So far, among the five surnames of the Ba clan, only the Fan clan, the Ba clan, and the unprecedentedly powerful Xiang clan are left.

Fortunately, at this time, the monarch of Shu, "Dulu", sent people to support the Ba family and the Fan family.

Dulu is a very young monarch, even now he is only in his thirties. Because of his youth and vigour, he is extremely dissatisfied with the state of Ju trying to get rid of his subordinate status of the state of Shu. He even threatened him a few years ago.

It is said that he ordered the establishment of the king of Ju State, which caused the relationship between Shu and Ju to fall to a low point.

Perhaps it was for this reason that the leader of Ju State agreed to allow the Qin army to use the road to attack Shu.

In Dulu's heart, both Ba and Ju were enemies of Shu. The former was a feud, while the latter was a disobedient subject. The Ju State was originally created by the Shu State in order to restrict the Ba State.

Supported subject state.

A few months ago, when the troops defending Jianshan reported the news of the Qin army's entry, the monarch of Shu, Dulu, was stunned for a moment.

At that time, he was still thinking that between Qin and his country of Shu, there was a country of Ju in Hanzhong. Why didn't the country of Ju ask for help from his country of Shu when it was attacked by Qin's army?

You should know that no matter how angry he was with the State of Ju for secretly colluding with the State of Ba against his State of Shu, Dulu would still send troops to support the State of Ju if he learned about the Qin army's attack on the State of Ju.

This is not for the country of Ju, but for the country of Shu.

However, the information obtained through inquiring made Dulu, the king of Shu, so angry that he almost vomited blood.

He never expected that the State of Ju was not attacked by the State of Qin at all. This shameless and unsubordinate state actually lent a road to the army of the State of Qin, allowing the Qin army to pass through the dangerous terrain of Hanzhong without any hindrance.

The Shu Kingdom was completely betrayed by the Ju Kingdom!

After realizing this, the king of Shu, Dulu, cursed the king of Ju and immediately sent troops to strengthen the defense of Jianshan and defend Jianmen Pass (Jiange).

Regarding the natural barrier of Jianshan Mountain, Dulu was actually quite relieved. In contrast, he was more worried about the "Langzhong" direction.

After all, the Fan clan of the Ba Kingdom living in Langzhong is the most hostile to the Shu people among the Ba clan. Dulu is very worried that the Fan clan will act like the Ju Kingdom in Hanzhong and provide a way for the Qin Army to pass through.

direction to attack the Shu Kingdom.

However, the information obtained by inquiring made Dulu unbelievable.

The Fan clan of Ba State, who had always hated Shu State the most, not only refused the Qin army's request to use the road, but also defended Bashan to prevent the Qin army from entering the country. They even sent envoys to negotiate with him and agreed on a temporary truce between the two sides.

It has to be said that Dulu simply couldn't believe this: Ju Guo, who also had the Kaiming family surnamed Du, betrayed his Du family and the Shu State. Instead, the Ba people, who had hated the Shu people for generations, faced him.

In the face of the external force of Qin, they took the initiative to temporarily stop fighting with other Shu people and jointly fight against Qin.

In Dulu's opinion, this is really ironic!

A few days later, the monarch of Ba, Ba Qi, the leader of the Ba clan, also sent an envoy to negotiate with Dulu. The envoy stated the threat of Qin and hoped that Bashu and Bashu would put aside their differences and join hands to defend against the enemy.

Of course, Dulu would not reject Ba Chen's suggestion.

After all, the current situation seems to be that Ju State has betrayed. If Bashu and Bashu still hate each other, they will eventually be defeated by Qin one by one. Du Lu also understands this truth.

As a result, under the threat of Qin, Bashu and Bashu, two countries that had hated each other for hundreds of years and had attacked each other for more than a hundred years, finally temporarily put aside their prejudices and hostility at this moment.

Unfortunately, despite the tacit understanding between Bashu and Bashu, the Xiang clan of Ba still introduced the Qin army into the territory, resulting in the destruction of the two large Ba tribes of Zheng and Zhuo as well as several other small tribes.

, only the Fan family and the Ba family are still struggling to support themselves.

"The Qin army is so powerful?"

Dulu, the monarch of Shu, was shocked when he heard the news.

Previously, because the main force of the Qin general Wang Jian was blocked by the Shu army at Jianshan, Dulu had not yet realized how powerful the Qin soldiers were. But now, watching the Qin army generals Zheng and Zhuo, they were unable to advance.

The clan was beaten to pieces, and Dulu was inevitably panicked.

After all, once the Ba Kingdom is finished, the Shu Kingdom will not be able to escape the fate of being destroyed by the Qin army.

