Chapter 1242: Carrying on the Past and Opening up the Future (One Hundred and Thirty-Two) The So-Called Confidence

With Huang Xie's attitude becoming clear, the debate in the court of Chu State about whether to go to war with Han State or maintain the status quo finally settled down. The peace faction gained the upper hand. When the news came out, Guo Han, who was still waiting for the news, breathed a sigh of relief. This trip to Yingcheng was a great victory. It was really unexpected that Fan Zhuo had such a great influence on Huang Xie, which made Huang Xie, who had been hesitating, make up his mind all of a sudden.

The task was fully accomplished, and Guo Han set off to leave Chu State with satisfaction. He still had a lot of things to do. The most urgent task, of course, was to send the latest silk reeling and satin weaving machines to Chu State as quickly as possible after returning home, so as to help Fan Zhuo set up the factory as soon as possible. At the same time, according to the agreement, Han State would also send technical personnel to assist Fan Zhuo in establishing a factory producing silk reeling and satin weaving machines in Chu State, so that Fan Zhuo could promote this intensive factory more quickly.

What surprised Guo Han was that the people of Yingcheng welcomed the court's decision with both hands. Their aversion to war far exceeded Guo Han's imagination. The days of peace had been too long, and war was a dream for ordinary people. Once a war broke out, it meant that the court would collect more taxes, which meant that more children would go to the battlefield at any time and fall on the battlefield at any time. It would be much better to be too peaceful! Let Han fight Qin, what does it have to do with our Chu?

This is the most common mentality of the Chu people!

Except for some pro-war figures such as Qu Zhong, the whole Chu State was greatly relieved.

Huang Xie cleaned up the scattered Wen Zong on the case. A great victory of Chu State in Pengcheng more than a year ago allowed Chu State to sweep away the decadence of retreating thousands of miles from Linyi a few years ago, and greatly boosted the morale of Chu people. It also brought his reputation in the country to a new level. Now, it is not an exaggeration to say that he is a one-handed cover.

To outsiders, the powerful Huang Xie is now in high spirits, but only those who really know Huang Xie know that these two years are precisely the hardest years for Huang Xie.

The Battle of Pengcheng eased the strategic crisis of Chu State and hit back the hand that Han State stretched out. But it was only a relief, and did not fundamentally solve the problem. The alliance with Qin State is only better than nothing. The current situation of Qin State is worrying, and the generals are self-reliant. The domestic economy is in chaos, and the regime is already shaky. In Huang Xie's view, King Qin Yingying is still too young.

If he wants to implement reforms, he must first deal with conservative generals like Lu Chao without making a sound. How could he easily expose his political inclinations in the Fan Sui incident, so that Lu Chao discovered the clues, resulting in today's situation.

Qin State is still worried about its own protection, and the threat to Han State is gradually decreasing.

At this time. Qu Zhong's call for war against Han is naturally inappropriate.

The Qin envoys have been lobbying in Yingcheng for some time.

What's more ridiculous is that there are actually two groups of people, one group is sent by the Qin court, and the other group is actually sent by their new Taiwei Lu Chao from Hangu Pass.

Qin Wang Yingying and Prime Minister Fan Sui could not shake Lu Chao, and had to promote Lu Chao, a Taiwei who was not in the court. Huang Xie shook his head slowly.

Huang Xie couldn't help but smile bitterly when he saw a familiar figure from the corner of his eye. The hurried footsteps, the tall figure, and the temper of rushing straight in without reporting, who else could it be except his old partner Taiwei Qu Zhong?

With a thump, Qu Zhong sat down, staring at Huang Xie with his eyes, and the dissatisfaction in his eyes was obvious.

Huang Xie spread his hands, "Taiwei, just say whatever you want to say. Staring at me like this, it's like I've become a peerless beauty!" He tried to relax the atmosphere.

"Prime Minister, are you going to sit back and watch us get defeated one by one by the Han people? Han and Qin are at odds, and if we don't take advantage of the opportunity to send troops, the great opportunity will be gone in a flash. Now that Qin is so chaotic, if the Han really defeats them, we will be the next target." Qu Zhong said angrily.

Huang Xie sat down and looked at Qu Zhong, who was furious. "My good general, you know that Qin is in chaos now! But the more it is like this, the less reason we should send troops at this time. Are we trying to help Qin people? I was disappointed when I saw that two different groups of envoys from Qin came to our Yingcheng."

Qu Zhong snorted: "No matter how chaotic they are, their army's combat effectiveness is still considerable."

"This is not what a general should say." Huang Xie's face sank. "General Qu, if you fight on the front line and I do bad things in the back, can you win?"

Qu Zhong was stunned. "Why do you want to do bad things in the back? This is our common cause."

"But what about Qin? Now Fan Sui is looking forward to Lu Chao's defeat!" Huang Xie sneered.

