Chapter 66: The Allied Forces of Qi and Jin, First Watch

  My collection is about to reach 1,000, I forgot to collect it myself, so please help me collect it, thank you very much!

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  The ministers' statement and the King of Chu's inquiry finally made Luo Siqi understand why the King of Chu would not stay in his palace during such a dangerous period, but instead hold a grand meeting with all his officials in the main hall.

  It was originally unknown why, but recently the state of Qi has been frequently mobilizing troops to its southern border. According to scouts' reports, there are now 50,000 Qi troops gathered in the south!

  During the Spring and Autumn period, when King Ping of Chu was in power, China's population was not as large as it is in the 21st century. Even during the prosperous Tang Dynasty, the population was much larger than that of the Spring and Autumn period.

  In the Spring and Autumn period, apart from the troops guarding the capital and borders, a country could gather an army of 50,000 soldiers, which was already a sign of a major military action. This was only possible for large countries with a strong economy and population. Many small countries couldn't even gather an army of 10,000 to 20,000 soldiers, let alone 50,000.

  So in the Spring and Autumn period, many small countries had to rely on big countries to survive. A country like Zheng, which could mobilize an army of 50,000, was considered a relatively powerful middle vassal state compared to those smaller countries that relied on other countries for survival. It was confident and at ease when facing other small countries, but when the Jin state's army of 100,000 marched across its borders, attacking cities and territories, the king of Zheng could only withdraw all his troops to the capital city and send envoys to request aid from the king of Chu.

  In fact, the King of Chu was not unwilling to annex Zheng State. With the strength of Chu State, it should be possible to destroy Zheng State as long as there is enough patience. Unfortunately, the countries that want to annex Zheng State are not just Chu State alone, such as Jin State this time, which took the name of avenging the crown prince Jian and launched a large-scale military campaign.

  The State of Chu may have long wanted the State of Zheng to be destroyed, but that was only limited to being done by itself. Other states wanting to do this was absolutely unacceptable to Chu. Especially Jin, as Zheng held great strategic importance for both Jin and Chu, whoever got Zheng could use it as a forward base and springboard to attack the other, no matter how many battles were fought, it would not have too much impact on their own domestic affairs.

  As a result, there appeared in history such a strange and ridiculous phenomenon that both Jin and Chu wanted to destroy Zheng, but Zheng was powerless to resist either of them. The final result was that when Chu attacked Zheng, Jin came to its rescue; when Jin attacked Zheng, Chu came to its rescue. Both sides were locked in a stalemate, with the Zheng army always hiding in the city watching the battle between Jin and Chu outside. When they had exhausted each other, the Zheng army would come out again to recover their original territory.

  However, the situation is different now. The King of Chu has ordered Qu Li to lead 30,000 troops to the Black Witch Mountain area in southern Chu State to eradicate the Night God Sect. These 30,000 troops are all elite soldiers carefully selected from the Chu army. It's hard to say whether they can win without waiting for these 30,000 troops to return before sending troops to rescue Zheng, not to mention that Qi State's current move may be to unite with Jin State to destroy Zheng.

  The state of Zheng cannot be abandoned, once the state of Zheng is destroyed by Jin, Chu will directly expose itself to the powerful Jin. At that time, Jin will call on various countries to unite and attack Chu in the name of the Central Plains overlord, and Chu's days will not be easy.

  But Rosicky is now looking at the ministers who are arguing below, and what she thinks in her heart is another matter.

  Luosiqi had learned in history class that Zhengguo was actually once prosperous during the Eastern Zhou Dynasty and was even called a "small overlord of the Spring and Autumn period"! However, with the rise of major powers such as Qi, Jin, Chu, and Qin, Zhengguo's national strength gradually declined, slowly becoming an ordinary mid-sized vassal state.

  Due to Zheng being surrounded by these major vassal states, it became a typical "land of four battles", especially after the southern Chu state, which was originally a barbarian country, became powerful. Once Chu attempted to march into the Central Plains, Zheng became an inevitable route for Chu's northern expedition to contend for hegemony. The Jin state, as the overlord of the Central Plains during the Spring and Autumn period, would often send troops southward to counter Chu's expansion into the Central Plains, and would frequently clash with Chu near Zheng.

