Chapter Two Hundred and Twenty The Difficulties of Zhao State
"I just passed by Yecheng, and the people in Yecheng seem to have forgotten Wei." On the carriage, the King of Wei sighed deeply.
Although Ye City was given to the State of Zhao, and the State of Wei gained more in the battle against Qin, King Wei still had some regrets in his heart afterwards, and wanted to look for opportunities to try to get Ye City back.
When he saw the straight road leading from Yecheng to Handan, he suddenly felt that Yecheng no longer belonged to the Wei State at all.
"Brother Wang, you must never mention this again." Wei Wuji said in a deep voice.
This older brother is not lacking in wisdom, but he is timid and afraid of getting into trouble, and his behavior reveals a petty attitude.
To describe it in one sentence, it is: 'Severe but timid, scheming but never decisive, doing big things but cherishing one's life, seeing small gains but forgetting one's life.'
At the beginning of the Changping War, they knew clearly that Zhao Wei was dying and should support Zhao State, but because they were afraid of Qin and were tempted by the small city promised by Qin, they refused to send troops.
In the battle to conquer Qin, the Wei State had already received the greatest benefits, more than South Korea and Zhao State, but it had never forgotten the small price it had paid.
On the other hand, Zhao Kuo did not hesitate to give the wild king to Wei in order to gain the support of Wei.
After defeating Qin, he ceded Hedong and Hanoi to Wei without saying anything. At the same time, in order to make up for Wei's loss in giving up Yecheng, he also helped Wei seize one-third of Nanjun from Qin.
Zhao Kuo's goal was very clear. He gave up Hedong to Wei in order to use Wei as Zhao's barrier to resist Qin's attack.
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The purpose of asking Wei to cede Ye City to Zhao was to build Zhao's southern defense line to prevent the entire country from being breached by the enemy like before.
Later, they relied on Yecheng to block the attack of the Han and Wei coalition forces and prevented Handan from being surrounded.
As long as the strategic goal can be achieved, it doesn't matter whether other aspects suffer or not.
"At the beginning, our Wei State gave up the city of Ye to Zhao, and Zhao helped our Wei State obtain Nanyang. Even if we don't count the two counties of Hedong and Hanoi, our Wei State still made a profit. Now our Wei State has thousands of chariots.
With hundreds of thousands in armor, we should not focus on the gains and losses of one place or one city, but should focus on the overall situation." Wei Wuji said.
"Then what do you think our Wei State should do?" King Wei looked at Wei Wuji.
Wei Wuji was about to say, "If Qin is strong, he will connect with Zhao, and if Zhao is strong, he will connect with Qin." When the words came to his lips, he swallowed them.
"My brother is no longer a minister of Wei, so King Wei should ask the Grand Tutor." Wei Wuji sighed and pointed at Fan Zuo.
Although he is the brother of the King of Wei, he is also the Prime Minister of Zhao State. Zhao Kuo trusts him very much and does not hide anything. If he makes suggestions for Wei State, he will definitely deal a heavy blow to Zhao State.
However, as a gentleman who values integrity more than life, how could he do such a thing as betraying Zhao!
King Wei and Fan Zuo looked at each other, and Fan Zuo cupped his hands and said, "I am stupid and don't know where the way out for our country of Wei is."
"Haha, Taifu, there is no need to be humble. If others don't know your abilities, how can I, Wei Wuji, not know it?" Wei Wuji said with a smile.
Since the reform of King Wuling of Zhao, the strength of Zhao State has surpassed that of Wei State.
The reason why the Wei State was able to consistently outperform the Zhao State and become the leader of the Hezong Alliance was because of Fan Zuo.
It can be said that Fan Zuo is to the King of Wei just like Fan Ju is to the King of Qin.
The difference is that King Qin trusted Fan Ju very much.
And the King of Wei actually sent people to arrest Fan Zuo for the sake of a city with ten thousand households. If Wei Wuji hadn't rescued him in time, the grass on Fan Zuo's grave would be ten feet high now.
"Our State of Wei is in a place of four wars. Whether it is the State of Qin to the west, the State of Zhao to the north, or the State of Chu to the south, they are all stronger than our State of Wei. I really don’t know where the way out for our State of Wei is.
