He could tell that the King Su of Wei in front of him was clearly unwilling to send troops to assist, or in other words, the other party was asking for benefits.
Facing Qi's envoy Tian You's question, Zhao Hongrun smiled slightly and said: "Your Majesty, please don't get angry in a hurry... In fact, when the three kingdoms of Qi, Lu, Wei and Wei attacked Chu, everyone knew that the biggest beneficiary of this battle was
Which side... To be disrespectful, I do not want to cause my country, Wei, to destroy the current peaceful relationship with Chu for the selfishness of King Qi..."
After hearing this, Qi envoy Tian You said coldly: "His Royal Highness King Su, have you forgotten the kindness of Qi to help your country?"
"Of course not." The smile on Zhao Hongrun's face faded and he said righteously: "I will keep your country's support in mind, so I have already deployed heavy troops in the southern border of Wei Dynasty.
There are a total of 80,000 soldiers..."
Qi Shi Tian You suddenly became speechless.
Indeed, Wei State did station heavy troops in Fenxing Fortress, Yanling, Zhaoling, Shangshui and other places. The number of troops was as many as 80,000, but was this "help" of any use to Qi State?
However, it was difficult for Qi's envoy Tian You to refute, because when Qi State came to aid Wei State, they only sent troops to the borders of the north and south to threaten Han and Chu, but did not directly send troops to help Wei State attack Chu State.
Since they didn't have it at the beginning, it's hard to say anything to Zhao Hongrun now.
If this is just the case, then so be it. After all, Ji Run, the Su King of the Wei Kingdom, is really a rare genius in this world.
Two years ago, Ji Run, with an army of more than 30,000, could pin Xiong Tuo, the Lord of Yangcheng, who led an army of 160,000, into the mud and beat him violently; but today, two years later, the military power in Ji Run's hands is greater than that of back then.
After a while, Xiong Tuo, the Lord of Yangcheng, only had a new army of about 100,000 people. It is conceivable that the King Su of Wei in front of him still has the ability to beat Xiong Tuo, Lord of Yangcheng, like he did back then.
North cannot be found.
However, the key lies in the fact that Ji Run, the Su King of the Wei Kingdom, has a very ambiguous relationship with Xiong Tuo, the King of Chu Yangcheng!!
Otherwise, the Wei State clearly had 30,000 troops in Shangshui County, but Chen County and Xiangcheng in the territory of Chu Pingyu Lord Xiong Hu had almost no troops fortified, and they were almost undefended.
In this case, as long as the King Su in front of him is willing, he can seize the opportunity to capture most of Chuxi in the blink of an eye.
But what? There is no movement in Shangshui County.
If there wasn't some ulterior agreement in this, I wouldn't believe it even to death.
What worries Tian You even more is that according to the news, there are fleets transporting supplies between the two from Shangshui County in Wei State and Pingyu County in Chu State from time to time.
Does this mean that Ji Run, the king of Su in Wei, and Xiong Tuo, the king of Yangcheng in Chu, have an ulterior cooperative relationship in private?
It is precisely for this reason that Tian You, as an envoy of Qi, visited Wei with the will of King Lu Xi of Qi, and asked Zhao Hongrun to lead Wei's army directly to Jiangdong to prevent him from acting in partnership with Xiong Tuo.
Thinking of this, Qi's envoy Tian You sneered and said: "It turns out that His Highness King Su has already made arrangements, which are very good...but how did Tian know that King Su has a close relationship with Xiong Tuo?"
"Nonsense!" Zhao Hongrun opened his eyes and told lies.
"Oh?" Qi Shi Tian You narrowed his eyes and lowered his voice and said: "Tian, did you hear that Shangshui County has shiploads of grain shipped to Chen County and Xiangcheng..."
Zhao Hongrun laughed when he heard this and said: "The person I hate in my heart is just Xiong Tuo and Xiong Hu who provoked the war two years ago. What have they got to do with the common people of Chu?... I was young and ignorant back then. All their property and food were swept away in the territory of the Chu State, causing many civilians in western Chu to suffer from hunger and cold. Finally, my conscience was still unclear, so I couldn't bear to raise some grain and sell it to the Chu State... I thought about this and said that With the word benevolence and righteousness, could it be that your envoy feels that this king’s move is inappropriate?”