"What good will it do to Fan Sui if Lu Chao loses? Isn't he afraid that the Han people will march straight in and take Xianyang?" Qu Zhong asked back.

"So they come to lobby us! They hope that we will send troops. With the current situation of Qin, I am afraid that Han will soon target us. Once we send troops to go to war with Han, Han will inevitably turn its attention to us, which will buy more time for Qin to clean up the domestic chaos. Commander, what benefits do you think this will bring to our Great Chu?" Huang Xie said, knocking on the table.

Qu Zhong was silent for a while, "Chief Assistant, although what you said makes sense, nothing is perfect in this world. If we want to keep Dachu's country, we have to pay some price. I heard that Fan Zhuo went there two days ago I came to your house and had a long talk with you. Tell me the truth. Did your decision to negotiate peace with the Han State benefit from the Han people? I know that Fan Zhuo has made a lot of money doing business with the Han people in the past few years. , it’s not an exaggeration to say that he is as rich as the country!”

Huang Xie laughed out loud, reached out to pick up a stack of files from the table, and handed it to Qu Zhong, "Lieutenant, you have always focused on military affairs and never paid attention to civil affairs. Take a look at this and know why. I don’t agree to the war!”

Qu Zhong looked through the stack of top-secret case files marked at the station with some confusion. Slowly, his face changed a little. When the stick of incense was removed, he looked up at Huang Xie with a heavy look on his face.

"In three years, our grain production has dropped by 30%, and the loss of gold and silver has reached 20 million taels!" Huang Xie opened the drawer, took out a few colorful bills, and slapped it on the table. "These are banknotes issued by the Central Bank of Han. What do you think?"

Seeing Qu Zhong playing with these bills, Huang Xie said slowly: "Each of these bills is worth one hundred taels of silver, but to us, they are worthless at all. We know People are holding real gold and silver in exchange for these paper notes. The amount of gold and silver lost to Han every year is shocking. "

"Since the chief assistant knows what the problem is, why doesn't he stop it?"

"How to stop it?" Huang Xie asked rhetorically: "Han's products are beautiful, durable, and cheap. Our merchants import their products from Han with gold and silver, but the things Han imports from us are... But there are very few. Except for silk and satin, the high profits from silk and satin have caused the Huguang area to destroy grain and plant mulberry trees, leading to a reduction in grain production. This is the instinct of capital to pursue profit. We can force those businessmen to destroy the mulberry trees and plant them again. Food?"

"Why not?" Qu Zhong* said. "Food is the foundation of a country."

"Everyone understands this truth, but Lieutenant Qu, one-tenth of the tax of our country in Chu comes from Huguang. To some more detailed people, the reason is that it comes from these silk merchants who destroy mulberry and grow grain. Where does that tax come from? Come? Where do you get the military expenses for training? Where do you pay for maintaining an army of hundreds of thousands?" Huang Xie frowned, "It's difficult, it's a dilemma. Makes my heart bleed."

"But if this continues, won't our situation get worse and worse? So we might as well take advantage of now and fight with Han!" Qu Zhong said.

"It's okay to win, but Qu Taiwei, can you guarantee that we will win?" Huang Xie asked back: "Han and Qin faced off in Jinyang. How many troops did Han send? It's just that it turned out that Zhao With some troops and horses plus the four infantry corps and two cavalry divisions in their first military region, the number of corps in Han Dynasty is more than 20. What are the remaining troops doing? Is it just eating dry food? In my opinion, the Han State has no intention of starting a large-scale war with the Qin State. I even suspect that their real target is us. "

"This is impossible. According to various intelligence reports, the Han Kingdom has no plans to use troops against us yet." Qu Zhong shook his head.

"Gao Yuan's actions are always unpredictable. We have to guard against it. Qu Taiwei, we can't send troops now. We have to instigate Qin and Han to make the war as big as possible, so as to defeat more of Han's enemies. The best thing is to transfer troops to the west. Therefore, for the Qin State, we can provide financial and weapon support, but it is absolutely impossible for us to directly send troops. In a war with the Han Kingdom, there will be no winner for a few years. These few years are our golden period. Taiwei, in these few years, you have to develop an army that can rival the Han people, and I, It is to revitalize people's livelihood and build a solid and solid rear for you. In the end, there will be a battle between Han and Chu. We cannot rely on the sky or the earth. In the end, we have to rely on ourselves. There are tens of thousands of people, more than the Han State. As long as we do our best, why should we be afraid of the Han State?"

Qu Zhong opened his mouth, but swallowed the words back in his stomach. What Huang Xie said makes sense. Now that there is a war with Han, even if Han fights on both sides, he may not win.

"The point is to be yourself!" he murmured.

"Yes, so we must provide limited support to the Qin State, and we must give in to the Han State. I believe that as long as we are given time, the powerful Chu State will once again step up to the stage of resurgence. No matter I dare say that we can defeat the Han State when the time comes, and at least we can make the Han State not dare to start a war with us easily." (To be continued)