Xu Ying took Wei's letter of willingness to go to war and came to Liguo, which was adjacent to Wei.
Duke Li was very surprised by the arrival of Prime Minister Mu, and became even more puzzled when he saw Xu Ying taking out Wei's letter of willingness to go to war.
Xu Ying explained this: "Ying was sent as an envoy to the state of Wei. He listened to the Duke of Wei's words and thought deeply about it. The Duke said:
This summer, the Qu State bullied the weak Mu State and raised an army to attack, causing nearly fifty thousand casualties in the Mu State. This was unkind;
Quguo and Liguo were related by marriage, but they held the prince of Liguo hostage, which was unjust;
As a vassal state of Daxia, Qu State sent troops to attack Xia Yinzhou, Chengyang County and other places. It was ambitious and disloyal;
After Duke Qu succeeded to the throne, he placed the old Duke in a side palace and ignored him. This was unfilial.
Such an unkind, unjust, unfaithful and unfilial person should be punished by everyone in the world. But now, both Daxia and we are afraid of the power of the Qu country and dare not speak out in anger.
The Duke of Wei was deeply saddened by this. Qu's country was arrogant and domineering, and its ambitions were so obvious that it led to the collapse of etiquette and the collapse of music. How could such traitors be allowed to continue to grow.
Therefore, the Duke of Wei has sent a special order to come to ask for a battle, asking the Duke to join forces with Wei to support the world's righteousness and send troops to attack the rebellious ministers and traitors of Ziqu State.
Although Qu's country is powerful, the evil in Qu's country is hated by the people of the world. If everyone in the world works together to fight against it, Qu's country will surely suffer so much that it will not dare to be arrogant again.
The Duke of Wei wants to join forces with Li, Chen, and Jing. As long as the forces of the four countries gather together, the Qu State will be defeated. In this way, the Qu State will definitely sue for peace, and you, the Duke of Wei, can take this opportunity to return the Qu State to the crown prince of Li State.
"
Duke Li frowned. Wei's letter of willingness to go to war was indeed written by Duke Wei. It was also stamped with the national seal and could not be false.
And what Xu Ying said is indeed tempting. Although Xia's situation is over, he is still the emperor on the surface. But even so, the Qu State does not care about etiquette at all, and does not hide its ambitions. It can be guessed that if it is really allowed to continue,
The Qu country will definitely annex other countries forcefully next. By then, it will be too late to stop it.
With the Wei State taking the lead and the four countries joining forces, the Qu State will undoubtedly be defeated. Regardless of whether there is a war or not, Li Guo will be able to get his crown prince back.
So Li Guogong signed the letter of intention and stamped it with the national seal in front of the court, and agreed to join forces to send troops.
Xu Ying, on the other hand, continued to bring the letter of wish and went to the third country, Chen State.
Because of the joining of the two great powers Wei and Li, and the old grievances between Chen and Qu, it was easy to persuade Chen.
As for Jingguo, three countries have already joined. Even if they don't send troops, they won't be able to get the gratitude of the country. In this case, why not join, which will not only suppress the country of Qu, but also gain the benefits of suing for peace, so I agreed.
As a result, the agreement for the four countries to join forces to conquer Qu State was completed. On Xu Ying's way back to Mu State, the four countries communicated with each other, gathered their armies, and marched towards Qu State.
At the same time, Zhou Ye of Qu State was also leading his troops and quietly heading towards Daxia Yinzhou. He wanted to wait until the Yinzhou army marched towards Mu State, and then capture Yinzhou by surprise.
...
When Cao Shen heard that the letter was from the capital, he felt bad. He had even guessed what the letter said.
He was unwilling to send troops to Mu, but that did not mean that the capital would not order him to send troops. In fact, Cao Shen had been waiting anxiously. But today, the order finally came.
Cao Shen straightened his clothes and quickly left the house, came to the letter soldiers, took the letter and folded it solemnly, and saw that he was indeed ordered to send troops immediately.
