Two months later, Han envoy Zhao Zhuo returned to Jicheng, the capital of South Korea, and returned to Han Wangran.
"According to the king's instructions, Han Chao stayed in Daliang and tried to find out information for our country. However, the Wei State was on guard against him. I think there will be no results in a short period of time."
Han Wangran nodded when he heard the words. He also knew that Han Chao stayed in Daliang, the royal capital of the Wei State, as the "Han Envoy to Wei", so he was bound to be monitored by the Wei State. But what was different from the ordinary work was that in Daliang
In this era, envoys from other countries have more or less privileges. Take Han Chao as an example, as long as he does not anger
King Zhao Run of Wei, even if Wei officials find out that Han Chao is using the identity of an envoy to do some secret work, spying on their Wei State intelligence, for the sake of the envoy, they will basically not embarrass Han Chao, even if Han Chao
If he went too far, the Wei court basically only gave him a stern verbal warning.
This is different from Qi Shi Tian Hu, who was ordered to be executed by Zhao Run. That Qi Shi Tian Hu was simply seeking death on his own and could not blame others.
"That's okay. According to my inference, in the next three to five years, Wei will not take any action easily..."
According to the news sent back by South Korea's detailed work, Han Wangran learned that Wei State was currently sparing no effort to carry out domestic construction, and various signs showed that it would not use troops externally for at least three to five years. This made him feel relieved, but inevitably a little wary.
Obviously, the current Wei State is accumulating resources and digesting previous benefits. A country that can still endure loneliness after gaining absolute advantage and hide its capabilities and bide its time to accumulate resources is really terrifying - because it will explode when the time comes.
When it comes out, it will be even scarier than it is now.
"Have you met Zhao Run? What has he been doing recently?"
After asking about some news about the Kingdom of Wei, Han Wangran couldn't help but ask about the current situation of Wei King Zhao Run.
"Still as diligent in serving the country as before." Zhao Zhuo simply told Han Wangran what he saw with his own eyes.
Han Wangran nodded. On the one hand, he secretly encouraged himself, but on the other hand, he also felt an inexplicable feeling of sympathy.
The person he admired most in his life, apart from King Jian of Han, was probably the King of Wei, Zhao Run, who was about the same age as him. Although it was said that the new king of Qi, Lu Bai, was also a quite intelligent and wise monarch, in Han Wangran's view, only
The king of Wei, Zhao Runcai, was worthy of spending his whole life chasing after him.
"By the way, Your Majesty, when I returned home, the King of Wei also entrusted me to deliver a letter to your Majesty."
With that said, Zhao Zhuo took out the letter from his arms and handed it to Han Wangran.
"Zhao Run? Do you have a letter for me?"
Han Wangran was a little surprised. He took the letter, opened it and glanced at it twice. He frowned slightly at first, but soon an inexplicable smile appeared on his face.
Zhao Zhuo looked on curiously and couldn't help but ask: "Your Majesty, I wonder what King Wei wrote in the letter?"
"Haha." Han Wangran smiled but said nothing.
In fact, not all of what Zhao Run wrote in the letter was good. There was also a lot of satire on South Korea's imitation of Wei's reform measures. However, in the eyes of Han Wangran, these satires seemed to be praise - the famous Wei
Wang Zhaorun had no choice but to ridicule him by writing letters to him. What is this if not praise?
Han Wangran felt happy when he thought that Zhao Run might be quite afraid of him.
What could be more satisfying than being feared by an opponent he recognized?
After thinking for a while, Han Wangran asked: "I heard that Zhao Run's concubine "Qin Ji" is about to give birth?"
The "Qin Ji" he refers to refers to Qin Shaojun - but the world still only knows that she is the princess of Qin, but they don't know that she is also pretending to be the prince of Qin.
Zhao Zhuo was stunned for a moment, then thought for a moment and said, "Probably...it must have been within the past few months."
After hearing this, Han Wangran said with a smile: "I will prepare a congratulatory gift for you to take to the Kingdom of Wei to celebrate Zhao Run's birth of another child... When the time comes, I will give you another letter, and you can deliver it on my behalf.
Give it to Zhao Run."
"..."
Zhao Zhuo opened his mouth with a strange expression.
