The Great Qin Empire---Qin Li

Unfortunately, Heifu's history is average. Apart from having heard of Zhao Tuo, he didn't know the deeds of the other two people, and missed the opportunity to be proud of himself.

He only regarded Gong Ao as a subordinate who had some courage and strategy, who was rude to others but obeyed his orders.

Wu Rui was the leader of Ganyue, who was either an enemy or a friend.

"If he welcomes the king's army, he is a friend. If he has a different intention, he is an enemy and can be killed!"

This was the advice that Li Xian gave to Heifu after he rushed back a few days ago. Heifu asked Li Xian to go with Xu Shu because he wanted his smartest and most careful people to observe the Yugan Yue people carefully.

After a tour of Yugan City, Li Xian found that this was not comparable to the small Yue tribes he saw along the way, which "did not have cities and towns, but were located between streams and valleys and among bamboos." Wu Shen was a Chu native from Jiangdong, well-educated and knowledgeable. He was supported by the Yue people of Yugan, built a city, and annexed several surrounding tribes. Now he has a population of nearly 10,000, including 2,000 young and strong men, and almost controls the area of 100 miles downstream of Yugan River.

Li Xian remained calm, but was a little surprised in his heart. He felt that his side had underestimated Yugan, so when he returned to Heifu, he told him what he saw and said:

"I saw that Yugan had the advantage of copper and tin, and cast a lot of weapons. Almost every male had a copper sword. Although it was not as good as the Qin army, it was enough to look down on the Yue people."

"Although Wu Shen was old, his son Wu Rui was very young and was also quite popular among the Yue people. When he heard that the Qin army was coming, he was quite arrogant and disdainful. Although he was forced to agree to help Sima attack the Chu people due to the situation, if counties were established here in the future, the new officials might find it difficult to tame them. Yugan might take advantage of the situation to unify Ganyue, and it would be too late to deal with it then..."

Li Xian didn't like Wu Rui, and felt that Yugan would sooner or later become a tyrant in northern Yuzhang, so he offered Heifu a vicious plan.

"Why not ambush Wu Rui when he enters the camp, and then send out all the soldiers to annihilate the thousand young and strong men of Ganyue! Build a Jingguan on the Gan River, so that the Qin army can establish its prestige in Yuzhang, and then encourage the Ganyue tribes to attack Yugan. Whoever can kill Wu Shen can own the city and people, so that the Wu family can be destroyed. At that time, Sima can support a leader at will, and let the Ganyue tribes govern themselves and attack each other..."

But Hei Fu thought about it again and again, and rejected this suggestion.

"This strategy may be able to solve the problem once and for all and eliminate the troubles of ten years, but it will not help me to take Yuzhang completely at the moment."

It is good that Li Xian has a long-term vision, but the current priority is to eliminate the feudal lords of Chu, not to make enemies with the Yue people. If Yugan Wu Shen turns to Fanyang Jun because of the hatred of losing his son, even if these two forces are eliminated, the casualties of the Nanjun soldiers will probably be considerable.

Besides, although Li Xian saw the hidden danger of Yugan's growth, he didn't know that in a few years, Qin Shihuang would launch a massive military operation, mobilizing 500,000 people to conquer Baiyue in the south, which was comparable to the scale of destroying Chu. Tu Sui and Zhao Tuo were among the troops. Although the main military target was the Fujian and Guangdong regions, Jiangxi would also become a place where the army would gather food and fodder.

If the Wu family of Yugan had any ulterior motives, it would only take a word or a letter from him to annihilate them. Why make enemies now?

All of Heifu's current actions were still based on "preserving the children of his hometown" instead of helping Qin Shihuang to eliminate the local tyrants in advance.

If history is hard to change, in a dozen years, the whole Shandong will be in chaos, and this corner of the country will not be affected...

So, Li Xian's "setting up swords and axes behind the scenes" has become the current soldiers in front of the tent. Hei Fu wants to use the military appearance and armor of the Qin army to give the ignorant Yue people a warning and let them know their own weight.

But Dongmen Bao and others outside are not decorations. As long as Hei Fu throws the talisman in his hand to the ground, they can rush in at any time.

Fortunately, Wu Rui was shocked by the Qin army's ship array, and his disapproval was replaced by awe. He obediently saluted Hei Fu. He didn't know that this attitude made him miss the bloody disaster.

Hei Fu laughed loudly, came over to help Wu Rui up, and praised him with a look of great joy: "With such a brave man to help, why worry about Fanyang not being conquered?"

His first impression was that Wu Rui was a simple-minded second-generation leader, but in the conversation later, this young man showed his carefulness and cunning inherited from his father...

...

"In the past ten years, Chu people have been coming here continuously. Fanyang Jun has stolen a lot of land from Yugan. Those are the ancestral lands of the Yue people. If the Yue people help the Qin army to conquer Fanyang, I hope the general can return those places to Yugan..."