Therefore, Dulu immediately sent troops to support the Fan clan and the Ba clan, and finally helped the two clans to fend off the attacks of the Qin army and the Xiang clan.

But how long can this situation last?

Dulu, Ba Yi, and Fan Lie did not have much confidence, because the Qin general Wang Jian who was stationed in Hanzhong also sent more Qin troops into Ba after learning that Shu sent troops to support Langzhong.

And just when the Ba clan and the Fan clan were about to attack and destroy the Qin army and the Xiang clan, their reinforcements finally arrived.

This supporting army is the troops of Xiong Hu, Lord of Pingyu, one of the Three Pillars of Chu State, and the army under "Xiong Tao, Lord of Xiying".

Xiying (Jiangling) was one of the old capitals of the Chu State. Once upon a time, the "Chu-Ba War" took place when the Chu State used this city as its capital. However, later on, the Ba people fled to Ba County and defended Wushan.

, taking into account various factors, the Chu State finally gave up its westward advance and expanded eastward. After a few years, it gradually moved its capital to what is now Shouying.

The former "Ying" city was also renamed Xiying.

Precisely because it was the former capital of Chu State, Xiying is one of the few prosperous cities in western Chu. In the past ten or twenty years, whether it was Xiong Tuo, the former king of Yangcheng, or Xiong Hu, the current king of Pingyu, Trade with Pakistan was carried out through Xiying.

But having said that, although it was under the rule of Western Chu, the kings of Xiying in the past dynasties rarely intervened in the wars in the Central Plains. First, Xiying was too far away from the Central Plains, just like the several wars between Chu and Wei. Although Wei Gongzi Run was known as They defeated Chuxi, but in fact they only captured Xiong Tuo's feudal city "Yangcheng" at that time, and Yangcheng was still at least a thousand miles away from Xiying.

The area was too remote, so Xiong Tao, Lord of Xiying, did not participate in the previous wars with Wei. Of course, the more important reason was another reason, namely the attack on Bashu.

When the Chu State expanded eastward, it was reluctant to give up the land of Bashu, so it handed over the task of advancing westward to Xiong Zhang, the first king of Xiying.

Therefore, the several Chu-Ba wars that broke out later during the expansion of the Chu Kingdom to the east were actually wars in which the Xiying lords of the past dynasties attacked Bashu. Unfortunately, the Xiying lords of the past dynasties failed to cross Wushan and invade Bashu. In the end, The good result was that they only captured half of Wushan and established a "Wu County" there as the front line for the Chu State to attack Bashu.

Later, the successive Chu kings who moved their capital to Shoying were committed to competing with the Central Plains countries for dominance, and gradually downplayed the attack on Bashu. After all, compared with the vastness of the entire Central Plains, the land of Bashu was too small. .

To put it bluntly, if the struggle with Wei for the Central Plains hegemony had not failed and the Chu State's momentum in the Central Plains had become weak, otherwise the Chu State would not have gone back to the old path of its ancestors and thought of attacking Bashu.

In late September, Xiong Tao, Lord of Xiying, led tens of thousands of Chu troops to march out of the pass "Dian (Tong'Han') Pass" in Wu County, which had been used to resist the Ba people, and attack "Yufu".

At that time, the main force of the Qin army and the Xiang clan were attacking Langzhong and Jiangzhou. Although Chu Shuijun predicted in advance that Pingyu Lord Xiong Hu was likely to summon the Chu army to assist the Ba clan, he reminded Xiang Li to garrison Yufu. , but the Xiang clan’s army stationed in this city was eventually defeated by Xiong Tao, Lord of Xiying.

After that, Chuxi's warships sailed up the river and together with the land infantry attacked Linjiang, the capital of the Xiang clan.

The Xiang clan could not withstand the Chu army's attack. After Linjiang was captured by the Chu army, they hurriedly asked for help from the Qin army.

In early October, the Western Chu army, led by Xiong Tao, Lord of Xiying, occupied "Linjiang". Under the instruction of Xiong Hu, Lord of Pingyu, they crossed the Bajun Basin in an attempt to support the Fan clan.

After learning about this, Qin General Wang Jian immediately mobilized another 50,000 elite troops to garrison the Bajun Basin to prevent the Chu army from destroying his Qin army's strategy of attacking Langzhong.

The armies of Qin and Chu met in the territory of Ba.

Compared with the previous wars, the confrontation between the Qin and Chu armies can be said to be evenly matched.

A war is about to break out in the land of Bashu. However, the real owners of this land, such as the Ba family, the Fan family, the Xiang family, and the Shu Kingdom, seem to have been reduced to supporting roles and spectators.
Chapter completed!