At this time, the situation that the Marquis of Qi faced was actually similar to that of the old monster Gou Chen. He was old and had only a few days left. There was not much time left for them to continue their political power.
The fatal blow delivered by the old monster to the Yue Kingdom did not completely kill the Yue Kingdom. The strength of the Yue Kingdom's survivors is still very strong. However, rather than retaining a fully organized regional power, they would rather engage in security warfare and guerrilla warfare.
The public security war will last for two or three generations, but it will eventually be digested.
Moreover, the old monster is not without confidence. In addition to the proliferation of "common people and good people" before his death, and the large-scale distribution of posthumous edicts, the wealth he accumulated left a very good financial space for his successor.
The business environment Li Jie created for Wu State included a lot of customs duties and municipal taxes alone.
At that time, various countries were traveling on Hangou, and their destinations were either Suzhou or Jiangyin. The customs duties, city taxes, and Tianjin ferry taxes to Jiangyin were not collected by Li Jie, but had to be paid to the officials of Wu State.
Gou Chen knows how much profit there is.
And looking at it from an old perspective, a courtier like Li Jie, who is lustful, greedy and capable of fighting, doesn't need the powerful people from all over the world to conquer three streets?
Anyway, before the old monster died, Li Jie didn't see any disobedience to him. He presented auspicious things and paid tribute to treasures. His posture was extremely upright.
But the Marquis of Qi did not have such a good life. The reason is very simple. Qi's finances are not bad, but Qi is rich but not strong. Of course, this rich but not strong is compared to a superpower.
The power of the local nobles in the five capitals of Qi was quite strong, and the Qi clan also suffered a series of subsequent suppressions due to the disastrous defeat of the Marquis of Qi in the face of Wu.
After all, someone had to take the blame for this matter. The people who incited the Marquis of Qi and King Wu Wei to fight each other were none other than the uncles, brothers and nephews of the Marquis of Qi.
The boss is never wrong, so someone has to take responsibility, so the big families in the five capitals of Qi all launched an attack. The Marquis of Qi had no choice but to reduce the power of the Jiang clan.
This is why Lai State has been penetrated into holes, but Qi State has not completely digested it until now.
Lai and Yue are not on the same level at all.
So up to now, the Marquis of Qi's family is not rich, but in terms of effective mobilization of resources, it is definitely not as good as King Gou Chen of Wu Wei.
A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity stood in front of him, which could not only restore his prestige, but also expand the power of the clan. In addition to the big obsession of washing away humiliation, the old Marquis of Qi obviously had long-term considerations.
The praise of Chu Qi, the wise man of Chu State, is certainly lofty, but if there is no benefit, no matter how much he praises him, it will be useless.
The battle between Qi and Lu has been circulating for hundreds of years. The two countries are quite close in a straight line.
But in fact, when Qi State and Lu State went to war, the actual marching distance was only a few dozen miles different from that of Qi State and Yan State when they fought each other.
The reason is that the Qi State has no way to cross the mountains to fight the Lu State. It must bypass the Taishan Mountains and take the Jishui line in order to attack the Lu State from north to south.
However, the state of Lu is waiting for work. As long as the state of Qi dares to attack, I will not be afraid of you even if I have a small army with a tired army on this open ground.
However, the geographical environment of the two sides is still different after all. When the Qi State was founded, it was not much better than the Chu State's "blue road". There were either mountains and seas or Rongdi barbarians in all directions. Attack and expansion were the bloodlines that the Qi State must have.
There is no way, if you don't attack, you will die. If you don't want to die, you have to attack and expand.
As it developed to the present, it was natural that it had occupied all the original barbarian territory, and then bordered the Lu State, and then the friction turned into a war and confrontation.
After two generations of hard work, with a solid foundation and a much stronger geographical environment than the Lu State, the Qi State finally pushed the border area to the Wenshui area even if it could not fight over the mountains and ridges.
Not to mention the fertile land here, after crossing the Wenshui River is the State of Lu. From south to north, it can be said that it stretches across a vast plain.
The only natural danger Lu could rely on was Surabaya.
The former Taishan Mountains have become nothing more than decorations.
In the past, Lu State was not worried about Qi State's attack. After all, Qi State had no chance of bypassing the Taishan Mountains.
But this time it was different. Qi State had "great righteousness" in hand. Even if Lu State knew that Qi State had no good intentions, it could not refute it.