." Fan Zuo sighed.
"After King Zhao gets married, my dear brother, why don't you go back to the Kingdom of Wei with me? Considering the relationship between Zhao and Wei, my dear brother, please talk to King Zhao carefully, and King Zhao will definitely agree. If it doesn't work, I will go and ask King Zhao in person. After returning home,
, I will appoint my virtuous brother to be the prime minister and take charge of all major affairs in our country of Wei."
King Wei held Wei Wuji's hands tightly and said sincerely.
Wei Wuji's face moved slightly, and he hesitated. After a while, he still shook his head and said, "Brother, you are joking. How can I be a proton for less than half a year?"
He knew very well that if he returned to the Kingdom of Wei, the King of Wei would definitely trust him very much and listen to him in everything as he just said.
But he knew better that this behavior would only last for a period of time. After a long time, King Wei would inevitably become as sensitive and suspicious as before, and he would not trust him.
Now that he is in Zhao State, as a bridge connecting Zhao and Wei, it is a better choice for Wei State, Zhao State and himself.
"Brother Xian, you should think about it again. Brother Yu is waiting for Brother Xian to come back at any time."
Part of the reason why the King of Wei personally entered Zhao this time was to take Wei Wuji back to the Kingdom of Wei.
What is lost is the best. After Wei Wuji left, the King of Wei understood the importance of Wei Wuji.
In the past, no matter what happened, as long as he mentioned it to Wei Wuji, Wei Wuji could always inadvertently tell the solution, which not only helped Wei solve the problem, but also avoided the fear of King Wei.
Now that there is a problem, King Wei can only find a solution by himself or discuss it with Lord Longyang, but Lord Longyang is far away than Lord Xinling.
The carriage rolled and soon arrived at the palace.
"I didn't expect that King Wei would come in person." Zhao Kuo ordered Wei Wuji to go out of the city to greet him, and he himself stood outside the palace to greet King Wei.
"I'm sorry to trouble you, King Zhao." King Wei returned the gesture.
After exchanging a few words, Zhao Kuo and the King of Wei entered the palace and introduced everyone to the King of Wei in turn.
In order to avoid giving people the impression that there is a large number of people, there were not many people attending the banquet. There were only four people, Yu Xin, Lin Xiangru, Lian Po, Xunzi, and Wei Wuji.
Although the King of Wei did not know them all, he had heard of their reputation.
"The prosperity of the Zhao State cannot be matched by the Wei State." After three rounds of wine, the King of Wei said with emotion.
He always thought that the Zhao State was only powerful in military strength and not as good as the Wei State in other aspects. During this trip to Handan, he discovered that the Zhao State was prosperous and had many victories over the Wei State.
"Alas, the King of Wei only saw the surface and didn't know the difficulties of our country, Zhao." Zhao Kuo shook his head.
"Oh? I wonder if King Zhao can elaborate." King Wei raised his eyebrows.
"We, Zhao and Wei, are as close as one family, and the King of Wei is my elder, so I am not satisfied with the King of Wei. Our Zhao Kingdom seems prosperous, but in fact it is just superficial. The rewards for the Battle of Changping were not given until a few days ago.
All are distributed to the soldiers. Now the autumn harvest has just passed, but our Zhao State treasury can't even get out 10 million yuan and 200,000 stones of grain and grass." Zhao Kuo sighed.
"In this case, where did Zhao get the money and food to feed so many people?" Fan Zuo asked.
"The King of Wei and the Taifu also know that our Zhao country has experienced several years of war and the people are in dire straits. As the monarch of the Zhao country, I can't ignore it, right? In order to feed these people, I can only order all the weapons of the Zhao country to be melted and minted.
Only then can we collect enough money to buy food."
"I have paid so much price, so I can't let these people have nothing to do, so I asked them to do some things for the State of Zhao, such as building roads, digging rivers and so on."
"Some time ago, I wanted to make some money, so I imitated the Qin State and implemented a salt and iron monopoly. As a result, the merchants united to fight against me. In desperation, I could only take a step back and sell the salt and iron to
They will then be sold by them." Zhao Kuo sighed and said with a sad face.