Heirs of the Seven Swords of the Qin Dynasty

Chapter 1657 Discussing Baiyue again
  "Ah, Lingnan..." Gu Xun sighed and said softly, "It's a rather distant topic when we talk about it."

Speaking of which, the Battle of Lingnan had just started not long ago.

From the time the war against Baiyue was planned, no one thought it could end in a short time.

The entire Baiyue Land is almost half the size of the empire. Let alone launching a war, it would take a lot of time to send soldiers around.

However, although it did not last long, the situation was already quite clear.

After the initial overwhelming momentum, the pace of the imperial army immediately slowed down.

To be more precise, after the imperial army's front line reached the Wuling level, the speed slowed down.

The so-called five ridges refer to Dayu ridge, Qitian ridge, Yuecheng ridge, Mengzhu ridge and Dupan ridge respectively.

They refer to not only geographical mountains, but also strategically important military areas. The so-called Lingnan refers to the south of the Five Ridges.

The Wuling Mountains are the natural barrier of the Baiyue Land and one of the biggest sources of protection for the Baiyue people from the Central Plains.

It is also due to the division of the Five Ridges that the Dongou and Minyue generations located in the north of the Ridge have relatively more exchanges with the Central Plains and are more likely to be invaded by the Central Plains.

Tu Sui, the leader of the Lingnan battle, originally planned to divide his troops into five groups and attack Dongou, Minyue, Nanyue, Xiou, Luoyue and many other Baiyue clans at the same time, thereby capturing the entire Baiyue in one fell swoop.

Unfortunately, things went against expectations. Except for the first route army attacking Dongou and Minyue, which indeed easily captured the city and territory, all the other four armies suffered setbacks.

The reason is actually very simple.

There is still no problem with the strength of the imperial army, and the armies of the Baiyue tribes have no ability to compete head-on.

But it just can't compete head-on.

Taking advantage of the complex, changeable and extremely harsh climate environment in Lingnan, the Baiyue army, which has long been accustomed to its living environment, has been fighting guerrillas against the empire.

This resulted in the supply lines that were most important to the army never being able to be established, or if they were established, they were extremely unstable and could easily be cut off and destroyed.

Without a stable supply of supplies, the army of hundreds of thousands could only continue to fight a tug-of-war with the enemy in the Wuling Mountains.

You come and I go, you advance and I retreat, the main focus is flexibility.

However, the Baiyue people's army only has tens of thousands of people. Of course, they are free to act as they want, but the hundreds of thousands of troops in the empire are too big to lose. They have nothing to do with flexibility. Chun Chun is just passively being beaten, just like Being cut with a blunt knife.

Ying Zheng was naturally furious about this, and further deployed civilians to increase supplies to Lingnan, but it was a pity that it did not help.

Of course, Ying Zheng was not an incompetent person. Seeing that land transportation could not maintain stability, he naturally found another way and prepared to build an artificial canal to serve as a supply line.

Now the place has been selected, it is near Xing'an County in Changsha County, starting from the Xi Lingshui River in the Xiangjiang River, and plans to change the route to the southwest to connect the Darong River and the Li River. The tentative destiny is Lingqu!
  The length of the entire canal is expected to be only about a hundred miles. After all, the purpose of opening the canal is to connect different waterways, not to forcibly dig an artificial river leading to the hinterland of Lingnan.

However, even if it is only a hundred miles, most of them are natural rivers that only need fine-tuning, so it is still a huge project.

For comparison... Zheng Guo Canal, which took Qin ten years to build, is only more than three hundred miles long.

Not to mention that the difficulty of building a canal in the hinterland of Guanzhong is simply not comparable to that near the Lingnan area.

In a sense, Ying Zheng's decision was decisive and effective.

Although digging the canal will further consume manpower and material resources and increase the burden on the people, if the canal is not built, the battle in Lingnan may never be completed.

His prompt decision-making can avoid unnecessary waste - both in terms of time and manpower.

But his decision was also cruel and cruel.

Rather than winning the war, perhaps he should know that there is another option - to stop the war in time.

It's a pity... the First Emperor never knew what rest was.

He will not rest, nor will his subjects stop.

After the setback in the Lingnan War, Gu Xun repeatedly wrote to Ying Zheng, explaining that the empire was now internally unstable and there was chaos in the northern frontier, so the Lingnan War should be suspended.

And then... no more.

Ying Zheng simply ignored Gu Xun's letter.

Anyway, it was... very Ying Zheng's behavior, and Gu Xun was not surprised.

"Speaking of which, how is our old friend doing now? I haven't paid much attention to Lingnan affairs recently." Gu Xun came back from his thoughts and asked Zhang Liang with a smile.