He said to himself, after all, I am a well-known messenger, not a messenger sending letters back and forth between the two kings. Can you give me a more meaningful task?
However, he did not say what was in his heart in the end, or he felt that not everyone was honored to be the messenger for correspondence between the two monarchs, King Zhao Run of Wei and King Han Ran of Han - after all, these two were both recognized by Zhao Zhuo.
The respected king of the world.
After that, Han Wangran asked some more about the situation in Wei.
Zhao Zhuo recalled while replying: "According to my own eyes, there has not been much movement in Wei State recently, but something seems to have happened in the neighboring Wei State..."
With that said, he told Han Wangran exactly how Wei Wangfei and Wei Gongziyu had turned against each other, and how Wei Gongziyu died unfortunately. Han Wangran was quite surprised when he heard this.
"Wei Yu...did he show up soon when the Wei State held a "meeting" in Daliang last year? You and Han Chao told me at that time that he was also a quite outstanding leader."
"That's right." Zhao Zhuo said with emotion: "Although Wei Yu is not as good as the King of Wei, he still enjoys a high prestige in his country. I am also very surprised that such an outstanding leader died unexpectedly...
By the way, Your Majesty, it is said that Wei Yu is also the cousin of King Wei."
Hearing this, Han Wangran glanced at Zhao Zhuo, thought for a moment and asked, "What is Zhao Run's attitude towards this?"
As if guessing Han Wangran's thoughts, Zhao Zhuo replied: "The King of Wei adopted Wei Yu's children, and other than that, he never interfered in the internal affairs of the Wei Kingdom... However, because of Wei Yu's death, the people of Wei seemed to
I was quite disappointed with the King of Wei, so when I and others were on envoys to Daliang, I often heard that people from Wei were trekking and moving to the territory of Wei."
"Is it just the adopted child of Wei Yu..."
Han Wangran murmured in surprise.
Because in his opinion, the Wei State could take this opportunity to annex the Wei State in disguise - that is, support Wei Yu's youngest son Wei Yun to become the King of Wei, and gradually merge the Wei State into the territory of the Wei State.
"Is it because "Wei" is a vassal state and it is difficult to attack? Or is it because of other reasons?"
Han Wangran secretly guessed in his heart.
But having said that, this is just to satisfy Han Wangran's own curiosity. After all, Wei State is a vassal state of Wei State. Even if this country declines to the point of extreme decline, Han Wangran will never have any evil thoughts towards Wei State - because in his opinion
Come on, Wei Guo is the piece of meat that rotted in Wei Guo's pot. If anyone wants to use chopsticks against Wei Guo, then they may have to face the wrath of Wei Guo.
The general direction in Han Wangran's mind right now is Donghu in the north and Qi in the eastern part of the Central Plains!
The reason why the Donghu tribe was chosen is that South Korea needs a large number of war horses. After all, the war with Wei in recent years has caused South Korea to lose a large number of cavalry and war horses. Now, whether it is to restore cavalry or follow the example of Wei in
War horses are needed to lay track and carriages in the country. When there is a shortage of war horses in the country, Han Wangran will of course think of the foreign races on the northern grasslands.
Of course, using force is the last resort. If Donghu is willing to reconcile with South Korea and start trade with them, Han Wangran will also be willing to trade excellent war horses in a peaceful way. After all, the current general trend is that the Central Plains is strong and the grasslands are weak. Han Wangran will not
He is not afraid that his move to expand trade with Donghu will make those grassland aliens stronger.
As for the Qi State in the eastern part of the Central Plains, the reason is even simpler: for money!
You must know that some time ago, the state of Qi spent tens of millions of money to recruit martial arts warriors to fight against the Chu army. It really shocked the world and allowed the world to truly appreciate the financial resources of the state of Qi. In this world, there are really people who can rely on wealth.
A country that can win a national war by force.
Of course, conquering Qi does not mean that you must use the army. If you can use diplomacy to promote "the exchange of supplies between Han and Qi", this is also a strategy.
After losing Shangdang, they also lost southern Handan. Even Handan, the old royal capital, fell into the hands of the Wei State. South Korea is really short of money at present. The lack of money here does not mean that it is short of money.
There is a lack of real copper coins.
