Among the Seven Heroes of the Warring States, Yan is a very magical and alternative country.

Ten thousand years of gas packing, this should be a more accurate definition of Yan country.

There is a widely circulated saying, "Yan Zhao Guduo is a generous and tragic person", so the four words "generous and sad song" seem to have become synonymous with Yan Zhao's people for thousands of years afterward.

However, if you separate Yan and Zhao and study their history carefully, then you will find that the history of Zhao is magnificent and full of slaughter, and it is indeed worthy of the word generosity.

And Yan Guoma··· Except for one when the Five Kingdoms were fighting, most of the rest of the time was basically in a sad song...

The territory of Yan was also known as Youzhou in the Three Kingdoms period, that is, the Beijing-Tianjin-Tang Dynasty and the Liaodong Peninsula in later generations.

In this era, the climatic conditions here were extremely harsh, especially in winter, it was difficult to travel in ice and snow, and it was a place of exile during the Xia and Shang dynasties.

It was not until Ji Fa, the king of Zhou Wu, established the Western Zhou Dynasty that Ji Fa sealed his younger brother Zhaogong Ji Zheng here, and the Yan Kingdom was established, and this land began to usher in the dawn of civilization.

According to the urine nature of the Seven Heroes of the Warring States, after being divided, the Yan Kingdom should have slowly risen and beaten everything around it, and then developed and expanded, and finally became a member of the Seven Heroes of the Warring States, but the Yan Kingdom did not follow the usual path.

The expansion of the Yan Kingdom after its establishment was extremely slow, and it was not until hundreds of years later that the Kingdom of Ji was annexed, and Jicheng was the capital city, which began to emerge, and Jicheng was the predecessor of Beijing City.

Zhao Gongzheng and Zhou Gongdan were both important ministers of the royal family surnamed Ji when the Western Zhou Dynasty was founded, so the Yan State and the Lu State established by the two of them became staunch defenders and practitioners of the patriarchal system of the Zhou Dynasty, and this practice was hundreds of years.

Even after King Ping of Zhou moved east to Luoyi, the authority of the emperor of the Zhou Dynasty weakened in an all-round way, and the Central Plains began to enter the Spring and Autumn Period, the Yan Kingdom, located in the bitter cold land, still proudly adhered to the etiquette system of the Zhou Dynasty, and regarded those vassal states who took the initiative to embrace the changes of the times as rebels.

But the wheel of history is always rolling forward, and if you insist on sticking to the old system and are unwilling to follow the trend of the times to make changes, then you will definitely become backward.

If you fall behind, you will be beaten.

The Shanjung in the north of Yan seized this opportunity to invade south, and captured the Ji capital of Yan in one fell swoop, almost destroying Yan State.

It was all thanks to the first overlord in the Spring and Autumn Period, Lu Xiaobai, the Duke of Qi Huan, who played the slogan of "respecting the king and destroying the emperor", to send troops to help, and the Qi army cut down the mountains and destroyed the surrounding enemies such as Guzhu and Lingzhi, so that the Yan State was saved from the most serious crisis since the founding of the People's Republic of China.

It stands to reason that at this time, the country of Qi Yan should be ashamed and brave, right?

No.

Since then, Yan has opened the road of being hanged, and was beaten by Zhongshan State, by Qi State, by Jin State, and then by Zhao State, which split from Jin State...

If it weren't for the fact that the countries of the Central Plains were pulling each other back because they didn't want the enemy to become stronger, Yan would have been annexed by one of Jin, Qi, and Zhao a long time ago.

For hundreds of years in the Warring States period, Yan Guodu has always been the existence that competes with Korea for the penultimate place. I have to say that this has a great relationship with Yan Guo's adherence to the etiquette of the Zhou Dynasty and its indifference to the trend of the times.

But even Wannian Xiaoshou has a time to rise, when time entered the Warring States Period, Yan Guo finally slowly showed signs of awakening, and gradually kept up with the pace of the times.

The most glorious moment of the Yan Kingdom in the entire Warring States Period was the era of King Yan Zhao decades ago.

During the reign of King Yan Zhao, he made great efforts to recruit a large number of talents such as Le Yi, Ju Xin, Qin Kai, Zou Yan, Qu Yong, etc., so that Yan Kingdom quickly became strong.

After the strong Yan State began to use troops abroad, first Qin Kai led the Yan army to break through Donghu and expand the land to the east for thousands of miles, and then Yan State seized the opportunity to organize a wave of five countries to attack Qi, and almost completed the feat of completely annexing Qi to this snake swallowing elephant.

It can be said that the era of King Yan Zhao was the most powerful and proud period of time in the entire Yan Kingdom since its founding 700 years ago.

It's a pity that a generation of British lord King Yan Zhao died on the eve of the complete annexation of the Qi State, and his son King Yan Hui fell into Tian Dan's discord after ascending the throne, and replaced the position of Le Yi's commander with a horse robbery, and finally became the background board and villain of Tian Dan's restoration of the country.

