Established a thousand-year family from the end of Qin Dynasty

Chapter 610 The Final Battle (Twenty)

another month later

Zhuojun
Palace
Late night
Yang Guang looked at the map of Liaodong County in the Han Dynasty, his hands were shaking.

"The homeland of the Central Plains, can't it be restored in my hands?"

For a month, for a whole month, there was still no progress, but many people died in both the empire and the country of Yan.

And Yan Guo died mainly from those worthless servants.

Moreover, Yang Xuangan captured Luoyang while the main force of the empire was attacking Yan.

The imperial capital was occupied by rebels, which really shocked the world.

"Could it be, do you want to retreat here?" Yang Guang was very unwilling. There is an idiom called [sunk cost]. It is obvious that Yang Guang has been trapped by the sunk cost. He is already in the war against Yan. It consumes a huge amount of national power. If you give up, then what you did before will become a joke, and all your investment will be in vain.

Just when Yang Guang was still hesitating whether to retreat or not, he returned to the Central Plains to wipe out the rebels.

"His Majesty!"

Yang Guang's bodyguard came and reported an important event to Yang Guang.

"Yan Guojian sent a piece of cloth, which said that he is willing to negotiate peace with us in the Sui Dynasty, and the two sides will restore the old border. From then on, the well water will not violate the river water."

The guard's words made Yang Guang's eyes shine. If it was before, he would not have agreed, but now, since Yan Guo took the initiative to step down, he can declare to the outside world that it was Yan Guo who took the initiative to seek peace, not Yang Guang. However, in this way, he didn't lose all face, and he still kept his dignity.

It turned out that not only the Sui Empire exhausted its national power and people's power due to the war, causing the whole world to rebel, but also the Yan Kingdom.

Although the number of people who died in Yan State was much less than that of the empire, the various military materials consumed by Yan State were massive.

Especially arrows, gunpowder, and medicinal materials, almost all of which have been stored for hundreds of years have been consumed in this war. The treasury of Yan Kingdom has long been empty. Will loan.

It is also a great anecdote that the king of a country borrows money from his subjects.

Moreover, the loan has interest. If the court of Yan State repays the loan, it can only repay the official plantation operated by the court to the guild, or increase the number of members of the guild.

The guilds took advantage of this opportunity to further strengthen their right to speak in the parliament, instead of being a display in the parliament as before.

However, even so, it was still not enough. The Yan State collected supplies from the people, forced the people to sell their daily necessities at low prices, and transported these daily necessities to the front line of Shanhaiguan for priority use by the army.

If it is said that the state of Yan is relatively restrained in oppressing its own people, then it is insane to oppress the slave state.

In just one year, [-] servants were forcibly recruited from Buyeo, Wuji, and Goryeo, and most of them were killed.

Not only forced recruitment of troops, but also forced collection of materials, forcing each slave country to pay tribute to all materials, including food, arrows, labor, and so on.

The worst was Goryeo, with a total population of only 25, who were forced to conscript [-] strong men as cannon fodder by Yan State.

There were only [-] young and middle-aged men in Goryeo, who were forced to conscript [-] by Yan Guo, and then [-] Koryo servants, and [-] were killed in battle, and Yan Guo did not plan to give pensions to the servants.

Just kidding, the money owed by the court to the guild has not been paid off, how can there be money to give pensions to you dog-legged servants?

Yan State's practice of exhausting its resources to its younger brothers naturally aroused the dissatisfaction of the slave state. In Koryo, some nobles had rebelled and wanted to overthrow their king and re-establish a king who opposed Yan.

It's just that this rebellion was discovered and suppressed by the King of Korea in time, but it can be expected that more rebellions are brewing in secret.

The actual military strength of the Sui Empire has changed from 100 million at the beginning to more than 200 million now, and the actual military strength of the Yan Kingdom has also increased from 18 at the beginning to [-] now.

Whether it is the empire or the country of Yan, they have exhausted their national strength in this war, and they all urgently need a recuperation to restore the people's livelihood and economy.

That's why Yan Xu took the initiative to express his goodwill to Yang Guang after learning of the civil strife in the Sui Empire.

The so-called restoration of the old border mainly refers to the need for the Sui Empire to return the Gwangju area.

Yan Xu has already planned to give up those dependent countries, and is too lazy to restore them, but Yan Xu still wants to recover the Gwangju area.

In Yan Xu's view, this was good intentions. The Sui Empire returned the territory of the Yan Kingdom, and the Yan Kingdom gave up the plan to restore the country to the vassals. Both sides took a step back and lived in peace in the future.

But in Yang Guang's view, this so-called goodwill is simply humiliating him, and this so-called peace agreement is simply cede land for glory.

Yang Guang believes that Gwangju has been the homeland of the Central Plains since ancient times, and it belongs to the Central Plains. Giving Gwangju to Yan State is tantamount to cede land for peace.

Yan Guo thinks that Gwangju is his sacred and indivisible territory, because Yan Guo annexed Gwangju early in the late Han Dynasty. It has occupied Gwangju for 400 years, but it was taken away by Yang Jian a few years ago.

The empire also felt that Gwangju was its sacred and indivisible territory, because Gwangju was the territory of the Han Dynasty, and it was the Central Plains Dynasty and the successor of the Han Dynasty, so it should inherit Gwangju.

Both the Yan State and the Empire believe that Gwangju has been their sacred and indivisible territory since ancient times, and they both demand that the other party return their ancestral land.

The Yan State believed that the Sui Empire invaded and occupied its ancestral land, which triggered the war.

The Sui Empire also believed that the war was triggered by Yan State's invasion of its ancestral land.

"Tell Yan Guo that I can make peace with them and withdraw my troops, but I will never cede to Guangzhou! I can't do things like cede land for peace, and I can't leave an eternal infamy!"

Yang Guang doesn't think that Gwangju is a matter of not paying back, but a matter of cutting or not.

After Yang Guang's words spread to the old capital, Yan Xu also had a headache. He wanted peace, but it must not be this kind of peace.

"If peace cannot be achieved if Guangzhou is not recovered, then I, Yan Xu, will become a sinner in the history of Yan Kingdom who cede land and seek peace! Faint king! I will leave an eternal infamy!"

Yan Xu believed that if the Sui Empire wanted to make peace with the Yan State without returning Gwangju, then the Yan State would be no different from cede land for peace, and he, Yan Xu, would also become a historical sinner who cede land for peace.

If a peace agreement is signed without the recovery of Gwangju, Yan Xu will not be able to explain to the noble council, and he, the monarch, will be done.

"Tell Yang Guang that if you don't return Guangzhou, the homeland of my country of Yan, my country of Yan will never stop fighting!" Yan Xu, who wanted to recuperate, could only bite the bullet and continue fighting.

Whether it's Yan Xu or Yang Guang, in fact, they both want to withdraw and truce in their hearts, and they don't want to continue fighting.

However, both parties hope that the other party can be rational, hope that the other party can understand their own difficulties, and hope to preserve their own reputations.

Therefore, a strange thing happened. Obviously neither side wanted to fight, but both sides continued to fight.

(End of this chapter)