I still remember that after the third Wei-Korean Battle of Northern Frontier, South Korea lost the battle and had to pay a large sum of money to Wei. However, in this case, Lihou Hanwu still exhausted the treasury and built five
Bandai County's decision to reload the cavalry once plunged South Korea into an embarrassing situation similar to an economic crisis.
How did South Korea solve this problem at that time?
It's very simple, that is, a large amount of materials were exchanged for copper from the Wei State, and then the domestic nobles and families minted copper coins privately. In this way, the losses of the domestic noble class were passed on to the common people.
It is precisely for this reason that the later Korean court still had funds to support Daijun's heavy cavalry, and the domestic aristocracy still had money to squander, but it was a misery for the common people in the country, with a bunch of messy copper coins, good and bad, but
Can't buy what they want.
As a wise king with outstanding vision, Han Wangran would certainly not do anything like Lihou Han Wu who passed on the losses of the country and the losses of the nobility to the common people. He hoped to make the country rich and strong with the help of trade flow like Wei did.
Therefore, in addition to Wei, Qi was also included in South Korea's choices.
In addition, he also intended to secretly contact Qi State and sign an alliance with Qi State specifically to target Wei State. After all, Wei State had gradually become so powerful that it was making it difficult for other countries to sleep and eat.
A few days later, the Zhongqing of South Korea, "Kai Kaidi", followed Han Wangran's order and went to Qi as an envoy.
Around April, waiting for the Han envoy to come to Linzi, the capital of Qi State.
After seeing the prosperity and liveliness of Linzi, he opened his mouth and said in surprise: "I heard that Qi State has become increasingly depressed since the death of King Xi of Qi. I never thought that Linzi is still as lively as before."
In fact, he didn't know that there was a reason why Linzi became lively again: although the war between Qi and Chu was over, the hundreds of thousands or more martial arts warriors had not yet left Qi.
.These martial arts warriors from various countries in the Central Plains and the mainland of Qi State, because of the war between Qi and Chu, received a large sum of money from the Qi State court. With their money bags full, they stimulated the Linzi market.
This made Linzi glow again, as prosperous and lively as in the past.
Otherwise, in normal terms, Qi State's Linzi has gradually been surpassed by Wei State's Bolangsha Port City.
The next day, the Korean envoy openly asked to see King Lu Bai of Qi. After presenting his credentials, he agreed to the request of Qi and Han to communicate with each other.
If it had been more than ten or twenty years ago, the arrogant Qi people might not have accepted this kind of equal transaction requirement. Even a few years ago, there were still many Qi people who refused to face reality until the last time they returned to Chu.
The state declared war on Qi, and the state of Qi was almost attacked by the Chu army all the way to Beihai County, and almost fell. This made the Qi people who once thought so highly of themselves gradually put away their pride.
It has to be said that when the Qi State was finally willing to face up to its status as a Qi State, the Korean envoy Kai Kaidi established trade relations with the Qi State without any extra effort, and privately formed a business relationship with the Qi State.
became an alliance.
There is only one article in the treaty, that is, if South Korea or Qi is attacked by Wei, the other country shall provide unconditional support.
For the State of Qi, the arrival of the Han envoy Kaidai was only expected. Therefore, Qi Wangbai, Zhao Zhao, Tian Bao, Guan Zhong, Bao Shu and others were meeting with the Han envoy Kaikaidi on behalf of Han Wangran.
After reaching an agreement, they once again invested their energy in Weiguo, or in other words, in Dongjun, which was invaded by Weiguo in the last war.
According to the news learned by Qi State, Wei Gong Ziyu, who invaded Qi State's East County in the last war, seemed to have died unfortunately after the civil war in Wei State. This person's death directly led to the decline of Wei State - among them
The most critical thing is that the "Eastern Army" under Wei Yu's command during his lifetime seems to have been disbanded.
The disbandment of the Eastern Army made the defense force of Dongjun, including Wuyan County, very weak.
Therefore, after repelling the Chu army, King Lu Bai of Qi summoned his ministers to brainstorm to see if there was a chance to regain Dongjun from the Wei State.
During this period, Qi State's Right Prime Minister Tian Tao pointedly pointed out: Even though Qi State suffered heavy losses after experiencing the war with Chu State, it could still capture the Wei State that had lost Wei Gong Ziyu and was declining day by day. However,
To recapture Dongjun, we need to take Wei's attitude into consideration. After all, Wei is still a vassal state of Wei.
