Chapter 1778: The State of Chu Wins Without Fighting
Chapter 1778: The Chu Kingdom that won without a fight
In the process of suppressing the Japanese, Sun Wu took the opportunity to pacify Danyang Shanyue, but this also delayed his time. By the time he arrived at Wu County, the Japanese pirates had already escaped early.
Tokugawa Ieyasu and Akechi Mitsuhide had already grabbed enough grain and learned that the main force of the Wu army in Jiangxia had returned, so they decisively chose to return to Japan. Only then did Sun Wu, who went to encircle and suppress the Japanese pirates, miss.
At this point, Sun Wu became the only Han prince to be defeated in the suppression of the Japanese.
You must know that even Wang Mang of Sanhan wiped out all the Japanese pirates who invaded the country, but the powerful country that controlled the entire Jiangdong allowed the Japanese pirates to escape. This incident also greatly damaged the prestige of Sun Jian and Wu State.
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Let’s go back to Liu Xiu.
Liu Xiucai occupied seven counties and 57 counties in Jiaozhou. It was the best time for Zheng Zheng to rest and recuperate, but at this time the Shu Han came to him to join forces to fight against the Qin Dynasty.
This opportunity is really rare. Since Liu Ji is willing to be the leader, Liu Xiu cannot let go of this opportunity, so Shu and Han join forces to attack Qin Hao.
However, Liu Xiu was not stupid, and was unwilling to directly confront the Qin army, so he sent 50,000 troops to attack Qin Hao's henchman, Huang Zu of Jiangxia.
After occupying Jiangxia, Chu will gain an absolute advantage in its strategy against Wu.
If the Wu State invades in the future, the Chu State can send troops from three directions: Jiangxia, Changsha, and Jiaozhou, allowing the Wu State to take care of the head but not the tail. Strategically, it is already in an invincible position.
Liu Xiu knew the importance of Jiangxia, and Sun Jian naturally knew it, so in order to prevent Liu Xiu from occupying Jiangxia and seize the strategic location of Jiangxia, Sun Jian personally led an army of 100,000 to support Huang Zu.
Liu Xiu also didn't expect that Sun Jian would be so fierce this time and lead an army of 100,000 to Jiangxia at once. This was to fight a national war with him!
If it were normal, Liu Xiu would naturally not be afraid of Sun Jian, but at this time, the people of Jiaozhou where he was originally had not returned, and the foreign races had not yet completely surrendered, so it was impossible to gather troops from all over the country.
However, since Sun Jian wanted to fight, it was naturally impossible for Liu Xiu to retreat without a fight.
The total strength of the Soochow and Jiangxia alliance is as high as 130,000.
In order to fight against the Sun-Huang alliance, Liu Xiu had to increase his troops and recruited 10,000 troops from Wuling, Lingling and Guiyang counties each. The total strength of Chu State in Jiangxia also reached 80,000.
The chance of winning between 80,000 and 130,000 people was still not good, not to mention that Soochow still had Sun Wu, a master of contemporary military art, so Liu Xiu gritted his teeth and recruited 30,000 Taiping soldiers from Jiaozhou.
In this case, the total strength of the Chu army in Jiangxia can reach 110,000. Although they are still at a disadvantage in terms of strength, the gap will not be too big at least.
For the sake of Jiangxia, Liu Xiuzheng mobilized a total of 110,000 troops. This was already the limit of Chu State. If he mobilized troops, there was no guarantee that unrest would not occur in the rear.
In fact, when the battle reached this point, Liu Xiu also knew that it would be difficult to occupy Jiangxia this time, but he was still unwilling to retreat, just because once he lost to Sun Jian in terms of momentum, it would mean that Chu State lost to Wu State.
In a confrontation between countries, if there is a setback in one move, it may fall apart, so Liu Xiu will never be weak to Sun Jian.
