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Expand territory for thousands of miles, troops press on Chengdu, invite wolves into the house, Qin occupy Guangyuan.

  Tao Di thousand miles troops forced into Chengdu, inviting wolves into the house Qin occupied Guangyuan.

  The Chu and Shu armies clashed in Fuling County, Sichuan. The Chu army killed 80,000 Shu soldiers (10,000 cavalry and 70,000 infantry), captured nearly 10,000 war horses, and seized 800,000 sets of armor and weapons, as well as a large quantity of grain and fodder.

  At this time, the Chu army's cavalry increased by 10,000 men, becoming a force of 70,000 horsemen. The Chu army then marched from Badong County, Wushan County, through Fuling County, down to Yunyang County, and divided into two routes. One route was led by Tang Mie with an army of 100,000 Chu soldiers, marching from Yunyang County, down to Liangping County, Dianjiang County, Yuzhou (Chongqing), Luzhou City, Yibin City, Neijiang City, and all the way to Ziyang City, which was not far from Chengdu City.

  The other route was led by King Hui of Chu with an army of 100,000 Chu soldiers, marching from Yunyang County, breaking through Dazhou City, Bazhong City, Guang'an City, Nanchong City, Suining City, and approaching Mianyang. Half a year later, the two armies of King Hui of Chu and Tang Mie met in Jianyang City.

  Along the way, the Chu army recruited local militia, gaining 50,000 soldiers, with 20,000 guarding Wushan, and 30,000 guarding Yuzhou (Chongqing).

  The Lord of Shu saw that the Chu army was approaching in two routes and was about to reach Chengdu, so he urgently sent a letter to Duke Huiwen of Qin (who had not yet been declared king) for help. Duke Huiwen of Qin received the letter from the Lord of Shu asking for help, and immediately summoned his civil and military officials to discuss it. "Now, King Huai of Chu is leading an army of 200,000 to attack Shu and has reached Chengdu. The Lord of Shu has asked me for help. If I send troops to rescue him, Qin and Chu will inevitably become enemies, and one day they will fight each other. If I don't rescue him, Chu will destroy Shu and move north to take over the land up to Nanzheng. What do you all think? Should we rescue or not?" Gan Long said: "If the Chu army destroys Shu, it will inevitably move north to take Hanzhong. At that time, if we send troops to resist the Chu army, it will become a confrontation between Qin and Chu. The Chu army is powerful, and based on the current strength of the two countries, I fear that Qin cannot withstand Chu. It's better to take advantage of the fact that the Lord of Shu still has tens of thousands of soldiers in Chengdu, and have our lord order a general to lead 100,000 elite troops south to enter Chengdu, under the pretext of helping Shu, but actually taking this opportunity to take over Guangyuan as preparation for taking over Shu later. King Huai of Chu may have a large army of 200,000, but after a year of continuous fighting, he is already exhausted. Chengdu is far from the capital of Chu, and the Chu army's reinforcements are weak. The combined forces of Qin and Shu will be able to withstand the 200,000-strong Chu army, and with time, the Chu army's food and grass will not last, and King Huai will naturally retreat. Our lord can then control Shu without shedding blood." Duke Huiwen of Qin listened and said: "Good!" He immediately ordered General Sima Cuo to lead 100,000 elite Qin troops to rush to Chengdu to resist the Chu army. The Lord of Shu knew that Qin was a country of tigers and wolves, and inviting the Qin army into Shu to protect the country was like inviting a wolf into one's home. But he had no other choice, because if he didn't do this, King Huai would not spare Shu, and the Chu army would destroy the Shu army completely. He had no way out, and his hope for survival forced him to invite the wolf to resist the tiger. As a result, the Qin army finally arrived in Shu, and Chengdu was temporarily preserved. However, from then on, Shu owed a debt of gratitude to Qin that could never be repaid, and Shu became a puppet state of Qin, with its army becoming a puppet army of Qin as well. Sima Cuo's 100,000-strong Qin army occupied Mianzhu, Deyang, and the outskirts of Chengdu, tightly controlling the Lord of Shu's army.

  The army of King Hui of Chu marched from Badong and Wushan to Chengdu and Mianyang, swallowing the entire Chongqing area, northwest Guizhou and eastern Sichuan in one go. After nearly a year of running and continuous battles, the soldiers and horses were already very tired. At this time, the Shu state's army in Chengdu still had 150,000 troops, together with the 100,000 Qin troops led by Sima Cuo, totaling 250,000 soldiers. King Hui of Chu saw that the Qin general Sima Cuo was leading 100,000 Qin troops to rescue the capital of Shu, and the Qin and Shu armies only defended without fighting, so he had to temporarily give up his plan to destroy the state of Shu. He led the army back to the capital of Chu, Jingzhou, in 324 BC (the third year of King Hui of Chu). The Wuguan was established, governing a vast area including Baxi and eastern Sichuan. Later, the Wuguan was changed to Bayuguan, with its administrative center moved from Wushan to Yucheng (now Chongqing), covering an area equivalent to the current provinces of Bazhong, Nanchong, Suining, Ziyang, Yibin in the east and the entire city of Chongqing. The Qianzhongguan was no longer a small piece of northeastern Guizhou during the period of King Wu of Chu, but expanded to the entire province of Guizhou. In just over a year, King Hui of Chu expanded his territory by 1,500 miles, and the new territory obtained by the state of Chu was twice as large as the Qianzhongguan established during the period of King Wu of Chu. When the news arrived in the capital of Chu, the whole country was jubilant, the people's hearts were stirred, and the morale of the soldiers was high. On the way back to the army, another 50,000 troops were recruited to garrison Baxi.

  King Hui of Chu led the great army back to Jingzhou and ordered generals Qu Zhuang and Tang Mi to lead 100,000 troops each from Jiujiang and Changsha, marching south to capture Xiangtan, Zhuzhou, Hengyang, Chenzhou in Hunan Province, as well as Yuzhang (Nanchang), Yichun, Fuzhou, Ji'an to Ganzhou in Jiangxi Province. The territory expanded by a thousand miles and six new counties were established. At this time, the territory of Chu had reached 7,500 miles, with a population of over 30 million, occupying the entire provinces of Hunan, Jiangxi, and Guizhou. The administrative region was divided into eight prefectures and 54 counties, with an army of 1.1 million soldiers. In these two years, Qin expanded its territory without making any progress, merely increasing its military by 100,000 troops, but basically controlled Shu in terms of military strength. At this time, the population of Qin was still over 7 million, but it had a military force of 700,000, with a ratio of soldiers to civilians three times that of Chu, which could be described as exhausting its military strength. However, in terms of overall national strength, Qin was still far behind Chu. If King Hui of Chu also expanded his military and prepared for war like Duke Huiwen of Qin, without regard for the lives of his people, then the army of Chu would have become 3 million strong.

  The King of Qin, Huiwen, ordered the great general Sima Cuo to lead 100,000 troops to rescue Shu, which was undoubtedly a public provocation to Chu's King Huai. This was difficult for King Huai, who had a strong and overbearing personality, to swallow. However, the Western Palace of Chu was the younger sister of Qin's Huiwen, and the Southern Palace of Qin, Mi Xiu, was also the younger sister of King Huai, so how could they become enemies? From then on, the relationship between Qin and Chu deteriorated from being friendly to becoming hostile. Finally, in 325 BC, the twenty-thousand-strong army of Chu's King Huai clashed with the allied forces of Qin and Shu, which had more than twenty thousand troops, at Hanyin Pingchuan, resulting in a life-and-death battle, known as the Battle of Hanyin.

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