A few days later, Zhao Hongrun and the army he led passed through Song County and arrived in the east of Song County.
I have to say that the Yanling Army, the Shangshui Army, and the Fenxing Army, with a total of 55,000 troops, are quite intimidating.
No, Nangong Chen, the eldest son of Suiyang Army General Nangong Yao, could be said to have accompanied him throughout the whole process, as if he wanted to see Zhao Hongrun's army set foot in the Qilu area with his own eyes before he felt relieved.
In addition, Zhao Hongrun did not encounter the rumored Song County rebels along the way.
Zhao Hongrun didn't know much about the Song County rebels. He only knew that these people were composed of pure Song people. It was said that many of the backbone of the rebels were military guards who had been directly led by the King of Song.
According to rumors, after Nangong Yao surrendered to Wei, the King of Song saw that the army led by Xiong Tuo, Lord of Yangcheng, had retreated to the Chu territory because of exhaustion of military supplies, so he decided to burn the cauldron and summon an army again with the intention of destroying the already existing army. The Wei army captured half of the Song Kingdom in a decisive battle.
Unfortunately, due to Nangong Yao's defection, the Song King's army was easily defeated by Wei's Dredging Army and Dangshan Army. Subsequently, Sima An, the general of the Dangshan Army, pursued the Song King all the way to Weishan Lake in the east of Song State. The King of Song was forced to commit suicide by throwing himself into a lake, thereby declaring the fall of the Song Dynasty.
However, the death of King Song did not mean the end of Song's resistance.
Within a few days, a general appeared out of nowhere, calling himself Song Yun, and gathered troops in the Weishan Lake area. These people were what the Wei court called the Song County rebels.
At the beginning, this rebel force was not strong, with only a few hundred people, so the Wei court did not take it seriously and ordered Nangong Yao to encircle and suppress it.
But the bad thing is that Nangong Yao had newly defected to the Wei State at that time and was eager to serve the new lord. Or maybe the Song people in the territory at that time were not ashamed of his betrayal of the country and surrendered to the enemy, and they all denounced him, so that Nangong Yao became angry. Next, he ordered the troops under the command of the Suiyang Army just now to go to the bloody suppression.
Any Song people who insulted him would be killed.
During this period, some nobles in the Wei Kingdom extended their hands to Song County and arbitrarily occupied land, lakes, and mines, which aroused public dissatisfaction and anger, so that more and more Song people joined the ranks of the Song County rebels.
From then on, the entire Song County seemed to have become a battlefield where the Wei people and the Song people fought each other. Under the call of the traitor Song Yun, rebels rose up in Song County and attacked the Wei people's workshops, mines, and manors everywhere. Wait, and Nangong Yao, including the Dangshan Army stationed in Dangshan after that, also surrounded and suppressed these rebels many times.
I thought the rebellion could be suppressed, but the Song people's resistance became increasingly fierce.
In desperation, Emperor Wei ordered Sima An's Dangshan Army to retreat to Dangshan, and in the following years, he implemented a policy of light corvee and low taxes on Song County, which finally prevented all Song people from uniting against Wei.
I have to say that Nangong Yao is actually quite miserable, because at first he just wanted to please the new lord of Wei State, so he did not hesitate to kill his compatriots. But who would have thought that Emperor Wei could not stand it when he saw Song County bleeding too much, so he simply Instead of forcing the Song people in this land to surrender to the Wei state, they changed their strategy and used a soft approach: allowing Song counties to govern themselves.
The Wei court's disguised submission made the people in Song County so happy that they gradually pointed the finger at Nangong Yao.
Now it's better, Nangong Yao is no longer a human being. The Wei State no longer supports his bloody suppression of the Song people, and the Song people also regard him as the biggest culprit of the country's destruction.
Perhaps it was at that time that a rift appeared between Nangong Yao and the Wei court.
Since then, Wei's army has never set foot in Song County, and Song County, over time, has become a land of Wei that does not belong to Wei.