Zhang Liang was very concerned about the intelligence of the Battle of Lingnan, and explained in detail, "After the complete fall of the Minyue generation, the deposed prince of Tianze escaped from the empire's siege and went all the way south into the South Vietnam Kingdom."

Zhang Liang called the South Vietnam Kingdom a country, or the Central Plains people who knew it called it a country, but in fact it is difficult to say what it should be called.

You can think of it as a country, you can think of it as a large confederation of tribes.

In short, it is one of the three largest forces in Lingnan today, and it is also the tribe with the largest sphere of influence.

However, it is not the family with the strongest military strength. The strongest one is the Xiou tribe.

Now the commander-in-chief of the Baiyue Allied Forces against the empire is Xioujun Yixu Song.

"So he is now working under the King of Nanyue?" Gu Xun asked with interest.

Tianze just couldn't recognize his own position and refused to be a lackey, so he refused Liusha's persuasion to surrender and fought to the end with the empire.

Now that he has become a bereaved dog, he is willing to submit to others?
  Zhang Liang shook his head, "He didn't seem to have the idea of ​​​​submitting directly to the King of Nanyue. In the end, the two parties parted ways, and Tianze continued to go southwest and entered the Kingdom of Xiou."

"Now he seems to have reached a cooperation with Yi Xusong, the monarch of Xiou, and joined the Baiyue Allied Forces. It seems that he has also caused a lot of trouble to the imperial army."

"Hey, this guy is quite capable of tossing." After hearing this, Gu Xun couldn't help but shake his head and laugh.

This abandoned prince of the Baiyue Kingdom, whose heart is as high as the sky and whose life is as thin as paper, is indeed very resilient. From being a prisoner in South Korea, he stumbled and persevered until now.

"It's a pity that in the end it's just a dying struggle. Sooner or later, we have to face reality."

"Brother Gu, how long do you think Lingnan can hold on?" Zhang Liang asked with interest.

Gu Xun held the cup and replied nonchalantly, "Whenever the Lingqu Canal is completed, Lingnan will be captured."

Zhang Liang was not surprised when he heard this. He nodded in agreement and said, "Sure enough, we must use water conservancy to eliminate supply difficulties."

"I just don't know...how much time this big project will take."

"Time..." Gu Xun smacked his lips and muttered with a hint of emotion, "Yes, time is obviously the biggest problem."

Given the current situation of the empire, even if Ying Zheng tried his best to mobilize civilian labor to build the canal, it would still take at least more than a year.

But...can Ying Zheng survive another year?

Judging from the results of Gu Xun's previous diagnosis for Ying Zheng... he certainly wouldn't die suddenly within a year. .

Although Ying Zheng's physical condition is deteriorating, it will definitely not be a problem to survive for another five years or so. . Why is Gu Xun worried that he won't last a year?

It's simple, because five years is only a theoretical value.

For others, the passage of life is linear. Every sixty seconds that passes is one minute lost. If it goes too far, it is just a stolen second.

For Ying Zheng, life passes in a curve.

When Gu Xun first diagnosed Ying Zheng, his physical condition was still a little bad, and it was definitely not a problem to live to be in his sixties.

But as time goes by, Ying Zheng's physical condition has been declining at an accelerated pace, and Gu Xun's life expectancy has also dropped again and again.

Now it seems that he can live for five years, but when Gu Xun diagnoses him next time, it may only be three years, or even two years, one year...

How long Ying Zheng can last, Gu Xun doesn't know.

The history of the world in Qin Dynasty is obviously different from the history that Gu Xun is familiar with. It is unclear when Ying Zheng died.

Of course, if nothing else happens, he will definitely die of illness in the sand dunes - there will be no deviation in this point.

As for the day when he will return to patrol the sand dunes... that is yet another unknown.

………………

Daze Mountain, on the edge of a cliff.

Accompanied by the sound of the wind fluttering in clothes, Shurou and Wei Zhuang came to the edge of the cliff one after another.

Shurou stood on the edge of the cliff, lowered his head and glanced below - in the middle of the night, it was pitch black, and looking across was a bottomless abyss.

Wei Zhuang was behind him, holding the shark tooth, calmly and not in a hurry to take action.

It seemed that Shurou had reached the edge of a dead end, so there was no need for him to be anxious.

Zhu Lu withdrew his gaze and turned around slowly. No expression could be seen on the face covered by the mask, but the exposed eyes seemed to reveal a little smile:

"Do you think you can drive me to a dead end?"

"Oh?" Wei Zhuang tilted his head and looked at the other party with interest.

