Heirs of the Seven Swords of the Qin Dynasty

Chapter 679 The Land of Bashu
  At this point, the deal is finally concluded.

Gu Xun was naturally very satisfied with the result. Although what Yan Dan told was just some anecdotes buried in history, and he did not know the true or false geometry, it still had some reference significance. Moreover, the real big head of this transaction was not there in the first place. this.

It's just an insignificant addition, how much is enough?
  In contrast, Yan Dan's mood was not so good.

He was forced to pay the reward, but Gu Xun told him that he had to sneak away first and could only send his subordinates... Although the guaranteed conditions were very generous, he still felt a little unsure.

No matter what, it was a done deal, and Yan Dan had no choice but to force himself to settle down.

The matter had been discussed, and Gu Xun was about to leave, but before leaving, he still asked one more question he had in mind:

"Your Highness Yan Dan, I am very curious, how did you know the last piece of information?"

Yan Dan was silent for a moment and then replied, "As the National Master said just now, it's just a coincidence, but I can guarantee that the probability that the news is wrong is very low."

"Okay, a coincidence is a coincidence." Gu Xun smiled and accepted Yan Dan's statement without asking any questions, turned around and left.

………………

Three days later, Yan Dan's plan has not yet begun, but Gu Xun has made all preparations and is about to leave for Shu County.

But he didn't go alone, there was a follower - not Concubine Yan, but Zhang Han.

That's right, it's Zhang Han.

It was equivalent to Ying Zheng sending a supervisor to watch him. He didn't have much power. He was just a human monitor responsible for reporting afterward.

After Gu Xun thought about it, he felt that it was harmless and he could follow if he wanted to, so they became the current two-person team.

On the official road to the west of Xianyang City, Gu Xun and Zhang Han were riding their horses slowly.

They wanted to go to Yongdi, then go south along the old road, cross the Bao River, pass through Nanzheng (i.e. Hanzhong), turn around Shiniu Road, Jiameng Pass, Jiange Zitong, and finally arrive at the Sichuan-Sichuan Plain, where Shu County governs Chengdu.

The road to Shu is as difficult as climbing to the sky! !
  When Li Taibai recited this poem, thousands of years had passed since this era. The road to Shu was difficult to cross at that time, and it is naturally even more difficult now.

From Guanzhong to Shuzhong, it is roughly divided into three areas, namely Guanzhong Plain, Hanzhong Plain, and Chengdu Plain. There are two rugged and difficult mountainous areas in the middle, namely the north and south mountainous sections of Qinling Mountains and Daba Mountain.

The two sections of the mountain road are 600 miles long in total. The road is full of difficulties and obstacles, cliffs, cliffs, rapids, and canyons. In the true sense, even birds have difficulty flying across it, let alone the main means of transportation nowadays are still two-legged and horses. Humanity.

Of course, if you want to enter Shu, you don't have to walk through these six hundred miles of mountain roads. Some... can be said to be shortcuts, but shortcuts are also dangerous routes, such as the one Gu Xun and Zhang Han are going to take. In the past, Zhang Yi and Sima mistakenly took the route to destroy Bashu.

This is a suitable route, but it is also a road full of dangers. Not only are the mountains and mountains dangerous, but more importantly, the people of Shu can easily ambush the attacking troops along the entire route. With the natural dangers and man-made disasters, even if there are Millions of soldiers were helpless, and even a country as powerful as Qin could only hope and sigh.

Since the reign of Duke Li of Qin more than two hundred years ago, Qin and Shu have been fighting endlessly for Nanzheng. The two sides have come and gone. Even after Shang Yang's reform, Qin's national power became increasingly prosperous, but it still could not completely suppress it. Shu Kingdom and Nanzheng changed hands several times again.

Until the tenth year of the reign of Duke Xiao's son, King Qin Huiwen, the four kingdoms of Bashu - Shu, Ba, Chong, and Ju were in civil war. Ba annexed Chong, and then Shu destroyed Ba and stared at the final Ju.

