This is really... thirty years in Hedong, thirty years in Hexi...
Zhao Hongrun sighed secretly.
He had never expected that he, who had just negotiated with Xiong Tuo, Lord of Yangcheng, and Huang Xu, a scholar-bureaucrat of Chu State, would have another negotiation today, and this negotiation was related to his life and death.
Zhao Hongrun has experienced the bad feeling of having his life held in his hands by others.
…
Looking at the two witches kneeling in front of him and negotiating with him, Zhao Hongrun took a long breath and forced himself to calm down.
"I already know the purpose of the two men holding me hostage."
Since the other party already knows his identity, Zhao Hongrun is too lazy to make any excuses. Instead of lying about others, he might as well think about how to persuade the other party and escape.
"However, I would like to remind you that as ordinary civilians, you are interfering in the military affairs of Chu and Wei. This is not what smart people should do."
"What nonsense are you talking about?" The smaller witch snorted coldly after hearing this: "As long as you return the cities that captured my Dachu, my two sisters will let you live. Otherwise..."
Ahhh... She is a cute little girl, but if she is paired with her, everything will be ruined. It's a pity...
"What else?" Zhao Hongrun thought to himself that it was a pity, and said calmly: "Are you really planning to kill this king?... This king is the son of King Wei. If he died in your Chu land, I believe that Chu and Wei have been at war with each other and will not die. endlessly……"
"Hmph!" the little witch curled her lips and snorted coldly: "I am a very powerful Chu State, how can I be afraid of you, a weak Wei State?"
Ah, another commoner of the Chu State who blindly believes that their Chu State is very powerful...
Zhao Hongrun shook his head speechlessly and said sarcastically: "Oh? But it's really strange. The powerful and powerful Chu State was defeated by a weak army from the Wei State led by this king. It fell to eighteen A city..."
"you!"
When it comes to verbal sparring, the little witch is no match for Zhao Hongrun. A few light taunts while holding a stick made her puff out her mouth angrily.
After a long while, she said angrily: "You must have used a trick!"
Hmm...
It is hard for Zhao Hongrun to refute this point. After all, the reason why he was able to achieve such remarkable achievements in just one month was because of the Pingyang Army generals such as Qu Cheng, Yan Mo, Zuo Qiu Mu, etc. who surrendered to him. What if? It's really a head-on fight. In this cold winter, it's hard to say whether Zhao Hongrun has conquered Runan so far.
Of course, he would not admit this kind of thing personally, so as not to inflate the other party's arrogance.
Therefore, he blew out a puff of air from his nose and responded to the little miko with a contemptuous snort.
"You guy, you guy..."
Just as Zhao Hongrun expected, the little witch was so angry that he almost went crazy. She seemed to be so angry that she wanted to reach out and grab Zhao Hongrun's hair. Fortunately, the cold witch reached out and stopped him in time.
Hmm...are you so angry after just a little ridicule? He doesn't look like a smart guy...
Glancing at the little miko with an angry face, Zhao Hongrun turned her attention to her sister, the miko who looked very aloof.
In comparison, this "sister" is a calm type of person...
"Let me go back now. I can pretend that this matter has never happened." Looking at the cold witch, Zhao Hongrun said in a deep voice: "As a commoner, it is best not to interfere in the military affairs of two big countries without authorization... You guys Do you think that you, the decision-makers of the Chu State, would really dare to take away those cities if you, the decision-makers of the Chu Kingdom, use your methods to allow me to spit them out?"
Just kidding, the "Wei-Chu Armistice Zhengyang Peace Treaty" has already been signed. At this time, the two Chu people used this kind of hostage and threat to force Zhao Hongrun to return those cities. Dare the Chu State take them?
If Chu State really dares to accept it, then Zhao Hongrun will never give up!
Of course, the Chu State would never be stupid enough to accept the city that was snatched back in that way. After all, that would mean that the Chu State had betrayed its trust and ignored the "Wei-Chu Armistice Zhengyang Peace Treaty". Then, the Chu State's loyalty would be lost. In the future, no matter what happens,
No country will sign any form of peace or treaty with the Chu State.
In other words, Chu State's means of diplomatic relations will be completely frozen. I believe that neither the King of Chu nor the dignitaries and officials of Chu State would dare to joke about this kind of thing.
But the problem is that the two witches opposite are just ordinary Chu people. They naively thought that by using this method to threaten Zhao Hongrun to return the eighteen cities, they were helping the Chu country, and they did not believe in this idea.
Doubtful, this is a bit fatal.
Some people may think that since the "Wei-Chu Armistice Zhengyang Peace Treaty" has been signed, Zhao Hongrun, considering his own life, pretended to agree to the sisters' request and return the city to the Chu State in advance. This is not a big deal. I believe that the Chu State will still keep its promise.
of.
In fact, this conclusion is very natural.
First of all, Zhao Hongrun had reached an agreement with Xiong Tuo, Lord of Yangcheng. After the spring, after the Chu State delivered the pearls, jade, lacquerware and other trade items to compensate for the compensation, Zhao Hongrun would return those cities to the Chu State and slowly lead his army.
Withdrew from Chu State.
What's the reason?
The reason is that Zhao Hongrun also needs time to move the civilians of Chu State to Wei State in this land.