At this time, a series of small rustling movements came from behind the two of them.

Wei Zhuang turned slightly and glanced back, and suddenly realized, "That's it...ha!"

The Shadow Guards appeared behind them. It seemed that their large force was very close to here and they had arrived so quickly.

As for Atelier's plan... it's nothing more than to unite the Shadow Guards, or force the Shadow Guards to deal with him.

Wei Zhuang could see through this little scheme at a glance.

No matter how bad the relationship between the Shadow Guard and Luo Wang is, it is still hidden secretly, and Wei Zhuang is now a real felon suspected of treason in the empire, and is a key target of the empire.

Within a few breaths, a group of fully armed shadow guards surrounded him, but they made no move.

Zhang Han put his hands behind his back, walked forward step by step through his own hands, and said in a solemn voice:

"I sacrificed two of my men."

"So...there must be an explanation!"

He said he wanted an explanation, but he didn't say who he wanted to ask for it from, but Zhang Han's eyes were staring at Mulu, who was wearing armor.

"It's really getting more and more lively." Wei Zhuang turned halfway around, forming a triangle with Shurou and Zhang Han, and said in a low and playful tone.

Shuluo responded to Zhang Han in a nonchalant manner, "General Zhang Han should ask Guigu Hengjian about the death of the Shadow Guard."

"He is a wanted criminal in the empire, and if I remember correctly, he seemed to have sabotaged an important operation of the Shadow Guard not long ago, right?"

Zhang Han's eyes swept across Wei Zhuang, then back to Shu Lu, and asked calmly:

"who are you?"

Of course, Zhang Han had some guesses about Shulu's identity, but theoretically speaking, he did not know the other person, and naturally he didn't know that the other person was Luo Sheng's killer.

I know Wei Zhuang is a rebel, but I have to confirm who you are!

"Hmph!" Zhu Lu raised his hand and made a fist, and introduced himself in a nonchalant manner, "Luowen Tianzi is the best, Zhu Lu."

"Ruo..." Zhang Han glanced at the sword in the opponent's hand and murmured softly, "Another famous sword that is not inferior to the Eight Swords of the King of Yue... Zhao Fuling is really good at it!"

Zhang Han did not mess around with Shurou at this time and forced him to prove his identity as Luo Wang.

It makes no sense. The identities of many members in the network are top secret, and there is no way to prove themselves. But Tianzi Killer is definitely an exception.

However, he didn't have to ask.

"Why did the people in the net appear in Dongjun and in Daze Mountain? I didn't receive any notice before."

"Naturally, I was ordered by the CRRC Mansion to help deal with the Yinghuo Stone case." Shurou responded calmly, "It just so happened that I bumped into this empire's rebellion today."

"If the Shadow Guard is willing to help capture the rebels, he will definitely report the truth to the Chief of the Central Chefuge, and the general's ability to capture the thieves will be indispensable."

"The Commander-in-Chief of CRRC is really loyal to the empire and has taught a group of good subordinates!" Zhang Han sneered, seeming to be sighing, but more like mocking, "It's really admirable!"

Shu Lu only thought that he was praising his superior, and responded as usual, "Luo Wang and the Shadow Guard both work for the empire, but... Luo Wang has his own style and way of doing things."

"Tonight, even if the Shadow Secret Guards are not willing to assist Luo Wen in catching this thief, Luo Wen will not let him go!" Shuluo adjusted his position while speaking, and cautiously bypassed Wei Zhuang and stood next to the Shadow Secret Guards. Next to those people.

It seemed that he was determined to stand on the same front as the Shadow Guard and deal with the lonely Wei Zhuang together.

But in fact...it was just his support that came.

When Zhang Han frowned slightly, another group of people came over quietly, all wearing tight-fitting night clothes decorated with spider webs - there is no doubt that these are the killers of the trap.

Zhuoru did not come to see Bai Tu alone tonight - this good-for-nothing had no idea that he would be followed, and neither could he.

He had always planned to have a back-up plan, but he needed to wait for a while. After all, he was too close and could easily be discovered in advance.

The number of these snare killers is even greater than that of the Shadow Secret Guards. At this time, they are surrounding them from behind. Although most of them are concentrated behind Shurou, the remaining part still vaguely surrounds the Shadow Secret Guards.

Zhang Han's eyes swept over these killers vaguely, and he made a basic judgment - they were all good players, and they were probably at least earth-level killers.

From this point of view, Luo Wang's strength at the scene has obviously surpassed that of the Shadow Secret Guard.

When Shu Lu said that he would rely on the power of the net to catch Wei Zhuang, he was not just talking empty words... although the possibility was still slim.

(End of this chapter)