Lucheng.

"The Book of Rites" says: "There is a Fu in the city of Lu, and the commission is seven or eight miles long, so it is called Qufu." ”

King Wu of Zhou's younger brother, the famous Zhou Gongdan, was awarded the title of Lu State, and this city was used as the capital.

Qufu is surrounded by mountains in the north, east and south, and there are more than 100 mountains such as Phoenix Mountain, Jiuxian Mountain, Shimen Mountain, Fangshan Mountain, Nishan Mountain, etc., which surround the Lu State and defend the Lu State from the annexation of the strong neighbor Qi State in the past hundreds of years.

But although the state of Qi did not annex the state of Lu, the state of Chu succeeded.

Chun Shenjun Huang Xie led the main force of Chu to take advantage of the competition between Zhao and Qin, and Qi Wei had no time to take care of him to swallow Lu in one fell swoop, which also became a major political achievement of Huang Xie.

But at this moment, Huang Xie looked at the city in front of him, but there was only bitterness in his heart.

Because this city, which once belonged to the Lu State, is now owned by the Zhao State.

Not only the hometown of the Lu State, but even the large Huaibei land of the Chu State south of the hometown of the Lu State has now been included in the territory of the Zhao State.

This city stood in the spring sunshine, filling most of Huang Xie's sight, as if silently mocking Huang Xie and the Chu State.

But as the saying goes, how can a person not bow his head under the eaves, even if Huang Xie has all kinds of helplessness in his heart, he can only slowly enter the city under the gaze of the soldiers defending the city of Zhao State, accompanied by the seemingly nonexistent smile of the officials of Zhao State.

After entering the city, Huang Xie subconsciously looked at the scene on both sides of the road.

Huang Xie still has an impression of the scene in this city.

At that time, after leading his troops to conquer the city, Huang Xie once allowed the soldiers of the Chu State to plunder the city.

So the soldiers of the Chu State were naturally unceremonious, like locusts crossing the border, and they took the city into trouble.

Of course, Huang Xie himself is also very successful, such as several young and beautiful ladies of Lu Qinggong, the last monarch of the Lu State, and the huge wealth in the palace of the King of Lu.

After that plunder, at least eighty percent of the wealth in this city was looted by the Chu army, accompanied by many vicious incidents such as strong X, murder and so on.

This is an absolute catastrophe for the city.

It is precisely because of this that Huang Xie heard that after the war between Chu and Zhao, the rule of the Zhao people here was carried out very smoothly.

Now when I come in and take a look, I find that the streets here are noisy and people come and go, and it has indeed recovered a little bit of the atmosphere of a big city.

This made Huang Xie secretly sigh in his heart: "I have heard that the officials of Zhao State are extremely capable, and now I see that it is really true......

As the Ling Yin of the Chu State, Huang Xie is his own people who know his own affairs.

The bureaucratic system of the state of Chu was too bloated and inefficient, and many official positions were held in the hands of the three major families of Zhaojingqu, and in many cases, the decrees of the central government of the state of Chu were not implemented at all.

In addition, a large area of land in the Chu State belonged to the three major families of Zhaojingqu, and the fiefs of these nobles not only did not pay taxes, but even competed with the monarch for the population of the Chu State.

For a long time, although the land of Chu is vast and the population is large, a large part of it is owned by the nobles, and it has nothing to do with the country at all, so how can it make the country strong?

Throughout history, in fact, the state of Chu is not lacking in Ming monarchs and capable ministers, and it is not that no one sees this and wants to change all this through reform.

For example, in the early Warring States period, King Mourning of Chu, he once appointed the famous Wu Qi as the commander of the Chu State to carry out reforms, wanting to change this situation through reforms, weaken the nobles of the Chu State to strengthen the power of the monarch, and make the Chu State more powerful.

Wu Qi did not live up to the trust of the king of Chu Mourning, and carried out drastic reforms after serving as Ling Yin, so that the state of Chu quickly became more powerful, once the south merged with Baiyue, and the north broke the overlord Wei State, sweeping away the decline in the early Warring States period.

However, Wu Qi's reforms touched the interests of the nobles of the Chu State, making Wu Qi a thorn in the side of the nobles of the Chu State.

After the death of King Chu Mourning, the body had not yet been buried, and Wu Qi was shot to death by the counter-attacking nobles on the corpse of King Chu Mourning.

Since Wu Qi's death, although the state of Chu is still the country of overlords, it can no longer solve the stubborn disease of the nobles, which has led to the huge state of Chu in the years of foreign conquests, and it has been constantly defeated.

You must know that the state of Chu back then was also a super power that was only inferior to the Jin state, and after the disintegration of the Jin state, the state of Chu should have been the most powerful country among the seven heroes of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States period in terms of national strength.

However, in most of the Warring States period after Wu Qi's death, in addition to annexing the Yue State and the Lu State, the Chu State basically did not have much other expansion, which has to be said to be inseparable from the serious drag on the country by the Chu nobles.

After Wu Qi, there are still people who have tried to change these disadvantages of going abroad, for example, the famous Qu Yuan once tried to write to the King of Chu, hoping to make the King of Chu change this.

