The Great Qin Empire---Qin Li

"Don't chase the desperate enemy."

Listening to the sound of the horn behind him and looking at the Ba people who retreated into the forest half a mile away, Hei Fu could only stop the Yidao young men who had been hastily armed and followed him out of the city to fight the enemy.

It's not that they don't want to chase, but they can't catch up at all. Who would have thought that these Ba people were barefoot, but they ran faster than the Qin people who were wearing shoes. There were not many carriages and horses in the city, and they could not organize cavalry to harass and intercept them in front. They could only watch most of them escape.

Moreover, the Ba people have lived in the forest since they were young, and they are familiar with the terrain. They can walk through the gullies and bushes as if they were walking on flat ground. If they chased them greedily, they might be ambushed, which would be bad.

Looking back at the hundreds of bodies of Ba people who were killed because they could not retreat in time, and the two hundred bodies under Yidao City, it can barely be considered a complete victory. In the two days of defending the city, the casualties of the army and civilians were no more than a hundred.

Hei Fu asked the hundred generals and county officials of Yidao to organize the young and strong to clean up the battlefield, and he rode towards the city. The reinforcements sent by the county governor had just arrived at the city. They were so busy rushing to help that they didn't care about hiding their whereabouts. The sails on the river were visible to both the enemy and us. The Ba people had failed to attack the city three times, and they were united by several tribes. Their morale was immediately dissipated, and they retreated quickly...

When Heifu came to him, the reinforcement officer in armor also rode out in person and bowed to him, saying: "Heifu... No, now it should be called Zuo Bingcaoshi. I never thought we would meet here!"

"Cheng County Lieutenant!"

Heifu was also happy when he saw it. Wasn't this Cheng Wuyou, who had been his boss for a period of time during the war against Chu? After he came back, he learned that when Xiangcheng was defeated, Cheng Wuyou was lucky enough to survive and followed Meng Tian to evacuate with the remaining soldiers. Because he made some small contributions in resisting the attack of the Chu army later, his title was not reduced, and he was transferred to Zigui to serve as a county lieutenant.

After the meeting, Cheng Wuyou looked at the scarred Yidao city wall and the burned villages not far away with some residual smoke, and said bitterly: "I never thought that I had only been away from Yidao for half a year, and the barbarians dared to be so arrogant!"

If I remember correctly, Cheng Wuyou was from Yidao, and he was naturally angry to see his hometown destroyed like this.

At this time, another officer also came to meet Heifu, who was the Yiling County Lieutenant, named Ling Kui.

Heifu roughly counted the troops they brought, and saw that there were nearly a thousand people.

"It's just the troops of Yiling and Zigui counties."

Cheng Wuyou told Heifu that four days ago, the county governor sent Heifu to Yidao first, and also sent people to mobilize troops from neighboring counties.

"We originally planned to suppress the Yidao rebellion with the troops of four counties, but unexpectedly, Chanling sent another emergency call, saying that the Chu army besieged Chanling with nearly 10,000 people! So we asked the soldiers recruited from Jiangling and Zhijiang counties to go to Chanling instead."

"Nearly 10,000 people!" Heifu was shocked. With this number of people, I'm afraid that all the troops in Changsha, Jiangnan, the entire Chu State, were dispatched. At the same time, he also understood why the Chu people wanted to incite the Yidao Ba people to rebel. It seems that this is not the main attack direction. Chanling is what the Chu people really want to seize.

Chanling is the later Hubei Gong'an County, which is adjacent to the Yangtze River in the north, the Xiangjiang River in the south, the Han River in the east, and Sichuan in the west. The three most important waterways in the Jingchu region sandwich Gong'an County in the middle, which can directly connect to seven provinces. Therefore, in later generations, Wuhan is the "crossroads of nine provinces" and Gong'an is the "passageway of seven provinces."

It is almost the same now. Chanling is regarded as the gateway to Jiangling. Once Chanling is lost, the Chu people will be across the river from Jiangling. Their fleet can enter the Yangtze River along the Youjiang River and sail all the way to the waters where Heifu and his men bathe during the Shangsi Festival, so that the county city is always under their threat.

"In that case, the soldiers of Nanjun may not be able to be sent to Huaibei, and the daily war preparation production will be greatly affected." Heifu thought so. By then, I am afraid that even Yidao will have to be abandoned.

But that is not what they are concerned about now. Although the siege of Yidao has been lifted, conflicts have arisen in the Ba tribes and they have dispersed, as long as Fan Qin, who led the rebellion, is still alive and the Ba rulers are still instigated by the Chu people, the rebellion will not end.

…

After beheading and returning to the city, Heifu, as the commander holding the tiger talisman of the county governor, was undoubtedly under the control of Cheng Wuyou and Ling Kui. This made Cheng Wuyou feel a little strange. How come the generals who were under his command a year ago were now ranked on his right?

When Heifu asked about the next strategy to pacify the barbarians, Cheng Wuyou did not answer first. Instead, Ling Kui, the lieutenant of Yiling County, said hurriedly: "The Ba people killed the county magistrate and county lieutenant and burned many villages. They must not be forgiven! Since the Yidao barbarians are fickle, we might as well take this opportunity to sweep their nests and expel them completely! Never worry about it again!"