Of course, the Wei army's retreat did not mean the end of the war between the Wei people and the Song people. After all, those Wei nobles who had been attacked by the Song people on wineries, fields, and minerals would not swallow this sigh of relief.
They gathered private soldiers and, in the name of protecting their own property, violently expelled the Song people near the occupied land.
The bloodshed during this period may have been suppressed by force, so that Zhao Hongrun had not heard any relevant news.
But he could understand what happened during that period if he thought about it.
It is for this reason that Zhao Hongrun felt very emotional when he stood on the land that originally belonged to the Song Dynasty.
The Song State was attacked and destroyed by the Wei State and Chu State's Yangcheng Lord Xiong Tuo. Was it because of the Song State's unrighteousness? Or was it because of the Song King's unkindness?
None!
Just because the Song Dynasty was too weak.
In such troubled times, weakness is the biggest sin. The law of the jungle eats the strong, which is more than just a literal meaning. Behind this word, there is deep blood.
A lesson learned from the past and a teacher behind the wheel. If we don’t learn this lesson, who can guarantee that the Wei State will not become the next Song State?
Zhao Hongrun looked at the farmers in Song County in the fields in the distance.
Those people, with frightened faces, looked tremblingly at an army of fifty or sixty thousand people passing by the large fields outside the city.
"Pay attention to the road ahead, don't step into the fields and destroy the crops!"
Zhao Hongrun issued this military order early.
He never thought about using this military order to win over the Song people. After all, the grievances and resentments between the Wei people and the Song people in this land for more than ten years could not be resolved by a small military order not to trample on the crops?
The only thing he could do at the moment was not to expand the Song people's hostility towards the Wei people.
As for how to restore the hearts and minds of the people in Song County, to be honest, Zhao Hongrun didn't have any good ideas.
To be precise, there is a way, but it involves too much.
For example, declaring the land occupied by Wei nobles in Song County invalid and returning the occupied land to those Song people may be able to restore some of the Wei people's reputation in this land.
But the result of this is that the nobles of Wei will completely hate Zhao Hongrun to death, and even unite to force the imperial court again.
Of course, this is just a casual mention. After all, at present, due to the agreement signed between the imperial court and Nangong Yao, Zhao Hongrun does not even have the position to intervene in the affairs of Song County.
In late July, Zhao Hongrun led the army and finally arrived in Pengcheng, only a few days away from Surabaya, the first battlefield he predicted.
Pengcheng was originally a territory belonging to the Song State, and then it belonged to the Wei State.
However, Emperor Wei later ordered the Wei army to withdraw from Song County, and Nangong Yao, who was ordered to guard the territory, was unable to exterminate the Song County rebels in the Weishan Lake area. As a result, many lands and cities in the eastern part of Song County were taken advantage of by the Lu State. The war between Nangong Yao and the rebel Song Yun was captured and became the territory of Lu.
In Pengcheng, Zhao Hongrun met the Qi envoys who came to greet him, a general named Tian Bao, and Zhao Hongrun's long-awaited brother of the six kings, King Rui Hongzhao.
To be fair, although Zhao Hongrun respects his sixth brother Zhao Hongzhao, to be honest, the two were not really close in the past. But at this moment, for some unknown reason, the two brothers who meet each other, whether it is Zhao Hongrun or Zhao Hongzhao, seem to be very different.
I was so excited that I gave him a warm hug.
"Hongrun, you have worked hard all the way."
Holding Zhao Hongrun's arm with both hands, Zhao Hongzhao still seemed to be a little excited.
But it's no wonder, after all, he was born in Wei State, but now he is in Qi State. Whether he is a hostage or an official, nothing can change the fact that he is in a foreign land.
If it were Zhao Hongrun, he probably wouldn't be able to bear this kind of loneliness.