If the State of Wei thinks that Qi State's action of asking Wei State to take back Dongjun does not bring face to the State of Wei, then it would be better to shelve the matter for the time being.
However, Wei State's attitude is that Wei State will definitely not agree to Qi State's return of Dongjun, at least not expressly agree to it. This is beyond doubt.
But in this case, Guan Zhong offered his advice: "It is better to send someone to negotiate with King Wei... As far as I know, King Wei and his son Wei Yu are not on good terms. When Wei Yu raised troops to attack Dongjun in our country, King Wei once said
I disagree. Nowadays, everyone knows that King Fei of Wei and his son Wei Yu are at odds with each other, and they also think that King Fei of Wei harmed his son Wei Yu in order to keep the throne. Since it is not the best, why don't we morally help King Fei of Wei?
In exchange for King Wei’s fee, how about returning Dongjun to me, Da Qi?”
This strategy stunned everyone in the palace.
After a long time, Shangqing Gao Xi said worriedly: "With the Kingdom of Wei here, does King Wei need my support from Daqi?"
After hearing this, Tian Ba, the Right Prime Minister, said seriously: "Master Gao Xi is unaware of something. As far as I know, Wei and Wei have not been in harmony recently."
As he spoke, he briefly told the story of King Zhao Run of Wei adopting Wei Yu's children, and explained: "It is said that Wei Yu was King Wei's cousin. After Wei Yu died unfortunately, King Wei adopted Wei Yu's children.
, but he did not express any attitude towards King Wei Fei's continued governance of Wei. It can be seen that King Wei is also dissatisfied with King Wei Fei, and may not necessarily support King Wei... In this case, I
Da Qi’s support for King Wei Fei is extremely precious.”
After hearing this, everyone in the palace looked at Zuo Xiang Zhao Zhao, only to see the latter nodding and saying: "Wei Yu is indeed the cousin of King Wei, and the two cousins had a pretty good relationship in the past... According to
From Zhao's point of view, there is no harm in giving this a try, and I hope we can regain Dongjun without using weapons."
Seeing that everyone was unanimous, Qi Wangbai summoned Feng Xuan, a scholar who had just returned home, to entrust the matter.
When Feng Xuan heard about this, he smiled and said: "Don't worry, Your Majesty, this matter will be taken care of by me."
After that, he went to defend the country as an envoy with full confidence.
It is very convenient to take a boat from Linzi to Puyang, the capital of the Wei Kingdom. It only takes a few days whether you take the river or the Lianglu Canal.
However, in order to inspect the current situation in Dongjun, Feng Chen got off the boat in the waters of Dongjun and secretly observed Dongjun, which was now occupied by Weiguo, so it took him a few more days.
According to what Feng Xuan learned in the Dongjun area, after Prince Wei Yu led the Eastern Army to capture Dongjun, not only did he not neglect the construction of Dongjun, but he also built many workshops and widened the roads.
Everything is an effort for Weiguo to completely rule Dongjun.
However, after Wei Yu's death, those projects came to a standstill. The craftsmen originally summoned by Wei Yu dispersed one after another. Coupled with the disbandment of the Eastern Army, not only did the defense force of Dongjun now be extremely weak, but even
Even the security seems to be unsatisfactory.
This made Feng Chen very surprised. Didn't King Wei Fei have the slightest desire to make the country strong?
Otherwise, why leave Dongjun alone?
Of course, this is not a bad thing for Qi State. No, Feng Xuan has gained a little more confidence in persuading King Fei of Wei.
A few days later, Feng Chen visited Puyang, the capital of King Wei.
King Fei of Wei was surprised by the arrival of Qi envoy Feng Xuan. After all, in the last war, Wei and Qi had a clear-cut stance on how to deal with the enemy and ourselves, and the prince Wei Yu also led the Eastern Army to capture Qi.
It is really hard to imagine that Qi State would send an envoy here.
When meeting the Qi envoy Feng Xuan, King Fei of Wei asked about the former's purpose of coming.