In the international community, there are obviously many more people who are willing to listen to Qi's loud voice than those who listen to Lu's protest.
The most important thing is that the Marquis of Qi has spent a lot of money in the Jishui River Basin. Those old and young people from the small country that has been destroyed have nothing to do except talk. They can receive a sum of money and then help Qi to flatter themselves. This is
What's wrong?
Whether it is Wenshui or not is none of their business.
This Wenshui is their home? The loss of Wenshui is their business?!
As for those regional powers, they would not get involved in the discord between Qi and Lu.
After all, it was not their flesh that Qi State was cutting, so they took advantage of the situation to ease the relationship and get another amount of international aid from Qi State. Anyway, it was Qi State that led the alliance. The current leader of the alliance is not as big as it was back then. The pot is big and the benefits are great.
But not necessarily much.
When Jin was the hegemon, it fought a life-and-death battle with Chu. After a fight, seven or eight countries west of Luojing were all destroyed. Who destroyed it? Jin!
The two powers fought for hegemony, resulting in countless casualties and countless voices being lost. Jin's hegemony brought many benefits.
But what is Qi doing now?
Fight against "disloyal people", not to mention that there are so many "disloyal people" in the world. If you beat the small ones, there are no small barbarians to beat you now.
Those Huaiyi tribes, such as the Wu clan, the Zhi clan, the Huai clan, etc., had surrendered to the Wu Kingdom a few years ago.
Among them, the Wu family and the Zhi family have become even more respectable people in the past two years. They have clung tightly to the golden thigh of the Yinxiang Shang family. Even if you want to attack them, they are also good people. How can you attack them?
But if you want to attack the big ones, there are too many, including Wu, Jin, Qin, Chu, and Han.
Each of these five major countries is a "disobedient", so go and attack them.
Anyway, Emperor Zhou has no objection, so you just fight. It’s not much fun for me anyway, so just watch the excitement.
As for the small Zu'er countries, they don't have any good ideas. In the previous conflict between Chu and Han, how many of the Huai River countries were destroyed by the Han Dynasty?
This is simply a replica of the Jin-Chu struggle for hegemony back then. It is clear that Chu is being used as a doormat and the goal is to conquer Chu, but if there are some benefits, who can criticize it?
Besides, as a small country, shouldn’t we do our best for the “great righteousness”?
You have lost your country, your country, your religion, but you have spread your righteous deeds, you are glorious!
Therefore, the major powers in the region are very clear-minded and cannot offend anyone. If you love the alliance, we will also come and support you.
But I definitely won’t pay for this money.
Why don't you pay? There is still a war in my hometown.
It is not easy for Wei and Zheng to fight and for Song to fish, so what do you think of this matter? Do you need the leader of the alliance to think about it?
Even Zheng Chengzi and Wei Hou had already thought about it. If Qi State was really determined to declare war with Hanzi State, they would make two preparations.
The first is to send armed forces to respond. This must be done, but for grain, fodder and military supplies, we will not pay for a grain of rice. It must be borne by the State of Qi. Food and housing are not included. Who the hell is messing with you these days.
The second is to send a secret envoy to Huaizhong City to explain his attitude at the same time. The friendship between the two countries has a long history and the diplomatic relations have always been harmonious...
In short, at least Zheng Guo and Wei Guo planned to earn the money while standing still.
As for whether to risk their lives against the Han army, Zheng Chengzi and Wei Hou had no formal meeting, but they had privately planned to ease their relationship.
Just make up for the loss from others, that's all.
If the nobles themselves are not at a loss, there will be no problem.
Then both sides incited the people of the Song Dynasty to engage in a "war of revenge." After all, the two forced Yang battles really made the Song Dynasty disgraced.
Revenge is a good reason to start a war, which can instantly increase the combat power of Song's troops.
Of course, they also knew that Dai Ju, the Prime Minister of Song State, was not easy to fool, so their tentative plan was to see how Qi State would attack Lu State.
We can definitely use Lu State as a point to see if there is any chance to gain some benefits in the Surabaya Basin.
We don't need much land. It would be great to have an enclave for warehouses in Jindu, an important port.
If the State of Lu is killed, it will get some population, food, materials and so on.
But the nobles of the allied countries were stunned when they saw the envoys from Lu coming to protest.
Qi Hou prepared many words, but forgot to say them.
Because when he saw the Zouyi doctor Zihe naked and entering the tent with a cloth bag wrapped around his waist, the originally lively atmosphere suddenly became anxious.