Vol 2 Chapter 2708: The inside story of the Luoyang Treaty in the Qin and Sui Dynasties, Zhang Lian

Vol 2 Chapter 2708: The inside story of the Luoyang Treaty in the Qin and Sui Dynasties, Zhang Lian

Chapter 2708 The inside story of the Luoyang Treaty in the Qin and Sui Dynasties, Zhang Liang’s plan two years in advance

Chapter 2704: The inside story of the Luoyang Treaty in the Qin and Sui Dynasties, Zhang Liang’s plan two years in advance

Yuzhong and Heguan are the two southeastern gates of Jincheng County. Among them, Heguan was captured by Gongsun Xuanyuan when the Qin Dynasty captured the three counties of Longxi.

The reason why it later fell into the hands of the Sui State was that it was naturally impossible for the Sui army to attack it by force, but because it was voluntarily given up to the Sui State by the Qin Dynasty.

At that time, the Qin army destroyed Li Tang and invaded Liangzhou with a great victory. After the Sui State suffered some losses, it was frightened and chose to cede territory and seek peace.

When the Qin Dynasty saw that the Sui State had given up, it naturally opened its mouth and directly demanded that the Sui State cede two and a half counties.

Although Yang Guang was timid, he was not stupid. Except for the two and a half counties that Da Qin wanted, except those that had already been captured, the rest were mostly the best places of the Sui Kingdom. If they were to be ceded, wouldn't it be equivalent to cutting off one's arms?

Although the Sui State agreed to cede land, it was impossible to cede so much land, so the two countries fell into a long negotiation that lasted three days, and finally ceded two and a half counties to the ten counties in the eastern part of Wuwei County.

The ten counties in the eastern part of Wuwei County are almost undefeated, and there is almost no danger to defend them. If the Qin army really attacks, the Sui State will not be able to defend them, so the cession of these ten counties is still within the scope of the Sui State.

But after all, it was ten counties with a population of hundreds of thousands. If it were to be ceded directly, it was still difficult for the Sui State to accept, so it put forward a condition: the Sui State agreed to cede the ten counties in the eastern part of Wuwei County, but the Qin Dynasty had to It needs to be exchanged for Heguan.

 Heguan is the name of a county, not a checkpoint. Although it is just a small town with a population of over 10,000, its geographical location is extremely important.

Heguan is located at the junction of Longxi and Jincheng. It is both the west gate of Longxi and the south gate of Jincheng County.

If Heguan is in the hands of the Sui State, then the southern defense line of Jincheng will be perfected, so that the Sui State will have a sense of security when facing the Qin Dynasty.

With the ten counties in the east of Wuwei that may be lost at any time, in exchange for the Heguan Pass, the southern gate of Jincheng, to complete the Sui State's defense line?

Internally, the Sui State felt that although this transaction was a loss, it was only a small loss and was within the tolerance range.

Moreover, if you cede ten counties and exchange for one county, and you go back and forth, then it is not a cession of land, but an exchange of land. It sounds nice to say it, and you can go up or down.

But Heguan is still in the hands of Da Qin after all, and Da Qin has always been able to only get in but not get out.

If you want to change the cession of land compensation into land exchange with Daqin, the nature is completely different, and the difficulty of negotiation can be imagined.

At that time, the absolute majority of people in Daqin held objections. It was not that the ten eastern counties of Wuwei County, with a population of several hundred thousand, were not as valuable as Heguan, which had a population of more than 10,000, but that it could not be easily initiated.

Furthermore, you, the Sui State, were a defeated country and had to cede land and pay compensation as they should. What qualifications do you have to exchange land with me, the Qin Dynasty?

Seeing that the entire Qin Dynasty was so arrogant and completely treating the Sui State as a defeated country, the Sui State Ambassador Cheng Gongying had given up all hope of a land exchange and even prepared for the negotiation to break down. However, he did not expect that the situation would suddenly turn out without any warning. Twists and turns.

Qin Emperor Ying Hao wanted to end the war as soon as possible, so Qian Gang made an arbitrary decision and directly agreed to Sui's conditions, but he also put forward a condition, that is, the land exchange could not be directly written into the treaty, and Heguan was not the Qin Dynasty. It was because of the negligence of the general of the Qin Dynasty that he accidentally allowed the Sui army to seize Heguan.

In Cheng Gongying's view, Ying Hao proposed this condition because he did not want to change the nature of the negotiation. After all, if the land was not exchanged, then the Sui Kingdom would cede territory and naturally become a defeated country.

But Cheng Gongying did not hesitate much and agreed decisively. After all, although the Sui Kingdom lost face, it did get the benefits.