The State of Ju was unwilling to sit still and wait for death, but was unable to contend with the State of Shu on its own. In the end, it made a foolish but helpless choice to introduce foreign aid. It can be said that all relevant historical lessons from ancient and modern times, both at home and abroad, teach us that people who do this will not have a good end, but there is no way, no matter what, they will die, but there is always a chance of survival if you give it a try.

So the State of Ju attacked the State of Qin, which was at its peak of national power at that time, but coincided with the Shandong states uniting to resist Qin, and Yiqu in the west rebelling against Qin. They were attacked from both sides and were in urgent need of a break.

Under Sima Cuo's urging, King Huiwen decided to capture the Bashu land to ease the situation.

Under the deliberate permission of the State of Ju, the Qin State's army was able to pass through the Stone Cow Road unharmed and went straight to the first pass in Sichuan and Shu, Jiameng Pass.

This is a dangerous pass, no less impressive than Cui Wei's sword pavilion. It can be said that one man can guard the pass, and no one can open it.

However, there was a huge disparity in strength between Qin and Shu. The Qin army did not lose much combat power during the march because of Ju's release. In addition, Shu had been in a corner for many years and had insufficient awareness of the military strength of the powerful Central Plains countries. The king of Shu was arrogant and arrogant. The armament was also completely overwhelmed. With the superposition of several aspects, the Shu army was defeated as expected and lost Jiameng Pass.

At the same time, the Shu army suffered heavy losses due to this defeat and was unable to gather enough troops to resist the Qin army again. Qin easily swept away the entire Sichuan and Shu.

After the destruction of the Shu Kingdom, the Qin army naturally turned its spearhead and swallowed up the Ju Kingdom, completely occupying the Bashu region that had been separated from the Central Plains for thousands of years.

In this era of cold weapon warfare, food is everything, and the capture of Bashu allowed the Qin State to obtain two extremely important grain-producing areas, the Hanzhong Plain and the Chengdu Plain.

The most fundamental material basis for the Qin State to be able to compete with the Shandong states is that it occupies the Guanzhong Plain, which is known as the "Eight Hundred Miles of Qinchuan". The Hanzhong Plain plus the Chengdu Plain is equivalent to half of the "Eight Hundred Miles of Qinchuan". In other words, the upper limit of Qin's basic national power was directly increased by 50%.

Of course, this is just a general statement and cannot be calculated in such a simple and straightforward manner, but it is enough to reflect the importance of the land of Bashu to the Qin State.

It is precisely because of this that even though Shu rebels every year, Qin can only take the trouble to spend a lot of manpower and material resources to suppress the rebellion again and again.

At the time when Gu Xun and Zhang Han set off for Sichuan and Shu, a rebellion happened in Shu County.

Although the scale was not large, it could be easily suppressed by relying on the troops stationed in Shu County. Ying Zheng took the opportunity to mobilize a force and sent it to central Shu.

On the way, Zhang Han couldn't help but ask Gu Xun, "Master, why are we walking so slowly?"

Gu Xun took him and drove the horse to stroll on the road as if on an outing. The speed... was probably not as fast as him getting off the horse and stretching his legs.

An hour had passed, and he had not gone a few miles away. If he found a high place to look over, he might be able to see some of the palace walls of Xianyang.

Gu Xun turned his face and glanced at him sideways, and asked in a weird voice, "Why, are you in a hurry?"

"Uh... no, the general is just worried that he will miss important matters of the Imperial Master." Zhang Han choked on his words, lowered his head and explained carefully.

"If you're not in a hurry, don't be too troublesome. I walk slowly for my own reasons." Gu Xun shook the reins and replied perfunctorily.

　Logically speaking, you shouldn’t do too much science popularization in your article, but sometimes I feel that if you don’t write it, it will be a bit lacking in taste.

　　I can't help it...

　　
  　
  (End of this chapter)