"Xiong Tuo has already established a stable foothold in Chudong..."
After hearing the news about Xiong Tuo, Lord of Yangcheng, Zhao Hongrun summoned his staff Jie Zigui to the study.
At first, Jie Zizi didn't understand Zhao Hongrun's concerns. It wasn't until Zhao Hongrun informed Jie Zhi of the matter that Jie Zi became aware of the problem.
"...Among the princes of Chu State, only Xiong Tuo, Lord of Yangcheng, inherited the ideas of Xiong Hao, Lord of Runan. This time Xiong Tuo takes charge of Chudong, he will definitely try to implement the decrees of Lord Xiong Hao of Runan. When the time comes, The Chu State has swept away its previous weakness and become unprecedentedly powerful..." As he said this, Zhao Hongrun frowned deeply, and it was obvious that he was quite afraid of this.
Jie Ziyu pondered for a moment after hearing this, and after a while he sighed with emotion: "Your Highness, you really shouldn't raise tigers to cause trouble... Since you have already noticed the threat of Xiong Tuo, Lord of Yangcheng, you should eliminate it to eliminate future troubles."
Although Jie Ziyu is from Chu, since he has defected to Wei and is loyal to Su Wang Zhao Hongrun, he naturally wants to share the worries of his lord and consider Wei.
Hearing this, Zhao Hongrun smiled bitterly and then glanced outside the room.
Outside the house, the servants in the house were still busy with their wedding in a few months.
"Could it be because of Mrs. Mi Jiang?" Jie Ziyu looked astonished.
Zhao Hongrun shook his head and said: "That's just one of them, the more important thing is... I didn't expect Xiong Tuo to have the strength to take over Chudong so quickly."
Indeed, as the saying goes, plans cannot keep up with changes. Zhao Hongrun originally intended to support Yangcheng Lord Xiong Tuo and let him compete with Guling Lord Xiong Wu and Liyang Lord Xiong Sheng for the throne. He was not sincere in the first place. He just wanted to provoke the princes of Chu State. of civil strife.
Unexpectedly, Shouling Lord Jingshe's million-strong army was defeated at Yongqiu of Wei State. Xiong Tuo, Lord of Yangcheng, saw the weakness of Chu Dong and immediately led his army to seize power in Chu East.
In this regard, Zhao Hongrun was beyond his reach.
He only calculated that Xiong Tuo, Lord of Yangcheng, would not be able to enter and leave Chudong in a short period of time, but he did not expect that Chudong would become unprecedentedly weak because of the defeat of Lord Shouling Jingshe.
Looking at Zhao Hongrun's expression of sadness, Jie Ziu thought for a while and said with relief: "Your Highness, please rest assured. I see that Xiong Tuo has just seized some power in Chudong for the time being, but it does not mean that he can take over the throne." .......Leaving aside Liyang Lord Xiong Sheng, Guling Lord Xiong Wu’s biological mother is the Queen of Chu, and with the backing of the "Jilian Family", she will not let Xiong Tuo occupy the throne easily..."
"I hope so."
Zhao Hongrun nodded slightly.
Seeing this, Jie Ziyu said with a smile: "Your Highness, why don't you try to contact Xiong Wu or Xiong Sheng?"
Zhao Hongrun laughed when he heard this and said: "That means we are treating Xiong Wu and Xiong Sheng as fools...it will not succeed."
He knew what Jie Zigu meant, and it was nothing more than changing the object of support, but Zhao Hongrun felt that this was too obvious: he originally strongly supported Xiong Tuo, the king of Yangcheng, and could use Mi Jiang's relationship as an excuse, but now he suddenly changed his support. The target, I believe even a fool can see that he is deliberately messing up the struggle for the throne of those Chu princes.
Not to mention Liyang Jun Xiong Sheng, a well-known Chu Gongzi, even Guling Jun Xiong Wu could probably guess Zhao Hongrun's intention.
"So what if you guessed it? Are Xiong Wu and Xiong Shenghui willing to give up the throne to Xiong Tuo?" Jie Ziyu said sharply.
