At this banquet, Du You, the Wei envoy who was visiting Qin this time, had a very unhappy meal, because he was always paying attention to King Su Zhao Hongrun beside him, for fear that His Highness Prince Su would offend the Qin people present with his words, and make the original Qin people angry. The already established alliance between Wei and Qin came to nothing.
However, what made him secretly happy was that King Qin seemed a little careless during the whole banquet. He didn't know what he was thinking about, and did not pay attention to Zhao Hongrun's cynicism towards some Xianyang nobles.
Du You had to admit that the lips and tongue of His Highness Prince Su were indeed as sharp as blades as rumored. He saw with his own eyes that several Xianyang nobles were almost vomited blood on the spot by His Highness.
After the banquet was over, a visitor came over to inform Zhao Hongrun and Du You privately, saying that King Qin had invited them to discuss matters in the small hall next to them.
Du You knew then that the real drama was coming.
On the way to the small hall next door, Du You said to Zhao Hongrun in private: "When you meet the King of Qin later, His Highness King Su must remember not to use any more provocative words."
Zhao Hongrun shook his head disapprovingly.
It is undeniable that what he just said to the Xianyang nobles in the main hall was indeed a bit blunt and unpleasant, but he did not mean to provoke the Qin people. He just wanted to teach those who extravagantly hoped to get some so-called compensation from their Wei state. They are just Xianyang nobles.
Believe me, anyone with a discerning eye can see this.
Therefore, none of the Qin ministers such as Zhao Ran, Wei Yang, Ying Hua, and Ying Bo intervened. Even when the King of Qin returned, he was thinking about his own thoughts casually and was indifferent to the cynicism of Zhao Hongrun and the Xianyang nobles at the banquet.
The alliance between Qin and Wei is a destined trend!
Therefore, no matter whether those Xianyang nobles treated Zhao Hongrun and Du You without politeness, or whether Zhao Hongrun also cynicized those Xianyang nobles without politeness, it would not affect the general trend of the alliance between Qin and Wei.
The most fundamental reason is that neither Qin nor Wei want to fight anymore.
With Que'er and Zongwei Chief Wei Jiao, Zhao Hongrun and Du You came to the small hall not far next door under the guidance of the visitor.
Taking off their boots at the entrance of the small hall, Zhao Hongrun and his party walked towards the depths of the small hall.
At this time, in this small hall, the King of Qin, Zhao Ran, the Chief of the Concubine, Wei Yang, the Chief of the Zuo Concubine, and two of the King of Qin's guards were already waiting in the hall.
"His Majesty the King of Qin." Zhao Hongrun, Du You and the others paid their respects.
Compared with the solemn appearance of King Qin when he returned to the main hall, at this time, His Majesty the King of Qin appeared more approachable. He raised his hand and said: "My nephew and your envoy, please don't be formal. Please sit down."
"Good nephew?"
A hint of surprise flashed in the eyes of Zhao Ran, Wei Yang, Du You and others.
Even Zhao Hongrun himself was full of surprise. After all, as far as he knew, the King of Qin wanted to chop off his head with his own hands a few days ago.
After sitting down in the seat, Du You took the lead in apologizing to King Qin Hui for Zhao Hongrun's rude words in the hall, in order to test King Qin Hui's attitude.
Unexpectedly, the King of Qin replied simply and said: "I don't want to hear that. What I want to hear is the actual help your country can give me, Great Qin, after Qin and Wei form an alliance."
"Isn't this... this too direct?"
Du You touched his beard, feeling really dumbfounded.
I remember that the last time he talked about the return of the King of Qin, the two sides were still using diplomatic terms that were vain and vain, but this time it was better. His Majesty the King of Qin didn't even bother to be polite.
However, this incident also made Du You more confident in promoting the alliance between Wei and Qin.
After thinking for a while, he raised his hand and said: "Your Majesty, King Qin, after the two countries form an alliance, we, the Great Wei, will also convey this matter to the three kingdoms of Qi, Lu, and Wei. We, the Great Wei, have an alliance with the three kingdoms of Qi, Lu, and Wei..."
The significance of these words is that Wei will help Qin to occupy its place in the Central Plains, so that people in the world will gradually recognize that Qin also belongs to the Central Plains.
Don't think this is a small matter. In fact, this matter is of great significance to Qin State, because only by being recognized as one of the Central Plains countries can Qin State be able to recruit talents from all over the world who have failed in their official career; otherwise, only Considering the "barbarian" impression of Qin in the minds of the world, how could those talented people defect to Qin?
"Hmm." King Qin nodded with satisfaction.
Although in this way, Qin State will most likely not be recognized by South Korea and Chu State, but if it is recognized by Wei State, Wei State, Lu State, Qi State, and Dongyue State, Qin State can barely become one of the Central Plains countries.
"... In addition, I, the Wei Dynasty, will also send craftsmen to your country to help your country improve farming harvests and try to turn wasteland into fertile soil. In addition, I will also spread the culture of the Central Plains to your country..."
Du You cited numerous examples that could assist Qin. Although scattered, it was undeniable that they were what Qin needed most.
Despite Qin's frequent foreign expansion, in fact, Qin's basic national strength is very weak, and it relies entirely on military merit and nobility to support the country's development.
However, this development is abnormal.
For example, even after a defeat, South Korea, Chu, and Wei could quickly recover because these Central Plains countries had a strong foundation and could quickly raise another army with a year's harvest.
But Qin couldn't do it.
The last time Qin State lost 200,000 Qin troops at the hands of Zhao Hongrun, the country was almost collapsed. It took three years to gather together the 100,000 troops from the East and the West, and Gongsun Qi, the Marquis of Wuxin.
Is it because Qin State lacks military resources?
How is that possible!
