of Ba and plundered a large number of people.
At the same time, water conservancy projects were built in Brazil and Bazhong, and wasteland was reclaimed. The Western Chu Kingdom obtained a large amount of fertile land. At the same time, due to the westward migration of Chu State, its original population of about five million dropped sharply to more than one million.
In order to increase the population, the King of Chu decreed that families with three children could be exempted from tax by 30% every year, and families with more than four children could be exempted by half.
After the introduction of this policy, the population of Chu State began to increase significantly. However, it doubled in twenty years. Coupled with Chu State's continuous plundering of people from surrounding barbarians, Chu State's population reached two hundred More than 10,000 is close to 3 million.
At the same time, due to the reclamation of farmland and the construction of water conservancy projects, there was no need for exploitation by the aristocracy, and the Chu State's treasury was full. After twenty years of accumulation, the Chu State's national power was at its peak, with 200,000 soldiers in the country.
The current strength of the 200,000 soldiers of the Western Chu Kingdom is much higher than that of the 200,000 soldiers of the Chu Kingdom. After twenty years of reform, the soldiers of the Western Chu Kingdom are all elite.
After learning that Huai Gong and Wu Qi of Huai State passed away one after another, the King of Chu finally decided to go east to take revenge.
The Chu army consisted of 200,000 soldiers. They were divided into two groups. One group started from Jiangdu and went through Kuimen to attack Yicheng. The other group started from Shangyong and went down the Han River.
The current of the Han River is very fast, but it is possible to swim downstream, but it is extremely difficult to sail against the current. After the Huai State captured the Chu State, they wanted to use the Han River to attack Hanzhong, but they found that there was no way to sail against the current.
When entering Hanzhong by land, the mountains are steep and many steep passes need to be overcome. At that time, the Huai State had already destroyed the Chu State. Each of its soldiers had made military exploits and were waiting to be rewarded when they returned. They were not willing to risk their lives to attack these dangerous passes, so the soldiers had no intention of fighting to the death.
The soldiers had no fighting spirit and the mountain roads were steep. Wu Qi knew the situation in the army, so he did not attack again. Instead, he built a gate in a dangerous place to prevent the Western Chu from attacking.
When the army of Western Chu State attacked, Huai State was also prepared for it. Wang Pu originally organized the Shanyue Tengjia Army and stationed it here all year round, just to attack Western Chu.
This time when the Western Chu State attacked, although Yicheng and Yunyang were not as dangerous as Kuimen, they were still easy to defend and difficult to attack. The Chu State sent an army of 200,000 troops, but due to the difficult mountain roads, they were unable to attack with the advantage of their strength.
As for the Han River, this time the Huai State adopted the method of the Chu State in Kuimen, driving wooden piles into the Han River and using iron cables on both sides to cross the river.
The Chu army flowed down the river and was blocked by iron ropes.
Although there are a hundred thousand troops, they can't be deployed around them at all. The Western Chu State occupies the land of Hanzhong and Ba. The terrain is difficult and it is difficult for the Huai State to attack, but it is not easy for the Chu State to get out.
The Huai State built passes on the two roads that the Chu State must pass through. On top of the pass, there was also a catapult made by the Gongshu family of the Huai State. This catapult is one foot high and two feet long. It requires five people to operate and can throw a stone weighing ten kilograms about a hundred meters.
The Huai State placed a catapult on the city wall and filled it with rubble. After it was launched, a large amount of rubble fell down. Even if the Chu soldiers were all wearing armor, they would suffer severe head injuries and heavy casualties when hit by these rocks.
If Western Chu wants to come out, it will have to pay a heavy price. Even when the Western Chu State attacked desperately and was lucky enough to break through the two passes, reinforcements from the Huai State had already arrived, and the Western Chu State could only retreat again.
After seeing this situation, the King of Chu had no choice but to retreat even though he had deep hatred with the Huai State. If the evacuation was too late, there would be heavy casualties when the Huai army arrived and then retreated.
The Western Chu Kingdom sent 200,000 troops to attack Huaihe, but in the end they failed to capture even two passes. The first battle to the east ended in a tailspin.
The Marquis of Wei recruited talented people with high-ranking officials and generous salaries, and many talented people soon joined him. The most outstanding among them was a scholar named Pang Juan. This person is proficient in the art of war, but he is not a soldier, but a member of the Guigu sect. Although Gui Guzi did not go to the Huaiguo Academy, many of his disciples from the Zongheng School were there.
After all, the Zongheng faction needs very good eloquence, and there is no better place to practice eloquence than in the daily debates in the Huaiguo Academy. There are many students from the Zongheng School in the Huaiguo Academy who serve as officials.
As a disciple of the Guigu School, Pang Juan did not learn the art of vertical and horizontal, but the art of war. When he finished his studies and wanted to become an official, someone suggested that he go to the Huai Kingdom.
It’s just that Pang Juan believes that the Huai Kingdom has many talents. Military strategists Sun Wuzi and Wu Zi have both served in the Huai Kingdom and have many disciples. Even if he goes to the Huai Kingdom, he will not be taken seriously unless he can be like Sun Wuzi or Wu Zi, a genius. , only after suppressing him for a lifetime can he be directly worshiped as the prime minister.
But what kind of people are Sun Wuzi and Wu Zi? Although he was very confident in himself, he did not dare to compare with the two military sages.
On the contrary, the Wei State was different. Because of Wu Qi's flight to the Huaihe River, Wei State's military disciples withered away. Now it was defeated by other countries and lost territory, and it was in need of military disciples to show off their skills. At the same time, the Marquis of Wei this time offered high officials and generous salaries, which anyone with talent could get, which was much stronger than that of Huai.
The treatment is better than that in Huaiguo, and there is less competition pressure. Pang Juan did not hesitate and went to Wei to serve as an official.
After taking Pang Juan's exam, the Marquis of Wei discovered that he was really talented, so he immediately appointed Pang Juan as a general and commanded the soldiers of Wei.
Just after Pang Juan paid homage to the general, Qin attacked Hexi again. This time Qin Hou sent his younger brother Gongzi Che to lead an army to attack Shaoliang. The Shaoliang defenders could not resist, so Pang Juan led his troops to rescue.
Prince Che learned that Pang Juan was coming with his troops. After learning that he was just an unknown person, he didn't take him seriously at all, and only sent 50,000 Qin troops to stop him.
Although Pang Juan was leading an army in battle for the first time, this was his first battle as an official. He did not dare to be careless at all. He personally led 5,000 soldiers as the vanguard. They traveled with light vehicles and three days of rations, allowing the remaining 40,000 troops to march at a normal speed. Then he rushed all the way, and it took only one day and night to travel three hundred miles to get there.
At this time, the state of Qin had no idea that Pang Juan had arrived. Pang Juan let the soldiers rest. When the Qin army returned to camp at night, he personally led the army to attack. The state of Qin was unprepared. The soldiers were not wearing armor at all. It was impossible to see the coming of the Wei army in the dark. how many people.
Pang Juan took the lead, destroyed the Qin army's barracks, and burned the camp. The Qin army panicked, trampled on each other, and suffered heavy casualties. One hundred thousand Qin troops were defeated. The danger of Shaoliang was resolved. Pang Juan became famous in one battle.
(End of chapter)