But how did Cheng Gongying know that the monarchs and ministers of Qin were already setting a trap for Sui here.

The proposal to cede Heguan was made by Zhang Liang to Ying Hao. He felt that Heguan was of little use in the hands of Qin. After all, the Sui State did not dare to take the initiative to attack Qin, but it was of vital importance in the hands of the Sui State. The lifeblood of Jincheng.

It is conceivable that if the Sui State cannot obtain Heguan, it will definitely have no sense of security. It will be in panic all day long and will devote all its energy to defending against the Qin Dynasty. This will undoubtedly increase the difficulty of the Qin Dynasty's Western Expedition.

 Therefore, only when the Heguan is in the hands of the Sui State, the Sui State will have a sense of security. Only in this way can the Sui State be less wary of the Qin through other means, so as to seek opportunities in the future to catch the Sui State off guard.

 As for the Heguan in the hands of the Sui State, would it become an obstacle for the Qin Dynasty to destroy the Sui Dynasty?

 Zhang Liang doesn’t think so.

Heguan is just a small city. Although it occupies a favorable location, no matter how much Yang Guang reinforces it, its defensive power cannot reach the defense power of the great passes in the world.

Li Tang was in danger of supporting Tongguan, but he was not destroyed by the Qin Dynasty.

Shu Han had the danger of Yangping Pass, but it was not because Da Qin took away Hanzhong.

Even these mighty passes in the world can't stop the Qin army, how can a mere river pass stop the unification of Qin?

It has to be said that Zhang Liang, who had an intelligence of 103, still had a very forward-looking and long-term vision. He had already been planning to destroy the Sui Dynasty two years ago, and Li Jing's entire plan for the Western Expedition was based on Zhang Liang's cession of the river. extension of the pass.

As Zhang Liang expected, after Heguan fell into the hands of the Sui State, it only brought a little sense of security and did not play a big role in national defense. Under Li Mu's design, it was defeated with only a thousand cavalry. On the contrary, It also became a poison that confused and paralyzed the Sui Kingdom.

However, at the time, Zhang Liang's remarks were still very bold and controversial, but Ying Hao still chose to believe Zhang Liang.

In this way, the Qin and Sui Dynasties successfully signed the "Treaty of Luoyang". Although the Sui Dynasty lost the ten counties in the east of Wuwei, it gained Heguan in exchange and improved the southern defense line of Jincheng. It can be regarded as a loss and a gain.

The day before the "Luoyang Treaty" was officially signed, Heguan City was seized by the Sui State due to the "negligence" of the Daqin Heguan guard. However, this incident did not affect the signing of the contract.

After Yang Guang returned to Heguan, he immediately sent heavy troops to Heguan and worked non-stop to transform Heguan.

 At its peak, the number of defenders at Heguan alone reached 20,000, nearly twice the total population.

After two years of expansion and reinforcement, Heguan's defense has also been greatly improved. Even if it faces a strong attack ten times more than the enemy, it can still hold out for ten days and a half. This is why Yang Guang later reduced the number of defenders at Heguan, because with this reaction time, Daxing would be able to send reinforcements to support him.

But Yang Guang never expected that Li Jing would use Li Mu, a reduced general, as the commander-in-chief of the First Army.

Li Mu was so familiar with the terrain of Heguan that he not only perfectly avoided the Sui army's sentry posts, but also sent experts from Heibingtai to climb over the mountains and bypass Heguan, setting up ambushes and interceptors on the only way to seek help, in order to stop Heguan. Guan's information was sent back to Daxing.

As for why Sima Xin didn’t use flying pigeons to convey letters, but instead used the more troublesome and time-consuming flying horse to convey messages? This is of course not that there are no homing pigeons in Heguan City, but that Da Qin has special means to intercept homing pigeons.

There is a department in Daqin Heibingtai that specializes in raising birds. In addition to raising carrier pigeons to carry messages, this department also specializes in raising falcons to intercept carrier pigeons, and the number is already quite large.

On the day of the attack on Heguan, Sima Xin saw more than a dozen falcons circling in the sky. He knew that even if he released homing pigeons, he would not be able to escape the hunting of Da Qin's falcons, so he sent flying cavalry to report the news. .

But what Sima Xin never expected was that Li Mu had even thought of this and set up an ambush to intercept the flying cavalry in advance, so Daxing City did not receive news of the fall of Heguan at all.

Of course, whether it is taken or not, it has nothing to do with Sima Xin now. He has surrendered to the Qin army. It would be more beneficial to him not to take it. After all, his family and children are still in Daxing City as hostages.

 Being able to hand over such an important place like Heguan to Sima Xin for guarding shows that Yang Guang trusts and values ​​Sima Xin.