So after this short period of glory, the Yan Kingdom declined again, and returned to the familiar position of the Warring States Period, until now.

The poet immortal Li Bai once had a poem: "You don't see the Yan family in the past, Guo Kui, and there is no suspicion of supporting hairpins." The drama Xin Leyi is grateful, and the liver is dissected to serve the talents. King Zhao's white bones linger in the grass, who sweeps the golden platform more? "It's about the time of King Yan Zhao and what happened after its decline.

But after all, the end of the era of King Yan Zhao has only passed more than twenty years after all, and there are still many relics of this great king in today's Yan Kingdom, and Wuyang City is one of them.

Like the capital of Yingdu and the capital of Yan in the state of Chu, the state of Yan also had two capitals, namely the upper capital of Jicheng (also known as Jidu) and the lower capital of Wuyang.

This Wuyang city is located between the North Yi Water and the Middle Yi Shui, 16 miles long and 10 miles wide, the overall shape is irregular rectangle, the total circumference has reached an astonishing fifty li, in the era of King Yan Zhao was once the most prosperous and populous big city in the world, there is no one.

Wuyang City is divided into two cities, east and west, the east city is the palace city and the west city is Guo City, which is respected by the northeast (that is, the position prescribed by the Yan Kingdom), which is completely different from the practice of other countries today to respect the southwest (the direction where the emperor of the Zhou Dynasty is located).

And in the palace city, there are three high-platform palaces, from south to north are the Wu Balcony, the Lookout Platform and the Zhang Gong Terrace, in addition to the outside of the city, there is an old Mu Tai specially for sacrificial purposes.

This palace is where the current King of Yan lives.

Twelve years ago, the grandson of the powerful minister of the Yan State killed the king of Yan Hui, and then chose a puppet from the royal family to ascend the throne, which is the current king of Yan.

Because the murder of the monarch occurred in Jidu and caused a very bad international impact, after King Yan ascended the throne, he did not live in Jidu, but lived in Wuyang City for a long time, and the political center of Yan gradually shifted from Jidu to Wuyang.

At noon on this day, a great court meeting had just ended in the Wu Balcony, and the ministers of the Yan Kingdom walked out of the palace on the high platform in groups, and then each got into his own carriage and left.

Walking at the end was an old man with gray hair and dressed in a Zhao Guo Hu suit, and a young but quite calm handsome man from Yan Kingdom.

The old man is Pang Xuan, the envoy of Zhao State, and the handsome guy next to the old man is named Le Jian, who is the king of Chang Guojun of Yan State.

This Changguo Junle has a famous father, who is the Yan general Le Yi, who once shocked the world.

After being dismissed by King Yan Hui, Le Yi returned to his home country of Zhao, and was named the king of Wangzhu by Zhao.

Later, Le Yi and King Yan Hui reconciled, so King Yan Hui let Le Yi's eldest son Le Jian inherit Le Yi's title of Changguo monarch in Yan Kingdom, so that Le Yi's family returned to the Yan Kingdom court, and Le Jian also became one of the leaders of the pro-Zhao faction above the Yan Kingdom court after his father's death.

At this moment, Pang Xuan and Le Jian, the old and the young, don't seem to be in a very good mood, which is obviously because of the fact that they have just ended the big court meeting.

Pang Xuan whispered to Lejian: "Chang Guojun, I look at the words and deeds of King Yan, and there is a lot of intention to attack Zhao. I hope that the king will talk more about the king of Yan, so that the king of Yan will not do this foolish deed. ”

Lejian shook his head and sighed: "Mr. Pang's words, don't I know? But the king has never liked me, and it is difficult for me to do this. ”

Pang Xuan listened to Lejian's words and couldn't help but be quite disappointed.

In Pang Xuan's opinion, this should have been a very easy mission, but after entering the territory of Yan Kingdom, he found that the people of Yan Country seemed to be sharpening their knives and preparing to start a war.

Even if Pang Xuan talked about the pros and cons of the great court discussion in Fangcai, the king of Yan had been silent, and it seemed that he was already making up his mind to send troops to the Yan country.

Although it is said that most of the kings in this world are reasonable, but some kings, such as the current King Yan, as long as his head is hot, he really can't listen to what you tell him.

Although Pang Xuan did not receive the help of Changguo Junlejian, he did not seem so discouraged.

After saying goodbye to the music room, Pang Xuan's carriage did not drive towards the outside of the palace, but turned straight to another high-platform palace in the palace-the observation deck.

This observation deck is where the current queen of Yan, the lord of the harem of the Yan Kingdom, lives, and this queen Yan has another identity, that is, the sister of Zhao Dan, the monarch of Zhao State.

Pang Xuan went here to complete one of the three major tasks given to Pang Xuan by Zhao Dan - to hand over a letter written by Zhao Dan to Empress Yan.