After hearing this, Qi Shi Tian You was immediately speechless.
Even if he knew very well that most of the food Xiong Tuo, Lord of Yangcheng, used to build a new army, he could not refute Zhao Hongrun's act of benevolence and righteousness, and the word benevolence and righteousness was the face of the Central Plains country, which meant great righteousness.
After thinking about it, Qi Shi Tian You pointed out without giving up: "It is said that there are also some weapons and equipment..."
"Oh." Zhao Hongrun looked like he suddenly understood, and said casually: "That was what my king used to plunge Chu into civil strife... I heard that after our army of Wei withdrew from Chu, Lord Xiong of Yangcheng Tuo often suppressed the civilians in his fief, so he asked people to transport some weapons and sell them to those civilians. With weapons in their hands, the civilians might resist Xiong Tuo's tyranny?...If everything goes well, this move will be enough to make Xiong Tuo I’m so worried.”
He made it up casually. Anyway, as long as there is no conclusive evidence for this kind of thing, Qi Shi Tian You can't do anything to him.
To take a step back, even if there is evidence, there is always a way to "explain" it clearly since both Zhao Hongrun and Xiong Tuo refused to admit it.
However, such rhetoric made Qi Shi Tian You even more convinced that there must be some ulterior secret agreement between Zhao Hongrun and Xiong Tuo.
"...In short, your Majesty has asked King Su to lead 50,000 elite troops to Jiangdong." Perhaps because he didn't want to talk nonsense with Zhao Hongrun anymore, Qi Shi Tian You's tone gradually became tougher: "If His Highness King Su breaks the agreement, then I, Da Qi, will have no choice but to Tell the world about this and let all nations and peoples discuss it..."
Hearing this, the smile on Zhao Hongrun's face slowly faded. He glanced at Qi's envoy Tian You and asked lightly: "Tian You, are you threatening me, the great Wei Dynasty?"
This seemingly understatement made Qi Shi Tian You's expression change slightly, because he suddenly felt that the temperature in the room seemed to have dropped a lot out of thin air.
He hurriedly explained, but his words were still somewhat tough: "I didn't mean that. I was just stating the facts."
"..." Zhao Hongrun stared at Tian You, and after a while he suddenly smiled and said in an inexplicable tone: "State the facts... Very good, then I will also state the facts... Wait for Qi Wanglu Xi died of illness, and when the princes seized power and caused internal strife, the Chu State took advantage of the situation and invaded. The huge Qi Dynasty was reduced to a third-rate country in an instant."
Hearing Zhao Hongrun's statement of facts, Qi Shi Tian You's face suddenly turned red. He glared at Zhao Hongrun and clenched his fists.
But at this time, Zhao Hongrun was heard to add calmly: "...If I were you, I would not offend the allies who can help you overcome the crisis in the future."
"..." Qi's envoy Tian You glared at Zhao Hongrun, trying to get angry several times, but finally endured it.
After a while, he took a long breath, shook his head and said: "King Su, don't try to trick me. Your country will not sit back and watch Chu State counterattack our Da Qi... If something happens to our Da Qi, your country's situation will be unimaginable. It won’t be easy.”
"Ha!" Zhao Hongrun sneered and said calmly: "It is not the envoy's turn to worry about this matter for me, the Wei Dynasty."
To be honest, he was not worried about this matter, because counting the days, after the death of Qi King Lu Xi, the Chu State finally cleared away the dark clouds that had been hanging over them for decades, and would surely raise troops to counterattack the Qi State.
But was the State of Qi so easily attacked and destroyed by the State of Chu?
Of course it’s impossible!
Qi State also has a large Tian family, as well as Zhao Hongrun's sixth brother Zhao Hongzhao, who is not inferior to him in talent.
What's more, Wei and Lu will not sit back and watch Qi being attacked by Chu. When the time comes, both sides will put pressure on Chu and hold Chu back. What spare power will Chu have to attack Wei again?