If he knew that Sima Xin was so greedy for life and fearful of death, that he didn't even care about the lives of his parents, wife and children, and surrendered to the Qin army so easily, Yang Guang would definitely kill his entire family to sacrifice the flag.

 So, now Sima Xin is eager for Li Mu to attack Daxing quickly so that his parents, wife and children can be rescued.

Sima Xin surrendered and helped Li Mu persuade Cao Jiu to surrender. With the help of these two people, most of the defenders at Heguan surrendered directly, and a small number of those who escaped died from Qin Shuang and Nie Feng. ambush.

Li Mu easily captured Heguan with a thousand cavalry, and since the news had not been exposed yet, he prepared to take advantage of this to plan the next route of march.

Although the river pass is broken, the march to Daxing is not unimpeded. There are still three mountains and five villages. If we attack them one by one, it will take a month no matter how smooth it is.

Li Mu issued a military order to Li Jing. He only had ten days, and now there are only nine days left, so it is naturally impossible to be so dilatory.

Li Mu naturally had a plan for this, but now it is no longer needed. Because of Sima Xin and Cao Jiu, he already has a new and better plan.

The main army in the rear reached Heguan in just one day, and along the way, they also pulled out nearly a hundred Sui army sentries.

Just when Li Mu was preparing to march towards Daxing, news came that Hu Luguang had captured Yuzhong City, which shocked Li Mu and other generals.

Although Hu Luguang took longer than Li Mu, Hu Yuzhong can be a large city in Liangzhou, and its defense is stronger than Heguan. The garrison has reached 5,000, so it is obviously much more difficult to capture than Heguan.

Even so, Yuzhong City only persisted for two days, and was easily defeated by the Qin army under Hu Luguang's plan.

After a brief shock, Li Mu felt that this was natural. After all, that army had more troops than him, and the generals were better than him. It was strange that they couldn't defeat Yuzhong.

Although Li Mu and Hu Luguang were able to break through both Heguan and Yuzhong, Li Jing's strategy of letting the Sui army relax their guard against Qin was the key, but their own strategy was also extremely crucial.

Now that Hu Luguang has broken through Yuzhong, the confidentiality measures are not as good as Li Mu's. However, once Yuzhong is broken, there is no need to continue to keep it secret.

Yang Guang will soon know the news that the Qin army has invaded and captured Yuzhong, but he still doesn't know the news that Heguan has also fallen. This gives Li Mu a lot of room for maneuver. If it works well, he can even use In less than ten days, it is possible to reach Daxing City before Li Jing.

This is also the main reason why Li Jing sent a letter to tell Li Mu the news. He did not want Li Mu to die under the military order he had issued due to overtime.

 “Thank you very much, Commander-in-Chief.”

Li Mu thanked him in his heart and decisively ordered the army to march out. However, Sima Xin and Cao Jiu had already led their troops to camp.

As long as there are three mountains and five villages, there will be no obstacles for Li Mujun to reach Daxing City.

 At the same time, in Daxing City, in the palace of the Sui Dynasty.

Sui Wang Yang Guang also received the news that the Qin army suddenly sent troops to attack Yuzhong. After a fierce battle between the two sides for half a day, the guard Dong Yi was killed by Yuwen Chengdu, and then the Yuzhong city was also captured by the Qin army.

The Sui court suddenly exploded. They couldn't believe that the Qin Dynasty dared to fight on two fronts and send troops to the Sui Dynasty before it conquered the three kingdoms of Wei, Song and Ming. .

Is this because the Qin Dynasty was too arrogant and did not take the Sui Kingdom into consideration at all?

 Or is the Qin Dynasty still hiding its strength? Even if it challenges the four countries at the same time, it is still sure to win?

Or do you want to take advantage of the Sui army's western expedition?

Most people in the Sui Kingdom thought it was the latter, but in fact they were the former two.

The two gateways of Heguan and Yuzhong, which Yang Guang has been painstakingly building and building, could not even block the Qin army for three days, so what qualifications did he have to be taken seriously by the Qin Dynasty?

Yang Guang still doesn't know that Heguan has also fallen, so he is just a little panicked at this time. If he knew about it, he would probably have a nervous breakdown.

"The Qin Dynasty went to war without declaring it and invaded our country, the Sui Dynasty, for no reason. It was like a bandit. The prime minister immediately issued a document denounced the Qin Dynasty's unscrupulous behavior." Yang Guang said with an angry look.

Gao Jiong secretly thought that this day has finally come, but on the surface he accepted the order calmly: "No."

I’ll post one chapter first. There are still more than a thousand words left to finish the second chapter, so I’ll leave it until the morning.

　　

　　

 (End of this chapter)