Chapter 1051 Who cares (please subscribe for monthly tickets)

The line from the Qinling Mountains to the Huaihe River is what we often call the north-south dividing line.

A few years ago, Southern Chu and Northern Chu were originally bounded by the Yellow River. Wang Xiao was determined to fight the Qing Dynasty first, but he ignored Southern Chu.

However, when Nan Chu was fighting with the Qing army, he tried to take advantage of the chaos. As a result, Wang Xiao counterattacked several times, and Zheng Yuanhua dug the Yellow River... So when Wang Xiao was still focusing his main energy on the north, he also captured some parts of Nan Chu.

Later, Northern Chu and Southern Chu had a tacit understanding of the Huai River.

Northern Chu wanted to solve the Qing Dynasty in the north first, while Southern Chu wanted to be honest after being frustrated, and its strategy changed from "strike against rebels" to "I hope that rebels will not fight again."

Now Wang Xiao drove the Qing Dynasty out of the pass, and his eyes turned to the south again.

He originally planned to fight south after the autumn harvest, but he did not expect that Meng Shiwei from Wuchang would take the lead and attack Nanjing along the Yangtze River before him.

This is definitely not the situation that Wang Xiao wants to see.

Perhaps in the eyes of some people in Northern Chu, it is great that there is civil turmoil in Southern Chu.

But in Wang Xiao's eyes, Jiangnan was sooner or later, and he wanted to conquer the regime in Jiangnan. Instead of seeing this regime split into pieces, turning into robbers and starting to slaughter their people.

What he wanted was a prosperous country, rather than letting Jiangnan be crisscrossed with holes, and then he brought this Jiangnan, which was crisscrossed with holes, to complete a great cause of unification.

Unification is the prerequisite for prosperity, but not the ultimate goal.

He did not want to build another unified but corrupt and backward Qing Dynasty...

After rushing all the way, Wang Xiao arrived in Suzhou in just two days.

Suzhou is one of the southernmost prefectures in Northern Chu, north of the Huai River. Further south is the Huai River, and the other side is Fengyang Prefecture of Southern Chu.

A team of soldiers came to meet outside Suzhou City.

"I've met King Jin."

"Where is Qinshanhe?"

"Report to King Jin, General Qin has already rushed south to the Huai River. He sent the last general here to welcome King Jin..."

Wang Xiao didn't get off the horse and said, "Go, talk while walking."

"Yes, six days ago, the Qin Shiwei was still in Xuzhou and got news that Meng Shiwei raised an army to rebel from Nan Chu... The Qin Shiwei immediately passed the news to the King of Jin. At the same time, he sent someone to contact Meng Shiwei and invited him to discuss the surrender matters, and he rushed to Suzhou in person.

Three days ago, Meng Shiwei's people arrived in Suzhou and wanted to discuss with General Qin to attack Nan Chu. General Qin went south again and asked the last general to tell the King of Jin that he would try to drag Meng Shiwei out, and ask whether King Jin would agree to his conditions for surrender..."

Wang Xiao frowned and asked again: "Where is Meng Shiwei?"

"It has arrived in Jiujiang."

“What else is there?”

"The incident happened suddenly, and all we know about at the moment..."

The horse's hooves were fast, and they ran for another two hundred miles a day and night. At dawn, Wang laughed at the shore of the Feishui River.

After passing the Feishui River, it is the Huai River.

On the banks of the Huai River, there were endless sounds of guns. Qin Shanhe was personally leading his troops to build a floating river on the Huai River. On the other side, some southern Chu soldiers and horses fired guns and arrows from a distance.

Wang Xiaozhuma looked at it for a while and did not take such a small battle seriously.

He didn't go to disturb Qin Shanhe immediately, and he was too lazy to continue watching the small battleground.

"Give me the map."

He spread out the map and marked it against the surrounding terrain.

There was no Anhui in the Chu province, and it was collectively called "Nanzhili" with Jiangsu, which caused some inconvenience to Wang Xiao.

He knew that his current location was probably in the later border area of ​​Bengbu and Huainan in Anhui, and nearby was the main battlefield of the Battle of Feishui.

Thinking of the Battle of Feishui, Wang Xiao was speechless...

One thousand three hundred years ago, Fu Jian, who had a "glorious face and elegant appearance", ascended the throne through a coup. He had the ambition to "unify the people and help the people", implemented benevolent policies, suppressed the powerful, eliminated ethnic conflicts, subdued foreign barbarians, and finally unified the north.

Later, Fu Jian launched the Battle of Feishui, intending to destroy the Eastern Jin Dynasty and end the troubled times, but in the end, the Former Qin, which had absolute national strength, was defeated by the Eastern Jin Dynasty.

The Battle of Feishui is almost a miraculous victory in the eyes of the people of Nanchu today.

But it happened anyway.

But now, Wang Xiao has not yet established a stable foothold and has not ascended the throne. Can he be stronger than Fu Jian?

Looking at Southern Chu again, it is far better than the Eastern Jin Dynasty after the Yongjia Rebellion.

Therefore, whenever Nan Chu talks about state affairs, they compare Southern Chu to Southern Jin and Northern Chu to Former Qin. They all want to be Xie Xuan and Xie An.

Oh, in addition to Xie Xuan and Xie An, they also like to compare themselves with Zhou Yu.

"Zhou Yu's actions of Chibi were accomplished by laughter; Xie An Feishui's troops were determined by command."

Wang Xiao was very annoyed to them...