Wu Shen changed his clothes and customs, and asked Wu Rui to dress like a Yue person, but still taught him Chu language. Although he was a little slurred because few people helped Wu Rui practice on weekdays, and mixed a lot of Ganyue words, Hei Fu still understood his bargaining.

"I heard that the Yue people do not have cities and towns, but live between valleys and bamboos. I didn't expect that they also have the concept of ancestral land?" Hei Fu expressed doubt.

"Yugan is different. It has a city and has settled down in one place, no longer migrating."

Wu Rui had his own explanation: "According to the custom of the Yue people, if a warrior or a leader of a tribe dies, they will be buried in a cave cliff along the river, and sacrifices will be held along the river every year. Most of the Yue people in Yugan migrated from Fanshui and Daxishui (Le'an River), so their ancestral land is in that area. In previous years, many tribes under his rule asked my father to go to war with Fanyang Jun to take back their ancestral land."

He bowed to Heifu: "I hope the general can give the land south of Fanshui to Yugan, so that the Yue people in Yugan can burn the wasteland to plant crops, hunt and fish, and sacrifice their ancestors to hanging coffins."

Heifu did not respond rashly, and first glanced at Xu Shu who was sitting next to him.

Among the people in the tent, Zhao Tuo was in charge of the tower ship and was familiar with the rivers and lakes. Dongmen Bao and Gong Ao were fierce generals. Only Li Xian and Xu Shu could offer advice to Heifu. Among them, Li Xian likes to come up with urgent plans, while Xu Shu prefers to make plans. He is a local and is familiar with the geography of Yuzhang.

Xu Shu stood up and whispered in Hei Fu's ear: "There are many mountains and forests south of Daxi River, and it is difficult to open up land. You can give it. There are already many fields between Fanshui River and Daxi River, and hundreds of Chu people are farming there. There is also a gold mine, which produces gold all year round. It is called gold mining. It is the most important wealth of Fanyang Jun. It must be controlled in Sima's hands and must not be given away..."

Hearing the word gold, Hei Fu's heart was moved. He was on an expedition, and it was difficult for him to get timely rewards from Xianyang and Nanjun even if he made contributions. Whether it was food or money, he had to rely on himself for the time being. If he could control the gold mine during the war, it would be of great benefit to him.

In a sparsely populated frontier like Jiangxi, the competition for land is mainly focused on important resources such as gold, silver, copper and tin. Therefore, in the bargaining with Wu Rui, Heifu insisted on this bottom line. Wu Rui did not insist when he saw that Heifu did not agree.

Finally, Wu Rui asked about the treatment of their father and son after the war when Qin established counties in the local area, and the taxes that Yugan had to pay.

Qin had preferential tax treatment for ethnic minority areas that had difficulty paying grain and copper coins.

For example, in Yidao, where Heifu had been, Qin law stipulated that the chief of the Ba tribe should pay a rent of 2,116 coins per year and a head tax of 1,800 coins every three years. Each household of the people paid 82 feet of rough cloth and 30 tufts of chicken feathers.

When it came to the Ganyue people, they should have collected special products such as copper, tin, bamboo, wood and leather, which would not be much more than what the Chu people collected.

At present, everything is based on the premise that Xianyang's policy remains unchanged.

After consulting one by one, Wu Rui was relieved and smiled: "So that's how it is. I have no doubts anymore."

Although this young man has an impulsive face, he is very careful in specific matters. Heifu couldn't help but think of Li Xian's warning to him. With such a ruler, Yugan will indeed have the opportunity to grow in the future and become a local tyrant...

Just when he was thinking about whether to lay some landmines for Yugan, Wu Rui suddenly stood up and made a request to Heifu.

"Can I drink chicken blood with the general as a brother according to the custom of Ganyue? In this way, Qin and Yue can trust each other!"

This is the custom of the Yue people, but when Heifu heard about drinking chicken blood, he remembered a revolutionary story he had heard in later generations.

"In the future, Liu Bocheng and Xiao Yedan formed an alliance at Yihai, and now Heifu and Wu Rui formed an alliance at Ganshui?"

He hesitated: "I originally wanted to get close to Liu Bang and Xiang Yu, the plastic brothers, and have a Peach Garden Oath of Brotherhood in ten years, but if I don't agree now, the Yue people may think it is a humiliation..."

So Heifu weighed the pros and cons, slammed the table, and agreed happily, but at the same time said: "However, I still want to invite someone to become brothers together."

"Oh?" Wu Rui was a little surprised, but also said: "If it is a warrior, it is okay."

Everyone in the tent looked at each other, not knowing what Heifu was going to do, and at the same time, they all felt that the person Heifu wanted to add might be themselves.

Then, Heifu pointed to a person they had never thought of.

Hei Fu looked at Zhao Tuo, the future King of Nanyue, and smiled: "Lord Zhao, although we have only known each other for two months, we have a lot in common. I admire your insight and want to make friends with you, but I always feel rude if I get too close to you. Would you like to take this opportunity to swear an alliance with me?