The substitute prince: Reported the emperor's brother at the beginning

Chapter 322 Conclusion

The Prime Minister seemed to be advising the Emperor that everything was for the success of the peace talks and for the sake of the Great Wu Kingdom.

But the purpose of going around in circles was to buy time for the Sixth Prince at Hushan Pass.

The Prime Minister immediately said, "Your Majesty, the situation at Hushan Pass is dire right now. Only the Sixth Prince can control the situation. If someone else were to take over, who would be able to do the job?"

"Besides, who can guarantee that once the peace talks are signed, the barbarians will see the Sixth Prince being transferred and immediately turn south again? This kind of thing has happened several times in history, and the capital is ultimately in danger."

This kind of thing has indeed happened many times in history, but the Wu State has always suffered losses.

Lord Qin was unconvinced: "Prime Minister, you are exaggerating."

"When facing the barbarians, we must be extremely careful." The Prime Minister looked at him, "Because if we are not careful, the capital will be besieged by the barbarian army."

"Of course, I think we can take this opportunity to train new troops immediately. Once the new troops are fully trained and sent north to support, Hushan Pass will be impregnable. Then the Sixth Prince can return to the capital."

What the prime minister had just said hit the spot right on the old emperor's mind. He just wanted to concentrate on training the new army as soon as possible.

Yang Long also took the opportunity to grit his teeth and said, "Your Majesty, I think what the Prime Minister said is correct."

"We must make the barbarians show their sincerity and stop attacking Hushan Pass. Moreover, it is not the time for the Sixth Prince to leave now. Unless someone can take over Hushan Pass now and truly stop the barbarians from advancing southwards."

This, everyone looked towards the Duke of Baoguo.

After all, among the veteran generals who followed the emperor to fight, Duke Baoguo was the best fighter.

Duke Baoguo was stunned. He looked at the group of old men who were all looking at him, and immediately bowed: "Your Majesty, I haven't been to the battlefield for many years. If I can manage the Beijing camp well, it will be fine now."

"Given the current situation at Hushan Pass, I, your old servant, am powerless to do anything. It will definitely lead to disaster."

Duke Baoguo immediately shirked responsibility, saying that this was a joke. He would never go to Hushan Pass now.

It is said that Hushan Pass has lost tens of thousands of troops.

At first, there were only hundreds of thousands of troops including the Beijing Camp, and almost half of them were lost, leaving only seven reorganized Beijing Camp guards.

The other defensive troops suffered even more severe losses. The 5,000 soldiers from Hongfeng County were almost wiped out, and more than half of the two Beijing camp guards were also killed or wounded.

It is said that the Sixth Prince now wants to integrate them, otherwise the army will be crippled and will have no combat effectiveness.

As for the so-called temporary army of the Sixth Prince, according to investigation, they were just groups of prisoners who went to the battlefield with worn-out weapons.

Only the Sixth Prince, who was forced into a corner, would dare to use such a captured army. Who else would dare to use them recklessly?

They have surrendered to the barbarians before, and now they are captured. If the war fails, they can surrender to the barbarians again at any time.

Don’t even dream of expecting them to put up a desperate resistance at Hushan Pass.

It is said that more than half of the 30,000 Northwest cavalry were killed, and the remaining 10,000 or so cavalry could probably only be used as escape escort cavalry.

Hushan Pass only has a small number of cavalrymen, so everyone would be extremely cautious.

Only the Sixth Prince was a prodigal son who didn't care about the elite soldiers at all and took them to fight against the 30,000 barbarian cavalry head-on.

Moreover, the money and food are constantly decreasing. Hushan Pass is now a hot potato. Not to mention the attack by the barbarians, if so many captives cannot be fed, they may rebel at any time.

Only a fool would take over Hushan Pass now, unless Emperor Wu's 100,000 new soldiers are trained in various provinces and then go north to provide support.

He, the Duke of Baoguo, was still willing to help the emperor guard Hushan Pass, but now he refused to go no matter what.

Emperor Wu looked at everyone and after careful consideration, he finally decided, "What the Prime Minister said is correct."

"Lord Qin, negotiate with the barbarians and tell them clearly that their army must withdraw north, but our Great Wu Kingdom will not take their money or food."

"As for the Sixth Brother, have him continue to stay at Hushan Pass until next year. I will personally lead an army of 100,000 north to Hushan Pass."

What the Emperor said was so murderous and overwhelming that many people immediately shouted, "The Emperor is mighty!"

In fact, everyone knew that although Emperor Wu spoke nicely, there was no way he would lead his army north now.

Why are you leading your army north? To recover lost territory?

If we can’t recover it, wouldn’t it be so embarrassing?

After Emperor Wu made his decision, the Prime Minister breathed a sigh of relief. He could finally report to the Sixth Prince.

I believe the Sixth Prince should be able to accept this situation.

After all, peace talks are inevitable and no one can stop them.

However, it is still necessary to leave the Sixth Prince in Hushan Pass to continue the reorganization.

Yang Long, however, was eagerly waiting for his daughter to return home. Emperor Wu said that he would only let his daughter-in-law return home after peace talks, otherwise she would have to be protected in the palace.

This made Yang Long want to curse the old emperor countless times.

You are really deceiving me.

So many of your sons have princesses, why don’t you protect them one by one? Why do you only protect the Sixth Prince?

Isn't it just that he wants to rely on the two princesses to control the Sixth Prince?

Although the conclusion has been reached, it is not easy to negotiate peace with the barbarians.

The entire capital city was watching eagerly, discussing the issue of peace talks with the barbarians every day.

Of course, the big players are all looking forward to the negotiations being successful as soon as possible.

They no longer have to find ways to move their belongings around.

But ordinary people don’t care about that. They just want to know whether the war will be fought or not.

The most lively group was a group of scholars.

Everyone was shouting that the Great Wu Kingdom must not give up an inch of land, must take back the territory, resolutely refuse to negotiate with the barbarians, and force the barbarians to get out of the Great Wu Kingdom.

Although Minister Qin received the imperial edict for peace talks.

He also knew Emperor Wu's bottom line.

But he was also at the negotiating table, arguing with Aturu and engaging in verbal battles.

Aturu also knew that these minimum requirements of the Wu Kingdom were also their bottom line. Otherwise, even if the army was outside Hushan Pass and they kept saying they wanted to negotiate, no one would believe them.

The old emperor is not yet so stupid as to be a fool.

After several days, the negotiations were finally concluded successfully.

The Wu State recognized the territories occupied by the barbarians and temporarily returned them to the barbarians.

The barbarian army had to retreat back to the border area, leaving only the city defense troops.

The Wu State also had to pay the barbarians two million taels of silver in compensation and 500,000 shi of military rations.

However, because Wu State has no money now, it decides to pay after the New Year.

No matter how Aturu threatened him on this point, Lord Qin just kept saying that he had no money.

As for the several states occupied by Han Dingtian, the Wu Kingdom will not give them up.

After all, those states are just on the northern and eastern borders. Emperor Wu doesn't care about those states, and he wouldn't even feel sad if all of them died.

But he can't write like this for the sake of face, otherwise he will be scolded to death, and that would be equivalent to giving up the land voluntarily.

Aturu thought it didn’t matter, if you guys didn’t let him go, then forget it, just surround him.

The barbarian Khan also said that there was no need to worry about Han Dingtian, as tens of thousands of cavalrymen had already killed him over there.

Of course, the Wu State also needs to release all the barbarian captives.

The barbarian captives are all in the hands of the Sixth Prince, tens of thousands of them.

Now they are all strong men mining in various ways, and they are beaten at any time.