Zhao Hongrun thought carefully for a moment after hearing the words. It was undeniable that Jie Ziu's words did make some sense, but after thinking about it again, he felt that this matter was not reliable.
What if Xiong Wu or Xiong Sheng, who sees through his purpose, opens his mouth and asks for a lot of armaments, money and food? Will he give it to him then?
Furthermore, in order to disrupt the fight for the throne among the princes of Chu, he changed his previous decision to support Xiong Tuo and instead supported Xiong Wu and Xiong Sheng. If the latter succeeded, it would not be a loss, but if the latter two failed, Not only does he hate Yangcheng Lord Xiong Tuo, but it may also affect his relationship with Mi Jiang.
This is such a loss.
Thinking of this, Zhao Hongrun shook his head and said: "Forget it, conspiracies and intrigues are all heresy after all. Even if the Chu State becomes stronger because of Xiong Tuo, the king of Yangcheng, as long as our Wei Dynasty is more powerful than him, the Chu State has nothing to fear! "
"Your Highness is wise!" Jie Zigui praised him with his hands raised.
After a few compliments, Jie Ziu mentioned the envoys from the Chu State again: "This time the Chu State sent envoys and took the initiative to pay war compensation. This is really unexpected..."
Zhao Hongrun picked up the tea cup and took a sip, and said calmly: "There is nothing unexpected. It's just that I, the Wei Dynasty, are afraid of retaliating."
When he said this, his eyes flashed a few times inadvertently.
As Yangcheng Jun Xiong Tuo guessed, if this war had not put Wei into an embarrassment of money and food shortages, Zhao Hongrun actually intended to lead his army to counterattack Chu - millions of Chu troops attacked Wei territory, and Di Yang Junxiong The troops under Shang's command were killing, burning, and looting in Wei's territory. This did not mean that Chu was defeated and the hatred was over.
Zhao Hongrun had no inclination to send troops to Song County. Firstly, Song County was too weak and he could not mobilize his strength. Secondly, Song County was not considered a real enemy.
If you want to fight, you must fight Chu!
It would be best to kidnap a few million people back from Chu State.
After winning the war, plundering the wealth of Chu's nobles, collecting the war compensation given by Chu after the war, in addition to abducting millions of Chu people to willingly defect to Wei - looking at all the countries in the Central Plains, which country can Is Chu State so 'generous'?
Therefore, seeing that the imperial court was delaying in sending letters of credence condemning and claiming compensation to the Chu State, Zhao Hongrun supported it: when the Wei State got over this period, he would be the first to attack the Chu State!
Unexpectedly, the State of Chu was so "sensible" that it took the initiative to send envoys to deliver letters of credence acknowledging the defeat and willing to pay war compensation to Wei State. This really made Zhao Hongrun feel a little regretful.
After all, no matter how hard you extort someone, it won't be enough to steal all their wealth directly.
But the problem is that Chu State has taken the initiative to admit defeat this time. If Wei State refuses to give up, it will be too much.
At this time, Jie Ziyu also held the tea cup and frowned and said: "The Chu State took the initiative to submit its credentials to admit its defeat. This means that the Chu State does not want to have bad relations with the Wei Dynasty in a short time. It seems that the Chu State is planning to surrender to the Wei Dynasty." Qi State took action..."
Zhao Hongrun nodded with deep understanding.
I think that when King Lu Xi of Qi was still alive, Chu State would never dare to take the initiative to start a war with Qi State. Therefore, Chu State regarded Wei State as the target of external expansion. But now, Wei State has risen strongly, making Chu State unable to Dare to compete, but Qi lost the wise king Lu Xi of Qi, and then fell into civil strife with princes competing for the throne. It was inevitable that Chu would covet him.
The reason why the State of Chu did not attack the State of Lu or the State of Yue was because in the eastern part of the Central Plains, the former "Three Kingdoms Alliance of Qi, Lu, Song, Song Dynasty" had been replaced by the "Three Kingdoms Alliance of Qi, Lu, Yue". Qi State was still the leader of this alliance, and was still Is the most powerful one among them.