When he was an official in Yiling County, he did this when facing the rebellion of a small number of local Ba people, and it was easier to get credit if he did so.

As a result, this statement immediately attracted strong opposition from the local Cheng Wuyou: "Ling County Lieutenant, although Yidao and Yiling are separated by only one river, the situation is very different. Yiling has been managed by the Chu State for hundreds of years, and most of the people are registered, and the villages and towns are in good order. If a few barbarians in the mountains resist, they can be directly wiped out."

"Yidao is different. There are only a few hundred registered households, but the Ba people have more than 10,000 or 20,000 people. Not to mention whether we can wipe them out in one fell swoop with our limited manpower, even if we temporarily expel the Ba people, they regard Yishui as a sacred water and Wuluo Zhongli Mountain as a sacred mountain, and they will definitely seek to retake this place. In that case, Yidao will never have peace! It may even cause dissatisfaction among the Ba people in Zigui, Wu County, Ba County and other places! This is pushing them to the side of the Chu State!"

"According to County Lieutenant Cheng, should we pacify or not? County magistrate, county lieutenant, and hundreds of casualties are just left alone?" Ling Kui was refuted on the spot, and he was a little embarrassed.

Seeing that they were about to fight, Heifu quickly stopped the two from arguing: "The evil deeds of the Ba people must be punished, but it may not be easy to enter the mountains and forests with the current manpower to hunt them down."

He knew the strengths and weaknesses of the Qin and Ba people. The advantage of the Qin army was to defend the city and fight in formation on the plains, but after entering the mountains and forests, they would be at a disadvantage. If they were not careful, they would repeat the tragedy of the county magistrate and county lieutenant being ambushed and destroyed in Yidao.

At this time, the clerk outside came in and said that Ba Zhong wanted to see him.

After entering, Ba Zhong greeted the three people and offered advice:

"I dare to say to the three superiors that this rebellion of the Ba people was the result of the instigation of the Chu envoys. The only one who was determined to oppose Qin was Fan Qin, and the other leaders were mostly coerced by him. Now that the Ba people have been frustrated in their siege, many tribal leaders have regretted it, so they evacuated in advance. Now if we use a large army to suppress them indiscriminately, they will gather under Fan Qin's banner again and fight against the government. In that case, there will be no peace for hundreds of miles of Yishui..."

Before, on the top of the city, Ba Zhong watched those Ba people who could not retreat in time being chased and killed by Hei Fu and the young men in the city, and his mood was quite complicated.

He was a Ba "Xia Zi" who was deeply influenced by Qin culture. In this rebellion, he was in a very strange position.

On the one hand, he could understand why the Yidao Ba people rebelled against Qin. Blood feuds were greater than heaven. The Qin government executed Fan You. Although it was a legal judgment, it was indeed reckless.

But on the other hand, as the son of Widow Qing, Ba Zhong had a higher vision than ordinary Ba people and knew that the past life was gone forever. Only by accepting the rule of the Qin government and following Qin laws could they survive. Their family had direct contact with Xianyang and knew that although Qin was temporarily frustrated, it would definitely be Qin, not Chu, that would win in the end. At this time, confronting it would only become a roadblock crushed by the giant wheel.

Looking at the Ba people who attacked Yidao under the instigation of the Chu people and died in the gullies and wilderness, Ba Zhong was helpless and sympathetic. He tried his best to do something to calm the rebellion quickly.

In terms of business, the Ba family needed a peaceful environment, and in terms of love, Ba Zhong did not want more Ba people to die meaninglessly.

After listening to Ba Zhong's suggestion, Hei Fu looked at Cheng Wuyou and Ling Kui: "What do you two county lieutenants think?"

"This is a safe way."

Cheng Wuyou nodded and said: "I have been an official in Yidao for many years. I know that the local Ba people have hatreds among each other. There are fights between almost every tribe. Instead of being enemies with all the tribes, it is better to send people to persuade and isolate the Fanqin tribe!"

Ling Kui said: "The county magistrate and county lieutenant of Yidao have died in an accident. Who else dares to be an envoy?"

Ba Zhong asked Hei Fu again: "Zhong is willing to go to Wuluo Zhongli Mountain to meet the leaders of the tribes and persuade them to return to Qin!"

After pondering for a moment, Hei Fu finally made up his mind.

"In that case, I'll trouble Ba Jun to go again and explain the situation to the tribes so that they won't be stubborn anymore."

Before Ba Zhong left, Hei Fu also told him what the county governor Ye Teng told him when he left Yiling.

"Tell the leaders of the Ba tribes that the county governor still remembers the oath of the year. The rebellion of the Ba people this time was purely instigated by the Jing people. The county governor also knows that they have no choice. Therefore, only the main culprit will be executed, regardless of the accomplices. If they can kill the envoys of Chu and help the government to attack and destroy the Fanqin tribe, then the people and territory of the Fanqin tribe can be divided up by them!"

Hei Fu remembered a sentence from his previous life, that uniting the majority and attacking a small group is the only way to win the struggle, and now he has to put it into practice!