Although Qu Yuan himself is also a member of the three major families in the Chaojing area, after Qu Yuan proposed the change, he was ruthlessly abandoned by his own family, and his official position was also reduced again and again, from Zuo Tu all the way to exile in Hanbei.

This encounter made Qu Yuan's old master also sad, coupled with the fact that the Chu State suffered successive defeats against the Qin State in Danyang and Lantian for a while, and in the end, even Ying was taken away by Bai Qi, which also made Qu Yuan, who heard the news, completely desperate and committed suicide by throwing himself into the river.

After Qu Yuan's death, no one tried to change the law again.

For these histories, Huang Xie, as the Ling Yin of the Chu State, is undoubtedly very clear.

But Huang Xie did not intend to be this reformer.

Because Huang Xie knew that if he really wanted to propose such a reform, it would almost be equivalent to standing on the opposite side of hundreds of nobles of all sizes in the Chu State.

Historically, no one has ever been able to completely defeat these hundreds of nobles.

Besides, even Huang Xie himself is actually one of the more powerful of these hundreds of nobles.

Is there still someone in this world who can't change his own life?

Like Qu Yuan, who is a member of the three major families but finally stands on the side of the country and the people, it can be said that he is unique, otherwise he would not have left his name in history and was praised by historians.

The state of Chu is rotten, this is a reality that everyone knows.

Huang Xie felt that he didn't have the ability to save it, and he didn't plan to save the Chu State.

For Huang Xie, all he thinks about is to finish this Ling Yin safely, and then pass on his share of the family business to his children and grandchildren.

"I hope that King Zhao can exert strong enough pressure on Wei at this alliance meeting, so that Wei can take the initiative to return some land." Huang Xie thought to himself in his heart.

Today's Wei has occupied almost the entire Jiujiang County of Chu, cutting off the connection between Chu and Huiji County in the east.

If Wei insisted on refusing to return the territory, then Huiji County would become an enclave, and it would be a matter of time before Chu lost Huiji County.

Moreover, Huang Xie's fief is now among the Huiji County, and it is still the richest of the twelve counties in Huiji County.

For this, Huang Xie is worried.

Once Huiji County was lost, it would not be so easy for Huang Xie to find a better fief.

Accompanied by many sorrows, Huang Xie came to the temporary residence where the King of Chu stayed a little listlessly and met the King of Chu here.

When Chu Wangyuan saw Huang Xie, he felt as if he had grasped a life-saving straw, and asked Huang Xie, "Chun Shenjun, what happened to the result of the meeting between you and King Zhao?" ”

Although he had already received Huang Xie's letter, Chu Wangyuan obviously still wanted to hear what Huang Xie had to say face-to-face.

Huang Xie sighed and said, "Great King, King Zhao's meaning is actually very simple, he can agree to put pressure on the Wei State, but he must also pay enough benefits to him. ”

"Enough benefits?" Chu Wang Yuan frowned and said, "What kind of benefits does King Zhao want?" ”

Huang Xie shook his head and said, "I don't know, maybe I can only know from King Zhao after the king and King Zhao meet." ”

A look of displeasure flashed from Chu Wangyuan's face, which made Chu Wangyuan's tone become a lot stiffer when he spoke next: "Okay, the widow understands, Chun Shen Jun Ru will go down first." ”

Where didn't Huang Xie know that the King of Chu was dissatisfied with him? But at this moment, Huang Xie really didn't have a good way, so he had to bow and respond, and then turned around and left.

After Huang Xie's figure completely disappeared, the gloomy color on Chu Wangyuan's face still did not dissipate, and it took a moment before he spoke: "Li Yuan, you have been by Huang Xie's side for a while, but what do you have to say to the widow?" ”

Li Yuan, who appeared in front of Chu Wangyuan at some point, said unhurriedly: "Back to the king, the minister heard the news from Huang Xie's mouth, and his people seem to be a little dissatisfied with the king, and they are also dissatisfied with the prince. ”

As soon as he heard Li Yuan's words, Chu Wangyuan's face became even more gloomy.

Li Yuan is the elder brother of Chu Wangyuan's favorite concubine, and he trusts Li Yuan and Chu Wangyuan very much, otherwise Chu Wangyuan would not have secretly ordered Li Yuan to monitor Huang Xie.

After hearing Li Yuan's return, Chu Wangyuan snorted heavily and said, "The widow is not dead yet, and it is not the turn of others to point fingers at the position of the prince!" It seems that this Huang Xie also doesn't want to continue to put Ling Yin down! ”

Chu Wangyuan's dissatisfaction with Huang Xie in his heart can be said to be obvious.

Li Yuan hurriedly said when he heard this: "Don't be angry, if Huang Xie is deposed at this moment, then Jingyang and the like will really have no one to restrict." ”

Chu Wangyuan's gaze stayed on Li Yuan's body for a while, then waved his hand and said sullenly: "Okay, the widow knows...... Go down also. ”

Li Yuan saluted respectfully, turned around and walked out.

The moment he stepped out of the hall, a strange smile flashed at the corner of Li Yuan's mouth.