"Why am I working so hard? Brother Emperor, you...were you not bullied in Qi State?" Zhao Hongrun joked: "It's okay to be bullied. Tell your sister-in-law or your father-in-law and let them help you stand up."
Not to mention, Zhao Hongzhao is the husband-in-law of Qi Wang Lu Xi’s most beloved daughter, Kui Ji. Now there are really few people in Qi who can bully him, including the sons of Qi Wang Lu Xi.
"Long time no see, what a mouthful you are..." Zhao Hongzhao looked at Zhao Hongrun angrily, then patted Zhao Hongrun's arm heavily, and said in an incomprehensible tone: "From my standpoint, it's not appropriate to say this, but
...Hongrun, I am really relieved that you are here."
Zhao Hongrun was stunned for a moment, and then understood what Zhao Hongzhao meant: From the standpoint of being a member of the Wei royal family, Zhao Hongzhao's view that Wei's intervention in this war would do more harm than good; but as the son-in-law of King Qi,
He is also very eager to get the support of his mother country.
I have to say that even though he was a member of the royal family of Wei and the son-in-law of King Qi, he was in quite a dilemma.
Seeing this, Zhao Hongrun smiled and said with relief: "King Qi, you have given me an irresistible price, both for Wei and me...Brother, you don't have to care."
Zhao Hongzhao nodded when he heard this, and did not ask King Qi Lu Xi what price he had given, presumably he also knew about it.
At this time, the general named Tian Tao came forward and said with a smile: "Master Zuo Xiang, why don't you introduce Tian?"
When Zhao Hongzhao heard this, he patted his forehead and said with a smile: "My two brothers are just focusing on our friendship and have never thought of neglecting Mr. Tian." After that, he raised his hand and pointed at Zhao Hongrun, and said with some pride: "This is
, that is my eighth brother, King Su Hongrun."
Hearing this, Tian Bao cupped his hands and said with a smile: "I met Master Ji Run in Xia Tian Bao... Back then, Master Run led 30,000 Wei troops to defeat the army of 160,000 Xiong Tuo, Lord of Yangcheng, and counterattacked to Chu State.
Within the territory, more than ten Chu cities were captured, and Tian Mou has been admired for a long time."
"Where, where."
Zhao Hongrun returned the gift while looking at Tian Tao with strange eyes.
Because Tian Bao was obviously dressed as a military general, wearing armor all over his body, but the etiquette he used was the hand-over-hand salute of a civilian official.
Perhaps noticing Zhao Hongrun's eyes, Zhao Hongzhao explained in a low voice: "Daqi...well, there is no pure distinction between generals and civilian officials in Qi. They can both recite scriptures and command soldiers and horses..."
After hearing this, Tian Bao waved his hands repeatedly and said, "Tian cannot deserve such praise from the left prime minister."
Seeing Zhao Hongzhao and Tian Bao talking and laughing freely, and seeming to have a very good relationship, Zhao Hongrun immediately understood: this Tian Bao must be a confidant of King Lu Xi of Qi.
After all, as far as he knew, there were many factions within the Qi State, and they did not want to be as harmonious as they appeared on the surface, especially when King Lu Xi of Qi was about to be appointed general.
"By the way, Sixth Brother, where is King Qi?"
"In Pi County." Zhao Hongzhao sighed for some reason and said with a wry smile: "Your Majesty... he must go out in person this time." After saying that, he shook his head, changed the subject and said: "Let's not talk about this first.
Brother, I have prepared some wine in Pengcheng to help you catch the wind and wash away the dust!"
Seeing that Zhao Hongzhao was about to speak but hesitated, Zhao Hongrun was sensible and did not ask further questions.
On that day, the three Wei armies, Yanling Army, Shangshui Army, and Fenxing Army, were stationed outside Pengcheng. The Lu soldiers in Pengcheng had already prepared wine and meat to reward them.
This has always been a way to boost morale before war.
This means that after resting here for a few days, these three Wei armies will rush to the battlefield of Surabaya. (To be continued.)