Those two to three hundred thousand Chu people, or even more Chu civilians than this number, are the vested interests that Zhao Hongrun values the most, far more important than the compensation worth more than three million yuan in total.
You know, there are 300,000 Chu people, which is equivalent to one-twentieth of the national population of Wei State, which is quite impressive.
But now, due to the cold winter weather and heavy snow blocking the roads, most of the local Chu people have not yet left for Runan, or directly to the Wei State. At this time, asking Zhao Hongrun to return the city to the Chu State, isn't this the biggest thing for Zhao Hongrun?
Plan failed?
Do you think how much effort it took him to get Yangcheng Lord Xiong Tuo to say that if you have the ability, you will kill them all?
When Xiong Tuo, Lord of Yangcheng, and others did not consider Zhao Hongrun's plan to move those Chu civilians to Wei, they found a way to block Xiong Tuo's future remarks on this matter in advance. Now you want Zhao Hongrun to advance
Return those Chu cities?
Delusion!
To put it bluntly, if it were not for the 300,000 Chu people, Zhao Hongrun would not have agreed to Huang Xu's mere 1.4 million war compensation.
There is one more thing.
That is, although the "Wei-Chu Truce Zhengyang Peace Treaty" has been signed, it is undeniable that Zhao Hongrun and Xiong Tuo still retain a certain degree of vigilance towards each other.
Although they knew very well that the other party would never dare to do anything that violated the peace treaty at this time, they could not deny that this period of peace was quite sensitive.
Simply put, Zhao Hongrun cannot mobilize troops for no reason, such as withdrawing troops in order to return a certain city.
Any disturbance at this time may irritate the tense nerves of Xiong Tuo, Lord of Yangcheng. Once the latter gets caught and comes up with the excuse that the Wei people are greedy and still want to use troops, then the treacherous person will be
That would be the State of Wei.
Therefore, regardless of whether Chu or Wei, it is best to maintain the original situation during this period until spring begins, when Chu and Wei respectively begin to fulfill the matters agreed in the "Wei-Chu Armistice Zhengyang Peace Treaty".
As the saying goes, it is necessary to be on guard against others. Zhao Hongrun did not want to be caught by Yangcheng Lord Xiong Tuo in such a good situation, so he took the initiative to counterattack.
Thinking of this, he persuaded the sisters: "It is a pity that the king and your country's scholar-official Huang Er have signed a peace treaty, and your country has agreed to redeem those eighteen cities... This is not something you sisters want to think about. It's so simple. If you must force me to return the city, then I can conclude that you are not helping your country, but harming it!"
"..." There was a hint of surprise in the cold witch's eyes, and then she lowered her head slightly and remained silent, as if she was thinking about the authenticity of Zhao Hongrun's words.
Just when Zhao Hongrun thought he was about to persuade the other party, the little witch said angrily: "Liar! I am so powerful, how can I use ransom to redeem the city you captured? What kind of scholar-officials are we? Will the king of Da Chu send a scholar-official to negotiate with you?"
Eh?
Zhao Hongrun was stunned when he heard this, but he was not thinking about anything else. He was thinking about the identity of the scholar-official Huang Su.
To be fair, what this little witch said was not wrong. For such a big matter, the King of Chu would not send a scholar-official to discuss the matter.
Unless. Unless that Huang As's identity is quite extraordinary...
Unfortunately, Zhao Hongrun only knew Huang Er's name and nothing else.
etc……
Suddenly, Zhao Hongrun seemed to have thought of something, and added: "Along with Huang As, there is also the Lord of Yi here, the Lord of Yangcheng, Xiong Tuo!"
"..." The witch sisters were stunned when they heard this.
Immediately, the little witch laughed and pointed at Zhao Hongrun and said: "Are you exposed? Lord Xiong Tuo hates the Wei people so much, how could he sign an armistice treaty with you Wei people... From this we can see that what you said Everything you said is a lie!"
This self-righteous brat!!
Zhao Hongrun gritted his teeth with hatred.
Yes, this is what he is most worried about!
Ordinary civilians in the Chu state only know that Xiong Tuo, the king of Yangcheng, hates the people of Wei because he was framed by the king of Wei ten years ago. How can they understand that Xiong Tuo, the king of Qi, intervened in the war between Chu and Wei this time? Why did he endure the humiliation and bear the burden of signing this peace treaty?
Since ordinary Chu people are limited by their lack of information, even if it is true, they will mistakenly judge it as a false lie. This is the key to Zhao Hongrun's belief that today's matter is very difficult.
Looking at the cold witch with a hint of suspicion in her eyes, Zhao Hongrun secretly thought that he had made a mistake.
I thought that bringing up Xiong Tuo, Lord of Yangcheng, would increase my persuasiveness, but it had the opposite effect.
"Sister, I think he won't be honest if you don't show him some color!" the little miko encouraged.
"..." The aloof witch glanced at Zhao Hongrun indifferently, then suddenly stood up and walked towards the fire.
"I'm going to see how the meat is cooking..."
"Okay." The little miko responded with a smile.
Looking at the dangerous gleam in the little witch's eyes, Zhao Hongrun secretly thought something was wrong. (To be continued.)