Daily Life In Qin Dynasty

"Hasn't the food been delivered yet?"

"Back to the general, not yet. There is news from the court that the food collection this year is not going well because of last year's snowstorm. I'm afraid it will take some time before the army's food is delivered."

"The food collection is not going well... Ha!"

In the main tent of Zhao State's military camp, Li Mu listened to the report of his quartermaster and let out a sarcastic sneer from the corner of his mouth.

Taking advantage of the remnants of last year's heavy snowstorm, Qin presented Zhao with a 'choose one' problem during this year's autumn harvest season. However, even Qin probably couldn't have imagined that the 'answer' Zhao finally gave was far beyond his imagination. It's more ridiculous than they imagined.

Because Zhao Guo didn’t choose any of them.

This year's autumn harvest was not used by Zhao to support the army, nor was it used to restore the vitality of the people at the bottom.

Even though the country is now in crisis, the high-ranking officials and nobles in the Zhao Kingdom still maintain their original style. They collected a large amount of food from the bottom in the name of "collecting military rations", but did not immediately send it to the front line. Instead of supporting the army, he intercepted it himself and withheld part of it privately for enjoyment and to satisfy his own selfish desires.

The other part was deliberately seized by some people in the Zhao court and used to beat Li Mu.

right.

That’s right.

It was used to beat Li Mu.

This may sound a bit funny, after all, they are currently fighting the Qin cavalry on the front line, and the person protecting Zhao is Li Mu.

Yet this is reality.

Although Li Mu devoted himself to the country and made many meritorious deeds, when most people in the Zhao court think of Li Mu, the first thing they think of is not how much he has done for Zhao, but his "great achievements that shake the master".

Even today's King Zhao, after the war started, the first question he thought about was not how powerful their opponent Qin was, but how he should deal with Li Mu if the war was won again.

Li Mu now has too much military power in Zhao State, so much so that King Zhao has trouble sleeping and eating.

So when this autumn harvest comes.

In the entire Zhao court, most of the courtiers, including King Zhao, almost unanimously withheld the frontline military rations temporarily. The purpose was to beat Li Mu and contain Li Mu's military power.

What these people want to express is simple:

Even though you, Li Mu, currently control hundreds of thousands of troops, without our support, you and your hundreds of thousands of troops will starve to death in minutes.

Li Mu's military life, although he was not very good at this kind of power struggle, after all, he had been hanging around in the court for so many years, so he could still see this simple truth.

That's why.

Even Li Mu himself didn't know how to describe his mood at this moment.

"You go down first!"

Li Mu rubbed his eyebrows and waved the quartermaster to leave first.

As Lord Wu'an of the Zhao Kingdom, Li Mu never cried out tired even when faced with the 400,000 Qin Army with sharp armor and powerful generals on the opposite side. However, this wave of backstabbing from a group of 'pig teammates' behind him made him feel tired. For the first time, Li Mu felt an indescribable feeling of tiredness.

This was the first time that Li Mu felt a little envious of the Qin State opposite him.

He is not envious of Qin's current abundance of food and grass. In fact, although Qin's current abundance of food and grass, in terms of overall national strength, Zhao is not much inferior to Qin.

At least in terms of the current war, from a logistical perspective, Zhao is not inferior to Qin.

This is the accumulation of past experience.

The Zhao State is located in the Central Plains, and its geographical advantage is much better than that of the Qin State. On the other hand, the Qin State moved from the barbarian land to the Central Plains. Although the soldiers and armors were strong, it was only because of the bravery forcibly piled up by the "military merit system".

Until Lord Mo arrived, although the Qin State was also known as the "strongest among the seven kingdoms", at that time the Qin State was more like an empty shell that was strong on the outside but dry on the inside.

In fact, in terms of background, there is always a big gap between Qin and countries such as Zhao and Chu.

That is to say, in recent years, a "Shengping Lord" suddenly appeared in the Qin State, which caused the Qin State's basic national strength to increase rapidly. This gave the Qin State a real potential to be a "hegemon".

However, although the Zhao State has a strong foundation, these foundations cannot be used in frontline wars, because now these Zhao State's 'inheritances' have long been occupied by the major aristocrats and regarded as their own.

The 'underlying' that cannot be used means there is nothing.

On the other hand, the Qin State, although it was an emerging power, had almost no other background except for the 'instant wealth' brought by Lord Mo after his appearance.