There was an order from the capital, and Cao Shen had to summon all the soldiers to discuss the matter of dispatching troops. However, the march route had not been finalized yet, but the Yamen servant hurriedly came to report with a letter stamped with the seal of the state pastor.
Cao Shen saw the stamp on the envelope and hesitated for a moment, but finally let others discuss it first, and then took the letter to the back room.
The envelope was very thin, but Cao Shen seemed a little weak. He took a few deep breaths before carefully opening the envelope.
Familiar calligraphy, even though he had never seen the child's handwriting, he still recognized it at a glance because the handwriting was obviously somewhat similar to his own.
At the beginning of the letter, there are only three words "Master Cao".
Cao Shen snorted angrily, "He's as stubborn as a donkey."
Then he read the contents of the letter. However, the more he read, the tighter Cao Shen's brows became. He stared angrily at the letter in his hand, his face twisted with anger.
After seeing the end of the letter, Cao Shen even rubbed the letter and threw it on the ground. He opened his mouth as if he wanted to curse, but he had to swallow it because there were people outside.
The room was quiet, and the voices of discussions outside could be clearly heard. Cao Shen gasped for air, and after a while, he stood up holding on to the chair frame, but felt dizzy.
He held the tabletop and knocked over the teacup at hand. Tea was poured all over the table, and the teacup rolled to the edge of the table. Finally, there was a crisp "ping-pong" sound, which shocked everyone in the outer hall into silence.
Soon, Wei Cunyang, a military officer, ran in and asked urgently: "Sir, what's wrong?"
Cao Shen's hands were still shaking a little. He rubbed his temples and waved his hands, "It's nothing. I accidentally knocked over the cup."
Wei Cunyang said "Oh", turned around and went out to ask the maid to clean it up. Cao Shen was quiet for a while, then picked up the crumpled letter on the ground, put it in his arms and walked out.
"Sir." Others looked at him one after another.
Cao Shen said calmly: "You guys can discuss it first." Then he strode away without further explanation.
Several people at the scene looked at each other in confusion, and Wei Cunyang even muttered, "What's going on?"
Everyone else shook their heads, but one person guessed: "I'm afraid it's something that was mentioned in the letter just now."
Wei Cunyang pondered for a moment, then focused on the map on the table, "It can be at least half a month faster by walking from the north..."
...
Xu Sanniang was washing clothes in the yard when she suddenly heard a knock on the door. She stood up, wiped her hands on the hem of her clothes, then opened the door and asked, "Who is it?"
There was no sound outside the door. Xu Sanniang walked to the door and asked warily: "Who is it?"
After a while, I heard a deep voice reply: "It's me."
When Xu Sanniang heard the voice, her face was surprised. After hesitating for a moment, she smoothed her messy hair around her temples and opened the courtyard door.
A figure quickly flashed into the courtyard as the door opened. Xu Sanniang glanced at the person, then looked out again and saw no one in the alley, so she closed the courtyard door again.
Turning around, she walked towards the washtub again, her voice neither salty nor bland, "What are you doing here? How did you know I'm here?"
Cao Shen snorted, "The whole Yinzhou belongs to me, where else can you hide?"
Xu Sanniang was not angry either. She sat down again and said calmly while doing the laundry: "I didn't hide, why should I hide? It's you, why should you ask where I live? What does it have to do with you?"
Cao Shen was so angry that he clenched his fists, gritted his teeth and asked word by word: "I don't want to argue with you, you just need to tell me, where is Xu Ying now?"
－－－－－－Digression－－－－－
Thank you for the sweet reward from "Worker Without Holidays", okay? Also, have you guessed it? Haha, regarding Xu Ying's identity, there was actually a little foreshadowing before, I don't know if you still remember: Shi'an went to Zhang Dongli
When he was a guest at home, he received a hairpin from the Prefecture Mufu. At that time, Cao Shen didn't know that there was a person like Shi'an, so it couldn't have been given by Cao Shen. In fact, the hairpin was given by Xu Ying, and he was worried that Shi'an would
The child was bullied by those officials, so he used the name of the State Mufu to support Shi'an.