What is most likely to happen then is that Yangcheng Lord Xiong Tuo and other Chu princes seize the throne.
If everything goes well, neither Qi nor Chu will be able to make a comeback for at least five years, and during this precious time, Wei will develop by leaps and bounds.
Therefore, Zhao Hongrun was not afraid of Qi or Chu at all.
Facing Zhao Hongrun, who refused to give in, Qi Shi Tian You couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed for a while.
He finally understood why the officials of the Ministry of Rites of Wei who he thought were difficult to deal with did not discuss sending troops with him. It was because the young King Su in front of him was more difficult to deal with than those officials of the Ministry of Rites of Wei.
Tian You suddenly thought of Wei Gongzi Ji Zhao (Zhao Hongzhao), who was now gradually entering the center of power in his country of Qi. He was similar young and talented.
With a slight sigh, Qi Shi Tian You softened his words and murmured: "When I came here, Prime Minister Zuo reminded me that this time your country sends troops, there is a high probability that they will fall on His Highness Prince Su. At the same time, Zuo The Prime Minister also reminds me what kind of person His Royal Highness Prince Su is..."
Left Prime Minister? Sixth Brother?
Zhao Hongrun was slightly startled.
To be honest, he still doesn't understand why King Lu Xi of Qi promoted Zhao Hongzhao, who was a descendant of the royal clan of the Kingdom of Wei, to a high position like the left prime minister, which was more powerful than the six ministers of the Wei Kingdom. A major official position in the State of Qi.
Although Zhao Hongrun was also happy for his sixth brother Zhao Hongzhao, in the final analysis, it was unprecedented for a royal hostage from one country to be listed as a high-ranking official in another country.
However, Zhao Hongrun did not show doubts about this on his face, and just said calmly: "Your envoy will not intend to use the name of my sixth brother to deceive me, right?"
"How dare you." Qi Shi Tian You shook his head, and then he took out a letter he had kept close to his chest and handed it to Zhao Hongrun respectfully.
"Is it a letter from my sixth brother?" Zhao Hongrun looked at Qi envoy Tian You suspiciously, but found that the latter smiled and said nothing, as if he had a plan in mind, and he looked completely different from the one just now.
Seeing this, Zhao Hongrun took the letter doubtfully, then opened it and glanced at it roughly.
After just a few glances, he frowned slightly and his expression became much more solemn.
Because he discovered that this was not a letter written by his sixth brother Zhao Hongzhao to him, but should be written by King Lu Xi of Qi. It was the price Wang Lu Xi of Qi was willing to pay for asking him to send troops from Wei to help!
Among those promises, there were two that Zhao Hongrun cared about the most.
First, King Lu Xi of Qi promised to seal off all the Qi Fire Crossbow warship fleet stationed at the river boundary and transfer its military power to Ji Zhao (Zhao Hongzhao), the current left prime minister.
Secondly, King Lu Xi of Qi was willing to persuade the monarch of Lu to hand over the rubbings of the "Secret Records" recording Lu's craftsmanship to Wei.
What Wei had to do was to send 50,000 troops to the east of the Yangtze River to join forces with Qi and Lu to form a coalition of up to 300,000 people, and promise to assist Qi as much as possible at all costs with force.
Sanction the Chu State.
There is no promise of an alliance for ten or twenty years, and there is no gift of real silver or the like, but these two promises alone are enough to make Zhao Hongrun's heart flutter.
At this moment, Zhao Hongrun vaguely understood why Qi King Lu Xi strongly supported Zhao Hongzhao and did not hesitate to hand over all the military power of Qi to the latter.
Because the relationship between Zhao Hongzhao and Wei will replace the current Qi-Wei alliance and become an unbreakable bond between the two countries in the future.
As for the rubbings recording the craftsmanship of the Lu State, it was a treasure that Zhao Hongrun could not part with. It was far more precious than the most precious treasure in the world, and it was still priceless.
"I...can't refuse."
With a wry smile, Zhao Hongrun put the letter away while Qi envoy Tian You smiled slightly with a knowing smile. (To be continued.) 8