The three forces of the Sun, Liu, and Huang families, with a total of 240,000 troops, are gathered in a small place like Jiangxia. The money and food consumed every day is an astronomical figure. Over time, no one can afford it, but the three parties do not seem to be in a hurry at all.
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The three families of Sun, Liu, and Huang all had a tacit understanding. No one directly provoked a big war or decisive battle, but continued to test their opponents through small battles one after another.
In the month-long three-party competition, the three companies engaged in amphibious battles on waterways no less than a hundred times, and all suffered heavy casualties. However, no one could do anything to anyone, but generally speaking, Liu Xiu's side was at a disadvantage.
Just when Liu Xiu was about to lose his strength and was about to make peace with the Sun and Huang families, news of the Japanese pirates' attack suddenly came. The Japanese pirates burned, killed, and looted along the east coast of the Yangtze River, causing great damage to the state of Wu.
The stability and prosperity gave Liu Xiu a glimmer of hope of success.
Liu Xiu had been holding on to not withdrawing his troops before, because he knew that if he retreated, Sun Jian would definitely annex Huang Zu directly. Then he thought that if Sun Jian took Jiangxia back, it would be ten times more difficult than Huang Zu's.
However, the strength of the Sun-Huang Alliance was too strong. Before the Chu State had fully realized the victory in Jiaozhou, it would not be able to take advantage of the two alliances. Even if they continued to stay and hold on, it would be a waste of money and food, so it was better to withdraw as soon as possible.
But now the situation is different.
The Japanese pirates were too destructive along the coast east of the Yangtze River. Sun Jian could not possibly watch the destruction of these Japanese pirates and remain indifferent, so sooner or later he would send part of his troops back to suppress the Japanese, and this would be Liu Xiu's chance to win.
What Liu Xiu did not expect was that even if the Japanese pirates destroyed the coast, Sun Jian did not withdraw troops from the front line, but sent his two sons back to take charge of the overall situation.
Sun Jian's behavior also made Liu Xiu realize his determination to occupy Jiangxia. If he continued to lead the army and stay in Jiangxia, sooner or later a decisive battle would break out in Wu Kingdom.
Just when Liu Xiu once again had the idea of withdrawing his troops, another piece of good news came from Jiangdong that was beneficial to him. Sun Quan failed to suppress the Japanese pirates and was severely defeated by the Japanese pirates. The Japanese pirates' disaster was already difficult to control.
After learning the news, to be honest, Liu Xiu was not very happy. Instead, he was surprised that the Japanese pirates had such strong fighting power?
After that, Liu Xiu still did nothing, just defended the camp, but news beneficial to him came one after another.
The coastal Japanese pirates were completely overrun and caused disasters. Three hundred thousand people lost their homes and needed a lot of money and food for resettlement.
The foreign tribes in Shanyue were ready to make a move, and eventually rebelled together, and the entire Wu Kingdom was on fire.
After the news came back, the generals of Chu State suddenly became jubilant.
They obviously did nothing and were even preparing to withdraw their troops and return home. However, Wu State inexplicably caused a series of disasters, which even brought the entire country to the edge of subjugation. It was as if God was holding them in Chu State's arms.
Same.
Liu Xiu was naturally very happy about this. He knew that Sun Jian would definitely not be able to hold on anymore, and sooner or later he would definitely withdraw his troops and return to the state of Wu to suppress the Shanyue encirclement and suppression of the Japanese pirates.
Sure enough, a few days later, all the Wu troops evacuated from Jiangxia. The Jiangxia army alone could not be the opponent of the 110,000 Chu army.
Chu State had already won without a fight.
"Everyone, Sun Jian acted against heaven and has been punished by heaven. The natural and man-made disasters in Wu State are proof of this."
Liu Xiu looked at everyone on the opposite side with burning eyes and said with a smile on his face: "As our country of Chu obeys the destiny, it is naturally blessed by heaven. This Jiangxia County should belong to our country of Chu.
Send the order, attack across the board, and occupy Jiangxia."