Thinking about the Battle of Fenghao a few days ago, Weiyang Lord Ying Hua raised nearly 100,000 tattooed troops in just ten days. How could Qin lack troops?
The fundamental reason is that the Qin State is short of food. After all, the army needs to eat food when going on an expedition.
If the Qin army continues to win, then it will naturally continue to expand like a snowball. However, if it suffers a defeat, although Qin has the ability to raise an army again, it will not be able to assemble the corresponding military rations.
This is why Weiyang Lord Ying Hua was able to summon 100,000 tattooed troops in a short period of time, but Qin Shaojun and Wu Xinhou Gongsun Qi could only bring about 200,000 troops to the expedition.
Compared with the Qin State, the Wei State expanded from 80,000 levy troops (six battalions) to more than 400,000 in the past five years. It successively established the Shangshui Army, the Yanling Army, the Zhaoling Army, the Wei Wu Army, and the Northern Army. The First Army, the Anti-Rebel Army, the Third Army of the North, and the Fifth Army of Hedong, including this time, fought against Qin, Han, Chu and other five forces at the same time. Although they were forced to have no choice, these five forces were not defeated in a short time. Wei State, why is this?
Because the Wei State has food and food, the Wei army has the confidence to go to war with these five forces - as to whether it can win, that is another question.
For the Qin State, which has a weak foundation, promoting the development of its own agriculture can well weaken the negative effects of the military merit system.
To put it bluntly, when the Qin army was defeated in foreign campaigns and could not plunder enough wealth and food, Qin also had food to feed its people and continued to provide military food to the frontline troops. This meant that the error tolerance rate of the war was increased and it would not be The country collapsed due to defeat in one or two wars.
"Good!" After listening to Du You's words, Zuo Shu Zhang Wei Yang nodded happily.
He proposed the military meritocracy system. Of course he understood the shortcomings of this system, but there was nothing he could do about it because Qin's foundation was weak.
To put it bluntly, due to low productivity, the Qin State could grow its own food as quickly and as much as it could from grabbing food from others. As a result, the Qin State continued to expand externally and plunder the wealth and food of other forces.
But the problem is that while expanding externally, the Qin people plundered more and more people, and more and more people were born in the country. This caused Qin to need more food, so Qin could only speed up the process.
The speed of external expansion.
However, this is a vicious cycle. After all, who can guarantee that the Qin army can continue to win battles?
Therefore, strengthening the country's agriculture is the most fundamental way. What is embarrassing is that Qin has a large area of vacant land, but the harvest of grain farming is very low, especially in terms of drought, flood and insect pests. A disaster can often
Leaving a large area of land barren for harvest.
If the experience of Wei State can be obtained this time, I believe Qin State's agriculture will be greatly improved.
Compared with Wei Yang, the chief concubine Zhao Ran was more concerned about Wei's military technology. He asked Du You: "Your Majesty, I don't know about the smelting technology. Can your country teach me a thing or two about Da Qin?"
"This..." Du You hesitated, not because he was worried about anything, but because he didn't have the authority in this area.
As the Minister of Rites, he can make the decision to teach Wei's culture and civilian technology to the Qin people, but he does not have this right for military technology. What's more, he actually doesn't know much about Wei's military technology.
.
Thinking of this, Du You glanced at Zhao Hongrun beside him. After all, Zhao Hongrun is in charge of the General Smelting Administration of Daliang, and the General Smelting Administration has now become the standard for military and civilian technology in Wei State. Any advanced technology is
From the General Administration of Metallurgy and Manufacturing.
Du You turned around to ask for Zhao Hongrun's actions. King Qin Hui, Zhao Ran, and Wei Yang could see it clearly, and they couldn't help but feel a little puzzled.
When Zhao Hongrun saw Du You's actions, he was stunned and speechless. He thought to himself: Isn't this Du Shangshu going to let me take the blame?
Perhaps guessing Zhao Hongrun's thoughts, Du You lowered his voice and explained: "Your Highness, when Du came, Your Majesty asked me to assist His Highness in negotiating an alliance with Qin. During the period, the decision will be made by Your Highness."
Zhao Hongrun frowned slightly, lowered his head and thought.
Suddenly, he asked: "I wonder what your country can give?"
Hearing this, the chief concubine Zhao Ran glanced at King Qin Hui, and when he saw King Qin Hui nodding his head, he said to Zhao Hongrun: "We, the Qin Dynasty, can send troops to help your country, and we can advance and retreat together!... Two hundred thousand, three hundred thousand,...
As long as there are no constraints on food and grass, the strength of troops to support Wei will not be a problem!"
"..."
Zhao Hongrun glanced at King Qin in surprise. He did not expect Qin to be so straightforward.
After thinking about it, he said to Zhao Ran: "Well, your country might as well send some craftsmen to our country, the Wei Dynasty, to work and study part-time. As for how much they can learn, it depends on them. How about it?"
King Qin looked at Zhao Ran and nodded secretly.
This is a win-win proposition: Wei has received support from Qin's craftsmen and can build more weapons, equipment and war weapons to cope with this war; and Qin's craftsmen have also gained benefits through this trip to Wei.
The valuable manufacturing experience is far more sincere than Wei just throwing a few drawings and manuscripts to Qin.
Under this situation, even though they knew that Wei would not leak top technology to Qin, King Qin Hui and Zhao Ran were very satisfied. After all, their Qin craftsmen had no experience in iron smelting.
"That's it for now. Next, let's talk about the most important thing that led to the alliance between Qin and Wei...the marriage."
Looking at Zhao Hongrun, King Qin said seriously.
To be fair, the alliance between Qin and Wei is destined to be a major trend, and whether there is a marriage or not actually does not matter much.
But it cannot be denied that marriage can make the relationship between Qin and Wei stronger.