At the beginning, there were two voices within the kingdom. One was to unite with the Empire to attack the Chen Dynasty, and the other was to unite with the Chen Dynasty to attack the Empire. The two voices quarreled fiercely, but no winner was decided. This is why the kingdom did not join the war at the beginning of the last war.
After all, for a kingdom, if it rashly joins a war without relying on a major power, it will probably offend both sides, and the final outcome will inevitably be disastrous.
The kingdom's envoys traveled back and forth with Taijing, Jiankang and Zhongdu, but they never reached a conclusion.
However, later there was news that the kingdom was preparing to form an alliance with the Chen Dynasty, and the kingdom would send troops to participate in the Chen Dynasty's war in the Central Plains. If the kingdom could destroy Daliang in one fell swoop, the Chen Dynasty would give the two southwestern provinces to the kingdom as a thank you gift.
"Oh, there is such a thing? But why did the Khmer invade the Chen Dynasty without declaring war?" Lin Hai had indeed never heard of this story, and he suddenly became interested.
"It's said that the vanguard troops went to the Central Plains and fought, but suffered heavy losses and retreated for unknown reasons. The Chen Dynasty felt that the Kingdom was not committed enough and demanded that the Kingdom send more troops to join the war. The Kingdom, in turn, asked the Chen Dynasty to cede the two southwestern provinces to the Kingdom first to avoid Chen Dynasty's reneging on its promises later."
Ruan Shiping looked around as he spoke. There were quite a few people in the big tent, but he understood that the people who could hear these secrets should be Lin Hai's core team. He hurriedly tried to memorize the appearance of these people. After all, if he wanted to be an official in another place, it was very important to find someone who could speak for him.
Lin Hai didn't expect Ruan Shiping to have such thoughts. Seeing him looking around, he said, "We are all family. There will be no danger. Just say it."
"As you command. The Chen Dynasty naturally didn't agree to the Kingdom's conditions. However, during the negotiations, the Kingdom seemed to realize that the Chen Dynasty's strength in the southwest was already very weak, so it launched a mobilization. Hundreds of soldiers and thousands of able-bodied men were drawn from the counties under its jurisdiction. Then, the Kingdom launched a surprise attack on the southwest without declaring war."
"The rest, my Lord and the others should know."
"Hmm." Lin Hai exchanged glances with Wang Liang and Lu You, who were sitting below, and nodded. "Things are pretty clear now. They basically match up with the intelligence we got from the Chen Dynasty. Judging from the probability, there's a 90% chance that the Khmer were responsible. And the Khmer did this simply to show their loyalty to the Chen Dynasty, paralyze it, and seize the southwest."
"You can rest in the army for one night, and then go back to the city to prepare. It's not a good idea for a large army to be stationed in the wild. The army will enter the city at noon tomorrow, and Mengyang City will be officially incorporated into Xiangyun Province at noon tomorrow." Lin Hai waved to Ruan Shiping and said no more.
Seeing that Lin Hai and the others still had secrets to discuss, Ruan Shiping tactfully took his leave.
"Brothers, the murderer has been identified. Now it's time to avenge the blood debt." Lin Hai said to his two sworn brothers whose eyes were red and full of murderous intent.
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