The Cruel Tyrant

78

A few days ago, Huang Xuan was released from prison to solve Su Mu's poison and then thrown back to prison in the early morning. After half a month of tossing around, he was finally healed and Su Mu's worries were also eased completely.

At this time, Sun Haoran, who had wiped out all three rebel factions, also came to bid his farewell. According to the agreement, Su Mu gave Sun Haoran the promised cowpox treatment technology and animal-drawn seed plough manufacturing for him to take back to the Wu Kingdom.

But when Sun Haoran had just left the Qing Kingdom, new trouble came knocking at Su Mu's door. In the majestic hall, Shen Wei reported to Su Mu with a cold face: "Your Highness, an urgent report came from the Southwest, Jin Kingdom sent 50,000 troops to approach our borders."

Su Mu immediately sat up straight and asked seriously: "Why did the Jin Kingdom suddenly send troops out towards our Qing Kingdom?"

Shen Wei replied: "Your Highness this matter started because of a peach tree."

"Peach tree?" Su Mu questioned: "What does this matter have to do with peach trees?"

"Your Highness, it is the peach ripening season. A peach tree grew on the border between Qing and Jin. Half a month ago, a group of children from Qing went to the border to pick peaches and met a group of children from Jin who were picking peaches. The two sides began with a verbal quarrel which escalated into a fist fight. A child from the Jin Kingdom fell from a peach tree and fractured a bone. Then the father of the child rushed to the village on the border of our Qing Kingdom for revenge, killing the father of one of the children involved in the dispute. As a result, the brothers of the child's father rushed to the border village of Jin to kill the murderer. Afterwards, the entire border village of Jin rushed into our Qing Kingdom and killed all the people in our border village. This village is the ancestral home of a local county official so out of rage, he led troops to the border of Jin Kingdom to slaughter that village. In response, the county official of Jin Kingdom reported this to the Emperor of Jin who then sent fifty thousand troops to our borders."

To put it simply, the children got injured so the adults went to avenge their children. But what started as a simple squabble among children escalated into the destruction of an entire village, and then further developing into a war between two countries.

The Qing Kingdom's civil war had just been extinguished and it was really not advantageous to go to war so soon again, but the enemy had already come bullying. It was too late to settle the conflict peacefully. To put it bluntly, it was just that Jin Kingdom wanted to take advantage of this special period and swallow up the Qing Kingdom. Raking revenge was just a bonus.

Su Mu got a headache and asked, "How strong is the Jin Kingdom's military?"

Shen Wei replied: "Answering Your Highness, the military strength of the two countries is equal, but the current emperor of the Jin Kingdom is very warlike, and the national power of Jin has become weak due to repeated wars against neighboring countries."

"Repeated wars against neighboring countries." Su Mu tapped on the armrest of the chair and asked, "How many countries are at war with Jin?"

"There is the Chen Kingdom, Zheng Kingdom, Wu Kingdom, and Yang Kingdom." Shen Wei responded. (TN: the Wu in this Wu Kingdom is different from the Wu in the Wu Kingdom that lent troops to Su Mu in exchange for technology)

Su Mu asked: "How is the national strength of these four countries?"

Shen Wei: "Chen Kingdom and Wu Kingdom are stronger than our country, Zheng Kingdom's national strength is equal to our's, Yang Kingdom comes last."

Su Mu nodded, having already made the calculations in his mind, and said to Shen Wei: "General Shen, Ben Gong orders you to set off immediately to the southwest to stop the foreign enemies."