But the Qin State could use all the power of the entire country on the war, and all the drag from the rear would either be suppressed or massacred.

Get to the root of it.

It is because the Qin State now has two people, King Qin Ying Zheng and Lord Sheng Ping, Lord Mo.

These two people are too young, and precisely because they are young, they are ambitious and courageous.

Even this war alone.

In the past, King Qin Yingzheng and Yu Jia went to the front line in person, and in the later period, Lord Shengping, Mo Jun, went to the front line in person despite all the hardships.

With these two people taking turns to be in charge, how could Qin's soldiers not be brave? And with these two people in charge of the front line, who in Qin's rear would dare to do some shitty things?

This kind of 'super teammate' is what Li Mu truly envies.

"General, we have an urgent message from the border."

Just as Li Mu was lamenting that his old rival Meng Ao had a group of good teammates to support him, suddenly, a scout hurried outside the tent and reported loudly.

Li Mu was startled when he heard this: "Border pass? Submit it."

The scout quickly walked into the tent and handed a scroll to Li Mu with both hands. Li Mu opened the scroll and only glanced at it, and his expression suddenly changed.

"These wolf cubs really know how to choose their time."

Li Mu's expression changed. This sudden urgent letter came from the northern land of Zhao State. The northern land of Zhao State has always been bordered by the vast grassland, and on that grassland, there has always been a group of powerful enemies from the Central Plains.

——Hongnu.

The place where the Xiongnu lived was extremely dangerous, but the vast grassland was extremely suitable for the survival of cattle and sheep. The dangerous environment led to a very low survival rate of the Xiongnu people, but the abundant beef and mutton provided those who survived. The Huns have an extremely strong body.

Tough, ferocious, cold-blooded, savage... these are all adjectives used by the Central Plains people to describe the Huns.

Therefore.

The Huns also have another name in the mouths of the Central Plains countries - wolf tribe.

Meaning: A foreign race that is as ferocious, cunning and savage as a wolf.

All the time.

These Huns on the grassland are all trying to capture the Central Plains and seize the territory of the Central Plains.

But it was repeated defeats.

There are many reasons. One is that although the Xiongnu had a strong body, they did not have a smart mind. The dangerous environment on the grassland meant that the Xiongnu did not have time to develop civilization stably.

Therefore, the Xiongnu army did not have sophisticated weapons and armor like the Central Plains countries. Many times on the battlefield, the Xiongnu weapons were still in the bone and stone age.

The second reason is because of Li Mu.

Li Mu is the border general of Zhao State, and the geographical location of Zhao State is the first pass for the wolves to attack the Central Plains. Therefore, Li Mu and the Zhao State army have extremely rich experience in fighting the Huns.

Li Mu was called "Wu'an Lord" in Zhao State.

He is known as the "God of Military Formations" in the Seven Kingdoms Army.

In the wolf tribe, he is called a "wolf hunter".

With the power of one person, one hundred thousand wolves dare not take a step through Yanmen Pass. This is Li Mu's deterrent power against the Huns.

Because of Li Mu's existence, the Xiongnu on the grassland have not set foot in the Central Plains for a long time. However, perhaps because of the heavy snowstorm last year, the cattle and sheep on the grassland suffered heavy losses.

Therefore, in order to survive, the autumn harvest in the Central Plains had just begun this year, and the Xiongnu on the grassland suddenly sent troops to attack the border of Zhao State.

Not so long ago.

The Huns divided their troops into hundreds of thousands, and not only attacked the Zhao State's border, but also took the opportunity to burn, kill, and loot the villages and towns along the Zhao State's border.

Not only did they deprive many people of their autumn harvest, they also killed a large number of men from the Central Plains and robbed a group of women back to the grasslands.

In fact, with the Zhao army's defense originally, the Huns had no chance to break through the defense and attack the Chinese people on the Zhao border.

However, because the pressure caused by the Qin army on the battlefield here was too great, when the war started before, Zhao State had urgently mobilized a group of troops from the north to rush to the battlefield here.

It is precisely because of this that the border defense in the north of Zhao State was vacant, which just gave the Huns a big loophole.

Now the northern part of Zhao State is facing the threat of the Huns, and the local people are in deep danger.

But there was a threat from the Qin army on the frontline battlefield, and Li Mu couldn't get away at all.