  It's always more convenient to use one's own place, so the State of Jin sometimes thought about annexing the State of Zheng into its own country. The State of Zheng, being in such a location, gradually developed its own survival rule, which was a policy of half-resistance and half-surrender.

  The ruler of Zheng would often decide on the method of surrender based on the situation of the battle. Sometimes, they would put up a slight resistance before surrendering, and sometimes they would not resist at all and surrender immediately. Of course, there were also times when they would fight to the death rather than surrender. Such situations usually occurred when the Zheng army had retreated into the capital city and sent an envoy to the enemy commander's camp to say: "We have submitted, what do you want? We will try our best to satisfy you!" Only if the enemy still refused to withdraw their troops would such a situation occur.

  This fire timing is not easy to grasp, and the timing of retreat and surrender is crucial. Zheng Guo's so-called surrender is to admit that you are more powerful than me, I give up, and whatever you want, I will try my best to give it to you, but I won't disarm. This is very difficult, but after surrendering many times, one naturally becomes more experienced and proficient with time.

  Of course, what Zheng Guo meant by "giving as much as possible" was just to give some things to the leaders of the other party and let them hand over a part of it, otherwise, if they had to respond to every request, Zheng Guo would have gone bankrupt long ago.

  Jin Gong actually is also a soft and hard master, otherwise he would not have allowed the domestic power of the Qī to gradually expand. This time, taking advantage of Chu's self-defenselessness, he united with Qi to send troops. Firstly, Zheng Guo, which has no external aid, is now easy to deal with; secondly, after eliminating Zheng Guo, the power of the Jin royal family can be strengthened accordingly. In this way, it will not cause conflicts and intensify contradictions by taking over the land of domestic clans to enrich the royal family, and it can also show everyone through this action that the power of the royal family is still controllable.

  Fortunately, Qi did not want to give up this good opportunity and soon reached an agreement with Jin. They began to station troops on the southern border of Qi, ready to join forces with Jin to deal with any reinforcements that Chu might send.

  Unfortunately, Zheng Guo also understood that he had reached a point where his country was about to perish. Therefore, they were much tougher this time than before. Before retreating into the city, they took advantage of the Jin army's underestimation and lightly advancing troops, launching a fierce attack on the vanguard of the Jin army's minority forces. This made Jin Gong, who had originally wanted to show off his might, furious and humiliated, urging General Qing to gather his troops at the designated location as soon as possible. Although General Qing didn't quite put Jin Gong in his eyes, he saw that this was a great opportunity to destroy Zheng Guo, and when it came time to reward merits, he would also get some benefits. So, they cooperated with each other, surrounding Zheng Guo's capital city and attacking day and night.

  The messenger of Zheng's plea for help rushed to the King of Chu in this situation, and the lower officials debated endlessly, all returning to one problem, that is, Zheng must be rescued, but Chu's current rescue capacity is also very insufficient.

  Luoshi looked at the ministers who were arguing but couldn't come up with a solution and felt a headache. Unexpectedly, the conclusion they finally reached was - let the goddess who is proficient in magic accompany the army to go on an expedition. They all believed that as long as the mysterious goddess followed the main force of the Chu army to rescue, and paired with a seasoned general as the commander, even if the Chu army had fewer troops than the allied forces of Qi and Jin, it would be a sure victory!

  Luosha felt that this proposal was simply absurd. She knew her own abilities, and she could take down a few people, or even dozens of people with certainty. But now the ministers were asking her to face the combined forces of Qi and Jin, which numbered 150,000! She wasn't some kind of cartoon character who could summon meteorites from the sky to annihilate the enemy, leaving no one standing. When it came down to actual battle, relying on her current abilities, she couldn't even guarantee her own safety, let alone ensure a victory for Chu's army.

  The King of Chu strongly opposed this suggestion from his ministers at the first time.