Of course, Feng Xuan couldn't directly express that he came to get back Dongjun, so he said euphemistically: "In recent days, people from Dongjun have fled to Linzi from time to time. Our monarch is very guilty when he learns that, if your country cannot treat our people well,
, I sincerely ask your country to allow the people of Dongjun to move to Linzi."
These words made Wei Wangfei very embarrassed.
After all, if all the countries in the world capture another country's city, even if they may let their soldiers be strong at first, they will manage it well after that. Otherwise, what would you do if you capture this city?
But on the Wei side, King Fei of Wei really forgot about Dongjun - in fact, he did not agree with the young master Wei Yu's attack on Dongjun from the beginning.
Feng Chen, who was good at observing people's words and emotions, noticed the embarrassment on King Fei's face and determined that the King of Wei might have forgotten about Dongjun - this showed that Wei Fei had no desire to possess Dongjun at all.
In view of this situation, he promptly proposed that if the Wei State was willing to return Dongjun, the Qi State would be willing to donate a sum of money as a thank you.
Hearing this, King Wei Fei's heart skipped a beat.
For a king with great ambitions, every piece of land is a battleground, but for King Fei of Wei, a monarch who has no ambitions and only knows about enjoyment, the larger the country's territory, the greater the burden.
——After all, you have to spend energy and money to manage it, right?
But now I heard that in exchange for Dongjun, I could get a large sum of money from Qi, which inevitably made King Wei feel tempted.
I have to say that although King Fei of Wei may look dull, he is still quite shrewd when it comes to money matters. Maybe he also guessed that Qi State wanted to regain Dongjun, so he was ready to take the opportunity to knock Qi State away.
Pen.
Anyway, Qi State has money!
Thinking of this, he asked Feng Chen with a smile: "I wonder how much money your country is willing to pay in exchange for the huge Dongjun?"
As the most famous lobbyist in Qi State, how could Feng Xuan not understand what King Wei Fei was saying? Hearing this, he smiled and said: "I think it will definitely satisfy King Wei."
However, at this point, he changed his tone and said in a pretense of bewilderment: "By the way, when Feng came to Puyang, he heard that the people of your country were very resentful towards you, King Wei. Some people even pointed out that you, King Wei, are jealous of the young master.
Yu was a virtuous person, so he harmed him, but he didn’t know..."
"This is pure nonsense!"
Before Feng Xuan could finish speaking, Wei Wang Fei blushed and denied.
In fact, he has heard a lot of similar rumors in recent days, and what makes him most uneasy is that there has never been any response from Wei State - if the current Wei King Zhao Run can speak out to support him,
He will never be harmed by such negative public opinion.
Seeing that King Wei Fei seemed a little excited, Feng Xuan said with a smile: "Feng also believes that this matter is pure nonsense. His Majesty King Wei is also a virtuous monarch in the world. How could he do something jealous of the prince's talent and kill him?"
What's the reason for the harm? Even if the tiger's poison does not eat its seeds, how much more benevolent and virtuous as His Majesty the King of Wei?... Feng felt that the King of Wei should also understand the truth, but because he and Gong Ziyu are cousins, they are
So King Wei is only angry. But King Wei, please rest assured, after the matter in Dongjun is settled, our monarch will definitely speak up for King Wei."
King Fei of Wei looked at Feng Xuan blankly.
No matter how ignorant he is, he has been the King of Wei for decades anyway. How could he not hear the meaning behind Feng Chen's words: Zhao Run and Wei Yu are cousins, how do you still expect him to support you? If you are willing
If you return Dongjun, I, the State of Qi, can help you and say a few words.
And this meant that King Fei of Wei could not rip off Qi State on the matter of Dongjun.
In the end, Feng Chen successfully completed the task assigned by King Lu Bai of Qi, and peacefully regained Dongjun from Weiguo at a very small cost.
Since King Fei of Wei personally agreed, even if Wei was dissatisfied with the matter, he could not find a suitable reason to intervene.
As for the State of Qi, it only needed to pay a little money, plus the fee for King Lu Bai of Qi to come out to support King Wei.
Half a month later, this incident reached the ears of Wei Wang Zhao Run.
When he learned that Wei Wang Fei had betrayed the young master Wei Yu at such a "low" price, Dongjun, which he had managed to pry from Qi Guo, even though Zhao Run had decided to ignore Wei Guo's affairs, he couldn't help but scold him.