If the Chu State takes the lead in attacking the Lu State or the Yue State, then after the Qi State slows down, Chu State may lose all its previous advantages. In this case, it is better to attack the Qi State first.
If they lie down, there will be no threat to Lu and Yue.
What's more important is that if Chu takes action against Qi this year or in the first half of next year, Wei may not be able to send troops to help Qi until the problem of Song County is solved. At most, Chen Bing will fight against Wei and Chuxi.
Border, this is not a problem for the Chu State - even if the poor and backward Chuxi is invaded by the Wei State, what will happen? Seventy percent of the Chu State's wealth is concentrated in Chudong.
"well."
Regarding this situation, Zhao Hongrun was at a loss to do anything. He could only hope that his sixth brother Ji Zhao, who was far away in Qi State, would calm down the civil strife in the country as soon as possible and resist the threat from Chu State. After all, even if there was some friendship between Wei State and Qi State, they would not
We will fully support Qi State regardless of personal gain, unless there are signs that Qi State may be annexed by Chu State.
Therefore, the affairs of Qi State must be resolved by the people of Qi State themselves.
A few days later, the Chu State's envoys negotiated an armistice treaty with the Wei State's Ministry of Rites, and changed the "hostile" stance of the two countries to "neutral" in the form of payment of war compensation. In the final analysis, it was to spend money to buy off Wei State.
It was just a "reason" to send troops to Chu.
In this era where justifiable reasons are needed to justifiably wage war against other countries, although Chu State lost a lot of money, it was still worth it.
Otherwise, when Zhao Hongrun leads his troops to the Chu Kingdom next year, the losses may be more than this. As for the amount of compensation, Zhao Hongrun sent Zongwei Gao Kuo to the Ministry of Rites to inquire about it. It was really a big deal for him and the court.
An amount that cannot be refused.
Regarding this, Zhao Hongrun muttered secretly: Xiong Tuo, Lord of Yangcheng, really knows how to be generous to others.
Needless to say, Chu's war compensation must have been collected by the nobles of Eastern Chu. Xiong Tuo, the king of Yangcheng, used this to weaken the financial resources of the nobles of Eastern Chu, and on the other hand, he reached an armistice agreement with Wei.
This enhances the reputation and the business is really profitable.
Unfortunately, although this war compensation is valuable, most of it is gold, silver, pearls, copper mines, bronzes, jade, jade and other dead objects. For the Wei State who is currently waiting for rice and grain to be put into the pot, it is not worth it.
If it cannot solve the urgent need, the most it can do is to temporarily pile it up in the treasury. Only when the domestic market returns to its original prosperity in the future can it gradually flow to the market and create profits.
In mid-June, just after the envoys from Chu State left Daliang, the capital of King Wei, Daliang welcomed envoys from South Korea.
In this regard, Zhao Hongrun felt very puzzled, because the armistice agreement between South Korea and Wei had been signed a month ago, so why did South Korea send envoys here again?
After sending someone to inquire, Zhao Hongrun learned that the purpose of these Korean envoys was to send a Korean princess to Daliang. It was said that this Korean princess was Han Wangran's cousin, "Raoyang Hou Han Mang"
The youngest daughter, only fifteen years old, has a beautiful face and is well-known in Korea.
After hearing the news, Zongwei Mu Qing smiled and teased Zhao Hongrun: "Your Highness, is it possible that South Korea also intends to marry you? Haha, there are three princesses."
However, after hearing Mu Qing's words, Zhao Hongrun's expression changed slightly.
You must know that at this time, South Korea had already learned about his marriage to Zhao Hongrun, Princess Yingying of Qin, and Mi Jiang, daughter of Chu Runan Lord Xiong Hao, and would definitely not be shameless and send another princess for marriage - even if it was a defeated country.
South Korea also needs face.
Take Qin as an example. If Qin Shaojun's identity was not embarrassing, how would Qin allow its own princess to be Zhao Hongrun's child?
Then things are obvious.
In the Kingdom of Wei, there is now only one unmarried prince left.
That is, his younger brother, King Huan Zhao Hongxuan.