After a while, Qin Shanhe defeated the Nanchu soldiers on the other side of the river and rushed here as soon as possible.

"I've met King Jin."

"No need to be too polite, just talk about the matter." Wang Xiao turned over and dismounted, walked side by side with Qin Shanhe towards the military camp, and asked again: "What's wrong with Jiujiang City?"

"The spy reported urgently that on the 11th, the general of Meng Shiwei, Hao Xiaozhong, rushed into Jiujiang City at night, looted and set fire to the city. Heavy casualties were killed and injured outside the city, and the surrounding Xunyang, Chaisang, Huangmei and other places were also looted by chaos..."

"How long will Meng Shiwei arrive in Anqing? How did Nanchu make defense?"

Qinshan River: "Meng Shiwei is now in Hukou area and has arrived in Anqing in about seven days. The news from the Southern Chu side has been cut off and the spies cannot contact him, but I guess I will send troops to garrison in Tongling."

Wang Xiao seemed a little unhappy and said, "The Nanjing court doesn't want Anqing, Chizhou and other places?"

"Not to mention these places, I guess even Nanjing will not be able to keep it."

"Meng Shiwei is known as a million troops, how many people are there?"

Qin Shanhedao: "He is always tying up the men every day. Now, there are probably 800,000 civilians, but I judge that the real warriors are about 200,000."

The two of them said and walked into the military camp.

Wang Xiao looked at Zhucheng along the Yangtze River on the map, frowned even deeper, and said, "What do you think about this?"

"It's a good thing, it's a bad thing." Qin Shanhe thought for a while and said, "When he was in Liaodong, the last general had a fight with Meng Shiwei. At that time, he was the first in the battle of Xingshan. He was indeed the best in terms of merit. He was indeed a general and talented person, and he was definitely not comparable to Guan Ming and Tong Yuanwei.

If he was allowed to rebel successfully, the military general would preside over Jiangnan, it would be more difficult to fight than the previous civil servants who did not understand military affairs.

Moreover, Meng Shiwei is likely to contact Zhang Xianzhong. If the two sides unite, they may form..."

"The situation was formed when the Sun and Liu coalition forces resisted Cao during the Three Kingdoms?"

"yes."

“So what about your claim?”

Qinshan River: "There are three strategies: top, middle and lower, and the best strategy is to surrender Meng Shiwei."

"Recruiting surrender?"

"According to my judgment, Meng Shiwei's rebellious aspirations were not firm. What he wanted was to maintain the existing interests. The reason why he rebelled was to avoid fighting alone with us in Huguang and to mobilize the power of Jiangnan and the whole country."

Wang Xiao said lightly: "In short, this is a warlord who is too big to lose his troops and is unwilling to lose his troops for Nan Chu. So he planned to be the boss himself and let others lose their troops."

"Yes. But if we are willing to surrender, he should still be inclined to surrender."

Wang smiled and said, "He doesn't want to surrender, he wants to change the flag and continue to be his local emperor here. Remember, changing the flag is not surrender.

What we want is not this kind of superficial surrender, nor is it a group of warlords who act as a mighty man and maintain a superficial unity.”

"Yes." Qin Shanhedao: "Zhongce is, we will launch the southern expedition in advance and not give Meng Shiwei time to gain a foothold."

"how long?"

"If there is no change, he will break through Nanjing within one month, and he will be able to arrange the Yangtze River defense line within two months and form an alliance with Zhang Xianzhong."

"Two months... we collected the grain and mobilized 200,000 troops south, at least two months."

"Then use the worst strategy. We will try our best to hold Meng Shiwei. When the army goes south, we will fight to the death with him." Qin Shanhedao: "Even if it is harder to fight, I think we still have a chance of winning."

"It's not right." Wang Xiao shook his head and said, "I'm here without stopping. I'm not trying to see Meng Shiwei burning, killing and plundering all the way from Wuchang, Jiujiang, Anqing, and Chizhou."

"I understand, so I want to persuade King Jin again. Recruiting Meng Shiwei is the fastest way to pacify Jiangnan. I also ask King Jin to protect the people along the Yangtze River first. Even if I find a way to kill him after the surrender..."

Wang Xiao refused to say anything, raised his hand and waved it, saying, "Don't let this bad point. There are many warlords in Jiangnan. If this example is done, everyone will learn to strengthen their strength by burning, killing, robbing, and then use this as a bargaining chip for surrender."

He had obviously thought of a strategy and said, "I want you to find a way to hold Meng Shiwei and not let him go to Anqing. I have transferred 50,000 troops from all over Shandong and arrived within 20 days to defeat him."

Qin Shanhe was silent for a while.

Wang Xiao asked, "Where don't understand?"

"If we can mobilize 50,000 troops so quickly, why don't the King of Jin wait for Meng Shiwei to go to war with Nan Chu? We will reap the benefits of the fisherman?"

"I don't need any fisherman's benefits."

Wang Xiao said, clicking on the map and taking a distance from Wuchang to Jiujiang.

"Meng Shiwei marched 500 miles, and the people along the Yangtze River were suffering from 500 miles. The incident happened suddenly and we could not stop it. But next, Anqing, Chizhou, Tongling and other places must not repeat the old events...

I emphasize that this is not an enemy country, this is the land under our rule. On the surface, Meng Shiwei rebelled against the Jiangnan court, but he killed our people, so he betrayed the Great Chu. I am here to suppress the rebellion, not to take advantage of the situation…”
To be continued...