It can be said that there is a tiger in front and a wolf behind.

For a while.

Even Li Mu couldn't help but hesitate.

At this time.

A scout came outside the tent again, and this scout also sent an urgent letter. However, this urgent letter did not come from the border, but from the Zhao court.

[The border is in danger, send troops to help quickly]

The urgent letter from the court once again gave Li Mu a 'reminder'. This urgent letter was very interesting because it was a letter, not an edict.

in other words.

The meaning of this secret letter was to let Li Mu send troops to solve the Xiongnu problem in the north without giving up the battlefield between Qin and Zhao.

If something goes wrong in either of these two battlefields, then the blame will fall on Li Mu and has nothing to do with King Zhao.

Because King Zhao only asked Li Mu to send troops to support the northern border, but he did not issue an edict asking him to abandon the frontline battlefield.

It’s about time.

The court of Zhao State also wanted to trick Li Mu secretly. One can imagine Li Mu's current situation in Zhao State.

Li Mu held the letter in his hand, his eyes extremely tangled.

Although this urgent letter from the court made Li Mu feel a little chilled, it could not make him lose his judgment. After all, Li Mu had experienced too many situations like this over the years.

Nowadays, Li Mu no longer cares about rights. What really makes him unable to let go is the Zhao Kingdom that he has protected for his whole life, not the group of people in the court.

Li Mu could not let the Zhao State, which he had guarded all his life, fall into the hands of Qin.

But equally, he could not watch the people of his country being bullied by the Huns in the border areas.

Li Mu closed his eyes and thought for a long time.

A moment later.

He slowly opened his eyes, then took out a writing brush and a roll of bamboo slips, wrote a letter, handed it to the scout and said: "Send an envoy to deliver this letter to the commander-in-chief of the Qin army on the opposite side."

"Um?"

As soon as Li Mu said this, the scout was obviously startled.

But then he responded decisively: "Yes, I will obey."

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Half an hour later.

Tongxu City.

Meng Ao and Wang Jian summoned a group of generals and couldn't help but fall into silence when they looked at the letter in their hands that had just been sent by the Zhao envoy.

After a long time, coach Wang Jian was the first to speak: "What do you think of this 'war exemption letter' sent by the enemy?"

Meng Ao answered: "Is the news about this reliable?"

What Meng Ao was asking about was the news recorded in this 'war exemption letter' about the attack on the border of Zhao State by the 100,000 wolves.

Li Mu did not use any so-called tactics. The "war exemption letter" he sent simply stated all the facts and then requested a temporary ceasefire from both sides.

Li Mu's move could be described as fair and aboveboard, almost directly exposing all the crises and weaknesses he was facing to the eyes of Wang Jian and others.

As long as Li Mu encountered some opponents who did not respect martial ethics in this battle, this "war exemption letter" alone would probably directly plunge him into a situation of no return.

"Our spies here have already received relevant information before, and we can basically confirm that the content recorded in this 'war exemption letter' is correct." Wang Jian said.

After Meng Ao heard this, he was silent for a moment, and then said slowly: "If this is the case, then I think this battle cannot be fought..."

"General Meng, think twice!"

As soon as Meng Ao finished speaking, he heard someone's face change with shock, and he hurriedly said: "War is not a child's play. If this matter is true, then the next step will be the best time for our army to attack."

"Once Li Mu supports the northern border, the Zhao-Wei coalition without Li Mu will be equivalent to a group of skirmishers without a commander. We can completely capture the enemy army at the minimum cost, and if we handle it properly, we may even be able to defeat the enemy this winter. Before that, we can end this war early.”

"Yes! General Meng, please think more about it. War is about defeating the enemy by any means necessary. Taking advantage of others' danger is despicable, but it is still a means of attack. What's more, the Huns' attack is not our fault, this is It’s God’s will.”

Some people are opposing Meng Ao's view.

Naturally, some people agreed with Meng Ao's decision.

"The general has a different view. War is not only a fight for territory and resources, but more importantly, a fight for the hearts and minds of the people. As the saying goes, if we use such despicable means to win the war, the enemy may not obey us. "

"What General Zhang said is absolutely true, and the last general also thinks the same. We already have a huge advantage in this battle, and there is absolutely no need to do such unnecessary behavior. If we can win this battle by more fair and just means, Wouldn’t it be able to further demonstrate the majesty of our country, Great Qin?”

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